Welcome to the second part of our guide to Butterfly Playing Cards. We focus on the Black Series decks and the Futterflies. This post lets you learn more about the most elegant decks of Butterfly Playing Cards.
The Black Series
The most luxurious versions of Butterflies form the Black Series. These were made a reality thanks to a successful 2019 Kickstarter campaign.
Three different Butterfly decks comprise the Black Series - Black & Gold, Black & Silver, and Black & White.
The Black & Gold and Black & Silver Butterflies feature foiled backs, court cards, Ace of Spades, and one of the Jokers. They also have gilded edges, which means more foil. We love the foil so much. Even the tuck box is foiled inside out.
Gilded decks don’t have a great reputation because they usually don’t spread well. BUT! Cartamundi works with a brilliant French factory that makes the best gilding. Thanks to them, our gilded Butterflies fan and handle perfectly. They even faro! After a bit of breaking in, you can effortlessly faro shuffle them from the faces to the backs.
Also, the gilding protects the cards’ most vulnerable part - the edge. The cards are more resistant to humidity and splitting thanks to it.
One more bonus feature comes as a result of the gilding process. The cards’ edges have to be sanded down before gilding. This is done by hand. The decks then come out slightly asymmetrical.
Many of the Gold and Silver decks come as a tapered deck - side stripper, end stripper, corner-short, or a combination of the above. Not all of the decks have this, so it is a lottery. What will you find?
The Black & White Butterflies feature a more subtle look with black printed edges. These provide a stealthy alternative to the bold Gold and Silver Butterflies.
There are two versions of each Black Series deck - marked and unmarked. As these also appeal to collectors and laypeople, we made an unmarked version they can use for card games.
Well, we have to come clean. The unmarked version is not truly unmarked. We left out the marks for suit and value, but the cards are still one-way edge-marked. You can still perform miracles with them.
One important piece of information for collectors. Each Black Series deck was printed in two versions - one with a numbered seal for Kickstarter backers and one with a standard seal. That means there is a total of twelve decks comprising the Black Series.
The marked Black & Gold Butterflies have been sold out since 2021. But the other decks are still available.
Should we bring the marked Gold Butterflies back? Let us know.
Futterfly Playing Cards
Futterfly Playing Cards, or as many people call them, the Flutterflies. Ondrej primarily made these for his second appearance on Penn and Teller: Fool Us*. That’s where the name comes from. Fool Us Butterflies. FU Butterflies. Futterflies. Get it?
This is the first time the Butterflies featured a border. Only a handful of prototype decks were printed, with the very purpose of being used for the show.
But then came the Kickstarter campaign for the Black Series Butterflies. During the campaign, Ondrej made the Futterflies one of the stretch goals. To no surprise, the goal was quickly hit. And, of course, they got printed after the campaign.
Futterflies can be easily recognized by their black border and black edge printing.
This is the thinnest and softest Butterfly deck. If you love this kind of playing cards, give these a try.
*Spoiler alert: he blew their minds. If you have not watched his performance yet, you can find it here.
The End
These are the Black Series Butterflies and Futterflies. Hopefully, you've learned something new about them. The third part of our guide will cover the Butterfly Playing Cards Seasons Edition. You can look forward to that following Tuesday.
Do you have any questions? Feel free to reach out to us through e-mail.