I'm really enjoying this game and would like to buy some of the expansions that have come out. A problem I'm facing is I don't have a lot of players in my area and so its critical that I have 4 decks so friends can play. I'm afraid that if I buy an expansion, utilizing cards to update a particular deck will force me to canabalize the other decks. Has anyone dealt with this or have suggestions around keeping the starter decks somewhat in tact. I fully realize these starter decks are not great, and I'm a little doubtful that anyone expansion would really help all of the decks. Just curious is all.

Also, if customizing the starter decks isn't really an option, would I still be able to use the enemy and location cards from the expansions?

If you haven't read it, i'll suggest Beorn's Path which is a sort of campaign with only the card pool available at the moment quest was released...

I also suggest reading the buying guides from Tales of the Cards, as any other guides in there that may help you

So if I understand correctly, you dont want to change the starter decks really, you just want to add more cards? And you want to have 4 decks alive at a time?

I suppose simply suggesting that your friends buy the game is out of the question, that would be the easiest solution. Then you wouldn't have to worry about it.

Beyond that, for keeping 4 decks alive I am going to say that a second Core box is essential. That is what I would start with. I think I would suggest picking up the Saga expansions afterwards (Black Riders, Road Darkens, Treason of Saruman, Land of Shadow), because you get a lot of generally useful cards, and the quests are fun and thematic.

Expansions are broken up into cycles. Each cycle relies on one "big box" expansion. You can play all the quests in the Mirkwood Cycle with only the core box required. You can play all the Saga expansions that I suggested with only the core box required too. Getting one of the other "small pack" expansions generally means that you'll have to have one of the big box expansions to play the quest, use the enemies and locations etc. You can easily find out which expansion packs belong to which cycles on cardgamedb.com.

Ultimately though, the more your card pool grows, the less like the starter decks your decks will become. But that is okay, and it doesn't mean you cant have 4 decks. So I guess in a nutshell I would buy an extra core set first and Black Riders, then continue on through all of the Saga expansions.