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"A really powerful spell-to-your-card effect. The title says it all, it is Bannon's "Dead Reckoning" except on steroids."
- Tommaso Guglielmi
"For a long time I've been performing "Dead Reckoning" by John Bannon. It's one of my go-to effects in my repertoire. But that changed today. "Dead Reckoning: On Steroids" is a marvelous improvement on the original. It is unbelievably deceptive and impossible to reverse engineer, and it replaces "Dead Reckoning" in my repertoire. Thanks Unnamed Magician for this splendid creation."
- Brian Draven
"The main effect is good but the first bonus effect is beyond good." - Deven Chodas "Wow, just wow! He's done it again. I just cannot believe how many quality effects the Unnamed Magician has put out and he keeps coming back with more and more. This trick is another amazing publication. It takes a classic trick that we all know about and genuinely makes it better. Allowing the spectator to shuffle their pile after making a selection is a massive step forward."
- Tony Bianco
"Just incredible! At last someone has discovered the grail of this card plot..."
- Ryan Quinton
"This is easily the best spelling trick I have ever seen. No question about it. I'm not one for spelling tricks in general but I will definitely try this one on my audiences. The two bonus tricks are also super strong!"
- Peter Lee
Have you ever wanted to perform John Bannon's "Dead Reckoning" in a way where you could actually allow the spectator to shuffle (not just cut) their pile in order to truly lose their selected card? If so, then look no further. Dead Reckoning: On Steroids provides a solution to achieve just that. What once may have been a dream is now a reality. Read on. (There is a full performance video attached above as well.)
Imagine: The magician introduces a deck of cards and hands it over to the spectator. He then turns his back.
With his back turned, the magician instructs the spectator to give the deck as many complete cuts as they like in order to eliminate the possibility of any key cards. Then, he asks them to cut off about a third of the deck and to look at the bottom card of the cut-off portion as their selection (which is clearly a random card). The magician then asks them to thoroughly shuffle the portion in order to lose their card. The spectator can even look through the portion in order to make sure their card is truly lost within it.
Next, the magician instructs the spectator to place the remainder of the deck on top of their portion, thereby burying it and reassembling the deck. Once the deck is reassembled, the magician turns back around and says, "I don't know what your card is or where it is in the deck. But I do know it's somewhere in the bottom third of the deck - though I don't know exactly whereas you shuffled your portion. But let's shuffle the entire deck as well so that your card could end up anywhere in the deck." The magician takes the deck and gives it a quick shuffle (without looking at the faces). He then hands the deck back to the spectator.
The magician says, "You shuffled your portion to lose your card. I also just shuffled the entire deck. Your card could literally be anywhere in the deck now. Let's see if a miracle occurred. Spell the following sentence 'My card is the [insert name of card]', dealing one card for every letter. Let's spell the 'My card is the' part of the sentence out loud."
The spectator deals one card face-up for every letter in the phrase 'My card is the'. After that, they deal one card face-up for every letter in the name of their selected card (this part they do mentally). The magician yells stop at some point, which coincidentally happens to be exactly at the point where the spectator concluded their mental count. The spectator then names their selected card for the first time and turns over the next card in the deck (from the point where the deal concluded) ... and it is the selected card. An inexplicable coincidence - they spelled to their own card!
Some important conditions of note:
- The magician's back is turned during the entire selection and return procedure. He only turns back around after the deck is reassembled.
- After selecting a card, the spectator thoroughly shuffles their portion in order to lose their card. They can even check the portion to make sure their card is truly lost within it.
- At the end, when the spectator performs the spelling deal, they deal the cards face-up.
- There is no peek and there is no force - the magician has no clue what the spectator's card is.
- Almost self-working - so very easy to perform.
The main spelling effect is taught both in the form of video instructions and written instructions (PDF), whereas the bonus routines are only taught in the PDF.
