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brownsl wrote: ↑Sun Jan 18, 2026 8:54 pm
Where was it mentioned that he did not have enough Qalif decks and some people would get a different decks, and others nothing?

Also, should this gift deck show up in the Qalif preorder invoice?

Apparently it's what he emailed to some of the people that reached out to him about it.

The receipt I have for Qalif was just for the shipping to get it right away. Unless you were ordering extra you didnt have to place an order for it otherwise IIRC.

Since he hasn't commented publicly maybe he'll have some other explanation or solution for the however many people were affected ( for all I know its just 5 people). Epiphany pre-orders close on the 20th so imagine he'll comment once that's over.

I preordered 6 and my order details just says those 6.

Why are people exasperated at Lotrek stuffing up - surely it is the norm. This thread wouldn't even be 50 pages otherwise.

yea... happily waiting for mystery 3 and Qualif, got ICONS anni instead. i'd gladly pay the shipping if not for the promise of "get one along with mystery 3"
not enough Qualif. what's the solution? keep quiet and send out stuff that he had extra.
i'm so done. really disappointing. (patron of 4 years)

i'm giving away the free ICONS anniversary. (which i have alrdy bought. having this free copy makes me fustrated)
i'll even ship it for free. anyone wants it, just PM me. i'll just choose someone to give it away.

Thanks to all who've commented on the free Qalif deck. I received one last week along with Mystery III. My deck is numbered 05/B75. I had no idea what the heck it meant, until now (thank you, kevork). I don't open decks, but I admit to being curious as to what's inside in regard to any printing artifacts.

juxtaposed wrote: ↑Mon Jan 19, 2026 2:03 am yea... happily waiting for mystery 3 and Qualif, got ICONS anni instead. i'd gladly pay the shipping if not for the promise of "get one along with mystery 3"
not enough Qualif. what's the solution? keep quiet and send out stuff that he had extra.
i'm so done. really disappointing. (patron of 4 years)

i'm giving away the free ICONS anniversary. (which i have alrdy bought. having this free copy makes me fustrated)
i'll even ship it for free. anyone wants it, just PM me. i'll just choose someone to give it away.

Might as well sell it. I have dented decks that people would buy so they can keep a fresh one sealed.

The pre sale for Epiphany was extended which I think is rare. Either it's the price or people slowing down on buying. I only got one because other cards weren't shown. After the pre sale, we'll see how many will be around to purchase.

COMPARISON
Rubaiyat Players Deluxe Red VS Rubaiyat Collectors
OBSERVATION Remarks
The tuck box for Rubaiyat Deluxe Players looked like the central part of the box is covered with an extra layer of cardstock that is hot foiled (or part velvet stamped on top of the cardstock), have a pointy curved shaped inlet (like a mosque's rooftop) - squarish side flap, shorter flap, no interior pattern print. The numbering on the bottom have the numbers on the side.

The tuck box for Rubaiyat Collectors has full covering on the exterior with excruciating detailed hot foiling, have a petal shaped inlet - also petal shaped on the side flaps and tounge flap, longer flap, and have interior pattern print. The numbering on the bottom have the numbers on the center.

laitostarr777 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 19, 2026 10:12 am ... CONTINUED from this POST

Took a single Macro Shot of each edition - hope it is clear for observation here! It looks like there's an extra layer put on top of the box, right? Or maybe it is the same cardboard yet covered parts with velvet. Either way, you can clearly see the difference of the finish. Best to just feel your fingers along!

The exterior is just FULL of velvet, with debossed patterns and detailed hot foil stamping. I wonder, if this is the same as the old old ICONS OG (I can't comment on that since I don't have it - perhaps Kevork can step in to provide commentaries)


VERDICT
Rubaiyat Collectors is still unique in its own way. Perhaps we need more of velvet covered box for those who enjoy touch euphoria XD Although, I was hoping Lotrek could try leather-like box (as seen in SINS Legacy by TWI)?

the deluxe players is nicer imo, i really dont care for the blue and the maroon velvet is far too similar to the deluxe players tuck, wish he chose a different colour scheme

Bikefanatic wrote: ↑Mon Jan 19, 2026 9:09 am The pre sale for Epiphany was extended which I think is rare. Either it's the price or people slowing down on buying. I only got one because other cards weren't shown. After the pre sale, we'll see how many will be around to purchase.

??? I got an email just a few hours ago and the presale still ends tomorrow

"If you are on the fence, remember that it's far more risky passing on such a deck than owning it..."
Hate statements like these from creator ngl

And he is reopening Patreon , I dont like it ,should have completed all pending rewards first imo

I messaged him several days ago via Patron asking about the Qalif gift deck and have not gotten a reply. Apparently, others have also and he has not replied to them either. I just sent him an email, hoping he replies to that and can provide some clarification.

I heard back and he said I should have received it with my Qalif decks. Maybe that is when it was supposed to come. I had to find my Qalif decks in my hoard of decks and sure enough, I had a 7th Qalif deck. I tell you it stinks getting old. My memory is just not good anymore, doesn't help I get more decks than I need.

zlexander wrote: ↑Tue Jan 20, 2026 7:41 am And he is reopening Patreon , I dont like it ,should have completed all pending rewards first imo

This is just pure speculation, but I wonder if the future of his Patreon will give his patrons access to test runs, along with an opportunity to provide input as to what looks best? It would make sense with the name “experiment 26” and the insistence that he will no longer sell any test runs/scrapped decks. Given the name, maybe these tests will consist of sample packets of 26 cards? That could conceivably be the following 26 cards: all courts, all aces, number cards 2-10 of various suits, and a joker. This would provide him with a platform to play with thematic design concepts and/or any new printing techniques for each new deck. The results of these tests would become the patron rewards, along with the opportunity to provide feedback.

