If you collect Magic: the Gathering, or any other CCG like Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh or Flesh&Blood, you have probably encountered curled up foil cards also lovingly known as Pringles. This can be quite annoying, the cards usually look cooler than regular cards, but become unplayable. The curling makes them stand out in your deck and opponents might want you to remove the cards from the deck as they are essentially marked. Marked cards are even illegal to play in sanctioned tournaments and can get you disqualified.
What living in a very arid climate does to foils. from magicTCG
So, should your cards look like u/Mattrockj’s card displayed above, what can you do?
I’ve read stories about people just forced bending them in the opposite direction or putting stacks of books on the bend cards. While this might be effective, it also increases the possibility of damaging the card, which is just not something you want to happen.
Convex Curling Foil Cards
The curling in this case is caused by dryer air in your surroundings, compared to the air humidity in the printing facility and is called convex curling. The best way to actually unbend these cards is by putting them in a air-tight container, together with a 62% humidor packet for a day or two. When they have straightened you want to put them in a perfect fit sleeve and a regular sleeve to keep them air-tight.
Concave Curling Foil Cards
Of course, your cards can also bend the other way. When this happens it is because your surrounding are more humid compared to the printing facility’s dryer air. These cards can also be un-bend, but with other materials. You want to take out the humidity from the cards. Take the same air-tight containers again, but this time add silica packets in the box. Leave them in there for a few days and when they are straight immediately double-sleeve to keep them that way.
Why do they curl?
It is mostly caused by the foil layer of the cards. The cardboard back of the card responds to the air humidity in a different way than the foil layer. Causing the two layers to expand/contract in different ways. The cardboard absorbs more humidity from the surroundings than the foil layer which caused it to expand more and thus the card starts to curl.
Well, I hope you manage to uncurl your cards thanks to these tips! Got any more great ideas, feel free to drop them in the comments!
