Monarch Playing Cards by theory11

Great for cardistry, and okay for magic tricks. I know some people buy these for card games, but I'm not really sure why. At $10 a pop, these are pretty expensive to let your buddies paw them and spill beer over (which is why I buy Kems or other plastic cards for gaming).Theory 11 makes designs good cards. The Monarchs are made by USPCC, but under Q1 standards. Just FYI, Q1 doesn't mean they're using some special process, it means they have highest level of quality control technicians during the productions process, so these cards are as flawless as USPCC can make.The cards are very slippery, which makes them great for speads and fans, but a little bit touchy for packet control. Definitely manageable though. The tuck case is gorgeous and feels great.The card faces are all standard except for the Ace of Spades and the matching Jokers, which are custom. These nice thing about this is that while the cards look classier than a deck of Bikes, they don't look like a trick deck.I think the best compliment you make about a set of cards is that they show and handle well. Monarchs deliver in spades on both counts.

Amazon asked for a review for this:It is a set of playing cards: three decksEach deck has a different colored back: blue, green, redOn the front of each card, you will find different faces with different combinations of numbers or letters: A,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,J,Q,K and four different symbols using two colors: Red Hearts, Red Rhombus (Called Diamonds), Black Three Leaf Clovers (Called Clubs), Black Upside Down Hearts with the same stem as the club symbol connected on the bottom (Called Spades).You may wonder, "why no 1 card, all the other numbers are there..." well that A or "Ace" card takes its place. Each card will have the number of symbols on the middle of the card, and the number and symbol in two corners. The bottom one will be upside down, but you can rotate it 180 degrees, it will be right side up. The J, Q, K cards have a picture of a person on them. Hauntingly, the people have no legs, instead the upper half of the body is duplicated upside down where the legs should be. The Q is the Queen, the K is the King and the J is the Jack. Some of the cards hold weapons, others flowers and one looks like it is holding a toy for the bedroom. One of them appears to be killing himself.Here is a list of contents in each box: Ace of Clubs, Two of Clubs, Three of Clubs, Four of Clubs, Five of Clubs, Six of Clubs, Seven of Clubs, Eight of Clubs, Nine of Clubs, Ten of Clubs, Jack of Clubs, Queen of Clubs, King of Clubs, Ace of Diamonds, Two of Diamonds, Three of Diamonds, Four of Diamonds, Five of Diamonds, Six of Diamonds, Seven of Diamonds, Eight of Diamonds, Nine of Diamonds, Ten of Diamonds, Jack of Diamonds, Queen of Diamonds, King of Diamonds, Ace of Spades, Two of Spades, Three of Spades, Four of Spades, Five of Spades, Six of Spades, Seven of Spades, Eight of Spades, Nine of Spades, Ten of Spades, Jack of Spades, Queen of Spades, King of Spades, Ace of Hearts, Two of Hearts, Three of Hearts, Four of Hearts, Five of Hearts, Six of Hearts, Seven of Hearts, Eight of Hearts, Nine of Hearts, Ten of Hearts, Jack of Hearts, Queen of Hearts, King of Hearts, Joker, Another Joker.Please confirm that the cards you are looking for are included before making this investment.

The pack of cards is nicely packaged with a plastic seal and also tape on the box. Feels premium and cheap for the price. Various color options so I had to pick purple 💜

High quality deck with a great feel in your hand. The design is very cool and the cards are nice and durable.

These cards are stylish inside and out! The box they come in looks great and could be displayed handsomely. The cards are equally as stylish and the texture is so silky and smooth. I chose the dark blue since I read in a review that it was more of a midnight blue, and when I got them I loved the smoky black tone of the blue on the case and the cards.The buck stops here for your playing card search and I highly recommended them for the next addition to your home gaming entertainment.

I'm not an expert, I just wanted some nice cards. $11 seems a bit much for these.The good: They are really pretty, and the design on the backs of the cards is unique and cool (i got the dark blue). They behave like cards should when shuffling, dealing, etc. The deck I got was in great shape, and the box is nice and well built.The bad: $11? If you gave someone the pepsi challenge and had them shuffle/deal blind a few times with these compared to a $3 bicycle deck, I doubt many people could tell the difference (I suspect the bicycles may actually win). Soon after opening the cards (same day) i noticed a few small gaps when looking at the deck from the side. I'm sure there's a name for that, but i don't know it. It seems like during shuffling/dealing, a few of the cards got slightly bent or something. It's nothing major and they're still usable, but again I've used $3 bicycle decks for years and they don't warp/bend on the first day in my experience. Also, I expected (and maybe this is my bad) to have more unique/original artwork. Aside from the Ace of Spades and the jokers these card faces look just like standard cards. That's fine i suppose but with a 'fancy' deck i sort of assumed the face cards and aces would be somehow different or cooler looking than 'normal' cards. Not a huge deal, but still worth noting.verdict: I'm not buying them again unless they're way cheaper (maybe $5 and maybe one with cooler artwork?), but if you just want a cool looking deck these seem decent to me. The backs really do look nice. I'm going to keep them in my poker kit for novelty but I'm also going to keep normal cards in there too.