Flesh + Bones is the most recent deck of playing cards I have received for my collection, so I figured I would review this one first. This is a deck hand-illustrated by Dual Originals for DeckStarter, and I was a backer.
Admittedly, I was very frustrated because my order was really late. But after some back-and-forth over support and social media, DeckStarter made it right with me. I can be a little impatient for things I've paid for, but once I received the deck I was very happy and it was worth the wait.
The Box
I love the design used for box. It is minimalist-- just black and white. It reminds me of the Bristol Board I used to print on a lot in art school.
Card Backs
Most decks I have sport beautiful backs and have boring fronts. While I think the backs of these cards are very nice, they are less interesting than the fronts, which you'll see soon.
Number Cards
The front of the number cards are smaller numbers and pips, a slight departure from the standard style. I like the simplicity.
The Aces
Usually only the Ace of Spades has a fancy design. I love that all four aces get a nice illustration.
The Face Cards
I love these face cards. Instead of typical royal humans in fancy clothes, we get a range of monsters, including mermaids, dragons, unicorns, etc.
Jokers & Other Cards
The Jokers are stunning. I like the contrast between the two. One card is heavy with a skeleton with long hair filling most of the card. The other joker is stark and clean with the butterfly (or moth?) in the middle.
Finally, the deck also comes with information cards for both Art of Play and Dual Originals.