UnitedCardists.com - The forum for Cardistry, Magic, Custom Decks and All Things Playing Cards.

My buddy, Mike Wilson, and I are working on a cool Medusa Deck. The execution and style is very similar to the Draconia. Crimson Deck I did last year. The Cards will be 4-Color Process + 1-Color White Undercoat (in strategic areas) printed on a Silver Holographic Foil on the Faces and Backs. Shiny!

The Tuck Box will feature Green Foil and Orange Foil design elements.

Legends is finishing up hard copy proofs of the Tucks and Cards. We’re shooting for a September Kickstarter!

Thanks, Randy

Oof! This deck made me rock hard.

OMG! This card back is kind of scary,but it looks so cool,I actually love it!

Once again Randy hits it out of the park. Love what I see so far!

The fact that this was one of Randy's decks, I already knew I was in, but that back... oh, yeah.

In the immortal words of Cookie Monster:

"Om nom nom!"

The deck is beautiful, very much anticipated.

Thank you all for the complements!

The prototypes from Legends arrived a couple days ago, and they look great.
Yesterday I setup the photoshoot scene and did a few quick test shots.
Fish Aquarium statues make for some sweet Playing Cards scene props!
Tonight I’ll get serious with the photoshoot.

It looks like we’ll be able to launch the Kickstarter in August.

Thanks, Randy

Here’s the Kickstarter Preview Link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/th ... n=b518984e

Not sure when we’ll launch yet. Sometime in August.

Thanks, Randy

I like the color scheme of the coin verso

Honeybee wrote: ↑Thu Jul 24, 2025 10:48 pm I like the color scheme of the coin verso

Randy does the BEST coins, they are top of my coin collection.

Few posts in this thread will show what I mean: viewtopic.php?p=232599#p232599

I would totally back a coin-only campaign from Randy.

Absolutely loving that photo-shoot

A. Haines wrote: ↑Sat Jul 26, 2025 7:09 am Absolutely loving that photo-shoot

Thanks Alex!

Ever since I started doing my own photo shoots a few years ago, part of my enjoyment while working on a Deck design is thinking of possible props for its shoot. It’s cool what you can find digging around on Amazon late at night.

Thanks, Randy

RandyButterfield wrote: ↑Sat Jul 26, 2025 10:46 pm

A. Haines wrote: ↑Sat Jul 26, 2025 7:09 am Absolutely loving that photo-shoot

Thanks Alex!

Ever since I started doing my own photo shoots a few years ago, part of my enjoyment while working on a Deck design is thinking of possible props for its shoot. It’s cool what you can find digging around on Amazon late at night.

Thanks, Randy

Wow, those have all been your photos? Excellent execution, Randy.

I just realized you had mentioned it earlier but it hadn't registered until now.

kevork wrote: ↑Sat Jul 26, 2025 11:14 pm

RandyButterfield wrote: ↑Sat Jul 26, 2025 10:46 pm

A. Haines wrote: ↑Sat Jul 26, 2025 7:09 am Absolutely loving that photo-shoot

Thanks Alex!

Ever since I started doing my own photo shoots a few years ago, part of my enjoyment while working on a Deck design is thinking of possible props for its shoot. It’s cool what you can find digging around on Amazon late at night.

Thanks, Randy

Wow, those have all been your photos? Excellent execution, Randy.

I just realized you had mentioned it earlier but it hadn't registered until now.

Thanks Kevork!

Yeah, I started doing my own photo shoots around the same time I started doing my own fulfillment. Which was mostly due to my need to be in control of as much of the pipeline as possible (it was around the beginning of Gambler’s problem with long wait times to get to fulfillment projects).

Mike usually does the photo shoots for the projects we do together, but I asked if it was alright if I did the Medusa shoot. It took a while to figure out how to shoot the Foil Cards well for Draconian Crimson, so I wanted to take that experience and expand upon it with the Medusa Foil Cards.

My favorite shoot was for the Red Rising Kickstarter. Since a lot of the books take place on Mars, I bought a bunch of Paprika and Cinnamon for the Martian “dirt”.

