Well, i went for a brick.T11 ships via first class mail so its more expensive (even though priority mail is faster and cheaper!)
I paid $24 USD for shipping 12 decks.
With the 15% discount on the brick it was a affordable deal.
Now for the cards.
I have to say they look like a copy of the White Lions.
Which is not bad,but nothing ground breaking here.
They exchanged the heads/faces of the court cards and customized them in this way...so everyone
Will still recognize them as standard courts.
Basically not much altered (like in the WL series).
The Ace of Spades is a nice design,it is not overpowered and not too simple.I think its a perfect fit for this theme.
The Jokers are custom as well and i appreciate 2 identical jokers.
Now for the back design : It looks simple for the eye.It will not go through like a casino deck of cards like the WL decks.
The marks are in the same position (for the suit) as on the WL decks but much easier to read!
Easier to learn but on the same way detectable during a riffle test. (Which the White Lions will not fail).
Lovely box design simple is the keyword. :-)
In direct compare a clone of the White Lions for sure,just in T11 style.;-)
My guess would be a 20k print run.
I wouldn't call these an exact copy of the White Lions, though they do bear certain similarities, especially the altered court faces. (I wonder who "posed" for Madison's deck?) As far as the White Lions marking system compared to these, if it's printed, it won't pass - though the way in which the WL marks are done would make them just a little harder to detect (but not impossible) on a riffle.
Print run: good guess. I'd put it in that ballpark, -5K/+10K.
The back design looks great! It's a perfect of Madison's style and the Bee Stingers, a most-loved deck, combined into one! I wonder how the texture is going to register though.
I'm sure the texture will be just fine. I can't imagine it being much different than the dimpling found on most modern textured decks.
If someone does mind, can they please message me the marking system for these Players.
The reason for this is that I am very interested in the deck. However, if I buy the deck, I am probably only going to use it for that secret code. I just want to know if the code is easily detected from about half an arms length away. I want to buy a deck with a good marking system. Other marked decks are to easy to detect (such as the David Blaine Split Spades Marked Deck) or to hard to easily detect (such as the White Lions). If someone can help me in that district, I'd greatly appreciate it.
This deck can be read from arm's length, but you do need to practice it.
The ideal marked deck not utilizing any form of "juicing" or daubs is the Ultimate Marked Deck, made by two French magicians. You can still find them, though they're getting both scarce and expensive - over $35 a pack today, though Penguin Magic still has them for under $26. They use a Bicycle Rider Back design in red and blue (meaning this deck will never get remade as such) and has marks that aren't encoded like most marked decks - you could read the backs as quickly and easily as the fronts with very little practice, while the markings were still hard to spot short of a riffle test (and even then it isn't easy to detect). Better still, the marks can be read at distances greater than arm's length - I can read them from a distance more like the other side of a round poker table big enough for six to eight people, and my eyesight is 20/30 in my left eye, 20/20 in my right! It was specifically designed for fast reading at a distance.
You want the best marked deck out there, that's the deck. Even magicians not already aware of this deck are fooled by the marking system.
