Bharata Playing Cards Series 2

[PrincessTrouble]

I got my deck a couple of weeks ago but just opened it yesterday. It was quite pleasantly surprised by the handling. Much better than I was expecting from a WJ deck, and way better than the recent Elephant cards printed by them.

[guru]

Thanks Vedus & PrincessTrouble for the feedback and glad to know you liked the handling.

I was sceptical initially when they told me during production that the cards have magic finish which has been applied only rarely to a few select decks. I was not really sure about why would they do it on this deck which doesn't have a big print run or a large order.

I am happy that the deck turned out really great on handling front. Some backers even mentioned it on Instagram too.

[guru]

A few flourishing moves using Bharata v2 deck.....

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhIe32P ... e=youtu.be[/youtube]

[rousselle]

This is going to be a long post. You have been warned.

So, since I've posted here and elsewhere comments about various WJPC decks in my collection, Sunish asked if I would share my thoughts about how the Bharata Series 2 deck compares to other WJPC decks I've handled.

Toward that end, I decided to reacquaint myself with the decks in my collection that were manufactured by WJPC. I picked the low-hanging fruit (ie, the ones which came immediately to mind), which are:

* RJ Tomlinson's Civil Unrest Gettysburg
* Montenzi's Haere Mai
* Montenzi's Hello Tiki
* Montenzi's NEO LTD
* Elephant Playing Cards' Elephants
* Guru's Bharata Series 2

I might have some others in my collection, but they elude me right at the moment.

One thing that all of these projects have in common is that they were all created by people whose work I truly appreciate. All of them have worked with other manufacturers, so there has also been an opportunity to compare their work as produced by multiple shops.

The first WJPC project that I recall backing was the Civil Unrest Gettysburg series, when Robert Tomlinson decided to embark upon finding a manufacturer who was easier to work with than EPCC/LPCC and USPCC. The result was interesting. The card stock was amazingly sturdy, but the finish made for a deck that was clumpy and mostly bereft of "glide." The feel wasn't unpleasant (the way, I'm sad to say, NPCC's decks have tended to be for me, or Cartamuni's souvenir decks or MPC's smooth finish decks), and so I inserted one of these decks into my boys' and my rotation of nightly card game decks. Gotta say, the Gettysburg deck really took a beating, and still stayed true. After quite a bit of time in the rotation, the cards still have snap and the deck looks like it's received far less abuse than it actually has. Sturdy as hell, even if it was unable to fan even right out of the box.

Next came Montenzi's Haere Mai, which had full bleed backs and colors that really pop. And, wow, did these bad boys fan perfectly out of the box. Much thinner and lighter than Gettysburg, these cards were light and springy, and I swear the deck I opened would hold its own against any of my favorites printed by EPCC/LPCC. While these were sturdy, they weren't stiff like Gettysburg. I was so happy with this deck, I wanted to see more of my favorite creators going to WJPC for their manufacturing.

The follow-up to Haere Mai, Hello Tiki, didn't fare as well. At least, the deck that I opened up. It fanned... okay-ish out of the box. Slightly stiffer stock. These were fine, I suppose, and certainly no worse than some output from EPCC/LPCC, but also no where near as good as some of the best from EPCC/LPCC. As far as manufacturing quality goes, this deck was a step backwards from Haere Mai. Not terrible, not by a long shot. And, nowhere near as clumpy as Gettysburg. But... yeah. They were okay. Great design, fine printing, kinda decent finish, and kinda decent stock, but... nothing to wow me the way its predecessor was.

Montenzi's NEO LTD feels like a half-step between Hello Tiki and Haere Mai. This one also has full bleed backs, which I love, but these backs reveal slight imperfections in the cutting registration that Haere Mai did not. These fan almost perfectly right out of the box, and they have a fascinating feel to them. Even if we classify this as only a half-step better than Hello Tiki, I *far* prefer NEO LTD to Hello Tiki in terms of manufacturing quality, and they only just barely fall short of the perfection that Haere Mai attained.

I want to pause here for a moment and re-iterate that all of these decks, I picked up because I truly appreciate the work done by their creators. In fact, one thing that all of these creators has in common (in addition to excellent design work) is their interest in taking bold risks to see what they can accomplish with their cards. Ben Jones of Elephant Playing Cards did some very innovative work with his Prism series (using "embossed" elements on the cards) and Pipmen (especially his Pipmen World design, which took his semi-transformation decks to a whole new level), and I was very interested to see how his approach to a "standard" deck would work out.

