Awesome Playing Cards

Joker and the Thief’s latest playing cards are inspired by the post-apocalyptic, fuel-obsessed future of Mad Max. Each face card and joker features intricate hand-illustrated designs, and the card backs portray a massive V8 engine as the false god of their dystopian universe.

Designer Kevin Finn’s equine playing cards feature abstract line-art images of horses, with jockeys as the jokers. The images shown here are just design prototypes. The finished cards will be printed by the United States Playing Card Company, with gold metallic details.

Bas John has been posting some nifty video loops of cardistry experts on his Instagram channel. He recently gathered them up into a single clip, packing a bunch of mesmerizing card manipulations into a 45-second video. The track is The Anthem by Onra.

Ever since the Hydraulic Press Channel broke big, people have been clamoring for a Slow-Mo Guys collab. While that has yet to happen, Gav and Dan headed to a machine shop with their high-speed camera and exploded a deck of playing cards at 28,500 fps.

Designer Olly Swinyard’s playing cards feature intricate line art drawings, which carry across not just on the face cards, but on each and every diamond, spade, club, and heart. Tiny details on the face cards reveal secrets of love and betrayal between the courts.

A very cool deck of heavy linen playing cards which feature black faces with thick, raised UV ink to give each card dimension and texture. Also available in “phantom” white on white.

Playing Cards for developers and other computer geeks. Each of code:deck’s cards offers up a snippet of application code in one of a number of different programming languages, from PHP and C++ to Assembly and even BASH.

Designer Jared Hansen’s elegant playing cards are styled after architectural blueprints, with finely detailed lines, and packaged in a matte blue box with silver foil details. Available first to members of the Penguin Magic Card Club – as part of their July 2016 deck pack.

Illustrator Wylie Beckert’s new deck of cards features fantastic imagery of a dark fantasy world, in which each face card character has real personality and a backstory to go with. Wylie shares a bit of her creative and technical process here.

Cardistry masters Huron Low, Kevin Ho, and Daren Yeow demonstrate just why their group goes by the moniker “Virtuoso,” weaving their magical and mindbending playing card moves. Get the same awesome yellow, black, and grey deck for yourself from TheVirts.

This nifty notebook from Suck UK doubles as a custom deck of playing cards. Each edge-bound sheet is made from real playing card stock, and offers a blank writing surface on front for your doodles or your own bespoke deck design.

Cardistry master Noel Larsen-Heath shows off some of his impressive card handling skills, from spinning cards on his fingertips to floating them in mid-air. The last time we saw someone bend playing cards like he does, the guy next to us at the blackjack table got shown the door.

Theory11’s elegant U.S. made playing cards feature intricately detailed line art and are packed in a glorious gold and bronze foil hot-stamped box that’s alone worth the price of admission. Splurge for the handcrafted African hardwood box set for a truly special gift.

These unique playing cards feature wonderful illustrations by designer Brendan Hong. Each image is a reflection of Hong’s own Chinese heritage, and the theme carries across the entire court of face cards, on the card backs, the box and its seal.

Vsauce talks about how cardists use patterns and probabilities to create long-winded tricks that seem to ensure a random outcome, even though what they’ve really done is the opposite. And then your eyes will glaze over as he explains that 52! is a large number.

The Type Deck replaces the typical fronts of playing cards with text descriptions of their values, each represented in beautiful, flowing typography. We love the Joker that includes all 26 letters of the English alphabet.

Zach Mueller shows off one of the most impressive acts of cardistry we’ve seen, as he manages to keep cards nearly stationary as his hands move around them, creating the illusion that the cards are floating. If the cards don’t mesmerize you, his intense gaze will.

Inspired by the classic playing cards which commemorated Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight, Dan & Dave’s very special edition pays to Howard Hughes and his aeronautical achievements. The back of each card features Hughes’ H-1 Racer soaring above the globe.

Play poker, go fish, spades or your favorite game with these official Gremlins playing cards, illustrated by Nat Iwata for Albino Dragon. Just keep them away from the sun, never get them wet, and never ever deal them after midnight.

Designer Ade Suryana’s exquisite playing cards feature a new spin on classic card designs, with intricate vintage-style green backs, a tapered look to its numbers and suit designs, and unique face cards.

Artist Soleil Zumbrunn du Midi sold out of her earlier glitch image playing cards, so she’s back with a new batch, with two different decks, each with their own unique box art, and designs that incorporate vibrant spot color inks.

Designed by Joe Doucet, these ultra-minimal regulation playing cards have done away with all but the most critical information, the card’s value and a geometric symbol for its suit. Available in white or black.

The slick and smooth cardistry of Fontaine Card’s founder Zach Mueller is especially impressive when played at 60 frames per second. He makes it look easy, but watch his tutorials to learn just how tricky these card flourishes really are.