Pros and Cons Thread #3 - Enabling and De-Enabling

lantana

barefootlife, thank you for your thoughts on the Mary-El! Most of the problems I'd heard about the cardstock were about its size... Is it better or worse than the Shadowscapes? That deck is my base for bad cardstock.

As for the Slow Holler, you're preaching to the choir. ;) That is my absolute favorite deck! Are you saying that if I own the Slow Holler the Mary-El won't do much for me?


At its base color mage is paint chips. That isn't a diss, just an observation.
Go to any big do it yourself store and take a look at their paint department. The world is your oyster there, both color, and lots of brands now have chips with images (blossoming apple trees come to mind). Unless you take the whole stack of one color, they don't mind how many you take, that is the point of them being there.
The paint names are interesting in themselves, or you can write oracle names in yourself. A new name each time the cards come up because that is the strength of oracles, no set fool or 9 of swords...

Yeah... That was my feeling on it. I guess in a way I'd be mostly paying for the (very nice!) design of the cards and for the keywords. If it was maybe 10 bucks cheaper I'd easily spring for it, honestly.
 

G6

Yeah... That was my feeling on it. I guess in a way I'd be mostly paying for the (very nice!) design of the cards and for the keywords. If it was maybe 10 bucks cheaper I'd easily spring for it, honestly.

No offense to anyone that works that way, but it seems like a really expensive deck for what it is and I totally agree with AJ's suggestion! Go wild because you can adhere the fronts and backs of those paint chip cards and have a reversible custom made deck! Awesome!
 

barefootlife

barefootlife, thank you for your thoughts on the Mary-El! Most of the problems I'd heard about the cardstock were about its size... Is it better or worse than the Shadowscapes? That deck is my base for bad cardstock.

As for the Slow Holler, you're preaching to the choir. ;) That is my absolute favorite deck! Are you saying that if I own the Slow Holler the Mary-El won't do much for me?

I just took my Mary-El out again to flip through it. The cardstock is shiny, not as thin and brittle-feeling as I remember the first time I took it out, but it's bendy (if you riffle like I do it's gonna warp), and did I mention it's shiny? Holy hell, it's shiny. The cards are big (I don't care about that), and the artwork is colorful and busy. Upon reflection, it's not as flimsy as the Llewellyn Linestrider, which is my current benchmark for bleh cardstock. If this forum has done anything, it's informed me that I should never waste the money on Shadowscapes. :laugh:

If modern less-is-more decks like Slow Holler and Wild Unknown are your deal, as they are my deal, the Mary-El is more-is-more and feels less elegant in hand (and shiny, oh-so-shiny). As a whole, the deck doesn't do justice to the art. If you trim, you could probably mitigate that, but it's a completely different vibe. Slow Holler can look dark, but it comes from a place of love, and the LWB is really geared in that direction. For all the other stuff she builds into the cards, the Mary-El sticks by traditional RWS in the LWB.
 

Rose Lalonde

Two decks I'm on the fence about: Mary-El Tarot and Color Mage Oracle.

Mary-El is super interesting and has a Strength card I love, but I hate the Hierophant (and not just because it's ugly, I don't like really negative Hierophants) and I heard someone say that the esoteric stuff in the guidebook felt really hamfisted. Thoughts?...

I prefer the Hierophant from the '03 majors & aces deck (which became the Star in full deck), but the Mary-el creation blog is what first drew me to tarot, and the deck is stunningly beautiful. I don't read with it often, but wouldn't trade it. (If I were a strictly intuitive reader as in the ISG reading circle -- only what I see and sense -- it would be my go to deck, but I'm not.) The book... she pulls in an eclectic mix of mythology and symbolism, and she talks about Kabbalah as she sees it. For her the four 7s all relate to VII The Chariot, the 9s to IX The Hermit, etc. The 9 of Swords, for example, means enlightenment, safe passage and spiritual gold, so that art can't be forced into a RWS or Thoth mold. How you'd like it probably depends on how you like to read.

barefootlife, thank you for your thoughts on the Mary-El! Most of the problems I'd heard about the cardstock were about its size... Is it better or worse than the Shadowscapes? That deck is my base for bad cardstock...

Cards are a bit big. I'm so glad I trimmed mine. Stock is sturdy, but shiny as barefootlife said, and a bit sticky. I used my Murphy's fanning powder to end the stickiness. A little goes a long way.
 

Nemia

That's what is attracting me, all that gold and images of Egyptian wall paintings. I don't mind if those look a bit flat to be honest due to the historical accuracy of the style.

You are echoing a concern of mine -how it reads- because I've never heard much about its functionality or popularity in that vein and that can't be good. So I'm holding off.

