Masters Deck Review

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Postby Renato » Sep 4th, '06, 09:40



Good point Kati. People aren't always suspicious if you're not using blue or red back Bicycles. You should see some of the cards the people I know own! Nothing like Bikes in design or colour. In a pinch I resorted to using my Orange-backed Bicycle Deck to perform some magic and they didn't find anything suspcious then.

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Postby e2x2e » Sep 4th, '06, 13:33

Ah yes...forgot about that. Well thats what its like in the US performing...no variety!

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Postby killerfroggy » Sep 4th, '06, 13:48

I found that unless i use the terrible quality cards we get here in Belfast people always seem to think im using a trick deck though most of the time im just using normal cards. I still prefer black tigers to anything though and love doing tricks for people under a black light because of the look of them.

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Postby Kolisar » Sep 4th, '06, 13:52

If, in the UK bikes are not the standard plaing card, what is? Here in the US I have received comments using straight Tally-Ho Circle Backs, so I stick with Bikes. My concern was that, if the spectaors are used to Bikes, they certainly will notice the different Ace of Spades, if for no other reason than it has color other than black on it.

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Postby Rdw1971 » Sep 4th, '06, 14:03

I'd say Waddingtons are the norm(ish) They the ones you can buy in most places

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Postby Kolisar » Sep 4th, '06, 16:14

Thanks Rdw1971. I will see if I can find some online. I collect decks of cards from around the world and they would make a good addition.

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Postby gunnarkr » Sep 4th, '06, 17:49

I don't think that the deck matters so much, as long as you are happy with it and the cards are good to handle. What I feel is more important, is that you don't keep switching decks all the time. Even though you do, people don't mind or notice if you start a new magic with another deck, as long as it looks the same as in the magic before. If you change a deck for no reason, they suspect it's a rigged deck. I get stronger reaction when just showing a few tricks with the same deck - or a few decks that look the same, than if I start changing for no obvious reason :)

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Postby Kolisar » Sep 5th, '06, 00:50

gunnarkr wrote:I don't think that the deck matters so much, as long as you are happy with it and the cards are good to handle.

I would agree except for personal experience. As I mentioned before, I got questioned because of a Tally-Ho Circle-back deck. I usually do not have to switch decks, and if so it is because the old one got damaged or slow.
You are correct though, it should not matter. Fortunately, standard Bikes handle quite well.

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Postby Rdw1971 » Sep 5th, '06, 07:55

Kolisar - if you pm / email me, I will try to get you a deck of UK 'standard' cards.

Rob

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Postby killerfroggy » Sep 5th, '06, 09:04

I was recently given a deck of Celtic Football Club Cards. Being a celtic fan I loved these even though they arent the best of cards they are pretty thin as far as cards go. I bought a few of these decks later though as
:1 they were cheap
2 they were the same size as bikes
3 the bend you get out of them for mindbender is great.(so great in fact that i sometimes i dont do the later parts of te routine)
4 the queen of spades says Celtic 6-2 Rangers :twisted:

the bad thing about them is that they get dirty easily and they become spotted for some reason after a day or so, i think its the layer underneath showing through. i only use these things to practice but im wainting on my tally hos i ordered last night for this purpose. There is a market in the UK for bikes and i think if someone was to strike up an import deal with the USPCC they would be onto a sure fire money spinner as well as providing a service to the magic community in the UK.

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Postby Kolisar » Sep 5th, '06, 22:20

Rdw1971 wrote:Kolisar - if you pm / email me, I will try to get you a deck of UK 'standard' cards.

Rob


Done, thank you.

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Re: Masters Deck Review

Postby TylerD » Sep 21st, '06, 19:46

trickyricky wrote:My first of 3 reviews on my latest order from Ellusionist.com! I couldnt find any existing reviews on 2 of the 3 things, so im not sure if i will write the third yet. Anyway...

Masters Deck - Red

The Effect

Hmmm......Not so much an effect......Just an deck of cards thats been what i like to call 'Ellusionist-ed'


Cost

$3.99 a deck, or $39.95 for a brick. Also, if you order 3 decks it saves on shipping costs but you dont get a discount off the price of the cards.

