Decks with well designed minor arcana

In a few threads on here I've seen people express disappointment with decks that have very well designed major arcana only to have a minor arcana that seems lackluster or "tacked on". Are there any decks you guys like that have robust minor arcana cards that you'd suggest?

I understand rhat many decks (particularly ones inspired by the Marseille) intentionally keep their minors simple to follow the traditional playing card style. I'm talking specifically about decks like the Rider that use imagery as part of the overall symbolism of the card.

Apologies if this thread already exists btw

I think in a deck like the Tarot of Delphi there is no discernible variation of "quality" (shall we say) between the Majors and Minors. There is a sense of a 78-card unified whole.

I personally think the Minors of the Japaridze are wonderfully coherent and almost feel like Majors in their boldness.

I think that's my criteria - they should feel bold and archetypal like the Majors - I don't think of the Majors as the "big" things and the Minors as the small, quotidian things - like some books say. A good tarot deck for me should have 78 unified images of greatness!

While I don't vibe as well with the deck as I would have liked I think the Silicon Dawn Tarot does a good job with keeping it consistent. It's kind of a weird deck with a confusing guidebook (for me at least, though I love the art), but it keeps on marching to the beat of it's own drum all throughout the 90-something cards. I have to give it credit for that. Other than that I feel that most of my RWS clones have very decent minors (Halloween, Morgan-Greer, Dreaming Way +++). The only deck I own where I feel like the minors were an afterthought is the Lupatelli Fairy Tarot from Lo Scarabeo, where the majors are in a fun illustration style and the minors are very old public property art of fairies + the symbols of the suits in a completely different style. Very disappointing indeed, especially since the pictures I found online only showed the majors and I really loved those

Le Fanu said:

I think in a deck like the Tarot of Delphi there is no discernible variation of "quality" (shall we say) between the Majors and Minors. There is a sense of a 78-card unified whole... I think that's my criteria - they should feel bold and archetypal like the Majors - I don't think of the Majors as the "big" things and the Minors as the small, quotidian things - like some books say. A good tarot deck for me should have 78 unified images of greatness!

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Agreed- I want it to feel cohesive- as if the deck is complete at 78- not two different sets of majors and minors decks. For me- Pagan Otherworlds is fantastic for this- all under-stated yet rich. Prisma Visions too- especially in the way the minors form a story when put together- but that was a deck that was very cohesive. Tyldwick is the other one that comes to mind.

depends upon your interest of decks, but anything by Ciro Marchetti has an excellent minor with just as much attention to detail. the Fey and Shadowscape are both very good. as is the DruidCraft and those are only the ones off the top of my head.

however can never go wrong with the basic of the RWS or THOTH themselves either.

Le Fanu said:

I think that's my criteria - they should feel bold and archetypal like the Majors - I don't think of the Majors as the "big" things and the Minors as the small, quotidian things - like some books say. A good tarot deck for me should have 78 unified images of greatness!

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I go on about this deck a lot, but for me Tabula Mundi masters that. Since a TM minor contains art derived from the 2 majors related to it astrologically, when I read a minor, it's like reading 2 majors interacting on one card, so the minors definitely have that bold and archetypal feel. Plus there's unity across the deck, and the artwork is all original, while clearly being inspired by Thoth and GD. Five months in with the new Colores Arcus ed., and I still reach for it every day.

I learned Tarot with the Rider-Waite-Smith deck and so I have always been quite partial to decks that take care with the symbology on every card.

This was a top priority for me when I created my deck, The Cult of Weimar Tarot.

When I read it helps me when every card has a coherent voice of it's own and also when the cards are able to interact with each other in spreads.

I can understand how most people approach deck design doing the Majors first, then it gets a bit tough to get through the rest and creativity can wane a bit.
I started out designing the cards in order, but quickly abandoned that approach and proceeded working on each card as I was inspired to do so, jumping between Majors and Minors, between suits, but only working on one card at a time.

I felt like that helped me keep a creative flow going for every card.

Le Fanu said:

...I don't think of the Majors as the "big" things and the Minors as the small, quotidian things - like some books say. A good tarot deck for me should have 78 unified images of greatness!

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YES!!!!!



**You put the perfect words into my mouth. Lol.

Tanga said:

YES!!!!!

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I also agree completely.

If you're not picky about cardstock quality, the Linestrider has a nice set of unified images. It's not exactly minimalist, but there's a lot of white space on the cards, though. I wouldn't call it 'lush' in the way some of the more elaborate RWS clones are, but it's a very cohesive deck.