Have they produced any other cards?

RE Handcrafted sounds very familiar, but i clicked on playing cards and Victoria is the only one they show.

As far as Deckstarter - anything is possible.  They never stated how many were made in the first place.  They rarely do.

Did they not claim there were like only 500 or so in the initial stage, which resulted in a big hoo haa afterwards? Of course i do not believe that only 500 were made, but at least that was what was mentioned.

So apart from the initial 500, the "new" decks could very well be a reprint.

It does seem that D&D keeps re-using leftover decks for their variety boxes. In a way, it is their method to balance out their cost and the "value" of the box as well as to clear non-moving decks.

But comparatively, this box seems like a better deal compared to some of their previous ones. And since i have not bought any D&D boxes in awhile, there are some decks in there that i could get. It is worth considering for me...and i believe that's how D&D gets some of their customers...

I actually like this one.  This guy did his homework and it's a very fresh take on typographical decks.  I like it.

I'll have to look into my finances, but this might be a keeper.

Really? I can't stand it. LOL.
The deck seems too messy for my liking. I actually wonder if there is any meaning to the texts behind or just some random lines. If it is random, i thought it would be better to use "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog".

They're not even "playing cards" - more like "playing slabs," except perhaps in China, where I'm told that the same word is used for both "card" and "tile."  Y'know, like mah-jongg tiles...

I'm guessing that the word you are looking at is 牌. From what i understand, the word 牌(pai) is used mainly for gaming purposes, where as 卡(ka) is more for credit cards, membership cards etc..and name cards are another word altogether. Mahjong, is regarded as a "card game" although they use tiles, thus the same usage of 牌. I do not think it is wrong to say 扑克卡, which directly translates to Poker Cards, but the more common tongue is to use 牌.

Just FYI. I may be wrong too, but just to the best of my knowledge.

Anyway, back to the cards, i am guessing if you look at it as a "toy" or something that "builds structures" then it may be slightly more reasonable than looking at it as a deck of cards, like lego or something. Definitely a novelty, but also definitely a pass for me.

Personally, i think this is a horrible deck.

The back is boring and ugly. The Logo or motif or whatever really is nothing special. It looks bad when fanned because of the little white extension of the logo. And the rest of the deck? Well...it's just a normal deck.

Heck, i would buy fontaines over this anytime.

Quote from: PurpleIce on March 26, 2015, 12:26:26 AM

You could always consider combined shipping from forwarders since most KS projects offer free domestic shipping within US. You still have to pay, but it saves quite a bit.

which forwarders do you use? if I may ask.. 
are they reliable? I mean will the item get damaged?

I did quite a lot of research back then, but i seriously cant remember all of them
(just a quick google search came up with shipito, myus, ship2me. and this --> http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/11/australia-post-has-launched-a-us-freight-forwarding-service/) I did not read any of this, just a glimpse, so please do check it out yourself.

I did search quite a few, but i ended using the one from my local post office, where i will ship to their warehouse in the US with free storage for a month.
After that, i will ship back the whole lot, and do save on quite a considerable sum to be honest. Only reason why i chose this was that they have a lot of credit card promotions or monthly promotions that offer additional 10-30% discount, and in turn, more savings for me.

I do not do repacking, so as long as the retailer packs the cards well enough, there shouldn't be too much issue. If it happens that you do get damaged decks, just inform the retailer and i believe they will ask you to send photographic evidence and they will replace it. I personally do not recommend repacking as i feel the packers do not understand how delicate the cards are, as to them, it is just a deck of cards. But ultimately, it is your choice. Go source around and see which suits to your needs the best.

Cheers.

PurpleIce's letter from E is very disappointing on a number of levels.
3) We just learned that there's YET ANOTHER MADISON DECK COMING!!  Will they not be happy until the forests are turned to deserts and piles of Madison decks cover the landscape, so large they can be seen from space?  Do they work with ANYONE ELSE to make their decks?

