For a deck to succeed, it has to be elegant, yes, but often it has to offer people something they already aren't able to find. Something that's original.
Inspired by snake skin? Make the back look more like snakeskin.
Making it look so much like the LTD deck makes people think it's not very original.
Take Randy's advice regarding the technicals of the deck design process.
I'm taking this as a "learning experience". Whatever the outcome may be, I'm taking in what the reaction from the community is and see how I can improve the design (or crate an entirely new design). Than again, I'm not the exact designer who designed the cards. This was a collaboration remember? Why I may have a "say in things", doesn't mean it'll happen. We had conflicting views on the custom design.
I noticed you shut down your KS project. You were starting to get a little steam going there. I just don't know if that would have been enough to carry you to your goal, though.
When you return (and I hope that you will) to Kickstarter, have a design that's as close to completed as is possible. Backs, courts, Ace of Spades, jokers, even the two extra cards that are usually either ad cards or gaff cards. You'll have room to tweak the design if you wish based on the comments of your investors, but you'll also not waste a great deal of time in the post-KS phase finishing your designs. That was one of the bigger delays suffered by the Actuators deck when it completed the fundraising stage. The deck was noticeably late getting to print because of that. Also, it's a helluva lot easier to sell a nearly-finished design, since you can show it off in all it's computer-rendered glory.
And when it comes to selling it, you really have to sell it. Come to this forum, go to United Cardists, go anywhere that you think someone would be interested in cards - and maybe even a few that you didn't think would be, because you never know. Post, post, post. Promote, promote, promote. It will seem tiring and endless - but it does end, and the more you do, the better your shot at a successful end.