Junior Playing Cards
Junior Playing Cards in a large pile.
Junior Playing Cards are French-suited, Anglo-American playing cards.
There are two varieties of Junior Playing Cards, named Mage & Fool.
Buy $5History
While developing Junior Hanafuda, Louie Mantia grew his collection of regional playing cards, with decks from Italy, Germany, Switzerland, France, and the United States. Building from the design language of previous Junior cards, he developed an interpretation of French-suited, Anglo-American pattern cards.
The suit pips, court cards, back design, and index font were all custom-designed to be instantly familiar to anyone and simultaneously new to everyone.
In mid-2021, a Kickstarter project was launched for Mage & Fool, including a set of poker dice called Junior Royals. The cards were produced by The United States Playing Card Company in Erlanger, Kentucky. This is collectively considered to be the second major project from Junior.
Cards
Junior Playing Cards: Mage & Fool each have 52 standard cards and are American poker-size decks. There are four suits (Spades, Diamonds, Clubs, and Hearts) with 13 cards each, ranked Ace through King. There are some design differences between Mage & Fool decks.
| A | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | J | Q | K |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Each deck has two Flag cards. Blue decks include two Mage jokers, while Red decks include two Fool jokers.
| Mage | Fool |
|---|---|
 Mage Tuckbox |
 Fool Tuckbox |
 Blue Card Back |
 Red Card Back |
 2 Mage Jokers |
 2 Fool Jokers |
  2 Flag Cards |
|
Details
Nicknames
Some details are so common throughout English-pattern decks that they’re retained in Mage & Fool decks.
- The King of Hearts is also known as the “Suicide King” because of the peculiar position of his sword.
- The Jack of Spades and Jack of Hearts are referred to as “One-Eyed Jacks” due to their faces being in profile.
Features
- Typically, the Ace of Spades is more ornate, but in Mage & Fool decks, the Ace of Clubs receives special attention, featuring the Junior logo.
- The King of Diamonds is the only King with an axe. He’s also the only King who isn’t holding his weapon.
- The Queen of Spades is the only Queen facing her left.
- The Jack of Hearts is the only Jack who isn’t holding a weapon. Instead, he’s holding a feather, similar to the one in the Jack of Clubs’ hat.
Games
Junior Playing Cards can be used to play hundreds of games, including Kings in the Corner, Straight Gin, and Takoyaki.
