Commander, the main format these days, is generally proxy friendly. The original intent of the format was that youre playing against the opponents, not their wallets.

MPC/ not mpc for avoiding tarrifs and long ship times in the states are the big ones.

Personally, Ive been usingmrg print to generate a PDF i take to a local print shop, have them print on thin glossy card stock (#34 glossy laser paper) the cut those out with a paper cutter, and sleeve them up with random cards.

I only go for ‘real’ proxies from mpc fill once i have a deck finalized, and my play group has other players putting together a buy to hit the ~700 or whatever cards for the cheapest price point.

There’s a ton of sites that offer custom proxies, including with original art. You could just get a full deck in proxy.

Plus if you’re worried about people asking, you could bling it out with custom art and full art lands and all that, then tell them you wanted something to flex and you keep the real stuff at home safe.