Favourite tarot deck themes and why?

The closest thing I have to a theme is cats. But I only have 4 of those, because I'm picky. I love Arthuriana, but I only have 2 (possibly 3) decks that fit this, because I haven't found others that appeal to me.

A lot of appeal is the artwork. There are themes I would follow heavily if there were enough examples within it that appealed to me. I suppose I have a Halloween theme going if you add oracles: so far I have one Tarot, one Lenormand, and one oracle in that theme.

But everything else I have is pretty scattershot.

Chronata said:

and I always have my little collection of awful tarots

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Awful Tarots Chronata? As in tarot that are completely rubbish?

I think i am about to embark on a new collecting theme 'Pagan' as i am about to start a study circle at home and i thought a lovely pagan or wiccan deck would be great. But i am forever looking for THE deck, the one, that i can use and love forever lol but i am to fussy and indecisive and my NEW FABULOUS DECK soon becomes my been there done that deck.

Cat decks, because I'm a cat in soul and the cards read well for me.

I don't know if I plan to collect anything else past that, doesn't mean I won't love my non-cat decks too!

Although the Thoth is my favourite deck, I do not particularly appreciate Thoth clones (although I am sort of interested in my GD tarot, which is hideous, but symbolically relevant -and of course it is not a Thoth clone-).
Otherwise, I'm fond of XIX century Italian decks, such as the Soprafino and its clones.

While I still appreciate the Marseille style, I'm kind of put off by all the "I'll tell you the ultimate secret about tarot and your life, and why all the other decks on Earth suck". I know I shouldn't be, but I am I enjoy reading with my Marseille, though.

In general, however, I don't particularly like "thematic" decks, such as fairies, elves etc.

I've been thinking about this. I have a soft spot of decks from the 60s and 70s, I'll buy them even if I think I'll never read with them. I used to gravitate toward Celtic decks but that's changed over time as my spirituality has changed. I think the other category of decks I simply like to look at are self published art decks... Theres a theme of the kind of art I'm thinking about but its hard to explain, two recent purchases are the wild unknown and the wooden tarot.

For reading I'm all over the place right now but I really love the simplicity of the tdm... I think the more I read the more I want to read in a traditional manner which means either reading in an esoteric tradition or with the Marseilles and honestly since I already understand how to read combos of numbers and suits its way easier and more intuitive than memorizing all the stuff that goes into understanding the esoteric traditions.

Feminist decks from the 70s and 80s, in fact I love decks from the 70s!
Northern European mythology: Arthurian/Norse/Celtic/Finnish
Flowers/Herbs
Ciro Marchetti

Ciro: because his ideas are so cool and he made my favorite Lenormand deck.
I love reading the Kalevala while using that deck!
I study herbalism and work with flowers to heal.
Decks from the 70s are so tuned into personal growth. I really love that and it fits my current way of reading tarot.

Yes I love Ciro too however I don't collect fantasy as a theme. I really do feel drawn to Faery. I meen my daughter has tarot of a moon garden and I feel like borrowing it. Or buying one for me. And I adore witches but I don't want a witch themed deck. I really am stuck on the Faery theme for now.

I tend to collect decks that have animal, nature or faery as a theme. I feel strongly connected to the animal and plant kingdoms, so decks with this theme connect with me on a soul level.

I've become almost exclusively interested in scans or reconstructions of historic deck. There are frankly very very few contemporary decks which I find appealing.

Looking at the majority of my Tarot and oracle decks I have to say the mayor themes are:
Nature, Animals and Mythology, although my favourite and most used decks are shamanistic.
(Greenwood, Ironwing and Tarot of the Origins)