Remedies Playing Cards by Madison X Schneider

Daniel Schneider dropped some hints about this collab happening in the Black Roses Casino deck when he included Daniel Madison as the King of Diamonds. This very special deck of cards hosts the intricately beautiful symbology of creative, romantic and poetic freedom - a tribute and collection of everything that Madison and Schneider love about playing cards.

Remedies Playing Cards is a reminiscence to the beginning of custom playing card designs with a modern twist that is already visible when you take a look at the first card, the Remedies Ace of Spades.

The new look and feel run through the entire deck with improved custom pips and indices, new custom faces and hidden secrets on the court cards for you to discover. Daniel Schneider also redesigned Daniel Madison's iconic King Diamonds, which you will see from now on in every new Madison deck.

Also, the deck is packed with hidden secrets and built-in magic tricks (including an ANGLE ZERO Gaff and a series of brand new revelations - all taught on Madison's YouTube channel). The deck is printed by the USPCC on a premium crushed paper stock and traditionally cut.



Available for $16 on madison.cards. IF you purchase a brick, a Private Reserve Edition of the Remedies deck will be included (sold for $70 if purchased separately). The Private Reserve comes in a minimalistic tuck box, updates to the court cards and the Ace of Spades.

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7 Questions with Ehsan Ziafati of Warrior Women Playing Cards

Warrior Women is a stunning deck of playing cards showcasing the numerous warrior women that existed throughout history, providing brief accounts of their lives and the roles they played in the theater of war. Currently seeking funds on Kickstarter, the deck honors countless women have fought in every war in human history and they deserve to be remembered. According to the Kickstarter campaign page,

The stories we tell deepen our understanding of warrior women’s contributions to the world, showing how far they advanced and how we, as a modern society, value their courage. The timeline of these fearless warrior women was related before the 16th century when first firearms and modern weapons were invented. This is the first volume and we are willing to go for the second volume provided in the early centuries as well.

The fully custom deck features intricate yet delicate card back design, beautiful Aces, and gorgeous illustrated court cards from Boudica, Cynane, to Artemisia, Joan of Arc and Nakano Takeko. The deck is packaged in a stunning tuck created from a combination of classical patterns, gothic statistics, and old motifs, with weapons woven into the delicate embossed design elements along with intricate and detailed gold, silver and red foil.

Over the weekend, we had a quick chat with designer Ehsan Ziafati about his design background, inspiration and design process behind the Warrior Women deck.

For those of us who don’t know, can you tell us about yourself and what is your design background?
Hello. Thank you for providing us with such an opportunity. I am Ehsan Ziafati. I am a painter and illustrator. I have a master's degree in painting and always interested in storytelling. For this reason, I have been looking for ways to get my works’ audiences more involved. I formed a small team with my friends in order to design creative products together. Sadegh is a graphic designer. In the project, he was the project manager and proposed the ideas alongside me from the beginning. Maryam was responsible for communications and the project coordinator. As the artist of the project, I was also responsible for the task of illustrating.

Can you describe Warrior Women Playing Cards and why you’re passionate about it?
We have always had a history written only about men. It is a masculine history with a masculine purgation but within this history, there were also women who came over these obstacles and made dramatic changes in history. Their bravery and courage has been recognized and acknowledged beside men and sometimes surpassed and filled some eras with their fame. The courage of these warrior women is an unforgettable lesson for all of us. This game is a reflection of the courage and heroism of these heroes and helping the campaign can make this reflection stronger.



Walk us through the process you took to design the deck. How did you come out with the idea and how did you get to this finished product?
Our initial idea was to design a project with the theme of women, but we were not sure exactly what kind of women we were looking for. At the time, we saw a project in Kickstarter that had made women scientists of history the subject of playing cards. It was an interesting encounter, but we were sure we didn't want that kind of subject until we saw an article in National Geographic that introduced 10 women warriors of history and briefly described their lives and deaths. I never forget the moment we read the article, it was exactly what I wanted. Warrior Women who have conquered important masculine traits in history and become an outstanding pattern of their era. Women have also very important reasons to fight! It motivated us to get to know these women more. Whatever we progressed through the design process, we more concluded that the project should be implemented magnificently in a documentary and historical form so that it looks really like the pages of a 16th-century Etching book. Hence, we pursued the goal through the ink crosshatch technique.

