J&T Celebrates 10th Anniversary with No Borders (2nd Edition) Playing Cards

Joker and the Thief celebrates 10 years of innovation with No Borders: Series 2, a collection of playing cards inspired by decks from their back catalog. This series showcases fresh designs while honoring the brand's rich history, blending creative artistry with practical functionality.

Each deck draws inspiration from the intricate interior patterns of past releases:

• Joker and the Thief Back: A tribute to the original deck, featuring the interior pattern from its debut tuck box, paired with the elegant colorway of the Edition 5 release.

• Maidens Back: Featuring the floral interior design of the Maidens tuck box, originally illustrated by Kentaro Yoshida, it pays homage to this 2018 cult classic.

• Dystopia Back: Inspired by the gritty post-apocalyptic "Dystopia: Interceptor Edition," it showcases a bold skull-and-bones motif.

• Victory Back: This deck celebrates Joker and the Thief's first borderless design, honoring the limited-edition Victory Playing Cards.

• Crown Back: A tribute to the stoic simplicity of the Crown Playing Cards, featuring the iconic three-headed snake design, available in both red and blue variants.

All six decks shave the same Ace of Spades, and hand-illustrated court cards by Pedro Oyarbide that combine elegance and clarity.

The tuck boxes are crafted from matte black paper stock- feature blind embossing, intricate letterpress detailing, and a unique die-cut window revealing each deck's back design. Gold foil accents and perforated seals add functionality and sophistication, ensuring ease of use without sacrificing elegance.

With its striking designs and luxurious craftsmanship, this collection stands as a testament to Joker and the Thief’s decade-long commitment to artistry and quality. Pledge starts at $15 on Kickstarter.

Alex Pandrea Retires: The Last NOC Deck Released

Alex Pandrea of House of Playing Cards has announced in a recent email that he is officially retiring. After over a decade of designing and producing some of the most iconic custom decks, Pandrea is stepping away from the world of playing cards to pursue new ventures. To mark the end of this chapter, he is offering one final release: the NOC Private Reserve deck.

Pandrea launched his career in 2011 with The Blue Crown, a platform that taught magic and sleight of hand through video tutorials. In 2012, he founded House of Playing Cards, which sold over 1 million decks across 300+ designs, generating over $10 million in sales. Over the years, however, his passion for the playing card business began to wane, leading him to take a break in 2022 after the birth of his first child.

Pandrea is offering his followers a parting gift—the last deck of cards he will ever be involved with, the NOC Private Reserve. This limited-edition deck was secretly printed in 2022 for personal use, and now fans have the chance to own it.

A limited number of hand-autographed decks are also available for those looking for an extra-special keepsake. The deck features advanced hot foil printing on the back design, a luxurious 300gsm matte-finish tuck case with 3D embossing, and Thin Crush card stock by USPCC. Available now for $22 on House of Playing Cards.

The Cross (Admiral Angels) Playing Cards

Historical. Martyr. Crown.

The Cross Playing Cards tells the story and influences of Christianity through cards. Designed by Peter Voth in collaboration with Riffle Shuffle the Admiral Angels edition comes in a blue colorway and prominently features the giant cross in the center with a giant crown sitting on top of it.

The back design of the cards mirrors that from the tuck featuring Angels, the Lamb of God, and the Lion of Judah. The artwork will be printed with gold metallic ink on the blue background. The Court cards feature historical figures that had rested in peace for their beliefs – grouped as the Modern Martyrs, the statues seen in the Westminster Abbey Gallery of the Great West Door.

The Aces show the symbols of the four evangelists who chronicled the story of Jesus Christ in the Gospels books in the Bible, while the Jokers featured an identical illustration of the legend of St. George and the Dragon, a scene where the knight bearing the cross symbol slaying a dragon with a long spear

Printed by TWPCC on the Luxury Finish and available for $15 from Riffle Shuffle.

