Thanks for that info Don -- I genuinely had no idea how many Red Artifice decks Ellusionist had held back for promos/giveaways. I had taken a totally random guess at something like 750-1000, but that was just an arbitrary range. The numbers you've mentioned sounds pretty realistic... and so I guess the Lions Den hasn't done too badly, and that there is truth (albeit in a not-so-obvious manner) to what DM and Ellusionist are saying.
This time next week, the deck will probably not be around for purchase, kind of like what they did with the Red Artifice and Sultan Treasury... alternatively, they can take it in the Orange Hustlers direction whereby they are only available for purchase in the Black Club store. Another wild guess would make me lean towards the latter.
Had this deck been a T11 release, teaser photos would have first surfaced around July last year. I think maybe Ellusionist took it for granted that Lions Den would be an easy sell.
Whilst I did like the simple style Madison Rounders (during the time where that design style was still limited to the Wynn decks), now even that back design is becoming common. Now that Chris Chelko's WI Gamesters are going to be released this year, I don't see myself even thinking of Rounders again, seeing as the Gamesters have the same style, same sort of colours, but far superior card stock and coating, and much more practical face design. Madison needs to do something new.
After the Black Kings and Madison Revolvers, I'm really hoping that DM really will try something very different. On the sales page for the Black Rounders, the guy said that he believed that beautiful things are either very simple or very intricate. Well, we've seen a ton of overly simple stuff from him for a couple of years... and so I really hope now he takes a shot at the other extreme -- something that actually looks like hundreds of hours of design work was required!
