There are budget leagues where they cap the value of the deck at like $70 or $100 or whatever, to keep it fair and fun for everybody without being pay to win.

Also if you find a good game shop with casual players, literally no one is bringing a thousand dollar deck to play with, and if someone does that then basically no one will play with that person.

A decent precon deck can cost like $50 and that's all you need to have fun playing casually like that.

Your friend was kind of a dick for using his power deck on you for your first time.