Hey Bakura, I think what I said came out different than what I was thinking. Apologies, if so. The great thing about this game/community is all the awesome players, like yourself, who are volunteering their time to provide info.
I think you once recommended a team to me, and I immediately replied, "I don't have ANY of those characters or talismans!" --which wasn't directed at you, personally. It can just be a little discouraging for new players, BUT-- those recommendations can help identify what resources to plan on getting. A few months and a few dollars later, it IS possible to catch up --by getting "the latest and greatest" starting as soon as you can.
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Update: I forgot to write down my starting point on 3* bricks, but my original 1200 SoT ran until the server update at 1pm. At 1:32 I started another 1200 SoT, and will document exact gold and brick totals in about 2.5 hours.