Joker and the Thief: Crown Edition Playing Cards on Kickstarter

The team at Joker and the Thief (J&T) continues to captivate with the release of the new J&T Crown Edition playing cards. Only a few more days on Kickstarter, this new deck series is a perfect blend of practicality and artistry designed by Pedro Oyarbide.

The design of the J&T Crown card backs draws inspiration from the wisdom of ancient philosophies, with a special focus on stoicism – a belief in embracing resilience, finding tranquility, and exploring the profound connection between life and mortality.

The back design features one of our favorite quotes from Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, “Death smiles at us all, and all a man can do is smile back.” This is the ultimate stoic quote – representing strength and impartiality in the face of the guarantee of death. 

The Crown courtcards are a masterstroke! Embracing a minimalist design, they elevate legibility and focus, perfect for card games and mesmerizing magic tricks. This minimalist approach aligns perfectly with stoic philosophy, emphasizing the essence and shedding the superfluous.

The Ace of Spades sports the iconic Joker and the Thief motif and it serves as a potent reminder to cherish life’s precious moments and live in the present. Encircled by thorny vines and crowned with scales, this powerful symbol signifies the balance needed to lead a purposeful and fulfilled existence. And that’s not all – it challenges the traditional symbolism of the Ace of Spades, urging us to embrace life rather than fear death. A true representation of stoicism’s wisdom in a single card!

Three main versions are made available during the campaign, red, blue and luxury. The red and blue versions of the Crown deck will sport packaging that will feature beautiful ink printing on premium paper stock and comes with embossing where you will be able to feel the texture of the art work. 

The Limited Luxury Edition of Crown Playing Cards is a rare gem you won’t want to miss. The premium black paper stock, satin gold foil, and elaborate embossing evoke the highest order of sophistication. And with only 500 decks available, each adorned with a unique numbered seal.

Pledge starts at $17 on Kickstarter. Don’t miss out!

Deck View: Tulip (White Edition) Playing Cards

Dutch. Custom. Historical.

The White Tulip playing cards is the 3rd installment in the Tulip Delft Blue series by the Dutch Card House Company. This custom-designed deck features the renowned Delft Blue colors with the Tulip as the centerpiece. 

Inside, the faces and numbers spark familiarity and feature customized pips and a font inspired by the old Dutch writing style. Every Ace in the Tulip Playing Cards series is a crown jewel, ready to steal the show while playing, shuffling, or dealing! There are 4 jokers in each deck are designed with the famous Dutch historical architecture in mind, totally in line with the Delft Blue color scheme. They showcase the artwork of the lovely Amsterdam canal houses, the renowned Dutch mills, and bicycles.

The deck is packaged in a matte paper stock tuck box with rich tulip details embossed at the tuck backs. Printed by Legends Playing Card Co. and available now from dutchcardhousecompany.com for $17.

The Cross Playing Cards by Peter Voth on Kickstarter

Adopting religious elements on playing cards might be controversial, yet they can provide beautiful artwork on a stack of small pasteboards. Each religion has its own artworks exploring its cultures and practices of it. In Christianity, the most prominent symbol is the Cross. German graphic designer Peter Voth collaborates with Riffle Shuffle to produce a deck of cards that explores this symbol. The Cross Playing Cards tells the story and influences of the Cross through cards.

There will be three editions of the Cross Playing Cards: Maroon Martyrs, Admiral Angels, and Golden Grace. The color scheme for these editions are red, blue, and gold respectively. The tuck box is using premium matte finish paper stock with premium embossing. The artwork on the box will have metallic foil. 

The front of the tuck box features the giant cross in the center with a giant crown sitting on top of it. There are two angels, each on one side, holding a cross and kneeling to the symbol. There are two sacred animals on the bottom, the lamb on the left and the lion on the right. There are a few phrases in Latin that can be found on the box.

The box has an interior artwork that depicts the sculpture gallery of figures that can be found above the Great West Door of Westminster Abbey in London.

The back design of the cards mirrors that from the back side of the box. It features a giant symmetrical cross in the center surrounded by Angels, the Lamb of God, and the Lion of Judah. There are two bird figures hidden within the detailed artwork: a dove and an eagle. The artwork will be printed with gold metallic ink on the colored background of respective editions. For the Golden Grace Edition, the artwork will be done in gold metallic foil.

