Honestly, I just signed up yesterday to one tournament for 1 dec and it's the first time I will try it so I don't yet know much how it works, but it does sound like it's going to be tougher for us new players to have a shot from what you said here. I've been playing the game for about 2 months and have been slowly building my collection. May owned cards are here and there and I have no one Splinter that has a complete line up yet so I don't think I will be able to win any tournaments any time soon.