I played in an MTG Premodern tournament and get why it’s Magic’s hottest new format

Once per month, Magic: The Gathering players gather in the quirky Bar Olimpia in the northern district of Barcelona to play the hottest new format of the moment: Premodern. In truth, Premodern is anything but “new.” It was created in 2012 by Martin Berlin, and it comprises all cards from Standard legal sets printed from 1995-2003 (4th Edition to Scourge). Its recent introduction to Magic Online created a surge in popularity, and with a few pro players trying their hand at it, Premodern became the talk of the MTG online community.

Being community-created and managed, Premodern is different from official Wizards of the Coast formats. One of the biggest appeals is that you can play with proxy or promo cards, which is significant, considering how expensive some of these old cards can get (look up a Gaea’s Cradle, and you’ll get an idea). Nostalgia is the other obvious draw, and a guaranteed pull these days in any form of entertainment. For older players like me, it feels great to play with cards that remind us of simpler days and of our early experiences with the game.

Finally, playing Premodern offers a distinct experience from any other official format. Cards were very different before 2004. There are no planeswalkers, and the snowballing advantage that is so common in modern Magic is nowhere to be seen. Creatures are generally less powerful. Sure, there are still broken interactions and combos, but you will hardly get the feeling given by a card like Quantum Riddler: You either have an immediate answer or lose the game, and even if you do, you are already behind. You can actually win a Premodern game from behind, something that is increasingly difficult to do in Magic nowadays.

I headed to the first LCOS (the Barcelona league for Premodern and Old School) tournament of 2026 with two things you shouldn’t bring to an MTG tournament: a new, untested deck and a headache from the night before. I chose to play Aluren, a creature-based combo deck, because the card is both powerful and fun. It’s built around the namesake green four-mana enchantment, which allows both players to cast creatures with converted mana cost three or less without paying their cost, and at instant speed. The deck uses this effect to build a loop to gain infinite life, make creatures infinitely big, and/or bounce your opponent’s board repeatedly. I usually don’t like combo decks, but I was swayed by this excellent guide from Premodern expert Francisco Pawluszek, so I gave it a go.

My first match was against an interesting red-green (we don’t use Ravnica nomenclature like “Gruul” in Premodern!) Oath of Druids deck, which controlled the game with burn spells and won either with land creatures like Treetop Village or by cheating into play a Bloodfire Colossus. In the first game, I had the combo in hand and just needed to play my Aluren after hitting a fourth land, which I put on top of my deck with an activation of Sylvan Library. Then, I punted by shuffling the deck with Survival of the Fittest, didn’t draw the fourth land, and lost. Remember what I said about not showing up to a tournament with a hangover? In the second game, I had every piece of the combo except Aluren, which didn’t show up despite going through two-thirds of my deck, and I lost. To the next one!

In the second round, I was paired against a Sliver deck, a popular typal approach in every format. Aluren struggles against quick aggression and large board states, and I was swept quickly in both games. Not the best start.

In the third round, my luck started to turn. My opponent played Devourer Combo, an artifact deck based on the interaction between Phyrexian Devourer and Altar of Dementia, powered by some of the scariest cards in the format, including City of Traitors, Ancient Tomb, and Tinker. However, he was stuck on one land during the first game, and in the second, I was able to destroy his Altar with the “don’t-look-too-closely-at-its-art” Uktabi Orangutan, winning from there.

Photo by Francesco  Cacciatore

The fourth round started in a very scary fashion. My opponent was playing reanimator (a deck that cheats big creatures into play from the graveyard), and he used Exhume to bring back a Multani, Maro-Sorcerer on turn two. With no possible answer to the big creature’s Shroud ability, my only option was to combo off before he killed me. Even with Aluren in play, I only had Cavern Harpy and Man-o-War in hand, so I needed to find a Spike Feeder. I could keep bouncing my Raven Familiar to find it, but it would cost me one life point each time, and I only had 10. Luckily, Spike showed up before I ran out of life.

Game two was very fun, and it showed the potential of the deck to win without comboing off. Reanimator is an all-or-nothing deck, and in game two, my opponent got some good interaction, using Duress and Cabal Therapy to make me discard both Aluren and Survival, but he had no threats. So, I put two +1/+1 counters from Spike Feeder on a humble Birds of Paradise, and I won by attacking for two in the air every turn.

My final match wasn’t particularly memorable. I played against a classic mono-black deck, and I was able to fight through discard and removal to assemble my combo in both games. Altogether, I finished with three wins, two losses, and a lot of great games of Magic.

The best thing about Premodern, however, is the community. At the LCOS tournaments, at the end of the Swiss rounds, there is a drawing where everyone can win a prize among the cards provided by the organizers, including some pretty expensive hits.

Photo by Francesco Cacciatore

I ended up winning everyone’s favorite goblin, Squee, a staple card that goes in every deck that plays Survival of the Fittest, and is currently fetching a decent price, too.

Community-managed formats have a starkly different vibe from the official ones. Barcelona also has one of the biggest Pauper communities in Europe, and the feeling is the same: respect, fun, and love for the game come first. Toxic players are quickly alienated, and a wonderful sense of community permeates these events.

Premodern is not for everyone, and nostalgia obviously is a big factor in its enjoyment, but even if you are new to Magic: The Gathering, if you never tried it and there is a local group of players, I encourage you to give it a chance.