About the black tiger deck, I personally like the white pips more than the red one.
Don't understand why they are stopping that.
Strictly guessing here, but I'd say they're killing off the Black Tigers white-only pips because not everyone goes for a single-pip-color deck. Again, if I had to guess, I'd say the red/white BTs outsold the white-only BTs. They revived interest in them for me with the recent re-release of the Black Tiger Gaff Deck - I'm told, though, that this deck, in order to conform with the new USPC legal requirements, doesn't have the same card selection as the previous printing did.
I used to have a Tally-Ho Viper Fan Back stripper deck - I loved that deck. They do handle well, and look pretty flashy for cardistry routines.
I'm not a cardist, but there's a lot of smooth-handling cards out there with good stock. Cards with Tally-Ho or Bee stock may handle better than Aristocrat or Bicycle stock due to the firmness and spring of the cards, as well as their ability to retain their shape. Smooth-finish cards likely don't handle as well for cardistry because they don't have that glide from all the little dimples a textured finish gives (much like why a golf ball will go further than a smooth ball under identical circumstances).
Have you tried Richard Turner Bicycle Gold Seals? He used Bee stock to make them and had them traditionally cut (a big plus for certain fans, shuffles, etc.). And the video I saw of Ekaterina displaying with a Gold Arcane deck was pretty awesome - as stated a few posts ago, they're Performance Coated with the new stock.