Richard
.....It took me more than a year and more than 20 decks to get original RWS. Why? 'Cause I thought it's a kind of an obvious choice. Everyone has RWS (ok, not everyone, but most of the people). Most of the people are learning with this deck. When random people think about Tarot, they picture these cards. I must admit, I hate this aspect of the deck......
Somehow I like the fact that the RWS is so ubiquitous. Guess I'm not very sophisticated.
.....Now that I think of it, that "fun factor" is probably why I always feel energized rather than drained from the act of reading. (And now I'm really looking forward to getting that Albano-Waite deck I have on the way )
My first deck was the Albano-Waite. I got it around 1969-70 at the old Shambala store on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. Really interesting deck. I still like it as well as I do the more recent Smith-Waite edition of the RWS.
In the mid 1970s, I started using the Aquarian because I liked the art. However, it never really clicked as a Tarot deck. Too shallow or something. It was too much of a simplification of the RWS. I finally gave up on it and returned to the real thing.