New Deck? - D&D Chinatown?

[Deboziology]

No doubt this is the best Chinese New Year Deck in the playing card market. Frankly speaking , it somehow resembles a Chinese red packet: a small packet to put money for the married elders to give their children and relative's children. It also somehow reminds me of the Red Dragon Deck from MagicMakers. Anyone thinks the same as me?

[Frost]

ya I've seen those small envelops to is that going to be the box ??

[Don Boyer]

No doubt this is the best Chinese New Year Deck in the playing card market. Frankly speaking , it somehow resembles a Chinese red packet: a small packet to put money for the married elders to give their children and relative's children. It also somehow reminds me of the Red Dragon Deck from MagicMakers. Anyone thinks the same as me?

I don't know if I could go as far as saying "best CNY deck on the market", seeing as how they aren't even on the market yet and there's only been a few photos so far...  I'll grant you, though, that they look rather promising, and I was thinking the same thing about the red envelopes with this deck and the GXFC/CNY deck the USPC issued - but this looks much nicer from what we've seen so far.

[dmbaggs]

I also think that this will be the best CNY deck. That is if it really is a deck  eh?


It would be rather funny if this ended up not to be a deck, with all the hype we've given it and all

[Paul Carpenter]

I think it's also clear why USPCC is swamped and can't print decks like the Vortex for months. D&D and theory11 apparently use 100% of the press time with their weekly releases....

[dmbaggs]

I think it's also clear why USPCC is swamped and can't print decks like the Vortex for months. D&D and theory11 apparently use 100% of the press time with their weekly releases....

Yeah it's a shame really! Is this Chinese New Year the year of the playing card deck? Just curious, I've lost track of it by now 

[Don Boyer]

I think it's also clear why USPCC is swamped and can't print decks like the Vortex for months. D&D and theory11 apparently use 100% of the press time with their weekly releases....

Yeah it's a shame really! Is this Chinese New Year the year of the playing card deck? Just curious, I've lost track of it by now 

No, I think that was last year - this year is the year of the Shake Weight!   

But, back on topic, yes, those two firms together, D&D especially, seem to be getting a lot of crap out of the pipeline at record speed while others are forced to wait in the bread line for the crumbs.  Even E isn't this crazy with the deckage and they practically made this market!  They came out with Artifice (four models), Infinity (one model) and LTD (one model) over the course of the whole year 2011, while D&D produced nearly that just since Halloween: Fantastique (1), Fulton's (1), Tungstene (1) and Vintage Plaid (2).  I can't even count the Jerry's Nuggets (2) or the Arrcos (2) (and probably shouldn't count the Tungstene, but who knows what hand they had in that deck) because they weren't produced by them or in 2011-2012.

As much as I think it would be awesome to make a deck of cards (assuming I had the ideas and the talent), I'd be practically afraid of getting into the business now.  Finding a good printer that isn't my competition, elbowing my way into an overcrowded, overheated market against companies carrying bigger guns and throwing their weight around, getting the funding and doing the designing and other heavy lifting...  It would probably kill me, or at least my relationship to my fiancee, since she'd never see me without my face buried in a computer screen.

[phantom1412]

Is there any confirmation that the deck will be release on 23 Jan?
Anyone mailed them?

[Evan]

Is there any confirmation that the deck will be release on 23 Jan?
Anyone mailed them?

It would make sense that it is the 23rd because that is the start of the chinese new year. But it hasn't been 100% confirmed by D&D

[Evan]

I think it's also clear why USPCC is swamped and can't print decks like the Vortex for months. D&D and theory11 apparently use 100% of the press time with their weekly releases....

I could be wrong, but I think D&D have they're own printing thing where they print their decks.

[Paul Carpenter]

As much as I think it would be awesome to make a deck of cards (assuming I had the ideas and the talent), I'd be practically afraid of getting into the business now.  Finding a good printer that isn't my competition, elbowing my way into an overcrowded, overheated market against companies carrying bigger guns and throwing their weight around, getting the funding and doing the designing and other heavy lifting...  It would probably kill me, or at least my relationship to my fiancee, since she'd never see me without my face buried in a computer screen.

All true, but as I see it, things that you are passionate about that are worth doing usually aren't easy. Press on and do it even when the big guys do their best to make it hard. David did beat Goliath with that little rock after all.

[Masque]

I think it's also clear why USPCC is swamped and can't print decks like the Vortex for months. D&D and theory11 apparently use 100% of the press time with their weekly releases....

I could be wrong, but I think D&D have they're own printing thing where they print their decks.

Nah, they use USPC.  See here: http://shop.dananddave.com/playing-cards/vintage-plaid-uncut.html


"Authentic uncut sheets pulled straight off the US Playing Card Companies factory line."

