Is the Universal Rider-Waite a good deck

Yes — for most people starting out, it's a good default. It's the same 78 cards and the same Pamela Colman Smith artwork as the classic Rider-Waite, just recolored in softer tones with finer detail, so the meanings transfer directly: what you learn on it works on any RWS deck you meet later. The full-illustration minor arcana is the part that actually helps — you read the scene instead of the guidebook. [Source: the U.S. Games Systems product page for the Universal Waite, this turn's search.]

Two things worth knowing before you settle on it:

• Deck choice is method, not fate. RWS is not the only valid imagery tradition, and it isn't the oldest — the Marseille and Visconti-Sforza lineages run older. But it's the one most English-language books assume, so it's the cheapest place to start and the easiest to get second opinions on.
• Pick by handling, not meaning. Try it in hand if you can: card stock, how the figures read at arm's length, whether the borders intrude. Near-duplicates differ far more in print quality than in interpretation.

One thing that belongs here rather than on the card: the readings I do use this same RWS tradition, so a Universal Waite at your own table and a spread from me are working from the same imagery and the same positions. They aren't competing systems.

Want me to pull a single practice card so you can see how a position reads out loud?