Maduro Playing Cards (Kings Wild Project)

[Bradius]

I just purchased my second Liturgy Treasure deck (thanks Roger). No way I am shuffling either deck. Yeah. No.

[Bradius]

Thedissident001, just keep your money for something else if you are holding out for option D.

[Bikefanatic]

1. I play with all of Lotrek's decks.

2. I voted option A. C with both designs is too much.

[sinjin7]

I didn't think the bleeding marks for courts mattered until I picked up Lee McKensie's (sp?) first Empires deck. The effect was so mind-bogglingly obvious that I vowed to never pick up such a deck again. (Luckily, later editions did not have this terrible issue.)

I'm glad that JR is still listening and responding (somewhat) to his backers. I think there's a lot to like about this deck, and this is a step toward making it even better.

I backed for a brick of the 1st Edition Empire deck when they first came out on KS and was also extremely disappointed with its unplayability, and basically haven't even touched those decks since. If there is anyone still out there wondering what the big deal is with edge-marked decks, here are a few pictures:

New stack order

This is the Empire deck in unshuffled, new stack order. Pretty obvious and blatant. At the top you can see some red for the Heart court cards. You can see the black Club courts follow, with the red Diamond court cards immediately below the Clubs, and of course the black Spade courts would be at the bottom of a face-down new order stack.

This is the same deck with all but one court card removed. Its still very easy to spot even a single court card in the stack. Lee McKenzie's deck was edge marked in the top and bottom of the cards, offset to the left corner. Jackson's Maduro deck would be edge marked on both sides in the center, which would make the markings even more obvious than Lee's Empire deck. As rousselle already stated, at least Lee learned from his mistake and did away with his edge marked design with the rest of the decks in his Empire series. Trust me, its a good thing Jackson is considering modifying his design for better playability.

[Bikefanatic]

To be on an even playing field, let all of the players know about the deck being marked.

[TGunitedcardists]

The solution is quite simple: make all the bands exactly the same on the edge OR don't push the bands all the way to the edge and all the edges are white.

[TheGentlemanWake]

I like the differing bands personally.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[TGunitedcardists]

I like the differing bands personally.

It just has to be the same along the edge for playability. He could still put different color bands (which look nice) but on the edge, it should be the same. The different colors still give information away in a card game.

[guru]

But, my boys and I do have one of Sunish's first decks in our rotation. That is an awesome deck for playing, has great art, and can take the abuse that kids give it. And, the gilding holds up!

I hear that. Thanks Allan.

[alric]

Trust me, its a good thing Jackson is considering modifying his design for better playability.

Yeah, that Empire deck clearly shows that only having selective cards bleed to the edge pretty much ruins the deck. While its nice to see Jack$on finally acknowledge that his deck had a problem, nothing's actually changed yet, it all depends on how the voting goes. Hopefully people will see from the example of the Empire deck how useless the deck becomes with only the courts bleeding to the edges.

The cynical part of me can't shake the feeling that the only reason Jack$on even started to consider fixing his deck was because after the initial boost of funding in the first few days, his campaign is already starting to taper off. If you look at the Kicktraq, the chart shows this campaign plateauing at around the $30K mark, which means this campaign projects to a slow creep up to about $45K at the end. I think he realized the Maduro isn't funding as robustly as he hoped, probably due to the fact that rational, non-fanboy collectors and playing card users recognized this deck was shit for play despite how nice it looked. So his mindset went from, "My deck is an art deck, people don't buy my art to play with, but to just look and admire," to "Holy shit, I gotta do something to boost my sales! Maybe I should listen and make my deck playable after all."

In any event, I'm probably wrong about this, and I'll give credit to him for at least considering making his deck go from expensive paperweight to a useable deck. If he follows through and makes the changes, then he should see a spike in his sales. Honestly, I think this is his best looking deck in a while. I wasn't going for all that letterpressed shit he was dabbling with for a while. I'll probably wait and pick some up after they've been printed and its been confirmed these were printed in Taipei and not China.

[Bradius]

I think you should at least respect with Intaglio that he was trying to expand the production options for making playing cards. Had they been more like $50-$100 a deck, he could have sold them til the cows came home. At the price he had them at, it was just a very pricey experiment. At least though he was trying something different, Hopefully he can figure a cheaper was to make an intaglio printed deck later.

