Oh dear. I see a riot spilling onto the streets again. And I was throwing bottles last year, if I remember rightly.
I really didn't know where to turn this time.
In last years thread (or was it the year before that?), I had a problem with the Gilded being voted at the top of the 'all time' list. Yes, as you know, I don't rate it, generally. But that wasn't my problem. It was that I feel for a deck to gain that kind of credit, it needs to be around for a little bit longer - needs time to breath, to pass through fads, changes of heart and fashion and to not buckle under the weight of the many other designs that appear every year. The Marseille standard, without question, does that (give or take the odd fine tuning). The RWS does that and so does The Thoth. More modern decks that I feel might qualify into that arena are ones such as the Morgan Greer, 1JJ Swiss, Aquarian (even though I am not a personal fan). They are still about and have stood the test of time. I see the Tarot of Prague and Druidcraft being worthy of this title in years to come, due to their solid grounding and popularity.
I have not been using a Marseille of late, so it wasn't my first choise. I believe that the Cosmic Tribe, which I am using, maybe isn't a deck I know well enough to qualify, so my vote went on The Thoth - wellrounded, deep and good for all kinds of questions. I will hopefully vote for 'the tribe' in years to come.
As for the best of the year, I was even more confused. I havn't bought many new decks this year and looked through the list. Bar a very small few, I am not a lover of any of the decks from Lo Scarebeo - I wouldn't want to prop up my wonky table leg with a lot of them, let alone use them to read with. And some of the others, before searching, I had not even seen before.
The only one that I bought, was the Victorian Romantic. As much as I have clicked with the deck now (to some extent), it was not one that I have had a particularly good relationship with. In short, it just wasn't really for me. No disrespect to the Magic Realist Press, since they are nothing short of 'tarot gems' in my opinion.
The other that I liked was the 'Sheridan Douglas'.
But instead, I decided to vote for one that I didn't have and have not used - the 'Tarot of the Sidhe'. Helvetica showed me her 'majors only' in London.
At last, a deck with energy. Not just unemotionally pumped out as a commercial exercise. Beautiful colours and presentation. If anyone diserves credit for her contribution this year, in my mind, it is the artist of that deck.
Good luck all, LB
(hides before bottles are thrown in his direction)
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