MTG Salvation

Hey guys! Brand new here, read a couple of threads and I'm sorry if this is a repost. I've played MTG for a while now, started playing around tempest, I think. Quit playing for a while. Like a long while, and the game has changed. Just started back into it about 6 months ago. Being an adult, I have a small amount of income I can dedicate a month towards MTG. So, anyway, I typically play with the same set of friends; I do pretty well, but I feel like I'm a little more seasoned then they are. So I was thinking maybe I'd try my hand at some tourney play. I'm going into it assuming I'm going to get my ass kicked. However, any pointers/suggestions would be super helpful. Thinking about going into modern, and aside from my internet research I think it'd be cool to hear from actual other players about deck building. I like aggro smash your face decks, but am open to anything. Anyway, to the question; how do you balance your deck for tourney play? I tend to be super creature heavy, with spells that make sense. It seems like a lot of the decks I've been reading about are way more spell control. So what works for you? Do you guys use tourney decks that are established? Or do you try and be creative with it? I lean towards the latter. Any suggestions are appreciated.