Surprising Disappointments

[Barleywine]

. . . maybe it was just the strange, insectile characters that I found I couldn't identify with.

My very first thought on encountering the Deviant Moon was "insectoid," and "Tim Burton meets Hieronymous Bosch." But I've looked more deeply into the cards and have been beguiled by them, I think. It will be one of my next purchases.

 

[Thoughtful]

The Wild Unknown on the other hand is a deck that I just love.. It speaks my language and I'm not a hipster at all - each to their own eh? One person's unreadable deck is another person's joy .

l know you love this deck and l so wanted to feel the same about it, people talked so highly of it including yourself. My love of animals l thought would be the winner here, not to be though. As you say one persons.........

 

[Laura Borealis]

My very first thought on encountering the Deviant Moon was "insectoid," and "Tim Burton meets Hieronymous Bosch." But I've looked more deeply into the cards and have been beguiled by them, I think. It will be one of my next purchases.

I'm puzzled... both of your first thoughts seem like positives to me!

 

[kalliope]

All this talk about the Wild Unknown being too hipster is just cracking me up. But it makes me very glad I didn't know anything about it being sold in stores and was able to come to it cleanly to simply react to the images. Other than it being popular in "cool" stores, or with annoying posers online, I don't really see the aesthetic as being "hipster." But maybe that's my lack of savvy in the way of these things limiting me here. I can only say I respond to it because of the evocative qualities of light vs darkness, and how shapes change from one card to the next. Nothing about it's sense of "style."

I haven't had many surprising disappointments. Usually I realize I'm taking a chance and may not like what I'm buying. But several years ago I finally bought the LS Celtic Tarot (i Tarocchi Celtici) after pining away for it for years. Once it was in hand, I was very indifferent to it, never used it even once, and then traded it in at the local metaphysical shop.

I also bought the Cosmic Tribe when it first came out because everyone loved it and I liked the idea of its diversity and brazenness, but I thoroughly disliked it and couldn't take it seriously. I think it was the beginning of my intense distaste for photo-realistic (& posed) people in decks!

 

[Barleywine]

I'm puzzled... both of your first thoughts seem like positives to me!

The second part of that I always saw as a positive. The first part I was unsure of until I saw how cleverly the moon symbolism has been worked in.

 

[Thoughtful]

I think it was the beginning of my intense distaste for photo-realistic (& posed) people in decks!

The penny has now dropped from reading this one sentence of yours. It has made me realise why l love my Roots of Asia tarot so much

 

[Mariqueen]

Haha, yeah exactly!

The problem I'm having at the moment is that I'm kind of in that super excited deck buying phase, as I have picked the tarot up again after a really really long break (like, 13 years long!). But I struggle to connect with decks and I'm really wary about parting with cash for decks I'm worried I won't like. It's totally killing my buzz (but better for my wallet, I guess).

I spent forever searching and researching decks online (something that wasn't really possible back when I first used to read) to try and avoid my problem.
This is why I went to a store to have a look at as many of them in person, just to be sure.
And these were decks I really thought I would just love to bits...Nope. Nada. Ick!
Of course, this isn't possible with indie decks unless a friend has a copy you can have a look at. I would like the Prisma Visions but after the comments about it, I'm not so sure.

feynrir, that's very true about the Wild Unknown, I mean, they sell it in Urban Outfitters! WTF?
But guess what? There's a new hipster deck in town, it's called The Starchild Tarot, it out hipsters the Wild Unknown by a mile!

it's ironic because I hated the Wild Unknown for the hipster factor and I got the Starchild and I really like it???? I don't know. It's weird!

 

[FLizarraga]

I also bought the Cosmic Tribe when it first came out because everyone loved it and I liked the idea of its diversity and brazenness, but I thoroughly disliked it and couldn't take it seriously. I think it was the beginning of my intense distaste for photo-realistic (& posed) people in decks!

This brings to my mind the Silver Era Tarot. A truly beautiful, well-thought deck, it sadly made me discover that I just cannot read photo-realistic decks, especially one where the same two or three models appear over and over again....

 

[OceanicWanderlust]

The Kingdom Within Tarot comes to mind in this case. It was a deck I was really drawn to when I saw the images online. When I got the cards I was impressed with the card stock but I was disappointed with certain cards. In fact, many of them were actually deal-breakers for me. It didn't resonate with me at all. This is a deck I thought I would love. Especially since it has great cardstock and is borderless too!

Another deck is the Victorian Steampunk Tarot. While I thought there were beautiful cards just from seeing the box at the book shop. Upon discovering the bug imagery, I was turned off by it. Granted, the butterflies and dragonflies were fine but beetles, bees, and moths as minor arcana suits grossed me out big time. I don't do well with bugs. They creep me out.

 

[Queen of Disks]

the Deviant Moon and the Bohemian Gothic. Those normally would be decks I thought I would love to bits but I don't. The BG images were so dark and small I couldn't see what the pictures were. And the Deviant Moon just didn't do anything at all for me.

I also didn't like the Quantum (first edition.) I usually love outer space and celestial themes but the cards reminded me too much of the covers of my textbooks from Science class.