 Hey everybody, welcome back to Metric Orthodoxy. My name's David and this is a deck review. Alright, so today we're going to look at the Manticore playing cards. This deck of cards was a Indiegogo crowdfunding project that was successfully funded. The cards themselves, the concept for them was by a gentleman named Benjamin Lu and he is out in Singapore. The cards themselves were printed by Legends, so the Legends playing card company is behind the stock and finish and the illustrations of the deck was all done from Ido Hang and you might remember he also did the nautical playing cards. So what is Manticore? What's the inspiration behind the name? Well, Manticore is actually a mythological beast. It's a beast that has the body of a lion, the face of a man, and it has the tail of a scorpion. But this is a tiger-themed deck. The reason why it's a tiger-themed deck is because Siegfried and Roy, one of their famous tigers before it passed away, was named Manticore. So Benjamin Lu decided to create a deck of cards that would raise awareness for the conservation and preservation of tigers and then he named his deck after Siegfried and Roy's famous tiger. So right here on the side of the deck it does say Save the Tigers. Alright, so the front of the techie says Manticore. There's a giant spade pip there with a tiger going around the edges. So it's playing cards right there and Save the Tigers. It says Manticore on the top. There's some ad copy there on the bottom about Legends and card evolution and the back design shows the back design of the cards. Now, there are two finishes for this deck. These cards are traditionally cut. They're done on the European card stock. But this deck I have right here, as you can see, is in the Emerald finish. And there is a second deck right here in Diamond finish. And I'll talk a little bit about both of those. As you can see, there's no tuck seal. And there's a nice big fat tongue flap, which I like. And it has the Manticore M right here with a tiger in place on both sides. And that is pretty much it for the tuck case. Let's take a look at these cards. Like I said, these cards come from Legends. And they are traditionally cut. And they're done on a European card stock. They're on a medium grade paper. So it makes them great for card play and magic. The Emerald finish cards are very slippery. They have a lot of glide and a lot of smoothness to them. The back design on these, the ink seems to be a darker orange or it's almost more of a red color. The Emerald finish deck also comes with a blank faced card. These cards handle great. Like I said, they're very smooth. They spring very well. They act just like a deck of cards should. I really like Legends Emerald finish. The Diamond finish cards are not as slippery. They're a little bit more of a traditional deck feel. As you can see, the back design is more of an orange color. And with the Diamond finish, you get a double backer as your gaff. But for the most part, both decks handle great. I would recommend either one of them for cardistry or magic. The back design is a tiger version of the Rider 808 back. Notice you have the circle on the top and bottom. You've got your bordered frame. At first glance, it probably might even look like a rider back if you weren't paying attention. But on a closer look, you can see that it's made up of tigers, flowers, and tiger stripes. Also, the border on it is not quite as thick as a standard bicycle deck. It's more of a medium-sized border, which I think is great for flourishing. Aside from the one gaff that I showed you earlier, you will also get one Joker. It says Joker right there at the top. And this is great for magicians because it does have a card reveal. All the court cards in this deck have been redrawn and stylized. Benjamin said in his campaign that the courts were all modeled after two of his favorite decks, Smokin' Mirrors from Dan and Dave, and the Magikon 2012 deck from Dan and Dave. The Pips and Indicee cards have all been completely redone. The Indices are a brand new font and a little bit smaller than your traditional. And the Pips have all been kind of squished a little bit. They kind of have like a more bulkier, fatter feel. And then each of your aces are also original. There is a one-way design of a tiger on the face of each ace. Well that is it for this deck review of the Manticore playing cards from Benjamin Lou, Itohang and the Legends Playing Card Company. I always recommend 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 the latest in cards and card magic. If you want to follow me on social media you can. I'm at facebook.com slash Magikorthodoxy, twitter.com, slash magicorthodoxy, instagram.com slash Magik underscore orthodoxy. And if you want more content, you can find it at magicorthodoxy.com. Thanks. Bye.