News

• The Great Designer Search 2: Meet the Finalists—MaRo introduces the top eight designers who move on to the big show.
• 2011 SCG Open Series—The schedule of events is released and the prize payout has been taken to the next level.
• MBS Goblin Wardriver Art Revealed—New Goblin artwork by Chippy has been spoiled on Salvation.
• DotP 3 Drops Today—Three new decks, five new levels, and Niv Mizzet released Thursday.

Tournament Coverage

• Grand Prix Bochum—Martin Juza and his Hand of the Praetors took home the gold in Germany.
• SCG Open Charlotte—Nick Spagnolo pulled double duty by making the top four in both Standard and Legacy.  See his tournament report below as well.

Standard

• Chiba from a Thousand Feet — Alexander Shearer divides the pie graphs and crunches the numbers on the current Type II meta.
• Anything but Standard—Mike Flores’ extensive look at some interesting standard decks making waves at major tournaments.
• Into the Mimic Vat — Gerry Thompson shares the Mimic Vat list that was the talk of the recent SCG Open in Charlotte.
• Metagaming -- Michael Jacobs discusses the art of metagaming and then attacks the RUG deck from four different angles.
• Permission Control in Standard—Mathew Bartamus believes in the power of instants and showcases them in his UB build.
• A Test of Endurance—Kyle Boggemes discusses why he believes UW is poised to be a dominant deck and also runs down his ninth place performance at GP Toronto.
• Everybody is Wrong—Chingsung Chang lists thirteen reasons that UW is still the best deck in Standard.
• Battle Royale—Gavin Verhey explains his process for devising a two-ticket deck that took down three straight MTGO eight man events.
• Eldrazi Update for the Metagame—In this Titan-centric world, Conrad Kolos finds room for Kozilek and Ulamog to shine.

Limited

• Combos in Scars—Olivier Ruel lists his most interesting and most powerful combos in SoM draft.
• Avoiding Traps and Playing Boros—Brad Nelson looks at misread signals and current draft archetypes.
• Drafting Poison—Ari Lax examines the risks and rewards associated with drafting Infect and he shares a bonus Boros list.
• Winning an Xbox at GP Bochum—LSV’s latest tournament report provides his 360 degree view of the sealed format including the role of removal and bombs.
• The Scar is from My Trip from Canada—Bryan Gottlieb runs down overrated and the under drafted cards in Scars and shares his blueprint for a Molder Beast combo deck.
• No Idea’s Original—Tom Reeve talks color, tempo, and mechanical themes in this insightful draft theory overview.

Legacy and Vintage

• A Trinket Mage Romance—Nick Spagnolo continues his memorable runs by taking home a gold and a bronze in last weekend’s SCG Charlotte Open.  Here, he talks about his Survival build and his latest incarnation of UB for Standard.
• Evolution of Landstill—Christopher Walton, fresh off a 10^th place finish at a SCG Open event, provides insight into how he remade Landstill for the current metagame.

Casual and Variant Formats

• Politics, Politics, Politics—Abe Sargent explains how political strategy brings a sense of law and order to Chaos multiplayer games.
• More Other People’s Decks—Sheldon Menery breaks down another take on a Teneb, the Harvester deck.
• Infecting the Paupers—Dave from MTGO Traders brainstorms several possible Standard Pauper decks and shares his bargain brews.
• Archenemy Deck Boxes—Ertai’s Lament on why they are underwhelmed with the value of the oversized Archenemy deck boxes.

Finance

• Case Studies in Ethics—Kelly Reid looks at the possible moral conundrums facing financially savvy players at today’s trading tables and dealer counters.
• Promotional—Rusty Young loves the digital promotional cards.  Should you?

Theory and Miscellany

• Jockey for the Beatdown—Mike Flores suggests much of the current environment is comes down to who is best able to stake out the beatdown role and how this marks a dramatic shift.
• The Circle of Predation Part 2—Chingsung Chang separates his Circle from the Metagame Wheel and demonstrates why his system gives players better view of archetypal matchups
• Making Magic More Fun—Raoul Mowatt recaptures the fun and suggests adding additional formats to make the game more enjoyable for everyone.
• Alterations: Your Toolbox—Jeremy Froggatt assembles a card-alterer’s toolkit and then creates some custom O-Rings.