 Hey everybody, welcome back to Magic Orthodoxy. My name is David and this is a deck review. Today we're going to look at the Aurelian deck from Illusionist. Okay, so what is the inspiration behind this deck? What's the theme of this deck? Well, this deck was conceived and designed by Grant Clark, and it was all drawn by Oban Jones. And the Aurelians are probably Illusionist's really first intricate deck that's got that kind of foil and ink and just wrap-around tuckcase. It's a really beautiful tuckcase, probably on par with some of the other printing houses that have made decks like this before. But if you want to know who Aurelian is, Aurelian was a celebrated military leader and he enjoyed many titles in his career. But chief among those was restitutedor Orbis, which means Restorer of the World. So what he did and is probably most famous for is he claimed back much of the previously lost Roman Empire. Aurelius, his first bold move, was to take power and to take control over the imperial mint. What he did was he forged gold coins and then he donated those to his troops and what that did was it guaranteed their loyalty to him. Later he became emperor, even though he was born to very humble beginnings, but because he came from that background he understood what the people wanted and so upon rising to power he canceled everyone's debt to the government. What Illusionist has done is that they've captured that narrative with a very strong border, very powerful, very striking imagery in this deck and they've placed his signature coin, Aurelius' signature coin throughout. The tuckcase is done in the matte black and gold foil and you can see it wraps all the way around. It's very beautiful. It says Aurelian right there in the center, in a circle, amidst a very large diamond and above and below you see a lot of the Roman leaf that you would see from like maybe Roman games. One side says gold standard stock made in the USA. The other side says the United States playing card company. The bottom has the Illusionist eagle, which ironically that was the symbol for Rome as well. And the top says poker AU 79. The back design of course is the back design of the cards. There was no custom tuxedo and I like that. The tongue flap has a little bit of ornamentation as well as the inside and the tiny flaps. That is pretty much it for the tuckcase. Let's take a look at these cards. These cards are printed from the United States playing card company and they come on their retail stock. They do have a modern cut and air cushion emboss and if you'd like to learn more about stock, cut or finish, you can click the link below in the description. Now a lot of people always ask how these cards feel, how they handle. The best thing I can do is tell you how thick they are. So give you a scientific measurement, something that you can prove. What I do is I take 10 of these, 10 cards and I put them into a caliper and I measure them for you. And what that does is it gives you an idea of how these cards will feel compared to other decks maybe that you've held before or maybe that you've seen before. So 10 of these in the caliper comes to 2.75. 2.75 is Bicycle's new thinner crushed stock and it's going to be on par with the killer bees and the bumble bees. The back design of the card is this muted gold, very thin poker white frame there. And then it kind of has a feeling of a tally ho design. You know, a tally ho, you know, the circle back and the fan back kind of has that kind of throwback that kind of feel with the circle there in the center. It's mostly just design work, a lot of like Roman sculpture imagery. You've got a Rulias face on the top and the bottom and just really some a lot of just intricate framework. With this deck, you'll get two gaff cards. You'll get a double facer and a double backer, which are great for magic. With this deck, you're going to get two jokers. Now the jokers are an homage to the tally ho cowboy. So, you know, I was right, they do kind of have a tally ho feel to them. These soldiers, what they do is they stand resolute and ready to defend their Roman Empire. Now the Rulian ace of spades is a symbol for the soldier emperor. His reign, though short, was marked by bloody and glorious conquest. You're gonna have gold ink swords, whips and throwing spears, how they draped themselves over the stunning spade. It's the most important card in the deck. And it's the only one with gold tips. Each one of the court cards has been completely redesigned with gold and reworked to stand out proudly within this powerful design. The pips and indices cards have also been completely redrawn. They have a timeless pip arrangement, but will still be I think somewhat recognizable for gameplay and magic. The thing that you'll notice the most is that the red suits are no longer red. They're black. So the only indicator that they are a red suit is in the indice in the corner. Alright, so that is my review of the Rulian deck from Illusionist and United States playing card company. I got my deck from illusionist.com. And if you'd like to purchase yours, I would head there as well. As always, we ask that you like this video just so other people can find it faster. We also recommend that you subscribe to this channel just to stay up to date on all these cards and card magic. Now if you want to follow me on social media, you can. I'm at facebook.com slash magic orthodoxy twitter.com slash magic orthodoxy instagram.com slash magic underscore orthodoxy. And if you need more content, you can always find it at magicorthodoxy.com. Thanks. Bye