Name: Usually something pretentious, or just plain silly.
Age: 16.
Appearance: Almost always harder to read than regular cards.
Ah, Kickstarter… still ‘bringing creative projects to life’? That’s the one. Ever since 2009 folks have been raising money for their projects through crowdfunding on the site, and there are plenty of them aimed at card players — including a bunch of special decks.
Anything out there for serious players like me? That depends what you’re into.
Poker. Duh. I can already tell you love poker, I’ve seen your t-shirt collection. You ‘don’t even fold your laundry’. Classic, and totally original. But what else do you like?
Is there anything Pokémon-related? This is the internet, what do you think? But let’s not stop at the obvious – there are tons of strange themed decks on there to suit your more unusual interests.
How unusual, exactly? You can buy some spooky decks featuring witches and Halloween.
C’mon man, that’s tourist stuff. Fair enough. If you want to go a little further out there, you can buy decks themed around Wild West gunslingers, Scandinavian gods, or pictures of various people waving the Star-Spangled Banner.
That still feels pretty familiar, what’s gonna really ‘wow’ me? If all that’s too run-of-the-mill, how about that classic combination of Victorian architecture and dinosaurs?
Okay, I definitely haven’t seen that before. In that case you probably also haven’t experienced a deck based around a 15th century English civil war, the history of engineering, or my personal favorite theme, ‘dystopian dairy’.
Can you still actually play poker with these cards? Yes, although it’s usually harder. They’re all genuine 52-card decks, but putting pictures onto number cards, messing around with suits, and shoehorning weird themes where they don’t belong can definitely slow the game down.
So fun, but frustrating? Mostly, though there are some decks that take it a little too far, and in trying to set themselves apart, actually become less usable. Take this one, for example: when you flick through the cards, the backs make a little animation like a flick-book.
Ooh, that’s clever. Is it, though? There’s a very good reason the backs of cards should all be completely identical, and it’s the same reason why people who mark cards get banned from games. These decks basically come pre-marked.
So it’s a dumb gimmick? Looks that way to me, but the makers claim ‘this deck is both a tool for play and a token of serendipity’, and that ‘every shuffle is a journey, every deal a moment of potential connection.’ So at least it’s not pretentious.
Yeah I can’t stand people being pretentious. It puts me in mind of something Oscar Wilde once said… Shut up. Pretension is everywhere in the world of Kickstarter cards, such as this deck which claims its ace of spades ‘is a pact of balance, a visual decree where power is tempered by peace, and sovereignty is guarded by the sacred.’
What’s special about that one? It comes in a shiny box.
I think I might stick with my favorite deck. Wanna play? Be honest: do they have naked people on them?
Not entirely. Some of them are wearing bunny ears. Grow up.
Do say: “I have a flush…”
Don’t say: “...I think. Who here knows anything about Norse runes?”
Featured images courtesy of the wonderful creative card-making community of Kickstarter. If you like collecting weird decks of cards, go check them out via the links above - we won't judge.
