The Best Playing Cards for Magic Tricks

What are the best playing cards for magic? If you're wondering, know that you're in good company.

Everyone asks this question, including those who make their living performing close-up magic tricks. That's why magicians spend their entire careers experimenting, buying different decks, and trying new cards every chance they get.

It's an important question, and it needs a complete answer.

At One Ahead, our writers perform and create magic around the world on a daily basis. We know what magicians want, and we never leave stones unturned.

First of all, the basic differences: cards can be made of different materials, have a different stock, different shapes, and different designs, on the face and on the back. Some types of cards are then made specifically for magicians.

In magic, 99% of magicians use poker cards (different in size from bridge cards). The size can be standard or jumbo; jumbo cards, which are larger, will only be useful if you're performing on a stage.

Most magicians choose to use paper cards, not plastic. Paper cards are easier to manipulate and have a better feel (plastic cards may look cheaper, too.)

Over the years, manufacturers have invented new types of stock with different thickness that make each brand almost unique. These differences don't change the audience's perception of the magic, but magicians often obsess over them.

Bicycle Playing Cards are without a doubt the most popular. They're printed by the United States Playing Card Company, they're cheap, and easy to buy in a shop or online.

Most magicians prefer red-backed Bicycle cards. This is both because they’re considered visually more appealing, and to make it easier for those cards to be signed on the back, such as for the Anniversary Waltz card trick.

As well as their popularity, which makes them feel less suspicious, magicians choose Bicycle cards because most gimmicks and gaffs in magic are designed and crafted on Bicycle cards.

Not in every country are Bicycle cards considered "normal". In most European countries, few people are familiar with them, so the fact that the magician uses them already marks them as "magician's cards".

If you want to use cards with an everyday feel but you live in a country where Bicycles aren't common, look around your performance environment and ask yourself if you see other cards you can use — even if they were Uno cards.

At One Ahead, we even explained a magic trick with Avengers cards, if you ever get the chance…

The USPCC prints other cards besides Bicycles — the most famous are certainly the Tally Ho Playing Cards. 

There are then many other brands born exclusively for magicians, which over time have created decks with distinctive and eye-catching designs, often inventing their own card stock.

Ellusionist kicked off the mainstream custom deck trend with the Black Tiger cards in 2001, and from there, more companies have followed. Among these, Theory11 has produced hugely successful decks like Monarchs, which appeared in the Now You See Me franchise, boosting the company’s popularity: you can check out One Ahead’s guide on the best Theory11 playing cards.

In Europe, a brand that has gained a lot of popularity is certainly the German Card Shark, which produces Phoenix Cards, featured by big names in the magic community like Dani DaOrtiz and Joshua Jay. 

Magicians opt for particular brands and refined designs for several reasons besides aesthetics. Those who perform in corporate settings may choose to match the colour of the brand they're performing for to their deck of cards.

Another reason is tied to the method the magician uses. Borderless decks — those whose back design has no white border, like Bees — are the ones preferred by those who use gambling techniques.

Some magicians simply want to collect cards.

For this reason, some decks enjoy an almost legendary status. That's the case with Fontaines, produced by Zach Mueller, but above all Jerry's Nuggets.

The Jerry's Nugget cards are perhaps the most striking case of a deck that, initially sold at a dollar per deck (when not outright given away for free), today reaches a value of thousands of dollars on the secondary market.

The story of these cards is mysterious, compelling, and full of secrets. At One Ahead, we wrote a three-part story in which we pieced together the truth about the Jerry's Nugget cards.

Cardistry is like juggling with cards. It's a trend made popular by famous figures in the magic community like Dan and Dave Buck and Zach Mueller.

Cardistry reached great popularity in the 2010s, with events organised all over the world: you can read a recap of Cardistry Con in London.

Cards for cardistry are not chosen at random — they're often elaborate or at least very aesthetically refined. Some of these cards are produced in limited editions and today reach high prices on the secondary market.

Fewer and fewer custom decks are being produced today. Even Ellusionist, after making millions with Daniel Madison cards, have recently wound down their custom decks production.

The reasons are mainly economic: while it was cheaper to print and ship cards around the world, this has recently changed, and the relatively small volumes handled by the magic industry have made investing in playing cards less profitable.

Another reason is market saturation. When more and more decks are being produced, it’s become harder to reach new people and set up a successful brand from scratch.

It's a matter that concerns the entire magic industry, and that adds up with more recent stories, like tariffs. We spoke with CEOs from big magic companies to write an investigation on tariff’s impact on the magic market.

A notable exception to this is Theory11, which now produces cards in collaboration with major franchises from the world of entertainment and art, often sold to non-magicians and fans all over the world.

Nothing is as exciting for card magicians as gimmicked decks.

