Magic Tricks

Just received my deck and played around with it.

I ordered red backs because red is closer to my skin color than blue.

The red color itself is lighter than a standard Bicycle deck, but when you look at the back of the card, you perceive it to be a darker red.

I think this is because there are more designs taken up with white (such as the angels on bicycles) on the Bicycle cards.

These cards are THINNER AND LIGHTER than the Bees or Bicycles you're accustomed to.

That means some cool things happen...

I sprung a single card up into the air, and it floated down SLOWLY. Usually, half the battle for me is catching the card upon its descent. These cards are lighter and they fall slower.

I one-hand riffle-shuffled the Honeybees without breaking in these cards. When using a Bicycle deck, not a chance. I would need to break in the deck for a minute--bending the cards in the direction I need prior to the faro.

Every magician knows that borderless cards make second deals more imperceptible.

What nobody talks about with borderless cards is how much better the Top Change looks. I can't be the only magician who has noticed this, c'mon!

The border on playing cards was invented to preclude second deals. Yet we see magicians choosing bordered cards.

Maybe the reason magicians today use bordered cards is because of the prevalence of the double lift (since the '90s the DL has become unfortunately too well-known).

The borders can help conceal a fumbling magician's poorly executed DL.

When using bordered cards, if you're displaying the "one card" as resting atop the deck of cards, you can even push over the top-most displayed card, revealing a bit of the white on the card beneath it. Everything looks as it should because the white of the border looks the same as the white on the face.

So bordered cards are better for the DL (IMO).

However, with these Honeybee thinner cards, the DL looks better (if the cards are in perfect register). The two cards together are less thick, so it looks more like one card.

Bordered cards are better for Triumph, as well; because when you're using borderless cards for Triumph, everyone can clearly see a reversed card (just by looking at the inner, outer, or sides of the pack).