I don't mean to be negative (here it comes!) But, if memory serves me correctly (And I read them as they were published, not recently), the best reason to buy Dragon at the time was for articles like Gygax's From the Sorceror's Scroll, which at the time was an unannounced preview of the Unearth Arcana book: Cantrips, Cavelier, Thief-Acrobat, mage spells, cleric spells, crunch, crunch, crunch. Also at the time were the legendary Hell issues, detailing the dukes of hell, crunch. The ecology of articles, with their myriad of footnotes started around then. Most of the "good" 1st edition NPC classes were in those pages: Samuri around issue 63, Anti-Paladin, a full witch writeup, alternate bard (A bard, not so hard).Morrus said:“If feats and prestige classes didn’t exist, what would you write about?” It will aim to recapture the feel of early-1980s Dragon Magazine, with a variety of articles that are more than just third-edition rules exercises.
EricNoah said:
I will personally be hand-delivering each issue to every subscriber. Guaranteed!*

(Dungeons & Dragons)
Rulebook featuring "high magic" options, including a host of new spells.