To pick your first tarot deck, choose a Rider-Waite-Smith deck or a faithful, fully illustrated version of it: its clear, scene-based cards make the meanings far easier to learn, and nearly every guide and course is written around it. Beyond that, pick the artwork you genuinely connect with, and know you can absolutely buy your own deck.
Choosing your first tarot deck is a small, lovely threshold. It can also feel strangely high stakes, as though the wrong choice might set you off on the wrong foot before you have even shuffled a card. Let me set your mind at ease early: there is no wrong first deck, only decks that make learning a little gentler and decks that make it a little harder. This guide walks you through what actually makes a deck easy to learn from, why a Rider-Waite-Smith style deck is the kindest place to begin, and how to find one whose art you will genuinely want to sit with. By the end you will know exactly what to look for, and you will trust your own eye to choose.
First, the one rule that is not a rule
You may have heard that you should not choose your own deck, or that your first one must be a gift. It is a charming piece of folklore, and that is all it is. You are completely free to choose, buy and love your own first deck. We unpick where that idea comes from in can you buy your own tarot deck, but the short version is this: pick the one that calls to you, and begin.
Why a Rider-Waite-Smith style deck is the gentlest start
Almost every experienced reader will point a beginner towards the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, or one built faithfully in its image, and there is a good reason. Published in 1909, illustrated by the artist Pamela Colman Smith under the direction of A.E. Waite, it did something quietly revolutionary. It gave every one of the 78 cards a full, story-rich picture, including the numbered "pip" cards of the minor arcana. Older decks left those minor cards as bare arrangements of cups or coins, the way a normal playing deck shows four hearts or five spades, with nothing to read but the number.
Smith's scenes changed everything for the learner. When the Five of Cups shows a cloaked figure grieving over three spilled cups while two still stand behind, you do not have to memorise a definition. You can simply look, and feel the loss, and notice the cups that remain. The picture teaches you. Because this deck became the template for the modern English-speaking tarot world, its imagery is also the one that most books, apps and guides are written around, so everything you read will match what is in your hands.
"The true Tarot is symbolism; it speaks no other language and offers no other signs."
A.E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911)
What actually makes a deck easy to learn from
Whether or not you land on the classic, these are the qualities that make any deck a kind teacher. Hold each one up against a deck you are considering.
- Fully illustrated pip cards. This is the big one. Turn to the minor arcana, the Twos through Tens, and see whether each card tells a little scene or simply stacks up its suit symbols. Scenic pips give you a picture to read on day one.
- The standard 78-card structure. A full deck has 22 major arcana and 56 minor arcana across four suits, with four court cards each. Learning on a standard structure means every guide, spread and lesson will line up with your deck. You can meet the two halves in our guides to the major arcana and the minor arcana.
- A clear little guidebook. Most decks tuck a small booklet in the box. A good one gives you an upright and a reversed line for each card and a sample spread or two. It is training wheels, not scripture, and you will lean on it less every week.
- A size and finish your hands enjoy. Standard decks can feel wide in smaller hands. Some brands offer a "pocket" or mini size, and card stock ranges from thin and slippery to thick and buttery. If you can, hold a deck before buying, because you will shuffle it hundreds of times.
- Art you genuinely connect with. This matters more than any rule. You will spend real, quiet time with these pictures, so choose a palette and a mood that make you want to linger. A deck you find beautiful is a deck you will actually pick up.
The Rider-Waite-Smith family, so you can tell them apart
If you decide on the classic imagery, you will notice there is not one version but a whole family, all sharing Smith's original drawings with different colouring and finishes. Any of them works beautifully for a beginner.
- The original Rider-Waite-Smith. The familiar bright, slightly bold colours most books picture. A perfectly good place to start.
- The Smith-Waite Centennial Edition. Released for the deck's hundredth birthday, this one returns to Pamela Colman Smith's softer, more muted original palette. Many readers find it the most beautiful and the easiest on the eye.
- The Universal Waite. The same drawings gently recoloured in warmer, more blended tones, a favourite of readers who find the original a little strong.
- The Radiant Rider-Waite. A brighter, more saturated recolouring, crisp and modern while keeping every classic symbol in place.
All four are published by U.S. Games Systems and carry identical scenes, so any guide written for the classic deck will match whichever you choose. Pick the colouring your eye loves most.
When you are drawn to something different
Perhaps a more classic deck leaves you cold and something modern and artful has caught your heart instead. That is allowed, and often it is the deck you find beautiful that you will study hardest. Just carry the checklist with you. If a modern deck keeps the standard 78 cards and gives its minor arcana proper illustrated scenes, it will teach you just as gently as the classic. If it strips the pips back to bare symbols or renames the suits and cards heavily, it is not a poor deck, it is simply a harder first teacher, and it may be one to enjoy as your second.
A gentle word on cost and where to buy
A good tarot deck is not an expensive thing. A standard boxed deck with its booklet is an everyday purchase, so you do not need to save up or splurge. Buy from a shop you trust, whether a local bookshop, a metaphysical store where you can handle the boxes, or a reputable online seller. Beware of unusually cheap listings of famous decks, as unlicensed copies with muddy printing do exist. You want Smith's line work crisp and her colours true, because those details are what you will be reading.
How a first deck actually "works"
Here is the honest heart of it. A tarot deck does not contain magic, and it will not tell you a fixed future. What it holds is 78 richly human pictures, a distilled catalogue of the situations, feelings and turning points a life can hold. When you lay them out around a question, they give your intuition something to catch on. You notice which card you are relieved to see and which one makes your stomach drop, and in that noticing you often meet something you already half knew. The deck is a mirror and a prompt, a way to slow down and think in images. Choose a first deck you find beautiful and easy to read, and you have given that quiet, reflective work the best possible start.
Keep exploring
Once your deck arrives, meet it slowly with how to read tarot cards, learn how a card shifts when it lands upside down in reversed tarot cards, and try your first simple layout with our three card spread. You will find every card guide, spread and tool gathered on the tarot hub. When you are ready to learn properly and in order, The Tarot Path course walks you through the whole deck, and you can practise a live pull any time with the tarot reading helper.
Frequently asked questions
A Rider-Waite-Smith deck, or a faithful version of it, is the gentlest start. Its minor arcana are fully illustrated with little scenes, so you can read the picture instead of memorising bare symbols, and nearly every book and app is written around its imagery.
No. The idea that a deck must be gifted is folklore, not a rule. You are completely free to choose and buy your own first deck, which many readers feel is the more personal way to begin.
Fully illustrated pip cards, the standard 78-card structure, a clear little guidebook, a size and card stock your hands enjoy, and art you genuinely connect with. The illustrated pips matter most, because they let you read a scene rather than recall a definition.
They share Pamela Colman Smith's original drawings with different colouring. The original is bright and bold, the Smith-Waite Centennial returns to her softer palette, the Universal Waite is warmer and blended, and the Radiant is crisp and saturated. Any of them suits a beginner.
A standard boxed deck with its booklet is an everyday purchase, not a splurge. Buy from a trusted shop and be wary of unusually cheap listings of famous decks, as unlicensed copies with muddy printing exist and blur the details you need to read.
Yes, especially if it is the one you find beautiful, since that is the deck you will actually pick up. Just check it keeps the standard 78 cards and gives its minor arcana proper illustrated scenes. If the pips are bare symbols, it is simply a harder first teacher.
No. A deck holds 78 human pictures that give your intuition something to catch on. Laid around a question, they help you slow down, notice your own reaction and reflect. Tarot works as a mirror and a prompt, not as a fixed prediction.
