Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring Accessories Review
Coinciding with the Spring Festival, a range of accessories featuring Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring was released recently.
This article will review both OCG and TCG Ash Blossom accessories that are currently available.
Playmat
This is a standard full-size playmat with a very clean design. Ash Blossom sits slightly to the right, creating an aesthetically pleasing off-centre composition that obeys the rule of thirds. While most Yu-Gi-Oh! playmats have an enormous logo smacked right in the middle, the logo on this playmat occupies just a small corner, leaving more space to display the artwork.
Card Sleeves
The OCG sleeves features the original Ash Blossom artwork and comes in a pack of 100 with a Field Center Card.
The TCG sleeves features the alternate Ash Blossom artwork and comes in a pack of 50.
Both sleeves are of the same size and has a shiny finish.
Field Center Card
The OCG Field Center Card features the original Ash Blossom artwork and comes packaged with the OCG Card Sleeves. This Field Center Card is made of translucent plastic with a golden foil-stamped embossing on it.
The TCG Field Center Card features the alternate Ash Blossom artwork and comes randomly packaged in the Duel Devastator set. This Field Center Card is made of cardboard and has a golden foil-stamped embossing as well.
Deck Box
The deck box is made of a pink translucent plastic with the Yu-Gi-Oh! logo on the front and Ash Blossom on the back. It comes with a nice divider of the same Ash Blossom artwork.
For those playing in the OCG, this deck box could only fit about 55 to 60 double-sleeved cards. This is sufficient for the Main Deck and Extra Deck, but is too small to include the Side Deck as well.
Card Binder
The Ash Blossom design is printed with a shiny finish on a cardboard and sealed beneath a clear plastic cover on the card binder.
There are 10 pages in the binder and the double-sided pages have 9 side-loading pockets on each side, allowing the binder to hold a total of 180 cards. Unlike regular binders in the market made for bigger cards, the pockets in this Ash Blossom binder are tailored to Yu-Gi-Oh! size and fits a Yu-Gi-Oh! sleeve snugly. However, the width of the pocket might be a little too short as the plastic leaves the edge of the sleeve slightly exposed. On the pockets that open right beside each other, there is insufficient spacing between the two pockets and may cause sleeved cards to overlap each other.
Conclusion
These are the currently available Ash Blossom accessories that could be bought from your local game store.
Image from Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME
There is also a playmat featuring the original Ash Blossom artwork. This Judge playmat was rewarded for judging at one of the tournaments held in Europe or Oceania in 2017 and early 2018, but it could only be obtained through the secondary market now.
Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring is played in almost every top competitive deck and is especially popular among many top players. As seen on the live-stream of the Asia Championship Winter 2020, a number of the representatives were using the OCG Ash Blossom card sleeves.
May Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring bring you good fortune and keep the roaches (Maxx “C”) at bay.
What double sleeves brands and types are used in the OCG?
RSS, KMC, Dragon Shield or Ultra Pro are some of the popular outer sleeves. Basically any clear MTG-sized sleeves can be used over the Yu-Gi-Oh!-sized sleeves.
I thought double-sleeving was against the Tournament Policy, or is that just in the OCG?
Double-sleeving is allowed in OCG sanctioned tournaments.
Nobody:
Konami: Ash Blossom’s Feet
What’s the quality of the sleeves, deck box, binder etc. like?
I believe they are of standard quality.
Playmat is the same material as the YCS, WCQ, WCS playmats.
Sleeves are of the same quality both OCG and TCG, but these shiny sleeves tend to peel from normal usage if you use them as it is, which is why in the OCG we would use outer sleeves over them.
Deck Box is of reasonable hardness, but being made of translucent plastic, it is less durable compared the regular opaque hard plastic.
Binder’s interior is the same low friction black backing material as Pro binders. The exterior’s plastic cover might cloud over time though, especially if moisture gets inside.
I see, thank you!