First Look: Armageddon Post-Apocalypse Bicycle Playing Cards

[Update] Armageddon Post-Apocalypse Bicycle Playing Cards are now LIVE on Kickstarter!

Armageddon Post-Apocalypse Bicycle Playing Cards is a fully custom limited edition deck designed by Greek artist Nick Rovakis and produced by PlayingCardDecks. The deck is inspired by the early works of post-apocalyptic worlds such as Mad Max and Fallout. According to Nick,

I've always wanted to design something that displays characters out of this kind of environment, the ones striving to survive and this would reflect on their characteristics and equipment. When I was given the opportunity to create a deck of cards with a theme of my choice I was more than happy to combine it with this concept.

Based on the suits, Nick created four different factions with the characteristics he had in my mind for the post-apocalyptic world: The Clubs are represented by the Wastelanders, Hearts by the Enslavers, Spades by the Rangers and Diamonds - Brotherhood of Metal.

[Update] Armageddon Post-Apocalypse Bicycle Playing Cards are now LIVE on Kickstarter!

The deck will be printed by the U.S Playing Cards Co. on the Classic stock with Air-Cushion Finish. The deck is set to launch on Kickstarter on June 1.

Kickstarter: 5 Things You Didn't Know About BlackTales Playing Cards by Ed M.Crown

BlackTales Playing Cards is an intriguing deck conceptualized by graphic designer, Eduardo Mendez currently funding on Kickstarter. Over a year in the making, the deck is Eduardo's take on the traditional playing cards using pirates elements as the theme. The deck is VERY well thought out with well-proportioned lines, enhanced pips, beautiful colors and gorgeously illustrated courts, all while keeping the traditional elements of playing cards in place. Eduardo told Kardify,

I wanted to give the community a deck with a hidden history behind, and at the same time preserving the traditional elements and design of playing cards. This is the first of many decks which will be a more personal, but full of mysteries.

Here are 5 things you didn't know about BlackTales Playing Cards:

1. The Essence is in the Name
The design process is a combination of many things. At first, Eduardo wanted something that would represent the work behind, as this deck was completely done during the night. Edoardo said, "Due to my day job at the agency from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm, then being father and husband from 6:00p.m. to 11:00p m, BlackTales was conceptualized, created and developed during 1 year of work only from 11:00 pm. to 3:00am- 5:00am, within those hours of darkness, peace, silence, fatigue, reflection, even madness. Born the essence of these cards, dark, mysterious, barbaric, basic and then with the idea of pirates and the history behind, the name BlackTales would fit the deck perfectly."

2. Looking for a Style
To start off, Eduardo looked for a style that would represent the main idea of the deck. He researched designs, experiment with different styles- realistic, modern, minimalist and pop amongst many. "I realized that the more I wanted to be unique, the closer I got to the majority of fully custom decks. I realized that there are few decks that have a specific style and maintain the original design of a deck of cards. With this, created an intriguing design that pays tribute to the traditional design."

3. The Hidden History of the Origin of Playing Cards
Immediately the idea of the story came to my mind, taking that little confusion of how and where the cards were born, that for those who are not very familiar do not know their origin, "I wanted to fill that gap with an attractive story, full of historical facts but using the sea, magic, cheating, and pirates as backdrop. As a finishing touch, we have the BlackTales deck as a representation of the cards created and used by pirates 400 years ago."

4. The Pirates
The deck is very well thought out. Each card includes a character within the history of BlackTales. Each suit is represented by a group, each with its own distinct personality and how they use a deck of cards.
+ Hearts. Born pirates, lovers of the sea, and of their beauty. Use cards to create figures and movements representing the sea and the stars.
+ Diamonds. Assassins, silent, sometimes barbaric. Use cards as a lethal element, perfect and accurate.
+ Clubs. Ambitious, greedy, lovers of gold. Use cards to bet and gamble.
+ Spades. Lovers of navigation, intelligent, found in the cards are elements of deception. Card manipulators. Makes card appear and disappear in front of your eyes.

