Trick Card Decks & Where to Find Them
By Alex J. Coyne © 2017 Great Bridge Links
Over the years, I’ve developed a deep-rooted fine love for card and coin tricks; those are two things I’m almost never without – when killing time waiting for a taxi to pass, while waiting for an important e-mail to come in or while in conversation on the phone for a radio interview, my hands are usually busy with a coin palm or a card flip.
Here are some of the most popular trick decks and where you can find them; of course, please use them only for card tricks and not for rigging a card game.
The Svengali Deck
Amazon: Bicycle Svengali Deck in Blue
According to website Conjuring Credits, credit for invention of the Svengali trick deck goes to either Burling Hull or W.D. Leroy. Svengali Decks allow for a couple of popular card tricks with very little work on the part of the magician: A card is taken from the deck and placed back in, the deck is shuffled and the card at the top – magically! – will be the chosen card.
The Stripper Deck
Amazon: Bicycle Stripper Deck in Red
Nope, this isn’t the one with the scantily clad guys and gals on them; instead, a stripper deck allows the magician to feel the position of a specific card within this deck when they are doing a trick. This is the secret to, among others, the Rising Card-trick.
The Invisible Deck
The Invisible Deck is one of the most popular card tricks out there, and often one of the first ones people encounter when walking into a magic shop asking for trick decks; you can buy a pretty solid set of these from Magic Encarta that comes with a sleeve that won’t give away your entire trick – and a pretty gorgeous back-design.
Double-Face Cards
Amazon: Double-Face Playing Cards from Bicycle
Double-faced playing cards are just that – the same image on the front or back, and if you’re clever with these you can have a lot of fun with your crowd. As usual, we’d recommend Bicycle –branded cards as the go-to for any new and experienced magicians.
Amazing Trick Card Websites
You’ll find fantastic trick card decks and trick how-tos on these websites.
Trick decks, accessories, videos and individual trick downloads – the Ellusionist makes beautiful decks and presents a wonderful website full of treats. Start learning in minutes!
We love this site – it’s old but there’s so much great content, we can see why it’s hard to update the look and feel! Penguin Magic is located in Las Vegas, Nevada. They sell magic tricks, DVDs, videos, and performance supplies to magicians of all skill levels throughout the world. They als0 have some pretty cool decks of playing cards.
You can find more amazing decks of trick and playing cards on our Playing Cards page here.
