problem solving card deck

• Number Charts
• Multiplication
• Long division
• Basic operations
• Telling time
• Place value
• Roman numerals
• Fractions & related
• Add, subtract, multiply,   and divide fractions
• Mixed numbers vs. fractions
• Equivalent fractions
• Prime factorization & factors
• Fraction Calculator
• Decimals & Percent
• Add, subtract, multiply,   and divide decimals
• Fractions to decimals
• Percents to decimals
• Percentage of a number
• Percent word problems
• Classify triangles
• Classify quadrilaterals
• Circle worksheets
• Area & perimeter of rectangles
• Area of triangles & polygons
• Coordinate grid, including   moves & reflections
• Volume & surface area
• Pre-algebra
• Square Roots
• Order of operations
• Scientific notation
• Proportions
• Ratio word problems
• Write expressions
• Evaluate expressions
• Simplify expressions
• Linear equations
• Linear inequalities
• Graphing & slope
• Equation calculator
• Equation editor
• Elementary Math Games
• Addition and subtraction
• Math facts practice
• The four operations
• Factoring and number theory
• Geometry topics
• Middle/High School
• Statistics & Graphs
• Probability
• Trigonometry
• Logic and proof
• For all levels
• Favorite math puzzles
• Favorite challenging puzzles
• Math in real world
• Problem solving & projects
• For gifted children
• Math history
• Math games and fun websites
• Interactive math tutorials
• Math help & online tutoring
• Assessment, review & test prep
• Online math curricula

emergent by design

21 card decks for creative problem solving, effective communication & strategic foresight.

25 Thursday Oct 2012

Posted by Venessa Miemis in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

creativity , Resources

What are some useful playdecks for sparking creativity and innovation?

That was this week’s question that went out on twitter, and below are some of your responses.

The number of decks out there is large, so I decided to curate this list based on whether there’s a full free version available online, or at the least a nice sample deck to get you started. So below are 21 tools, ranging from general design process principles to cards on game dynamics, facilitation methods, and long-range futures thinking. Under the descriptions, which are excerpted from the playdeck websites, are links to their free downloads. Below that are another 39 decks, toolkits and further resource lists for creative and innovative thinking.

Thanks to all who helped compile this.. Did we miss any?

(in no particular order)

Principles & Processes

1. Oblique Strategies: Over one hundred worthwhile dilemmas keywords: working principles, thinking habits

( edition 4 list )

. 2. UXBASIS keywords: design methods, design process, product design

( interactive deck )

. 3. SILK Method Deck keywords: methods, principles, process

“The SILK method deck is a handy collection of methods, principles and prompt cards, which can be used by project teams, designers, project managers, social science researchers, community and economic development experts alike. The method deck includes five categories of methods. Each category includes methods that are likely to be useful as guides, prompts or references at different stages of a project.”

( free download )

Experience & Game Design

4. Strategy Card Deck for Changing User Behavior keywords: strategy, behavioral economics, decision making, brainstorming, ideation

“This deck of cards provide 21 strategies to change user behavior. This tool will help you or your team brainstorm and design solutions during idea generation. This card deck works best as a synthesis tool if you have at least a basic understanding of user needs and motivations.”

. 5. Design with Intent: 101 Patterns for Influencing Behavior Through Design keywords: decision making, behavior, interaction design, persuasive technology

“Requisite Variety’s Design with Intent toolkit is a collection of design patterns, or ‘gambits’, for influencing user behaviour through design. It’s applicable across product, service, interaction and architectural design, aimed at socially and environmentally beneficial behaviour change.”

. 6. nForm Trading Cards keywords: user experience, design methods, design process

“Originally created for the IA Summit in 2007, this deck of cards show methods, deliverables, and ideas that practitioners can use to design great user experiences.”

. 7. The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses keywords: principles, psychology, game design

“This convenient deck contains 100 unique “lens cards” each featuring key questions that will make your game great, and a magnificent color illustration to help you remember each principle. The lenses span every aspect of game design – story, game mechanics, technology, aesthetics, psychology, creativity, teamwork, playtesting, and even business issues.”

( sample lenses )

8. SCVNGR Game Dynamics Playdeck keywords: game design, game mechanics

“ SCVNGR , which makes a mobile game with real-world challenges , has a playdeck. It is a deck of cards listing nearly 50 different game mechanics that can be mixed and matched to create the foundation for different types of games.”

( full list )

9. Values at Play: Grow-a-Game Cards keywords: game design, human values

“The Values at Play (VAP) methodology for incorporating values in the context of system design is characterized by three analytically distinct activities: Discovery, Translation, and Verification. These are pursued in tandem, the results of each iteratively affecting successive versions of the system.“

10. Design for Dynamic User Experiences keywords: methods, process, user experience

“Our physical, sensory and cognitive abilities are not static – they change continuously depending on the contexts and situations that we are immersed in. Within HaptiMap a workbook has been developed with the key objective to make it easier for designers and developers to embed dynamic user experience, and thus accessibility, considerations and practices into the everyday design and development work.”

Communication & Learning

11. BBC Learning Design Toolkit Cards keywords: learning, confidence, creativity

“The purpose of this toolkit is to help you design experiences that are learner-centred. Each set of cards aims to help you answer one simple question, for example “What are the principles that define your learner experience?” or helps you understand a central theme, for instance Behaviours explores “How people learn in a web 2.0 world.”

(free download)

12. Surviving Design Projects: Managing Conflict in Creative Environments keywords: communication, facilitation, interaction, collaboration

“Collaborating with smart people on challenging problems is, inevitably, fraught with conflict. Conflict can be good for creative work, moving a project forward as designers wrestle with the challenge. But not all conflict is healthy, and frankly most designers aren’t, shall we say, diplomats. Surviving Design Projects is, among other things, a little game to help designers hone their people skills.”

( patterns , situations & traits )

13. Liberating Voices: Pattern Language for Communication Revolution keywords: communication, social change, public dialogue, empowered citizens

“The Liberating Voices pattern language is intended to help us develop the social imagination we need to better face the future as engaged and empowered citizens.”

( table of contents , all patterns )

14. Service Design Tools: Communication Methods Supporting Design Processes keywords: communication, process, methods

“An open collection of communication tools used in design processes that deal with complex systems. The tools are displayed according to the design activity they are used for, the kind of representation they produce, the recipients they are addressed to and the contents of the project they can convey.”

( tools list )

15. Group Works: A Pattern Language for Bringing Life to Meetings and other Gatherings keywords: communication, facilitation, meetings

“The Group Works card deck is designed to support your process as a group convenor, planner, facilitator, or participant. The people who developed this deck spent several years pooling our knowledge of the best group events we had ever witnessed. We looked at meetings, conferences, retreats, town halls, and other sessions that give organizations life, solve a longstanding dilemma, get stuck relationships flowing, result in clear decisions with wide support, and make a lasting difference.”

Visioning & Foresight

16. Mobility Vision Integration Process keywords: future scenario development, trends, visioning, foresight

“Mobility VIP investigates ways that expert designers can support and accelerate the dialogue about the future of sustainable mobility. The outcome of mVIP is to enable teams of creative people, charged with designing viable, future mobility solutions to deal with wide-ranging, unpredictable and disparate issues that we usually have no control over and to spot otherwise unforeseen opportunities.”

( flash application )

17. Envisioning Cards keywords: futures thinking, interactive systems, human values, foresight

“We feel it is important to envision the long-term influence of new technology as it spans across time, becomes pervasive throughout society, affects the lives of different stakeholders, and raises issues that touch human values. Based on nearly two decades of work in Value Sensitive Design , the Envisioning Cards are designed to evoke consideration and discussion of such concerns within the context of design practice.”

( sample cards )

18. Drivers of Change keywords: foresight, emerging trends

“Since our first set of   Drivers of Change cards, we have been producing an ongoing series of publications that deal with key issues affecting the future of the built environment. The intention is for these cards to act as a trigger for discussion, further research and reflection about our future. Each set of cards is arranged and presented within societal, technological, economic, environmental and political domains that together are known as a the STEEP framework.”

Ideation and Brainstorming

19. Mental Notes keywords: psychology, motivation, game mechanics, behavioral economics

“Mental Notes brings together 50 insights from psychology into an easy reference and brainstorming tool. Each card describes one insight into human behavior and suggests ways to apply this to the design of Web sites, Web apps, and software applications.”

20. ThinkCube keywords: brainstorming, ideation, SCAMPER

“ThinkCube, a new idea generation tool from Kes Sampanthar, takes the idea of a brainstorming card deck to the next level. Not only does it provide you with a diverse selection of thought-provoking stimuli, it also incorporates a simple innovation process that should result in a higher quality of ideas.”

( about ThinkCube: Handbook & card samples )

21. ThinkPak keywords: ideation, brainstorming, SCAMPER, creative thinking

“This pack of brainstorming cards was developed to assist people in stimulating their creativity and foster new and different ideas.  It is a tool for coming up with creative ideas for developing new (or changing existing) products, services, names, businesses, processes, marketing materials, etc.”

( google books preview )

—–

people who helped compile this resource:

Bernd Nurnberger – @CoCreatr Christopher S. Rice – @ricetopher Seb Paquet – @sebpaquet Stephen Anderson – @stephenanderson Jack Bennett – @32000days Estelle Metayer – @Competia Gavin Marshall – @nuwrldnf8r Fabian M. – @Fabian_Metzeler

further exploring:

Quora: What are some interesting playdecks to get creative design inspiration? IDEO Method Cards Using Cards in User Experience Ultimate Game Dynamics List The Elements of Gaming Jesper: The creative brief meets story crafting Creative Whack Pack 25 Recommendations for usability in product development practice Inclusive Design Toolkit A Visual Study Guide to Cognitive Biases BIAS! Collaborative Consumption Sceario Card Deck by Garry Golden Foresight Workbook by Garry Golden Infinite Futures Toolbox UX Ideas in the Cards Facilitator Tool Kit Collection of Creativity & Brainstorming Cards Creativity Tool Reviews Strategy Tools Creativity and Innovation Techniques – an A to Z Learn Logic – Toolkits Modelling and Decision Support Tools Facilitation Card Decks Learner-Centred Toolkit UX Ideas in the Cards Foresight Cards – STEEP Edition Free the Genie Cards The Mingle Cards Greatness Now Facilitation Cards Change Designs Cards XPLANE Discovery Cards 15 properties of pattern language Gamestorming Card Deck iPhone app inSights: a tool for persuasive design NLP Coaching Cards NLP Meta Model Seeds of Change by Glistening Deepwater GameGame KM Method Cards: Guide to Contents

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2 thoughts on “21 card decks for creative problem solving, effective communication & strategic foresight”.

April 2, 2014 at 7:24 pm

http://www.methodkit.com/

http://www.intuiti.it/

http://a3thinker.com/deck

http://shop.smithery.co/

http://nform.com/cards/

http://j.mp/cwpap

Design Thinking Method Cards – http://dthsg.com/opencards/

Compatibility Communication System – http://www.ccscorporation.com ….

Organization Culture Cards – http://store.straitsknowledge ….

KM Diagnostic Cards – http://store.straitsknowledge ….

