Just launched on Kickstarter, the concept for Cardistry Playing Cards was originally inspired by the 1989 movie Major League, as well as a shared love of collecting trading cards when growing up by Mike McClure of Lit playing cards and his regular collaborator Brad Gabbard of Native Tongue Studio.
It quickly evolved into a light-hearted trading card themed deck with elements imagining cardistry itself as a Major League sport.
Inside, the bright bold colorway contrasts the somewhat restrained back design making for a stunning everyday carry deck and makes for spectacular fans. The deck also comes with a custom Ace of Spades, two-toned and recolored pips, and unique indices resembling baseball uniform letters and numbers round out the deck.
The court cards are traditionally styled but reimagined as baseball teams. The red team (hearts and diamonds) are in the field, while the blue team (spades and clubs) are pp to bat. Brad also included one or two faces you may recognize as pop culture references. This is something that has become a signature inclusion in his decks.
For the Joker, if you’ve ever seen the movie, needs no introduction. Only now he’s been renamed and looks over his Lit playing Cards along with his rum.
For this deck, Mike and Brad went all out on the packaging to provide a nostalgic experience from the start. The tuck box design is directly inspired by old trading card wax packs. The Kickstarter only hobby edition goes a step further and comes inside foil packaging made by the same folks that package baseball cards and even have, you guessed it, a stick of bubble gum!
Also, if you ever opened one pack of Baseball cards growing up then you’ll instantly recognize the half brick box, which is inspired by the retail boxes the packs were sold in.
The deck will be printed by the USPCC and pledge starts at $13 on Kickstarter.
