Tom, by all means, rant away. It''s not like there's a lack of reasons for doing so...
Last year, everyone got a bit shafted - lots of promises, not much follow-through. By now I think enough people are turned off that Black Club is just this side of being DOA. The deck giveaways were an interesting idea - but when people stopped to look at what came out over the past year, most just yawned and asked "So what? You're going to send me a bunch of common decks that I probably would have passed on, but the rare ones I'll still have to pay for - if I can even buy them at all?"
Halo? Might have been nice if it was better made. The black covering on the band wears away if you wear it too much. The "collector box" is ridiculous - it holds 15 decks with a HUGE amount of empty space. Gee... The membership card I shoved in my wallet and promptly forgot all about - aside from making two different card reveals, it's as useful as tits on a mule. The rings were hysterical - I bought one, but no jeweler will resize it because it's made of "base metal", so I had to superglue some plastic ring resizers into the back of it - it looks pretty silly from the underside, even after disguising them under a layer of Sharpie ink. The idea itself wasn't so bad, but for the cost, you'd think there'd be a selection of sizes - two sizes do NOT fit all.
If I had all that to deal with AND the BS with paying Customs as you did, I'd be shouting a rant for a refund off the top of the nearest skyscraper. It would fall on deaf ears, of course, but I'd shout anyway.
I get more out of a membership to 52+J than I ever got out of any of these retailer "memberships" by far. I received exactly one reminder about renewing for this year and promptly forgot about it. I think I might have dodged a bullet on that one. Nearly everyone thought they were overpriced to start with. The first year wasn't too bad, but the second was terrible and despite the promises given, this year isn't exactly looking up to snuff so far.
OK, rant over. Back to topic.
Who's sick to death of yet-another in the pantheon of Madison/McKinnon decks? There might actually be more Madison decks now than gods and demigods in the Greek and Roman pantheons combined! Does ANYONE ELSE at Ellusionist make decks? They make decent magic, but as far as playing cards go, it's been a snooze fest for some time now. The back's at least a little interesting, but that's about it. The box is shiny, looks like metal, oooh. (And my spectators don't care.) I don't know what direction they're trying to take these days, but at least the card backs aren't littered with Madison logos everywhere. Standard faces - OK fine, whatever, but for all the excitement they tried to build, I might have expected just a little more than that.