The Number cards feature customized pips and customized indices. The index will be using a custom font made for the card design. The suits are saturated with the symbols of the Cross. You can find it in the center of each pip throughout the deck.

The Court cards feature historical figures that had rested in peace for their beliefs – grouped as the Modern Martyrs, the statues seen in the Westminster Abbey Gallery of the Great West Door.

All of the ten characters from the group appeared on the cards, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and St. Maximilian Kolbe. Two extra characters, who are not part of the group yet also martyrs, are added to complete the set. The characters are illustrated as a two-way portrait on top of a medieval church linework.

The Aces show the symbols of the four evangelists who chronicled the story of Jesus Christ in the Gospels books in the Bible. These symbols are signified as creatures prominently seen or mentioned. Ace of Spades featured St. Matthew, symbolized as a winged man or an angel. Ace of Hearts featured St. John, symbolized as an eagle. Ace of Clubs featured St. Mark, symbolized as a winged lion. Ace of Diamonds featured St. Luke, symbolized as a winged ox.

The Jokers featured an identical illustration of the legend of St. George and the Dragon, a scene where the knight bearing the cross symbol slaying a dragon with a long spear. It features in black and the respective color of each edition.

The deck will be printed by TWPCC on the Luxury Finish. Pledge starts at $14 for a single deck on Kickstarter.

Now on Kickstarter, White Tulip Playing Cards

Our friends at the Dutch Card House Company are celebrating their 5th Anniversary! Over the past five years, they have released various brands and decks of playing cards. To celebrate this success, they released a new edition to the Tulip Delft Blue series on Kickstarter.

The White Tulip deck is the 3rd installment in the Tulip Delft Blue series. The custom-designed deck features the renowned Delft Blue colors with the Tulip as the centerpiece. 

The overall design of the back of the White Tulip has the same eye-catching tulips with floral details, placed with ornamentals as seen in the previous editions.  

Inside, the faces and numbers spark familiarity and feature customized pips and a font inspired by the old Dutch writing style. In this edition, they have also added a numeric pointer below the pips to make every card even more unique. Every Ace in the Tulip Playing Cards series is a crown jewel, ready to steal the show while playing, shuffling, or dealing!

There are 4 jokers in each deck are designed with the famous Dutch historical architecture in mind, totally in line with the Delft Blue color scheme. They showcase the artwork of the lovely Amsterdam canal houses, the renowned Dutch mills, and bicycles.

The deck is packaged in a matte paper stock tuck box with rich tulip details embossed at the tuck backs. The box comes alongside a numbered certificate of authenticity signed by the designer, Jannieke van Geet.

Also for collectors, they made a beautiful high-quality rigid Music box to dress up their celebration deck. Opening the box you will hear the famous tune of Tulips from Amsterdam played by a traditional Dutch hurdy-gurdy!

Printed by Legends Playing Card Co. and pledge starts at $8.50 on Kickstarter.

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Deck View: Snake Oil Playing Cards

Snakeskin. Borderless. Elixir.

The Snake Oil Elixir Playing Cards are a nod to the Snake Oil Salesmen and Miracle Elixir Ads from the late 1800's. The deck is meticulously designed by Randy Butterfield of Midnight Cards and produced by The Blue Crown. Inside, the card backs feature a borderless Snakeskin pattern that is subtly asymmetrical in the center area. The semi-custom Face Cards incorporate Arrco Courts and look like they're from the late 1800's. The Ace of Spades includes the Pen & Ink Con Man and Snake drawings. The two unique Jokers complete the look with their Snake Oil Elixir Ad designs. The Snake Oil Elixir Deck is "Guaranteed to Cure all your Cardistry, Magic & Gaming Ailments!".

