News

• Scars of Mirrodin MtGO Release Events—Get the low down on the virtual release of the newest set.
• Five Cards from Fire and Lightning—Chain Lightning and company have already ignited interest in the upcoming premium deck.

Tournament Coverage

• TCG Player 5k in NYC—Some of the first tournament results are already in from the Big Apple.

Standard

• The 2010’s Metagame—Chris Jobin debriefs the four “real” decks he sees contending for this weekend’s state titles.
• Mono-Red for Standard—Cedric Phillips, the Kithkin connoisseur, has been playing a lot of mountains in the new Standard format
• Prepping for States—Seth Allison’s States and Provincials primer predicts the meta-game in this burgeoning format.
• Breaking Koth and Why the Naysayers are Wrong about Scars—Patrick Chapin feels that, “Most of the good cards in Scars of Mirrodin require planning, foresight, and precision” and that has caused most players to overlook powerful possibilities.  See also, the UWR deck he’d play at States.
• The Axis of Primeval –Todd Anderson thinks that Primeval Titan is “the best card in Standard by a mile” so he looks at three possible builds that get the most out of this Jolly Green Giant.
• When Girl Scouts Attack—Craig Wescoe goes all in with his elves build.
• Elves? the Signals are There—Conrad Kolos reads the teas leaves and predicts that Elves are primed for a comeback.

Limited

• Drafting Scars Review—Dan Kramer finished his draft review of SoM this week, and you can start here with White.
• My Limited Strategy—David Ochoa on signals and the importance of consistency in drafting is applied to Scars of Mirrodin draft.
• Power Drafting Metalcraft—Darwin Kastle draws a line in the sand between the new mechanics when it comes to his draft strategy.
• Why I Win at Scars Limited—Robert Anderson feels he’s got a good handle on the new limited format and shares his insights.
• Limited Scenarios and Infecting your Opponents—Travis Woo walks his readers through some interesting limited board positions and spitballs a couple of infect deck lists.
• Scars Sealed—Matthias Hunt searches out the Pillarfield Ox of the current format.
• Draft Fundamentals—PV gets back to basics in this article certain to shore up a part of your limited game.

Legacy and Vintage

• Gush back in Vintage—Owen Turtenwald gushes over one of his favorite Vintage decks.

Casual and Variant Formats

• Hidden Gems—Scars of Mirrodin has inspired Sheldon Menery to break out his metal detector and search out some buried treasures.
• Decks from Scars of Mirrodin—Abe Sargent, inspired by the new set, brews up some new tactics  for kitchen table battlefields.
• My Take on EDH—Sam Black discusses synergy in the casual format and shares his builds for Azusa and Sek’Kaur.
• Phyrexian Poison Review—Ertai’s Lament busts open a box of poison.

Finance

• Trading on Magic Online—Jonathan Medina explains how a MtGO bot can help you turn a pack of Rise into a time machine.
• Analyzing Booster Pack Values—Chris McNutt examines the EV of cracking packs from recent expansions.

Theory and Miscellany

• Seven Traits of the Best Deck—Mike Flores breaks down the proverbial “best deck” in a seven-point check list to keep players from deluding themselves.  Flores expanded here with a discussion Mystifying Maze.
• Figuring out Tiebreakers—Olivier Ruel’s tiebreaker primer should be bookmarked on your phone.  Immediately.
• Love, Beauty, and Magic—AJ Sacher turns over a new leaf with this article and it has gotten rave reviews on Twitter.
• The Aggro Player’s Bible—Chingsung Chang’s mantras for aggressive mages.

Teach a Man to Fish—Kelly Reid takes up the torch as another ManaNation educator and provides an excellent article on teaching people this Mensa-approved game.