UC BEST DECKS OF 2013 & 17 subcategories - WINNERS!

[Paul Middleton]

Nice infographic Ivan, great work.

[Sharpie]

Gotta say I'm really surprised and very happy! I missed out on Sharpie's amazing giveaway last year - and now I get to join in Woo!

I'll make it up to you.

[phantom1412]

Federal52 series are not just decks of cards, they are phenomenon.
And congrats everyone, including myself

[montecarlojoe]

Gotta say I'm really surprised and very happy! I missed out on Sharpie's amazing giveaway last year - and now I get to join in Woo!

I'll make it up to you.

The box alone is freakin' awesome!

[Mike Ratledge]

Federal52 series are not just decks of cards, they are phenomenon.
And congrats everyone, including myself

So very happy with the results, that so many of the participants got to take home not just a deck of cards but in most cases a $50-$100 prize or even (significantly) larger late holiday gift for themselves! Repeating myself I know, but everyone did a great job all the way around and not just I, but everyone involved and all the vote getters are extremely happy with the contest overall. We certainly do have a diverse group of people here, but overall we tend to agree on one particular thing: we love playing cards!

[th4mo]

I think this contest was a great idea before there were even any prizes for voting! Of course, i probably never would have gotten around to sending in my ballot if there weren't prizes.... since i'm just a terrible procrastinator for things like that!

Even so, for me it really wasn't about earning a prize at all, but actually taking the time to review my cards from the last year, and make some critical decisions about what i liked best or what impressed me the most.

I am sooooooooo impressed by the generosity of all the sponsors too, you guys are amazing!

The winners have a right to be proud, but hopefully next time around we'll get more than a handful of people sending in votes. Don't we have over 1000 members here???

All the work Joe is doing to keep track of all the new releases from now on will hopefully encourage more people to vote next year, since i predict 2014 will be even more exciting for card collectors than 2013!

Perhaps with better tracking, we'll even see a few dark horse favorites emerge from the shadows to challenge the major "contenders" for DOTY 2014...

I'm already looking forward to it!


sent

[volantangel]

Guys, for those that have not gotten a prize yet, all hope is not lost !! Sinjin7 has agreed to give out 6 decks to a random non-winner ! The winner will be chosen later in the day =)

[volantangel]

Soooo our lucky winner is Hikeeba!!! Kindly contact sinjin7 for your prize =)

[Mike Ratledge]

Oh, just so everybody pays close attention next year - I have a prize up my sleeve (don't have it yet, but it will be here in a month or two) that you can't buy, that is one of an edition of decks so small that every single one has a single-digit number (and I'm serious!)...

I'm not going to let on any more, but stay tuned around January next year when we start posting what's up for grabs in the "UC 2014 Deck of the Year" contest.

[samwisethegray]

Just to start this off: HOLY SHIT.

After the contest, Mike posted:

Jackson Robinson offered a prize to whoever guessed the most correct overall 1st place winners, and since we had a 3-way tie for that (and Jackson was the overall 1st place winner), he graciously agreed to provide three "Federal 52" custom brick boxes instead of just one - one for each of those three people that tied for that prize: "volantangel", "phantom1412" and "samwisethegrey".

So I go message Jackson and really excited to get one of those black on black brick boxes that I never went for in his kickstarter campaign.

A few days go by and no reply from jackson, but then today this shows up at my door



Seems kinda heavy for just a brick box, must be a lot of wrapping. So I start to open it all up, ripping apart the nicely packed paper and bubble wrap. Im getting really excited!! This beauty is at the end of the line:



I can definitely feel the weight of the cards now. I open it up and to my glory there are 12 brand new decks from his two Kickstarters, and I am so stoked on life right now. It is awesome!



I pledged for one of each of all of his decks on kickstarter, and I am really happy to have an extra set that I can open up and see all of the beautiful designs and play with them a little!! Thank you so much Jackson for donating this extremely amazing reward! I am beyond trilled.

[Sher]

Oh wow, congrats, samthewiseguy!

[Jason_Taylor]

WOW I got my box in from Encarded and the decks look great.
I actually can't believe that Paul put up a 1 in 500 deck as a prize. This is amazing. I only really started collecting 6 months or so ago so I was not around for the release of the Aurum deck, and to get a copy of the super reserve is fantastic. I say the people posting about getting the Deco decks, but had not had a chance to pick up any so these, so these are all NEW DECKs to me!!!!

