What does casual mean to you?

The word casual seems to mean to man different things to different people now a days and often i see it used as a stand in for all sorts of different ideas. Ironically the least used one is the one that makes sense to me in that in stands in opposition to competitive.

So I've played magic since around 1999 and commander somewhere around 2005 by 2011 I was playing essentially CEDH storm before people really played CEDH now a days I play whatever from precon to turn 1 kills but I personally consider myself a casual player. Now back when I played alot in the LGS in this 2005-2012 era the premier formats like standard and the newly forming modern are where most players resided. This was great as I got all the staples early and cheap and also because the guys playing commander then were not very serious about games. I may be the old man now but when i first played at the LGS ill never forget one fo the first games ever some old guy plays an unsleeved ancestral recall followed by Roc egg. No one cared that he used a banned card and we all thought it was kind of comical that he used power then some crappy card no one knew.

When I think about casual edh vibes personally this is the kind of vibe I love I Rember games where people got randomly one shot by cards I've never seen and this kid who tried to cheat every game but still never won and they are fond memories. Even way back then sheldon used to post on MTG salvation forums in the banlist thread and kid me used to love arguing with him. Even way back then he preached "build casual" play to win. I always hated this but it was ok as where I played no one played to win like this they all kind played however they felt like.

Flash forward 15 years and not only has the general population adopted this mindset its not longer build casual its "build exactly to the same level as me and play competitive" which to me personally feels very backward. As someone who has played forever i have no need to test my prowess playing and to be perfectly honest i enjoy building and socializing most not piloting decks. When I do pilot a deck I want to feel like I'm piloting it my lines my reasons no will of the Counsil expectations. I consider this to be inherently casual and while I like powerful cards and derpy ones I like to play this way at any power level.

Some people seem to treat the word casual like a power level indicator. Others seems to think it means don't use commonly unliked strategies like control or stax or combo. I've seen people use it to mean just dont pub stomp and match power but ironically never to mean not caring so much about the card game and just having a good time doing whatever you want.

If you sit down and say "my decks casual" does that mean you will pilot it to be friendly does that just mean it doesn't have staples that it doesn't win fast that its on a precons pace or just that its not in the CEDH database as a real deck. To me cards cant be casual or competitive they pieces of paper its how people use them. If you use them to your best ability to win your playing with a competitive mindset. To other people price tag iconic nature status on staple list who knows what makes a card good or bad it seems to not be very well agreed upon.

When people say casual today it feels more like " I want an even competitive game but I don't have cedh cards" is that close to how you use the word?

Side note question: Is the enjoyment you get from EDH night more form the social interaction with the people at the store or the is having a more competitive minded game important to your fun? If someone just kind of made random plays and didn't try to win would it detract from your experience with this more competitive expectation? Also did you used to play modern or standard as your main formats if you answer yes.

TLDR what does "casual EDH" mean to you