For casual play we allow proxies of pricey cards (typically those that cost $5 or more a card)... Proxies are really easy to make - print out a color copy of the card face, stick it in front of a land card in a sleeve.

We play casually here too, but I'm torn on the subject of proxies.

On the one hand, it's a cheap and easy way to play-test a deck before you shell out hard earned dollars. On the other, I'm starting to see a lot of decks that would cost > $200 to actually purchase...

I don't think there are any tournament-level decks that would cost less than that to purchase, are there? My elf deck has all real cards and it's worth slightly over $200 even though none of the individual cards is worth even $10. If you had one set of $20 or more cards in your deck because they are the spine of a combo, keeping the deck as a whole under $200 would be impossible. If you're playing multicolor, you really want at least that one set of original dual lands. And it's unusual to see a tournament legacy deck without a set of force of wills. If you're not building tournament level decks I don't see any point in ever replacing the expensive proxies with real cards.

You can spend $200 just on the land for a competitive standard deck.

Which is why I'm sitting here playing casual decks instead.

I love magic, but I'm not about to invest the +$100/month it takes to compete in standard.

You can spend $200 just on the land for a competitive standard deck.

Which is why I'm sitting here playing casual decks instead.

I love magic, but I'm not about to invest the +$100/month it takes to compete in standard.

That's was the point, really - if you're playing only casual, there's no reason not to proxy all the cards you want.

Fair enough. I sort of feel it takes the fun out of it, though - it takes a lot of skill to assemble a commons deck, or a deck with a $20 limit.

Competing in standard feels like a case of watching the current trends in tournament decks, and playing rock/paper/scissor thereon (the fabled "metagame").

I was always sad the online version never seemed to get going. Though that was maybe 10 years ago so perhaps things changed... there was so much hype and then it sounded pretty crappy. A card game really should transfer well to online play IMO.

It's not such a different games, mostly old creatures are outdated (creature power to mana cost ratio got boosted insanely, back then juzamdjinn 5/5 for 4 with a defect was godly, now it's more like 6/6 for 4 with a bonus, so every old power creature is pretty much Junk, but most of the badass spells still hold very well).

I have a very large collection wich i may end up parting with soon (well, not the whole thing, likely just sell my half of P9 for cash, kinda sucks )

Save your P9, I might buy it! I really want the power nine for collecting.