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I would start by looking at what they put into the game day event decks:

Besieged: http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/714
New Phyrexia: http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/648

While these are pre-constructed for newer players to be able to pick them up and go, they are also meant to be competitive. They show you how certain aspects of the game, especially this Scars block work together. Personally, I would recommend picking up one of those if they are in your budget (which is also a huge deciding factor unfortunately). I picked up the War of Attrition (mainly for the Stoneforge Mystics and Puresteel Paladin), pulled out the equipment that came with it and tossed in a few better swords. The advantage I had was already having a lot of cards to choose from. Seeing that you probably don't have a lot of cards to work with yet, you have to find the strengths of what you have. Find a card you think that has potential and search for decks that use that card. A card list would definitely help out, especially a list of the rares (gold and golden-orange symbols), as they are usually the limiting factor on decks. My best guess as this point is you'll probably end up running black/green infect or blue/black proliferate-control with infect. Let us know what's going on and if you need any help.

P.S.
Don't forget to trade cards with other players. That is the fastest and cheapest way to get a card you want. Just be sure to have a general idea on the card values, or an app that lets you look them up so you don't trade a $25 card a 50 cent rare, or worse, having someone be mad at you for "ripping them off", even though you didn't mean to.

Oh awesome, thanks for the tips! I might do just that - pick up one of the event day decks (when I have enough cash again) and swap in anything I could use to improve the deck. As for trading, I plan on going to a couple local FNM nights near me to check out the gameplay and perhaps ask for tips from regular players there. However before I attend FNM I hope to at least have a playable deck just so I have some room to mess around playing.

As for rares, I currently have the following:

* Victory's Herald
* Phyrexian Crusader
* Phyrexian Hydra
* Spine of Ish Sah
* Bonehoard
* Mirrorworks
* Life's Finale
* Myr Welder
* Precursor Golem
* Knowledge Pool
* Grindclock
* White Sun's Zenith
* Slagstorm
* Spellskite
* Norn's Annex
* Magnetic Mine
* Phyrexian Rebirth

http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=199019

Ok, this is something I threw together. I limited it to a maximum of 2 commons and 1 uncommon, only from the Scars block (no core cards either) and only using the rares you already have. I tried to keep with a lot of stuff from besieged, but that may or may not be the case, I didn't count it out. It's really creature based but should give you an idea. The sample hands haven't looked too bad either You may want to look into the smaller creatures that cost less to see if you can drop the general mana cost. It has some removal, and a touch a proliferate. I'd try to give it a few runs of play testing before I depended on it.

Some other advice I have, especially for FNM is don't expect to win, don't even expect to do good. Go there with the intention of having fun and getting to know people and the game. I've been playing for quite a while and have never won a FNM. It's to the point now where I just go to run crazy combo decks and stuff that's just funny. There have been people there in the past who have been not exactly sore losers, but certainly weren't very sportsman like. Try to go in early your first night, you'll probably have to get a DCI number and that takes a few minutes. It will also give you a little time to meet and greet others, even show them your deck and get opinions. As they get to know you better and get the feel that you're cool, they may even start to lend you cards to play for the night (which brings me to buy card sleeves. They don't have to be the fancy ones with a special plastic case or anything, even the 100 for a buck kind will work. Enough to protect your cards and show others that you care about theirs if they lend them). I don't know how big of a crowd there is at your location, but we usually get around 20 people. A few of us will even go out after and play a few rounds somewhere else, and if there is a new person there who is fun to play with, it's not usual for them to be asked if they want to come along. Anyway, that's enough of my preaching. I hope this helps you out and if you need anything, just let us know and I'm sure someone around here can steer you in the right direction.

BTW, when you go to FNM, bring that D-20 dice you got, try to find a d-10 as a poison counter and a roll of pennies (they make great -1/-1 counters). Paper and a pen also work, don't expect a life counter app on a cell phone to make it through the night, mine never does.

Oh man that seems great, there are only a few of the commons/uncommons there that I don't have. Thanks so much! :) If anybody else has any tips about creating decks around the rares I already have, that would be much appreciated.

About FNM, that's pretty much the attitude I already have - I may not even get into playing right away, but watching games be played so I know how it's done before I jump right in. I think the crowd near me is generally about 20 as well, and the owners of the shop are generally nice dudes, one even said he might lend me cards if I became a regular at FNM. Getting card sleeves is a good idea though, I was planning on getting some for my deck and putting the rest of my cards in a binder with plastic card sleeve pages.

(Ps. any other tips are always appreciated - I'm new to the game in general so anything about gameplay or deck building or rules would be great!)