Kickstarter is responsible for a good number of slick-looking decks of playing cards. Nejc Sušec of Slovenia recently hit his funding goal the Shodou deck, a cardistry set inspired by Japanese calligraphy. He spoke with Kardify about the concept, community, and how cardistry has changed his life.

Originally, he had designed Shodou just for himself as a custom deck. But after getting some interest and support from social channels, he decided to go bigger. “It is truly humbling when someone expresses interest in an idea you made out of passion, so when people showed interest in my cards, I felt I needed to repay that support,” he said. “So I decided to put in the work and time to make the deck available to all of those people.”

The cards are entirely in Japanese, and the different suits are represented by the characters for earth (spades), water (hearts), wind (clubs), and fire (diamonds). The artistic choice opens up options for cool effects from both sides of the cards. And considering Sušec is partial to fan tricks, it’s no surprise that the Shodou deck looks pretty sweet when used for those moves.

“I am not a very sociable person (not the best characteristic for social media, I know) and cardistry has changed that drastically,” he said. “Talking about it and sharing ideas enabled me to make new friends and I’m truly grateful I found my passion in such a cool thing as cardistry!”

If you like the look of Shodou, you still have until March 2 to make a pledge to his project and secure a deck or two. Read his entire Kardify interview here.