News

• New Phyrexia Spoiled Early — GatheringMagic & MtG Salvation's 175 card spoiler was completed much earlier than expected after the set was leaked completely.

Standard and Block

• Running the Gauntlet: Valakut — LSV sleeves up Valakut this week and runs it up against the the other top decks in the format.
• Venser (SCG$) — Sam Black sidesteps the Caw Blade mirror and looks to Venser as a trump card.
• Fighting Caw-Blade (SCG$) — Gerry Thompson offers up three strategies and corresponding decklists to take down the blade.
• How to Play Every Turn of Caw Blade — Gavin Verhey’s latest article is an exemplar for writers looking to communicate about how to correctly play a deck.
• A Finalist Report: Grand Prix Dallas — Orrin Beasley ran RUG to the top of the Lone Star GP.
• Sludge and Slime — Aaron Kahler shares a budget black and green brew built around Mind Sludge.
• Fighting With/For Flores — Jared Maguire, inspired by Michael J’s, takes the torch for mono-white Eldrazi.
• Bringing Bloodhusks to Dallas — Conley Wood’s newest black and blue brew is designed to beat down on other Jace decks.
• Stampeding through Standard — Caleb Durward updates the classic Overrun archetype for this Lead the Stampede list.
• BUG Player Guide — Reid Duke joins the growing throng of writers who prefer BUG to the established RUG archetype.
• Bant Blade — Greg McCleery invites some Lotus Cobras to the party.

Vintage and Legacy-

• Geocentrism — Adam Barnello’s longview of the Legacy format and its interesting history.
• Running the Legacy Gauntlet: Ad Naseum vs High Tide — Matt Nass and LSV duke it out in this heavyweight matchup.
• Legacy’s Last Four — Glenn Jones tracks the top decks and the growing dangers in Legacy.

Casual and Variant Formats

• Riding the Silver Bullet — Robby Rothe considers which Commander answers and destruction spells should be seeing more play.
• Decks for You — Abe Sargent shares some of his creative takes on the “sweep and keep” archetype.
• Picking the Pieces — Twinblaze of GatheringMagic outlines his criteria for Commander card selection.
• A Drop in the Bucket — Adam Styborski breaks the piggy bank for his budget deck, discusses the prices of Commander staples, and places a value on snow lands.
• BCSM and the Ghost of Billy Mays — Usman Jamil knows that Best Case Scenerio Mentality is a trap for limited players and cube designers alike.

Finance

• Speculating in New Phyrexia (QS$) — Corbin Hosler gives his snap calls on the freshly spoiled set.
• Investing in a Format, Part 3 — Brian Grewe’s well-formatted and insightful series takes a good look at standard pricing trends.
• Diminishing Returns — Sean Morgan checks back in with the Standard Stock ticker to see how the domination of Caw-Blade and Valakut has impacted card prices.

Theory and Miscellany

• Early Thoughts on New Phyrexia — PVD highlights the key cards from the newly-spoiled set.
• How to Waste Two Life at Instant Speed — Alex Shearer measures the effectiveness of “extraction effects.”
• Spawning Shell and Profiting from the Changes to Come (SCG$) — Patrick Chapin’s is all over Spawning Shell and its possibilities for purposeful lines of play.
• The Case for Jace — Frank Lepore compares Jace with other cards thought to be ban-worthy including Skullclamp and Bitterblossom.
• The Issues of Slow Play — Josh Silvestri seeks to find some clarity in the muddy waters of slow play.