Issue #67 of Kardify Magazine Now on Patreon

Issue 67 of Kardify Magazine is available now on Patreon! Patrons who pledged $3 or more will be able to download the latest issue from our Patreon page. This issue compiles selected articles published from mid-November to mid-December. 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 tiers include monthly desktop and smartphone wallpapers, a mystery deck shipped to you every 4 months of ongoing contributions, 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 bring new quality content to you. Our aim is to support designers by backing crowdfunded 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:   

+ Singularity: Have a glimpse into a futuristic post-singularity world where AI dominates with the World’s first AI-generated playing cards by Red Black Inc.

+ Batman The Dark Knight: Theory11 with another EPIC movie collab deck! Check out The Batman Dark Knight playing cards released during this year’s Black Friday event.

+ RX Almanac: This new deck by Meadowlark Pharmacy continues the pharmacy theme and is designed to look like a vintage pharmacy almanac of the mid-1900s. Check it out!

+ Sushi Cats: An interesting Kickstarter project about sushi and cute cats by Hyuga, and Mijiko.

+ Black Panther: In conjunction with the release of Marvel’s latest movie, Card Mafia has released Black Panter Playing Cards with a one-of-a-kind tuck box featuring Black Panther’s Helmet. Learn more!

+ Red Devotion: Thirdway Industries launched this special deck for this year’s Black Friday to test the loyalty of their followers. 

+ Mantecore V3: The follow-up to the bold Mantecore decks designed by Edo Huang and Benjamin Loo inspired by their love for this majestic beast. Find out more!

+ Tetra:  Have a look at the fascinating deck by Taiwan-based cardistry group LotusinHand, crafted specifically for the art of card flourishing.

… and more! 52 pages of articles and deck images. Enjoy!

Deck View: Snowman Factory Playing Cards

Mechanical. Structure. Snowman.

Snowman Factory playing cards is a unique deck by the Bocopo playing card company. This fun deck comes in a blue colorway with metallic blue accents and showcases a cool machine-like outer tuck box with an internal mechanical-like structure as the tuck box. The front of the outer tuck features “Mr. Elk”, and the back is the power furnace of the snowman.

Inside, the card back depicts a precision mechanical structure that spreads around the center of the snowflake pattern. This complex and symmetrical design style pays tribute to the most traditional classic back. As for the face cards, the courts are portrayed by the employees from the snowman factory that maintains the day-to-day operation of the factory.

Available now from vanishingincmagic.com for $20.

Top 5 Cardistry Playing Cards of 2022

Here we go! We’ve compiled our favorite decks for 2022 right here. To kick things off, this will be the first of four articles counting down to our Deck of the Year in the following weeks. If you think we’ve missed your favorite cardistry playing cards, let us know in the comment section below.

Note that the selection expressed in this top 5 are solely those of the author and the list is in no particular order.

Holographic Error

Dealersgrip‘s ERROR deck embraces mistakes and explores the ambivalent relationship between failure and creativity. This fully custom cardistry deck sports sharp graphics and typography fuses with sleek abstract imagery with stunning holographic design on the face cards and back

Cardsicles

This year, Organic Playing Cards has expanded into food as a brand! The refreshing Cardsicles come in a bag with 1 deck, one OPC branded popsicle, and a card to stick on the tuck box to make YOUR OWN POPSICLE!  This semi-custom deck follows the usual OPC theme with a fun yet simple back design, creative tuck box, and slightly custom court cards! Like other OPC decks, each royal is doing something popsicle-related.

Thermo Solids

This mind-blowing deck by Lotus in Hand is printed with thermochromic ink, a type of dye that changes color when temperatures increase or decrease. The heat-sensitive card back can be seen changing color from black to lime green when fingers or hand contacts the deck. The face cards are pretty much standard and the pips and indices come with a lime green colorway.

Fulton Street MTA

Produced by Fulton Playing Cards in collaboration with the MTA, the Fulton Street deck is a love letter to the amazing graphic design of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Inside, the deck feature completely custom back, courts, and pips designs that celebrate the now legendary signage of the most frequented transit system in the USA. By “cropping into” the curves so eloquently designed by Vignelli, these cards provide a dynamic back design that encapsulates the kinetic energy of transit in The Big Apple.

Victory

Joker and the Thief’s Victory playing cards are crafted for those who seek Victory, in any endeavor. This stunning deck comes with an embossed tuck box with letterpress inks and foil both interior and exterior. The borderless card back comes with a repeated JT logo design with metallic inks. The court cards are modeled in classics to create a distressed vibe associated with the brand.

Note that the selection expressed in this top 5 are solely those of the author and the list is in no particular order.

The Official NASA Worm Playing Cards

Fulton’s Playing Cards continue to surprise with another EPIC collaboration, this time with NASA. The NASA Playing Cards celebrate the beginning of “The Worm” Logotype and feature completely custom cards and court cards using actual graphics from the appropriate era.

This deck tells the story of the changing logotype of NASA from “the meatball” to the invigorating graphics package delivered by Danne & Blackburn to usher in a whole new graphical era of the US Space Program.

The deck showcase a one-way back design with the NASA logotype prominently features. The face cards come with updated pips and custom court cards, joker, and Ace of Spades. The deck is kept secured in a tuck box featuring metallic silver paper and foil-embossed NASA Logotype.

Printed entirely in The USA. These are the only current American Made NASA Playing Cards. Available NOW on fultonsplayingcards.com for $18.