The Effect
Phenomena Deck by Angelo Stagnaro
This is not an effect, but a deck of symbol cards, very like the Symbology Deck (
http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic4120.php ).
Cost
£16.99
Available from
www.alakazam.co.uk and possibly some other places too.
Difficulty
(1=easy to do, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)
1-4, depending on what you do with them!
Review
This consists of a deck of 52 cards of symbols. There are 13 different types of card, in four different colours. This is very, very like Sean Taylor’s Symbology Deck, but was apparently conceived independently.
The obvious question is which is better. Sadly (or not), I think they are of similar worth. I suggest that anyone who is interested checks out my review of Symbology, here:
http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic4120.php
Personally, I think that the symbols Angelo has chosen are better, overall, than the ones Sean used. Many are the same, but the Phenomena Deck gets points from me for avoiding the ‘ship’ design (which looks little like a ship). Angelo has also wisely included the three wavy lines symbol found in ESP testing decks, my other major gripe about the designs used in Symbology.
The card backs are not like playing cards, but feature the five Zener symbols on a grey background, with a weird series of dots, that reminded me of constellations of stars.
I’m a bit ambivalent about the backs. On the one hand, they don’t look especially like playing cards. On the other, the amount of confusing detail on them makes them seem a bit suspicious to me. I am not sure how a lay person would view them.
You are probably thinking that this is a cunning subterfuge to hide the marks. That’s it, you see; there are no marks. You could add some fairly easily, I suppose, but no suggestions are given about this with the book. If you’re used to marking systems, you probably won’t have a problem, although you won’t be able to use the Lesley or Wild systems.
The box has the same back design, on one side but in blue instead of grey. Sadly, it proudly proclaims itself to be “Angelo Stagnaro’s Phenomena Deck” in multi-coloured lettering. Silly.
Contrary to what I thought when I reviewed Symbology, the Eight Kings works fine with this sort of deck and Angelo has included a chart for this and Si Stebbins converted to the Phenomena Deck. The accompanying booklet also sets out a few (and I mean a few) effects possible. It does give them in different languages, however!
There is no key card for a stack (although, as I said, the booklet has this information) and there are no gaffed cards.
As with Symbology, I’d like to see a companion deck with the symbols in black, plus enough copies of the five standard symbols that they could be used for other ESP effects.
Overall
8/10
This deck deals with some of my major gripes about the Symbology Deck (the odd choice of symbols and the playing card back design). However, it replaces these concerns with a back design that somehow looks (to these tired old magician eyes) like a trick deck, by being too ‘busy’, a lack of actual markings (which reduces the number of possible effects), an awful box that proudly proclaims its name and a lack of extra cards. The accompanying booklet is OK, but the effects (with one exception) are not that amazing.
It is also slightly cheaper than Sean’s take on such a deck.