GHOST OF KYIV: Guardians of the Ukraine Playing Cards

GHOST OF KYIV: Guardians of the Ukraine playing cards are designed by Andy Kurovets of 3rd Dominion in collaboration with NPCC, both based in Ukraine.

This fully custom deck is inspired by the Ukrainian pilot who’s assumed to be a myth. He quickly became a symbol of resistance after the story of his bravery emerged during Moscow’s “military operation” in Ukraine. 

The deck sports the color of the Ukrainian in yellow and blue with each edition available in 2 different tuck cases- Wierd and Classic.

The Weird decks come with 3 deluxe foils on the unique tuck box (gold, blue, and silver), embossed and unfolds when the tuck is opened. Meanwhile, the Classic decks come with the classic tuck box design adorned with gold foil and embossed.

Inside, both editions share the same cards. The face cards are fully custom with modern pip designs, bold Ace of Spade, courts feature fighter pilots, and the Super Joker is the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky.

The cards are printed with gold metallic ink to give them a touch of luxury. The decks will be printed by Noir Arts with Premium Linen finish and the pledge starts at $15 on Kickstarter.

Deal of the Week: 50% OFF EVERYTHING on Ellusionist

Ellusionist is having 50% OFF EVERYTHING on their online for 1 day only. Yup! Playing cards, magic tutorials, accessories.. you name it. Ellusionist have never done anything like this before! They’ve done ‘up to’ 50% before, but never 50% OFF everything.

Don’t miss out! The sale starts Tuesday, March 29th, 2022, at 9:15 am Eastern. If you want to skip the queue and start getting 50% OFF today, there is a VIP Fast Pass available here!

2049 (Carbon Edition) Playing Cards

Future. Stunning. Sci-Fi.

Designer Adrian Valenzuela of AVTones, this cool sci-fi deck is inspired by Adrian’s vision of the future of playing cards. The 2049 Carbon edition playing cards features a cool futuristic tuck case are adorned with stunning foil and have a soft-touch matte finish. The tuck is hand-sealed with a label of authenticity that wraps around the case.

Inside, traditional court cards have been enlarged and given a modern twist. They look familiar yet new at the same time! The fully custom face cards and card backs are printed with metallic inks creating not only a stunning reflective design but an innovative aesthetic with a futuristic feel. 

Printed by the USPCC, the playing cards are made with a high-quality air cushion finish.

Fontaine Drops Black Holo and Rainbow Holo Decks

The Black Holo Fontaines is NOW available for pre-order for the next 24 hours! The latest drop has divided Fontaine fans as the Black Holos was only included with every brick of the Spiral Holo Fontaines released last year.

Also as a surprise, Zach Mueller dropped the Rainbow Holographic Fontaine on the site! The online store was updated with images of the striking new Fontaines featuring mesmerizing holographic foil card backs and tuck box.

The Black Holo and Rainbow Holographic Fontaines are available on fontainecards.com for $15 and both will be printed at LPCC. Limit of 2 bricks of each deck per customer. Orders will ship in 8-10 weeks. 

Ocean’s Curse by Doc’s Playing Cards

Producer Michael McClure has released another great hit deck- one that has been teased for quite a while and is highly anticipated by fans of Docs Playing Cards. The enchanting Ocean’s Curse playing cards is a deck that felt fitting of the Pirates of the Seven Seas.

The deck itself tells a story of Ocean’s Curse, a pirate ship, and her crews. All of the artworks, from the card back design to pips, and the courts are fully customized and filled with great details and thematic elements. All of these are the works of designer Abraham Garcia (Instagram: @abraham_garcia_illustration).

The tuck box for the cards is made with premium matte paper with detailed 3D embossing complete with foiling. The interior of the tuck features a pirate’s map done in copper foiling.

The color of the tucks determines the editions: White gray for Limited, Black for Private Reserve, and Silver for Gilded.

The Private Reserve edition comes with a special wooden box made by Carat Case Creations. The decks will be sealed with a custom-made seal!

While the singles Limited Edition is sold out, you can still get it by acquiring the half brick box (placed in a custom half brick box). The Private Reserve edition is still available! The Gilded edition (along with custom poker chips) will be released soon. Available now on docsplayingcardco.com for a limited time.

Zodiakai Playing Cards by Kardeck

Kardeck has released yet another deck that combines mythology with sci-fi themes. Introducing Zodiakai Playing Cards, a series of decks that tells about Japanese Animal Zodiacs with Cyberpunk currently funding on Kickstarter.

There are two editions to the series: Onyx and Ruby. Onyx features the black, red, and silver color scheme – Ruby features the white, red, and gold color scheme. Both tuck boxes will be made with two layers of foiling on premium matte cardstock complete with detailed embossing. The decks will have numbered seals that shows the serial number from the number of print runs.

