For that amount of money you can definately build a deck that can get to S-rank (you can build a deck to get to S-rank that costs nothing, but that’s beside the point), and having an option that says “pay us money for a good deck” sounds bad and P2W to someone completely new, much like the boss crate does, even if that is not the case. I think that is a bad idea, and what they are doing currently is fine.
So, the population
They could just give the vets a crap-ton of prismatics, like that other time…
I think adding rewards to rift would help. Like a pack every level and a rift or gauntlet ticket every few levels. That would let new players start in the more casual mode and build their collection for ranked without feeling too pressured to pay. I’d also like to see discounts on older small sets and/or set rotation. I’m fine with it being prohibitively hard for free players to hit diamond and s. They have to get money somehow.
Or twice the number of Likes you have on forum if you’re a veteran ? 
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Nobody wants that, rest assured…
The kids whine, the old players drink a beer! 
(That said - I think it could be a good idea. But I can’t seriously calculate the downsides of that…)
Just don’t calculate and you won’t find any
I think it’s not because new player have “more” than we had when we started that we, personally have less.
It’s not because a newcomer paid a discount to get a well rounded faction deck with some samples from all past expansions that he will steamroll everyone up to S-Rank I guess. There are so many other parameters (board positioning, card/faction knowledge, meta, RNG etc).
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I’ve been playing since alpha. Lemme offer some thoughts:
As EurasianJay said, we have a major issue with player retention. This is already evident from the Discord: if I check in once every week, I can see a totally different group every week…but the old group is nowhere to be found. Lots of other former players have left the game; I personally know a lot (see if you remember them):
-SmashTheHamster
-Cubes
-Symphony
-Winged
-Bogdan (OG DuelystDB)
-Nittany
-TheScientist
-EnvyBae
I think Duelyst “peaked” during Shim’Zar, because the game was not only so fresh but the expansion award something worth being hyped for. That being said, this game has a serious player retention issue; no matter what excuses you can come up with, Steam numbers are dropping, and this is only symptomatic of a larger issue.
How do we solve the issue of player retention (or lack thereof)? I don’t know. I personally left because the meta was so stale to the point where the first 3 turns of any game were practically the same thing, with the same minions, same spells, same positions. Bloodborn only made that worse, with bullshit cards like Meltdown, all the while CP seems to have a fetish for making Vanar the most powerful faction possible.
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Longtime no see, you should play with @whyb0t and I, we’ve played each other with stupid decks for fun.
Stupid decks are the best decks.
@RyanH Smash is never really gone for good tho, he’s left and come back at least four times
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@RyanH did you complete your challenge of climbing to S Rank with the crazy decks from a month or 2 ago?
But to get a bit more on topic, I’ve personally never used the discord. Only seen Smash on the forums since I joined them and never seen any of the others unless they used different names or used the forums before I joined. If a different group of people are in the discord every week then its more of a case that the discord isn’t as useful of a place for people or not enough people go on discord to be worth going back to it over a decent period time.
Also I don’t think CP has a fetish for Vanar. After all, most factions have had their time to shine at some point.
I can second discord not being super or obviously useful. I signed up today so I could sign up for the newb tournament and I’m not totally sure why I had to.
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I’m expecting a big marketing push for the mobile launch, reaching out to elapsed players, bonuses for new players etc.
Also secretly hope that the work put into mobile will translate easily into a Nintendo Switch launch.
But there is so much low hanging fruit that is just missed. For example, just sell orbs/bundles on the Steam storefront. You don’t currently sell anything, so there’s no participation in sales, no promotions, no gifts.
In other news, Faeria just announced a Steam promotion, and new “monthly” cards - https://www.faeria.com/news/announcements/157-let-there-be-six
Oh, don’t get the wrong point, i bought both expansions this season and i hit diamond easily. Im not saying le “nonmeta decks should be able to reach diamond too” meme (even if there are some funny decks which i really want to test on gold to compare results whit “metadeks”). Im only saying that players whit expansion decks will have more powerspike cards than newbie players because some of them are just a objectively better version of a old card (Entropic decay -> Blood of air) and this could discourage new players if matchmacking doesnt take this point.
Dunno for others but @Smash_the_Hamster is posting Duelyst videos everyday for a month now. Pretty active for someone who “left”
(an also replying to direct messages on forums regularly)
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Very strange, so many ppl nobody seems to share my concerns about rarity density…
I just calculated: 58 legendaries in Core set. Thats the set new player is supposed to focus on when he just comes in, what will he think? “Whats the chance I will get that legendary I need from 58 variants? Pretty miserable. What if I want 2 of those, or even 3?.. And whats the chance I will get a useless junk with legendary symbol instead?..”
Comparing to H********e, (which despite different genre is also collectible, and considered globally as The Greediest game of all Times), 31 legs in Core. Yes thats almost twice less. Plus, you only need to get a leg once, not 2 or 3 times.
And thats just legendaries as example… even though decks are not formed from legs only k? you may calculate other rarities if you desire
I dno seems pretty concerning to me.
Youre forgeting Duelyst have by far a more generous Drop Ratio and Craft System than HS.
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New players mostly focus on rarity. If you play the game a few months you will notice that the smallest amount of Legendaries is useful. Also: Lots of Legendaries aren’t played as 3-ofs.
So your calculation isn’t really valid.
In addintion: Core, Shimzar and from what we expect the cards from the coming expansion are disenchantable.
You may have a look at the S-Rank decks in this thread - just as an example. (OK, mostly 3-ofs but that’s also because @deathsadvocate runs most cards as 3-ofs - it’s kinda his style.):
From the Legendaries you see you can subtract the RoB and AB ones. How many Legendaries do you count after that? Most probably not that much…
What I want to say: There’s a reason why most people here don’t share your opinion.
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I’ve been playing HS for 25 seasons, and Duelyst for 15 seasons. Despite a smaller deck, only one card per legendary and much more time and money invested in HS, i think i have a better collection in Duelyst than in HS. You get something for just logging in and playing, compared to HS where you actually have to win.
The game is GENEROUS and quite fast to hop on to. Not to mention that like in the most ccg’s you can get to S with some really cheap decks. Mobile is the way to go, i think it will raise the number of player tenfold easily.
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You’re right, except for two points, one of which has already been pointed out.
The first is that the drop rates are very generous. 1/4 orbs has a legendary in it (1/5 for Shimzar), not even counting how rarity is pointless as far as ladder goes for the smaller expansions.
The second is that rarity is different in this game. In this game, the rarity goes up as the complication of the effect goes up.
For instance:
Swapping attack and health? Pretty simple. A basic card for a basic ability.
However, a flier with an ability that draws three specific cards each with a different ability? Far more complex and unique. Legendary.
Most legendaries are pretty bad, honestly. Some of the best cards in the game are basics, commons and rares, such as Sojourner, Primus Shieldmaster, Healing Mystic, Katara, Ooz, Ephemeral Shroud, Lightbender… you get the idea.