Deck View: Olympia Playing Cards

Regal. Elegant. Divine.

Olympia Playing Cards channels the majesty of Greek mythology through an elegant yet powerful visual approach. Designed by Steve Minty, this beautiful deck draws inspiration from classical Greek sculpture, mythology, and architecture, blending ancient themes with modern precision.

Inside, the deck features custom court cards portraying gods and goddesses like Hermes and Hera, rendered with sculptural grace. The custom pips, influenced by ancient dice patterns, further reinforce the mythological theme while maintaining playability.

The elegant tuck box is wrapped in fine detailing that reflects the refined aesthetics of marble temples and divine presence. Intricate linework and balanced symmetry evoke the timeless beauty of Mount Olympus itself.

Printed by USPCC on premium stock.

Ascension Playing Cards

Fantasy. Families. Lion.

Steve Minty‘s Ascension Playing cards are epically designed and illustrated as an homage to his beloved TV series, Game of Thrones while giving it a spin in his style and interpretation. The deck features fully custom artwork from the gorgeous Aces, to the pips, indices, and courts featuring characters from the series.

The deck design features the essence of the families as a foundation. The Wolves were dark, brooding and stalwart whereas the Lions were opulent, lush and ornate. In addition to that, the moon and sun design motifs are incorporated in the deck as wolves have been synonymous with howling at the moon and lions basked in the warmth of the sun. The motifs visually contrasted with both families.

The tuck itself will also be metallic foiled but done in a way where it does not lose focus from the figurehead. Printed by the United States Playing Card Co.

Over 900% Funded! Anubis & Osiris Shadow Playing Cards by Steve Minty

Steve Minty has just released the Anubis & Osiris Shadow Playing Cards, an Eyptian themed limited edition custom deck. The campaign has hit over 900% of its funding goal of $20k with over 2400 backers. The brand new set is a follow-up to the original Anubis and Osiris Decks released 5 years ago. 

Demand has been high after the original sets were sold out but to keep the value of the original decks, Steve has decided to make a new set instead of just a reprint. 

The decks are inspired by the luxurious reverence of Egyptian Gods and Kings of the past. Elements from classical Egyptian era and the Egyptian Revival incorporated into this deck along with modern design make these decks truly special. According to Steve on the campaign page,

I have always been drawn to the luxury of Egyptian design and I knew vaguely of how people used to incorporate its elements into modern day life outside of Egypt but I could only guess on why it went away.

Osiris and Anubis Shadow Edition feature two unique back designs in stunning gold coil foil, a beautiful set of custom court cards feauting a select pantheon of Egyptian Gods as well as custom spot cards, and fully custom Aces, pips and indices. 

Rather than standard white borders, these decks are full color backgrounds and stand out from the usual. The details across both decks are stunning and the color palettes are perfectly used on this theme. 

Both decks are presented in stunning tuck boxes, both featuring similar designs on the front, and on the back showcase the actual back design. The detailed line work continues over the tuck flap and the decks are sealed with a striking custom “Stamp” like seal. 

They have eye popping gold hot foil accents and a subtle embossing that makes them feel as luxurious as they look. The Anubis deck has an earthy color palette using green as base color while the Osiris comes with a gold foil on rich purple tuck box. Stunning! 

The decks will be printed by Cartamundi and pledge starts at $17 on Kickstarter.

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Ascension V2 Playing Cards, Only 3 More Days on Kickstarter!

There's always something very new and exciting with Steve Minty's decks, who launched the Ascension Playing Cards V2 on Kickstarter last month. This time around, the Ascension decks focus on the Blood Dragons and the Dark Abyss.

Steve crafted Ascension V1 last year after a certain personally beloved series ended. He was inspired to create these decks as an homage while giving it a spin in his style and interpretation. Steve said,

Like last time, the aspect I wanted to focus on were the diverse "families" depicted in the series and culminated in the Blood Dragons and the Dark Abyss.

The campaign features two custom decks with different card backs and court cards. Additionally, the campaign has the Limited Edition decks that will not be sold in stores and Steve will not be making much more than what will be pledged on Kickstarter.

Steve once again use the essence of the families into a couple of words to use as a launching point for the design element of each deck. The Blood Dragons were powerful, strong and noble with the red/black colorway whereas the Dark Abyss were death, chaos and menacing depicted with a blue/dark blue color palette,

For the Blood Dragon, Steve approached the Blood Dragons design with heavy-looking thick scale-like motifs. 

I felt it invoked the essence of a powerful dragon without being obvious. This is reflected in the characters in terms of what they wear with and additional slight Asian influence.

Meanwhile, the Dark Abyss design features crystalline elegance and delicate peril like the sharpest sword made of ice. 

