History Main / PlayingCardMotifs

* ''LightNovel/MagicalGirlRaisingProject'': Shufflin are artificial magical girls created by the Osk Faction to serve as soldiers. The first Shufflin consists of a Joker who controls 52 lesser Shufflin in a sort of HiveMind. They have different roles depending on their suit; Spades are combatants, Diamonds are good with technology, Hearts are durable, and Clubs are stealthy. If any Shufflin die, the Joker can sacrifice another magical girl to dispel all of the Shufflin and create a new batch of 52, but if the Joker dies, then all of them disappear. Shufflin II are an improved model who are mass-produced without the Joker, so they are more intelligent and there are more than 52 of them, but they can't be easily replaced.

[[folder:Light Novels]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland'': In Wonderland is the court of the King and Queen of Hearts, in which all the royalty and soldiers are anthropomorphic playing cards.
* The ''Literature/ErastFandorin'' series often uses card motifs in connection to criminal world:
** Early in ''[[Literature/SpecialAssignments The Jack of Spades]]'', the eponymous [[VillainOfTheWeek Conman of the Novel]] goes into a prolonged InternalMonologue about the symbolism of the nickname he picked for himself.
** In ''Literature/HeLoverOfDeath'', all Khitrovka gangs seem to be structured like card decks: the gang leader is referred as King, his girlfriend is the Queen and his [[TheDragon right-hand man]] is the Jack, while the regular gang members are spread out between ten and six (from most important to most expendable, respectively). The Ace is a King whose gang dominates the entirety of Moscow underworld.
* In ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves'', Johnny freaks out over someone giving him a King of Hearts lighter.
* Both the book version and the original film version of ''Literature/TheManchurianCandidate'' have the Queen of Diamonds be the trigger for Raymond Shaw's brainwashing. Discussed by the Army psychologist as a reference to Shaw's mother.
* ''Literature/{{Sidekicked}}'' is a [[SuperheroLiterature superhero novel]] with a villain called the Dealer, whose henchmen are the Jack of Clubs (throws a powerful baton [[BoomerangComeback that returns to him]]), the Jack of Spades ([[TheBrute huge]] and sometimes wields a shovel) and the Jack of Clubs (has a GlassEye that's actually a supernatural diamond). Each leaves a card either before or after committing a crime. The Jack of Hearts' powers don't really relate to the gimmick, though [[spoiler:both ''break'' a hero's heart, in [[HeroicBSOD different]] [[FaceHeelTurn ways]]]].
* In ''[[Literature/TalesOfTheKettyJay Retribution Falls]]'', Darian Fray loses a hand of [[TabletopGame/{{Poker}} Rake]] when he draws the Ace of Skulls, which also happens to be the name of a passenger liner carrying the son of a duke that he was conned into attacking with the lie that it was a freighter carrying gemstones.
* In ''Literature/WaxAndWayne'', the villainous [[OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness Set]] codenames its ranks in card puns, to wit: TheBrute is a "Suit," The ReluctantMadScientist in the Set's employ is an "Array", TheBrute's superior is a "Sequence", and member of the council are titled "Series." %%Someone please check to see if I have the ranks right.
[[/folder]]

[[caption-width-right:350:A villain carrying a card carrying villains.]]

* Wiki/{{SCP|Foundation}}-[[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2156 2156]], a college student who became so obsessed with solitaire and/or numerology that she ''broke reality''.

* In ''Histoire du Soldat'' (''The Soldier's Tale'') by Creator/IgorStravinsky and C.F. Ramuz, the Soldier plays cards with the Devil to get rid of his ill-gotten money so he can go on to claim the Princess. The Devil, holding the VillainBall, wins every round, and on the last round the Devil holds the Ace of Spades and the Soldier holds the Queen of Hearts.

* The four plot-important Mewni royals in ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'' have FacialMarkings based off of playing cards. Star has hearts and her mother, Queen Moon Butterfly has diamond-shaped markings. [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Eclipsa, Queen of Darkness]] has spades. Ms. Heinous -- headmistress of St. Olga’s Reform School for Wayward Princesses [[spoiler: and Eclipsa’s daughter]] has club-shaped markings.

