Suppose you stripped two standard Yomi decks down to decks of 27 cards (by removing half the copies of each card from a standard Yomi deck), and then played a game with those stripped decks. Which characters would be least altered (in theory) in this situation (with access to only two copies of each card, only one joker, and only 27 cards total)?
Bonus question: At the beginning of a game played with 27-card decks, should each player be dealt a starting hand of seven cards, or some smaller number?
Any character with 3+ ace super will be dramatically affected. If you wanted to be mean, you could leave Menelker with all red face cards and no Deathstrike Dragon.
Also, characters that grind through cards like Setsuki, Persephone, and Gwen would lead to some interesting time out situations. This would also be a problem for characters with big incentives to block like Rook. I think even if you reduced the starting hand size this problem would still be difficult to overcome.
As far as the question of least changed character, I think I might go with Setsuki. She isn’t reliant on a multi-ace super and can get her offense going quickly.
On the Menelker note, you could also pull some silly tricks with other suits characters - get rid of Gloria’s hearts! Mess up the distribution of suits for Final Authority/Rock Armor!
I think, though, if you optimized suit characters - let Gloria keep all of her hearts, let Oni and Rook keep all of some two suits, etc, they’d benefit from being able to hit their requirements easier.
Depending on how the suits are divided, again, I don’t think Valerie has a good argument for least altered - this is sure to in some way mess up King crossups.
I’d almost say Argagarg, if I weren’t worried about the increased difficulty in powering up for Bubble Shield messing with him so much. I actually think Degrey might be a good call.
I personnally think about BBB first.
He gives a lot of cards to his opponents so no three-of-a-kind is a huge + for him.
What is more, having only 1 King and 1 Queen in hand is ok, because you can get them back at range ! And is AA is quite good on its own, no real need for AA+A+A.
Pretty the same for Quince, and what is more Quince powers up very rarely so 27 card deck would’t be an huge handicap for him. He also doesn’t use AA+A that often (except against Geiger maybe ?)
Persephone, Single A+ Double A gameplan. Also gameplan revolves around bringing back non-pairs from discard…
Argagarg. His gameplan revolves around single Ace more than any character.
BBB. Single Ace/Double Ace gameplan + recurring cards, but since he gets K more he gets buffed.
Quince. His 2 lets him get back everything he needs. His Q pumps anything.
Vendetta. His J pumps anything. Recurring cards.
Midori. Loses out on AA++ Super, but still has access to his neutral tools+recurs stuff on block.
Zane. Loses out on Max Anarchy, but that’s generally gameplan 2. Still does crazy damage on the starting hand too.
Geiger. Nerfed a bit, but same gameplan.
Onimaru: Loses damage, but because of how often he pumps its easy to forget. AA becomes more important. Final Authority is probably just as difficult.
Troq: Loses out on AAA gameplan, but he’s number 10 just from getting buffed IMO. Still has Face Card/AA plan which is really good.
Buffed:
Setsuki gets buffed insanely hard here so I don’t consider that staying the same.
Menelker gets BUFFED with his 10 now. + His K/Q pump anything His gameplan changes to K/Q now. HE DOESN’T EVEN BANISH JOKERS IN THIS META
I think its fair to say Rook & Troq get buffed from 5 card starting hands.
Similar, but not quite.
Grave. Loses AAA, but plays for Single A. His neutral remains super similar. Sorta nerfed because of bad damage output. Q also recurs.
Rook. Rook. CMB is probably the most important thing he gets for End Game. Rook Armor which he needs becomes a tad harder to get. Early game becomes much stronger.
Jaina: Her damage output without K is reduced, but its easier to draw into straights. 7 now gets the max amount of Aces. I think she gets slightly buffed with less joker variance. Still has recurring options.
Gwen: Loses out out on AAA, but K keeps her consistent. AAA is one of the few things that make her dodge follows up worth anything.
Nerfs
DeGrey. Relies on making you guess which strong option he has. Being able to have 3x of something is really important for this character IMO. Loses AA from A dodge followups. Nerfed.
Valerie. 4 Aces in hands is huge for her. 5 card starting hand probably kills the character.
Gloria. Huge nerf. Kinda obvious.
Lum. Huge nerf since he revolves around Full Houses and four of a kinds. K gets nerfed big time.
EDIT: 11:50 AM. Geiger gets super nerfed though? Would this use V1 no hand limit and no tie rules?
“I think, though, if you optimized suit characters - let Gloria keep all of her hearts, let Oni and Rook keep all of some two suits, etc, they’d benefit from being able to hit their requirements easier.”
That makes Gloria insanely good. Jesus.
Also Oni gets easier access to Final Authority by making all Face Cards different suits than his normals.
Also stealth Menelker buff. Easier access to straights + he can still get his Faces + Aces so hes the only character that gets an insane reward. If he choose all Black Faces it also hugely buffs the character’s consistency problems and makes his early game all the more dangerous on 5 Card hands. (EXCEPT SETSUKI LOL)
Gloria keeping all hearts is very bad. Small decks might be good for gloria, but reducing non-heart density by a factor of 3 (!) is bad.
If I had to play the same 27-card deck in all matchups, I would want to take 67TJQKA of hearts and the rest non-hearts. I think the 6 and J might be bad too.
Without really thinking about it too much, I’d say Gwen is the least affected.
Gwen plays the most basic form of Yomi. Even more than Grave. She has no tricks, no incredible cards that she relies on (Except for maybe Q). She plays the standard Attack/Throw/Defense game, and thanks to drawing a lot of cards, she almost always has all those options. She’ll still be the more or less the same. The match will probably end in time out, so Shadow Plague probably helps her a bit too (Provided you keep the colors balanced when you cut the deck).
Lum will be screwed. He can’t make full houses anymore.
His gameplan changes to K/Q now. HE DOESN’T EVEN BANISH JOKERS IN THIS META 
Would this use V1 no hand limit and no tie rules?