Patrick Lambe on Straits Knowledge’s Knowledge Toolkit – http://www.fullcirc.com/2012/10/08/patrick-lambe-on-straits-knowledges-knowledge-toolkit/

TRIZ http://www.triz40.com

Marshall McLuhan’s Distant Early Warning Cards – https://secure.flickr.com/photos/86954993@N00/sets/72057594094068031/

http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/saf/patterns/gallery.html

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The A3 Thinker’s Action Deck

71 brainstorming cards for lean problem solvers.

Buy Now! Free Shipping

frame, analyze & eradicate PROBLEMS systematically

Develop your critical-thinking skills, create new problem-solvers.

This is one of the best Lean learning tools I’ve seen in recent years.

Karen Martin President, TKMG, Inc.

The A3 Thinker's Action Deck fits easily in your pocket and it is crafted with smooth-finish casino-quality card stock for maximum portability and durability.

The front  of e ach card features  a set of thought-provoking questions which will help you frame problems with improved  clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, logic, and significance . 

The back presents an original cartoon to further illustrate each concept vividly. 

Cards are organized into   10 sections that will guide you through a time-tested problem-solving and improvement sequence: Background, Current Situation, Problem, Target, Theme, Analysis, Countermeasures, Implementation, Effect Confirmation, and Follow-Up . 

An additional Mentoring section will help you throughout the sequence to review and challenge what you know so far, probe other people’s thinking and engage teams and co-workers in powerful conversations.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Does the deck come with instructions.

Yes it does! The instructions show how to use the cards in a typical problem-solving scenario. Many people however report that they use them in ways that I didn't anticipate, like simply pulling a card from the deck and passing it around for discussion.

Additionally, some use the deck in their training, while others even use a subset of cards for pre- and post-sales meetings (it's the deck - not the consultant - that asks the "difficult" questions and leaves no stone unturned).

Do you have a blank A3 template I can download?

I generally start from scratch with a blank sheet and a pencil, which gives me maximum flexibility. I think about A3 thinking as a process, rather than as a report and often I need to put more emphasis on one aspect of the report and less in others (for example I could have a preliminary report that only focuses on framing and analysing the problem), so I like the flexibility of a "free format" 🙂

In any case, I appreciate the convenience of a starting point, and since a few asks from time to time, I created a simple/typical one that you can download here:

How is the Deck different from books?

There are some great books and resources out there. But let's be honest: books have a habit of collecting dust in a bookshelf after you've glanced at them a few times. In the ideal A3 Thinking managment cycle, you'd have a very experienced sensei working with you, probing and challenging your thinking as you uncover the story of a problem. But experienced A3 mentors are rare. So, the A3 Thinker's Action Deck was born. Based on the principle that thinking is driven by questions, not answers - we developed with the goal was that "it had to be so good that even a very experienced sensei would adopt it".  

Who else uses the A3 Thinker's Action Deck?

The A3 Thinker’s Action Deck is used by hundreds of organizations worldwide, including Toyota, Spotify, Honeywell, Carl Zeiss Microscopes, Siemens, Nissan North America, McKinsey, Skype, BearingPoint, J.P. Morgan, and many others.

A great resource for developing people into problem solvers...

I am finding excellent value and use from this impressive deck of questions and actionable ideas. This resource is the at-elbow coach that puts an agile sensei into the pocket of every person who needs to face a change! I have purchased several physical decks for associates (leaders, facilitators, and engineers) and they, too, are finding value in this resource. Wherever you are in the problem solving cycle, take a card, ask a question, pass it around; this will spark new levels of personal and organizational learning.

An excellent product

I use the A3 Thinker’s cards during our Lean is Science: Problem Solving with A3 workshop and people just love them. They are a great addition to our training.

Learning A3 thinking with these cards is fun and easy

The A3 Thinker's Action Deck contains a sophisticated deck of brainstorming cards to train your impediment management and problem-solving muscles. Each A3 phase is supported by a color-coded card set with different aspects that helps you fill your A3 thoroughly. Claudio Perrone highlighted the essence of each card with a corresponding visual metaphor to facilitate its meaning. Even mentor cards are inside the deck to grasp the mentors perspective. I work with these cards a lot lately in trainings and coachings to help others get the concept right. These cards are great for everyone wanting to learn and work with this lean concept after having read some literature on A3s.

 These cards can be used for anything.

These cards can be used for anything. Personal reflection; team brainstorming; departmental planning; organizational strategy; non-profit board discussion. I often just pull them out of my briefcase and shuffle through them while waiting to talk to a client. These are good brain tools!

A very valuable resource

The cards are great for Agile or Lean practitioners and I certainly use them most times I do an A3. In fact the more complex the problem I am trying to solve, the more I will lean on the deck.

A game changer in the field of problem solving

I feel as if it has become an indispensable part of my Agile kit and I cannot leave home without it. A set of beautifully crafted cards that has helped me in improving client engagements, solve problems and mentor others. I have seen improved retrospectives and focus. This is going to be a game changer in the field of problem solving, and, it is a must have for all Lean and Agile practitioners.

An essential tool!

We've used the A3 in situations where we thought we understood the problem (and didn't) and when the problem has been unknown. The cards can be passed around and everyone can contribute. The card quality is fantastic, beautifully illustrated with inspirational quotes on each. Rarely would a situation not be better discussed without the power of A3 thinking. It's an essential toolkit for any company!

44 facilitation card decks to inspire your next workshop

Anamaria Dorgo, Head of Community @ Butter

Facilitation card decks give you an entire facilitation toolbox in your pocket. 

Because these decks remind us of card games, they feel like play. Participants leave their work personas behind and embrace silliness, vulnerability, and fun.

Some decks help you plan your entire workshop flow. Some are great for prompting meaningful conversation and making every voice heard.

Others help you pivot during a session if needed with a quick activity. Some cards are very methodical and structured, while others are versatile—encouraging playfulness and creativity.

To help you pick the best deck for your workshops, we’ve gathered recommendations from the Butter Community that cover:

• Session design
• Creativity and ideation
• Innovation and strategy
• Starting conversations and improving team dynamics
• Debriefing and reflection

We'll be keeping this post updated , so make sure to bookmark it and check back any time you need a little creative inspiration!

And if you want to take these decks from the physical to the virtual, we’ve introduced flashcard decks as a tool in Butter —so you can pre-load your favorite cards and activities to your virtual sessions and use them whenever you want.

Card Decks for Session Design

All the decks in this category make it easier to plan your next workshop or to adapt your workshop on the fly by giving you activities, frameworks, and methodologies for an awesome session.

1. Facilitator Cards

Available at: Facilitator.cards

Deck type: Session design

Facilitator Cards is a 60-activity card deck designed by Meg Bolger and Sam Killermann of Facilitating.XYZ .

Facilitator Cards offer many activities that make it easy to plan your workshops , but they’re also helpful in-session when something unexpected happens and you need an activity to pivot on the spot.

In addition to the physical deck, they also have Virtual Facilitator Cards .

😍 Why we love them: Facilitator Cards are categorized into four color-coded categories (Emotion, Ideation, Clarification, and Execution), making it super easy to pick a relevant activity on the fly!

📒 Further reading: How to increase workshop participation with Facilitator Cards & Butter

2. Workshop Tactics 

‍ Available at: Pipdecks.com

Deck type: Session design, ideation, strategy

Designed by Charles Burdett , Workshop Tactics is a curated list of the best agile and design-thinking workshop techniques for product teams.

You can use each tactic independently as a mini workshop, or combine multiple cards and tactics to plan entire sessions.

In the deck, you'll find creative ideation workshops, energizers, icebreakers, retrospectives, root-cause analysis workshops, decision-making matrices, and core facilitation techniques.

😍 Why we love them: Their Workshop Strategy System decision tree helps you choose the right workshop at the right time. It’s a great place to start if your team needs to get unstuck.

3. Liberating Structures Cards

Available at: TheLiberators.com

Liberating Structures are built on the idea that conventional structures are either too inhibiting (e.g., presentations and status reports) or too disorganized (e.g., brainstorms). Liberating Structures are intentionally simple activities that help you get more out of your group.

Created by Holisticon , Liberating Structures are easy-to-learn microstructures that enhance relational coordination and trust, quickly fostering lively participation for groups of any size. 

For example, the Wise Crowds Liberating Structure provides a session structure where some participants act as consultants and others act as clients, allowing you to learn from the collective expertise of a group.

Each deck comes in a paper box with 33 cards, one for each Liberating Structure. It also includes four cards with additional information. 

You can also access all Liberating Structures for free at LiberatingStructures.com .

😍 Why we love them: Because they help you create strings and combine Liberating Structures, these cards make it easy to design full workshops, team meetings, or scrum events.

4. Foresight Cards 

Available at: ivto.org

Deck type: Session design, strategy

Foresight Cards are used to assess your external environment—for example, to discuss uncertainties, stress test a business model, or to create awareness of past, current, and future changes.

This pack of cards contains 125 external forces from macro/contextual environments. The forces are classified based on STEEP categories (social, technological, economical, environmental and political). 

These cards can be used for many types of strategy sessions, including SWOT analysis, Porter analysis, business model, system diagram, and scenario planning.

The deck also contains three complete workshops:

• create awareness
• stress testing business models
• determine key uncertainties for scenario planning

😍 Why we love them: The cards are all multilingual, so each card features English, Nederlands (Dutch), Deutsch (German), and Español (Spanish).

5. Model of Care for Co-design Cards

Available at: beyondstickynotes.com

Deck type: Session Design, team dynamics and cohesion, wellbeing

If you want to be more inclusive in your co-design sessions, consider using this thoughtful deck from Kelly Ann McKercher .

As Kelly Ann explains in their blog about the Model of Care for Co-design , “We need to work harder to create and maintain safety with traumatised and historically under-invested in groups of people. Without safety, it's hard (if not impossible) to join-in, stay included and express our creativity.”

This deck starts with the belief that we need to care for each other during co-design activities, and then turns this philosophy into simple prompts that promote care during the co-design process.

😍 Why we love them: The 16 cards offer concrete tips that encourage you to care of your participants’ needs by creating a safe space together before jumping straight to doing. The cards are distributed in two categories: “Before togetherness” and “Together and beyond”.

6. Transform Deck

Available at: untoldplay.com

Deck type: Session design 

The Transform Deck, designed by Untold Play founder Terry Pearce , was made to transform your learning content into engaging activities.

The 45 cards are sorted into five categories:

• Assess: Help learners assess a variety of options
• Arrange: Help learnings arrange or structure new materials
• Create: Exercises to develop new ideas and ways of thinking 
• Solve: Activities and tools to integrate puzzles and challenges
• Apply: Tools to help participants apply learning to their real world 

😍 Why we love them: While the deck won't create your training for you, it will provide inspiration and streamline your workshop design process. Plus, each card comes with concrete tips on how to use each method effectively.

7. WonderCards 

Available at: petranovskaja.com

Speed up your workshop preparation time and adapt on the fly with this deck by Nadja Petranoskaja . The 40-card deck comes with warm-ups, models, exercises, energizers, and workshop formats for groups of any size.

The deck is great for designing any workshop, training, or team development activity.

