[Buyer's Guide] Fontaine

[Harvonsgard]

Fontaine playing cards was founded and created by the Californian kid Zach Mueller. He first gained public exposure by releasing cardistry/sleight magic videos with a custom deck that he just made for himself. After people constantly asking about where to buy the cards he decided in 2013 to start a indiegogo campaign to release his famous "red fontaines". The rest - is history.
He starred in a Japanese credit card comercial and his cards where featured in the 2016 movie "Sleight".
Because of the hype around the brand, smart marketing moves, skyrocketing prices on the aftermarket and rising retail prices he gained a lot of hate in some parts of the community and became for some the "enfant terrible" of cardistry - next to A1.

2013:
Fontaine - Red edition

2014:
Fontaine - Blue edition

2015:
Fontaine - Black edition

2016:
Fontaine - Pink edition

2017:
Fontaine - Green edition
Fontaine - Sleight edition
Fontaine - Carrots by Anwar Carrots edition
Fontaine x Chinatown market

2018:
Fontaine - Wine edition
Fontaine x GUESS edition
Fontaine x Ripndip

2019:
Fontaine - Watermelon edition
Fontaine - Carrots v2 edition
Fontaine - Carrots v3 edition
Fontaine - Carrots v3 Gold edition
Fontaine - Chocolate edition

Fontaine Futures - 6 different editions in a silver mystery bag:
- Parrot (3,000)
- Floral (2,500)
- Window (2,000)
- Polka (1,500)
- Glitch (1,000)
- 500 (you guessed it; 500)

Fontaine x GUESS Cycling edition
Fontaine x GUESS Sticker edition
Fontaine x TheGoodCompany

2020:
Fontaine x Ripndip Ice Cream
Fontaine x Braindead
Fontaine x Braindead Special Edition - BLM support edition
Fontaine - Water Berry
Fontaine -
Fontaine - Raspberry
Fontaine - Horchata
Fontaine x DABS MYLA
Fontaine x Babylon - features UV-reactive inks
Fontaine -
Fontaine - Grey
Fontaine x Halloween - first Fontaine collab with a movie franchise
Fontaine -
Fontaine - Cranberry

2021:
Fontaine x Pink Panther
Fontaine - Slime - first Fontaines using Pantone neon inks
Fontaine - Cotton Candy
Fontaine x Kogancult

[Merlebird]

Because of the hype around the brand, smart marketing moves, skyrocketing prices on the aftermarket and rising retail prices he gained a lot of hate in some parts of the community and became for some the "enfant terrible" of cardistry - next to A1.

I literally just came in here to say "buyer's guide: don't" lmao

Are there really only fifteen?! I swear they feel more ubiquitous than that.

[hsbc]

Cards are cards, I can't really see any harm in keeping track of hype brands even if no one here wants them "There is no knowledge that is not power"

[Harvonsgard]

Are there really only fifteen?! I swear they feel more ubiquitous than that.

That's the power of good marketing .

...even if no one here wants them.

I've seen them in quite some portfolios here .
Maybe collectors who like them are just quiet about it and let the "muh, lazy design"-party lead the conversation about them.

[theCapraAegagrus]

There are people that literally collect garbage (hoarders). So, people collecting Fontaine's is not unfeasible. They're the playing card equivalent of garbage.

[Harvonsgard]

They're the playing card equivalent of garbage.

[STLBluesNut]

Lol to both 2piece and the reply

Sent from my Galaxy 8 using Tapatalk

[Harvonsgard]

Lol to both 2piece and the reply

The Dude is bae!

[Bradius]

You will not find any Fontaine decks in my Portfolio52 account, because I don’t have any in my collection. Luckily none have been a part of a package purchase or gifted. A Fontaine free zone.

[OVSUB]

So are fontaines good or bad? I've heard both on the web. Are they just hype? I recently heard of Fontaines and the only deck I've wanted from them I've been too late to get, they were the Fontaine x The Good Company deck.

[Harvonsgard]

They are cards. That's it.
Do you like'em? Then they are good. Do you don't like'em? Then they are bad. Easy as that.

Most collector's care for design effort and fontaines lack that a lot. Most editions are simple colour swaps of an already pretty low effort design. They have mostly standard courts and only the collab editions feature some customization. Take that and hype distribution, like with Supreme clothing, and you have the perfect object to hate on. It became that bad, that people (resellers) apparently start to use bots for the online drops, which Zach, the founder of fontaines, complained about and he posts a lot that he just wants to have fontaines for the cardistry community - Which is pretty much dishonest imo, since the solution is that easy; he could just print more decks, but he refuses to do that. They fetch ridiculous prices at the aftermarket and I would strongly advise to not buy'em there, it's just threading the mills of deck price inflation. If you miss a drop, let'em go.

