6 questions · 14 decks
Which tarot deck is right for me? The deck finder
Six short questions about experience, images and colors. Then you see one deck that suits you and two alternatives.
Question 1 of 6
How long have you been reading cards?
Video · 39 seconds
Your First Tarot Deck
Almost all tarot decks have 78 cards. But they differ in one key detail that makes all the difference, especially when you're starting out. Find out what to look for in your first deck. Calculate it for free: theastroacademy.com
Read along
The most important card in your first deck isn't The Magician. It's a number card. These cards show the biggest difference between decks. Think of comics versus playing cards. A comic tells a story with pictures. A playing card just shows symbols, like five hearts. Some tarot decks are like comics. Each card shows a scene, which makes starting out easier. Other decks just show symbols. This invites you to find your own pictures in your head. You can find out which style suits you best with a few short questions. Work it out for free at theastroacademy.com.
Contents
What matters in your first tarot deck
If you want to buy a tarot deck, you face hundreds of options. Almost all of them have 78 cards: 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana in four suits. Still, they differ a lot, and you notice it every day you read. Three questions help you choose:
- Pictures on every card: The most important question is whether the Minor Arcana show pictures too. In the Rider-Waite deck every card tells a scene: the Five of Cups shows a figure in a black cloak in front of spilled cups. In the Tarot de Marseille the same card shows just five cups. When you are starting out, scenes are usually easier to read, because the image already tells part of the meaning.
- Tradition: Most modern decks follow the Rider-Waite structure, 11 of the 14 in our list. Books, courses and the card meanings on this site refer to these images. The Thoth deck and the Tarot de Marseille have their own rules and their own books. Both are worth it, but they take more time to get into.
- Taste: Colors, style and what you want to use the deck for. A deck you like looking at is one you pick up more often.
The deck finder above asks exactly these points and works out one deck plus two alternatives.
The three traditions compared
Rider-Waite, Thoth and Marseille are the three big image languages in tarot. Almost every deck can be traced back to one of them.
| Tradition | Number cards | Decks in our list |
|---|---|---|
| Rider-Waite | mostly scenes with figures | 11: Rider-Waite-Smith, Smith-Waite Centennial Tarot, Universal Waite Tarot, Morgan-Greer Tarot … |
| Thoth | geometric symbols with a keyword | 1: Thoth Tarot |
| Marseille | only the suit symbols | 1: Tarot de Marseille |
14 well-known tarot decks at a glance
Everything listed is a fact about the deck: who made it, when it first came out and what the number cards show. Where we do not know something for sure, it says "not listed". There are no ratings here, because your own eyes decide which deck is good.
| Deck | By | First published | Tradition | Number cards |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rider-Waite-Smith | Pamela Colman Smith, Arthur Edward Waite | 1909 | Rider-Waite | scenes on every card |
| Smith-Waite Centennial Tarot | Pamela Colman Smith, Arthur Edward Waite | 2009 | Rider-Waite | scenes on every card |
| Universal Waite Tarot | Pamela Colman Smith, Mary Hanson-Roberts | 1990 | Rider-Waite | scenes on every card |
| Morgan-Greer Tarot | Bill Greer, Lloyd Morgan | 1979 | Rider-Waite | scenes on every card |
| Thoth Tarot | Aleister Crowley, Lady Frieda Harris | 1969 | Thoth | symbols, no scenes |
| Tarot de Marseille | Jean Noblet, Nicolas Conver | not listed | Marseille | symbols, no scenes |
| The Wild Unknown Tarot | Kim Krans | 2012 | Rider-Waite | pared-back images |
| Modern Witch Tarot | Lisa Sterle | 2019 | Rider-Waite | scenes on every card |
| The Light Seer’s Tarot | Chris-Anne | 2019 | Rider-Waite | scenes on every card |
| Golden Thread Tarot | Tina Gong | not listed | Rider-Waite | scenes on every card |
| Everyday Witch Tarot | Deborah Blake, Elisabeth Alba | 2017 | Rider-Waite | scenes on every card |
| Starchild Tarot | Danielle Noel | not listed | not listed | not listed |
| Shadowscapes Tarot | Stephanie Pui-Mun Law | 2010 | Rider-Waite | scenes on every card |
| Tarot of the Divine | Yoshi Yoshitani | 2020 | Rider-Waite | scenes on every card |
The links below open a search on Amazon.
