Reviews: Read What Alex Hall Is Saying
1 ★★★★★ reviews
Shadow Sequeira Stack
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Alex Hall (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Tuesday 17 March, 2026)
Major advantage is frankly its price.
What you get:
Several tetradestic or pesudo-tetradestic (somewhat tweaked) stacks, with formula for card-number and number-card conversions, as well as prior/latter card. As advertised.
A super-brief introduction of Unknown Mentalist's concept, Clock Principle, with permission. Guess there is some underlying algebraic structure, some sort of group or ring or something that remains undiscovered, but I am not that much of a mathematician to find out what. As the Clock Principle underlies UM's popular manuscript "Karma Stack", it might be said that you received some essence of that ebook with kind permission.
What you DON'T get:
The "shadow" concept itself. Dr Solka gave examples so I managed to figure out much of how the shadow operates, but that is no replacement for a real introduction. I anticipated a monologue or at least a paragraph discussing the shadow, so readers may judge if full research into the concept (discussed in Solka's other work "Im Schattenreich der Spielkarten") is worth the effort (mind you, that book doesn't have English translation, at least not available on lybrary!).
ACAAN calculations. Admittedly, the advertisement didn't say this, but Mr. Larry Finley in reviewing "Si Stebbins Pro" by same author, pointed out that "a shadow stack such as 7QS or the Sequoia stack" facilitates quick ACAAN calculations. I mean not the slightest offense to Mr. Finley, but this manuscript about the shadow sequoia stack DID NOT introduce ACAAN calculation formula. It is possible that I misunderstood Mr. Finley who referred to something else, or that said formula exists but was hidden in the shadows of Im Schattenreich der Spielkarten. Pun intended.
Non-rotational suit arrangements. Not that I care much about systems that tamper with rotational arrangements, for these often burden the calculation, and a real memorized order (Mnemonica for example) would be better if your routine, like the Nikola style of restoring order from shuffled pack which involves CALLING OUT order of cards, puts the sequence under fire. Yet, a brief introduction or discussion would make the manuscript more comprehensive.
A stack that "stands out". Tetradestic stacks with card-positon and position-card calculations are not rare in the magic literature, and this ebook does not disclose much information that makes its stack superior to, say, the Karma. As I've said, such advantage may do exist, but saidly is not present here.
So basically, if you just want a "card _-_ positon and prior/latter card" stack at a low price, this is a decent purchase. If you are interested in reverse-engineering and discovering properties (instead of incorporating them into your stack), this may also be worth exploring. In other cases, I kindly advise caution.
Alex.
Karma Deck
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Alex Hall (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Sunday 10 August, 2025)
If you have never been introduce to MEMORIZED stack work (I mean by a master like Simon Aronson or Juan Tamariz), this ebook might be a worthy step as a "first date". But if you have gone long miles to research the pros and cons of MEMORIZED stacks and have made the decision to devote time and effort to wield this mighty weapon, than I suggest leaving this aside and invest in the real work.
Here are the reasons.
First of all, I say MEMORIZED in its strictest terms, like "if you forget it, the only fallback is a note stuck to the back of a joker". After all, you can rote memorize virtually any sequence...so might as well use something with magic built in. Memorized stacks from Nikola to Aragon are mostly blessed with multiple built-in magic, of which very few is introduced in this Ebook (although I believe construction of more is possible).
Now to the construction of the stack. Unknown Mentalist is wise in separating suits from values, and using a tetradistic design, so the problem after the simplification really boils down to a bijection from collection {1,2,3...13} to itself. The construction of the bijection is admittedly smart, since it uses something virtually everyone is familiar with, so takes up little extra memory. Tetradistic stacks do offer distinct advantages (please refer to All In by Allan Ackerman, for details), but I am admittedly a bit disappointed to realize that this is not included in the description.
In all, I think this ebook works OK for a memorized stack first date. You invest 18$ and some 10 minutes and get a stack that is memorized besides a few tricks. Now you can do many if not most stack independent works. But are there advanced features like conversion from and to new deck order? Not mentioned. Any full-length discussion on how to get into stack from any situations? No. Also, the algorithmic nature means you have to discover built-ins, instead of building your favourite tricks into the stack.
It can properly serve as an introduction, and tryout to see if mem decks are really your thing. There is nothing wrong to abandon mem decks in exchange for other tools, and if after using karma you find out mem decks are just not so favourable to you, a great deal of time and effort is saved. But if you are an addict of mem decks, and wish not only to use but to study and cherish it, I recommend karma only as a middling addition to your knowledge, not a full powered weapon.