If you’re new to memorised deck magic, you’re probably wondering what the best-stacked decks are.
Don’t worry—that’s the one question that EVERYONE asks when they first get started with the memorised deck.
(you’re in good company!)
Thankfully you no longer have to miserably limit yourself to the enduring struggle of learning just one stack. We’ve made an app that is quite literally called…’Master any Stack.’ We use cutting edge technology to make it easy for you to learn multiple stacks in 1/10th of the time.
Over the recent years, we’ve seen a lot of new stacks, but which is the BEST memorised deck?
In this blog post, I’m going to tell you my top 4 memorised stacks and where you can learn them!
Let’s get into it…
Memorandum stack
About:
The Memorandum stack was created by Spanish wizard Woody Aragon.
(If you’ve never heard of Woody Aragon, you haven’t been reading the right books 😉 )
Woody is already a legend in magic—and he’s still releasing new material and ideas! His effects have been used by other world-class magicians on T.V. and in their shows—in fact, Penn and Teller close every performance in their long-running stage show with an effect invented by this man!
(the effect, for those curious, is called ‘Love Ritual’ and it’s a beautiful piece. I recall that when I watched my first magic show, the magicians also chose to end with this effect—it’s just so hard-hitting and impactful.)
Anyway, the point is this: Woody is a SMART GUY.
As a result, you can be pretty confident that any stack he comes up with is going to be a SMART STACK.
When I say ‘smart stack’ I don’t mean you can use it to call your friends or as a GPS—I just mean it’s packed with clever arrangements of cards and patterns that will enable you to perform a LOT of very fooling effects.
What I like about this stack:
There’s a lot to love about Memorandum.
For one, Woody Aragon is just so much FUN that it comes across in his work—the book and the stack.
Any time you spend working on this book will be a lot of fun—you’ll smile reading it, and you’ll smile even wider when you perform the tricks on your audiences and see the reactions you get.
If you’re a fan of ‘built-in’ effects, this is probably the stack for you.
What do I mean by ‘built-in?’
‘Built-in’ tricks are tricks that are programmed into the way the stack is arranged. For example, an example of a built-in trick might be dealing a certain number of poker hands, and having a Royal Flush fall to you, the dealer. These tricks usually don’t require intense sleight of hand (although they look like they do), since all the work has been carefully done by whoever devised the stack. A lot of built-in effects revolve around poker/gambling demonstrations.
Any weaknesses of this stack?
The main weakness of this stack, in my opinion, is the same weakness that every stack that ISN’T Mnemonica has.
Mnemonica, which will feature further down in this list, is the world’s most popular memorized deck, created by Juan Tamariz (a mentor of Woody.)
Because Mnemonica is ‘the’ go-to stack, the majority of the memorized deck work out there gets published by people that use the Mnemonica stack.
There’s not much, in my opinion, that makes the Mnemonica stack intrinsically better. In fact, I’d maybe go as far as to say that Memorandum is probably the ‘better’ stack, technically speaking.
However—since everyone ELSE uses Mnemonica, there are far more overall books, training and tricks that have been invented that work specifically with Mnemonica than there are for Memorandum.
(Of course, there’s also a lot of books and tricks that are ‘stack independent’ and will work with ANY stack.)
Maybe you think that’s not really a weakness. You’d be right. But it is what it is. Hopefully, over time, more and more material will be published using the Memorandum stack—and the scales will begin to balance out.
Where can you learn this stack?
You can learn the Memorandum stack in Woody’s book—which is also, unsurprisingly, called Memorandum.
Memorandum is a great book. The first half or so is dedicated to tricks specific to Memorandum (stack dependent tricks), but a good half of the book contains very clever effects that can be performed with ANY stack. The book also contains a whole handful of interesting ideas for the ‘Siamese Stack’, an invention of Woody’s that I can’t reveal the details of but can promise you’ll also find very fun.
So, even if you choose to go with one of the other stacks on this list—you can still benefit a lot by picking up this book.
(note: as of right now, it seems Woody’s book is out of stock on the major magic retailers. See if you can pick up a used copy online or from a fellow magician!)
You can also learn his stack through our method called the Babylon Secret (that lets you memorize an infinite number of stacks) if you’re interested in that, you can get started for as low as $25 dollars.
This link will expire within 45 minutes of you clicking, if that timer runs out, you’ll have to sign up on our homepage to get your hands on this offer again.
Click here to check it out:
https://thedailymagician.com/starter-pack-45
Alright, with that said, let’s move along to the next stack…
Redford stack
About:
This stack was created by a magician who goes by the name of Patrick Redford (hence the name of the stack.)
