Tarot Cardstock: What's the best for you?

[CuddlyBCat]

I'm curious, you guys. Seeing as there are a lot of experienced tarot readers, collectors and those who truly know the tarot; I want to ask, what's the best cardstock you've come across in a tarot?
For instance, The Vampire Tarot by Robert Place, well.. I've handled it before, it seems like a good quality stock, except for it's shinyness, it's stickiness, the sharp as heck edges.
I hear the cardstock for the Arthurian Tarot (not the legend.) and the Paulina Tarot are a good inbetween, not too flimsy, not too stiff, not too shiny and such, while those from the company "Llewellyn" are often associated with flimsy cardstock, i've come to notice.
So, in your guys opinions, what's the list of cardstock you find the best, good, great, or worst? I'd love to hear it!

 

[nisaba]

Major publishers all seem to have similar stock, and just laminate it differently.

MRP decks are on reasonable stock, and are varnished instead of laminated, which feels better. The art-house "Lebanese" Tarot has the best cardstock of all the hundreds of decks I've handled.

 

[Richard]

Excellent: Lebanese, Grimaud Marseille
Very Good: Smith-Waite Centennial

 

[Barleywine]

Unlike many here, I only have a couple dozen decks, so my experience isn't as wide. But I don't have many technical demands for cardstock. I don't bridge or riffle them when I shuffle, so the cards have to slide smoothly in hand-over-hand shuffling, they have to feel "lively and supple" to put a more fanciful face on it: not so slippery that they fly out of my hands, not so stiff and brittle that I feel like I'm handling beer coasters or bits of rigid styrofoam, not so glossy that they glare in the light, not so large or thick that they're awkward to handle as a deck. Recently, the one that felt the best to me right out of the box was the Fournier TdM.

 

[claire1805]

Absolute favourite: Original Rider Waite

Good: Paulina Tarot
Dreaming Way Tarot

Average (Frays easily): Tarot of the Hidden Realm
Shadowscapes (To a lesser extent)

I generally find US Games Sys. Tarot decks to be quite sturdy, with the exception of one Lenormand deck, while Llewellyn decks tend to wear more easily around the edges and be 'curved'. Though I really like how smoothly the latter decks shuffle.

 

[Grizabella]

Llewellyn has my very favorite card stock. It's thin but it's not flimsy by any means. It's just a joy to use their cards. I don't like stock that's thick and cardboard-like. In my experience, the thicker stock can become damaged more readily as people struggle to shuffle with it.

I've never had a Llewellyn deck chip off at the edges. The cards just stay beautifully together and are a joy to use.

 

[Rose Lalonde]

The cardstock for Wild Unknown is matte-silky and feels durable and flexible. "Supple" like Barleywine described.

Though not as nice as that (missing the silkiness), I like Lo Scarabeo's fine for every deck I have by them. I have one fairly new Llewellyn, and it feels flimsy compared to my others, which makes it seem insubstantial to me, but it's still preferable to something too shiny or too thick. It's slightly curved already (I don't riffle/bridge), but I'm guessing it'll last a while, since Grizabella's been reading with hers with no complaints.

(Another favorite cardstock is the Pagan playing card deck I use for cartomancy. It's much more slippery than Wild Unknown, but has very flexible Bicycle air cushion stock, printed by the US Playing Card Company, and I can get addicted to shuffling it... which is fine, because it can take it. I'd love a tarot like that.)

 

[etherealtarot]

I've never had a problem with my Wild Unknown tarot. The cards are extremely sturdy and thick.