What it is... and what not | for professional magicians | for magic effect creators | for dealers | for magic clubs

What it is... and what not

The Phoenix Deck is not another deck in the long list of fancy decks that flooded the magic community over the past few years. Nothing against any decks from Ellusionist, Theory11 or others, they look cool and interesting and they find their card collectors, but I did not want to invent "another fancy deck". In my opinion these decks are not usable for everyday magic as they look so unusual that they will easily arouse suspicion. At least lay people will always be more aware of "trick cards", even if the cards have no built-in features.

That is why the Phoenix deck does not look too modern or extraordinary, as it should not look too suspicious for lay audiences.

The name of the Phoenix Deck is given by the mythical sacred firebird. It has a 500 to 1,000 year life-cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of myrrh twigs that then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again. The new phoenix is destined to live as long as its old self. (Wouldn?t it be a great story to start with to do a torn-and-restore card trick?)

The Phoenix Deck is an alternative to the often used Bicycle Deck, both are printed at US Playing Card Company. The standard Phoenix Deck is just the beginning of a whole new era for card magic. The best way to describe the difference of these two decks:

The Bicycle Deck is made for Poker players and is used for magic,
whereas the Phoenix Deck is made especially for magicians but can also be used for Poker playing.

In the last few months the limitations of the Bicycle Deck got more and more obvious as the politics of US Playing Card Company changed dramatically for us magicians:

• no more trick cards where the back design, Joker or Ace of Spades will be changed.
• no more Jumbo decks
• no more blank cards, double backers or double facers stocked at USPC
• no more marked decks, Twilight Angels etc.
• new card case design that does not show the card back on the back of the card case, also the used colors have changed

Even if we think that magic is the most important thing in the world, people outside of our community think quite different.

This is why I started the Phoenix Deck project, as a magician for magicians and their needs.