1ST Playing Cards Holo Edition
The 1ST Playing Cards Holo Edition are the fifth iteration of the elegant and luxurious playing cards by Chris Ramsay / 1ST. Unlike the predecessors, this deck's name shifted from "v5" to "Holo" to help break the trend of keeping each as a "version" of the previous.
These playing cards are made with the highest quality stock by the United States Playing Card Company (USPCC). They're printed on Crushed stock with an Air Cushioned finish with beautiful MetalLuxe foiling on the backs and the Ace of Spades and Jokers. The tuck case is made of smooth paper with a silver holographic-foil ring rapping around, and 1ST embossed on the front.
The 1ST Playing Cards come in Mnemonica stack order, but with standard faces. There are identical jokers and a custom Ace of Spades, but other than that we do not see much of the normal 1ST flair in this luxury deck like custom court coloring, or even a card reveal on the King of Hearts.
The high cost of this deck is attributed to the first-of-its-kind printing process involving the holographic foil + MetalLuxe material used on the backs of the cards that goes all the way to the edges. Unfortunately, this process doesn't produce the best results, as you can see by the Ace of Spades:
Personally, this deck isn't worth the high price. Yes, it's a great deck. Yes, I bought a brick. Yes, I will use them all (except maybe the signed one...). However, my favorite deck from 1ST is still 1ST Playing Cards - V2 which has the same design as this one, just different back coloring and the faces are a bit better. And, it was cheaper at $15 a deck (when it first came out).
I really appreciate Ramsay's overview of this deck and how and why it costs so much though. You can really tell that it's a personal story, which does add a little extra umph to it. You can check it out here:
The deck consists of 56 cards:
- 52 playing cards
- Two identical jokers
- One blank faced cared
- One duplicate 4 of Spades