The tuck box features pen ink drawings of an old-school Con Man/Snake Oil Salesman and a menacing Snake. The overall tuck design is reminiscent of old Snake Oil Elixir Ads, including over-the-top quotes such as "The Greatest Playing Cards on Earth!" and "The Saviour of the Human Race". Printed by the United States Playing Card Co. and utilizes their amazing Magic Finish.

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Alex Pandrea's Red Edition X Deck is Almost GONE!

After releasing the Black Edition X Deck last year, Alex Pandrea has just released the popular deck in striking Red colorway. The OG X deck was initially released for Pandrea's Birthday back in 2017 in a "sample" 100 deck run.

The X Deck is now Alex's go-to-deck for all magic performances. Simple enough to fit his minimal style, yet stylized enough to give it a vibe.

The deck sports a red colorway with playful paint-like X designs on the card backs. The face cards are standard Arrco to give the deck a vintage feel and at the same time maintains familiarity for magic routines and performances. Also, a "Moving X" Gaff Card included and a duplicate Queen of Hearts in every deck for your magic routines.

The deck is printed by the United States Playing Cards Company. The popularity of the X Deck seems to be in full swing by the crazy amount of sales over the last week. According to the email from the Blue Crown,

Checking our inventory - we expect this deck to be in stock for just another few days. 80% already sold out! We are hard at work at the next version, so grab this second edition of this brand now!

Available NOW on houseofplayingcards.com for $15.

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Black Tulip Playing Cards Now on Kickstarter

Almost a year ago the Dutch Card House Company introduced the Dark Blue, Light Blue, and Orange Tulip Playing Cards. A Dutch heritage of luxury playing cards crafted for both cardists and card collector, to salute the most famous Dutch folklore jewel, The Tulip!

Now they are back with a new deck of cards in the series of Tulip Playing Cards to tribute the rarest and difficult to breed Tulip, the Black Tulip! For centuries, Dutch Tulip growers labored to find or breed this exclusive flower. In nature, it is very difficult to breed black varieties! A tulip of this hue is exceedingly rare, and in the Netherlands, where about $150 million worth of tulip bulbs and $100 million in cut tulips are produced a year, the tulip's potential profits are significant, a true Black Tulip will be the absolute masterpiece!

The back of the Black Tulip sports an intense black with symbolic eye-catching Tulip and floral details, placed in an ornamental way to create traditional-looking playing cards. For an extra glamorous look, Metallic Silver Ink accents have been added to several design elements on the back.

Meanwhile, the face cards have been enhanced to fit the overall theme of the deck, this time in a black/white colorway. To give the court cards the attention they deserve, they are also dressed up with the same Silver Metallic Ink used on the card backs.

The pips are customized and for the font, they used an old Dutch writing style. The custom Ace of Spades with Silver Metallic Ink is the crown jewel of the deck.

Like the previous Tulips, the Black Tulip tucks will be embossed and comes adorned in shiny Silver Foil on Black matte paper stock. They tuck has been redesigned and now the back is richly decorated with the embossed Tulip pattern.

The deck will be printed by USPCC on air cushion embossed card finish and currently funding on Kickstarter. For the stretch goal (€ 9000), the Dutch Card House Company will add the Tulip Playing Cards deck with a beautiful aubergine, eggplant color.

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Cardistry: BCA HALO Released!

Best Cardist Alive has just released the BCA HALO on Christmas day. The deck features a striking all-black design featuring the HALO silhouette made out of the BCA crown with the comet tail (similar to the BCA Superstars design). The design element is prominently featured on the tuck and the mirrored card backs with a blue/red/white colorway.

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A post shared by BCA (@bestcardistalive) on Dec 23, 2019 at 12:18pm PST

The face cards are pretty much standard but updated colorway to ensure consistency with the overall color palette of the deck. The Ace of Spades and Jokers are custom. HALO is printed by the USPCC and available on bestcardistalive.com for $10 per deck at launch, $12 per deck after the first 48 hours. Only 2500 printed.

Article originally published on cardistrybeast.com.

