All photos by Nick Wolf

TCG deck holders are a dime a dozen these days, with a multitude of options with different designs, materials, shapes, and sizes, to say nothing of the range in quality. But sometimes a new designer comes along that just does it right.

I recently picked up the four Avatar: The Last Airbender (ATLA) DOMARU boxes by Gatherer's Tavern to see if they're as good as they look on the shelf, and now I'm here to share my thoughts.

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What's a DOMARU Box?

Per the Gatherer's Tavern website, "DOMARU comes from the Japanese word Dō-maru (胴丸), meaning 'body wrapped.' It refers to a type of chest armour worn by the samurai class in feudal Japan."

Blue Avatar DOMARU box with its two dividers

The DOMARU product line is all about keeping your TCG cards safe, and it goes beyond ATLA. Even beyond just deck holders. Other recent sets have also gotten the DOMARU box treatment, including Lorwyn Eclipsed, Edge of Eternities, and Tarkir: Dragonstorm. Non-affiliated DOMARU boxes will also be available soon.

Additionally, they have many options for DOMARU sleeves, but nothing affiliated with Magic (for now).

Are the DOMARU Boxes Good?

I was immediately impressed with the quality of these boxes. They're incredibly sturdy, and feel like they could easily take a beating while jumbling around in my convention backpack or airplane luggage. The stitching is attractive and strong across all four of the boxes I got, though not without a few minor flaws.

Also, the magnet strength on both sides of the box leaves me with no worries about the box popping open to spill out its contents.

DOMARU box stitching up close

In addition to the strength of the box, another feature worth noting is the dividers. Each of these ATLA boxes comes with two dividers, one featuring the Magic mana symbol of its color, and the other showing the color's bending symbol in ATLA (white = airbending, blue = waterbending, red = firebending, green = earthbending).

These dividers are great for separating your main deck from your commander, tokens, sideboard, dice, etc.

Green DOMARU Avatar box with its earthbending symbol divider

Are the Avatar DOMARU Boxes Worth Buying?

Retailing at $30 USD, these ATLA DOMARU boxes are well worth their price. They're aesthetically and texturally pleasing, and the manufacturing quality is exceptional.

The other really important benefit to these that makes them worth the price is the size. Each of these boxes holds approximately 130 double-sleeved cards, or 100 triple-sleeved. That's right, your triple sleeved Commander decks will fit in these. That's something very few deck holders can say. (I've even seen a few that claim they do, but actually don't.)

Open DOMARU Avatar box on its side

However, the drawback to having all that extra space is that the boxes are big. They take up quite a bit of space. So if you're used to carrying your decks around in something like a Quiver Time Bolt or Ultimate Guard Arkhive, you'll have to be prepared to carry fewer decks if you want to use these. Or maybe even carry the DOMARU boxes separately from your carrying case.

But if a quality deck holder that carries a double- or triple-sleeved Commander deck is something you're in the market for, I can't recommend DOMARU enough.

Will I Like These Boxes if I Don’t Like Avatar?

Each of the Avatar DOMARU boxes highlights symbols from Magic and ATLA equally. The two sides of the box show the Avatar bending symbol, the top displays the Magic color symbol matching the color of the box, and the front has the Magic planeswalker symbol.

The bottom of the box shows the logos for Magic, ATLA, and Gatherer's Tavern.

Red and blue Avatar DOMARU boxes, showing the designs

If you're, like me, not familiar with Avatar: The Last Airbender, there's nothing about these boxes that should put you off from them. As someone who's never watched any of the shows, I think the Avatar symbols are just nice designs that add to the aesthetics of the box.

But if you strongly dislike Avatar, for some reason, well then these boxes are probably not for you.

Where Can I Get Gatherer's Tavern DOMARU Boxes?

You can pick up the ATLA DOMARU boxes on Gatherer's Tavern's website, at your local LGS, or at an upcoming Magic Con. Gatherer's Tavern has distribution throughout the US, and always has a great presence at Magic Con.

Overall Grade: A

I'm so glad I picked these up. The boxes are sturdy and beautiful, and I'm looking forward to using them to carry my gear to conventions. The only real flaw I can speak to, and it's only a flaw if it's not what you're looking for, is the size. The huge boxes won't fit in every carrying case, and so might not be the right fit for everyone.

But even if you don't want to use them to carry your decks, they're fantastic for players like me who like to carry around a lot of tokens and dice.