I have a play group that kinda does both. We all have multiple "semi-broken" decks (Meren, Teferi, Animar, Daretti, Omnath LoR, Breya) that when played by their owners are lethal and efficient, but otherwise clunky and much slower.
We also each have 4-5 "other" decks that're all in the the $30-$50 range for some battle cruiser magic.
I personally own 12 EDH decks (most made when the format first started in 2009ish), and would only classify 2 (Breya, Animar) as broken. I like making decks to play magic much more than making decks to crush people really quickly.
A guy in my play group runs an Atraxa deck that focuses on delaying the board until Atraxa is big enough to kill you on commander damage.
No hatebear effects, just a bunch of small creatures with +1/+1 counters that Atraxa turns into monsters. Nothing fancy about it, but if you don't have a ton of board clears his $40 deck crushes several of our $100-$200 decks.
As someone who has played for 14 years, I don't want to tell you how to build your deck, that's one of the coolest things to learn. My best suggestion would be to play with it and see what works. If you find yourself putting a card in the back of your hand, cut it. If you find a card saving your butt all the time, add more.
Only real suggestion I would make would be to pick one thing you want your deck to do (attack, gain life, combo, etc.) and make sure most of your cards work towards that goal, or are powered by that goal. Don't just put in flashy cards because they're good. Expensive cards are only as good as the deck they're a part of.
I would highly suggest the site www.edhrec.com. It takes a ton of information and statistics from deck building sites and compiles it. It'll tell you what the most common cards are in decks based on commander/color/theme/tribal. I've used it for the vast majority of my EDH (mostly semi-budget) decks, and they update it very regularly to reflect new cards/trends/sets.
Not an ad, just a player that loves EDH and Magic.
You aren't technically doing anything in response to the trigger. I would just mention playing the spell, how much life you gain, and then continue from there.
Ex:
Cast ornithopter, say you gain 1 life
Cast ornithopter 2, say you gain 2 more life.
Cast ornithopter 3, say you gain 3 more life.
If you have to, lay out the cards as you play them so it is very clear what was played when, and how much life you should gain for each one.
"Declare attackers" is a single event where you announce which creature is attacking which opponent/planeswalker. It all happens at once. Generally you can announce that you're moving to your combat step, depending on how serious your group is.
About 3 years ago, after finishing college, myself and 3 of my friends tha played in middle school(Onslaught/Mirrodin) got back into it.
We got back into it by occasionally buying a bunch random booster packs from the newer sets and drafting just to get used to some of the new mechanics. This was a solid way to get a good look into the metagame, and what people were playing.
Once we did that we did a few organized drafts at or LGS and started to get back into it, while watching people who play the sets do things with the cards in a competitive setting that we hadn't thought of.
It was a fun way to get back into it and learn about some of the new cards in a smaller setting before really delving into standard, or the entirety of Modern, almost none of which was even printed the last time I played.
If you wanna see what is winning right now, and what cards are big, I'd poke around mtgtop8.com, where they post the decklists and results of the major tournaments
We also each have 4-5 "other" decks that're all in the the $30-$50 range for some battle cruiser magic.
I personally own 12 EDH decks (most made when the format first started in 2009ish), and would only classify 2 (Breya, Animar) as broken. I like making decks to play magic much more than making decks to crush people really quickly.
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/magic-rulings/magic-rulings-archives/300038-emrakul-and-the-hideaway-lands
Exert is an ability that goes on the stack, so your spell would resolve first, killing it before it got the bonus.
No hatebear effects, just a bunch of small creatures with +1/+1 counters that Atraxa turns into monsters. Nothing fancy about it, but if you don't have a ton of board clears his $40 deck crushes several of our $100-$200 decks.
Only real suggestion I would make would be to pick one thing you want your deck to do (attack, gain life, combo, etc.) and make sure most of your cards work towards that goal, or are powered by that goal. Don't just put in flashy cards because they're good. Expensive cards are only as good as the deck they're a part of.
Good luck! Have fun!
Not an ad, just a player that loves EDH and Magic.
Ex:
Cast ornithopter, say you gain 1 life
Cast ornithopter 2, say you gain 2 more life.
Cast ornithopter 3, say you gain 3 more life.
If you have to, lay out the cards as you play them so it is very clear what was played when, and how much life you should gain for each one.
We got back into it by occasionally buying a bunch random booster packs from the newer sets and drafting just to get used to some of the new mechanics. This was a solid way to get a good look into the metagame, and what people were playing.
Once we did that we did a few organized drafts at or LGS and started to get back into it, while watching people who play the sets do things with the cards in a competitive setting that we hadn't thought of.
It was a fun way to get back into it and learn about some of the new cards in a smaller setting before really delving into standard, or the entirety of Modern, almost none of which was even printed the last time I played.
If you wanna see what is winning right now, and what cards are big, I'd poke around mtgtop8.com, where they post the decklists and results of the major tournaments