This version of the Rider-Waite deck was published by US Games as an attempt to restore the images of the deck to the look/color of the original publication in the early part of the 20th century.  Softer colors with the kind of grainy gradient coloring like you see in newspapers is the rule here.  The standard Rider-Waite has flat, four-color printing.  Here, instead, the variety of colors is greater but instead of bright vivid tones, old-fashioned muted colors are shown.
 
There is something old-fashioned and appealing about the color scheme here, which will make this a nice alternative to the flat colors of the standard Rider-Waite.  In terms of the Major Arcana, since this is basically a direct variation on the Rider-Waite, all the titles and ordering are traditional.  Strength is 8 and Justice 11.  The Minor Arcana uses the tradidional suits of Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles.  Court titles are King, Queen, Knight and Page.  All 78 cards feature the trademark full scenes which were pioneered by the Rider-Waite deck.
 
The cards themselves are standard sized and printed on thin, flexible cardstock with a nice coating for protection.  The edges and corners are nicely smoothed and rounded off, and the deck is easy to shuffle and handle.  The back design is a light blue and white fleur-de-lis pattern and is reversible.  Instead of a little white booklet, this deck comes with a miniature paperback edition of the Key to the Tarot by Arthur Edward Waite.  It is a revised and updated edition, with a foreward by Liz Greene.  This is most helpful in terms of knowing what the actual symbols on each card refer to.  A small sheet is included which has a diagram of the Celtic Cross spread.

If you like the Rider-Waite imagery, but prefer a muted, softly colored edition, you may like this better than the standard.  I like that it is one more choice for students of the tarot.  Pretty much everyone acknowledges that the Rider-Waite is the essential "learning" deck; it is good to know you have many different color schemes to select from.
 
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Review Copyright 2000 by Gina M. Pace

The Original Rider-Waite Tarot Pack by A. E. Waite and Pamela Colman Smith
published by US Games Systems, Inc.  Stamford, CT in 1973
ISBN 0-88079-686-3