The idea for this deck was conceived at the start of the coronavirus outbreak when it became apparent that COVID-19 was a much bigger threat than most of us thought. I approached Dane Valnes with the idea of a pandemic deck and the rest is history. What began as the Infected deck became CONTAGION, and after countless hours of collaboration and revising, the final product was created. We kept the original name as part of the deck's tag line, for its very purpose of encouraging the spread of its use during these days of isolation. It was our goal to foster excitement through the anticipation of its release and to potentially contaminate the homes of playing card users throughout the world, including game players, magicians, cardists and collectors. Even if you have to stay at home until further notice, you can still practice magic, Cardistry moves, play games and have fun! So GET INFECTED with the prospect of holding this deck in your hands, and all that you have to look forward to doing with it, when you receive it! A call for lightheartedness and pleasant distraction in this time of crisis was desperately needed but COVID-19 is still a risk to us all. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those affected and Dane and I plan to independently assist with relief efforts where we can. Decks were manufactured by the United States Playing Card Company on classic grade, standard Bicycle stock with air cushion finish in a fully custom standard C1S stock tuck. Card backs have been designed with classic thick borders and a fully custom, fully marked and secret one-way design. Card faces are standard Bicycle aside from the custom Ace of Spades and two different jokers, have been recolored to match the overall deck theme, and all court faces are fully custom and masked/unmasked on each side. The Queen of Clubs features an 8 of Clubs reveal and Daniel Madison's King of Diamonds holds his 9 of Clubs reveal. A duplicate 9 of Clubs will be included along with an ad card that, featuring the designers and marking system explanation on its face, DOUBLES as a gaff card on its back! Decks are available on this site as well as through retailers affiliated with wholesalers including Murphy's magic. This was fully funded on Kickstarter on 7/16/2020 by 176 backers. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/billdavismagic/contagion-playing-cards/description Bill Davis' website: https://www.billdavismagic.com