ACAAD - Any Card at Any Dice by Mathieu Cima (Red)

Alright, here's the scoop on ACAAD. Mathieu Cima decided the classic ACAAN needed a bit of a shake-up, so he tossed in some dice. It sounds like a recipe for disaster, but somehow it all works out nicely.

You hand over a big bunch of dice, more than a dozen, to someone else. They roll them, give them a shuffle, pick the numbers they like. They can even flip a few dice over or, if they're feeling particularly creative, just imagine some numbers. It's as random as it gets, really.

Then those numbers, which seem like the definition of chaos, are used to count down through a deck you haven't even laid a finger on. They deal to a card, and lo and behold, it matches your prediction. It's one of those tricks where you can't help but wonder why it actually works, but somehow it just does. Every single time.

ACAAD manages to deliver that classic ACAAN feeling without all the usual faff. Comes in blue or red, practically does all the heavy lifting for you, and is so easy to perform it's almost cheeky. Resets faster than your average computer and gets people genuinely puzzled.

You'll get instructions in both French and English, so there's that. And if you're the sort who likes to know what the magic crowd thinks, here's a bit of their chatter:

• "I got fooled!" - Markobi, World Champion of Card Magic.
• "That's strong." - Romaric
• "Remarkably fluid and free." - Antoine Salembier

If you missed the convention and are still scratching your head over this, now's a good time to see what it's about. It's magic with dice. Who'd have thought?