I'm looking to play casually (in person) with some friends and we were wondering what the cheapest format to start buying for would be? And what might be some good pick ups (we have the starter decks but want some more variety) thanks!
Definitely pauper. There are some staples that are expensive, like Snuff Out and Spellstutter Sprite, but you can build plenty of meta decks and brews without them. It's also very fun, I definitely recommend it. Otherwise, you can always try to proxy decks from other more expensive formats like legacy and modern. They are also fun to play imo.