Alright. So like most questions I ask on the internet I was able to actually solve this myself by playing around once I already showed myself to be ignorant to the world.
Here's how you do it--
1. When you set up your document set your margins so that you can maximize how many cards you can print per page. In this case it meant using 0.25 inch left and right margins, and 0.5 inch for top and bottom. We're using margins as bleed space as well as a spacing technique, essentially. This allowed me to do a 4x5 grid per page.
2. Since I wanted a 2x2in card I selected the Rectangle Frame tool and pulled it into the upper leftmost corner of the space within the margin. Change the background color as appropriate within the frame. DO NOT USE A RECTANGLE OR THE LINE TOOL. Doing this will replicate the line and rectangle as well as the linked data from the merge. This will make your sheets worse than worthless. If you need to have guidelines for cutting the cards add a stroke to the frame and make sure to Align the stroke to the inside of the card. DO NOT MAKE MORE THAN ONE FRAME RECTANGLE.
3. Select the frame with the selection tool, and go to the datamerge window. Select your CSV using "Select data source" and format the single frame as appropriate.
4. Click the "Create Merged Document" Button and choose the following selections:
Records to Merge-> Merge all records
Records per Document Page-> Multiple Records
Check the "Preview Multiple Records Layout" to be sure you did everything right, and if the layout doesn't work for you go back through the steps until you find your error. Once it looks right go back to create merged document with all the previously mentioned settings, preview, and if it looks fine click "OK"
Congratulations. You've just created a full set of playing cards on 8.5x11 sheets of paper without going insane doing it manually.
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