I quit in 2009 then picked back up in 2014 for about 6 months. The magic was gone. Every person just had some professional net deck. Even the 7 year old fuckers. It wasn't casual any more. There were 3 main archetypes. Every one had the same deck list with the exception of a couple cards switched out. If you played anything else you would lose in a turn or two. Even then you would still lose cause these decks would just go off turn 1. Realized that I was playing solitaire basically. You wouldn't even care what your opponent was doing really. You just had to hope that they didn't have everything they needed to pop off. Or if they did you had a hand effect that could stop their chain.

Then the trading. Nobody would trade unless your cards matched 100% in value. I understand if one card is $100 and someone is trying to trade a $20 card for it. But guys wouldn't trade over 30¢.someone wanted a $50 card from and all he had was a $47 card I wanted. He would not let me trade until I found $3 card. I will say though that Yugioh was very generous with reprints and staples. It's jarring seeing the Yugioh side compared to Magic.