Premodern Debuts in Contraption – Magic Online's Format Lab

Posted on Dec 08, 2025

On Magic Online, we love sandboxes and puzzles …

One of the great parts about the game of Magic: The Gathering is the ability to have new metagame puzzles to solve every time new cards are released or banned lists are changed.

Now imagine a sandbox where whole formats can drift in and out over time – a new puzzle to solve every time. That’s the idea behind our new Contraption format!

The Ideal Tool for Format Experimentation

We have a bunch of crazy ideas we want to try – sometimes it’ll be established formats from the community, and others will be twists on existing favorites.

A normal Contraption format cycle will flow like this:

• Casual rooms will be on throughout to help find other interested players.
• A Friendly week – a low-stakes League as well as casual rooms to wade into the format.
• A few weeks of normal League – this will use the same structure as all of our other Leagues.
• More competition near the end – depending on the popularity of the format, this will consist of either Trials or Challenges.

In general, we’ll look to swap out the format every three to six weeks. It’ll be long enough for players to acquire the cards and generate ideas, but short enough to avoid the format getting too stale.

Welcome to Magic Online (Officially), Premodern!

Among 60-card formats, Premodern generates the most requests and has the biggest existing audience. So, it’s a natural fit to bring to Magic Online with our breadth of catalog that includes sets reaching back to that era.

The Premodern format is just that – it wholly encompasses the years prior to Eighth Edition, the set that introduced a new card frame and marks the start line of the Modern format.

It was created in the early 2010s by Martin Berlin, who was seeking a play experience to bridge the gap between Old School and Modern as a more casual format. Martin continues to oversee the format and curates its banned list, and the Magic Online team is pleased to partner with him in expanding Premodern’s reach in the Magic community. Check out this video Martin produced as an introduction to the format.

Expansions included run from mid-1995 to mid-2003: everything Standard-legal from Ice Age through Scourge, plus Chronicles and 4^th, 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th Editions!

Unlike our main formats, there are no new cards being added to Premodern each year. It also has a banned list that remains fairly stable. This has proven perfect for a loyal tabletop audience, some of whom migrated to Magic Online to compete in small community-run events over the last several years.

Here’s the link to the 32-card Premodern Banned List.

Setting Up Shop in Contraption

Given the growth of the format in the last few years, particularly at in-person conventions, we believe Premodern will generate enough play to become a regular format. But due to some technical concerns, we aren’t able to provide Premodern its own room until at least late February.

But we are so excited to get this running for the community in time for the Holidays, one of our busiest times of year, that we are opting to test Premodern’s popularity now via the Contraption space.

All Premodern casual games can be found in the Contraption play lobbies under the Specialty tab – Best-of-One and Best-of-Three are available.

The rollout plan for Premodern in Contraption is (all transitions at 10 a.m. PT):

• Until December 17: Premodern Friendly League
  • Same parameters as the Modern Friendly League
• Two Regular Leagues, one during All-Access and the other afterward – both on the same structure as other formats’ Leagues
  • December 17-January 2: Premodern Holiday League
  • January 2-20: Premodern League
• Scheduled Events sprinkled around the schedule during the Holidays
  • Trials and Challenge 32 tournaments
  • Times and dates to be announced

We’ll re-assess as we approach the release of Lorwyn Eclipsed to determine whether Premodern will continue for a second Contraption cycle or if something else will jump in at that time.

Deck Ideas and Community

The official Magic Online Discord channel now has a sub-channel specifically for Premodern, so you can find fans of the digital presence there.

The format’s home page has some basic decklist archetypes and from there you can join the conversation there including many different social media outlets.

We’ll see you on the battlefield!