You can use the gimmicked cards as they arrive, providing that you have a matching straight deck since you will need to add some ungimmicked cards. You are also shown how to make your own gimmicked cards should want to use cards with a different back, or Bridge cards instead of Poker sized, or if you wanted to perform a variant of the routine (such as the Rick Lax version using blank cards with sketches). This is all covered on the DVD.