I’m going to be traveling from the U.S. to Mexico for a family vacation. My son and I thought it would be fun to play Magic the Gathering on vacation, so we’re planning to take along some of our decks when we go. We keep them in metal deck boxes. Have any of you traveled with Magic decks (or other CCG decks like Yu-Gi-Oh, Cyberpunk, LotR, Neopets…) in metal boxes in your carry-on luggage? Did security give you trouble about them?
If we really need to, we’ll get plastic deck boxes, but why spend the money if we don’t have to? Thanks!
I’ve travelled widely in Europe (and one to the states, but in 2000) with exactly what you’re describing in my carry on luggage, along with the longer 800 card cardboard storage boxes. Unfortunately to say they do indeed appear to cause some concerns with airport security, I’ve had to open my baggage and explain what these are on almost every occasion, but have had no trouble once they’ve seen the items themselves. I’ve not noticed any difference between the cardboard and metal containers in terms of airport security, my theory is that large blocks or densely packed cardboard are a suspicious item to them.
My advice is expect to have to open/explain your card boxes, but not to expect them to be confiscated(unless you have a full set of power 9 and the security guard plays magic, then you’ll never see them again).
It sounds like I’m going to have them searched either way, so there probably isn’t a need for me to run out and buy a bunch of plastic deck boxes to use instead of our metal ones. They may be cheap, but I’d rather spend the money on cards
We went through security at two different U.S. airports and one Mexican airport, and nobody said a word about the cards or the metal deck boxes. The bags containing the cards were x-rayed, of course, but they weren’t hand searched, no questions were asked, and no problems ensued.
