jerichoholic wrote:The idea is that cardists don't like cards with faces on them, hence the NDO deck that came out a while back and the very plain faces on Devo decks.
I don't think this is necessarily true. Certain displays require Aces or court cards. False cuts and shuffles require regular spot cards and court cards so that you would know they were false.
I remember a video from Ellusionist Kent where he broke open a new deck and turned them face up and spread them out on a table to show it was a complete, regular deck. He then did an uncut, unedited cardistry routine that was like 7 minutes of continuous, non-stop cardistry. He was doing these complex cuts and moves we've never seen before up to that point and he was incredibly fast and smooth. Towards the end, I was thinking, "Damn, he made this loooong video in one take and didn't make a mistake." Then, at the very end of the video, he turns the deck over face up again and spreads them out on a table...and the cards were
still in new deck order! I thought my head was going to explode - every single cut and shuffle in that ridiculously long routine was false, and the fact that he maintained control of the order throughout that whole routine to retain that new deck order was incredible. Without face cards, you wouldn't have been able to fully appreciate the technical impact of that routine.
If the Virts didn't like face cards, they wouldn't have had any on their Virtuoso deck, which is specifically designed to be a cardistry deck. But not only does their cardistry deck have face cards, the Virts went to the time and effort to make them fully custom.
