Growing up, my family didn't play with playing cards. It's unusual, yes, but my parents did their best to protect us from things that could hurt us, including gambling. In an effort to remove temptation, playing cards were forbidden, BUT that didn't keep us from reformatting a deck of Uno or Phase 10 cards to work for an innocent game of spoons.
Based on the concept of preserved innocence in this area, I created a deck of Go Fish cards that function perfectly fine for Go Fish, but cleverly double as a deck of playing cards, sans visual symbols of gambling.
Instead of aces to Kings, the deck features numbers 1-13.
Instead of four suits, it's simplified to four colors.
Playing off the idea of innocence and danger, the deck is designed in a way that raises the stakes as the numbers progress. We start with the helpless phytoplankton, dip into clownfish and crabs, rise to octopus and barracuda, and wrap it all off with the famous king of the sea, the shark.
Just as the ace has the power to trump the king, our innocent little phytoplankton eats up those sharks upon death.
Isn't nature great?
