hey @nateaguila
I'm a really involved Magic player from the past 10 years. I'm Maverick too and wrote a lot about the topic of entry point for competitive. I'm also the Italian translator for SM, spent quite some money on the game itself.

I point out numerous time how the comparison with MTG is totally wrong. In the Maverick chat this has been a long discussed topic, people throw the MTG reference without knowing formats or anything. Each card game as an entry barrier to play. As it is, the SM one is INSANELY high. This is a fact.

I consider competitive a full regular deck with all cards maxed. That would still me not play gold tournaments, but let's try to exclude that for a second.

A full regular deck, as it is, it's what. ALPHA + UNTAMED alone, full regular maxed is 8K.
https://monstermarket.io/cost-estimator

I've a 4K deck and am far from everything maxed. I'm holding only regular cards from original set, maxed or towards maxed.

MTG references:
Standard (rotating format, cards rotate every 3/6 months or year depending on releases)
Price for a competitive deck is 300/400$. Some season it's 700$, that's top.

Modern (non-rotating format, you have to add cards over time to stay on top as new release happen)
Price for a competitive deck is 800/1000$. 1200$ at best.

Legacy (Eternal format, almost no need to change any cards over several years of play. Non rotating)
Price for a competitive deck 1000/1500$.

Please use https://www.mtgtop8.com/index to check events and price of competitive decks.

Throwing the MTG reference as it is it's extremely wrong. I'm not saying that the investment shouldn't be made (and this validates your point of investing on assets that can be resold), but I'm pointing out since I joined this how not welcoming this game is for competitive players.

A casual one won't care about the cost of a maxed out deck, he won't buy that many boosters anyway.

Please let me know what do you think, I'm bafi#8941 on Discord too.

We are surely building something big.