It's that time of the year again. Pumpkin Spiced drinks have lost their allure, the weather's getting bitter cold, and then warm again, and then surprise it's winter in the morning. Oh, and Art of Play is releasing their Mystery Decks!

What is a "Mystery Deck"? Put simply, they take a deck from an assortment of decks, wrap it, and then you have no idea what you've received until you unwrap it! Pretty straightforward overall.

They, Art of Play, do say that they mix the selections and pull decks randomly. This has the upside of them not purposefully holding back the more rare decks for specific types of orders, but the downside of a higher chance of receiving a duplicate.

Last year was my first involvement with "Mystery Decks," so I only have that to compare it with. The wrapping paper this year was much more luxurious than last and really fit with the vibe of the company.

Last year, I ordered a dozen decks and was very, very happy with them all. So this year, I ordered more...

There are 30 total decks in their assortment (see below). I know there's a chance of duplicates but to really push my luck, I went ahead and ordered 30 of them. With a $20-off coupon plus a 20%-off coupon plus free shipping, I feel like it didn't hurt too bad (that, and I saved up for this specific purpose).

Deck Assortment

Similar to other years, this year's Mystery Deck list features a random mix of different decks that range in quantity. "Quantity" is the word Art of Play used in describing the list -- I'm not sure if that refers to the price of the individual deck, or the actual number of decks that of that type that were included in the lot (i.e. 50% of the mystery decks are HMNIM, 25% are Bruce Lee, the rest make up the remaining 25%). No idea...

But yeah, this year in total there are 30 different decks:

The decks that appear in bold are listed as "Mystery Deck exclusives, out-of-print decks and/or early releases."

Also worth mentioning, that Art of Play Brand Deck comes in 6 different colors, per their post on IG:

Hopes and Dreams

Okay, so we know what the possible decks are, so which ones do I hope for and which ones do I dream for?!

I already have 2 of the IAOCP decks, and the Overlook one. I wouldn't mind one of the Art of Play Brand decks, but I'm pretty sure they're going to be for sale soon. If they aren't, I'm sure they're going to become the next big hype deck on the secondary market!

If I could hope for any decks, they'd be the Cybernetic deck and the Gaslamp - Black Box Edition. Why? Well, I've never seen the Cybernetic one and haven't heard of anyone with it. And with the Gaslamp deck, the "red" standard one looks pretty neat so I'd really be interested in the black box.

If I could dream for a deck though, I have to say my head's spinning a bit for that NOC Mint offering. I've never heard of NOC Mint, and I love NOCs. I haven't seen a single picture of it yet, and I've gone through the Mystery Deck promo videos in slow-mo (but hey, I could've missed it of course). I've scoured Instagram and Reddit for deck opening pics and still haven't seen anyone pull one. Consider my interest and desire through-the-roof!

UPDATE (12/17): I reached out to Art of Play regarding the NOC Mint deck and they have confirmed that the NOC Mint deck is the green NOC Colorgrades, a deck that was designed exclusively for Art of Play and produced in collaboration with Alex Pandrea's NOC decks! Apparently, they are referred to as "Mint". Didn't know that!

The Opening

There they sat. 10 decks, just taunting me to be opened. Wait, what? 10 decks? But... I ordered 30?! Apparently Art of Play shipped all smaller orders first, so I had to wait almost a week for the second batch to arrive to open everything at once.

In a very unceremonious manner, the opening commenced. Some packages were ripped open, a couple I semi-tried to keep in-tact so I could film a B-Roll later or maybe do some good photos. Hint: if you see any photos from me with a deck wrapped in the mystery wrapping -- it was after I opened them.

One after another, wrappings came off. Most decks were new to me, only seen briefly on the Art of Play website which I purposefully tried to avoid (as best as possible) to keep a little mystery. There were, of course, duplicates. Like 4 copies of the Gray HMNIM deck... of which I recently picked up a full brick. Probably should have seen that one coming.

So what did I get?