‍ 😍 Why we love them: The deck is available in both Tarot and Pocket size, so you can choose whether you prefer visibility or mobility! Plus, the cards are also available in German here .

8. MethodKit for Workshop Planning

Available at: methodkit.com

The MethodKit for Workshop Planning gives you 60 illustrated cards to plan your workshops. You can use them for brainstorming, planning, discussing, prioritizing, and evaluating your work.

Each of the 60 cards has a key issue to keep in mind when planning a workshop. For example, there’s a card for props and materials, a card for facilitation styles, and a card for creating an engagement atmosphere.

The deck is primarily intended for helping you plan workshops as a group, but the cards are also useful as an individual facilitator as they give you a visual overview of all the building blocks of your workshop. 

😍 Why we love them: MethodKit also released the digital version of these cards, which you can download here , available in 10 languages. But wait, that’s not all! MethodKit has this great article on all the possible ways you can use the card decks in your workshops.

Card Decks for Ideation and Creativity

Need to spark your next great idea? Need to get people in the creative zone before a larger session? These decks are all designed for next-level brainstorming and ideation.

9. 75 Tools for Creative Thinking 

Available at: 75toolsforcreativethinking.com

Deck type: Session design, ideation

This set of cards takes you through the entire ideation process with fun and out-of-the-box activities. They can be used by anyone who’s looking for some creative inspiration.

The deck takes you through five stages. You start with activities to explore and better understand the challenge you’re facing. Then, you can collect insights and gather feedback from participants to better understand their needs. You can then structure these insights before moving on to ideation. Finally, finish by defining the criteria and evaluating ideas to pick the best ones. 

😍 Why we love them: In addition to the physical card deck, 75 Tools For Creative Thinking is also available as an iPad and iPhone app .

10. IDEO Method Cards

Available at: ideo.com

IDEO Method Cards are meant for inspiring designers looking for a creative spark in their work. Each of the 51 cards describes one ideation method and includes a brief story about how and when to use it.

It's not a how-to guide—it's a design tool meant to explore new approaches and help you develop your own. Use the deck to get a fresh perspective, inspire a team, turn a corner, or try a new approach.

😍 Why we love them: The cards are divided into four categories: Learn, Look, Ask, and Try, making it easy to choose the right cards for your session.

11. Triggers Ideation Cards

Available at: trytriggers.com ‍

Triggers has 14 different decks available, so it was hard to choose just one. They have decks on Brand Strategy, Business Design, Human-Centric Design, Innovation, and more. They come in a variety of packages, which you can check out in their online shop .

If you’re a design agency that works with all kinds of different creative projects, the Complete Triggers Collection contains all of their decks and will help you with any type of ideation project.

This pack includes 780 Triggers cards (60 per deck) with questions that will help you generate ideas as an individual or with your team.

😍 Why we love them: Triggers has a deck for nearly every design use case, so it’s a great place to start! 

12. Creative Whack Pack Deck 

Available at: creativewhack.com

Deck type: Ideation, creativity

Designed by Roger von Oech from Creative Whack Company , the 64-card Whack Pack deck is packed with stories, examples, and questions that are designed to “whack” you out of your usual ways of thinking and to inspire your creativity.

The deck is divided into four different suits, each representing roles or creative types: Explorer, Artist, Judge, and Warrior. Some cards show you how to discover new information, others offer decision-making advice, and others give you techniques on how to come up with new ideas. 

If you’re looking for a way to stimulate thinking in workshops, give these a try!

😍 Why we love them: Beyond the activities on the cards, the hand-drawn illustrations on the cards are enough to jog your mind. The deck is also available as a mobile app , where you can find the 64 original cards, plus 20 extra Heraclitus strategies to stretch your thinking even further.

13. Know Brainer 

Available at: thesolutionpeoplestore.com

Deck type: Ideation

Designed by Gerald Haman, the Know Brainer cards help your workshop participants navigate the “Accelerated Innovation” process, which is broken into four stages:  

• Stage 1 : Investigate needs
• Stage 2 : Create ideas
• Stage 3 : Evaluate solutions
• Stage 4 : Activate plans

Each stage has five stimulus types designed to spark innovation:

• 10 Questions to provoke creative thinking
• 10 Nouns to make you think about the “what” and the “who”
• 10 Verbs to put your focus on actions and thinking patterns
• 5 Quotes to inspire you
• 8 Images to spark your imagination and help you visualize ideas

😍 Why we love them: In addition to having an awesome pun for a name, this deck is versatile. It can be used in innovation and creativity sessions, for facilitating change and growth, in coaching sessions, or even as a tool to help you plan more creative products, services, brands, events and basically anything else!

14. Free the Genie

Available at: ideachampions.com

Designed by Mitch Ditkoff , Free the Genie is a 55-card deck that helps you bring something new and extraordinary into your life, business, or the world. 

The deck gets its name from its purpose: it’s a personal genie for open-minded thinkers. It’s a 24/7 oracle that’s always ready to help you realize your vision.

The cards are divided into five categories: Attend, Intend, Suspend, Extend, and Connect. You can use them as an individual or as a team to “seek counsel, clarity, and increased personal insight.”

These cards lift you up to higher ground to a place where you’ll find creativity, inspiration, breakthrough ideas, and commitment to those ideas.

😍 Why we love them: You can also use the deck as a team card game. The deck can help your team brainstorm, solve problems, and accelerate the innovation process.

15. ThinkPak 

Available at: amazon.com

ThinkPak was designed based on the idea that every new invention is just a modification of something that already exists. So coming up with your next great idea is about seeing your problem in a new light.

Designed by Michael Michalkom this deck gives you a step-by-step methodology to coming up with new ideas, products, services, processes, and more.

You can shuffle, mix, and match the cards to generate new insights, and then use the deck’s critical evaluation techniques to distill your ideas into realistic solutions. 

Shuffle, mix and match the cards to spark fresh insights, then use the critical evaluation techniques to test and refine your creative ideas into realistic and feasible solutions.

😍 Why we love them: The cards follow the famous SCAMPER creativity method coined by Bob Eberle. This theory assumes that all innovative breakthroughs come from at least one of these principles:

• Substitute something
• Combine something
• Adapt something
• Modify or magnify something
• Put something to another use
• Eliminate something
• Reverse or rearrange something

16. Design Kit Travel Pack

Available at: designkit.org

Need some design inspiration? Created by IDEO.org , the Design Kit Travel Pack is a set of “bite-sized tools to spark creativity and collaboration” based on human-centered design principles.

This 32-card deck is full of exercises that help creatives shift their thinking about a project to be able to move it forward. The deck helps you overcome roadblocks to deliver top-notch products and services.

The deck is divided into three sections to help you:

• Find inspiration
• Take bigger creative risks
• Test your ideas in the real world

😍 Why we love them: The cards are beautifully designed! Each colorful card has a hand-drawn illustration to give you a little extra design inspiration.

17. Make It Pop 

Available at: makeitpopgame.com

Deck type: Ideation, conversation starter

“Let us help you unlock your inner creative baddass!” That’s the website tagline for Make It Pop , and we couldn’t say it any better ourselves.

Make It Pop takes inspiration from Cards Against Humanity and turns it into a framework for coming up with unconventional design tasks.

It’s very simple: choose a black task card (e.g. Design a landing page for…), then choose a white or red client card (e.g. Bob Ross), and get started!

😍 Why we love them: This activity makes an awesome icebreaker for designers or creatives that gets them in the right mode of thinking rather than defaulting to the usual “get to know you” questions.

18. Oblique Strategies

Available at: rtqe.net

Deck type: Ideation, creativity, conversation starter

We’re throwing it waaaay back with this deck. 

Back in 1975, artist Peter Schmidt and musician Brian Eno created the original Oblique Strategies card deck. They drew on their own work as artists to develop a deck of 100 cards, each of which suggests a course of action or thinking to help you in any creative situation.

The deck is brutally simple. Each card has a cryptic phrase or remark to prompt ideation or brainstorming activities.

😍 Why we love them: The prompts in this deck feel constraining, but these constraints can be mentally freeing. By narrowing your thinking down with constraints, it actually becomes easier to see a clear path to a solution. Limitation can be very useful!

19. Killer Questions Card Deck 

Available at: innovation.tools

Deck type: Innovation, creativity 

The Killer Questions deck is made to help you come up with killer ideas! Whether you use it alone or as a team, you can use the 40-question deck to:

• Help you look at a situation in new light
• Trigger a brainstorming or ideation session
• Practice your creativity
• Launch or rebrand a business, product, or service

The deck was created by Phil McKinney, author of Beyond the Obvious: Killer Questions That Spark Game-Changing Innovation , and the host of the podcast Killer Innovations .

😍 Why we love them: The deck has 40 question cards, but each question card comes with a number of extra so-called “sparking” questions to help you dig deeper for ideas as you go exploring. So there’s lots of value in a small deck.

Available at: lmi-academy.com

Deck type: Creativity, conversation starters, team dynamics and cohesion

If a picture’s worth a thousand words, then you’re getting a quarter of a million words in this deck!

The Spark deck has over 250 photographs taken by over 100 photographers. Each photo was chosen to spark feelings, memories, and sensations. The pictures depict concepts, metaphors, and stories to inspire self-reflection, ideation, communication, and even relationship building.

😍 Why we love them: The deck also comes with an image appreciation technique card that gives you practical tips on how to “read” the images in the deck.

21. Zig Zag Creativity Cards

Available at: keithsawyer.com

The Zig Zag deck is inspired by scientific research on how people create. The deck is based on Dr. Keith Sawyer's book, Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity . 

The deck’s 52 techniques are grouped into eight powerful and yet simple steps: 

• ASK: How to Ask the Right Questions
• LEARN: Prepare Your Mind
• LOOK: Spot the Answers Around You
• PLAY: Imagine Possible Worlds
• THINK: How to Have Great Ideas
• FUSE: How to Combine Ideas
• CHOOSE: Make Good Ideas Even Better
• MAKE: Make Your Ideas Visible. 

To develop these techniques, Sawyer explored the stories and habits of exceptional creators as well as the science on everyday creativity. He explored how creative people question assumptions, get beyond their creative blogs, and how they deal with adversity.

‍ 😍 Why we love them: This deck is versatile, as you can use the cards for solo games , group games , or as facilitation techniques .

22. A Few Minutes of Design 

Deck type: Creativity, innovation

Desinged by Emily Campbell, this colorful, handy deck gives you 52 exercises to get your creative juices flowing at the start of a new design project or to help you get unblocked in a project you can’t quite finish.

Each exercise digs into the small details of great design. For example, how could you establish a pattern or continue a series? Or how could you say something without words? 

These cards are sometimes playful, sometimes challenging, but always inspiring!

😍 Why we love them: The activities are practical and hands on, but can all be done in under 15 minutes! They’re the perfect way to kick off a design workshop or ideation session.

Card Decks for Innovation and Strategy

These cards challenge participants’ ways of thinking, stimulate innovation, and help you evaluate your strategic choices.

