When Good Ideas Go Bad: The Infinity Tarot
Every so often a deck announcement sets you to twitching in anticipation, something so unique that you just KNOW that you have to get your hands on the deck as soon as it is released. For me, that deck was the Infinity Tarot.
| God I wanted to like this deck, I really did. But this is such a clear case of when a good idea goes horribly wrong. The artwork is bizzare - beautiful in some cases and downright ugly in others. The subject matter varies from Greek and Egyptian mythological figures, to fairytale characters like wizards, princesses and knights. There are a few steampunk like cards that just seem out of place... The figure eight design means that there is a tear drop shaped cutout in each end (see the card at right). While unnoticible in some cards, for others the cutout is right in the middle of the design and is incredibly distracting. Some of the cards even have an air of malice to them - the card at the right is the Death card for this deck - and the expression on the woman in the center is unsettling to say the least. It also appears that a number of these cards were designed on a rectangular template, and then when the cards were cut parts of the image were cut off as well. |  |
There are no titles to any of the cards, just numbers. While some images are easy to pick out others require that you really know what the roman numerals are. The card stock is OK, but it doesn't feel like it is designed to hold up to heavy use. Seems a shame. Overall, the deck is OK, and the images fairly easy for beginners for the most part... but I find myself too unsettled by some of the images to really connect with this deck.