So, what about this deck? According to the site, it's the third and final deck designed by C. J. Freeman before the 'standard' Playing Card Oracles came out. Before it, there was the Alchemy Edition and another, very rare one, which I have the luck of owning, called "Kingdom of Outcasts" (from which the Fate & Fortune edition derives a couple of images from). In my opinion, it's a lot closer to the conventional PCO deck than to the Alchemy edition, though it's still different from both.
Each trading pack contains four playing cards (one from each suit), one instruction card with the basic meanings, one C. J. Freeman portrait card, one "blurb" cards and a sticker (you can see it all here). The 13th pack is a special edition, and comes with the two "joker" card, which are illustrations Freeman did of Ana Cortez and of Ladoux (a mysterious lady mentioned in the original Playing Card Oracles book). As you can imagine, if you buy all 13 packs like I did, you end up with tons of Freeman portraits and blurb cards, not to mention a few repeated stickers. I am still figuring out what to do with them...
Not that I regret buying it, absolutely not! As a Playing Card Oracles lover, I am super happy with my new acquisition. I do believe that this deck will help expand my views on certain cards, particularly those I still have a hard time interpreting sometimes.
Each trading pack contains four playing cards (one from each suit), one instruction card with the basic meanings, one C. J. Freeman portrait card, one "blurb" cards and a sticker (you can see it all here). The 13th pack is a special edition, and comes with the two "joker" card, which are illustrations Freeman did of Ana Cortez and of Ladoux (a mysterious lady mentioned in the original Playing Card Oracles book). As you can imagine, if you buy all 13 packs like I did, you end up with tons of Freeman portraits and blurb cards, not to mention a few repeated stickers. I am still figuring out what to do with them...
The cards are small, truly "playing card" sized, but have a good quality. The cardstock is very similar to the Alchemy Edition The backs show the usual 'swirly' design of all PCO decks, but this time in blue. Most of the cards follow very closely the structure of the standard deck, with only a few having different names (which I will list below), but it does have some unique aspects of its own. First of all, the Twos and the Threes are called "Deuces" and "Treys" which I loved... it gives such an enchanted, old-fashioned feeling to the deck! Also, the Eights are all "scales" in this deck. This is rather fascinating, because for the first time I see some coherence in the symbolism of the 8s, which are cards I often find challenging.
As for the design, the images are definitely rougher than the standard Playing Card Oracles, and nowhere as detailed as the Alchemy Edition. That said, I have found them to be quite magical. The Fate & Fortune reminds me of those antique decks, like the Belline or the old Lenormands, which have a rather stark design. And I happen to love this sort of aesthetics to bits, so I am very happy about this new member of the PCO family.
The downside of this deck, should it have any is... the trading pack thing. Now, I know it's meant to be a fun novelty, but the truth is that buying 13 packs to get a full deck of cards, each of them costing around US$ 10, means ultimately paying US$ 130 for a single deck! Ok, you get stickers and tons of C. J. Freeman portraits, but it is still expensive (especially for me, since I live in a country with a devalued currency). I'd love to buy a second copy of it, but I don't think I'll be able to.
Here are the cards that have different names (compared to the conventional PCO deck):
5 of Clubs = The Stormy Loop
5 of Spades = The Crossroads
8 of Diamonds = The Scales of Justice
8 of Hearts = The Scales of Woe
8 of Spades = The Scales of Reckoning
9 of Spades = Carnival of Lost Souls
King of Hearts = Nichomus
King of Spades = Khan
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