2019 'Deck of the Year' Awards: DISCUSSION

[caniveski]

Fantasic work Amy, i admire your dedication...

Congrats to all the designers who made some great decks, tough choices!!

[guru]

I am seriously looking to know whether the number of votes beat Montenzi's magic number this time as well or not. I am confident that we'd have.

Thanks Amy for your patience and organzing skills. Congrats to all winners, nominees as well as the voters who took part in 2019 edition.

[Harvonsgard]

I know a lot of people didn't view Best Fanning Deck as a significant award so they may not vote as seriously for that category, but I was still perplexed by the win by Goblin.

Both cardistry categories are always a surprise for me. Whenever I read the winners there I'm like:



I'm unisono with Best Rookie was insane to choose. I was torn between Fillide, Culture Animalis and Mirage. I did pick Fillide since, it is the only deck I currently own of these three and it sincerely flashed me when I got it back then.

It is definetly interesting to see what others weight into their decisions. Congrats to all the winners. Time to pop some bottles .

[MagikFingerz]

Both cardistry categories are always a surprise for me.

Same here, but we have to remember that there just aren't that many cardists on this forum. I suspect if we'd conduct a poll at r/cardistry, for example, the results would be quite different.

No complaints, though. The people have spoken!

[laitostarr777]

Hoooray for the Parlour deck to win “Best Joker” and “Best Cards used for Magic”
Gotta be honest, I totally adore the Parlour’s jokers for the anthromorphic characters

And congrats for Lorenzo to win 2nd place for “Best Tuck Box” for his Room17

[Jocu]

WOW! Thank you to Pipchick for putting on another great DOTY and thank you everyone who participated!

We're super excited to have won in a really difficult category and one for which you only get one shot we promise that in 2020 we're working on some awesome stuff and we hope to do even better.

Thank you!

Anthony and Alessandra

[arjun1616]

Thank you to all UC members for the awesome contest and congratulations for all the winners!

I am very happy there are some TWI decks on the list, especially Monolith for the Best Colors
Now, the difficult tast for me will be make something crazier.

Congratulations also to Amy for everything, she did an incredible job.

Also ORDER deck not being in best use of color was so surprising I thought it would get at least a 2nd place.

The Leader is surprised that ORDER wasn't the first one in EVERY category. There are many members of the Revolutio, here....

true dat!!!

[saulriffel]

First time voting, so a lot of the categories were great, it was good to see new decks and to realize that I missed some good campaigns on KS (like the Pinocchio and Mirage decks).
For me, the hardest one to vote was the pips category, so many good designs...
The one that i felt that i needed to see the decks in person to have a better idea was the inovation category.

[enlightenme214]

Congratulations to all the winners! Some awesome nominations
Happy to see one of my favorites, Faunae 2nd for best pips.

[Harvonsgard]

Both cardistry categories are always a surprise for me.

Same here, but we have to remember that there just aren't that many cardists on this forum. I suspect if we'd conduct a poll at r/cardistry, for example, the results would be quite different.

No complaints, though. The people have spoken!

Not complaining either. The underlined part is exactly though what perplexes me. NPCCD2019 for example in the cardistry categories is beyond me but I can wrap my head around it since, as you mentioned there're more collectors here. But then Flux and Goblin baffle me especially from a collector's perspective.

[OVSUB]

For me, the category of most interest and, imo, the one of the strongest competition was those competing for the title of 'Best Rookie' - honestly, all those nominated decks are so so well-deserving of the recognition! Really great job from so many talented new designers and it excites me most to see what they'll come out with in 2020 as I'm certain will see more of these promising new deck designers in next year's DOTYs!

Idk about you guys, but since I was new to the scene of card collecting as my first decks were Fillide it became a no brainer. Jocu also delivered above and beyond what I would've expected in a deck, once again they were my first deck into collecting playing cards and were a great anchor point even now in my card collecting. Though personally I've got to say the Terra deck wasn't as good as the aqua deck. Even now when in the short span of a few months I have amassed 15+ decks I will compare them to the Fillide deck.

P.S. Alex and Alexandra are great, I'm still fan-girling/duding since their reply of being willing to fulfill my difficult request. You guys made my day/week!

[Magic Tapp]

One of the biggest surprises for me was the absence of any Jackson/King's Wild decks from the winners list. In fact, the only appearance of any Jackson deck was a second place showing in the Best Fanning Deck category, of all places. I guess it speaks to the strength of the overall quality of decks in 2019 where an artist as prolific and talented as Jackson gets shut out of our DotY Awards.

