Originally posted by chessisvanity
and as black?
As black, again, same ideas as with white: classical openings with maybe some gambits thrown in there to mix it up, though if you're playing aggressively with white you can choose more solid openings with black. Against 1. e4 the major classical replies are 1... e5, the French, the Caro, and the Sicilian. Any of those will teach a great deal about classical structures. Same idea against 1. d4 and 1. c4.
I can't pick your repetoire for you, only you can do that, I just think you'll go further faster if you save the hyper-modern stuff for later when you've already gotten a firm grasp of some more classical openings and their corresponding positions.
By the way, I know a lot of lower rated "systems" players who think they've found a great chess short cut by opening with a few moves they can always play from either side. How much of a short cut is it though when 10 moves in you have no idea what kind of position you're in, and after the game's over have no thematic examples, especially ones you can comprehend, to compare the game to see how you went wrong?