Deck View: King Arthur (Emerald Saga) Playing Cards

Royal. Stunning. Green.

King Arthur Playing Cards by Riffle Shuffle is a collaboration with Studio Muti inspired by the times of kings, queens, and cavalier knights all the way back to the 5th century’s Britain. The King Arthur Emerald Saga sports a green colorway embellished with gold and green foils embossed both on the outside, and inside of the box.

Inside, the green card back are printed with Bronze Metallic Ink. The overall design of the back is similar to the back of the box, showing a mirrored image of King Arthur riding a horse. The court cards are the pièce de la résistance of the entire deck. The first thing that catches the eye is the unified structure of a gold-lined background running on a diagonal of each of the cards. Throughout the vertical axis of the card run the images of the court members, mirrored on the top and bottom half of the card. Each of the characters is absolutely unique, starting from their face, their attire, all the way to the objects that they are carrying.

The Ace of Spades is completed in different colors for each of the types of deck. In the Green version, the ace has a green background and golden outlines and details. The Joker cards are called “Jesters”. The jesters of the King Arthur deck look more sophisticated as if providing clever advice to our Great King.

King Arthur Playing Cards will be forged by United States Playing Card Company with Air-Cushion Finish on Bee Casino Stock. Limited to 2500 Decks with Foiled Number Seals. Available from riffleshuffle.com for $15.

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Zalēm Industries Acquired! An Interview With Cardistry Touch

This week, the brand acquisition of Zalēm Industries by Cardistry Touch has generated quite a buzz within the Cardistry community. This marks the first time that two cardistry brands have combined forces. Zalēm Industries will now operate as a brand within Cardistry Touch with independent deck design and synergized vision, ideas, and visuals.

We spoke to the team at Cardistry Touch about the merged brands and what fans and cardists can expect going forward. 

What led to the brand acquisition of Zalēm Industries? 

Well… Alex’s designs are amazing. We knew that before we knew the guy. They’re different, bold, simple yet effective, but that’s not the main reason why we thought that brand had potential: after meeting and talking with Alex simply as friends, we understood that he had a vision with zalēm, more than just making cool card designs. That’s something we really appreciate in brands, and something we try to do with Touch. 

It’s a whole creative world, that offers infinite possibilities but we felt that he needed help to get his brand to the next level, and we decided to take him under our wing. Don’t get me wrong though, Alex is a great friend but we’re not doing that to “be nice”, we truly believe that this project has great potential and that it’ll benefit us all long term! Together we re-defined the vision, rebuilt the @zalem.industries Instagram from scratch so that it shows the brand’s new and clear purpose. We worked a lot to deeply understand Alex’s vision and create something practical that represents it, to be able to share it with the world.

This whole thing also simply fits one of our main mottos in life: we want to do what we love, and do it with our friends. And new projects are simply existing! 

 

How will the creative process of combining the two brands work?

Well, now that we have set up a clear vision long term of what we want this brand to be, the process will be fairly easy: we trust Alex 100% on the actual design of the decks, we work on promo ideas and visuals altogether, and we (Touch) take care of the production and “back-end” type of stuff: with Touch, we already have a very solid base, so it’s not that hard for us to implement a new project like Zalēm.

Of course, the idea is to listen and to trust each other. We will always, question ourselves, and try to improve our process along the way. 

How will the addition of Zalēm Industries benefit existing Cardistry Touch fans?
Since the beginning, we’ve always made the products that we want ourselves to have. Things that we think are cool, beautiful, creative, interesting… That means if you like what we do, you somehow have the same kind of taste as us. Zalēm is no exception: we wouldn’t put our name on a project that is not 100% up to our standard. 

If you like what we do at Cardistry Touch, you’ll probably like what we do over at Zalēm. Since the beginning, when we introduced our “cardistry cards”, we also had a lot of questions about making actual “playing cards”, with faces and everything, and to be honest we wouldn’t do it with “Touch”. It just doesn’t fit the vision of the brand. We don’t have anything against playing cards though, and producing them through zalēm seems like a perfect opportunity for us. 

So, what comes next, in 2021 and beyond?
Haha, not sure I can tell you a lot about future projects right now, but we do have a long-term plan for Zalēm, with a lot of great stuff coming. We also want to expand to more than cardistry for this brand, as it’s something we won’t do with Touch, and it seems like a cool challenge to take on. In short terms, I guess we’ll focus on creating beautiful decks, creative content, and try to firmly establish zalēm as a solid brand.

