Marseilles decks are pip decks, to the best of my knowledge. Do your minor arcana have characters, or just symbols?

I am writing a post for next week about choosing a tarot deck, where I plan to talk about this. If you don't connect fully with the deck, it will be much harder to read the cards, and just feel disheartening. I currently own five decks, with one more on pre-order and coming my way later this month. I've given away decks that didn't resonate with me in the past, and if you're struggling I do recommend finding a new deck.

Most physical shops that sell tarot decks will have a binder showing the designs of several cards, to help you determine whether a deck connects with you. If you'll be buying a deck online (I've gotten most of mine that way), I recommend visiting http://www.aeclectic.net/ and looking up the deck, maybe read a few of the reviews, etc., to get a feel for the cards.