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Ellusionist has just made available the first free deck, and it's a mystery deck. All I know for sure is the email receipt I got said Lion's Den. I guess we'll find out the rest once people start receiving them. Thankfully Ellusionist didn't decide to raise shipping prices to offset the costs.

All I know so far is that the Lion's Den is yet another Madison deck. I wonder if the re-worked Prohibition decks will be offered as a free preview to BC members as well.

For those that can't read the blurry writing...

The First Deck in the Black Club Deck Preview is our secret. This deck has been kept completely under wraps and out of sight until now.

We haven't announced this deck, we haven't teased it anywhere, we haven't even mentioned its name as a possibility. The very first you'll know about this deck is when you're holding it in your hands.

When we say that the Black Club Deck Preview is your VIP Pass to every deck we release - we mean it. This is your FREE deck, before it's released to anyone else. Add it to your cart now.

Available as a Free Deck to Black Club Members until
Wednesday, January 14, 2015.

http://www.ellusionist.com/black_club_decks

Man if this deck ends up being some Madison deck and nothing related to Lion's Den i'm sure i'm not the only one who's going to be peeved!

These are pretty disappointing, I can't believe E decided to use this deck as the first offering for the new year for BC members. I don't feel they were worth the shippng I had to pay on them. Its another "minimal" casino-style deck (minimal, as in minimal effort). These are the worst E decks since the Executive decks.

BOX: The tuck box is done in a matte black paper stock. On the front of the box, there are two vertical striped borders than run down the left and right of the box front done in a copper/gold foil. Also in foil are the words, “the lions den casino & lounge” with what appears to be claw scratched in the form of a trident. The back of the tuck and the top of the tuck only has the striped side borders. The sides of the tuck are blank. The bottom flap has Madison’s log with the words, “Madison Presents” along with the E logo and copyright info, all in the same colored foil. There is no printing on the tuck, nor is there any embossing. Not a terrible tuck box, but nothing to excite you, either. There aren’t any reveals of any sort anywhere on the tuck.

CARDS: There are 2 Jokers, one with a K of Diamonds reveal. There is a double backer gaff card, and another strange double backer that is just solid black with the gold striped side borders, kind of like the back of the tuck. There are no ad cards. Standard font and pips, and all the courts are re-colored standard courts except for the King of Spades and King of Diamonds, which also has a 9 of spades reveal on his hand. I’m guessing the K of Diamonds might be Madison and the King of Spades may be McKinnon, but I'm not sure.

STOCK/FINISH: These cards appear to be standard Rider Back stock. The edges are cut fairly smoothly. Given this is a deck associated with Madison, who is a notorious card mechanic, I’m surprised the cards do not have a traditional cut as they faro back to front. There is no indication of any type of finish on the tuck, but its your standard USPCC Air Cushion/Magic finish, so the cards fan and spread very well.

GRAPHICS/DESIGN: The back design consists of a black background with a diamond grid pattern. You have the words, “the lions den casino & lounge” with the claw scratches in gold in a two way back design. The interesting thing is that there are two white borders down the left and right sides of the cards, but the top and bottom are full bleed with no borders. Due to the lack of top and bottom borders, you use lose some utility for magic as far as double lifts are concerned. You do get a mildly interesting fan pattern with only the side borders, but they’re too wide to make the fans really striking. The Ace of Spades is fairly weak, it reflects the back design and features the claw scratches. The Jokers are similarly weak in that all it is is the trident-like claw scratch with the words, “the joker” underneath, that’s it.

As I said before, had I known what these cards looked like before hand, I would never have bothered getting these. I’m sure there are a few people out there who love minimalist design that may be attracted to these, but I can’t really give any type of strong recommendation for these at all. E ended last year with a bang with their Prohibition series, but sadly they are starting off this new year with a weak meow with the Lions Den deck.

I have to say I like the color scheme they used but that back design just looks wrong.

Thats simply terrible. I cant even find anything good to say, this is just reminiscent of a sleazy lounge and thats my best complement for this deck.

This has to be just some kind of promotional deck for something to come, that they threw together quickly for some internal deadline.

If not, this is just a joke. Not to say it makes any difference to me that such a company as E puts out a bad deck, it won't affect my decision to buy other decks from them in the future as long as they're good. But it needs to be said: This is a boring and lazy deck.

Did they hire Ace Fulton??

vasta41 wrote:Did they hire Ace Fulton??

Then the back design would still look better than this. Though I guess they tried to do something different, I just don't think it worked.

