If you are a playing card aficionado, then you are probably aware of the United States Playing Card Company, and if you aren’t, chances are, you already own a deck made by them; many of the most recognizable brand names in playing cards, whether it be for playing games, cardistry, magic tricks, or cartomancy (that’s the fancy term for fortune telling using cards) are owned by them, and the company also does custom decks for many large clients. Their flagship brand is Bicycle, and their Rider backs in red and blue are considered to be the standard in which all other playing cards are considered against.
Of course, standard Bicycle playing cards are the standard variety: 52 cards in French suits (10 numbered cards and 3 face cards), 2 jokers (differentiated from each other), and 2 advertisement cards round out a pack. (Of course, there are many specialty playing cards that bear the Bicycle name, and the Bicycle name extends well beyond the standard Rider back.) And they are cheap and plentiful in that, if you need a game that requires multiple decks and/or stripped decks (games that use only a portion of the deck, not to be confused with stripper decks, which are a type of cards used in magic tricks), assembling a deck that is ready to go (as opposed to preparing a deck before every game) isn’t too expensive, and many companies sell pre-stripped decks so you won’t have to leave cards unused. The USPCC even mass-produces Pinochle decks (48 cards in French suits, 9 through A in each suit twice over, plus two advertisement cards, four Pinochle instruction cards, and two blank cards) so that people don’t have to take apart two decks of cards for the occasion. (The USPCC also publishes specialty Canasta and Euchre decks under the Bicycle brand, but with different backs.)
Of course, in the world of traditional card games, that still leaves out a good selection of games. Most games today use French suits, but there are also Latin suits (Spanish suits and Italian suits) and Germanic suits (German suits and Swiss suits), as well as (to a lesser extent) Chinese money suits that fit the traditional “rank and suit” formula (although possibly with varying numbers of ranks and face cards), as well as various tarot and tarock decks (“ranks and suits”, along with a separate “trump suit” that may or may not have the same set of ranks).
For Spanish suits, the reputable makers of those cards is arguably Fournier, a Spanish “sibling” of USPCC. They produce traditional 40-card (10 ranks) and 50-card (12 ranks and 2 jokers) decks in the Spanish suits. I’ve also been able to procure a 78-card French tarot deck (10 numbered ranks and 4 face cards in each suit, plus 21 trump cards, one “excuse”, and two advertisement cards) under that brand name, but I don’t actually know if they make them anymore. (Most tarot decks manufactured today use Latin, and more specifically, Italian suits, for the purposes of cartomancy; tarot and tarock decks with a gameplay focus still exist, however.) I do know, however, that other brands do sell French tarot decks and are still reasonably affordable.
The leading German suited manufacturer appears to be ASS Alternburger, a part of Belgium-based Cartamundi Group, the parent company to both USPCC and Fournier. (The Cartamundi Group owns brands such as Copag, better known for their use in cardistry and magic than games; their card business also extends into printing cards for board games and collectible card games as well).
Given that games like Skat are played with both French suits and German suits, there is also a “tournament Skat” deck that is basically French suits but with two of the suits (spades and diamonds) recolored to more closely resemble German suits (leaves and bells); these are used in competitive Skat settings. A more informal hybrid deck using both French and German suits, where half the pips on each card are French and the other half German, are sold by a number of companies. Similar to this, Swiss card maker AGM AGMuller has a deck where each card has half its pips in French suits and the other half in Swiss suits.
The leading Italian suited manufacturer is Trieste-based Modiano. Most of their decks are 40 cards, but there are some 52-card packs available. They also offer Italian 54-card tarock decks (4 numbered cards and 4 face cards in 4 suits, plus one “excuse” and 21 trump cards; true to older card ordering, the red suits have only 1-4 and the black suits have 7-10) as well.
As for Chinese money suits, the most famous Chinese money suit game is Mahjong, and although for authenticity it should be played with tiles, Mahjong decks (including American Mahjong decks) are not that hard to come by, and available from a number of manufacturers. Problem is, actual money suited cards (for example, Dongguan Cards used in Quan Dui or Hakka Cards used in Luk Fu) are hard to come by in China, let alone the west, and it’s difficult to find a reputable manufacturer of traditional slim cards, let alone westernized variants, due to the fact that Chinese money suits were, as the name implied, somewhat associated with gambling and largely exist “underground”. Similarly, Chess suits (a different type of Chinese card deck, where the ranks are Xiangqi pieces and the suits are colors) have been hard to find. What isn’t hard to find are decks for the Filipino game Cuajo, which is a game inspired by Chess suits, but played with a specialized Spanish suited deck.
For completion, Japanese hanafuda and kabufuda cards are not that uncommon, given that the most well-known manufacturer is Nintendo, a brand well-known around the world for video games; it’s just that they don’t sell decks internationally and generally have to be imported. I have little insight on Indian Ganjifa decks, but I did hear that they exist as more art pieces than anything useful for gameplay today.
Anyways, I’ve been trying to compile a number of different ready-to-use card decks, mostly with Bicycle Rider back cards of different colors, but using other cards where appropriate. It’s not exactly a revival of GUCD (who remembers that on the blog?), but it should allow me to enjoy a greater variety of games. Maybe at a later point, I will tell you all about my efforts.
