This Week in Magic for 27 Feb. - 5 Mar.

Posted on March 5, 2010

Welcome to the latest edition of 'This Week in Magic.' For those of you who haven't read it before, it is a collection of the articles that I enjoyed most from around the Magic metaverse. It is not scientific, and it is probably highly unfair as obviously we all have biases. Content, writing style, complexity, etc. all play a part in determining whether the article makes this list but I cannot provide a guideline as to how they are picked. It is solely based on my level of enjoyment, interest, or education from the articles.

The list focuses on free content, ignoring all premium articles, and also leaving out podcasts. I am attempting to work podcasts into my process but the system needs some work so they are not included in this week's article.

Enough blabbering, here are this week's articles, and at the end is the list of sites I read regularly.

Sunday, Feb. 28th, 2010

Wizards - Muller Magical in Madrid - The coverage of the biggest Magic tournament ever was quite enjoyable.

CF - When 45 Points Just Isn't Enough Part 2 - LSV has, I think, become one of the best writers about Magic. His knowledge married to his writing creates a beautiful union.

Monday, Mar. 1st, 2010

ManaNation - Episode 100 - Mike Turian - I interviewed Mike Turian at PT San Diego

ManaNation - Accelerated Learning at the Pro Tour - Desmond Cresswell went from absolute noob to Pro Tour competitor in six months. Here's his story.

Wizards - The Secrets of the Eye - One of the biggest spoilers of all time.

Tuesday, Mar. 2nd, 2010

XMTG - Format Barrier's to Entry

ManaNation - Thraximundar in EDH - Dale Lovelace discusses his Thraximundar EDH deck

ManaNation - GP Oakland 37th Part 2 - Peter Knudson completes his GP Oakland report.

ManaNation - Card's That Don't Suck Volume One - Guest author 'Matt Barbato' gives some humor and insight

Wednesday, Mar. 3rd, 2010

T:apped - S:wamped

ManaNation - Examining the Price of Standard Part 2 - Russell Tassicker breaks down the costs of Boss Naya and UW Control.

ManaNation - Free Time = Test Time - Dan Eckstein shares an explosive landfall deck he's been testing

ManaNation - The Hulk gets Crabs Primer - Guest author Travis Hall shares his creation for Extended, the Hulk gets Crabs

Wizards - Magic in the Connected Age - Doug Beyer discusses what today's technology makes possible in the world of Magic.

Wizards - The Valley of the Shadow of Death - Jacob van Lunen shows 'Shadow sligh' which runs Death's Shadow / Ad Nauseam

SCG - Grand Prix Oakland Report - 11th - Alexander West shares his Zoo list and his story of GP Oakland, despite his attempt to quit Magic.

MTG film may not be confined to Fantasy Realms - Habro chief talks about the movie possibilities.

Thursday, Mar. 4th, 2010

XMTG - Magic's Levels of Evil

ManaNation - Getting Your Girlfriend Into Magic - Lauren Lee shares some insight and expectations on getting your significant other into Magic.

ManaNation - Eyes on the Prize - Kelly Reid shares his insights into the overvaluing of Eye of Ugin

CF - Block is Back - Brad Nelson talks about Block as he begins prepping for PT San Juan

Too Much of a Good Thing is Still Too Much - Discussing the new Eldrazi spell and what it could mean for the set.

Friday, Mar. 5th, 2010

ManaNation - The Coalition - Issar Roon (written by Brenden Weisskotten) discusses the story behind the Coalition.

SCG - The Richmond/Madrid Metagame - Doug Linn gives an excellent lightweight overview of the Legacy metagame. Without bogging down in decklists, he names archetypes and discusses them.

SCG - Opening with New Knightfall - Bennie Smith shares two decks and his EDH Baron Sengir deck. A fun read and interesting decks.

The List

The list is my current collection of Magic sites that I read, admittedly some more than others, but still it has proven a valuable resource for others. It has a few limitations:

They must be regularly updated. Once a month goes without an update, I shelve it to the 'Death Row' section to be checked occasionally but not regularly. After three months, I remove them from my reading list.

They must be in English. There are countless excellent foreign websites for Magic, but as I sadly only can read English and Latin, they do me little good other than for pretty pictures.

I clumsily separate the sites into "Article Sites" and "Blogs." The latter being a blurred area as some blogs do have guest writers, but they are not regular contributors or big enough to merit the feel of an Article site. No preference is given to the sites based on what category they fall into, it is solely for my own organization.

Article sites: