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Seems Madison has been teasing this for a while but no real pictures that I have seen. E says it is coming soon.

Just got the email on this and was able to order it. No pics at all though. Maybe that is a good thing based on some of the decks they have produced lately.

The back design has the logo from the SWE book, for anyone wondering. Why E makes ugly decks and then gives them away for free I don't know.

Hype train is now off the tracks:

Fresh from e:

"This isn't a book. This is the SWE deck.

In less than 3 days, we'll pay our respects to the most famous stranger in our art.

BE THE FIRST TO KNOW. VIP ACCESS HERE.

This isn't just any deck of cards. Although it is just a deck of cards.

What do we mean by that?... Well, for starters, we aren't selling this to you. In 3 days we'll allow you to buy it, but we're not selling it.

'Selling' implies that we're actively trying. We don't need to.

You'll want this. For it's nostalgic design, for the heartfelt sentiment, for the custom finish and for the statement it makes in your hands.

The hype train has travelled back to 1902, to a half-built termianl in a smoggy Chicago. On the tracks...a single railroad worker with a head full of sweat, but a mind full of deception. We know him as Erdnase.

ALL ABOARD. GET YOUR TICKETS HERE.

For ALL those that buy an Erdnase deck on Wednesday, we've hidden a very special Golden Ticket inside the deck. Find it, and you'll win yourself 144 decks of the SWE deck. Delivered to your card table. Absolutely FREE.

Thanks,
Ryan @Ellusionist

p.s. Some of you have caught our 2nd teaser showcasing the deck. We hid it on our website 3 hours ago, and we've had 104 people get the unlock code. You know who you are. If you aren't one of those people, this is your 24 hour warning. We'll be making that teaser live tomorrow, and those secret unlock codes will disappear forever.

p.p.s We have a special LIVE chat event on Wednesday (Time TBC) with some very special guests and potentially the entire TEAM here at Ellusionist. Don't miss it. "

What's a termianl? And why would you sit in it? Anyways - so now Brad is king of the Oompa Loompas and you've got a golden ticket to get! You can make Mr Turkentine's job a little easier is you buy none, since 0 will be 0.00% chance of winning!

Not a speck of shame is showing
So the hype it must be growing...
Is the face of Brad a-glowing?
Is the grisly Reaper mowing?
Yes! The hype it must be growing
'Cause the blowers keep on blowing

There's no way 144 decks would last me a lifetime unless someone's planning to assassinate me in the near future. (Please don't.)

It's not just a deck but it is just a deck. We're not selling it but here's the reasons you want to buy it, along with an apparently drug fueled trip to smoggy Chicago... Meaning we're trying to sell it.

Freaking E go home, you're drunk.

So, does anybody know why, if you go to sign up for their hype train e-mails, they also want your mobile phone number? What are they going to do with everyone's cell phone number?

It's a serious question, as they are seriously asking for it.

Golden Ticket inside a deck. Seems they have been watching charlie and the chocolate factory a bit lately

gosh, they should fire the marketing manager, or madison directly.

And the golden Willy Wonka ticket that gives you the chance to win for a case of decks (worth probably $300 in production cost) for your "lifetime" supply? =_=
nononononono

And if you're not in the super exclusive, awesome Black Club...?

This was posted at PCF (and found on instagram):



You can see the tuck here:

http://www.ellusionist.com/1902.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Absolutely boring deck. What a complete rip off the book.

volantangel wrote:Absolutely boring deck.

Hey now, remember- this isn't just ANY deck.

vasta41 wrote:

volantangel wrote:Absolutely boring deck.

Hey now, remember- this isn't just ANY deck.

My bad, you are right. Its MADISON'S Boring deck. Wait.. arent they all boring ?

Ok, I don't know Ryan so this is not about him as a person, but that e-mail is quite terrible and would've needed to be scrapped and a new one written to better catch the feeling of what a deck related to Erdnase would be. Make us feel something, don't tell us to feel something.

