For me personally
The first edition, then the third. I actually traded the second and another oop deck to get the first BG (thank you, Madame Squee!). And I, like Alta, would have LOVED the silver first edition, but alas, that was not to be, but I CAN judge the three regular editions as I have had them all, including the pewter second edition.
I LOVE the first because of the cardstock and the images on the cards. Great to shuffle and I think the images are just perfect. I also feel it is the most gothic-looking of the three. While the third edition is great and has more close up images, the first seems clearer in the images.
The third edition I also really love because it gives you a choice of Lovers cards (my choice is the one with the original male from the first edition) and the stock is easy for me to shuffle. It's different enough from the first (and second) editions to have made me want it and yet retains the great gothic feel.
While I loved the cardstock and many cards of the second edition, the stock was hard for me to shuffle and I just wasn't a big fan of the Lovers card in that deck. The PEWTER was beautiful, although just as hard for me to shuffle as the regular second editions, if not more so, but traded it partly because of the Lovers card and partly because the second edition had quite a few copies that had red splatter marks, I was just "lucky", I got two regular and one pewter all with the dreaded red spots, one was particularly bad and I found it just distracting.
