These are fun decks. The timing of the campaign, not so fun though. I'm going to have to make choices I'd rather not make. Scott usually gets to tap my wallet for a tidy sum on his campaigns. I may not be able to have all I'd like when this one is said and done though, due to timing. I don't know, we'll see. I'm not about to endanger the holiday festivities, and all that entails, for kickstarters or my hobbies of poker and card collecting.
I really like these a lot. I even like the pips, they have an inner glowy kind of feel designed this way that I think is really slick. The boxy shape of them isn't bad either. I particularly like the club and the heart. Chunky indices aren't usually something I like, but I find them appealing on these. Maybe because they're cool as hell over the full bleed of the dragon along the cards edge.
The art on these I think is gorgeous. The courts skin has a painted on look that I think is very striking and exciting. Sometimes an art style moves a person, it has that effect for me. Exciting in that I get a sense of the action taking place, movement and flow. I get a sense of motivation behind the figures for sure. That's not something that's easily done on a playing card. They don't often, come a live like these do. For me much more on the samurai deck than on the ninja deck, again I think due to the way the flesh was handled, just see more of it on the samurai than the ninja. They're both very good in my humble opinion.
Card backs are fantastic too. The ninja back is a little more interesting with the samurai having the open space behind the crossed swords. Not that I'm complaining, it's a great red color on the samurai deck. Seeing more of that red isn't a bad thing in my book at all. The tucks are great fun too, they make me think something entirely different than what the decks actually are haha. I love that, "Here's a hint, wait till you pop these.", going on.
I'm just going to say it, these are some of the best warrior theme decks I've seen. Not just this year, any year. A lot of people will probably disagree based on the pips, some people probably hate them. It's okay, disagree. If you take a chance and pick some of these up, when they're in your hands you'll very likely find you've changed your mind. These are better than good.