Zach, the founder of fontaine, does a lot for the cardistry community. He sponsors the Cardistry-Con and supports independent young cardists. I guess that is pretty much all info you need to make up your mind.

Almost the same goes for anyone worldwide, before you ask .

[Räpylätassu]

So are fontaines good or bad? I've heard both on the web. Are they just hype? I recently heard of Fontaines and the only deck I've wanted from them I've been too late to get, they were the Fontaine x The Good Company deck.

Fontaines are lazily designed bullshit.
"Everyone has a different taste!" cried the fanboys
Same thing was said by a fly as it continued to eat shit.

[TheCollector]

My perspective on this is that I happen to dig some (note the emphasis) of the minimalism from some of the hype brands. Will I drop significant cash for them? I mean, that's subjective, but no (per my standards). If I can get in at launch for a deck I happen to like (like I did with RIPNDIP v2 and KIND TIME [a deck which I know many of you absolutely effing hate, lmao]), then I'm completely on board.

That said, there are some I will trade for after the fact--some based on design (like RIPNDIP v1), and others based solely on market appeal/value. Where the latter is concerned, for instance, I just struck a heckin' good deal on a V3 Gold Carrots deck. I'm going to hella-enjoy seeing it sitting in a Carat X2 alongside the holographic A1 x Dan and Dave Smoke & Mirrors deck I have.

Now, by contrast, to see where my heart and passion are truly captured, one only need compare that Carat X2 to my Carat X4X3 filled with Lotrek decks (nevermind the totality of my nearly-completed collection of all Lotrek's releases and then some).

For me, at the end of the day, it really just gets back to exactly what Harvonsgard said: if you like the cards, then you like them. If not, then you don't. But to be a bit more nuanced about it, be it design (or lack thereof), controversy generated, craftsmanship, strictly monetary value, market appeal, or otherwise, I'm more than happy to partake in various facets. It's not an all-or-none thing for me.

Now, if you'll excuse me, you can usually find me sitting on the fence. Lol.

[Harvonsgard]

[laitostarr777]

So are fontaines good or bad? I've heard both on the web. Are they just hype? I recently heard of Fontaines and the only deck I've wanted from them I've been too late to get, they were the Fontaine x The Good Company deck.

Fontaine is simply 15% design and 85% hype

Less percentage on the design because... face it, it is simply letter F pasted on ever changing backgrounds - called it "lazy design". Put a red, DONE, Fontaine Red - put a blue, DONE, Fontaine Blue - put ANY colors, DONE, Fontaine "insert color". Only a few Fontaines that at least have customizations on court cards and such, but to the rest, that's just about it. The percentage might have penalty on the points if you look closely on Fontaine Halloween - the letter H doesn't align with letter T below, which is a layouting failure for the graphic design. One variant does make the cool niche of implementing UV ink - Fontaine Babylon, which is a bit plus point. I get it, the design has to be simple, because it is a cardistry deck, but at least, make it worthy.

Bigger percentage on the hype because THIS is what drives it. It is a cycle teasing of the decks and "sold out within seconds" then insane markup at aftermarkets. Fontaine takes on the Supreme business model and marketing scheme - simply showing that you only have a few, but in actuality, you have more. That is already proven by a few people who had done the math. Collaborations also becomes part of the scheme as well - collab with any famous clothing brands or something, and you will magnet those monies. I also don't forget to mention that Zach Monkey had been a douche during the BLM incident - there is a thread here in UC which you can find the information about it. The hype creates fanboys, which they will do anything in their power to protect it against haters and critize people who collect other decks that simply recolored if they decided to attack this brand over the design. (like T11 Monarchs, Pure Imagination Cherry's, Jerry's Nuggets, NOCs). But, in the defense of those other recolored decks, at least they have effort in design (except NOCs, sorry - though plus points for being very minimalist and creating the NOC3000). In summary, I think the brand that was once cool becomes a greedy self-entitled brand. The hype for this deck is so much that other cardistry decks become underrated, like the Virts.

Should you get Fontaine? It's up to your judgement. You want the whole collection, then get a lot of cash out because getting the previous editions would be hell, especially the Red and Futures along with collabs editions. If you only interested in some editions, then go for it - some of the editions are well excecuted I think, and worth getting, like Dabsmyla one - just don't be alarmed of the aftermarket price, because, you know, hyped. If you don't think it is worth it, then walk away and try not to get influenced.