• 4x HMINM Gray Edition
• 3x Dinosaurs
• 2x Gaslamp - Black Box Edition
• 2x Lucky Draw
• 2x Standards, Pink Edition
• 1x Art of Play Brand Deck (Pink)
• 1x Bruce Lee
• 1x Cybernetic
• 1x DKNG Blue Wheels
• 1x DKNG Red Wheels
• 1x Eastern Forest
• 1x HMNIM Gold Edition
• 1x If an Octopus Could Palm
• 1x James Coffee, Orange Edition
• 1x MAKERS PR - Standard Edition
• 1x Mindfulness
• 1x Overlook
• 1x Patina Lepidopterist
• 1x Peau Doux - Turquoise Edition
• 1x Standards, Sapphire Edition
• 1x Tempo
• 1x Thunderbird Room

The ones in bold are "Mystery Deck exclusives, out-of-print decks and/or early releases" according to Art of Play. Yay (^_^)

Oh, did I mention that most of them came with little stickers too:

Thoughts and Takeaways

I'm pretty happy with the haul. I've mentioned to a few folks the decks I got and I've heard the phrase "it paid for itself" more than once. I'm not sure how I feel about that though. The phrase, "it pays for itself," only really applies if you're going to resell the decks - which I don't really have plans on doing. That, or if I saved enough by buying them on sale that I net-gained one or two for free... unfortunately, the rarer ones aren't actually for sale, so I don't think I can really quantify that.

Maybe I should sell some of the duplicates that I know I won't really use though. Or give them away. Or sell them... I mean, 16 HMNIM decks and now 13 James Coffee (Orange) decks makes me wonder what to do. Gimmicks and gaffs sound pretty fun too and is far more likely what I'll end up doing =]

Also, I'm not sure if the MAKERS PR I received is the Standard Edition or Gilded. I know I could just open it and find out, but it's more like Schrodinger's Cat right now by leaving it sealed. There's no indicator on the tuck one way or the other -- at least, none that I'm aware of. I reached out to Art of Play to see if there's a way to tell (like a different color seal, for instance) but they haven't gotten back to me yet. Maybe I'll open it this weekend to find out.

So was it worth ordering 30 decks? Or, more specifically, would I have ordered the individual decks I didn't already have a copy of? Maybe. I'm not sure. The Dinosaur deck, I probably wouldn't order one. I'm not a collector and it's too themed for my tastes. Standards and DKNG, they're great but if I have one color, don't I have them all? (sorry, please don't throw anything at me =P)

No regrets though! Next year I'll definitely participate again. The number of decks I decide to pick up might depend on the assortment next time though. You know, put a little thought into it.

My desk currently has exactly 70 decks on it. My work desk. And I'm a programmer (e.g. I write code) and I work from home -- since before the 'vid was a thing but we can get into that at another time. Why isn't my desk covered with soda cans, chips, floppy disk coasters and all of the other cliché gizmos you would find on a programmer's desk?

But yeah, 70 decks... Two of them (pictured above) are in current daily use, two are past-dead and need to be tossed, two are just there because I picked them up and haven't moved them but the rest... why on earth? Why on my desk?!

Black Friday, that's why.

It's not really much more than that. Companies that sell cards know that people (over) spend during the late fall, so they do heavy marketing and special releases around that time. Art of Play, Theory11 - ugh, you all get my love and cash!

What I tend to do is save up coupon codes or special deals like "20% off" or "$20 off orders over $100". Then, pick a brick of cards and will get a discount on that too (e.g. $12 a deck down to $9 a deck). Because it's a larger order, there's also free shipping. Heck yeah. After tax we're looking at about $8 a deck or even less. I get excited just thinking about it! Though, the wife doesn't seem to see it the same way I do 👀

Stay tuned, I'll be showing off some of my Black Friday purchases soon too!

Are there other decks?

"But wait," you say, "if the some-odd-number of decks on your desk are only from Black Friday sales, where are the rest?!"

Oh, I'm glad you asked! So, everywhere really.

I have a display case in the corner of my office that holds my going-into-play line-up. I haven't counted, but a quick side-glance over at it I'm going to guess it's holding around 60 decks. Mostly unique. I always have one or two in the living room for you know, practice TV time. And then there's the closet.

Storage Solutions Begone

I really wish I had an organizational structure to brag about for my closet. I wish I could tell you that I have cool slide-out drawers or maybe a tiered system where I could easily see all of the decks or, even better, just grab the one I'm thinking of. It would be amazing if I could tell you that I know exactly where every deck in my closet is, even if it's not easily accessible. But no, that's not close at all.

I'm not going to show a picture of it because honestly, it's embarrassing. I do show clips of it occasionally on my Instagram story (follow me!) but it's just a chaotic mess.

