This game is fun and complex. You can very slowly acquire more cards and strength. There is always someone who bought their way to the same level, but that is ok. After a while, around level nine, you just get stuck. Win some, loose some, thinking “yeah I am improving”. But I played this for a while and would look at the decks I lost to. One, two or three, 40,000 gold cards I don’t have. Would save gold, but it takes a really, really long time to reach 40,000 gold. So the best cards are for those who spend real money. Possibly obtainable if you play consistently for a year or more. There are daily gold limits, and wining does not reward much gold to begin with. So 40,000 is a huge amount of gold. The developers have done a really good job at creating an environment where you want to win and beat that other player. So good that some real $ here or a few more real $ there are going to get spent. Can not fault them for that, this is a business.
Maybe if you have been consistently playing since the launch.... Nearly a year with no money spent, looking at opponents decks, less games played but still dragon, dragon, dragon. Becomes frustrating, fun disappears and the relevancy goes out.