Funny I got back into Magic because it seemed like a cheap hobby to have a few decks to play with my friends...
It certainly is, if you never buy any new product (or just few singles).
Can also proxy a lot of expensive cards with a color printer for casual play and its basically "free".
I use to play Draft whenever i can, so thats each FNM, did cost 10 euros some years ago, now they charge 20 euros (provide and extra guaranteed pack at least, to move more product).
Thats like 40 weeks a year x20 bucks, 800 euros a year for drafting, then like 4 PreRelease sealed events (30 euros a pop now) , 120 bucks.
Buying (and selling) some singles over a year, thats a combined like 1000 bucks a year.
Thats certainly more money then i spend in video games or any other hobby, just a few years back, it combined to like 500 euros a year, so that basically all doubled.
I know what you mean that it can be cheap, but at the same time it's like... My favourite format is Modern.... which is basically legacy light now and way way out of budget to have more than one deck for me. Tried proxying a bit just with my friends, but it's quite a hassle. I've only bought a few singles the last two years. I HATE playing draft in basically any game, Magic included, so I never do that. I do like playing sealed with my friends though, but it's been a very long time since we did that too. I think the last set I actually bought some boosters from was the latest Theros set. Everything other than that has been a few cheap singles here and there on Cardmarket. But even the prices on singles are pretty crazy.
I don't play in gamestores anymore either. I kinda got burnt out by the people there, so I just play with a group of friends when everybody can. Commander, pauper and sometimes modern with proxies. I just can't justify spending the money it costs for "strong" cards.
I know what you mean that it can be cheap, but at the same time it's like... My favourite format is Modern.... which is basically legacy light now and way way out of budget to have more than one deck for me. Tried proxying a bit just with my friends, but it's quite a hassle. I've only bought a few singles the last two years. I HATE playing draft in basically any game, Magic included, so I never do that. I do like playing sealed with my friends though, but it's been a very long time since we did that too. I think the last set I actually bought some boosters from was the latest Theros set. Everything other than that has been a few cheap singles here and there on Cardmarket. But even the prices on singles are pretty crazy.
I don't play in gamestores anymore either. I kinda got burnt out by the people there, so I just play with a group of friends when everybody can. Commander, pauper and sometimes modern with proxies. I just can't justify spending the money it costs for "strong" cards.