These Halloween/Horror genre cards feature the deadly black widow spider on the back of each card and of course of the death card, the Ace of Spades. The ad copy sets the mood for these cards as follows:
“Its venom is reported to be 15 times stronger than a rattlesnake’s. In humans, Black Widow bites can bring on nausea, muscle aches, and make breathing difficult for those who do not respect the ruby-red hourglass warning. Black Widow Playing Cards is perfect for magicians and cardists who want to capture the attention of their prey. Ensnaring their audiences with its metallic red foil web, and the tell-tale hourglass adorning the card backs. Feel the power as you destroy the custom red fly seal. Let the printing design inside the tuck, surround you… wrap you… with its macabre beauty.
• Designed by Justin Froyd
• Custom designed court cards, Aces and Jokers
• Metallic red foil and embossed tuck”
This deck contains your standard deck of 52 cards and 2 identical Jokers. The Jokers are labelled as “Joker” and contain the red hourglass inside a round web spider web. The deck is manufactured by the Expert Playing Card Company and designed by Justin Froyd, who has experience creating cool and interesting playing cards.
The card backs are predominantly black, with a thin solid black border. Inside is a two-way image of black widow spiders that are black and gray with a red hourglass on the body of each deadly spider. The spider are resting on a circular red spider web that stands out against the black and gray background and foreground. The red coloring is very bright and calls the eye’s attention away from the artsy gray framing. Look closely and you will see a gray fly about to be trapped by the black widow.
The court cards all have seemingly standard designs except for the custom red spider webbing that is part of the pattern of all of the royal’s coats. The colors of the court cards are black, gray, red and white. The Ace of Spades is filled in with the red webbing over a solid black fill. On top of the Spade graphic is a large and scary looking black widow spider looking at its’ prey, a small gray fly.
The tuck box is completely custom from the inside, which has a black and red hexagonal design with flies in the middle to the exterior. There is significant red metallic foil used on all sides of the tuck box, including to spell the words “black widow” and for the red web graphic. On the back of the box, just below the custom seal is a large 8 legged black widow spider outlined in gray on top of a black surface.
Although you may not carry these cards around as everyday cards (although you could with the $11.99 price tag) they will stand out and make impression on October 31st. I am impressed by the thought and energy that went into designing these cards and can recommend them for the macabre at heart or those that want to strike terror into a scary patter.
You can get these cool cards at any Murphy’s Magic dealer.
