Bicycle/Ellusionist & other dark playing card decks

Le Fanu

I never quite know if these are normal playing card decks or not. I find myself being drawn to some of those dark Bicycle and Ellusionist decks. You might have seen them; deliberately aged, blood spattered, Alchemy etc. I'm not quite sure what they are myself and I'd be grateful for any enlightenment.

There are some on this site. I also just ordered one of the vintage Bicycle decks. There's also the Ghost deck and I particularly like the look of the golden, Oriental Karnival Ryujin deck..

There are others. I think they're for magicians and I'm not sure I fully understand the concept exactly but I wondered if any fellow playing card addicts have them or collect them or use them for divination and can recommend any in particular...
 

Laura Borealis

I've seen those -- not the Oriental one though! That's lovely.

I agree, I think they're marketed to magicians and illusionists for card tricks. I could see the aged ones especially for magicians with a Victorian or steampunk image. But I would use them simply to play solitaire and to enjoy them.
 

Bernice

Wonderful handling quality! Cardstock is top-notch.

It seems to be mainly the Aces, Jokers, card backs, and the boxes(!) that the magicians really rave about. I like the ones that Le Fanu links to, but have only bought a white 'Arcane' deck as yet.


Bee :)
 

Moonbow

They are normal playing cards in terms of stock and number of cards. Some decks have extra Gaff cards for the Magicians to do tricks, like the pips sliding off the card, that type of thing. For divination the only problem I can see would be with decks that have each suit in a different colour, like the Bicycle Tattoo, because when looking at the suits in divination the red and black overall impression of the spread is noted.

I love the dark ones, the Shadow Masters being a favourite.
 

ZKEI

Such a coincidence, I have felt the same way for a couple of weeks
and done my research for information and reviews
(Youtube is the great source of information; there are more reviews than tarot decks)

Finally, I have just ordered them from their UK official website; http://www.bicycleplayingcardsupplies.co.uk
, mainly due to the delivery cost
(however, the package may be not great but very fast and super cheap delivery).


Alchemist X is the one I ordered. IMO, it feels more esoteric and magical, especially with the black coloured deck contrasting with Golden Stars of David on the back. And those two Jokers!!


My other choices are;

Bicycle Raider (Black); Faces of the court cards are well designed (i.e. standing out from the cards, not only the reversed colour as the others). However, I prefer the Alchemist X due to being the limited edition (only 4000 decks are produced), gold ink, stars of david, jokers (Raider's Jokers are still quite nice, but not so exciting when you are the tarotist).

Series of the Karnival also look great and how about the Dead Eye, so thrill!!. However, I have not had any of them as they seem to me a bit overwhelmed with skeletons.

If you like the vintage style, some "faded" cards (e.g. original light blue/black, which is very cheap) may be worthwhile to consider.


Also, some fancy decks such as Rejuvenate or Twilight are also worth considering. Although, many playing card collectors don't like them mainly because of one side of the court cards, IMO such big faces provide greater impacts especially for divination purpose.

FYI, some reviewers also said that Bicycle cardstock may be not good for a long run compared with those from Tally-Ho, Theory11 or some other companies. IMO, though they are made by the same company, they are still different from deck to deck.

Warning!! during the search of information, I also found that, from the collectors' point of view, if you got a deck and it has a sticker, do not pull the sticker out. Please check some YouTube clips on how to open a deck of cards (but a few clips still pull it out)

:)
 

Bernice

I have on order the Bicycle Rejuvenate Deck. I like the large court faces.


Bee :)
 

Le Fanu

It really is a totally unknown universe to me. Thanks for all these pointers. I shall follow them up, though I cannot find the Alchemical X one on that site linked by ZKEI. There really are so many of them, so many differences. I totally lose track of which one's which (I remember a blood spattered one but I can't seem to find it anymore). I was going to order a small selection this month (like I said, I have ordered the aged 1800 one), but the others leave me a bit bamboozled. I don't know where to start. Maybe the Ghost one? Best place to see them seems to be on the site

But the jargon is a bit :bugeyed:

What's with the cachét of having barcode on the box? Quite a few of them have this as if it were something very special. I have loads of boxes with barcodes on them. I'm also surprised at how often the boxes are illustrated and how rarely the actual cards are. To be honest, I would be more likely to use them for Solitaire/Patience but - hey - Solitaire can also be a kind of divination.
 

Libra8ca

Le Fanu said:
I totally lose track of which one's which (I remember a blood spattered one but I can't seem to find it anymore).

The blood spattered one (or at least one of them) is the Karnival Dead Eyes - the cards have an aged look and there is blood all over them making them look like they were involved in a murder :D :bugeyed:, the court cards have a black bar across the eyes and more blood. Initially, I didn't really like them when I got them, but I'm currently using them to work through some playing card lessons. :D

I also have the Arcane playing cards which are basically black playing cards. The court cards look like negatives (light grey on black background). The backs are nice.
Another one I bought is the Bicycle Anna Stokes which has lots of unicorns, dragons and skulls.
Cardstock is quite nice and is the same for all of them. Hope this helps a little.
 

Bernice

Le Fanu:
What's with the cachét of having barcode on the box? Quite a few of them have this as if it were something very special.
As I said in an earlier post, the magicians have a 'thing' about the bits we don't even notice! Weird.


Bee :)
 

ZKEI

This may be the one you are looking for, as I did mention above; Karnival Dead Eye
http://www.bicycle-cards.co.uk/category/cards/page/2/


Le Fanu said:
What's with the cachét of having barcode on the box? Quite a few of them have this as if it were something very special.
At least, I feel that mine is special (Alchemist X with 7 Spade on the Barcode)
; though, no one notices apart from the collectors.
:)