Premodern Banlist (2026)
33 cards are banned in Premodern, the Magic: The Gathering format played with cards from Fourth Edition through Scourge (1995–2003). The list is kept by Martin Berlin, who created the format in 2012, with input from the community, and every change is announced on premodernmagic.com. Below: what each card does that got it banned, and every change since 2018.
Too strong for the format
Fast mana, free spells, tutors and draw engines: cards that decide a game before the other player gets to play.
- Balance: For two mana, every player's lands, hand and creatures shrink to match whoever has the fewest.
- Channel: Turns life into colorless mana. With Fireball it is a turn-one kill.
- Demonic Consultation: One mana at instant speed to dig up exactly the card a combo deck needs.
- Earthcraft: Lets creatures untap basic lands. With Squirrel Nest it makes endless tokens.
- Entomb: Puts any card into the graveyard for one mana, the fastest setup for reanimation.
- Flash: Puts a creature into play for two mana. With Protean Hulk it wins on the spot.
- Goblin Recruiter: Stacks every Goblin on top of the library, so each Goblin Ringleader draws four.
- Grim Monolith: Three colorless mana for two: big threats and combos arrive turns early.
- Land Tax (banned 15 July 2023): A one-mana draw engine. With Scroll Rack it turned basic lands into fresh cards every turn.
- Mana Vault: Three colorless mana for one, acceleration that decides games before they start.
- Memory Jar: A fresh seven cards for one turn, fuel for artifact combo.
- Mind Twist: Discards the opponent's hand at random, and with fast mana it happens on turn one.
- Mind's Desire: The storm spell that casts cards off the top of the library for free.
- Mystical Tutor: One blue mana puts any instant or sorcery on top of the library.
- Necropotence: Pays life for cards at a rate nothing else matches, the engine of a whole era of black decks.
- Parallax Tide (banned 18 January 2026): Played as a one-sided Armageddon: decks had to be fast or carry counterspells to beat it.
- Strip Mine: A land that destroys any land for free. Early on it can take a player out of the game.
- Tendrils of Agony: The storm finisher: drains two life for every spell cast before it.
- Time Spiral: Both players draw seven and you untap six lands, a free refill for combo decks.
- Tolarian Academy: Taps for one blue mana per artifact, the land behind the Academy combo decks of 1998.
- Vampiric Tutor: One black mana at instant speed puts any card on top of the library.
- Windfall: Wheels both hands for three mana. With fast artifact mana it refuels combo turns.
- Worldgorger Dragon: Loops forever with Animate Dead for infinite mana, a two-card combo.
- Yawgmoth's Bargain (banned 20 August 2019): Pays life for any number of cards and produced turn-two wins, before opponents can interact.
- Yawgmoth's Will: Replays the whole graveyard for a turn, the strongest single combo turn of its era.
Banned to keep Premodern its own
Staples of Legacy, banned here on purpose so the format plays differently. The format's own site names exactly these two as examples.
- Brainstorm: The best cantrip ever printed and a pillar of Legacy. Banned so blue decks here play differently.
- Force of Will: The free counterspell that defines Legacy. Banned, like Brainstorm, to keep Premodern its own format.
Ante cards
They only work when playing for ante, which is not part of tournament Magic, so they are banned in every format.
- Amulet of Quoz: Makes the opponent ante, or the game is decided by a coin flip.
- Bronze Tablet: Takes an opponent's permanent for keeps unless they pay 10 life.
- Jeweled Bird: Antes itself to draw a card.
- Rebirth: Each player may ante a card to set their life total to 20.
- Tempest Efreet: Trades itself for a random card from the opponent's hand, for keeps, unless they pay 10 life.
- Timmerian Fiends: Trades itself for an opponent's artifact, for keeps, unless they ante.
Unbanned and legal today
- Show and Tell: unbanned 3 October 2022, in 1 of 131 tracked tournament decks.
- Frantic Search: unbanned 20 August 2019, in 2 of 131 tracked tournament decks.
- Black Vise: unbanned 16 May 2018, in 8 of 131 tracked tournament decks.
Every change since 2018
- 18 January 2026: Parallax Tide banned. Mostly played as a one-sided Armageddon. Stiflenought, Tide Control and Replenish together took 30 percent of the top 8 spots at major 2025 events. Phyrexian Dreadnought and Parallax Wave stay legal. Announcement · How the meta changed after the ban
- 15 July 2023: Land Tax banned. Its second ban, five years after the 2018 unban. With Scroll Rack it was a draw engine that was cheap and consistent to set up. Scroll Rack, Enlightened Tutor and Mox Diamond stay legal, since they are fair in other decks. Announcement
- 3 October 2022: Show and Tell unbanned. On the list since the format began, mostly because Yawgmoth's Bargain was not. With Bargain banned, its remaining targets were judged safe. Announcement
- 20 August 2019: Yawgmoth's Bargain banned. Turn-two wins were common, in a format with little interaction that early. The watch list was dropped in the same update. Announcement
- 20 August 2019: Frantic Search unbanned. High Tide is not in the card pool, and in testing Frantic Search did not prove broken. Announcement
- 25 June 2018: Land Tax unbanned. Standstill, Fact or Fiction and Accumulated Knowledge are strong draw engines too, and the Land Tax and Scroll Rack deck proved beatable. Announcement
- 16 May 2018: Black Vise unbanned. Taken off the list in May 2018. Announcement
The blog on premodernmagic.com starts in 2018. The other cards have been on the list longer; Show and Tell, for one, was banned from the format's start in 2012.
Questions
How many cards are banned in Premodern?
33, including 6 ante cards.
Who decides the Premodern banlist?
Martin Berlin, who created the format in 2012, based on input from the community. Changes are announced on premodernmagic.com.
When did the banlist last change?
On 18 January 2026: Parallax Tide was banned.
Is Crusade legal in Premodern?
Yes. Cards that Wizards of the Coast removed from its own formats for offensive depictions, such as Crusade, are legal in Premodern. Magic Online does not offer them.
New to the format? Start with What is Premodern? for the rules and legal sets.
