First Look: The Blue Crown's Snake Oil Elixir Playing Cards by Randy Butterfield

[Update] Available now from midnightcards.com.

Come one, come all!!! Gather around to see the cure for what ails you! 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.

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".



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!".

Printed by the United States Playing Card Co. and utilizes their amazing Magic Finish. Available from midnightcards.com on May 4th.

[Update] Available now from midnightcards.com.

Deal of the Week: COPAG 310 Playing Cards for $3.85 from MJM Magic

MJM Magic is having a flash sale with 50% off over 500 items, including playing cards, magic, accessories and more! One of the items that caught our eyes is the COPAG 310 deck for $3.85 (usually $5)! COPAG 310 is developed by Cartamundi with expert players, artists and magicians for over two years. The exclusive True Linen B9 Finish of the COPAG 310 deck made this deck highly sought after due to its supreme handling and longevity with a very affordable price. Check it out here! Deal ends 6th May 2018.

Discover more deals, coupon codes and offer on tuckcase.com

Contest: WIN a Deck of Playing Cards from Art of Play

In conjunction with our Deck Discovery feature on Art of Play's blog, we are giving you a chance to win a deck from our friends at Art of Play. Each month, followers on Instagram will be presented with two choices from 4 categories: tuck box, card backs, Ace of Spades and courts. From the result of the poll, we will then painstakingly scoured Art of Play's extensive catalog of playing cards to find a deck that meets the criteria for review.

This month, we are giving you a chance to WIN a deck from Art of Play if you can guess which deck from Art of Play's store we will pick for based on the latest Deck Discovery poll. Head over to our Instagram account (@kardify) and make your pick for a chance to win! Contest closes 4th May.

Kickstarter: Voodoo Playing Cards by SpielKartenShop and DOSEprod

Voodoo Playing Cards is a collaboration between Sven Philipp of SpielKartenShop.com and Sam Hayles aka DOSEprod (Instagram: @DOSEprod). For those of you who are familiar with the work of visual artist Sam Hayles, you will notice that he has a thing for skulls and you will see in his design a lot of inspiration from esotericism to punk, bizarre to gothic, apocalyptic to elegant and all the bizarre things and elements from our strange world.

For this deck, he was commissioned by Spielkartenshop who asked him to design a custom deck using the Voodoo theme. On the inspiration, Sam told Kardify,

I was very excited about this theme and it was very inspiring. I remember seeing and loving the movie ‘Angel Heart’ with Robert De Niro and Mickey Rourke back in 1987 which is set in New Orleans and is related to black magic and voodoo. Of course I had to dig out my old DVD and watch it again before getting started working on this project!

Sam did a lot of research online about voodoo and the symbols and designs related to that world and also the rituals and black magic and he then used the inspiration he had found in the designs.

You will find a lot of symbols hidden in the artwork and references to the world of voodoo. For example, you will find the voodoo symbol of Baron Samedi, Patron of dead and black magic on one of the cards. He is perhaps the best-known Loa of the Vodou pantheon. Baron Samedi is often portrayed as wearing a black top hat which inspired me to do the skulls wearing one in the designs of the Voodoo deck.

Sam continued,

I also used chicken feet in the designs because for those of you who are not familiar with how chicken feet are used in magic: Chicken feet are used in arts of Voodoo as a Charm for a powerful form of protection. 

Nice touch! For the cards, Sam chose to use the sepia and old paper and grungy textures because that’s the style he loves and use the most and again fitted very well with the overall theme and style of graphics...

and also very DOSEprod style!

The deck will be printed by Cartamundi on their amazing True Linen B9 Finish. Available now on Kickstarter for €11.