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Hi all. Happy November! Not quite cold here in NC yet, but we'll get there!

Penguin just released the new Continuum playing cards. There is a standard Burgundy edition (3000) as well as a limited Black & Gold edition. The Black deck has gold foiled card backs, and the tuck is a luxurious soft-touch black paper with gold & white foils.

Continuum is a really special deck. They've actually been printed for months. Erik Tait performed using the Burgundy decks at FISM this summer. FISM is basically the Olympics of magic. Erik could have chosen to use any deck of cards in the world to compete, but he chose Continuum.

Beyond that - Erik not only competed with the deck, he won 3rd prize in the Card Magic category. He is only the 4th American in history to win a FISM prize in card magic, and the first to do so in 20 years.

You can find pics & info about both decks at the link below. Both are available as singles or 6-packs in collectible half-brick boxes.

https://www.penguinmagic.com/p/18010

Happy to answer any questions about them.

Thanks!

Love the price point, as always. But this design isn't really for my liking.

I don't think those pics show off the gold foil very well (it is foil on the blacks, yes?)

Aqua Flow and Ultralux stock again? Are all Penguin decks moving forward come with this stock/finish combo?

Photographing shiny, glossy things is always tricky. Yes, the black decks have gold foil backs. They look amazing in person!

We debuted UltraLux & AquaFlow about 13 months ago, and the majority of our releases since then have used those materials. We're not taking an all or nothing approach, but the majority of our custom decks will continue on UltraLux. Though we are debuting UltraLux XT soon

We still print a lot with USPCC, but those decks aren't really of interest to most collectors. We still print our Elite Bikes, Marked Maidens, and a wide variety of "tricky" cards on Rider & Maiden backs, as those are still the default standards for magicians.

When it comes to our custom artwork decks though, UltraLux will be the majority of what you see from Penguin for the foreseeable future.

Great to hear that. I'm still beating my Sorcerer's Apperantice and they still hold up great. Probably my favorite non-USPCC cards to date handlingwise. Hopefully for UltraLux XT I don't have to wait as long as for an Ultra Lux deck to be somewhat up to my taste, haha.

Congrats to Erik Tait for his outstanding result at FISM 2022. Pretty cool that he used a custom deck that hadn't even been released at that point yet.

I like the look of this deck - the back design especially looks clean and appealing.



And the cards aren't too customized to the point where they distract, while still offering a unique look and feel.





Nice Jokers too, and good job all round!

I hadn't realized previously, but the Black version (limited edition of 500) actually isn't a TGIF special item, but is available for separate purchase:

https://www.penguinmagic.com/p/18012

Just like the Red version (limited edition of 3,000) it looks rather lovely, and definitely hits the right mix between looking classy, elegant and unique, while still being practical and functional.

I like the sound of the gold foiled card backs with the Black version, and foil tuck case, which explains the higher price of the Black vs Red version.

Shunterino has already posted, while the tuck pics of the black look foiled the backs don't - not sure why the tucks photograph well but the backs don't
Did anybody get these? Are the Backs a deep black and what is the foil like?
The pics show the Burgundy deck with the JoC as the Freddy Mercury Jack, while the Black has him as the JoC - the courts aren't repeated are they?

Jacks & Queens - I'm assuming you meant the JoC and JoS. Other than the fact that they both have a mustache, I don't see them as being repeating at all.
The backs are black. It doesn't come off as a deep navy blue, they look black. The foiling - I'm guessing we may be talking the difference between hot vs. cold for the tuck vs. back. The backs are definitely foiled, but a little muted when compared to the tuck. Scanning, which is typically how I capture my cards, will never capture foil correctly and I am not skilled enough with a phone camera to capture foiling well, so sorry no good photos to show the difference.

Thanks for going to all that trouble Flyer. I wasn't saying that the courts were repeating - just asking if they were and you have exceeded my expectations in supplying all that you have. As you have shown, they are very different while I had failed to notice the difference between the JoS and the JoC used in the deck advertising. Thanks again.
I am just trying to make up my mind whether I go for the black or the burgundy