Decks You Wish You Hadn't Bought?

am PMing deck interview spread

frac_ture said:

The deck I kind of regret buying -- but one you might like, due to the "swords = fire" thing -- is the Fantastical Creatures Tarot. Part of what doesn't work for me is exactly the fact that swords are supposed to represent fire in it, and wands are air. I just can't seem to get to a place where that works for me! I try to be an open-minded person, you know, but...no, in my world, swords are air, and wands are fire, and that's how it is!! Also, I guess I'd been hoping for less fairies and less animals in fancy dress, and more straight up mythical monsters.

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Yeah, I'm finding that I really associate swords/air and wands/fire so decks that deviate from that I have a tough time with and they are sadly not being used.

My daughter has the Fantastical Creatures (she's young and looks at them from an imaginative/intuitive standpoint) so I'm thinking about gifting her my Whimsical (another swords/fire and wands/air deck) and one I regret buying. It has laying around for way too many years unused and to top it off, I paid way too much for it.

While I absolutely adore the Manga Tarot and think the cards are so very beautiful, I regret buying it in retrospect because I don't use it either. I wish I had done more research before buying it. I just can't wrap my mind around the gender/court card switching thing and it makes my brain hurt. I'm at the point now where I need to either trade it or accept that I need to bypass the creators intent and reorder the cards so I can feel comfortable using it.

Same goes for the Feng Shui, such a beautiful deck but I regret buying it because I just can't accept the Fire/Cups and Water/Wands setup (especially after reading through two books, The Handbook of Chinese Horoscopes by Theodora Lau and Chinese Animal Symbolism by Ong Hean-Tatt) and really believe that they should be switched.


But I think one of my big regrets is the Prediction. I also paid way too much for it and while the Majors are lovely, the rest of the deck is just feels too blah for my tastes.

Dali. I don't think this one is on anybody's list of favorites.

Sandoz13 said:

Tarot of the Mermaids. I mean, the artist is very talented (the boobs may be a little much) but I wish there was more going on with the artwork - more symbolism and interesting imagery that I could work with. I guess what I am trying to say is that for me, personally, the mermaids were pretty to look at but not a lot of substance or new info I could get out fo the cards.

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I felt similarly about this one. The art gives a calming feeling of being under the sea but I always see the missed opportunity and how more could have been done with it.

Greg Stanton said:

Dali. I don't think this one is on anybody's list of favorites.

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Oh I don't mind this one but I just gnash my teeth at those switched cards. It's so obvious there are four (I think) cards wrongly labelled. The Universe is so obviously The Devil and the Fool is just not The Fool. The rest of the deck isn't actually that bad, but these gaffs make it unreadable....

Liber T Deck
It's a solid deck, just didn't 'speak' or 'jive' with me at all.

Standard RW
Just so...ugh. I really hate the colors and bluntness about it.

Art Nouveau
Beautiful illustrations, just doesn't work as a working/reading deck for me.

And I'm sure I'm in the minority here but...

Animals Divine Tarot
I would trade this deck for a Enchanted Tarot in a heartbeat, (hint hint! )! I just find it really beautiful, but no reading substance because it's so....overall completely 'rainbows and sunshine' -esque. I like to view the world as a blend of light/gray/dark, not just one shade, positive light or negative dark.

The worst deck I ever bought is the Spheres tarot.

Modern Medieval
Old English
Vampyres
Sun and Moon
Simly Deep- it does not speak to me and I can't see the 'deepness' of it

Some decks where the figures are small or the details are hard to see

A couple of recent decks that they sell on Amazon or Alida I find mediocre. I buy them than I think: waste of money, waste of time.

Asian (mostly Japonese) decks that are printed on pour quality paper. They would be OK for $20-30 but I feel that they don't worth the money I pay for them. Ya, they can be limited, or HTF in the future, but who care? (in sense that even if they are limited, I don't think they are that good that people will really want/look for them).

With SO MANY new decks out there (and more on the way every day!) I became much more selective: I can't buy EVERY deck in the world after all! so I think the good ones will 'survive' the rest will be forgotten -limited or not.

Simply Deep -- I see nothing deep and the artwork reminds me of a bad comic book.

Out of over one hundred decks this is the only one I really regretted purchasing.

I recall buying the Lunatic tarot. I got it b/c everyone was buying it, (and it was an Asian deck) but got the small size. I hated it b/c the "women" look like children in sexualized situations. I just found it distasteful.

T: The New Tarot. Positively awful. Mere words cannot begin express the intensity of my dislike. Since the abominable sin of buying it long ago, it has been attacked by mildew, so it would not now be of interest even to a collector unless I can clean it up.