You’re wondering what the best playing cards for magic tricks are.
Whether you are a beginner, a new magician, or a real professional, a high-quality pack of cards is a key part of the tools of your trade. However, thousands of decks are available, and it can be very stressful to decide which playing cards to buy.
In this guide, I’m going to try to establish what are the best cards for magicians.
Bicycle Cards
My top suggestion is a Bicycle pack of Cards. It’s possible to spend a great deal of money on expensive design at playing cards. It’s nice to have one of these special packs; it is not really necessary for a novice magician. What a novice magician wants is a basic set of bicycle cards. They will wear well, and he can use these cards to work on his technique. Developing a decent technique is really important. You can’t go wrong with poker 808 bicycle cards. These are pretty much standard playing cards to use for magic.
Bicycle cards are fantastic for most magic tricks. They slide really well because of the card’s uv500 special finish and are cheap to buy. They will be easy to use and work within your magic act.
If you look at the cheap playing cards you find in local stores; they will not be bicycle cards. Typically they are often smaller in size and less well made. Buying these cards is a false economy as they will not last so long and will clump together.
The United States Playing Card Company prints bicycle cards. They use a special type of finish is cushioned and provides excellent handling. They also are a lot more hard-wearing than the cheap decks, which means they continue working well over many years. On top of that, the design of the playing cards has got a couple of other benefits solutions since the design is recognizable people will look at them and have no idea you are using a special trick deck. This is slightly strange because most special cards and trick decks made with bicycle playing cards. As you progress, there’s a slightly more prestigious and expensive bicycle gold standard playing card with a different cut, makings it easier for magic tricks.
Looking at Alternatives
One of the greatest things about being a magician is you don’t really need a lot to get started. You can get by with just a deck of cards, most of the time. When it comes to choosing cards for magic tricks, there’s a lot of difference between them.
Different magicians have their favorite card, and these are mine.
- Bicycle Arch Angels
- Bicycle Dragon Box
- Theory 11 White Artisans
- Theory 11 Monarchs
- Bicycle Rider backs
Bicycle Archangel
Bicycle Archangel cards are modelled on the style of the Great Michelangelo. The back design is very tasteful and attractive, and some of the card fronts are equally special. The red cards use a cherry red, and the cards’ faces have something like a shiny glow that makes them stand out. These cards are very easy to get hold of, and you can see them in many stores. Walgreens is one place that sells them. They cost about the same as a normal pack of Bicycle cards. One downside is that when you first get them, they might feel stiff. Do not worry, that will soon wear off.
Bicycle Dragon Backs
If you are looking for cards that handle perfectly and last quite a while, you can’t go wrong with Dragon Backs. The back of the card is a dark color with red dragons on a black background. They look very classy.
The red and black design is sophisticated in appearance and very dramatic. The dragons that circle the back of the cards have an eastern, mysterious look. The front of these cards’ has a slightly yellow or gold tinge which highlights the markings on the cards. Another feature of these cards is that they offer a blue alternative, and in the blue pack,k the spades and clubs are shown in blue. Having two color alternatives of the same design does allow some color change tricks to be done quite easily.
Theory11
Theory11 is well know designer company producin high quality playing cards with attention to every detail.
Let’s look at some of them.
White Artisans
If having a well-crafted card with excellent artistry, is important to you, you cannot go wrong with White Artisan cards. The design is truly classy with its white and gold design (although I must admit I still prefer the Bicycle Dragon back). It’s a handsome quality deck of playing cards that are specifically designed to be used by magicians. Like all the Theory11 cards, they are comfortable to use.
Theory 11 Monarchs
The Theory11 playing card is designed exclusively for magicians.
Features of the Theory 11 Artisans are also present in the monarch, but it’s slightly less attractive. These cards look a bit more ordinary than the Theory 11 artisan. However, this pack also comes with a quality tuck box.
Bicycle Rider Backs
As I have already said in the review of the bicycle cards above, The bicycle rider back cards appear to look like a regular pack. This puts people’s guard down, and they assume you are using a standard pack of cards. The other thing to consider is that when you do use trick packs of cards, certainly they almost certainly will be adaptions of Bicycle Rider Cards, which makes switching easier.
The downside of bicycle cards is that the quality is not as good. The printing is not always spot on. The worse thing though is the tuck box frequently has a big label on it, which says a free app, which spoils the box’s looks when you’re performing. However, if you want a budget pack of cards the bicycle cards are all you need
Summary of Different Packs
When it comes down to it, when it comes to choosing a pack of cards for your magic, it’s really about personal likes and dislikes. You may like the look of one design over another. There is not really a great deal all the difference in that the way the cards feel and work when performing the tricks. It is all about looks.
Trick Cards
A trick deck is a special pack of playing cards that have been altered in some way. They do this to enable a magician to perform a certain type of card trick where sleight of hand would not be practical.
Stripper deck
Cards within a stripper deck tapered so that they no longer are a perfect rectangle. The amount of taper is not great and will not be detected when an audience member looks at the cards or even touches them.
But if you will rotate a single card by a hundred and eighty degrees so that taper points in the opposite direction, the card can be detected and selected by the magician. Beware that the public is aware of these types of decks.
Svengali deck
The Svengali deck also, unfortunately, well known up by the public. In a single deck, the deck with some cards normal length, and other cards shortened; the shorter cards all of the same rank and suit.
When the deck is displayed front-to-back, only the normal cards are visible; however, when is back-to-front, only the shortened cards are visible. This pack first appeared in 1909
Marked decks
Off the sort occasionally used by cardsharps. Marked cards have a mark placed on the card’s decorative side very discreetly.
The mark is placed in a certain position to indicate a number. The color or shape of the mark indicates a suite. This allows a magician to perform a variety of card tricks.
Forcing Deck
Forcing a dick is a special pack of cards where the top half of each card has a different value, suites etc., but the bottom of the cards are all printed with it the same value, for example, the five of diamonds. By fanning out the cards, it appears that all the cards are different but turn the cards around and fan them again and they all look same the (five of diamonds). When using these cards, they must be fanned correctly; otherwise, the audience members may spot each card’s duel value. These decks are no longer as popular because the public is growing more and more suspicious about the use of special decks.
Rising Card Decks
The Rising card deck is slightly more sophisticated. With this type of deck, the volunteer selects a card and puts it back in the deck of cards, and then the chosen card will majestically rise from the box.
There are many ways of creating of this effect, the simplest of these is by placing a hole in the back of the card box, so the performer can discreetly push up the top card with that finger.
That is the simplest type. More complex designs will have two cards connected with an elastic band, and the target card is pushed between those two cards and the top of the card box closed down. When the top of the box is opened, the card will automatically and majestically rise from the pack.
Conclusion
In this article, I have described various packs of regular playing cards. I have also described some of the more common trick packs. A new magician does not need to own all of these packs but can select one regular pack of cards and a trick pack if required.