Am playing for years really with a combo of marked and stacked deck, stacked to a mnemonic (rosary stack) as this allows, after a false shuffle, to dribble till they say stop and show the face of the card at the face of the upper block to the spectator while looking at the mark on the back of the top card of the lower block. Counting ahead 1 in my mnemonic gives me the name of the card they are memorizing. Because it is at the face of an entire block, I obviously can't see the back of that card. Laymen know about marked cards, and this is a throw-off of that idea, marks, yet it uses marks. I like it because it is different.

For over a year now I've been doing a 'bit' in which I rapidly perform a tabletop fan of a marked deck showing the "all different" card faces of a Stebbins stack. I then do a somewhat sloppy false shuffle ala Charlier and launch into a little lecture about how people cut cards differently (equal piles, deep cut, shallow cut, etc.), demonstrating each as I describe it. Of course, the deck remains in its original stack order while I do all this. I then describe how, on a "quantum level," when a deck is cut, the "image" of the cut-to card lingers for a few seconds on the back of the card that was recently below it, i.e. the new top card on the deck after the cut has been completed. I then have the spec cut the cards using his choice of methods and next stroke my fingers lightly over that top card back in order to "read" the alleged lingering image "before it fades," meanwhile noting its mark and computing the value of the card now on the bottom of the deck, ultimately revealing same (although once in a while I do get the suit wrong!) (sly grin)

Bottom line: I believe that we are kindred spirits in that our methods are essentially similar, no? --And BTW, after doing dozens of quick, smooth spreads using Stebbins, no one has ever called me out about the alternating red-black arrangement. FWIW also, my fave deck is an original DMC Elites Rouge, although since I have all the time in the world to study the card back in question, any deck in my sizeable collection would probably do just as well. --Cheers!

Nice. I’ve finally given in and am using a marked, stacked deck with corner shorts

Again, the idea is to use/combine multiple methods.

Re: Using multiple methods--I could not agree more. Besides card tricks I'm also into 'Which Hand' routines, and I think I could do a string of at least half a dozen without repeating methods even once. Such wicked fun we charlatans do have, eh! (wink)

What is your preferred m****d deck?

- waynet - Sorry--forgot to subscribe to this thread and so missed your question. Will send a PM. But the quick answer is DMC Elites rouge (not red) version.

DMC Elites v4, specifically the v4, because of the way they handle, and because they don’t have the mnemonica marks.
But also, the Diamond Jim deck, and the Butterfly deck, are both great in different ways.

I prefer “reader” decks, and the dmc elites and the diamond jim deck are the best of that type I’ve found.

I agree with all you say except for the Butterfly deck, which was just too, too different for me, so I only owned it briefly and finally sold it. I'm also kind of fond of the Phoenix markers, although some may find them too obvious--also, like others you mention, they're somewhat on the pricey side for everyday worker use.