This is the most disappointing one actually...LOL

To give my personal opinion on BC. I am getting it for the BC-members only deck. I sell them and make a profit and i recover whatever i spend on BC. Not a fool-proof way, but so far i am getting by it. The additional BC discount for decks that i sell also helps out in a certain way. And while i make no use of it. I am sure magicians-to-be will be pleased with the free downloads they can get as well.

If you are considering joining BC just for their free decks, then quite frankly it is no where near worth the cost of the membership. My advice is don't join just for the sake of being a member of the BC. Only join if you think it is worth it. I strongly believe E has no shortage of members and certainly will not make it so much better just because one of us decides not to join.

Quote from: PurpleIce on March 26, 2015, 12:20:41 AM

I have no idea what are you expecting out of the tuck of this deck, even if it were to be produced by LPCC or EPCC? I certainly hope you are not expecting a metal tuck case. I also do not know why would you buy it for the "metal" tuck, if you are expecting the "metal" tuck to be disappointing.

I hope I didn't offend you in any way. No, I of course wasn't expecting a metal tuck, lol. I was hoping to tell what I believed the tuck was going to look like, and also mention that I believe EPCC could have also made an interesting version of this, maybe making it a steel "pearlescent" style tuck (just an idea). Also, I didn't think the tuck or the deck was disappointing. Though it isn't anything special, I did think it would make an interesting deck. Of course, there is much more to a deck than the case. I guess my wording didn't make this very clear.

Also, another Madison deck? Why?...

Hi Sterph,

Just like to make a mention. No, you did not offend me in anyway. We are all entitled to our own opinions, and i'm sorry if it may seem that i come off hard. (btw, a few buyers are already asking me if the cards are made of metal. So...you can never predict what people think)

I'm just wondering what you were expecting, as i do not believe either EPCC or LPCC would go for anything high end for that kind of price point for the tuck, similar to the case of steelers now. I believe all 3 companies are capable of doing a better job, just not for what i would consider a normal deck (despite E claiming it is limited or rare).

So, no ill intentions in anyway. Cheers.

Ill put my 2cents on this...

We are not the market targeted by the Madison decks.... Thats why we think "pppfff Another Madison deck"

But in reality the market for this deck its the younger magicians who dig Madison's persona and will buy whatever he  throws at them.

This, i personally agree. I am very sure we are just a very small group to E. There are many magicians wannabe, younger magicians or just the general public out there that probably love Madison and can't wait to see another Madison deck.

It is only right for E to go for what they think is most profitable to them.

Either that or E can't find any better designers, and wants Madison to earn his keep. 

I did question E about the free deck and this is what i get after customer service send my feedback to "someone". I believe i was not the only one asking as well.

Hey Black Club, we've had a few questions on our social media regarding the whereabouts of your FREE Steel deck.
As a member of our Black Club you're entitled to 1 free deck on every general release. This excludes rare decks.
The STEEL deck is a rare deck and will never be re-printed, and unfortunately doesn't come with Black Club membership.

What do you guys mean by 'rare' deck?
 A rare deck is a 10,000 or fewer print-run of cards (usually only 5,000 or 2,500). It takes our characteristic designs and ensures you get the quality and exclusivity that you expect from Ellusionist.

But ... I got Lions Den, and they were rare?
To introduce our Black Club members to the Madison presents line, we decided to give Lions Den cards away for FREE, as a gesture of goodwill for signing up for Black Club and sticking with us for the incredible 2015 we've got planned for you.

We knew we had other decks coming up, and we didn't want to keep you waiting....

Coming soon, we've got some incredible releases for you, and you'll be the first to know. We apologize for any confusion on this, and we hope for those that managed to pick-up a brick of the new steel deck, that you'll enjoy them as much we do.

Your next FREE deck

Okay, so we didn't want to spoil this, but our 3rd deck in the Madison presents series is probably our favourite so far. It smashes the rules on deck design and puts the rumours to bed. They should be in your hands in 2 weeks or less.

Somewhere in this email is a clue to the name of the next deck (as well as the image). We're so pumped about these, and we can't wait for you to get your hands on them.

