Superior minors
Like most, I was drawn to this deck because it is so lush in color. And I love computer art especially when it deals with mechanical items. I found the people very 21'st century, even though the characters are dressed in 15th century clothing.
My biggest surprise about this deck is how well Marchetti interprets the pips. For example, the 3 and 8 of pentacles, which I never really could fully fathom visually in RWS, is well defined in this deck. The 3 deals with mastery while the 8 deals with advanced study. Perfect. The 2 and 3 of wands are similarly defined visually as separate thoughts and I found them terribly muddled in RWS so that I forever had to resort to checking out the "book" meaning. I've only begun to study this deck, but I like the addition of the animals to the pips and I just know they will be a help with interpretation. I could go on and on about the pips....there is just so much good new stuff there.
There are strong images with new insights among the majors too. I find the Fool, High Priestess, Hanged Man and, Judgement both appealing and pushing toward new meanings. That said, I am somewhat disappointed in the Devil and the Sun. The artwork is nice but there is less symbolic richness in these very important cards than in some of the pips. Odd.
I certainly like the court cards, but they don't speak to me in new ways at the moment. They are lovely, though.
This is about the only deck I can think of where I'd have no trouble with identification or interpretation if all the borders, numbers, names, etc. were removed. The images portray their meanings extraodinarily well, better than the RWS by far.
I don't have many decks and always compare a new one with the others. I like to do a reading and then pull the same cards from other decks and see how the reading changes or becomes more meaningful.