Cardcaptor Sakura was one of the defining anime of my childhood–I absolutely loved it, even though it was the dubbed version on Cartoon Network (as I recall). I also missed episodes for random stuff my mom made us do. As an adult, I watched it subbed, straight through, and loved it even more. It’s not just the magic, it’s the handling of the characters and the story. It starts out “monster-of-the-week-esque” and slowly layers up.
The cards in the thumbnail/pictured above are the regular Clow cards, the ones Sakura, the titular Cardcaptor, had to catch all of in various ways throughout the anime. I guess you could say that these are the “base” cards. They can be used for divination, but this particular deck I use specially for Weekly Luck Drawings. It’s probably the most complicated thing you can do with the cards; you lay them out in rows of seven, and then ‘eliminate’ like colors that are next to each other (the cards are color coded, I have my deck marked with sharpies, but am thinking of adding a letter). The fewer cards remaining, the better luck you have for that day. There are three cards leftover that you can use for advice on any given day.
They are difficult to shuffle, it’s impossible to do a riffle shuffle, so I go corner to corner, then overhand, then underhand. The cardstock on my deck is great, it comes from DonaldPresents on Etsy, as do the Sakura cards that I’m about to talk about.
These are Sakura cards. They turn pink and ‘mature’ in some way after Sakura imbues them with her own power. I’ve decided to use the Mirror for each picture, so that you can see the differences between decks more easily.
This deck I use for divination and sometimes magic. In divination, the Mirror can mean Regret, remorse, humbleness, and honesty (with yourself). In magic it can be used for protection, enhancing divination, and shadow work.
It has the same shuffling issues as the regular Clow deck.
These are Clear cards, from the newer Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Cards anime. I have only half of all available cards because this deck did not include anything from the manga. I’m not sure where it came from, my husband bought it for me as a gift. There’s nothing I can really use it for, shuffling scuffs it up and the cards aren’t 1:1 like the change between Clow and Sakura cards.
These are called “Chibi Clow Cards”, I bought them off Etsy after a friend shared a link with me, but the shop seems to have been taken down. They’re regular playing card sized. I don’t really use them for anything, the card stock is super thick–but dang are they cute! I enjoy when the art is reworked as long as it’s done well.
These are the New Clow cards, from PrinterStudio. They were my very first Clow deck, so I used to use them for Weekly Luck Drawings (which is why there’s a P in the corner). Nowadays, I use them purely for magical workings. I need to get a new copy of the deck soon, some of the images are getting pretty worn down.
And there you have them–all of my Clow based decks in one post!
