Premodern: 5 Cheap Decks to Start Playing the Format!

The player-created Premodern format has gained more popularity in recent months and has begun to show up in more regions around the world. With over 200 players at its European Championship in September 2024, more events have begun to emerge both at the in-person tables and on Spelltable or even on Magic Online, attracting a diverse audience: from those who want to remove Wizards from the equation of playing Magic to those who like to try new formats and/or take advantage of the deckbuilding potential that Premodern offers.

Entering the format, however, has some challenges: its biggest barrier to entry is the Reserved List, whose cards increase in value each year and some archetypes depend on the insertion of some of their pieces to function properly, including some of the best decks in the Metagame.

In this article, we present five cheap decklists to play Premodern, based on archetypes that have had results in events and that can function without cards from the Reserved List and/or whose cards inserted in them do not have such a high price.

The decklists below were built considering value and accessible cards for players who have never had a pool and/or a Premodern deck before and will need to find cards to acquire. Parts of the Reserved List were left out to avoid monetary restrictions that would hinder the functioning of the list, except when they, for some reason, have a lower monetary value (see Phyrexian Negator, which was reprinted).

Fetch Lands, while recommended for two-color lists or in decks aiming to take advantage of the number of cards in your graveyard with Grim Lavamancer, or Threshold, were not included to keep the value accessible.

It is worth mentioning that prices for singles in Magic vary greatly according to each region, in addition to varying greatly in value according to the increase or decrease in demand for them in certain countries or continents.

Sligh

Sligh is the classic Mono Red Aggro in its most basic form: a mix of cheap creatures with efficient damage spells to end the game in the least number of turns possible. It is one of the most famous and accessible archetypes of Premodern, and a safe choice that demands answers in the maindeck or on the Sideboard for other strategies.

Our creatures include Jackal Pup, one of the first 2/1 creature variants for one mana in Magic history, Ball Lightning and Grim Lavamancer that operate as complementary Burn spells, in addition to Mogg Fanatic that can work on both fronts. Spells include Lightning Bolt and Fireblast, two of the best staples in history for this archetype.

Playing Sligh means finishing games quickly, especially if your Metagame was not very interactive. However, there are games where using your spells to deal with your opponent's creatures is essential to avoid losing the game. Mother of Runes is one of these cases, letting your opponent untap with it means never being able to deal with it later, while Grim Lavamancer on the other side of the table is also an important threat to respond to.

Mono Black Aggro

Despite the name, this version is not the most aggressive Mono Black Aggro there is, but the amount of synergy it has is so interesting that we chose this list instead of a more focused on one mana two power threats.

The plan here is simple: use Dark Ritual to speed up a creature like Hypnotic Specter or Phyrexian Negator and use discards and removals to delay the opponent's game. In addition to these, we have Phyrexian Rager and Ravenous Rats as creatures with relevant effects when they come into play - something rare in this color during the sets that are legal in Premodern.

These ETB creatures are part of the reason for choosing this list: with Cabal Therapy, we can sacrifice them to extract more resources from the opponent's hand and then use Unearth to bring them back and reuse their ETBs, in addition to this spell also working to recover a Hypnotic Specter or Phyrexian Negator that has been destroyed.

This list is very straightforward and, if you've played Mono Black in another format, you'll know how to pilot it without any problems. Sideboarding cards like Powder Keg would be preferable to deal with artifacts, but their value may be restrictive for some players

Madness

Madness was a Standard classic in the early 2000s and was also one of the most accessible decks of its time. In Premodern, it can also show up with Survival of the Fittest, but here we opted for It's a more straightforward version of the archetype.

The game plan involves using spells with effects that discard cards from your hand to cast cards with Madness for their alternative cost. It may not seem amazing today, but there was a time when playing a 4/4 Trample for felt broken, and this deck takes advantage of each of those cards and Flashback spells like Deep Analysis and Roar of the Wurm to keep the resource pool going.

Wonder is a key piece of our list, as it grants Flying to our creatures when it is in the graveyard, but we don't want many copies of it, because it is a dead card outside there, and we don't need multiple copies, so we bet on a full set of Deep Analysis to find every card we need.

Improvements could include a version with Survival of the Fittest or with cards like Intuition to create Flashback stacks and extract more value from the deck, but this version is not only simple to play but also performs well without any cards from the Reserved List.

Deadguy Ale

Deadguy Ale is classic Midrange in its purest form: two-for-one effects, spot removals, and cheap and/or powerful threats at an efficient cost, combined with a recurring source of card advantage with Phyrexian Arena, culminating in an archetype that seeks to answer everything while its creatures win the game after the match has stabilized.

Cards like Duress and Gerrard’s Verdict deal with the opponents’ Control and Combo hands, while Swords to Plowshares and Vindicate deal with Aggro. Creatures like Nantuko Shade and Exalted Angel keep spells like Dark Ritual relevant as the game progresses, creating a solid archetype and an excellent gateway to Premodern.

The greatest challenges of playing Deadguy Ale involve knowing how to conduct yourself in a match and choosing the right responses. While the sideboard presented here attempts to address the breadth of the Premodern metagame, some options will shine more than others in different environments, and the wrong choices for a tournament can significantly reduce your chances of winning some rounds.

The Solution

The Solution is the typical definition of “Aggro-Control”: a bunch of mostly cheap creatures combined with counterspells and removals, with the potential to change its stance from one game to the next: in some games, Wrath of God can come in from the Sideboard to increase the amount of board interaction we need, while in others, we opt for cheap answers to deal with the opponent's spells while our creatures pressure their life.

The combination of Mother of Runes and Meddling Mage can permanently lock some decks if they need a combo and/or a key card to win the game, while in other games, Mother of Runes serves to protect Exalted Angel while it attacks through the air, and our other creatures offer some favorable trades in each game.

We can also use the combination of Standstill with lands that transform into creatures and/or with a favorable board position to force the opponent to play their cards and pop the enchantment, also being a functional plan when we need to go to the Control posture, where this becomes one of our main victory conditions.

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!