Patrick Redford is one of the more underrated magicians that most people haven’t heard of—but he’s a true genius, and anyone who’s read his work will instantly recognise that!
For example, here’s what people have to say about his latest book…
https://patrickredford.com/product/sleightly-out-of-order/
“As you will soon see, Patrick has investigated many nooks and crannies in his pursuit of interesting material…With so much to choose from, it would be difficult to name my favorite, but at the moment I’d single out “Duncical ACAAN,” a whimsical (and surprisingly sensible) version of that popular plot, the latest development of an approach that Patrick has been working on since 2003. He has published earlier solutions; I like this more.”
Max Maven
“This book is absolutely excellent. I’ve always felt that the memorized deck can be made so much stronger when combined with sleight of hand. This book contains not only routines with the Redford stack but also effects that you can use with ANY memorized deck. Definitely check out Sleightly Out of Order!”
Harapan Ong
“In my opinion, Patrick Redford is one of the most unappreciated creators and thinkers in magic today. Sleightly Out of Order goes deep into the topic of memorized deck routines. …I highly Recommend it!”
Karl Hein
“I’m a student of memorized deck magic, and Patrick Redford continues to surprise and impress with his latest volume of magic, Sleightly Out of Order. In particular, the half-stack work was extremely interesting. He has truly explored every ounce of the stack and teaches it with care and detail.”
Joshua Jay
Alright.
Just figured I’d do a little name-dropping to get you to sit up straight and pay attention to what I’m about to say next…
…the Redford stack is probably my number one choice for ‘best’ stack—even though it’s not first on this list.
What I like about this stack:
Without going into too much detail, let me just say the following…
If you’re even somewhat familiar with stacked deck magic, you’ll know that the ‘Si Stebbins’ stack is one of the oldest stacks in the book—full of interesting ‘built-in’ magic.
In fact, you might be wondering why Si Stebbins doesn’t feature on this list.
Well, here’s the absolutely beautiful reason I haven’t listed Si Stebbins…
…the Redford stack can be ‘transformed’ into Si Stebbins in about 20 seconds…and vice versa!
How cool is that?
The stack itself is full of great built-in effects AND you can switch back and forth to the Si Stebbins stack at will.
I think the strengths pretty much speak for themselves at this point.
Any weaknesses of this stack?
The weakness of this stack is largely the same as the previous stack—because the Redford stack hasn’t been in as wide a circulation as Mnemonica, there’s less overall brainpower working on the stack and inventing effects with it.
However, all of the stack-independent effects that have been published will work equally well with the Redford stack.
The other drawback of this stack is, in comparison to Mnemonica, it isn’t susceptible to intense scrutiny from the audience. However, this isn’t a major deal.
Where can you learn this stack:
I’d recommend picking up Patrick Redford’s first book first:
https://patrickredford.com/product/temporarilyoutoforder/
His second book can also be found here:
https://patrickredford.com/product/sleightly-out-of-order/
You can also learn his stack through The Daily Magician method called the Babylon Secret (that lets you memorize an infinite number of stacks) if you’re interested in that, you can get started for as low as $25 dollars.
This link will expire within 45 minutes of you clicking, and if that timer runs out, you’ll have to sign up on our homepage to get your hands on this offer again.
Click here to check it out:
https://thedailymagician.com/starter-pack-45
Aronson stack
About:
The Aronson stack is one of the most iconic stacks ever created—devised by one of the most creative, innovative minds to ever grace magic.
Simon Aronson is a legend in the magic community, and this stack is just as legendary. For many years, it was the ‘go to’ stack of choice for magicians (and for some, still is!)
Michael Close, a mem-deck pioneer, uses the Aronson stack—and so do many of his students.
That’s in part because Aronson was the first magician to ‘repopularise’ the memorized deck in America. Juan Tamariz, creator of the Mnemonica stack, played a similar role in Europe (his work, of course, has since found its way to the USA).
As a result, the Aronson stack has something many new stacks don’t—history.
Like Mnemonica, there have been many books, effects and training released into the magic community that use the Aronson stack specifically.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s save that for the next section…
What I like about this stack:
The Aronson stack has a great multi-phase poker deal built-in, that I’m a big fan of.
Now, a lot of stacks have a whole slew of sophisticated poker deals, so you may be wondering what makes this one so different.
The truth is—not much. It’s just that the Aronson poker deal is so simple, yet powerful, that I can’t help but love it. Some of the other stacks have very complex deals and maneuvers, but the Aronson stack poker deal is incredibly easy AND very fooling.
