Wait wait wait.... 2 finishes? How come I can get CARC decks with Cambric and Ivory finishes, neither of which are Magic? How about Alex's Experimental finish?
I was going to ask the same thing. I think Ivory is Air Cushion without the ripples.(idk if I am right) someone with knowledge on stocks can you clarify this?
I remember writing about this elsewhere recently...
The texture of the cards has nothing to do with the actual finish and everything to do with the stock used.
The available stocks at USPC, as far as knowledgeable people have told me, are Aristocrat, Bicycle, Bee and the heavier Bee Casino. Bicycle Casino is no longer available, and Tally Ho, also unavailable, has been replaced with a variant of Aristocrat. These can be had smooth or textured, and the stock's characteristics can be changed with storage under specific temperature and humidity conditions before printing, which is why there are variants of the stocks listed.
The finishes available from USPC are simple. Standard or Magic. That's it.
At one time in history, there may well have been different varnishes used with the names Cambric, Linoid, Ivory, etc., but no longer. Alex's Experimental Finish is just that, experimental, and not in release until it gets tested. I'm sure USPC made some deal with him to compensate him for letting his deck be the guinea pig. All those other names are simply trademarks associated with the different brands of decks.
Modern Bee decks come in Ivory or Cambric. All that means is that the stock is smooth (Ivory) or textured (Cambric). Normally the standard finish is used, but a CARC rep mentioned that due to the use of metallic inks on this particular deck (and it's more rare counterpart), they had to be treated with Magic Finish. Decks like Alchemist and Alchemist X had metallic inks but were made before Magic Finish - anyone who's had one for a while can attest to how quickly the handling goes downhill on them. But because CARC is big on the Bee name and design, they're labeled Ivory and Cambric rather than Magic and Magic. It's probably less to do with USPC labeling restrictions now and more to do with their desire to create "authentic" Bee decks.
Modern Tally Ho decks are Linoid Finish. Just another way of saying "textured stock and standard coating".
Modern Bicycles are made in Air Cushion or Smooth Finish. Again, standard coating on either textured or smooth stock. The only exception to this naming standard are the Professional Bicycles made by CARC. They were printed on Bee stock, so they opted to call the smooth decks Ivory Finish instead of Smooth Finish. Smooth Bikes are hard to find these days - the only ones I've seen are some late-model Cincinnati Lo-Vision decks. They're probably still selling out the old supply, but eventually they'll make some in Kentucky, I'm sure - it will simply be a matter of whether they wish to stay with smooth stock or go Air Cushion.
Only the most modern decks, Bicycle or otherwise, that use Magic Finish are using the Magic Finish name, and mostly those are decks targeted at card performers and collectors. Ellusionist's Performance Coating is Magic Finish's original name while it was still an experimental finish - the first deck to use said finish was the Gold Arcane. USPC opted to rebrand the coating as Magic Finish, while E preferred the old name and stuck with it - they felt it sounded classier. In my opinion, anyone breaking out a deck labeled Magic Finish in front of a spectator might raise their suspicions - not because the deck is different, but because the word "Magic" is on the box, which if spotted would make them think it's a trick deck even if it's totally legit.
Until a short while ago, all of E's decks with the Bicycle brand on them (as well as the Arcanes) all said "Air Cushion" on the box. Now, some are being marked as Performance Coating, some are still marked as Air Cushion, but any decks they're making now ALL use Performance Coating. Some labeled Air Cushion are just old stock from before Magic Finish's invention, while others are Magic Finish despite what the box says (an example of this would be the red Bicycle Series 1800 - the performance was lousy on the older decks, but now they're just as smooth-handling as any other Magic Finish deck, and the box still says it's Air Cushion). In time, when the old stock is sold out, everything will be Performance Coating.
I hope this long-winded explanation settles any questions you may have had.