23. Innovation Tactics Cards

Available at: doblin.com

Deck type: Innovation, strategy

Doblin ’s Innovation Tactics Cards are based on their Ten Types of Innovation framework. Their model breaks innovation into three groups:

• Configuration: Profit Model, Network, Structure, Process
• Offering: Product Performance, Product System,
• Experience: Service, Channel, Brand, Customer Engagement

To help you turn these innovation categories into business ideas, they’ve created over 100 Innovation Tactic cards to inspire ideation activities.

😍 Why we love them: If you’re looking for specific, actionable tactics rather than abstract prompts, this is your deck. The tactics in this deck are very specific, so they’re the perfect companion for your product and service innovation sessions or business strategy workshops.

24. Myndset Cards

Available at: myndset.cards

The Myndset Cards game is a 30-minute workshop meant to inspire innovative ideas backed by emotions.

The deck consists of five decks:

• The first deck helps you develop a vision of how you want to achieve your goal
• The second deck focuses on trends and technology that might help you
• The third deck focuses on understanding your target audience
• The fourth deck focuses on the emotions you want your audience to feel
• The fifth deck helps you formulate your pitch

😍 Why we love them: Myndset Cards come with a companion app that lets you scan your Myndset cards to find more detailed information and additional content for each card. Plus, the team behind the product made a free Udemy course explaining how to best use the card deck.

25. FUTREP Cards

Available at: artefactshop.com

Deck type: Strategy, futurecasting

If you want to work out your product design skills, FUTREP Cards are a great place to start.

By pulling combinations of characters, objects, systems, and environments from the deck, you’ll be given a scenario for which you’ll have to design a response. 

The cards were designed with flexibility in mind. Rather than giving you long, drawn-out scenarios, they provide you with seemingly unconnected concepts that stretch you to your creative limits.

😍 Why we love them: The cards are cut to the same dimensions as their Artefact Plus cards —blank, colored cards that allow you to visually capture your thoughts on the cards, and design your own processes and prompts from scratch.

26. Kickstart Creativity

Deck type: Innovation, creativity

Kickstart Creativity is a 50-card deck that’s designed to prompt unexpected ways of thinking. 

The cards are divided into three categories: Intention, Action, and Perspective. The action cards teach you new skills, perspective cards make you look at the world in a novel way, and intention cards help you make more meaningful decisions.

At the start of a personal challenge or group project, you can draw three cards from the deck and then reflect on how they relate to your current challenge.

😍 Why we love them: You can also use cards from the deck as a daily creativity booster. For example, they recommend drawing one card at random to start your day for a quick hit of inspiration with your coffee.

27. Innovating for People

Available at: luma-institute.com

Deck type: Decision design, strategy

This wonderful 36-card deck by LUMA Institute introduces you to their human-centered design system. 

The 36 methods are organised into three key design skills that take you through the full design cycle: 

• Looking: methods for observing human experience
• Understanding: methods for analysing challenges and opportunities
• Making: methods for envisionining future possibilities

Each card has a photo of the method in use, a short description, a quick guide, and helpful hints. 

😍 Why we love them: The deck is great for running design thinking sessions, but you can also use it to teach human-centered design methods in a more tactile format.

28. Barriers to Change Cards 

Available at: xplane.com

Deck type: Strategy

This deck, designed by Xplane , helps you introduce empathy to your strategy sessions. It helps you close the gap between your current state and where you want to be.

The deck covers the most common reasons people resist change, including how to overcome those barriers to make stuff happen!

😍 Why we love them: The team at Xplane wrote a helpful article detailing how exactly you can use the cards in a workshop to probe the stage that your team or organization is currently at when it comes to understanding and embedding change . 

29. Think Clearly Question and Strategy Cards

Available at: thnkclrly.com

Deck type: Conversation starter, strategy, creativity 

We’re absolutely obsessed with the simplicity of these two free sets of printable cards, designed by Mathias Jakobsen from Think Clearly .

The Question Cards can be used for both individual and group reflection. They are divided into four categories: Beginnings, Feelings, Insights and Actions.

The Strategy Cards include cards that provide structure for the conversation, as well as cards that prompt discussion. 

😍 Why we love them: Their minimalistic black and white design really keeps your focus on what matters most: the prompts. The best part? Both decks are available for free download here .

Card Decks for Starting Conversations and Creating Connections

These decks are made for starting meaningful conversations, promotion wellbeing, creating connections, and facilitating cohesion.

30. Catalyst Cards

Available at: catalyst.cards

Deck type: Versatile and creative, conversation starters

Created by Rich Goidel of Dangerous Kitchen , Catalyst Cards draw on the power of metaphorical thinking to tap into deep-seated mental models to form complex thoughts.

Each of the 52 cards in the deck features a hand-drawn archetype used to trigger visual association as a gateway to the conscious and subconscious. 

The cards themselves are simple—for example, “A day at the beach," “Goldfish," or “A wizard’s hat."—but they can be used as mental triggers or starting-off points for all kinds of activities.

For example:

• Icebreakers: Fan out a handful of cards and ask which card each participant most identifies with
• Conversation starters: Give each participant a card and ask them how the card relates to the discussion topic or problem at hand
• Past, present, future: Give each participant three cards and ask them to choose which card represents their past, present, and future

You can play around with the online beta version here . 

😍 Why we love them: Whereas most of the other cards on our list contain activities these cards serve as metaphorical inspiration . Because the cards are so versatile, they can be used for any type of session—from team building to retrospectives, innovation sessions, creative exploration workshops, personal development, and more. 

31. Intùiti® Creative Cards

Available at: intuiti.it

Combining concepts from design, Tarot, numerology and Gestalt psychology, Intùiti is an inspirational pack of 78 hand-drawn cards and tales that help you unlock your creativity.

Designed by Matteo di Pascale at the Polytechnic University of Milan and initially funded on Kickstarter , Intùiti cards are a rich collection of archetypes—each related to a thinking model that belongs to our culture. 

The deck is made up of 22 primary cards linked to archetypes and existential moments (e.g. The Beginning, The Gestation, The Change) and 56 secondary cards linked to the four elements and emotions (e.g. Air/Mind, Water/Emotion, Earth/Material). 

For a complete guide on how to use Intùiti, check out their free manual .

Intùiti is available in both English and Italian.

😍 Why we love it: The cards are beautifully illustrated. You can explore them all in the Intùiti Virtual Experience .

32. The Box of Emotions

Available at: uncommongoods.com

Deck type: Wellbeing, conversation starters

This set of 80 cards is a tool to help groups put words to their feelings. The deck was designed by researchers at the Centre for the History of the Emotions in London to help you make sense of your moods and to develop your sense of self-awareness.

Each card features a specific emotion, a miniature essay on its nuances, and a visual to match. 

You'll find the classic emotions like cheerfulness, irritation, or calm, along with some new ones, like ‘fago’—a unique blend of compassion, sadness, and love. 

😍 Why we love it: Sometimes, our emotions block us from coming up with great ideas or taking the next step. Using these cards to name your emotion and work on resolving it can be mentally freeing.

33. The Emotional Culture Deck 

Available at: ridersandelephants.com

Designed by Riders & Elephants , ​​The Emotional Culture Deck is a unique card game that facilitates face-to-face human conversations about what matters. It nudges vulnerability, builds empathy, creates connections, and fosters trust within teams. 

The Emotional Culture Deck is a simple card game toolkit that helps leaders uncover what motivates their people and then map your team’s desired team culture.

You can either use the deck with organizational leaders or employees. Each person gets their own deck to avoid groupthink. For leaders, it asks questions like “How do we want our people to feel at work?”, which leads to a collective agreement on how people should behave at work.

😍 Why we love them: They have a free PDF that you can download and experiment with right away!

34. At My Best Cards

Available at: atmybest.com

Deck type: Wellbeing, team dynamics and team cohesion

At My Best has a series of card decks that are based on the principles of positive psychology—helping people develop narratives around their own strengths and successes. 

They currently have two physical card decks available, Strengths Cards and Good Questions Cards , as well as a collection of virtual card decks at deckhive.com (which is still in beta).

😍 Why we love them: Sometimes all that’s needed is a little positive encouragement. These decks are great for reminding yourself of why you’re awesome!

35. Superpowers 

Available at: superpowers.sypartners.com

Deck type: Team dynamics and cohesion, conversation starters

Superpowers is a tool to help participants and teams learn about their individual superpowers, and how to use them to be at their best. It’s designed by SYPartners and available as a physical card deck and as a paid Apple or Android app. 

The deck is designed to help teams understand how each member can uniquely contribute to the whole of the team. The deck features 21 superpowers, such as empathy, motivation, and creative thinking.

😍 Why we love them: For remote teams, it can be hard to get to know each other’s greatest strengths—as most remote icebreakers focus on personal questions. Superpowers is a great way to learn more about your team’s “work” selves.

36. The Meeting Spicer

Available at: meetingspicer.com

Deck type: Team dynamics and team cohesion, conversation starters

Are most of your meeting unproductive? The Meeting Spicer is a coaching tool designed to help teams own and hack their meeting culture. 

The deck consists of three types of card:

• Micro activities: 30-second activities designed to help your team examine their habits, goals, and team dynamics in order to take more responsibility for their actions and be more present. There are start cards for the beginning of each meeting (e.g. “Ask everyone to think silently for 20 seconds about what outcome they expect from the meeting”) and end cards (e.g. “Ask someone remoteIf we achieved just one single thing today, what is it?”
• Role cards: Meeting participants are given roles and responsibilities for the meetings, such as “Time Keeper” or “Call Facilitator.”
• Time cards: Double-sided time cards that you can hold up to show how much time is remaining for a topic or activity.

😍 Why we love them: It’s easy to agree on best practices for meetings, but hard to enforce them on a regular basis. The Meeting Spicer deck builds structure into your meetings without a lot of prep work.

37. Holstee Reflection Cards

Available at: holstee.com

Tired of the same old team-building icebreaker questions? Holstee’s Reflection Cards are a fun way to spark meaningful conversations and deepen relationships with your team or the people in your life.

Every 52-card deck includes over 100 thought-provoking questions centered around mindful themes like adventure, creativity, and resilience.

😍 Why we love them: The Reflection Cards are great for team building, but you can also use them with friends, family, and coworkers.

38. Digital Connection Cards

Available at: theschooloflife.com

Deck type: Team dynamics and cohesion, Conversation starter

This deck’s tagline says it all: “Foster Closeness at a Distance”. This Digital Connections deck contains exercises, questions, and prompts designed to foster richer interactions. 

In a nutshell, these cards help us communicate and build authentic connections online. 

‍ 😍 Why we love them: The deck’s tone is a mixture of humorous, kind, vulnerable, and touching. The prompts aren’t your typical icebreaker questions. Some of them invite participants to sit in silence for 80 seconds, others invite them to draw their feelings in an abstract way, while others might invite a personal and vulnerable conversation around things we’d like to forgive, or things we regret.

39. We! Connect Cards

Available at: weand.me

Use these 60 square cards to spark conversations that built trust and connection. 

Designed by Chad Littlefield , the deck provides you with fast-paced prompts that move beyond icebreaking in favor of fostering real connections. 

The questions are designed to break down communication barriers and management hierarchies within teams and organizations.

