premodernmtg.com

Evergreen reference

Premodern guides

1 of 11 live Editor-reviewed Article schema

Long-form reference articles covering what Premodern is, how to enter the format on a budget, how it compares to Old School and Legacy, and how the banlist evolved. More guides are added over time.

Day-one roadmap

The 11 day-one guides — 1 live, 10 drafting

Each is an in-depth, cited reference article. Live titles link through; the rest are being drafted and will become links as they ship.

  1. What Is Premodern MTG? The Golden Era Format Guide reference · beginner
  2. Build your first Premodern deck on $200 Budget paths into the format that still win matches.
  3. The complete banlist explained Including the 2026-01-18 Parallax Tide addition.
  4. Premodern vs Old School (93/94) Differences and overlap, format identity contrasts.
  5. Premodern vs Legacy What's banned in one but legal in the other.
  6. Premodern on MTGO Setup guide for the late-2025 client launch.
  7. Gold-bordered cards in Premodern Which events allow them per Martin Berlin's ruling.
  8. Reserved List cards that are Premodern-legal The intersection that drives finance attention.
  9. The Premodern color pie in 2026 Post-Tide-ban metagame analysis.
  10. Reading the metagame How to use mtgtop8, MTGO, and Duress Crew data.
  11. Why some cards are banned and others aren't Format-identity reasoning behind the 33-card list.

While more guides are written, the rest of the site already answers most questions: browse the full card database, the archetypes and decklists, the complete banlist and glossary, monthly metagame snapshots, and the price index.

Until the guides arrive

Skip the primer and read the metagame

Each archetype primer is its own evergreen guide — game plan, key cards, sideboard plan, notable pilots. Start with the current Tier 1 and Tier 1.5 decks below.

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