Oath Mystery deck #2: DAMASK

[wingedpotato]

Just got my deck today. First reaction: oooooo Shiny!

Wanted to take a look inside and noticed my deck was missing the Spade court cards

No wonder it wasn’t as snug in its box compared to some of Lotrek’s prior foiled decks

That's something that will keep the "never open" collectors up at night...

[JacksandJokers]

Just got my deck today. First reaction: oooooo Shiny!

Wanted to take a look inside and noticed my deck was missing the Spade court cards

No wonder it wasn’t as snug in its box compared to some of Lotrek’s prior foiled decks

Nooooooo........

I thought we had moved on from this stage.

I had the same problem with an Icons Sacred & a Liturgy Black/Bronze Green deck.

As one of those "Never Open" collectors this will keep me up at night.

[rektz360]

The deck is for sale right now on his site get it before its sold out

[Merlebird]

Wanted to take a look inside and noticed my deck was missing the Spade court cards

No wonder it wasn’t as snug in its box compared to some of Lotrek’s prior foiled decks

That's something that will keep the "never open" collectors up at night...

Damn. Now I don't know if the sounder choice for preserving trade value is to keep it in the plastic baggie or open it to check the contents.

[Bradius]

I generally open Lotrek's decks just because they really are supposed to be opened. Heck if it kills their value, so be it. It is not like I beat up his decks. I don't look at it the same as breaking a deck seal.

Oh, I checked and the Damask decks are all sold out. What a surprise.

[Stepchild]

Damn. Now I don't know if the sounder choice for preserving trade value is to keep it in the plastic baggie or open it to check the contents.

Double dangit. Having had this happen on an Oath Prototype, I now feel I’ve got to open these pristine decks. Ah, whatever. I’ll pop ‘em into a carat case.

I believe Lotrek’s said at one point he doesn’t consider the plastic wraps to be part of the end-product anyway. If someone is familiar with Lotrek’s astounding hand-built decks, they may appreciate the additional assurance of completeness. The “Lotrek bespoke deck process” results in bar-none the most lovely playing cards, but there is, unavoidably, additional room for errors.

[Mike Ratledge]

...
Damask uses five foils (or is it four foils? Gold, gold, blue and silver?) on at least the court cards. What is also interesting is the similar basic design between the two court cards, so a side by side comparison is worthwhile.

go_and_damask_koh2.jpg

Not 100% certain, but he'll correct me if I am wrong:

Two tones of gold foil, one silver foil and blue foil on the red decks or blue foil on the red, plus a contrasting foil on the Ace of Spades.

[Magic Tapp]

I have finally picked up my red decks today and they are absolutely and utterly amazing. Lotrek - you have once again outdone yourself.

2018 is proving to be a fantastic year - Arabesque, HoTRS, Neo and now Damask and those are just a few of the great decks that were released this year...

[Merlebird]

I believe Lotrek’s said at one point he doesn’t consider the plastic wraps to be part of the end-product anyway. If someone is familiar with Lotrek’s astounding hand-built decks, they may appreciate the additional assurance of completeness.

Both fair points, so I opted to open and check. All 54 cards present and accounted for, though there was a tense moment there at the beginning when the KoH and black Joker didn't slide out of the tuck with the rest of the deck and I thought they might've been missing.

Seems a little odd that there is no foiling on the tongue of the flap, but I suppose it's to minimize foil flaking?

[KT52]

Ok, I might be alone on this one, but I liked Arabesque more than Damask. I really like the Jokers for the Damask deck and the foiling technology is amazing, but the reason I like Arabesque better is the art on the court cards. While the foiling for the Damask court cards are great, they don't appear novel compared with Lotrek's standard courts. I also feel that the handling of the Arabesque deck is better, not that I use either for anything other than looking. Finally, if I look closely, there are very small black or red marks on the foil in the borders (not sure if it's just my deck). Anyway, before I get stoned for blasphemy, just gonna say that Damask is a great deck, I just prefer the Arabesque.

[Merlebird]

Ok, I might be alone on this one, but I liked Arabesque more than Damask. I really like the Jokers for the Damask deck and the foiling technology is amazing, but the reason I like Arabesque better is the art on the court cards. While the foiling for the Damask court cards are great, they don't appear novel compared with Lotrek's standard courts. I also feel that the handling of the Arabesque deck is better, not that I use either for anything other than looking. Finally, if I look closely, there are very small black or red marks on the foil in the borders (not sure if it's just my deck). Anyway, before I get stoned for blasphemy, just gonna say that Damask is a great deck, I just prefer the Arabesque.

You're definitely not alone in preferring the look of Arabesque. The Damask courts aren't unappealing - they're well-executed - but at the end of the day they're still very standard Anglo-American courts. It feels more like an exercise in pushing the limits of deck craftsmanship, rather than deck artistry. I know some folks are all about the technical specs, and there's always the argument that more foil is better; who orders a four-cheese pizza when a six-cheese pizza is on the menu? But I personally would've preferred a more custom, less stylized feel, even if it meant (heresy!) paring back the application of foils. A more delicate, baroque aesthetic, something along the lines of the Venexiana courts, would've paired well with the theme, I think.

