General Premodern

[ravnic]

For me it's not nostalgia. Nostalgia made me build my Ravnica Block Cube, which is what I experienced when I started playing. I just like many aspects (not all though) of old school magic and I adore the old card frames (even though it took me over two years of playing to see an old frame card).

I think I also like the lower power level of premodern, especially when it comes to threats. It certainly is closest in playstyle to my main cube, even though that has tons of cards printed after 2003.

 

[Seeker]

you're excluding everything that's not in the old frame

oh, you know if I played Premodern it'd be 75/75 new frame

actually, this is a lie - if I ever won the lottery and played Premodern, I'd Oath of Druids into 1996 World Champion and dare them to disqualify me

edit: what on earth is going on with card tags that I have

[c]1996 World Champion[/c]

and it displays as 1996 World Champion and yet it works

 

[ravnic]

oh, you know if I played Premodern it'd be 75/75 new frame

 

[Onderzeeboot]

For me it's not nostalgia. Nostalgia made me build my Ravnica Block Cube, which is what I experienced when I started playing.

I mean, I started with Invasion. Solidly in the heydays of the old frame. So maybe I’m just projecting XD

 

[TrainmasterGT]

This is making me want to create a new format!
Good Magic: The Format!
Sets Legal:
Zendikar
Dark Ascension
Return to Ravnica
Gatecrash
Dragon's Maze
Magic 2014
Theros
Born of the Gods
Journey into Nyx
M15
Khans of Tarkir
Fate Reforged
Dragons of Tarkir
Magic Origins
Amonkhet
Hour of Devastation
Dominaria
Magic 2019
War of the Spark
Throne of Eldraine
Theros: Beyond Death
Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty
Dominaria United
The Brother's War
Wilds of Eldraine
Lost Caverns of Ixalan
Tarkir: Dragonstorm

Banned Cards:
Oko, Thief of Crowns
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
Teferi, Time Raveler
Also maybe Nexus of Fate and Escape to the Wilds?

 

[Nemo]

I think it's great to have more formats like this, as long as a critical mass of players is having enough fun to make it work. It gives more cards a home and more different decks that people can play. If the games are fun and people like it, that's all that really matters. Making an old format that starts at 4th edition is a cool idea. That's not a bad starting point for avoiding the some of the worst of the power outliers and cost outliers. And the banned list can take care of some of the rest. It's not necessarily a cheap format when Gaea's Cradle and Mox Diamond are legal, but it looks pretty cool.

 

[Dom Harvey]

Premodern's nostalgia is definitely more about cards than decks (or at least about broad archetypes - you wouldn't play the exact RDW list you had in Standard in 1998 or Extended in 2004 but it's 'close enough') as well as the overall vibe - just playing with iconic, old frame bangers is a treat even when the gameplay is sus.

I enjoy playing and building decks for it but that nostalgia does create an artificial diversity - there are a lot of decks (Madness, BW Control, Landstill, Goblins etc) that you wouldn't see at a Premodern PT with top players trying to win but are perfectly fine for having fun at locals. In that regard it's not actually that different from Modern or Legacy etc but it's worth remembering that when people talk about how Premodern is an oasis compared to these stagnant or stupid 'real' formats. Dreadnought and Replenish put the format in a squeeze (ala Faeries + Reveillark for my 2008 Standard girlies) and the bad mana + static/smaller card pool mean that some problems are hard to solve (e.g. any red or black deck vs Enchantress or enchantments generally)

 

[Mown]

Also, what's wrong with nostalgia anyway that it needs to be defended against?

Clearly what's being defended against here is that people play it solely because of nostalgia and not because the format might have any inherent merits disassociated from reminiscing about days gone by.