White Artifice Deck from Ellusionist

[Don Boyer]

It's still a damn shame every time I think of this deck. The design is just so disappointing. I really was intending to buy this deck as well because it had potential with a stunning back design, sweet jokers, and a good following. If this is the last (which after many colors it should be), it'll be a sad way to end the series.

It can't be the last - they haven't done "Artifice Black Hole of Calcutta", the one that cribs from the Black Ghost deck.  Then there's "Artifice Gold Rush", "Artifice Silver Mine", "Artifice Drycleaners", "Artifice Chinese Food", "Artifice Sanitation"..."Artifice Fathers of Inudstry"...  "Artifice Dead Eyes"...  "Artifice Series 1800"...

(...and no, that's no typo...there's a project on KS entitled "Bicycle Fathers of Inudstry"...)

[mirciusx]

And the video of Tundra deck it's out

I will buy a brick of Rounders and another one of Tundra, to get a free Luggage Tag. I don't use a iPhone. Nice case btw.

When I added 12 decks of Tundra in my cart I choose a free Luggage Tag, but in my cart it doesn't seem to have it for free

[agera94]

I still am failing to see why there is such disappointment with this deck. You were all slobbering in your posts when the first two images emerged, but then when the pips came about... Whoa Nelly! Sure the pips are the same style as the ghost deck, but I'm sure if they opted for silverish pips for all the cards, or even blue pips for diamonds and hearts, everyone would have complained about it being non-practical to use.

Then there's the back design not being creative? How much were you expecting from a recolouring of a deck that was based a fan demand to simply bring a white artifice. There's a bit more than shift in colour than most deck re-colourings anyway. If they opted for a black club artifice approach to the back design, then it most likely would have been a black club only release.

I look at the deck for what it is. An artifice deck where we can have the 1st Edition borders without the worry of chipping, and some practical use for magicians, and some elegance for flourishers. This is a recolour, not a completely new deck and we should all hop off our high horse and stop expecting something so different. Besides, we'd probably complain about it being too different.

[Michael]

I still am failing to see why there is such disappointment with this deck. You were all slobbering in your posts when the first two images emerged, but then when the pips came about... Whoa Nelly! Sure the pips are the same style as the ghost deck, but I'm sure if they opted for silverish pips for all the cards, or even blue pips for diamonds and hearts, everyone would have complained about it being non-practical to use.

Then there's the back design not being creative? How much were you expecting from a recolouring of a deck that was based a fan demand to simply bring a white artifice. There's a bit more than shift in colour than most deck re-colourings anyway. If they opted for a black club artifice approach to the back design, then it most likely would have been a black club only release.

I look at the deck for what it is. An artifice deck where we can have the 1st Edition borders without the worry of chipping, and some practical use for magicians, and some elegance for flourishers. This is a recolour, not a completely new deck and we should all hop off our high horse and stop expecting something so different. Besides, we'd probably complain about it being too different.

That's not what a lot of us complaining are complaining about though. There's no doubt it's practical. What's upsetting is the fact that it was lazily done. I'm not eating out of their hand because they try and sell it as something new and original. The only new and original thing we see is a white backed Artifice and that's pushing the definition of "new" because all it is is a color shift.

You can be okay with using the exact basic plan of the Ghost deck's pips and indices but those of us complaining aren't. And if the pips were silverish or blue for where we normally see red, that would not be impractical in the slightest. If they were all silver, yes. But no one suggested that. I honestly was expecting the fronts to be different because they have so much potential to be different.

I look at a deck for what it can offer to my collection and how I can possibly use it if I decide to practice any cardistry or magic. A mashup of preowned decks or preexisting decks brings nothing new in any aspect. It's, quite frankly, lazy and feels like E is thinking we'll buy anything with the word Artifice in it.

[agera94]

This was a deck based on people asking E if there will be a white artifice. It's a recolouring and no more than that; so we should accept it for what it is and not expect it to be an innovation. I still don't see why they should have done away with the pips as people would probably complain about the pips not being the same too. Sure it's not a groundbreaking and new deck, but then again no decks as of late have been. Do I think E overhypes their decks? Sure. But they sure do put a lot more effort in bringing it to our attention and saying, "hey we have a deck coming your way, here are some pictures of it, thank you for your time."

[MrMollusk]

It's still a damn shame every time I think of this deck. The design is just so disappointing. I really was intending to buy this deck as well because it had potential with a stunning back design, sweet jokers, and a good following. If this is the last (which after many colors it should be), it'll be a sad way to end the series.

It can't be the last - they haven't done "Artifice Black Hole of Calcutta", the one that cribs from the Black Ghost deck.  Then there's "Artifice Gold Rush", "Artifice Silver Mine", "Artifice Drycleaners", "Artifice Chinese Food", "Artifice Sanitation"..."Artifice Fathers of Inudstry"...  "Artifice Dead Eyes"...  "Artifice Series 1800"...

(...and no, that's no typo...there's a project on KS entitled "Bicycle Fathers of Inudstry"...)

Artifice Chinese Food could be really cool.

[agera94]

It's still a damn shame every time I think of this deck. The design is just so disappointing. I really was intending to buy this deck as well because it had potential with a stunning back design, sweet jokers, and a good following. If this is the last (which after many colors it should be), it'll be a sad way to end the series.

It can't be the last - they haven't done "Artifice Black Hole of Calcutta", the one that cribs from the Black Ghost deck.  Then there's "Artifice Gold Rush", "Artifice Silver Mine", "Artifice Drycleaners", "Artifice Chinese Food", "Artifice Sanitation"..."Artifice Fathers of Inudstry"...  "Artifice Dead Eyes"...  "Artifice Series 1800"...

(...and no, that's no typo...there's a project on KS entitled "Bicycle Fathers of Inudstry"...)

