The RaMa Deck

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The RaMa Deck

Postby Tom Lauten » Dec 8th, '05, 12:17



RaMa Deck

Available from www.spocmagic.com , Alakazam and magicbox.uk.com

Price: £15.99

Category: Magic/Mentalism effects and utility

Difficulty: 2- 3 out of 5

They say:

The RaMa Deck by Owen Packard (includes FREE DVD and MARKING SYSTEM!!!)

When was the last time you bought a gimmicked deck that you could use for more than one trick? Well, here's a deck you can use for your ENTIRE SHOW. What's more, that show will seriously kick a**e. The possibilities are truly endless. This has been called the greatest utility deck since the 'Invisible'.

Imagine this:

*You leave the room as your victim shuffles and cuts the cards before taking one and putting it in his pocket. You return and immediately - without even touching the deck - know which card he has chosen. This is like REAL magic!

*You hand your spectator two decks and turn away from him. He puts one deck in his pocket and shuffles the other. He takes a card from the mixed deck and hides it in his pants (the sicko). You turn back and ask him to hand you the deck he dropped in his pocket BEFORE he shuffled the second deck. You spread it to show one face down card. It's the same card as he currently has in his pants!!!

*You write a prediction of 2 cards on your business card. Your volunteer pushes the card into the middle of the deck. The cards it is touching are taken out and, of course, match the prediction.

*The cards are shuffled. You run through them for ten seconds and can then appear to have memorised the order of the entire deck. A guy cuts the pack and turns over the top card and you can tell him which card comes next. And the one under that. And the one under that. You get the idea.

Notice the variety of effect possible? Sound good so far? There's more...

The cards can be examined - on both sides.
They can be shuffled and cut by you or the spectator.
You never have to see their card - even the back - to know what it is.
No knucklebusting moves required. A beginner magi can operate the RaMa and perform amazing tricks!
It can be used as a normal deck - no more switching.
The possibilities are endless.
You get the special deck, precision made in red or blue bicycle.
An instructional DVD teaching you -
How the deck works
Four killer effects
Handling techniques & principles
A marking system that you can employ and use on other decks!
Access to a dedicated forum where tips, hints and new routines for the RaMa are available!


I say:
Well, this is quite an interesting bit o’ kit.

Personally, I generally don’t like to carry ‘gimmicked’ decks as they often are a bit of a one trick pony in terms of gaffing, they often utilise a reasonably complex to master stacking system or they are more magic than mentalism…but…the RaMa deck is twisting my arm rather severely.

The characteristics of the deck’s “workings” are pretty darned clever. I can’t really divulge the nature of the “gaffing” but suffice it to say that the blurb is spot on right…a spectator can handle the deck reasonably freely and the workings shouldn’t be obvious.

The deck employs a few different classic elements in a very clever way to result in a truly useful deck of cards. What’s more you can use the deck as a genuinely normal deck after you finish with a mind blowing RaMa routine…intriguing huh?!

There is no exaggeration to say that with this little “52-piece power pack” you actually have the equivalent of at least 3 well tried and tested gaffed decks in one! Because of this there is a wide variety of effects you can perform AND as a tool to force with…well you’ll see when you get one…but it’s very cool.

The deck is a poker size Bike deck that is very nicely altered indeed. You get a colour, foldout A-3 pamphlet with full explanation of the workings of the deck and some solid routines to flex your mighty RaMa muscle with. You also get a DVD to take you through the workings and routines.

FLIPPIN’ HECK MAN!

But WAIT! There’s more! That’s right folks, you also get membership to a forum devoted to those people who own and use the deck. There you will find discussions, explanations, routines and a bunch of RaMa users to address your every whim.


Overall: 8.5/10
The RaMa deck will be, if you adopt it as a regular weapon, a powerful utility and effect/s in its own right. It’s also something you can create your own effects with. Go through some classic magic and mentalism books with the RaMa deck in your hands and you will find plenty of ways to utilise this deck to breathe new life into effects you might well have discounted. You will need to devote some time to learn the various routines and methods, it isn’t a “super-easy, self-worker” but it is pretty close. With a little practice (always recommended with any effect) you will be USING this deck most confidently.

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Postby Mandrake » Dec 8th, '05, 12:29

Gee thanks Tom, what my credit card needed right now was more expense :shock: !

Great review, very tempting and I see there's a video demo of one routine at http://www.spocmagic.com/GFY_Web_000.wmv - which is worth viewing to get a taste of the effect.