I'll get inspiration for a fun photo shoot and I know I have just the perfect deck for it. 15 minutes later and moving pile after pile of decks I finally found it and have lost all interest in the photo shoot and just want to burn the deck for hiding so far away. Ugh.

It's organized every once in a while when I shuffle it around so much that I get annoyed, and I do have a "system". The rare ones that I won't touch for a long time are in the back corner. The common ones (like Bicycle Standards or NOCs) are along the left wall. The ones that are themed are over there, etc. I organize it, and then a few days later I need a rare deck that's at the bottom of it's pile. I have to move everything. Ugh.

Inventory and Location

It's funny, or sad?, but I can tell you if I own a deck and where in my house it is. Any of the decks I own, without a problem. Albeit, if it's in my closet of wonders I may not be able to tell you the exact location, I can tell you it's there. Every deck!

Ironically, I can't do the same with books. My book supply is less than my deck supply (thank you Costco $15 bricks of Bicycles!), but somehow still I can't remember at least a quarter of the books I own. I'll read a reference to a book or see a related sale somewhere and I have to think "do I own this one?! nah!". 7 copies of Royal Road later and maybe I'll finally remember...

That's one of my hopes for this site too. A side-hope, if you will. To make accessing my inventory that much easier. Also, it'll help in organizing my closet.

Grab the popcorn, we're launching a website!

That's right folks, after a long time of procrastination and delays (mostly procrastination), I'm launching my site: The Babbit's Grimoire!

Who am I?

I'm @gbabbits - you're friendly neighborhood Spiderman magician. I dabble in card magic and photography and love just hanging out.

There's more to me than that I think, but hey, when we hang out we can dive into that more ;)

What is this site?

The Babbit's Grimoire, a blog and library for all-things-me. Well, okay, they're all things magic. And, I didn't write any of the books or design the decks -- but they're in my library. So, what is this site really?

I have a lot of books on magic. I also own a lot of decks. My collection of tricks, kits, and videos is also growing substantially. This site is an inventory of all that I own and the general info about each item. A spell book, if you will.

But wait, there's more!

Remember I mentioned photography? Heck yeah! When suitable (e.g. books and decks), I'll be posting candid snapshots of each. Rare decks that nobody would dare open? Yup - I open them. Cliché Autumn pictures where a steaming cup of pumpkin flavored coffee is sitting on top of an open book with pinecones around it? You betcha!

But wait, there's even more!

If looking at pictures of books leaves you wanting even more, this site's also a blog! I'll be writing periodicals, articles, essays, book reviews and deck reviews and everything in between. My musings on magic topics, ideas for new sleights and routines. Opinions about the latest Penn & Teller: Fool Us episode - I'm covering all of the bases!

Why is this site?

Ah, now we've reached the deep question! Why exactly am I launching The Babbit's Grimoire?

Straight to the point: to help others. No, nobody asked me for this. In fact, at the time of me writing this, nobody even knows I'm working on it. However, for years I've been learning "on my own" and sometimes it has been a struggle.

There were definitely lulls in my journey where I've wanted to just toss my deck and pick up a different hobby -- but I stuck with it. And then I started thinking, what could have made the journey better for me?

Someone being there for me. References to help guide me. Resources that aligned with my interests.

And so I'm going to try to make that. This site is my attempt at helping others -- whether they're just starting out or have been on this royal road forever, I want my grimoire to be a place that they (or you!) can call home too.

For more info about myself and the site, checkout the About page. I'll keep it up to date whenever applicable, but it should reflect the current state of everything =]

Today and the future

I'm not a professional magician, I actually have a very unrelated day-job. That said, I also have a lot of content to add to this site before it could be called "ready." I have what, 4 books added in and only 1 deck? If you follow me on Instagram (social plug, follow me on Instagram!!), you'd know that I have hundreds of unique decks and also triple-digits of books. It'll take a while before there's a lot entered in, but definitely stick around to see what pops up!

I don't have any pre-written blog posts "in the queue," I'll be writing everything in time. I have enough ideas and topics written down to last a year or two though, and that doesn't include all of the reviews so don't fear that the pages will remain barren. Let's just hang out and let the magic flow ;)

So now that you're here, why don't you check out:

• My latest blog entries
• The books in my library
• What decks I have picked up
• The tricks & kits I've played with
• Videos that have taught me things

Also, if you have any requests for content like topics you're interested in hearing about, reviews for a specific book or deck or whatever, feel free to reach out and I'll bump it up my queue!