** The Midnight Crew is a four-member mobster group, each of whom is themed and named after a specific suit: Spades Slick, Hearts Boxcars, Diamonds Droog, and Clubs Deuce. They carry decks of cards that double as weapons and other objects, such as Spades Slick's Ace of Spades card doubling as his [[WeaponOfChoice cast iron horse hitcher]], [[StealthPun or a 10-card and a 4-card being used as a makeshift radio]].

->''"I know that the spades are the swords of the soldier''\\
''I know that the clubs are weapons of war''\\
''I know the diamonds mean money for this art''
->''But that’s not the shape of my heart."''

** In "Pulp Friction", for the ''Ace Savvy'' comic that he and Clyde submit for a fan contest, Lincoln creates a number of characters [[ButYouWereThereAndYouAndYou based on his sisters and people he knows about]], all of whom are named after a type of card or a related term associated with playing cards. In particular, the ones based on the sisters are summoned by Ace in the comic through a deck, and with Ace, Jack and later Wild Card Willy, are jointly referred to as the "Full Deck" or "Full House Gang".

** In "Pulp Friction", for the ''Ace Savvy'' comic that he and Clyde submit for a fan contest, Lincoln creates a number of characters [[ButYouWereThereAndYouAndYou based on his sisters and people he knows about]], all of whom are named after a type of card or a related term associated with playing cards. In particular, the ones based on the sisters are summoned by Ace in the comic through a deck, and with Ace, Jack and later Wild Card Willy, are jointly referred to as the "Full Deck".

!!Examples

** In "Pulp Friction", for the ''Ace Savvy'' comic that he and Clyde submit for a fan contest, Lincoln creates a number of characters [[ButYouWereThereAndYouAndYou based on his sisters and people he knows about]], all of whom are named after a type of card or a related term associated with playing cards. In particular, the ones based on the sisters are summoned by Ace in the comic through a deck, and with Ace, Jack and Wild Card Willy, are jointly referred to as the "Full Deck".

** In "Pulp Friction", for the ''Ace Savvy'' comic that he and Clyde submit for a fan contest, Lincoln creates a number of characters [[ButYouWereThereAndYouAndYou based on his sisters and people he knows about]], all of whom are named after a type of card or a related term associated with playing cards. In particular, the ones based on the sisters are jointly referred to as the "Full Deck", and are summoned by Ace in the comic through a deck.

-->"Please, the joker is a time-honored symbol long associated with cards and games. I can't help it if it bears a passing resemblance to some costumed lunatic."

** In "Pulp Friction", for the ''Ace Savvy'' comic that he and Clyde submit for a contest, Lincoln creates a number of characters [[ButYouWereThereAndYouAndYou based on his sisters and people he knows about]], all of whom are named after a type of card or a related term associated with playing cards. In particular, the ones based on the sisters are jointly referred to as the "Full Deck", and are summoned by Ace in the comic through a deck.

-->'''Bruce Wayne:''' All of their crimes are playing-card related, and the earliest playing card decks had swords, not spades.
-->'''Batman:''' How does the yacht fit in?
-->'''Bruce Wayne:''' It was part of a yacht ''club''.
-->'''Batman:''' [[LamePunReaction Ouch]].

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse''
** Spinel, the primary antagonist of the movie, has a Gemstone in the shape of a heart. According to WordOfGod, Spinels in general have their Gemstones cuts are shaped like playing card suits.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* Fitting for the [[CowboyEpisode Wild West theme]] of ''Series/{{Community}}'''s second PaintballEpisode, and six of the seven main characters are introduced with a freeze-frame and a playing card. Jeff and Britta are the King and Queen of Spades respectively, Shirley, Troy, and Abed are the Ace, Jack, and King of Clubs respectively, and Annie is the Ace of Hearts. It turns out these cards [[spoiler:are their votes for whether or not to kick Pierce out of the study group; Annie's red card meant she was the only one who voted for him to stay.]]

