Preferred Deck?

Aeric

Some people reserve a particular playing card deck for cartomancy, others read effortlessly with whatever playing card deck comes to hand. Do you feel the multiplicity of Tarot decks, and your success with certain ones, is also reflected in playing cards?

Do you prefer a specific brand, or one from a certain country that uses specific pips?
 

Rose Lalonde

I have limited experience with multiple decks so was going to wait and see what others said, but since it's been a day...

I read with the same deck for years, then recently purchased a second deck with art I like better. It's revitalized my reading, but that's more renewed enthusiasm than anything else. It may be slightly easier in the courts, because the nature-inspired art on those cards complements season/element suit associations I have in mind.

I do have a kickstarter deck coming to me in Sep/Oct that I chose for the unusual pip placement, and I suspect that will have a more tangible effect.
 

WolfyJames

Back when I was doing cartomancy, I was using the deck from the book-set Fortune Teller's Deck by Jane Lyle. The cards are very pretty and I found the book really interesting. I had another deck before but it was ruined by dropping chicken broil on it, so I went looking for another one, which was the one from Fortune Teller's Deck. I never used another deck after I got this one.
 

Emily

I still have the original Waddingtons playing cards that I used when I was around 10. They are a bit scruffy now but I still read better with just plain playing cards. I bought a lovely set of Anne Stokes Gothic playing cards and as pretty as they are, I can't use them because the images are very distracting. I also have the Key to The Kingdom playing cards which I can't use either because they also are distracting.

I'm still on the look-out for just a nice, normal deck of cards to replace my old set before they fall apart on me. :) But I do like the quality of the Bicycle cards, very nice card stock.
 

Morwenna

I first used whatever common deck I had around, then my mother gave me the Hallmark deck that a friend had given her, because I liked it so much. Then I lost one of the court cards, and for one reason or another (probably getting so heavily into Tarot) I let playing card divination go. I'm just getting interested in it again, and I've just acquired 6 new lovely decks. Now to determine which system I'm going to work with! I used to use Nerys Dee's system, and also a system that my rune mentor friend taught me (which I used to use my Hallmark deck for, and BTW I managed to replace it with a pair of decks I found at a tag sale a few years ago). But I'm intrigued by some of the systems here on AT and want to spend some time learning them.

It may be that I'll use different decks for different systems, I don't know. I have a few other specialty decks that I picked up over the years.
 

Morwenna

I do have a kickstarter deck coming to me in Sep/Oct that I chose for the unusual pip placement, and I suspect that will have a more tangible effect.

Those look fantastic! I have a soft spot for unusual pip placements. Not only that, those have rather esoteric backgrounds which would fascinate me no end. I'll have to track those down!

ETA: I did track them down. I bought them. :D