17th Kingdom Avant Garde Playing Cards

The 17th Kingdom Avant Garde playing cards are a genuinely distinctive deck, created as an experimental release for the Patreon 2022 Annual Rewards and later refined into a finished collector’s piece. What sets them apart immediately is their hourglass-shaped profile, designed to challenge the conventions of traditional playing cards without sacrificing usability.

Despite their unconventional form, the cards handle surprisingly well. The ergonomic shape sits naturally in the hand, offering a different but intuitive feel that quickly becomes comfortable during play. 

Every card is custom-designed, including bespoke court cards, jokers, and a unique Ace of Spades. The deck is housed in a specially engineered foldbox, featuring dual foils, embossing, a red interior, and a glue-less construction that mirrors the experimental nature of the cards themselves.

In 2023, the deck was awarded Deck of the Year (Diamond Award) by the 52+Joker Club, recognising both its originality and execution.

This is not a novelty deck, but a carefully considered exploration of form, function, and presentation, and one of the most distinctive modern playing card releases available.