The Minor Arcana of the Tarot deck are much more like what we understand and are familiar with as playing cards today.
In fact, the jokers you get in a new playing deck relate back to the Tarot roots of the card. Modern decks have four suits with 13 cards in each suit – ace, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, jack, queen, and, king. It depends on the game you are playing in a modern deck whether the aces are High (above the king) or Low (before the two) Much of this reflects modern playing card’s roots in Tarot decks of the late medieval/early renaissance Italy.
In addition to the individual suits, the number or picture on the card has a meaning too. Minor Arcana