Crafted specifically for cardistry, the Shodou deck is the brainchild of Nejc Sušec currently seeking funds on Kickstarter. Nejc is from Slovenia, a small country in Europe where he studied Japanese, where he incorporated the calligraphy to the Shodou deck.
Nejc was introduced to cardistry about 12 years ago, around the time of Decknique. Nejc told Kardify,
At the time I was 12 years old and I didn’t understand the value of cardistry yet. I though of it as cool tricks to show at card games, so I didn’t stick with it. Then about year and a half ago I went through my youtube subscriptions and found so many amazing cardistry videos, which made me pick up my cards again and I haven’t put them down ever since. It has come to the point, that I feel uncomfortable if I don’t have a deck of cards with me. 🙂
Cardistry became a passion for Nejc and changed his life. Nejc explained,
On a more serious note, I am not a very sociable person (not the best characteristic for social media, I know) and cardistry has changed that drastically. Talking about it and sharing ideas enabled me to make new friends and I’m truly grateful I found my passion in such a cool thing as cardistry!
Earlier this week, we had a chat with Nejc about the inspiration behind Shodou playing cards, the community, and his favorite flourish and deck.
1. What is your inspiration behind the Shodou Playing Cards? How did you come up with the idea?
At first, the cards were something I made for myself. I was planning to buy new cards and in the end decided to make a custom deck just for myself. With my love for Japanese language and culture in general, I didn’t have to think long about what I wanted. Later on, I saw the Isometrics V2 by Kenneth Aidan Foo and I thought the face borders are the best idea I have seen in a while, so I immediately knew I wanted to incorporate that in some way into my cards as well. After that it was just a matter of working out the details, which is what takes up most of the time.
2. How did you end up collaborating with Hanson Chien and what do you think of the support that you’ve been getting so far on the social media?
It is truly humbling when someone expresses interest in an idea you made out of passion, so when people showed interest in my cards, I felt I needed to repay that support. So I decided to put in the work and time to make the deck available to all of those people. I reached out to the card printing companies and in the end decided to work together with Hanson Chien Production Co. There are many USPCC decks out there, so I wanted to try something different. Also since the characters used on the deck are also from Chinese culture, I had the opportunity to get great advice from them. I am definitely happy with the decision I made.
3. Finally, what are your favorite flourish and playing card decks?
I really like fans, but with the amount of talented and creative cardists out there, I probably have a new favorite flourish every week or so. Most recently that has been Ebb by Noel Heath, and Moyses by Edgar Isaac has been a favorite of mine for a while now. Basically, if there is a fan or spread involved, you can sign me up!
Since I’m not an avid collector, I don’t own that many decks, but I really like a deck, that has a story behind it, like the Playing Arts. Art of Play also has many such decks. Among cardistry decks I like the Virts (especially FW17), Isometrics by Kenneth and the School of Cardistry decks. I am also very excited for the upcoming Ventus by Lotus in Hand.
Cool! Thanks Nejc and all the best! Pledge starts at and Shodou Playing Cards will be printed by Hanson Chien Production Company.
