Magic Tricks

The China deck is part of the lavish "World Tour Set", a collection of five decks that celebrate exotic locations around the world, each deck representing the culture of a different country.

The tuck box looks like some ancient manuscript we might expect to find in Asia, and even though Westerners like me have no clue what the characters on it mean, they leave us with no doubt about which part of the world this has come from!

Our uncertainty and confusion doesn't disappear once we start exploring the contents inside the box, because what confronts us here is somewhat of a puzzle, and certainly something that we see very little of in the playing card industry: all the card backs are different! They have swirls of black on a plain white background, and despite the minimalist colour scheme, at first we struggle to put the pieces together of what is going on here. But wait ... that's it: put the pieces together! See, if you stay in a foreign country long enough, eventually you get to learn the language, and the strange gradually becomes familiar. The challenge here is to piece together all the cards, which can be arranged adjacently in a 6 x 9 pattern like a puzzle, and they'll produce a single image that has some more Chinese characters for us.

Fortunately an interpreter is close at hand in this mysterious world. In lieu of one of the Jokers, a card is provided that will help us translate this confusing collection of pieces into a single whole, if we follow its instructions carefully and successfully `translate' our individual puzzle pieces into a single whole. The face cards all have indices, in which an unadorned and plain font and pips do give each card a recognizable identity, in orange and silver colours. But the real feature of these faces is that they, too, can be arranged like a puzzle into a single image. While unusual, this is certainly a memorable deck that is sure to make an impression on people due to its uniqueness, and is a true novelty item. - BGG reviewer EndersGame