i'm playing in diamond, so it's definitely harder after the change. most of the easy wins against bots are gone as they tend to stay in the gold leagues and below. diamond has also been really tough because we are battling champion decks for the first half of each season before they all level up and move out. so the game is way more competitive now.
rewards have been pretty terrible lately, but the drive for packs on the new leaderboard keeps me playing lol