Turned in a bit early, so largely lacking in Friday content, here is the latest issue of "This Week in Magic."

News

• Pure MTGO Writer Hamtastic Passes Away—The MtG Community mourns the loss of Erik Friborg. PureMtGO ran several powerful pieces in his memory.
• Phyrexian Cards Spoiled—Among the spoiler highlights are the Karn planeswalker and a Phyrexian mana mechanic.
• First Look at New Phyrexia Intro Packs—See the intro pack packaging and color combinations.

Standard and Block

• Caw! Caw! No Seriously, Caw! —I wonder if anyone has played a Cawblade mirror lately? Josh Silvestri explains how to gain the upper hand.
• Finishing One PTQ Season and Starting Another—Reid Duke applies his Success Rating sabermetrics to the Extended and Standard metagames.
• No Standard, No Problem—Gavin Verhey helps players catch up on Type Two with a list of the nine things to know about the current state of the format.
• Breaking Standard and Fixing Extended ($$) — Patrick Chapin on continental meta-gaming, Wafo Control, Caw Blade, and what he plans to play in the Lone Star State.
• The Secret Behind UB Control ($$) — Martin Scheinin took home the gold at GP Barcelona with his bruising black and blue brew. See what the champ has to say about the deck moving forward.
• RW Control—Frank Lepore takes inspiration from one of my favorite decks, Boat Brew, and cooks something up for today’s Standard meta.
• PTQ Nagoya Report 1^st—Brian Su rode RG Valakut to a first place finish and shares his tourney report here.
• Breaking Good—Matt Sperling discusses his strong finish at a recent SCG open with an explosive GW deck.
• Lilly Bring the Bling—Alexander Shearer on UB’s position within the Standard meta and how Ms. Vess might provide an answer for those pesky birds.
• Finally Tier 1—Adam Koska believes that Infect’s day has come and it can finally be considered tier one in Type Two.
• SCG Atlanta’s New Standard Decks—Ari Lax looks at what’s new in Type Two.

Limited

• Playing first in Limited—Antoine Ruel’s insightful Limited article considers the possibilities of Super Control and Super Aggro in the current environment.
• Back in the Saddle—Nina Illingsworth goes 6-0 with a powerful UB build.

Vintage and Legacy

• On Stranger Tides—Adam Barnello runs down the Legacy deck that made a big splash at SCG Atlanta.
• The Future of Legacy—Russell Tassicker documents the recent Twitter buzz on the future of the increasingly popular eternal format.
• Gauntleting Bant—Caleb Durward details his Stoneforge Bant deck and his results against the Legacy gauntlet.
• The Epic Storm—Liam Kane’s gets his storm count on and provides an extensive primer for this combo deck.

Casual and Variant Formats

• Commander Deck Names and Partial Cards Revealed—Images of the new Commander pre-cons tease some exciting new legends.
• Commander Theory, Part One—Jeremy Blair, self-proclaimed EDH addict, begins his comprehensive look at Commander Theory with archetypes and the promotion of social play.
• The Devastating Combination of Red, White, and Blue—Sean McKeown shares his Numot Commander deck built around Sunforger.
• Benefits of the Space Race—Sheldon Menery’s Commander contest has created a good deal of community interest. Here, he reflects on the inspiration he’s taken from submissions.
• Holistic Approach—Usman Jamil tweeted that this probably should have been his first Cube article. An excellent foundational piece to be sure.
• It’s Tricky to Rock (Faces) —Adam Styborkski gets a few Commander games under his belt and explains revisions he’s made for his mono-green deck.
• Pauper Introductions—Dan Eckstein delves into Thursday Night Magic and the Pauper format.
• Knights vs. Dragons Review—Ertai’s Lament answers all of your burning questions about the newest Duel Deck.
• Coming to a Theater Near You—Dr. Jeebus thinks that Knight vs. Dragons is a concept that would work well on the big screen, but battling two-drops with eight-drops isn’t nearly as fun.

Finance

• Trading Like Robocop ($$) — Jonathan Medina’s most entertaining trading theory article to date also hits upon the key concept of perceived value.
• Our New Overlords—Stephen Moss hits the ground running with this financial review of the newly spoiled Phyrexian cards.

Theory and Miscellany

• Alterations: March Review—Jeremy Froggatt is doing artists and players alike a great service by spreading the word on these amazing altered cards.
• Bored with Boards?—Jeremy Neeman considers sideboarding strategies for both constructed and limited
• Sideboarding—PVD’s comprehensive look at the final fifteen cards and how strategies differ for control, aggro, and combo sideboards.
• Pillars—Chingsung Chang boils meta-game analysis to the single cards and strategies that defining a format.
• The Trials and Tribulation of Magic—Conley Woods asks players to take a sobering look at the obstacles facing today’s cardboard-slinging heroes.