Kardify's Deck of the Year 2022

Our annual Top 12 has finally wrapped up, celebrating the past year in the playing card industry and looking ahead to the year to come. There were huge collaborations, licensed and innovative decks to keep the community excited and engaged in 2022. The biggest recognition this year is our ‘Deck of the Year’, and a dozen decks competed for it… see our Top12 article for the full list.

This year, Sterling Playing Cards by Kings Wild Project took home the top prize. 

Sterling is the latest addition to the Legal Tender playing cards series by Jackson Robinson. This luxurious deck is inspired by the beautiful artwork of British currency. This is by far Jackson’s best work! His attention to detail in this deck is incredible. EVERY aspect of this deck was thoughtfully planned and no detail was overlooked.

From the subtle background architectural images to the colors and micro lettering, every aspect amplifies the truly beautiful artwork of the deck that has been present on the British currency for many years but presented in an incredibly new and creative way!

Congratulations to Jackson Robinson for a stunning deck!

Dreyfus Playing Cards by Art of Play

This custom playing cards by Dreyfus Art features a colorful cast of alter egos illustrated in a whimsical, psychedelic style.

Produced by Art of Play in collaboration with the wildly imaginative illustrator Ashley Dreyfus this fully custom deck of cards features a colorful cast of characters drawn in a whimsical, psychedelic style.

On the face cards, follow Dreyfus’ “alter egos” on an adventure through a magical forest full of smiley mushrooms, playful dragons, double rainbows, singing birds, and a robot coffee maker.

Printed by the U.S. Playing Card Co. and housed inside a vibrant letterpress-print tuck box. Sealed with a rainbow foil sticker. Available now from artofplay.com for $18.

Kings Wild's Three Musketeers Playing Cards

An eye-catching deck of playing cards by Kings Wild Project based on The Three Musketeers, a French historical novel written in 1844 by French author Alexandre Dumas.

The deck is illustrated in the engraving style of the time period. Each court cards are hand-drawn to make these beautiful and unique art pieces on each deck.

You will recognize characters from the novel King Louis XIII, Anne of Austria, to Arthos, Porthos, and Aramis. The diptych jokers show all the musketeers together!

The standard edition deck is packaged in a dark blue tuck case adorned with stunning silver foil! Printed by the United States playing card company and available NOW on kingswildproject.com for $18.

Top 12 Playing Cards of 2022

Another great year for playing cards! We’ve compiled our favorite decks for 2022 right here. This will be the third of four articles counting down to our Deck of the Year reveal later this week. If you think we’ve missed your favorite deck, let us know in the comment section below.

Note that the selection expressed in this top 12 are solely those of the author and the list is in no particular order.

Victory

Joker and the Thief’s Victory playing cards are crafted for those who seek Victory, in any endeavor. This stunning deck comes with an embossed tuck box with letterpress inks and foil both interior and exterior. The borderless card back comes with a repeated JT logo design with metallic inks. The court cards are modeled in classics to create a distressed vibe associated with the brand.

52 Plus Joker Club Deck 2022

The elegant 2022 52 Plus Joker Club deck is created by Jody Eklund exclusively for 52 Plus Joker. This limited edition deck is a superb deck that embodies the world’s greatest playing card collector’s club. Inside, the deck features a borderless card back design, fully customized regal and refined courts, and jokers. Stunning full flood foil has been used on both sides of the cards, making them look incredibly stunning.

Mastermind

Mastermind playing cards by Keymaster games features an embossed and foil-stamped deck box, custom card backs, and royals planning and executing elaborate strings of heists. The deck is based on the board game Caper: Europe, a game where players recruit a crew of skilled thieves to outmaneuver, steal valuable goods, and dominate the most famous landmarks across Paris, Rome, London, and Barcelona!

Sterling

Sterling playing cards is the latest addition to the Legal Tender series by Kings Wild Project. Inspired by the beautiful artwork of British currency, the stunning Sterling features both holographic foiling and hot-stamped gold foiling on the cards and tuck case. 

