If you read a representative list from AF's syllabus, you'll know more proper game theory than a lot of game theorists.
More concretely, let me name my top two:
- "The Interaction of Implicit and Explicit Contracts in Repeated Agency" by Pearce and Stacchetti
- "The Electronic Mail Game: Strategic Behavior Under 'Almost Common Knowledge'" by Rubinstein
Really good list.
Following is IMHO and very mish-mash:
Anscombe Aumann. Klibanoff Marinacci Mukerji (hardcore decision theory).
Game theory. list covers almost all interesting. Kandori Mailath Robb. Ellison about local interaction.
More "political-wise": Benabou Ok POUM paper, Besley Coate, Meltzer Richard.
In Contract theory\Mech des. definitely Myerson Satterthwaite 83. Baker Gibbons Murphy. Holmstrom "hazard in teams". Aghion Tirole authority paper. Fehr Schmidt Theory of fairness. Ratchet effect paper
In IO you definitely should read Green and Porter 84. Dixit Stiglitz 77.
For auctions do not read papers, read Vijay's book and that's it unless you really care.
Still unbeated:
Mas-Colell, A., Whinston, M. D., & Green, J. R. (1995). Microeconomic theory (Vol. 1). New York: Oxford university press.
Micro theory is becoming like real analysis: the best book will be the same forever.
So you read Mas-Collel, with some game theory textbooks to complement: Osbourne Rubinstein or Myerson and then read the papers in your fields of interest.
If this is just for edification prior to beginning grad school, just stick to MWG. It's probably a bit more technical than what you're going to encounter, but a great resource to struggle through nonetheless.
If instead micro theory is your field and thus you want an understanding of both the classics and the current state of the literature, then I have no clue. Sorry.