Do you have a 'make or break' card for decks???

I've started to realize that certain cards in a deck have to be 'good' ones, otherwise it ruins the deck for me. I can put up with a few less-than-brilliant cards, but certain cards have to feel right or I can't seem to connect with the deck. The High Priestess is one such card. I'm sure that the weird wicca woman in the DruidCraft spoils the deck for me a bit. By contrast, the wonderful High Priestess in the Ancestral Path is one of the card which makes a sometimes difficult deck one of my favourites. Anyone else?

Zoe xx

If the Hanged Man showes a man hanging by the neck? Ferget it... my response instantly becomes "put it back on the shelf." I love my Legend:Arthur deck, but that one card ruins it. A man hanging by the neck gives wayyyyyyy too wrong of an impression to the uninformed sitter, and is so far off the point of what the card is meant to express that it can derail a reading and send it spinning into dimensions of the irreversibly unretrievable.

The Devil card has to be handled just right too... if the card is handled in a way I feel is too "light" I will be turned off by the deck. Likewise, if it's a melodramatic Devil card, I will also be turned off.

Last, the Death card. I'm willing to see this in a lot of different ways, but if it's been turned "fluffy bunny"? Ferget it....

It varies for me, deck to deck.
Not one particular card, but any card can make or
break a deck.
I agree with you...the High Priestess in the Druidcraft is not
one of my faves either, and is one reason why I put that deck
up for trade on the last Trade Train...
But I adore the Moon card in Tarot of the Master...it depicts
the goddess Diana and, as soon as I saw this card, I knew
I HAD to have the deck!
I always have to peek at the Wheel card in any deck...it
may not break it for me, but it can definitely make it, as
was the case with the Bohemian Gothic...my favorite
Wheel of Fortune card so far!!
Great thread!
cara

The Majors generally and Swords. More specifically, The High Priestess, The Moon, and 9 of Swords.

The three of swords, otherwise favorite decks are not used as much as they might be if this card is off. I won't give examples because I don't wish to offend.

I wouldn't say a deck can be made or not depending on any given card, but I do tend to immediately look through the swords when viewing a deck. If that entire suit resonates it usually bodes well for the remainder of the deck.

This is closely followed by the cups in the same way.

Davina

The Moon.

I don't care how in love I am with all the others cards in a deck, if The Moon isn't the way I want it to be, I put it back and move along.

The Moon, followed closely by the HPS. These are the two cards I've always associated myself strongly with, and if they don't feel "right" to me, I just find that I don't mesh well with the decks as a whole.

I wouldn't say one particular card, though I do look critically at the way the following are handled:

The Hanged Man
The Sun
The entire swords suit
The courts have to show character, and in keeping with their suit.

One card can jar, but that may vary by deck. One of the cards I dislike most, in a deck that I like, is The Hanged Man in the DruidCraft.

The Moon is generally the card I look at first... followed by the Knight of Wands. It's a rare deck that I can't suss from those two. And I too check the swords in Golden Dawn based decks because people seem to get them wrong so often.

But the simplest answer would be Moon.

Oh, I rather like the weird Wicca woman in the DruidCraft . I am a High Priestess watcher too. I love the Morgan-Greer, but that High Priestess took some getting used to - she looks constipated.

Another is the Hierophant (can you see a pattern here ? ) - I went seriously off the Robin Wood because of the sour expression of the Hierophant. On the other hand I love the warm expression of the Pope in the Dodal and the Noblet decks, and the lovely Elder(s) in Sidhe-Ra's Tarot of the Sidhe (man and tree) - all of them make these beloved decks even more attractive to me. Interestingly, though I always liked that card in the Tarot of the Sidhe, I was still uncomfortable with the energy of "Hierophant" in that card (I am both attracted and put off by Hierophants: I like the tradition, but I am sceptical of authority). It took a good conversation with Sidhe-Ra to feel at ease with it.

And finally there's the Star. A bad Star kills a deck for me.