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A buyer's guide · Checked September 2026
Tarot Fortune Cards
Where to buy a real deck
For most people, tarot fortune cards means a real tarot deck: 78 cards you shuffle by hand and lay out on a table. These are the decks worth buying, grouped by tradition, each with its ISBN and links to the publisher and a shop.
If this is your first deck
Start with a Rider–Waite–Smith edition. Its pictures carry the meanings, and nearly every tarot book, course and app follows it, this site included.
Rider-Waite Tarot Deck
The classic Rider–Waite–Smith
Drawn by Pamela Colman Smith to Arthur Edward Waite's design and published in 1909, this is the deck most tarot is taught from. Its minor cards show scenes rather than bare suit symbols, so you can read the picture before you know the meaning. The editions below share the same drawings and differ in colour, size and card stock.
Rider-Waite Tarot Deck
The standard U.S. Games edition of the 1909 drawings, keeping Smith's hand-lettered titles and a scene on every minor card.
Instruction booklet · ISBN 9780913866139
Radiant Rider-Waite Tarot
Smith's drawings in a brighter palette, with soft shading in place of her heavy black outlines and a star-filled deep blue back.
Instruction booklet · ISBN 9781572814134
Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot Deck
The same artwork in a muted, softer palette on ivory parchment borders, keeping small flaws from the original printing for an older feel.
36-page booklet · ISBN 9781646710263
Smith-Waite Centennial Tarot Deck
A reproduction in the muted colours of the first printing, made for the deck's centenary; the box adds a few cards of Smith's work beyond tarot.
ISBN 9781572817623
Pocket Rider-Waite Tarot
The classic drawings on smaller cards, easier to carry and, as the publisher notes, easier to shuffle, including for hands with limited mobility.
Booklet of meanings · ISBN 9780880793469
The Original Rider Waite Tarot Pack
Rider's own boxed set from the UK, pairing the cards with Waite's short book on them, introduced by Liz Greene.
Waite's book The Key to the Tarot · ISBN 9780712670678
Modern decks built on it
These decks keep the Rider–Waite–Smith structure and much of its symbolism but redraw every card in a new style, so the meanings on this site still apply. Choose the one whose pictures you want to keep looking at.
The Modern Witch Tarot Deck
The traditional cards redrawn with a diverse modern cast, current fashion and everyday witchcraft, in bright contemporary illustration.
56-page hardcover guidebook · ISBN 9781454938682
Light Seer's Tarot
The Rider–Waite–Smith archetypes recast as modern, relatable figures, with a guidebook that reads every card through its light and its shadow side.
Full guidebook · ISBN 9781401958039
Everyday Witch Tarot
A warm, witch-themed take on the Rider–Waite deck, with black cats, pointed hats and brooms, and a guidebook written for people new to tarot.
Guidebook · ISBN 9780738746340
The Wild Unknown Tarot
A spare, hand-drawn deck of animals and the natural world. Its numbered minor cards show the suit's objects with an animal or plant rather than a scene, so they read closer to the older pip decks.
Hand-lettered guidebook · ISBN 9780062466594
Tarot of the Divine
Each card set in a myth, folk tale or fairy tale from a different part of the world, while keeping the traditional tarot archetypes.
Guidebook · ISBN 9780593135143
The Fountain Tarot
Luminous oil paintings on round-cornered, silver-edged cards, placing the traditional archetypes in a contemporary world.
112-page guidebook · ISBN 9781611805482
Tarot de Marseille
The older pattern, printed from woodcuts in France from the seventeenth century on. Its trumps are full pictures, but its pip cards show arranged suit symbols, read by number and suit rather than by scene. A good second deck, or a first one if its plainness appeals to you.
CBD Tarot de Marseille
A careful restoration of Conver's 1760 deck in clear, bright colours, with a blank 79th card and a booklet of upright and reversed meanings.
56-page booklet · ISBN 9781572819047
Tarot of Marseille
A reproduction of a classic Marseille deck printed by Burdel in 1751, with small details added to make it easier to read.
Multilingual booklet · ISBN 9780738700113
Tarot de Marseille Camoin-Jodorowsky
A reconstruction of the Marseille pattern, redrawn and recoloured after comparing many historical decks, Conver's and Dodal's among them.
