Hello my group and myself are new. We have 1 core set and 4 players. So do we have to combine the decks as instructed in the rulebook for balanced factions? Or can we each combine any two? Thanks!

You don't have to only use the default decks. You can build them however you like, but it's very difficult to say whether all pairings will be equal.

The 4 pairings suggested in the book are "safer", in that they're passably balanced and have distributed the neutrals and plots evenly among the decks. I certainly would start from there, and then, once you have a feel for the plots/neutrals, you could vary the faction pairings and adjust the plots/neutrals accordingly (or "draft" the factions, each player picking one in turn, then "draft" the neutrals/plots).

Ok, i will try all of that. Thanks.

I guess if they aren't that equal it won't matter a whole lot early on. Thanks.

I think i will separate the decks as they suggest and let people draft factions and the divided up 4 groups of neutral and plot cards. A few of the players in my group are big into Netrunner so i am hoping they will have some input as well.

Nope, i was outvoted. We are playing with the pre-constructed sets.

Let us know how it plays out!

It went well, everybody liked it. We all want to assemble our own decks though. So i would say it was successful.