How many cards is a “proper” deck supposed to contain?
The answer depends on what kind of deck it is.
Traditional tarot follows a 78-card structure.
An original oracle deck does not have to.
Its number of cards can grow directly from the system behind the deck.
A deck divided into four groups of ten naturally produces forty cards. A system based on six groups of six produces thirty-six. A deck built around elements and their combinations may require yet another structure.
The number is therefore not necessarily arbitrary simply because it is not traditional.
A deck needs a world before it needs a number
A strong original deck should begin with its central idea.
What kinds of situations should it describe?
What language does it use?
What belongs in its world — and what does not?
A humorous village oracle should not sound exactly like a deck about shadow work.
A mafia-inspired oracle needs a different voice from an elemental system.
Otherwise the artwork changes, but every deck ends up saying the same things.
Every card needs a reason to exist
During the design process, two cards often begin to say almost the same thing.
Keeping both merely to reach a target number makes the deck weaker.
Each card should add something distinct to the vocabulary of the system.
The final number should serve the deck — not the other way around.
A shared voice matters too
A card deck is not only a list of titles and meanings.
Its cards should sound as though they belong together.
The wording, humour, seriousness and structure all help create that shared identity.
That is one reason original oracle decks can be so different from one another.
Tarot offers a traditional framework.
Oracle decks have the freedom to build their own.