Five, five, five

[Carla]

I'm really curious and thought it would be fun to know. I feel pretty sure you'll end up with three very different lists.

What are your top 5 FAVOURITE decks of all time?

What do you think are the top 5 BEST decks of all time?

What do you believe are the top 5 MOST INFLUENTIAL decks of all time?

 

[Carla]

I'll go first, but I am a tarot newbie and only have around 40 decks in my collection. So, bear that in mind. I don't believe I have sufficient knowledge to do the Best or Most Influential lists. This is why I want to see other people's lists.

5 Faves--
1. Morgan Greer (for some reason, I can read this deck like butter)
2. Druidcraft
3. Anna K
4. Celtic Tarot
5. Tarot of the Sidhe

 

[Le Fanu]

Top 5 Favourites for reading;

1. Victorian Romantic
2. Thoth
3. Navigators Tarot of the Mystic SEA
4. 1001 Nights
5. Golden Tarot of Klimt

Top 5 BEST decks

1. RWS
2. Thoth
3. Jacques Vieville (The first truly exotic tarot)
4. Soprafino
5. Trevisan's Crystal Tarot. (So rich and refined and aesthetic. Sadly, I don't think the current edition shows it at its best.)

NB, no *official* Marseilles

Five Most Influential

1. RWS
2. Thoth
3. Greenwood (so many decks now want to be the Greenwood, not just the Wildwood)
4. Etteilla / Jeu des Dames
5. Bohemian Gothic (the deck to which all dark decks aspire). But that's a fashion thing as "dark" is now de rigeur. These trends pass. I'm not sure about position number 5.

NB, I don't think the Marseilles exerts even a tiny influence on most decks now published. Is that an extreme thing to say? Most decks don't want to be like a Marseilles deck.

Funny, I do have this criteria, that most decks aspire to being like other decks already in existence as there really is very little originality around if you think long and hard. That's why "most influential" has to be distinct from other lists. Most decks are just not very original. It doesn't necessarily mean I don't like them, but they're not original and don't influence (as I understand it).

 

[Chiska]

Top 5 Favorites for reading;

1. Thoth
2. Grail Tarot
3. Kissatarot
4. Bohemian Gothic
5. Tarot of Physics

 

[Le Fanu]

mmm... I notice I forgot the Visconti. But then I always forget the Visconti. I have no idea why the Visconti constantly slips from my mind, off my radar. I just don't find it very interesting if truth be told.

But what is influential? is it "influences other decks" or "caused the phenomena of tarot to happen"? If it is the latter, then I suppose we would have to include it.

But why oh why do I - who love historical decks - find the Visconti so uninteresting?

 

[VGimlet]

But why oh why do I - who love historical decks - find the Visconti so uninteresting?

And I, who have a kind of love/hate relationship with my historical decks like it a lot.

My top 5 favorites for reading
1. Mary-el
2. Gilded
3. Gaian
4. Universal RWS
5. Aquarian


5 Best Decks
1. RWS
2.Thoth
3. S0prafino (el Meneghello)
4. Folchi's Carnival of Venice
5. Rock and Roll

5 Most Influential
1. Visconti
2. Etteilla
3. RWS
4.Thoth
5. T the New Tarot

Even though I am not so fond of the "T", it was kind of ground-breaking back in the day. Tarot could be modern, it could be brightly colored. Maybe there are older decks that influenced the creation of this deck (and that would be an interesting off-topic topic...)

 

[Cassandra022]

favorites:

Nusantara
Legacy of the Divine
Silicon Dawn
Thoth
De La Rea

as for the other two fives, ill get back to you need to ponder that over a bit...

 

[Greg Stanton]

Favorites:
1. The Spanish Tarot
2. Dame Fortune's Wheel
3. Vachetta
4. La Corte dei Tarocchi
5. Housewives Tarot

Best:
1. RWS
2. Dame Fortune's Wheel
3. Soprafino
4. Vieville
5. Vandenbore Bacchus Tarot

Most Influential:
1. Marseilles
2. RWS
3. Thoth
4. Visconti
5. Etteilla

 

[nisaba]

What are your top 5 FAVOURITE decks of all time?

I can list two.

Then, sadly, I have to jump to about fifteen. I can't separate out five.

What do you think are the top 5 BEST decks of all time?

What do you believe are the top 5 MOST INFLUENTIAL decks of all time?

Unless we're talking sales figures for the first one, they would have to be the same decks.

Visconti-Sforza.
Marseilles.
Rider-Waite.
Thoth.

And since "all time" hasn't ended yet, the fifth best and most influential deck has yet to be developed and take the world by storm. The deck that develops a whole new school of Tarot, that is a wholly new prototype for deck-designers to follow.

 

[Le Fanu]

Best:
1. RWS
2. Dame Fortune's Wheel
3. Soprafino
4. Vieville
5. Vandenbore Bacchus Tarot

Now that's interesting; you don't have no *official* Marseilles deck either.

Now that's my gripe with the Marseilles. The name is all wrong; "Marseilles". The most significant decks for me aren't officially "Marseilles" and yet we are forever held to ransom by a 19th Century definition. The most interesting decks are not (IMO) the ones that came out of the French port. Of course I love them but I like to think more open-endedly. Think Vandenborre/Vieville/ Giocomo Zoni/Tarot de Paris/ etc. But they are doomed to be forever relegated to the "margins", not quite proper Marseilles decks, not quite authentic, not quite cutting it. I believe times have changed and we don't need to be bound to what is/isn't a "true" Marseilles (I hate that debate). It doesn't do us any favours in our historical analysis. For this reason I am glad not to see "Marseilles" in any Top Ten list here as it is a category I dislike. I find it much healthier when someone like Greg (oh & myself ) lists a non-Marseilles but significant historic deck on our "best" list!