I can feel what you are saying in this post as I have been playing for almost the same amount of time..

After playing for 1 season and becoming confident in my skills I spent more than half of the DEC I had accumulated throughout my playtime on renting card for a tournament. As I was still really new I was only used to playing with and against the starter and level 1 cards. there was 3 tournaments that were for novice and bronze league that day so I was confident in at least getting something back from participating.

Needless to say that I was eliminated in the qualifiers by summoners I could not afford and monsters with abilities from levels I had not encountered... Since then the only tournaments I've entered are ones that only require 1 DEC and do not go out of my way to get cards specifically for it.

While I do understand and share a similar point of view on this post, at the same time I know that this will always be the nature of Blockchain Gaming. Weather someone has "Paid-to-Win", lucked out on card draws, HODLed, have the skills to win against higher level players, just started the game, or have been helped along the way, that is what makes the game fun. No matter the category you fall into.

Everyone has their own strategies and mindset when playing this game, while being NFT based brings a monetary aspect to this, it is still a game. It's hard for everyone to win.

Sorry if this sounds offensive, it's only my humble opinion