The most widespread and used gimmick deck is the Invisible Deck. With it, you can reveal any thought-of card by showing it's the only one turned face down in a face-up deck.

It's a very strong effect, suitable for beginners but used every day by gigging magicians around the world. It's so strong that we included it in the list of the best investments you can make for your magic.

This comes with a warning: you can't settle for just making the method work. The Invisible Deck needs a good presentation.

Most magicians don't put enough effort into thinking about how to present this effect. That’s why we recommend studying the best presentations for the Invisible Deck.

This gimmicked deck is also great if you need to go on a stage, or on television for a last-minute appearance. Many magicians have also used it for their Got Talent audition. If you wish to audition too, check out why Got Talent loves magicians.

Marked cards are those that have their identity written on the back. They're fundamental, and every magician should always carry them.

There's a difference between marked cards and “readers”.

Marked cards are identified through a code or symbols integrated into the back design, while in the back design of “readers” you'll find two letters indicating the initials of the card's identity.

“Readers” are therefore easier and often quicker to interpret, and today they're also the most common — an example we recommend is The Code by Andy Nyman.

Do marked Bicycles exist? Yes, but they're rarely found and cost a lot, because they're no longer produced today. The USPCC no longer allows such alterations to the back design. For this reason, you can either go looking for the leftovers still online, or for alternatives — like marked decks with Mandolin design.

Marked cards are an excellent way to start getting comfortable with magic techniques like memorised deck and timing forces — principles that require flexibility and the ability to improvise. With a marked deck, you can always double-check which card is chosen or revealed, so you become more confident when you use regular cards.

There are then other types of more subtle and original markings, like edge marking, which got popular thanks to the Butterfly Cards, produced by Ondrej Psenicka.

At One Ahead, we also wrote about what might be the most advanced marking in circulation — an invisible marking system that your phone scans.

The Svengali and the Stripper Deck compete for third place as the most common gimmick deck.

In the Stripper Deck, the cards are slightly tapered on the sides so they're conical; when one or more cards are rotated 180° and inserted back into the deck, you can feel where they are by touch and, when needed, strip them out.

This can be extremely useful not only for locating a single card, but also for producing four Aces in a very clean way, and for other effects. At One Ahead, we explained how you can use the Stripper Deck in a Triumph routine that happens in the spectator’s hands.

In the Svengali Deck, twenty-six cards are all the same and are also short; and this allows you to create impossible effects.

Like with the Invisible Deck, though, the Svengali is also often used in a somewhat lazy way by magicians, and you often see the generic effect performed that shows how every card in the deck transforms into the chosen card.

The Svengali Deck is instead much more effective when it's used as a covert method. The best example is for Any Card at Any Number routines.

The principle is so famous that it then lent its name to a whole series of other gimmicks for magic and mentalism, including SvenPad (if you plan to use it, read our guide on how magicians should use SvenPads).

When you've bought your cards and you're ready to perform, it's time to learn your first card tricks. At One Ahead, we've written about the best ways to learn card tricks online, and also which card magic books magicians should buy.

Remember that it's not how many routines you learn that makes you a better magician, but how well you do the ones you do and the attention to minor details. Everything counts, starting from how you introduce the deck of cards at the start of the trick.

If you're looking for a starting point, look for it in hands-off routines.

Hands-off magic is the kind where the performer doesn't touch the deck of cards, or barely does.

Even when the deck is actually touched, this always happens in moments of off-beat, and the technical component isn't central in these routines.

At One Ahead, you can find the explanation of a Lie Detector card trick that is hands-off and will let you work on fundamental elements like presentation and how to make your magic more "real".

If you're still looking for material to improve your magic, it's the basic principles you need to start from. And this applies whether you've just started or you've been doing magic for years: you will always find something to learn here.

For example, very few magicians think about how to best reveal the spectator's chosen card.

They work for months on making their techniques invisible only to forget that the reveal is the most memorable moment of an effect. That's why we recommend studying the best ways to reveal cards.

The same goes for the key card (a fundamental principle but unexplored in its advanced components, like the sunken key), colour changes, multiple outs.

As for card forces, not only can you find the best easy methods to force cards at One Ahead, but also the results of a focus group that revealed the most effective force with audiences.

Finally, you can throw yourself into the more elaborate effects.

In card magic, there are very famous plots like Any Card at Any Number, Out of This World, Torn and Restored — and we recommend learning the subtleties that make each routine distinct from the others in the spectators’ memory.

We can't say it enough: to do a card trick at its best, it's not enough for the method to work — you need to focus on everything else too. That's why we recommend studying how Derren Brown does his ACAAN, or how David Blaine does Cards Across. The lessons you'll learn from there will serve you for your entire life. 

Finally, you need to remember the most important thing: you need to know when to start and stop performing magic.