Black Fontaines now live on KS

[jerichoholic]

The simplicity continues yet again with another Fontaine deck, yawn. It's coming Dec 28, I assume to KS.

[sms69x]

This is how you milk the cow!!! Red, Blue, Black, Purple, Green, Pink (this color goes well with Zach !!)

[chach]

Oh yay! I'm absolutely quivering with excitement! I'm so excited I just may shit my pants.

[Mirror]

yes. faster than I expected though.

[AceOfHearts]

I will never understand people who pay for thise decks.. never XD

[rjtomlinson1977]

Here's the complete 2015 lineup.

[sprouts1115]

Hey, what happened to pink?

[rjtomlinson1977]

Hey, what happened to pink?

Need to save something for 2016

[jerichoholic]

Come on sprouts no selfies, lol

[Mirror]

Here's the complete 2015 lineup.

Black: nice!, Purple: meh., Teal: nice!, weird green: meh., brown: not bad., "yellow": meh.

I'm going to be honest here, I love fontaines and I won't be complaining about new colors, I'm looking forward to new editions.

[MagikFingerz]

I have nothing against color variations per se. What I find extremely distasteful is releasing one new variant every 3 months or so, because it's such an obvious money grab. There is literally no work being done in between other than gathering money from people, and there's no reason for all planned variants to NOT be printed and released at the same time (other than milking one's customers/fan base for all they're worth).

[vasta41]

I have nothing against color variations per se. What I find extremely distasteful is releasing one new variant every 3 months or so, because it's such an obvious money grab. There is literally no work being done in between other than gathering money from people, and there's no reason for all planned variants to NOT be printed and released at the same time (other than milking one's customers/fan base for all they're worth).

I agree and used to consider that a negative but now I look at it this way- it helps make it an easy pass for me. Don't want 'em, don't need 'em!

[Mirror]

I have nothing against color variations per se. What I find extremely distasteful is releasing one new variant every 3 months or so, because it's such an obvious money grab. There is literally no work being done in between other than gathering money from people, and there's no reason for all planned variants to NOT be printed and released at the same time (other than milking one's customers/fan base for all they're worth).

It doesn't matter to me too much since I have to wait for european resellers to get them anyway.

[Strag]

joy

[SBurk49]

I have nothing against color variations per se. What I find extremely distasteful is releasing one new variant every 3 months or so, because it's such an obvious money grab. There is literally no work being done in between other than gathering money from people, and there's no reason for all planned variants to NOT be printed and released at the same time (other than milking one's customers/fan base for all they're worth).

Uhm... can you say, 'Murica?

[badpete69]

Now live OP updated

[volantangel]

Seriously dont these fanboys get sick of this boring design ?

[Fes]

Seriously dont these fanboys get sick of this boring design ?

I would imagine so. Given this thing is already past 10K though, it doesn't look like it. Easy pass for me on these, never been a fan of the Fontaines. Doubt I ever will. I didn't drink the kool-aid.

[sprouts1115]

Seriously dont these fanboys get sick of this boring design ?

Where do you find these fanboys? I hear they are unscrupulous card deck buyers.

[Mirror]

I genuinely enjoy people getting mad about fountains being so popular. I'm just happy there are enough people out there that do NOT get sick of the "boring design" since all that is just subjective. I'll just leave this quote here for you to enjoy.




just because something does not seem like it took a lot of effort, doesn't mean it's bad. It might even be the opposite. The fountains work for him and I'm happy for him.

[Widdee]

I love minimalism, I just find this design boring.

[Encarded]

"Less is more" is about coming up with unique ideas and then focusing it to remove unnecessary detail which clouds the original innovative vision, it does not apply to doing a minimal design (which was itself a derivation of a dozen previous and nearly identical forebears) and then changing the color again, and again and again ad naseum.

Society needs more original thought, not just on cards but everywhere, and the continual rehash of the same thing depresses me, particularly as a designer that agonizes for months on every detail trying to make new things that people haven't seen already. The overall "taste" and awareness of art and culture of people is declining and at some point creative people need to work harder, not be more lazy.

Call me old and curmudgeony if you want, but in the three years I've worked in this market the discernment of collectors has tanked and it's all about "completion syndrome" and not about art or history.

[Mirror]

Call me old and curmudgeony if you want, but in the three years I've worked in this market the discernment of collectors has tanked and it's all about "completion syndrome" and not about art or history.

I appreciate the designs you've created so far and I think the success you've had with your decks until now is well deserved. What I don't really get is how the success of Zach's Fontaine decks is really hurting anyone. The people who buy his decks know exactly what to expect and they buy it because they probably liked the last two versions. I don't really see any other reason to buy something than because either you want to try it out or you know what you get and you want it. I think that the majority of the people who complain about his success are not really in his target group anyways. Not every deck of cards nowadays is made to be collected. About the recolored versions he's doing: I don't see how this is hurting anyone either. Nobody forces anyone to buy a recolored version of a deck they didn't really like in the first place. But it seems like enough people actually appreciate the recolors and if they do, then they buy it, receive it and they're happy because they received exactly what they paid for.

(@Encarded, from here on I'm not addressing you directly anymore. The addressed people know who they are.)

Just because a product you don't like is successful, doesn't mean you need to complain about it. In fact it just comes off as being jealous. I'll take Jackson Robinson as an example for myself here: I don't personally like his decks really much. I don't own a single one of them. I appreciate the effort put into the design and I can clearly understand why people would like it but the decks just don't do it for me. I'm not saying the are ugly, but I just can't see myself using them at all. And that's what I do with cards: I use them to do cardistry. Now, am I angry about Jackson being successful with his decks just because I don't personally like the products he put out? Not at all. In facet, just like with Zach, I'm happy that it worked out for him and that there are enough people who really like his products.

