Decks with good guidebooks?

[Mokona]

Recently I've been working with the Tarot of Vampyres by Ian Daniels, and the guidebook is a doozy. It's just really really good. And I love that when I bought this deck it was accompanied by a guidebook that really adds to the deck, and to my tarot studies.

I know that US Games sometimes sold guidebooks for decks separately, but most of them are out of print and hard to come by. As it is, I live in India, and haven't been able to buy any indie or secondhand decks since Covid hit.

So I'm asking for recommendations of mass-market decks with guidebooks that you thought were especially good, offered something different, or added to the deck, or however you judged that the guidebook was good. Whether the guidebook comes as a set with the deck, or is sold separately, as long as it's mass-market and still in print, I'd be grateful for your suggestions!

[Ade]

Interesting topic for conversation. My choice, although it may fall slightly out of scope of your definitions, would be The Tarot: The Origins, Meaning and Uses of the Cards by Alfred Douglas which accompanies the Sheridan Douglas tarot. The guide was the first tarot book I ever purchased back in the late 1970s and still have it, albeit a bit dog eared by now. But it's a fantastic introduction to the tarot and really complements the deck nicely.

I said possibly out of scope because the book needs to be purchased additionally to the deck, but both are available from the Douglas family website. And it's not really a mass market deck although the last (2001?) printing is still readily available. All told, I cannot really think of a better introduction to the tarot than this book and deck.