5. Living as a Pirate
To immerse themselves in the world of pirates, Eduardo and his two best friends Bastian Besnier, history writer and Matias Cuevas, musician, and composer, lived 3 days under the stars on the beach accompanied by a good bottle of rum during the concept stage. "That was a huge experience, there we also started the recording of the video that today you can see on my Instagram account."

A post shared by Ed M.Crown (@edmcrown) on Mar 14, 2018 at 7:49pm PDT

BlackTales will be printed by the USPCC with Linen Finish. The deck is currently 94% funded with 21 days to go. If you've like what you read here and would like to support Eduardo, head to the Kickstarter page here! Pledge start at $12.

News: Mondrian Broadway Playing Cards by GotMagic? and Murphy's Magic

GotMagic? has just released the latest edition of Mondrian Playing Cards. The Mondrian: Broadway is based on Piet Mondrian’s artwork titled “Broadway Boogie Woogie” completed in 1943.

Designed by Yves Krähenbühl, the Broadways have been completely redesigned from the ground up. The first thing you will notice about this deck is the bright and eye-catching primary colors. The design was created to flow with flourishes and accentuate moves.

The Ace of Spades is done in the Broadway design, and the signature colors are used throughout the court cards. Extra cards included are two jokers, a double backer, and a blank face.

The deck is packaged in a super thick synthetic soft touch stock tuck box with 4 Pantone colors. Each individually letterpressed, giving each color a dimensional feel. Piet Mondrian’s signature is silver-foiled on the outer tuck. The inside of the box is completely foiled with the Broadway design. Beauty!

The Mondrian: Broadway is printed on a crushed premium stock that is thin yet snappy. Perfect for both cardists and magicians alike. Available today from your favorite Murphys Magic retailers.

Kickstarter: Odissea Playing Cards Has Already Doubled Its Target

Thirdway Industries' Odissea Playing Cards on Kickstarter has doubled its target after just two weeks of launching on the crowdfunding platform. Giovanni Meroni set a goal of €20,000 (USD$23,000), but as of today, it has over €43,963 in pledges with 15 days to go. According to Giovanni,

So far, Odissea is my fastest campaign ever. The day one gathered €32,087, breaking the record of SINS (€30,644).

Clearly, there's huge demand for Giovanni's highly collectible decks! On our first look article prior to the launch of Odissea, we noted that the deck was inspired by Homer's Odyssey with the art style of SINS and Dedalo - Giovanni tried to mix them to have the malice of SINS and the mythology of Dedalo.

All three decks are fully custom with stunning tuck boxes, eye-catching backs, and gorgeous face cards. Also, several stretched goals have been unlocked: embossing and extra cards - the extra cards are alternative courts: two different versions of Ulysses in Minerva/Neptune and an alternative KoS of Minerva fighting Neptune

Mythica tiers are almost sold out only 25 tridents remains. Check it out on Kickstarter here! Odissea's expected release date is October of this year.

Deck View: Blue Bomber Playing cards

Matrix. Marked. Magic.

Released in 2016, the Blue Bomber Playing cards by Bomb Magic are inspired by the green code effect in the popular movie "The Matrix“. The idea was to print a simple deck which is suitable for daily magic performance. The high-tech style back design cleverly conceals the marking system, which is very well done and not obvious for the spectators. We had a hard time trying to figure out the system.

As for the face cards, they are pretty much standard with the exception of the Aces and jokers. The custom Aces and jokers include the same matrix-code design element featured throughout the deck. The tuck box sorts a dark blue colorway with silver foiling to give the deck a touch of elegance.

Check out Bomb Magic's other offering at bombmagic.tw. For other cool decks head to JP Games.

Cardistry: Cardistry Bootcamp- The History of Cardistry

This is the first video of LotusinHand's (Instagram: @LotusinHand) tutorial series- Cardistry Bootcamp! The video briefly goes over the history of Cardistry. Beginners and newcomers will find the video insightful and veterans can take a trip down memory lane and reminisce how the art of flourishing has evolved over the years.

