It's a great game! And if you can find some friends who can play on standard house rules... it's hours of fun, like a card game on par with Chess. But the official rules of the game have gone way to far out there.

Yea we've got a group of 5 that plays and we really don't have any deck rules. Play the cards you want to play. It's actually very evenly matched now that we have all gotten a solid deck built and we've got all of the colors represented so there's lots of variety.

When I was heavy into it was standard game play for us back in the day
60 card minimum.
1/3 mana ratio
no more than 4 of the same card, with exceptions to basic land and things such as the Sol Ring were restricted to 1 per deck as well as some spells.
Necropotence was one of my favorite maneuvers.

Well we do play by basic rules, we just don't stick to any deck rules. Any card from any set is free to play, no more than 4 of course. We don't have a deck minimum or land minimum but those are not a problem.

Deck Construction was never so much a rule but more like common sense. You want a perfect functioning set of cards in your library. You should be able to draw a suitable amount of land so that you can play a land card every turn. Every spell, creature and enchantment should work within your hand. No card in your deck should just sit for more than three to four rounds in your hand unless it's your super dupper expensive casting card. I don't recommend them, however I've been known to play with four of Dross. That 6/6 vampire lord is a monster to cast but if you have him in your hand before the game begins, your opponent losses 3 life and you gain that life. So imagine if you draw all 4 of him which I've done (twice mind you, not a common feat mind you but awesome if it happens) that's 12 life you loose and 12 I gain before we even begin. Thus he serves a purpose in the deck.

Growing up, a lot of people were chasing that "I gotta summon Levitation that 11/11 Trample monster!" or "Gimme a Force of Nature or Lord of the Pit" Sure those cards are fun but their casting cost is insane. So while you're saving to summon them I'm whopping on you with more convenience and speed.

The only two colors that work for heavy casting costs is Green and then Blue. Green because mana production is the name of the game and Blue because it's all about drawing cards, taking cards away from you and countering whatever you bring out.

I play black which is all about life drain and life gain. People who play that color become the pesky ones who stay in the game. Nothing beats a first turn Singear Vampire (1 land, 2 Dark Rituals) if you can't take care of that in two rounds you're done.

Red is all about knocking out your opponent's land and pumping up your creatures. Direct damage is the name of your game. For when you want to take on someone directly and knock out their creatures with Lighting spells and Chain Lightning.

White is that annoying Godly color. All about healing yourself and protecting yourself. I use to have a code, if you played with straight COPS (Circle of Protection) Enchantments, I would finish the game with you but I would never play you again. COPS were cheap and completely annoying and draw out a game unnecessarily long. Prolonging the inevitable does not make you the better player. I did like COPA (Circle of Protection: Artifacts simply because that was a white card you never saw much) It's one thing for a creature to have Protection from a color but giving that you is just lame.

So back to what I was saying... cards need to work in unison with one another.

My deck is green and I have quite a few creatures with 4 or more mana to cast but I have so many ways to generate mana and ways to play them without paying their costs that it doesn't matter. There are a few games where I just can't get something going but more often than not, you're in trouble if you let my deck hang around.

Oh Green is something where I have to take you out directly! Or something that returns life to me when I damage your creatures. Usually Pestilence works great for the 1/1 creatures who generate mana but drain life is the way to go. It's cheap... but sometimes so is a whole Forrest whacking you in the face!