Elemental playing cards?

Rabulias · Mar 7, 2012

Has anyone ever produced a set of playing cards that used the 4 classical elements instead of the standard suits?

My searches have uncovered all manner of history about how modern playing cards evolved from the tarot, and assertion that the modern suits did grow out of the four elements. It seems natural that someone would produce a deck with this theme, but I can't find one.

Perhaps I am using the wrong terms or something; so has anyone ever heard of/seen such a deck? I think it would be cool to have cards like the Ace of Flames, the Seven of Winds, the Three of Waves, and the Five of Stones.

The court cards could be elemental princes/princesses/genies. Not sure what the jokers would be...

Thanks in advance for any help.

Nebten · Mar 7, 2012

They used to use 4 different colors for each suit:
Four-color deck - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

AeroDm · Mar 7, 2012

Rabulias said:
The court cards could be elemental princes/princesses/genies. Not sure what the jokers would be...

Captain Planet?

Joking aside that actually does sound pretty neat. I am imagining it in Avatar style art design which would be pretty perfect. If you find something, I'd be interested.

SkidAce · Mar 7, 2012

I noticed this from another thread. One section lets you design your own cards.

www.thegamecrafter.com/custom-playing-cards

Jamdin · Mar 7, 2012

There is one Elemental deck of playing cards that has the following:

Hearts: pink sakura petals (wind)
Diamonds: red flames (fire)
Clubs: green leaves (earth)
Spades: blue moons and spheres (water)

jonesy · Mar 7, 2012

Jamdin said:
Hearts: pink sakura petals (wind)
Diamonds: red flames (fire)
Clubs: green leaves (earth)
Spades: blue moons and spheres (water)

Huh. That's so not how I'd do them. Hearts are obviously fire, diamonds are earth, clubs are water (since they represented plants), and spades are air (they were swords).