deck(s) with best or worst cardstock?

simphex said:

I'm a big fan of waxy and matte, so my favourites are the PCS Commemorative, BG Silver and Victorian Romantic.

Worst is the Radiant Rider Waite (it was such an assault I gave it away), the Sidhe (will NEVER part with it as the art work more than trumps the card stock) and the Tarot of Transformation.

To me shiny and glossy with bright colours seems less 'dignified'.

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I totally and absolutely agree with you. I wonder if any of the publishers ever test drive their cards?

My absolute favourite cardstock is of the Medieval Tarot in the CardShark edition, this deck was meant for magicians doing card tricks rather than for tarot readers, so it makes sense that the cards are smooth and manageable. Not slick though - the cards feel soft like velvet.

And on the other end of the spectrum, I hate the cardstock of the Wizard Steele and the Maat. Huge cards stiff as planks - what were they thinking ?
I have trimmed the Wizard Steele which makes it more manageable, and have traded the Maat because I could not connect with the deck anyway, despite the stunning artwork.

The ones with the worst cardstock I have/had in my colection:

Touchstone MM ~ Thick and stiff, and in my opinion bad quality. I got rid of this deck only because of the horrible cardstock.

Kingdom Within~ These cards are very stiff and stick together. These cards will probably never be used again, shuffling sucked with these, and we didn't connect anyway.

The super laminated U.S. Games decks.~They don't even feel like cards. I tolerate it though, just because...

Now my favorites:

All the printed in Belgium decks!

Also received the PCS Commemorative yesterday and that decks has great cardstock also.

I like some of MRP cardstock, but not all. They say it's mostly the same, but I disagree.
I think the BBC stock is very nice, and so was the Boho Gothic first edition. But I am not a fan of the others. They may have that carbon layer, whatever, but they are too thin for the size in my opinion. (Especially Fantastic Menagerie and Vic Romantic). After decent use they start looking very tattered, and become very floppy. Not a nice worn look and feel how I like it however. Still, I LOVE my MRP decks so I tolerate it.

Just got an LS deck from someone here - the Tarot of the New Vision - and the cardstock is nice, no warping...It was missing a few cards, and the company was nice enough to send them to me as replacements.

I've only tried decks from LS, Llewellyn and US Games. LS and US Games are fine; US Games is a bit hard to shuffle compared to LS but it feels sturdier. Llewellyn, on the other hand... The cards feel so flimsy that I'm afraid to use them.

Chiska said:

The Victorian Romantic done by the Finnish company - that has outstanding cardstock. Pryha? It is so supple and deceptively strong.

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There´s no such thing.. I think you must be refering to the bootlegged copies of the Victorian Romantic that were made somewhere in Ukraine.
Ukraine is about as fas from Finland as you are from Mexico

Amaterasu said:

I've only tried decks from LS, Llewellyn and US Games. LS and US Games are fine; US Games is a bit hard to shuffle compared to LS but it feels sturdier. Llewellyn, on the other hand... The cards feel so flimsy that I'm afraid to use them.

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I think if you get more of their decks you will find that the Llewellyn card stock differs from deck to deck. I just got their Buddha tarot, and the cards are not flimsy at all. And there are others that are the same.

Was lucky enough to get a BELGIAN printed Uni Waite in a trade, yes, there is a difference! GREAT cardstock, it's not flimsy, but not too thick and has a silky finish, neither too slick or rough. I also LOVE the Pamela Commemorative card stock. That, for me, is perfection because it just seems to glide when shuffling, it almost has a satiny feel to it. The Anna. K has a great feel to it, I have the second ed so can't comment on the first. It's really easy for me to shuffle and that's part of it, how it just feels. It also has a satiny finish, at least to me.

The Vampire Tarot by Place, ok, that's different. It's slick but tends to stick together a bit even though I've really broken it in. It still doesn't really shuffle all that well for me, but I like the deck, so deal with it. As hard as it is to shuffle, the card stock does seem to go with the style of the deck...I can't imagine it being more matte.

Hemera said:

There´s no such thing.. I think you must be refering to the bootlegged copies of the Victorian Romantic that were made somewhere in Ukraine.
Ukraine is about as fas from Finland as you are from Mexico

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No - if it is Priyahi, it is OK.

Look.
But it is Russian, not Finnish.

Just saying so no-one boycots THEM as well as Pyro, who SHOULD be boycotted (see the rest of that thread.)

And yes, the Pryahi stock is lovely and VERY strong.

Victorian Romantic

gregory said:

But it is Russian, not Finnish.

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Published by the Finish company in the Russian language. And yes, the cardstock is lovely. And no, not bootlegged at all.