Rider-Waite-Smith
Drawn by Pamela Colman Smith to Arthur Edward Waite’s brief and published in London in 1909. Almost every beginner tarot book refers to these images, and all 78 cards show a scene. Search for Rider-Waite-Smith on Amazon
Smith-Waite Centennial Tarot
Published by U.S. Games Systems in 2009 for the Rider-Waite deck’s hundredth year. The same Pamela Colman Smith images in muted colors based on an early printing. Search for Smith-Waite Centennial Tarot on Amazon
Universal Waite Tarot
Pamela Colman Smith’s drawings, recolored by Mary Hanson-Roberts and published by U.S. Games Systems in 1990. The colors are softer than the original, the images stay the same. Search for Universal Waite Tarot on Amazon
Morgan-Greer Tarot
Painted by Bill Greer to Lloyd Morgan’s brief, published by U.S. Games Systems in 1979. Borderless cards with large, close-up figures in warm, rich colors. The imagery follows Rider-Waite. Search for Morgan-Greer Tarot on Amazon
Thoth Tarot
Designed by Aleister Crowley, painted by Lady Frieda Harris between 1938 and 1943, first printed in 1969. The number cards show geometric arrangements with a keyword instead of scenes, with many links to astrology and Kabbalah. Some cards carry other names, Strength becomes "Lust", for example. Search for Thoth Tarot on Amazon
Tarot de Marseille
A French image tradition whose best-known editions date from the 17th and 18th centuries, such as those by Jean Noblet and Nicolas Conver. A woodcut look in a few strong colors. The number cards show only the symbols of their suit, no scenes. Many modern editions exist today. Search for Tarot de Marseille on Amazon
The Wild Unknown Tarot
Drawn by Kim Krans, first self-published in 2012 and later released by HarperOne. Black ink drawings with a few touches of color and almost no people: animals, plants and shapes carry the meaning. Search for The Wild Unknown Tarot on Amazon
Modern Witch Tarot
Drawn by Lisa Sterle, published by Liminal 11 in 2019. The Rider-Waite scenes brought into the present, with women of different backgrounds, smartphones and everyday clothes. Search for Modern Witch Tarot on Amazon
The Light Seer’s Tarot
Created by Chris-Anne, published by Hay House in 2019. Warm, sunny colors and modern figures. The structure follows Rider-Waite, some scenes are freely reimagined. Search for The Light Seer’s Tarot on Amazon
Golden Thread Tarot
Created by Tina Gong and published by Labyrinthos. Fine gold lines on a black background, each card a pared-back motif based on Rider-Waite. Search for Golden Thread Tarot on Amazon
Everyday Witch Tarot
Text by Deborah Blake, art by Elisabeth Alba, published by Llewellyn in 2017. Playful scenes with witches, cats and herbs. The images follow Rider-Waite. Search for Everyday Witch Tarot on Amazon
Starchild Tarot
Created by Danielle Noel and self-published. Pastel, cosmic images with stars, crystals and light. Search for Starchild Tarot on Amazon
Shadowscapes Tarot
Painted by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, published by Llewellyn in 2010. Delicate watercolors with mythical creatures, animals and nature. The meanings follow Rider-Waite, the images retell them. Search for Shadowscapes Tarot on Amazon
Tarot of the Divine
Painted by Yoshi Yoshitani, published by Sterling in 2020. Every card shows a fairy tale, myth or folk story from a different part of the world. Search for Tarot of the Divine on Amazon
How the deck finder scores
Every answer gives points to the decks that fit it. The deck with the most points comes first, and on a tie the older, classic one wins. The rules in detail:
- Experience: if you are just starting, decks with Rider-Waite scenes get 3 points and Thoth and Marseille lose 3. If you have been reading for a while, Thoth, Marseille and the symbolic decks get 2.
