I just received my Smoke and Mirrors decks and i've been playing round with them for a few hours. Here's my thoughts on the deck.
Appearance - I've heard some people say they look better than the pictures online. In my opinion this is completely untrue, they look slightly worse than they do in the photos because the photos are taken with lighting set up to make them look as good as possible etc. If you don't like the photos you won't like them anymore when you see them in person.
I actually quite liked them when I first saw them so i'm quite pleased with the backs, I have mixed opinions about the faces. I like the darker red, although this is almost certainly copied of the Guardians so D&D can't take much credit for this.
I like the simplicity of the court cards although there's a bit too much yellow on them, some people may not mind this.
I love the Jokers and the Ace of Spades, the artwork is incredible. It's a shame the rest of the deck wasn't designed in a similar style.
Feel - Out of the box these fanned and spread perfectly, however, they did warp quite a bit very quickly in a similar way to the Ellusionist Ghost deck. As this was just one deck I won't hold it against them.
They hold together fairly well, I can do Sybil's easily, with cuts like Akira they start to spread apart quite a bit during the last phase of the cut, although this is to be expected with a new deck.
Doing sleights such as the Elmsley count and Jordan count with these cards is difficult straight out of the box although i'm sure this will improve when i've broken them in a bit more.
These cards are almost exactly the same thickness as a Tally-Ho deck, this is a good as it means multiple lifts are not as noticeable as they are with many other, thicker, custom decks.
These cards are a bit stiffer then Tally-Ho's and have a bit more of a 'snap' to them. This is very noticeable when doing springs and shuffles. Although, while a bit more snap feels nice it's not really that helpful.
Conclusion - This is a very nice deck of cards, I wouldn't say it's the best deck ever but i'll certainly be using it from time to time. Smoke and Mirrors most likely won't replace your Bikes and Tally's. It is very elegant and I don't think they will look too suspicuous to spectators if used in the right situation.
Even though this deck is great I can't help but feel slightly dissapointed, I really can't see why it took 8 months to make. It's a good deck but I just think it could have been better.
If you're just going to make videos for Youtube with your webcam I wouldn't bother with this deck. If you're doing a live performance and you have confident presentation and card handling then I think they could compliment your act very well.
Appearance - I've heard some people say they look better than the pictures online. In my opinion this is completely untrue, they look slightly worse than they do in the photos because the photos are taken with lighting set up to make them look as good as possible etc. If you don't like the photos you won't like them anymore when you see them in person.
I actually quite liked them when I first saw them so i'm quite pleased with the backs, I have mixed opinions about the faces. I like the darker red, although this is almost certainly copied of the Guardians so D&D can't take much credit for this.
I like the simplicity of the court cards although there's a bit too much yellow on them, some people may not mind this.
I love the Jokers and the Ace of Spades, the artwork is incredible. It's a shame the rest of the deck wasn't designed in a similar style.
Feel - Out of the box these fanned and spread perfectly, however, they did warp quite a bit very quickly in a similar way to the Ellusionist Ghost deck. As this was just one deck I won't hold it against them.
They hold together fairly well, I can do Sybil's easily, with cuts like Akira they start to spread apart quite a bit during the last phase of the cut, although this is to be expected with a new deck.
Doing sleights such as the Elmsley count and Jordan count with these cards is difficult straight out of the box although i'm sure this will improve when i've broken them in a bit more.
These cards are almost exactly the same thickness as a Tally-Ho deck, this is a good as it means multiple lifts are not as noticeable as they are with many other, thicker, custom decks.
These cards are a bit stiffer then Tally-Ho's and have a bit more of a 'snap' to them. This is very noticeable when doing springs and shuffles. Although, while a bit more snap feels nice it's not really that helpful.
Conclusion - This is a very nice deck of cards, I wouldn't say it's the best deck ever but i'll certainly be using it from time to time. Smoke and Mirrors most likely won't replace your Bikes and Tally's. It is very elegant and I don't think they will look too suspicuous to spectators if used in the right situation.
Even though this deck is great I can't help but feel slightly dissapointed, I really can't see why it took 8 months to make. It's a good deck but I just think it could have been better.
If you're just going to make videos for Youtube with your webcam I wouldn't bother with this deck. If you're doing a live performance and you have confident presentation and card handling then I think they could compliment your act very well.