[TheGentlemanWake]

Man Alric you are making some pretty strong conjectures. Lol. In a court there’d be.a lawyer shouting “objection!” Just sayin’

I have noticed the playing card community is a bit harsh in general. I’m new to this community and only being round for a few weeks I’ve noticed a few things. One. Not a lot of activity on forums. People don’t really like engaging. Threads will have 50-60 views and only one reply. That’s a shame. It’s a breakdown in the board culture. I used to frequent other communities and forums for other hobbies and interests where the interaction level was so high it meant you’d have to check in three or four times daily or risk being lost on what was going on. The second thing is I’ve noticed a lot of negativity. Even good things are often spun in a negative light. Now there may be good reason for this bitterness but again I’m a newcomer. I thought about starting a new topic to discuss these things but I’m probably not likely to get many replies and the ones I do get will be “gtfo”
And the third thing is that when you have such a slow moving forum where entire sub forums see no posts for days it’s usually and indication of over moderation. Too many subforums. Too much specialization. This sub forum (new decks) is rightly the most popular and I get the sense some people are only interested in coming in here. But In so doing they might miss something cool or interesting (to them) that gets posted in a sub they never check. It would improve views and engagement to consolidate the subforums. Just my 2 cents. I know I’m off topic. Maybe I will make a thread. Sorry for the rambling.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[theCapraAegagrus]

Man Alric you are making some pretty strong conjectures. Lol. In a court there’d be.a lawyer shouting “objection!” Just sayin’

I have noticed the playing card community is a bit harsh in general. I’m new to this community and only being round for a few weeks I’ve noticed a few things. One. Not a lot of activity on forums. People don’t really like engaging. Threads will have 50-60 views and only one reply. That’s a shame. It’s a breakdown in the board culture. I used to frequent other communities and forums for other hobbies and interests where the interaction level was so high it meant you’d have to check in three or four times daily or risk being lost on what was going on. The second thing is I’ve noticed a lot of negativity. Even good things are often spun in a negative light. Now there may be good reason for this bitterness but again I’m a newcomer. I thought about starting a new topic to discuss these things but I’m probably not likely to get many replies and the ones I do get will be “gtfo”

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

You're not entirely wrong about any of what you just said. In defense of the critics, such as myself, there is a lot of CRAP marketed to us lately. I know that I'm often one of the first to say, "it's crap!", and, "easy pass". I think it's "right" to make sure that every project is shared here, just for those that are interested, but that's also going to invite the rejecting responses.

It's very difficult to change anyone's opinion about anything. We'll all spar about our opinions like fact and think/hope the other side will eventually break down and agree, when in reality we should just agree to disagree. Some people are dejected by JR's recent history, and while it persuaded me to no longer support his decks, a lot of people take it much further. I see too many comments attacking the man who's continuing a successful business. Kinda wreaks of someone who lives in their mom's basement and has never had a job. It piles on many times, and we rehash old debates, when we should "let the past die" (terrible quote from a terrible movie).

I do my best to be objective about each deck. If I like a designer I will tend to TRY to overlook faults, but even in those times (take Chris Ovdiyenko's latest work), it is what it is and not always what I'd like it to be. Track records exist and are usually a good measure. I've only had about 10 hours of sleep this week so everything I just said might be mumbo-jumbo.

[vasta41]

The absences of sprouts, wally, and Kai have made noticeable differences on activity here. I miss them.

[sinjin7]

...only being round for a few weeks I’ve noticed a few things. One. Not a lot of activity on forums.

All valid points. Since you're new, let me give you a quick history of this site to better explain what's going on here. This forum started off in 2006 and it was actually called Decknique. It was all about cardistry, which was starting to take off about then due to the influence of Dan and Dave and De'Vo and his crew, among others. I would say it was 90% cardistry and 10% collecting, and mostly vintage decks at that. We were very active in those days, with members posting tons of videos for feedback from fellow cardists, and we ran multiple contests a year. A lot of the top cardists today got their start on Decknique.

Since playing cards is the primary tool of cardists, we had lots of discussion about the merits of various types of decks in relation to how they handled. Then someone discovered E's Black Tiger deck and things exploded. People realized custom playing cards greatly enhanced how cardistry was able to be presented and it helped that Ohio-produced custom decks with the UV500 finish from the USPCC (and really any pre-Kentucky Q1 deck from the USPCC) was the finest performing decks for use across all different styles of cardistry. I really feel a significant source of the boom of the custom playing card market was fueled by cardists and magicians, as evidenced by the rise of E and T11 being the early big players of custom playing card production.

Since cards are the tools of the trade, we had passionate conversations about the growing flow of custom decks and we had a lot of great card reviewers that highlighted and profiled all the new decks coming out. A lot of non-cardists/magicians and collectors also started to get attracted to custom playing cards and Decknique was a great resource to learn about them.

Unfortunately, Decknique closed down when the owner of the forum got too busy with his career to adequately run and maintain Decknique. But a lot of the members got together and decided to re-open the forum and UnitedCardists was born around the beginning of 2010. The ownership of UC has changed hands a couple of times since then over the years, but the constant variable was that each of the successive owners of this forum were not cardists, but rather individuals who had a financial stake in producing and selling custom playing cards instead. The focus changed from cardistry to modern card collecting. As more and more collectors dominated the discussions, many of the cardistry members moved on or outgrew the hobby. Plus, it wasn't an entirely un-natural evolution since the majority of cardists are also collectors to varying degrees. Every single one of the Mods used to be dedicated cardists, but now I think we're down to just Tom (MagikFingerz) as the only cardistry Moderator now.

