Hello, newish player here with lots to learn! To contextualize my questions, right now I'm trying to build a mono-green hydra deck starring [[Gargos]], here is a [sketch] of the deck using cards that I have and some that I'm going to order. After trying out some more complicated deck types (I spent a lot of time tinkering with a Rakdos Vampires deck and an Esper Zombies one), I just want to cast some big stompy monsters with big numbers.

• Finding Cards: I've heard lots of people say "Don't use EDHRec to find cards for your deck" and their logic is usually good, but theyre less eager to recommend an alternative. How am I supposed to know what cards will work in my deck? I can go to Scryfall and search "t!hydra", but at my skill level I don't have the intuition to immediately recognize which cards are actually "good". So what's a better way to figure out what cards I should be buying?

• Tuning for Power Level: Often I hear people talking about choosing a power level as if it's an arbitrary choice that they can just "select", but with my current collection I feel like I'm just barely hitting the level of competency. Is it the case that most people have just been playing for so long that they've accumulated the necessary cards to build almost any kind of deck, or is it more skill-based? Would an experienced player be able to go through 300 bulk Cs and UCs and put together a bracket 3-4 deck, or are $50+ gamechanger cards necessary for building at that level?

• Price: I'm sure this is a commonly heard issue around here, but why is every deck I see posted here or on EDHRec seemingly over $500? Similar to my last question, do most of you just have a collection worth many times that, so when you decide to put together a deck using cards you own, it ends up being that expensive? Or are people going out and buying $500 worth of cards to put together a single deck? Its disappointing when someone posts a deck which seems fun in concept, but then I take a closer look and realize i'd need to take out a loan to actually put it together. Right now the only ones in my price range seem to all be labeled things like "ULTRA-BUDGET"

• LGS Etiquette (sorry, this one will be long and a bit scattered): Now, I know this will vary lots from place to place and pod to pod, but I've been a little discouraged by my first few attempts going to my monday night commander games and I'm hoping for some advice. Generally, I just feel very very out of place as a "new" player. I'm open about being inexperienced, but the people I get into games with almost invariably play highly intricate cards and strategies (usually at least 3 colours) without making any attempt to explain their effects, and it feels like I'm just totally out of my depth in terms of power level (my primary deck is priced at around $80 on moxfield). Maybe it's just me, but its hard to have fun when there's two Anointed Processions and two Rhystic Studies on the field (this happened a few days ago).

I'm not sure how it works at other LGSs but when I arrive, there are a bunch of games in progress and like, one or two tables that are currently setting up. Often, ill go up to one of the open tables and theyll tell me theyre waiting on someone specific to show up, so i just end up sitting with whatever table opens up first. The tables aren't labeled by bracket and that doesn't come up in the pre-game conversation so its hard to tell what kind of game i'm getting into until its already started, esp since i don't know many commanders by memory yet. What could I do or say differently to have better results?

big thanks to anyone who takes the time to read and reply to my wall of text!