After reading through the thread, I've picked up quite a few articles to go look at in the archive CD.
Here are the ones that come to mind based on my experience with Dragon (which I enjoyed more in the past than I do now, but will say that the current October issue looks great).
The Wizards Three. The spells were cool, but just as engaging were the commentary on what was going on in the various settings, where the spells came from, etc...the current events was good for adventure ideas, and the background on where the spells came from were good for inspiring histories and ways to inttroduce new spells into a campaign
Good Hits and Bad Misses
The 7 sentence NPC
The article on the alternate monk
Give them enough rope
Articles that add to a published Wizards book. Basically, I look at it like this...none of the books WoTC puts out are perfect. There is going to be one of two situations, if not both.
1 - Some elements that lend themselves to playability get left out, and Dragon can fill in those gaps and so add value to the product I may already own, or give me some basics to keep me from needing the book so much. I've heard for instance that the Stronghold Buildgers Guide has rules for new constructions, but not for taking over and refurbishing or expanding an existing one. Dragon would be a great place to address that shortcoming in the product. And, if all you had was the Dragon article, it would still be good enough for many game needs.
2 - Embellish on what is already there and bring more of a good thing into play. I'd say that Power of Faerun comes to mind here. There can be many riffs on the various sections/campaign themes, such as divine campaigns, mercantile campaigns, etc. You could add some more campaign arc hooks, prestige classes, NPCs with specific agendas and methods of pursuing them. You could even add some of element 1 here, because the mercantile section seemed sparse, with room for expansion.
There was one on fiends - and how they can hide and plot and scheme in the material plane. I remember it suggested not letting detect lie work on them. Don't remember the article name, but it was cool.
The Marvel and Top Secret articles, especially that one on all the martial arts for Top Secret
The ecology articles were fun
Elven Pantheon articles. I used the specialty priest classes one from 2e days mainly
From the Ashes - The real coolness of this article was the suggestions for the campaign themes, power levels, and locations where you might hang those frames on. More like this for any setting (but especially Greyhawk) would be cool.
The articles on playing a character with high charisma
Dungeoncraft
Bazaar of the Bizarre - I liked these better then than now. Not sure why exactly. Maybe there are too many widgets in the game now. Maybe this was a better source of new magic items back in the day. Not sure.
An old article on Adapting modules/making adventures
Any good one on war/military and espionage themes in D&D. Also on rulership, land management, and political campaigning. I'd still like to see more of these. The Greatest Most Honorable adventure, I think, is the name of one.
The article on horses - types of horses, traits, etc.
The riddle articles...
Living Greyhawk articles were very cool, and I'd like to see them resume (good luck)
Article on charged magic items (like a +1 sword with 50 charges) and lower powered magic in general
the familiar enhancer spells (making familiars fun and able to survive the higher levels), and arcane lore in general (when the spells are themed and presented in a context with inspiring fluff as to the history of the spells, the spellbook, etc
Strongholds three.
The Archer class. I played one once. He was tough, so my DM took his bracers of archery away :-(
A good humor article was the tactics for humanoids, courtesy of Elmonster
various articles on miniatures - most importantly the ones on using various things as monsters and terrain (like plastic toy spiders for giant spiders, etc), and also the ones one painting miniatures. Articles on miniatures rules weren't of interest to me, since I don't usually play miniatures games.
Someone mentioned in the thread the idea articles being where it was at. I agree. I think there could be more of this in Dragon today. I've found that these days I like Dungeon much more than Dragon, and have even considered letting my subscription expire. I think it's because the articles haven't inspired me to want to include them or build adventures/campaigns around them since the big changes to Dragon and Dungeon a while back. For what it's worth, the recent October issue really looks cool and I've already spent more time reading it that I have the past years worth of Dragons. Cult of Vecna. Alternate vampires. Looking forward to the rest this month.
I also second the nomination for the monthly planar location articles. This would make Dragon more interesting to me.
Others have mentioned it, and I'll restate it. Some of the old covers inspired game play in and of themselves. Covers that could be your characters adventuring are great. A pinup of an NPC can be useful, but too much of them means I'm losing out on the great potential of the former. If I had to go with one all of the time, I'd go with the ones that look like PCs in the middle of an adventure, rather than pinups.
