Lorenzo Gaggiotti, better known to most of the card collecting world as Stockholm17, is no stranger to the Diamond Awards, having won both Deck of the Year and Artist of the Year in 2019.
This year, he hasn't exactly been slacking - two major releases bear his name: Eye of the Ocean and Odd Fellows (a collaboration with Portfolio 52, the new parent company of United Cardists, owned by Alexander Chin). I'll start with the solo project, Eye of the Ocean.
This deck project was a huge, huge undertaking, largely because it's not just a deck. There's a novel to go with it - and a puzzle connected to the book and the cards. The novel details a young woman's quest, originating in 1776 Stockholm, to sail the high seas and find the island that her mother was searching for when she disappeared. The book is presented in a spectacular recreation of a period-accurate book, complete with embossed leather wrapping, a bronze-finish astrolabe attached to the cover, a bookmark, a dip ink pen and a deck-sized hidden compartment. A second deck is due out later this year, according to the Kickstarter project.
The novel's heroine is not the only one with a quest - there's a puzzle that's connected to the novel and two of the decks created for the project. The Solis and Lunae decks come with letterpress extra cards printed with information tied to the puzzle. Backers who solve the puzzle will be included in a raffle for free prizes related to the project, such as Quartermaster Edition decks and polished brass Codex Keys. To date, no less than nine people have succeeded in solving the puzzle.
All the decks in the project are offered in non-gilded and gilded versions. The tuck boxes were manufactured by Oath Playing Cards (Lotrek) in Greece. Card printing was by Cartamundi on their B9 Slimline stock.
When voting, please consider the following information. Prototype playing card tuck boxes were made and released for this project, which are ineligible when deciding whether to vote for this project. In addition, the Quartermaster Edition decks were initially issued to a select group of Patreon investors in 2020, thus were not released during the eligibility period, and also should not be considered as part of this project for voting purposes. The Mini edition of the Quartermaster deck, however, wasn't released until this year - to the best of my knowledge, it is eligible for consideration.
Kickstarter project page:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/requiemcards/the-eye-of-the-ocean/descriptionIntrepid deck variant from Stockholm17's web store:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/requiemcards/the-eye-of-the-ocean/descriptionPortfolio52 search results for decks from this project:
https://www.portfolio52.com/search?search_string=eye+of+the+ocean