As an avid player, you can, but you'll probably want to play commander as it's more "casual" and relatively stable.

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.

I haven't been playing for years, but I'm assuming they haven't completely messed with the introduction stuff.

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.

If you don't already have a collection of cards, draft tournaments are a reasonable way to try it out. Only the cards handed out during the tournament are used, so everyone i son an even playing field regardless of prior investment.

It's possible to buy a "starter deck," but against anyone who has invested money (and time), there's no hope.

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.

The starter decks are pretty solid actually. I come from a very aggressive magic community (in terms of play style, the people were super friendly), but every so often I was able to out do them. These are players who have dedicated years and plenty of cash to creating their decks and honing their minds for the game.

Occasionally, careful planning can be beaten by a good hand. ;)