The Svengali Deck?

[Justinquill]

So in the little over a month that I have been doing this, I've made a couple friends in the magic community in my local area and one of them just bought me a Svengali deck, it's being shipped to my place now. So I figured I would do a little research on it before it got here. Anyone have a cool use for the Svengali deck that they have had some success with or maybe a concept they used it with. Just trying to get an idea of what I would use it for.

 

[Maaz Hasan]

You can do a ton of stuff! Forces, mind reading, Instant color changes, anything! You can have the spectator shuffle the deck and still have every other card be a force card. You can do a "A"CAAN. Its a utility tool you can use for a ton of stuff.

 

[Justinquill]

Yeah I'm looking forward to getting it. Should be a good tool, that and I've been working on effective deck switches so that should come in handy as well.

 

[Theris]

Yeah I'm looking forward to getting it. Should be a good tool, that and I've been working on effective deck switches so that should come in handy as well.

Yeah working on Deck switches is a good idea. You can have them examine a normal deck first to avoid the awkward possibility of being asked to have a closer look at the Svengali

 

[010rusty]

Try this

 

[RealityOne]

Get a copy of Encyclopedia of Card Tricks. It has an entire chapter devoted to Svengali Decks and some great presentation ideas. It is a great book that has a lot of effects using gaffed decks and cards. There also is a Booklet Called 101 Magic Tricks with a Svengali Deck. For $2.50, there has to be something in there that you like!

The typical Svengali "pitch" presentation will show the deck all different by riffling the deck, having the spectator pick a card, have the card reinserted into the deck, showing that the card is not at the top, having the card rise to the top, repeating that sequence and then showing that the whole deck actually is their card by riffing the deck. Maybe throw in a shuffle and a cutting to the selected card.

@Maaz Hasan covered most of the uses. I really like having spectators riffle shuffle the deck - there is something just about having them handle a gaffed deck. To do a dealing force, have the spectator start dealing cards to a pile on the table and stop whenever they want. If you keep count, you will know whether the force card is on the top of the deck or on the top of the pile on the table. After a force, you can show the indifferent card above and the indifferent card below that they didn't choose.

Have them deal the deck into two piles (credit to Andy Nyman for using that with a Mirage Deck in an effect published in Genii). That opens up a lot of possibilities for effects because of the resulting compositon of the decks.

I tend to like Svengali effects where it isn't obvious that you are using a Svengali deck. You can actually use a Svengali deck for a tossed out deck sort of routine where three spectators take a turn cutting the deck and looking at the top card. You then tell them to close their eyes and listen to see if you name their card and after you name three cards, if their card was named they should sit down. You name two indifferent cards and your force card pointing to each spectator as you name each card. All three sit down when you are done to a nice round of applause.

 

[Maaz Hasan]

Another thing you can do:
Some Svengali decks are a bit rough to use if you catch my drift.
You can do things like classic force with them, and a ton more.

Also, impossible location effects are super easy. Just load a force card anywhere, and then just force it using the Sven. You can even do a deck switch while they go and get the card!

You can also do mental effects with them. If you get a blank Sven deck, you can draw stuff on the cards, and force a picture! Or give the spectators a list of cards corresponding to something (eg. Ace of Spades - Shoe, 2 of Spades - Lamp, etc.) and use the deck to force an object or idea. You can work wonders from here.

 

[Justinquill]

Wow I love this forum, you all know your stuff. I've gotten so much out of this place! Hope I can give back someday. Thanks everyone for the awesome ideas. 010 rusty, cool vid, Maaz and reality one, you guys know your stuff, I love talking to you. Thanks again!

 

[RealityOne]

Another thing you can do:

This would make a cool SNC - best effect with a Svengali Deck.

 

[Justinquill]

update! Svengali deck received! Now time to take your suggestions and work on it. Will prob make a video performing what I come up with.

 

[Maaz Hasan]

Quick question, do you guys think I ca use a paper cutter to cut my own Svengali Deck? Also, would it damage the paper cutter? Because my library might have one open to the public...

 

[RealityOne]

A paper cutter will trim one card at a time.

I recommend getting THIS which will work on short cards.

You also can get THIS to round the edges to mimic a regular edge using the S[mall] setting (if you ever trim a card you will know why) . You can also use the M[edium] setting to make corner shorts.

If you want to make stripper deck, you can modify the trimmer like THIS.

 

[obrienmagic]

I think David pretty much covered your best bet above, but here are some general plot ideas I used to use to demo the S deck at the magic shop back in the day!

-Ambitious card: Card rises to the top under impossible conditions

-card to pocket/ impossible location: card vanishes from the deck then ends in the magicians pocket or some other impossible location

-duplication deck: the whole deck becomes the selected card (this is usually the main reason people get the deck, however it is not necessary

-Spectator cuts their card: the spectator cuts the deck themselves and cuts to their card everytime

-ACAAN: the spectator can freely choose ANY number and you can deal down to their card.

