Tier List: The Best Decks of Premodern in 2024

It's worth noting that Premodern is a very diverse format, with a lot of unexplored territory and, above all, very regionalized. Win rates don't specifically mean best decks because every archetype has its bad matchups.

It's also important to understand that an archetype being in Tier 2 or 3 doesn't mean it's a bad deck. Sometimes, it's just not a very popular deck compared to others, and/or its win rate in large-scale events hasn't been the best. Due to the regionalized nature of Premodern, any deck works within smaller environments and can be adapted to deal with the Metagame of its region, and it's not like everyone has a spare set of Phyrexian Dreadnought or Mox Diamond to play with some of the archetypes in Tier 1 anyway, or are willing to invest so much money on the format right now.

Sligh

Sligh is the classic Mono Red of Premodern: low-cost creatures, cheap damage spells, and the dream of taking your opponent's life from 20 to 0 in the fewest number of turns possible. It is one of the strategies that dictate the format's speed and every archetype needs to have a game plan against it, or be faster to the point of being able to ignore it.

Another driver of Sligh's popularity is that it is a cheap and easy-to-pilot deck. Mono Red is historically the most efficient strategy in competitive Magic, and Sligh's monetary cost combined with its ability to beat any unprepared opponent makes it a reliable choice for those who have only been familiar with the format for a short time and/or for those who don't have a pet deck.

Oath Ponza

Oath Ponza is a mix of two well-known archetypes in Premodern: Oath of Druids and Terrageddon. Its goal is to be a “Lock-Control” with a combo line involving Oath of Druids to find Terravore, putting several lands in the graveyard to guarantee a two-turn clock, while spells like Sphere of Resistance and Winter’s Grasp control the amount of spells the opponent can cast by controlling their lands.

It was the deck with the most copies in the Top 32 of the 2024 European Championship and a strategy that gained a lot of popularity this year, solidifying itself as one of the most successful archetypes in Premodern today.

Stiflenought

Stiflenought was once, or still is, considered the best deck in the format. Divided into several variants, its strategy involves casting Phyrexian Dreadnought and responding to its trigger with Stifle or Vision Charm to keep it in play - a well-known combo in Legacy.

This is one of the archetypes that all Premodern players end up considering in high-level events. It is not very popular in smaller tournaments, however, because Phyrexian Dreadnought is a card from the Reserved List, and one with a high monetary cost that hinders its deckbuilding.

Goblins

Goblins is a classic go wide with synergies between creatures of the same type to explode in the match with cards like Goblin Lackey that, ideally, will cheat the mana cost of Siege-Gang Commander and Goblin Ringleader, while presenting a growing curve of creatures to pressure the opponent and cheap land disruption with Rishadan Port and Wasteland.

Some versions have a splash for Naturalize and other Sideboard cards.

Elves

Elves works similarly to Goblins in that it relies on the synergy between creatures of the same type to create interactions, such as generating absurd amounts of mana with Priest of Titania and gaining absurd amounts of life with Wellwisher.

These are usually complemented by two key cards from the Reserved List: Survival of the Fittest allows for a “toolbox” with several cards ranging from Kamahl, Fist of Krosa for lethal damage to Goblin Sharpshooter as removal, and Gaea’s Cradle guarantees the abundance of mana needed for more explosive turns alongside the enchantment, or even with cards like Masticore to clear the opponent’s board.

Parallax Replenish

Parallax Replenish is a Lock-Control deck that aims to use the interaction between Replenish and cards like Parallax Wave and Parallax Tide to control the opponent's board. Its main win condition involves Opalescence to turn its enchantments into creatures, which allows for another interaction: using Parallax Wave and Parallax Tide to establish loops with the triggers of the enchantments on the stack to clear the opponent's board and remove their lands and creatures from play.

Terrageddon

Terrageddon is a Midrange deck that aims to take advantage of the interaction between hard-to-remove threats like Nimble Mongoose and efficient removals to win the game, with its main proposal involving playing Terravore followed by Armageddon to clear the board for both players and turn it into a clock that is too fast for the opponent to hold without lands - a proposal that complements well with the Threshold mechanic since we will have many cards in the graveyard.

Madness

Madness is a classic Standard deck from the early 2000s that became popular for its mix of low-cost threats and synergy between its cards. The goal is to use enablers like Wild Mongrel and Aquamoeba to cast Basking Rootwalla and Circular Logic for their alternative cost, or to extract value from cards with the Flashback ability with Roar of the Wurm or Deep Analysis.

This is a very flexible deck to build: some lists rely on the interaction between Survival of the Fittest and Basking Rootwalla to create a toolbox, while other variants use zero cards from the Reserved List and rely more on the micro-interactions of Madness and Flashback.

Rec-Survival

Survival of the Fittest is one of the most flexible cards in Premodern and fits into several different strategies, but one of the most popular of them is RecSur, which takes advantage of the interaction of Recurring Nightmare with the enchantment to create a toolbox list with different answers for each matchup while using Nightmare to have inevitability and/or to bring bombs like Phantom Nishoba into play for cheap.

Enchantress

Enchantress is a Control deck that aims to remain incapable of losing the game by locking away the opponent's resources, such as the ability to attack, deal damage or even interact with their enchantments with Sterling Grove while accumulating card advantage with Argothian Enchantress and Enchantress's Presence. Its main victory condition involves generating an abundance of mana with Serra's Sanctum with Mobilization to create an army of 1/1 creatures.

