This is a really interesting concept in the world of magic, and certainly the first of its kind. The cards themselves look very good, and they are great quality for what they are. They come in a standard Phoenix Playing Card case, but also with a slipcover telling you which color(s) and combination(s) you have, and all of that is tucked inside a clear plastic case.

The cards themselves remind me very much of the Peter Marvey manipulation cards that were available in the 90's (which were quite nice, I must add). As the ad copy says, the are ultra thin and to that end you have to take it a little easier on these cards. They will stand up to casual flicking or snapping and things like that, but heavy duty palming and other sleights that may require bending or bowing the cards quite a bit I would not recommend.

To their credit [the cards], I have accidentally bent a few of the cards out of shape (bent, not creased) during practice and they readily went back to normal after bending them back again. This also chiefly tends to happen with the corners, at least for me.

You cannot perform with bright lights behind these cards because the pips, faces and/or backs will show through.

For the material they are made out of and as thin as they are, they actually fan and spread quite nicely, to my surprise. Most cards of this nature do very poorly in those areas. This is not a deck you would riffle shuffle and then bridge in front of spectators - they do not sound like a regular deck when bridging. That said, you can faro these cards and push them flush just fine. Overhand shuffling is not a problem.

In 'most' other aspects of handling, the cards sound like a normal deck of cards. Card workers will know I am referring to the "whooshing" sound that cards make when they are turned over, manipulated, counted, shuffled, when riffling the edges of the deck, flicking a single card with your finger, etc.

If you can find a use for the one-way feature that is on every Phoenix deck printed, you will find it here as well. Another very useful tool with this deck is that every card is marked with the same system as the regular Phoenix Marked Deck.

One downside (some might say) is that some of the very strong and powerful effects possible with these decks require marking the backs of all 104 (108 if you use the Jokers) cards, so if you want to do something else you will have to have a separate deck and these are not cheap. In effects where only a few of the cards are written on, you could buy two of the same deck and exchange them for the plain ones as needed.

This deck is really hard to review as far as giving it a rating. Because of what it is it will not be for everyone. On one hand, you cannot get rough and tough with these cards, these are not cards you would allow a spectator to handle at all and the deck is not examinable. On the other hand, the possibilities are limitless and you can do some truly magical and mind-blowing work with these decks.

There are various deck combinations possible with the Double Decker decks and the possibilities with each is limited only to your imagination.

At $29.00/USD each* they are not cheap, but are they worth it? In my humble opinion, if you can find different, interesting and/or strong things/effects to do with these decks that you cannot do with most normal decks (and surely you will), then yes, they are definitely worth it. You most certainly get your money worth.

If you think you can use these decks or would like to play around with them, give them a shot and I think you will have fun exploring the possibilities.

*A better way to buy these would be in multiples - the Card-Shark website offers them at a discount when you buy them in quantities of 2 or 3 or more. In this way, you can buy any number of any of the combinations you like.