I’m the Gentleman Wake, and this is a 2 minute deck spotlight of the limited edition
Imperial Playing Cards by Conjuring Arts and the Expert Playing Card Company.
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[Music]
If this deck feels familiar it’s because I’ve previously reviewed the Kings Wild
Project white and red signature editions of the Imperial deck on this channel.
This, Conjuring Arts version, maintains a few key differences worth mentioning.
The deck comes packaged in a premium black matte cardstock tuck case with red and gold
foil printing.
The front announces the deck name and advertises the cards to be of the highest standards.
One side denotes they were printed by the EPCC and the other credits Jackson Robinson
with the design of the deck.
The card backs feature a prominent X style design in red foil with ornamentation and
embellishments in the signature style of Jackson Robinson.
Aside from the X design and a thin red line border surrounding the back design, the majority
of it is printed in highly reflective gold metallic foil.
If I have one criticism of the design it’s that the tuck would benefited from embossing
to help differentiate the line work.
As it is the single plane of foil can get lost completely if oriented in the wrong direction
from the light.
In this way the Kings Wild Project version of the tuck case, with the intaglio style
printwork, is better.
There are two small circular seals that include hour glasses within.
Which, aside from the seashells on the X itself, represent the only readily identifiable shapes,
The tuck is held in place by a red tax-stamp style seal which is numbered out of the edition
size of 2000.
An improvement over the Kings Wild Versions, the inside the tuck is a brilliant gold foil
repeating tile pattern.
Another area that sees improvement overall are the cardbacks themselves.
The black and gold with red cross coloration works well and give the deck a nice sophisticated
vibe.
The design is trimmed in a very thin poker style border that includes excellent registration
from card to card.
The faces include the Expert Playing Cards standard pips, indices and courts.
The index font is very light and the red of the diamonds and hearts is crimson in tone.
One aspect that is definitely a downgrade from the Kings Wild Project versions is the
replacement of Jackson Robinson’s gorgeous standard courts with EPCC royalty.
The design of these feels a little crude and old fashioned even when compared to the standard
courts seen on countless bicycle decks.
The faces of the court cards feature some strange proportions.
Bug eyes, long noses and small mouths with linework I’d describe as unsure.
The courts do feature gold metallic ink and more black and crimson, which of course pulls
the design together cohesively.
The deck includes the two jokers found in the other versions, a gibbous waning moon
and a shining sun, both printed in gold metallic ink.
Handling wise, as is the case with most EPCC decks, the deck tends towards being on the
more rigid side.
Springs and dribbles feel very snappy.
The deck seems to be traditionally cut, but it’s hard to tell as faroing the cards in
either direction proved more challenging than those decks manufactured by the USPCC or Cartamundi.
All in all the deck handles fine, certainly well enough for poker night--which is where
the Imperial Deck would really shine.
Collectors will appreciate it too.
I think there’s a missing perfect Imperial Deck, in concept anyway, that would combine
the full coloration of these cards and the gold and red foil on the tuck, with the brilliant
Kings Wild Project courts, in full color, and some embossing on the box.
Perhaps another edition later on down the road.
For now, the EPCC version of the Imperial Deck--this one--is available for purchase on ConjuringArts.com.
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I’m the Gentleman Wake, see you next time.