If you buy the core-set, is there enough cards to make 2 decent decks?

When you buy a 40 card Asylum pack, will it be enough choice to divide the cards up between the two theoretical starters you make with the core-set?

Basically, I am curious if you only plan to play 2-player with your wife. Will buying one core-set, and one asylum pack at a time give you enough flexibility to make 2-faction themed-decks that work? I might buy into the game if that is the case.

Also, can you play this game solo like Arkham Horror? (Some CCGs allow this)

I guess this depends on your definition of 'decent'. If you're just playing with the core game, there's no deck-building involved. You just combine the cards of two factions. Since there are seven factions that's still quite a lot of different combinations which should allow you to play for a while without things getting boring.

Asylum Packs only add 1-3 cards per faction, so you will have to buy many of them before you can really start building decks.

There's no way to play the game solo that I am aware of. It's quite possible to test drive your decks solo, though. At the very least this helps to get a general idea of the gameflow and the way your deck plays out.

jhaelen said:

Are you talking about the amount of different cards, not including the copies? I bought the Core Set and then Ancient Horrors AP (for the Ancient Ones, being a AH fan), and all but Cthulhu and Miskatonic got 7 cards for their faction., and have no plans to add more APs.

For casual play, even Core Set is perfectly fine.

Do you think there is enough cards in buying just one core-set, and a few asylum packs (one copy of each I choose) to split between two decks of two-factions(different factions than opposing deck) each and have a decent time?

Dam said:

If you want casual play (each player just picks two factions, shuffle and play), Core itself is enough. You get 47 card decks, not 100% legal, but as long as both have equal amount of cards, doesn't really matter IMO. With my combo of Core + Ancient Horrors, decks either hit 50 or 54 cards (random Neutrals to even the numbers). Core Set offers I think 105 unique games, where each paired faction combo faces another paired faction combo. That should take you a while I think .

If you want to fiddle more with deck-building than in casual, I'm not sure Core + 1 each of the APs is enough, at least not if you want the "best" cards in 3x. APs have certain cards 1x, others 3x. Somebody with a bigger collection can probably help in this matter, like I said, Core + Ancient Horrors is enough for me, since I play casual only.

Dam said:

And I agree that the Core set is sufficient for casual play.

Now that I have bought one copy of each Asylum Pack of the Sleeper Cycle, I also think there's enough cards to start building decks. They also help faction combos that don't do well with just the Core game.