[laitostarr777]

About Fontaine
Zach Mueller started his career as a magician. He used to produce a few of magic tricks tutorial through Theory11. One of his favourite tutorial on card sleights was "Fontaine" - the title is using the iconic "Little Lord Fontlery". One day, he is inspired from Dan and Dave's cardistry videos, and started to lean towards the arts of card flourishing - becoming a cardist himself. Later, he published another tricky card sleight tutorial called "Marbles", yet this video is not the move that got its attention - its the cards used in the video. People are demanding what deck it is and where they can get them, yet Zach simply said it was just a prototype deck. Because there were a lot of demands of it, Zach decided to launch an Indiegogo campaign for the real production of the decks. At that moment, the brand is born. The deck is named through people's one voice coined term and due to that title font being the same as with the font used for the back of the cards - "FONTAINE". Ever since the release of the very first deck, it then produce up to hundreds of editions in the future and put the brand on the map as the one who builds up the cardistry community.

Fontaine has a retail store in Los Angeles, California, where in-store releases along with cardistry jams are held. As of now, Fontaine is the only cardistry brand which commence "blind pack" series - events where you try your luck to get any design you like OR get them all. For Cardistry Con 2022 San Diego, California - Fontaine collaborates with Dan and Dave to create the con's exclusive deck: the first ever deck without the signature Fs.


Collaborations
Fontaine had been collaborating with a lot of other brands. Most of them are hype fashion brands that are popular in the States. A few of them are with contemporary artists. Later, there are a lot of media collabs: such as popular children animated series or blockbuster movies.

• JD Dillard: Indie movie director and screenwriter who is best known for his movie "Sleight", a story of a street magician who got tangled in a drug dealing business and he has to use his power to save his little sister. The actor is using the Black Fontaine, and Blue Fontaine Uncut sheets can be seen as wallpapers.
• Carrots: Clothing brand made by Anwar Carrots, iconic for the images and words of carrots, hence the brand's name.
• Chinatown Market: Clothing brand made by Mike Cherman and photographed by Alexander Bortz, the clothing apparels has the iconic yellow smiley face.
• GUESS: American clothing brand for men and women, which also offers sporting equipment - it has the iconic "?" question mark symbol.
• Ripndip: Clothing brand made by Ryan O'Connor, with Kevin Troyan the designer, iconic for the white cat and black cat characters that always seen raising middle finger.
• The Good Company: Clothing brand based in NYC - it has the good company vibes, like cops, friendship, and such.
• Braindead: Clothing brand based in Los Angeles - iconic for the silhouette of a man with the name inside it, thus the name "Braindead"
• Babylon: Another clothing brand based in Los Angeles - iconic for the inverted Peace Symbol; a circle with three pronged Y.
• Dabsmyla: Married couple artists from Melbourne, Australia who are well known for the dazzling and bright pop colors and cartoony artworks.
• Halloween: A horror thriller series about a serial killer named Michael Myers, a big man wearing a mask with a knife, who roams around and kill people. The series was firstly created by MGM Productions, which was later continued by Blumhouse in the modern day makeover.
• Pink Panther: From a beautiful pink colored diamond to a crafty yet playful andromorphic Pink Panther, it is a franchise owned by Metro Goldwyn Mayer - it has a series of live-action films and animated cartoon series.
• Kirill Kogan: Berlin-based illustrator whose artworks are based on comics, movies, and video games.
• Matt McCormick: Multimedia artist from Los Angeles, California whose work is heavily influenced from the American Wild West, such as cowboys, horses, and the old American life.
• Calen Morelli: Magician from Las Vegas, Nevada. He served as a creative consultant to David Blaine, Dynamo, and David Copperfield. He is well known for this creative magic tricks, especially creating optical illusions. Look at his works in IG @thenothingexperiment
• Army of Darkness: Part of the franchise of The Evil Dead made by movie producer Sam Raimi. The movie tells the story of Ashley Joanna "Ash" Williams joined forces with King Arthur to fight against the evil army of demons and monsters in the Middle Ages ever since he got sucked through the portal previously on "Evil Dead 2". It is owned by MGM Productions, directed by Sam Raimi and starred Bruce Campbell.
• SpongeBob SquarePants: Animation franchise that revolves around talking marine animals filled with iconic marine characters in comedy life and adventure. It centers around the character on the spotlight, a yellow square sea-sponge wearing a square pants named SpongeBob. The franchise is the creation of marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg. The TV series originally made for kids TV channel Nickelodeon, which is owned by Viacom CBS. The franchise has procured 13 seasons of the main series, 3 full-lenght movies, and two spin-off live-streaming series; along with video games, merchandices, and amusement park rides. The franchise keeps on continue to entertain children as well as adults.
• FTP: FTP stands for "F**k the Population" (excuse the stars, need to censor the word to keep this post friendly), is a clothing brand based on Los Angeles, California founded by Zac Austin Clark. It's line of clothings and accesorries invoke the sense of brash and recklessness, brandishing offensive contents such as the vulgar word, bold statements against governments, direct references to any horrifying incidents, and more - most prominently the three-letters initial of FTP.
• Nickelodeon: Nickelodeon is a kids-and-family channel owned by Paramount Pictures to air a variety of animated and cartoon series for children of age 2-17. It is well known for it’s orange colored title and the love of green slime [there’s actually the reality show where celebrities got slimed live]. There are 7 animated series featured for in this collab: Rugrats, stories from baby’s perspective - Catdog, life story of a conjoined cat and dog - Hey Arnold!, story of a fourth grader with a football shaped head - The Wild Thornberrys, adventure of Eliza and her family in the wildlife as she can communicate with animals - Aaahh!! Real Monsters, three young monsters who are learning the art of scaring people - Ren and Stimpy, adventures of Ren the chihuahua and Stimpy [real name Stimpson J. Cat] the cat - Rocko’s Modern Life, life story of Rocko thr wallaby who moved from Australia to United States.
• Sesame Street: Sesame Street is an educational children television series featuring lively and cute puppet characters. These characters would teach children some new words and would play out funny jokes that makes children happy. The show would often invite celebrities to come join the show. The prominent characters who keeps on appearing is Elmo, a red furry friend. The logo for the series is looked like a signage - brigh green color with yellow border, the text is in white.
• MISSING: MISSING is a cardistry brand originating from New York created by cardists Leo Flores and Nathan Stichter. Their decks are known for their ‘missing’ artworks on the front and back of the box, just on the sides and the print number of only 1000 decks. A few of their decks have some interesting concepts which are out-of-the-ordinary.

