Just got it, played a bit and it's really impressive, beautiful, and slides just right. The edges of the cards fade (only visible from the side), but I painted them all and it's truly a beautiful deck. Ellusionist had also written a small book (available for free on the Internet) on how to paint/play with this deck. I highly recommend it even if someone doesn't collect. IMPORTANT: it's a stiff deck, I can still perform all the tricks I want but it's harder for those that require bending the cards a lot, they can be done but more difficult