A more accurate description for this poll would be "Standard" or Magic. "Air Cushion" is little more than textured stock and not an actual finish (at least not any more). They kept the name for marketing purposes. There's no difference in finish between Bicycle's Air Cushion, Tally Ho's Linoid, Bee's Cambric, Aristocrat's Linen, etc. At one time, yes, there was, but no longer. USPC only offers Standard and Magic, while a third finish is being tested on selected Vortex decks.
I like Standard Finish, but Magic Finish has an excellent glide to it - even after using it for a while, I find it slips better than a Standard Finish deck of the same age/usage.
BTW: you should consider expanding the poll to include the following:
Standard Finish on a textured stock
Standard Finish on a smooth stock
Magic Finish on a textured stock
Magic Finish on a smooth stock
So far, there's exactly one smooth-stock deck on the market with Magic Finish, and that's CARC's most recent Bee deck printed in black with silver with "Ivory" finish. They kept the name because they preferred the traditional Bee finish names, but both the textured and smooth versions of that deck used Magic Finish to compensate for the handling issues that can occur with the metallic ink on the deck. That deck's a really nice performer, and as much as I love textured stocks, I still have a soft spot for their oft-neglected brothers, the smooth stocks.
Oh believe me, I understand the difference very well. Actually, to stay consistent with USPC's own terms, "magic finish" would have to be renamed "magic coating", the term "finish" itself usually refering to the texture(air cushion VS smooth). The reason I went with those terms for the poll is that a lot of people don't understand the difference and I didn't want to have to explain. Also notice the + before magic finish, implying it is added on top of the previous option.
The poll is really about magic finish itself, and whether or not you like the changes it brings to the handling at its peak. The finish of the paper is a different factor.
OK, I hear you, but there might be some mixed facts.
USPC themselves called Magic Finish by that name. The prototype name was Performance Coating, which Ellusionist liked better and opted, apparently with USPC's blessings, to continue to use.
You're talking about the finish of the paper like it's something different. Finish is just that, the final step in creating the card so it is finished - the clear coating used to protect the printed card surface and give the cards some glide and slip against each other and a playing surface.
The texture of the paper is, I think, what you meant when you were referring to the finish of the paper. At one time, finishes did actually create the texture - they were applied with special cotton or linen rollers and those rollers gave the card its texture, be it linen, air cushion, whatever. Today, though, the texturing is on the paper before it meets the printing process. There's textured (a.k.a. Air Cushion, Linoid, Cambric, Linen, etc.) and there's smooth (a.k.a. Ivory, and I don't think other names were used). Again, in history, there were separate chemical finishes known by those brand names. But today, it's simply branding.
Any modern finish would probably outperform one of the older finishes if the cards were printed using the same methods. But those old-school printing, cutting and finishing processes are what made a deck like Jerry's Nugget handle the way it does. Unless someone really got down and dirty making "craft decks" the old way, it's unlikely we'll ever see those processes used again. Today, we're lucky we can get cards that are traditionally cut here and there.