The membership is $150 and you get a free gift (a artifice black and some bracelet thing), they shipped the free gift and labelled it with a value of $150 which I had to pay customs on the full amount of. That in itself is ridiculous because the $150 was supposedly for the membership.

Now they've released their first deck since I joined (more on that in a moment) I almost guarantee that I'll be paying more customs duty if I choose to take it for 'free' as per the black club member deal. So after paying $150 to get all the decks for free I have paid a massive import duty on a black artifice deck and will end up paying effectively double on any of the 'free' decks I get. They will probably cost more in this way that if I just bought them outright.

Like what you said, the $150 is for the membership and the rest are free gifts along with it. Have you wrote to E about this issue? Not that i actually think they would refund you, but perhaps they could do something to make it up to you in other ways.

To the topic of the Steelers deck, this is definitely not a performace deck. I'm guessing the best it would do is sit in a collection reflecting light. The reason I bought it was for the "metal" tuck, but to be honest, I don't think that will be such high quality. Knowing E, it will just be a foil tuck, with a bit of metallic pixel shading to give the "smoothed metal" look. If such a deck had been produced by LPCC or EPCC I would have jumped on it with much more enthusiasm. I hope I'll be pleasantly surprised, but I doubt it.

I have no idea what are you expecting out of the tuck of this deck, even if it were to be produced by LPCC or EPCC? I certainly hope you are not expecting a metal tuck case. I also do not know why would you buy it for the "metal" tuck, if you are expecting the "metal" tuck to be disappointing.

I am sure design wise, it is a disappointing deck to most of us who have been collecting for some time and have seen the great works of other designers. I also agree it is about time Madison took a breather instead of probably trying to hit a quota on the number of decks to be produced. But then again, metal (or textured decks) are very popular among newbies and the layman who knows nothing about cards. Metal rider backs by Max sold well for me, many to collectors, but twice as many to people who probably owns this as their first deck getting it only because of the texturized look. In no way am i comparing the designs of these 2 decks, but i have a feeling a lot of people will be interested in these.

Like what Don always say, we are, but only a small part of the card community.

Wow.  Where to begin?

Bicycle logo shown in a manner which USPC will likely reject?  Check.
Overly-baroque back design?  Check.
Faux-aged paper look, just because they can?  Check.
Incredibly over-designed pips and indices?  Check.
Said pips being all the same color except for the indices?  Check.
Plague doctors as jokers for no special reason?  Check.
3-D Computer-generated court characters???  What the what???  That is just nucking futs!


The most original concept in the entire design is the least-likeable - computer-generated courts in an "old-timey" aged deck!  Everything else looks like borrowed concepts from first- and second-tier designs made by others.  The courts appear exactly like extras from a Renaissance Faire - right clothing, but a modern appearance otherwise, including the Queens' hairstyles - and COMPUTER-GENERATED IN THREE DIMENSIONS.  And the eyes - all dull and lifeless!  In drawing a playing card, it's the hands that are difficult to make well - in comp-gen art like this, it's the eyes.


I have nothing against computers as creative tools, but something about 3-D art like this doesn't work well.  Countless low-budget animators and comic book artists tried 3-D but the people always looked a little too unreal, a little too phony - when was the last time you saw a new 3-D comp-gen comic or cartoon, especially one that didn't look like crap?


Wanna look baroque?  Go baroque!  Wanna look high-tech a la the 1990s?  Go high-tech a la the 1990s!  Going both directions at once is too much of a stretch.

I agree. Too much going on in this deck and not in a very good way.

I am curious though...

"Bicycle logo shown in a manner which USPC will likely reject?"

Why so?

Probably one of the few artist where i get every uncut sheet in the series. Really nice deck with lots of creativity behind, including what he has done to the courts recently.

Wow...that is a lot in one deck....

How about a Pirate Cowboy Viking Ninja Cthulhu Steampunk Zombie Robot Circus Elves Orcs Devil Ghost Deck?

One for each number. 

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