Funded as a Kickstarter project on November 11, 2014 with £13,664 (about $20,000 USD) pledged from 589 backers, this was a set of two decks (standard Teal & special edition Red). Designed by Alvin Cheung through his SiShou Playing Cards, the design was inspired by Ancient Chinese mythology where the four mythical creatures represents a direction and a season, and each has its own individual characteristics and origins. The 56 card decks were printed by Legends Playing Card Co using diamond finish stock in an embossed pearlescent tuckbox with a perforated seal. Each playing card is designed carefully in vector format to maintain a sharp finish when printed. Every court card has a unique beast allocated to the suit: Spades - Azure Dragon, Hearts - Vermilion Bird, Clubs - Black Tortoise, Diamonds - White Tiger This PCDB Entry is for the special edition Redl deck. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sishoudecks/sishou-four-beasts-playing-cards-by-alvin-cheung

Presented by the Dunhuang Museum and Woh Studio, this set of decks is made to celebrate the magnificent cultural legacy of the Dunhuang Mural.

Known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes, Dunhuang has a total of 552 caves with more than 50,000 square meters of murals throughout the ages. The artistic diversity and the enormous scale of the murals make the caves legendary.

Buddhist and mythical fantasies make up the majority of the creative components on the decks. There are five versions available, each of which is inspired by and named after a motif from the murals: The Nine Colored Deer, Celestial Souls, Heavenly Performers, The Mythical Beasts, and Cyberpunk Manjushri.

Per update direct from artist/producer there were 1,000 printed of this deck.