Masters Deck Review

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Masters Deck Review

Postby trickyricky » Sep 2nd, '06, 15:48



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.

Last edited by trickyricky on Sep 2nd, '06, 22:00, edited 2 times in total.
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Postby Kolisar » Sep 2nd, '06, 17:37

Good review, I ordered the case of 12 Thursday and am waiting for them to arrive. I don't think that these cards are an example of ellusionists running out of ideas. I ordered a few Black Tiger decks because the looked good and I collect unique decks of cards. When I opened them and handled them I was very impressed with the feel, which is why I ordered the Masters Decks. The only issue I have with the Masters Decks is the Ace of Spades. I understand that Ellusionsts may have wanted to put their mark on the cards but I think that magicians would have been better served with a deck that was indinguishable from a standard deck, untill you handle them. The Ace of Spades may cause the spectators to be suspicious of the cards and, therefore limit their performance value.

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Postby cosmicsecret » Sep 2nd, '06, 17:59

Thanks for the review!
I really love the new design of the ace of spades and if they are smooth like the Ghost cards,i´ll buy a display of 12 ;)
Is there any shop from europe where i could get those cards?
Iam asking because i dont want to pay so much for the shipping and taxes.(here in germany taxes are added if the price of the product is over $25 USD)
greetz
Jerry

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Re: Masters Deck Review

Postby gunnarkr » Sep 2nd, '06, 19:06

Sounds very interesting. I have to remember to get some with my next order from Brad.
trickyricky wrote: [url=http://www.ellusionist.com/order/Bicycle-Masters-Edition-Playing-Cards.php?cat={CATEGORY%20ID}here[/url]

Just a small note trickyricky. You're missing a "]" before the "here" in your url to ellusionist :)

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Postby trickyricky » Sep 2nd, '06, 19:50

Thanks for the comments.

gunnarkr - Thanks for noticing that, but I have added the extra ] and it doesnt seem to like it. Any other ideas to make the link work?

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Postby katrielalex » Sep 2nd, '06, 19:51

hmmm....strange! try getting rid of the ?cat=something request at the end of the URL?

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Postby gunnarkr » Sep 2nd, '06, 20:07

trickyricky wrote:I have added the extra ] and it doesnt seem to like it. Any other ideas to make the link work?


Try the link here. That should work :)

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Postby trickyricky » Sep 2nd, '06, 22:00

Hurrah! Thanks for the tips guys!

So, anybody else got any thoughts on this deck?

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Postby Renato » Sep 2nd, '06, 22:54

I think the most important question is how do they compare to regular Bicycle decks? Can you see them lasting four times as longer? Would you use them over your normal cards if you could?

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Postby trickyricky » Sep 2nd, '06, 23:36

Dont get me wrong, they are a lot nicer than regular Bikes! I do like them very much! If you blindfolded me and handed me a Master Deck and a Ghost deck, i wouldnt be able to tell the difference! As for whether i would use them over me good ole faithfuls, i dont know yet! I'll have to take them out for a test drive for a few days, see how long it takes me to kill them without physically tearing them apart or anything silly like that!

Watch this space!

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Postby Renato » Sep 3rd, '06, 00:14

OK cool :) Guess you've got to get over that "My precious" factor first as with any of these fancy swanky decks.

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Postby azraelws6 » Sep 3rd, '06, 06:48

Well, I just received my 12-pack as well - and they are NOT ghosts. I really like them, but they are indeed not quite as thick as ghosts. They are of a thicker card stock than regular bikes (and a nice upgrade), but they are not exactly the same as ghosts. I really feel the difference with effects like shapeshifter...

and the ace of spades is definately cool - however I agree it may limit the usefulness of the cards - mind you the box is different too.

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Postby Demitri » Sep 3rd, '06, 18:53

I don't get how the Ace of Spades would limit the usefulness of the cards....

I somewhat agreed with people when the skepticism argument came up regarding the Tigers/Vipers/Ghosts - but a slight alteration to the center pip on one card would hardly make the cards seem unusual.

I've had the Master's Edition Ace for a while (they packed one in with the bad red gaff deck) and I've had it slipped into my bike decks since. People love the look of that card, but at no point have I been accused of using a trick deck because my ace of spades has a cool graphic on it.

Stop jumping on bandwagons, people. I find it hard to believe this one card will bring that much suspicion on the deck.

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Postby e2x2e » Sep 4th, '06, 02:19

...

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Postby katrielalex » Sep 4th, '06, 09:10

Well, that's not always true :) You don't get bikes in the UK anyway so people aren't used to them as normal cards, it's just an assumption that they are normal and I can't see the ace as affecting that unless people are already used to the standard one

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