Issue #34 of Kardify Magazine is Here!

Issue #34 of Kardify Magazine is now on Patreon! Patrons who pledged $3 or more on will be able to download the latest issue from our Patreon page. Issue #34 compiles selected articles published from mid-February to mid-March. Deck images, articles, and news to keep you informed and up-to-date with the latest playing card news, releases, and previews. If you love playing cards, you will love Kardify Magazine! 

Also, don't forget to check out our other cool 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:

+ Black Dot: A detailed look at Anyone's highly sought-after Black Dot Playing Cards crafted for Cardistry... sold out in less than 3 hours.

+ Trident & Sword:  Kevin Yu's latest deck with eye-catching tucks smashes its funding goal on Kickstarter! Check it out....

+ Chocolate Pi: The second deck in the Kings Wild Pi Slice series comes with a new fresh chocolate color scheme.

+ The House of Magic & Cardistry: A look inside Cartamundi's EPIC night for the cardistry and magic community in NYC to celebrate the recent acquisition of the USPCC.

+ Italia Divina: Find out more about Thirdway Industries' new deck that merges travel guides and playing cards.

+ The Three Stooges Deck: A cool collab between Whispering Imps Production and Kings Wild Project, over a year in the making.

+ Arcadia Signature Edition: Find out more about the latest deck by Christian Ellingstad, a follow-up to the Arcadia deck series.

+ Aristo Steampunk:  A fully custom deck inspired by XIX century industrial steam-powered machinery and the American "Wild West" sci-fi world.

… and more! 56 pages of articles and deck images. Enjoy!

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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The Legend Continues With The New Vintage Chicken Nugget

Hanson Chien is back with another rendition of the legendary Jerry's Nugget playing cards. Hanson and his team recreated a deck of cards that resembles the little-known rare Vintage Jerry's Nugget as closely as possible.

According to Hanson,

Years ago, I acquired the Vintage Jerry's Nugget produced by the renowned playing cards company ARRCO - from collectors River and Aiji. I was skeptical at first, so I contacted Lee Asher, Jerry's Nugget expert, to conduct joint research. After detailed research, we concluded that in terms of its art and design details, this deck is identical to the chips and merchandise for Jerry's Nugget Casino when it opened in 1964, meaning that this is a genuine deck!

To perfectly replicate the design and quality of the Vintage Jerry's Nugget, Hanson spent 3 years developing a lighter and thinner paper stock. Also, optimize the coating formula for the deck to rectify the problem of fading on the first-generation red Chicken Nugget Playing Cards. In addition, he researched the design style of the 1964 deck to remaster every detail of the Vintage Jerry's Nugget.

The Chicken Nugget is a hilarious homage to the classic deck. From the 1964 ARRCO Ace of Spades and Joker to the tax stamp and red security tear-strip, Vintage Chicken Nugget Playing Cards is as close match to the original as you can get. Like the previous Chicken Nugget release, the court cards feature a collection of junk-food-junkies devouring fast foods!

Two colorways are on offer- the classic blue and green color schemes, which closely matches the Vintage Jerry's Nugget. What surprises me the most is the handling of the deck. Feels and handles INCREDIBLE. The samples we received are snappy, light, and thin. Definitely a cool deck for cardistry!

Printed by Hanson Chien Production Company on a brand-new paper stock called "Vintage Stock" with "legendary finish" resulting in a glossy surface with the right stickiness for smooth fanning without falling apart.

Available NOW for pre-order on chickennuggetcards.com for $15 for a single deck.

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Deck View: Sensory (White Edition) Playing Cards

Bold. Visual. Stylish.

White Sensory Playing Cards is a collaborative deck between Lunzi and TCC Playing Cards. Lunzi, a popular cardist from China, well known for his smooth and aesthetically pleasing style of flourish. The White Sensory deck visually compliment his smooth moves with contrasting white/black colorway. Fully custom, the faces, the suits, and the pips have been redesigned and rearranged. The linework design elements are used on the card backs, courts and tuck box.

The negative space is emphasized by the bold linework. Lunzi crafted the deck with lines and extensions in all directions, giving it personality yet keeping it simple and powerful. Hence, different movements and displays such as fans or spreads will create different combinations of lines- changeable but unified!

Printed by USPCC on high-quality paper with Crushed stock, which gives the decks a thin, light, and smooth handling. .

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