Learning to Play Magic:The Gathering

The last time we spoke, I was getting interested in Magic: The Gathering -- since then I've gone all in.

Thinking about some of the reasons I like it:

1) It appeals to my OCD tendencies in a few ways,

a) My collecting gene
b) The stats (mainly on the cards -- using them to predict optimal strategies)
c) The time spent not playing the game but thinking about the game (deck building, deck tweaking, thinking about the synergies between cards, thinking about the strategies behind different decks / cards, etc)

2) The challenge of game play and the challenge of the learning curve

3) The Flavor of the world of Magic and the art of the cards (c'mon, how can you not love a Zombie called "Farbog Boneflinger")

I've been playing online exclusively through two different products:

1) MTG: Duels of the Planeswalkers -- This is the first product I bought. It's available for $9.95 for XBOX live, PS, and Steam for PC (my choice). This is a slick-shiny interfaced, arcade style version of Magic. I used this product to learn the basics of game play (playing against computer AI). I'm glad I started with this product to learn (for reasons I'll explain below), but ultimately, it's pretty limited in my opinion for one main reason; the lack of deck building. Although you do unlock some additional cards through game-play giving some ability for deck modification, you can't build a card collection and participate in ground-up deck creation with this game. It wasn't more than a week before I moved on to...

2) Magic:The Gathering Online (MTGO) -- This is where all the action is. For $9.99 you get an account and can download the client. You also get about 300 playable cards (common and uncommon) two "event tickets" (the currency of the game, each ticket is essentially the equivalent of $1), one booster pack, and some Planeswalker cards / decks.)
MTGO hosts all kinds of tournaments and casual game play formats. There is a marketplace where you can buy and sell individual cards. There is a store to buy more event tickets and boosters, and more. Coming from the Planeswalkers game, the interface seems really clunky and non-intuitive (especially when you play your first game), but it isn't long before you settle into it.
I've only played casual "constructed format" games thus far. I was pretty nervous playing the first time (especially since I didn't really understand the game play mechanics of the MTGO interface) and was promptly blown out. I didn't fare any better in game two. After getting killed the second time, I took a lot of care to really build a deck where the cards worked together synergistically. I went to the marketplace and started buying single cards (quite inexpensive online; you can get about 100 commons for 1 event ticket, 50 uncommons for 1 ticket, or a half-dozens rares). Long story short, my mono-black Zombie / Vampire deck went on to win 7 of the next 10 games.
Ultimately, I feel that I'll gravitate to the "Limited" format (ex: Booster Draft) once I gain a little more experience and knowledge. For now though, I'm having fun building and tweaking decks (without spending much money on the high-dollar cards).

Anyway, let me know if you guys feel like dropping ten bucks and geeking out with me (both of the products above let you play against your friends). I'll give you more details and will show you the basics. FUNz!