What was your most brilliant breakthrough when designing the deck?
The most important achievement of this project for me was the admiration of women and their boundless courage throughout history. When its initial designing and releasing at United Cardists was started, we realized that how interesting it is to everyone and their endeavor alongside us to achieve this goal was a pleasure for us. The technical achievement of the project was utilizing from the monochrome crosshatch technique in designing which became very attractive in this format while it can be boring for many in the usual format.

We first noticed the deck on the UnitedCardists forum. What do you think of the playing card community in terms of the feedback and support that you’ve been getting so far?
United Cardists is something like Disneyland even for those who love playing cards and want to spend time with people similar themselves. United Cardists really helped us as a caring community from the very first moments of design. Even, we were firstly doubtful about this idea because there was a project at Kickstarter named Amazon Warrior and we thought the subjective similarity of our project with them would make no one listen to our message. However, the friendly community of United Cardists not only convinced us from the beginning point of project but also gave us a great incentive to focus on designing and executing cards until the last moments. It may not be an exaggeration to state that the completion of these cards is due to the encouragement and supports of United Cardists.

What’s next for Headless Kings? Are you planning to release more playing card decks in the future?
This project is going to have volume 2 or 3 as well. In continue we are thinking about turning it into a tabletop game. Both we and the others have been thinking that this idea has great potential and we certainly consider them.

Finally, what are your favorite playing cards?
There are a lot of deck in my mind, which each of them are my favorite for a specific reason. But in particular, I pay much attention to illustration based decks or character-based designs. Therefore, I can name Luminosity and Ragnarok which has always inspired me with lots of other amazing decks.

Thank you for your time Ehsan and all the best! 

Warrior Women playing cards will be printed by the United States Playing Card Co. Having raised 98% of its $11.8k goal with 15 days left to go, a pledge of $14 sets you up with a deck. Add-ons such as booklet, dealer coin, and poster are available during the campaign. Check it out on Kickstarter here!

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Deck View: Skateboard V2 Playing Cards

Eat. Sleep. Skate.

Designed by Dario Genuardi and produced by Kevin Yu of Riffle Shuffle, the Skateboard deck fuses the skate and magic culture. The red edition is the follow-up to the first edition deck in blue colorway released on Kickstarter back in 2016. The delightful fully custom deck features a meticulously illustrated subtle one-way back design with skate and pop culture iconographies displayed throughout.

The courts and jokers represent individual characters with their own personality who shares the love of the skate lifestyle. The Ace of Spades is made up of half of the top and bottom of a skateboard with the slogan Eat, Sleep, Skate. The deck is kept in a striking red tuck box which is laden with the theme of the Skateboard culture.

The Skateboard deck is printed by the USPCC, on the Bee Stock, Thin Crushed.

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Cardistry Touch's ESCP_TH!S Deck Sold Out in 20 Minutes!

Cardistry Touch's ESCP_TH!S Playing Cards just sold out in 20 minutes on Thursday. The fifth deck in the product line-up is designed by Alex Matencio of Zalem Industries, the deck is not only stylish but visually eye-catching with a street/tech wear vibe. Like their previous decks, ESCP_TH!S sports a one-way face and card back design and packaged in Cardistry Touch's iconic swivel box. However, unlike their previous decks, ESCP_TH!S is printed by the USPCC for the FIRST time due to the popular C9² finish that Cardistry Touch has been using is not available anymore. Watch the deck in action below:

The RIPNDIP Ice Cream Fontaines Finally Drops Today!