Artifice Chinese Food could be really cool.

That made me laugh quite loud. How about Artifice Chinatown. Smoke and Mirrors... and Artifice. Artifice Nugget.

[Michael]

This was a deck based on people asking E if there will be a white artifice. It's a recolouring and no more than that; so we should accept it for what it is and not expect it to be an innovation. I still don't see why they should have done away with the pips as people would probably complain about the pips not being the same too. Sure it's not a groundbreaking and new deck, but then again no decks as of late have been. Do I think E overhypes their decks? Sure. But they sure do put a lot more effort in bringing it to our attention and saying, "hey we have a deck coming your way, here are some pictures of it, thank you for your time."

I expect it to be innovation because Ellusionist has been innovative in a few of the things they have done. They show they can do it. Plus, if you're gonna put something out for people to buy, shouldn't it be better than copy and pasting two designs together? I don't know about you but if I was designing something to sell, I'd try my best to push each and every single release, no matter what.

On it's own, the deck is decent. Knowing what E can do and how big a following the Artifice decks have, I expected more. That's all. I recognize not every release needs to be groundbreaking. But I also know that if you're gonna release, don't just rehash as make it look as if there was effort put in.

[Don Boyer]

This was a deck based on people asking E if there will be a white artifice. It's a recolouring and no more than that; so we should accept it for what it is and not expect it to be an innovation. I still don't see why they should have done away with the pips as people would probably complain about the pips not being the same too. Sure it's not a groundbreaking and new deck, but then again no decks as of late have been. Do I think E overhypes their decks? Sure. But they sure do put a lot more effort in bringing it to our attention and saying, "hey we have a deck coming your way, here are some pictures of it, thank you for your time."

I know I wasn't expecting innovation - I was expecting a straight-up deck with a white back, plain and simple.  Aside from the jokers, all of the public releases of Artifice (except purple) have looked much the same from the front - and that's fine.

Bu this ISN'T just a recoloring.  It's a major alteration to remove the red from all of the non-index red pips so that it's really better entitled "Artifice Ghost".  There was no good reason for that and many bad ones.  We've all SEEN Ghost before, it's not a new concept - but why more of it?  If the red pips were ice-blue, that would have been ten times better, especially on a deck with "Tundra" in the name.

As far as I'm concerned, the v2 blue and green are about as good as this deck gets.  Everything that's followed since has had flaws, some greater than others.  This deck came from the "Reese's Peanut Butter Cups" school of design, except they're two great things that don't go great together, like boiled potatoes and grits.

[agera94]

Don, as usual, I always love reading your input 

[magimago]

Daniel Madison said on "Revelations" to get some, before they are all gone.
So, is it going to be a limited release??

[xela]

So does anyone else think the custom decks market is oversaturated with new stuff? When I joined the community we had one deck, maybe two, every months. A new release from E would be a huuuuge deal. Now I completely lost track of the decks they've released.

On one hand it makes the community grow as more people enjoy the hobby. On the other hand, I gave up collecting new decks because it's impossible to keep up. Even with millions of dollars, I can't even comprehend how I would store everything.

Thank you... Well said... Not that kickstarter is solely to blame, but it certainly has helped to bastardize my once beloved hobby... I, for one am thinking of consolidating and unloading some of my collection... But the problem there, where there was once a few places to pick up decks, every Tom, Dick & Harry has their own store both here and on United trying to unload their bricks and bricks of worthless (oops, I mean valuable limited edition) decks...

Ayo! I have advice for you!

Unload locally.

Talk to smoke shops, ma & pa shops, use Craigslist, and sell to friends and friends of friends. Hell you can throw a garage sale and sell things.

Yes, you will sell things significantly cheaper. That $10 Ellusionist deck is only worth $5. Plus side is it's hassle-free, you lose nothing on shipping (including time), you pay no fees to anyone, you have zero risk of fraud ("UHH YEAH BRO THE PACKAGE CAME COVERED IN FIRE AND SAURON SO UHH I NEED A REFUND AND I CANT SHIP IT BACK BTW") and you can sell in bulk pretty easily.

I sold a few bricks of E decks to a local smoke shop here that my friend works at. The cards fly off the fucking shelves too. When I get a little more time on my hands, I'm going to try and selling the rest of my collection to these guys.

As of now, I have ~100-200 decks on my book case that I am keeping indefinitely, and nothing more. These decks, I believe, are from the best times of collecting, i.e. 2005-2011. Before the huge boom where we got 25+ new decks each month. Also, vintage shit from Cincinnati and before (I still have your sexy 1940s Bees, rewrapped in Cellophane to prevent any additional wear and tear!).

IMHO, 200 years from now, collectors will pay $500 for human history, and not art decks. Yes, that includes my own deck. While the Vortex is steady at $10-20 per deck, I suspect that within a decade or two, it and all other custom decks will be almost worthless as collector's items. I believe their values will plummet to reflect an average deck of USPCC cards. $2-3 for decent decks, and $4-5 for the best of the best.

Meanwhile, the cost of vintage, pre-Erlanger, official Bicycle, and timeless design decks will continue to rise.

Sorry for the half on-topic half off-topic post.

Basically though, I hope new collectors are buying the decks they want to use, show off and display, rather than the decks they think will have resale value.

[magimago]

Markets always keep changing. Compare it with the gamesindustry in the 80s. When people realized how much money you can make with games, everybody who could write a code, brought out games, making it impossible for consumers to tell good from bad. As a result there were too many games, and too many shitty ones, and the gamesmarket broke down, and it took 20 years for them to come back.

I see that poeple put cards on kickstarter, just copying other peoples successful ideas. When there were less decks, bought anything that came out. But now, i will buy less decks than i used to, and only the ones that i guess fit my style and preferences.