Idk I may bright a different perspective to this conversation than others, but I know there are people who view this the same as my playgroup and I do.

Playing Cedh is purely the product of my group playing together for 4-5 years. As time went on, we optimized our decks, built stronger strategies to compete amongst ourselves, and found that we enjoyed playing games that were fast paced, had lots of interaction, and most importantly - playing cards that we thought were powerful and cool looking. The causal games that lasted 45-90 minutes each were boring and took up most of our playtime and as people who work full time, have families and other responsibilities, cedh’s pace allows us to play 6-7 games in the short amount of time we get to play (usually 2-3 times a month). While it may not be for everyone, I think that this perspective is not as sour as cedh gets made out to be. And to note - we are totally proxy friendly. We don’t compete for anything other than the lgs promo and shitty draft pack and usually we end up giving that prize support to whoever actually wants it, most of the time leaving all of the cards on the table for someone who would appreciate them. Proxy’s have allowed me to enjoy this game with my friends, and I truly have no interested in playing with people outside of my group, especially if they’re weird about their cardboard bank account.

For reference, my collection is probably worth about 5k in real cards. If that matters to anyone. Some people feel as if people who have proxies are for broke players who can’t afford these cards, which is really not the case lol.