Tarot Card Deck Choice

I was hoping to get some ideas on what are in your opinion the best tarot cards available? I thought to ask here to get some educated opinions on the matter rather than just trying to get opinions via googling the subject.

Thank you for any help that anyone can provide.

I think this is a little like asking who someone's favourite musician is. Sometimes I'm in the mood for Bach, sometimes for Metallica, and there's a whole spectrum in between.

In my practice, I've only used a handful of decks for any significant duration. Among them, the ones I've found most useful were: The Golden Dawn, Crowley's Thoth deck, Rider-Waite, and a groovy Egyptian gnostic deck for Sammael Aun Weor's intriguing system. I'd say 90% of my use is with the GD or Thoth decks, but Weor's wacky gnosticism makes me smile.

Yes, Crowley's deck. And I prefer the coloring of the Cicero deck (G.: D.: Magickal Tarot) to the Wang deck - I think it's a brighter, more striking deck. Another deck I like a lot (and it also makes a good gift) is Nefertari's Tarot - a deck with an Egyptian theme, identical to the Tarot of the Sphinx but with fake gold leaf. This is a good site for deck reviews (& discussion): http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/

I don't know if you are still learning about tarot, individ. It's good to have a deck with cue words on the minor arcana, so you don't have to keep looking up meanings in a book. The Crowley Thoth deck is good for this, and the Cicero G.: D.: Magickal Tarot.

If I'm to use any deck at all, it's probably the Thoth deck, but I started out with R-W.

thanks a lot for the replies, it's very much appreciated

i've really really enjoyed Lantz's Archeon Tarot, it's a deck based on symbolist dream imagery, and is a well-suited deck for those who have a strong intuition for the cards. not a good deck to learn on tho, for a beginning reader i'd still recommend either the Rider-Waite or Thoth decks simply because there is such extensive literature about the meaning and use of those two decks. nonetheless my first choice for myself is still the Archeon.

I use a B.O.T.A deck, which I coloured myself for meditation work. So much energy went into painting the deck that there is a much greater personal connection than an already coloured one. Its a very rewarding process to follow if you have the inclination.

For divination/channeling work I use the Thoth deck, because of the rich layers of symbolism which no other deck seems to have matched (IMO). The Thoth deck isn't wholly compatible to the tradition I work in (Golden Dawn), so when used in GD rituals I use enlarged copies of the Classic Golden Dawn Tarot.

Decks are divided into Exoteric (blinded decks) and Esoteric decks (correct symbols for a particular order). If you are new to the Tarot I would ignore this distinction and choose a deck which speaks to you.

Exoteric decks:
The Rider-Waite Tarot Deck.

Esoteric Golden Dawn decks:
Golden Dawn Tarot Deck.

Golden Dawn Magical Tarot.

Classic Golden Dawn Tarot

Ra Horakhty Tarot (not finished yet)

Horus Hathor Golden Dawn Tarot Deck (not finished yet)

Other Esoteric decks:
Aleister Crowley Thoth Tarot Deck.

B.O.T.A deck

Yes! Excellent advice, Frater N.S.. I coloured a blank BOTA deck some time ago, but lost it during my travels. Nevertheless, the process was quite formative!