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I'm sure everyone is aware by now of these. This is the 1st deck in a 4 deck series.

http://www.ellusionist.com/fathom-playing-cards.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;





















CBJ

Did they reuse court cards from some of their other decks and just added bubbles, or am I imagining things?

Is there any clear shots of the cards, especially the back?

After the IAOCP deck, they should have skipped octopus artwork.

I think this deck is beautiful! A must have for me.

Evan,

How can you tell how beautiful the deck is from those images? Too much distortion for me, especially in color/shading - though they certainly show some promise.

Would love to see some un-styled pictures...

Ellusionist has posted another pic

( click for larger view )

This picture is much better, but they just can't resist blurry photos, can they?

Jake was nice enough to send me a couple more pics!

and I did a close up ...

DelMagic wrote:Evan,

How can you tell how beautiful the deck is from those images? Too much distortion for me, especially in color/shading - though they certainly show some promise.

The pictures were very viewable to me. But these new, clearer pictures are even better!

Love this deck a lot.
Can't wait to see the fire theme deck.

Oh good yes, I'm not disappointed, which is good since I've already paid.

That deck is a subtle one way deck...look at the center of the back design!

I like this deck quite a bit. I especially love the colors and the font chosen for the pips. Hope the other releases in this series are just as good, if not better

I'm hoping the faces will all be similar with different color profiles, and the backs complementary designs in different colors. That would open up a lot of color change type effects. Then a gaff deck or set of cards could be sold to be utilized with all the decks.

I LOVE the backs! Those are amazing looking.

I predict their advertisement for the fire portion will use actual fire and they'll likely burn the cards...
Hmmmm, Earth, Wind, Water, Fire... that's pretty original *cough*...

Seriously though, I'll probably pick up a few, since I'm a sucker when it comes to collecting... and I wouldn't mind a free LTD deck.

I love the Ace of Spades with the converging mermaids.
Nice!

Wow super nice . i'm not a fan of Ellusionist decks except for LTD , Sultan Treasury/Republic and now Fathom . So will there be Earth element and Fire element? the Reds will be cool!

I did not like those under water glamour shots. I didn't buy them earlier because i couldn't tell if i liked them. Too blurry. Thanks CBJ for asking for new pics. Seeing these new pictures, ...i really like the back. The fronts are just..ok for me. I kinda wish they didn't mess with the courts the way they did. The background/color effects and such. I like the courts/color scheme just not the fancy...umm, I would call it photoshopping for lack of knowing the technical term for messing with the picture. Just my opinion. These will be added to my collection. Overall, I like the deck. Always glad to see new ideas.

I liked these right away. Cool and unusual designs are right up my alley.

I'm confused why everyone is saying the underwater glamour shots were blurry. I could see everything just fine.
Did everyone else have trouble deciding if they liked these until CBJ posted "dryer" pics?

I'd be curious to see how they depict wind... that sounds like it would be a kind of lame deck. Will the court cards have their hair blowing?

They should make a bonus 5th element deck with Milla Jovovich as the QoH!

I got my brick of Fathom decks, 2 Sultan Treasury decks, and a free LTD deck today. This post is about the Fathom deck, since almost everyone already knows all about the Sultan Treasury and LTD decks.

My first impression was, "Man, the tuck box sucks!" No foil, no embossing, no deck seal, nothing special at all! It doesn't even say made by the USPC anywhere on the box- the sides of the box don't have any lettering, just blank. It just looks like a dirty teal box. The only redeeming quality is the back of the box, and only because it shows the back design (which is very nice). Given the high standards of other custom tuck boxes out there, this is a huge let-down.....

More bad news - I don't think the cards are on casino-grade Bee stock.

Enough about the negatives, as I said earlier, the back design is very nice. There's no border, but the design extends close enough to the edges of the cards so that fans look very nice. Everything is custom on this deck - back design, Jokers, Ace of Spades, court cards, pips, and fonts, so big props to E for that. I think the AoS is nice, as well as the octopus Jokers (which are identical, no reveals). The court cards look like they're under water with bubbles all around them, fits well with the theme. I really like the pips, they're a lighter shade in the center of the card and the pips that are closer to the edges of the card are darker, so there's a gradient shading effect, and one of the pips on each card is bubbly. The cards faro easily, but aren't traditionally cut.

With so much effort put into making everything custom, its a shame so little effort went into the tuck box. If this is the first deck in a new series featuring the elements, then I hope E steps up their game with the fire, earth, and wind tuck boxes and at least use some foil and embossing.

I would much rather have a deck like this than, say, T11 Monarchs.

Thanks for taking the time to post your first impressions

I guess I agree with you: if given a choice between awesome box and mediocre cards or mediocre box and awesome cards, I'd choose awesome cards. But there's no reason E can't do both, hence the disappointment. The other odd thing is there is no mention at all of the USPC, not on the box or on the cards, though this is obviously a USPC produced deck.....

alric wrote:I got my brick of Fathom decks, 2 Sultan Treasury decks, and a free LTD deck today. This post is about the Fathom deck, since almost everyone already knows all about the Sultan Treasury and LTD decks.

More bad news - I don't think the cards are on casino-grade Bee stock.

E hasn't used bee casino stock for some time.

http://imgur.com/CIcWh" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I too am very disappointed with the box. It really needs some embossing and foil would make it even better looking.
As for the stock, I believe Ellusionist currently uses Bicycle stock.

EDIT: I see that john has posted about the stock.

Could you shot some pictures of the cards/box and i wonder if there are any gaff cards included?

cosmicsecret wrote:That deck is a subtle one way deck...look at the center of the back design!

Oh yea ... Got it ... Don't know if I should be glad or sad