Complete Kit

Tarot- The Complete Kit
Dennis Fairchild & Julie Paschkis (Running Press 1996)

Review
This is a far better deck than it has any right to be. It's tiny (it was sold as little boxes by the bookshop's till) and the cards are all simple black squares with colour-coded corners and an image in the middle.

Despite the pared-down approach it's actually a very informative deck- the hearts on all the Cups link the suit pretty explicitly to emotions. The little clues scattered all through deck are actually very useful, compared to other decks that use background details to convey meaning.

The standout card could be the ornate crown on the Six of Wands, in which the wands themselves form part of the decoration. Oddly enough it would be a good image for the Emperor, who's... a face on top of a boot. The design restrictions mean that the artist isn't afraid to wander away from the Rider-Waite iconography. Judgement is rather splendid, being a butterfly carrying a key.

Despite its humble wrappings, this is a genuinely interesting deck, and well worth checking out for beginner readers.