Magic Tricks

This is the newest and possibly the best yet deck from cardistry team The Virts. The colour scheme for the entire FW17 Virtuoso deck is a green, black and grey, with the different sections that are divided into varying shades of these colours, creating a cool geometric effect. The tuck case showcases this by means of a minimalistic box relying exclusively on these three colours.

The back design is immediately recognizable, featuring the Virts signature design style of six `blades' of triangles dividing the card's canvas into segments, separated with white lines, which come together in the center of the card to form a hexagon. There's a circle of green in the central white hexagon, which allows spins and twirls to have a central focal point, that proves very eye-catching when the cards are in circular motion.

The borderless design is made especially so that cardists can create beautiful designs when they fan and spread the cards, and is enhanced by the different shades of the colours. This allows the cards to meld together in different moves and enhance the visual appeal. Fanning the cards one way or the other will also result in different colours showing up, which makes the deck all the more fun to play around with.

The faces of the cards are equally impressive for cardistry, and are completely customized in a geometric fashion to optimize them with visual aesthetics for cardistry. Each pip is customized, and a traditional approach has been taken to the pip colours, with the use of red and black, the red stands out well from the green. The well designed court cards are a take on the classic French designs. As an inside joke, the hands of the characters have been drawn based on photographs of the actual hands of the Virts team members. Face fans and spreads are accentuated by stripes of green and grey created by the fact that the back-design actually wraps around to the front of the cards.

These cards are printed in USA with a crushed paper stock that proves very soft, and handles great straight out of the box. Spreading, fanning, springing, and all other standard flourishes just work wonderfully. The cut of the deck also allows for beautiful and easy faro shuffles, which have a great visual appeal, especially when combined with a cascade move following. The Virts decks are also renowned for being durable, and these cards continue to fit that bill. The cards are made of paper from sustainable forests, printed with environmentally friendly ink - so in a pinch, you can even safely eat them!

Once again The Virts have come through with another high quality and wonderful deck that looks stunning when used for card flourishing. Even a simple shuffle, fan, or spread, reaches new heights with this deck in your hands. So I recommend picking up a deck or two or more of the FW17 Virtuoso deck, and take your playing card moves to the next level! - BoardGameGeek reviewer EndersGame