The complete resource for Premodern Magic
Premodern MTG
Every card from 4th Edition (1995) through Scourge (2003) — 5,375 of them — with archetype primers, tournament decklists, matchup data, and daily card prices. Built to be searched, and built to be cited.
Premodern Price Index 1264.6 ▲ 23.4% · 90d
- 317Players · last Lobstercon
- 1995–2003Legal card pool
- 0Rotations, ever
- DailyPrice index updates
The Metagame
Premodern MTG Tier List
The format's archetypes by tier — hand-assigned by playable strength. For the live metagame breakdown, see mtgtop8.
Community
Premodern Events — Find a Game
Finding people to play with is the hardest part of an unsanctioned format. Browse Lobstercon, MTGO Premodern Challenges, and regional championships across Europe and North America.
From the corpus
Latest Premodern Articles
Premodern Metagame Update: March 2026
The first full post-Parallax-Tide metagame: GW Enchantress and Stiflenought lead, Replenish rebuilds, and fair midrange returns.
Parallax Tide Banned in Premodern (January 2026)
On January 18, 2026 format creator Martin Berlin banned Parallax Tide, ending the land-lock that warped the Premodern metagame.
Premodern Arrives on Magic Online
Premodern launched on Magic Online in December 2025, opening the format to players worldwide and setting off real price movement.
The Rules
Premodern MTG Rules
Premodern plays by the current comprehensive rules — the same baseline as modern-era Magic, with the old card pool. No mana burn. No damage on the stack. Fewer shenanigans, more clean games.
Current Rules Apply
60-card minimum deck, 15-card sideboard. London Mulligan and current errata are in effect. No mana burn.
Four Copies Per Card
Standard deckbuilding limit, basic lands excepted.
Best-of-Three
Bo3 matches with sideboarding. 50-minute rounds in tournament play.
Gold-Border Cards Are Legal
World Championship deck cards are welcome at most events — part of what keeps staples like City of Traitors affordable. Confirm local policy with your TO.
The Banned List
Premodern Banned List
A short list keeps the format honest. These 33 cards are banned because they warp games or end them outright.
- Amulet of Quoz
- Balance
- Brainstorm
- Bronze Tablet
- Channel
- Demonic Consultation
- Demonic Tutor
- Earthcraft
- Entomb
- Fluctuator
- Frantic Search
- Goblin Recruiter
- Grim Monolith
- Hermit Druid
- Jeweled Bird
- Land Tax
- Mana Vault
- Memory Jar
- Mind Over Matter
- Mind Twist
- Mind's Desire
- Mystical Tutor
- Necropotence
- Parallax Tide NEW
- Recurring Nightmare
- Strip Mine
- Tempest Efreet
- Time Spiral
- Timmerian Fiends
- Tolarian Academy
- Vampiric Tutor
- Yawgmoth's Bargain
- Yawgmoth's Will
Parallax Tide was banned January 18, 2026. The canonical ban list is maintained by the format’s creators at premodernmagic.com; we mirror it and keep it current.
Full ban list & rationale →Find your footing
How to Play Premodern
Premodern is a community-created, community-governed format built around cards printed between 1995 and 2003. Started by Martin Berlin in 2012, it has no rotation — the card pool is fixed forever. If you already play Magic, you know about 90% of it. Here's the rest.
- 01 Rules How Premodern works: 60-card decks, 15-card sideboards, the 4-of limit.
- 02 Banlist All 33 banned cards with effective dates and the reasoning behind each.
- 03 Legal sets 29 sets, from 4th Edition (1995) through Scourge (2003).
- 04 The metagame Tier-1 archetypes and the decks that define the post-ban format.
- 05 Card database 5,375 Premodern-legal cards with prices and playability notes.
- 06 Decklists Tournament-winning lists from MTGO Challenges and Lobstercon.
The Card Pool
Premodern Legal Sets
Premodern is a fixed format. Any version of any card printed in these 29 sets is legal — original print, reprint, foil, foreign, or gold-border.
- Fourth Edition
- Ice Age
- Chronicles
- Homelands
- Alliances
- Mirage
- Visions
- Fifth Edition
- Weatherlight
- Tempest
- Stronghold
- Exodus
- Urza's Saga
- Urza's Legacy
- Classic Sixth Edition
- Urza's Destiny
- Mercadian Masques
- Nemesis
- Prophecy
- Invasion
- Planeshift
- Seventh Edition
- Apocalypse
- Odyssey
- Torment
- Judgment
- Onslaught
- Legions
- Scourge
Original dual lands (Underground Sea, Volcanic Island, and the rest) are not in the Premodern pool — they predate Fourth Edition. The painlands and the Urza's-era duals are your fixing.
See all 29 legal sets with release dates →The pitch
Why Play Premodern?
Live price data
The Premodern Price Index, snapshotted daily from MTGJSON. No other Premodern site publishes this.
Explore finance →Accessible power
Gold-bordered cards are legal, and format-defining staples cost a fraction of Legacy or Vintage.
Iconic cards
Magic's golden era, Ice Age through Scourge: Mox Diamond, Wasteland, Force Spike, Cursed Scroll.
Growing community
Lobstercon, MTGO Premodern Challenges, and regional championships across Europe and North America.
What Counts
Premodern Legal Cards
Got 'em? Play 'em. That's the golden rule.
- Original card printings
- Gold border (World Championship Edition)
- CE / IE (Collectors' & International Edition)
- New-frame reprints
- Foils and foreign-language versions
- Zero artwork restrictions
Magic's golden era, 1995–2003
The cards that define the format
Mox Diamond, Wasteland, Morphling, Survival of the Fittest — staples that anchor the metagame, at a fraction of their Legacy or Vintage cost.
Premodern Rules
The current rules, plain and complete. No mana burn, no damage on the stack.
View Rules →Premodern Banned List
Every banned card, updated the moment the format updates.
View Ban List →Premodern Tier List
What's actually winning right now — the decks defining the post-ban format.
View Tier List →The canonical format authority is premodernmagic.com (Martin Berlin), who created Premodern in 2012 and curates the banlist. premodernmtg.com is the data and analysis layer on top of it — deep card pages, archetype primers, matchup writeups, event archives, finance, and full-text search.