You can order and see the demo video here


Difficulty

To be able to perform with this deck, you require the ability to open it. The ability to perform various tricks would also be helpful.


Review

If you have ever held and felt Ghosts, then you will know how the Masters deck feels. It has the exact same coating on the exact same card stock. The only difference is that instead of getting out your ordinary red bikes out, you get these out and nobody will be able to tell the difference apart from you. Oh and the lovely new Ace of Spades might give it away slightly too.

The new Ace of Spades is nice. It features a fairly bulky spade design with an image of an eagle with its wings spread. There is also a red crown above the eagle that is hard to see against the dark background of the spade. The colours are mainly grey, white and black, with a deep red shading and lighter red for detail.

I dont know what else to say about the deck! They feel nice in your hands, have a nice Ace of Spades design......er...... oh the box features a little revelation in the barcode as well. Which is nice. Think 'Bikes crossed with Ghosts, plus funky new Ace'! Cant say much more!


Overall

7/10 - Although being a good deck, it does feel like Ellusionist have ran out of ideas for card designs. So they just took an already existing product, coated it in layers of stuff, put it in a new box and sold it for twice the price. That said, im still going to treat these like i treat my Ghosts - carefully, and not very often, because i want to preserve the good feeling-ness of them.

I dont agree with the last thing you sasid. I just got mine in and I have been waiting a very long time for E to come up with an ordinary looking Bike deck and make them stronger and last longer. And twice the price is not bad at all concidering Tally ho's are about 5 dollars from most sites and that is what I use. I think these decks are well worth the money and they feel fantastic. Its been a loooong time since I have use a Bike deck and after playing around with this I will be using it for a long time. I also like how they upgraded the Ace of Spades and put a special added gimmick to the box (the bar code)

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Postby Binary » Sep 22nd, '06, 22:08

The most common english cards?

Probably the plasticy WHSmiths ones IMHO.

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Postby dat8962 » Sep 23rd, '06, 00:13

Waddingtons are regarded as the conmmon British playing card - Bridge size..........

I agree with GunnarKr regarding whether decks are suspicious. Obviosuuly some arouse more interest that onthers just because people notice that they have a different design and are interested. In my experience it's nothing more than this, and specs DON'T think that a green back deck of bikes MUST be tricked because it's less common than a red or blue backed deck.

People in general are not so dumb as to think that the only playing cards in the world are bridge size Waddingtons or red backed Bikes and I wish that people would accept this fact.

People will only be suspicious of your cards if YOU make them suspicious in the first place. A magician could go to Outer Mongolia and perform with a pink pastel fashion deck and people wouldn't give a jot about the cards if the magic was good.

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It's not really an optical illusion - it just looks like one!
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Postby Kolisar » Sep 23rd, '06, 14:56

dat8962 wrote:Waddingtons are regarded as the conmmon British playing card - Bridge size..........

I agree with GunnarKr regarding whether decks are suspicious. Obviosuuly some arouse more interest that onthers just because people notice that they have a different design and are interested. In my experience it's nothing more than this, and specs DON'T think that a green back deck of bikes MUST be tricked because it's less common than a red or blue backed deck.

People in general are not so dumb as to think that the only playing cards in the world are bridge size Waddingtons or red backed Bikes and I wish that people would accept this fact.

People will only be suspicious of your cards if YOU make them suspicious in the first place. A magician could go to Outer Mongolia and perform with a pink pastel fashion deck and people wouldn't give a jot about the cards if the magic was good.


I understand the point made by both you and Gunnar, but I have to respectfully disagree. I personally never use gaffed cards of any sort. My cards, unless the deck is stacked, can always be handed out. The problem is (in my opinion) that trick decks used to be advertized in the US on television. I am not sure about the rest of the world but when I was a kid I remember seeing adverts for "TV Magic Cards" (a Svengali deck). Since the adverts clearly stated that the deck is what made the magic happen, people learned that trick decks existed. Also, the deck did not look anything like a "normal" deck and that may be the cause of the general suspision towards "abnormal" looking playing cards.

As for people not giving a jot about the cards if the magic is good, you may be correct, but can you be certain that they may not attribute the amazing effects to the cards themselves and not the magician's skill?

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