I've been working exclusively with this deck for a couple of weeks and I am in love with it. The cards are matte, a little bit wider and a tiny bit shorter than the standard-sized Rider Waite Smith deck -- they're a dream to shuffle (I do overhand, not riffle shuffle). Lisa St. Croix is an artist who currently lives in Santa Fe, NM, but she's traveled around the world and her spiritual journeys, inspirations, and cultural exploration are reflected in these cards. I would say that the cards are fundamentally based on the RWS system, however, she has her own take and nuance on many aspects of the tarot journey. Her little "white" book, which is orange, is extremely informative and I love that she sets it up in numerological order -- in other words, all four suits in the Minor Arcana are listed not by suit but under each of their numbers. It makes it so much easier to see patterns and get a better understanding of the meanings. It's a multi-cultural deck as well, drawing influence from Native American ritual, for example. And the Hierophant is the Dali Lama. You gotta love that. It reads like a dream too. I'm very happy with this deck and it almost immediately became one of my top decks to work with.