MEDCHA

MEDCHA playing cards is a thematic deck by Hyuga & Mijiko 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 cards have stunning foil on the card back and features graphic artworks of tea. Also, the cards are gilded with sharp orange metallic foil.

Devotion

Thirdway Industries designed this exclusive deck that tests the loyalty of its followers. The tuck box for this deck is made of premium black matte paper stock with embossing on the artwork and metallic hot foiling for both the inside and outside of the box. Inside, the cards featured metallic hot foiled artwork on the back design and metallic inks on the card faces. Also, the cards will be gilded with metallic foil!

Tale of the Tempest

The Gentleman Wake’s Tale of the Tempest Playing Cards features artwork by Lotrek. The courts of the deck are based on 19th-century courts that feature beautiful royals that are classically inspired and artfully refined. The card back showcases waves of intricate filigree and Victorian-inspired design along with the elegant TGW monogram. 

The Illusionist

The Illusionist by ARK is an incredible-looking playing cards set with meticulous hand-illustrated and intricate details. The box set depicts a fantasy theater for magic with unprecedented structure and design for the Illusionist playing cards. The entire design concept adopts a classical and luxurious visual style to restore the classic and mysterious art form of Magic. The illustrations on the entire deck of cards are very intricate and littered with fine details.

Vivid Kingdoms

Vivid Kingdoms is the most successful ever in Kickstarter’s history for a playing cards campaign. This fully custom transformation deck features beautifully illustrated artwork, vibrant colors, and unique characters. Ten Hundred’s artwork is inspired by cartoons and anime, street art and graffiti, childlike imagination, comics, world cultures, religions, and folklore.

Kings Wild’s The Lord of the Rings

The beautifully illustrated deck by Jackson Robinson is based on the works of J. R. R. Tolkien and The Fellowship of the Rings. Every aspect of this deck of cards is uniquely illustrated and designed with as much detail as possible to create a deck of cards that will be loved by Tolkien fans all over the world. Each of the characters from The Fellowship of the Ring deck is pulled from the text and brought to life in a new and fresh way

RX Almanac

Meadowlark Pharmacy‘s Rx Almanac Playing Cards is designed to look like a vintage pharmacy almanac of the mid-1900s, with advertisements of medications along with other types of items from milk to bird seed. The face cards illustrations are hand-illustrated by Italian designer Elettra Deganello features display pages from the almanac and the tuck box would be the leather cover of the almanac.

Black Requiem

This special edition Black Requiem Counterspell by Lorenzo Gaggiotti comes with fully custom artwork and features darkness and pain as a theme. All court cards and aces have a magick sigil overprinted with cold foil application on the center (gold for hearts and diamonds, silver for clubs and spades). The tuck box features white foil, black foil, embossing, and inner color in deep shiny red on black paper stock.

Honorable mention: Mechanimals by Celcius Pictor, Odd Fellows by Stockholm17, Vacuum Tube Space by Vitaly Sinkevich & Deallez Pro, Four Clans by Docs & Native Tongue, Mistborn by Kings Wild Project, Memoria by Thirdway Industries, Eye of the Ocean by Stockholm17, Ghost of Kyiv by 3rd Dominion, Singularity by RedBlack Inc, ICONS Anniversary by Oath Playing Card, 3 Musketeers by Kings Wild Project, and Stratosphere Meteorite by Legends Playing Card Co.

Note that the selection expressed in this top 12 are solely those of the author and the list is in no particular order.

On Kickstarter, Steak & Wine Playing Cards

The team at Fast Food Playing Cards has added a new item to their menu… Steak & Wine! Instead of the usual fast food, the team has splurged on some prime cuts of beef and a fine bottle of vintage red.

Inside, both card back designs have all the flavor notes you need for cardistry, magic, or your unique and unrivaled collection.

For the face cards, the court cards are having a good time, celebrating, tipping glasses, and digging in. The traditional FPC courts are blended with Easter-egg and nods to fine dining and good libations.

The WINE deck suits come in a classy and traditional black and red, while the Steak House deck sports an orange/black colorway.