Don't @ me, fanboys.

[Bradius]

Damask wasn't simply to put as many different foils together as possible, in my opinion. It mainly was to use new combinations of foil, like the two-tone gold patterns (which are breathtaking). Again, you have this heavy use of foil in much more complex patterns than in Golden Oath. I like both the Arabesque and the Damask as well-crafted decks. I do think there is a valid point in preferring the Arabesque from an artistic point of view, but I could also make a case for the art in the Damask as well. If push came to shove, I really like the Arabesque a bit more at this point. I kind of like just white stock sometimes too. Especially when combined with great art and lots of foil. I do consider the Damask as a worthy improvement on Golden Oath.

I guess if you want something really different from Lotrek, you will get that in spades when he finishes the Hieronymus Bosch deck.

[Bikefanatic]

It wouldn't take too long for 30 decks to sell. These are better than Arabesque and Golden Oath to me. These, Golden Oath then Arabesque.

[KT52]

It wouldn't take too long for 30 decks to sell. These are better than Arabesque and Golden Oath to me. These, Golden Oath then Arabesque.

Wanna make a trade?

[Bikefanatic]

It wouldn't take too long for 30 decks to sell. These are better than Arabesque and Golden Oath to me. These, Golden Oath then Arabesque.

Wanna make a trade?

Make a trade for what?

[KT52]

It wouldn't take too long for 30 decks to sell. These are better than Arabesque and Golden Oath to me. These, Golden Oath then Arabesque.

Wanna make a trade?

Make a trade for what?

Ill trade my Damask for an Arabesque (if you have any extras)

[Adonael]

Received mine today, #31 and I was finished inside of a minute of going live, damn some people are quick! It's beautiful of course, and the finish is definitely the most slippery so far, when balancing the loose stack on my hand it's comparable to USPCC, unfortunately I don't actually know how to do anything such as shuffling/fanning etc to really test it. I also like Arabesque more (it and Sanctus are definitely in my top 20 of all time), and that mostly comes down to the artwork being more custom and a more subtle use of foil on the cards (my Golden Oath, though great compared to normal decks, is quite likely my least favourite Lotrek deck I own, seems I'm in the minority on that). Damn are these Jokers pretty, it's been a long time since grotesque, please in the future give us a full deck of courts in that style!

[Bikefanatic]

It wouldn't take too long for 30 decks to sell. These are better than Arabesque and Golden Oath to me. These, Golden Oath then Arabesque.

Wanna make a trade?

Make a trade for what?

Ill trade my Damask for an Arabesque (if you have any extras)

I don't have extras. Bradius may have plenty of them left.

[Bradius]

Actually, I long ago committed to trading a Arabesque Gold and have already traded an Arabesque for I think I a Golden Oath. They can go rather quickly. At this point I am holding onto my remaining Arabesque decks.

[Bikefanatic]

For people who bought the red decks this past Saturday, where will they be shipped from and do we ask for a tracking number?

[Magic Tapp]

For people who bought the red decks this past Saturday, where will they be shipped from and do we ask for a tracking number?

Judging by the way the decks of the "sight unseen" batch were shipped, they would come from Greece and you would need to send Lotrek a message to ask for the tracking number. He usually responds very promptly.

[HFMJ]

Lotrek wrote on an earlier post in this thread that he has about 40 remaining red decks, that he will hand to Gamblers Warehouse for fulfillment. Maybe the US orders will be fulfilled by them.

[Thedissident001]

Received my Red Damask today in Australia.

On the whole quite happy. The tuck and card faces are quite breathtaking and the courts are well suited by the composition of the foil application.

The only real shortcomings on my particular deck are registration (they are all slightly tilted with the frame toward the top right) and my ten of hearts appears to have been printed in the wrong order (ie the pip is beneath some of the gold patterning). The border is also significantly washed out and visibly different to all of the other cards (none of which have this issue at all).

Overall another most worthy addition to my Lotrek collection, well done.

[sms69x]

While that's really unfortunate, it kinda looks cool, I mean the 10oH index printing.

[Bradius]

My 10 of Hearts is fine, so I don't know what happened to yours. That is odd. I just wanted to confirm that it was not a problem with all of the decks.

[theCapraAegagrus]

Still can't get over that pineapple on the top and bottom of each card...

[Lotrek]

That weird 10 of Hearts is a misprint that will be replaced. But it's cool, indeed!

The decks that were sold on Friday are expected tomorrow to be at GW from where they'll be shipped asap. You'll be notified by them for the tracking#.

[Thedissident001]

Lotrek has kindly been in touch to arrange replacement of the defective 10 of hearts.

Greatly appreciated.

[Lughnasadhuk]

Do we know when the Blue Damask will become available to the Red Damask pre-backers?

[Magic Tapp]

Do we know when the Blue Damask will become available to the Red Damask pre-backers?

I think someone here mentioned that an email should go out by the end of the month.