I'm a bit ashamed to say I haven't had a chance to go over my copy of Mnemonica yet (something to do with having a job at a tv station in South Florida during hurricane season.. but don't get me started..)

Until now I've been using the Joyal stack, and sticking to material that is stack independent. I deliberately avoided switching stacks until Mnemonica came out so I could make the call if I should switch to the Aronson stack or the Tamariz stack for the built in effects.

Has anyone read enough Aronson and Tamariz material to give some pros/cons of each of the built in effects in their respective stacks?

Phil

P.S. - I'll always be indebted to Martin Joyal for introducing me to memorized deck work, but I have no memory problems learning a new stack - and if the Aronson/Tamariz stack can do everything the Joyal stack can do - and has extra effects the Joyal does not, then I need to think about switching.

I originally learned the Aronson stack, but switched to the Tamariz. They are both very good stacks, and you should read both books to determine which built-in features are more important to you. They each have poker deals, and various other features that may appeal to you.

One advantage of the Tamariz stack is that it can be shuffled to from a new deck. While I agree that you probably wouldn't shuffle to it in front of an audience (There was another thread about this), it is useful so you don't have to spend 5-10 minutes culling out the cards one at a time.

My advice to you is to read Mnemonica, and decide which one fits you best.

Shane Wiker

I find it hard to beleive that there are no built in tricks in the Joyal stack. I've seen it on stackview and it looks like there could be some possibilities. As far as the Tamariz and Aronson go, Aronson's was built so Simon Aronson could do tricks he wanted. The Tamariz was shuffled into from a new deck order and tricks were discovered rather than built. But, a lot of the same tricks can be done with that Tamariz that are built into the Aronson. Also, the Tamariz stack has the 2 added features of having a stay stack that can be shuffled into from the memorized order, as well as being able to be shuffled into new deck order. Ending in new deck order is a pretty cool ending after a card act. It really is up to you, there are pros and cons of each stack, but for me, I prefer the Tamariz built in features over the Aronson.

I agree that ending in new dack order is a cool ending..

Most complete order, in my opinion, is Tamariz´s one.

But you choose. As someone said above, read both books, and get the one you like most.

All the best magic,

Pablo Tejero

For gambling effects, I would vote for the Aronson stack as it was specifically designed with that in mind. Whilst Tamariz and others have designed some incredibly ingenious gambling effects, they do take a little more setting up, simply because Tamariz's first concern was the link to NDO and staystack.

For the link to NDO and staystack, you clearly need to vote for Tamariz.

I currently use Aronson but am likely to switch to Tamariz for that reason - also because I find poker effects much less appealing to a UK audience.