I'll start out with Limited. For me, it's the fairest format. It promotes deckbuilding skills and every participant is on equal footing.
There are several Limited formats and I'll try to go over the common ones.
Sealed Deck is a Limited format that involves building a 40-card deck out of 6 booster packs (15 cards x 6 = 80 total cards; subtract 6 basic lands included in all booster packs that leaves at most 74 cards as card pool). For a player (and a community) that's just starting out, Sealed Deck is attractive because it allows participants to immediately obtain some cards and at the same time play with them. Unlike Booster Draft where 8 players are more of the norm, Sealed Deck can be enjoyed even if there are only 2 players. There is a reason why Sealed Deck is the preferred format of choice for Prerelease Tournaments. Glaring need to do Sealed Deck is the availability of basic lands.
As mentioned, Booster Draft would need 8 players but it can still be played with at least 4 players. Participants in a Booster Draft each have 3 booster packs and they are opened one at a time. With the first booster pack, a player picks one card from the pack and passes the rest to the left (and at the same time getting a pack from the player to his right). Picking and passing continues until all cards have been picked. With the second booster pack, the cards are passed to the right instead of to the left. The third booster pack is once more passed to the left.
The important skill in Booster Draft is knowing what cards to pick from the packs. More advanced players are skilled in providing signals to ensure that the best cards would eventually be passed. Players build their 40-card deck out of all the cards picked (15 cards x 3 booster packs = 45 total cards, subtract 3 basic lands that leaves at most 42 cards as card pool).
New and inexperienced players tend to shy away from Booster Drafts because of fear of losing rare cards in the booster packs (rare drafting is a highly discouraged way of doing Booster Drafts and is frowned upon).
Other obscure Limited formats include Minimasters and Winston Draft. Minimasters can be played using only one booster pack. The booster pack is opened and the insert card is removed. 2 or 3 of each basic land is added which now becomes the "deck" of the player (15 cards + 15 lands = 30 cards). Players can't be milled out and the graveyard is shuffled to become the library again if the library runs out of cards.
The main debate is on the Constructed format. Hereon out I would state that Standard is the best format to play in because of the following reasons:
- Availability of cards. Standard makes use of recent cards. These recent cards are readily available from packs. Recent cards mean that it's easier to find.
- More tournaments. Most card shops promote Standard tournaments because it helps their business. Since the format uses recent cards, players would try to find such cards from the recent packs which are readily available from the card shop. Players know that if they buy such packs, all the cards are playable. The card shop sells Standard-legal packs and promotes Standard tournaments and players buy Standard-legal packs and participates in the Standard tournaments. It's the way of the Standard world.
- Lesser number of cards legal compared to Modern, Legacy, and Vintage. The legal cards are those that are included in the 2 most recent expansion releases. This reason coincides with availability of cards which makes deck building easier compared to the rest of the formats.
For a community that is just starting out, Standard is very attractive for new players. Understandably, old players would want to stick with their old cards and thus urge for Modern, Legacy, or Vintage. If a community has to grow by attracting new players, Standard tournaments are it. A new player wouldn't want to get his ass whipped from an old player who already possesses the necessary cards.
Regarding expenses and expensive cards: Standard format is understandably expensive because it expects to be dynamic rather than static. The set designers would try to warp the format as much as they can so that there would be a continuing buzz around players. No buzz means low interest.
For those who are worried about expenses, the trick is simple. Sell the cards 3 months before they are no longer legal in Standard.
Modern is the closest relative to Standard. It makes use of cards that are printed in the new card face. Modern used to be Extended but Extended became too difficult to play in because of the always changing sets of cards (similar to Standard). Modern increases in number as new sets are released and doesn't lose out on the number of legal cards.
Modern can be good. The problem is it is not attractive to new players who don't normally possess the old cards as far as Mirrodin.
Legacy and Vintage are similar formats because it includes all cards that have been printed. Legacy has a different set of banned cards compared to Vintage while Vintage also has banned and restricted cards. The argument as to why Legacy and Vintage is not that attractive compared to Standard is similar to the reasoning with Modern. New players don't have the old cards. Furthermore, old cards are hard to find.
For a community that doesn't want to move forward, Vintage, Legacy, or Modern is your choice. But decks tend to be stagnant and will not want to be changed. For a player like me who still wants to remain active, I would choose a more dynamic format. Maybe when I'll retire, I'll use only my old cards and play such formats.
Thus, in conclusion, Standard is the format to play. Expenses are expected. Again, this is not a cheap hobby and if you're reading this, you know that you're expected to be a player who buys cards as well as play them.
Note again on expenses: Tarmogoyf is one of the better creature cards out there and it is expensive. As for Black Lotus, you only need one but good luck finding one at a very cheap price.
