Doctor Strange Playing Cards by Fantasma

 Prepare your mind, dear reader, as we venture into the world of magic with Fantasma's Doctor Strange playing cards. But this is no mere deck of cards. Oh no! This deck will allow you to conjure your own feats of magic!

 

It's also not just a deck of cards.

 

 In addition to the deck, you also get a "Book of Secrets", a couple trick assisting cards, and a metal "card guard" to protect your deck. Here's a better pic of the guard (It's black and I'm terrible at lighting). The guard has a trick assist feature where is you know the suit of a chosen card, you can press a finger into the suit icon to "blister" the icon into your finger for a surprise reveal.

 

What makes this deck extra magical is that it's a tapered, or stripper, deck. This makes it super easy to find a card someone takes from it. It's clumsy to explain but here's a good video showing it in action. Even I was able to work it with minimal practice.

 

 In the top row, we have the card back and the Ace of Spades featuring Doc's Eye of Agamotto amulet. The bottom row has a 5 of Hearts with the same image on both sides, a regular Joker with Doc's long time nemesis Baron Mordo, and a trick Joker with the Queen of Diamonds printed on it.

 

 Even the deck box has a couple of trick assists built into it! If you force someone to choose the 7 of Diamonds, you can reveal it by showing them the "barcode".  The number under the barcode ends in 1089 and there's instructions for a little math magic to force someone to come up with that number.

 

 

On top of being a trick deck, this is one of the best Doctor Strange decks I've come across. Every single card has a different image on it. Going through the deck, you'll spot cameos of Clea, Wong, the Hulk, and even the Grim Reaper. How's that for a deep cut? The Queens in the deck all feature the Scarlet Witch. As someone that vibes more with the magic side of Marvel, it's a nice touch.

 Fantasma also makes a Spider-Man and Black Panther deck like this. Even if you're not into card magic, these decks are a great collectible for fans of the character. 

 

Here you'll find out why they call him the Amazing Spider-Man!

Monthly Media Recap - February 2025

 

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (2025, Disney+)

I like it! A lot! I like the animation style, the action, the character choices, the new twists, and that theme song slaps! Do the kids say slaps still? The one thing I didn't like about it initially, is how Peter got his powers. It seemed stupid. But they actually explained in a way that made sense by the end of the season.

 

SNL50 (2025, Peacock)

Beyond Saturday Night, the 4 part docu-series, was very good. I don't know that we needed a whole episode on the Cowbell sketch but the look inside what goes into making the show every week is mind boggling.

Ladies & Gentlemen, 50 Years of SNL Music is also great. Some good behind the scenes stories and whoever edited that opening montage deserves an award!

Movies

I don't know why but for some reason I got it into my head to watch all the Ghoulies movies when looking for stuff to watch. That'll teach me to listen to my brain! 

 

 

*Ghoulies (1985, Tubi)

Technically a re-watch but I haven't seen it since it came out. Prior to watching it, I remembered three things: the Ghoulies (duh), green eyes, and that I saw it with a boy/girl mixed group of high school friends. This was originally going to be directed by Charles Band with Stan Winston doing the creatures and I can only dream what that movie would have been like. Even grading this on an 80s horror curve, it's only kind of okay. It oddly feels like something that could have been made in the 50s.

Rating: 4/10

Adventure Time Playpak Series 3 Trading Cards

C'mon, grab you friends, we'll go to very distant lands to take a look at the Adventure Time Playpak Series 3 trading cards from Cryptozoic.

 

 I've actually had these for maybe two months and haven't ripped the entire box yet. I'm most of the way there but I like saving a few for when I need a quick pick me up during the day. The packs and box art feature Fionna and Cake the Cat, the gender swapped universe versions of Finn and Jake the Dog.

 

 I haven't see these in any stores and am glad I was able to grab a box directly from Cryptozoic's site. There are 24 packs per box with 5 cards in each pack. In theory, that's enough packs to get two full 45 card sets with some extras left over. I have 7 packs left to open to get the one card I need to complete a single set. 

 

Let's see what sort of fun cards in the packs.