THE BEST Playing Cards

This playful deck of cards is perfect for lovers of instant ramen. Each deck comes packed in a resealable bag inspired by the cheap but tasty dormroom staple, while the cards themselves have a noodle pattern on back and on the suit symbols. Look closely and you’ll see the court slurping some ramen too.

Specialty playing card maker Kings Wild Project designed this deck that’s inspired by the look of vintage mail and postage stamps. Even the tuck box looks like an envelope. We missed out on the limited edition, but the standard edition is still a fantastic looking deck.

This unique deck of playing cards isn’t just fun and games, it’s packed with useful knowledge about photography. Each suit is dedicated to a theme: Spades are camera basics, Hearts are composition, Clubs are technical, and Diamonds are shooting styles. They come with a black back, or a limited-edition Kickstarter green.

Designed by Enrica Martiné, these unique playing cards feature imagery inspired by the traditional mechanical drawing style of blueprints. Each card is printed in an indigo blue with fine white line art, while the face cards, backs, and boxes will have accents of metallic silver ink thanks to already reaching a stretch goal.

MakePlayingCards is showing off a truly unique deck of cards that you can see through. The waterproof plastic cards feature a high-gloss transparent print that produce an embossed effect. Since you can see their values through their backs, you wouldn’t want to play poker with them, but they’re beautiful for cardistry.

Flagrant Agenda teamed up with artist MILTZ to create this stunning deck of cards inspired by the Japanese Edo period. The court cards include famed shogun and other key figures of the period, Aces have seasonal haiku, and symbology abounds. They come in four versions, and you can add on custom minted coins.

Kings Wild Project masterfully makes unique premium playing cards. Among their decks is this series, with a design inspired by VHS tapes. The card backs look like video tapes, their packs look like VHS boxes, while their fronts are a 1980s cyberpunk dream. Sadly, the affordable standard edition has already sold out.

These playful decks from Elephant Playing Cards are covered with images of tiny people (aka “pipmen”) who live among the cards, like a crew building the Ace of Spades, and an old West gunfight on the 2 of Clubs. Every time you play, you’ll discover some new detail. Available in white-on-black or black-on-white.

While it’s not as powerful or accurate as Mark Rober’s motorized playing card thrower, Brick Experiment Channel’s version is still pretty sweet, and was built entirely using LEGO components, giving it double the geek cred. Now we want him to build a version that fires cash… or minifigs.

There are professional card throwers out there who can land a playing card on its edge every time. But if you don’t possess those skills, you could always build a mechanical solution, like The Practical Engineer did. His motorized launcher can fire playing cards at speeds nearing 200km/h (or about 124 mph).

Outfitter Bradley Mountain teamed up with 1924us and Art of Play to create this playing card deck that features camping inspired imagery, including hand-drawn face cards, letters, numbers, and suits, along with instructions on how to stay alive using only a playing card. This red version is the 4th in the series of limited-edition decks.

These colorful playing cards are a nice alternative to ordinary red and black decks. Each card features vibrant rainbow colors and dynamic imagery, set against a contrasting background. Choose from day, dusk, or our favorite, night designs.

Art of Play’s limited edition deck features imagery by illustrator Jenny Gebhardt, who provided each of its 54 cards with a uniquely warped and twisted character or scene. Printed by the U.S. Playing Card Co.

Card Experiment’s dramatic decks feature colorful images inspired by traditional Japanese Musha-e woodblock prints. The series of three decks include intricate illustrations of Suikoden warrior figures on their face cards. The Musha cards feature light imagery, while the Goketsu has a darker and more ominous look.

To commemorate the end of the Skywalker saga, premium playing card maker Theory11 presents a duo of official Star Wars decks. Sold in Light Side and Dark Side variants, they feature custom court cards of iconic good or evil characters, and card backs and boxes featuring spaceships of the Rebellion and Empire.

These unofficial but still awesome playing cards feature vintage images from classic Kaiju and creature features like Destroy All Monsters, Mothra, and Godzilla vs. The Thing. Since Godzilla really is Head Monster in Charge, we think every card he appears on should be a King.

VXD presents a truly unique deck and display case combo. Limited to just 499 pieces, each set includes a deck of Frozen Metal playing cards, a matching anodized aluminum card box, and an acrylic “ice” cube for display. The cards feature wintry holographic patterns which appear as you tilt them in the light.

Theory11 teamed up with illusionist Derren Brown to create this beautifully-detailed deck. Victorian-inspired imagery adorns their fronts and backs, and their green and gold boxes resemble antique books. For a special gift, check out the leather-bound box set, which includes two decks and a letterpressed note from Derren.

Modern Awesome Labs’ unique playing cards are printed with a special ink that reacts to body heat. Simply swipe your fingertips over the surface of the cards, and the images on their fronts transform to new shades. After you put them down, they reset to their original color after about 30 seconds.

Keymaster Games teamed up with Fifty-Nine Parks to create this beautiful deck with a U.S. national park on each of its face cards, including Acadia, Arches, Everglades, Grand Canyon, Great Smoky, Joshua Tree, Mount Rainier, Olympic, Rocky Mountain, Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Zion. Check out Keymaster’s cool PARKS card game too.

Coolest Thing introduces us to Bryan Berg, a professional card stacker who holds several Guinness World Records for his gigantic houses of cards. Now, Berg attempts to build one of his paper skyscrapers with a twist – assembling it outdoors. Along the way, he explains a bit of his architectural technique.

Next time you get together for a game of poker with your pals, serve them up some pizza too. You won’t even have to call Pizza Hut, because this pizza comes in playing card form. GamaGo’s delicious-looking cards only come in pepperoni, so if you want ham and pineapple, you’re out of luck. Also available: donut playing cards.

Animator Omozoc has previously entertained us with his delectable stop-motion meals. But in this clip, he uses the technique to show off the most artful ways to deal cards. We’re actually a little surprised that he didn’t literally cut any cards.

Designed by Khanh for BombMagic, these cards have a gorgeous design, inspired the objects and patterns found in ancient Lạc Việt culture. The backs feature an intricate geometric pattern with hieroglyphs, while the court cards display Vietnamese faces, and the suits and numbers are uniquely stylized. More pics on Kardify.

These light-up playing cards aren’t playing cards at all. They’re props for cardistry performers to enhance their visuals, and to help beginners learn moves. Sold in sets of four, each one has LED lighting inside that illuminates a detailed pattern that appears on both of its sides. Available with blue or green lighting. (Thanks Kory!)

Designed for cardistry and magic, The Seers‘ latest playing cards feature a bold red and black geometric back design with an all-seeing eye at center. Their fronts offer high contrast designs that really pop, along unique, but easily recognizable suits, numbers, and face card images. The uncut sheets make sweet wall art too.