These are all great questions! I have recently (i.e. the last year or so) moved away from tarot and fallen in love with an oracle deck. I’m still using tarot a bit, but the oracle decks is one I use the most.
Oracle is more intuitive, I think, and doesn’t have the same rules that tarot does. There are varying numbers of cards in each deck and the symbols are all going to be different depending on the deck. I actually wrote a post here about the differences between them if you think that will be helpful!
→ It’s in the Cards 
Tarot and Oracle
And I also have a video on my YouTube channel about my personal experience moving from tarot to oracle that you might like.
→ Moving Away from Tarot - Spirits and Shadows Oracle || NEW Deck walkthrough! [CC] - YouTube
As far as pendulums go, I have one but I don’t tend to use it very often. It’s one method of divination that I’ve never really connected with and, honestly, I’ve thought about selling my pendulum 
We do have some information about pendulums here on Spells8, though!
→ How to Program a Pendulum for Divination Work – Spells8