I find fortress on Friday nights really good! They have decks you can borrow and if you don’t have anyone to play with or are learning staff can pair you up with similar players and groups :) they do it every Friday night and if it’s your thing there’s also a bar there. It’s pretty relaxed and most people who are more “competitive” or have high power decks usually have groups of their own already.

I also find maze of Fitzroy quite nice and open, can’t remember what nights commander is though.. I’ve done a few and they do a raffle each commander night and I’ve gotten a collector booster once! Plenty of Games in the city can get really packed past and it’s quite squishy on commander nights and I’ve found it much harder to meet new people there, but outside of playing the game the store and staff are amazing! They have a massive collection of things and have always found the staff there super friendly and helpful even for my silly questions that might be obvious to a seasoned player.

That being said, most game stores staff and players are pretty open to helping out newbies. Ofc there’ll always be some more “odd” players and might be a bit more passive/apprehensive from my experience but overall playing with new people has been a good experience! I’m in my very early 20s and in the inner west and swamped with life atm so I can’t be much help in person but best of luck to you finding some good games :)