2018 'Deck of the Year' Awards: DISCUSSION

[theCapraAegagrus]

The biggest upset for me is Hana Signature not winning Best Tuck.

Everything else seems (close to) right.

[Merlebird]

Gio, I hope that, regardless of whether her name is drawn for the prize giveaway, you are planning on sending something nice to Cardileigh for her discovery of Lunatica's "hidden" UV-reactive feature. I know my vote for "Best Use of Color" was decided by that factor and, judging by its win in that category, I suspect I am not alone. A signed sketch of a "bosomy" queen, perhaps?

actually, I think this feature had been discovered long before her vid review was uploaded, but probably helped that it *was* posted here and elsewhere during the running of the DOTYs while voting was still open...

Gio would have to confirm who sent him the original tip, but I believe the information was e-mailed to him prior to the video review being made and uploaded.

Mostly I am pro-Gio sending folks free stuff.

It was a use of unique colors, regardless of the UV "feature". Lunatica deserved the win.

No arguments here that it was a well-deserved win. Just saying the added "oomph" certainly didn't hurt.

[Decknowledgy]

I agree with Twoface... 2Pac... Two Piece
Wasn't because of the UV reaction, but just the unconventional neon colors themselves are worth the win. Equinox over Solstice too.

[theCapraAegagrus]

I agree with Twoface... 2Pac... Two Piece...

[PipChick]

DOTY PRIZE GIVEAWAY WINNERS ARE NOW POSTED!! CONGRATS to everyone and thanks for participating to make this year's DOTYs the best ever! YAY!

[JuFiN]

Will a new thread be made for the giveaway winners to claim or where will that be done?

[theCapraAegagrus]

Will a new thread be made for the giveaway winners to claim or where will that be done?

Also, aren't there only 20 prizes?

As "winner" #22 (lmfao) I won't get s^&*!

Edit: Nvm.

[Thirdway Industries]

Congrats to all winners!!!

Also very happy for the best use of color for Lunatica! Thank you!

I think Leigh discovered the UV feature of Lunatica - I don't remember if I already sent her something for that (sorry, doing too many things at once and I don't remember well).
Anyways, the full story is: I was aware that neon inks were special, and I suspected they could react to UV ink - but I didn't tested that, so I was not sure about the feature until Leigh actually posted the video (and I was genuinely surprised about how cool the effect was).

Anyways - I am really happy about what she did (not only discovering the feature, but also the reviews) so I will follow Merlebird advice
@Cardleigh (she's reading the message here, right?) please send me a mail at giovanni-at-thirdway.it with address - also tell me one of limited decks you don't have or you wish

[PipChick]

Will a new thread be made for the giveaway winners to claim or where will that be done?

I'm thinking maybe we can do that just in the *official* thread just because it's all there and winners won't have to refer to a seperate place to see what prizes are available to choose among and post about it elsewhere.

Later on, when everything is all over, we can spend some time clean up the threads and move and/or merge things where they fit best to keep things nice and clean for future records

[PipChick]

Okay y'all - as much as I'd love to sit online here at UC all day managing PMs and posts, I unfortunately can't so I'll be going soon and only periodically checkin' in from my phone. If you don't hear back from me immediately, please don't panic; I'll get back to y'all as soon as I'm able to and I'm sure the other awesome members & mods of the UC fam will also be more than happy to help facilitate any other questions or concerns, whether posted publicly here or PM'd privately. As of now, it seems like everything is in order but if for those DOTY prize giveaway winners that are unsure of the giveaway selection process, please refer back to my explanation in this post here under the 'DOTY PRIZE GIVEAWAY CONTEST DETAILS' section :

So since I've received a few questions regarding how exactly the prize giveaway drawing will be done, I'll explain precisely how I've been keeping track of participants and how the winners will be chosen to provide as much transparency as possible to eliminate any doubt of bias. As some of you know, I've been tabulating votes solo and, therefore, I'm the only one to know exactly all that have participated and how they've voted - I've deliberately kept these details to myself as to keep this entire process as uninfluenced as possible. And, in tabulating votes, I've also been keeping track of all participants more or less in the order in which they submitted votes.