If you've seen my library, it should come as no surprise that I like books on card magic. Theory, sleights, routines - I can't get enough!

I've also picked up a few magic books that aren't specific to cards, like the Tarbell Series and Modern Coin Magic. While no, I don't really see myself dabbling in other forms of magic, I have learned the power of impression and learning how sleight of hand can be performed with other objects has come to, in my opinion, really improve my understanding of card magic.

So not to ramble on too much, I wanted to do a thought-exercise and try to list out my current list of favorite books about sleight of hand. I do want to note that this is all purely my opinion and not a "recommended list", but hey, I do recommend them!

• Principia
  I consider this book's content to be between intermediate to advanced skill level, and the presentation format is great too... but, the main reason I love this book is because of Mr. Ong's methods of taking a plot, idea, or even another object from some other source and turning it into a killer new routine. If you follow his content on Instagram, you'll see that he constantly comes up with new routines (right now, he's been on a crazy packet-trick train) and Principia really helped open my eyes to thinking more outside of the box.
  
  
• Card College, Vol. 3
  I love the entire Card College series, don't get me wrong - but Volume 3's content just blew me away. With Volume 1 and 2, I got a refresher of things I mostly already knew. Volume 3 though, it introduced me to more advanced sleights; some of which I had heard of or saw reference to before, but now I finally get to experience them with my own hands! Some of the routines presented throughout the book are pretty great too. I don't know if I own another book that has this many bookmarked pages!
  
  
• The Complete Walton, Vol. 1
  Roy Walton's "The Complete Walton" was actually where I learned who Roy Walton was. I can't recall seeing his name in other books or magazines, or in videos prior to flipping through this book. The way the book is written just flows so well, but the routines themselves are amazing. For example, I'm not a huge Oil & Water fan (or most packet tricks, for that matter). But Oil & Queens, jeez. I stopped reading the book just to practice for almost a week and then went back to re-read it to see if I followed it correctly (note: I did!).
  
  
• The Card Classics of Ken Krenzel
  When I got back into card magic after a good 20+ year hiatus, this is one of the first books I picked up. I wanted something more advanced than Royal Road and wow did I get advanced. I haven't read back through it yet (it's been ~3 years or so) so I don't know if the content is actually "advanced" or just intermediate, but my biggest memory of it so far is that I couldn't perform hardly any of the routines in this book as they all required moves that I just couldn't do -- like a Faro Shuffle. I laughed, when reading the book, thinking that a Faro Shuffle is so not worth my time and I'll just skip over anything that needs them. lol... now, I Faro as a fidget move... go figure.
  
  
• Verbal Magic
  When I first started reading Verbal Magic, as in, the introduction and whatnot, I was astounded by how the book itself was created. Painstakingly finding old radio recordings, reverse engineering the mechanics and distilling them into teachable routines, and then translating them from Spanish to English to boot! After reading the first routine, I realized that this book needed to be consumed with a different frame of mind though - yes, it's about "sleight of hand" but in a very, very different way. You're having the spectator perform the sleight, without knowing it. Self-working card tricks, and you (the magician) don't even need to see the cards. I read through the book before the pandemic hit and when everyone went "virtual", I decided to bring it back out to do a routine or two with friends from work -- it's amazingly powerful!

And there we have it, my current "top 5" favorite magic books. This doesn't mean I don't like other books, oh no - I love a lot of them. But these are my go-to tomes right now, coming back out off of the shelf to get some re-reading love!

The Hype

I've been a member of the "playing card community" for a few years now - circa 2019 if my memory serves. I've seen hype over decks before, I've seen decks sell out faster than I could complete my PayPal login, I've seen decks that don't draw much attention and sit without sale -- but never until the Art of Play mystery deck sale of 2020 have I seen the craze over a deck like If an Octopus Could Palm v2.

This deck wasn't for direct purchase, to get one you had to buy a mystery deck ($12) and if you were lucky enough, you would get one. I'm not going to lie, I was excited at the chance of getting one myself - but this was my first "mystery deck" purchase from any supplier so I was more eager to unwrap everything. In fairness, I didn't own any of the decks that were released as mystery decks so they all would have been great. But, IAOCP was the first deck I unwrapped so I was pretty thrilled!

