There are 10 kinds of people who understand binary: Those who do, and those who don't.
I thought that you started with 4 items from each deck? (I don't own the game so I can't check that. I played, first time, last night.)2 items from each deck actually makes a bit more sense to me, as the first thing I had to do after kicking a door in and not finding a monster was to get rid of 5 cards to get down to 5.
Previously starting with 2 cards (please don't call them items) from each deck was the norm, and they included the "quick start" rules with 4 from each. Now the quick start rules have actually become the base rule, as you can see on the first page of the rules under SETUP here: http://www.worldofmunchkin.com/rules/munchkin_rules.pdf