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyType0'': The game starts with 14 teens, originally 12 plus 2 new members Rem and Machina, all of which are cadets at Akademeia as Class Zero. Aside from the 2 new recruits, the members of Class Zero are named after the Japanese pronunciations of "trumps" or playing cards. The original 12 members are Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Nine, Eight, Seven, Deuce, Trey, Cater, Cinque and Sice.

* Oswald from ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters XI'' is a DeathDealer and thus his attacks from his fighting style of Karnoffel have playing card theme: Spade, Club, Diamond and Heart can be cancelled into each other up to three times, while Ace is an attack that can either deal minor or massive damage, similar to the value of the card. King and Queen are CounterAttack and projectile moves respectively. His super move Four Suits, via its C version, does 21 hits (Blackjack) while Joker has him unload his 52 (53 in ''XIV'') cards at his victim. Furthermore, his color scheme is the one of playing cards: Black suit, red shirt and glasses, white hair, and yellow tie for the details in the figure cards.
** This even extends into the game's soundtrack: "Joker" is the New Hero Team's theme (Oswald is on this team, by the by), "Queen" is the Rival Team's Theme, "King" is Adelheid's theme, and "Jack" is used for some sub-bosses. Oswald retains a remix of "Joker" in his reappearance in ''XIV''.
*** Oswald's case once more is even a case of ShapedLikeItself; all of his listed moves in his official movesets use the playing card icons as their names! Examples include Q = Queen, ♠♥♦♣ = Four Suits and so forth.

* In ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry 4'', Dante's unique Gilgamesh attacks reference poker while Nero's sword attacks reference casinos/gambling. The sword itself is called the Red Queen to fit this.

* Downplayed in ''Manga/MoriartyThePatriot'',but with the return of Moran's NumberOneDime card from William featuring the King of Hearts ("The Suicide King") and the Jack of Hearts spliced together, they obviously represent the two characters.

* Oswald from ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters XI'' is a DeathDealer and thus his attacks from his fighting style of Karnoffel have playing card theme: Spade, Club, Diamond and Heart can be cancelled into each other up to three times, while Ace is an attack that can either deal minor or massive damage, simialr to the value of the card. King and Queen are CounterAttack and projectile moves respectively. His super move Four Suits, via its C version, does 21 hits (Blackjack) while Joker has him unload his 52 (53 in ''XIV'') cards at his victim. Furthermore, his color scheme is the one of playing cards: Black suit, red shirt and glasses, white hair, and yellow tie for the details in the figure cards.

** Ace is the Ace of Spades. The posterboy go-getter. "I just wanna run a square joint." Straight and sharp.

** The first shopkeeper, Seam, is partly based of the Red Joker, since they were formerly the court magician. (Though, unlike the other card characters, they aren't actually one in the Light World -- they're a plushie!)

[[caption-width-right:350:A villain carrying card carrying villains.]]

** [[spoiler:The Chapter 1 BonusBoss, Jevil, is a jester based on the Black Joker card, and likewise has a chaotic and wild personality. During his fight, he uses all four suits as weapons, fitting the Joker card's ability to stand in for any other one.]]
** The first shopkeeper, Seam, is based of the Red Joker, since they were formerly the court magician. (Though, unlike the other card characters, he isn't actually one in the light world -- he's a plushie!)

** Likewise, Kaido's CoDragons are named King, Queen, and Jack. His lesser officers, the headliners, are named after various card games with the exception [[spoiler: of those recruited from the Worst Generation.]]

* ''Anime/ShugoChara'': The Guardians of Amu's school; The King's Chair, the Queen's chair, the Jack's chair, and the Ace's chair. The Joker's chair can only be filled by someone with at least three Guardian Characters, making an actual Joker [[WildCard quite rare]]. Amu's Guardian Characters and their transformed selves, Ran (Amulet Heart), Miki (Amulet Spade), Su (Amulet Clover), and Diamond (Amulet Diamond) also fit the suit symbols.

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1498533537026623300
%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.

[[quoteright:350:[[Franchise/TheDCU https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/royalflushgang.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:A villain carrying card carrying villains.]]

