Card players who aren’t content with plain vanilla decks have plenty of options on the Net, from classy art designs to ones adorned with the scenes from James Bond films. They can even go the custom route: Printers all over the place will happily whip up promo decks with your company’s logo, and for quality-minded customers, even the industry-leading United States Playing Card Company has a custom printing service. But the deck of the moment for off-the-beaten-pathers has to be the one from Custom 52. As a consumer object, C52’s deck is great. While most non-standard decks offer an artsy back design with regular faces, these boast a different illustration on the face of every card. As a participatory event, they’re even better. Any artist, anywhere can submit a design — a cuddly eight of hearts, a ninja jack of spades — which is then voted on by anyone who feels like it. At the end of a set period, the winners are chosen, cards are printed and they’re sold for $13.50. The inaugural series has already sold out (pictured are two designs by graphic designer Steph Doyle in the Cycle I deck), but Cycle II is now available; you can see the card faces here. No, they don’t feel as good in your hands as casino-grade cards (I haven’t seen a custom deck that does), and they probably won’t last as long either. Happily, by the time this Cycle II deck wears out, there will be at least one new version, probably a few, waiting to replace it.