Yu-Gi-Oh! card sleeves
The smaller size. A standard sleeve will sit loose.
Yu-Gi-Oh! uses the smaller Japanese-size card, and Ultimate Guard lists its Japanese-size sleeves at 62 × 89 mm for Yu-Gi-Oh! and Cardfight!! Vanguard. Unlike Magic, sleeves are not optional: Konami's Tournament Policy states that sleeves are required at Tier 2 and higher events, that all Main and Side Deck sleeves must be identical in colour, wear and design, and that you may use no more than two sleeves on each card.
Size: Japanese, not standard
Yu-Gi-Oh! is the reason the Japanese size category exists in most sleeve ranges. A Yu-Gi-Oh! card is smaller than the 63.5 × 88.9 mm standard card used by Magic and Pokémon, and a standard sleeve on a Yu-Gi-Oh! card leaves the card loose inside it.
Ultimate Guard lists its Japanese-size Katana sleeves at 62 × 89 mm and names Yu-Gi-Oh! and Cardfight!! Vanguard as the games they are for. That manufacturer figure is the reliable number here, because it is the sleeve you actually buy.
Konami itself does not publish a card dimension anywhere in its tournament documentation, and we have not found a Konami primary source for one. What the policy publishes instead is a fit requirement, which turns out to be the thing that matters: sleeves that are large enough to allow your cards to shift inside them cannot be used. A standard sleeve on a Japanese-size card does exactly that, which is how a size mismatch becomes a rules problem rather than a cosmetic one.
Sleeves are mandatory, not optional
This is the sharpest difference from Magic, where the rules begin by saying players may use sleeves. Konami's Tournament Policy states plainly that sleeves are required at Tier 2 and higher events. Below that tier you may choose, but at any event that matters you are sleeving.
The identical-sleeve requirement is stricter than most people expect too. All sleeves in the Main and Side Decks must be identical in terms of colour, wear and design. Wear is the word to notice — two packs of the same sleeve, one of them played for a month, are not identical, and the policy lists cards sleeved with sleeves from different packs among its examples of marked cards.
All cards must be placed into sleeves in the same direction and manner, and you may have only one card in each sleeve, with nothing else in there alongside it.
The Extra Deck exception
Yu-Gi-Oh! has a rule here with no equivalent in the other games on this site. The policy allows you to put your Extra Deck in sleeves that are different from your Main and Side Decks, with all other sleeve rules still applying to them.
That exists because the Extra Deck sits apart from the rest of the deck in play and is never shuffled into it, so a distinguishable back cannot leak hidden information the way a marked Main Deck card would. In practice it lets players colour-code, and it is legal by the letter of the policy rather than by tolerance.
The permission is narrow. Different from the Main and Side Decks, yes; different from each other, no — the Extra Deck sleeves still have to be identical to one another.
Double sleeving, and the two-sleeve ceiling
Konami permits double sleeving and then constrains it precisely. One of the two sleeves must be clear on both sides, and it does not matter whether that clear sleeve is the inner or the outer one. Clear sleeves with a tint are allowed only where the tint does not interfere with the readability of the front of the card.
The orientation is specified rather than suggested: the additional clear sleeve must be placed onto the card opposite to the regular sleeve, so that the card is sealed inside the two. That is the same top-and-bottom closure that makes double sleeving worth doing at all, written into the rules.
Two hard limits follow. You may have only one card in each pair of sleeves, and you may have only up to two sleeves on each card — so triple sleeving, whatever its merits for a card in a binder, is not tournament legal in Yu-Gi-Oh!. The additional clear sleeve also may not have a holographic pattern on its front.
What is not allowed, and what marks a sleeve
The prohibited list is short and specific. Sleeves with mirror-like highly reflective backs are not allowed. Sleeves with holographic fronts are not allowed. Sleeves with designs or artwork on the front that obscure card text or illustrations are not allowed. Artwork on the backs is allowed, provided all sleeves are identical and the artwork is not offensive, with the Head Judge deciding.
Toploaders and other hard cases cannot be used as card sleeves. That catches the instinct to protect an expensive card by putting it in something rigid — in a deck, it makes the card identifiable by feel, which is the definition of marked.
The policy's own examples of marked sleeves are worth reading before an event, because they are mostly not damage: manufacturer hologram trademarks in different positions, cards in sleeves that are too big and shift around, re-sleeved cards that look newer than the rest, an irregular manufacturing defect on any side. You are responsible for tracking wear and replacing sleeves as needed, and the Head Judge is the final arbiter.
Common questions
- What size sleeves do Yu-Gi-Oh! cards need?
- Japanese size, also called small size. Ultimate Guard lists its Japanese-size sleeves at 62 × 89 mm and names Yu-Gi-Oh! as one of the games they fit. Standard 66 × 91 mm sleeves are too big, and Konami's policy bars sleeves loose enough to let cards shift.
- Are sleeves required in Yu-Gi-Oh! tournaments?
- Yes, at Tier 2 and higher events. Konami's Tournament Policy states sleeves are required at that level, which is stricter than Magic, where sleeves are optional.
- Can you use different sleeves for the Extra Deck?
- Yes. The policy allows the Extra Deck to use sleeves different from the Main and Side Decks. All other sleeve rules still apply, so the Extra Deck sleeves must still be identical to each other.
- Is double sleeving legal in Yu-Gi-Oh!?
- Yes, up to two sleeves per card. One sleeve must be clear on both sides, inner or outer, and it must be loaded opposite the regular sleeve so the card is sealed between them. Triple sleeving is not allowed.
- Can you use toploaders instead of sleeves?
- No. Konami's policy states that toploaders and other hard cases cannot be used as card sleeves — a rigid holder in a deck makes the card identifiable, which counts as marked.