The playing card market has grown a lot in the last few years and I think there's room for a lot of different styles of playing cads now. Collectors are not the only group of people who are targeted by brands anymore, not every deck is made for everyone and because of that, not everyone will like every single new deck on the market, that's normal. But I never understood the hate about recolors. Just because it's not an entirely new design doesn't make the deck a bad deck. I know for myself that when I see a new deck that I don't really like, my only reaction is to ignore it. As long as the targeted group is happy with a deck, be it a recolor or an entirely new design, it will sell, and I don't see a problem here. In my opinion, if someone is able to sell something that seems to have no effort put into it (which is what a lot of people here seem to think the fontaines are) then that person is someone to look up to from a marketing perspective. Those "fanboys" who buy Zach's decks "blindly" (or maybe just because they like it) are not hurting anybody and if it works out for Zach then good for him. The market is big enough for more than one target group to exist and Zach definitely doesn't need everyone in the playing card community to like him or his decks.

[volantangel]

Well i dont think its just about the design, correct me if im wrong. The blue fontaines campaign came months late with almost no communication inbetween, 15000 were printed despite it clearly stating 1/5000 on the box. And that was just the last campaign.

This campaign is clearly targeting those who want to resell these cards, practically the first thing it addresses is how much the previous fontaines are going for (coupled with how much the "buy-it-now"s are on ebay, everyone knows that not the best gauge) and that just turns me off even further. I would go on to rant more, but what for, everyone can make their own judgement on whether they like the cards/zach enough (mirror i know you simply like this kind of design and not muller).

Let me just end off with a quote from zach "hundreds of people around the globe begging for a black edition of Fontaines"

[Mirror]

Well i dont think its just about the design, correct me if im wrong. The blue fontaines campaign came months late with almost no communication inbetween, 15000 were printed despite it clearly stating 1/5000 on the box. And that was just the last campaign.

This campaign is clearly targeting those who want to resell these cards, practically the first thing it addresses is how much the previous fontaines are going for (coupled with how much the "buy-it-now"s are on ebay, everyone knows that not the best gauge) and that just turns me off even further. I would go on to rant more, but what for, everyone can make their own judgement on whether they like the cards/zach enough (mirror i know you simply like this kind of design and not muller).

Let me just end off with a quote from zach "hundreds of people around the globe begging for a black edition of Fontaines"

I can't really say if I like Zach or not. I never met him in person but I've heard from people who met him that he's supposed to be a lot different (positively) in person than how he comes off in his videos, but again, I can't judge since I've never actually talked to him.

The thing with the 15000 decks instead of what it says on the box was a mistake and I think he even apologized for it. He seems to have learned from it since the kickstarter campaign now says that he'll print more if more money comes in. The fact that fontaines sell for a lot of money an eBay sure isn't something he had as a goal but, of course, it comes in handy. I wouldn't say the deck is only targeted towards resellers but, and this is something I don't really like about his campaign, it feels like he's bragging a bit too much about the reseller prices. Well, I myself can look over that and still enjoy the deck since I don't feel the need to buy something just to resell it.

What I wanted to show here is that I certainly don't think that his campaign and marketing strategies are flawless but, as volantangel already said, I like this kind of design enough to get some once they hit the european reseller market.

[Eoghann]

Pretty cool moves I've never seen before on that video. Plaid guy has some really nice ones with his sticky fingers routine.

[ryansworld4]

I like the deck, classy in black, don't know if I will buy the other colors, but who knows. Nice to see a young lad taking a chance on making a deck, I no its gona sell but the first deck he put out was a risk, respect.

[walrus]

Well, I kinda like these but I'm always into the minimalist themes. Very busy decks I find don't always translate well to magic. I'm not into many other colors on this deck but I like this one. I must say I don't have any fontaines but I might get one or two of these.

Not to get off topic but I need some borderless minimal decks for some magic I'm doing, annoyed I don't have many. The original Artifice were the best imo but I'm down to one or two decks, alright, back on topic. I like these decks and I'm not afraid to say it even in the face of ridicule and abandonment, especially from the Svedish people.

[sprouts1115]

Good lord his video is 8:36 long. I find it neat they can do all that cardistry with a demo deck. Even if he bought the $450 sample deck from USPCC, it's still sub standard. If he wants bragging rights, I would try to shoot for another 15,000 decks with his Black deck and have them made on the web press. Can't say to many customs decks have been made from the web press only casinos and big boys use that.

You could blur the lines and say it might be a better custom deck. After the Red, Blue, and Black decks, things might change. You start getting into colors ppl may or may not like. I can see every fanboy would want a brick of Red, Blue, and Black in there closet, but the other colors, I think the demand would be less.

I would slow things down a bit and only print a measly 5000 decks and pawn them off as being uncommon compared to the first 3. Who knows in time they could be considered rare. I think the only thing he wants to do is mail playing cards. He likes it. It's his job.

[Marcus]

Well, he did create the first Fontaine decks out of popular demand. You can't blame him for it if he created a design he liked, people wanted it and pledged for it so he could produce it. And you can't really blame him for doing a blue edition when the first was so successful and people wanted another one. And you can't really blame him for doing a black edition if the first two editions were so successful.

He has never claimed these to be some kind of superior work of art, he just wanted them for himself and doing these campaigns not only get him a bunch of these printed for himself for free, but it also results in him earning a few bucks on it at the same time. The Fontaine deck was always meant to be a performance deck, not some kind of project meant to further the evolution of art. The absolute majority of customers are still users more than collectors, and these decks cater to that crowd.

I say congratulations to Zach for building such a successful following over the last few years via his Zlogs, the Insider episodes and the Exposé series. He has worked for it and earned it.