For doing magic, my favorite is the plain old rider back red bicycles
This is not because of handling or 'airflow finish' or their appearance or anything like that...
Bicycle is my favorite because:
A. It is VERY well recognized. EVERYONE knows what they look like and therefore, when you do any card trick with a gaff or without a gaff for that matter, people are MUCH less likely to be suspicious of any kind of "trick deck/card" or anything like that because they are used to seeing them. This is why i use all bicyles, all reds, all the time..so that no one thinks anything unusual and it also seems more casual/impromptu than planned.
B. Because they are SO common (in the USA at least i know they are)and available in many different different gaffs/tricks/gimmicks...etc You cant go buy a bunch of gaffed Bee decks/cards, lets say you use Alladins and like the cigarette through card trick. If all of the sudden you pull out a bicycle card and stick something through it without leaving a hole, it will look kinda weird! (To me, switching decks always looks bad and so I prefer to stick with the card brand that has the most gimmicks and stuff available in it so that im the least limited as possible. I can think of so many tricks i wouldnt be able to do anymore if i stopped using bikes...)
C. They are a good happy medium between price and quality. (i pay $12 for 12 packs yet they dont 'feel cheap' at all)
D. Also, they have a lot of normal deck variations to choose from, so you never get bored
E. They are just so....."classic" feeling~
Any other artists out there? cause
For playing cards, (i like something less traditional to keep it interesting), my favorite deck is the Key to the Kingdom enchanted deck. But its not so good for magic, though im sure someone with a really good imagination could probably come with up a very amusing story incorporating magic tricks using a story with this deck because there are some neat characters on it......
Is anyone familiar with this deck? If you like art or riddles, you may find it amusing. Here's the link anyhow just incase anyone's curious-
http://www.dxpo-playingcards.com/xpo/art/xpokey01.htm
Keep scanning to the bottom and click "more." Look at the entire deck before you judge it... I love it~ Look carefully at every individual card to see the various ways he integrated the pips into the art work.
(THE BEST PART- It's a deck of cards whimsically illustrated by Tony Meeuwissen. The deck comes with a book that goes along with it because every single card correspondes (illustrates) an old nursery rhyme or song or poem or saying or whatnot. It's called Key to the Kingdom because it was actually a contest when it first came out and if you found the key (solved the 'riddle') you won
$10,000 USA!
To win you had to take an eighteen line verse and select 14 cards to decode the verses. Then you had to find a similar corresponding phrase. The tiebreaker was to construct an apt verse of 25 words or fewer, using the words spades, clubs, hearts and diamonds. Then you win 10,000 bucks!)
If
anyone here can solve it without cheating, you are an absolute
GENIOUS!!!! If you want to know the answers, or the corresponding poem to a certain card, feel free to ask =)[/b]