The 4 power aces of the WINE deck take you through an up-close and personal wine tasting with motifs of barrels and bottles, noble grapes, and the perfect pour. The aces in the STEAK HOUSE deck are meat cooked in different ways… all well done!

The jokers here keep it all in good taste with identical pairs bearing the crests of their respective themes.

The tuck of the Wine deck comes in a White, Silver, and Grey colorway with hot foil and embossing, while the Steak House deck is in White, Orange, and Copper foil with embossing! Each deck is sealed with customized die-cut foil stamps, all individually numbered and limited to 1850.

Printed by Taiwan Playing Card Company with their legendary luxury finish and pledge starts at $13 on Kickstarter.

Deck View: A Pirate Carol Playing Cards

Festive. Fun. Whimsical.

A Pirate Carol playing cards are Kings Wild Project‘s festive reimagining of the classic “A Christmas Carol”. Fully custom, Jackson Robinson‘s fun, whimsical illustrations bring new life to the classic tale and are sure to add a bounty of holiday cheer to your festivities.

All of the beloved characters from the classic Christmas tale are back, but with a twist. Kapn’ Scrooge and his merry misfits grace the court cards along with the Ghosts of Christmas and Tiny Tim, with his wooden peg-leg and parrot to boot. The jokers feature a wreathed pirate ship wheel, along with ghostly Christmas tree atop the crow’s nest.

The 2022 Christmas Edition Orbits Released!

Just in time for the festive season, the 2022 Christmas🎄Orbits are now available on orbitworld.us! This is the SECOND official Christmas deck from the Orbit team.

This special release is inspired by Christmas festivities with the tuck box, card backs, Ace of Spades and Royals updated with items synonymous with the festive season.

The orbit decks comes in s striking red coloway and sports prominent central O symbol, which boldly defines the Orbit brand decks. In this edition, a seasonal wreath has been added to the tuck box and card backs.

Printed by the USPCC and available NOW from orbitworld.us for $15. Total print run of 10,000 decks.

NOC3000X3- The Final Playing Cards in the NOC3000 Series

On Black Friday this year, Alex Pandrea released the final deck in the futuristic NOC3000 series. Continuing the story, the NOC3000X3 decks have arrived from the year 3030 and are available now from houseofplayingcards.com.

Like the previous editions, the decks feature a minimal back design with thin borders with overlapping bleed designs on the top left and bottom right.

The futuristic design and contrasting colorways make the cards look outstanding with card flourishes. The face cards are standard with an updated color palette to match the futuristic theme of the deck.

Two versions are available for this edition- Human (orange/black colorway) and A.I (with teal/silver colorway). Printed by the United States Playing Cards Co and are available now for $10 on houseofplayingcards.com.

Top 5 Collector Playing Cards of 2022

Another great year for playing cards! We’ve compiled our favorite decks for 2022 right here. This will be the second of four articles counting down to our Deck of the Year reveal next week. If you think we’ve missed your favorite deck, let us know in the comment section below.

Note that the selection expressed in this top 5 are solely those of the author and the list is in no particular order.

Sterling

Sterling playing cards is the latest addition to the Legal Tender series by Kings Wild Project. Inspired by the beautiful artwork of British currency, the stunning Sterling features both holographic foiling and hot-stamped gold foiling on the cards and tuck case. 

Devotion

Thirdway Industries designed this exclusive deck that tests the loyalty of its followers. The tuck box for this deck is made of premium black matte paper stock with embossing on the artwork and metallic hot foiling for both the inside and outside of the box. Inside, the cards featured metallic hot foiled artwork on the back design and metallic inks on the card faces. Also, the cards will be gilded with metallic foil!

The Illusionist

The Illusionist by ARK is an incredible-looking playing cards set with meticulous hand-illustrated and intricate details. The box set depicts a fantasy theater for magic with unprecedented structure and design for the Illusionist playing cards. The entire design concept adopts a classical and luxurious visual style to restore the classic and mysterious art form of Magic. The illustrations on the entire deck of cards are very intricate and littered with fine details.

