There have been a lot of attempts, including a recent wave from China. However, there are unique features about how the cards are printed that make it difficult to reproduce: cards bend in a certain way, use a proprietary font, have a strip embedded between the layers, etc. High quality fakes can fool some people, but not usually those who can afford to fork over hundreds or thousands for the really valuable cards.
(not to mention if you use fakes in sanctioned Magic and are caught, big penalties can ensue)
A long time coming, but still sad. I still have a certificate that Maxis sent me in response to a letter (around the time of SinCity 2000), proclaiming me an 'official Maxoid'. All the Sim games (especially SimCity) were hugely influential to me and a lot of my friends.
I have a Das Keyboard (http://www.daskeyboard.com/), specifically the Das Keyboard 4 Professional. A little pricey if you're used to generic $10 keyboards, but it's fantastic to type on.
Anything other than allowing the user to register with the same username and password as someone else will already give it away, so I don't see the harm in spelling it out.
It's interesting dumping groups of cells into different parts of the board and seeing how it reacts - a group in the middle of one color gets absorbed quickly, a group along the border of several colors hangs on for much longer, etc.
WotC, especially Mark Rosewater, has addressed this issue many many times. I would recommend checking out some of his columns and podcasts.
Short answer: the game has evolved quite a bit (I've been playing for 17 years).
Long answer:
> Anybody using the old ones is a sucker.
There are several different Constructed formats, each with its own restrictions on which cards can be played. The three most popular are Legacy, Modern, and Standard. In Modern and Standard, only newer cards are allowed, so there naturally aren't any from older sets. In Legacy, there are plenty of older cards being played. Take a look at the lists from any Legacy tournament, and you'll see a mix of old and new. Now, the power levels of each type of card have changed (in general, creatures have gotten more powerful and non-creature spells less powerful), so you'll often see earlier non-creature spells and more recent creatures, but this isn't set in stone.
There's also the idea of power creep. The natural progression of a game like Magic is to allow more and more powerful effects, since not doing so will dis-incentivize buying new cards. For at least the past 10 years, then, Wizards has made a conscious decision to vary the power level between blocks (cycles of sets). Different types of cards will be more or less powerful at different times (in the last block, enchantments were the focus, now multicolor cards are being emphasized).
It's true that if you want to stay competitive takes a certain amount of money, but this is true in many hobbies. Magic has been constantly getting more popular over the last few years, and it's still around when 99% of its competitors are gone. Let's check back on your game in 20 years and see where it's at.
That sounds pretty much like what I said: card inflation keeps people buying new cards. I was being a little cynical, but if they cop to it, then great.
I don't see it as a 'natural progression'. Its lazy; you can think of new cards without obsoleting old ones, but it takes effort. I know; we've got an edition and 3 expansions so far (500 cards) and they took a lot of work.
As for being around; I see people come into our local card shop for tournaments, but nobody is 'playing Magic' any more. There has to be a gimmick, like a contest or draft tournament or some such. The kids in my Scout Troop were crazy about it 10 years ago; now its dropped off the radar. So maybe its still around, but its 30 year olds with money that keep it going.