[sinjin7]

Guys, for those that have not gotten a prize yet, all hope is not lost !! Sinjin7 has agreed to give out 6 decks to a random non-winner ! The winner will be chosen later in the day =)

The random non-winner (Hikeeba) will be able to take his choice of 6 decks from the following list:

Bicycle Grid 2.0
Fatboyeatallday
Exquisite (De'vo's version)
Exquisite (CARC's Blue version)
S&M v.6
Fulton October
1st United Cardists deck
Executive
Infinity
Blue Watermelon Bee deck (RJRTC)
Red Luxury Crown
Silver Split Spades

All decks are brand-new and sealed. Looking forward to what you pick, Joe.

[Mike Ratledge]

Just to start this off: HOLY SHIT.

After the contest, Mike posted:

Jackson Robinson offered a prize to whoever guessed the most correct overall 1st place winners, and since we had a 3-way tie for that (and Jackson was the overall 1st place winner), he graciously agreed to provide three "Federal 52" custom brick boxes instead of just one - one for each of those three people that tied for that prize: "volantangel", "phantom1412" and "samwisethegray".

So I go message Jackson and really excited to get one of those black on black brick boxes that I never went for in his kickstarter campaign.

A few days go by and no reply from jackson, but then today this shows up at my door

...

Seems kinda heavy for just a brick box, must be a lot of wrapping. So I start to open it all up, ripping apart the nicely packed paper and bubble wrap. Im getting really excited!! This beauty is at the end of the line:

...

I can definitely feel the weight of the cards now. I open it up and to my glory there are 12 brand new decks from his two Kickstarters, and I am so stoked on life right now. It is awesome!



I pledged for one of each of all of his decks on kickstarter, and I am really happy to have an extra set that I can open up and see all of the beautiful designs and play with them a little!! Thank you so much Jackson for donating this extremely amazing reward! I am beyond trilled.

Very cool, Sam! Congratulations again. For one of the prizes that wasn't even on the dance card, that's a nice capture!

Jackson's new "Kings Wild Fulfillment" he just opened up is doing one helluva job with packaging, and the one I got yesterday is proof that he's not going to have a repeat of the mess that he had with about 40% of those 1000 LE unbranded Black Reserve Notes. I'll have to find my picture of two of those and post it from my phone. He also hand signed my decks and sent along one of those nice post-card type prints of the "Washington Crossing the Delaware" that is the diptych in that deck (and uncut). Jackson's just one helluva nice guy! Every time I turn around I hear about something else he's done that is WAY beyond the minimum, in fact beyond anything I've seen. If you haven't already seen it, my signature details one more thing he's done that is going to make UC even more famous, and for that I am eternally grateful!

I kind of mentioned it before without completely letting the cat out of the bag, but notice the return address is where he moved: Bartlett Tennessee, which these days is more-or-less a suburb of Memphis. He closed down the old warehouse / fulfillment center and moved it with him to his new home (well, close by...).

[DukeBoy]

I agree Jackson seems truly vested in creating a better environment for card collectors. The Austin fulfillment site I think was a third party, so there was no closing it down and moving it with him.

[Mike Ratledge]

I agree Jackson seems truly vested in creating a better environment for card collectors. The Austin fulfillment site I think was a third party, so there was no closing it down and moving it with him.

Well, that's true. I'm almost certain that he was using the "ShipStation" there. It was more going and collecting all of his stuff from THEIR warehouse, that's true.

[Widdee]

Very well done!!!

[uusikissa]

OK, this was not supposed to be announced until noon tomorrow (Monday, the 24th), but it's too late to put the "cat back in the bag" at this point. I'm going to work on this post for a while and try to make about 1/2 of what I had intended to put into it by noon tomorrow and go ahead and move it back into the "New & Custom Decks" folder.

To begin with - remember that this is a weighted tally system. For your own points, like volantangel posted originally - to compute how many points you got take every 1st place vote you had in your entry and add 5 points, take every 2nd place winner you got right and add 3 points, and take every 3rd place winner and add 1 point. Volant will double-check the math on the top 10 or 15 scorers and insure that we get the prizes right. There are also a couple of prizes for non-winners and for the person that get only 1 point total (see the OP or "Prize Contributors" post). Lordy - I think that is correct, please reread his post to be sure that I have it exactly right before you computer your total. Please use the post he made at the top of this page instead of trying to calculate it from the info-graphic here.

We also added a couple of prizes between when we posted the "Ballot" and prize list and when the contest ended, so those will still be a surprise.

Now, that being said: Ivan of Kardify Analytics put together an info-graphics for us that shows the winners of all 18 votes in a tabular format, or graphic format rather. That's here: (big link to graphics & article on Kardify Analytics will open up).