Kings Wild’s The Lord of the Rings

The beautifully illustrated deck by Jackson Robinson is based on the works of J. R. R. Tolkien and The Fellowship of the Rings. Every aspect of this deck of cards is uniquely illustrated and designed with as much detail as possible to create a deck of cards that will be loved by Tolkien fans all over the world. Each of the characters from The Fellowship of the Ring deck is pulled from the text and brought to life in a new and fresh way

Black Requiem

This special edition Black Requiem Counterspell by Lorenzo Gaggiotti comes with fully custom artwork and features darkness and pain as a theme. All court cards and aces have a magick sigil overprinted with cold foil application on the center (gold for hearts and diamonds, silver for clubs and spades). The tuck box features white foil, black foil, embossing, and inner color in deep shiny red on black paper stock.

Note that the selection expressed in this top 5 are solely those of the author and the list is in no particular order.

On Kickstarter, Sisterhood Playing Cards by Rosemary Reid

When you are asked about who are the magicians you know, chances are most of your answers would be male magicians. Ever wondered why the magic community lacks female magicians? This is the question that is frequently asked by professional Canadian magician Rosemary Reid.

Eventually, she would conduct a groundbreaking survey on 230 women magicians that would spark the creation of a custom deck of cards. Firstly introduced during the 52 Plus Joker Convention 2022, the deck is currently seeking funds on Kickstarter, Sisterhood Playing Cards is a deck that sparks essential conversations about women.

This beautiful deck comes in two colorways: Red/Gold and Blue/Silver. The former uses mainly red color with gold accents, while the latter uses mainly blue color with silver accents. Two designers and artists from Toronto, Canada worked together in the creation of this deck: Brendan Hong for the overall design of the front and back of the cards as well as the tuck box and the power Ace for the deck; and Kaitlynn Copithorne for the court cards, custom pips, and values for each of the number cards.

The tuck box features premium matte stock with metallic hot foiling and embossing. The front side features the deck’s title with the graphic art of a heart with repeating patterns and a central flower circle. The back of the tuck mirrors the card back design done in either red or blue hot foiling.

Also, the box comes with an interior printing of a repeating pattern of intersecting circles with a dot in the middle of each circle. The tuck box is capped with a matching colored foiled seal.

The card back design is a mesmerizing artwork combining antique, vintage, and modern styles. You would notice a lot of uses of natural design elements like flowers and leaves. A classical yet custom design that works well for magicians, collectors, cardists, and anyone who appreciates beautiful artwork. The numbered cards for this deck are all standard designs with relatively smaller pips

The court cards are the showcase of the deck. Each of the courts represents a stand-out woman character that shows each virtue and profession. They each will be described thoroughly in the free printed guide.

The power Ace for this deck is the Ace of Hearts, with its design based on the artwork seen on the front of the box. This Ace is completed with the deck title and year. The Jokers featured a diptych artwork of the Queens holding threats with a connecting initial “S” of the deck’s title – gold ribbon for the Red/Gold edition or silver ribbon for the Blue/Silver edition.

The deck will be produced by TWPCC and pledge starts from $15 for a single deck between the two color variants on Kickstarter.

Issue #67 of Kardify Magazine Now on Patreon

Issue 67 of Kardify Magazine is available now 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-November to mid-December. 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 contributions, 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:   

+ Singularity: Have a glimpse into a futuristic post-singularity world where AI dominates with the World’s first AI-generated playing cards by Red Black Inc.

+ Batman The Dark Knight: Theory11 with another EPIC movie collab deck! Check out The Batman Dark Knight playing cards released during this year’s Black Friday event.

+ RX Almanac: This new deck by Meadowlark Pharmacy continues the pharmacy theme and is designed to look like a vintage pharmacy almanac of the mid-1900s. Check it out!

+ Sushi Cats: An interesting Kickstarter project about sushi and cute cats by Hyuga, and Mijiko.

+ Black Panther: In conjunction with the release of Marvel’s latest movie, Card Mafia has released Black Panter Playing Cards with a one-of-a-kind tuck box featuring Black Panther’s Helmet. Learn more!

+ Red Devotion: Thirdway Industries launched this special deck for this year’s Black Friday to test the loyalty of their followers. 

