Snakes Playing Cards by TCChttps://tccplayingcard.com/products/year-of-the-snakes-playing-cards-by-tccCustom playing cards to commemorate the 2025 Year of the SnakePrice: $9.95 (Standard Edition), $25 (Gilded Edition), $25 (Special Edition)
TCC is a playing card printer and producer based in China, and in the last couple of years their output has been quite prolific. Given where they are based, it's not surprising that they've made a special release to commemorate the Chinese New Year. 29 January 2025 marked the commencement of the Year of the Snake, and that's what this striking custom deck celebrates. The date corresponds to the Lunar New Year, which is typically celebrated with a Spring Festival holiday, to mark the arrival of spring and start of a new year.
I confess that I knew little about this, so it was time to educate myself by learning something about the Chinese new year and what the Year of the Snake is all about. I learned that the snake is one of the twelve animals that are part of the Chinese Zodiac. While it is commonly associated negatively with poison and evil in the West, in many Eastern countries the snake is a celebrated and revered sign with a positive meaning connected with rebirth, wisdom, and wealth. The Year of the Snake is associated with positive transformation by letting go of the past and shedding bad character traits like anger.
Each year the animal of the Chinese zodiac corresponding to that year is also combined with one of the five basic elements in Chinese cosmology. This year that element is Wood, which means that technically speaking 2025 is considered the Year of the Wood Snake. Being a Wood animal means it is associated with growth, flexibility, and tolerance.
Three versions of this deck have been released via TCC's website: a Standard Edition, Gilded Edition, and Special Edition.
Standard EditionRed and gold are considered colours of luck and fortune in Chinese culture, and so it is fitting that these make an immediate appearance on the tuck box of the Standard Edition. It is embossed with shimmering gold and red foil, as well as embossing, with an ornate design in which a snake is central.
The interior of the tuck box has a flower pattern with red foil.
The tuck box is finished off with a custom seal in the lucky colours of red and gold.
The card backs employ similar colours, and a mostly two-way design that incorporates the coils of a snake along with red and white peony flowers, and red borders completing a celebratory look.
All the artwork on the card faces is customized, including the court cards and pips. The courts have a somewhat traditional style, but what I especially love is how all the pips incorporate intricate Chinese knot patterns.
All of the above elements - the snake, the peonies, the knot patterns, and the colours red and gold - recur in the custom Jokers.
Gilded EditionThe gilded edition (limited to 200) is similar to the Standard Edition, but has gilded red edges.
It also comes with an individually numbered seal.
Special EditionThe Special Edition (limited to 500) has a different colour scheme. The colours are inspired by the blue and white of classic Chinese porcelain, as is immediately evident from the tuck box.
What you can't tell from pictures is how gorgeous the tuck box looks. As well as embossing, it is finished with twin coloured foils, one being a deep blue/purple, the other being an iridescent silver. When you hold it up to the light, the silver foil generates a holographic multicolour shine featuring a rainbow of colour.
Once again there is interior printing, this time with blue foil.
This version of the deck also comes with an individually numbered seal.
The borders of the card backs are white, and using more than one shade of blue really adds to the overall appeal.
The artwork on the cards corresponds to the artwork as the standard deck, but in white and blue.
The same colour scheme is used for the Jokers.
Product link
https://tccplayingcard.com/products/year-of-the-snakes-playing-cards-by-tcc
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