Butterfly Deck – Ondrej Psenika
Various prices
www.butterflymagicstore.com/butterfly-playing-cards/

www.vanishingincmagic.com/card-magic/but......senicka/

The Hype:
It began as a simple fascination with one-way decks, but became an obsession. The result is a truly unique advancement in card magic, one as elegant and beautiful as a butterfly. It's a pleasure to introduce you to Butterfly Playing Cards.
It's a challenge to create a deck that is complex enough to hide marked cards without being too irregular and cluttered, but the Butterfly Deck was designed with an exceptional amount of care and thought, fulfilling its function while displaying a beautiful design. Each card is edge-marked in two ways, allowing you both to locate any card in the deck via the two-way edge marks and to spot any reversed card using one-way marks on either the backs or faces. 
For the first time, the Butterfly Deck has made these two systems practical and accessible and you will be able to perform miracle-class effects. You'll very fairly be able to divine selected cards, determine what cards are missing from the deck, how to deal the cards quickly into separate red and black piles, and so very much more.
And heaven help the spectator if you know a memorized stack as well, because using the Butterfly Deck with a mem deck is just patently unfair...for the spectator, that is. They've got no chance at figuring out what is going on.
Make sure you pick this one up before they sell out, because it's likely they will. Don't delay and miss out on one of the truly innovative and powerful magic products of the year.


My Take:
Ondrej is one of the few magicians to fool Penn and Teller not once, not twice but three times. They caught him the fourth time out but he still fooled me.

If you are not familiar with Ondrej, watch the linked video on his site.
www.ondrejpsenicka.cz/en

He has an extremely likable stage presence. (Hey, it worked for Matt Franco. His personality put him over the top). He is very funny and smiles a lot. Who could ask for more? Plus, he really irritated Penn by fooling him three times. How could you not love him?

Watching the videos will show you just how brilliant he is. This deck is marked but in a whole new way. Watching the instructional video (about two hours) is stunning. I have had a problem with marked decks in the past as my eyesight is not what it used to be. No such problem here. The markings are clearly readable. It may take some practice to get used it to but it is both a fascinating and entertaining time well spent. And you can do this without sleights!

He teaches a number of tricks such as cutting to any card called for, finding the mate of any card selected but my favorite mimics a technique known as clocking. Years ago, Harry Lorayne put out a booklet called the Epitome Location, This allows someone to take a card out of the deck behind his back and you tell him what card is missing. The method involves adding the value of the cards as you look through them. A complex and long process. I played around with it for quite a while and found that going through it once was not enough. You would have to go through a second time to determine the suit. If you were lousy at math and numbers, this was a routine you avoided. The Butterfly Deck makes clocking a breeze. I believe this is the routine I will use most.

The video has a feature I found very helpful. The blue line at the bottom of the screen is in sections with a small space in between. This allows you to go directly to the next portion or repeat any.

Having watched the video and going back to his initial appearance on Penn & Teller, I could figure out how it was done. You are not given a step by step but a little thinking makes it pretty clear what has happened.

I have an advantage most of you won't. One of my very closest friends is married to a girl from Prague. They go back to visit her mother. On the last trip he met Ondrej, had a beer or two (Czechs drink more beer than any other county on the planet with the average intake being around 30 gallons per year). So he not only got to hang out with him but he got to see some great magic and learn some direct from the master. He says that Ondrej has also included numerous Easter eggs in the deck but wouldn't tip them. They are for you to figure out.

Having the Butterfly Deck has put me on the same level as Penn and Teller because I can't pronounce his name either.

If you want something that is a true magician fooler and not hard to do, there is no finer trick on the market. I give this the highest recommendation.

To close, no one should be allowed to be this brilliant, I am with Penn and I say that I hate this guy! I'd just want to be him.

P.S. I would suggest buying them as soon as they are released as they sell out very quickly.