| abstract
| - During gameplay the Overlord deck must always have at least 15 cards in it. The Overlord deck begins a campaign with the fifteen Basic 0 level cards. Further cards can be purchased using experience points as the campaign progresses. As new cards are purchased they can be added and removed from the overlord decks between quests (but not in between a quest with two encounters. The Overlord can customize which cards available to them are available in their deck as long as they always have a minimum of 15 cards in their deck at the beginning of a quest. If the Overlord draws the last card in their deck the discard pile is shuffled and turned into a new draw pile for them. The Overlord draws one card at the beginning of their turn and have no maximum hand size. There are three original classes of upgraded Overlord cards; Warlord, Saboteur, and Magus. In addition to this there were four Universal Level 1 cards included in the base game that are available for purchase at any time. Then, each expansion brought new cards:
* Punisher was added with Lair of the Wyrm
* A second set of beginning cards called "Basic II" cards were added with Labyrinth of Ruin rather than a full new class
* Infector was added with The Trollfens
* Shadowmancer was added with Shadow of Nerekhall
* Enchanter and Unkindness was added with Manor of Ravens Within each class, there are three levels of cards available. Level 1 cards cost one experience point, level 2 cards cost two experience points, and level 3 cards cost three experience points. Level 1 cards are always available for the overlord player to purchase. In order to purchase a level 2 card, the overlord player must first currently have two Level 1 cards of that class in his deck. He must have three cards of a class in his deck (which can be any combination of Level 1 and Level 2 cards) before purchasing a level 3 card of that class. Unlike heroes, the overlord may purchase cards from multiple classes. Universal cards are always available for purchase. In the base game, there are 4 universal cards each worth 1 experience point and each class has 4 level one cards, 2 level two cards, and 1 level three card in addition of the 3 basic classes.
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