Thanks, Randy

Hey Wveryone,

Mike will be launching the Medusa Decks on his Kickstarter at 8am EDT tomorrow morning!
The Green Tuck is a Kickstarter Exlcusive item that’s Limited to 500. The pledge tiers and pricing are pretty much the same as the Draconian Crimson. I had to increase International Shipping some since last year though. Prices just keep going up!

Thanks, Randy

Congrats, Randy, these look amazing! Wishing you the very best for this project!

This project is now live! Here's a short write-up I put together about it:

Kickstarter: Medusa Playing Cards

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/th ... ying-cards

A shiny holographic foil deck inspired by a gorgon of Greek Mythology

Cost: US$17 per individual deck
Project ends: Monday, 22 September 2025



Randy Butterfield of Midnight Cards has teamed up with Mike Wilson to create this lovely deck, which is inspired by Medusa, famous from Greek mythology. Medusa is generally described as a woman with living snakes in place of hair. According to legend, her appearance was so hideous that anyone who looked upon her was turned to stone.





This deck will use a similar technique to what was used to produce the lavish use of foil on Randy's Draconian Crimson Deck (a deck I own and love). It's being printed by Legends Playing Card Company, and uses silver holographic foil on the front and back of the cards. A 4-color CMYK printing process is used on the holographic foil (with a single color white undercoat in selected areas, such as the indices and pips), to produce a very striking and shiny look.

The edges of the deck are light green, but the colour won't chip or easily show signs of wear, because the actual paper used for the cards has been dyed a light green, a feature the project describes as "Ultra Green".





The card backs feature a borderless design composed of dozens of snakes in a mesmerizing swirl pattern - a striking design that reminds me of what I loved most about the Draconian decks, especially in spreads and fans.

All the Aces have custom artwork to suit the theme, and the overall look is classy, classic, and yet custom.





The card faces have a somewhat standard look to them, making them suitable for card games, but feature extensive customization in other aspects, such as the clusters of green and gold snakes on the court cards.

The Jokers feature Perseus holding the head of Medusa.





The black tuck box is also glamorous, and features a combination of green foil and orange foil. The green tuck box is a limited edition Kickstarter Exclusive, with just 500 available. A special die-cut collector coin is also available as an add-on.



Randy Butterfield is a respected and reliable creator, with a wealth of experience in producing playing cards, with more than 300,000 of his custom decks in print. This is another beautiful and yet functional custom deck that is sure to please.

Kickstarter link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/th ... ying-cards

Did Randy forget to use the Add-On sections for the campaign? It looks like that we are returning to the times when we have to do calculations ourselves to add the extra items in (not that I hate math, was just surprised that there are no addons when I set up my pledge)

laitostarr777 wrote: ↑Wed Aug 20, 2025 1:18 am Did Randy forget to use the Add-On sections for the campaign? It looks like that we are returning to the times when we have to do calculations ourselves to add the extra items in (not that I hate math, was just surprised that there are no addons when I set up my pledge)

Nah, I chose not to use Kickstarter’s Add-On system. It’s great for Backers, but extremely poorly setup on the backend for KS Creators. I would much rather pay extra to have everything clean and organized pos-funding in BackerKit. BackerKit’s export options for fulfillment are incredible! They make Kickstarter’s fulfillment setup look outdated.

Every now and then, I’ll give Kickstarter fulfillment another shot. My last time was with a Euchre Deck last year. Even with the small Backer numbers for a Euchre project, reformatting Kickstarter’s only Excel export option took forever. It was a joke! I’ll give them a shot again in a year or two.

Medusa Add-Ons will be easy to add post funding, within BackerKit.

Thanks, Randy

First day backer because these look awesome. I have many many decks from Randy plus Randy+Mike collabs. I'll add a little nudge for a Medusa or Draconian euchre deck.

Legends cards are usually perfect. However the colored stock used in Draconian Crimson looks good but is very thick and does not handle as well as the classic stock. Hope these are better, but they will still go into the rotation.