Total Decks: 118

---

NOTE: The list only mentions color/edition names. Entry with double starts are Collaboration Decks.


2013
Red

2014
Blue

2015
Black

2016
Pink

2017
Green
[*][*] Sleight
[*][*] Carrots
[*][*] Chinatown Market

2018
Wine
[*][*] GUESS
[*][*] RipnDip

2019
Watermelon
[*][*] Carrots v2 - Black/Orange
[*][*] Carrots v3 - Black/Red
[*][*] Carrots v3 Gold - Gold Gilded and numbered
Chocolate
Futures - 6 random variations sealed in silver packet - "mystery deck"

• Parrots (3000)
• Floral (2500)
• Window (2000)
• Polka (1500)
• Glitch (1000)
• 500 (500)

[*][*] GUESS Cycling
[*][*] GUESS Sticker
[*][*] The Good Company

2020
[*][*] Ripndip Ice Cream
[*][*] Braindead
Aqua Berry
Pineapple
[*][*] Babylon
Raspberry
Horchata
[*][*] Braindead BLM
[*][*] DABSMYLA
[*][*] Halloween
Pumpkin
Grey
Broccolli
Cranberry

Aqua Berry/Pineapple/Raspberry/Horchata are printed in TWCC. These decks doesn’t come with extra blank card and an ad card. Pumpkin/Grey/Broccolli/Cranberry are known as the "Fall Series" - it features the colors of fall season, and the tuckbox is missing the color edition name

2021
[*][*] Pink Panther
Slime
Cotton Candy
[*][*] Kogan Cult
[*][*] The Good Company v2
Holographic - Solid
Safety
Seafoam
[*][*] Kogan Cult (Alternate Tuckbox, featuring blue and white drawing) [500]
[*][*] Matt McCormick
Fever Dreams - 6 random variations sealed in yellow illustrated packets - "mystery deck"; check the pictures with description here

• CGI (4000) - Mocap Man
• 1993 (4000) - The Weekend Warrior
• Decoder (3000) - The Detective
• Hacker (3000) - The Hacker
• Rave (2000) - The Raver
• Character (1000) - The Fry Cook

  Fever Dreams Decks are all printed by USPCC; except for Character which is printed by LPCC. The brick box of Fever Dreams is constructed to looked like the puzzle lock cube as seen in the video, made of cardboard with graphic stickers - included is a built-in video player that plays a loop of a video of the series's story conclusion. There are two sale windows, refered to the brick box - 1st Window = The Standard Edition, which the box only contains 12 packs only and it is a rectangular shape; 2nd Window = The Deluxe Edition, which the box contains 12 packs along with a DVD of the entire video clips of the series and a book containing photographs of Behind the Scene of the series production - the box is a perfect square cube shape.

Holographic - Spiral
Denim
[*][*] ILLUSION PACK
[*][*] Army of Darkness
Holographic - Black [Pre-Sale 500]

Holographic Solid and Spiral (and later, Black and Rainbow) are printed by LPCC - the deck only has 52 standard cards and 2 jokers. Fontaine Mystery Deck 2021 only has some of the older releases and featuring new editions: Seafoam - Safety - Denim - Kogan Cult Alt. Edition. Kogan Cult Alt. is only available through Mystery Deck. Holographic Black is a "suprise" deck coming from a brick of Holographic Spiral; only 500 exist and it is marked "pre-sale" - it is also become one of the possible outcome in later Variety Pack. Slime/Cotton Candy/Seafoam/Safety are the "Neon Series" - using Pantone Neon ink that glows under UV light.

