So here’s an unusual coming together of the new Divine Deck and the Everyday Zombie Deck. It feels like it has the making of a film in it. But before we get carried away, here are a few thoughts…
As something of a theologian and a bit of a maths geek I was intrigued by the premise of the Divine Deck which is based on the naturally occuring beauty of the Fibonacci series. There is a suitably over the top trailer for the deck on YouTube (see end of review) which explains the maths and makes a somewhat dubious claim about the theology. But what did we think?
Over the years we’ve have played with a lots of decks of cards – many produced by USPCC – and this one (like a few of the Karnival decks we have seen in the past) felt a little thin. This is a very subtle thing because the difference must be minute, but they just feel a little thick to me. Nonetheless they handle beautifully – spreading and riffling with ease.
The faces of the cards are so attractivley designed that even a face up spread looks good. I am particularly fond of the Aces which have very large faces, and of the bold Court cards. However, for a deck which is all about ‘divine proportions,’ for me the indices are a bit small or perhaps the font feels incongruous. Either way they don’t quite chime.
In other news, there is a useful blank faced card – which will appeal to magicians – and there is an amusing reveal on the Barcode label, if you are a Douglas Adams fan.
And now for something completely different
The Everyday Zombies Deck is explained because “we’ve all felt like a zombie at some point.” And so each design is a picture of a zombie engaged in some ‘everyday task’ – from playing sport, to making music, begging, chatting at a ‘water’ cooler, cooking, shopping, washing – you name it, it’s probably there. Indices are big and bold – which helps them stand out from the very busy face designs.
For me the best thing about this deck is the spreading. Both the back design (a collection of zombie heads) and face designs (in particular the blood splatters on the edges of the cards) lead to beautiful patterns when you spread them!
If you like zombies you’re going to love this deck, but otherwise you’re going to think it is pretty odd!
Both are available from MAPro Magic (who kindly provided the review decks).
Divine Deck £5.75
Everyday Zombie Deck £4.64
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