[king_jester]

> Maybe I'm too dumb to understand this, but my intuitive idea is that a card like The Coin gives you various advantages and no disadvantages, since it is an extra card that comes for free and gives you more flexibility.

The Coin does indeed give you advantages with no downside. However, the reason why you get the coin has to do with the mechanics of Hearthstone. In the case where The Coin didn't exist, you would be at a severe disadvantage if you didn't go first.

In Hearthstone, since you can generally control where your minions attack, going first gives you tempo. If your opponent didn't have the coin, as the player going first you could permanently maintain your tempo and win with regularity (depending on what cards you draw). In card games it is important that tempo be something that can change in the course of the game in order to make things more fair.

[Vaskivo]

IMO the Coin is a tricky thing. While you can argue that it balances the two player, the second player has the additional choice of when to use the Coin.

The first player has the advantage of going first. That is a given advantage, with no choice involved. It is harder to "waste" that advantage. The Coin, on the other hand, is much more linked to choice (when to use) and therefore, easily wasted. It is also an additional "thing" for the second player to think about when playing, while the first player doesn't have this burden.