News: Art of Play's Vibrant New Deck, Jungle Playing Cards

Along with the Blue Wheel Playing Cards, Art of Play released the vibrant Jungle Playing Cards on Black Friday. Designed by Muti in South Africa, this deck was inspired by the lush jungles of Africa.

Bursting with vibrant colors and raw animal magnetism, the fully custom deck features illustrated the iconic flora and fauna from the Zulu wilderness. You will notice on the fun card backs, Monkeys, parrots and jungle cats run wild! All throughout the pack!

According to the product page, the tuck case was printed on an antique Heidelberg letterpress to give the colors a vintage "washed" look that compliments the eye-catching graphics inside.

Available now from Art of Play for $15.

Deck View: Smith No. 3 (Signature Edition) Playing Cards

Signature. Hands. Magic.

Smith No. 3 by the Expert Playing Card Co. is the final installment of the Erdnase 1902 series. This deck features a repetitive Smith hands pattern card back by Guy Hollingworth depicting illustrations from The Expert at the Card Table by S.W. Erdnase with two casino style ovals that have M.D. Smith’s signature on them.

The signature was carefully recreated from an old signed copy found in the Conjuring Arts Research Center's private collection. The Ace of Spades has a rendering of Mr. Smith's face and the tuck box has a die cut hole so you can see Mr. Smith while the deck is closed.

The deck is printed on the smooth Master Finish. Perfect for fans, flourishes, and faros.

Available from JP Games.

Dan & Dave Buck and Andrew Avila Bends Reality in this Cardistry Video

A week ago, DTS released a creative piece dubbed “Avant Card”, to showcase DTS Headphone:X immersive audio technology via cardistry. The incredible video showcases Dan and Dave Buck, the founding fathers of Cardistry, and Andrew Avila, one of the world’s top cardists.

Over the course of the video, the Bucks and Avila perform their vast repertoire of tricks that reflect themes such as nature, music and abstract technology. These themes are brought to life visually through imagery and graphics as well as via a dynamic, themed sound design that’s tightly synced to each trick. The intention of this production is to create a magical, at times hyper-realistic and impressionistic relationship between motion and sound.

First Look: Check out the Silver Arrows Playing Cards by Kings Wild

The Silver Arrows Playing Cards are a sleek and polished playing cards meticulously designed by Jackson Robinson. Silver Arrows will be one of the nicest playing card decks you own!

The deck features an industry first full bleed foil back design and showcases signature Kings Wild court cards as well as two custom jokers and custom Ace of Spades.

The Silver Arrows are a limited edition print run of only 1950 decks and are printed by our friends at the Expert Playing Card Co. Available on Black Friday for $18.

Oh.. then there is the beautifully crafted Legacy Edition. The Legacy Edition will only have a total of 50 pieces produced and feature numbered seals.

Both available from Kings Wild store this Black Friday at 12pm Central.


Images courtesy of Kings Wild.

News: KardArt by Kardify Black Friday Sale!

Its that time of year! Savings and new releases can make your head spin, but it's oh so much fun! This year Kardify's Shop, KardArt by Kardify has some great offers on the dwindling inventory of our Playing Card projects.

All these beautiful decks were created in collaboration with Ade Suryana and his group Three of Clubs. Ade offers meticulous detail and talent to all his work and we were honored to be part of the process on all of these projects.

We have 4 great Black Friday deals to offer, all will be available at 12:01am Friday November 25th. (Sale ends Sunday at Midnight or while supplies last) Supplies are very limited on some of the items, we took the time to scrape up our remaining inventory into some of the most popular product combinations based on our past sales.

The Standard Aquila deck 2 Pack - $10.00
Get 2 decks for the price of one! The Aquila standard deck features embossing and foil accents on the pearlescent tuck box. The deck is limited to a 2500 deck run. A little known fact about the Aquila Standard deck is that it also features a very unique and easily picked up marking system hiding in plain sight.

Kardify 3 Pack - $20.00
A three pack of all the decks from the Kardify, Three of Clubs collaboration. The Aquila Standard Edition, The Aquila Limited Edition and the TriKard Viridian deck. All three decks feature the stunning work of Ade Suryana. All three decks were also printed in limited quantities, the Standard with 2500, the Limeted Aquila at 1000 and Viridian come in at 2000. A great opportunity to add all three to your collection at a great price!

