Funny - I like the courts - always such a deal breaker in decks. I find these ones easy to read. And the renamed suits are just so obvious and perfect. I love the colours and the floatiness, the airiness of the deck.
It feels - how can I say this without sounding like an idiot? - like proper art - and yet so often the marrying of proper art (as opposed to daubings by someone more spiritual than aesthetic) with tarot, is a bit disastrous. But this feels like high art with great esoteric character and aesthetic flair. It's all by the same artist but some of the cards feels different, as if by a different hand and yet the deck is very unified. Some of these cards really thrill me tarotically speaking - like "The Drowned" (Hanged Man), the boxed in Hermit, The Sun, The World as well as many of the courts and the Aces.
I understand the criticism of the Emperor renamed "War" as seeming limited, but I have never felt it hampered readings. I get enough from it to vary the meaning. It's a very brave deck for a mass market publisher I think. Wouldn't appeal to all. Thank goodness U.S Games don't just stick to angels like some publishers do. I'm so impressed with U.S Games for putting this deck out. It's quite a cerebral deck that not everyone would like.