How do you pay for MTG? Budget Tips

[EBWonder]

There are many ways I "afford" playing MtG since I'm an "old school" player.

1. I sell/trade cards I don't need or use. I have a large collection so I sell some of the "EDH Value Cards and that keeps me comfortable for a bit with FNM fees and the occasional booster box I want to buy. I tend to buy my boxes online because they're cheaper.
2. Research - find out what people are wanting and try to get those cards via trades. it may take a number of rares and/or mythic rares, but you can build it up that way. also, ask fellow players about their decks.
3. Get to know your local FLGS - Your local FLGS can give you hints to what has value and sometimes you can get a local deal.
4. Budget and limit your spending - people have mentioned treating it like a bill and that has merit. I treat it as "gambling money." I set aside a portion of my budget to buy what i want.  I limit myself to $200-300 a set usually, excluding sleeves. if i can't afford it, I don't do it until i can. remember that dates/movies/food are expensive.
5. Stick to a casual format - casual format allows you use any card you have (with deck building requirements). if you want more structure, go with limited. this way you limit how much you want to spend.

[robort]

My budget is basically just drafting. 13 dollars a week and our store gives out credit and points. Get either to 100 and get 10 dollars in
store credit. Credit is givin to those using debit/credit cards, while points are for how much was spent in any value of cash/credit/debit.
I then use credit and/or points for purchases of prerelease and/or booster box/packs. It's nice when you only spend 6 dollars on a prerelease instead of 26 dollars

[ofmidnightskies]

The "buying singles and not packs" is really the best way to save in this game.  Buying packs is gambling.  This site is an awesome resource for trying to lay out decks and seeing how potentially effective the deck can be with starting hands and whatnot.  Think of something you'd enjoy, ask on the forums for idea or even just google deck builds.  A good example of this working was I posted a black and white deck on this site, asked for help.  Got feedback, refined the deck, then went out and spent ~100 dollars making it.  My roommate has purchased 4 booster boxes now (i told him not to >.>) and he doesn't even compete with my deck.  I don't know anyone who makes the game pay for itself though, you'd probably have to win tournaments.  Any sealed tournament would boost your chance at winning though, if you're just starting out.  Again, looking at effective builds will give you an idea of combinations people use so that you can effectively draft a working deck.  Good luck with your new hobby though   Drugs would have been cheaper.

[G. Moto]

    @ofmidnightskies, we all know card games are more fun than drugs anyway :p

[thesilencedandseated]

First off, sleeving your card IS a MUST. However you CAN do it on a budget! Check out sof penny sleeves by ultra pro, they are not as durable as some, but they get job done and man are they sleek.

There are cheaper deck boxes you can buy, however if you've ever made anything out of duct tape, you'll want to go for that. I had a duct tape deck box for about a year before I got a nice ultra pro suet tower, a cheap, but quality, deckbox.

Mats are going to be expensive, straight up, don't know what to tell you.

And finally, you are playing standard and that's fine, in order to compete and save money, I would suggest going on youtube to the channels [The Mana Source], [Tolarian Community College], and [Mtg Degree] for free tips on playing at the top of your game. As well as this, many of these channels provide budget deck lists for any format.

PS look on deckstats for lists with the "budget" tag.

PSS PLAY PAUPER- https://www.reddit.com/r/Pauper/

[Undying]

What I find myself spending the most money on is creating a deck, buying cards just to find other cards that fit better, than buying those cards again...
To avoid this you can playtest your deck on sites like untap.in for example. This helped me to find weaknesses in the deck and eliminate them BEFORE I even buy a single card.

[G. Moto]

   Or you could just look at the card archive online, buy all the cards at the store that you like or think are cool (commons, uncommons, and proxy the rares). Then build from those. If you like the deck build or are unsure of it then don't buy it. The cool thing about my LGS is that I can build from the cards that I want to buy BEFORE buying them (the commons and uncommons at least) and actually even some of the bulk rare. It saves time and money when you can put your hands on the cards you need first.

[skeri]

It's really cool to see how you guys all stay nerdy and stay within budget.  I'm saving all of these tips so I can adult and college and game.
I tried playing pauper with friends and I really enjoy it, plus it gives me something to do with all the hand-me-down cards that people have been giving me at FNM and that's really fun for kitchen table playing. I played a sealed event when I first started playing (so Shadows over Innistrad pre-release) and it was AWESOME. I won more matches than I usually do and walked out with some pretty sweet cards all for under $15.
Since then I have also branched out and started playing at a different shop that has a much smaller turnout which has upped my chances of winning. I now realize how much more competitive my previous shop was; people spent a lot more time and money at the first shop I was going to. I raided the ten cent standard card bin at the new shop to add some stuff to my deck and that cost me less than $5 for a lot of cards that I can use. 

[G. Moto]

    I'm glad to hear that Skeri. Remember, fun id the name of the game.

[sscrofani]

1.Only buy play sets you will be using...and the cards in your deck/s

2.Limit how much you spend on anything else or avoid it all together if you could (boosters, etc.).

3. Sell what you will never use

4. Trade if you have friends