News       

• Announcing From the Vault: Realms—As if the Legends set didn’t push Commander pimping far enough, WotC is back at it with a set of foil lands.
• Presenting LoadingReadyRun—What happens when Magic meets The Kids in the Hall?

Standard and Block

• The Changing Face of Standard—Carrie Oliver follows the ever-shifting meta-game of Standard and has the decklists that go well beyond Delver and Ramp.
• Double Top Eights at Memphis—Zack Hicks made some memories with his Heartless Summoning list on Saturday, and so he Doubled down with MUD on Sunday.
• A Fragile Format—($SCG) Reid Duke explains how small innovations can wreak havoc in an inbred format.
• Delver Primer—($SCG) There is no denying Delver’s prominent place on the Standard scene. Gerry T traces its evolution right through to this weekend’s showdown in Tampa.

Limited

• Redefining Limited—Conley Woods runs down the archetypes available with the advent of Dark Ascension.
• Triple DKA Drafting for Fun and Profit—Jon Agely wouldn’t recommend quitting your day job to draft Dark Ascension, but his innovative formatting provides a great overview of the format.
• Black Border Drafting—Watch over the shoulders of Richard Bland and Kyle Boggemes.
• Grand Prix: Seattle Prep—Haven’t built a Sealed deck since the Launch Party? Melissa DeTora catches everyone up to speed on the only format that allows you to crack a six-pack deck!
• Evaluating Gameplay in Dark Ascension—Kenji Egashira breaks down some specific situations that highlight the complexity of our current forty-card format.
• Everyday I’m Spider Spawning—Owen Turtenwald is still forcing Spider Spawning in DKA/INN/INN.  Here, he examines the strategy’s viability now that it’s back under the radar.
• Chasing Down Platinum—Craig Wescoe regales tales of his recent travels and, more importantly, raises awareness of combat tricks in the current limited environment.
• The Talented Mr. Roto—Justin Parnell concludes his series on rotisserie drafting his cube.

Vintage, Legacy, and Modern

• All the Formats—Caleb Durward’s multi-faceted article includes his lists for Legacy and Modern.
• Making Top 8 at Lincoln Grand Prix—Mary Jacobson demonstrates her affinity for crushing other Modern decks with a heavily-decorated Ornithopter.

Casual and Variant Formats

• Commander Tournament—Adam Styborski considers the frustrations and possibilities of competitive Commander pods.
• The Dragonmaster—Sheldon Menery builds a Karthus deck in honor of Kibler’s big win.
• Vanguard—Robby Rothe explores both the paper and virtual Vanguard formats.
• Gleeful Flames Review—Ertai’s Lament fires up the Event Deck and takes it for a spin around the block.
• Pauper Delver—Tobias Rosman looks at one of the Delver decks making waves in the all-commons format.

Finance

• The Prizes and Pitfalls of the Obscure—($QS) Sigmund Ausfresser on how to pick up rarities, and more importantly how to find the right buyers.

Theory and Miscellany

•  Nuts and Bolts: Higher Rarities—Mark Rosewater’s set design series should be required reading for anyone who claims to love the game. The same goes for Doug Beyer on World building.
• The Focus of Your Attention—Alexander Shearer provides some real insight into the mental game of Magic.
• Wrong Way, Go Back—Brendan Weiskotten discusses WotC’s style-guide and recent pieces of revealing card art that have been called into question.
• Women in Magic—Patrick Chapin’s thoughts on the gender issues at the gaming tables.
• Confronting Geek Shame—Natasha Lewis Harrington’s scholarly take on the psychology of shame in Geek cultures. There’s even a works cited!
• The Power of Positive Thinking—Bruce Richard breaks down the Magic Community into three groups: Contributors, Haters, and the Silent Majority.
• The Problem with the Philosophy of Fire—Chingsung Chang is not a fan of card efficiency that declines as the game progresses.