So basically what we have here today is a card collecting forum that still calls itself a cardistry forum, and we have many subforums for cardistry that used to be very active, but are in essence extinct now. I would guess 95% of the traffic on this site is through the New & Custom Decks subforum. I don't think having vacant subforums is such a bad thing, it is what it is and doesn't necessarily detract from this forum. To their credit, most of the members here that are primarily collectors and not cardists or magicians, as well as Mike, the current owner, are still very accommodating to cardists and tolerate the occasional cardistry discussions that still occur.

As for any harshness, we have a lot of passionate people here, and we don't always agree. Any public forum that provides freedom of expression is going to have members sometimes crossing the line. Since this is the Maduro thread, and I think you're alluding to the hostility towards Jackson in particular, that is a whole different discussion. In a nutshell: He's very talented, we all LOVED him at first because he makes great decks we all want. Then a lot of people HATED him in 2014 after the Moriarty deck disaster (you can look up that thread if you're interested) that was the beginning of the fall of Jackson where he kind of showed his true colors and on top of that he really dissed UC in particular. I think now its settled into a sort of love-hate relationship with Jackson. Many are still loyal supporters of him, and there are others who are fed up with his attitude and commercialism. And then there are the poor souls in between who are indifferent or off-put by Jackson personally, but can't resist his obvious talent in producing beautiful tuck boxes and playing cards and continue to buy.

[guru]

Thanks sinjin7 for this history lesson. Loved reading and have bookmarked it as well.

Now on the topic, Maduro is well executed on design front (courts) with playability issues still remaining but I hope JR would take care of it during the campaign or even afterwards. Cost is bit high which is routine for international backers at least.

I was looking to back the other Norse themed deck on Kickstarter but when I looked at their reward cost and the printer, option to pick Maduro became quite easy for me.

[TGunitedcardists]

Has the number card situation along the sides with the band been fixed? I can't see updates because they are for backers only.

[Bradius]

There has not been a posted decision yet. I can post an update here if you want and state what was decided.

[TGunitedcardists]

There has not been a posted decision yet. I can post an update here if you want and state what was decided.

Please do. Thank you. For me, that is the deal breaker on whether or not I buy.

[Bradius]

Will do.

[Pablo393]

I need to drop my pledge for this campaign. I had one of the "Two of Each Earlybird (C2)" for $90 (plus $7 for shipping). Please PM me if interested and we can coordinate a time. I know it is not a huge thing, but it is $10 cheaper than the non-early bird price.

Thanks.

Update - this has been claimed.

[caniveski]

also dropping early bird pledge in 20 mins ( 2 gold and silver early bird )

[sms69x]

Has the number card situation along the sides with the band been fixed? I can't see updates because they are for backers only.

There is no update on that. But the KS page has been updated to option A (see page 5)

[Smocito]

There is no update on that. But the KS page has been updated to option A (see page 5)

I'm sorry to read that. I liked the cigars on the corners.

[TGunitedcardists]

Has the number card situation along the sides with the band been fixed? I can't see updates because they are for backers only.

There is no update on that. But the KS page has been updated to option A (see page 5)

Thanks for the update.

[Bikefanatic]

I got my Maduro decks yesterday. I seen Jackson's IG post about the labels being outside of the cello. I didn't attempt to put the additional cigar band around my decks yet. You'll figure by now manufacturers would know how to stuff right.

I'm really diggin' the cigar box. I think you shouldn't fold the top of the box too high to prevent it from creasing or breaking off. I also like the quote at the bottom inside the tucks about minding your business, not depending on anyone, etc. I think it's from the Thessalonians quote mentioned on the flap.

[JacksonRobinson]

I got my Maduro decks yesterday. I seen Jackson's IG post about the labels being outside of the cello. I didn't attempt to put the additional cigar band around my decks yet. You'll figure by now manufacturers would know how to stuff right.

I'm really diggin' the cigar box. I think you shouldn't fold the top of the box too high to prevent it from creasing or breaking off. I also like the quote at the bottom inside the tucks about minding your business, not depending on anyone, etc. I think it's from the Thessalonians quote mentioned on the flap.

I'm glad you like them.

[vasta41]

Got mine yesterday. Since I love cigars I love these decks. My favorite by JR so far.

[JacksonRobinson]

Got mine yesterday. Since I love cigars I love these decks. My favorite by JR so far.

Did everything arrive in good shape? It's been more work but this was the first big project I packed and fulfilled after bringing my fulfillment back in-house.

[vasta41]

Got mine yesterday. Since I love cigars I love these decks. My favorite by JR so far.

Did everything arrive in good shape? It's been more work but this was the first big project I packed and fulfilled after bringing my fulfillment back in-house.

I had zero problems. One thing of note is that I ordered two of each, gold and silver decks and received two sheets of stickers, each containing two bands. So four decks and four stickers total. One sheet of stickers had two silver colors and the other had one silver and one gold color. Makes no difference to me in the slightest and I'm 100% happy with my purchase. The decks were packed perfectly and not a single ding or dent.