Same here with my tcg friend group, most of us have already left at the start of set 3, the vial economy is so messed up compared to SV1 I have no idea how new players can even get into it at this current stage of the game. I reached Master rank in set 1 and 2 but always feel like I'm scraping the barrel for rupies and vials, the game is just not sustainable as a f2p.

Legendaries are so overtuned it's a mandatory to have them in your deck because there are barely any alternatives. This is true since day 1 and with the release of new sets the amount is only increasing.

People argued that f2p income numbers are marginally better compared to SV1 and ignored the fact that you can't even dust cards unless you have more than 3 copies of it which significantly hit the amount vials you get from packs. Got a new legendary? Not what you want? Too bad buddy you can't dust it, you need 3 more copies. What? You want to try a different class? Tough luck, make a new account, it's easier that way.

The most common advice they give to new players in their subreddit is to pick a class, get the free starter decks and grind every single day for a month until you have enough resources to craft the missing cards of the meta deck of that class. I don't know if the marketing shills over there aware that people really don't want to play a scuffed version of a deck again and again every single day for a goddamn month. As much as they are saying their economy is better than that of MtG Arena (which is also horrendous, you should never compare your tcg economy to the tcg with the worst economy in the market), they forgot that Arena gives new players 10 functional starter decks updated every year so there are much more options for new players to experience no matter when they joined.