Cardistry: 3 Questions with Ryszard Blaszczyk of Cloud9 Playing Cards

Cloud9 Playing Cards is an intriguing deck by young Polish magician, Ryszard Blaszczyk currently funding on Kickstarter. Magic is always his biggest passion and he carries at least one deck with him everywhere he goes. Ryszard told Kardify,

I can’t imagine myself leaving the house without them. I’ve always been into magic and cardistry, so a few years ago we decided to form a business and start producing cards we love. For us, it was always about producing something really special; something different.

Cloud9 was designed to give you an amazing experience for magic and cardistry. The deck features custom faces, unique back design, cool balloon aces, and playful pips. All in vibrant blue and rose colorway.

What is your inspiration behind the Cloud9 Playing Cards How did you come up with the idea?
I was walking down the beach with my sister's lovely labradors and I stopped to lay on the sand for a while. Chill a little... So I started thinking about the design. I looked up and what I saw was just a blue sky. It was perfection - only two beautiful clouds, pure and white drifting away... It was almost like a painting, I thought "damn, that's it, we got it!"

Now when you see our cards, it's easy to feel that way. Imagine laying on the beach... feeling the warm sand between your feet and dreaming... Feels like being on a Cloud 9, doesn’t it?

We first noticed the deck on Instagram. What do you think of the playing card community in terms of the feedback and support that you’ve been getting so far?
I have been involved in the magic/cardistry/art community for a long time now. I always loved the idea of creating something for people, a piece of art that is useable to do everyday miracles. I still can’t believe that it got such a good response, it’s absolutely amazing. We had a lot of support, more than we could ever expect. If it weren’t for all our friends and supporters, Cloud 9 would still just be a dream, with me lying on the beach, looking for ideas!

Finally, what are your favorite flourish and playing card decks?
That’s a very good question, one of my favorite subjects! I will have to hold myself back a little to not turn the answer into a book! I'll limit it to flourishes that I can perform and playing cards that I own. One of my absolute favorites moves is Anaconda, it looks amazing in slow motion and it shocks every time. Giant spring, as well as various Z type cuts are an awesome way to show your skills.

With playing cards, I love Memento Mori and Knights created by Chris Ramsay and friends. Virtuoso handle perfect for cardistry, as well my latest purchase, Art & Machine; beautiful art. I also really love Orbits, as it was these cards that convinced me to go with crushed Bee stock. They handle like a dream!

If you want to support Ryszard and Cloud9 Playing Cards, head to Kickstarter here! Pledge starts at $13 and the deck will be printed by the USPCC on Classic Stock with Air-Cushion Finish.

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Card Flash: Betrayers Playing Cards

Wow! Another incredible deck series by Italian designer Giovanni Meroni! The decks arrived last month and were originally funded on Kickstarter in under 24 hours with over €36k raised in 2018.

What makes Betrayers different is flat design style and bold color schemes giving the illusion of 3D. Fans of Giovanni will notice that the artwork of Betrayers is a departure from his usual style.

All four decks are gorgeous! Betrayers Lucis, Tenebra and Veritas, in particular, are vibrant, colorful and thought-provoking, which add to the appeal and character of the decks. Giovanni loves to add small custom details to his artworks, so there is a lot to discover.

Betrayers Invictus is the Limited Edition deck from the campaign. The deck comes with beautiful metallic ink on face cards and the backs and kept secured on a STUNNING gold foiled black tuck box.

What impressed me the most is that everything is completely different for each deck- the tuck boxes, color palette, card back and face cards. Giovanni spent a lot of time and effort producing Betrayers and the quality results shows.

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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News: We Just Released Issue #23 of Kardify Magazine

We just dropped the latest issue of Kardify Magazine on Patreon for our Patrons who pledge $3 or more on our Patreon page. Issue #23 compiles selected articles we’ve published from mid-March to mid-April. The goal is to help you stay on top of the latest playing card news, releases and previews.

Also, don't forget to check out our new reward tiers on Patreon! The new tiers include monthly desktop and smartphone wallpapers, mystery deck shipped to you every 4 months of ongoing contribution, social media shout-outs, and multiple sponsorship tiers! Check it out!

Funds received from the magazine will help us keep the site running and growing, and bringing new quality content to you. Our aim is to support designers by backing on crowd-funded projects and supporting magic and playing cards retailers with their new releases. If you want to support us, please head over to our Patreon page. If you have an idea for an article you would like us to pursue, do get in contact with us. We hope you enjoy the read. In this issue:

+ Standards: The stunning new collab deck by Art of Play & Kevin Cantrell inspired by 19th-century British opulence.

+ Equinox II: Designed by Jackson Robinson, have a look at the striking fully custom deck in teal colorway.

+ Odyssey NOVA: Have a look at the evolution of the popular series by Sergio Roca from First Edition to NOVA.

+ The Parlour: Find out more about the latest deck by Stockhom17 in collaboration with the Gentleman Wake currently 300% funded on Kickstarter.

+ Butterfly Prototypes: 3 new prototype decks printed by Cartamundi in stunning gold and silver foil. Check it out!

+ AXIAL: The first deck by Paris-based NOT A_ Company. The art deck features many unique design elements that will open up ideas for aspiring deck designers.

+ Peelers v2: Check out the follow-up to the surprise hit of 2018. This time, in eye-catching read colorway!

+ Silk Blue Edition: The follow-up to the spectacular and luxurious Red Silk Playing Cards with fully custom foil cards!

… and more! 45 pages of articles and deck images. Enjoy!