Let’s start with the tuck case. This has a decent quality feel (is it me, or have playing card manufacturers been making more effort on tuck cases in recent years?) Like the cards themselves, the theme is black (apologies – in some of the photos the flash has slightly washed out the colour and it looks almost gray, but it is definitely a matt black colour)

The text and graphics are embossed in silver making a pleasing minimalist effect.  The back of the case features the masked magician (the eponymous Anonymous Magician) stencil which is featured on the back designs too.

Whilst we’re on the subject of the back design, let’s go in to a little more detail. It is a simple black back with a white border and features a pair of masked magician faces. I’m not that fond of the faces – perhaps because of associations with exposure, but more likely because I find the picture ambiguous. Is that a stylised goatee or a tongue sticking out? Either way, it doesn’t do much for me, but on the other hand the overwhelming effect in fans and spreads is essentially black!

I’m rather more positive about the jokers which feature a maskles (ineed, headless!) torso which is simple and striking.  They are also identical – which is often a useful feature in magic routines.   Similarly the extra cards which come with the deck are both useful for magic applications – a double-backer and a blank faced card.

Otherwise, the Ace of Spades is the only deviation from normal Bicycle faces. It has the Magicians Anonymous logo in the centre of the pip and the word ‘anonymous’ underneath.

All in all this is a nice deck.  They are reasonably ‘discrete’ – they don’t shour ‘magic deck.’  They handle nicely as you would expect from a decent USPCC deck.  And as already mentioned, the extra cards provided make them useful for the magician, in addition to their appeal to the card collector.

The Magicians Anonymous Bicycle Playing Cards are available from the Merchant of Magic for £10.50 (at the time of writing).

Review copy kindly provided by Murphys Magic to whom dealer enquiries should be directed.

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