I'm not sure what you're talking about with regard to "impromptu invisible deck effect." Ackerman OPENS with an invisible deck routine (from Elmsley). Ackerman's own impromptu ultra-mental routine is, in my opinion, not very good. Ackerman's opener is a four effect routine: 1) Invisible Deck; 2) Triumph; 3) Card Mind-Reading 4) Bringing any named four of a kind to the top of the deck in two shuffles (kicker: clumping every other four of a kind). The finale is amazing, and quite possibly one of the strongest card effects I have ever seen (even though I caught on to the method while watching the video, and I think he plays his kicker too quick: he should probably give the deck a couple blind shuffles). Still, Ackerman's Opener contains some incredibly powerful card magic.

My vote goes to:

Aronson's Histed Heisted--You devine up to 10 thought of cards! I've gotten fantastic reactions with this.
All Of A Kind by Tamariz--Spectator waves a card over the deck and all of the same value cards in the deck turn over. Very magical, visual, dramatic climax. Gotten very good reactions.

I LOVE Twice As Hard and Everybody's Lazy, but I haven't been able to get the same reactions.

Cesar

I just saw Ackerman lecture the other night, and his opening routine was a 10 card poker demonstration that was absolutely outstanding. I do not remember the name of the routine or the stack (it was a custom stack for the effect, not a regular stacked deck), but it was great!

2 cards in the pocket by Osterlind. it absokutely kills. a totally unexpected plot for the spectators.

jacques terrien

I can attest to the power of mnemonicosis...

I have been working with Tamariz mnemonicosis about 2 months now after I saw Tamariz fry allmost 400 people with it on live show and I hate to tell people about it... Its just way too good for people to know about...

I just had hard spectator last weekend on my local pub. After some routines the young lady started to get challenging. Usually I try to stay away from challenges but I had my deck stacked so I thought to give it a shot. She was doing the common "I am thinking of a card, can you find it?" I did her mnemonicosis first time and she cutted right into her card. She started to look like she had seen a ghost and went to laidies room without saying a word... Few minutes passed by and she came back and asked can I do that again. I just nodded that of course, but to keep it interesting, lets make it little different. Same thing, I did mnemonicosis again and she just named any small number and counted to her though of card... Around 2 hours later she was about to leave and I thought to finish of her brain damage and did her the mnemonicosis with telephone (Mnemonica owner know what I am talking about) and I can swore that she didn't sleep well that night...

"don't just fool em now, fool em forever! The more they think about it, the more they hurt themselves" Jamy Ian Swiss

Imagine, never again problems with "I am thinking of a card, find it because I am not telling it to you (for you to cull it out)" Mnemonicosis totally solves this, you put the deck on the table and clearly state that you wont touch it ever again cos you allready found out the spectators thought of card and he/she hasnt even named it yet...

Bob Cassidy's Card Memory is great, and you can do it in close-up or on stage. In fact, it is his finale on stage. See also Chan Canata's work.

If you're looking for thorough list of memorized deck effects, check out all the card effects under "covert use of memory technique" in my Memory Effects list.

Hey Scott
Tried to load this but it just stopped @ 0%.
I'm working on the road off a weird WiFi source, maybe that has something to do with the failure.
Is the list too long to copy to the thread?
Larry

and for the list:
THE THREE HOURS from MNEMONICA (adapted to the Aronson stack)

Thanks for the notice!

I've re-installed the list at scribd.com, and it is now working again at that same location.

You can also do a direct download of MemoryEffects.PDF by going to my Grey Matters blog and looking for it under downloads.

Thanks, Scott!
Looks very interesting.

Open Index with the Mullica Wallet. I'm practically making a living with this routine.

Thanks for the reminder Scott, I downloaded this last year and it's excellent!!

John Born's handling of ACAAN in Meant to Be is my favorite. Very easy to perform with some practice. I use it with the Six Hour Memorized Deck and it is a killer.

I'd like to second that sentiment. It's a very useful and comprehensive resource.

Great stories and great effects! I particularly enjoyed the account of one poster lobotomising a challenging spectator with Mnenomicosis!!

My addition, while not strictly a mem deck is Sal Piacente's Memory Opener (based on an earlier routine by Marlo). It play well with a gambling theme as well as a straightforward memory test.

Best,
Vlad

PS I love Aronson's Bait and Switch .... simply diabolical

Darwin Ortiz latest lecture notes: The Ephemeral (booklet or DVD, 2007) includes an amazing effect using any kind of memorized stack.

TEST YOUR LUCK.

Check it out, its a great routine.
The routine is very practical, on the table or in the hands.

I have tried/practised the effect on several laymen (friends) and they were amazed. Sure.

The DVD, buy it, it includes only blockbuster card effects: http://www.internationalmagic.com/ (watch a video trailer from the dvd)