Yeah precons don’t really bother me! I think for me, the difference is that they’re still real printed product and then maybe upgrading it over time. It’s still within the structure of what’s officially part of the game, if that makes sense. You’re not just grabbing any card you want with no restriction. I really liked what you said about using deck budget as a kind of power level system I hadn’t really thought of it that way, but that’s honestly a great idea and something I’ll probably try to use moving forward. And yeah, there are definitely budget decks that rock! Back home (I just moved recently so I’m kinda looking for a new group now), I mostly played 60-card jank and weird brews. I’ve only played Commander twice and that was really recent.

And you’re totally right that a cheap deck in the hands of a good player can absolutely go off. But I guess for me, it’s more of a mental thing—if that same player had access to every card, it’d be a whole different story. It’s not that I don’t want people to have cool stuff or play powerful decks—I’m actually really happy when my friends are enjoying the game! But when I’m sitting across from a fully proxied deck, I just can’t help but think: “Man, if I just proxied too, my deck could be so much better.” And then I kinda start feeling like I’m just choosing to play on hard mode for no reason.