"All-In" Playing Card Blog - News, Contests, Articles & More! — Transformation Playing Cards

by BoardGameGeek reviewer EndersGame Historical Importance There's an incredible variety of custom playing cards in today's market. But of all the playing cards that I've seen over the years, there is one type of deck that remains a personal favourite: the transformation deck. The concept of these playing cards is simple to understand: the pips on the cards are cleverly incorporated into a larger picture. So an imaginative artist might transform the Heart pips into faces, the Diamond pips into hats, or the Club pips into paw prints.Some wonderful transformation decks have been produced in recent years, but the concept is hardly new....

by BoardGameGeek reviewer EndersGame Custom playing cards really took off with the arrival of crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter in 2009. As a result, today we have a thriving marketplace that is flooded with a plethora of amazing designs. Less than a decade after the advent of Kickstarter, the market today is in many respects crowded and fiercely competitive. But the crowdfunding era has also produced more diverse designs, including transformation decks, which consist of unique playing cards where the pips have been creatively incorporated into a larger artistic image. There are some modern transformation decks that have been produced by...

Special Content by BoardGameGeek reviewer EndersGame Transformation decks consist of unique playing cards where the pips have been creatively incorporated into a larger artistic image. After first appearing throughout the 1800s, they faded into obscurity for most of the 1900s. But there was some resurgence of interest in transformation playing cards at the end of the 20th century, especially around the 1990s and early 2000s. This period saw the creation of several landmark transformation decks which are still highly regarded today. Evident in some of the transformation decks from this era is a greater flexibility used in the placement and style...