%% Caption selected per above IP thread. Please do not replace or remove without discussion here:
%% https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1404492079030138900
%% Also, please DO NOT pothole CardCarryingVillain; it doesn't fit and it ruins the joke.

** Doflamingo's CoDragons have card suit themes: Diamante (diamond), Trebol (club) and Pica (spade). Doffy himself sometimes go by his alias "Joker". Even his former protege (who was intended to be his right-hand man but ended up betraying him eventually), Law, has the theme of "heart", Corazón in spanish.
** Likewise, Kaido's CoDragons are named King, Queen and Jack. His lesser officers, the headliners, are named after various card games with the exception [[spoiler: of those recruited from the Worst Generation.]]

* ''VideoGame/AliceInTheCountryOfHearts'': Being a dating sim adaptation of ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'', it's quite rife with this.
** The Country of Hearts is divided into three conflicting factions with a neutral territory in the middle. The grandiose Castle of Hearts is associated with, well, hearts, the mafia territory Hatter Mansion is associated with spades, the cheery Amusement Park is associated with diamonds, and the neutral Clock Tower is associated with clover.
** Wonderland itself is divided into "countries." So far, the Countries of Heart, Clover, and Diamond have been seen.
** Joker oversees the prison realm, and seemingly has a SplitPersonality to match there being two jokers in a deck of cards.
* The first season of ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'' assigned individual cards to the main characters. [[DuelOfSeduction Kaguya and Shirogane]] share the Ace of Hearts, [[TheEeyore Ishigami]] is the AceOfSpades, and [[SpannerInTheWorks Fujiwara]] is the Joker.
* ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureJojolion'' has the female characters [[FamilyThemeNaming of the Higashikata family]] as homonyms for card suit names: Daiya for diamonds, Hato for hearts, Tsurugi for spades, Mitsuba for clubs, and [[spoiler:their mother Cato, a homonym for "card" itself.]]

* The Royal Flush Gang, pictured above, has always had a playing card motif, as they were originally formed by the BornLucky gambler Amos Fortune. The group's members have always consisted of the various cards one needs to form the titular hand- Ace, King, Queen, Jack, and Ten. The gambling aspect quickly disappeared when they and Amos went their separate ways...except the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' version, who first appeared in an episode that took place entirely in Las Vegas. They were also {{Shout Out}}s to the ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans''.
* ''ComicBook/TheJoker'', ComicBook/{{Batman}}'s nemesis, corresponds well to his eponymous card by being chaotic and unpredictable. He also tends to use the Joker itself as a CallingCard.

* Parodied in ''ComicBook/AlanFord'': three famous and important men who have to undertake an airplane journey together receive the two of spades and consider it an ominous message announcing death and ill-fated departure. By the end of the issue, Number One remembers that the two of spades is also the least valuable card you can get in Briscola (a card game) and thus a way to claim that someone's useless: the responsible is an otherwise forgettable ButtMonkey who's always been called "two of spades" beacause of his incapacity and wanted to get his revenge by using these cards to make other fall into endless paranoia.

* ''Film/{{Maverick}}''. During a scene where Maverick tries to choose which card he draws from a deck, he picks the Queen of Hearts - a {{Foreshadowing}} of his romantic encounter with Annabelle Bransford.

* In ''Film/{{Nobody}}'', Hutch Mansell has a 7 of Spades and a 2 of Diamonds (considered the worst hand to start with in Texas Hold'Em) tattooed on his wrist. Exactly what this means isn't explained, but the moment someone notices it said person immediately thanks him for his service and proceeds to hide behind a door with multiple locks.

* The Literature/ErastFandorin series often uses card motifs in connection to criminal world:
** Early in ''[[Literature/SpecialAssignments The Jack of Spades]]'', the eponymous [[VillainOfTheWeek Conman of the Novel]] goes into a prolonged InternalMonologue about the symbolism of the nickname he picked for himself.
** In ''Literature/HeLoverOfDeath'', all Khitrovka gangs seem to be structured like card decks: the gang leader is referred as King, his girlfriend is the Queen and his [[TheDragon right-hand man]] is the Jack, while the regular gang members are spread out between ten and six (from most important to most expendable, respectively). The Ace is a King whose gang dominates the entirety of Moscow underworld.

