Second Editions, Sequels, Series, and Surprises!The first time around isn't always the best. Sometime a good thing comes along, and only gets better with a follow-up. It's not always true, especially in the world of cinema, where a sequel is sometimes just a money grab or cash cow, trying to capitalize on the success of the first film. But it is often true, and it's particularly true in the world of playing cards.
In the custom playing card industry, success often breeds success, and there are many examples of successful designers who have produced a wonderful series of decks with a similar theme, or have gone on to produce sequels that matched or even surpassed the original. In some cases, creators have even been able to create a whole brand around a single successful deck, examples including Fontaines, Virtuoso, and Misc Goods Co. In other cases producers have turned a popular project into an entire series. In this review article, I'll be covering a number of new releases that are second editions, sequels, and series. Virtually all of these decks have predecessors, but now have come out with a shiny new edition or follow-up to the original.
So without any further ado, let's dive into our world of second editions, sequels, series, and surprises! Surprises? Yes, surprises - but I don't want to ruin the surprise, so just keep on reading to find out what lies ahead!
*** SEQUELS ***NEO:WAVE Classic Playing CardsThe
NEO:WAVE Classic Playing Cards immediately brings to mind an ocean scene, with a wrap around tiled pattern on the tuck box that incorporates anchors as well as wavy lines.
It's what you'd expect to see at the seaside, complete with the influence of refraction. But there are some bright spots in the form of a vivid red/orange star, which ensures that this is no ordinary waves we are looking at!
This deck was produced as part of a set of two decks created by Montenzi Design, with the NEO:WAVE Classic deck being a standard deck, while the more pricey NEO:WAVE Ultra deck was a similar design but with foil on both sides of the cards.
Both decks were a follow-up project to the original NEO! deck that Montenzi produced previously, also in two editions. The original deck was described as "
inspired by Cubism and the Avant-garde fashion trends of the early 1900's. Spearheaded by the works of Pablo Picasso this new art movement displays many geometric shapes incorporated into abstract designs and colors."
The card back design of the NEO:WAVE Classic deck picks up the pattern we've already been introduced to from the tuck box, but the addition of white borders produces a different look. Rather than feeling out of our depth in the middle of an ocean, it feels like we are paddling in ankle deep water alongside a white sandy beach. The two-way design ensures that even though we can't tell up from down or top from bottom, we're pleasantly at home in our new surroundings.
The design is quite different from the original NEO! decks; the white borders also distinguish the Classic Edition from the borderless Ultra Edition. Even with the borders these cards still look great in fans.
The wave theme carries over onto the faces of all the cards, with a series of parallel wavy lines producing a very novel and modern look. Each suit's lines are is given its own colour, with the Spades and Clubs being assigned an aquatic green and blue respectively, while the Hearts and Diamonds use a brown and purple. Do they represent the blowing of a gentle breeze, or the waves lapping on the shore? Either way, they fit well with our ocean-side theme, and are something you won't find in the original NEO! decks.
If you're a fan of fresh designs for the court cards, you're likely to love what you'll find here. Each of the court card characters has an internally consistent style in terms of graphic design, but the specific geometric shapes and colours vary slightly between the suits. Our royal figures of Kings, Queens and Jacks are clearly distinguished, and the focus is on the faces rather than the clothing and accessories that get attention and detail in most other decks. The style of these courts will be somewhat familiar to those who have seen the original NEO! decks, but the NEO:WAVE deck does offer a fresh take and colour scheme; the addition of the wavy lines also creates an entirely different look.
One fascinating thing about the courts is that if you flip them, they have alternate artwork. This is chiefly noticeable in the hair, which creates a wind-swept look.
Maybe our royalty has had a dip in the ocean or their hair has become wind blown - either way, this seems to suggest something about a beach experience.
What all the courts also share in common is a vibrant orange, red and yellow. We may be at the ocean, but the warmth of the sun ensures that we still are energized, and don't feel too lazy!
The pips used for this deck are all heavily stylized, and relatively small in size, so that they don't become a point of focus or distraction. I especially liked the shape of the Spade pips, which seem to me to have been inspired by the anchors that decorate the card backs and tuck box - although the pips do appear to have been inherited from the first NEO! decks.
Anchors certainly dominate the faces of our Jokers. These just have the word Joker in small capital print, and are filled with a tiled arrangement of anchor icons.
A double backer and an extra gaff card round out the deck. The gaff card is unusual in that it has the Jack of Hearts indices, but has the artwork for the King of Hearts character in one direction, and the Queen of Hearts artwork in the other.
The NEO:WAVE Classic deck was printed by USPCC in an unlimited edition, whereas the foil NEO:WAVE Ultra decks were produced by Cartamundi in a limited edition on their B9 true linen stock.
VeneXiana Dark Playing Cards (Revealed Edition)The
VeneXiana Dark deck (Revealed Edition) is part of a series from popular Greek designer Lotrek, who is known for his innovation, and for creating lavish playing card designs that often rely on foil, and is the sequel to the original VeneXiana deck created two years earlier.