I wonder how it compares to the Etruscan tarot, if anyone has both.

I have both and I prefer the Etruscan. I'm glad I have the Nefertari for its beauty's sake, and for my Golden Scarabeo sub-collection. I'm interested in Egyptian culture and mythology, and from what I understand, the deck was put together thoughtfully and executed beautifully. As a reading deck, it leaves me a bit cool. The Etruscan on the other hand reads very nicely for me. I can't even say exactly why and how. Maybe the scenes in the Nefertari are so self-sufficient and hieratic that they don't need me, don't interact with me? The Etruscan is more inviting.

I don't know much about the artist and how deep she's into tarot, but it seems to me that this might be one of the LoS decks where the concept and its realization are in different hands, i.e., one person planned the deck and another executed it. Such decks can be very successful (reading the book for the Fey deck right now, I get a better understanding of the cooperation and mutual encouragement and sparks such a team work can generate), but I have a slight personal preference for decks that come from someone's guts, like the Anna K. deck or Seven Star's decks or Babalon's - decks made by readers, by people who live and breathe tarot.

Back to the question.

Both are beautiful decks and I'm glad I have them both, but if I had to pick one, I'd go for the Etruscan.
 

lantana

If modern less-is-more decks like Slow Holler and Wild Unknown are your deal, as they are my deal, the Mary-El is more-is-more and feels less elegant in hand (and shiny, oh-so-shiny). As a whole, the deck doesn't do justice to the art. If you trim, you could probably mitigate that, but it's a completely different vibe. Slow Holler can look dark, but it comes from a place of love, and the LWB is really geared in that direction. For all the other stuff she builds into the cards, the Mary-El sticks by traditional RWS in the LWB.

Modern less-is-more is exactly my type, but I was interested in the Mary-El as a way to branch out a bit. I don't think I'm as picky about cardstock, but I still agree it's a bummer when the quality hurts the feel of the deck. In the end the images are what matter to me (which was why the Shadowscapes is one of the worst in terms of the cards themselves, I'll take too big over much too small any day)

I prefer the Hierophant from the '03 majors & aces deck (which became the Star in full deck), but the Mary-el creation blog is what first drew me to tarot, and the deck is stunningly beautiful. I don't read with it often, but wouldn't trade it. (If I were a strictly intuitive reader as in the ISG reading circle -- only what I see and sense -- it would be my go to deck, but I'm not.) The book... she pulls in an eclectic mix of mythology and symbolism, and she talks about Kabbalah as she sees it. For her the four 7s all relate to VII The Chariot, the 9s to IX The Hermit, etc. The 9 of Swords, for example, means enlightenment, safe passage and spiritual gold, so that art can't be forced into a RWS or Thoth mold. How you'd like it probably depends on how you like to read.

I'm a pretty intuitive reader, tending to only study the book once or twice to get an idea of the artist's intent before letting my intuition lead me the rest of the way. Still, I wonder if I should look at the book myself to see if it's too much for me. Mary-El's system always sounded neat, at least.

I still feel on the fence with this deck right now, but at least I'm much more informed. Thank you everyone!
 

Thoughtful

l feel very drawn to the Yukiyoe it looks so beautiful it could make a good Tdm companion to my Roots of Asia. Would like your comments on this tarot please.
 

banbha

I have both and I prefer the Etruscan. I'm glad I have the Nefertari for its beauty's sake, and for my Golden Scarabeo sub-collection. I'm interested in Egyptian culture and mythology, and from what I understand, the deck was put together thoughtfully and executed beautifully. As a reading deck, it leaves me a bit cool. The Etruscan on the other hand reads very nicely for me. I can't even say exactly why and how. Maybe the scenes in the Nefertari are so self-sufficient and hieratic that they don't need me, don't interact with me? The Etruscan is more inviting.

I don't know much about the artist and how deep she's into tarot, but it seems to me that this might be one of the LoS decks where the concept and its realization are in different hands, i.e., one person planned the deck and another executed it. Such decks can be very successful (reading the book for the Fey deck right now, I get a better understanding of the cooperation and mutual encouragement and sparks such a team work can generate), but I have a slight personal preference for decks that come from someone's guts, like the Anna K. deck or Seven Star's decks or Babalon's - decks made by readers, by people who live and breathe tarot.
Yes!! I have to agree.

Back to the question.

Both are beautiful decks and I'm glad I have them both, but if I had to pick one, I'd go for the Etruscan.

Thank you so much! I'll save my pennies for now and stick with my Etruscan; but I do love Egyptian art and myth so maybe in the future...