Hearthpwn

It can be challenging returning from a long break. I have played since GvG, but took a break after Ungoro. By the time I came back a year later I was too far behind in cards to play standard and even wild I struggled to compete due to powercreep.

I ended up making a new account, and because of the apprentice ranks I was able to build up a collection capable of climbing to diamond every season for the rewards. With arena as my only gold investment and saving what I dont use I've been able to purchase the mini sets with gold and open between 80-100 packs per expansion at launch.

I cant build a good deck for every class, but I can build most of the top decks for my ladder climb.

Due to the core cards, early part of the rewards track and apprentice ranks it was pretty easy to make one tier 1 or 2 deck to climb in my first season. Grinding to legend is great and all, but the difference in end of season rewards between D5 and Legend are pretty negligible,  I find arena a better use of my time unless I'm really enjoying a deck.

If you don't mind spending a little money, I found buying the rewards track a big boost my first season to get my gold, arena tickets and the 2 free legendaries. After that first expansion I could manage without spending any additional money.

The main difficulty I see with returning is when you've redeemed a returning player deck already on your account. If you returned from long enough to not have a Standard collection and already used your returning player deck, that means you have to start from basically nothing unless you're willing to dust sizable amounts of your old cards. I'm friends with someone who went through exactly that, and without that safety net it makes the experience very rough, to such a point it'd be a better idea to just make a new account.

I personally hope that returning player decks should be set to once per Standard year, to ensure that no matter how many times you return, you always have a deck that can be used in Standard.

Oh! I thought that you were "returning" after just a few months. Well I suppose you still are, but if it's only once per account it's a real drag then. 

If you think about how many legendary minions you get in a starter deck compared to just completing your quests, it's really not that much you get to compensate for the months that you had to be inactive. Sure, playing should be rewarded, but I don't think that people who love playing for hours every day should feel tricked if their friends also get to play with a good deck every now and then.

I suggest some quests that can earn you some mixed packs after not exceeding a certain play time, over a long period. Maybe even give the BGs-only players some incentive to come back to standard?