But I'm fond of the whole Erdnase mystery and I think the book has a nice design so I don't mind this deck at all. It's definitely not the best thing since sliced bread, and it's not a deck design that will blow anyone away, but it's nice and I look forward to checking mine out in person.

Wonka gave out more than 1 ticket. he gave out 5! i mean the press release was all about Willy Wonka might as well stay true to the story

I just opened my "free" deck. (Whenever I have to pay money, in this case for shipping, the deck just doesn't seem free to me.) I like the air-cushion texture on the tuck box. The cards have the usual odor from the magic finish or whatever they call it these days. The back is obviously not exciting, but since I use cards mostly for magic, I appreciate the nod to The Expert at the Card Table.

Handling seems to be normal. The jokers are boring as is the Ace of Spades. The courts are customized, but they don't look better than standard so it isn't a plus to me. The majority of the deck has the standard pips which I like as a magician. The darker red color does make them not match regular Bikes and other similar decks so using them as stranger cards may not work well for some tricks. I love the white border.

I'm satisfied, but not excited about the cards. I'm glad I didn't pay full price for them, but I am glad I ordered them.

I got my "free" deck as well. As DelMagic already posted, the tuck box has a linen finish and the courts are semi-custom. This is how I imagine the discussion went at E when conceptualizing this deck:


Brad: Ok people, the Black Club members are getting restless again! I know we're a magic company, but how much smoke and mirrors can we keep pulling on our fanboys?

D+M: Mumble mmumblle mummmumm?

Brad: What was that Daniel? Speak English, man! I can't understand what the %&$@ you're saying!

Ryan: Uh, I think he said, "Don't we have to come up with at least 10 new decks to give away free?"

Brad: $#!T!, we're already behind schedule for that. How many months left for this year? Who's dumba$$ idea was that?

Ryan: It was your idea, Brad, it was part of your apology to the BC members for screwing the pooch so hard last year.

Brad: Oh yeah.... Well, let's pull something out of our a$$es for this month so we can get to 10. Any ideas?

D+M: .......

Ryan: ......

Brad: .......

D+M: ......

Ryan: .......

Brad: .......

D+M: .......

Ryan: Oh, I got it! Let's do an Erdnase deck! We'll call it the Expert at the Card Table deck. We'll even make the tuck look like the book.

D+M: Ooooh, oooh, I call dibs! I call dibs! It has to be another Madison deck! Daniel at the Card Table deck. Yeah.

Brad: Damnit, Daniel, don't you have enough decks to your name? Besides, didn't CARC do that deck already?

Ryan: They did....buuut did they reaaaally? Hmmm? Plus, we're not going to sell this deck.

Brad & D+M: We're not?

Ryan: No. We'll let them buy it from us, but we're not selling it. This isn't just any deck of cards. Although it is just a deck of cards.

D+M: What the %&@?!?! Did you get into my stash again? If you did, I'm gonna kick your...

Brad: Quiet, Daniel! I think this might work. Its one of those things that are soooo stupid that it makes sense! $#!T, even if it doesn't make sense, I don't give a &*#@ anymore, we're just phoning things in now anyways.

D+M: But I want it to be one of my decks! Can it be one of my decks???

Ryan: We'll make you one of the court cards, Ok Daniel?

D+M: Yay!

Brad: How quickly can we get this out?

Ryan: I already whipped it up in photoshop.

Brad: Done and done.

****

All characters in this post are fictitious. Any resemblance to real people are coincidental. Anyways, in case if anyone is interested, here is a picture:

sinjin7 wrote: Ryan: They did....buuut did they reaaaally? Hmmm? Plus, we're not going to sell this deck.

Brad & D+M: We're not?

Ryan: No. We'll let them buy it from us, but we're not selling it. This isn't just any deck of cards. Although it is just a deck of cards.

D+M: What the %&@?!?! Did you get into my stash again? If you did, I'm gonna kick your...

This made me literally LOL. Thanks, man!

BTW, no golden ticket in my deck.

Damn Sinjin, freaking spot on again, mate.

