Ok, now here is what I liked about the core set. If you wanted a quick game, you and a friend could each choose 2 factions, and a set of neutrals, and begin play immediately. Each new game you could pick a different combination for a different experience. I have nothing against deck building, and would probably choose that option with some of my more ‘hard-core’ friends, but having the ability to just start with others without having to build a deck was a large selling point for me. When I heard about the asylum decks I assumed that they would be the same way, not with new factions, but with perhaps 2 copies of a mini-pack that could be easily combined with another mini pack or faction to create another quick deck for play. Now that does not seem to be the case. Does anyone have a suggestion for adding in the asylum decks and still being capable of the quick ‘mix-and-match’ capability of the original core set? I would appreciate any suggestions.

Well, when first adding cards from the Asylum packs I simply added them to the cards from the core set. This will result in slightly larger decks but I didn't notice any negative side-effects. If you want to limit the deck size to 50 you could also shuffle them in and then randomly remove extra cards.

The only 'problem' is that the cards in the asylum packs aren't really balanced against each other. Typically, one or two factions get a major boost and the rest of the cards are so, so... Then again, adding sucky cards to a deck makes the decision which cards to resource easier

I agre with you on the easy playability of the core set its awesome. You can play quick and fun games with little or no experience. As for the addition of the asylum packs you definately have to consider which way you want to take your deck when constructing it. The asylum packs do give some advantages to certain factions but decent play and card choice can still be a big factor.

well if you like the coreset style, it might keep that game more balanced that you only include one of each card from the asylum pack. that way each faction will roughly get the same cards. if i remember right shub got 3x of all the cards included in the dreams pack, while hastur and cthulhu's cards were 1x ofs. and i think all the misk cards from AH were just one ofs too, they didnt get any 3x of in that pack.

PearlJamaholic said:

Yes, that seems like the best solution to me, though I might eventually take the time to put together the asylum decks and then break them down into units that offer a good mix and play style.  Thanks for all the suggestions though.  I am surprised that Fantasy Flight didn't keep that mix and match style after introducing it in the core set.