2022
[*][*] SpongeBob SquarePants
[*][*] SpongeBob SquarePants HOLOGRAPHIC
[*][*] FTP Black
[*][*] FTP Red
Holographic - Black
Holographic - Rainbow
Fantasies - 10 (+2) random editions sealed in imp-shaped blind packs - "mystery deck"

• Splatter (3500)
• Terrazo (3500)
• Cell (3500)
• Coral (3500)
• Gradient (2500)
• Discovery (2500)
• Pimlico (2500)
• OOPS! All Jokers! (1500)
• Clay (1500)
• Grid (750)
• Grid - Green (400) SECRET
• Grid - Blue (200) SECRET

  Most of the decks are printed by USPCC. Decks listed in bold and underline are printed by LPCC. Decks marked with "SECRET" are variants to the OG Grid - Silver, thus making them even rarer and hard to get. The Red Grid is obtainable from "Variety Brick" - it is the unreleased variant of OG Grid. The custom brick box is designed to looked like the dungeon of the goblins.

Holographic - Spiral GILDED
Grid - Red (500)
[*][*] Nickelodeon - 10 random decks sealed in orange packet - “mystery deck”

• Rugrats (3500)
• Rugrats GILDED (500)
• Catdog (3500)
• Hey Arnold! (3500)
• The Wild Thornberrys (3500)
• The Wild Thornberrys GILDED (250)
• Aaahh!! Real Monsters (2500)
• Ren and Stimpy (2500)
• Ren and Stimpy GILDED (750)
• Rocko’s Modern Life (2500)

  Getting all of the 7 different decks featuring 7 different kid’s animation series will formed Nickelodeon’s logo. The gilded variants come with a numbered seal, with shapes correspond to the deck's animation series theme - the cards are gilded with Emerald metallic foil. The brick box has a die-cut opening with sheet of plastic window featuring characters from the 7 series on the frame; the window is used to view the sides of the decks that formed "NICKELODEON".

Foils - Gold Holo
Foils - Turquoise (400) [ULTRA RARE]
[*][*] Sesame Street
[*][*] Sesame Street GILDED

SpongeBob SquarePants deck [printed by USPCC] is available for 24-hour Pre-Order Window. For anyone that gets any brick [maximum 4 bricks; 2 SpongeBob's Pineapple house box and 2 Squidward's Moiai statue house box], they can get a Holographic edition of the deck, printed by LPCC. A brick of FTP X Fontaine encased in bullets metal case can get the Red Edition of the deck. In July 2022, Fontaine hold an event at both locations in USA and Japan - sales of "Variety Brick", a brick containing 12 mystery decks of older release Fontaine decks. Two of the possible pulls are the unreleased decks: the conspiracy Fontaine Holographic Spiral GILDED and the never before seen Grid - Red = both are 500 made each. The "Variety Brick" is guaranteed one of the two ultra rare edition. 24h Pre-Order of Gold Holographic brick gifts you with 1 Ultra-Rare foil deck. 24h Pre-Order of Sesame Street brick gifts you with 1 Gold Gilded deck tucked inside the gold foil box - the custom brick box is a yellow school bus with Sesame Street characters peering out from the windows.

Foils - Kyanite
Foils - Ruby
Foils - Amethyst
Foils - Rose Quartz (200) [ULTRA RARE]
Foils - Topaz (100) [ULTRA RARE]
Foils - Peridot (100) [ULTRA RARE]

Foils line is the foiled edition of Fontaine - a variety of colored metallic foil, named after gems and minerals. It features two Jokers: one shows the series title - "Fontaine" in Little Lord Fontlery and "FOILS" in jagged crystal letter blocks in respective metallic foil; other one shows the text 'Joker' with a head crystal done in respective metallic foil. The back is the usual double Fs on metallic foil background. The Ace of Spades featured an enlarged spade pip done in respective metallic foil with "Fontaine". All of the Foils editions are printed by Legends. The Pre-Orders of the Foils edition brick will grant a "mystery pack" of (ULTRA RARE) Foils. This is a random one - one out of four possible 'ultra rare' foil colors [one of the four is the "plus one" on Gold Holo Pre-Orders].

2023
5000s - 16 random editions sealed in 6 'colors of the rainbow' boxes - "mystery deck"

• USA (3000)
• Crazy Rat (3000)
• Insect (3000)
• Bad Boy (3000)
• SPF (2000)
• Alien (2000)
• Teddy (2000)
• Fellow (2000)
• Play (1000)
• Skank (1000)
• Trickster (1000)
• Crazy Kid (1000)
• Heat Vision (400)
• Guest (300)
• World (200)
• Knight (100)

  All of the decks are printed with USPCC. The release will be a 5 times window - the 1st window opening, it will be "leap of faith", and the following weeks, the decks designs will be revealed progessively. There are six different colors of the blind packs, following the colors of the rainbow [Red - Orange - Yellow - Green - Blue - Violet]; although this doesn't affect the random chances of the decks offerings.