Check out the fascinating video below!

Deal of the Week: 20% Off Cherry Casino (Tahoe Blue Edition) Playing Cards

The captivating Cherry Casino (Tahoe Blue Edition) Playing Cards combines modern minimal design and elements of retro casino-styled decks. The deck is designed by Sam Devins (in partnership with Pure Imagination Project) and captures the spirit of one of the U.S.A's deepest, clearest lakes, with its mystical pearl azure tone. For a limited time, Pure Imagination Project is offering the new deck 20% off the RRP with the coupon code: keeptahoeblue. Check it out here!

Discover more deals, coupon codes and offer on tuckcase.com

News: Green Wheel Playing Cards by Art of Play to be Released Today!

Art of Play will be releasing the Green Wheel Playing Cards today (25the May) at 9am PST. The gorgeous deck was produced in partnership with California-based creative studio, DKNG. The deck combines modern design with clean bold lines inspired by the classic Bicycle Rider Back.

Just like its predecessors, the Green Wheels are fully custom. From the bold eye-catching backs to the gorgeous courts, Ace of Spades and beautiful pips. Each card is printed with two metallic inks and the combination of green and gold gives the deck a very classy and appealing look. Green Wheels are housed inside beautiful letter-pressed embossed thick recycled tonal-brown paper tuck.

Printed by the US Playing Card Co. with an air-cushion finish, the deck will be an excellent addition to your collection. Get yours from artofplay.com for $12. This is our favorite edition yet!

Kickstarter: The Planets- Mars Playing Cards by Vanda Playing Cards

Fresh off the successful funding of the Earth deck on Kickstarter, the fourth deck of the Planets series is now on Kickstarter. The Mars deck features an all-male court.

Like the previous three decks in this series by Vanda Playing Card, Mars sports a red colorway with artwork by Srdjan Vidakovic, a graphic designer from Novi Sad, Serbia. The deck is fully custom, from the striking card backs to the gorgeous Ace of Spades and retro hand-illustrated court cards and joker.

Two editions are on offer during the campaign: Standard Edition with a stunning embossed black tuck box with holographic red and white foil and the Limited Edition with an embossed dark blue tuck box with holographic silver and gold foil sealed with a numbered metallic perforated seal- only 500 available!

The tuck boxes will have interior foil and printed by Clove St. Press, producers of gorgeous letterpress printing. The decks will be printed by the United States Playing Card Company. Pledge starts at $10 and the uncut sheet will be available as an add-on. Check it out on Kickstarter!

Card Flash: Bicycle Knights Playing Cards by PlayingCardDecks

From Playingcarddecks, Knights Playing Cards is a collaboration with award-winning Scotish artist Sam Hayles. The deck was successfully funded on Kickstarter late January and now at the final stages of fulfillment.

As the name suggests, the deck is inspired by medieval knights and their most recognized style of armor and weapons. Both the tuck and the cards have a vintage look and feel to them - at first glance, almost as though they've been kept in storage for ages!

Bicycle Knights deck is fully custom and hand-illustrated with great attention to detail. Sam's gritty style of illustration has been applied to the two-way courts, coat of arms aces, jokers and the bold indices of each suit.

Another well-produced deck by Playingcarddecks! Backers will be pleased how well the deck turned out. Printed by the US Playing Card Co. on their classic stock with embossed finish.

Card Gear: Card Mafia

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.

This month, we feature the EDC of Kevin Yu from Toronto, Canada. Kevin's Instagram account (@kevinyu97) features an incredible array of decks from the very rare Red Fontaines to decks that he helped produce under the Riffle Shuffle brand which he started.

