Hybrid Supply Variant

The Hybrid Supply Variant (or the 5-5-2 variant) is a gameplay setup variant that limits the options that can be built by a player on their turn.

Setup
The cards first need to be arranged into three separate decks: For setup, the three decks are shuffled face down. Then draw cards face up from the decks until 5 unique cards are drawn from the first deck, 5 unique cards from the second deck and 2 unique cards from the third deck. If duplicates are drawn, then they are stacked on top of their original cards (the supply stack).
 * 1) All establishments with activation numbers 6 and under.
 * 2) All establishments with activation numbers 7 and above
 * 3) All Major Establishments.

During play, whenever the last card of a supply stack is built, replace it by drawing cards from the matching deck until there are 12 unique cards visible. Like during setup, duplicates are placed on top of the originals.

Comparisons
Similar to the Variable Supply Variant, playing this variant compared to the beginner game variant forces each player to develop their own strategy and limits the amount of imitation and pre-determined strategy. This variant takes less time to setup and/or pack up, since only three piles need to be made instead of 15 - 40 piles in the beginner variant.

The downside compared to the Variable Supply Variant is that it takes slightly longer to setup and/or pack up the game, but the upside is that it is less likely for players to not have a viable option on their build phase because of the guaranteed number of one and two dice cards available.

This is the recommended setup variant for the Bright Lights, Big City edition of the game, and the card backs are marked accordingly to make sorting easier.