dealbreaker cards in a deck

[SherryZoned]

When decks are to bling bling.

Like Ciros. Beautiful deck and artwork...amazing...but I can not read with any of his decks. They are just too pretty, glossy, bling bling..

 

[WolfSpirit]

I know you're all sick of me talking about this stupid card but the Romani Tarot
Hanged Man card with the dead rabbit ruined that whole deck for me.

Yes for me too, I could never get the meaning of the Hanged Man from looking at that card.
In general, every Hanged Man that is hanging from the neck makes me think the creator did not really "get" the HM.
Other than that, for me Strength is supposed to be about gentle strength not clubbing an animal. I know some historic decks depict Strength differently but these decks are not for me, I really could not use a deck that does not get Strength right for me.
The pierced heart in the three of swords is not a dealbreaker for me if I like the rest of the deck although I find that card pretty blech. Lazy copying of a card that already should have been more imaginative in the RWS. According to my not so humble opinion

 

[Greywoolfe]

For me, it's the Empress. That one card put me off the Druidcraft Tarot, as she didn't look to me like 'mother nature' but an overly-pregnant woman in a floral-print dress, plonked into the middle of a harvest festival stand. I get that she's representative of nature's creative forces, mother nature and all that- but there are ways to do it apart from putting a woman who looks about 11 months pregnant in a floral dress and surrounding her with fruit and veg. That's why I love the Llewellyn, as it gets that right for me. She's a powerful ruler, dresed in green in a forest clearing, surrounded by nature and having a slightly green skin hue- she is mother nature, and rules over it.

 

[Chronata]

The Hanged Man is my deal breaker every time!

If he looks tortured, or is hanging by the neck, I can't use the deck.

to a lesser extent...I have to like the Magician too...or at least get what the artist intended.

For a deck to be awesome it also has to have a Wheel of Fortune and Star that I resonate with, as well as a fairly decent 3 of pents/coins.

 

[Le Fanu]

Of the Minors, I go straight for the 8 Wands. It has to have that sense of urgency, panic even, or just streamlined rushing and dizziness and acceleration. And not just 8 floating sticks.

Successful Eights of Wands; VR (utterly inspired), Victorian Regina, Fantastic Menagerie, Thoth...

(Majors) plus - of course - the Moon. As everyone says; it has to be spooky.

 

[jackdaw*]

I have to like the Queen of Pentacles, and have to feel the poverty and misery of the Five of Pentacles. I also have to like the Temperance card. And cards like Death and the Devil cannot be fluffed up; they have to BE Death and the Devil.

 

[Feretian]

Any card that seems to gloss over it's negative connotations...

The Ten of Swords is final. Over. No hope. If I don't see that in the card, or if it looks more like a new dawn than fading consciousness, it doesn't work.

Which is not to say that it has to be depressingly dark or overly graphic.

And the Moon has to be pretty mysterious, not just pretty.

Any card that's not well drawn bugs me. Much as I love the RWS, there are some cards that just look like Pamela was getting sick and tired of the whole project.

 

[Nevada]

I don't have dealbreaker cards as such, but an individual Major I dislike in a deck can kill it for me.

That's me as well, for the most part. I'd say there are more likely to be deal maker cards for me. The Star in the Motherpeace was the clincher for getting me to purchase the deck. Rhiannon as the Chariot in the Goddess Tarot settled that purchase for me.

I can't think of a deck that I didn't buy because of one or two cards, but there's one I didn't buy because of an entire suit. The suit with the pistols was a deal breaker with Tarot of the Dead, and that disappointed me. It spoiled the whole point of the deck for me, which I thought was supposed to be based on Dia de los Muertos and honoring one's dead. Maybe I didn't understand the deck, but that suit wasn't for me.

 

[morticia monroe]

I like for the Justice card to work for me,,,it seems, at least to me, to be one of the cards that is tweaked most often,,,

Of course, the Moon. I want it to make me a little bit edgy.

I also like a good Five of Pentacles. The Bohemian Gothic's take is fantastic.

 

[Nevada]

The Lovers card. I don't like seeing naked breasts. I just don't or hangin things. Basically not a big fan of nudity. But most lovers card even without the nakedness is just like ewww yet again another disappointment.

Oh yeah, I have a problem with sex as a theme of the Lovers card, because I don't see the card as meaning sex. Gratuitous, sexy nudity bothers me in almost any card except maybe the Devil card, which I think is the most physical-lust-related card -- in a natural, earthy rather than evil way.

But none of that is a deal breaker in itself. If I loved everything else but the Lovers card and only didn't like that because it seemed too emphatic about physical sex, I'd probably still use the deck.