Carojulie:
I had the same hesitations as you about the Starchild Akashic. I was afraid it was just "pretty" and "trendy". When I finally took the plunge I was super nervous, because it is a very expensive deck, especially considering the shipping price...
I was very pleasantly surprised though! Today the Starchild Akashic is in my top 10 if not top 5 favorite tarot decks, and I have 50
It has a lot of depth, and for me it's more varied that I would've thought, it can be used for meditation, for questions about career, love, spirituality etc... The guidebook is quite small but one of the BEST ones I've ever read! For me this deck is easy reading intuitively but some minors are quite abstract, so knowing numerology and elemental associations is useful for me at least.
It's very high quality and luxurious for sure! Amazing packaging. I personally like thin card stock hehe so this one is a bit too thick and sturdy for me. But that's personal taste...
I think the new smaller sized deck would be easier for me to shuffle.