 Hey everybody, welcome back to Magic Orthodoxy. My name is David and this is a deck review. Hey, today we're going to look at the Black Artifice Deck from Illusionist.com. What is the Black Artifice Deck? It was a Black Club member exclusive and so if you're not familiar with the Black Club it's Illusionist Exclusive Card Club. I don't know if they're still doing it but it was something popular a while back. These were released exclusively through the Black Club and so you actually couldn't get them unless you were a member and so that kind of made them hard to find cards and made them a little bit more valuable. In offering this book to the public the writer uses no sophistry as an excuse for its existence. The hypocritical can't of reformed gamblers or whining mealymouth pretensions of piety are not foisted as a justification for imparting the knowledge it contains. To all lovers of card games it should prove interesting and as a basis of card entertainment it is practically inexhaustible. It may caution the unwary who are innocent of guile and it may inspire the crafty by enlightenment on artifice. It may demonstrate to the Tyro that he cannot beat a man at his own game and it may enable the skilled in deception to take a postgraduate course in the highest and most artistic branches of his vocation but it will not make the innocent vicious or transform the pastime player into a professional or make the fool wise or curtail the annual crop of suckers but whatever the result may be if it sells it will accomplish the primary motive of the author as he needs the money. The front of the tuck case is a little different than the standard artifice deck. It does say artifice and it does say the black club down here at the bottom and then right there in the center is the black club symbol. This side says artifice playing cards performance coding. The other side says the illusionist playing card company. The bottom has some ad copy about illusionist.com. The top of the tuck case has a phrase written in latin and the back of the tuck case is of course the back design of the cards. The tuck flap says the black club and the inside tuck flaps have little tiny stars. That is pretty much it for the tuck case. Let's take a look at these cards. These cards were printed from the United States playing card company and they do come on their retail stock. They do have a modern cut and Air Christian emboss and if you'd like to learn more about stock cut or finish you can click the link below on the description. The side of the tuck case does say performance coding and sometimes that is code for magic finish so it's possible these cards have magic finish. They do have a chemical smell to them which is indicative of what performance coding smells like and plus these cards are a black back and a black face. Typically illusionists would put a magic finish on this to protect the artwork and keep the black from chipping. It also helps the card slide a little better when they have so much ink on them. Everybody always asks how the cards perform, how they handle, what they feel like. If you would like that information you can click the link below and then you can kind of navigate between some other decks that are similar to it. The deck that I came across that was the most similar feel to it was the smoke and mirrors deck, the blue one denim and so it's kind of in that shade, kind of in that same compression. The back of the cards is of course the artifice design. The artifice cards were a series of cards that were drawn by Lee McKenzie who was a former illusionist artist. With this deck you're going to get the two artifice jokers. It's kind of a hustler look and gentleman and he's wearing a mask and then behind his back in one hand he is holding a card reveal. With this deck you're going to get two extra cards. You're going to get a double backer which is great for magic tricks and you will also get an illusionist ad card. Because this is a black club member deck your ace of spades is actually small and normal. It's the ace of clubs that is blown up and bigger. It's because the black club symbol kind of resembles a club. The pips and industry cards are somewhat standard. I would argue that they're a little bit on the chunkier side. They're a little thick. The black cards because this is a black on black deck, the black cards are white and the red cards are almost like a smoke or mist so they're not really a color. They're kind of more like a shadow. The court cards are all completely original and they are indicative of Lee McKenzie's famous artwork. All right so that is it from my review of the black artifice cards from illusionist.com and drawn by Lee McKenzie. If you'd like to purchase your own you can find them at illusionist.com. 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