+ Mantecore V3: The follow-up to the bold Mantecore decks designed by Edo Huang and Benjamin Loo inspired by their love for this majestic beast. Find out more!

+ Tetra:  Have a look at the fascinating deck by Taiwan-based cardistry group LotusinHand, crafted specifically for the art of card flourishing.

… and more! 52 pages of articles and deck images. Enjoy!

Deck View: Snowman Factory Playing Cards

Mechanical. Structure. Snowman.

Snowman Factory playing cards is a unique deck by the Bocopo playing card company. This fun deck comes in a blue colorway with metallic blue accents and showcases a cool machine-like outer tuck box with an internal mechanical-like structure as the tuck box. The front of the outer tuck features “Mr. Elk”, and the back is the power furnace of the snowman.

Inside, the card back depicts a precision mechanical structure that spreads around the center of the snowflake pattern. This complex and symmetrical design style pays tribute to the most traditional classic back. As for the face cards, the courts are portrayed by the employees from the snowman factory that maintains the day-to-day operation of the factory.

Available now from vanishingincmagic.com for $20.

Top 5 Cardistry Playing Cards of 2022

Here we go! We’ve compiled our favorite decks for 2022 right here. To kick things off, this will be the first of four articles counting down to our Deck of the Year in the following weeks. If you think we’ve missed your favorite cardistry playing cards, let us know in the comment section below.

Note that the selection expressed in this top 5 are solely those of the author and the list is in no particular order.

Holographic Error

Dealersgrip‘s ERROR deck embraces mistakes and explores the ambivalent relationship between failure and creativity. This fully custom cardistry deck sports sharp graphics and typography fuses with sleek abstract imagery with stunning holographic design on the face cards and back

Cardsicles

This year, Organic Playing Cards has expanded into food as a brand! The refreshing Cardsicles come in a bag with 1 deck, one OPC branded popsicle, and a card to stick on the tuck box to make YOUR OWN POPSICLE!  This semi-custom deck follows the usual OPC theme with a fun yet simple back design, creative tuck box, and slightly custom court cards! Like other OPC decks, each royal is doing something popsicle-related.

Thermo Solids

This mind-blowing deck by Lotus in Hand is printed with thermochromic ink, a type of dye that changes color when temperatures increase or decrease. The heat-sensitive card back can be seen changing color from black to lime green when fingers or hand contacts the deck. The face cards are pretty much standard and the pips and indices come with a lime green colorway.

Fulton Street MTA

Produced by Fulton Playing Cards in collaboration with the MTA, the Fulton Street deck is a love letter to the amazing graphic design of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Inside, the deck feature completely custom back, courts, and pips designs that celebrate the now legendary signage of the most frequented transit system in the USA. By “cropping into” the curves so eloquently designed by Vignelli, these cards provide a dynamic back design that encapsulates the kinetic energy of transit in The Big Apple.

Victory

Joker and the Thief’s Victory playing cards are crafted for those who seek Victory, in any endeavor. This stunning deck comes with an embossed tuck box with letterpress inks and foil both interior and exterior. The borderless card back comes with a repeated JT logo design with metallic inks. The court cards are modeled in classics to create a distressed vibe associated with the brand.

Note that the selection expressed in this top 5 are solely those of the author and the list is in no particular order.

The Official NASA Worm Playing Cards

Fulton’s Playing Cards continue to surprise with another EPIC collaboration, this time with NASA. The NASA Playing Cards celebrate the beginning of “The Worm” Logotype and feature completely custom cards and court cards using actual graphics from the appropriate era.

This deck tells the story of the changing logotype of NASA from “the meatball” to the invigorating graphics package delivered by Danne & Blackburn to usher in a whole new graphical era of the US Space Program.

The deck showcase a one-way back design with the NASA logotype prominently features. The face cards come with updated pips and custom court cards, joker, and Ace of Spades. The deck is kept secured in a tuck box featuring metallic silver paper and foil-embossed NASA Logotype.

Printed entirely in The USA. These are the only current American Made NASA Playing Cards. Available NOW on fultonsplayingcards.com for $18.