Unfortunately, the problem with the Elephants deck is WJPC's work. This deck has a sturdiness and stiffness that is very much like the Gettysburg deck, but the clumpiness of the finish is even slightly worse than Gettysburg. This deck, manufacturing-wise, was not just a few steps back to where they started (for me), but perhaps a half a step back past that. It's one thing when the cards are a little clumpy, but unlike Gettysburg, these just didn't feel good enough in my hands to warrant making it into the nightly game rotation.

So, at last, we come to Bharata Series 2.

Since this deck is the reason I'm here writing all this, we are not only considering it in the context of other WJPC decks, but also other Guru Playing Card Company decks. This is the first deck by Guru that I have that isn't gilded. Gilded decks are more likely to be clumpy and difficult to fan, and yet the feeling of the Divine Art deck was so compelling that, despite this being a somewhat pricey deck, I was still happy to expose it to my sons' inexpert hands in our nightly card games (and it has held up just fine). The first Bharata deck, also gilded, also a little clumpy, also felt totally fine in my hands (although, since Divine Art remains in rotation to this day, I did not add this one to the mix out of fear of being a little redundant.) Because Sunish asked for my thoughts on the Series 2 deck, I decided to add this most recent deck to our nightly rotation and see what happened.

Out of the box, Bharata Series 2 fans far better than its gilded predecessor from Guru and far better than Gettysburg and Elephant. I dare say, however, that it did not fan better out of the box than Hello Tiki did, although it might be fair to say it fanned about as well. NEO LTD and Haere Mai fanned far better out of the box, at least with regard to the single decks of each that I opened.

Quick side note: as should be obvious with our experience with Jackson Robinson's Legal Tender decks, and as I also had first hand experience with LPCC's Serpentine decks, you can sometimes have two decks from the same project behave completely differently out of the box. That issue may be more confined to EPCC/LPCC's China facility than to other manufacturers'. But, even so, I have to give the benefit of the doubt and say that my experience opening one deck in Seattle may produce different results from someone else opening up a different deck from the same run in some other part of the world.

Anyway.

While out-of-the-box fanning was mildly clumpy and did not improve for me with breaking in, the *feel* and slipperiness of the deck is really quite excellent. The cards are snappy and sturdy without being stiff. The finish has enough slipperiness to make the game play experience top notch. After repeated use for a couple weeks of our nightly games, the deck still holds up as near-new, which cannot be said of most decks we put through the paces.

This is one of WJPC's thicker decks, but it is far more forgiving than any of WJPC's other thick decks (particularly Gettysburg and Elephant). I rather like this stock a lot; I like the spring and snap. Not too supple, not too stiff. And, while I don't find the finish as close to perfection as Haere Mai or NEO LTD, I still like it a lot. I will also note that the printing quality, both with regard to color saturation and registration, is aces. The cut is fantastic, and the cards continue to retain their sharp edges.

Allow me to conclude with this:

This deck is a great addition to the Guru Playing Cards line-up. It is also a great addition to the WJPC line-up. While it's handling is far superior to other Guru decks, you still can't beat Divine Art for setting the bar high with such durable, gilded, and foiled cards. On the WJPC side, it sets an excellent balance between sturdiness and playability, slipperiness and resilience, and yet, I still have to favor Haere Mai as the high-water mark for WJPC thus far.

I'm not surprised at the warm reception Bharata Series 2 is receiving. But, I wish WJPC showed more consistent improvement from project to project rather than jumping back and forth between excellent results and... Elephants.

Anyway, congrats, Sunish, on another excellent project, and I look forward to having more of your work in my collection before too long!

[guru]

Thanks Allan. I never expected this comprehensive post, thanks once again for this.

[montenzi]

I completely agree! Still prefer 1st HM handling (French 305 paper) and 100% perfect registration but thicker HT cards (German, 310-320gsm). They should stick with one stock and one finish to produce predictable decks. WJPC is a very good option if you are planning to print just 500 decks.

[guru]

I completely agree! Still prefer 1st HM handling (French 305 paper) and 100% perfect registration but thicker HT cards (German, 310-320gsm). They should stick with one stock and one finish to produce predictable decks. WJPC is a very good option if you are planning to print just 500 decks.