I designed it so some would be able to see it as ice while not being obvious. The characters are lead by the 3 generals (represented by spades) and the rest are the army of characters who have been "converted".

Steve has designed Ascension V2 in a way that it would be obvious that they were designed to be in the same series as V1. For the Dark Abyss deck, however, Steve had to push the differences a bit more as he felt they were beings that were otherworldly. This is most evident in the pips.

While the Silver Wolves, Golden Lions, and Blood Dragons decks use the same outline for the pips, I made the Dark Abyss pips sharper, more crystalline. 

Also available are the signature sets, similar to that from Ascension V1. The 3d sculpted figurehead of Blood Dragon will be RED CHROME finish on metal.

As for the Dark Abyss, the tuck itself will also be metallic foiled but done in a way where it does not lose focus from the frost figurehead. As usual, the decks will come with a numbered edition seal as well as handcrafted edge gilding.

Only 3 more days remaining, pledge starts at $15 on Kickstarter.

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Kickstarter: Ascension Playing Cards by Steve Minty

Since the epic Season 8 started this week, though we would feature this awesome deck! There's something special about Steve Minty decks, and his latest deck, currently funding on Kickstarter, is no different. Ascension Playing cards are epically designed and illustrated as an homage to his beloved TV series while giving it a spin in his style and interpretation. On how the deck came to be, Steve said on the project page,

To me, the aspect I wanted to focus on were the diverse "families" depicted in the series as opposed to individual heroes, villains and so forth. Each house has its own agendas and values that they live (or die, a lot) by and I couldn't help but find that intriguing. I thought to myself, how could I represent each family visually and voila, "Ascension Playing Cards" came into existence.

The deck features fully custom artwork from the gorgeous Aces, to the pips, indices, and courts featuring characters from the series. However, Steve points out that if backers are expecting specific characters, that's not happening. Steve explained,

While the characters are fantastic, I felt it was a disservice to the series and myself as it wouldn't be an inspiration, but rather a copycat. The face cards will follow a straightforward system of a patriarchal figure, matriarchal figure, children, advisors, and helpers.

When it came to designing the decks, Steve had to boil down the essence of the families into a couple of words to use as a foundation. The Wolves were dark, brooding and stalwart whereas the Lions were opulent, lush and ornate.

In addition to that, Steve felt that it was obvious to incorporate the moon and sun motifs as wolves have been synonymous with howling at the moon and lions basked in the warmth of the sun. The motifs visually contrasted with both families. Steve added,

Once I had figured this out, my final goal was to tie these decks together so that it would be obvious to a passerby that they were designed to be in the "siblings". One solution is to color swap and call it a different edition, but I felt it wasn't enough. I decided that I didn't want that and so I walked a fine line to make it different enough so it embodies the essence of my distillation while making sure it was similar enough to each other that it wasn't jarring. I hope I was able to achieve that.

Also available in this campaign is the Signature Edition decks. These incredible decks are able to stand out from other decks by incorporating a large 3d sculpted figurehead on a subdued tuck.



The tuck itself will also be metallic foiled but done in a way where it does not lose focus from the figurehead. The Signature Edition decks will come with a numbered edition seal as well as handcrafted edge gilding.

Printed by the United States Playing Card Co. and pledge starts at $15 for an Ascension deck on Kickstarter. Only 4 days to go... don't miss out!

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Kickstarter: Steve Minty's Thorns and Roses Playing Cards Unlocks All Stretched Goals

Steve Minty launched Thorns and Roses Playing Cards on Kickstarter earlier this month and the project was quickly funded with all stretched goals now unlocked. Inspired by the works of William Shakespeare, Steve sought to approach this deck based on the themes prevalent in Shakespear's work: Life and Death. According to Steve on the project page,

The themes of life and death are represented with the motif of Thorns and Roses. Thorns embody the pain of loss and death found in these works, while the Roses the sweetness of love and life.

The decks feature four of Shakespeare's best-known works: Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, and King Lear. The Roses deck interprets these characters with an item of significance while the Thorns deck depicts their method of death. Both fully custom decks are beautifully illustrated and feature gorgeous ornate design adorned with metallic ink.

In addition to the standard decks, the Thorns and Roses Limited Edition decks will be available during the campaign. The limited edition decks feature double foiling on colored stock paper, a 1-inch diameter metal stamped seal, numbered sticker seal, and handcrafted edge gilding.

Available now on Kickstarter, pledge starts at $15 for a single deck.

Kickstarter: Steve Minty's HANA Playing Cards Campaign Underway

Just launched on Kickstarter, HANA luxury playing cards is an original set of decks designed by Steve Minty. These decks are inspired by the unique elegance of traditional Japanese culture.

Elements from aspects of textile, art, and social structures are incorporated into this deck along with Steve's design sensibilities to make these different from what he has done before.