Check-out the We! Engage Cards as well—a deck of 56 cards, each with an inspiring, thought-provoking quote on one side and a powerful photo on the other. 

‍ 😍 Why we love them: The cards are divided into three categories: the green cards ask fun and light questions, the blue cards go a bit deeper, and the 20 purple cards encourage self-reflection. This allows you create safety as you move from green to blue to purple.

40. ULEAD Facilitation cards 

Available at: uleadinc.org

This multi-faceted 54-card deck will help energize your group, inspire participation, manage change, overcome resistance, and most importantly, promote fun! 

The deck comes with 5 activity cards with 10 concrete activities that use different combinations of quotes, questions, letters, images, emotions, and animals.

😍 Why we love them: The activities are awesome for getting people up and moving. For a preview of the activity cards, have a look here . They also come in a metal flip-top case, which is a treat in and of itself! 

41. The Values Cards

Available at: qcards.com.au

Deck type: Strategy, team dynamics and cohesion

The Values Cards by Qcards help individuals, couples, teams, and organizations explore what truly matters to them in their relationships or work. 

This exploration helps clarify core values and inspires positive changes. The words used in each of the 53 values in the cards are deliberately open to individual interpretation, which helps participants express their own values.

😍 Why we love them: The authors have also included three blank cards for values that may crop up in conversation, but are not represented in the set.

42. Improv Cards

Available at: management30.com

Deck type: Conversation Starters, Team Dynamics and Cohesion, Creativity 

Want to get participants out of their comfort zones? Improv Cards are perfect as a little creative icebreaker. 

Improve Cards teach people how to be better communicators and stretch their personal limits as you work through change management or work on increasing employee engagement.

They’re impossibly simple: you pull as many cards as you want and ask someone to improvise a story based on the drawings on the card. You can place constraints on the activity or just let the imagination run wild.

😍 Why we love them: You don’t even have to wait for your printed deck to arrive. You can screenshare their fully digital version as part of your next remote workshop .

43. Teamwords: The Working Deck 

Available at : askthesherwins.com

Deck type : Team dynamics and cohesion, session design

If you’re ever aligning new teams, helping teams that are in trouble, planning for future growth, or encouraging dialogues around cultural differences, give these cards a whirl.

They help you identify your team’s goals, describe your shared values, and agree on what behaviors will lead to success.

😍 Why we love them: The deck simplifies the process of identifying and talking about our individual values and then linking these with concrete behaviours. They make a topic that’s usually fluffy and ground it in reality.

Card Decks for Debriefing

Alright, so we only have one deck in this category. But it’s a good one!

44. The Debriefing Cube

Available at: kilearning.net

Deck type: Debriefing and reflection The Debriefing Cube is a debriefing set designed by Chris Caswell and Julian Kea with the goal of helping teams solidify their learnings after group sessions, games, or workshops. Each set consists of 61 cards, 4 dice, and either a wooden or paper box.

The six sides of the dice represents a different reflection lens or perspective (Goal, Process, Group Dynamics, Communication, Emotions, and Take-away). Each perspective is represented by a color in the deck, so participants can choose debriefing questions that relate to their perspective, allowing you to answer questions, such as:

• Goal: “How is your understanding of the goal different now?”
• Process: “How could you have made the process more/less pleasant?”

😍 Why we love them: Besides the beautiful wooden box, you can also download the debriefing cube PDF for free here .

Butter up your flashcard decks

With the release of Butter Flashcard Decks , you can now use your favorite flashcards directly within the window of your next virtual session—there’s no more need to hold up physical cards to your screen.

With Butter’s Flashcard decks tool, you can easily recreate any of the above decks as a tool in your Toolbox, and then use the decks again and again in any session.

Here’s a quick demo from Jakob, our CEO, on how to upload your own Flashcard Deck:

For full directions, you can check out the Flashcard Decks page in the Butter Handbook .

To try flashcards in your next session, try Butter for free right now !

Features used in session

Master the art of facilitation: Top training courses in 2023 for aspiring facilitators

Cheska Teresa, CGO @ Butter

Top 9 facilitation newsletters you’ll want in your inbox in 2023

30 must-read books every facilitator should have.

Class set Solve in Time!® cards

$ 24.99

Solve in Time!®  is a gamified problem-based learning activity that uses the design-thinking process to solve real-world problems. The goal is to creatively explain a solution to a relevant, real-world problem within a set time limit.

Each deck of cards includes SOS cards, blank dry erase cards, and randomized Problem, Research, Understand, Solve cards, and Share cards.

Up to six teams of 2-4 players (24 total) can play using a single deck. Great for couple play and multi-team play!

For educational purposes only.

In stock (can be backordered)

Description

Additional information.

• Reviews (4)

Purchase order request or bulk order needs? Please email [email protected] .

Cards are made from premium PVC and contain enough cards to facilitate up to six groups at a time.

Box is sturdy and convenient for storing all cards including all add-on expansion packs.

Designed and developed by @deelanier , printed in China.

4 reviews for Class set Solve in Time!® cards

Emily Roth – March 10, 2020

This is the best product to hit the virtual shelfs! This product fosters all of those essential life skills found in school mission statements–critical thinking, collaboration, empathy, effective communication. This is a must-have item for both classrooms and staff meetings. The free resources and supports on this site are amazing, too!

Ryan Read – March 10, 2020

As a business and technology teacher, I’m trying to have my students step out and solve problems for their projects and business designs. Many times, they don’t know what questions to start with. Using Solve it! has been the key unlocking the questions they need to be asking themselves in PBL. Using critical thinking, collaboration and communication. They are truly learning. These are a must need for classrooms, professional development and staff meetings.

Meagan Kelly – April 16, 2020

I’ve been fortunate to watch the progression of SolveIT for years and it is so exciting to see where it is now! If you are looking for a way to get going with project-based learning or design-based thinking, then these cards are an essential item for your instructional toolkit. As a Vice Principal, I’ve been able to observe these cards in action in many classrooms in my site. The teachers love it, but more importantly, the kids love it! They love the real world application of their learning and the SolveIT cards give them the guide and structure to be successful. I highly recommend these cards for anyone that is ready to dive into design-based teaching!

Heather Dowd – April 20, 2020

Whether you are a novice or seasoned veteran with design thinking and problem-based learning, you will not regret adding Solve In Time cards to your repository of learning activities. These cards are one of those (sometimes) rare activities that can be used with ANY subject area and ANY age level, including adults. If you want your students to engage deeply with a problem, use these! (Bonus – you can modify for different amounts of time!)

Only logged in customers who have purchased this product may leave a review.

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Best Card Decks for Coaching and Workshops

Why coaching cards are valuable for your Coaching, Meetings and Workshops

For many types of coaching sessions, but also for workshops, certain meetings and self-coaching, it makes perfect sense to use coaching cards . They can give coach and coachee, or the meeting and workshop participants, new ideas, provide a process and framework, or simply offer an original touch and a breath of fresh air.

The best deck for your needs

There are many different coaching cards, and it is important to find the tool that really suits your own coaching session or planned workshop. Namely, one that supports the set goal and suits the people involved. I hope that this page can be a good help in finding the right too l for you!

A word on the price info

For each article on this page, you will find a price info. These refer to Amazon.com, are in US dollars and do not include shipping costs or similar fees. They are fairly accurate at the time of writing, although not to the penny. However, it is conceivable that the price of individual items may change significantly on Amazon, and we have not yet taken this change into account on this page.

Q Cards by Little Leaps Press

In a nutshell Unlock breakthroughs with 50 expertly crafted coaching cards, guided by Bill Treasurer’s courage-building expertise, perfect for transformative sessions.

For whom is it? Business facilitators, life coaches, leadership consultants and executive coaches

Price is 35,-

Purpose of Cards Professionally crafted cards designed for business facilitators, life coaches, leadership consultants, and executive coaches. Aim to facilitate breakthroughs in clients by posing thoughtful questions.

Product Details 50 expertly-crafted question cards available for coaching sessions. Martini Method and Instruction overview cards provide a quick orientation to the coaching process.

Starter Questions Q Card Starter Questions set the tone for coaching sessions and ease into conversation.

Session Flow Goal, Discover, Evaluate, Decide, and Action Questions guide the coachee through the coaching session.

Problem Resolution Thought Shift, Challenge, and Prompt Questions provided to address situations where the coachee is stuck in responding to a question.

Who created it? Bill Treasurer is the founder of Giant Leap Consulting. Author of five books on courage and leadership, including the international bestseller “Courage Goes to Work.”

In a In a nutshell A playful journey with 35 action cards, draws inspiration from Japanese Ikigai, guiding you toward happiness, purpose, and self-discovery

Price is under 15,-

Ikigain Concept Playful activity aimed at gaining happiness, satisfaction, and fulfillment. Ikigai is a Japanese concept denoting one’s ‘reason for being’ – “Iki” means ‘life,’ and “gai” signifies value or worth.

Life Purpose Ikigai represents life purpose or bliss, bringing joy and motivation to wake up every day.

Product Features Inspired by the Japanese perception of ikigai, helping users discover their life purpose and sources of joy. Ikigai cards facilitate a spiritual journey with 35 action cards for inspiration.

Versatility Encourages self-discovery, urging users to find their reason for waking up and living each day. Serves as a tool for personal growth, making it a thoughtful gift for friends or an icebreaker at work.

Expectations Ikigai cards may not explicitly reveal the reason for living but lead users closer to discovering it. Emphasizes usage as a tool rather than providing definitive answers.

In a In a nutshell Unlock vibrant conversations and self-discovery with these versatile cards, categorized for emotional balance, mindfulness, and compassionate living discussions.

Price is 16,-

Versatility of Cards Applicable at home, in classrooms, or clinical practices. Designed to stimulate thinking and conversation about individual identity, preferences, and interaction with the world.

Categorized Deck Divided into four categories: Connect, Gratitude, Compassion, and Insight.

Purpose of Categories Each category targets specific skills and life aspects. All questions share the primary purpose of encouraging reflection, discussion, and understanding of emotional balance and mindful living.

Overall Objective Aim to foster thoughtful dialogue about fundamental aspects of living in an emotionally balanced, mindful, and compassionate manner. Because good Questions make personal experiences come to life.

Live your values

In a nutshell Discover and live your core values with this card deck, featuring vibrant illustrations by artist Lisa Congdon.

For whom is it?

Suitable for coaches, therapists,  and counselors ; adaptable to various therapy practices. Recommended for adults and teens facing major life decisions or seeking mindfulness tools. Perfect for fans of Lisa Congdon’s art and previous books. (Ideal, they say, for readers of popular psychology books like “Atlas of the Heart” by Brené Brown and “You’re Invited” by Jon Levy.)

Price is 18,-

Transformational Impact Making core values a guiding force can enhance compassion, boost confidence, and foster intimacy in relationships. Re-centering, reconnecting, and realigning with values offer guidance through life’s new chapters and milestones.

Deck Details

• 78-card deck and accompanying booklet provide practical tools.
• Offers a step-by-step process, from identifying core values to integrating them into daily life.

Lisa Congdon’s Art: Vibrant illustrations by beloved artist Lisa Congdon bring insights, inspiration, and activities to life.