Now that voting is officially close, I will use the total number voters to assign a random number to each participant (only with the exception of excluding those participants that have expressly opted out of the giveaway contest). But since I not only know the voters and the random numbers assigned to them but am also entered into the giveaway as well as a participant, I will NOT be conducting the drawing as it'd be a clear conflict of interest; instead, I will be passing on ONLY the total number to another mod (even though they may also be entered into the drawing for their own participation, they will not know their own assigned random number) who will enter the total into a random number generator that will be used to create a list. The first number generated by the random number generator, will be the first on the list and each number drawn thereafter will continue to be added to the list to denote the order in which prizes will be selected. So for example, if your randomly assigned number is the 3rd to be drawn, your name will be 3rd on the list of giveaway winners and you can only select among the available prizes after the 1st and 2nd place winner have selected. I hope this makes sense but if you have any questions, please feel free to ask and I'll try my best to further clarify.

Although this seems like a more complicated process rather than just drawing for each prize and just assigning winners those prizes, this selection process seemed to work pretty well last year and allows winners the most choice in what prize they'd like to receive. Think of it like playing tag among the winners, going from one to the next until all prizes are claimed for

[SirCrunoke]

That is a good outcome of the DOTY votes I think. I'm in with them for like 98% of the time or so.
I really like how agreeing the votes must be, even while the choice was that big.

Also, I'm more than honored thank you for random picking me. That was a surprise.
Congrats to the other ones who were picked aswell!

[Bradius]

Now that the votes are in, can we post who we selected and why? When I sent in my votes I explained briefly why I selected what I did. I think it would be fun for those interested to post this now that we would not be trying to influence voting in any way.

[theCapraAegagrus]

Now that the votes are in, can we post who we selected and why? When I sent in my votes I explained briefly why I selected what I did. I think it would be fun for those interested to post this now that we would not be trying to influence voting in any way.

That sounds just awful.

Here's why I made my selections:

Subjective opinion.

Hold the applause. Thanks.

[caniveski]

The biggest upset for me is Hana Signature not winning Best Tuck.

Everything else seems (close to) right.

I agree but with only 100 of each colour produced it wouldnt have the reach of say the luna deck

[montenzi]

Now that the votes are in, can we post who we selected and why? When I sent in my votes I explained briefly why I selected what I did. I think it would be fun for those interested to post this now that we would not be trying to influence voting in any way.

Last year all details were posted online (usernames/votes). Should be done this year as well. Or not

I am ok with that.

[Bradius]

I will start the ball rolling by posting my nominations and reasoning when I cast my votes. I want to say that in the end the collective group did a great job selecting decks. When I look back now at the winners for tucks, that is an area that has really improved in 2018. The tuck cases many creators have produced are just stunning. Cartamundi Cold Foil also made its debut. I also am a bit sad that Jackson Robinson's creations are not more represented here, but he was nominated in a ton of areas. He is still my deck creator of the year for 2018. What he did in 2018 is nothing short of amazing.

Thanks so much for all of your efforts this year. I really like the nomination process as it really helped me focus on the choices. Also, other members nominations did change my votes in a few categories. The pips category especially. By adding those great photos made it so much easier. And what a crop of new designers! I had no idea there were so many, and all did a great job.

So many are worthy and picking my best was tough. But, choose I have and they are listed below:

Best Tuck - House of the Rising Spade Gatekeeper (for all the reasons TGW said in his top ten review)

Best Ace - House of the Rising Spade (one of many tough choices)

Best Joker - Outlaw (It is great, and even despite all of the USPCC censorship!)

Best Gaff - Delirium (I HAVE to vote for one of Gio's deck. It is in my contract.)

Best Pips - Ragnarak (I really struggled, there were so many great decks nominated)

Best Courts - House of the Rising Spades (This year there were some great courts, but this one was so easy because Lorenzo just blew everyone away with his super creative design and incredible artistry. It was just perfect. No one else stood a chance.)

