Here Are The Winners at Cardistry Fest 2022

Each year, on the last day of Cardistry-Con, cardists from around the world celebrate and honor the major achievements in cardistry with the Cardistry-Con Awards. This year, the Awards Ceremony, now called Cardistry Fest, bestows accolades in eight fields: Deck of the Year, Move of the Year, Video of the Year, Breakout Cardist of the Year, Solo Video, Group Video, Uncut Performance, and Short Form.

Here are this year’s winners (including 2019/20 and 2020/21):

DECK OF THE YEAR
2019/20- Alphabet by Mano Santa
2020/21- Collage by Missing
2021/22- GLISK by Dealers Grip 

MOVE OF THE YEAR
2019/20- Heritage by Chase Duncan
2020/21- Hannah and the Pirate Caves by Zach Mueller
2021/22- Cubic Space by Andrew Avila

VIDEO OF THE YEAR
2019/20- Showbiz by Kyle Tran and Samuel Pratt
2020/21- Power Play by Daniel Lin
2021/22- The Triumph by ANYONE

BREAKOUT CARDIST
2019/20- Carter Macdiarmid
2020/21- Nikita Yatsik
2021/22- Davide Raso

SOLO PERFORMANCE
2021/22- Cruise Control by Nathan Wu

GROUP PERFORMANCE
2021/22- Tidalwave by Squaredup

UNCUT PERFORMANCE
2021/22- Hyperbolic Time Chamber by Yang

SHORT FORM
2021/22- Grandpas Bag by Syb Faes

Cardistry: Alphabet Playing Cards by Mano Santa

Alphabet Playing Cards is the second release from Mexico-based cardistry brand ManoSanta. Alphabet is completely different from their debut deck, 45s Playing Cards, which sports three bold connected design- the horizontal, the vertical and the curve on the card backs.

Alphabet is made of fifty-six cards with different back designs. The unique back design sports a metallic blue colorway in the background with white letters littered throughout, bordered in black trim and hand made logos for each card in red detail.

The face cards are pretty much standard with the color palette of the red courts updated with red instead of the traditional black. The deck is packaged in an attractively retro aesthetic tuck box with the word 'Alphabet' printed sideways down the left side.

Loving the change in direction for ManoSanta for the second deck. Compared to the 45s, the Alphabet deck looks and feels more fun! Printed by The U.S. Playing Card Co. on thin stock preferred by cardists. Limited Edition of 2,500.

Available NOW from artofplay.com for $13.

Kickstarter: 45s Playing Cards by Mano Santa and Enigma Cards

The 45s Playing Cards was originally teased during the AMCM (Abierto de Magia y Cardistry México), a Magic and Cardistry event held in México City last month. Since then, it has gained popularity on social media, primarily on Facebook and Instagram. The deck is designed by cardistry group Mano Santa (Instagram: @mn.snt) and produced by Enigma Cards. According to the Kickstarter campaign page,

It’s been some time since we wanted to make a deck of playing cards, this deck sums up what we love about cardistry, music, and design. This being our debut deck means a lot, we’ve been overwhelmed by the reaction of the community, we really love this deck and hope you too.

In terms of design, the deck took references from pop culture and elements from the past decades with the idea of connecting the packets through different card backs.

The concept went through a lot of experimenting with shapes, sizes, and colors change a lot of times, we tried to do something different, colorful and overall fun.

Crafted for the card flourishes in mind, the final back design is comprised of three connected design- the horizontal, the vertical and the curve.

What we like about this mix of shapes is that every time you perform a cut it’s different, that it goes not just into showing a cut but actually enjoying it more through connecting and experimenting with the different back designs.

The team wanted to keep the deck simple. With that in mind, the tuck box has very few elements that mirror the main back design scheme with the color lines, with a bold series of numbers on the front. One cool thing we noticed was the possibility of arranging the back design into a very cool uncut sheet design!

A post shared by ManoSanta (@mn.snt) on May 31, 2018 at 6:25pm PDT

The 45s Playing Cards are currently seeking funds on Kickstarter and pledge start at MXN$300 (USD$15) for a single deck.

Cardistry: Find Out More About AMCM. Mexico's Inaugural Magic and Cardistry Event

AMCM (Abierto de Magia y Cardistry México) is a Magic and Cardistry event held in México City on April 28, 2018. This inaugural event was jointly organized by the AMCM team (Mano Santa and Enigma Cards) for the Cardistry and Magic community in Mexico. AMCM was designed to be the equivalent of Cardistry Con, the event was sponsored by Cartamundi, Art of Play and Cardistry Touch.

The one-day event brought the Mexican magic and cardistry communities together and everyone interacted with each other, share new ideas, display moves, and tricks and meet new people. Hector Perez, founder of Enigma Cards told us,

Our intention was to unite both communities to help them grow. We had more than 100 people a the event, and had the fortune of having Cardistry Touch as well as part of the Chilean Cardistry Community at the event.

During the AMCM event, there was Magic and Cardistry exhibitions courtesy of Cardistry Touch and Mano Santa. On the same day, there were 5 different deck reveals- 2 by Enigma, 1 by Mano Santa, 1 by Sunrise Playing Cards and 1 by Cardistry Touch!

Finally, Cartamundi produced a one of a kind commemorative deck exclusively for the Mexican Community, the Gran Reserva Deck (only 150 exists!), sporting a True Linen B9 finish and the colors of the Mexican flag.

Participants of the event got to bring home a deck. For those who are interested, there are some Gran Reserva Decks still available at the Enigma Cards store, all the proceeds from selling GranReserva Decks go directly to fund next years AMCM event.

On the future of the event, Hector said,

It was the first of many events to come we hope next year it is even bigger and has more surprises.

Images courtesy of Enigma Cards.