Except I won't be winning against players 500+ games, or at least not enough to make a profit (assuming 120 a win, I have to win 1 in seven matches to break even... that's not been the experience). And you bring up another issue of card economy, I won't have the cards to build any of those decks, so reliably winning against level 3 opponents just won't happen. So the best use of my time is simply not playing the game and waiting for dayroll and snatching up the oracles drop every day.
I´m playing now with a second account, to try out, how easy the beginning is: After 64 matches, I got two common unupped AI3 grinders (Mono life and shrieker rush) and some extra money (ca 500) , score 800, and I used Ai3, Bronze and a hand full of PvP 1. Fortunately, most (unupped) PvP and AI3 decks only have a few rares and they are often not necessary. There are good PvP decks without rares - only commons - and you can get these "quite" easily in the bazaar. Your only disadvantage is deck building skills and skills how to play cards and how they interact.
I often play PvP1 and I think, this are the main reasons, why people lose against me, here, deck building and knowledge of card interaction.
With the new prices and rewards for pvp matches, it should be possible even for beginners to win more than 25% of the matches .
beginners need even less, because rewards are 3-5 times as high as the price (examing Xenocidius´ formula (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,32442.msg447760#msg447760)) in PvP 1 (without EM)
To the own arena deck: Wait for cards in several elements, then an own arena deck can be a good idea. Decks without using oracle cards are a bad idea - if you win, you could immediately get "thumbs down" - and 5 useless cards really lower the winning chances of the often beaten Bronze Decks.