This Week in Magic 12/4 – 12/10

News

• Grand Prix Schedule—World Travelers have their itinerary through August and local players can gear up for a grand, eventful weekend.

Standard and Block

• Final Preparations—Nick Spagnolo sets his sights on Charlotte after sizing up Standard’s strongest contenders.
• Oh the Humanity—($SCG) Ted Knutson on where UW Humans fits in the current Standard environment.
• The Many Faces of Snapcaster Mage—Kyle Boggemess discusses the value of multi-format all-stars.
• Charles Darwin’s Wolves—Valeriy Shunkov traces the various evolutions of Wolf-Run decks.
• What I Would Play this Weekend— ($SCG) Mike Flores has an infectious interest in Gerry T’s new Legacy brew.

Limited

• Innistrad Sealed—Mellissa DeTora rebuilds a pool to illustrate how important a good curve can outweigh borderline rares.
• Innistrad Draft #4—David Ochoa winds up in GW, a favorite combination of Team Fireball at worlds.
• RG Werewolves—Lee McLeod looks at how having a plan B can salvage a draft.
• Forcing Colors—A key component of Darwin Kastle’s Power Drafting strategy is forcing color combinations.  Here, he forces UW in triple Innistrad.
• Drafting with Big Nass, ISD #3—For Nassim Ketita, it’s easy being Green…especially when he gets a sixth pick Hamlet Captain.
• Read and React—Dan Eckstein champions four-pack sealed where bombs are deemphasized.
• Drafting.  Sweet, Sweet Drafting—Justin Parnell spins the Top in to kick off December cubing.
• Drafting with a Burning Vengeance—Aaron Cheng has the pick orders for those interested in forcing the niche archetype.

Vintage, Legacy, and Modern

• Running the Gauntlet: RUG Delver—LSV takes on all Legacy challengers with RUG Delver starting with UW Stoneforge.
• Given or Ungiven—Shuhei Nakamura ran GBRU Gifts instead of Fireball Zoo in the Modern portion of Worlds.

Casual and Variant Formats

• Dear Olivia!—Sean McKeown asks Ms. Voldaren to lead his army of 187 wonders into battle.
• Modern EDH—Sheldon Menery experiments with a smaller Commander pool.
• Carnival of Blood—Ertai’s Lament is looking for feedback on this overhaul of the Vampire precon.

Finance

• Magic Oddities—($SCG) Jonathon Medina explores the edges of collectability and considers how a trade-table warrior might price cards without precedent.
• Pimped Out, Part 3—Ryan Bushard focuses on dealing in promotional cards.
• Modern—Kelly Reid revisits the format seems to generate more interest among speculators than players.

Miscellaneous and Theory

• Shortcuts in Magic—Patrick Chapin releases a excerpt from his book, Next Level Magic, as Select article on SCG.
• Card Economy 101—Chingsung Chang invites players to consider the power of Pernicious Deed, Jace 2.0, and Wrath of God in order to increase their understanding of card management.
• Tempest Fugit—Nathan Weizenbaum challenges his readers to deal 100 damage in one turn using only cards from Tempest block.
• Holiday Shopping for the Vorthos—Mike Linnemann has the scoop on the posters, playmats, and Planeswalker novels that’ll make your holidays a little more flavorful.
• The Art of Steve Argyle—Hold onto your socks!  John Dale Beety selects highlights from Argyle’s MtG portfolio and share’s the artist’s etiquette list for the signing table.