If this is indeed is the model he intends to take, I like it. It rings true to the concept of what Patreon is supposed to be about, and it would allow his patrons to support new developments in a way that takes all the time related pressure off of him. Plus, after drooling over the Rubaiyat test print, I know the rewards that could result from a system like this will be quite worthwhile. Since the tests would be full of variation, and would not be full decks, the collectibility and specialness of every final deck would be fully maintained. The problem of having too many (potentially inferior) variations of one deck would be solved, and hopefully any printing kinks would be worked out through the testing process.

If this isn’t the case and he opens the Patreon back up before finishing the backlog, I would have to agree with you that this would be a big no-no. I’m fairly confident my speculation is correct, though. If it is not, I hope he reads this and considers it.

Lol, man that's a whooole lot of speculation. I think the 26 probably refers to the year.

brownsl wrote: ↑Tue Jan 20, 2026 8:52 pm I heard back and he said I should have received it with my Qalif decks. Maybe that is when it was supposed to come. I had to find my Qalif decks in my hoard of decks and sure enough, I had a 7th Qalif deck. I tell you it stinks getting old. My memory is just not good anymore, doesn't help I get more decks than I need.

I keep tabs on 300 or so decks and I am confident my system could handle a few hundred but you have 12,000

Adamthinks wrote: ↑Tue Jan 20, 2026 11:24 pm Lol, man that's a whooole lot of speculation. I think the 26 probably refers to the year.

Haha, yeah, you are probably right. When it comes to Lotrek, I’m not playing with a full deck.

Honeybee wrote: ↑Wed Jan 21, 2026 3:11 am

brownsl wrote: ↑Tue Jan 20, 2026 8:52 pm I heard back and he said I should have received it with my Qalif decks. Maybe that is when it was supposed to come. I had to find my Qalif decks in my hoard of decks and sure enough, I had a 7th Qalif deck. I tell you it stinks getting old. My memory is just not good anymore, doesn't help I get more decks than I need.

I keep tabs on 300 or so decks and I am confident my system could handle a few hundred but you have 12,000

That was an estimate from a couple of years ago. I may be over 15,000 now. But a lot of those are duplicates. No idea how many unique decks I have. That is the problem when I have no inventory system in place. A year or so ago, I moved from storing decks in plastic bins to using those playing card cardboard boxes, thinking I could store decks more efficiently. I did that, organized by creator and emptied all my plastic bins. Pretty happy that I had some physical organization completed. All those plastic bins are full again with new decks and unorganized. I even had to buy more. My long term goal is to get a couple of Lista cabinets and store the decks in them. I have thought about paring down my collection, as after having collected for a while my interests have become more focused, but I find the thought of actually doing it overwhelming. I have slowed my purchasing at least. Sorry, for derailing this topic.

I was the derailer. You have to get some system. I find that over the years with my db spreadsheet, I instigated putting famous designers names in front of the deck title so that when I keep it in alphabetical order all the major designers decks are grouped together (KWP, Orbit, Lotrek, S17, TWI, ..) The db tells me what drawer a deck is in and what page of my little black book, the purchase details are.

What I figure you could do brownsl is worry about the db later and just for now label the cardboxes by designer eg have all your Lotrek decks in boxes L1, L2, ..... It would be an easy start to organizing (I am hoping/thinking you may have done this already )

ps You cannot be as old as me

I gifted my brother-in-law the second Mystery III deck I purchased and his mind was blown. I love seeing folks outside our community see how beautiful these works of art can be.

Received notification that my More Red decks have shipped.

The final numbers:



Total of decks sold: 547



ORIGINAL EDITION: 219

GILDED EDITION: 328



Guess, you really love gold!



As we need a few extras for backup we will print 580 numbered decks:

-230 ORIGINAL edition

-350 GILDED edition



The extra decks will not be available for sale, as they will be part of our private reserve.

Wow more people decided to get Gilded Variant than Standard one

Im surprised that many people went in. I sat this one out.

Adamthinks wrote: ↑Sat Jan 24, 2026 11:02 am Im surprised that many people went in. I sat this one out.

Me too. Not in my budget, now or ever.

I got FOMO and bought one of each. The bane of my card collecting.

I had just strained my arm wresting a Gerich deck off ebay and had to pass, though I will be getting the patreon version…

Wait ... should I have got year 2 rewards by now??

portcullis wrote: ↑Mon Jan 26, 2026 6:53 am Wait ... should I have got year 2 rewards by now??

No. We are still waiting.....

zlexander wrote: ↑Tue Jan 20, 2026 7:41 am And he is reopening Patreon , I dont like it ,should have completed all pending rewards first imo

This cannot be true is it. Grow a backbone people - nobody signs up for it until he has caught up with all promised rewards

Honeybee wrote: ↑Mon Jan 26, 2026 6:32 pm

zlexander wrote: ↑Tue Jan 20, 2026 7:41 am And he is reopening Patreon , I dont like it ,should have completed all pending rewards first imo

This cannot be true is it. Grow a backbone people - nobody signs up for it until he has caught up with all promised rewards

I hope he plans to get Years 2-4 out at least. When he mentioned the pause, I thought he said that it was in part because of the stress of falling behind. I would think he would not want to add to the backlog, but I don't know.