What you'll learn to MAKE when you get the book

TRICK DECKS by Mark Frauenfelder will show you how to make 5 different kinds of trick card decks. You'll be able to perform dozens of different kinds of astounding tricks with these fun-to-make trick cards.

Marked Deck

Identify any card just by looking at its back

Very few people have seen a marked deck (at least not to their knowledge) nor do they know how cards are actually marked. That’s great news for you, because marked decks will give you the ability to perform many mind-boggling tricks. 

STRIPPER DECK

Secretly pull a spectator’s selected card from the center of a deck

Like marked decks, stripper decks were invented by clever card cheats so they could retrieve certain cards from the middle of the deck. When magicians discovered stripper decks they put them to good use, inventing hundreds of seemingly impossible tricks. For instance, you can separate all the red and black cards in the deck, reverse their orientation, shuffle them so they are mixed, and then instantly separate them again with a single move!

Invisible Deck

A spectator’s thought-of card is the only one upside down in the deck

The invisible deck is one of my favorite trick decks because the effect is simple and stunning. It blows people’s minds. Take a look at this video of David Blaine using the Invisible deck on a man in the street.

Brain Wave Deck

A spectator’s thought-of card is the only one face up in the deck and with a different colored back than the other cards

The Brain Wave Deck was first described in print by the great card magician Dai Vernon in The Jinx, number 49 (October 1938), a newsletter for magicians. He correctly described it as “a real confounder.” It’s similar to the Invisible deck, but it has a double-whammy effect that’s even more startling. In the Invisible Deck, a spectator’s mentally selected card is revealed as the only face down card in the deck, but in the Brain Wave Deck the selected card is revealed as the only face up card in the deck. What’s more, it’s the only card in the deck with a different colored back!

Nightmare Card

A card chosen by the spectator vanishes and reappears in your pocket

This is a simple stunner that will have people begging you to tell them how you did it. You shuffle a deck of cards, give it a cut and, with your head turned away so you can’t see, riffle the deck. Instruct the spectator to tell you when to stop. When they do, stop riffling and let them see their card.

Start dealing the cards face up on the table. Say,“When you see your card, tell me to stop.” But their card never appears. It has vanished from the deck. “Tell them, I happen to have one spare card in my pocket.” Pull the card from your pocket and set it on the table face down. “There’s a one in fifty-two chance this will replace the card that disappeared. Can you tell me what your card was?” When they name it, turn the card over. It’s the missing card!