Best use of color - Junkanoo (Another tough choice. Uusi are just amazing artists and this topic just screamed color use, and they did it with such style. I was really hoping to give this to Montenzi, but Uusi pulled it away from him. All the nominees use of color really were exceptional.)

Best Back - Arabesque (A really improved design by Lotrek, His use of hot foil registration alone gets him my nod. A small variation off of center and this back would be trash. He pulled it off with beautiful colors and foil combination. Simply stunning.)

Best Fanning - Luxx Mandala (I was going to give this to someone else until I saw that stunning photo of this deck fanned. Glad I picked up four of these beauties.)

Best Cardistry/Flourishing - Tally-Ho Cardistry Con 2018 Edition (It has to be printed by either USPCC or Cartimundi IMHO). For me this year, it goes to a surprise deck, but really flourhises look so great with it.

Best deck for Magic - White Regalia (I am out of my league here, but I am putting my vote down. I decided on a safe choice.)

Best Non-Poker Deck - The Brady Tarot (This is the only deck I chose I don't own, but will try to remedy that soon. I have the Uusi Supra, but looking at the photos, The Brady Tarot beats it easily.

Best rookie deck - Mercury (Another tough choice, but The Planets series was so good, I HAD to give the nod to Srdjan. So many other new designers all did a great job. I hope they all get recognized.

Best Innovation - Deck the Halls. (How did JR think of this? How was it possible? Who did he use to make it? So many questions, but it was brilliant and really ended his first Shorts Subscription on a high note. I also gave Jackson the nod as much for his innovative card production plan of the Shorts Subscription as with the technical innovation for this brilliant tuck. I can't say enough about Jackson Robinson this year, except to agree with TGW that he really is my choice for Playing Card designer of the year. No one else could touch him this year.)

Best Deck - Arabesque (I really liked House of the Rising Spades and Tigers, but their pips while great choices for their deck design, just made that part of the deck seem empty next to such amazing courts and special cards. Arabesque, with the amazing back, beautiful reinterpretation of the classic courts, use of hot foil, really outstanding pips had it all. Even the handling wasn't all that bad. This wasn't the best in all categories, but in the sum total, it beat out a tough field of competitors for me)

A special honorary mention to Sunish for his Kalevala deck. I wish I could have nominated it. Sunish is such a great part of the community and did a spectacular job with this deck (It is the one deck open by my desk at home in fact). He really did a breakthrough effort on this deck and showed that he is a really versatile deck designer.

Again, thanks for making this so easy for me to evaluate. Your time and effort in this is really REALLY appreciated!

[PipChick]

Thanks Brad, for sharing your thoughtful rational for voting as you did - even though I voted differently in some categories, I also very much agree with your reasoning and voting was difficult with so many amazing decks and it really came down to splitting hairs.

I'm thinking of using the overall voting results to create some sorta data graphic (like a pie chart or bar graph or something) to exactly show how the votes were distributed as a whole going towards each deck voted for, broken down in each category; because in some, there were very clear favs that won a vast majority of the votes whereas in others, as I said, the votes were so close that placement literally came down to 1 vote. This is also why I included the honorable mentions in the awards because they too were often soo close to placement and they still very much deserve the recognition.

Anyways, would data graphics be something y'all would be interested in??? Let me know

[Decknowledgy]

Anyways, would data graphics be something y'all would be interested in??? Let me know

Absolutely yes!

Back to the topic, I don't have much to say about my votes but just one:

Best Innovation: Cartamundi's Copag 310

The reason is not that of design obviously but rather because of the sensation it created within the card community. Throughout the year, the B9 Linen finish single-handedly revived the Copag brand and we see a sharp increase of custom decks that chooses Cartamundi Linen over Bicycle Air-cushioned. For me, it screams deck of the year in terms of influence.

[hsbc]

I agree that the Planets series should definitely have won best rookie deck - all in all there are nine decks, a carat case, poker chips, posters, a limited edition version of each deck....