[Evan]

Another pic! "Smoke and Dragon" is what it said

[zaganh]

hope i get one of these with deck of the month =D

[jmrock]

As usual, D&D... No information... No confirmation... Nothing but secrecy and mystery... If this is indeed a deck, it appears that they're pretty far along in the process, so why not be candid with everyone that purchases their decks and keeps their lights on and let the card collectors know what's going on?  I'm afraid that's too much to ask from the Bucks...

[Evan]

It has been confirmed by Syd that this is a D&D deck 

[Masque]

As usual, D&D... No information... No confirmation... Nothing but secrecy and mystery... If this is indeed a deck, it appears that they're pretty far along in the process, so why not be candid with everyone that purchases their decks and keeps their lights on and let the card collectors know what's going on?  I'm afraid that's too much to ask from the Bucks...

They're magicians and performing artists. You expect them to take the Sam's Club approach? Building suspense is part and parcel of the market. Anticipation builds demand, as you're demonstrating here. Will it be limited? Will it sell out? Should the performer grab two bricks because this will be the next Jerry's Nugget? Should the collector? That tension is desired by marketers.
They're doing their job quite well, even as unpleasant as it may be for the rest of us.

[Paul Carpenter]

Here's my prediction:

This will have the "Theory11 Syndrome" in that it will have this jazzy, embossed, metallic box and the cards will have standard suits, standard court, a moderately interesting Joker, and that's it. I'd love to be wrong, but that sure has been the pattern lately.

Seems like the tuck box is the primary focus these days, which is odd because these things really don't sit on store shelves and need to "silently sell themselves." All of these cards are on websites, where we can see pictures of all the elements, so why the design focus lately has been 90% box / 10% cards is a mystery to me.

[Don Boyer]

Here's my prediction:

This will have the "Theory11 Syndrome" in that it will have this jazzy, embossed, metallic box and the cards will have standard suits, standard court, a moderately interesting Joker, and that's it. I'd love to be wrong, but that sure has been the pattern lately.

Seems like the tuck box is the primary focus these days, which is odd because these things really don't sit on store shelves and need to "silently sell themselves." All of these cards are on websites, where we can see pictures of all the elements, so why the design focus lately has been 90% box / 10% cards is a mystery to me.

I have to admit that it all seems pretty "bass-ackwards" to focus on the box that much.  T11 is the biggest offender in that department, especially with all those v2 decks.  And it's very unlikely there will be another Jerry's Nugget - nowadays, get Magic Finish and a decent casino-grade stock, and just like all the other recent releases doing the same, your cards will handle pretty smoothly and last a while longer than before.

[Masque]

Think about what goes into the design of the deck:

1 box
1 back
1 Ace of Spades
1 or 2 jokers
12 court cards
4 custom pip designs
39 additional pip cards

Those are basically listed in descending order of "flash" - that is, the box is going to be in pretty much every photo of the product, and is sort of the deck's "signature". The back is next, then the ace of spades.  The court cards are an item as a whole, but look at how much work it is to produce custom court cards.  And as a performer, consider what side of the cards your audience will see the most?

Frankly, if you pour time into an awesome back and a flashy box, you're going to sell a lot of decks. I'd wager it takes at least as long to do a set of custom faces as it does to do an entire regular-faced custom deck, easy. So if you can get away with color changes on the faces and push your box and back, there will be those who decide it's better to do two different decks with the same effort it would take to do one with fully-custom faces and pips.  Is a deck with custom faces worth twice the price to you?

I believe that is where the "artisan" decks come in. Low- to medium-sized production runs of artist-produced (or small team-produced) decks, such as Vortex, Revision One, and the upcoming Ornate deck, among others. Those will fill the gaps, and continue to keep the bar higher than it would otherwise settle to. Look at what is available now compared to five years ago, and how we got here. Those focusing on volume will fill one niche, and those focusing on detail will fill another. And there will be the occasional brilliant crossover, of course.

[dmbaggs]

Well it is a deck! That's cool I guess. I'm crossing my fingers for custom courts but like @xmetal said I doubt that this will be the case. If so I'll probably pass on this deck.

[Evan]

Possible Ace of Spades

 

[dmbaggs]

It looks pretty cool from the little  "preview". I'm still a little unsure about this one, but if the rest of the ace of spades is good then that will be a great start!

[Don Boyer]

As cool as the current photos are looking, I'd be surprised (unfortunately) if this deck was customized beyond some interesting color choices for standard design court cards.  They haven't really released a single deck that went beyond an original back, ace of spades, jokers and court colors.  The closest they've come to that would be the new Vintage Plaids - and that just had an aged-look color to the background of the faces.

[dmbaggs]

Yeah I see where you're coming from @Sabacc. I've been thinking the same thing too, which is shame. This deck will probably have the best looking "re-colored" court cards (If they do indeed go in that direction). I can already see the red and gold court cards... Those could be pretty sweet. Although I would love to see a fully custom deck over that any day, but I don't see that happening