Mono Blue Control

Mono Blue Control is a variant of the Landstill archetypes that aims to hold the opponent's resources with Counterspell, Powder Keg and Parallax Tide while pressuring the opponent's life with Mishra's Factory and Faerie Conclave. Some versions use the Stiflenought combo, but are not entirely dedicated to it.

Stasis

Stasis is a Lock-Control archetype that uses Stasis to lock down the opponent's resources. Several free spells such as Gush, Daze and Thwart ensure that its controller can “untap” lands, while Forsaken City allows to continue paying the upkeep cost of Stasis every turn.

With the opponent's resources locked, Black Vise slowly takes away their life total, and it is up to its controller to ensure that the opponent cannot resolve the Lock until then.

Angry Hermit

Angry Hermit is an all-in combo that aims to win the game as early as possible by using Hermit Druid to mill the entire deck and casting Reanimate or Shallow Grave to bring Sutured Ghoul from the graveyard to the battlefield, exiling some Phyrexian Dreadnought to deal lethal damage in combat.

Its biggest advantage is being a one-card combo with Hermit Druid, but once executed, any removal on Sutured Ghoul can mean game over, especially if it is Swords to Plowshares.

BW Control / Deadguy Ale

Despite being instinctively different decks, Deadguy Ale and B/W Control are archetypes that share a very similar card pool with rather similar overall results, and that's why they're placed together.

What both archetypes want to do is propose a fair game plan of attrition, with removals and discards accompanied by threats. The change is in the threats: Deadguy Ale tries to be more aggressive with Nantuko Shade and Hypnotic Specter with, in some cases, Dark Ritual while B/W Control enters more into the late-game spectrum with cards like Decree of Justice, Eternal Dragon and Exalted Angel in addition to the more ostentatious use of sweepers like Wrath of God.

Pit Rack

Pit Rack is a deck based on discard and the interaction of Bottomless Pit and Hypnotic Specter with The Rack to deal incremental damage to the opponent every turn. It also has an efficient discard spell package with Funeral Charm and Duress and, sometimes, runs a few other low-cost threats like Phyrexian Negator. Some versions run a splash for , but they are considered different archetypes.

Mono Black Aggro

Mono Black Aggro is the classic aggressive deck with low-cost, high-power creatures. There are different ways to set up this strategy: some opt for a more explosive early game with Dark Ritual to speed up Phyrexian Negator and Drinker of Sorrow on the first turn, others bet on Smokestack to lock up the opponent's resources while sacrificing Sarcomancy and Ravenous Rats to feed the artifact while the opponent loses precious resources.

White Weenie

White Weenie is as classic as Mono Black Aggro and has a similar proposal, but usually with two-mana creatures, two power and some ability that guarantees its survival or an advantage for its controller.

Some versions use the splash for for cards like Meddling Mage and interaction in the Sideboard, while others focus on a more consistent mana base and a more straightforward plan.

The Solution

The Solution is vaguely similar to White Weenie in some ways, but is closer to the Aggro-Control spectrum: cheap creatures complemented by Counterspell, removals, and Standstill to generate card advantage.

One of the appeals of The Solution is its ability to switch between being the beatdown or the Control deck in games 2 and 3, with more answers to the opponent and Exalted Angel as the main win condition.

Ill-Gotten Storm

As the name suggests, Ill-Gotten Storm is a Combo archetype focused on Storm mechanics: it uses several low-cost spells to accelerate mana, Ill-Gotten Gains as recursion and cards like Intuition to increase its consistency in finding the right pieces. Cunning Wish will find Brain Freeze to end the game, or Hunting Pack if the opponent has Ivory Mask or another card to gain Shroud.

The Rock

The Rock, the father of all Midranges, also has some variants in Premodern: from the classics with Spiritmonger to more aggressive versions with Ravenous Baloth, or like the list above with Recurring Nightmare and Deranged Hermit.

All of them, however, share the same base of cheap removals, discard and Pernicious Deed, the main reason to use this color combination instead of , which make it an interactive and consistent archetype for fair Metagames, despite being a bit slow in some matchups.

Landstill

Landstill is a blue and white Control deck focused on the interaction of Decree of Justice with Standstill to win games. It relies on the classic combination of Counterspell, Swords to Plowshares and Wrath of God to prolong the game and keep the board clear so that, when Standstill enters, we can pressure the opponent to play spells to extract value from it.

Gro-A-Tog

Gro-A-Tog mixes the proposal of an old Tempo archetype known as Miracle Grow with the Psychatog deck that became known for Carlos Romão's victory in the 2002 World Championship. Its strategy involves cheap cantrips with spells like Gush to feed Psychatog and amplify the power of Quirion Dryad while holding the game with cheap removals and Tempo plays.

It is worth mentioning that these are just some of the decks present in Premodern.

The format is very broad, and the selection of Tiers in this article was made considering a few factors. If we expand the range, Tiers 2, 3 and even 1.5 could have more strategies included in them, and with the growing popularity of Premodern, it is possible that the Metagame will undergo changes in 2025 and/or that the range of viable strategies in next year's Tier List will become even wider.

Thanks for reading!