Of course, there’s more going for this stack than just this poker deal.
Firstly, you get the major benefit of being able to use Simon Aronson’s incredible material. Simon Aronson wrote a LOT of magic books and memorized deck training, and since the Aronson stack is his stack, you’ll be able to perform his effects without worrying whether they’ll fit your stack of choice.
Secondly, since the Aronson stack has been in the ‘public eye’ of the magic community for a number of years, a lot of other clever magicians (including Michael Close) have published some excellent work using the stack.
Any weaknesses of this stack?
Honestly…not really. It might be that Mnemonica has an edge over it in terms of the number of effects and mem deck material published, but at this point…who’s counting?
I suppose the other thing to note is that you can get into the Mnemonica stack from New Deck Order, which is a really cool feature that some people might not want to miss out on.
But for the majority of use cases, there’s not a whole lot of difference between them.
Where can you learn this stack:
I would recommend starting with Simon Aronson’s book, Bound to Please. It looks like this book is out of stock with most magic retailers right now—but if you can pick up a used copy online or from a magician buddy, I’d highly recommend it.
Of course, there’s also a free download Simon Aronson put out called ‘Memories are Made of This’ that will introduce you to his stack work…
http://magicians.simonaronson.com/
You can also learn his stack through our method called the Babylon Secret (that lets you memorize an infinite number of stacks) if you’re interested in that, you can get started for as low as $25 dollars.
This link will expire within 45 minutes of you clicking, if that timer runs out, you’ll have to sign up on our homepage to get your hands on this offer again.
Click here to check it out:
https://thedailymagician.com/starter-pack-45
Alright. That leaves us with our final stack…
Mnemonica stack
About:
This stack was created by Juan Tamariz, and it is perhaps the most famous of all the memorized decks. 
Tamariz has been using this stack to absolutely FRY the minds of everyone he meets for decades—and once he published it, magicians instantly started to recognise its potential and power.
One of the most celebrated students of Tamariz is Pit Hartling—and his book, In Order to Amaze, is my absolute favorite magic book.
(Juan’s own book, Mnemonica, is also up there.)
What I like about this stack:
Now, all throughout this post I’ve been talking about how the major benefit of Mnemonica is the ‘network effect’ of having so many smart magicians working on mem deck magic using this stack.
That’s 100% true, but we also shouldn’t ignore the fact that the stack, in and of itself, is very good.
It can be reached from NDO (and you can transition in and out of NDO while using it.)
(by the way, that’s a big deal – and another reason this stack is often ranked higher than others!)
You can deal nearly any poker hand called for using this stack.
Any weaknesses of this stack?
I really can’t think of any.
The only weakness I can shoehorn in there, just for the sake of it, would be this: a lot of magicians see that Mnemonica is the ‘go to’ stack for everyone else, so they also decide to pick it up. Now, it could be that those magicians would prefer some of the built-in effects in the Redford stack—but since they rushed into Mnemonica, they feel like they should stick with that choice.
I guess the biggest point I’m making is not to rush the decision and pick Mnemonica just because everyone else does.
(but hey, even if you do…who cares? It’s like picking between different ice creams…you might get a different flavour, but they’re all going to be sublime.)
Where can you learn this stack:
The best place to learn this stack is via Juan’s book, Mnemonica:
https://www.vanishingincmagic.com/card-magic/mnemonica/
Once you do, I’d recommend picking up Pit Hartling’s book, In Order to Amaze, to discover some more incredible applications of the stack:
https://pithartling.com/shop/in-order-to-amaze/
You can also learn his stack through our method called the Babylon Secret (that lets you memorize an infinite number of stacks) if you’re interested in that, you can get started for as low as $25 dollars.
The link below will expire within 45 minutes of you clicking, if that timer runs out, you’ll have to sign up on our homepage to get your hands on this offer again.
Click here to check it out:
https://thedailymagician.com/starter-pack-45
Alright, that just about wraps this up.
I hope you enjoyed this blog post on the best stacked decks!
If you want to hear more about memorized deck work, I strongly suggest you sign up for our email list where you’ll hear ALL about it.
That being said, we’d never ask you to do something for nothing, so if you’d like to claim over $2000 in classic magic books and hear more from us, click the link below:
www.thedailymagician.com/books
Let me know which stack you think is best (or perhaps more accurately, best for YOU) in the comments below.
Your friend,
Benji
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There’s only one problem though…
Stack is notoriously hard to master and resources are few and far between.
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Have a look for yourself…
The best stacked deck I know is by Richard Osterlind I am surprised you haven’t mentioned it
Osterlind Breakthrough Card System
Great site though