Kevin has been collecting playing cards for 4 years. Besides cards, Kevin is studied Business at the University of Toronto. He enjoys skateboarding and playing tennis. Kevin's gear:

+ Black supreme cap
+ Gucci waist bag
+ Minoita X 700 film camera
+ Skateboard deck
+ Helius sun deck
+ Peelers
+ Canon t5i
+ Apple headset
+ Batteries for t5i
+ Handmade leather close up pad
+ Supreme water bottle,
+ Paper notebook
+ Snakeskin card clip

If you would like your card gears to be featured on Kardify, feel free to contact us.

Watch: Chris Ramsay's 1st Playing Cards on Kardify Spotlight

We've partnered up with Omar Chavez (Instagram: @thegentlemanwake) on a series of 'spotlight' videos to give you the rundown on some of the latest and unique decks of playing cards around. We aim to publish the 1-minute spotlight video weekly on social media (Facebook: Kardify) and in addition, a link to @thegentlemanwake's full video if you want to have a more comprehensive look at a particular deck.

This week, we have 1st Playing Cards by magician Chris Ramsay. The deck represents Chris' first solo venture into the playing card industry. 1st comes complete with a custom design, re-colored face cards using metallic ink and custom jokers! Find out more about the deck in the video below (with intro by a special guess!). If you like the video, don't forget to SUBSCRIBE (YouTube: TheGentlemanWake)!

News: Ellusionist Introduces RELOADS with Sea Keepers (Green Edition) Playing Cards

Genius or Clueless? Ellusionist just introduced RELOADS, a tuckless deck wrapped securely in cellophane. Designed for the working magicians and cardists in mind, the first deck to introduce this concept is the Sea Keepers Green Edition.

In performances, the tuck is often discarded, misplaced, or even kept in your bag while the deck takes on the inevitable damage of bends, slaps, crimps, sweat, sharpie and the sticky fingers of spectators. According to the product page on Ellusionist,

With RELOADS we help to streamline your EDC (every day carry), help the environment (by not printing tucks that can be reused) and provide a cost-effective solution to your increasingly expensive passion.

With the LOW cost of the deck at $3.50 (or for an introductory price of just $2.98 per deck when buying 12), we think these are GENIUS! RELOADS are perfect for those who hop from table to table destroying decks and giving away signed cards or even cardists who drops cards while practicing flourishes.

The decks are printed on Cartamundi on their famous B9 stock for durability. Available NOW from Ellusionist. Killer Bee Reloads are also available!

Detailed Look: Cherry Casino (Tahoe Blue Edition) Playing Cards

From Murphy's Magic, the captivating Cherry Casino (Tahoe Blue Edition) Playing Cards combines modern minimal design and elements of retro casino-styled decks. The deck is designed by Sam Devins (in partnership with Pure Imagination Project) and captures the spirit of one of the U.S.A's deepest, clearest lakes, with its mystical pearl azure tone.

The Tahoe Blue Cherries are incredibly sleek and aesthetically pleasing. The tuck box is not only stylish but eye-catching! The minimalist backs feature the iconic white swoosh and twin cherries design. The metallic ink on the tuck and backs gives it an elegant touch!

With the exception of the jokers and the Ace of Spades, the face cards are standard and the courts have been recolored. The deck also includes 2 specially printed gaff cards. Printed by U.S. Playing Card Company.

Magicians, cardists, and collectors will be able to pick the Cherry Casino Tahoe Blue from your favorite Murphys Magic retailers soon.

Deck View: LUXX Redux Red Playing Cards

Intricate. Red. Elegance.

Created by Paul Middleton and designed by the talented Randy Butterfield, LUXX Redux Red is a beautiful deck of playing cards with traditional elements designed to appeal to magicians, cardists, collectors, amateur poker and card game players.

Like the original LUXX series, JP GAMES kept the best of the tuck: Thick black matte stock, gorgeous foiling and superior detail. Using the same style box as for the Palme decks, Randy has refreshed the wrap around design to suit the new housing.

Redux Red features a set of two jokers, and an all-new design. The back design has been subtly tweaked and improved to show off the now instantly recognizable artwork.

LUXX Redux Red is now available from JP Games.