I sold the first half of the $GODS airdrop when I received it when it was about $5/token, so everything from here is kinda extra. Current returns are decent, about 8-9 $GODS a week from the BotG event + an expansion pack or two from Weekend Ranked rewards but I actually enjoy the game quite a bit so I often play much more than required.

For forging, yup you need $GODS and Flux for now. You can only forge Plain Core cards that are obtained in various ways (e.g. leveling up) and theoretically have an unlimited supply. 2 of these plain cards = 1 Meteorite quality which can be sold on the market. Higher qualities are coming in the future but I wouldn't worry about it.

Nice, hope you have fun (and win some packs too)! 😄