My prefer die-cutting machine is a Spellbinder's Platinum 6. It's about 4 years old and I use it daily. After a few tests with word dies and intricate Spellbinder's dies I fell in love. I do have a cardstock shim under the Magic Mat. It's just like anything else, it takes trial and error to get the kinks worked out. But man do I love not having any fuzzy pieces on my die cuts anymore. That's amazing! And the mat doesn't warp or buckle.