Similarly Deck the Hall was sort of a proxy for the Shorts program in general. I can't remember whether I voted for this or B9 finish

[Räpylätassu]

Did anyone else than me vote for Ambassadors Players Edition for the best tuck box?

There might not be a fancy gimmick on them like the Luna Moon, nor are they over the top in gold like the Arabesque, but the special paper, foiling and embossing along with amazing look of the thin lines in front, the inner printing. It may not be the fanciest, but it is the best looking tuck box last year IMO for sure.

Also, Hana wasn't in TOP 3 in fanning? Seriously, if you have an open Hana Gold deck, go get it right now and fan it. It looks absolutely amazing.

[Cardileigh]

Gio, I hope that, regardless of whether her name is drawn for the prize giveaway, you are planning on sending something nice to Cardileigh for her discovery of Lunatica's "hidden" UV-reactive feature. I know my vote for "Best Use of Color" was decided by that factor and, judging by its win in that category, I suspect I am not alone. A signed sketch of a "bosomy" queen, perhaps? .

I think 'bosomy' or 'booberific' every time I see them- lol
Thanks for the shout out- Gio has given me a nice thank you gift, though I should send him a queen to sign

[Cardileigh]

Congrats to all winners!!!

Also very happy for the best use of color for Lunatica! Thank you!

I think Leigh discovered the UV feature of Lunatica - I don't remember if I already sent her something for that (sorry, doing too many things at once and I don't remember well).
Anyways, the full story is: I was aware that neon inks were special, and I suspected they could react to UV ink - but I didn't tested that, so I was not sure about the feature until Leigh actually posted the video (and I was genuinely surprised about how cool the effect was).

Anyways - I am really happy about what she did (not only discovering the feature, but also the reviews) so I will follow Merlebird advice
@Cardleigh (she's reading the message here, right?) please send me a mail at giovanni-at-thirdway.it with address - also tell me one of limited decks you don't have or you wish

I was the first person to point out the glow to Gio- although I was not aware he was not aware! I posted a picture to my instagram right after I got the decks off kickstarter (February 2018) and tagged @thirdwayindustries. My youtube review is only a month old and is how I came to be a part of this forum! Pip chick mentioned that I might like to vote!

[Mike Ratledge]

I don't see any reason not to post statistics, but I don't think we should post details without asking and that opens up yet another can o' worms.

[Merlebird]

The only statistic I need to know:

Which voter drew raffle ticket 69?

[theCapraAegagrus]

The only statistic I need to know:

Which voter drew raffle ticket 69?

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo...

[PipChick]

I don't see any reason not to post statistics, but I don't think we should post details without asking and that opens up yet another can o' worms.

no, I will absolutely not be disclosing any specific information about who participated in the DOTYs (submitted nominations/voted) nor obviously which decks they voted for. Only those that would like to share that info can freely do so themselves and I do

I'll look into what I can do about voting stats (like percentage breakdown of the votes in a pie chart or something), although, I'd prefer to primarily and firstly focus attention on finding someone to make a really nice Award Certificate for our DOTY Award winners or, at the very least, putting something nice together myself for them.

Any designers out there that would be interested in donating their time and skillz in creating an awesome DOTY Award certificate for us to recognize the winners?? If so, please reach out asap!

[Eric Lee]

Yes, the certificates (digital or otherwise) for the winners and honorable mentions should be a priority. Unfortunately I don't have much technical skill beyond MS office.

Is there someone else who can do the stats though? You've already done so much, so it's ok to pass the baton to another Mod involved or let Mike pass it to a neutral someone else he trusts with it.

[theCapraAegagrus]

I could, but I can't commit, because I'm never sure how much "free time" I have.

Right now it's slow, but things can pile up and delay my personal projects. I'll start something as a backup and see where this thing goes.

[TheGentlemanWake]

Wondering If this thread, and the prizes thread should be moved out of sticky at this point.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[vasta41]

Wondering If this thread, and the prizes thread should be moved out of sticky at this point.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Done! Added 2018 to the "Hall of Fame" topic.