 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 52 proof deck of playing cards from Illusionist.com. This was one of the decks that was released earlier in the prohibition set and it was later released by Illusionist as a single standalone deck so that other people could purchase it if they didn't already purchase the box set. The box set came with six decks and it was a 3000 set run. It was six decks all alcohol themed based and placed into a really beautiful wooden box. Now if you don't know what prohibition was, prohibition in the United States it was a nationwide constitutional ban on selling and making alcohol. It remained in place from 1920 to 1933. Sometimes it's called the dry age or the dry crusades and it was a movement that was started by these rural kind of protestants and progressives and so it was all mandated under the 18th amendment to the Constitution and so it later became known as the Volstead Act. In a lot of places there was no bars, there was no places where you could get alcohol and so the kind of alcohol movement kind of went underground and there was like secret distilleries and there was like tiny cubby holes where you could go. Nationwide prohibition had ended with the ratification of the 21st amendment and it replaced the 18th amendment on December 5th in 1933. This deck of cards is for 52 proof which is a whiskey. Whiskey is very American drink. It's almost as American as apple pie. Whiskey is typically a distilled alcoholic beverage. It's made from a fermented grain mash. Various grains were used for different varieties including barley, corn, rye and wheat. In front of the tuck case says Bicycle 52 proof and playing cards does a hand crafted down here in the bottom and 52 proof is made to look like the front of a bottle of whiskey. The giant oak tree there on the front of the tuck box and the seal is a symbol of the aging process of fine bourbon as it's matured in charred oak barrels. One side of the tuck case says that they are printed from the Illusionist playing card company and the second side says that they are triple distilled. The top says 52 proof and has an original red tuck seal there and the bottom has an ad copy as well as a seal that says 21. The back design of the tuck case is of course the back design of the cards and that is pretty much it for the tuck case. Let's take a look at these cards. These cards are printed from the United States playing card company and they do come on their retail stock. They are done with an air cushion finish and a modern embossing and if you'd like to learn more about stock cut or finish or how playing cards are made you can click the link below in the description. The back design of the playing card says smooth finish there at the top. It says American spirit and then 52 proof in the middle. The back design also has a lot of borders and frames in the inside of the design and you can see some vine work in there as well kind of carries that old school tradition. You can also see the back design has no color. There's no color on the black cards. The black cards are all done in black and white and then the red cards only have the one color of the red added to them. With this deck we're going to get a couple of things. The first of which is a joker that has a skull center and a lot of flowery ornate design around the edges. The second joker looks more like a guaranteed joker but it is actually a description about the history of the joker card. The ace of spades is also done in the oak motif because whiskey comes from oak and so you have the oak leaves there wrapped around the ace pip there in the center and it says 52 proof down there at the bottom. Your pips and indices cards might look standard at first glance but they are original. They do have original pit placement and original font there in the corner. Your pork cards are also original as well. They are kind of similar from suit to suit. They're not identical but they are similar. The characters face kind of the same direction have the same kind of facial features. This is what I was talking about earlier with the red cards. They have that one element of the red added to them so that is a jack and this is the queen and this is the king and you can see here I'm going to hold up a contrasting king from the clubs. You can see they're not identical like I said but they do have very similar features. Each one of the court cards is either smoking or drinking. Well that is my review for the 52 proof deck. If you'd like to learn more you can visit elusionist.com. As always we recommend that you like this video just so other people can find it faster. We also recommend you subscribe to this channel just to see up to date on the latest in cards and card magic. Now if you want to follow me on social media you can. I'm at facebook.com twitter.com and instagram.com.