Honestly, I find it to be miserable at first too, which really sucks. I’ve stopped and started exercising multiple times in my life and it’s always difficult for me to get back into for this reason. However, I’ve found that if I comfortably push through I get to a point where I’m struggling less and it becomes more satisfying. That’s when I start enjoying it because I can start setting specific goals and working towards them.

Let me tell you, you dont need imagination. But a fun group is everything

Can I talk to you my lord and god… Skydiving?

Nothing you do in the air will ever be cheap, but jumping out of planes is a lot cheaper than flying them.

If I could somehow just do this instead of work everyday, I’d be so happy. I love keeping old cars working. There is so much waste and the older cars had such style and artistry. New cars are too similar, too utilitarian/aerodynamic in design. Paint is too plain, muted, and lacks vibrant colors.

Yeah. I limit myself to sealed tournaments, Jumpstart, and a casual commander deck.

Not everyone needs to do the tournament thing. There is a format called booster draft where knowing how to build a deck matters as much as how well you actually play. But it works like poker in the sense that you buy in with a sealed booster pack and you keep the cards at the end. Depending on the local format, it can be winner takes all.

The joke about drugs being cheaper isn’t a joke. The joke is the pain your wallet feels

You could play MTG: Arena for free, but I’d understand if online play wasn’t your thing.

You could also have a look at pauper decks, which are focused on being very affordable.

I must also admit that, as a longtime player, I can’t wholeheartedly recommend the hobby right now due to how the game is managed and the insane amount of releases they put out.

At work a long time ago they played mtg with fake cards, like home printed.

I don’t know if they had the same or whatever extra rules surrounded it, but I sure do know that the scarcity thing is just a dark pattern to rob players of their money.

Neither can I, and I have 9 Commander decks. Very rarely do I spend more than a few dollars on a single card, and even then it’s been maybe $15 at most.

Those cards that are that expensive are good (provided they aren’t just special printings of cards that are otherwise less than a dollar), but they’re absolutely not necessary in casual formats. Most of the time, there’s a <$1 card serves the same purpose. There’s even a format called Pauper where only commons are allowed.

Standard is where it gets excessively overpriced, and it’s a big reason for its decline in players over the past few years. If you want to play it, play Arena, which is F2P.

I mean, you don’t have to buy those absurdly expensive single cards to have fun. I bought my first cards in 1997 and have been playing on and off since then. I have only ever bought pre made decks or booster packs, not once have I even been tempted to buy some stupidly expensive single card.

You can buy a starter pack that comes with two decks for you and a friend to learn to play with for like £15 - 20.

I won’t deny some of the shit it out of control expensive but you don’t need any of that trash to both learn to play and have fun with it!

If you don’t care about tournaments and want to play with your closer friends then you can all build simpler decks with budget restrictions or you can even prepare a “cube” which is just basically an independant game that uses MtG rulesets. There’s tons of cheap cards.