Is this due to removing items from the game - or just intended for balance for this encounter? I recall them being fully slotted when doing it before, but now they only have 3 or 4 pieces each? It's especially weird as I remember triggering a card in the first battle - that's not in my warriors build (a shield block card I believe), as he just has flimsy, weak and unreliable currently in deck. I R CONFUSE Looking at the card origins of cards drawn in next battle indicates these starters are using monster decks rather than char deck (origin player names rather than items, so might be an explanation)
Yep tutorial decks are locked i even have a screen of a warrior with wizard cards because of this so most likely items got removed but for now it doesn't change anything just looks silly.