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Diamond Award winner Stockholm17 and his Notorious Gambling Frogs

Posted by EndersGame Reviewer on

Diamond Award winner Stockholm17 and his Notorious Gambling Frogs

by BoardGameGeek reviewer EndersGameLorenzo Gaggiotti, better known to most of us as Stockholm17, is a rock-star in the world of modern playing cards. As evidence, you only need to consider the most recent Diamond Awards hosted by 52 Plus Joker in early October. He took out the number one spot in two elite categories: 2022 Deck of the Year Award, and 2022 Artist of the Year Award.His highly praised "Eye of the Ocean Playing Cards" project is what earned him the coveted award for this year's Deck of the Year. And it was the accumulated designs he contributed to the...

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10 Top Playing Card Designers

Posted by EndersGame Reviewer on

10 Top Playing Card Designers

by BoardGameGeek reviewer EndersGame To help celebrate the 5th anniversary of PlayingCardDecks, I'm writing a few articles with Top 10 lists. This time around, let's take a look at ten top playing card designers.I should explain what I mean by a "Top 10 list", so that this doesn't cause anyone to shoot flames across the internet in my direction. I'm not suggesting that this list represents the absolute best ten. It's hard to narrow down a strong field down to just ten names, and it is not my intention to suggest that any name not included isn't as good as...

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10 Top Decks Produced by PlayingCardDecks

Posted by EndersGame Reviewer on

10 Top Decks Produced by PlayingCardDecks

 by BoardGameGeek reviewer EndersGame I'm writing a number of Top 10 lists to help celebrate the 5th anniversary of PlayingCardDecks, so of course I also had to do a list about the custom decks that Will Roya has produced under his own label. PlayingCardDecks (PCD) has only been around for 5 years, but already within his first year of starting his business, Will was working on projects to produce his own custom decks. In the context of where PCD was at, this was quite an undertaking. It already requires a huge amount of effort to start up an online business...

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The Best Decks of 2021: A Gallery of Award Winners

Posted by EndersGame Reviewer on

The Best Decks of 2021: A Gallery of Award Winners

by BoardGameGeek reviewer EndersGame Almost every industry has some kind of awards.  Fortunately for us, the same applies to the world of custom playing cards.   Like all awards, there's always going to be a certain amount of subjectivity involved.  Who picked the nominees?  What were the criteria?  What kind of voting system was involved?  And the announcements of winners may even spark debate.  Were other candidates better?  What potential candidates were overlooked completely?But regardless of how you feel about awards, I'm convinced they're good to have.  They are one way of recognizing some of the best in the industry.  And...

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Interview with Playing Card Historian and Antique Collector Jason McKinstry (author of Paper Empires)

Posted by EndersGame Reviewer on

Interview with Playing Card Historian and Antique Collector Jason McKinstry (author of Paper Empires)

by BoardGameGeek reviewer EndersGame Who is Jason McKinstry? Any respectable field of interest doesn't just have aficionados and enthusiasts. It also has historians, who systematically and carefully study the past, and document their findings. In the world of playing cards, Jason McKinstry is one of those unique individuals. There is certainly no shortage of playing card enthusiasts - you only need to visit online playing card forums to see how many passionate collectors are out there, or check out the thriving membership list of the 52 Plus Joker playing card club. Plenty of people are interested in playing cards, and...

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