Over the expansions, we've been seeing Dominion cards get more and more complicated, and with that complexity, the cards also become more difficult to use correctly. In Dark Ages, the complexity jump was combinations - we saw cards, like Fortress and Rats, that are really useless unless combined with other cards that make use of them. But this still doesn't require all that much thought to process - instead of relying on the power of single cards on their own, you now have to factor in their need to rely on other cards. The experts consider reshuffles and opportunity costs, but beginner and intermediate players can still tag along as long as they can figure out which cards go well with which others.
I see this changing for Guilds. All of the themes introduced give choices that make the analysis-paralysis from Pawn scream in terror. When do I want to use my Coin tokens? How many should I use? Should I save them for another purchase? Which card should I name? What's still in my deck? How much should I overpay? Previously, you could just throw cards into your deck and play them as they came into your hand, making a few decisions on those cards that have them. This just seems like a step above all of that.
This is not going to be an expansion you show to newbs.
