Your first tarot deck is a small but meaningful choice — and with thousands of decks out there, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. The good news: for a beginner, the decision is simpler than it looks. Here's how to choose a first deck that will actually help you learn, plus a myth worth clearing up.
Start with a Rider-Waite-Smith deck
If you take one piece of advice, take this: as a beginner, start with a Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) based deck. Here's why it matters so much:
- It's the tarot "standard." The vast majority of books, courses, apps, and online guides — including ours — are written around RWS imagery. Learn on an RWS deck and every resource speaks your deck's language.
- Every card is illustrated. In RWS, all 78 cards — including the numbered "pip" cards — have a full scene you can read intuitively. The Five of Cups shows a cloaked figure grieving spilled cups; you can read the picture.
- Contrast with older decks (like Marseille-style ones), where the pips are just arrangements of suit symbols — five cups in a pattern, no scene. Beautiful, but much harder for beginners to read intuitively.
You don't have to buy the exact classic Rider-Waite deck. Any modern deck that follows the RWS system and keeps illustrated pips works — and there are gorgeous ones in every art style. Just check that the number cards have scenes, not just symbols.
What to look for
Beyond "RWS-based," a few practical things:
- Fully illustrated scenes on all 78 cards. Confirm the pip cards (Ace through Ten of each suit) have real imagery. This is the single biggest readability factor.
- Artwork you genuinely love. You'll read a deck more if you're drawn to its art. This is where personal taste rules — dreamy, bold, minimalist, botanical, whatever pulls you in.
- Card size and stock. Tarot cards run larger than playing cards, and sizes vary. If you have smaller hands, an oversized deck can be awkward to shuffle. Card stock (flimsy vs. sturdy, matte vs. glossy) affects feel and durability too.
- A decent guidebook. Many decks include a little book of meanings. A good one is a nice bonus for beginners, though you'll lean on it less as you learn.
Tarot deck, not oracle deck
One common mix-up: if you want to learn tarot, get a tarot deck — not an oracle deck. Tarot decks share a fixed 78-card structure (22 Major Arcana + 56 Minor Arcana across four suits), which is exactly what all the guides and systems are built on. Oracle decks are free-form — any number of cards, any theme, no shared structure — which makes them lovely but not learnable in the same systematic way. Beautiful as a complement, confusing as a first "tarot" deck.
Reading this for a card you pulled?
Pull three cards free →The "must be gifted" myth
You may have heard that your first tarot deck must be given to you, not bought. It's a charming superstition — and that's all it is. There's no rule, no tradition with real weight behind it, and no reason a deck you choose yourself will read any worse. In fact, most readers buy their own first deck, and choosing one you connect with is a genuinely good start. Buy the deck that calls to you, guilt-free.
After you choose
Once you have your deck, the best next step isn't a complicated spread — it's getting to know the cards. Start a daily one-card practice, learn how to read, and let familiarity build naturally. And remember, whatever deck you pick: tarot is a reflective tool, and the deck is simply the set of images you'll reflect with.
Where to go next
- How to read tarot cards → — the full beginner foundation.
- Daily tarot reading → — the best way to learn your new deck.
- How to cleanse tarot cards → — caring for it once you have it.
Don't have a deck yet? Pull a free 3-card spread → with our online deck — a no-pressure way to see how reading the cards feels before you buy.