Deck Name: Pirate Tarot
Created By: Designed by Carrie and Lucas Amodio and Illustrations by Liz Harper.
Published: by Schiffer
Cards in Deck: 78
Card Dimensions: 9.3 -13.5cm (Larger than standard playing cards)
Overview: Originally Liz’s illustrations for the
Rider-Waite-Smith based deck were carved onto wood and released as a limited edition set. Finally published in card format along with quick instructions on how to use these cards for fortune telling and also a medieval card game.
Illustration: The carvings created for this deck are detailed and have great character, I would love to see what the wooden decks look like. The characters are not too comical looking to be off-putting but are also real enough to engaging in the use of these cards as Tarot.
Because there is only light and shade for definition an understanding of basic card meanings would help as a lot of cards use colour to represent the meaning. How some of this was overcome with these cards are the three key words given on each card.
The cards also lend themselves well for meditation, as you can easily look into them for quiet some time searching for the hidden symbols.
Theme/Lore: There are so many different stereotypy’s for pirates and pirate law that if not done correctly comes across very poorly, thankfully this is not the case here. The theme is woven into the cards so well that nothing feels out of place.
The suits are Pistols – Wands – Fire, Swords – Swords – Air, Cups – Cups – Water and Coins – Pentacles – Earth. The court cards are Cabin Boy – Page, First Mate – Knights, Lady Captain – Queens and Captain – Kings.
Book/Supplementary Information: You are supplied with a sheet of information about how to use the cards and a couple of spreads.
Design/Packaging: Personally I think that the border on the cards distract from the carvings. Because there is no other colour but the grain of the wood it can feel a little washed out and if there is any light reflection on the cards you will have to move the card to another angle to see the outline clearly.
The card GSM is quite thick and the laminate is glossy.
Final Score: 8 out of 10
