UC X Jack Brutus Penny- Nazo Nazo Playing Cards

After acquiring the United Cardists forum last year, Portfolio52 released the successful Odd Fellows playing cards series in collaboration with Stockholm17 as part of the UC annual deck. This year, the annual deck will be designed by Jack Brutus Penny. Based in Japan, Jack is known for his artwork inspired by animals and Japanese culture.

Nazo Nazo Playing Cards shows the fantastic Japanese inn crowded with anthropomorphized animals integrated into a large-scale mural. You would see all the cute characters doing some activities within the interiors of the inn done in large illustrations segmented as small pieces of cards. The name of the series, “Nazo Nazo” literally means “puzzles and riddles” in Japanese – this deck of cards has a lot to offer: jigsaw puzzles, word puns, proverbs, stories, and visual scavenger hunts.

There are three editions of Nazo Nazo available during the Kickstarter campaign – Guest House, Tatami Room, and Onsen. Each edition will have completely different artwork on both the cards and the tuck boxes, but everything is all Jack’s heart and soul.

The Guest House is the standard edition of the series, which is only printed on standard stock and finishes. The Tatami House is called the puzzle edition, promising a deck of cards fashioned to be full of puzzles and riddles. The Onsen House is the exclusive Kickstarter edition featuring cards gilded with beautiful gold foil.

The tuck boxes for the series themselves are masterpieces of their own. It is made with premium stock with the unique shape of a tongue flap and die-cut windows across faces and sides. These windows allow you to view the integration of the card back design with the artwork on the tuck box.

The artworks on the box are intricate and full of details, showing the beautiful rooms that represent the name of the edition. It does have customized embossing on the artwork, and most prominently, the holographic foiling for the clouds on the box. The artwork on the side creates an interesting display – getting one of each of the editions, you create half of the building; combining two sets altogether and you will have the full picture of the Nazo Nazo inn.

The characters who appeared within the large mural of the cards featured pets owned by various people who are experts in some of their fields in Japanese culture, like origami, pottery, horseback archery, calligraphy, and more. The profits from the project’s outcome will be given to Animal Refuge Kansai (ARK) to help rescue and rehouse abandoned and displaced cats and dogs in Japan.

All of the cards will be printed with Expert Playing Cards Co. Pledge starts at $16 on Kickstarter.

Vote for 2020's Deck of the Year, Brought to you by UC & Portfolio52

The United Cardists annual Deck of the Year Awards are back! Playing card collectors, magicians, cardists, and more come together from every corner of the web to reflect upon all the amazing decks to have been released throughout the past year. The DOTYs aims to celebrate the hobby of playing cards by officially recognizing those that exceed in excellence and of which have really stood out among the rest in 2020.

This year, the UC community has partnered up with Portfolio52 to bring to you an all-new, custom-designed voting system built from the ground up to make participation in voting easier than ever before! With 15 different DOTY Award categories, the best of the best are nominated in a wide variety of aspects from tuck to aces, pips, gaffs, backs, and everything in between! 

Categories for ‘Best Magic Deck’, ‘Best Cardistry Deck’ and ‘Best Non-Poker Deck’ ensures that there’s something for everyone and the entire community is invited to let your voice be heard by voting on all their favorite decks to determine which decks truly deserve to come out on top and earn the coveted title of ‘DECK OF THE YEAR’!

Voting is only open until Sunday, January 31. Click here to vote now! Results will be e announced approximately one week after voting closes.

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United Cardists Deck of the Year 2019, Vote and WIN!

It's that time of the year when the playing card community come together and reflect upon all the amazing decks to have been released throughout 2019 and officially recognize those of excellence that has really stood out among the rest in both quality of beautiful craftsmanship & design and show our appreciation to the talented designers & dedicated producers behind them.

This year's exceptional decks impressed us and compiling all the impactful, inspiring and well-executed decks have been challenging. Check out our Top12 decks of 2019 list. Now it's time to have your say and vote on your favorite decks. Head to the United Cardists Deck of the Year (DotY) tread.