Foils - Emerald
[*][*] MISSING - Fontaine Collage


TBA

[laitostarr777]

IG user @lucas._.magic is always on the move to compile everything Fontaine released. He created these backs by himself - definitely proofs that the design is so simple, ANYONE can do it. This post thread will keep on changing picture as with many new decks on the line.

Here is the current layout so far : 2013 - 2022

[laitostarr777]

I decided to make a seperate threat of the bad points about this brand, because it's piling up every time, as the brand keeps on getting high on their ego, so the boy can do WHATEVER he wants and can get away with it. So here is the roasting post:

Why It's Hated?

• The design is really that simple that any people can simply do it if they know just a little bit of using the software. It feels like the design for the deck (aside from most collabs) is on autopilot: simply have one main workfile ready for the Fontaine decks and just a simple paint bucket job to make different editions. Sometimes, the only differences from each solid color editions are through the ad cards. Although, it is understandable that the design is simple, as it is for cardistry (and since it's Zach's idea to have the deck built like his favorite playing cards = the Jerry's Nugget playing cards), but too simple can be bad.
• The font used for the deck is called "Little Lord Fontlery" by Nick Curtis, and there are speculations if Zach actually bought the font OR he just used it for free. If it's the latter, then he had been ripping off the font creator and it will be a liable case for Nick to demand royalty fees. Although this point is never yet examined.
• The marketing is using what the brand Supreme had been using for years - creating an illusion where the items are in limited stocks, but in reality there are more produced. This had been proven a few times. Case Ex. The Aqua Berry and Pineapple Fontaine are claimed to be made 2500 each, but after counting the number of stocks during the webstore setup, the amounts are inconsistent with the stated amount. Although this might be because USPCC's tendencies to overprint.
• The decks are so limited, that to most people, these decks are nothing more than collector's decks other than it's main purpose of being cardistry decks. High price in aftermarkets, getting the rare and ultra rare decks (with extremely low print run), and the exclusivity, some would be too scared to even use them in the first place, thus they would simply put these decks in boxes or displays collecting dust. The boy saying "I don't want my decks to be collectible and should be used for cardistry" is nothing more than a pure white lie - he ACTUALLY wanted this to happen, and will keep it that way.
• Hype over simplicity, same goes with A1WW - where 'bozos' flippers and scalpers will torture the people who missed the initial release with crazy amount of prices in the aftermarkets. Although Zach is in no control for this situation, but it just keeps on happening over and over. Retailers that sold it just slightly above the initial price (say a 3-5$ difference) were harassed by 'cult followers' of the brand.
• Every hype brand must have their "cult" followers, so Fontaine is no exception. The faithful followers of this brand would starts attacking with: "Why you collect other recolored decks and not Fontaine?" to people who disagree with everything about the brand itself. Other recolored decks that they would usually used to attack your disagreement: NOC, Jerry’s Nuggets, Bicycles, Cherry Casinos. You can tell who is a loyalist, and those who do not simply by seeing how defensive they are and how protective over the deck's design. They might not called themselves a "cult", but we can't deny that they are really a "cult" - who will always turn a blind eye. Just be careful - try not to trigger them that much.
• Teasers for the new decks can be cringy sometimes. Like it is usually just showing single cards or one deck and hidden within the IG stories - could be just placed on the table, displayed on the shelves, etc. That is what usually drives the hype and anticipation for the new decks.
• If you have been watching all the trailers for the decks, you notice the cardists changes overtime. The latest trailers feature young cardists that are pretty new to the game. Where the previous cardists go? Maybe they quit because they have sensed something wrong with the brand, maybe get unfair treatment? This might be an irrelevant point.
• Zach Mueller rarely to almost never seen doing cardistry anymore. It appears that now he only focuses to just keep on producing decks and beat the record from many brands, and just let the other new cardists do the work for him to promote the decks. It feels his days of being the cool guy from years ago has gone - during those days where he start up fresh with magic and cardistry, along with building his Fontaine brand. He has issues with his attitude, especially during the BLM incident where he called people out for contradicting with his point of views, and at that moment, all the fiasco of the brand and himself had revealed their colors. You can find the thread here. Through other people's testimonies, Zach is known to be very abusive: he would cut off any people who contradicts with his philosophy, making them speechless in the end. It has been proven that he never takes other people's advices that easy, simply just brushed them off. He has a really high ego - perhaps this has something to do with his brand becomes crazily famous.
