by mindshot » Dec 14th, '12, 11:23
You could do any trick you do with the normal cards, including Rosary Stacks. If you are in Spain doing a mentalist trick, when you ask someone to think on a card is going to think on a Spanish card like 4 of Bastos instead of 4 of Clubs. Therefore my recommendation is to use them for mentalism or history telling tricks, as the designs are usually nice and colorful. The name of the suits are Bastos (green/red/yellow clubs), Oros (Gold Coins), Copas (Red Cups) and Espadas (Swords). Their equivalences are Bastos = Clubs (People), Oros = Diamonds (The Rich or Nobility), Copas = Hearts (The Church) and Espadas = Spades (The Army). The values are a bit different just because all the labels are numbers. e.g. although Aces are still called Ases (Aces), they are labelled 1. They decks do not include 8,9,10 but from 7 jumps straight to the Jack (Sota in Spanish) which is usually regarded as feminine character and labelled as 10. The Queen is replaced by a Horseman although people just call them Caballos (Horses) and it is numbered as 11. And the King is labelled as 12. Therefore you get 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,10,11,12. They are very nice for story telling and one trick people really enjoy usually involves princesses (sota/jack) being locked on four towers by their fathers (rey/king) and later saved by princes on horseback (caballo/queen). So you can do any trick really and if in Spain, people will enjoy more if you use them, because regular playing cards are only used to play poker, the other games are played using Spanish cards. But again, this is Spain in Europe, in South America people use regular playing cards.