Hope you guys are ready for a limited edition variant printed especially for Daniel Madison's use that he will generously allow a small quantity to be given away with a purchase of a brick of the SWE deck the next time E needs a promo, say Black Friday.

That's not even phoning it in. I mean, come on, that's less than a minute's work given they already have all the templates saved. Really not even worth blasting the, for it. I mean seriously, that's a joke, right?

"The must have deck of 2015"
um. just no.

"you guys almost crashed our servers buying them"
Maybe server? singular

"overwhelming response literally flooded social media"
Someone doesn't know what literally means.

Ellusionist marketing has been over the top sensationalist recently and it hasn't changed with this mediocre deck. I got mine yesterday (paid only shipping so at least it only cost very little). I think Ellusionist just doesn't care what they put out anymore because people buy their decks anyway. The back design is horrible. There's no effort anymore from them. The one cool thing about this deck is the tuckbox feels like a playing card. But otherwise, it's a poorly designed deck.

bdawg923 wrote: I got mine yesterday (paid only shipping so at least it only cost very little).

Actually as of right now you paid about $26 for that deck ( I am assuming you are paying $3 a deck shipping for those)... I count 6 new decks this year so far for the club, deck I could have all bought for $7 each plus combined shipping except the Lions dens which was $10. Basically you have prepaid Ellusionist for about 20 decks plus you have to pay for individual shipping for each deck as far as I see. It's like a giant Ellusionist Kickstarter

Now to get the average of a deck to $7 for Black Club members, E would have to release almost another 14 new decks this year . Wow that Black Club membership is such a bargain hehehehe

Well, depending on if you pay full boat every year. I've gotten my re-ups as holiday promotion freebies. If they don't do that this year, then I'll have a decision to make come February.

I save the d/ls (have 12 now) and use them during the holiday promotion. So, last year, I was able to cover $80 in 6 d/ls.

ADD ON: Not that any of this should imply that I think the membership is really worth anything. I think it's B.S. The store is littered with overpriced autographed items. (I think autographs from Madison or Brad actually de-value the object). The rewards are horrible, not that that matters, since they've discontinued giving out Rewards Points as of 7/23 (with no notice sent to Black Club members beforehand).
(Also, I swear there was a 'Lifetime Discount' in there somewhere which implied the 5% could go up.)

I've been unhappy with ellusionist for years. I think the shame of it is that they could really be an incredible company but have decided to go the hype/lazy way out on practically everything. Oh yeah, and I can't stand Daniel Madison. ('My moves are so poor they almost got me killed. But I'll sell them to you for entertainment purposes only, wink.')

badpete69 wrote:

bdawg923 wrote: I got mine yesterday (paid only shipping so at least it only cost very little).

Actually as of right now you paid about $26 for that deck ( I am assuming you are paying $3 a deck shipping for those)... I count 6 new decks this year so far for the club, deck I could have all bought for $7 each plus combined shipping except the Lions dens which was $10. Basically you have prepaid Ellusionist for about 20 decks plus you have to pay for individual shipping for each deck as far as I see. It's like a giant Ellusionist Kickstarter

Now to get the average of a deck to $7 for Black Club members, E would have to release almost another 14 new decks this year . Wow that Black Club membership is such a bargain hehehehe

Partly true, but I also buy tricks and other decks from them and get the black club discount. Plus when I can, I buy gold artifice decks from them to resell on ebay. Also got a few free decks during the holidays and sold those.

Well cool then you must be happy with your membership... That is what matters in the end

Every since McKenzie and Brumbalow got replaced by Madison their decks have gone down the toilet, aside from Prohibition and maybe some other deck, can't even think of any other than Madison decks. I think they can consider me not renewing my membership next year. If a good deck pops up, i'll get it somewhere, if not i'll probably pass.

Well, have to wonder, what do you expect from a person that is an admitted cheat and charlatan and a bad one at that, having gotten the crap kicked out of himself for cheating. Now he's just cheating people through the black club membership instead at the card table.