Yes, that was exactly my experience. I loved the artwork (one reason why I bought the deck), but when I first went to read with it, it didn't work well for me. I even went so far as to try and trade it here at AT, but no takers. I sensed that meant that the deck was still part of my path.
Then rather mysteriousy after owning the deck over a year, a few weeks ago I suddenly had a strong urge to use my Thoth on a reading I was doing. And it worked amazingly. After the deck never worked for me bofore, I had this amazing reading. Even the pips were speaking volumes, and I had always had a problem with them as I considered them not scenic enough.
But in the end the reading went amazingly, and I adore the deck now. Can't wait to use it again. I one thing I did find though, that it does seem to work best for me when I am truly relaxed, grounded, centered...Maybe that was what went wrong the first times, I was not relaxed enough?
Babs