Swiss decks?

Hi,

I hope you can help me. I have a friend who's interested in buying a Thoth deck and he came across a 'Pocket Swiss' edition and the standard size. Could someone tell me what the Swiss refers to?

Thanks
Starla

It's published by AG Muller, Switzerland. They print US Games' Thoth decks so it'll basically be like one of theirs. Some people swear the Swiss printings are better but having compared them side-by-side I could hardly tell any difference. That was several years ago though. It's probably better if you hear from someone who's bought one recently. The last I heard it only has one version of The Magus.

http://tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=136297&highlight=pocket+swiss

That's really helpful, thank you

Dwtw

The adjective 'Swiss' on the new 'pocket Swiss' version is a misnomer. The deck is actually printed in Belgium, and has been since around the turn of the century, when Cartamundi of Belgium absorbed AG Muller of Switzerland. It's the same deck you can buy in the royal blue box from AGM, (and pay an unnecessary premium for).

But U.S. Games knows a good marketing term, so it uses that word 'Swiss', to hearken back to the time when the decks actually were printed in Switzerland, and people thought these were better. Which they were, (in a subjective sense) compared to the older 'greenie' decks that were printed in…Belgium. Where the new ones are printed now. Again.

Also, the 'pocket Swiss' logo differentiates the newer pocket size in the blue box, from the older pocket size in the almost identical blue box, which was printed for U. S. Games in China, without anyone's permission at all. The quality was bad, the legality was questionable, and the deck disappeared quickly. But now it's back, better than ever, in a new 'Swiss' (er…Belgian) version. With one Magus. For your shirt pocket, or wherever small decks of cards like to hang out


Litlluw
RLG

Oh that's quite funny, actually! Thanks for that fab history there of the printing I shall pass the message on.


Starla
x

I actually just bought the pocket swiss deck yesterday. It's a good size for my small hands--though I'm sort of wishing I would have bought the larger size since there's so much going on with the art. The quality is good as far as I'm concerned. Although the edges of the cards are less "smooth" than my other decks.