Thank you all for the compliments! So glad my concept came across, as I do hardly differentiate playing cards from Tarot myself. Also very excited to receive my BRuT Tarot from Uusi. I had been working on this for while before I saw their deck, and reached out to them to explain. They are swell people who not only understood, but have backed the limited Playing Marseille themselves!
If I may, I'll try and help answer some questions. The limited editions will be printed on letterpress, which is where the bulk of the budget goes. The printing for 500 of the Marseille alone (not included the tuck-box, packaging, shipping, fees, etc) is $8-9k as it uses 5 plates. While I did figure my time to paint each Lenormand (2 hours per deck) into the individual price, that was NOT included in the $22k goal.
They won't use black-core, but an art paper ("French Paper" brand) which can riffle (I had 6 blank decks made to try out). Although, if you like your decks mint, then maybe don't riffle as the do curve overtime (but personally, I like my decks 'broken in'). They aren't a cotton-rag, but if you have the hand-screened Dodal, the stocks are somewhat similar. But if a better stock comes along, I will see what the options are.
Again, thanks for the conversation and kind words! Much appreciated.
And yes, the limited-edition 'Kickstarter-only' card will be a Happy Squirrel.