Every Nostalgic Legacy Player should look into Premodern

[Captain Hammer]

Ive gotten super into Premodern the past few months and its amazing. Everyone that played Magic before 2010 (ie everyone that occasionally ventures onto this forum or mtgsalvation, manadrain, scg etc) should absolutely look into Premodern for the following reasons…

1. Nostalgia - Every premodern card is available in the old border which featured far better art. The format revolves around legendary cards we grew up playing like…

Masticore, Exalted Angel, Standstill, Survival, Wild Mongrel, Cursed Scroll, Pernicious Deed, Humility, The Rack, Treetop Village, Armageddon, Hypnotic Specter, Oath of Druids, Wrath of God, Nimble Mongoose, Phyrexian Negator, Decree of Justice, Jackal Pup, Blastoderm, Counterspell, Rancor, Vindicate, Sarcomancy, Fact or Fiction, Spiritmonger, Recurring Nightmare, Verdant Force, Natural Order, Ball Lightning, Akroma, Angel of Wrath and so so many other classic cards. Some of these old cards went for a $100 and I was a teenager with a small allowance so I never got to play with them, but now those same cards cost a few bucks and its awesome being able to play these cards that I lusted after in the past.

2. Stability - Ever since 2018 when FIRE and UB started up, the eternal formats have been rotating like crazy. Many of us got into Legacy because we liked the idea of building a deck and playing it for years with minor changes. Older players with jobs, families and other responsibilities left rotating formats for stable ones for precisely this reason. Back in 2015, you could build a Legacy/Modern deck or two, play it a couple of times a month, for years and years and stay competitive. Premodern offers this option, Legacy no longer does.

Now there is too much powercreep, decks change too fast and its way too expensive to stay competitive, with very little time to enjoy the deck you built or staple you finally acquired before it gets pushed out of the meta. Alternatively, these variant formats are all sooo much cheaper. The decks and cards that dominate Premodern and 2015 Modern/2018 Legacy can almost always be built for under $100, or often far cheaper especially if you still have some of your old cards as I am sure most of us do. And because these formats dont rotate, you dont feel compelled to constantly buy new shit to upgrade your decks. But they surprisingly do not get stale and the meta keeps rotating due to people bringing foils to dominant strategies leading to surprise wins with rogue strategies nearly every week.

3. Fun - Cards and boardstates back then were much less complicated. Post Tarmogoyf, creatures needed fantastic bonuses in order to be revelant in formats dominated by an easily splashable 2 mana 5/6. So creatures became giant walls of text with an enchantment or artifact stapled onto them.

I mean take a look at this $80 giant wall of text thats pushed out to be a staple in literally every format and printed as a Mythic Rare (Does anyone remember when they promised that the Mythic rare slot would be reserved for niche cards rather than overpowered format defining staples.)

It packs literally 5 Premodern cards worth of text on one card. And given the extra turn the on cast trigger and life gain gets you. It would be better if the card instead just said, “I win the game at the start of my next turn.”

Its easier to enjoy the game without having to expend resources keeping track of the wall of text that accompanies current day magic staples. I mean I got a headache just trying to figure if my opponents Sire of Seven Deaths is worth double blocking. Premoderns simpler cards and board states creates a more laidback atmosphere that creates less stressed out and therefore nicer friendlier players.

Its also a lot of fun playing Premodern decks against Standard, Pioneer and older Modern decks. Premoderns creatures are very weak but its spells are more powerful so they fare better than you would expect vs modern decks.

If youve played Magic in the 2000s, you likely have many of the staples already. The ones you dont are much cheaper to buy now than they were back then as Premodern is the only format where these cards are relevant. But the cards have started to go up in price as Premodern gains popularity, so I actually think building Premodern decks is a viable investment. Premodern is so much fun and will absolutely grow in popularity in the coming years.

Encourage your local shop/playgroup to try a Premodern night. Here are the top decks in the format if you want to learn more…

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

https://www.reddit.com/r/premodernMTG/