Thanks Sinjin - the absence of KW decks was not that much of a surprise for me. I feel that while Jackson turned KW into a well oiled machine in 2019, there were no decks that really shone or were unique enough to secure a win (particularly in some categories where the competition was fierce) - some were good, some very good but not as much as his 2018 decks (for instance, his Xmas deck with the woven tuck or the Six Foot Five deck).

[shkorc]

I was really amazed by his Nutcracker deck, one of the top 5 decks for me this year.

[Risible]

I'm a lurker here, since I never feel like I have much to add to the conversation, TBH. As a past winner of the giveaways I thought I would add a PSA now that the contest is done (I didn't cast votes and enter since I won last year, I'll enter again next year) I want to remind everyone:

MAKE SURE YOU EMAIL THE NEXT PERSON IN LINE. Let's not have a debacle again where someone has won and doesn't reply and the board calls for his or her head only to realize days later that no one had emailed that person to notify them of winning .

Congrats to the winners and a big thanks to all the generous people who donate prizes, and for all of PipChick's hard work, I love reading through all the winners each year.

[Eric Lee]

I'm a lurker here, since I never feel like I have much to add to the conversation, TBH. As a past winner of the giveaways I thought I would add a PSA now that the contest is done (I didn't cast votes and enter since I won last year, I'll enter again next year) I want to remind everyone

Good reminder! We'll need to repost this every so often, considering how short term are our memories these days and with so much going on around the world. Novel Corona virus in my part of the world, US Caucuses in US and everything else that life will bring.

Don't be shy, your opinion always helps. Rather than just 1 or 2 voices, you can always just add +1 or I agree with X. Those comments help people know that there's more than 1-2 people actually interested.

BTW, considering how close some of the votes were as mentioned by Amy, you should have voted, dude! Your vote could have broke ties or pushed another deck up to tie for 1st! If you wanted to give someone else a chance to win, it's stated in the rules that you can choose to pass on the prize.
"Unless a voter participant explicitly states to opt out of the prize giveaway, everyone that voted for the DOTYs automatically gets exactly ONLY ONE entry into the prize giveaway and has the same chance as everyone else that participated."

So let's see hope we see you more around here in 2020. Can't let that Goat fella, formerly known as 2pc hog this forum can we?

[Risible]

BTW, considering how close some of the votes were as mentioned by Amy, you should have voted, dude! Your vote could have broke ties or pushed another deck up to tie for 1st! If you wanted to give someone else a chance to win, it's stated in the rules that you can choose to pass on the prize.

Totally didn't see that, my bad. I didn't want to be greedy . Ah well, I know for next year now.

[Eric Lee]

I was really amazed by his Nutcracker deck, one of the top 5 decks for me this year.

I agree, the nutcracker deck should have been on a few more podium finishes. I think that deck came out too late in 2019 for it to be a serious contender. 2018 was different , I believe as he had been dropping images earlier (IIRC) and the embroidered tuck was so different.

Either that or his decks stole votes from each other to the point. Still it was such tough DOTY with so many strong entries.

[PipChick]

I'm a lurker here, since I never feel like I have much to add to the conversation, TBH. As a past winner of the giveaways I thought I would add a PSA now that the contest is done (I didn't cast votes and enter since I won last year, I'll enter again next year) I want to remind everyone

Don't be shy, your opinion always helps. Rather than just 1 or 2 voices, you can always just add +1 or I agree with X. Those comments help people know that there's more than 1-2 people actually interested.

BTW, considering how close some of the votes were as mentioned by Amy, you should have voted, dude! Your vote could have broke ties or pushed another deck up to tie for 1st! If you wanted to give someone else a chance to win, it's stated in the rules that you can choose to pass on the prize.
"Unless a voter participant explicitly states to opt out of the prize giveaway, everyone that voted for the DOTYs automatically gets exactly ONLY ONE entry into the prize giveaway and has the same chance as everyone else that participated."

So let's see hope we see you more around here in 2020. Can't let that Goat fella, formerly known as 2pc hog this forum can we?

YES! PLEASE ALWAYS VOTE!

Anyone and everyone is invited to be apart of the DOTYs regardless of how active you maybe as a member, or if even if you yourself are a designer/producer/promoter/retailer/etc. - the DOTY Awards is a UC event open to EVERYONE as we all are part of this greater playing card community; so even if you're not interested in entering the voter prize giveaway of the event, having your one voice heard as part of the collective community makes a HUGE difference and we definitely want as much participation as possible as it gives more validity to our event! YOUR PARTICIPATION & VOTES MATTER!