Expert Guidance Co-authored by Lisa Congdon and Andreea Niculescu, providing insightful instructions, coaching, and tips. Offers mindful advice for rediscovering and connecting core values to daily life.

Versatility: Use as therapy cards or turn it into a game for practical mindfulness routines.

Practical Approach Engaging alternative to self-help books. Provides a fun, hands-on method to identify core principles and apply them in daily life.

Values Cards

In a nutshell Our values are precious, guiding our beliefs and actions. Values Cards aid individuals, teams, and organizations in exploring and aligning core values.

Values as Internal Compass Values serve as an internal compass for what is considered good, right, and important.  Like a compass, they keep individuals, couples, teams, and organizations on course.

Importance of Alignment Aligning lives with values leads to greater happiness, contentment, and achievement. S hared values at the team or organizational level keep members focused on outcomes.

Influence on Behavior Values influence attitudes and behavior, guiding approaches to life and relationships. They inform decision-making in daily choices, affecting reactions and interactions.

Impact of Compromised Values Compromised values due to circumstances lead to discomfort and may cause stress, anxiety, and depression.  Struggling to align actions with values consistently can be emotionally challenging.

Values Cards Purpose Assist in exploring what is important in life, relationships, or work for individuals, couples, teams, and organizations.  53 carefully chosen values on laminated cards with 3 blanks for individual interpretation.  The Values Cards Instruction Book offers activities for self-exploration, therapy, team/organization vision development, and classroom use.

Tested and Versatile Values cards tested in various settings to ensure effectiveness.  Deliberately open words allow broad interpretation, making the set user-friendly.

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MBM 80 Coaching Cards

In a nutshell Transform with GROW Coaching Cards: Elevate performance, tackle challenges, and become your best self with 80 comprehensive cards for success.

For whom is it? Suitable for individuals aiming for solutions, enhanced performance, and better results , whether personal or team-oriented; Ideal for managers seeking daily improvement.

Price is 25,-

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• GROW Coaching Cards provide instant access to coaching skills, aiding personal and team performance enhancement.
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• Empowers individuals to embark on their coaching journey and become the best version of themselves.

metaFox' What Really Matters!

In a nutshell Discover and prioritize what matters most to you or your clients – inspired by S. H. Schwartz’s research on human values

Published in July 2022

Price is 50,-

Discover and Sort Your Values Set of 80 values cards to uncover guiding forces behind attitudes and behaviors. Facilitates understanding of main motivations by sorting out most important values.

Love People Better

• Enhance empathy by apprising others’ values.
• Learn to appreciate and respect diverse values.

Develop Deep Understanding: Helps individuals understand values and beliefs influencing thoughts and actions.

Engage Your Team Building

• Ideal for workshops and team-building to foster connection and tolerance.
• Encourages acceptance of diversity in group values.

Inspired by Schwartz’s Research

• Based on Shalom H. Schwartz’s well-established research on human values.
• Rooted in black’s theory of basic human values.

Metafox Support Contact Metafox at [email protected] (German) or [email protected] (other languages). Inquiries and messages welcome on the website: metafox.eu/pages/get-involved.

Development Cooperation Developed in cooperation with Jennifer Catindig , a product developer with a decade of cross-cultural experience.

Special Features

• Based on Schwartz Theory of Human Values.
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• Functions as a values dictionary with descriptions on the reverse side.

Application: Ideal for one-on-one sessions in coaching, workshops, and therapy.

EQ Coach Cards

In a nutshell Elevate your emotional intelligence with 64 powerful cards, inspired by leading experts, designed for transformative reflection and effective personal development.

Price $34.95

Tune into Emotional Intelligence Utilize a beautiful and insightful tool to enhance emotional intelligence. Capture the wisdom of leading EQ experts with these compelling questions for professional and personal transformation.

Comprehensive Set Includes a 32-page instruction booklet and 64 cards structured around the Six Seconds Model of Emotional Intelligence.

Guided Reflection EQ Coach Cards facilitate reflection for more effective action in both professional and personal contexts.

Versatility Ideal for discussing experiences and processing training experiences.

Structured Design Divided into eight “suits” aligned with the Six Seconds Model of Emotional Intelligence.

Problem-Solving Task Cards and Prompts (Printable and Slide Deck included)

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Do your students need to develop their problem-solving skills and strategies ? These task cards and prompts are the perfect way to explicitly teach the skills that students need to become problem solvers.

Use the task cards during whole group lessons throughout the school year to revisit the strategies that you have discussed. Add a puppet for a fun twist on your lessons!

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→ 32 task cards with problem-solving prompts

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Step-by-step instructions.

• Randomly distribute one card (from a deck of cards) face down to every person in your group.
• Do not look at, or show your card to anyone else.
• When you say “GO,” instruct your group to flip their cards over and, as quickly as possible, form one straight line according to the numerical order of the cards, aces high, regardless of suit.
• Using a stopwatch, time this first attempt.
• Before a new round starts, the group is entitled to plan their next attempt.
• When ready, the group must turn their cards face down again, and mingle with others swapping cards one for one until you say “STOP.”
• Announce “GO” to start the next round, and record the time.
• Repeat process for up to five rounds, and record the fastest time.

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Hey Mark, I love the sound of this activity. I’m wondering what your thoughts might be if I were to use a full deck and brun four teams of 8 to 10 at a time. I’m thinking you could follow the same general flow, except the switching of cards could either be within the mini team or within the whole team. What do you think?

Jen, yes, I think you could set up the activity this way. My only concern would be that thru the lens of ‘continuous improvement’ it would be best for each group to manage the same set of cards each time because they would then have a consistent benchmark. Have fun, and let us know how it goes 🙂

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How to Solve Basic Probability Problems Involving a Deck of Cards

Editorial team, 25 jun 2018.

A common topic in introductory probability is solving problems involving a deck of standard playing cards. These can be handy if you are playing card games or just trying to understand how probability works. Following a few simple steps and principles will tell you how to solve probability exercises that involve decks of cards.

For all problems of this type, there are some important points that apply. First of all, the problem will probably refer to a standard deck of playing cards. This means that there are no tricks involved. The problem assumes a regular deck of cards, not "stacked," shuffled randomly, with cards drawn randomly.

Some students claim that questions of this nature are unfair, especially if they grew up in a culture that doesn't play games using what we call a standard deck of cards. While this may be the case, it is not hard to learn the facts about a deck of cards that you are expected to know.

A standard deck of cards contains 52 different cards. It contains cards of 13 different ranks, ranging from Ace (essentially 1) through 10, followed by Jack, Queen, King, which you could think of as 11, 12, and 13. In each rank there are cards of four suits: a heart, a club, a diamond, and spade. Hearts and diamonds are red, spades and clubs are black. There are 4 cards of each rank, and 13 cards of each suit. There are no jokers. That is all you need to know to answer any problem involving a deck of cards.

Here is a simple problem: "A person draws a card from a standard deck, and it is the Queen of Hearts. The card is replaced, and the deck is reshuffled. What are the chances of drawing the Queen of Spades on the next draw?" First of all, the word "replace" in this context means "put back."

This is actually a trick question. The fact that the Queen of Hearts was drawn on the first draw has nothing at all to do with the second draw, since it was returned to the deck, and the deck was reshuffled. The deck doesn't have a memory. It is incorrect to say that the Queen of Hearts is "on a roll" so is more likely to come up again, just as it is incorrect to say that the Queen of Hearts is less likely to come up again because other cards are "overdue." The answer to the question is simply 1/52.

Here is some other typical problems with some of the standard wording omitted here for brevity: "What are the chances of drawing a red card?" There are 2 red suits of 13 cards each, so the answer is 26/52 which we would probably reduce to 1/2. "What are the chances of drawing a seven?" There are four sevens out of 52, giving us 4/52 which we would probably reduce to 1/13. "What are the chances of drawing a club?" There are 13 clubs out of 52, giving us 13/52 which we would probably reduce to 1/13.

Be on the lookout for trick questions: "What are the chances of drawing a green card?" The answer is 0. There are none. "What are the chances of drawing either a red or a black card?" The answer is 52/52, which equals 1, or equivalently 100%. Every card in the deck is one or the other.

Here is a problem that is a bit trickier: "Two cards will be drawn from a standard deck without replacement. What are the chances of drawing the Nine of Clubs followed by a red card?" First of all, take note of the fact that we will not be putting the first card back in the deck after drawing it. The chances of drawing the Nine of Clubs on the first draw is 1/52. Now that card is gone, and we have 51 left. The chances of drawing a red card from the remaining cards are 26/51. There are still 26 red cards left, since the Nine of Clubs was not one of them.

This problem implies an "and" condition, and for those problems we multiply the individual probabilities. We must multiply 1/52 times 26/51, giving us 26/2652, which we would probably reduce to 1/102.

Here is another typical problem: "Two cards will be drawn from a standard deck with replacement, and with shuffling in between draws. What are the chances of drawing a Three on the first draw, and a diamond on the second draw?" Take note of the fact that we are dealing with a replacement scenario. The chances of drawing a Three on the first draw is 4/52. The chances of drawing a diamond on the second draw is 13/52. Each draw has nothing to do with the previous, since each draw started from a complete, shuffled deck. Multiply 4/52 times 13/52 to get 52/2704, which reduces to 1/52.

Here is a final typical problem which can be a bit tricky. "What are the chances of drawing a Five or a Diamond?" We are dealing with an "or" situation, which means we have to add (not multiply) the involved probabilities. The chances of drawing a Five are 4/52. The chances of drawing a diamond are 13/52. Many students just add those two fractions together to get 17/52, but that is actually wrong. The problem is that we counted the Five of Diamonds twice, once as a Five, and again as a Diamond. We have to subtract one of those times, so that we only count it once, so we end up with 16/52 which is the correct answer.

Another way to think about it is that there are 13 diamonds in the deck, and then we just have to count the three Fives that are not diamonds. That gives us 16 possible cards out of 52.

Students should make sure that they are comfortable working with the basic probability concepts discussed in this article since they come up quite frequently.

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This article was written by the CareerTrend team, copy edited and fact checked through a multi-point auditing system, in efforts to ensure our readers only receive the best information. To submit your questions or ideas, or to simply learn more about CareerTrend, contact us [here](http://careertrend.com/about-us).

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Card Probability

In this mini lesson, you will be introduced to the concept of probability of drawing a card from a pack of 52 cards. You will learn interesting facts around deck of cards, suits in a deck of cards, and types of cards in a deck. You will also know more about number of cards in a deck and face cards in a deck by gathering more knowledge about 52 card deck and spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs in a pack of cards.

Here's a trivia fact for you. Did you know that the playing cards that we use today has transformed from when they began, centuries ago. It is said it took about hundred years that involved travel, that made the present day 52 card deck culturally diverse as it was used by travellers back then. It was believed that playing cards originated from China during the Tang Dynasty.

Do you think if you were given the well-shuffled deck of cards shown above, would you draw a queen in the first go?

Well, you may or may not draw a queen in the first go.

Is it possible to say that you might end up drawing a king and instead of a card which is queen from those 52 cards?

