Most of our games end up going till all the cards are out, which is a bummer some times to not actually end the game ( usually the last or 2nd to last row ).

Makes me wonder if shuffling cards from the discard pile and finishing it would be so bad?

I have some friends who we just won't throw a good one for the other guy the first round and let them get the first bet on something, so we use way to many cards the first round it seems. Then later you just have to keep using cards and stalling when they have good &/or better cards.

Do you use the variant that people keep playing until their hands run out? When using that variant, we usually finish the fifth round. Without it, we rarely do.

I actually like to play high cards early on other people's creatures, as I can then kill them easier later. The exceptions are that blasted Unicorn and Troll.