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5 Things You Should Know About Archaios Muthos Playing Cards

Archaios Muthos Playing Cards is a custom hand-illustrated deck designed by Nadine Sophie, now available on Kickstarter. The deck is inspired by ancient Greek mythology and features the gods, goddesses, heroes, and monsters of ancient Greece and features over 300 hours of illustration work.

The artwork on the card back is filled with ancient Greek ornaments and the courts showcase some of the most well-known gods, goddesses, monsters, and heroes from ancient Greece. Also, the customized Aces with symbols are linked to characters the Suit represents.

Here are 5 things you should know about Archaios Muthos playing cards:

1. Origin of the Name
Coming up with the right name took Nadine a while. Nadine Sophie told Kardify, "I wanted a name that was rooted in ancient Greece but was also easy to understand and pronounce. After I was studying my ancient Greece dictionary for several days, I finally had the idea for the perfect name for this deck: Archaios Muthos." 

Archaios (Greek: ἀρχαῖος) translates to ancient and original. Muthos (Greek: μῦθος) translates to tales, legends, and myths. 

2. The Theme
Archaios Muthos Playing Cards is drawn with great detail and features the gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines, and monsters of Ancient Greece. "I have always been fascinated with ancient history – especially with the myths and tales around ancient Greece. My vision was to have a deck portraying the most important characters of ancient Greece in my own artistic style.” 

3. The Illustrations and Design
The Archaios Muthos features over 300 hours of illustration work. "As an artist, I'm always striving for ways to come up with something new. Although ancient Greece-themed decks have been created before, I wanted to take my chance to create a deck that is still unique in the way it was illustrated and designed. The deck is entirely hand-drawn with graphic pencils and took me 4 months to complete.” 

4. The Black Edition
This Kickstarter campaign launches with the Archaios Muthos Black Edition. "The idea behind this deck was to emphasize the dark and mysterious ancient Greece Underworld and its characters. Hence, why the black edition comes with a black silk tuck-box and black edges.” The Black Edition will also come with a custom sticker seal.

5. The White Edition
"When I was creating this deck, I wanted to include characters of the Greek Underworld as well as of the Greek Olympus to visualize the interdependence between both worlds." The White Edition will be a stretch goal in the Kickstarter campaign and will unlock at €15,000. It will come with gold-foil stamping and gilded edges. 

 

Archaios Muthos Playing Cards will be printed by WJPC on 330gsm German black core with matte black edges and a soft touch butter finish. The tuck-box will be adorned with silver-foil stamping and sealed with a custom sticker seal. Pledge starts at ~$16 on Kickstarter. 

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Deal of the Week: 30% Off EVERYTHING at Ellusionist!

 

Wow! EVERYTHING is 30% OFF! Ellusionist sitewide sale! This is your chance to stock up on playing cards, magic, and accessories!

30% Off ALL Tricks

30% Off ALL Playing Cards and

30% Off ALL Downloads 

Head over to Ellusionist.com. Limited Time Only.

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

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Kickstarter: Tales Playing Cards by Thirdway Industries

Tales is a brand new playing cards series by Thirdway Industries currently funding on Kickstarter. The decks are inspired by Fairy Tales, Fables, and Fantasy Books. Designed by the Italian designer Giovanni Meroni, the decks offer a vast array of characters to tell and create Fairy Tales, for both kids and adults. 

Like most Thirdway Industries releases, there are three fabulous decks in the Tales series: Heroic Tales, Arcane Tales, and Legendary Tales (limited edition). 

All 3 decks are fully custom and completely different and feature Giovanni's artwork on the courts. The court cards of Heroic and Arcane are completely different characters; the courts of Legendary are asymmetric and tell a story on their own. 

Heroic Tales includes a variety of heroes: some are valiant and brave; others are simply pure of heart. From the Charming Prince, the Brace princess to the Twins and the Hunter. 

The Arcane Tales comes with a magical twist: Wizards, Fairy Godmother, The Magic Piper, Faeries, and Enchanted Creatures. 

Finally, the Legendary is the limited edition of Tales and features asymmetric court cards with subtle gold ink background on every face card; each tells a story on its own. 

For example, the famous Emperor, lavishly dressed on one side, and naked on the other (inspired by "The Emperor's New Clothes"). Also, the Wolf, in his true form (the King of Evil) and disguised as the Scarlet Damsel’s Granny. 

Like all the other Thirdway Industries decks, Tales decks are designed to be perfect to play with. The pips are classic and similar; however, each deck has a specific symbol that identifies it: Heroic has a small crown, Legendary has sun, and Arcane features an upward-pointing triangle. The Aces are all custom and unique in each deck. 

Printed by the USPCC and pledge starts at €14 ($21) on Kickstarter.

