Which deck to buy out of these?

Aina

Hello, I am thinking of buying a new tarot deck(s) and I really prefer something that comes in a thick card-stock, such as Rider Waite Original (very thick, actually). No matter how beautiful is the deck, I do not want to buy it if it's printed on a thin card stock. It has to feel a little heavy for the hand. I have been doing loads of research but none of the reviewers emphasize on the thickness of decks (maybe it's just my thing, a kind of preference). So I thought that maybe some of you know which decks out of these have the thickest card-stock and if not, then which ones do?

List:
Medieval Scapini Tarot
Morgan Greer Tarot
Osho-Zen Tarot
Light and Shadow Tarot
The Journey to The Orient Tarot
1001 Nights Tarot
Samurai Tarot
Manga Tarot (Lo Scarabeo, 2006)
China Tarot
The Egyptian Tarot (black borders one)
The Fairy Tarot (A. Lupatelli)

Thank you in advance!
 

emmsma

A good part of your list are Lo Scarabeo decks. They are my personal favorite publisher, but there have been discussions where people complain about the thinness of their cardstock.

From this list, I would say Light and Shadow had the thickest cardstock.
 

Padma

From your list, I think the Morgan Greer is nicely substantial, it isn't a brick but it has weight and decent cardstock. I have heard the LoS decks are thinner - I only have one (Pagan Cats) and it is true the cardstock is on the light side.

If you like heavy decks, both the Golden Tarot http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/golden/
and the Touchstone tarot by Kat Black http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/touchstone/
are nicely brick like :) Touchstone is OOP now but you can still purchase it from Tarotgarden. It weighs a pound! And it's gorgeous. Seven Stars (a member here) makes a lovely deck called the Deck of the Bastard, it has awesome cardstock with a linen finish, and it is nice and dense. You can find her in the advert pages, and she has an etsy site.

I am sure many others here with more decks than I have will come help you out shortly! :heart:
 

Aina

A good part of your list are Lo Scarabeo decks. They are my personal favorite publisher, but there have been discussions where people complain about the thinness of their cardstock.

From this list, I would say Light and Shadow had the thickest cardstock.

Thanks! I was about to change my mind about buying this deck. It's black and white and I love the art however I was wondering about the readability part :) Happy to hear about the thickness part!
 

Aina

From your list, I think the Morgan Greer is nicely substantial, it isn't a brick but it has weight and decent cardstock. I have heard the LoS decks are thinner - I only have one (Pagan Cats) and it is true the cardstock is on the light side.

If you like heavy decks, both the Golden Tarot http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/golden/
and the Touchstone tarot by Kat Black http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/touchstone/
are nicely brick like :) Touchstone is OOP now but you can still purchase it from Tarotgarden. It weighs a pound! And it's gorgeous. Seven Stars (a member here) makes a lovely deck called the Deck of the Bastard, it has awesome cardstock with a linen finish, and it is nice and dense. You can find her in the advert pages, and she has an etsy site.

I am sure many others here with more decks than I have will come help you out shortly! :heart:

Thanks for your answer! I have heard about M. Greer being on the thick side, colorful and no borders which made me want to buy it. I also love the stars on the backs. Looks like a perfect traditional deck.

I have one Lo Scarabeo deck too - a Minchiate tarot and maybe because the card size is so small, it feels rather thick - I have no complaints about that deck's card-stock. I was wondering if others Lo S decks are also like that.

Thanks for recommending other tarot decks I'm definitely going to check it out here. Linen finish sounds great! I have also heard that Anna K deck is rather thick but it's too expensive for me right now :/
 

nisaba

Scapini Tarot
Scapini has designed a number of decks - which one are you looking at? His Vetrate is lush and rich, his Lukumi is confronting, his Bacchus is brilliant but very large, his Mediaeval is the most conservative of the lot. They are all good buys.

Morgan Greer Tarot
Very seventies.

