How to build Magic deck?

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My friend is trying to get me into Magic the Gathering. He's crazy about it and likes to collect cards and build new decks in his spare time. He gave me one of his older basic decks (a black/blue one) and taught me to play. But since then he's kept upgrading his decks while I've still got the same cards he started me with and now I can't even touch him during a game. It's frustrating. He says I have to upgrade my deck but 1. I don't know how and 2. I heard Magic is one of the biggest money traps their is and I don't want to end up going bankrupt over this. Any advice on how to build a good deck without breaking the bank?

How to do it without breaking the bank.... you cant, really.

One way or another, Magic IS a very expensive game, and always will be.

Either you're doing one of two things to get the cards you want: 1, buying boosters until you happen to get them, or 2, buying individual specific cards you want, for the price that each card is individually worth.

EITHER of these options is.... pricey, they just have different methods of being pricey.

As I've told other people, something like Magic isnt a game: It's a hobby. Think of it that way. If you DONT intend to play it ALOT, and I really do mean *ALOT*, dont get into it. If it's only to play it against one person? Dont do it. Just dont. Trust me on this.

And actually building the deck means a hell of alot more than just buying cards. You have to know which cards are good, which are not.... or, more specifically, which are good AT THE MOMENT, because each time they bring out new sets, some previous cards may suddenly not be so good anymore, stuff like that (and in some formats, many older cards are outright not allowed). You have to know how to combine those cards with each other to produce desired effects, there's things like ratios of various card types, and the idea of building an entire deck around a couple of specific concepts. Any given deck is built to DO something. It has some specific individual goal that it tries to reach in order to produce a situation that leads to a win. Simply throwing creatures and fireballs at your enemy isnt good enough. And you also have to have some idea as to the sorts of things you might find yourself up against when facing another player, so that you can put some defenses against potential threats in your deck. If you put the wrong ones in though, they wont help you.

It just gets more and more complicated from there.

But yeah, again, think of it as a hobby, not a game. That's part of WHY it's so expensive. There is no such thing as a hobby that ISNT expensive, really. And like many hobbies, not only is it expensive, it's complicated as all hell and will require a massive amount of time spent in it for you to really get anywhere.

Tell him to upgrade your deck for you (I can't find the smashed teeth emoticon so this will have to do)

CCGs are paper heroin. That said, here is my favorite deck (this one is old school, from the time when most decks were 60 cards):

Mana Base: 19 Plains, 1 Kjeldoran Outpost

Creatures: 2 Crossbow Infantry
2 Heavy Ballista
3 Standing Troops
3 Honor Guard
1 Intrepid Hero
4 Longbow Archer
1 Brass Herald

Enchantments: 4 Serras Embrace
1 Glorious Anthem
1 Test of Endurance
4 Spirit Link
4 Pacifism

Instants: 4 Life Burst
4 Disenchant

Sorceries: 2 Wrath of God

If you like it, you can build it and play it with my compliments.

I love Magic! Is your friend playing any format in particular (ask him if unsure), or just throwing together cards with fun interactions between them? If the latter, find a single card you think has some cool effect, then you can use Wizards' 'Gatherer' tool online to research cards and piece together a deck. For example, if you want to build around a card that lets you remove your creatures from the battlefield and put them back each turn, punch 'when enters the battlefield' into Gatherer to pull up a list of all the creatures printed that have some effect whenever they re-enter the field, and slowly piece together which ones you'd like to run in your deck. If nothing else, read the comments on the cards you're already running - people are sure to have pointed out which cards work well with them.

If your friend is playing a particular competitive format, I'd recommend the YouTube channel Tolarian Community College - it covers plenty of competitive decks for any given format, so you can look through them and pick whichever looks most interesting (and in your budget).

Also, if you want one that is in any way competitive at all, the posters here are right, it would take much in terms of time and money, unless you are only playing other people who are only interested in it as a casual game.