Yes, I do recommend them as I had a good experience printing Bharata v2. Though I did face the foil issue on Tuckbox during production but they worked and listened to me even though they had to print the tuckboxes thrice to get that issue on the bottom flap fixed (as shared with backers through Kickstarter update) all at their own cost (had to do mold twice).

I think I made a mistake by not asking specifically on the cut of the cards (traditional, modern etc.) and in turn, got the cards with very smooth sides. This is a lesson learned but I am happy with the overall experience of working with them.

[guru]

Flourishing with the deck in action....

[PipChick]

Hi all,

So, after a bit of some postal misfortunes (on part of the company here in Germany, I might add), I had finally gotten my Bharata series 2 just last week and this past weekend, set up a game night with friends to crack the deck open and get a feel of the actual cards themselves

First off, in all honesty, I will admit that initially I was a bit bummed that, with the changes made to exclude the tarot suit symbols and stick with only traditional pips, this deck wouldn’t technically be the complimentary, tarot/playing card fusion-expansion deck to serve as the Minor Arcana and complete the Bharata Tarot; buuutt, I completely understand why this design change was necessary to make and I am at least glad to see the gorgeous back design of the tarot deck once again used for playing cards – it’s probably one of my all-time favorite back designs because, well, as you all probably already know, I love color and this back design has a lot of vibrancy that just looks fantastic in spreads, fans and flourishes. Besides, with consistency in back designs between this deck and the tarot, I suppose it still can be used together anyways, so it’s not really that big of a deal.

I had also thought it was a shame that more money couldn’t have been raised during the campaign (which was a pleasure to be a part of, btw) for gilding to match with that of the 1st edition (especially considering how well the gold gilding came out in the 1st edition and, I can only imagine how amazing a holographic silver would’ve looked - hopefully, we'll see that again in another future project ) – Now, after getting the deck and using it, I realize that I’ve completely changed my mind and I’m quite pleased to have this deck without the gilding as I can now handle and use it much more extensively without worrying about wearing off the beautiful gilding as I often do with the 1st edition, which is much more of a luxury, collector’s deck anyways – this 2nd edition on the other hand, is a deck my friends and I can truly enjoy playing with. (I meant to get some pics from our game night but, forgot to pull the camera out; another reason to showcase this deck again for next time and many more times thereafter I’m sure lol)

Here’s where I would write about handling, but Allan has pretty much covered all the bases and his post above is much more comprehensive than mine could ever be as I haven’t personally experienced handling many of the other WJPC decks he has. But, I will attest that these feel pretty damn good. With conflicting critiques of quality and consistency of quality, I personally had my reservations about the choice to go with WJPC for production (and still very much do when it comes to other projects); however, as stated before, I’m such a huge fan of the design alone, this wasn’t enough to deter me from wanting to get this deck into my collection, if even just purely for admiring the artwork. I expected the cards to fair better than the 1st edition only for the fact that they weren’t gilded, but I did not expect them to handle as well as they did and I was pleasantly surprised. I also wouldn’t be a surprised to learn if the quality of the cards had much to do with Sunish’s persistence to achieving the highest grade of excellence, as demonstrated in his acute attention to detail in regard to even ensuring crisp, clean foiling on the tucks (which does look really stunning in stark contrast to the black).

Which brings me to my last point; I honestly can’t speak highly enough for the clear dedication and integrity Sunish has not only towards his backers in executing GPCC projects, but for the community as a whole. His contributions as a fellow enthusiast and insights as a producer have been invaluable. I’m not only proud to add this deck to my collection, but also proud to be a part of the campaign that made it a reality and would have absolutely no reservations backing any other project that came out of GPCC whatsoever. Thanks again, Sunish! I look forward to adding many more excellent GPCC decks to my collection

[guru]

Hi all,

So, after a bit of some postal misfortunes (on part of the company here in Germany, I might add), I had finally gotten my Bharata series 2 just last week and this past weekend, set up a game night with friends to crack the deck open and get a feel of the actual cards themselves

First off, in all honesty, I will admit that initially I was a bit bummed that, with the changes made to exclude the tarot suit symbols and stick with only traditional pips, this deck wouldn’t technically be the complimentary, tarot/playing card fusion-expansion deck to serve as the Minor Arcana and complete the Bharata Tarot; buuutt, I completely understand why this design change was necessary to make and I am at least glad to see the gorgeous back design of the tarot deck once again used for playing cards – it’s probably one of my all-time favorite back designs because, well, as you all probably already know, I love color and this back design has a lot of vibrancy that just looks fantastic in spreads, fans and flourishes. Besides, with consistency in back designs between this deck and the tarot, I suppose it still can be used together anyways, so it’s not really that big of a deal.

