How much money do I need to spend on Magic to be able to build good decks?

[Jelly95]

How much money do I need to spend on Magic the Gathering to be able to build good decks??

[Twanos]

the least expensive and the most commonly played format is Standard and the top decks will run you about 150-400 dollars if you were to buy all the cards but you can trade for most anything you need then just pay cash to fill in the gaps.

What I did to get back in the game since I knew how to play and knew what I was doing was to buy 2 boxes of Magic 2010 then bought 1 box of Zendikar and traded for everything else I needed. Total price to get back in the game from scratch $300.

My current decks value (if you bought it as all singles) $250-$350. Current trade binder values $300-$400.

Actual value I would get if I sold it all: $200-$300. So right now I am at the break even point but I plan to win the tourney tonight so I'll get some free product and start pulling ahead.

if you want to play for realy small money try pauper. its a format where you are only allowed to use commons. most decks cost you 5-10$ max. if you buy them from scratch.

on the other end of the extreems you have legacy and vintage. legacy swings in at 200-800 $ per deck and vintage at a whooping 2500-4000$ a deck. the good thing about these formats is that you can play your deck virtualy infinatly in tournaments because there is no rotation.