I understand that this is a very minimal deck and we expected much more from E but come on, you got a new, sealed deck of cards for under $3. I joined the black club to see what they had to offer. I very seriously doubt all the decks will look like this, otherwise, they might as well kiss the black club goodbye b/c they won't have any members next year. Am I disappointed, not really b/c I got a brand new, sealed deck for less than $3 shipped. A deck I might add E didn't have to give away. They chose to do so for their club members, and to draw in new members, as a reward for being a member. I'm not standing up for E, just stating a point that this is deck that cost less than a USPCC deck from Wal-Mart.

So you find solace in the fact that it was cheap despite being a deck that you don't like? I'd rather buy a cheeseburger.

A cheeseburger will only last a few minutes, these cards will last forever, mainly b/c no one will use them.

But.... Love the cheeseburger!!!

Yeah this looks like a huge back step for the company and looks way too simple

Hey, if you guys don't want yours I can take them off your hands for the shipping cost.

No wonder they are giving these away, nobody would buy them, lol.

Velociraptor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velociraptor

Loin claws

Cbkimble wrote:A deck I might add E didn't have to give away. They chose to do so for their club members, and to draw in new members, as a reward for being a member. I'm not standing up for E, just stating a point that this is deck that cost less than a USPCC deck from Wal-Mart.

After how E screwed over their BC members (a fact Brad acknowledged and apologized for) they had to give away decks, or else there would have been a mass exodus of memberships. Please don't think they're doing this as some generous favor for their members, its basically desperate back-pedaling and damage control. It is not free, either. As a part of the "perks" of membership, you have to pro-rate the deck into the $149.00 membership cost. If this deck was given out last year as a "perk", it would've equated to a $149.00 deck (plus shipping). You don't have to pay for membership to buy a USPCC deck from Wal-Mart.

I have no doubt future offerings will be better - there's no direction to go but up after this deck. Plus, E usually puts out solid decks with full customization, and after the Prohibition series, they are raising the bar for the quality of their tuck boxes as well to get them closer to the quality of T11's tucks. But this is a terrible start to their "free" deck program.

Granted, while this is not a great deck, it appears to have been created for a casino. With that in mind, it is going to be a minimal deck. A casino is not going to go all out on a deck of cards they'll use probably less than one day. At least they are keeping their promise to offer these to black clubs members for shipping.

Cbkimble wrote:Granted, while this is not a great deck, it appears to have been created for a casino. With that in mind, it is going to be a minimal deck. A casino is not going to go all out on a deck of cards they'll use probably less than one day. At least they are keeping their promise to offer these to black clubs members for shipping.

Thing is though, a quick google search for Lion's Den Casino Lounge doesn't pull up any major hits (unless my Google fu is just messed up today). Only thing in Vegas by that name is an Adult Toy Store apparently (read the yelp reviews for a chuckle). I just find it odd that if they indeed were made for a real place, why doesn't it say anywhere on the tuck or deck where the venue is located? Every deck I have that is for a casino, bar, lounge etc... states the name followed by the city. EG The Rarebit deck states designed in Charlotte, SC.

I agree that the only reason they're giving these away to Black Club members is because nobody would buy them outright. For $3 id rather go to the drugstore and pick up a deck of riderbacks. Hell I'd rather pick up the generic dollar store deck of cards printed on cardboard than this.

I have been to Vegas 42 times now and never heard of the Lion's den casino over there. I did find a Lion's Den casino night in Montana hehe

https://www.facebook.com/events/577413172271499/

The thing is.. Are these going to be exclusive to the BC membership ? I dont recall them saying that it would be exclusive. Whos gonna buy them when they are released to the masses ?!

Plus i noticed that there is a cut-off date to redeem your free deck, a douche move to screw the internationals over, the first couple of times would be fine, maybe get a couple more decks to make shipping less painful, but i cant imagine anyone having to do this every other month, theres nothing left to buy.

What it came out tomorrow that these were printed for a casino and E was allowed to pull enough decks for their black club members and some for gifts and prizes but none would be available to the general public? This would make a rarity of this deck and you'd all kick yourselves in the ass. Lol.

Cbkimble wrote:This would make a rarity of this deck and you'd all kick yourselves in the ass. Lol.

I think my ass is safe....

Somewhere out there is a cult of artists who paint with toothpicks and E wants their business.

There used to be a lions' den at the MGM Grand.

http://www.pokeratlas.com/poker-room/mg ... -lions-den" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

sinjin7 wrote:

Cbkimble wrote:A deck I might add E didn't have to give away. They chose to do so for their club members, and to draw in new members, as a reward for being a member. I'm not standing up for E, just stating a point that this is deck that cost less than a USPCC deck from Wal-Mart.

