>>14
You're welcome. You could also use items to make your party or one character invincible if you have some to spare, btw.

>>15
There are some fixed encounters, but I think the random do disappear. And yeah, this game is easy when you know what you're doing. I screwed massively on my first play, not knowing that ending CD3 was basically finishing the game, not allowing you to do most of the interesting things.

Getting the cards is quick with the Diff rule (takes 2 or 3 hours or so, and that is for 100 Tornado/100 Blizzaga on 3 characters), but I agree the basic game is a little annoying. It's more interesting with the Same/Plus rules, and with random decks, but then it gets tricky.