• The Red Fontaine is now the most expensive item out there in eBay, more expensive than the OG Jerry's Nuggets - fetching up to 600$. During the renovations of the store, Zach starts to hunt down all the Reds he can find for "Store Displays". Right now, there are 30 Red Fontaines displayed in acrylic case and a case (claimed to have more Reds in there) in the new revamped store. It is a funny case where he never got the stocks to himself in the first place. You can find the thread about this here. The monopoly causes a crisis in the market, making the deck even more expensive, and possibly beyond impossible.
• There are constant demands that the brand SHOULD have made higher print runs, but that is never taken. Because, let's face it. If the brand is not sold out within 1 minute, it is a 'bad' business for the brand.
• The Fontaine Club seemed to be ineffective. During the first establishment, there are unbalanced amount of decks that can be obtained by the club VS public release. In every release, Fontaine Club is accepting more applicants, which in the long run, it is no longer a club anymore. Even if the people are already in the club, the war still on, as the sell still keeps the record for selling out within seconds. Worse, some people in the club never received any notifications, and they were too late to get the new release. Even though the Club manages to prevent bots, but it still can't prevent flippers and scalpers, as they managed to get in, snag the decks, and prepare to make quick profits on eBay. As of now, the Club is pretty much dead.
• There are no longer shipment to UK, because of the Brexit situation. Instead of Zach trying to solve this problem, he appears to "mock" the Brits in his IG story. This cause a serious backlash and anger from the UK fans, at the point some of them starts to boycott the brand.
• Based on some Reddit posts, people there shown their purchased Fontaines to have a poor offset of the design. Of course, this is typical for USPCC to have this for the past two years till now. The Quality Check for the decks are in question, as probably Fontaine and other hype brands don't care about the offset problems since they know majority of people would just keep it sealed. Based on one Redditer, if one keeps buying their decks that might just have off-centered cards, then it means one thinks it is okay for them to keep on with this stunt and never make improvements. Although, some wouldn't just care if the cards made by USPCC would have an offset center cut, because they would only care for the best handling. Eventhough USPCC is favoured for their card handling and finish, that is still doesn't excuse them for having a poor offset. Strangely, off all the cases of offset decks made by USPCC, Fontaine cards have the most cases entirely - you can check the list of cases over HERE and WITHIN this blog.
• Recently, there was a shocking discovery for the people who have bought a brick of Holographic - Spiral: One of the deck in the brick is a Holographic - Black; only 500 print run and it is dubbed 'pre-sale'. It is quite a prick move because nothing of this situation was ever mentioned beforehand during the pre-order period. Perhaps by doing this, people will be encouraged to get more bricks instead of just singles (because by this move, FOMO starts to spread on the people). Even though is is a "gift" for hardcore supporters, this move is not cool - making a lot of other supporters regret for not acquiring bricks in the first place and make them feel bad, with some resorts to rage quit the brand's collection. It is a shady business move for a boy who just used the money to huzzah in amusement parks and get Spy Kids and Goosebumps paraphenelias [hoping the brand won't desecrate them by making collab decks].
• Isn't it such a coincidence that Fontaine has collaborated with FTP. While FTP does stands for "F**k the Population", it coincidentally can stands for "F**k the Police", a catchy hiphop song made by N.W.A. back in the 80s [probably most people first thought of that before knowing about the clothing brand]. That song is made to express harsh commentaries on how law enforcement abused their powers. There is a high chance that the reason Zach wanted to collaborate with FTP is NOT about a brand's lifetime goal, BUT to create a bold statement of "All Cops are Bad" [ACAB] ever since that George Floyd incident in 2020 [remember the incident where he uses that event as a chance to make deck sales: witholding Good Company decks and releasing more Chocolate Fontaine because "it feels right"]. Thus, the decks simply say "F**k the Police".
• GILDED Fontaine Holographic Spiral - A Redditor stumbles upon this when he bought decks from TCC - HERE. It's a Fontaine Holographic Spiral with a spiral numbered sticker of "1 of 500", with the cards are gilded with holographic foil. This was a surprise discovery, and the Reddit post suggests that it might be that those decks were sent to TCC so they can sell the decks in the Chinese market. TCC opened them and have the cards gilded, and then sealed with a sticker. Because Fontaine promised that the Gilded Carrots is the only gilded deck in the brand series, this gilded Spiral is not considered to be one of the brand. Although, there are rumors that this was Zach's intention all along - he might had made the arrangement for those decks to be made. The photos of this deck once made viral in IG, but the snob requested it to be taken down, trying to have the people to just forget about it and never discuss about it. Till now, there are no explanations coming from the snob himself. The brand itself is really a disaster in terms of transparency, consistency, and quality.
