**Yes, you get gold just by playing and all cards are obtainable just by playing.**

In single-player:

* You get gold by playing a quick match (both winning and losing).
* You get no gold for the tutorial match.
* You get gold once for each trial you _win_. Repeated trials give nothing.

In multiplayer you also get gold both for winning and losing a match. For details you can check the [wiki][1].

Shards can only be bought with real money and can be used to:

* Unlock the other starter decks.
* Buy the weekly face-up offers. These are six random scrolls (2 common, 2 uncommon and 2 rare) that refresh weekly just for you.

Shards can not buy anything that can't be bought with gold, and to buy random scrolls and scroll packs (which is the primary way to get new scrolls) you can only use gold.


  [1]: http://www.scrollsguide.com/wiki/index.php/Gold