The Effect
Symbology by Sean Taylor
EDIT: This is not an effect of itself, so for a description, see "Overall".
Cost
£20
Available from
www.cards4magic.co.uk
www.alakazam.co.uk
www.magictricks.co.uk
And others, I’m sure!
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)
1-3, depending on what you do with them!
Review
This consists of a deck of 52 cards of symbols. 13 different types of card, in four different colours. Sean suggests downplaying exactly how many cards there are, to make the similarity with ordinary decks as small as possible.
The cards have playing card backs, which might will disappoint those of you who liked the back designs for the ‘Beyond ESP’ cards. I think that the card design is called ‘Atlantis’. Obviously, the absence of Bicycle backs could be an advantage or a disadvantage to you.
The box has some pseudo-licensing, which helps to make the deck look a little more authentic, in spite of the back designs.
The cards are marked, using one of the clearest marking systems available (you’ll be wild about it, I think).
Overall, the positive points are that you can use this for many tricks which use a regular deck. In particular, you can use a stack, be it Si Stebbins or even the BCS stack. I think getting the Eight Kings one to work might be a little too much effort, though. You also get a little key card to help with the stack (this is revealed on the website, so I hope I won’t get moderated). There are also a couple of special cards too.
The cards are nicely printed, with bold colours and the marks are fairly clear, but don’t leap out at you (in the wrong way).
There is a fantastic booklet which accompanies the cards and Sean has even set up a rather nice website (
www.symbology-deck.com) which gives a little more information and also gives a list of effects which could be adapted for use with the deck, plus one bonus routine with, I suspect, more to follow. Sean and his friends have clearly spent lots of time researching routines to use with these cards. He also gives tips on handling them, so as not to make it look like a card trick.
Now to the negative points. First is the backs. They are playing card ones and some of you won’t like that. They are also not Bicycle, although in my opinion that cuts both ways. At least it’s not the poor backs on the Mindpower Deck!
Some of the symbols are odd. Obviously, to get the number up to 13, a few weird symbols were needed and they were partly chosen for mnemonic purposes. However, some of them are poor choices, in my view. The classic Rhine designs are circle, cross, three wavy lines, square and star. In this deck, the three wavy lines design is gone, replaced by a triangle. There is a two wavy line symbol later in the deck sequence.
There are a number of issues I have with this. First, if you want to use the classic five symbols, you can’t, unless you use the double line version. It might tip off someone who knows the symbols moderately well. Second, the symbol isn’t in the right place in the order. That’s a minor quibble, I suppose.
Next, there is a real problem, in my opinion, with one of the cards. Sean describes it as a “boat”. It’s a pair of triangles pointing away from each other (like the arrows above and below a button to call for a lift), with a line connecting the two triangles. I think this design is awful, because the magician or spectator can’t call it easily. “It’s the funny-looking thing like two triangles joined together, is that right?” *Muted applause*
I have my own views about the symbols. The third one in the sequence should be the classic three wavy lines, in my view. The “boat” should be replaced by the triangle and the two wavy line device should be an “equals” sign. That’s how I’d do it, anyway. It preserves the classic Rhine order for the first five symbols and gets rid of the awful “boat” design.
It would be nice to have it available in two different back colours. Some of the tricks mentioned are 'do as I do', or coincidence effects and having contrasting backs would help.
There are no black designs. I’d like to see Sean produce a companion deck comprising one run of the 13 shapes in black, plus four sets of the main five symbols, replacement cards for the three symbols I don’t like in the main deck’s colours, another set of the five Rhine designs in red and maybe some more special ones. That's just me being greedy, though!
Overall
8.5/10
The boat design, the lack of the three wavy lines and the back design each shaved off half a point. Overall, these are very good, though and the booklet you get with it is almost worth the price alone.
EDIT: For something similar, see the Phenomena Deck review:
http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic13028.php