[crehn]

> impossible card effects (ex: "shuffle the deck, pick your favorite card from it, hand the deck back to me, your card is the Ace of Diamonds")

There is one deceivingly simple trick that is essentially just that.

[bombcar]

There's more than one that I can think of, and the best I've ever done is the "imaginary deck" one.

Setup: shuffle an imaginary deck, fan the imaginary deck, tell someone to pick an imaginary card and remember it, shuffle it back into the imaginary deck and put the deck in your pocket.

Remove a deck from your pocket, ask what the card was, fan the deck out, and - it's the only upside down card in the deck!?

[bena]

This is one where if you have the time and effort to dedicate to it, can be simple. You memorize your deck, so when they tell you the card, you thumb to it and flip it so when you fan it, the card they picked is upside down.

[gibybo]

The "Invisible Deck" is a very famous trick. It can be purchased[1] for about $10 and just about anyone can master it in about 10 minutes. With the standard method, you don't need to memorize the deck or flip the card.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/U-S-PLAYING-CARD-COMPANY-SG_B002MI1B3...

[rkagerer]

What did you buy today honey?

A box of invisible cards.

[fortran77]

This is not how invisible deck is done though. It takes a gimmicked deck, no memorization, and not too much skill.

[bombcar]

That's close to how the version I know worked, but it was a step or two from that (and a bit simpler).