"The Deck That Shuffles Itself" by Dominique Duvivier
Suggested Retail USD$36.00
Available from your favorite dealer
In a Blink: 5 Out of 10

"The Deck That Shuffles Itself", Dominique Duvivier's latest creation, is a neat premise that, somewhere along the line, fails to live up to its potential.

The effect of "The Deck That Shuffles Itself" is simple: whatever actions you take with an imaginary deck -- "shuffling" the deck into a face up/face down mix, straightening them out, etc -- occur to a deck sitting in plain view on the table. If there were more to this theme, this probably would have been worth a look.

As it is, the weirdness of the dual climax plays outside that theme. At one point, the imaginary deck in your hand becomes all one card, and so does the real deck. To end things, the image of the deck on the card case shrinks.

What those two events have to do with the original premise, I don't know and I couldn't figure it out, even with as stretchy an imagination as mine. And the instructions don't help much here, either.

Assuming you can get everything to make sense, you're still stuck with carrying a gimmicked deck around that can't be used for other effects. I won't get into ringing in a cooler or the like, because, frankly, the impact of "The Deck That Shuffles Itself" just doesn't warrant the work that involves. Suffice to say, to make this work in anything other than the most formal of close-up situations, you're going to be carrying extra stuff and working your tail off for something which doesn't leave that much of an impression on audiences.

"Cute" is the word you'll hear most, I'd bet (right after the phrase "Let me see that deck", but I digress). To me, that's the kiss of death for a trick. I will lug around an extra deck if the power is there. If I can make spectators stagger on their heels with a very limited gimmicked deck, I'll make room for it somewhere somehow, even if I have to take so may trips to the restroom everyone suspects I have a bladder the size of a pea.

"The Deck That Shuffles Itself" isn't that powerful and that makes the limitations more apparent.

All in all, "The Deck That Shuffles Itself" starts as a neat idea with too many drawbacks to make it worth the trouble.

"The Deck That Shuffles Itself" by Dominique Duvivier
In a Blink: 5 Out of 10

Practicality: 6
It's a gimmicked deck to carry, it can't be used for other things other than this one routine, it can't be examined, and you need a table and a lot of real estate to play with. Overall, it just ain't that practical.

Workmanship: 10
The deck is very well made with USPC stock.

Documentation: 3
The documentation is, in a wood, clunky. At times, it's just simply hard to figure out. Luckily, the working is not that difficult to understand once you see the deck.

Effect: 5
This screams "Gimmicked deck" at the top of its lungs and plays weaker because of it. A deck switch will help, but that seems to be too much trouble to go through for the effect.

Presentation: 3
"What happens to an imaginary deck happens to a real one." There. That's the presentation. It's okay, but average. What is worse is the incongruent dual climax that just doesn't flow with the rest of the routine.

Shane