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News: Alex Pandrea Releases The Black Edition X Deck

Alex Pandrea has finally released the X Deck after two years. The deck was initially released for Pandrea's Birthday in a "sample" 100 deck run. Not much is known about this deck when it was released as part of the Blue Crown holiday giveaway.

Back in 2017, we asked Alex about the design and the significance of the 3 X's. According to Alex,

This deck was designed to celebrate my 30th birthday. X is 10, and 3 X's is 30 - DUH lol... ALSO, I was born on October 10th (10/10).... and at 10:00 ... so that's another 3 10's. You can see how all this comes together - enough said haha..!

Today, the X Deck is Alex's go-to-deck for ALL magic performances. Simple enough to fit his minimal style, yet stylized enough to give it a vibe. The deck sports a black colorway with playful paint-like X designs on the card backs. The face cards are standard Arrco to give the deck a vintage feel and at the same time maintains familiarity for magic routines and performances.

The deck is printed by the United States Playing Cards Company and is available NOW on houseofplayingcards.com for $15.

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First Look: Check Out the Stunning 2018 NPCCD Playing Cards

For those of you who didn't know, it's National Playing Card Collection Day (NPCCD) today (October 17th)! NPCCD celebrates the collection of one of the oldest forms of portable art (circa 1200s). Playing cards are literal galleries of art and inspiration, showing and communicating the intentions of an artist to the public while also archiving the cultural values of their time. Collecting these art pieces allow us to be curators of our own galleries to display representing different checkpoints in time. These collections can be seen as extensions of the collector and this day is a time to celebrate and share their collections to the public.

To celebrate this special day, Alex Chin has released the 2018 Official NPCCD Deck. The deck was first unveiled during the 52 Plus Joker Convention in Cleaveland, Ohio. On the design inspiration, Alex said,

The design started with the initial sketches that led me to play around with the classic Vase or Face illusion that deals with foreground and background perception. From there the design theme got further entrenched into the idea of playing with perspective on a level that we have not yet seen before in the card world. I wanted to create something TRULY special that others haven’t seen before and ended up creating the 2018 NPCCD series featuring the world’s first light filter deck that literally changes design based on the box that you receive.

The theme of the series is about PERSPECTIVE and what we see. Since the holiday is about sharing with the world how we see cards as art, Alex created a piece that displayed that sentiment. The result is a truly remarkable deck that literally changes your perspective based on the filter each person sees noting that we can see the same design differently based on these filters.

The deck is fully custom and meticulously designed. The back design features a mobius strip that reveals a sphere of 2 heads. Inside the head of one person is the exterior head of another represented by different colors. Small suit symbols hide in them and are revealed to show what they are thinking about which change based on which “reality box” you use. There is a crown above each head and a line of chess pieces that head the top and bottom of the card. They are interspliced with one another to mimic columns.

The Aces is meant to blend the lines where the box stops and the cards begin. It shows through the front facing window. Each bulb of the club holds a different chess piece. In total it holds 6 different chess pieces but will only show specific ones based on which reality it is in. The red filter boxes will show the King while the blue filter boxes feature the Queen.

The beautiful tuck box features gold and silver intaglio engraving onto astral pearl stock that exudes a feeling of luxury. Each box contains 2 large die-cut windows featuring either a red or blue “worldview” that shows the deck inside. According to Alex,

The color of this window is what determines the design of your deck. The tuck flap is a side loading custom die that is shaped like the famous ribbon face. It is part of the innovative “kinetic diecut window” I designed which allows the diecut to change shape through layering. The opened window shows more information on the cards. When closed it completes the illusion of a pawn chess piece between the faces.

There are 6 different decks! Each one represented by a different chess piece shown on the back. 2 decks feature all red filter box. 2 decks feature all blue filter box. 2 decks feature a mix of one red and one blue filter on the box.

The white and black decks are hand gilded in red, blue, and holographic. Only 500 of each deck is run. Orders are mystery deck. You don’t know what color you will get. There will be a Special Supporter pricing for the first 48 hours. Head to NationalCardCollectionDay.com on October 17th to cop these stunning decks. Don't miss out!