dealbreaker cards in a deck

nisaba said:

Hell, my 15-year-fave, the Granny Jones, has a shocker of a "Justice", a card that has important meaning in my life!

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Yes! what is with that card! Granny must have had a brain fart.. *sorry Granny*..

I don't have dealbreaker cards in decks.
But for some reason I love particular Hermits, my favouite at present is the Legacy of the Divine Hermit. Oh! and I also love the Moon card from this deck.

SherryZoned said:

The Lovers card. I don't like seeing naked breasts. I just don't or hangin things. Basically not a big fan of nudity. But most lovers card even without the nakedness is just like ewww yet again another disappointment.

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I don't do nudity in my decks either. Never thought of myself as a prude, but yeah... The nekkid folk kill decks for me.

emmsma said:

I don't do nudity in my decks either. Never thought of myself as a prude, but yeah... The nekkid folk kill decks for me.

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Nudity will not kill a deck for me to study with but it will nearly always shut the door on reading for others with it.

Lovers I like with out nudity:

Hanson Roberts
Lo Scarabeo (but enough nudity in the deck to be a turn off)
Tarot of the Magical Forest
Gilded Tarot
LS Manga Tarot
Revelations
LS Secret Tarot
Mystic Faerie
Transparent

I look at the Fool card first. If the Fool card is bad, I may pass on the deck b/c you know it is the Fool's journey. The next one i look at is the Justice card. Justice is not always fair--in fact sometimes justice stinks. That is how I ended up buying the Vertigo deck. I bought it for that one card. The Death card is one I look at too. I am also at the "jumping off point" (fried green tomatoes quote) and don't want any scary Death cards. On the other hand --death is not always natural or at the appointed time so the Death card needs to say a lot. (not making it easy cause it isn't )
The Moon card is one that is important to me. A silly Moon card just ruins a good deck. So for me look at :
the Fool
Justice
Death
the Moon
also I like the 9 Wands and if not shown properly it can ruin the deck for me.

I look at the Death card first. Then if he works for me, I check to see if the minor arcana are more than pips. I have so much trouble with basic pip decks.

I am going to have to learn better, as I have started getting more decks that have them, but for a while there, pips meant no sale.

First cards I check:
The Moon must incorporate a sense of danger and magic.
The Knight of Wands must show energy, intensity, and a wildness
After that, Death, Star, and the Aces have to ring true.

General dealbreakers:

• Symbols used incorrectly or without intention for "spooky" effect.
• Euphemistic or "gentle" whitewashes in otherwise balanced decks. Cute Death in cute deck is fine, but bland Death in thoughtful deck makes it a skip.
• Bourgeois retitling of cards for the credulous and the baffled: "Entrapment" instead of Devil, "Passage" instead of Death. Bleccch.
• Hanged Man hung by throat or both legs. Why?!
• Crowley titles on a deck that someone just faffed together without glancing at Crowley.
• Straight Waite-Smith regurgitation in NON-clones without the underpinnings or understanding of the Smith image choices. A heart pierced by 3 swords. 7 dreamy cups. A sneaky thief with 7 swords. By far, my biggest peeve: a fax of a xerox of an email of someone else's idea about Book T 'cause they couldn't be bothered. Cliffnotes Tarot!

Years ago I bought the Morgan Greer Tarot Deck. I really liked it but the Emperor turned me right off. The facial features of that card kept reminding me of a bloke I knew whenever that card turned up. It looks so much like him. I tried hard to not allow that to get in the way but I just never got past that, so in the end I gave the deck away all because of that one card.

The other day I was reading a thread here where the Morgan Greer deck was mention, so I decided to have a look at that deck... No go, The Emperor's face still looks almost identical to that person I knew years ago.

Welf

High Priestess or as I've called her to friends the b* with the secrets. If I can't look at the HP and say, "See that, girl is hidin' somthin'" then I'm just not interested in the rest of the deck.
3 of Swords it has to make me feel something, like I'm in a bad play staggering around with a plastic sword under my arm screaming, "I am betrayed!"

Secondary cards I look at are the moon, which has to feel watery like I'm going to drown in it. 9 of swords, I want to feel the insomnia, fear the madness and maybe even worry about a migraine. I'm starting to think I may be a dark person. . .

I love this thread!

Three and Nine of Swords. To me, the Three is "Synthesis/Confession/Revelation" and the Nine is "Philosophy." The pierced heart and the nightmare just do not work for me at all. Often, I can overlook the Nine as long as the figure doesn't display clear anguish (i.e. Touchstone), but the pierced heart is absolutely a deal breaker.

Basically, any deck that treats the swords as inherently negative is out.

So Sixdegrees.... you don't like the Osho Zen then ?

The Swords suit is the main reason I don't read with the deck very often. It makes it feel so unbalanced when I look through and so I don't 'listen' to it as much as I otherwise would have done.

Aerin