Living card games (FFG makes several) can still have expansions packs, but everyone has access to the same card pool and all the cards are equally available (no randomization).
Android:Netrunner is a great example (though the original Netrunner from the 90's is like Magic), but they also make a Game of Thrones game, Call of Cthulu, and Star Wars living card games :) You could buy a complete set of cards for any of these games for less than a top-tier Magic deck :)
Magic is really a 'system' of games.
My favorite way to play is draft. It's 12-15 dollars a draft, but 8 people, mini-tournament, power level is balanced by the limited card pool.
There are usually themed 40 card decks with every set. They usually have two colors that are combined to achieve something. They come with little booklet that teaches how the deck is meant to work and maybe some lore behind the idea. My first deck was mono red Goblin deck, which had a lot of small goblin guys and the idea was just to dish out goblins faster than your enemy can handle them, a death by thousand cuts.
As for themed decks power, they usually are not very powerful. Since they want to sell you more cards, but they are as good place as any to begin. Just don't expect to win tournaments with them.
Magic is not really a game so much as a psychological weapon deployed on people to extract money from them legally (if not really ethically), IMO.
There's no good need for it either. There's no reason that the game couldn't be made a proper game: Just sell a box with 4 copies of every card ever made (as the limit per deck of a single card is 4) or in expansions. Then it would be ethical.
Occasionally, careful planning can be beaten by a good hand. ;)
Those games ("collectible" card games) are literally the physical equivalent of "Free to Play" games psychologically, without the "Free" part ever.
(Edit: "Android Netrunner" is what I was referring to.)