According to Steve,

As always, I work on projects that I have a connection to on a personal level. I knew since I first started designing playing cards that I wanted to work on a deck that revolved around Japanese culture. To do so, I traveled to Japan to research as well as gain some insight and inspiration. It was an unforgettable experience but I merely scratched the surface. In the span of 3 years, I spent countless hours on research, scoured through books ranging from Japanese society to samurai armor and even attended a few museum exhibits for the sake of this project.

The end result is truly beautiful. It draws upon the history of playing cards in Japan as well as the art that makes them special. Aspects of Feudal Japan, Hana Fuda, Kimonos, Ikebana, Ukiyo-e among others are incorporated into the decks.

HANA Playing Cards will be available in two editions: Silver and Gold. Both decks are unique and fully customized. Available NOW on Kickstarter. Pledge starts from $15 and add-ons such as uncut sheets and dealer coins are available.

Don't miss out!

Kickstarter: Hana Luxury Playing Cards by Steve Minty

Coming from Steve Minty, the Japanese inspired Hana Luxury Playing Cards! These decks will be launching at 12:00pm Central Time on Kickstarter Friday February 3rd. 

Make sure to mark your calendars and stay tuned for more information on Hana as the launch date approaches. 

Collections: Anubis & Osiris Luxury Playing Cards by Steve Minty

With so many choices and so many new projects popping up in the Playing Card community, it seems like the burning challenge for designers and artists is about building a better mouse trap. While I strongly believe that originality and creativity is still the key, many still put a lot of emphasis on something unique, different and that has never been done before. But there are those themes that have been around a while with varying successes and failures. Maybe not as persistent as Zombie decks, but Egyptian themed decks have been done numerous times, much like the Zombie decks though, we haven’t really seen an Egyptian themed deck taken to the next level, as it were.

That, I’m happy to report has changed for the Egyptian theme…..we can only hold our breath on the Zombie decks. Just a few months ago I received my Egyptian tandem from Steve Minty who launched a Kickstarter featuring two decks, the Osiris and the Anubis Luxury Playing Cards. I’ll be the first to admit that with any Kickstarter project you have to take the creators concept with a grain of salt, what the creator see’s in his mind’s eye sometimes falls a bit short of expectation. Not that the finished product is bad, but I’ve heard from creators themselves that it fell a bit short of their expectations. When I saw the Anubis and Osiris project I truly liked the design, the color palette’s being used and all the intricate line work and iconic elements of Egyptian culture that were being used throughout the two decks.

But what I received in the mail was just amazing. It doesn’t happen often that I’m really blown away by a deck the minute I take it out of its shipping package, but this was one of those times. While Steve described and detailed the decks perfectly on the campaign, including the gold foiling that was to be included on the back designs, its one thing to describe something, something completely different to see it in your hands. 

Osiris and Anubis feature two unique back designs, a beautiful set of custom court cards as well as custom spot cards, Ace of Spades and Jokers. The details across both decks are stunning and the color palettes are perfectly used on this theme. Both decks are presented in nice heavy stock tuck box, both featuring similar designs on the front, except the name of course, and on the back you have mirror versions of the actual back design. The detailed line work continues over the tuck flap and the decks are sealed with a striking custom “Stamp” like seal. Both decks have eye popping gold foil accents and a subtle embossing that makes them feel as luxurious as they look. The Anubis deck has an earthy color palette using browns and blacks as base colors and gold details that just pop off the cards. The hearts and diamonds do retain some red details in the pips on the spot cards as well as the royalty.   

The Osiris deck uses more of a bluish/turquoise color palette, again using brighter teal and gold colors to make the details jump off the cards. Just as the Anubis deck, the Osiris deck also retains that splash of red on the hearts and diamonds. While foil stamping card backs is becoming more readily seen in recent times, I have to say that the way it’s been presented on these two decks is nothing short of perfect. The detail coupled with the standard ink line work in the background is just stellar. It’s so amazing that honestly words can hardly do the decks justice. 

In a world of collectors who want to keep their decks sealed, I implore you, if you own either of these decks and haven’t opened them you’re really missing out on the overall beauty of these decks. And if you don’t own either, for the $18.00 price tag you couldn’t ask for more “Bang for your buck”. Steve did an amazing job with this project. The end result is just stunning, so much so I wonder if he even anticipated how well this Egyptian tandem turned out. Osiris and Anubis are most certainly on my top decks of 2016, pick a couple of these up, open them and enjoy them, you won’t regret it. 

You can keep up to date with everything Steve Minty is working on by following him on Facebook as well as his main site, which also features his store and all his wonderful works, past and present. 

The Collection segment is produced by Anthony Ingrassia of Kardify. No part of this article, images or video can be reproduced without written permission from the author and Kardify.com.