Why basic mesecons? The circuits presented here are not basic at all. The why of the title is: those circuits do not use a single microcontroller or luacontroller. Therefore, those circuits are much bigger and impratical than controller-powered ones. They exist only for the challenge of creating something very complicated with very simple building blocks. If you want more compact (using controllers), easier to understand or useful circuits, see Temperest's Mesecons Laboratory.
All the articles will require some knowledge about how mesecons work, and some knowledge about basic logic gates (OR, AND, XOR). Moreover, I recommand the WorldEdit mod, because due to the way those circuits are built, you will need to copy some sub-circuits multiple times. Some knowledge about binary will also be required.
How to disable gate overheat (you will need it for the biggest projects)