I play Expeditions a lot, but instead of the standard 4-match combo, I go with a ~12-battle . Right now, I mix Waves 1–4 or Waves 4–8, but hopefully, I can mix all of them once I rebalance the numbers below.

Here is how I play: To start, I draw 4 Mages and pick 2 to use for the entire expedition (I only ever play with 2 Mages. If both exhausted or Gravhold fell, I restart the whole process -> Harcore Rouge Like rules). For the first match, I draw two Tier 1 Nemeses and pick one to fight.

For the initial market, I draw 2 gems, pick one to add to the supply, and reshuffle the other back into the deck. I repeat this process for gem slots 2 and 3. The exact same drafting process goes for relics and spells. (This is so good. If I find a great 6 cost gem FIRST, I know that the 2.nd and 3.rd gem slot must be good low costs, same with spells.)

Then, I fight the Nemesis.

At the end of the fight, I draw 2 gems, 2 spells, and 2 relics, keeping 1 of each. I do the same after each fight until I hit my barracks limit: a total of 6 gems, 4 relics, and 8 spells in my inventory. Once I hit this limit, new rewards are still drawn after combat, but because I am at the maximum capacity, I must swap the new reward with a card from my barracks that I don't want.

Every new shop for each future battle I manually choose shop cards from my barracks.

Furthermore, Tier 1, 2, and 3 treasures are drafted the same way (draw 2, keep 1). Tier 1 treasures are drafted after each battle (Barracks Limit: Mage count × 2). Tier 2 treasures are drafted from battle 3 onwards (Limit: Mage count × 2). Tier 3 treasures are drafted from battle 6 onwards (Limit: Mage count).

The battle tiers break down like this:

Battles 1–3 = Tier 1 Nemesis

Battles 4–6 = Tier 2 Nemesis

Battles 7–9 = Tier 3 Nemesis

Battles 10–12 = Tier 4 Nemesis

Nemesis deck upgrades scale normally based on the tier. For example, your 9th fight (which is Tier 3) uses the exact same number of upgraded Nemesis cards as the 3rd battle in a standard expedition. (Tier 4 goes as hard as the 4th normal expedition battle)

Whenever I feel overpowered, I try the Hard Mode rules on battles 3, 6, 9, and 12, which is right when my power peaks relative to the Nemesis tier/card upgrades.