* ''Series/KamenRiderBlade'' uses this for its overarching motif. There are 52 [[MonsterOfTheWeek Undead]], which are organized by the playing card suits based off their relative PowerLevels. The Riders defeat the Undead by sealing them into cards, which allows them to draw on their power: Aces are used to transform, the face cards give access to {{Super Mode}}s, and the others grant a variety of power-ups. The Riders themselves each represent one of the four suits, while being named for the corresponding [[TarotMotifs Tarot suit]]: Blade is Spades, Garren[[note]]a corruption of "galleon", an old form of coinage[[/note]] is Diamonds, Chalice is Hearts, and Leangle[[note]]from "liangle", a type of club[[/note]] represents Clubs. There's also a Joker Undead, which is fittingly enough the series' wild card.

* Hucksters in ''TabletopGame/{{Deadlands}}'' are mages who cast spells by playing poker with demons, and most of their spells are card-themed.

* In ''Histoire du Soldat'' (''The Soldier's Tale'') by Creator/IgorStravinsky and C.F. Ramuz, the Soldier plays cards with the Devil to get rid of his ill-gotten money so he can go on to claim the Princess. The Devil, holding the VillainBall, wins every round, and on the last round the Devil holds the Ace of Spades and the Soldier holds the Queen of Hearts.
* In ''Love's Old Sweet Song'' by William Saroyan, the ConMan, having finally fallen in love with Ann, asks her to PickACard, and she draws the Queen of Hearts.

* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
** Setzer, from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' uses cards, dice, darts and slots in his attacks. His airship is named Blackjack. And he joins the party by losing a (rigged) coin toss. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb2lnpKtl9k#t=2m13s This clip]] shows how badass a Setzer can be: He's a wispy silver-haired {{Bishonen}} that sails his airship at top speed, unfazed by the wind as he stands at the rudder, who ''destroys a heavily-armed gunship'' by tossing a few sharpened cards at it. Ante up indeed.
** And the Trickster class in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsA2'', who throw playing cards and use magic chants to, for instance, ''convince'' opponents that they've been poisoned (which is the same as poisoning them). The tricksters fought in the mission to unlock the class are all dimwitted thugs, though.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2'': The heroines each have a different suit motif while using the Lady Luck dressphere: spades for Yuna, diamonds for Payne, and clubs for Rikku. [[GoldfishPoopGang Leblanc]], whose outfit heavily resembles the Lady Luck, has hearts.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyType0'': The game starts with 14 teens, originally 12 plus 2 new members Rem and Machina, all of which are cadets at Akademeia as Class Zero. Aside from the 2 new recruits, the members of Class Zero are named after the Japanese pronunciations of "trumps" or playing cards. The original 12 members are Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Nine, Eight, Seven, Deuce, Trey, Cater, Cinque and Sice.
* Oswald from ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters XI'' is a DeathDealer and thus his attacks from his fighting style of Karnoffel have playing card theme: Spade, Club, Diamond and Heart can be cancelled into each other up to three times, while Ace is an attack that can either deal minor or massive damage, simialr to the value of the card. King and Queen are CounterAttack and projectile moves respectively. His super move Four Suits, via its C version, does 21 hits (Blackjack) while Joker has him unload his 52 (53 in ''XIV'') cards at his victim. Furthermore, his color scheme is the one of playing cards: Black suit, red shirt and glasses, white hair, and yellow tie for the details in the figure cards.
** This even extends into the game's soundtrack: "Joker" is the New Hero Team's theme (Oswald is on this team, by the by), "Queen" is the Rival Team's Theme, "King" is Adelheid's theme, and "Jack" is used for some sub-bosses. Oswald retains a remix of "Joker" in his reappearance in ''XIV''.
*** Oswald's case once more is even a case of ShapedLikeItself; all of his listed moves in his official movesets use the playing card icons as their names! Examples include Q = Queen, ♠♥♦♣ = Four Suits and so forth.

