Card Review Table Interpretation

Below is a look at the table you will find in my card reviews.

Specific Performance Categories

We will start by explaining the six main performance categories that I use in my reviews. These categories are-

Fan: How well it fans.

Spring: How stiff and springy a card feels.

Dribble: How well a card dribbles.

Crimp: How easily a card hold and recovers from intentional and unintentional crimps and bends.

1 Card Glides: How well a card slides away from the pack without pulling extra cards with it. (Many sleights and some flourishes rely on this)

2+ Obfuscations: How well a card holds a double.

Detailed Look at Each Performance Category

Fanning:

This is obviously how well a deck fans.

5- Perfect!

4- Slightly uneven but almost perfect.

3- Pretty good but more uneven areas in the fan and possible slight clumping.

2- Slight clumping.

1- Very clumpy fans.

0- Extreme clumping!

Spring :

This is the rating of the “Spring Energy.” Do not confuse it with the “spring flourish!” The spring energy is how much energy gets stored up in a card when it is bent. It is the cards “pop” or “snap.” The stiffer the card, the more spring energy.

It is hard to give you a point by point example since you can only really judge the spring energy in comparison to other cards. Here are a few reference points for you.

5- Fournier 605, Piatnik Club

 

4- Conjuring arts cards with Ivory Finish

3- Most Theory 11 cards

2- Most off the shelf USPCC cards including the Bike 808

1.5 – The Bee Aristocrat stock

1- Mostly only cards nearing the end of their life. Very loose and floppy.

0- Deck is starting to feel less like a deck and more like a ream of paper! Almost no OOB start in this condition though you may find some “cheap” plastic cards in tourist shops that feel very mushy OOB.

 

Dribble:

This is just a measure of how smooth a deck dribbles.

5- Perfectly! Each card individually separates in the dribble with no clumps of cards falling together. A good deck for dribble based flourishes.

4- Vary good. Most cards fall from the dribble individually but a few pairs of cards will fall together. Still a good deck for dribble flourishes.

3- Good. a 50/50 mix of cards falling individually and in small clumps of 2-3 cards. Still good for dribbles used for magical sleights, such as a dribble shift, but not recommended for flourishes.

2- OK Most cards falling in small clumps of 2 to 3 cards. Still good for magic but unusable for flourishing.

1- Bad. Clumps of 4-5 cards are the norm. Questionable condition for magicians and flourishers alike.

0- Terrible! Clumps of 5 to 10 cards falling together.

Crimp:

This is shorthand for Crimp Hold and Recovery.

A crimp, as most magicians know, is a small bend in a card that can visibly mark the location of that card in a squared up pack. Crimps can be made intentionally for some magic and gambling moves, or they can appear unintentionally as a result of a botched shuffles, dropped cards, or any other variety of circumstances that occur with normal wear and tear on a deck.

The hold aspect of this performance category is a cards ability to hold a crimp through a series of riffle shuffles and still be easily seen. The recovery aspect of this performance category is the cards ability to be smoothed out again after the crimp has served it’s usefullness, or after an unintentional crimp has occurred.

5- Card crimp is the same size after 10 riffle shuffles as it was before. After smoothing out the crimp there is no detectable sign of damage.

4- Card crimp is almost the same size after 10 riffle shuffles as it was before. After smoothing out a crimp there is almost no detectable sign of damage.

3- Card crimp is about half the size after 10 riffle shuffles as it was before. After smoothing out a crimp there is some detectable signs of damage.

2- Card crimp is still visable after 10 riffle shuffles but can be hard to detect. After smoothing out a crimp there are still signs of damage.

1- Card crimp is barely visable after 10 riffle shuffles. After smoothing out the crimp there is little change of visible damage.

0- Card crimp is not visable after 10 riffle shuffles. After smoothing out a crimp there are no signs recovery from damage.

 

1 Card Glide:

Shorthand for Single gard glides.

This is the ability a card to cleanly separate a single card from a squared pack without dragging other cards with it. It is evaluated from several directions pulling a single card from the top, center, and bottom of the pack.

Single card glides are used in many different card sleights. The obvious example is the classic “Glide” move but a few other examples are, Kelly bottom move(and all it’s variations), bottom deals, side steals, center deals, and the Cardini change. With a bit of analasys I think that most magicians will realize that many modern card moves use a single card glide as a component of the move. A very important catagory for intermetiste and advanced card handlers.

Onfortunately I have no easy point by point examples of how it is scored. Much like the stiffness this attribute is derived from comparisons with decks that perform this well average and poor.

5- Thoughtless execution of glide moves from both top and bottom of the deck even with sloppy technique.

4- Thoughtless execution of glide moves from both top and bottom of the deck even provided you use good technique technique.

3- Reliable execution of the move from top or bottom of the deck provided you use good technique. One or two glide moves may require the aquisition of a break before execution, or you risk pulling an extra card, or a small spread of cards, “along for the ride.”

2- Most glide moves may require the aquisition of a break before execution, or you risk pulling an extra card, or a small spread of cards, “along for the ride.”

1- Aquiring a brake is manditory before executing glide or you will pull extra cards, or a small spread of cards, “along for the ride.”

0- Even with a break extra cards stick to the intended glide card or resistance along the cards make it very difficult to pull the card free from the pack.

