You've got some great observations there :)
Thanks for taking the time to make a post expressing your concerns.
My advice (as if you asked for it): Focus on the daily quests. They pay out more (and more reliably) than tourneys. Tourneys are new; there's not even an interface yet.
If you hit the dailies hard and sell the cards you never play with to power up the ones you do, it doesn't take long to get leveled up.
I would also disregard the word "novice." The League of the tournament is the only thing that matters. You can assume that people will use the max cards they are allowed within a League. I have a bunch of max cards, but I don't stand a chance in a Diamond tourney. Sometimes I even struggle with gold.
I think the money tournaments are going to tough competition at all levels.
Finally a refreshing comment. Thanks for that, @chrisroberts. I have the feeling you get what I was trying to say.
Daily quests are indeed more rewarding, but with both the market prices and the demand for the reward card being this low, it takes a while before you get enough together to buy the legendaries.
Competition is tougher, but it gives the game that little extra.
And I have the same experience as you: one of my decks is maxed for the gold level tourneys (level 6 summoner, level 8 commons, level 7 rares etc.), still I'm chanceless in the gold tournaments. Lol. I do have the cards, but I'm not good enough yet when it comes to plzying the game. Tactics have never been my strongest point :0)
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