This is a deck just for you & not for commercial production, right? If you're using collage, you'll have to protect the surface somehow so the collage edges don't pop up. They have crystal laminate (sticky on one side, smooth on the other) at places like Office Depot or Office Max (or any office supply store). If you need, you can laminate only the fronts this way. If you want both sides laminated, Kinkos has a machine that'll do it for you, but you'll have to cut around all the edges no matter which way you go.
Just concentrate on doing up the cards for now. Take the first steps, there are always options. In fact, use any kind of paper you want, if it's going to be covered, then you don't need to worry about thickness, when you laminate you can always do it 2 sided and put the paper against a card stock for extra stiffness.
AND, think about this--just do the art, then have it color laser xeroxed (89 cents for a 11x14" size usually) and cut those apart & laminate them. This way when they wear out you can use the originals to do a second set for you at an affordable cost. You can fit a lot of cards on the 11x14" paper.