Aquila's Collectors Bundle - $40.00
The Aquila project also included a very limited box set featuring both the Aquila Standard and Limited Edition with custom holographic deals, showcased in a pearlescent 2 deck box and also included a Certificate of Authenticiy signed by designer Ade Suryana. The certificate features the matching numbers from the seals of the decks and box. The box set was limited to only 500 produced. Included in the bundle are 2 additional decks, one Standard and one Limited to open and enjoy.

Kardify Mixed Brick - $80.00
We've offered bricks of all of our projects and they been very popular, we've also been asked in the past for mixed bricks. For Black Friday we've collected enough from our inventory to put together a limited number of mixed bricks featuring all three Kardify / Three of Clubs projects. The brick consists of 4 Aquila Standard Editions, 4 Aquila Limited Editions and 4 TriKard Veridian playing cards. *Acrylic brick box NOT included.

While your at the shop don't miss the Inaugural Edition of the ICO Deck 2016, designed by Brendan Hong (Hive Series and Dynasty). Take your cardistry to a new visual level.

Kardify would like to thank everyone for their support over the years and truly are humbled by the comments and messages we receive from our readers, designers, artists and the rest of the Playing Card community. You are the reason we continue to grow and strive to get better at what we do every day.

David Blaine to Release Gold Foil Gatorbacks on Black Friday

David Blaine is bringing a new colorway of the popular Gatorbacks playing cards as a part of his Black Friday line-up.

A video posted by David Blaine (@davidblaine) on Nov 18, 2016 at 4:10pm PST

The Gold Foil Gatorbacks feature a stunning Gold-on-White custom tuck and like it's predecessor, beautifully embossed and finely detailed, on both the inside and the outside.

From one of David's post on Instagram, the card will feature the eye-catching Metaluxe back.

A photo posted by David Blaine (@davidblaine) on Nov 9, 2016 at 6:32am PST

The Original Gatorbacks release sold out within hours. We expect these to go fast as well. Available at shop.davidblaine.com this Black Friday.

News: Check Out Neil Patrick Harris Stunning New Deck of Playing Cards from Theory11

The wizards at Theory11 in collaboration with the one and only Neil Patrick Harris (NPH), release a LEGENDARY deck of premium playing cards yesterday. The NPH Playing Cards exudes elegance and sophistication.
Over a year in the making, the deck was designed by Jay Fletcher with art direction by Neil himself. The deck is a tribute to Neil's love of mystery, magic, games, and theater.

According to the product page, the are hidden secret symbolism hidden within the deck. Look closely and you may discover much more and solve the puzzle.

The NPH deck feature a custom Ace of Spades, Joker, modified court card typography and a visually stunning tuck box. Even the tuck interior is printed with a custom, elegant gold foil pattern. Simply Breathtaking!

Images from theory11.com

News: Encarded Celestial Playing Cards Available for Pre-Order Today!

Celestial Playing Cards is the latest limited release from Encarded. Inspired by the astronomical instruments of ancient times, the charts of the sky and the limitless bounds of imagination, Celestial comes in two beautiful editions, the Red Edition and the Black Edition.

The rich Red Edition features a simple and bold designed red back incorporating dynamic edge detail that makes spreads and fans look amazing. The tuck showcases both pearlescent white and metallic red foils, detailed embossing, custom numbered seal and adorned with details you've come to expect from Encarded. Only 1000 individually numbered Celestial Red decks have been printed.

The dramatic Black Edition features full-bleed black backs and faces, with the back design produced in metallic red foil! The eye-catching shimmering red design line on the backs will be perfect for cardistry. The Celestial Black box comes with dramatic red foil, glossy UV spot ink and large blind embossing on a thick matte black stock. Only 500 individually numbered Black decks are available.

Like all Encarded decks, the faces are custom yet familiar and perfectly playable. Celestial is printed by the EPCC on the popular Classic Stock. Available for pre-order, November 22nd at 12pm EST exclusively on Encarded.com. If it's anything like its predecessors, it won't last long.

Don't miss out!

News: 5 Things You Did Not Know About Butterfly Playing Cards

The gorgeous Butterfly Playing Cards are conceptualized by Ondrej Psenicka and meticulously designed by Swedish graphic designer and magician Stefan Eriksson. The deck features a beautifully designed card backs, gorgeous Ace of Spades and two butterfly silhouette jokers. It has standard US faces as it is intended mainly for magicians who prefer standard faces as they are familiar and easily recognizable by the audience.