1001 Nights Tarot
Wonderful, wonderful deck, but it's done with broad framing images and tiny pictures, in the style of a set of Middle-Eastern miniatures. Could be tricky of you struggle with your eyes.

There's a couple with the same name. If it's the one by Selina Lin, I personally don't like it at all. Actually, personally, I don't believe a manga/anime style suits Tarot much.
 

Londubh

Light and Shadow Tarot. Thick, larger sized cards with good artwork.
 

Aina

Scapini has designed a number of decks - which one are you looking at? His Vetrate is lush and rich, his Lukumi is confronting, his Bacchus is brilliant but very large, his Mediaeval is the most conservative of the lot. They are all good buys.

Thanks for the answer! OK, yes I'm talking Scapini's Medieval tarot. Love the ancient look but worried about the card quality. Is it thin and glossy (easy to shuffle) or is it heavy and matte like original RWS (blue backs)?

Very seventies.

Morgan Greer. I found Connolly tarot also a little similar to M. Greer. Is it by the same artist. Which one is better. In any case I love the star backs on M. Greer and huge, clear images. I think it's classics so I want to get it for the sake of having it.

Wonderful, wonderful deck, but it's done with broad framing images and tiny pictures, in the style of a set of Middle-Eastern miniatures. Could be tricky of you struggle with your eyes.

I am so much into oriental stuff that I think I just got to have it. I know the borders are thick and images small (what a shame!). In any case, it's better than nothing. :)

There's a couple with the same name. If it's the one by Selina Lin, I personally don't like it at all. Actually, personally, I don't believe a manga/anime style suits Tarot much.

Me too. I don't like manga at all. But I love Japan. This is the only thing I can get along with the samurai tarot and "The Journey to the Orient" By the way, it's a deck by Lo Scarabeo (where male and female cards are reversed) and although I do not know the artist's name, it's not by Selina Lin (it's a different deck) .
 

Aina

Light and Shadow Tarot. Thick, larger sized cards with good artwork.

Thanks for the reply! I really appreciate that! With this deck, I LOVE the artwork but I don't know whether I will be able to read easily with black and white pictures. I mean people read from coffee and tea-leaves and from nothing as well but...not sure, not sure... :)
 

Padma

Morgan Greer. I found Connolly tarot also a little similar to M. Greer. Is it by the same artist. Which one is better. In any case I love the star backs on M. Greer and huge, clear images. I think it's classics so I want to get it for the sake of having it.

In answer to your question, the Connolly was illustrated by Peter Paul Connolly, and the Morgan Greer was illustrated by William Greer. Two different schools of art ;)

I have and like both decks. The Connolly however does have some Catholic images in it - the artists' mother is a Catholic and he illustrated the deck at age 17 to go with her books on tarot. (I think her name is Margaret Connolly.) Most notably, the 9 of Cups is Jesus at the Last Supper...so if Christian imagery upsets you, you may want to go without this deck.

Having said that, I really like this deck for reading - it was one of the first decks I ever had, and I found the colouring schemes on it were wonderful for immediately seeing the whole feel of a reading in a glance. The illustrations are pretty and in stain glass style. Many of the images have the big hair of the 80's, it's kind of cute! The backs are a creamy marble veined with grey. The deck has good weight and the cardstock is fairly good, though in 30 years I wore out two of the decks (keep in mind it was my second or third deck only!) I was fortunate enough to receive a copy from a friend and I still enjoy the deck, though I now have over 30 tarots to choose from.

Morgan Greer does have a 70's feel to it, yes, but the images are bold, clean and brash and very simple to read. The backs are nice, yes, but don't forget it is the front of the cards you are going to be staring at! :laugh: I like the Greer but I do get quickly tired of the harsh in-your-face colours. It reads easily though, without much detail. If you are an intuitive reader, this may not be your go-to deck. Not enough details really. But overall not a bad deck. I like it for quick and dirty kinds of spreads - when you haven't got much time and you can only look at three cards, it will give you the message in three fast punches - nothing to dwell on.

These are only my opinions, but I hope any of this can help you :love: