Tarokka Deck - A Strange Choice of Cards

The New Curse of Strahd Tarokka Deck - Art By Chuck Lukacs

I was a bit surprised to find that the latest incarnation of the Ravenloft Tarokka Deck was composed entirely of Majors with no Minors (or Suits) to be included. If I'm remember the White Wolf 2nd version of the Deck correctly it was 14 Majors and 40 Minors with a beautiful aged-looking slightly over-sized laminated card with artwork by Talon Dunning. The artwork in this set is nicely done by Chuck Lukacs and is a again a 54 card deck but this time of all Major cards, all named, but rather strangely done. There seems to be a bit too much repetition of type in some of the cards, perhaps seeking to match many of them to character classes, but I'm not sure the thinking behind having a Trader, Merchant and Guild Member, let alone the plethora of fighter, thief, cleric and wizard class names.

The cards themselves are thin and likely to wear and bend easily with use. My box came apart at the glued seam after removing and replacing the deck twice. In use I think these will be age-worn rather quickly and it may do to have a back-up set on hand especially if you want to keep a copy as part of a collection. The paper and box quality is Dollar Store and I would have preferred something more expensive and closer to the White Wolf version. I'd love to see that set reprinted.

This 3rd version isn't bad but doesn't live up to the 2nd version by White Wolf.