- Imagery: Rider-Waite gives matching decks 3 points, Thoth or Marseille 5. "I do not know yet" gives no points.
- Number cards: scenes, pared-back images or symbols give the matching deck 3 points.
- Style 3 points, colors 2 points, use 2 points, each for the decks that match.
After that, practice takes over: with your new deck, draw a daily card each morning and look it up, or pick a good question for the cards and draw for it.
How often does the deck finder pick each deck?
Six questions with 3, 4, 3, 4, 4, 4 answers give 2,304 possible combinations. We ran every single one. Thoth Tarot comes out first most often, in 450 combinations, that is 19.5%.
That is down to the imagery: choose "Lots of symbolism and astrology, demanding is fine" and Thoth Tarot comes first in 303 of 576 cases. Rider-Waite, on the other hand, is shared by 11 decks, so those answers spread out. Starchild Tarot comes first least often, in 4 combinations.
10 of the 14 decks show scenes on every number card, and 9 count as beginner-friendly in the deck finder. For 11 decks the first year of publication is known: the oldest is the Rider-Waite-Smith from 1909, the newest the Tarot of the Divine from 2020.
| Deck | First place | In the top three |
|---|---|---|
| Thoth Tarot | 450 (19.5%) | 773 (33.6%) |
| The Wild Unknown Tarot | 301 (13.1%) | 730 (31.7%) |
| Tarot de Marseille | 245 (10.6%) | 598 (26%) |
| Tarot of the Divine | 226 (9.8%) | 764 (33.2%) |
| Everyday Witch Tarot | 190 (8.2%) | 439 (19.1%) |
| Universal Waite Tarot | 160 (6.9%) | 622 (27%) |
| Modern Witch Tarot | 158 (6.9%) | 422 (18.3%) |
| Rider-Waite-Smith | 151 (6.6%) | 566 (24.6%) |
| Morgan-Greer Tarot | 99 (4.3%) | 483 (21%) |
| Smith-Waite Centennial Tarot | 92 (4%) | 389 (16.9%) |
| Golden Thread Tarot | 82 (3.6%) | 388 (16.8%) |
| The Light Seer’s Tarot | 79 (3.4%) | 368 (16%) |
| Shadowscapes Tarot | 67 (2.9%) | 266 (11.5%) |
| Starchild Tarot | 4 (0.17%) | 104 (4.5%) |
Method: all 2,304 answer combinations of the six questions, scored exactly as the deck finder scores them, every combination counted once. No usage data, no sales figures.
Tarot decks: common questions
- What is the best tarot deck for beginners?
- Decks based on Rider-Waite suit beginners, because every card shows a scene and almost every book works with these images. In our list, 11 of 14 decks follow this structure, from the 1909 original to modern decks like the Modern Witch Tarot.
- Where can I buy tarot cards?
- In bookstores, metaphysical shops and online. Well-known decks usually come in several editions and sizes. Check the deck name and the publisher so you get exactly the edition you looked at.
- Does my first tarot deck have to be a gift?
- No. The idea that you should not buy your own first deck is a widespread superstition with no documented origin. What matters more is that the images speak to you and you enjoy working with them.
- Do the card meanings on this site fit every deck?
- They fit every Rider-Waite-based deck, because the cards carry the same names and core meanings. In the Thoth deck some cards have other names, and the Tarot de Marseille has no scenes on its number cards. You can still read the Major Arcana with the same core meanings.
- Do I need more than one tarot deck?
- No. One deck you know well gives you more than five on a shelf. A second one is usually worth it once you can picture the cards of the first by heart.