UC2013_DotY_winners.jpg

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Click on graphic for full-screen view and article (Kardify Analytics)

Jackson Robinson was 1st overall with his "Federal 52" series of decks. He had 6 overall wins with "Federal 52" series, and an individual tie with "Federal 52 Black Reserve Note" for the best uncut sheet. Chris Chelko came in 2nd overall with "Whispering Imps" and 3 individual category wins, most by a large margin, and Lee McKenzie came in 3rd overall with his "Empire" deck, also coming in 1st in 3 individual categories. Beyond that, there were 5 other winners of a single category, one actually tied (Uusi) with 1st on one category (uncut sheet for "Royal Optik") and was 1st alone in a second one. That's not reflected in the graphic (yet).

I contacted each of the 3 top overall winners today to get comments and statements, and those will be posted after noon tomorrow when the official results were supposed to be posted. At this point, it's no longer a secret (well, obviously I was the only one that thought it was?), so it's officially public knowledge at this point.

1st place overall - Jackson Robinson: (the rest to be posted no later than noon tomorrow)...

Sorry for the late arrival (busy completing our 5th deck design)- we just wanted to thank everyone who voted for our decks! Always grateful for the awesome support at the UC - It's looking great Mike!

P&L

[sinjin7]

(busy completing our 5th deck design)

P&L

Can't wait to see what follows Pagan!

[Mike Ratledge]

(busy completing our 5th deck design)

P&L

Can't wait to see what follows Pagan!

Yes indeed - and it will be another UC exclusive "You SAW it Here First" item. I suspect that Linnea & Peter will be showing us a little peak at what's coming up within about a week, now. I'm aware of what the theme is, but I'm sworn to secrecy, so (muffled screams in the background)...

[montecarlojoe]

Today I received a (huge) and well (if uniquely) protected package from the USA...

The 2nd prize from Sharpie had arrived - and ain't she beautiful!


The skullkor brick box - a prize in itself!

The skullkor brick box - a prize in itself!

P1010686.JPG (184.27 KiB) Viewed 1915 times

The top layer: Virts, Uni of Chicago, Ogma, Black Stingers, Red Stingers, Coterie Bee.

The top layer: Virts, Uni of Chicago, Ogma, Black Stingers, Red Stingers, Coterie Bee.

Bottom Layer: Pr1me Sketch, Blue Tune, Artifice Blue V1, Pr1me Noir, Sultan Treasury, Artifice Gold

Bottom Layer: Pr1me Sketch, Blue Tune, Artifice Blue V1, Pr1me Noir, Sultan Treasury, Artifice Gold

Totally blown away!

[Eoghann]

Hot damn that's nice.

[Mike Ratledge]

Hot damn that's nice.

Indeed - another SWEET prize from the UC2013 DoTY contest. I'm going to try to outdo this next year, though - we'll see. Between a little change in the prize distribution methodology and a couple of truly nice things that are coming from several of the winning artists/desigers and addtional toys that I have managed to squirrel away and will over the next couple of month, I'm thinking that we're going to have quite a show next year!

[shadowkat]

Gorgeous inside and out! Sweet.

[Sharpie]

So glad it arrived safely.

[volantangel]

Indeed - another SWEET prize from the UC2013 DoTY contest. I'm going to try to outdo this next year, though - we'll see. Between a little change in the prize distribution methodology and a couple of truly nice things that are coming from several of the winning artists/desigers and addtional toys that I have managed to squirrel away and will over the next couple of month, I'm thinking that we're going to have quite a show next year!

The longer time we have to prepare the more awesome the contest will be =) And that is a sweet prize from sharpie !

[dazzleguts]

My Fire and Brimstones arrived last week. Thank you Hikeeba and "Viva la difference"! indeed.

[Mike Ratledge]

My Fire and Brimstones arrived last week. Thank you Hikeeba and "Viva la difference"! indeed.

Fire&BrimCongrats.jpg

Molax Chopa is an interesting person. I've noticed she's pledged a few KS campaigns recently. Her "Indomitable Warrior" deck is under development and expected to be released next month and it's a Poker deck as opposed to Bridge width.

That being said, I noticed that since I refused to pay the USPS $68 for "International Priority Mail" to get the brick of Black NOCs to Great Britain, it suddenly popped out of the black hole it disappeared into in Miami in the ISC (International Sort Center) in London yesterday. Maybe Chris will have it in time for Easter? It was still $28 to put it on a "First Class" slow boat to China, and that's just outrageous for a 3# package! Even more justification for me giving up on "First Class" and insisting on shipping "Priority 2-to-3 day" inside the 50 states. For $5.80 it's a bargain... Of course it's at most limited to 6 decks, some people try to jam 8 in there, but I just won't. That's the "Flat Rate Small Box" rate, if you go one level up to "Medium FR box" it's now jumped from $11.80 to $13.15 as of near the end of January, but you can stick a couple (4?) bricks in there easily.

[flyers3003]

Got my prize today. Thanks Strag!

[craftspell]

so difficult to win one of these contests : [