• Fontaine has been frequently holding a lot of mystery packs events lately. Currently in 2022, there are at least 3 of them happened. The brand is no longer as humble and caring and anything good, but it is now a money-making machine looking to keep leeching the wallets from collectors [since this main audience target are the ones who would do anything to complete their collections]. They will NEVER let people take a break at least for a few months - they are slowly making the market oversaturated with their decks that it is going to be hard time for people to resell the decks. They keep on doing this stunt, and people would slowly don't care of this brand and eventually it dies.
• Fontaine is punishing collectors by making unsuspecting surprises such as never before seen editions. Recently, Fontaine holds a release event on both USA and Japan, selling "Variety Brick", a brick containing 12 older release Fontaine deck. Within those 12 decks, there might be possible pulls of 2 secret decks: the conspiracy Fontaine Holographic Spiral GILDED [finally they decided to reveal it and make it an official lineup] and the never-before seen and not included in Fantasies pack Grid - Red [this Grid variant was announced when Fontaine sold mystery uncut sheets of Fontaine Fantasies]. This concludes that: no matter how hard collectors tried to complete their collections and/or how complete and up-to-date their collections are, they will find a way to REKT it up and make people stressed up.
• Fontaine's recent collaboration with Viacom, for both SpongeBob and Nickelodeon Mystery Pack, has limited the decks to the USA region only. This cuts out many international people who wishes to get the decks. It is still debatable on who to blame for this matter: is it Fontaine that doesn't willing to pay license to allow internationals to have the collaboration decks OR is it Viacom that comes up with the exclusivity and somewhat complicated rules about having them available internationally? Whatever the reasons, internationals feel betrayed by this: either they throw in the towel OR have to suffer with double shipping as they need to send to an address in US before it got forwarded to their respective countries.
• Currently, the brand is making the market oversaturated with their decks by doing the: "get exclusive edition for buying a brick" game. Basically, an extra edition of the deck will be added to a brick and it is the only way to get it. In other words, a deck edition that is tailgated. It had once happened during the release of Fontaine collaboration with Viacom - SpongeBob SquarePants: where the Holographic edition is only obtainable when a brick of standard decks acquired. It is really an easy money for the brand, but they are not aware that they just make their decks too much in the market - making it hard for resellers to sell the overflowed decks they have in their inventory. Plus, not everyone can managed to buy bricks everytime and not everyone is willing to get so many of the same decks just to get the one they want - thus this can be really frustrating for most people, that they simply throw in the towels for this brand. To make it worse, it has becomes the normal practice for Fontaine of doing "plus one" sales: The Gold Holo and the Sesame Street collab.
• In 2022, the brand had set up a new record of setting up so many pre-orders in a year: 5 to be exact - Gold Holos, Sesame Street, Foils - Kyanite, Foils - Ruby., Foils - Amethyst. These constant Pre-Orders completely drained people's money, especially when it comes with the 'plus one' surprise. To makes matter worse, those who ordered the Kyanite decks was surprised with a 'new low': for those who ordered a brick with get a 'mystery pack' of 1 out of 4 random "ULTRA-RARE" Foils. All of the protests were silenced when it is officially a thing during the latest Pre-Order. Those who ordered 4 bricks are 'NOT GUARANTEED' to have all of the four 'ULTRA-RARE' Foils. This brand is no longer a cardistry brand, but more like a money-driven sly business. The '1 out of 4' mystery 'ULTRA-RARE' foils is another fact that: no matter how complete you are, that snobby kid (probably a greed demon in disguise - because he might not be human anymore) will ALWAYS, ALWAYS finds a way to destroy them. In the end, it's only him (obviously) and his blind sheep friends (who are rebellious and drug users) have the complete collection everytime. All these frequent Pre-Orders might mean one thing, that Zach is now currently broke and in desperate need for funds.
• Fontaine currently frequents the release of mystery blind series, hurting the market even more as there will be thousands of decks will be collecting dust and hard to sell. Some of the possibly better (out of the ordinary) designs are locked behind the "Ultra Rare" and "Rare" categories, thus turning people off from having chances to get the designs that they wanted. To everyone's susprise, the latest mystery deck series offer 16 different designs! This fears that in the future, it might be increasing two folds everytime.
• In early February 2023, the community is shocked with a funny news: Fontaine decks has been listed in wholeseller like Murphy's Magic and Penguin Magic. Almost every day, there will be new decks listed, including decks provided in blind packs (which by now, you can get any decks within the blind pack series without gambling your chances). This is a definite sign that the brand is starting to crumble and will soon extinct if no redemptions taken.

[laitostarr777]

IG @lucas_magic have decided to create an account dedicated to list every Fontaine deck ever existed
For Instagram users, search for @fontainearchives

You will see the 100 plus backs of every Fontaine existed, updated regularly everytime there are new ones. And this ACTUALLY PROOFS that the back of every Fontaine is just so DRASTICALLY easy to recreate XD