Our collab deck with Murphy's Magic, Six Strings has been nominated for 4 categories,
+ Best Pips,
+ Best Courts,
+ Best Back and
+ Best Joker.

Head to the United Cardists Deck of the Year (DotY) tread and vote for your favorite decks on a list of categories: Best Tuck Case, Best Ace, Best Joker(s), Best Gaff / Extra Card(s), Best Pips, Best Courts, Best Use of Color, Best Back, Best Deck For Fanning, Best Deck For Cardistry / Flourishing,  Best Deck For Magic, Best Non-Poker Deck, Best Rookie Deck, Best Innovation, and Best Overall Deck.

Also, each voter will automatically get exactly ONLY ONE entry into the prize giveaway and has the same chance as everyone else that participated. Here are the prizes (so far) donated by forum members, designers, producers, and companies. Check out the HUGE prize donation list here.

Good luck!

Kickstarter: De Novo Playing Cards, the 2018 United Cardists Annual Deck by Rick Davidson

The 2018 United Cardists annual deck, De Novo is a collaboration between the popular playing card forum and New Zealand-based designer Rick Davidson.

De Novo - meaning 'starting anew’ - conceptualizes playing cards from a distant future with an elegant yet futuristic accent. Fully custom and inspired by traditional playing card design, the royals of each suits imagines characters from different groups- Earthers (Spades), High Order (Hearts), Humanists (Clubs) and Synths (Diamonds).

The standard suits have been updated to give it a modern look but remain familiar for easier recognition.

The backs feature ornate full metallic backs in green and gold. The artwork depicts a powerful global artificial intelligence, providing an instantaneous link to it's vast knowledge through a neural chip.

Two editions will be available during campaign- Viridi (green) and Aurum (gold) Edition. The tucks are hot stamped in green (Viridi) and gold (Aurum) foils with a unique mirror design on a high quality stock.

Available NOW on Kickstarter and pledge starts at NZD$20 (USD$19).

Kickstarter: 7 Questions with Karin Yan of NOUVEAU Playing Cards

[Update] NOUVEAU Playing Cards are now LIVE on Kickstarter!

NOUVEAU playing cards are inspired by the historical and mythological heroes and heroines traditionally featured in the French playing cards in the 16th century. Designed by Karin Yan of Bonafide Playing Cards in Barcelona for United Cardists annual 2016 deck, the art style and design are a tribute to the philosophical and artistic trend Art nouveau, promoted and popularized in France.

Fully custom and beautifully crafted, the NOUVEAU courts feature historical and mythological characters such as biblical King David, Greek goddess Pallas Athena, Roman leader Julius Caesar, legendary Knight Sir Lancelot and many more! The suits themselves represent different Social Orders. For example, Spade represent nobility, Hearts the clergy, Diamonds the merchants and Clubs the commoners and the peasantry.

Just prior to the launch of the project, we had a quick chat with Karin about being a designer, the story of the NOUVEAU deck and how it came to be the UC 2016 deck and her thoughts on the support from the playing card community.

Can you tell us what do you love most about being a designer? And where do you get your drawing inspiration from?

I love the fact there are no bounds for imagination and it’s rewarding to bring your ideas to life. The creativity and versatility, which are part of anything related to designing, awakens a constant constructive criticism and self-improvement desire, which I greatly enjoy.

Well, inspiration is kind of different depending on how you approach it and it can come from literally anything; if you really want the perfect or right result, inspiration is not something you can force, it comes on its own once you have a general picture of what you want. As I see it and in this case, you don’t decide to create a custom deck and then break your head trying to come up with several ideas for designs. When you check out other playing cards, you realise that there’s still so much room for different and unique designs.

As for me, I love classic drawings and designs so decks such as Hundred Years' War, Venexiana and Federal 52 inspired me to create something classic. The idea of custom playing cards with a classic style led us to the original cards and after polishing it, we came up with NOUVEAU Playing Cards.