Fontaine Cards will be releasing the highly anticipated RIPNDIP V2 Ice Cream Fontaine deck online today (Friday March 27 at 11am PST) on ripndip.com. This second collab deck with streetwear brand RIPNDIP sports a vibrant neon Pink colorway in camo design with RIPNDIP's iconic white cat, Lord Nermal embedded within. In fact, Lord Nermal is featured prominently throughout this FULLY custom deck. From the Aces to the pips, courts, jokers and the eye-catching tuck box. We expect these to go fast! Don't miss out!

This story first appeared on cardistrybeast.com and is republished with permission.

Don't Miss Art of Play's Not So Perfect Sale Today!

The perfect time to stock up! Art of Play's annual 'Not So Perfect Sale'. If you handle a deck of cards every day, then this is the perfect opportunity to stock up on decks you'll actually use at a fraction of their original price.

The not so perfect decks are offered in three tiers ($3, $5 and $7) based on the condition of the packaging, some with only minor dings, practically unnoticeable, and others severely ripped. In all cases, the cards inside are undamaged.

With all these decks, the actual playing cards within are perfectly usable. Like previous years, the decks will be pulled from a collection of hundreds of unique designs, the deck(s) you get will be completely random. Everything from D&D Private Reserves, Holo Nocs, Red Fulton's to OG Red Dot, Carrot Fontaines and more!


These go extremely fast.. so don't miss out! Available Friday (27 March) at 9am PDT on artofplay.com.

Find more deals, offers, and sales on tuckcase.com

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Sin City Playing Cards, Less Than a Week on Kickstarter!

Another stunning deck by the team at Riffle Shuffle funding on Kickstarter. Sin City Playing Cards takes inspiration from Las Vegas, a place that never sleeps, the city of thousands of lights and millions of fates, the place of endless thrill and bottomless pockets. Designer Alba Zapata (Instagram: @albazapata.design) invites you into the decadent realm of fancy cocktails, smoky rooms, and sultry jazz music with this fully custom deck of playing cards.

The atmosphere of the shiny city that comes alive by night is obvious right from the stunning tuck box. The hot-stamped gold and red foil on black paper evoke a starry evening on the famous strip. The front of the box features large red letters saying “Sin City” placed in the middle of a golden diamond, while the back and the sides are completely covered in a symmetrical design, which is repeated throughout the whole deck.



Inside, the card backs follow the design elements found on the box with a red-and-gold pattern, made up of two adjoining roulette wheels lined by diamonds, martini glasses, and other quintessential Las Vegas elements. Brilliant!

The court cards feature different types of characters one can encounter in Sin City. From cowboys, magicians, singers to contortionists, fortune tellers and intoxicated bar patron. The designer drew these all of these characters in a lovely geometrical style, which surprises with many hidden details. Each of the court cards has an indication of the suit in two corners, each of the shapes filled in with an elegant pattern.

The ace of spades is proudly dominated by a stylized spade with a lovely red rose detail in the middle. It is encircled by golden leaves, just like the ones that used to make up the crowns of Roman Emperors. At the very top of the card is a golden ribbon with black lettering letting you know, that you have officially entered the Sin City.

The Jokers are very special cards due to their use of the notoriously well-known road sign announcing: “Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas”.

Sin City Playing Card will be printed by the United States Playing Card Company, AIR CUSHION Finish with the legendary BEE CASINO STOCK. Limited Edition of 2500 Decks.

Don't miss out! Pledge starts at $13 on Kickstarter for a single deck.

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Endless Time Luxury Dark Playing Cards on Kickstarter

Endless Time Playing Cards are back with a new edition with a luxurious look and feel. The new edition now sports a darker colorway adorned in antique gold foil.

According to founder Aleksander Feldman on the Kickstarter Campaign page,

Since the release of the First Edition of Endless Time Cards I have been thinking to expand the series. Not just a recolor, but an updated design with a twist! 

