I noticed Tom's comment a few days ago (in the Universal Symbiont thread)...
My second reaction was to look at the top start worlds and note that they were all worlds that give players early card advantage. The led me to hypothesize that the play on Genie taken as a whole was what I would call "intermediate" level, based on comparisons with the playtest groups' experiences with start worlds. (This is not to say that some Genie players aren't extremely strong or that this won't change over time.)Now, to give Rob credit, he did go back and take a harder look at the Alpha Centauri data and found that it fared less well in winning % among the stronger players. To me, that was expected. Card advantage is something that is fairly easy for beginning and intermediate players to exploit (as opposed to leeching or explore powers, etc.).
(The emphasis on the last sentence is mine; earlier emphasis is Tom's).
This got me thinking: How do I deal with Early card disadvantage? Well, you stop calling Develop and Settle, for one thing (barring timing constraints, like the need to ensure your military is high enough so that you can leech a settle). Assuming you have card flow a turn or two later, then you will naturally consume/produce to trade, which will tend to balance tempo.
As I've played more, I've become more willing to drop a build tempo to look for a good combination (as compared to just 'increasing card flow'). With the increased variability in two expansions, you can't expect a reasonable card to just appear if you build mediocre cards.
I'll have to think some more about this ... I think I can do it, but I can't explain it well. Or perhaps I'm still an intermediate. Who knows?