[dietr1ch]

Right, it's technically just expensive and that's the thing that may leave some players behind, but I bet that at competitive level, players are not missing any card they need.

Similarly with F1 after the cost caps. If you had 135M you could compete with no monetary disadvantage.

[setr]

That would be a true description of any pay-to-win game — if you just buy everything available to be purchased, then you’re playing on a level-playing field.

But using this description, then the only truly pay-to-win game would be one where the win condition is literally an auction selling a “you win!” token.

[dietr1ch]

I'd go around money advantage being way too significant and the money cap way too high or non-existent. Otherwise every game is kind of pay to win as getting your hands on one more chess book, or getting a better tennis racket gets you an advantage.

While mtg is not cheap, I would say that only older cards get crazy expensive and sometimes are straight out overpowered.