Card magic is both one of the most basic and one of the most impressive styles of magic tricks. The existence of self-working decks for magic tricks has made many audience members suspicious, however. We'll look at some of the most famous trick decks, and their pros and cons for aspiring magicians. The easiest are often those that are regarded with more suspicion, while those that require a little more skill are better for misdirecting the audience.
1. Stripper Decks
Some of the trick decks to come, like Svengali or Invisible Decks, cannot be handled at all by audience members -- they will immediately be seen to be false. Stripper Decks are good for controlling a large proportion of the cards in your deck, from 10 cards to half the deck, usually. Sleight of hand is needed -- Stripper Decks are not self-working.
2. Forcing Decks
These trick decks either have all blank cards, or all identical cards. Obviously you can’t let the audience handle the deck. However, using sleight of hand you can perform a deck switch, where you can let the audience handle a regular deck, and then switch it for your forcing one. They make self-working tricks.
3. Svengali Deck
These were invented by Burling Hull in the early 1900s, and the secret of the Svengali deck has been available in magic books for quite a few decades. Svengali decks are usually shaved to allow the magician to identify cards by feel, not by sight. They have a faster riffle and a characteristic sound.
4. Marked Decks
These have subtle indications on the colored side of the cards, which can show the magician which color and number he is looking at, as well as suit if required. X-ray vision magic tricks are made easy with a marked deck -- they are useful for all sorts of magic tricks.
5. Miniature Decks
These decks are much easier to do vanishing routines with, and are also great for switching. You can make your own Svengali cards out of them, and expand the number of tricks you can do by performing a good deck switching magic trick.
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