Got my first deck today.
Backs:
Look horrible, I thought that the back design was going to be printed in a shadowy gray to promote the ghostliness but it's actually boring plain black. It looks very bad in contrast to the white. It would have looked better if it didn't have the badly printed lines, one on each side side, which fade from black to white. This looks awful when looking at a single card, but even worse if they're in a fan. I give the back design 4/10. It failed badly.
If they ever do a second batch they need to take out the fading unconnected lines on each side completely, leaving a thick border of white. Then they need to keep the rest of the current back design, but make the ink that paints it fade from pure black to nothing as you travel farther away from the center. Trust me, that would blow peoples minds.
Faces
Are even worse. Hearts and diamonds are not red, but the same boring black, with the exception of the pips in the corners which are red with black outlines. Speaking of which, why is it that the black outline gets cut off slightly on each side of the pip? I doubt that this is a printing mistake, this seems like a poor design choice, they should have been aware of the printing process. Also, because the hearts/diamonds are black, it throws people off. It is very easy to miscall a heart for a spade if the card is shown quickly, especially if its a court card. Speaking of which. they are another disaster. They took all of the color out of them, and printed them only in black and white. This looks very plain and unattractive. The ace of spades is equally bad. I'm sure the design is nice. I'm sure of this because I saw it in pictures. The problem is that it looks awful on the card itself. Most of the detail is lost, and it's printed mostly in a very blunt, boring black. This is the worst ace of spades I've seen on any deck because it looks like it had aspirations but it failed. I give the face design 3/10. I hope they learned from their mistakes.
If they ever do a second batch they need to actually put some mystery into these. Use at least two shades of gray for court cards, if you want to get crazy make them skeletal. Make hearts and diamonds red, but with a black outline. The ace of spades needs to be redone completely. Clearly the printing press isn't so hot on detail. A simple design needs to be created, and printed using various shades of gray, perhaps fading into nothing at the edges.
Quality of the cards
Is not bad. My deck batch slipped past quality control, the edges are VERY rough. It feels like I'm about to give myself a paper cut anytime I touch them. Other than that the finish if very nice. They cards are a bit on the thick side, but still a little softer compared to my tally-hos. They were very slippery out of the box. Too slippery in fact, it made me realize that I really don't want my cards to be slippery. I tried to do double lifts with them but they would split at a rate higher than my tally-hos because of this slipperiness. I guess if you are into making lots of fans they are great, but for tricks and packet cuts they would be bad. Other than the smoothness I can't tell the difference between them and my tally-hos. Which is a complement-- I guess. The big thing is how long they last, I will have to wait and see. I give their quality a 9/10. I'm assuming that most batches don't have such rough edges, and that the deck lasts at least as long as my tally-hos.
Conclusion:
I bought two decks, and I'm regretting it. I wish I could unbuy these, and get 5 blue tallyhos. They tried to do something fancy with the design and failed. I think mostly white cards are a very good idea, but this specific deck is a dud. The design needs to be largely redone. It should be MUCH more faded. It should also be much more shadowy, and the faces need to be recognizable with a single glance. Until then I will not recommend it over a deck of blue circle back tallys (let alone 2, since 2 are the same price as one of these. I give this overall deck a 6/10. The quality is good, but you can get nearly equivalent quality for less than half as much money. And the design is nothing to look at. It didn't impress me, and it didn't impress anybody I have shown it to thus far. I don't understand how anybody can still like it after looking at it up close.
Recommendation:
Do not buy these. I haven't had a chance to see other custom decks (other than masters), but if I were to assume that they are as cool as they look I would suggest you check out one of those instead. Or buy multiple tallyho and/or bicycle decks. I recommend the latter.
Backs:
Look horrible, I thought that the back design was going to be printed in a shadowy gray to promote the ghostliness but it's actually boring plain black. It looks very bad in contrast to the white. It would have looked better if it didn't have the badly printed lines, one on each side side, which fade from black to white. This looks awful when looking at a single card, but even worse if they're in a fan. I give the back design 4/10. It failed badly.
If they ever do a second batch they need to take out the fading unconnected lines on each side completely, leaving a thick border of white. Then they need to keep the rest of the current back design, but make the ink that paints it fade from pure black to nothing as you travel farther away from the center. Trust me, that would blow peoples minds.
Faces
Are even worse. Hearts and diamonds are not red, but the same boring black, with the exception of the pips in the corners which are red with black outlines. Speaking of which, why is it that the black outline gets cut off slightly on each side of the pip? I doubt that this is a printing mistake, this seems like a poor design choice, they should have been aware of the printing process. Also, because the hearts/diamonds are black, it throws people off. It is very easy to miscall a heart for a spade if the card is shown quickly, especially if its a court card. Speaking of which. they are another disaster. They took all of the color out of them, and printed them only in black and white. This looks very plain and unattractive. The ace of spades is equally bad. I'm sure the design is nice. I'm sure of this because I saw it in pictures. The problem is that it looks awful on the card itself. Most of the detail is lost, and it's printed mostly in a very blunt, boring black. This is the worst ace of spades I've seen on any deck because it looks like it had aspirations but it failed. I give the face design 3/10. I hope they learned from their mistakes.
If they ever do a second batch they need to actually put some mystery into these. Use at least two shades of gray for court cards, if you want to get crazy make them skeletal. Make hearts and diamonds red, but with a black outline. The ace of spades needs to be redone completely. Clearly the printing press isn't so hot on detail. A simple design needs to be created, and printed using various shades of gray, perhaps fading into nothing at the edges.
Quality of the cards
Is not bad. My deck batch slipped past quality control, the edges are VERY rough. It feels like I'm about to give myself a paper cut anytime I touch them. Other than that the finish if very nice. They cards are a bit on the thick side, but still a little softer compared to my tally-hos. They were very slippery out of the box. Too slippery in fact, it made me realize that I really don't want my cards to be slippery. I tried to do double lifts with them but they would split at a rate higher than my tally-hos because of this slipperiness. I guess if you are into making lots of fans they are great, but for tricks and packet cuts they would be bad. Other than the smoothness I can't tell the difference between them and my tally-hos. Which is a complement-- I guess. The big thing is how long they last, I will have to wait and see. I give their quality a 9/10. I'm assuming that most batches don't have such rough edges, and that the deck lasts at least as long as my tally-hos.
Conclusion:
I bought two decks, and I'm regretting it. I wish I could unbuy these, and get 5 blue tallyhos. They tried to do something fancy with the design and failed. I think mostly white cards are a very good idea, but this specific deck is a dud. The design needs to be largely redone. It should be MUCH more faded. It should also be much more shadowy, and the faces need to be recognizable with a single glance. Until then I will not recommend it over a deck of blue circle back tallys (let alone 2, since 2 are the same price as one of these. I give this overall deck a 6/10. The quality is good, but you can get nearly equivalent quality for less than half as much money. And the design is nothing to look at. It didn't impress me, and it didn't impress anybody I have shown it to thus far. I don't understand how anybody can still like it after looking at it up close.
Recommendation:
Do not buy these. I haven't had a chance to see other custom decks (other than masters), but if I were to assume that they are as cool as they look I would suggest you check out one of those instead. Or buy multiple tallyho and/or bicycle decks. I recommend the latter.
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