Squid Cards

Kyle

*—Quick Review—-*
Design 9/10
Card Quality 7/10
Contents 8/10
Instructions 4/10
Handling 9/10.

Worth Buying: See the bottom of the review.

~\\\\Longer Review////~
The design of the cards is exceptional which allows not only for easy theming for a routine and many plot possibilities over all. But the shapes are distinct enough to be easily viable with out compromising design.

The quality of the cards of ok. I get the idea of the material. But at times it can be a bit rough feeling. How ever this can help hide moves. Since the cards tend to be a bit noisy when just causally handling them. It can help hide the sounds of any sounds caused by sleights. Still not a fan of how they feel. And prolonged use like most card stock material, it will begin to warp a bit.

With this package you get 5 sets of the cards. Which allows you to either be a little more reckless with the handling of the cards. Due to having back ups. It does come with 2 “joker” or play eliminated cards. And an online instruction code card to learn how ot use the cards.
I would have liked 5 Joker cards instead of 2.

Some of you who know me, know that I tend to be a bit more critical of video instructions and the quality there in. The instructions do feel cheap in quality but to no fault of those involved. As I’m pretty sure it was mostly recorded with webcams, That being said the instructions are pretty great. During one of the instructions I think it was called Card Matching or something. I call it the Harry code. More on that later. The instructions where kind of not taught the best. As it wasn’t until a little bit in did I realize what was happening. Since there was no real introduction to it. You are just kind of dumped into the middle of a Zoom call. But that routine is by far one of my favorite from the project. But if you’ve ever seen people try to talk to each other on a zoom call. Then you might know what I’m talking about. The awkward talking over wile trying not to talk over each others kind of thing. But the instructions are relatively short over all, but the routines taught are fantastic.

The routines that come with these cards are pretty easy. The hardest would be the color monte routine. Wile the rest are pretty close to self working. The Harry’s code Routine is pretty much 100% self working. Just some good instructions and you could have 2 participants perform the routine themselves with out realizing they did it. Absolutely Beautiful. And the Jazz mentalism routine will give you a reason to carry a couple stacks in your wallet for an every day carry mind blower.
I perform Andi Gladwin’s Comte Python routine from His book “The Boy Who Cried Magic” with these cards and it works really well. I use the 2 jokers and the umbrella. I use the premise of how the game is always rigged and that all they have to do is find the safty card. And each phase I try to make it easier and easier for the participant to find choose the safty card. A fantastic routine

On thing I’ve done to make it easier to remember some of the routines and information, is that I wrote some shorthand notes inside the envelope the cards come in. To any spectator or participant, this will just look like some random notes. But they serve as reminders of things I can use with the cards.

So are these cards worth buying? IMO? Yes. Unless they don’t fit your style. That being said, I don’t think it wouldn’t hurt to purchase them and either design a stack that suits your style, or have someone else design and make them.
The material is super easy to learn, the routines are pretty impactful. They can be an Everyday Carry Item and dont require any gimmicks. So with between 5-12 cards you have about 5 routines on the ready that you can perform with little to no set up and you can link several of the routines together. Ever perform a routine and a participant or group asked to see it again? Change the rules a little bit and do one of the other routines. For example. You could perform Jazz Mentalism for a person of a group. If challenged or if you want to hit another person in the group, then perform Harrys code. Same matching ending, just different rules.
All in all. These are fantastic! And well worth their cost!