Gift

Front of deck

The Bicycle Steampunk playing cards are standard poker sized deck. This is the bronze edition, and and features cog and gear covered backs, and a metallic bronze tuck case. Original artwork is found on the ace of spades, joker, card back design, and tuck case. A subtle touch is the USPCC closure stamp, which is usually black, is a golden bronze color on this deck.

While the artwork is lovely, and the deck does sport the name “steampunk,” there are other artist decks out there that really run with the steampunk theme. I would say that these are more steampunk lite. This deck is unopened in the original packaging.  Read more »

This is a standard bridge sized deck of playing cards from Maryland. The cards read “Deal me out… I’m Crabby!” with an angry caricature of a crab. He definitely doesn’t want to be a part of your crab cake. These are typical souvenir shop style cards you would pick up in a tourist shop, made in China, still sealed in shrink wrap. Date unknown, but there appears to have been other souvenir offerings featuring this crab and theme, such as coffee mugs (Claws Off My Coffee!”

Front of deck

Back of deck

Front of deck

MakePlayingCards.com (MPC®) is a professional custom playing cards printing and manufacturing company, who make custom and promotional playing cards for customers. They recently entered the branded playing card game.  Their second offering is called Impressions.  Impressions cards are made from a linen finish, and sport sleek raised card faces. Because of this, extra space between the cards makes this deck thicker. Impressions comes in several editions. This deck is the Stealth Edition, which is a high gloss, UV black on black, making this a striking deck. The image here is actually brighter than the actual box, and the white is a piece of paper or packing that got caught in the plastic when this deck was sealed at the factory (not damage).. This is a standard 52 card deck, including two jokers, and an extra MPC card.

Read more »

Front of deck

Artifice is a line of playing cards designed and produced by Ellusionist, printed by USPCC using an exclusive performance coating to make these work well for cardistry and magic performances. The purple deck is one of the second edition colors. There are also second edition, version 2 options that have a white border on the card back, which is better suited for magic tricks. The face cards and pips are custom colored to match the deck color. This deck has a sleek and sophisticated feel, with a pinstriped, silver metallic lined art on the tuck case, and modern lined royalty cards. This is a standard poker sized deck with 52 standard cards, two custom jokers (one showing a card reveal), and a double backed gaff card. This deck is still sealed in its original packaging.The top of the card reads “Ars Est Celare Artem” which is Latin for “it is art to conceal art.”  Read more »

Front of deck

Pairs is a “new classic pub game” created by game designers James Ernest and Paul Peterson. There are a dozen different decks, and most decks has its own game variant. The game came into being through a Kickstarter in 2014. This deck is The Princess and Mr. Whiffle variation, and was printed after a stretch goal was met. This limited edition version is based on a book by Patrick Rothfuss and Nate Taylor. It is illustrated in the style of a children’s book, but it’s certainly not for children. This deck was from the first print off of Kickstarter because it contains a sturdy, plastic cut card that is not found in commercial copies. The cards are standard bridge sized and contains 55 cards and a rules booklet which includes the a game variant for the deck called Kitty. You can see all of the different decks and read the rules at Hip Pocket Games.  Read more »