The cards will have full custom artwork on the back and on the faces. On the back, there is featured the symbol of Yin and Yang formed with a series of lines surrounded by cybernetic frames. The cards for Onyx edition is black, while the Ruby edition is white. The numbered cards will feature customized pips and indices. The courts featured warriors in mechanized power suits representing each animal. The Jokers for both editions featured the 4 Shinjin. The cards will be produced by Legends Playing Cards on classic finish.

Pledge starts from $24 for a single deck between two editions OR $40 for a set of two decks on Kickstarter. Funding ends on April 7, 2022. These decks will be Kickstarter exclusive, as these decks will never be available outside.

Creators: How to Start Luxurious Playing Cards Business Online

In this creator article, we look at how our friends at Art of Play run their popular online store. Here’s an article from Shopify Success Stories that features Art of Play. The article goes behind the scenes to find out how they source their products, generate traffic, and tools used to run the store. Original article: How to Start Luxurious Playing Card Business Online on Shopify.

Introduce your business and tell us your story: How did you decide on what to sell, and how did you source your products?

Art of Play was an idea my younger brothers had been sitting on for years. They are magicians with a successful business of their own, dananddave.com. Playing cards, an integral part of their craft had been a passion of theirs since they were kids, and they had sorta turned it into a giant collectors marketplace. They didn’t necessarily want their own brand to become overtaken by playing cards, but I had been going through a tough phase in life, so I moved down to San Diego where the three of us started Art of Play. We launched at one of the biggest magic conferences in Las Vegas in September 2013. Two years later it’s become a full time job. We work closely with the US Playing Card Co. to print our own line of custom playing cards. We also source unique decks and offer a curated collection in our shop.

How did you earn your first sales? Which channels are now generating the most traffic and sales for you? 

Playing cards don’t last forever. In fact, I remember my brothers going to Costco as kids and buying decks by the dozens. They must have opened a new deck every few days. They are, after all, handling them 24/7. A practicing magician will go through a lot more decks than a professional and a cardist (a person who performs cardistry) likes to uses different decks for different card flourishes. Then there’s the whole collectors market and finally the game industry. We sell to all types including the designers and artists out there just looking to have a fun deck of playing cards around the studio. We’re thankful in that we have regular customers who continually buy from us. We also advertise across the internet but have found we get the most traffic from Instagram. We can literally see a decline in sales when we don’t post a new photo at our scheduled times. 

Tell us about the back-end of your business. What tools and apps do you use to run your store? How do you handle shipping and fulfillment?

Mailchimp for newsletters, ShipStation for fulfillment and Orankl for customer reviews are just a few of the apps we use. We have our Shopify connected to ShipStation. I handle all the shipping and fulfillment personally.

What are your top recommendations for new store owners?

I think it helps that I totally love what I do every day. I love working with my two brothers and brainstorming new products or ways to improve. It’s the most rewarding job on the planet. Being in a niche market gives us the flexibility to really make one-on-one relationships. I have become familiar with regular customers and treat them perks that I don’t think would be possible if we were selling apparel for example. I also think it helps to be involved in the industry we sell to. Dan and Dave are everywhere. They not only sell to the magic and cardistry industry, but they are also a huge part of it.

The Notorious Gambling Frog Playing Cards by Stockholm17

Stockholm17 has just released the Notorious gambling frog playing cards. Designed by Lorenzo Gaggiotti, this custom deck comes with redesigned standard court cards, custom Ace of Spades, frog jokers, and a unique 4-corner-index on the face cards, which make it great for card games and magic routines. The card backs have been designed to look classic with a touch of art nouveau style. Printed by WJPCC and available NOW from stockholm17 for $9.90 (regular price of $12) for a limited time.

Kardify Mag Issue #58 Now on Patreon

Kardfiy Magazine issue 58 is now available on Patreon! 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-February to mid-March. 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 bring 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:  

+ The Lord of the Rings: The first look at Kings Wild Project’s beautifully illustrated playing cards officially licensed through Middle Earth Enterprises. Check it out!

+ Butterfly for Ukraine: Learn more about the special edition deck with 100% of the sales proceeds going to humanitarian charities helping the people of Ukraine.

+ Memoria: Another fascinating series full of stories and rich illustrations by Thirdway Industries that unlocks your memory.

+ Tik Tok Star Jackson Aces: With almost 6 million followers on Tik-Tok and over a billion views on various social media and video platforms, we discuss TikTok, creating engaging content on social media, his future plans, and advice to aspiring social media moguls with magician Jackson Aces.

+ Mos: Check out these fully custom decks are inspired by the visual representation of Morse code with a minimalistic modern design that is also suitable for cardistry and magic.

+ Snackers V4: Snackers are back! Check out the fourth installment in Organic Playing Cards popular Snackers series.

