Resource: Shadow System - Anki template deck (Can also be used for learning any other 2-block or full 2704 card pair system)

[TheHumanTim]

I want to share a resource with this community that will hopefully make things easier for those aspiring to learn the Shadow System (or a 3-digit number system, or really any 2-block card system.)

One of the most daunting things that I faced when starting out learning Shadow was how to structure my review sessions considering the sheer number of possible card combinations and images to learn. I knew that I wanted to use a flashcard system and after reading up on Anki, decided to go for it.

I built out a note for every possible card combination. It shows the card pair on the front and the associated mnemonic image on the back. I also added fields for the word so that it could be easily searched and sorted, and each card pair’s number equivalent in Major.

I sorted every card into decks and subdecks that separate out each phonetic structure and suit pair combo for ease of adding new cards into the review mix.

I also tagged every card with shorthand for its suit combo, phonetic structure, and value, so that a filtered deck could be created for study of specific types of cards. You can filter by tags for things like all of the pairs that start with Jacks, all the Spade/Spade cards. All the Heart/Spade cards that start with Jack where the second card is a number… and so on.

The image and word fields currently have “insert image here” and “type word here” so that you can fill in your own content. The cards should automatically format to reveal these answers when you fill those fields in.

In addition to the 2704 cards that have the card pair as the question and the mnemonic image as the answer, I created an additional 2704 cards that do the reverse. These cards can be used to practice decoding imagery into its corresponding card pair. In order to differentiate red-first and black-first pairs as the answers, each question is formatted like “primary: [image]” or “alt: [image]” allowing you to decode both versions of each pair. These are also tagged and sorted into nesting decks based on suit and structure.

If you use a different phonetic system for 2-block cards like Ben or Dominic or whatever, all you need to do is ignore or remove the number field. For those attempting a full 2704 image card system, you can easily use this template too, just ignore or remove the “primary” and “alt” tags and text.

In closing, this is the end result of many months of effort, of rearranging, redesigning, and refining. I don’t think I could have learned this system without having a learning aid like this. I hope it makes the process easier for those who are considering undertaking this large scale project or who are in the middle of it but are looking to streamline their practice sessions.

Here’s a link to the anki deck file via google drive:

TheHumanTim Shadow System Template.apkg

As a bonus, here is a pretty comprehensive document that lays out the method of the Shadow System, charts the phonetic structures, and provides worksheets for every card pair combo. It also has a tab with a week-by-week one-year training plan if someone is interested in learning the Shadow System and reaching a full deck time of under one minute. That doc is here:

Shadow System Cards Info.xlsx

I hope that others find these resources useful! Please let me know what you think! Happy memorizing!

-Tim

NOTE: you’ll need the Anki program to open / import this deck. Get it at https://apps.ankiweb.net/

[fred2 (fred)]

Thank You so much for your generosity in sharing this resource Tim. I have always marveled at people who can memorize a deck of cards in under a minute! If I can find the time I’m going to be following suit (no pun intended!)

[Jmsmithpsyd (Jason Smith)]

Awesome! Thank you!

[iOSDeveloper (Richard)]

Thanks so much, Tim!

[docraymund]

Thank you very much Tim! I fully don’t understand the shadow system even if I read Mr. Tschirhart’s post several times but it’s a challenging and interesting technique that I can’t seem to get out of my mind. Is this the same system that Mr. Johannes Mallow uses? A 2 block system? And why do they call it 2 block?

[TheHumanTim]

2-block just refers to the idea that you’re using one image to represent two different pairs of cards and there is a way to determine if the image represents pair 1 or pair 2.

The advantage is that you need to learn only half as many images.

There are 2704 possible pairs combinations in a deck of cards (assuming duplicates are allowed like "Ace / Ace )

Instead of having to come up with 2704 distinct images, one for every possible pair, a 2 block card system only (ONLY! HA!) requires 1352 images.

The same image is used for Ace Ace AND Ace Ace

The benefit is that you have 1352 less images to learn, practice, and develop instantaneous recognition for.

The cost is that you need to learn how to do variable image stacking in order to differentiate which of the two card pairs your image represents.

I’m not familiar with the technique Johannes uses. But if he’s said that it’s a two block card system, this is likely what he means.