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Postby Tom Lauten » Dec 8th, '05, 12:33

Soz to the C.U.P.S. Anonymous members.... but go on...you know you want to! :twisted:

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Postby katrielalex » Dec 8th, '05, 12:46

Hrm...it does look quite good but the main problem for me was the shuffling. The cutting sequence just looked contrived to me and I wonder if asking the spectator to shuffle is a good idea when they have to do it 'the right way'...

I guess the beauty of the deck is the fact that it has several decks stuck into one but for me I will just stick to the old m***** deck to do that kind of effect.

Kati

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Postby Mandrake » Dec 8th, '05, 12:51

Tom Lauten wrote:go on...you know you want to! :twisted:


I know I want to, you know I want to and Mastercard knows I want to. I'm weak, so very, very weak....... :roll:

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Postby Tom Lauten » Dec 8th, '05, 13:31

Getting spectators to do ANYTHING the right way is always a risk! :roll:

But like so many other effects it isn't strictly needed.

The deck is a number of varients of other decks in one. Rather than thinking of it as (literally) ALL purpose it might be easier to think of it as a multi-function / multi-tasking deck you never need to switch out while performing some pretty impressive routines. What's more it becomes / is(relatively) examinable.

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Postby bananafish » Dec 8th, '05, 17:33

Well it does look very nice, and I do like the bit that you can use it for the rest of your set...

hhhhmmmm

Last edited by bananafish on Dec 8th, '05, 18:15, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby daleshrimpton » Dec 8th, '05, 17:47

bananafish wrote:Well it does look very nice, and I do like th ebit that you can use it for the rest of your set...

hhhhmmmm


you would need to spend 5 mins afterwards re- setting the deck, but it is an advantage.

the thing is though, the effects that you do with it are that strong, its quite unlikely that any other effect will follow it.

you're like Yoda.you dont say much, but what you do say is worth listening to....
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Postby Ozman » Dec 8th, '05, 23:47

why thankyou kind ladies and gents... i am blown away by the lovely things you have said about my rama deck thingie! you are all spiffy nice people.

if anyone has any other questions or queries, please feel free to PM me, and i'll do my best to answer.

wahey!

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Postby Beardy » Dec 12th, '05, 16:55

Now that is very nice. I might just have to invest in that :D

Love

Chris
xxx

"An amazing mind manipulator" - Uri Geller
"I hope to shake your hand before I die" - Derren Brown
"That was mightily impressive - I have absolutely no clue how you did that" - Tim Minchin
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Postby el topo » Dec 13th, '05, 14:55

daleshrimpton wrote:the thing is though, the effects that you do with it are that strong, its quite unlikely that any other effect will follow it.


I don't think I agree. There are plenty of very strong effects that can be done with a regular deck. Take Out of This World, for example. When you perform it after the spec has shuffled the deck him/herself, the effect is no less strong than what you normally do with this gaffed deck.

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Postby bananafish » Dec 13th, '05, 15:54

When you perform it after the spec has shuffled the deck him/herself, the effect is no less strong than what you normally do with this gaffed deck


Nah. It's stronger is the spec can shuffle first, and yet still stronger if you can carry on performing proving that the deck is normal.

Now, on the other heand if the spec remembers shuffling, and assumes that the deck you are carrying on with is the same one, then I guess you are right. It's no less strong.

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Postby Mahoney » Dec 14th, '05, 22:52

Ok I gave in and got it due to this awesome review. I got it this morning and I can now say that I completely agree with the review. It's great! It's probably my favorite gimmicked deck. The ID is an amazing trick but this deck appears normal, yet the effects you can do are amazing and completely unexplainable. I've only performed it a couple of times so far but it went very well each time, and I let the spectator do it all the handling, and it's this that makes it so strong. They shuffle and cut the deck and you never even have to touch it. It doesn't get any better than this. I think I'm going to get alot of mileage out of this baby.

Andrew
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Postby Part-Timer » Dec 15th, '05, 23:08

It's very good. I like it, although I want to fiddle around with it first.

Personally, I think that if an effect is very strong, it's often best to do that and nothing else. See Paul Harris's comments on his variation on OOTW ('Galaxy') in 'The Art of Astonishment'.

I took his views on board and do Galaxy if I want a really powerful effect, but I am not going to be doing anything else.

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Postby Ozman » Jan 13th, '06, 11:27

with a little 'jiggery-pokery' you can use rama to do an AMAZING OOTW effect!

imagine TRUELY allowing the spectator to shuffle the cards before doing OOTW! you can have them do the entire effect without you ever touching the cards!!!

that'll really freak em out! hehe!

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