+ Fulton’s Noir & White Jazz: The long-awaited follow-up to the legendary Clip Joint. This elegant deck is an entirely new deck series based on the lore of Clip Joint. Find out more!

+ Alpha & Omega Bible Edition: The second project in the Alpha & Omega Series by Elephant Playing Cards with even more unique hand-crafted illustrations beautifully depicting Biblical periods.

… and more! 58 pages of articles and deck images. Enjoy!

Deck View: Royales Classic Playing Cards

Prestige. Timeless. Flair.

Embrace the exhilarating spirit of chance and seek your fortune at one of the world’s most luxurious casinos. Designed by Lee Mckenzie, this fully custom-designed deck of cards is inspired by an unforgettable night of glitz, glamour, and fortune at an iconic, fictional casino set in vintage-era Monte Carlo. 

The card backs feature a midnight blue colorway with an intricate 2-way back design, custom illustrated faces, and court cards. The indices have been modified to reflect a more casino-esque style with larger indexes for even greater readability during play. The deck is packaged in a luxurious tuck box with added blind embossing in compliment to the already gorgeous gold and white foil embossed Royales tuck design.

The deck has been meticulously crafted with undeniable character and flair! Elegantly playful but ultra-sophisticated, the Royales celebrate a fine line between modern-minimal and old-world-classic style.

MEDCHA Playing Cards by Hyuga & Mijiko

Hong Kong-based designer Mijiko (Instagram: @gove_craft) has released a cute and interesting infographic deck about tea and meditation. Introducing MEDCHA Playing Cards, a thematic deck that centers around tea and its usage in healthy meditation. The deck is an infographic deck designed to teach you how to enjoy your tea and use it for healthy meditation.

The numbered cards have the informative text and visual images that explain topics on how to brew tea: like the manual, health benefits, and tea cocktails. The Aces feature the 4 principles of meditating using tea: Taste – Feel – Observe – Smell. Each suit represents the 4 different types of tea.

The court cards feature cute animals from the Chinese Zodiac, along with a health horoscope in 2022 for each respective animal zodiac. The tuck box will be done on premium matte paper with orange-brown metallic foiling and debossing on the intricate details.

The cards will have stunning foil on the card back. It features graphic artworks of tea. Also, the cards will be gilded with sharp orange metallic foil. It will be produced as waterproof PVC cards – the producer will be announced.

The Collector Tin Set provides nice packaging for the deck and getting extra items – tea tin with a numbered seal, feng shui coin, and a certificate of authenticity. More perks will be added to the decks once stretch goals have been achieved.

Pledge starts from $18 for a single deck OR the collector’s tin set for $30 on Kickstarter.

Get Your Hands on the Rare Gold Artisan Playing Cards Today!

The elusive Gold Artisan can only be found in very limited quantities at random Target stores around the United States or as a special gift if you accumulated enough points to gain access to theory11’s Elite Club. If you’ve been looking, don’t miss this limited Drop!

Today (17th March), 12pm ET. Theory11 will drop the Gold Artisan playing cards ($12.95) for 1 Hour Only — or until they’re gone. They’re some of the rarest decks Theory11 has ever made, and this limited drop is the best way to add them to your collection!

Don’t miss out! Head to theory11.com.
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Galactic Paradise, Season Two Playing Cards

Galactic Paradise, season two: It’s all about the waves: ocean AND radio! From the mind of Christian Byard of Relativity Cards, Surf Blue and The Signal from Sol editions of Galactic Paradise playing cards are now funding on Kickstarter

The Surf Blue edition of Galactic Paradise takes the classic v1 design and reimplements it in a gorgeous blue colorway. The black card fronts trade the original green accent color for the bright blue of the new backs. Also features new joker artwork. Soak up the sun!

Since the invention of the radio, humanity has shouted its stories to the entire universe. The Signal from Sol deck commemorates the stories that have gone out into the void!

The card backs feature a who-way borderless with text elements heavily incorporated into the design. The backs are filled with Galactic Paradise text, zooming back and forth like the constant bombardment of radio waves around and beyond our planet. As the text approaches the edges of the card, a double-image of that text starts to green-shift away, representing subtle distortion the signals gain on their strange journey.

The fronts of the cards contain text from public domain sci-fi stories, a different classic on every card! The negative-space pips suggest damage that the signal has sustained, and even the ends of paragraphs seem to evoke the streaking of cosmic energies!

ERROR is the THIRD deck made available during the Kickstarter campaign. The deck details what happens if the spacefaring radio signals featured in The Signal from Sol become too damaged and perhaps take on alternate, unexpected meaning. ERROR is a spiritual successor to the Black Spot deck from the OG release, Mutineer!

In that deck, every card face was plastered over with black spots: ink, graffiti, kitsch, and madness. In Error, The Signal from Sol transformed into a black deck with images made of text bleeding out of the background! Each card features a cryptic text image related in some way to the story featured on that card. This deck features a subtle one-way back design.