The artwork was created in Estonia with the help of designer Dennis Kostroman. The card backs have a new design element that was created specifically for the Endless Time theme. This is consistent across the backs and the updated tuck box.

The faces and backs will have an antique gold metallic ink to give it a luxurious touch. There is some enhancement to the face cards as well. Aleksander said,

I have also processed enough feedback and came to a conclusion to update Endless Time suits. The infinity symbol looks perfectly built-in into suit shapes making suits easy to read while performing magic tricks!

The deck is kept secure in a dark tuck box with stunning antique gold foil, embossed by Oath Playing Cards in Greece.

Endless Time Luxury Dark Playing Cards will be printed on Slim-Line stock and premium B9 finish by Cartamundi. Pledge starts at $12 on Kickstarter.

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Card Radar: Bicycle Rock & Roll Playing Cards

Released earlier this year by Will Roya of PlayingCardDecks.com, the Bicycle Rock & Roll deck is a fully custom deck based on the popular music genre. Designed by Juniardi Satyanagara, sports a predominantly black/white colorway with colored courts and pips.

Inside, the courts represent musicians from various rock genres such as metal, punk, emo, and pop. The aces are drummers and the jokers are a security guard and a fan.

The mirrored card backs showcase musical instruments used by the musicians, from the drumset, electric guitars, and keyboard.

Also included is a double back and face card to perform 2 card monte and other magic tricks. Get it now for $11.99 from playingcarddecks.com.

Alex Matencio on Designing Cardistry Touch's ESCP_TH!S Playing Cards

The team at Cardistry Touch teased their latest deck on Instagram. ESCP_TH!S is the fifth deck after the 2019 release, DERIVE.
Designed by Alex Matencio of Zalem Industries, the deck is not only stylish but visually eye-catching with a street/tech wear vibe. According to Alex,

The creative brief was to focus on techwear, to adapt to the general identity of Touch and to their style. It was challenging, but that's how you learn even more :).

The faces sport a one-way design deck. On the design, Alex continued,

It was definitely tougher than expected. After multiple test ideas of the back, I started nearly from scratch again but not for the back design. I first found the idea that became final for the front face and then adapted the back using a couple of ideas the Touch guys and I kept from the previous tests.

The deck is kept secure in Cardistry Touch's iconic swivel box. Incorporating the design elements into the tuck is not as simple as it looks. Alex explained,

Designing their swivel box, while easy since I had the art done already, started as a mindf*** of graphic "continuity" for me. You may not see it from here but if you already have a Touch Swivel box home, try and tear it apart and you'll see the unexpected complexity of it. It's a 3D puzzle. Hopefully, Ladislas did his best to explain it to me so that we get it done by the same afternoon, which we did.

However, there are complexities in terms of the designing the swivel box compared to a normal tuck box. The swivel box is split into two with one part overlays the other parts. Alex continues,

Keeping the continuity of the design on all sides without a break is what was hard to figure out in the beginning.

On the art direction, while designing ESCP_TH!S, Alex described,

Also, for my clients, be it @cardistrytouch, had a pretty good understanding of graphic design in general and of their own visual identity, hence making working for them a delight where they would understand my propositions and arguments very easily. The way they bounced back on my ideas made me enjoy every part of the process and allowed me to challenge everything I was doing and propose better and better ideas. Last but not least I'm also glad I decided to restart nearly from scratch in September since my new ideas came out, in my opinion, much better than my first ones that were too messy.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cardistry Touch (@cardistrytouch) on Mar 20, 2020 at 11:30am PDT

ESCP_TH!S will be printed by USPCC for the FIRST time. This is due to the C9² finish that Cardistry Touch has been using is not available anymore. The team is currently working closely with Cartamundi to find a brand new finish, even better than the last one, which will take time.

The deck is scheduled to be released on March 26 at 19:00CET.

Deck View: Hunter of York (Mistress Edition) Playing Cards

Elegant. Floral. Vibrant.

