So, I'm of a very mixed mind about this deck.
First, I like the backs. I realize they are not amazing, but they appeal to my sense of of design. They tell me, "These are cards you can play with daily. Use with confidence." These are the kinds of decks I'd expect to find lying around the summer cottage at the lake. That is, if I had a summer cottage at the lake.
But the "nautical theme" is anemically developed with the image of thick ropes being draped over the Aces and bordering the courts. Ah, yes, then there's the courts. Here's where I'm of a particularly divided mind. I guess if these were USPCC cards, I'd have no real issues. The courts are a simplified version of the standard Bike courts:
![IMG_3476.jpg](./download/file.php?id=1701&sid=77981c19a7ab74d4ff1c8c3f33a920f5)
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(Sample of courts taken from a standard Bicycle Rummy deck, left, and the Nautical Blue deck, right.)
But... these weren't printed by USPCC. Which means USPCC's court designs were tweaked and then printed elsewhere. As a writer, I always feel a bit irked when I see someone's intellectual property misappropriated like this.
They do include a gaffe with the regular back on one side and a gaffed back on the other:
![IMG_3478.jpg](./download/file.php?id=1702&sid=77981c19a7ab74d4ff1c8c3f33a920f5)
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(One of these backs is not like the other...)
Lastly, out of the box, these have a very different feel from Bikes. They have a much stiffer, more durable feel to them than a typical USPCC card; they are almost plastic-like in their snappiness. They also, out of the box, fan for sh**, just like some plastic cards tend to do. (Specifically, the Nauticals are mildly clumpy out of the box.) The ad copy says that this is the kind of deck that gets better the more you use them. I definitely get a sense of durability with these puppies, and I wonder if it may well be the case that breaking these in will make them a friendlier card.
I plan to put one of these blue decks in my standard rotation to see how it stands up after some normal use. I suspect they may hold up at least as well as the deck of Bees I keep putting to the test. But regarding the courts... and, for that matter, the standard Bicycle fonts and pips on the number cards... yeah, that bothers me.