I\'m usin\' gMAX, it\'s like a small version of 3d studio max, and it\'s free. It\'s mainly made for making game mods, and modeling for games.
...and verts are little dots... the more verts you got the more complex it looks and the laggyer it will be. So the challenge is, to make stuff with low verts or poly\'s but try to make them look detailed. :]