I've thought about this a LOT, and I do mean a lot. Like, more than a lot. And in the end I decided that for my first project, my primary goal is to a.) make something pretty great b.) produce a number that allows me a high chance of success (so that I can move onto deck #2) and c.) keep the deck desirable so that in the future when Encarded is on deck 4 or 5 people look back and say "damn I wish I had one of those Tendril decks!"
My current plan is to produce 2500. I have to run my spreadsheets against all the various rewards and the final quote from USPCC, but if I can clear about half those via Kickstarter the project would be a success. I hope that Tendril will be good enough that I can beat the goal by a wide margin, which will make everything easier down the road. I'm planning on having a fair number of decks left over after the Kickstarter, which I can sell direct via my own website and use in contests and promotions.
I really have a vision for how all this could work down the road but want to ensure that #1 hits it right and is a success, setting up everything else. My head is already busting with deck #2 but I've got to get Tendril done right to make it all worthwhile.
Thanks to everyone for the kind words and supportive comments, this is a supremely fun and inspiring project and I really hope to be around for a while making awesome stuff.