Yes, it is possible you might end up drawing a king instead of a queen from those 52 cards as you may or may not draw a queen in the first go.

Stay tuned to find out answers like probability of drawing a king!

Lesson Plan

What do you mean by a deck of cards.

Deck of cards is the term used for a set of 52 cards consisting of different types of cards. 

It is also commonly referred to as a pack of cards.

• The sample space for a set of cards is 52 as there are 52 cards in a deck. This makes the denominator for finding the probability of drawing a card as 52.
• Learn more about related terminology of probability to solve problems on card probability better. 

What Are the Types of Cards in a Deck?

We can classify types of cards in a deck in two ways:

• Based on color of cards 
• Based on suits

Baesd on Colour of Cards

There are two colors of cards in each deck:

• Black 

The suits which are represented by red cards are hearts and diamonds while the suits represented by black cards are spades and clubs.

There are 26 red cards and 26 black cards. 

Let's learn about the suits in a deck of cards.

Suits in a deck of cards are the representations of red and black color on the cards.

Based on suits, the types of cards in a deck are: 

Let's see what each suit represents:

• Spades 

• Hearts 

• Diamonds 

There are 52 cards in a deck.

Each card can be categorized into 4 suits constituting 13 cards each.

There is one more categorization of a deck of cards: 

• Number cards

These cards are also known as court cards.

They are Kings, Queens, and Jacks in all 4 suits.

Number Cards

All the cards from 2 to 10 in any suit are called the number cards. 

These cards have numbers on them along with each suit being equal to the number on number cards. 

There are 4 Aces in every deck, 1 of every suit. 

• There are 13 cards of each suit, consisting of 1 Ace, 3 face cards, and 9 number cards.
• There are 4 Aces, 12 face cards, and 36 number cards in a 52 card deck.
• Probability of drawing any card will always lie between 0 and 1.
• The number of spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs is same in every pack of 52 cards.

Now that you know all about facts about a deck of cards, you can draw a card from a deck and find its probability easily.

How to Determine the Probability of Drawing a Card?

Let's learn how to find probability first.

Now you know that probability is the ratio of number of favorable outcomes to the number of total outcomes, let's apply it here.

Example 1:  What is the probability of drawing a king from a deck of cards?

Solution: Here the event E is drawing a king from a deck of cards.

There are 52 cards in a deck of cards. 

Hence, total number of outcomes = 52

The number of favorable outcomes = 4 (as there are 4 kings in a deck)

Hence, the probability of this event occuring is 

P(E) = 4/52 = 1/13

Example 2:  What is the probability of drawing a black card from a pack of cards?

Solution: Here the event E is drawing a black card from a pack of cards.

The total number of outcomes = 52

The number of favorable outcomes = 26

Hence, the probability of event occuring is 

P(E) = 26/52 = 1/2

Solved Examples

Jessica has drawn a card from a well-shuffled deck. Help her find the probability of the card either being red or a King.

Jessica knows here that event E is the card drawn being either red or a King.

There are 26 red cards, and 4 cards which are Kings.

However, 2 of the red cards are Kings.

If we add 26 and 4, we will be counting these two cards twice.

Thus, the correct number of outcomes which are favorable to E is

26 + 4 - 2 = 28

Hence, the probability of event occuring is

P(E) = 28/52 = 7/13

Help Diane determine the probability of the following:

• Drawing a Red Queen
• Drawing a King of Spades
• Drawing a Red Number Card 

Diane knows here the events E 1 , E 2 , and E 3 are Drawing a Red Queen, Drawing a King of Spades, and Drawing a Red Number Card.

The total number of outcomes in every case = 52

There are 26 red cards, of which 2 are Queens.

Hence, the probability of event E 1  occuring is

P(E 1 ) = 2/52 = 1/26

There are 13 cards in each suit, of which 1 is King.

Hence, the probability of event E 2  occuring is

P(E 2 ) = 1/52 

• Drawing a Red Number Card

There are 9 number cards in each suit and there are 2 suits which are red in color. 

There are 18 red number cards.

Hence, the probability of event E 3  occuring is

P(E 3 ) = 18/52 = 9/26 

Interactive Questions

Here are a few activities for you to practice.

Select/Type your answer and click the "Check Answer" button to see the result.

Let's Summarize

We hope you enjoyed learning about probability of drawing a card from a pack of 52 cards with the practice questions. Now you will easily be able to solve problems on number of cards in a deck, face cards in a deck, 52 card deck, spades hearts diamonds clubs in pack of cards. Now you can draw a card from a deck and find its probability easily .

The mini-lesson targeted the fascinating concept of card probability. The math journey around card probability starts with what a student already knows, and goes on to creatively crafting a fresh concept in the young minds. Done in a way that is not only relatable and easy to grasp, but will also stay with them forever. Here lies the magic with Cuemath.

About Cuemath

At Cuemath , our team of math experts is dedicated to making learning fun for our favorite readers, the students! Through an interactive and engaging learning-teaching-learning approach, the teachers explore all angles of a topic. Be it problems, online classes, videos, or any other form of relation, it’s the logical thinking and smart learning approach that we, at Cuemath, believe in.

FAQs on Card Probability

1. how do you calculate the probability of drawing a card.

We find the ratio of the favorable outcomes as per the condition of drawing the card to the total number of outcomes, i.e, 52.

2. What is the probability of drawing any face card?

Probability of drawing any face card is 6/26.

3. What is the probability of drawing a red card?

Probability of drawing a red card is 1/2.

4. What is the probability of drawing a king or a red card?

Probability of drawing a king or a red card is 7/13.

5. What is the probability of drawing a king or a queen?

The probability of drawing a king or a queen is 2/13.

6. What are the 5 rules of probability?

The 5 rules of probability are:

For any event E, the probability of occurence of E will always lie between 0 and 1

The sum of probabilities of every possible outcome will always be 1

The sum of probability of occurence of E and probability of E not occuring will always be 1

When any two events are not disjoint, the probability of occurence of A and B is not 0 while when two events are disjoint, the probability of occurence of A and B is 0.

As per this rule, P(A or B) = (P(A) + P(B) - P(A and B)).

7. What is the probability of drawing a king of hearts?

Probability of drawing a king of hearts is 1/52.

8. Is Ace a face card in probability?

No, Ace is not a face card in probability.

9. What is the probability it is not a face card?

The probability it is not a face card is 10/13.

10. How many black non-face cards are there in a deck?

There are 20 black non-face cards in a deck.

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Untold play, how to create a card deck: for learning, creativity or ideation.

by Terry Pearce

Card decks are versatile, powerful tools, that can help people learn, ideate and unlock new conversations and creative veins. Butter’s list of 44 card decks is a great place to see the range of card decks available, as is Deckible’s online range. But what makes a card deck tick? If you were to go about creating one, what should you consider? How would you make sure it did what you wanted it to do?

In 2021, I launched the Transform Deck . The deck is the fruit of a long process of distilling what I’d learned over twenty years of designing learning experiences – it exists to inspire people to create activity-led learning. I’ve created other decks for use in learning, and I love card decks. I’ve spoken at conferences about cards, read some of the academic literature, and I have a growing collection.

Over that time, I’ve noticed a few things about successful card decks that should probably be in the mix for creating new ones. 

Think carefully about what the deck should achieve 

A card deck, like any other product or design, should probably solve a problem. Who is going to use the deck and what is their problem? Design decks (like the Transform Deck ) are built to solve design problems and decks for applying a process (like Fabula’s Storytelling Deck ) are built to solve difficulties in learning and applying a process. Creativity decks (like 75 Tools ) are built to solve stuckness in creative pursuits.

This might sound obvious but it’s very easy to build a deck that’s just based around content. You have some material that you love and you want to turn into a deck. But why should people use it? Why should they care? If it will make their life easier or better, they will – and that’s usually by solving a problem or providing an exciting opportunity.

Even decks specific to a learning topic can be seen as solving the problem of getting to grips with that problem. But it’s that framing – rather than just ‘a deck about X’ – that will give shape to your design and make it useful and usable.

Choose the right type of deck for the job

Here’s a question: where should your deck sit on the scale of prioritising depth versus usability ? Coglode’s Nuggets has a lot of info, which means each card is almost like a condensed book chapter. But that can slow down the process. MethodKit’s lean prompts mean that each card is instantly ‘gettable’ but there’s little depth there; things are open to interpretation. In both cases, these choices are deliberate, to suit the deck’s use. The worst thing would be a deck where depth is important but lacking, or one where swift usability is key but the cards are clogged with too much info. 

Another scale you might like to consider is process-driven versus free-form . Is there a specific process to follow, such as with Fabula’s Storytelling Deck, or can you sift and play freestyle, using the cards however occurs to you? The Transform Deck is somewhere in the middle, offering a range of processes on how-to cards, but also lending itself to free play.

Other considerations include: will the deck have just one type or category of card, or several (Gamification Nation’s Game Deck is split into Game Mechanics, Win Conditions and more)? Will the cards be customisable (for example with post-its next to each as with MethodKit and Fabula), or is the idea that the card holds everything you need? 

Design the deck for the user, not for you

At all stages, you should be asking yourself: what does the user need? How will they navigate using the deck? What info will be most useful for them and when and where will they want it? This may sound straightforward, but the curse of knowledge means that it’s very difficult to put ourselves in the user’s shoes.

It’s much easier to create something from our own viewpoint, that suits us. And that makes it an easy trap to fall into. So if including something, ask: is this for me, or for the user? Is this strengthening the card or deck, or is it diluting the most effective parts?

And the most important thing here is playtesting. I did a lot of playtesting with the Transform Deck . Some things that seemed obvious to me, weren’t for users. Some things that seemed interesting to me, bored users. And users came up with ideas of how they’d like things to be that hadn’t occurred to me. 

Lean in to the affordances of cards 

Why is this a card deck? Why isn’t it a book? Cards allow certain things that books and other media don’t – called affordances. Which of these are you making use of? Which could you lean into more, to better make use of the format?

For example, cards allow you to: 

• Break a topic down into discrete elements, like creativity techniques or learning activity types, each of which users can view individually
• Move, sort and arrange the individual cards into groupings and layouts to make connections or categorise
• ‘Hold’ a card in your ‘hand’ and have it secret from other users you’re working with
• Easily compare any card with any other
• Make connections and groupings across cards using markers like colour and icons, for example to create suits
• Evoke bigger ideas beyond what the card specifically states
• Shuffle and randomise
• Re-organise, re-group and re-categorise, based on whatever criteria you like

This list could be longer. Think about your favourite deck, or some of the decks on the 44 decks list above. What does it allow? Would that help with your deck? How could you design to build up the power of that affordance?

Create an intuitive and consistent visual template 

Almost all of the affordances mentioned benefit from visual consistency among your cards. They don’t have to be full-colour, two-sided or icon-filled – your cards could each just be one picture or phrase. But they should still have consistency. Fonts and layouts should stay the same across cards unless there’s a good reason to change.

And think about what will be intuitive. Where would people expect to see a certain piece of info? If using icons, make sure they make visual sense (test them). If using something to differentiate suits or any other difference, make sure the difference is clear. And don’t forget accessibility – colour or any hard-to-see or hard-to-read element should not be the only differentiator.  

