Recently downloaded hearthstone again after a couple years, I remember quitting when the “wild” category came in for multiple reasons all to do with said category being implemented at all (as I believe a lot of people did).
first game, turn 5-6 they have 3 8-8s and a couple 3-3 to 6-6s against my 4-5 and 6-6, most being summoned that turn.
Second, a quest warlock where they I’d damage to themselves in order to life-steal from me, this was the best game so far and he lived with 1 health while I died, unfortunate.
Third , they start with a card giving them 40 health and 40 cards in deck? I didn’t see a downside on the card it was just a 3 cost 3-4 or something, needless to say I ended up losing that game and it wasn’t even close.
Next game, up against a rogue who took me from 28 health to 0 on turn 4.
This isn’t to say that these decks are unbeatable, or anything of the sort, but that for new players (or even returning players) there’s a high bar to entry they have to get past in order to play at even the lowest levels. The only people still playing this game are people who play it every day, that isn’t sustainable and they know it, I’ve seen the price of some of the content and such. They know that hearthstone will be (completely) dead in less than 5 years and there’s little they can do to stop it, so they pump as much money from the whales as possible before it’s time to essentially shut it down.
Extremely sad as I used to really like hearthstone, and still think it’s mechanics are top tier, they just never considered the long term, and it’s now the long term. I’m not here to suggest fixes to the game, I’m just here to give a perspective from a returning player.