That's exactly what I like about it-- it's a very intuitive game when you're playing it right. It's got everything I like about the concepts I like about other games like Etrian Odyssey and Puzzle and Dragons, and that is that there's nearly limitless team (in this case deck) building potential and just as much potential for creative, unique, personalized play styles.
And while it can be a huge investment, I don't see why it has to be either. I was playing just a slightly modified version of the stock Twisted Reality deck (I removed most of the milling/exile cards and replaced them with unblockable/trampling Eldrazi/devoid creatures and instants/enchantments/sorceries that give unblockable or make it so targets cannot block, and I was still winning against people who have been playing for decades (one guy said he was playing since Mirage, which came out in 1996, and I beat him twice). Yes, his deck was super finely tuned, but without the right luck, I won merely by whittling him down with
Mist Intruder. So there's still the notion of luck in play as well, and that evens the battlefield somewhat in that you can have the perfect deck and still be screwed. I've only spent around $40 altogether among the three decks I have made and $10 of that was just on card sleeves and a deck box (which I need a bit more of and will probably buy tonight at Friday Night Magic along with some Soul Wardens/Attendants if I can find them, just to be the finishing touch of the Soul Sisters-inspired deck I'm running as well). Meanwhile, the guy I played said his deck cost roughly $800 to build (he had two Tarmogoyf cards and it was filled to the brim with fetch lands and proxies thereof since he said it wasn't finished).
But that is just what is drawing me in. I was worried that getting into Magic would be ridiculously hard because there's just
so so much to learn, but it's really not so bad once you get the flow of play down, because most people seem willing enough to explain what their cards and their deck does. With excitement and excruciating detail. So I've just chosen to learn that way, via watching other people's strategies. And I was worried I'd need a deck for every type as well and that's not even a reasonable thought just because there's so much, and it's just not necessary. I'll likely look into building red, green, and black decks at some point, but I'm honestly pretty happy with my white and blue decks at this moment since I honestly am not interested in playing hyper-competitively, because I already know that I'm at a huge disadvantage there due to inexperience and lack of hyper-invested decks. It's kind of scary how much the most sought-after cards are.
I'd kind of like to play in a sealed tournament sometime, though.