Get in touch if you’d like my help creating a deck 

These are some of my top tips for creating card decks. If they sound interesting and have sparked your imagination but you feel like you might need some help, Get in touch . I can help you design a deck, or design one to your specifications.

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Techniques of Problem Solving Level 2 Cards – January 1, 1983

• Language English
• Publisher Dale Seymour Pubn
• Publication date January 1, 1983
• Grade level 7 - 9
• Dimensions 8.25 x 2.75 x 5.25 inches
• ISBN-10 0866511202
• ISBN-13 978-0866511209
• See all details

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dale Seymour Pubn (January 1, 1983)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0866511202
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0866511209
• Grade level ‏ : ‎ 7 - 9
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.52 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.25 x 2.75 x 5.25 inches

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Best Cards For A Pixie Deck In Marvel Snap

• Pixie's ability to swap costs in your deck can lead to powerful combos like playing Hulk for one energy, maximizing your card's potential.
• Mobius M. Mobius is a key defensive card paired with Pixie, preventing cost changes from Mister Negative and ensuring low-cost strategies.
• Sunspot efficiently utilizes leftover energy in a Pixie deck, allowing for more powerful plays with discounted cards like Doctor Doom.

At first glance, Pixie might seem like a card with a mostly niche use in Marvel Snap , not unlike Mister Negative. And while that might be true, Pixie’s potential goes much further, since she doesn’t sacrifice the stats of the cards in her deck in order to cheat out some high power.

Marvel Snap: Martyr Deck Guide

This is because her ability shuffles the cost of all the cards still on your deck, as long as they started there to begin with. This means that you could have Hulk swap his cost with Misty Knight, letting you play 12 power for one energy; but that’s only scratching the surface of what Pixie can do.

Mobius M. Mobius

Solving the pixie problem.

Mobius M. Mobius is already a great defensive card , since he prevents your opponent from benefiting from cost reductions, while protecting you from things that increase costs, like Iceman’s on reveal ability. While his role is still a defensive one with Pixie on the deck, it is a defense not for outside aggression but for Pixie’s own effect.

While the wording on the cards might be confusing, Mobius takes effect on cards transformed by Mister Negative or Pixie because all of their abilities are cost changes.

If, for example, Hulk swaps his cost with Misty Knight, you’ll have a one cost Hulk but a 12 cost Misty. If Mobius is in play, only the Hulk change takes effect, since he prevents Misty Knight from costing more than one, turning your deck into a low cost machine.

Wasp And Yellowjacket

Only here for their cost.

Since you’ll be swapping costs around, having the lowest cost possible is always a good idea, and when talking about energy cost, nothing goes below zero. The only two cards (so far) that cost zero in Marvel Snap are Wasp and Yellowjacket, the prime targets for Pixie to swap costs with.

These two cards have little use beyond getting their costs swapped, but if you have the room you might as well play them on the board. While Wasp has no downsides, Yellowjacket can be troublesome, since his on reveal gives a negative point of power to all cards at his location; best to play him first, or not at all.

Doctor Doom

There are plenty of massive six cost cards that you’d be happy to play for free, but few of them are as impactful as Doctor Doom, whose Doom Bots can get into nearly any location. You don’t even need him to cost zero, as long as you can cheat him out early you can then double down on his ability with Odin or even Absorbing Man.

Marvel Snap: 10 Best Cards For A Loki Deck

The best part about Doctor Doom is how reliably good he is at almost every match-up, which is important for the games where you don’t draw Pixie in time. Even in those nightmare scenarios, Doctor Doom can carry impossible games by making it into locked-down locations and spreading power everywhere.

Worth It Even Without Discounts

She-Hulk might not be the biggest card you can play with Pixie, but she pairs up nicely with many cards even when she isn’t discounted herself. This can be seen in the classic pair-up of She-Hulk and The Infinaut, where you float a whole turn for a free She-Hulk and a playable Infinaut.

The same thing can be done easily with Pixie, and you don’t even need to have your big cards cost zero. If She-Hulk ends up costing four or less, it's easy to float that amount, and have a surprising end turn with things like She-Hulk and Doctor Doom for a massive turnaround.

Using The Extra Energy

Sunspot has a simple role within a Pixie deck, and that is to use the leftover energy from all those discounts. While it’s great to finish a game with a zero cost Doctor Doom and She-Hulk, it’s even better if you make use of the six energy floating around on the final turn.

Not only that, but Sunspot is also a great target for Pixie to swap costs with, since a one cost Doctor Doom is just as useful as a zero cost one. And remember that, if Mobius M. Mobius is in play, Sunspot will still cost one even after swapping costs with a six cost card, so you can add other things like Nebula as well.

Even More Value

The inclusion of Moon Girl might be a risky one, since her ability to duplicate your hand can often leave you without any cards to draw, something counterproductive when playing Pixie. Yet, if you draw the cards in the right order, you won’t need to draw too many extra things for Moon Girl to win you the game.

Marvel Snap: Best Cards For A Supergiant Deck

Usually you don’t have the energy to play multiple copies of anything, but a zero cost Doctor Doom can easily be played whenever, so if you duplicate that you’ll end up with up to 30 power to spread around the board. While this won’t happen every time, it’s still in the essence of Pixie; you snap when things go your way, and retreat if you draw too poorly.

Professor X

Lock locations down.

Almost all players know to expect Professor X at turn five, and they will play their power accordingly, which is even easier now that he was nerfed to only one power. Even then, locking down a location completely is a game-winning move, particularly if you can do it a few turns earlier.

Ravonna Renslayer has proven that even a four cost Professor X can catch most players off guard, leading to early retreats. If at four cost the Professor can be a menace, imagine what you can do with a zero cost Professor that gets slammed down alongside anything on turn three; nothing can really compete with that.

Hope Summers

Getting the needed energy.

Hope Summers works much like other energy cheating cards, except that she doesn’t come with a negative effect. You simply need to play a card at her location, and next turn you’ll end up with one additional energy point, and the more cards you play, the more energy you’ll have.

Hope Summers might seem similar to Electro or Corvus Glaive, but her ability only lasts for one turn, not for the rest of the game.

Hope is how you play your big cards when Pixie isn’t drawn, and she’s aided by the zero costs like Wasp and Yellowjacket. You can play Hope Summers on turn three with both zero cost cards, then play a six cost on turn four on top of Hope, meaning that you can play another six cost card on turn five; it’s the best kind of snowballing effect.

Marvel Snap: Best Cards For A Grand Master Deck

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These Playing Cards Have an Extra Motive. Flushing Out Suspects.

The 2,500 decks being issued to correctional facilities in southern Mississippi seek clues on missing persons and unsolved murders. Cold case cards sometimes bring useful tips to dormant investigations.

By Rebecca Carballo

People incarcerated in southern Mississippi have been receiving new sets of playing cards that they can use to pass the time, but the images on those cards are not of the typical jacks, queens and kings of other game sets. Instead, they feature people whose murders or disappearances have been unsolved for years.

The authorities hope that people awaiting trial or serving sentences will recognize someone while playing with the cards and offer information to help solve some of those crimes.

The Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers , a nonprofit that helps law enforcement generate tips in unsolved cases, are distributing 2,500 decks. The card sets cost about $6,000 to make and were made possible by a grant from Season of Justice, a nonprofit that provides funding for investigative agencies and families looking to solve cold cases.

“We have nothing to lose,” said Lori Massey, the chief executive director of Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers. “These cases are sitting on investigators’ desks. “We feel like one lead is better than no leads at all.”

Each card has a photo and a name for a victim; the date when the person died or went missing; and contact information for the Crime Stoppers’ organization. For instance, the Ace of Diamonds shows Rebecca Reid, a woman from Lumberton, Miss., who was last seen in 2020 , and it provides her age, height and weight. The Ace of Spades depicts Kimberly Watts , from Long Beach, Miss. Underneath her name and photo, there is a brief description of what is known about her death: She was strangled and stabbed in her home.

Southern Mississippi isn’t the only place to have tried this approach. In Indiana, “cold case cards” are available for purchase in the state’s prison facilities, according to the Correction Department website. In Minnesota in 2008, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension distributed its version of cold case cards to all 515 police departments and sheriff’s offices in the state, plus 75 county jail and annex facilities, according to the state Public Safety Department . Connecticut law enforcement agencies have issued five editions of a playing card deck featuring missing people, cases of unidentified remains and homicides; they have published a list of solved cases about people featured on the cards.

Although Ms. Massey thinks that the cards are a good idea, she doesn’t expect that they will yield a high volume of solved cases. For one victim’s family, however, they could make all the difference, she said.

“If one case is solved, it would be worth it,” she said.

There have been some success stories linked to the use of playing cards. In July 2007, about 100,000 decks of cold case playing cards were given to inmates in Florida state prisons. There were two editions that listed 104 unsolved cases from across the state. As a result of the effort, two of the cases were solved: the separate murders of James Foote and Ingrid Lugo , according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement .

Some nonprofits and law enforcement agencies have decided not to make the cards, considering them not to be a good use of their funds, said Ryan Backmann, the founder and executive director of Project: Cold Case, an organization in Jacksonville, Fla., that provides resources to victims’ family members.

It costs thousands of dollars to print those decks, and they may result in only a few success stories, he said, adding: “but I think the families of those one or two cases would disagree that the return on investment wasn’t there.”

His organization printed 1,000 decks for cold cases across Florida for $5,000, Mr. Backmann said. It printed one edition in 2022 and another in 2023, which were made possible through grants, he said.

Typically, the cards are distributed in jails and prisons, said Joseph Giacalone, who is an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. The cards have been around for years, said Mr. Giacalone, who is also a former commanding officer of the Bronx Cold Case Squad of the New York Police Department.

“The idea behind them is: Get them in the jails and prisons because if someone’s got a long stretch they might look at them and say, ‘This is my get-out-of-jail free card or I could get a lighter sentence,’” he said.

Although jailhouse informants can be helpful, there is ethical concern around using them, said Camela Hughes, the director of the Cold Case Analysis Center at The College of St. Rose in Albany, N.Y.

“From a general standpoint, there is always a concern about jailhouse informants and any sort of veracity of their statements,” she said.

Often, informants receive better treatment from the authorities, earning transfers to other locations and even negotiating reductions in their sentences, so information from a jailhouse informant should be corroborated with someone else, Dr. Hughes said.

Dr. Hughes said she didn’t see an issue with employing the cards to seek tips as long as family members of the victims had given their permission to do so. (Both Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers and Project: Cold Case said they had asked for permission from family members.)

There are some places where the cold case cards are available outside the criminal justice system. In addition to jails, Mr. Backmann said that Project: Cold Case gave the cards to halfway houses and any businesses with waiting rooms or foot traffic that wanted them.

Although the ultimate goal of the cards is to help solve cases, they have another purpose: to tell victims’ stories.

“In a world where there’s so much violence, death and trauma, everybody’s fighting for their loved ones to be seen and their story to be heard,” Mr. Backmann said. “This was something that a lot of these families never thought they would have the opportunity to be a part of.”

Rebecca Carballo is a reporter based in New York. More about Rebecca Carballo