So I bought the core set for me and my friend to try out and I have a few questions and queries that I need some help with.

1) I've counted all the cards in the deck and they do come up to the number printed in the instruction (165). However in Miskatonic U. deck there is only 19 cards and in the Agency deck there is 21 cards.

All the other decks have 20 cards. The two neutral packs also come up to only 7 cards.

This seems to be a problem to me as the instructions state for the first time play to simply mix two factions together, with one of the neutral packs each to get a deck. Yet the manual later states that a "legal deck" is 50 cards minimum.

Therefore even with 2 factions of 20 cards each you will be short of 50 by 3.

More so, if the Miskatonic U and Agency factions are in play, one player could have more cards than the other.

Is this a problem or am I seeing a problem where non-exist? lol

3) There is one "Conspiracy" card in the core set? If following the first game rules, or just in general playing with just the core set between two people, who gets the card?

4) Some of the cards have next to their names 2 black symbols of the faction the cards are from, to the left of the name that is. The Undercover Security card from the Agency is an example of one of these cards. What do these symbols mean?

5) We are just casual players and are unsure of expanding the core set. Do you think it works just sharing the deck, mixing different factions each game, developing favourites out of what we have? I know this question is very general.

Thanks for any help!

1. This is a long-standing misprint that has been ruled to stand as-is. Originally (in the old CCG version) Steve Clarney was a Miskatonic character. Anyway, once you start adding cards it really doesn't affect anything and one side having 1-2 cards more than the other in their starter deck isn't really significant either. Neutral is not a faction itself, so it's not supposed to have the same number of cards. The starter set is intended to teach you the game and the decks are smaller than normal tournament size. This is as intended, and all the LCGs work the same way.

3. Correct, there is one Conspiracy. You can put it in either deck you like, or leave it out. It's basically there to show you what a Conspiracy is. I typically leave it out of the first game with a new player, then explain it afterward.

4. These are Steadfast icons, you can read about them at the top of p12 in the rulebook. Basically, you need to have at least that many matching resources across all your domains to play that card. They most often appear on 0-cost cards, where they prevent players being able to splash these into any deck without regard for faction.

5. Yes, you can play quite a while just mixing different faction matches together. Then if you like the game, you can look into adding more cards later if you feel that you'd like more variety and new cards to experiment with.

Just as a reference, good second purchases would probably be either the Terror in Venice or Secrets of Arkham box. Lately, I would suggest Terror in Venice as it adds a lot more juice to the Conspiracy and Night/Day mechanics. Secrets of Arkham has a lot of great cards for all factions but not really a specific theme. Note that Secrets of Arkham is being reprinted soon with 3x copies of each card (the old version had 2x of each card). So, if you get it, get the new version.

If you get more into deck building, you will eventually want a 2nd Core set as well. Having a lot of 1x cards tends to yield an inconsistent feeling deck since you may or may not draw any given card in a game and having extra copies helps your deck feel a lot more focused.

Oh wow.

You guys answered all my questions and I didn't even have to ask them!

I just purchased this game over the weekend and I had the same exact question about the number of cards in the starter deck.

Thanks for the answer dboeren!

Yes, I can even answer questions before they're asked

I just had occasion to play some Core games the other night, which I haven't done for a while. It's very different! The pace is slower and the decks are less focused of course, but also the story effects feel really weird to me and seem very swingy compared to the current Shifting Sands set of story cards. I ended up getting in trouble the first game because I resourced some of my pricy-but-strong characters. It would have been the right decision at the speed of a constructed game, but with a Core set the tempo loss is much more acceptable and late in the game I didn't have these guys available anymore. Second game I was able to adjust and play more appropriately to the pace.

really any new player should probably go to cardgamedb.com instead of trying to get help here lot more active.

Ah, but you don't get the (albeit belated) human touch on cardgamedb.com