Catching up fast from 1997... I have recently come back to MTG after many years. I like home brew decks made for fun yet able to challenge top tier netdecks.

MTG has certainly improved beyond any of the wildest 1997 dreams:

There are amazingly powerful creatures (as per 1997 standards)... 5/5 flyers for 5 CMC with no downside at all!!! Hexproof tramplers and/or flyers, Tarmogoyf, Phyrexian Obliterator, Vampire Nighthawk, Pack Rat... a lot of cloning creatures also!

There's an astounding number of new counterspells in almost every color!! (Avoid Fate, Rebuff the Wicked, Dash Hopes), many more blue counters, most of them costing just U... Also many forking spells.

There are many fascinating mechanics, like Dredge, Delve, Heroic, Infect, Strive, Storm... There's the Phyrexian mana...

I played Modern upon coming back to MTG, but have been hooked up into playing FNM-level Standard. I play Pauper from time to time as tinkering experimental decks is affordable. I have recently started brewing a couple of EDH decks to try social multiplayer MTG and also to redeem long-time rusting singletons. These 2 formats allow researching the biggest pool of cards available, and sometimes even playing with them for cheap (obvious in Pauper, affordable as singleton in EDH).

I am currently keeping a Modern Infect deck ('cause you have to kill by turn 4 most of your games, lest play Pauper or EDH for fun and tinkering). After playing for months mono-red and mono-blue in Standard, I have settled for a homebrew Simic Manifest deck for fun and Johnny-ness, and a hopefully Spike-ish Standard Temur Aggro deck. I also pilot a Delver Fiend deck and an Orzhov witches deck in Pauper. I am also building a preliminary EDH brew along Nicol Bolas and few Grixis dragons.

Current R&D projects at early stage are Dredge-Reanimator for Pauper and Slivers for EDH.

Happy to be sharing here thoughts, ideas, card recommendations, etc!