Magic is a game that you can have fun with for any amount of money or time you put into it but if you have any sort of impulse to optimize or just best your friends it's a slippery slope. The current card du jour[1], for instance, preordered for $60 per card, and you can use up to 4 of the same card in a deck. I got into in part to meet new people at my school and as a part of my goal to be proficient in everything stereotypically nerdy. Of all the games I've played I would recommend you and your wife try out is either Elder Sign or Arkham Horror if you haven't already. We really like them because they are cooperative games which can be refreshing after trying to backstab everyone in Munchkin. Arkham Horror does take a long time to learn and play as it is closer to a pen and paper RPG then most board games. Elder Sign is a shorter version of Arkham Horror, in essence, which uses cards instead of a board but keeps the same atmosphere and cooperative playstyle. As a side note, one game I really want to get is Roborally[2] which I played at the last computer science student society get together. You use cards to program a robot to move around an arena, capture flags, and harm your opponents. [1] http://store.tcgplayer.com/product.aspx?id=57619
[2] http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=ah/prod/roborally