-Spell trick: spell out the name of their card and deal to it.

-Stop trick: deal cards until they call stop then reveal they stopped at their card

-One more/one less: you can show that the next card or the previous card are both different for example "if you would have said one more it would have been the 5 of hearts, one less the 3 of spades, but you stopped at THIS card, your ace of diamonds."
Card to mouth: as the spectator places their card in the deck, you can secretly place it in your mouth.

-Forcing deck: use the S deck to force a specific card then reveal it in some other way (mind reading, prediction, etc.)

Hope this helps!

 

[FunkyBottoms]

A paper cutter will trim one card at a time.

I recommend getting THIS which will work on short cards.

You also can get THIS to round the edges to mimic a regular edge using the S[mall] setting (if you ever trim a card you will know why) . You can also use the M[edium] setting to make corner shorts.

If you want to make stripper deck, you can modify the trimmer like THIS.

Funny thing, I bought that verybsame setup; Fiskars and the magnets/angle brackets after viewing that same page of Riser's some years back. I will say it works pretty well and for cheap too! I found an outstanding corner punch on big A I can dig up the link to of anyone's interested.

However, down the road I ended up investing the money on Eoin O'Hare's Stripper Jig, an absolute precision work of art built to last generations. Also bought his pinpoint pegger (also precision perfection), but the stripper jig is the real gem of the two and makes the most beautiful mods ever. Investment? Yes. Worth every penny? Absolutely.
www.the perfectshuffle.com and have a look. They're gorgeous and work every bit as good as they look.

Either system you choose, Riser's on-the-cheap system works surprisingly well, and Eoin's jig works like a dream, creating the best feeling stripper/Svengali/shorts/inverted/sub rosa decks you'll ever handle. Out of a deck of Bike Standards comes a beautifully handling deck made to your tolerances, as you like, whenever you like. Add a pegging system and/or a marking system, seal it up with a fresh deck seal and cellophane it with a wonder sealer, and you're bringing custom unopened decks to your next gig.

Man did I get far afield or WHAT?!? Anyhow, it's late, good an excuse as any , good luck and knock em dead!

 

[RealityOne]

However, down the road I ended up investing the money on Eoin O'Hare's Stripper Jig, an absolute precision work of art built to last generations. Also bought his pinpoint pegger (also precision perfection), but the stripper jig is the real gem of the two and makes the most beautiful mods ever. Investment? Yes. Worth every penny? Absolutely.

I'm jealous. That is on my wish list -- unfortunately I keep finding OOP books that I want to spend my money on.

Two questions: 1) does it work doing concave and belly strippers? and 2) it actually does the Sub Rosa work? Feel free to PM the answers if you think they would skirt too close to exposure (especially regarding Sub Rosa).

 

[FunkyBottoms]

Oh she's a beaut, that's for sure. Just holding it makes me feel special, it's just gorgeous, heavy, and wonderfully suited to the task.
I know how the book addiction goes too, she's a hard one to kick...not that one would want to, but the want is strong on many OOP books. I can't even open Denis Behr's archive anymore it always costs me hours and $$$ tracking down OOPs.

I can answer those here to your satisfaction without any issues I believe.

On #1, it indeed does both beautifully, though to belly/concave it requires 2 passes. You can imagine why if you look at the jig itself.

On #2, it can, but to be perfectly honest I've gotten good enough at it using other means (nail files in particular), that while I can use it for SR, it's just easier to do it by other means (practice is key on this) as the number of cards requiring work is small bu comparison to strippers, and the possible positions for different court cards is easy to adjust for without the need of this jig.

In fact, I have a card press I've scored with lines denoting widths and positions for doing SR work as its faster and I can do however many I need at one time. If you're interested in that, look for the classic card press, brass. Out of stock on Penguin at $99, $45 on Amazon last I looked, in stock.

Hope that helped and if you have any questions for offline or this needs clarification I'd be happy to answer em, shoot me a PM my friend!

 

[Magic Orthodoxy]

I have several svengali tricks on my channel. I love that deck

Spectator cuts to their freely chosen card

 

[Simsallabim]

LOL like dusty. I am that is. Get a machine to get them and you'll never need to buy a 5 dollar deck again. For the cutting I'm guessing you only want it for one reason. That would hold the concept but isn't a real Svengali deck.

 

[Maaz Hasan]

LOL like dusty. I am that is. Get a machine to get them and you'll never need to buy a 5 dollar deck again. For the cutting I'm guessing you only want it for one reason. That would hold the concept but isn't a real Svengali deck.

How is it not a Sven Deck anymore?

 

[Simsallabim]

Why not start with the basics. What's the basic simple way to use it? Please not just to force w/a half deck.