Creative Cartomancy

“When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.” (and variants thereof)

There’s a divinatory corollary –
When you’re a card reader, every pack of cards looks like a fortune teller. 😏

Which is why, when I saw this on eBay, I knew I had to buy it.

Cheers and Tear game cards, published by Waddingtons, © 1963.

It consists of 52 cards – 18 pairs of Cheers cards: “the things you like to do”, and 18 opposing Tears cards: “the things that stop you”.

Does that not sound like the makings of a great will I/won’t I, should I/shouldn’t I deck?!

My first thought was, “Should I remove the duplicate Cheers cards in order to have a 50/50 balance?” It seemed sensible but I was concerned that in practice the results would end up being too Teary.

I know, let’s ask the cards!

This first triplet is for “Leave in all the cards”, and it uses all the cards.

Two Cheers – I’ve happily created a new concept with this adorable deck I’ve just gotten. One Tears – Even with twice the “happy” cards, it’s still got a kick to it.

This line is for “Strip out the duplicates”, and has them removed.

And we have the same distribution – two Cheers and one Tears, and in the same order. This way is more challenging but sheds more light, just don’t overuse it. And in this line I’ve got the happy counterpart to the unhappy card which ended the previous triplet. This makes me view the previous line in more of a “You’re smiling now, but it’ll blow up in your face” sort of way.

On balance, stripping out the duplicates appears to be the way to go. I think I'm going to have fun with this. Not too much, though. 😉