How much would it take to get into the game to a point where I could have a pretty good deck? I mean, a deck that I would have a fair chance at competing with others at the game store, say...

Also, how much would it take to get two decks for play at home with friends that come over?

As far as question 1 goes, it depends - Commons and uncommons in this game are fairly powerful, and so are the starter decks provided you know where to pick. Out of the most recent starter decks, you have many choices. Sagat, Sakura and Akuma are great characters to start with, while Ken will net you Kuzuryu-Reppa, a rare only found in that particular starter deck. Over on the SNK side, Mai is the obvious choice as two of the most powerful cards in the game are her starter-exclusive rares, and the character's nothing to scoff at either. A good beginner character out of that set is Haohmaru, as well. As far as beating people at the game store, I have no idea what's the level of play at your game store ergo, I cannot make an assessment.

Question 2 is more easily answered - All you need is two starter decks. The most recent starter decks are fully compatible with one another, and come with everything needed to play.

In March, there will be a new base set coming out, with entirely new starters, so you may want to look out for that as well.

It really depends how compeitive you want to be, and whether or not you will be purchasing Boosters or singles. If you want to run a deck with all the bells and whistles, then its going to cost a lot of money. UFS is a pretty pricey game as far as CCGs go. You might also have a hard time finding some of the promos where you are, and this can be a pain as a lot of the time the really awesome cards are promos(Chester's Backing, Blood Runs True, Olcadan's Mentoring).

There are a lot of variables as mentioned above.

At Gencon the morning of the worlds, a dude came upto me and said "Hey, I have this starter deck, and I'd love to play in the worlds. Can you help me?"

With the help of DupotD from Calgary, we tooled him up with a bunch of commons/uncommons to make a fire build deck.

Yeah, he went 2-4-1, but at the same time, he had never played, and walked in with a starter deck and some commons/uncommons, and still pulled off two wins at Worlds.

So depending on your skill level, ingenuity, local play group, and determination, you may be able to be very competitive with a low investment. Really, what's a low investment to you? Are you wanting to spend $50, $500, or $1000?

Take a look for players wanting to off load extra commons/uncommons from their sets. I know more then a few players (and have done it myself) where I've cracked a box, took the foils and one or two other cards, and donated the rest of the box.

Two decks that are "equalish" would cost you about $20 total.

A starter deck will run you about $10. Depending on what you get, and how savvy a trader you are, and how competitive your local meta is, you might be able to create a decent and competitive deck for as little as $20 dollars or so. We had one player run Starter Yoshitora deck, and borrowed my Promo Yoshi and placed second overall (his collection was still at home (eg parents)). $50ish dollars and some trading could probably get you a pretty decent deck. Buy a box or two and get some lucky pulls, and you could probably trade for a pretty darn good deck (Most people would trade pretty well for a Defender or Feline Spike).

If everyone in your area runs 4 BRTs and kicks the Baby Jesus every time they mill their deck it might be a more expensive. A large part depends on your local meta. Of course the more you spend, the better your deck will be to some extent, but the best deck piloted by a newb will still probably lose to a slightly modified started piloted by an expert. And luck can screw the best of us and bless the most foolish.

I've been playing for a year and I've spent less that $1500 and I am doing just fine. I would even go as far as to say I've spent too much, looking for chase stuff for my players.

Not much in the case of the latter, and in the case of the former... well... it depends on what gaming store you go to, and how smart / talented you are.

My group you could probably do pretty well with a booster box of something, honestly, and maybe a few trades and/or some online singles deals. So Price of Box + 10-20 in singles = maybe 80 (depends on discount on box). And you'll definitely have some cards left over to start making some other decks to have fun with.

ALTHOUGH technically there are some starters (10 bucks for 60 cards) that are really strong, such as Mai, Yoshitora, and Sakura and Akuma. One or two of these and some packs and you'd be able to do better than half of the people at several stores that I know of.

And that would be your good source for your latter case (the take home and play with case). Really. I Heart Starters.

Now at 'the uber' gaming stores, you'll probably need oh... well... it's better to not say. You'd get better all the time, and games would get closer and closer against those guys with all those other cards (and really, its not that any ONE of them are worth a ton... its just that there will be cards from many different sets and it would be tough to get them all by buying packs and most singles retailers REALLY jack the prices up for some of those cards due to the lack of singles dealers competition for UFS).

So just go for my option of a booster box and some singles to help the deck (after consulting us or someone... often you'll think "hey this card's going to win me games! Yeah i'll throw five bucks in on that!" only to later realize that wasn't the best bet...). Heck a booster box and a starter from an older set would be a great alternative to singles also!