Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I own the self published version of this deck and decided to buy the mass produced copy because the self published version's Seven of Wands only has six wands on it. That might be minor to most people but once I noticed the flaw, it bothered me severely. But, sad to say, the mass produced version has absolutely nothing on the self published. First of all, the holographic foiling on the edges came out of the box damaged. It looks like the foil peeled off thinner in some places or maybe the cards got damaged before it fully set onto the card stock. It's visually distracting to see huge portions of the deck have a different finish than what was intended when all the cards are stacked together. On top of that, it looks like a different size die was used to cut the suit of cups and The World. Those 15 cards don't show any of the damage the rest of the deck has on the foiling and they clearly stand out. When the deck is shuffled, none of the cards will line up together because of the size discrepancy. I shuffled a few times overhand and my dominant hand is covered in paper cuts because of this. That was a big surprise because this card stock is very thick. I also had to be very careful when separating the cards because huge portions of the deck were stuck together. I had to bend the cards to make them come apart. The corners are damaged on the bigger cards (Cups and The World) which added to the jagged feeling of the deck as a whole. Initially I was going to seek a replacement, but after reading other reviews I see this has been an ongoing issue since this deck came out. Apparently the publisher/creator are fine putting out a sub-par product because I've never seen something like this before. The guidebook is okay. It gives three keywords for upright meanings with a page of explanation and the same for the reversed interpretation of each card. But even the guidebook falls flat in my opinion because that's all it does. There's no discussion of spreads, shuffling, cutting, choosing from the top or fan, information on the designer, how to formulate an appropriate question, nothing. The card meanings don't even go into a description of the imagery to explain the symbolism. A complete beginner looking to buy this as her or his first deck would definitely need to consult other sources for this information. I understand that space is limited in guidebooks, but I have Little White Books from other decks that go into spreads, and how to shuffle and cut. Even if it's just a brief explanation of the One card draw; Past, Present, and Future; and the Celtic Cross, Little White Books normally take some time to explain the process of reading tarot cards and they have less space than the guidebook that came with this deck because they often have to include multiple languages. No attempt was made to do anything like that with the Mystic Mondays Tarot. I also can't tell if this deck is meant to be scenic or pip style. Many of the minor arcana just show the emblem of the suit arranged in creative ways, but then some do show human figures in traditional Rider Waite Smith poses. That makes the design feel very inconsistent. I did some research and apparently there have been quality issues since even before the deck was mass produced and available on Amazon. I'm beginning to think the creator of these cards doesn't actually read (ie, respect) tarot. Her interactions with dissatisfied customers have been very aggressive and unprofessional, which shows she doesn't value constructive criticism or the community she's supposed to be serving. It honestly feels like she saw an opportunity to make some money because there are many deck collectors in the tarot community and lots of us have been looking for decks with bright, vibrant colors. This deck had tons of potential, but didn't come close to reaching it. There is an accompanying app, but it's just a digital version of the guidebook. There are no spreads. No tutorials. Just card of the day and the meanings for each card. I was going to seek a replacement for this deck, but I think I'm just going to return it and get a refund. I'll just have to deal with the lazy seven of wands in the self published version. I don't want to get my hopes up again.