EAN 3760147560016
The Thoth deck
Designed by Aleister Crowley and painted by Lady Frieda Harris between 1938 and 1943, then published in 1969, after both had died. Its imagery is dense with astrology and Kabbalah, and several trumps carry different names from the Rider–Waite–Smith, so it rewards study more than a quick draw.
Crowley Thoth Tarot Deck (Small)
Harris's Art Deco paintings with their Egyptian, Kabbalistic and astrological symbols. This edition is close to standard tarot size; a Large edition is sold too.
96-page booklet · ISBN 9780880793087
Lenormand and other fortune-telling decks
Not tarot, but close relations. A Lenormand deck has 36 plain picture cards, such as a ship, a house and a key, read in pairs and lines rather than one at a time. The last two decks here borrow the same idea for tea-leaf symbols and short printed messages.
Mlle Lenormand Blue Owl
A reprint of a classic Lenormand deck, named for the blue owl on its back, with English card text. Small and plain, the way Lenormand is usually read.
English booklet · ISBN 9783038193319
Gilded Reverie Lenormand, Expanded Edition
Rich digital art on gilt-edged cards: the 36 Lenormand cards plus extra Man, Lady and Owl cards and eight new ones, from Time to the Labyrinth.
80-page guidebook · ISBN 9781572818934
Tea Leaf Fortune Cards
182 common tea-leaf symbols on round cards, with month and astrological house cards, so the old cup-reading vocabulary can be laid out like a spread.
98-page guidebook and a pouch · ISBN 9781572816701
Madame Endora's Fortune Cards
An original deck in an Art Nouveau style drawing on Egyptian, Celtic and fantasy themes, with a short message printed on every card for quick answers.
32-page booklet · ISBN 9780967575636
How to choose a deck
- 01
Choose pictures you want to keep looking at
A deck is something you come back to for years. If the art leaves you cold in the photos, it is unlikely to open up on the table.
- 02
Scenes help at the start
Rider–Waite–Smith decks and most modern decks draw a scene on every minor card. Marseille and Thoth decks use patterned pips instead, which read well but take longer to learn.
- 03
Check the size and the finish
Standard tarot cards measure about 70 × 120 mm (2.75 × 4.75 in). Smaller hands often shuffle a pocket edition more easily, and matte cards slide more smoothly than glossy ones.
- 04
A booklet is enough
Most decks come with a short booklet of meanings, and some with a full book. Either works: every card also has a long-form page on this site.
- 05
Buy from the publisher or a shop you trust
Very cheap unbranded decks on marketplaces are often unlicensed copies of published decks, with thin card stock, blurred printing and nothing paid to the artist. Check the publisher's name and the ISBN on the box.
Try the cards before you buy
The Rider–Waite–Smith and the Tarot de Marseille are free to draw on Familiar. Turn over today's card, pull one for a yes-or-no question, or connect Familiar to Claude and talk a spread through with a deck that is actually shuffled.
Questions
What are tarot fortune cards?
Usually a tarot deck: 78 illustrated cards, 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana in four suits. The name also covers smaller fortune-telling decks such as the 36-card Lenormand, which follow their own systems.
Which tarot deck should a beginner buy?
A Rider–Waite–Smith edition, or a modern deck built on it. The pictures carry the meanings, and almost every book, course and app, this site included, is written around it.
How many cards are in a tarot deck?
78: the 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana, which split into four suits of 14 (Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles). Lenormand decks have 36 cards, and oracle decks vary.
Where can I buy tarot cards?
From the publisher's own shop, from bookshops, or from large online retailers. Most decks carry an ISBN, so any bookshop can order one; each deck on this page lists its ISBN with links to the publisher and a shop.
Is it bad luck to buy your own tarot deck?
No. The idea that a first deck has to be a gift is folklore; most readers buy their own.
Does Familiar sell these decks?
No. Familiar is a tarot site with digital decks you can speak with on the web or inside Claude. This page points to the publishers and shops that sell printed decks.
Editions, prices and stock change. Every deck and link on this page was checked in September 2026.