If you don't want to be entered into the voter priye giveaway, then when you submit your votes, just simple write in somewhere that you're opting out of the giveaway and I'll def make a note of it to be sure to not include you in the drawing but your votes will still be tabulated in determining our award winners in each category. And, with how close some decks were in edging one another out, your vote most def could have made the difference! again, YOUR PARTICIPATION & VOTES MATTER!

So, to anyone else that didn't participate for any reason whatsoever, pleasepleaseplease do so and vote in the DOTYs next year! If for no other reason, simply do so as an easy way to show appreciation to all the designers whom you love and who make this hobby so so great!

Also, if there was a reason why you chose to sit-out, let us know why cuz it'll help us to identify some areas we need to improve upon for next year's event and make it easier and better for everyone so we can encourage more to wanna participate and be apart of the DOTYs - Thanks!

[laitostarr777]

... Still it was such tough DOTY with so many strong entries.

Yeah, quite strong entries especially from Black Ink Productions and NDPCC. Obviously NDPCC always come up with something beyond than playing cards every year
Ahh, I wish is there is any way I can get my hands on those decks.

[Bradius]

For the DOTY I was torn between Luminosity and The Order. I went with The Order because I just really liked the whole series of decks so much. The artwork on Luminosity was simply stunning. Of course, I find it hard to be critical of Silk, so no problems with those that voted for it or the others on the 2019 DOTY podium.

I did like a number of KWP decks this year. Nutcracker was especially notable for sure, but so were several others. Keep in mind that Jackson moved this year and was very busy just getting his expanded subscription program moving. His generous contributions to the UC DOTY raffle are also appreciated. His top decks in 2018 were actually Kickstater campaigns (Maduro and Tigers). I can't wait though to see what he magics up for Lord of the Rings. The first round of those probably will not make it in our hands by the end of 2020, but they should make it for 2021.

[montenzi]

For the DOTY I was torn between Luminosity and The Order.

I did not vote for the "Best Overall Deck", but The Order got my 3 votes. It's almost the best deck in 2019!

One side note: with all the respect to the UC community, it's a giveaway for those who vote rather than something made for designers. I don't get it, but it does not matter. I always opt out of the giveaway.

My votes:

Best Tuck Case: Provision by Theory 11
Best Ace: 1st v3, produced by Chris Ramsay
Best Joker(s): 1001 Nights
Best Gaff: ORDER
Best Pips: Luminosity
Best Courts: ORDER
Best Use of Color: ORDER
Best Back -------
Best Deck for Fanning ------
Best Deck for Cardistry: Cheetah, designed by Toomas Pintson
Best Deck for Magic: ------
Best Non-Poker Deck: The Poker Deck of the Drowning World
Best Rookie Deck: Open Portals, designed by James R. Eads
Best Innovation: Playing Arts ZERO
Best Overall Deck -------

Congratulations to all winners!

[Thirdway Industries]

@Bradius @Montenzi - The Leader is proud

Kidding apart, I am very happy about your kind words!

Will do my best to continue to do good things in 2020.

[Harvonsgard]

Interesting to see that you skipped categories @montenzi. I thought about that as well but then thought it won't hurt to cast a vote despite being not really interested in a category.

[laitostarr777]

Interesting to see that you skipped categories @montenzi. I thought about that as well but then thought it won't hurt to cast a vote despite being not really interested in a category.

Remember folks, every voice does counts ;3 in this case, every typed entry counts

[Harvonsgard]

Sure, but I can totally get it if someone doesn't want to skew results if s/he doesn't care for a certain category at all.

[arjun1616]

Sure, but I can totally get it if someone doesn't want to skew results if s/he doesn't care for a certain category at all.

i second that.... i didn't vote for the best non poker deck as i thought i don't know much about it and thought it was better to let people who know more on that to vote so that my hypothetical bad vote doesn't change the winners..

[Outsider]

I skipped the magic category and assumed it was the right thing to do. I have no idea what makes a deck good for magic, my input would be counterproductive to anyone with an informed opinion getting through.

[theCapraAegagrus]

I skipped "Best Deck for Cardistry" because it's f^&*ing invalid.

[montenzi]

I knew how to vote in the "Best overall deck" last year (Cartomancer by Alain Benoit). This year I had no idea. I only added five decks to my collection in 2019, and almost all decks are old releases.

Best Deck for Magic: ------ for me it's the Bicycle Rider Back (Red or Blue).
Best Deck for Fanning ------ I have no idea what the fanning is.
Best Back ------- It's one of the most important categories for me. I would have voted for 2019 NPCCD Series, but I don't own this deck, and I don't like 3D effects.

[furrukhjamal]

am I the only one who is looking forward to the 14th Feb winners announcement more than the valentines day?