Review: Medallions Playing Cards

In between his busy airline day job and fatherhood, Joey Heininger runs an Australian based online playing card store, theflush. From this month, Joey will be a contributor on Kardify to provide us with playing card reviews. He will give us a run down on art, feel, and how usable the decks are in specific applications, and his own personal thoughts with a touch of Aussie humour.

It has been said that the “greatest playing cards” ever produced are Theory 11’s Monarchs, and I couldn’t agree more, they have style, they have flair and they lack that extremely annoying nasal voice, but much like Nanny Fine, they have had more outfits than one should own before making a trip to charity to donate one. They come in three basic colours Red, Blue, and White Silver, this is before you include the rare Gold version.

So how does one dress up their flagship deck and provide us with something new, all without losing greatness? They drop the suit and tie for something a little more casual, something like a pirate’s costume.

Does it work? 

If you like layered brown and gold, then yes, if you don’t then you have never had the pleasure of seeing my wife’s hair in the sun. Medallions are Theory11’s best deck on offer after Monarchs in its little red number. It has the same “Ultra-Lux” card stock for the tuck as the Red Monarchs… I don’t even know what Ultra-Lux is, but it sure does feel nice, and lasts a little longer in the pocket too.

The art, by French graphic designer JC Desevre is reminiscent of 18th century pirate booty, hence the name, the tuck flap has a key hole making the tuck look like a treasure chest, and the courts are standard with customised elements complementary to the overall design.

What I don’t like 

The white borders; while the deck has been printed with USPCC’s highest quality control and the boarders are thin, set against the brown and gold, the White borders make the deck look like someone dropped block of chocolate in a flurry of flour. The other element that I don’t like is their unwillingness to adopt a more customised look and print the black pips in a complementary brown, but hey for a deck so sophisticated in its presentation and design can forgive them.

What I do like

Everything else; as per usual Theory 11 has provided us with all the bells and whistles a collector could need and a magician could want, beautiful art, embossed tuck, the right mix of stock and finish, foil accents and to top it all off nicely, a seal, something lacking in both my family car’s motor and many Ellusionist tucks.

What are they good for? 

They’re good in just about all applications one would use a deck of cards. The white borders I complained about earlier is actually a blessing for some, it means they are a usable deck in magic, the boarders are thin too so they work well in XCM, you would be the talk of the table if you broke these bad boys out at poker and if you have a wobbly table you will have 56 little slivers of card and the box they came in to even it out.

The Medallions is easily one of my favourite decks and it is easy to see why it is one of our best sellers. This is a must have deck in your arsenal.


This review is written by Joey Heininger for kardify. No part of this review can be reproduced without written permission from the author. You can check out Joey's Australian based online playing card store at theFlush.com.au