[Written] RL Rugby Decks Review

How well does your favorite deck hold up?
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alric
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[Written] RL Rugby Decks Review

Unread post by alric »

This is my first attempt at a written review, and I'm definitely not Sinjin or Evan, but I hope you find some helpful info here. This is really just more my observations than a formal review.

First of all, there are 2 versions of the Ralph Lauren Rugby deck. The more familiar version is the blue deck with the skull and crossbones design. The other version is the red/burgandy deck with a crest and banner design. I'll get to the boxes later, but the first thing I noticed was that both versions had a smooth finish. I was initially very disappointed by this, but after handling the decks a bit, I found that these decks fanned very well for a smooth finished deck. These will probably suffer from a durability and clumpiness standpoint at some time in the near future like most smooth finished decks do, but the initial fannability was surprisingly good. The Ace Fulton decks should take notes from the Rugby decks on how well a smooth finished deck should fan. The stock feels pretty stiff as well.

The faces on the cards are custom in that all the pips, numbers, and court cards have a weathered treatment, and the court cards have a rather bland toned down color scheme. The fonts for the numbers and letters are custom, and each of the Aces are customized identically as well. You get FOUR Jokers - two red and two black. No ad cards. The back design of the blue deck has the familiar skull and crossbone design with a crown and banners in gold ink that looks nice against the dark blue background. I know a lot of people are tired of skulls, but the on the Rugby deck its tastefully done, you won't be confusing this deck with a Karnival deck! The back design of the red deck has a crest in the center with two banners above and below the crest. Both versions have an obvious one way design and have a full bleed back design with no white borders, although both decks' back designs are framed in a gold box, so it has kind of a border in that sense. I prefer the blue deck's back design.

The box of the blue Rugby deck has a smooth and shiney feel and is dark blue with gold ink and there is no deck seal. The box of the red Rugby is completely different, it has a matte treatment and is embossed with gold foil, no ink anywhere. The red deck also has a custom deck seal that is dark gold colored featuring what looks like an oval wax seal with the letter R. I definitely like the red box over the blue box because of the extensive embossed gold foiling.

I would recommend ordering these decks with the gift box option. Its free and each deck will come in their own very nice cardboard box that's actually very thick and solid, its dark blue with two yellow stripes and very cool. Its a great way to store and protect and display your decks.

I hope you found this review helpful, thanks!
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MJF
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Re: [Written] RL Rugby Decks Review

Unread post by MJF »

Definitely can't wait until mine show up... should be later this week!!! :)
I also should've sprang for the gift box, that thing looks pretty sturdy...
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