Karnival Xtreme deck - review

What’s this emerging out of the undergrowth? It’s the new Karnival Xtreme deck – and yes – I have got a bit carried away with pictures this time. Blame it on the nice sunny weather. Anyway, X-treme is the latest incarnation of the Karnival Deck from BigBlindMedia. It was released last week – and here are our thoughts – and did I mention, quite a few pictures…

As the Xtreme name suggests, X-ray imagery provides the inspiration for this new deck – which means, in practice, lots more bones and skulls!

Black edges merge with the icy blue design to provide a striking look. The face of each card has a label with its name on – which was particularly helpful in identifying the jokers! (see below)

A very cool reveal is hiding inside the tuckcase – where a skeletal hand holds a six of clubs.

The face of each card is unique with different skeletal features – hands, bones, spines, etc. – providing the background to the semi-translucent pips. This is classic Sam Hayles!

Some useful extra cards are provided – a blank faced one and an ‘x-ray-card’ with the front of a skeleton on one side and the back on the other (the image left is a composite of a shot of the front and the back of this card).

Handling is everything you’d expect from USPCC air flow finish – they are verging on the slippy and fan and spread beautifully – making these ideal for magic use. But a relatively low print run (8,000) will make these of interest to the collector too. All in all, a worthy addition to the Karnival line-up…