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Are you looking for a great deal on custom playing cards from Ellusionist? Here is a great one…

Now, one of the darkest decks to hit the street is now on sale for almost 50 percent off. Until midnight Thursday, you can buy our Bicycle Shadow Masters decks for $3.87 each (limit of 12 decks).

The Shadow Masters are used by magicians and flourishers because of their shaded design and incredible durability, so this Memorial Day you can spend it weaving your dark art in style.

If you use the coupon code DECKPROMO during checkout you’ll get a 10% extra!

Act fast, this awesome magic deal ends Thursday night.

Click here to go to the sale: Ellusionist Shadow Masters

I’ll admit, when I got these cards, I was fairly shocked.

It might have been because of how “poorly advertised” they were. But with that aside, let’s talk in full about the Arcane Deck from Ellusionist.

The design of this deck, like most “exotic” cards on the market, have a one way back design built into them.

The feel:

This is something I had some “peeves” with. When I first opened them up and played with them for a few days, the edges felt sandy. It was almost like a low grain sandpaper. I should tell you that these are a little thicker than regular Bicycle cards. Moving on to overall feel of the cards. These don’t feel like normal Bikes. They feel a lot softer. Normal Bicycle playing cards have a very light oily touch. When you slide your finger across the surface of these babys, it just goes.

Handling:

These merit a very small window for opportunity in handling. Due to the edges and sides sticking together, you are left with nice clumps. These aren’t bad in normal card handling though. What I mean is for all my flourishing friends, if you do an elaborate 40 packet display cut, you will have an easier time doing it because they stick together where you cut. However, Sometimes when you are doing more “in the hands” flourishing where speed and fluidity is key, they tend to get a little choppy and blocky. So keep that in mind.
Design:

I generally don’t feel these types of cards look great in performance. I can’t really complain about the card faces. They look nice. Faded indexes and pips. Blood red hearts and diamonds. Silver spades and clubs. It adds a ghostly feel to them. Also, the court cards (Kings, Queens, Jacks). These are really faded and simplified. To add further design, smoke is going behind them. This looks INCREDIBLE. And lastly, the Ace of Spades….looked decent. So in wrapping up my design rant, these cards fit the role.

Other designs:

What does that mean? This means the Jokers and Case design pretty much. However, the design of this deck, like most “exotic” cards on the market, have a “one way” back design built into them. The 2 Jokers provided in this deck look really eerie. Each one had a Ghoulish creature creeping through the card in smoke. One Joker is actually a subtle card revelation. In fact, too subtle for practical use. Unless you are reading it up close, it might not be noticed in a real revelation effect. And finally, the case design. I wasn’t a fan. Too much unused space. You get the back design which is reasonable, and then the front is the design of the Ace of Spades. What I don’t like, is how prosthetic it looks. It just has a lot of wasted space all filled in with black.

For the overall review, I would say that these are worth your money if you are planning to use them for flourishing, or even just display. Sure they handle like butter (I STILL can’t believe they aren’t butter!), but they are hard to “understand”. On an overall rating, I would say a 3.5 out of 5.

Pros:
-Handle like butter
-Nice flourishing
-Stay together for ease
-Look catchy
-Thicker stock

Cons:
-Too complicated
-Hard to see in many places
-Sandy edges
-Smell bad (YUCK!)

So, what do you think about the Arcane Playing Cards? Leave a comment below.

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One of the major advantages that plastic cards have over paper cards is durability. Whilst a single deck of good quality plastic cards can cost a similar amount to the price of a brick of Bicycles, they will outlast all of the cards in the brick many times over.

Plastic cards are not suitable as a generic playing card choice for all magicians. Their suitability for you really depends on the tricks that you regularly perform.

I personally have been using a single deck of Copag branded cards as my only deck of playing cards for well over a year and they are still in great condition despite being used daily.

Don’t expect to be able to fan or spread them evenly, tear them or perform tricks involving crimps or bends, but for a wide variety of tricks, the cards are still more than adequate.

Whilst using plastic cards as your main weapon of choice may not be for you, if you were to save your paper cards for performance situations only, you can save a lot of money by practicing with plastic cards because you won’t have to spend your hard-earned cash on new packs of playing cards anywhere near as frequently.

I have tried a few brands out and “Copag” seems to be one of the best of all the brands of plastic cards that I have used so far. They handle reasonably well, they retain their shape even after continued use and don’t have a strange smell or suffer from the ink coming off like some of the other cards that I have tried.

I used to perform in a bar and one of the great advantages of plastic cards is that if they get covered in beer they can simply be wiped dry and you are good to go!

Another cool thing I noticed is that if you draw on the cards with a dry erase marker, you can simply erase the drawing after your performance by wiping it off with a damp cloth. Lastly, if they cards start to look grubby – just wash them and they are as good as new!

In summary the plastic cards:

• Are waterproof
• Are washable.
• Can last for years of continued use.
• Are not stained easily. (Most stains can simply be be wiped off.)
• Retain their shape even if bent.
• Can save you money if used as your main deck or as a practice deck.

I’d be interested to know of anyone else’s views on plastic playing cards and their experiences with other brands. Just drop a comment below!

- John Harrower

The Krazy Kids at Big Blind Media are offering loyal readers of BestMagicDeals.com a Kracking Deal on their Karnival Cards!

They will give you one of each of the range of Karnival Decks (1 x Karnival Deck, 1 x Midnight Deck, 1 x Assassin Deck, 1 x Renegade Deck) for just £12! That’s a Kolossal 40% off! But get over their quick – the offer ends on May 21st!

How’d you like £173 magic for only £34.99?

Alakazam are offering ALL the following DVDs for that bargain price! And you still get 173 loyalty points (worth £8.75!) as if you’d paid full price!

The Gecko device was the best selling magic trick of 2008 and now it’s getting a major upgrade. It’s called Gecko Extreme and for what I can see in the trailer it’s so much cleaner.

The Gecko Extreme takes the original Gecko and pushes it beyond your normal performance boundaries with all new gimmicks, training and performance material straight from the creator, Andy Amyx.

The Gecko Extreme includes:

• The Gecko Tail (GT) which allows you to transform those objects as well as vanish them
• The Gecko Quick (GQ) – GQ is a new “holster” for the Gecko, so you can hook up even faster and cleaner than before.
• A new Full-featured training DVD by Andy Amyx that goes into even more detail about what can be possible with the Gecko using the Gecko Extreme.

It will be available exclusively at Ellusionist on May 4th.

I’ll try to find you a deal

Here at ExoMagic, we care about the community and earth we live around. We have been taking steps from day 1 to be as eco-friendly as possible.

We are so excited about going green that we are going to do something crazy! We have over 400 decks made of recycled paper, and we want users to support us going green.
Orders over $30 will receive 2 free decks of Bicycle Eco Edition Playing Cards

Orders over $80 will receive 2 free decks of Smoke & Mirrors v.4 by Dan and Dave

PLUS – if you order within this week using the coupon code “earthweek” you will receive 10% off your entire order. (1 discount per order)

This is ONLY for the remaining days of this week and will end on Sunday, April 25th.

On a discussion note, we want feedback from the community, how do you feel about Earth Day? What steps have you taken this year to be eco-friendly?

CLICK HERE TO GO TO EXOMAGIC

A high-end, professional grade card guard that will increase the durability and longevity of your playing cards– all the while looking as sleek as can be.

Now get your Arcane Engraved Card Guard FREE when you place an order over $75 with Ellusionist.

This is only going to last until Friday April 16th at midnight PT so act fast, these offers NEVER last long.

Note: You must have a shippable item in your order. Orders over $75 will have the free clip automatically added to your cart.