After how E screwed over their BC members (a fact Brad acknowledged and apologized for) they had to give away decks, or else there would have been a mass exodus of memberships. Please don't think they're doing this as some generous favor for their members, its basically desperate back-pedaling and damage control. It is not free, either. As a part of the "perks" of membership, you have to pro-rate the deck into the $149.00 membership cost. If this deck was given out last year as a "perk", it would've equated to a $149.00 deck (plus shipping). You don't have to pay for membership to buy a USPCC deck from Wal-Mart.

I have no doubt future offerings will be better - there's no direction to go but up after this deck. Plus, E usually puts out solid decks with full customization, and after the Prohibition series, they are raising the bar for the quality of their tuck boxes as well to get them closer to the quality of T11's tucks. But this is a terrible start to their "free" deck program.

I have to agree, no way you can call this a $3 deck (and of course much more for us Internationals but hey, we are used to being ripped off so it's ok, right?). I paid for one year of Black Club. Since it expired, I have bought absolutely nothing from E and will not again. During the year that I bought product from them, I spent over $800. Must be nice not to need customers of that caliber.

By the way, they could have had an easy solution for Internationals by allowing consolidated shipping of the "free" decks so that they get paid for right away but are shipped in one bunch but heck... who wants to actually provide good customer service these days?

Strag wrote:

sinjin7 wrote:

Cbkimble wrote:A deck I might add E didn't have to give away. They chose to do so for their club members, and to draw in new members, as a reward for being a member. I'm not standing up for E, just stating a point that this is deck that cost less than a USPCC deck from Wal-Mart.

After how E screwed over their BC members (a fact Brad acknowledged and apologized for) they had to give away decks, or else there would have been a mass exodus of memberships. Please don't think they're doing this as some generous favor for their members, its basically desperate back-pedaling and damage control. It is not free, either. As a part of the "perks" of membership, you have to pro-rate the deck into the $149.00 membership cost. If this deck was given out last year as a "perk", it would've equated to a $149.00 deck (plus shipping). You don't have to pay for membership to buy a USPCC deck from Wal-Mart.

I have no doubt future offerings will be better - there's no direction to go but up after this deck. Plus, E usually puts out solid decks with full customization, and after the Prohibition series, they are raising the bar for the quality of their tuck boxes as well to get them closer to the quality of T11's tucks. But this is a terrible start to their "free" deck program.

I have to agree, no way you can call this a $3 deck (and of course much more for us Internationals but hey, we are used to being ripped off so it's ok, right?). I paid for one year of Black Club. Since it expired, I have bought absolutely nothing from E and will not again. During the year that I bought product from them, I spent over $800. Must be nice not to need customers of that caliber.

By the way, they could have had an easy solution for Internationals by allowing consolidated shipping of the "free" decks so that they get paid for right away but are shipped in one bunch but heck... who wants to actually provide good customer service these days?

I'm in the same boat. I purchased the 1st year, and basically have stopped purchasing E products. With all the back pedaling they do, ... they lost my business.
An item is sold out/last of the reserve/never to be available again.... then BOOM .. they find more in a back room.

total BS

Cbkimble wrote:I understand that this is a very minimal deck and we expected much more from E but come on, you got a new, sealed deck of cards for under $3. I joined the black club to see what they had to offer. I very seriously doubt all the decks will look like this, otherwise, they might as well kiss the black club goodbye b/c they won't have any members next year. Am I disappointed, not really b/c I got a brand new, sealed deck for less than $3 shipped. A deck I might add E didn't have to give away. They chose to do so for their club members, and to draw in new members, as a reward for being a member. I'm not standing up for E, just stating a point that this is deck that cost less than a USPCC deck from Wal-Mart.

You also paid $147.00 to be in the club. You paid for the deck. You just don't realize it.

sprouts1115 wrote:Velociraptor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velociraptor

Screenshot 2015-01-11 13.12.21.png

Loin claws

Anyone familiar with the story: Daniel in the Den of Lions?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_in_the_lions%27_den" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Daniel believed God sent an angel to shut the mouths of the lions so as not to hurt him, because he was blameless before his God and his king. He was then brought out of the den unscathed.

The claws are not really lions claws. They are demons claws. Commonly found on people who have experienced or been attacked by something supernatural. The reason the scratches from demons are always in three is because it is a mocking of the Trinity. The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit are the most important figures in the Christian faith and any demonic force will attempt to enrage the Trinity.