Carnie Tarot

My Xmas present to myself finally arrived yesterday from the US. It is the Carnie Elite tarot deck made by Outlaw Effects (carnie-tarot.html), who normally make equipment for the other kind of magic,  including this tarot deck.
I have written before here about how tarot decks seem to have a particular setting which suits them best: a theory I first came up with after my Marseille tarot suddenly became alive for me one evening in the pub, when previously I hadn't been able to relate to it at all. Obviously the natural setting for the Carnie tarot is the fairground, a fact which will not endear it to the ardent believers in the ancient Craft of the Wise. It is a marked deck intended for magic,  which I don't mind at all. This means that once you know the patterns you can tell the front of the card by looking at the back. Since I'm only interested in the front that doesn't bother me and I don't personally feel the need to learn the code.
Otherwise this is probably the highest -standard deck I have ever owned: it is a limited edition of 150 and was certainly the most expensive. Outlaw Effects make a few variants on this deck and I have chosen probably the most vanilla,  where the heads are not all transformed into skulls,  and which is based on the Marseille variant, the Flemish tarot. In this deck a couple of majors are drawn quite differently and a major difference is that V is Bacchus. Actually that would be the only criticism I have of this deck, that the titles of the majors are the normal ones and given in English, which just looks wrong. This is of course the perspective of someone who wants to do actual tarot readings with a Belgian flavour, rather than stage magic.
My personal biggest gamble in buying this sight unseen was that I do not normally like ready-aged cards, not even those of the Bicycle brand, which everyone else seems to love. However my fears were unfounded, it is not over-done at all. It looks like a quality repro of an old deck. I particularly like the spotty backs and the black colouring to the cards' edges.
And from a witch point of view,  it feels like a deck with a personality. I haven’t read with it yet, but it feels like the results will be upfront and it will naturally have a sense of humour. I am impressed with this feel from it, and perhaps its character is best summed up by the little rhyme on the two of cups :
The tarot cards in your possession
Must be held with good intention
Use their power not unwisely
And you will find a companion lively.