I had also thought it was a shame that more money couldn’t have been raised during the campaign (which was a pleasure to be a part of, btw) for gilding to match with that of the 1st edition (especially considering how well the gold gilding came out in the 1st edition and, I can only imagine how amazing a holographic silver would’ve looked - hopefully, we'll see that again in another future project ) – Now, after getting the deck and using it, I realize that I’ve completely changed my mind and I’m quite pleased to have this deck without the gilding as I can now handle and use it much more extensively without worrying about wearing off the beautiful gilding as I often do with the 1st edition, which is much more of a luxury, collector’s deck anyways – this 2nd edition on the other hand, is a deck my friends and I can truly enjoy playing with. (I meant to get some pics from our game night but, forgot to pull the camera out; another reason to showcase this deck again for next time and many more times thereafter I’m sure lol)

Here’s where I would write about handling, but Allan has pretty much covered all the bases and his post above is much more comprehensive than mine could ever be as I haven’t personally experienced handling many of the other WJPC decks he has. But, I will attest that these feel pretty damn good. With conflicting critiques of quality and consistency of quality, I personally had my reservations about the choice to go with WJPC for production (and still very much do when it comes to other projects); however, as stated before, I’m such a huge fan of the design alone, this wasn’t enough to deter me from wanting to get this deck into my collection, if even just purely for admiring the artwork. I expected the cards to fair better than the 1st edition only for the fact that they weren’t gilded, but I did not expect them to handle as well as they did and I was pleasantly surprised. I also wouldn’t be a surprised to learn if the quality of the cards had much to do with Sunish’s persistence to achieving the highest grade of excellence, as demonstrated in his acute attention to detail in regard to even ensuring crisp, clean foiling on the tucks (which does look really stunning in stark contrast to the black).

Which brings me to my last point; I honestly can’t speak highly enough for the clear dedication and integrity Sunish has not only towards his backers in executing GPCC projects, but for the community as a whole. His contributions as a fellow enthusiast and insights as a producer have been invaluable. I’m not only proud to add this deck to my collection, but also proud to be a part of the campaign that made it a reality and would have absolutely no reservations backing any other project that came out of GPCC whatsoever. Thanks again, Sunish! I look forward to adding many more excellent GPCC decks to my collection

Thanks @PipChick for the kind words.

[guru]

Private Reserve Bharata Collector's edition box available now in store. Only 3 available with 2 deck set including Divine Art & Bharata Limited edition decks.

https://guruplayingcards.com/store/bhar ... wooden-box" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[EndersGame]

A huge thanks to rousselle and PipChick especially for some great feedback about the handling and performance of these WJPC printed decks, and putting them in the context of other decks they have produced.

It seems to me that the Cyberpunk and Elephant decks were a bit of a "miss" from WJPC, and some other decks were a little inconsistent, but in recent years they've been doing a lot better with their quality.

I was personally also quite impressed with the printing quality and handling performance of the Bharata V2 deck (except for the cut, which Sunish has already explained), and also with a couple of other WJPC decks I have tried so far.

If you're interested, I've put together a detailed article that covers WJPC and the quality of their decks:

Playing Card Manufacturer: Shenzhen Wangjing Printing Company (WJPC)

[EndersGame]

Question for montenzi: Could you explain exactly what you mean by this?

Still prefer 1st HM handling (French 305 paper) and 100% perfect registration but thicker HT cards (German, 310-320gsm).

I'm not sure what you're referring to with the acronyms "HM" and "HT", and the two different card stocks.

And besides the different stocks, won't it also make a difference what finish/coating they use?

[montenzi]

Question for montenzi: Could you explain exactly what you mean by this?

Still prefer 1st HM handling (French 305 paper) and 100% perfect registration but thicker HT cards (German, 310-320gsm).

I'm not sure what you're referring to with the acronyms "HM" and "HT", and the two different card stocks.

And besides the different stocks, won't it also make a difference what finish/coating they use?

They don't use that stock anymore, so it's irrelevant now. Also, they may start using new stock (from Italy? I don't remember) due to problems with supply. One of the problems with using WJPC is the shipping cost. Most of the time, printing with USPCC is a much better alternative if you need more than 1000 decks and standard boxes!