talkmagic.co.uk

My order arrived this morning.
1 Ghost Deck
1 Shadow Masters Deck

Ghost:
Look better in the photos online than in the hands.
The backs are nice but I do agree with others that have said an aged type colour would have been better than pure white.
My deck the backs are also off center, slight closer to the top of the card than the bottom. I think that might be useful as a subtle one way back but I'll properly never use it. It's not obvious so I'm not complaining.
The faces are nice and clear, strangely the lack of colour doesn't really look that great, these are pure black and white for the court cards. The only colour is on the red on the red card pips ( with a black border ). This is fine and makes easy to spot cards in a fan. Because the spots on the Heart and Diamonds are black, only the pips red it is a little confusing!
The Ace of Spades is nice but really not great, I was a little underwhelmed but it, the Pip is nice, it is the spade with and A in white on top of it.
The Jokers are okay, again nothing really special.
The Finish. Maybe it was because my hands were cold and I'd been to the gym the night before, but for me the feel of the cards wasn't really that different from a regular Bike Riders deck. I opened a new deck of Riders just to be sure.

Shadow Masters:
Look very nice. A black deck is cool, sorry, but it just is!
The backs are nice, subtle, tasteful. faded gray on black.
The Faces of the spot cards are interesting, they are not a solid colour for the spots, it's like a sunburst effect from the center it's dark red or grey, fading to a lighter shade, most obvious on something like the fives. The court cards are monochrome grey(negative), I think they look quite good, better than the Ghost deck.
The Ace of Spades is okay. Not keen on the eagle type design.
The Jokers are cools, stately looking death figure, one holds the sands of time, the other a 3 of Diamonds reveal ( subtle ).
Finish is the same as the Ghost deck.
DB card is nice, I'll use that!
The barcode reveal is not great, properly never use it.

Conclusion
Ghost deck - nice but could have been better.
Shadow Masters - very nice cool deck to bring and show off with.

That's all folks.


I tried this as an attachment but I don't know what the size limit is?

Large Version of the image.
http://danteuk.gotadsl.co.uk/danteuk/SM_Ghost.JPG

EDIT: I only just noticed there is a barcode reveal on the Ghost deck box too. This is not advertised on the sites I saw them on.
EDIT2: See near bottom of the page for info on the Black Ghost 2nd Edition. deck.

More pics:
http://danteuk.gotadsl.co.uk/cgi-bin/imgpage1.sh?Magic

Nice review, and thanks for the photo! It really helps to see them side-by-side like that.

From what I can see the ghost deck does look a little underwhelming, but those shadow master cards look awesome, I really like the jokers!!

Can you tell me where you got the shadow master cards from? My usual retailers don't stock them.

I got both decks from this site:
http://www.magicmagic.co.uk/store/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=379

I think one of the problems with the ghost deck is the nice writing ( font ) on the box for the word BICYCLE and GHOST - the card ( AoS and Jokers ) don't use either of these fonts for colouring.

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yeah i was curious about the shadow masters....they look so sinister

Both decks are made by Ellusionist (Ellusionist.com), so you can always find them there as well.

Thanks,

~SlieghtOfHand

SlieghtOfHand wrote:Both decks are made by Ellusionist (Ellusionist.com), so you can always find them there as well.

Yes, I'm just being pedantic and for that I apologize, but...

Ellusionist does not make these cards, USPCC does. Ellusionist distributes them.

Mike.

Michael Jay wrote:

SlieghtOfHand wrote:Both decks are made by Ellusionist (Ellusionist.com), so you can always find them there as well.

Yes, I'm just being pedantic and for that I apologize, but...

Ellusionist does not make these cards, USPCC does. Ellusionist distributes them.

Mike.

. My mistake. Ellusionist designs them, and they own the stock of the cards. You're right, USPCC does make them.

I much prefer the ghost deck...I dont know why, lol.

Maybe its because I had a tiger deck (Similar design to the shadow masters deck) and people do not like them...even with red pips (I had 2 decks, one with red pips, one all white) and people INSTANTLY got suspicious of them, it puts too much heat on the cards, whereas I find the ghouse deck (Being UV as well) you can get waya with more, and just state that the backs are different.

HOWEVER, shadows / tigers are great for making demo videos of card skills / shuffles etc - and in that respect, I much prefer them to ghosts, lol

Nice review btw

Dan

good ol www.cards4magic.co.uk

Hold on, did someone say that the ghost deck is UV reactive??!!! That really changes things in my estimation...

Nice review, i like both decks but i find the Ghost seem to last longer.

Both decks have UV500 Air-Flow Finish.

My verdict is still out on which I prefer.
I think the Ghost deck would win if the court cards were shaded, ie not just black and white but actual shades of grey like the Shadow Master deck.

I must be the only person who likes the Ghost decks as they are. The Shadow Masters are also very nice indeed. I haven't purchased any custom decks since the Black Tigers were first released, but I am now tempted to get these two decks. And thanks for posting the photo - it's very helpful.

Well, my decks arrived this morning (one of each). I still like the Ghost deck but the off centre backs is an unforgivable error. How long have these decks been out? They should have sorted it out by now; that's just plain lazy and spoils an otherwise fine looking deck of cards. USPCC are starting to go down in my estimation for allowing errors like this to get through quality control (assuming they have quality control, which seems unlikely). I'm assuming, of course, that this is indeed a cutting/printing error; if this is supposed to be a one way back design, someone will correct me, I'm sure! Also picked up a deck of Ghost gaffs, which is very nice indeed.

I also like the Shadow Masters deck a lot. The eagle ace of spades is a bit "God bless America", but nice nonetheless. This deck is creepier than the Black Tigers, in my opinion.

Update:
Just got a pack of "Black Ghost" 2nd Edition.

Exactly the same as the normal Ghost deck except the obvious.
Finish: UV500 Air-flow
52 Cards - Ace of spades is the same as the normal Ghost deck but inverse, including it's different pip design.
2 Jokers - These I think are a much more cool looking design, both the same expect one as a reveal.
1 Gaff - 3 Clubs with normal white face and Black Ghost back.
Box - Cool looking, bar code reveal is the same as the white box one!

Like the white Ghost deck you don't get a double back card, which is a shame.
I took pics as say and pictures is worth ...
http://danteuk.gotadsl.co.uk/Magic/Ghost2_1.jpg

My card collection pics are here:
http://danteuk.gotadsl.co.uk/cgi-bin/imgpage1.sh?Magic