It's very easy to tell versions on Artifice decks.
First edition was blue and red. Red was a rare limited-edition deck, only 5000 printed. Both have BLACK BORDERS.
Second edition was blue and green. Neither was rare. Both have WHITE BORDERS. The change was due to complaints from magicians about how a card with a black border on the back and a white face could be spotted in the middle of the deck when flipped over, thus limiting the deck's use for certain tricks. Collectors groused, saying the black-bordered version looked nicer aesthetically, though as with any black-bordered, USPC-made card, it shows edge-chipping after only a little use. Since collectors sometimes don't even use their cards, they didn't seem to care about that much!
Then there came the "second edition" purple decks with black borders. They held a Facebook survey asking which was the next color people most wanted to see. Purple was chosen, but a small number of the respondents also said they'd want to see it with black borders. For some bizarre reason, the powers that be at E took this as a mandate from the people and made the purple deck black-bordered, making it forever mismatched from the other second edition decks.
After that came the "Tundra" deck (combining Artifice with the design aesthetic of the Bicycle Ghost deck) with white borders and the Black deck (for Black Club members only) with black borders.
The final deck was Artifice Gold, also made only for Black Club members if I remember correctly - it was black-bordered and had a matte-finish box with gold foil.
For the purposes of performing, the best ones to get would be the blue, green and Tundra - they will look better for longer and they're the deck colors included in "The Gaff System," a gaff card deck and video created for the series. In addition, Daniel Madison's "Angle Z" trick has refills available in I think blue and green Artifice, possibly also white (I'm not sure as I've never ordered the refill, but it is pictured in blue and green).
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