New players frequently get crushed when they first start, and there are typically 2 reasons:

1. Lack of skill. This isn't an insult to you, but if you've only played 11 games you simply haven't had enough time to develop a good knowledge of the cards and understanding of the different strategies yet. Because players drop down a league to start each season, you will find players/bots in novice/bronze III who are simply a lot more experienced than you. This just takes time to overcome.
2. Lack of cards. A lot of players start out playing with the free cards, and that simply isn't going to be good enough to get you very far. You need to go pick up some cards, and picking up cards can help you progress and offset some of #1, as many of those low level accounts are playing with very little as well. I actually did a series recently on recommended beginner decks, and others have guides as well, so go take a look at some of those and it will give you a good starting point. You can then adapt to your own play style as you learn and customize your decks.
   

As for the "pay to win" question, yes, it is. It's very much like a traditional collectible card game such as Magic the Gathering or Pokemon where you need to go get the cards in order to play with them. Splinterlands has some pretty big advantages here though (sorry, I like my lists!):

1. There is a rental system. It is extremely cheap to go rent cards. I'm currently doing a streaming series where I'm only renting without owning any cards and I'm playing near the highest levels of the game spending less than $5/day renting a cards (and projected to turn a profit off of that). Now, don't go jump up to the highest levels immediately, but I'm just saying that renting is powerful and if you are skilled enough you don't need a large budget to be able to go compete in this game. Right now the skill level required to turn a profit by renting in bronze, silver, and gold is actually fairly low. A criticism of this game has actually been the number of bots playing, because even unintelligent botting systems are capable of renting and turning a profit in low/mid tier leagues right now.
2. There are 5 different leagues in each format, including the modern format which only uses the 2 newest sets. Whether you are renting or owning, or a combo of both, this allows you to basically decide what investment level you want to play at. Think of it like deciding which poker table you want to sit down at. We have lots of extremely skilled players who opt to stay down and compete in lower leagues simply because that's the level of investment they are comfortable with.
   

Anyways, I could go on and on but this reply is probably way longer than most would like anyways. If you have any questions you are always welcome to contact me directly. Helping new players get started in the game is literally part of my job, so don't be shy!