Premodern Chronicles

Contamination

1st Place · UC Late Night · Nuremberg, Germany · 2026-08-21 · 17 players

Contamination is a black-green Magic: The Gathering Premodern deck that finished 1st of 17 players at UC Late Night in Nuremberg, Germany, on 21 August 2026. Its 60-card mainboard runs 4 creatures, 15 instants and sorceries, 16 artifacts and enchantments and 25 lands, with a 15-card sideboard.

Key cards: Nether Spirit, Skeletal Scrying, Cabal Therapy and Duress.

Contamination is a build of the Premodern Contamination archetype: see the full deck guide for the game plan, matchups and a sideboard plan.

Mainboard

Sideboard

Anno MMXXVI · Estd. 1995–2003

The Premodern Chronicles

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

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All decks
Anno MMXXVI · Estd. 1995–2003

Premodern Decks

Every deck in the archive: winning and Top 8 decklists from Premodern tournaments and Magic Online leagues 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.

Why each card is banned, and every change since 2018 →

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

Learn more premodernmagic.com → playpremodern.com →
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The Format

Premodern Banlist

33 cards are banned in Premodern. 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.

Last change

Reports

Premodern Articles

Monthly metagame reports, tournament roundups and price reports, built on our archive of tournament decks and our daily price tracking.

From the Brewer's Cauldron

Spicy Brews

Unusual, rarely-seen Premodern decks: the spicy lists you won't find on any tier list.

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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.

Sent to our own server, no third party involved. Details in About & Legal. Prefer Instagram? @premodern_chronicles.

Community Vote

The Most Iconic
Cards in Premodern

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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.