Both Surf Blue and Signal from Sol decks will be printed by USPCC with classic stock on linen finish and ERROR printed by Cartamundi. Pledge starts at $10 on Kickstarter.

3 Days Remaining, Dominus V2 Playing Cards on Kickstarter

Back in 2016, Scandinavian designer Nicolai Aarøe produced the Dominus Playing Cards series – consisting of Obscura and Divinus. Those two decks are now fetched up to 100$ – 200$ in the aftermarket! Due to the popularity of the series, he decides to release the revamped edition of the series along with a new variant. Introducing Dominus V2, the sequel to the best works by Nicolai now funding on Kickstarter.

The series tells about the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek to gain power through activities related to the underworld and black magic. All of the court cards represent characters from the European monarchy – Knights (Jacks), Queens, and Kings of their normal state on one side and the corrupted state on the other. There will be a booklet that will further explain the stories of these characters.

Obscura V2 has an updated design from its previous edition. It uses 3 metallic foils (copper, black, and red) and even more details added to the tuck box. To differentiate with the first edition, there is the title “Second Edition” written on the front side as well as the numbered label stamped on the bottom.

This series introduces the new deck called Deceptus. It’s a completely new design altogether of the tuck box. Both Deceptus and Obscura V2 tuck boxes will be done on the matte black soft-touch stock with embossings and metallic foiling. There will be a numbered seal located on the bottom of the tuck box.

All of the cards will have four indices, one on each corner. The courts are beautifully illustrated with painstaking details that tell the lore of a kingdom that meddles with the dark arts and necromancy. It is a one-way design court, with both sides showing a different state of being: the good side, which shows the royalties with fresh looks; and the evil side, which shows the royalties with the demonic and corrupted state: either turn into ravaging beasts or undead corpse.

Obscura V2 will have black cards, while the Deceptus will have white cards. Obscura V2 will show the evil side, showing imagery of skulls and snakes, while Deceptus will show the good side, showing imagery of royalties.

All of the Aces will feature an enlarged pip with intricate designs. Each edition will have a different set of Aces: Obscura V2 will show a lot of black magic iconography, while Deceptus will show curved decorative patterns.

The numbered cards will have customized pips as well as the arrangement of the pips. The red pips will have a muted gold color on both black and white backgrounds. The black pips will remain as it is: black on white background, white on black background.

Both back designs of the Dominus V2 are filled with a lot of iconographies related to religion, occult, royalty, and divination. Obscura V2 has the updated design from its 2016 edition, while the Deceptus featured a brand new design. The cards will be produced by Noirs Playing Cards Company (NPCC) on premium linen finish.

Pledge starts from $14 for a single deck of choice OR get both as a set for $28 on Kickstarter. You can also pledge for a complete set including a booklet for $43. Funding ends on March 19, 2022.

Watch: Jetsetter Lounge Edition on Kardify Spotlight

The Kardify 'spotlight' video series aims to give you the rundown on some of our favorite and unique decks of playing cards around. We aim to publish the 1-minute spotlight video every 3 weeks on our new Youtube channel (YouTube: kardify).

For this week, we Jetsetter's Lounge Edition Playing Cards (buy) in an eye-catching teal colorway. The striking deck is a departure from their previous editions but with the same familiar design elements that characterize most of the Jetsetter decks. Find out more in the video below and don't forget to SUBSCRIBE (YouTube: kardify)!

Leaf Playing Cards

Fall. Orange. Leaf.

House of Playing Cards‘ MYNOC Deck 7: Leaf continues the MYNOC series. The Leaf deck sports a leaf texture on the tuck box and card back in fall colorway. The face cards are pretty much standard but recolored to fit the orange color palette and theme of the deck. 

Printed by The United States Playing Cards Company on Classic Stock with Air-Cushion Finish. Available for $10 on houseofplayingcards.com. 

Snackers v4 Playing Cards Drops Today

Snackers are back! Snackers Raspberry flavor is the fourth installment in Organic Playing Cards popular Snackers series! In true OPC fashion, there are bright colors and semi-custom courts to make this deck the perfect everyday carry for cardists, magicians, or any playing card enthusiast!

The latest edition sports a red/pink colorway with the mirrored card backs, standard suits, and traditional courts updated with the color palette to the overall theme of the deck. Like other OPC decks with each royal are doing something Raspberry-related.

Like before, the decks come in a re-sealable scented fruit snack bag! There is also a fun Half Brick box option to keep all of your bags in! Another fun, and vibrant deck for cardistry, magic, and themed-game night with friends. 

Printed by USPCC on premium crushed stock this limited run of 5000. Also, a half brick box option (6 decks) is available. Releasing today March 12th at 1 PM EST on riffleshuffle.com for $9.95.