Lotrek launched his own label of playing cards, Half Moon Playing Cards, in 2013. The first deck he produced under this new banner was called VeneXiana, and his first solo Kickstarter project was a white version of this deck. It captured something of the elegance and joy of life found in 18th century Venice, including carnival costumes for the court cards. The following year he created VeneXiana Gold, which was basically the same as original VeneXiana, but a luxury edition. This has the distinction of being considered to be the first deck with hot stamped gold foil on every card back.
But already when he published his first VeneXiana deck, Lotrek had planned to follow up by creating a Dark VeneXiana deck as a true sequel, in order to deal with the more obscurer side of the city. Two VeneXiana Dark decks (Masked and Revealed Editions) were published in 2015. I have the Revealed Edition, which has gold foil on the tuck box, and that's the deck I'll be focusing on.
Like the original decks, the VeneXiana Dark decks are set in 18th century Venice, but are intended to show some of the city's darker side. Unsurprisingly, the tuck box is primarily black. But even when in seedy territory, our Venetians remain stylish, and thus the tuck box is heavily decorated with a lavish gold foil mask-inspired pattern. It also has another ornate pattern that relies on blind embossing. An elegant numbered red seal completes the look of elegance, and emphasizes that this is a limited edition.
The ad copy describes it as follows: "
Venexiana Dark features a series of obscure and marginal characters who complete the picture of this haunting city. Thieves, assassins, prostitutes, wicked noblemen and masters of deception are all on board in this imaginary gondola. Hop in and follow the journey to the unknown through the narrow canals of Venice."
The two decks that comprise VeneXiana Dark are companions, the silver Masked edition depicting all the court characters wearing masks, while the gold Revealed edition depicting the same court characters without their masks.
The card backs feature an ornate design of swirls and patterns, but if you look closely you will recognize a mask, which is central to the theme of this deck. While the silver Masked edition has an ornate silver pattern with black borders, the gold Revealed deck has an ornate gold pattern with reddish/brown borders.
The Ace of Spades is arguably one of the most ornate cards of the lot, with a heavily stylized image in gold metallic ink, along with the name of the deck and the publisher.
The court cards feature different characters from the world of Venice, with well-dressed Venetians engaged in a range of activities and wearing various costumes. Studying the artwork shows a variety of shenanigans going on that reflect the seedy side of life, including stabbings and poisonings.
Lots of attention has been given to detail, such as with the Jack of Clubs, which incorporates a clever card reveal for the Ace of Clubs.
The borders are textured with a detailed design for added elegance and sophistication.
These borders are also a key feature of the faces of the cards, which have black rectangular panels which emphasizes the exotic look of the pips and indices. These are gold for the Spades and Clubs, and red for the Hearts and Diamonds. I particularly like the style of the pips, which feature a split design in which one half is semi-shaded.
The cards themselves feature a strong use of metallic colours, with both the front and the back of the cards employing metallic inks. As such these decks show marks of Lotrek's extravagant style that would later be refined in his later all-foil deck designs, and show a further progression to the more elaborate and lavish style of playing cards that would later become the hallmark of a Lotrek deck.
There is also a story behind the events depicted on the court cards. For example, the Queen of Hearts asks for our silence as she poisons her husband's wine. In the Masked deck we see him drinking the poisoned wine, and in the Revealed deck we see the storyline advance, and he knows that he has been poisoned but leaves behind a note.
The Jokers return to the costume theme that these decks are immersed in; they are almost matching, but one has its eyes closed and the other has its eyes open. A gaff card (double backer) is also included, as is an extra Jack of Spades.
This deck is printed by EPCC in their durable and smooth feeling Master finish, so it handles quite different from a typical USPCC deck. EPCC is a highly respected printer in the playing card industry, and this is a very popular finish. The cards do fan and spread nicely, and have a nice snap to them.
But while the cards do handle more than satisfactorily, the many lavish touches make it clear that the VeneXiana Dark deck is first and foremost a deck for collectors.
RecommendationSo are any of these decks of playing cards for you? If you're looking for practical playing cards that you can actually use for playing card games, performing card magic, or for card flourishing, you'll almost certainly find something here that fits the bill.
So where can you get the decks featured here? Any reputable magic dealer or online retailer that sells custom playing cards should have these available. If they don't, send them to
Murphy's Magic, which is a magic wholesaler that has an enormous range of products they sell in bulk quantities to dealers and retailers around the world, including a massive amount of custom playing cards. They have a huge network of contacts in the retail industry, and all of these decks should be available from any retailer that sources their decks from Murphy's Magic.
With good looks and good handling, these decks continue the solid contribution that Murphy's Magic is making to the custom playing card market, by supplying quality decks like these to our favourite retail outlets.
The decks reviewed above are all available at your favourite Murphy’s Magic retailer. Want to learn more? Murphy's Magic:
www.murphysmagic.comHere are direct links for all the decks featured in this review:
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Second Editions:
Casual (V2),
Mechanics Optricks (Red Edition)-
Sequels:
NEO:WAVE Classic,
VeneXiana Dark (Revealed Edition)-
Series:
Superfly Spitfire,
Cherry Casino (Reno Red)-
Surprises:
Sakura (Spring Edition),
Bicycle Censored
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