Premodern Chronicles

Drain Life

Sorcery · Fifth Edition

Drain Life (Premodern, Fifth Edition)

Drain Life is a black card, legal in Premodern, shown in its old-frame Fifth Edition printing.

Price and printings: Cardmarket (€0.5) · TCGplayer ($0.35) · Scryfall

How often Drain Life is played

Drain Life is maindecked in 3 of 77 tournament decks in this archive (4%), averaging 1.7 copies.

Counting only the 45 decks that can cast black cards, 3 of them play it (7%).

See how it compares on the Premodern staples list.

Tournament decks with Drain Life

Anno MMXXVI · Estd. 1995–2003

The Premodern Chronicle

Tournament decklists, card prices and the spiciest brews of Premodern: Magic with old-border cards.

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Anno MMXXVI · Estd. 1995–2003

Premodern Tournament Decklists

Every deck in the archive: winning and Top 8 lists gathered from tournaments around the world, with full mainboards and sideboards.

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The Format

What is Premodern?

Premodern is a Magic: The Gathering format played with cards from Fourth Edition through Scourge (1995–2003), the game's golden era. It captures the feel of early competitive Magic: iconic old-border cards, meaningful decisions and a rich, interactive metagame, free of the power creep of later sets.

1995 — 2003

How it plays

Premodern is an eternal, non-rotating format. Games reward tight play, deckbuilding skill and knowledge of the metagame rather than raw speed. Combo, control, aggro and midrange all have a home, from Goblins and Stiflenought to Landstill, Replenish and The Rock.

AggroControlComboMidrange
Deck construction 60 card main deck (min.) 15 card sideboard (max.) 4 copies per card (basics excepted)

Legal Sets

29 expansions · 1995–2003

A card is legal as long as its name appears in one of these sets. (Reprints in newer sets are legal too, but on Premodern Chronicles we always show the period-correct old-frame printing.)

1995–96
Fourth Edition
Ice Age
Chronicles
Homelands
Alliances
Mirage
Visions
1997–98
Fifth Edition
Weatherlight
Tempest
Stronghold
Exodus
Urza's Saga
1999–00
Urza's Legacy
Sixth Edition
Urza's Destiny
Mercadian Masques
Nemesis
Prophecy
Invasion
2001–02
Planeshift
Seventh Edition
Apocalypse
Odyssey
Torment
Judgment
Onslaught
2003
Legions
Scourge

Current Banlist

33 cards

To keep the format diverse and interactive, these cards are banned, including the classic ante cards.

Banlist is maintained by the Premodern format committee, check premodernmagic.com for official updates.

Learn more premodernmagic.com → playpremodern.com →
From the Brewer's Cauldron

Spicy Brews

Unusual, rarely-seen Premodern decks: the spicy lists you won't find on a Top 8 photo.

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Competitive on a Budget

Budget Premodern Decks

Competitive Premodern without the Reserved List price tag: the cheapest proven archetypes, each with a step-by-step upgrade path from its full deck guide.

Premodern Card List

Every card from the tournament decks, spicy brews and archetype guides we track, each with its printing, price and the decks that play it.

Premodern Staples

The most played cards across the tournament decks and archetypes we track. Maindecks and sideboards are counted separately: a card in half the sideboards is a hate card, not a format staple.

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The Metagame

Premodern Tier List

Rankings are our own read of tournament results and league play, refreshed a few times a year. Card art © Wizards of the Coast, shown in the period-correct old-frame printing.

Get in touch

Contact

A decklist with a wrong card, a tournament result we have missed, a broken link, or anything else. Leave a reply address if you want an answer.

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About

About & Legal

Premodern Chronicles is an independent, non-commercial archive of Magic: The Gathering Premodern tournament results: winning decklists, a metagame tier list with deck guides, card prices and the banlist. Card images and card data come from Scryfall.

Fan Content Policy

Premodern Chronicles is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Wizards of the Coast Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.

Trademarks

Magic: The Gathering, its card names, card images, and mana symbols are trademarks and copyrights of Wizards of the Coast LLC. Premodern Chronicles is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

Get in touch

Corrections to a decklist, a tournament result we have missed, or anything else: use the contact form or reach us on Instagram. What you send through the form is stored on our own server (message, optional reply address, the page it was sent from, and a shortened hash of your IP address to limit abuse) for as long as it takes to deal with it, and is forwarded to us as a private notification. Nothing is shared with third parties.