* In ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'', the keys obtained from beating major bosses have playing card suit motifs.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Mercenaries}}'', you fight against the North Korean Army with each member of the regime having cards for their ranking. The lowest you start with is the Two of Clubs before working your way up to the Ace of Spades. More money is brought in if you bring the targets in alive.
* ''VideoGame/MegaManStarForce 3'' features as its main villains a criminal syndicate named "Dealer". It is led by one Mr. King, and has among its high-ranking members ''Queen'' Tia, Jack, and Joker. [[spoiler:There's also Ace, who [[DefectorFromDecadence deserted the organization]].]] Furthermore, three of the ([[TheCorruption unwitting]]) major bosses of the game are ''Spade'' Magnes, ''Diamond'' Ice, and ''Club'' Strong, while King's [[TheDragon Dragon]] is named '''Heart'''less, [[spoiler:as befitting her status as TheMole]]. Their base's inner sanctum is even decorated like a gigantic card table.

* ''VideoGame/{{REFLEC BEAT}}'': Colette has an event and four songs based on this motif. To play these songs you have to beat bosses named after the suits.
** SPEED BLADE by L.E.D. The boss is Francis Club.
** Ambitious by S-C-U. The boss is Rose Heart.
** Arcanos by Dj Torriot. The boss is Lily Dia (as in Diamond).
** Velvet Sentiment by seiya-murai. The boss is Cecil Spade.
** Beating all four unlocks a new song and Boss: CLAMARE by MAX MAXIMIZER. The boss is called "Joker".
* In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'', a card suit symbol of different colors appears whenever a member of the party performs a special move: [[JackOfAllStats Mario]] has a blue spade, [[SquishyWizard Mallow]] a green club, [[MightyGlacier Bowser]] an orange diamond, and [[WhiteMage Princess Toadstool]] a pink heart. The fifth member, [[GlassCannon Geno]], instead gets the Joker's red star, as he is originally from the stars themselves.
* In ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'', Jack of Hearts Twisted Fate, Ace of Spades Ezreal, King of Clubs Mordekaiser, Queen of Diamonds Syndra and Wild Card Shaco.
* In ''VideoGame/ShowByRock'', the band Criticrysta has hair decorations (in FunnyAnimal form) and outfits (in Human form) based on the suits, Rosia's suit is Hearts, Tsukino's suit is Spades, Jacklyn's suit is Clubs and Holmy's suit is Diamonds. Rosia and Holmy's color schemes even adhere to the red association of their respective suits.
* ''VideoGame/Persona5'': The protagonist has a GuardianEntity with multiple hearts on its shoulders, and goes by the thief CodeName JOKER. Another party member even justifies this code name by saying it's because the player character is their BadassCrew's "Wild Card."

* ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'' features a large number of playing card-themed characters; the in-universe explanation is that when the Dark Fountain opened in the abandoned classroom, it turned all the objects there, including a deck of cards, into characters and environmental elements. The characters are actually based on [[https://kanotynes.tumblr.com/post/19996960000/just-finished-the-face-cards a specific card set]] created by Kanotynes.
** Chapter 1 revolves around the King, his son Lancer, and his troops, all themed after playing card suits: Rudinn and Rudinn Rangers are diamonds, Hathy and Head Hathy are hearts, the three-headed Clover is a club, the King and Lancer are the respective King and Jack of Spades, and Rouxls Kaard is a pun on the "rules card" sometimes included in commercial decks.
** The Card Castle where the King resides includes a lot of playing card motifs and puns, including a literal "club" where Clover and a few others have fun together, and the castle bathroom "Royal Flush".
** [[spoiler:The Chapter 1 BonusBoss, Jevil, is a jester based on the Black Joker card, and likewise has a chaotic and wild personality. During his fight, he uses all four suits as weapons, fitting the Joker card's ability to stand in for any other one.]]
** The first shopkeeper, Seam, is based of the Red Joker, since they were formerly the court magician. (Though, unlike the other card characters, he isn't actually one in the light world -- he's a plushie!)
** When Lancer and Rouxls enter Kris' inventory in Chapter 2, they get turned into an actual Jack of Spades and Rules Card, respectively, in the Light World.
* While ultimately averted in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'''s [[CasinoPark Casino Night Zone]], [[WhatCouldHaveBeen its original visual design]] [[https://tcrf.net/images/3/38/Sonic2prerelease_casinonight.jpg played it more straight]].
* ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'' has pickups based on cards, suits included. Ace cards turn all other pickups in the room in to a collectable based on the suit, while 2 cards double (quadruple with the Tarot Cloth item) the current number of that collectable held. Spades cards do these with keys, hearts with... the heart pickup, diamonds with coins, and clubs with bombs. There is also a Joker card that teleports the player character to the devil/angel room, even on floors where it is normally inaccessible.
* In ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'', Luxord, No. X (#10) in [[NebulousEvilOrganization Organization XIII]], is a TimeMaster who uses playing card and gambling themed attacks. One of his best tricks involves literally turning Sora into a card during battle. Luxord is so connected with cards that, in a room depicting each member of the Organization's personal weapon, his name is above a fanned deck.