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Odyssey Exodus Launched on Kickstarter. Funded in 3 Hours!

Feel The Universe Card Co. set out to raise $8,500 for the Odyssey Exodus Edition Playing Cards, and quickly hit their funding goal in 3 hours on Kickastarter! The latest addition to the Odyssey series maintains the futuristic and minimalist look from the previous editions. 

Exodus comes with a black tuck case adorned with gold and copper foil. Inspired by sci-fi, the design is based on an ancient civilization from deep space. The complexity of the ancient cultures combined with the futurism and minimalism of the advanced civilizations. 

With the new narrative, the face designs have been updated along with futuristic borders. Once again, Feel The Universe Card Co. has maintained its iconic diagonal stripe and combines minimalism and futurism to create a simple yet aesthetically stylish card back. 

Pledge for the Odyssey Exodus Edition starts at $13 on Kickstarter. Don't miss out!

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Kings Wild Threads Deck 5- VHS

The Kings Wild Threads Deck VHS is the fifth deck in a line of custom playing cards made to pair with the Kings Wild Threads Shirt line. 

These limited print decks feature a matching VHS Tapes pattern on the back design which can be viewed through the custom shirt-shaped die-cut hole on the tuck case.

Designer Jackson Robinson used his own standard court and pip designs on this simple yet unique deck of playing cards.

The shirts are $52 and the decks are $25 on kingswildproject.com.

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Deck View: WORX Playing Cards

3D. Industrial. Render.

WORX Playing Cards is a cool deck by CardCutz. Over a year in the making, WORX features bold and fully custom visual 3D rendered graphics on all face and number cards.  The mirrored card back with an industrial design is truly unique. 

The darker tone with 3D artwork along with mechanical cogs and wheels makes the deck visually striking and sure to stand out in your collection. This limited edition deck is printed by the U.S Playing Cards Company on thin crushed stock. 

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The Fontaine Cards X Pink Panther Collab Deck Releases Today!

The Pink Panther first tiptoed his way onto the big screen to Henry Mancini’s jazzy beat back in 1964. Always one step ahead of Inspector Clouseau, the Pink Panther has since infiltrated popular culture to International acclaim through his smooth sophistication and witty charm. 

 
Fontaine Cards officially announced the Pink Panther Fontaines last week on social media after a sharp-eyed cardist noticed the brick box on one of Fontaine Cards Instagram Story. The Fontaine Cards X Pink Panther Collection will consist of playing cards and apparel. 

The fully custom deck features a relaxing pink colorway and prominently features the world’s favorite feline on the tuck box, card backs, Ace of Spades, and court cards. 

  

The Pink Panther Fontaines will be released in-store today (February 20th), 3-6pm. The Fontaine store will be reopened with a brand new look in conjunction with the release. 

 
2308 Hyperion Ave
Los Angeles, CA
90027

Also, online release for Fontaine Club members Monday at 1pm PST.

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Issue #45 of Kardify Magazine Now on Patreon!

Now on Patreon! Issue #45 of Kardify Magazine in both EPUB and PDF format! Patrons who pledged $3 or more will be able to download the latest issue from our Patreon page. This issue compiles selected articles published from mid-January to mid-February. Deck images, articles, and news to keep you informed and up-to-date with the latest playing card news, releases, and previews. If you love playing cards, you will love Kardify Magazine!

Also, don't forget to check out our other cool reward tiers on Patreon! The tiers include monthly desktop and smartphone wallpapers, a mystery deck shipped to you every 4 months of ongoing contribution, social media shout-outs, and multiple sponsorship tiers! Check it out!

Funds received from the magazine will help us keep the site running and growing, and bringing new quality content to you. Our aim is to support designers by backing crowdfunded projects and supporting magic and playing cards retailers with their new releases. If you want to support us, please head over to our Patreon page. If you have an idea for an article you would like us to pursue, do get in contact with us. We hope you enjoy the read. In this issue:

+ Whiskey:  Check out these beautiful decks by Curious Cask in collaboration with Legends Playing Card Co. currently funding on Kickstarter.

+ KW Sherlock Holmes: Kings Wild’s Sherlock Holmes Playing Cards have once again returned, but this time with a brand new look and timeless design.

+ The Constellation: A luxurious deck of playing cards by Deckidea inspired by zodiac signs currently funding on Kickstarter.

+ TEMPO:  The next playing cards series by Ark Playing Card Co. The company continues to push innovation and create exciting new decks that will change the way we interact with deck packaging. Find out more!

+ Madison Chateau: Check out the new deck series by Daniel Madison featuring unique artwork of a beautiful Renaissance painting.

