I read several comments and I both agree and disagree. Several comments said Gwent is not generous as it is anymore which I agree on this part because before Journey, the reward system seems better. But during journey, rewards were moved to contract at the end of journey. I started playing gwent during end of may 2020 when gwent introduced in Steam. and I still think Gwent Reward system is far better than other digital card game that I played (hs)
The part that I disagree is people said meta deck is expensive. How long you expect to have all top tier meta decks for free and you can say that the F2P game is generous? In Gwent, I can make 1-2 meta decks for free every month! and this is only with 7 games win per day. In my previous experience, I paid $80 for a mega bundle in the other game and I can't even make 1 single meta deck!
I think I had all cards used in top tier meta deck after 6 months of play time but what I did is, I played with starter deck for one month to reach prestige 1 and then I got 2 rare from kegs. This make me collect rare faster and get some extra scrap.
I don't know much about the meta in rank mode. Do we have really 3-4 decks now? last week when I played rank mode with SK pirate, I played against several deck. I rarely see top meta deck but I'm only rank 14 - 7. I'm not sure which rank you guys said only 3-4 decks.
I don't think new players have to craft anything especially rank lower than 20. Starter deck plus cards from reward book should be fine. it's more fun to build deck from cards you have during the initial state of the game rather than copy net deck. Copy net deck will ruin the fun of the game not only to your opponent but to you in the long run.
One more thing, if you want to play something not in the meta. Try to make a deck and play before the meta come out. Once the meta come out, several players will play the meta deck XD. Let's see tomorrow. The balance change should address some issue e.g. SY KOB and ST Milva get some nerfed. Then, a few cards, some archetype will get buffed.