* The members of the Heartslabyul dorm in ''VideoGame/TwistedWonderland'' are themed after playing cards, as they are based off of the Queen of Hearts and her card soldiers in ''WesternAnimation/AliceInWonderland''. Riddle Rosehearts is the Queen of Hearts, Ace Trappola is the Ace of Hearts, Deuce Spade is the Two of Spades, Cater Diamond is the Four of Diamonds, and Trey Clover is the Three of Clubs.

* In ''VideoGame/GhostsNGoblins'', the Red Arremers have a caste system based around playing cards. First, there are the Red Arremer Kings, which have a darker hue to their skin. Red Arremer Aces are next, and they equip themselves with armor. Finally, the highest rank a Red Arremer can obtain is Joker, who acts the leader of the whole clan.

* In ''VisualNovel/AmnesiaMemories'', each main guy is represented by a different playing card suit that shows up somewhere on their clothes: Heart for Shin, Spade for Ikki, Clover for Kent, and Diamond for Toma. Ukyo, a special SecretCharacter, is represented by the Joker card instead.

* In ''Webcomic/AliceAndTheNightmare'', social castes, organizations and even sayings all derive their names from cards - castes are named after four French suits, the elite forces are called Jokers and teams are referred to as "decks".

* The four Radical Knights of Radical Land, from ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'' are each named and in some cases styled after the four suits. They are:
** Sir Sicknasty of Spades
** Sir Cowabunga of Clubs
** Sir Hellacious of Hearts
** Dame Dudeical of Diamonds

* Richard Bartle's 1996 article titled ''[[http://mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm Players Who Suit MUDs]]'', describing four types of PlayerArchetypes: Diamonds are achievers (they sparkle), Spades are explorers (they dig), Hearts socialize (they care) and Clubs are fond of PlayerVersusPlayer content (they...hit things).
* Wiki/{{SCP|Foundation}}-[[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2156 2156]], a college student who became so obsessed with solitaire and/or numerology that she ''broke reality''.

* Ezekial Clench of ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' was a WildWest–style villain with a slight playing card motif; The spurs on his boots were shaped like spades, he had a card in his hat... Oh, and his cybernetic hands, the wrists of which had the playing card suits on them. The hands had a special ability depending on which suit was facing up. (He changes the setting by turning the wrist so that the desired suit is on the back of the hand.) He's also a bounty hunter, and on the run from his ex-wife, so luck is a big deal to him. (He does decide to call a truce with her to go after Jack, which turns out to be [[NoHonorAmongThieves a very bad idea.]]
* Poker-Face, from ''WesternAnimation/SilverHawks''. His weapon is a staff that releases a card-suit shaped laser. His eyes are slots that change to match the occasion ($ signs when thinking about money, for instance).
* The four plot-important Mewni royals in ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'' have FacialMarkings based off of playing cards. Star has hearts and her mother, Queen Moon Butterfly has diamond-shaped markings. [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Eclipsa, Queen of Darkness]] has spades. Ms. Heinous - headmistress of St. Olga’s Reform School for Wayward Princesses [[spoiler: and Eclipsa’s daughter]] has club-shaped markings.