The complete how to method and explanation of terms is spelled out in my Google doc, if you take a look at the “method” tab:

Shadow System Cards Info.xlsx

[docraymund]

Thank you very much!

[westbury08 (paul westbury)]

This may be an amateur error in Anki, but with your deck I only see [ALT image] on the one side, and flipped I see the card pair. When I go to edit/browse, I do see that there’s a 3 digit number and word filled in. How can I redesignate the deck to a different style card so I’m able to see each side as Word/Number/Image and flipped Card Pair? Thx

[Hari-P (Hari)]

Oh dear. Now I’m so tempted to actually try to learn this… and I have already too many projects ongoing!

[Mike4 (Maike Anthony)]

That will be super helpful! Thank you so much, Tim!!! I will use it together with Speed Focus add-on when I start memorizing cards.

[TheHumanTim]

If you look into how to edit or create card types, you can reformat the “front” and “back” of a card to display whatever fields you want.

This will probably involve saving a new card type and then reassigning all notes to use that new type. Not sure about the exact step by step of what you’re looking to do, but thats where I’d start.

[TheHumanTim]

You should be able to fairly easily repurpose this for your double2block approach! Just need to change the number associations.

[Hari-P (Hari)]

So I have a question, hopefully not a too stupid one but… this method is meant to memorize several decks mixed up? Why would you need pairs from the same card?

[Mike4 (Maike Anthony)]

@TheHumanTim

You should be able to fairly easily repurpose this for your double2block approach!

I certainly will! There is no chance I’d waste such a useful resource. I’m still stunned that you really put every single pair of cards there.

Btw, you may already know this, but please allow me to make an unsolicited suggestion. As you know, having parent decks and subdecks makes anki more manageable for both search of cards and creation of filtered decks. The same function exists for tags as well. You can create subtags by writing “::” in the name of the subtag, just like you do for decks. For instance, renaming the subtag “10J” to “xJ::10J” makes “10J” a subtag of “xJ.” Moreover, if you install the add-on Colorful Tags (+ Hierarchical Tags) in your anki, the subtags will collapse inside the parent tags, making the browser cleaner and easier to search. This can save some time, specially if you use anki to learn other things too.

[TheHumanTim]

I found out about the usefulness of tags midway through this haha. I liked the deck/subdeck approach early on when I was learning cards one suit/set at a time. I could move say the “spade/spade number/number” deck into its own deck and run randomized reviews on just that set.

Realized later that filtered decks via tags could accomplish a similar thing, but I liked being able to see what I was currently learning and what was next.

[TheHumanTim]

Good question. With a single deck you’ll never encounter the doubles. There are only 52 double images though, which if you’re learning 2652 associations anyway whats another 52 at that point. And since Shadow can also be used to learn most of a 3-digit number system, those pairs’ equivilent numbers will need to be learned, so I think its worth it for completeness.

You could easily delete the doubles if thats not something you care about though.

[2704]

@TheHumanTim

The same image is used for Ace Ace AND Ace Ace

Is a there a reason to change both suits instead of changing only the second suit?

[TheHumanTim]

Not really sure what you mean.

Each two-suit combination is paired with another two-suit combination and both are mapped to the same phonetic.

The pairings can be whatever you want as long as you can quickly read them.

I think it helps if there is a sensible way to determine which combos will pair up.

One way is to consider “opposites” where each suit has an “opposite” of the other color that its paired with.

In my setup, and are opposites as are and

When the suit combo is two suits of the same color, the rule I follow is to substitute them for their opposites.

and
and
and
and

When the suit combo contains two different color suits, my rule is to just reverse those suits.

and
and
and
and

This covers all 16 combinations in a logical way.

But this is all arbitrary. You could pair suit combos however you want and assign them to whatever phonetics / numbers you want. Just make sure there is no overlap so that the same numbers / sound structures aren’t used by other card pairs when you read the entire pair.

[2704]

@TheHumanTim

But this is all arbitrary.

Thanks for your complete answer.
The way I practice pairs of cards is to drill 52 pairs at a time and keep the same first card for all pairs. I actually use physical deck of cards.

[CakeForBreakfast]

Thanks for this Tim, I’ve started using some of the cards for my own practise. Really helpful to actually see the card pairs more-or-less as they’d appear in your hand!