The Fox Targets Playing Cards by Murphy’s Magic Playing Card Company are an exquisite new deck of cards masterfully hand illustrated and digitally remastered by the one and only: Lance T. Miller. Teaming up with art direction from Jason Brumbalow of Murphys Magic, the Fox Targets spring to life with an exciting array of icons and clever minimalism that’s really anything but ordinary. Here’s 5 things you didn’t know about the Fox Targets.
1. The Fox Targets feature over 250 hours of illustration work. Each court card has about 25 hours of illustration and was hand illustrated and then digitally remastered by Lance T. Miller to scale perfectly to the size of the cards.
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2. The decks were printed by Expert Playing Card Company, but were supposed to have been printed by USPCC. Originally the decks and tucks were all designed to be printed out using the standard US Playing Card format. The designs were all sent in and ready to go and at the last minute Lance got a call to change the packaging and card template over to EPCC standards.
3. There is a puzzle built right into the deck! It may take forever to figure it out but Lance says he’s not worried. He says: “I won’t be upset if people don’t figure it out right away or ever for that matter. I wanted to create something that would last throughout time; that people might pick up 25 years from now and still be trying to solve. There are clues buried throughout all of the artwork and the entire deck itself is the puzzle. I almost hope no one ever solves it and that it brings many years of adventure to those endeavor to work on it.”
4. The design is simple yet deceptively magical. Nothing was left to chance in this deck. Some people have reported spotting one-way elements in the design and Lance says that’s the point. “Magicians will know what they can use in this deck. Lay people won’t even suspect the magical devices being used. The deck is not marked, but is designed so that it can easily be marked in a most devious manner. We (Jason and Lance) wanted to put something in a magician’s hands that could be easy to master but devastatingly awesome to witness in action. I can’t wait to see all the things people do with this deck.”
5. This may not be just a one-off production run. Based on the response from the community, there may be other editions with other wicked puzzles and built in magical elements. The courts may even vary slightly as well as the deck color. Whatever happens, it’s exciting to hear that Lance is back in action as one of the world’s premier deck designers.
Available right now from your favorite Murphy’s Magic retailer or from Lance T. Miller’s Website.