1. The Butterfly Playing Cards can do miracles no other cards can do. More performance videos here.



2. It took four years to develop the marking system of The Butterfly Playing Cards.

3. The design has been drawn around the marking system, not the other way.

4. Ondrej will personally supervise the production of the cards in Cartamundi's mother factory in Turnhout, Belgium.

5. The casino vision check at Cartamundi will be especially adapted to guarantee a first class cut to The Butterfly Playing Cards. For a perfect registration of the edges, any deck containing even a single card that is off-cut for more than 0.5 mm gets discarded.

Pledge starts from $15 and available now on Indiegogo. Don't miss out!

Deck View: Black Arcane Playing Cards

Mystery. Elegant. Signature.

Released back in 2012, the Arcane Playing Cards deck was the first in Ellusionist's new line of Signature playing cards. Designed by Lee Mckenzie based on an initial idea originally from Jason Brumbalow, the deck exudes mystery, elegance, and sophistication.

The deck features an all-new, compelling back design with cryptic glyphs that speak in mysteries, equally matching all-new face cards that match the glyphs, and the easily recognizable traditional courts with a different, Arcane-styled outfit. Let's not forget the incredibly custom-designed Ace of Spades that will sure to turn heads!

The white version was simultaneously released with the white version. Also available in the rare Gold version. Arcane are printed by the USPCC on Aurora stock with an Air Cushion finish.

Available from JP Games.

Cardistry: Who won Season 3 of the International Cardistry Open?

161 contestants, 8 weeks, 5 rounds and 1 champion. In a close-run finals of the International Cardistry Open (ICO), Italian cardist Alessandro Ricci has become the Season 3 Champion after narrowly defeating Vietnamese cardist Tran Tien Thanh.

Alex takes home the top prize of, Half gross (72 decks) of the Limited Edition ICO deck from Expert Playing Card Co. One Brick (12 decks) of J&T Playing Cards from Joker and the Thief and one Brick (12 mixed decks) from Cardvolution, while his opponent also pockets one Brick (12 decks) of from JP Playing Cards and one Brick (12 decks) from Jetsetter Playing Cards.

Here are the two final videos:

We want to thank the amazing judges who have spent hours going through and scoring each and every video. Please visit and like their respective pages to show your support. Jaspas Deck, Eliot Slevin, Nguyen Hoang Duy, and Andrew Avila.

News: Daniel Madison and Chris Ramsay Teamed Up for KNIGHTS Playing Cards. Latest Release by Ellusionist.

The team at Ellusionist is on a roll! Fresh off the release of AURELIAN Playing Cards, Ellusionist decides to waste no time in releasing their new deck of playing cards, KNIGHTS.

Magician Daniel Madison and Chris Ramsay have teamed up to bring this elegant deck to life. KNIGHTS features fully custom artwork by Oban Jones, from the iconic Ace of Spades, the eye-catching Jokers to the card backs and custom faces of the court cards.

A few surprises lie within the simplistic and classic matte white and stunning gold foil tuck. These hidden features embody the aesthetics and practicality which appeal to magicians, gamblers, and chess players alike.

KNIGHTS are printed by the USPCC with a smooth finish and traditional cut, making this deck feel as good as it looks.

Available now from Ellusionist for $9.95. Images courtesy of Ellusionist.

Card Gear: Cardistry Revolution

Card Gear is our monthly feature dedicated to discovering new inventory, setup and accessories used every day by card designers, cardists, magicians and collectors. The concept originated from the popular social media site, Instagram: #passthepockets. Whenever one of these hashtags come up on the social news feed, there's always something new to discover, no matter who that person is.

For this month, we have the EDC of Nicolas Molines (Instagram: @nicolas.molines) - collector, cardist and founder of Card Tutorial Only (CTO). CTO features cardistry tutorials for all levels with multiple categories to help cardists find what they want. CTO also features a world map to help cardists connect with each other. 

Nicolas' gear:
+ Prototype CTO Deck
+ Sponsored Magicencarta card clip
+ Iphone SE
+ Revolution By Greg Wilson (his only gimmick)
+ Spiderco Knife

What’s yours? If you would like your card gears to be featured on Kardify, contact us.

