I seem to be posting a lot of questions lately. Sorry if it's annoying. At least they're obscure and interesting questions, rather than "where should I stick my thumb tip?".

If you are able to get the (52 card, normal) deck into some state by a sequence of Faros, runs and cuts, how do you find the best way to reverse that process, and restore it to its original state?

I have StackView. The solver (while excellent - thanks Mr Pudar...!) doesn't seem quick enough in general to answer these questions.

Tamariz has some shortcut methods in mnemonica. I was wondering if anyone knew of anything published in specifically this area (I have most of the standard memdeck/stack/faro literature... I think...).

What you're referring to is a process/sleight called an Anti-faro. As you point out, Tamariz talks about how to execute an out anti-faro-1, 2, 3 and 4. Those processes are confined to dealing into various numbers of piles and picking up those piles in a specific sequence.

Of course, an excellent anti-faro technique is using the knowledge that 8 out faros brings you back to your starting position. So if you've already faro'd 4 times, 4 more and you're back to your initial state.

The most exotic alternative is to master Christian Engblom's anti-faro shuffle, which is an actual shuffle that does exactly what it claims to do. From what I hear, it is most challenging and very few ascend all the way up that mountain.

If you want to go from NDO to Tamariz stack back to NDO, that is all covered in Mnemonica.

Do you have a specific application in mind or is this more of a theoretical question?

Thanks for the reference Steven. I'm no move monster but I'll have a look at it; it sounds interesting.
It's pipe and slippers stuff, I don't have a particular application in mind. I think it's something a lot of people wonder when about when they start looking at this stuff.

The Tamariz Anti-Faro Techniques are actually quite charming if you use his suggested patter about casinos in Monte Carlo. You will need to spend a little time getting down the sequence of the dealing into piles and particularly the pickup. (The Two Handed Pickup is a bit challenging, but is very deceptive one you can do it briskly.) But it's certainly not at all difficult. My preference is the "Out-Antifaro-4" on page 322 of "Mnemonica." Juan's "justification" patter line is about three quarters of the page down on page 323. He suggests that you name a location of the casino(s) that's a long way from you. If you live near Monte Carlo, that could be Hong Kong.

Tamariz stresses that since you have to deal all 52 cards in the deck for the Anti-Faros that you practice this a get very fast. It's also important that you have something entertaining to say as you do this.

There's more information on Anti-Faros in the Tamariz book "Sonata."

Dennis Loomis

Cheers Dennis. I read that appendix pretty closely. I like the way he shortcuts the process, justifies it and communicates the presentational aspects. It's not something I can seem myself doing in performance but it's certainly a very neat way to do it.
I also like Tamariz' suggestions of alternative methods for the various setup procedures that are completely sure-fire.

See also "Finding the Way Home / Possible strategies for rearranging cards systematically" in Denis Behr's book, Handcrafted Card Magic.