Sun Tzu’s The Art of War is the most influential treatise on warfare ever written and the bedside companion of every slightly portly middle-manager ever to draw breath. Soon, you too will be able to access timeless nuggets of wisdom such as, “Attack him where he is unprepared,” and, “He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot, will be victorious,” in the most dangerous battleground of all: the poker table.

Launched on Kickstarter earlier today, Sun Tzu’s deck features the pithiest of Master Sun’s musings on the nature of warfare on each of its number cards while the face cards all bear one of the “12 Virtues of the Victory.” Not only are the quotes and virtues supposed to look nice, which they do, they’re also apparently there to help your poker game. 

The deck is being printed by MakePlayingCards.com, a smaller scale, to-order production company, that seems well suited for the deck’s limited 250 unit run. Each card features a quotation or virtue in both English and Chinese, with a shot of the actual text of The Art of War on their backs. The cards are printed with a 310gsm Linen Finish and are, apparently, cardistry friendly. 

At the time of writing the Sun Tzu’s Deck Kickstarter has reached over $1,000 of its $4,405 goal. The Kickstarter will run until April 14th. The cheapest pledge is $16 and includes a physical and digital copy of the deck. All prices are in US dollars. 

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must go and wage war upon Dave from down the street. For too long has his domination of Saturday casual poker night gone unchallenged.