First Look: Butterfly Playing Cards by Ondrej Psenicka

Butterfly Playing Cards are conceptualised by Ondrej Psenicka and beautifully designed by Swedish graphic designer and magician Stefan Eriksson. The deck has been in development for almost 4 years! Stefan created several different prototype designs and only one was selected after going through many stages of refinement.

Designed specifically for the magicians in mind, this groundbreaking deck features a unique marking system hidden in its back design.



Butterfly Playing Cards will also appeal to cardists, collectors and fans of design and beautiful cards! The deck features a beautifully designed card backs, gorgeous Ace of Spades and two butterfly silhouette jokers. It has standard US faces as it is intended mainly for magicians who prefer standard faces as they are familiar and easily recognisable by the audience.

Earlier, we received the prototype decks beautifully wrapped in colourful high-quality paper reminisce of the colourful wings of the butterflies. Very nice personal touch and a delight to the deck's recipient.

The cards will be printed in Belgium by Cartamundi on their brand new card stock. The Butterfly Playing Cards will launch on Indiegogo on November 16.

Don't miss out! Follow Butterfly Playing Cards on Facebook for updates and performance videos. 

Deck View: Broken Spell Playing Cards

Dark. Unique. Fairy Tales.

From Jisuk Cho, Broken Spell Playing Cards is the result of a collective 56 artists coming together to create a playing card deck based on their own dark interpretation of a fairy tale. Each card is illustrated by a different artist in their unique style.

Funded in 11th September 2010, Broken Spell is the FIRST deck to be funded on the popular crowdfunding site, Kickstarter. The project raised $6.7k from 305 backers.

The deck consists of 54 casino quality, plastic coated playing cards, printed on 300gsm paperboard stick by Ad Magic. Each deck comes in a custom tuck box.

For more cool playing cards, check out  JP Games.

Cardistry: 5 tips to Instantly Level Up Your Cardistry Video!

The third season of the International Cardistry Open is coming to a close. After five incredible rounds and over 160 talented cardists, Tran Tien Thanh will battle Alex Ricci in a head-to-head no-limit freestyle cardistry video for the ICO Championship. You don't want to miss the finals. Head over to the ICO group page to watch the final videos.

Entering cardistry competitions is a great way to practice and improve your cardistry and at the same time, have some fun! One of the greatest encouragement a cardist can get is to win or even place in a highly regarded competition such as the International Cardistry Open (ICO) or Cardistry-Con Championship (CCC). It means that others have seen your work and judged it worthy.

If you are thinking of entering a competition or you have had little success before, here are a few tips by WKC Champion and veteran judge Jaspas to set you on the right track toward entering and hopefully winning a major cardistry competition. Visit School of Cardistry on YouTube for more videos like this.



Also, don't forget to get the official commemorative ICO decks from our Kardart store for a discounted price of $10 for the duration of the tournament.

This bold and eye-catching deck has been meticulously designed by artist Brendan Hong with cardists in mind, embracing the movement and beauty of motion of each card in the deck.

Card Radar: Hacker Playing Cards from Firehost

Hacker Playing Cards was designed and created by Firehost (now known as Amor) with consultation from Theory11.

These limited edition security themed playing cards is the third in the series and were handed out at Black Hat USA in 2013.

The deck came from a fun idea Firehost had with their client Theory11, The deck features custom backs, Ace of Spades bearing the Firehost logo, Joker cards which bear the black and red “Hacker” and the courts.

There are hidden surprises in the artwork. For example,The “suicide king" has "HACK REPORTS" on his sash, while the Jack of Hearts is pro-VPN and Jack of Clubs is the card of DDOS.

First Look: The Kingdom of the Dead Playing Cards by Sextante Studio

El Reino de Los Muertos (The Kingdom of the Dead) is a professional deck of cards inspired by the Mexican tradition of the Day of the Dead. The deck is a reinterpretation of one of the oldest traditions, the design respects the classic images of playing cards.

The team at Sextante Studio have reimagined the symbolism, colors and traditional characters into a modern aesthetic. Each image was created with profound respect and significant research. Bright and dynamic colors are contrasted with dark, elegant borders.

The traditional figures are transformed into irreverent and playful characters with a touch of solemnity. The courts are meticulously painted by hand in watercolor. The traditional figures in the cards have been reimagined in the rich traditions of Mexico.

The casino quality deck will be printed by Cartamundi with texturized linen cardstock imported from France. Available for sale on November 20th!