The Hunter of York Playing Cards are inspired by the witch-hunting era and the Tulip Mania set in York, 1636. This is the first volume in the Florus Drama series by artist Nicolai Aaroe. The Mistress Edition is one of two decks in the Hunter of York series. Fully custom, the face cards have a fresh and vivid appearance with illustrations in vibrant colors to make the deck look elegant and new. Aces have very full floral decoration.

The artwork of the courts are truly incredible! They are illustrated in collaboration with another Danish master of the pen, Martin Helgren. The ornate and floral decoration on each of the face cards gives it a touch of class and elegance. The deck is kept secure in a dark blue tuck shielded with stunning gold foil.

Printed by NPCC and available from isolatedthunderstorm.com.

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The Fontaine Trials- Your Chance to WIN $10,000

Zach Mueller of Fontaine Cards has just launched the Fontaine Trials, a 4-round elimination-style cardistry championship with a grand prize of $10,000! According to Zach on @fontainecards on Instagram,

We’ve been toying with the idea of this competition for a while. We’ve observed many cardistry competitions and after consulting our friends, we’ve come up with a format that excites us. With so many of us staying home to avoid the spread of COVID19, now seems like the perfect time to finally do it.

Open call submissions started on March 18. Cardists will have to submit one move for each entry video using Fontaine cards only. Videos will have to be tagged with #thefontainetrials. The open call ends on 1st April.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by @fontainecards on Mar 18, 2020 at 1:58pm PDT

Here are the details:

Round 1 (Apr 3rd-17th): Top 20- 30 seconds video on a tripod.
Round 2 (Apr 19th- May 3rd): Top 10- 45 seconds video on a tripod.
Round 3 (May 6th- May 19th): Top 5- 6 seconds video on a tripod.
Round 4 (May 21st- July 5th): Top 2- Any style.

The judging panel includes Birger Karlsson, Franco Pascali, Zach Mueller, Luis Mecalco, Oliver Sogard, Edgar Isaac, and James Chesmore.

Zach continued,

And yes, the grand prize is real. For years we’ve wanted to up the stakes on cardistry competitions, and with a prize this big, we’re very excited to see how it ups the competition and to see who it brings out of the shadows.

Article originally published on cardistrybeast.com

On Kickstarter, Stellar Kingdoms Playing Cards

Currently seeking funds on Kickstarter, Stellar Kingdoms is a sci-fi themed deck of playing cards based on the known tropes of adventure movies, games, and novels. The deck creatively blends traditional playing cards design with an original Sci-Fi setting.

Inside, each of the four suits represents an original faction with its own backstory, character, and aspirations. Their identities make the battleground on the card table more dramatic and exciting!

Loyal to traditions, the Hearts have brought the medieval swords and crowns across the centuries into the Space Age. Honorable and fair, the Star Knights aspire to bring peace and prosperity to the Galaxy, yet never hesitate to confront injustice and the forces of evil.

Having perfected the art of intrigue, the Diamonds conquer the vastness of deep space by utilizing delicate calculation and filigreed trickery. Putting their impressive wealth to use, this fraction carefully undermines the game balance by manipulating the others.

The incarnate of humanity’s fears, the Spades are the merciless inhabitants of the undead world on their quest of consolidating all Star Kingdoms under the power of their terror. No compromise and no negotiations - nothing short of a complete annihilation of the enemy.

In their aspiration for balance, the Clubs operate strictly by cold-blooded calculation. Nothing personal - devoid of passions and flaws, they measure their every step, keeping their loyalty to impeccable logic and accurate mathematical planning.

The four fractions of Stellar Kingdoms create a perfect balance - an eternal confrontation that moves the game forward. The playing cards unlock infinite potential, and this infinity is reflected in the stylish black and white card backs.

Stellar Kingdoms Playing Cards will be printed by the USPCC with MetalLuxe technology. Pledge starts at $25 on Kickstarter.

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