What are these programs of which you speak?

Free MTG online?

Scrollrack is a program where you load image of the cards and play against someone online. It's not a MtG client "per se", in the sense that it doesn't know the rules, it's up to both players to enforce them, they have to destroy the cards, deal damage, draw cards, all by themselves.

On the flipside, you can use every card you always dreamed to use

I tried a couple of matches, it works in a clever way

That does sound interesting, but it sounds like quite alot of work at the same time. :(

Is the XBL version of MTG actually going to come out? I heard about it once a year or two ago, and then never again, really.

It's been a long time since I played M:tG (I got in at Revised and left toward the end of 5th Edition), but I used to play.

It's no more work than the regular game, in fact. What you do in a physical game, you gotta do it here

Yeah, I suppose.

I should check it out some day. :)

I have lots of them and used to a lot. But lately, nah.
I've played them the most in the ages of Mask, Destiny, 6th edition, Tempest etc...

I played it maybe a decade or so ago and maybe spent $30 or so on a deck worth of cards at Frank & Sons a few years back just to goof around with. I looked up some of the new mechanics they've added since I stopped back in Tempest and I have a basic idea what they do but really no idea how everything is incorporated into a deck nowadays. Only reason I looked them up was because I was bored and messing around with MSE a couple years ago. I still have most of my cards, they're just lost in the garage somewhere.

I started around Mirage but the only block I ever paid money for cards was Kamigawa.  Beyond that I went to a couple prereleases and won my cards either through play or lucky drawing.  I have friends far more into it than I am who have tons and tons of cards.  My favorite times are when a friend brings out his boxes and boxes of cards and we dump them out on a large floor or table and just start throwing random decks of whatever we find together and then play those.  Fun stuff.

Deck building remains my favorite part of the game.

My friends enjoyed playing, but were never very good at deck building. I was always the one who put the decks together.

Most people I played built decks that consisted of "the biggest creatures that I have, regardless of casting costs. So, thier decks ended up being full of craw worms, and worthless huge casting cost creatures.

They would always end up a little befuddled when my deck of mainly 2/2 creatures would wipe the floor with thier deck before they could get out their first craw worm or lord of the pit. :P