According to Dan and Dave Buck, an idea to create their own brand of playing cards was born in 2007. By that time they have already released two fundamental DVDs: The System and The Trilogy by Dan and Dave Buck, which helped thousands of enthusiasts across the globe discover cardisty. By the way, we found out about the Buck Twins thanks to a freebie of the Jones Change on Vimeo. Being inspired by the David Blaine's Split Spades release, they reached out to a British illustrator Si Scott, to work on the first edition of Smoke and Mirrors, released in 2008. Later on they printed over 15 different versions of these cards at the United States Playing Card Company with a total run of almost 200,000 decks. 

The Smoke & Mirrors series has become an embodiment of the first successful cardistry brand and an example to follow to many cardists and magicians across the world. In this video we're doing a short review of each deck with the help of Dan. You can still purchase some of the original editions in our shop. Here's previously unknown details about each of the release of Smoke and Mirrors playing cards from the Art of Play page:

Smoke & Mirrors, v1 (Black & White)
August 1, 2008 at 8pm PT
10K printed

Smoke & Mirrors, v2 (Black & White)
October 15th, 2008
10K printed

Smoke & Mirrors, v3 (Black & White)
October 31, 2009
10K printed

Smoke & Mirrors, v4 (Green)
March 26, 2010
5K printed

Smoke & Mirrors, v5 (Blue)
December 3, 2010
10K printed

Smoke & Mirrors, v6 (Red)
August 26th, 2011
30K printed (two print runs at 15K each)

Smoke & Mirrors, v7 & Deluxe Box Set
November 23, 2012
10K box sets
5K of each individual deck
85K total decks printed

Smoke & Mirrors, Private Reserve
November 22nd, 2013 as part of our Mystery Deck promo
2,500 printed 

Smoke & Mirrors, v8
End of 2021, 5 colours