Long before there were spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs, playing cards had very different suits. Mandrake Playing Card Company is bringing those suits back to life with the new Ombre Oscure deck. Incorporating a new design with the images from the Napoletane regional deck from Italy, Ombre Oscure is an updated look for a centuries-old tradition.

FRANCESE Deck - The Aces

Standard deck

Italian regional decks normally contain 40 cards: four suits (clubs, coins, cups, and swords) numbered 1-7, with a knave, knight, and king. I will be offering two decks in this project -- the standard deck with 40 cards and no indices, and a French-suited deck (called Francese) that has 54 cards and implements standard indices in the corners.

Rules Card

A black background offsets the stark white of each image, contrasting and making it easy to identify each card's unique features. Some details on the images have been simplified and mirrored to mimic the look of standard playing cards. The Francese deck also has red accents on the heart and diamond indices for easier recognition.

The face cards have been cut in half, instead of being full-figured, and mirrored to be more distinguishable from any angle. I chose each horizontal cut carefully to give each image a sense of fluidity

Since these cards will be printed by MPC, you can trust that they will be high-quality cards. I am using poker-size, linen stock that is easy to handle and feels great to play with. The Francese deck comes with 52 playing cards, 2 jokers, an instruction card for playing Briscola and Scopa, and a gaff card, all in a custom tuck box. The standard deck has 40 playing cards and an instruction card for playing Briscola and Scopa, all in a custom tuck box.

MPC cardstock photo from the standard deck

Shipping is free for all Domestic orders in the USA. International shipping will be $2 extra for each item you choose.

Currently the only stretch goal is for a white version of the deck. I'm giving myself 2 others and I have some ideas for them but I'll only update them if we get past the first.

Francese Tuck box

Standard Tuck Box

Card Back Preview

Diamonds / Coins suit

Clubs suit

Hearts/Cups suit

Spades/Swords suit

Music for the video:

"Bushwick Tarantella" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/