Just put a gold price (1000 gold, or $5 if you have to) on a starter deck for the rest of us and be done with it. It’s the simplest way.
And this indeed, that while you might be getting a whole bunch of earned packs from playing in those 4 months, you’re getting all sorts of legendaries and cards across classes. Whereas these starter decks have handpicked the best legendaries for you (especially in the case of Rogue and Mage).
Try and craft a starter deck upfront. If you’re an infrequent/newer player looking to come back you’ll use up all of your dust or can’t afford it. Still a hefty investment for us regular players. Of course we have other decks to play, but many people falling outside the criteria would benefit a lot from having a deck to get back into the game again, and build their collection for the next expansion.
It’s not so much the starter deck is free, is that there is no way to practically get something equivalent for a price.
Minimum 3? Not really. They’re different sets, so you could get even less lucky.
Or more lucky.
So let’s go with the average 1 in 20 chance, and say 6 legendaries (actually 6.82 when I do the math, but I’ll round down). Plus 27 epics, 141 rares, and that leaves 446 commons. Even in the extreme unlikely case that all those cards suck, and that none of them is golden (you should actually expect ~20 golden cards), you can disenchant all these cards for 10,150 dust. Enough to craft 6 legendaries you do want, and still have change.
And that’s merely the absolute worst case scenario.
(Statistics used in the above: https://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Card_pack_statistics#Rarity_distribution)
Except for Galakrond, Galakrond, Galakrond, Galakrond, and Galakrond. Yes, all five of them. And two times Shield of Galakrond - not legendary, but also given for free.
I didn’t mention them because I think you will still get them as soon as you open a Descent of Dragons pack. Not sure but didn’t want to spend time to check it, and didn’t want to risk making a false claim.
Imho, they should just give everyone a free deck instead of dividing the community. I don’t see any harm in it. A free deck would not have any impact on those who already have big collection, but it would mean the world to new players and players who are just building their collection and can’t afford any serious competitive decks yet.
I also don’t think it would impact new players in a negative way competitively if you give even more resources to people with bigger collections because one meta deck is enough to climb the ladder. Sure it might be boring to play only one deck, but it’s enough.
So are you really encouraging people to disenchant their collection in substitute of not getting a free deck? That must feel good to lose so many cards. And what was that from the new director of Hearthstone?
“Generally, we don’t particularly want players to disenchant their cards,” says Lee. “That’s a bit of a new mentality for us, especially when you think about things like achievements in the future, and game modes potentially linking to older parts of your collection. If you’re destroying your cards, you’re kind of harming yourself [in relation to] future things that we’re planning. So, we want people to open their cards, feel good about them, and keep them.”
I don’t have much more to say.
Yes, a lot of good things are happening - and the free Galakronds should work as soon as you own a DoD pack and go to the “Open Packs” screen. But using a figure of 10,150 dust is just unrealistic - when in reality, most of it should be kept for collection’s sake and you’ll probably only have 3000-4000 or so dust to work with.
Which part of “Even in the extreme unlikely case that all those cards suck” is unclear to you?
Please read my response completely, and in context. It’s a comparison of the value of the free deck for “returning players” versus all the free stuff those players would have gotten if they had kept playing the last four months.
Plus the dust value of the cards you don’t disenchant, which is even more than the dust value you would get for dusting.
Thanks for helping me prove my point. Over the past four months, players could receive freebies worth at least 10,150 dust but in reality much, much, more, without even having to work hard for it.
That’s much more than the value of the free deck given to returning players. The mage version (mentioned by someone above as one of the best) has a crafting cost of 6,780 dust (according to https://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/deck-builder/).
So as I already said before: if I had known in advance that I could stop playing on November 18 and return on March 18 for this free deck, then I would not have done so. I earned far more freebies by continuing to play. That free deck is worth less than half of what continuing players were given during that period.
You are right, but won’t a returning player or new player also get them as soon as they open a DOD pack? Unlike snip snap or vargoth where it is lost forever if you missed the period. I’m not sure of course. Maybe they don’t get the free Galakrond anymore, in which case then I’d agree with you that the balance tilts…
Edit: just checked my alternate account which received the free pack. I got Galakrond as well from opening DOD. So I didn’t miss out on any exclusive legendaries there during the 4 months.