And then, I didn't get another. In total, I picked up 12 decks - a few dupes, but not of these. I use my cards, so I hit up the aftermarkets like eBay and holy crap … these decks were going for between $200 and $300! And guess what, they still are today! I really, really weighed the choice of selling the deck versus opening it. It's just a deck of cards - I'm going to open it, use it for a few days, and then toss it. I could sell it for hundreds¹ and then buy that many more regular decks... or, I could be one of the only people that actually open the thing and use it. Well, we know which one I chose =]

The Deck

The Tuck Case

I love the tuck case on this deck. The color of the box, the artwork, it all just vibes really well with me. The cutout on the back is really cool too - I feel that it just "works" with the back design. However, after removing the cellophane it does feel a little not-strong -- especially if you're one that would toss the ad cards (this deck doesn't have any, but if you're not using the extra cards why keep them in the box?). If you're using the deck, I would recommend a card clip or a protective case though so that you don't inadvertently destroy the box by carrying it around.

Back Design

The design itself is just "scratches," or lines, that run all across the back. There isn't really much of a pattern to it but there is darker areas in the design itself which lend to a recognizable one-way design.

I'm a person who leans towards minimalism a bit (at least, when it comes to decks of playing cards). NOCs, wow - love them. Virts, not bad at all. Scribbles all of the back of a card -- if you were to describe this deck to me without showing me a photo, I'd laugh and pass on it immediately. But no, somehow this back design was pulled off nicely. I wouldn't say this is a design I'd see at a game table, nor would it be flashy for cardistry, but overall this is a display deck design.

Faces

I... so, the faces... they... I mean. Yeah. You remember the hype over this deck? Or, the still-existing hype over this deck? Well, the design really ends with the tuck and the back design. The faces are your standard Bicycle style faces. No custom courts, no unique pips, and even the Ace of Spades is a little on the muted side. $300 for a deck with standard faces?! Yeah, no thanks.

Ah, but do let me back up just a little. The color of the pips is different, slightly. The blacks are black, but the reds are a toned-down color. Almost pastel. For the courts, if you're familiar with standard Bicycle colors, the normal blue color on the border and the court's wardrobe is changed with a pastel green. It's not really that appealing of a color, but it vibes with the tamed-down red I guess.

There's also a double-backer and a blank-face card, your standard custom-deck add-ons. There are also non-identical Jokers, if you could call them that. One is with the same design as the front of the deck, the other is just the Dan & Dave logo. I was actually really excited to see a cool Ace of Spades and custom Jokers at the very least - kind of disappointed by the lackluster reveal there.

Stock and Handling

Now, as you can tell, I've opened mine. If I were to guess, I would say it's thin-crush stock. It feels thin, but also a little stiff. They handle quite nicely but did need to be broken in for a few minutes (nowhere near as stiff as a fresh pack of bikes).

I couldn't find a published "details" page for this deck itself so I reached out to Art of Play to get more info about the card stock and finish is. They wrote back and the news is neat. So, we know that they're printed by USPCC but what's cool is that they're printed on a proprietary crushed stock with the same finish -- and all decks by Art of Play are like this! Now I won't need to guess for future AoP decks =]

Here's the kicker though -- I was trying to do a few flourishes like Hubble and MAKITSU, but the cards just didn't slide very well. If I could describe it as anything, it was as if the backs are roughed just a tiny bit. And this is on the first day with the deck too. Fanning the deck was fine and smooth though, so it wasn't that bad.

Takeaways

It's not a bad deck overall. It's a decent finish, the back design and the tuck are really nice. As a person who uses their cards, I definitely wouldn't spend the after-market cost on this deck. As a collector, it's still insanely overpriced but hey, who am I to judge what others would value a deck of cards at.

Art of Play is including them in this year's Mystery Deck lottery too and at $12 a pop, it would be worth it. If you get one, of course.

¹ As a moral note, one of the biggest things that prevented me from selling the deck was just that - a sense of morality. I really can't justify selling a deck of cards to someone for that much money - even if it was a standard eBay bid and the participants bid "what they were willing to bid" … it's just, not right. That's why I won't buy those ridiculously overpriced aftermarket decks even though I really want one. I feel like it's a scam and not worth it; people buy bricks and bricks of limited-release decks just to resell them. But, let's be fair, playing cards isn't the only commodity that this happens with =[