Ellusionist Mystery Deck (Series 1900, etc.)

[rousselle]

With the exception of the double-backers, which are discounted as a fire sale, all the Keepers decks on E are listed as "Discontinued" on their respective product pages, and they are no longer listed on the "Playing Cards" page.

[Eric Lee]

Doh! I searched directly under keepers instead of going via the playing cards and didn't actually click on any of the keepers. Should have been more thorough. My bad.

I wonder how much the USPCC Rider Back trademark influenced E's playing card direction since that killed their Black line.

[manu]

Looks like there's a new mystery deck.

https://ellusionist.com/products/mystery-deck

NOTE: DROP 21 is now over. The deck has changed (on July 18th, 2023) and this begins DROP 22.

Any guesses on what it could be?

[GandalfPC]

No idea about what, but I do see they raised the price to 12.99 now - they still have “For just $9.95 you'll be guaranteed a currently unreleased or rare deck.” in the detail text though - happened so fast even they haven’t had time to catch up.

[manu]

For posterity, they turned out to be the Black Water Ranch deck.

[manu]

New mystery deck: Shipwreck [Drop 23]

[george]

Earlier in this thread the question was "What happened to Keepers, why have Cohorts replaced them?" .

Fast forward now to 2024, all the Cohorts are out of stock, and this new Shipwreck deck is in stock.

I messaged E to inquire about Cohorts. They responded (quickly!) that they WILL be reprinting the red, but they don't know when. I wonder if part of the Cohorts stock issue may be the Cartamundi factory relocation delays. Although, E's new Warrior deck is a Cartamundi one.

It makes me wonder if Shipwreck is another attempt at making a go-to standard deck like the Cohorts and Keepers before them.

Shipwreck's design is heavily based on the Keepers design, which of course comes from the Rider Back. Oban Jones designed both Keepers and Shipwreck. Shipwreck even has a poem on the side of the tuck referencing Keepers.

Shipwreck is printed by Legends, whereas Cohorts and most versions of Keepers were Cartamundi. (I believe the earliest Keepers were USPC, check for thick/off-center vs thin borders!)