I played Magic for a few years, from the summer of 2000 until I graduated high school in 2003. I don't even remember it being an online game.
I first got into trading card games via the Pokemon explosion of 1999. (Who DOESN'T remember that??) I got into the Pokemon TCG for a couple years (summer 1999 to summer 2001 essentially), but soon found it to be extremely simple to the point of being boring. I mean seriously, all you had to do was build a Haymaker (a.k.a. high-speed, aggressive) deck packed with high-powered Basic Pokemon and tons of Trainer cards that let you rifle through your deck practically at will and you'd win 80% of the time at least. What was the point in the game even having Stage 1 and Stage 2 Pokemon?? The 30-something "pros" would build these more complicated combo decks seemingly just to be doing so even though they were easily defeated by simple, efficient Haymakers, half the time before they could even evolve the Pokemon required to make their combos and whatnot work! (Especially after Gym Challenge and Neo Genesis. I'm sorry, but cards like Sneasel, Rocket's Zapdos, Erika's Jigglypuff, Focus Band, Cleffa, and Gold Berry really gave Haymakers an
epically unfair advantage.) It was, after all, a kid's game. Magic was more geared toward teenagers and adults.
So anyway, I discovered Magic and tabletop Dungeons & Dragons in 2000, after which the Pokemon TCG became more of a side hobby than a principal interest. D&D was fun, but my fascination with it was even shorter-lived than my Pokemon fascination. I kept on with Magic through the rest of my high school days though. I guess I do tend to have the same style across the board though, as I preferred straight Aggro decks in Magic too.
But hey, in Magic it was more like rock-paper-scissors in terms of what style of deck had an advantage over others.