I've played since I was but a wee child so literally 30+ years off and on

You're going to have to ask something specific or I'm going to infodump and nobody wants that

Edit:

anything I should know before going in?

You won't understand the intricacies of the rules fully and that's ok. Just do what the card says. If that's not helping, look up the specific card on the gatherer website and it may have the exact interaction you're wondering about