*********** Cards (Ghosts, Black Ghost, Vipers, Tigers, Masters, Shadow Masters)

[Lyle Borders]

*********** Cards - Tigers, Vipers, Ghosts, Black Ghosts, Masters, Shadow Masters



Overall - 7.5/10
Stock - 8/10
Finish - 8/10 (UV500 Airflow)
Durability - 7/10
Design - 7/10
Magic - 8/10
XCM - 5/10

Let me start off simply - The ONLY difference between the above mentioned *********** cards is the DESIGN. They are ALL on the same nice, thick card stock that *********** prides themselves in. They ALL have the UV500 Airflow Finish that, yes, is nicer than the Air-Cushion finish on bikes. For all the above cards, they are the same, except the design. (NOTE - 1800 Series are different from the rest of the *********** cards and I will review them separately next.)

The thick carstock on E cards is a great thing, so long as you don't do XCM. The thickness of the deck can interfere with lots of XCM work, it will have to be your personal preference to determine if you use these or not. The cards have a great spring because of said card stock and will last a longer time than normal bikes.

The UV500 Airflow finish IS NOT the same as Air Cushion. Lots of rumors circulate of all finishes being the same. If you actually use different cards, you know better. UV500 is a very slick and smooth finish that I love for all my sleights. Between that and the stock, these cards handle everything that I throw at them.

These cards fan and spread like champs right out of the box. They do, like all cards, get sticky after a bit and this particular finish sometimes seems to lend itself to getting sticky faster than other finishes. Fanning power fixes this, but is funny on the black decks.

Ghost - Elegant. Very cool deck for mystical magic tricks. There is an unsettling feeling from these cards. Black Ghost - Also very elegant, and perfect for the darker tricks. Use this when you want to have a creepy feeling about your work. Black Tiger - Screams "Look at me!" Very flashy and bold, use with very visual tricks. Viper - Similar to Black Tigers, but they seem to exude an aura of coolness. You look smart and suave playing with Vipers. Masters - Same style points as regular bikes. Shadow Masters - The Darkest and Scariest deck E has. Take the black ghost, cover it in shadows, and add the boldness of the Tiger deck. Perfect for "haunted" tricks or for any trick that brings thoughts of spirits or demons.

All in all, I love E decks. I always have a Black Ghost with me. It is just my style, and the deck can take a pounding for a long time because I keep it in a clip. A little on the expensive side, but if you are a serious magician, this is nothing and will be well worth the investment. They will last you far longer than the comparable amount of regular bikes you would get for the same price. My only downside is the thickness can be a pain for XCM and can also take a while to break in.

[The_Outlaw]

First off I want to say that *********** is Very Customer Service Oriented and I have never been disappointed with their service.
(I ordered a Svengali Ghost Deck from them once and it only had 51 cards in the deck), They sent me a new Svengali Ghost Deck at no charge to me and they even let me keep the other deck! GREAT customer service for sure.

I have quite a few different E-Decks and they are all very cool pasteboards.
The problem for me however is that I hardly use them for a couple of reasons;

1) They are kind of expensive, especially -w- shipping costs.

2) Most people that I've encountered seem to be suspicious of these cards whenever I bring them out. I usually get something like; "Oookay, those are gimmicked cards right?"

I hate having to explain to people that they are regular cards because they don't look like regular cards.

But for a pasteboard addict like me, they are very cool cards for my personal use and my personal collection.

[Sam Hindrichs]

OK, this is completely off topic but Outlaw mentioned *********** being very customer service oriented. I beg to differ.

I order a Porper Card Clip from *********** about 2 months ago. It was causing my cards to get a "pop" in the middle of the deck causing the cards to dribble horribly.

I called *********** and they told me they would send me an address through my email to send the proper back to and they would replace it "for free".

I was like, cool maybe they will throw something in to the return package too. The next day I checked my email for the address and in the email *********** informed me that I would have to pay for return shipping on their product. So needless to say I did not return the Porper, and I took Alex Hess' advise and pressed my Porper's side together to make it a tighter fit. It worked well, but I would not say having a customer pay for return shipping on a defective product is anywhere near "customer service oriented". For this reason alone I will never buy anything from *********** again.

[The_Outlaw]

Originally Posted by Sam Hindrichs

OK, this is completely off topic but Outlaw mentioned *********** being very customer service oriented. I beg to differ.

I order a Porper Card Clip from *********** about 2 months ago. It was causing my cards to get a "pop" in the middle of the deck causing the cards to dribble horribly.

I called *********** and they told me they would send me an address through my email to send the proper back to and they would replace it "for free".

I was like, cool maybe they will throw something in to the return package too. The next day I checked my email for the address and in the email *********** informed me that I would have to pay for return shipping on their product. So needless to say I did not return the Porper, and I took Alex Hess' advise and pressed my Porper's side together to make it a tighter fit. It worked well, but I would not say having a customer pay for return shipping on a defective product is anywhere near "customer service oriented". For this reason alone I will never buy anything from *********** again.

I'm sorry to hear that Sam.
I guess that my experience was way different than yours, because they hooked me up when I had a problem -w- that Ghost Svengali deck.
Maybe it had to do with the actual individual who assisted me, I don't really know.