Tell us about the story of how this NOUVEAU came to be United Cardists 2016 deck? 

Ever since we started with the idea of our own custom playing cards, Mike has been very supportive of the story behind the design and the design itself. He liked our work and the concept so, after we failed to fund our own campaign, he suggested we work together on an improved NOUVEAU as the United Cardists 2016 deck.

How do you approach this project? Specifically, what led you to Art Nouveau styling for the deck and why? 

We had many ideas from the start and one of them was to bring back the historical and mythological heroes and heroines that inspired the French playing cards back in the 16Th century, which developed into the playing cards as we know them today. Taking that into account, we chose to stay in France and choose a French art style for our cards. It wasn’t easy as France was always known as a place of artistic reference, but after some thought we settled on Art Nouveau (promoted and popularised in Paris in the late 19th century). Another reason was that on our first funding attempt, the idea was to print a Bicycle branded deck and Art nouveau was contemporary to the birth of the brand.

I noticed the the colour palette for the deck have been updated. What are some of the design updates you’ve done to the deck to incorporate the UC theme? 

There are several and noticeable changes including the back, tuck and backgrounds on the court cards and Aces. Taking into account all the feedback and suggestions, I tried to change our deck’s look to something simpler as well as sophisticated within the limits of Art nouveau. Something that could be considered minor details such as the thickness of the lines, the finish or colouring helped me reach that goal and come up with a bolder design.

I know you put a lot of time and effort into your work, how much time has gone into the deck? 

A year has passed since we came up with the idea till I finished the UC2016 redesigned deck last month. I must say that even if there’s a lot of time and work behind this deck, I’m glad I managed to keep most of the design I first came up with, leaving the Aces and courts almost intact since day 1.

Are there any surprises planned for the release of the deck? 

We’re still deciding on our campaign’s details but we’re planning on two more decks that will be unlocked if we reach their stretch goals; One unlimited, closer to our original design (check out our previous campaign) and another extra limited Reserva Privada deck with an elegant and luxury finish both on the cards and tuck. We’re thinking about some items as well but nothing is decided yet. We’ll be updating with more news closer to the launching date.

Finally, what do you think of the support and feedback you have been getting from the playing card community thus far? 

We’re really grateful for all the feedback and support we’ve been getting along the way. NOUVEAU wouldn’t be the same without their help so it’s safe to say that if we manage to produce this deck, it will be thanks to their selfless support and constructive criticism.

We want to thank Karin and the team from United Cardists for their time and insight into NOUVEAU. Make sure to mark your calendars for the Kickstarter launch on September 19th, 12pm.


The NOUVEAU Playing Cards will be printed by EPCC on their Master Finish card stock. Pledge starts from $13 and there will be EARLY BIRD pledge tiers available. There are multiple add-ons available such as uncut sheet, art print and dealer coin. Also, there are multiple rewards that will be unlocked once the project hit their set stretched goals, most notable is the NOUVEAU Bourgogne deck at $15k.

[Update] NOUVEAU Playing Cards are now LIVE on Kickstarter!

Don't miss out!

First Look: Nouveau Playing Cards by Bona Fide Playing Cards

[Update] NOUVEAU Playing Cards are now LIVE on Kickstarter!

The 2016 United Cardists annual deck is NOUVEAU by Karin Yan of Bonafide Playing Cards in Barcelona. The NOUVEAU playing cards are inspired by the historical and mythological heroes and heroines traditionally featured in the French playing cards in the 16th century.

The art style and design are a tribute to the philosophical and artistic trend Art nouveau, promoted and popularized in France. As such, Karin's art nouveau deck was picked to carry on the tradition of having a wide variety of styles and artwork for the UC series.

She is the first female artist for the UC annual deck series, as well. She joins a list of world-renowned deck artists who have contributed to our annual deck series, such as Randy Butterfield, Lotrek and Giovanni Meroni.

[Update] NOUVEAU Playing Cards are now LIVE on Kickstarter!

NOUVEAU will be available on Kickstarter 19th September. Don't miss out!