That's precisely why I don't play anymore.
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While the statement in the OP is true, have you considered Pauper? If I understand correctly, while I haven't built a Pauper deck yet, the limitations on card rarity should make it very possible to build a strong deck without spending too much. There's also proxies, which cost a fraction of real cards and shpuld be good enough to play with
I don't know anyone else that plays Pauper, and proxies frankly suck. Honestly, I've been out of the game so long that I'm not even interested anymore.
There are some legit sites out there that let you design proxies and ones that let you print them. They also let you make your own theme decks easily.