2+Obfuscations:

Obfuscate is a fancy way to say “Hide.” This is tha ability of a deck to easily pass off two cards as one. Most commonly used in the double lift but it is also used in many other capacities including spin displays and changes(Floop Move, Shake change, Shapeshifter Change,) and false counts and displays (Elmsley count.)

The key to evaluating this is whether the sucess of the move is due to the nature of the card construction or the skill of the card mechanic. Therefore, I purposly evaluate these using vary carefree, perhaps even sloppy technique. One of the hardest to master 2+Os ever devised is Lee Asher’s “Silver Surfer,” so to give you a concept of the scoring I’ll use that as an example.

5- An absolute newbie could easily learn the Silver Surfer with this deck!

4- An beginning magician could easily learn the Silver Surfer with this deck.

3- An intermediate magician could learn the Silver Surfer with this deck.

2- An advanced intermediate magician could learn the Silver Surfer with this deck.

1- An expert magician could learn the Silver Surfer with this deck.

0- An expert magician who already feels comfortable with the Silver Surfer would have trouble executing it with this deck.

Obviously you could supplant the Silver Surfer with any difficult 2+O technique get an idea of how the deck handles. Other moves I use to evaluate the 2+O are, Hugard / Braue push off Double Lift, Derrick Dingle(Knock Out) DL, Diving Board DL, Center Double, Michael Close Spread DL, Corner display, Shapeshifter, Floop Move, and the Jones Change(J.C. also includes a glide component).

General Information About The Deck

Deck Name:

This is the most common name of the deck. Usually there is little doubt but some decks can get pretty long names or they may go by several names. IE. David Blain’s Split Spade Lions are usually just called “Split Spades”. The Conjuring Arts Bee Acorn decks have also been called the “Erdnase” decks or even the “S.W.E.” decks.

Width:

This is the thickness of a deck of 52 cards(Jokers and ad cards are excluded during the measurement.) It may seem trivial to some but for serious card handlers a millimeter more or less in thickness can effect your confidence in high end card manuvers(ie. Knuckle Busters!)

Surface:

This is the actual texture on the surface of the deck. This, combined with the final finish, or varnish in some cases, can completely change the character of two cards using the same stock.

Smooth:

Smooth surfaced decks are as close to featureless as you can get. These decks rely almost totally on the finish or varnish they use to create the fanning and gliding characteristics of the deck.

 

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Dimpled:

A Dimpled surface has a series of dimples pressed into the card stock in generally even rows. This helps add airflow to the card and usually improves a cards ability to fan.

 

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Mini-Dimpled:

This is essentially the same as a dimpled deck except that the dimples are very tiny. These are sort of a hybrid style of surface and often they feel and perform like a smooth surfaced deck. My personal theory is that these are mostly meant to support the use of fanning powder as they generally don’t seem to provide the enhanced fanning of a dimpled surface nor do they seem to provide the precision of a smooth surfaced deck.

 

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Cambric:

Cambric surfaces are basically dimpled surface decks except that instead of the dimples lining up in a uniform row by row, and column by column manner they are lined up in a more hash marker. or checkerboard pattern. The term Cambric refers to a weaving pattern used in linen manufacture. Below is an example of a cambric pattern in linnen.

Printing Company:

This is the company that prints the card. Obviously this wil be dominated by USPCC or the United States Playing Card Company as they are the dominant printer of custom cards world wide.

ECO’s Grade

Erik Cooper Ostresh….thats me! This is my personal opinion about a deck. Id does not necessarily match up with the highest scoring decks. This is where I allow my personal likes and dislikes to effect me. Some decks will get high marks for performance, others for looks. This is the most opinion laden aspect of my reviews so always take this score with a grain of salt!

One star- Don’t Bother onless it’s FREE!

Two Stars- Good buy at $2.00-$3.00

Three Stars- Good Buy at $3.00-$4.00

Four Stars- Good Buy at $5.00 – 7.00

Five Stars- Good Buy at upwards of $10.00 or more. (At any given time there are only 5, “Five Star,” Decks. This keeps me from awarding one every time I really like a deck. If a deck goes off the primary market it is promoted to “Immortal” Status. If another deck shows up that warrents a five star rating that the weakest current five start deck gets demoted to a four star.)

Immortal – These are previous Five Star decks that have gone off market. They are now in the realm of collector.

Average Without Spring:

This is as it says. The average score of the deck in “Out of the Box” condition, excluding the rating for spring energy. The stiffness or softness of a stock is really a matter of personal preference. Therefore it was excluded from the overall average to prevent super springy stocks, like the Fournier, from getting an unfair statistical advantage over softer stocks, like the Aristocrat.

Out Of The Box- “OOB” scores and statistics.

The area in yellow represents the overall condition of the deck in the fresh out of the box condition.

Longevity

How long did the deck last? I can burn through a deck of Bike 808 in 15-20 hours. I practice about 12 hours a week on average.Thus a Bike 808 lasts me between one and two weeks. I record the hours I practice on a deck and recheck the scores at the end of one week(12 hours).

For every week of the review a deck earns 1 point. A deck that lasts three weeks before I retire it gets a longevity rating of 3. All reviews last a maximum of one month(48 practice hours.) If a deck just barely makes it to the end of the month(ie. the Sentinel) it gets a rating of 4. If a deck is still in relatively good order at that time(ie. the Fournier 605) it gets a rating of 5.