General Premodern

[Velrun]

Not a brand new format but pretty new. Not an official format but gaining traction by each tournament. Recently there was the European Championship in Finland a week or two ago.

Format identity: Magic as it was before Modern. The sets from 4th Edition and to Scourge are legal.



This means no rotation. No new cards ever.

I have only played it a little bit but it seems very fun. It is actually possible to play a control deck with no creatures. Oath of Druids has no insane targets. Squee, Goblin Nabob is a cool value engine.

Link to official website:

https://premodernmagic.com/blog/category/ban-list/

 

[Velrun]

If you could be interested in seeing the global meta you can check it out on MTG Top 8:

https://www.mtgtop8.com/format?f=PREM

 

[inscho]

I’m feeling very nostalgic looking at these decks. Cool format!

 

[Seeker]

Oath of Druids has no insane targets.

I'm bringin' Cognivore back*
Them other Lhurgoyfs don't know how to attack

*with Dragon's Breath if we're dusting off the real tech

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Cool concept, but the fact that it will never receive new card means it will be solved eventually. I do think nostalgia is the main raison d’être for this format…

 

[Nanonox]

Cool inspiration for the old bordered archetypes thread. I love Phyrexian Dreadnaught decks. Stifle, Fling, Greater Good and more!

 

[Rusje]

Cool concept, but the fact that it will never receive new card means it will be solved eventually. I do think nostalgia is the main raison d’être for this format…

A true format could be balanced, and get new tech all the time without new cards. It would be hard, but that is where a ban list comes in.

 

[Velrun]

I believe they’ve had a ban list since 2018. People seem happy with the state of the format.

 

[ravnic]

I always liked watching a premodern veedeeo on menguccis channel, cool format. Anything where you can play Basking Rootwalla and Psychatog you can sign me up for.

 

[Humpty_Dumpty]

Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Velrun. I've been toying with the idea of building a Premodern cube for a while, as this cover the era of Magic that carries the most nostalgia for me. I'm not sure who I would play it with, though.

It's interesting to see that the format uses contemporary rules. I assumed it would use sixth edition rules (and had considered doing this for a premodern cube) but the article makes good points about why this would be problematic.

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

Cool concept, but the fact that it will never receive new card means it will be solved eventually. I do think nostalgia is the main raison d’être for this format…

I don't understand this attitude. Is chess a solved format? Is poker? Is any game that isn't receiving endless expansions? Some games are just wonderful to continue playing, as is. Premodern has a card pool of 5,376 cards, that's a fairly deep pool.

 

[TrainmasterGT]

I don't understand this attitude. Is chess a solved format? Is poker? Is any game that isn't receiving endless expansions? Some games are just wonderful to continue playing, as is. Premodern has a card pool of 5,376 cards, that's a fairly deep pool.

I mean, Standard is pretty solved right now with 3,251 cards. And that’s without cards from Urza’s Saga block.

 

[Mondschwein]

There are metashifts actually, and I'm pretty sure there are more decks that are able to compete than in standard. 5376 is a lot more than 3251 btw

Premodern boomed a few years ago and because of that a lot of old cards and even old printings of cards in the premodern frame exploded in price.

 

[Velrun]

#MMGA

 

[ravnic]

#MMGA

Does that mean Harold McNeil will be promoted to art director?

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I don't understand this attitude. Is chess a solved format? Is poker? Is any game that isn't receiving endless expansions? Some games are just wonderful to continue playing, as is. Premodern has a card pool of 5,376 cards, that's a fairly deep pool.

Sure, but I personally wouldn’t pick them up daily. I don’t play chess either. And while the card pool of premodern is deep, you can’t just pick up any deck of random cards and expect to do well with it at a tournament. I bet you that all the top 8’s since the format’s inception don’t add up to over five thousand unique cards. A huge chunk of that theoretical depth is useless in the context of a competitive environment.

Anyway, I’m not arguing that nobody should enjoy this format. I just think that nostalgia is the driving factor behind the appeal of this format. And there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with that. It’s just that, personally, I think new Magic cards are cool, and you don’t get those in this closed system.

 

[Velrun]

That’s the whole point. No new cards. No Universe Beyond or Secret Lairs or Modern Horizons. It feels like old Magic where a creature doesn’t need to have stats equal to or higher than its mana value to even keep up plus having seven lines of card text. Synergy is spread across several cards instead of on the card itself (See: Obsessive Stitcher for reference)