The last time I talked about card magic on here, I wasn’t very kind. But I actually love the stuff, so let’s talk about a problem that too many card magicians have. This applies less to professionals, but even pros have repeat customers.

A popular topic between magicians with nothing better to do is to ask whether you use red cards or blue cards. There are legitimate discussions to be had about pros and cons for each, but the fact that the question of red OR blue is asked at all is telling.

What about you? What’s your favorite deck to use? What color of Bikes do you prefer? Now, how regularly do you use them? What percentage of the time are you using your favorite?

If your answer was “all the time, except when…” then you desperately need to keep reading.

Preferences are fine. Commitments are a plague. Let’s say I use red Bikes all the time (after all, most gimmicks do come as such) and one day, suddenly I pull out some Elysian Duets or Butterflys. What do you think my pal is going to think?

“Oh, I guess today Jerry wants to do magic in STYLE. I love it. I love how pretty these cards are. I can’t believe he would stray from his regular cards just to make me feel special.”

No, of course not. They’re going to immediately know that I’m using those cards for a reason, and that the reason isn’t aesthetics.

It doesn’t even matter if you only use ungimmicked cards, you’re not going to be able to use any decks other than your preferred without arousing suspicion. Mixed bricks are cheaper, for fuck’s sake!

All you have to do is swap around your normal decks from time to time. Then you can use whatever special occasion decks you like. Or, you could commit to using the same ordinary deck for the rest of your life.

Or, you could always find that one person in the world who really will think you just wanted to do magic in STYLE today.

Quit being a deck purist. You’re not impressing anyone besides yourself, and you’re heavily limiting yourself.