+ Iron Spades: Deck View of the stunning deck designed by the award-winning Chad Michael Studio.

+ What is the Fontaine Club?: Fontaine Cards has just introduced the Fontaine Club. Find out more about this initiative...

+ Legends #353 Celtic Edition:  Legends are continuing the tradition of sporadic in-house decks, each with a NEW feature or print technique they want to showcase to playing cards and art lovers. Check it out!

… and more! 61 pages of articles and deck images. Enjoy!

Shooters Card Co Exceeds 250% Funding Goal on Kickstarter

From the Dutch Card House Company, comes Shooter f/1.2, a set of playing cards combining the passions for professional photography and clean graphic designing. The decks have surpassed their original funding goal of $12k by 250% on Kickstarter. 

The deck is a collaboration with Matt Fujiwara and brilliantly mimics the aesthetics of a camera. The card back features icons that can be found and recognized by any camera owner or operator (shooter). 

Classic icons like, battery level display, settings, brightness, flash, or self-timer, just to name a few. The red border was created to keep that "red ring" theme throughout the deck. Red metallic ink can be found on the back design and faces of the cards. 

The court cards are pretty much standard but splashed intricately with camera icons. Custom-designed jokers contain what resembles the control wheel found on most cameras. 

All four aces have enlarged pips with the cross-hair in the center. The Ace of Spades design was meant to look like what you would normally see on a camera display. 

The tuck was designed to mimic the aesthetics of a DSLR camera lens (a.k.a "Glass") while displaying information more related to playing cards. The red ring around the tuck mimics a professional line of lenses, known as Red Rings, which are classified as a higher grade of glass. This deck was created to spark the urge for shooters to get out and shoot. 

The Shooters decks are now available in both black and white colorway for a pledge of $11 on Kickstarter. Add-ons such as travel case and the coin are also available.

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The Bicycle Robot Playing Cards Are Available for Pre-Order

Penguin Magic has just released the Bicycle Robot Factory Edition playing cards for pre-order. The fully custom deck comes with a predominant light blue colorway with a variety of fun, futuristic-style robots on the card back design. 

 

The deck features all-robot courts, robot jokers, mechanize robot Ace of Spades, and a robot Bicycle-branded tuck box. The pips are custom with gears and circuits littered throughout. 

In addition to the standard edition deck, an ultra-limited silver gilded edition is also available. Only 300 silver-gilded decks are available. 

A fantastic deck for games and it opens up a world of presentational possibilities for magic routines. Printed on traditionally-cut Classic stock with embossed Magic finish by the United States Playing Card Company.

Available from penguinmagic.com for a pre-order price of $9.95.

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Kickstarter: AREA 51 Playing Cards by 3rd Dominion

Another interesting deck from 3rd Dominion currently funding on Kickstarter. This time, the theme is based on the secret U.S. Air Force military installation located at Groom Lake in southern Nevada. 

There are two editions on offer during the campaign, human and alien. Both decks are fully custom with the designers detailing their take on each of the levels found in the facility. The Human levels in the playing cards project are represented by a classic deck with unique aces and jokers and the Aliens levels is represented by a weird deck with unique aces and jokers. 

The futuristic card back design is made in the shape of an abstract platform, the activities of which are hidden from human eyes. Mesmerizing! 

The cool Aces are represented in the shape of abstract structures and flying devices. The custom courts share a similar design style to the Aces and card backs with a cool sci-fi vibe.

The decks are packaged in a majestic black shaped tuck box that is designed based on shapes of flying objects (real-life and fictional art objects) with abstract mystic symbols and ornaments on blue/red foil! 3rd Dominion wanted to create something unusual, which has not been created before in playing cards, to go beyond the classical design, while creating a very easy-to-use object.

The decks will be printed by Noir Arts (NPCC) and pledge starts at $13 on Kickstarter.

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Deck View: Ghost Cohorts Playing Cards

Modern. Classic. Magic.

The Ghost Cohorts Playing Cards is the latest addition to Ellusionst Cohorts series with a white colorway. This vintage casino-style deck was designed with simplicity in mind. From the classic court cards to the nostalgic back design, Cohorts were crafted to look unassuming on the card table or in the hands of a master card mechanic. The new colorway certainly gives the deck a modern twist while still maintaining the classic design.

Each deck comes with 52 cards, 2 jokers, 1 double-backer, and a duplicate Queen of spades. Hidden within the lines of the intricate back design are markings undetectable to the untrained eye. Easily readable for any magician, card mechanic, or mentalist out there.

Printed on luxury pressed E7 stock in a ghostly white by Cartamundi. Available from Ellusionist.com for $7.95.

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