The Premodern Tier List

Terravore Variants:

What they do: These decks are quite different but are roughly similar in power to each other. They all extend the game with mana disruption, sprinkle in some interaction and finish with terravore, manlands, and sometimes Call of the Herd.

I personally find them to be varying degrees of mopey – exploiting vulnerable manabases but often suffering from the midrange problem of a low power ceiling. That said, their continued success as a cohort cannot be denied and you should expect to face these kinds of decks often at any premodern tournament.

Burn:

What it does: Reduce your opponent’s life total to 0, with the option to keep the board clear of opposing creatures along the way.

Burn has always been strong in the format, and the presence of burn creates its own sub-metagame between the amount of burn pilots and the number of very specific burn hate cards (like Chill or Circle of Protection: Red) in sideboards. Burn exploits the fact that many decks aren’t naturally advantaged against it. With the return of dreadnought to the top, that has changed. Bringing Burn to a tournament comes with high risk and high reward, you might find an easy path to the top 8, or you might run into a couple pilots who decided they didn’t want to ever lose to Burn that will end your tournament with the help of an extremely hateful sideboard. It’s also important to note that this is a very popular deck amongst people dabbling in the format, so expect it to be overrepresented at larger events. Look out for versions that splash green to board Naturalize, Tranquil Domain, and Call of the Herd. Pyrostatic Pillar is also becoming more popular.

Goblins:

What it does: Flood the board with goblins with the surprisingly grindy engine of Goblin Matron and Goblin Ringleader to outlast any answers.

This deck is deceptively powerful. It has access to explosive and grindy plans with a touch of mana disruption, giving it strong and flexible game plans against any kind of deck. Goblin Lackey gives you explosive potential, but even when it’s answered, Goblin Warchief can often end games. While the deck has been tier 1 in the past, it can struggle against dreadnought thanks to the efficiency of Hydroblast and both Enchantress and Replenish can be a headache with fast Opalescence+Parallax Wave combos. It’s hard to craft a goblins sideboard as you often can’t take out too many of your proactive pieces and dilute the strength of Goblin Ringleader.

Up and Coming or Down and Out

Other people call these decks tier 2, they may have the juice, but I’m always skeptical until I see the same kind of consistency as the established tier 2 decks.

Moneyball Black:

What it does: Midrange.

Grantfly/David Gleicher (check him out on Youtube) may have finally cracked the code on black midrange. It’s called moneyball because all the cards are supposedly a good rate. I still think this deck lacks a little power, but it is absolutely the best we’ve seen out of mono black and winning the largest Premodern tournament in history is quite the feather in its cap.

Psychatog:

What it does: Use various controlling tools to stay alive while you cantrip through your deck and finish your opponent with Psychatog.

Psychatog has a bit of the same feel as dreadnought – just slower. There’s tons of direction to take this list as all of the card draw and countermagic create different incentives. Though one thing that never changes is Psychatog the same menace on the battlefield as it always was – impossible to burn out and surprisingly quick to deal 20.

Rock-Sur:

What it does: Grind your opponent down with the help of Survival of the Fittest.

Phil cracked the formula for BG survival with his list after months of hard work and great results online. While it’s super fair as far as survival decks go, it still has all the tools to convert a resolved survival into a win. While it doesn’t suffer from ‘45% against the field’ problems, it can still be hit or miss. It’s favored but not by much against burn and dreadnought and unfavored against replenish. It’s great against most tier 2 decks like terrageddon and GAT which struggle against survival. There’s also an option to include an infinite combo package with Palinchron to close games. The deck can be a bit durdly at times and can struggle vs. graveyard hate.

Gro-a-Tog:

What it does: Interact with your opponents while keeping the pressure on with efficient creatures.

I can’t contain all my thoughts on GAT in this tier list and I am constantly tinkering with the deck. This most recent iteration has been working great for me, with an added emphasis on grind. The addition of Accumulated Knowledge has given this deck the ability to grind through long games, reducing the need to rely on mana disruption. It still struggles vs. burn and RG Oath but is nearly unstoppable against dreadnought and combo. I’ve had a lot of success personally with the deck, but I think it lacks a little bit of raw power it would need to hold a place in the meta.

The Rock and UW The Rock AKA Landstill:

What they do: Midrange

These decks will always be good at granting strong players a lot of agency to win multiple uphill battles per tournament. A good player might take comfort in knowing they’ll likely come out on top against weaker opponents with these decks. They’ll also talk themselves into thinking they can’t lose to certain decks because of their unique sideboard plans. Nonetheless, I don’t expect these decks to top very often as they are simply not very powerful. They’re also suffering some splash damage from the increased presence of Tsabo’s Web. I’m sure there’s room for exploration and optimization here though, and while I don’t believe strongly in ‘personalizing’ your list, if you’re gonna do it, these are the decks for it. I’m interested in seeing if UW control can be built without standstill as RG Oath is specifically punishing that card. Check out Fpawlusz’s new ravenous rats Rock that’s been making waves.

White Weenie Variants:

What it does: Beatdown

There are countless variants of White Weenie strategies which you can read about here. The two most popular and potent are ‘UW Flippi’ which is more disruptive and traditional White Weenie (sometimes with a light blue splash) which is more beatdown. I don’t have a strong read on these decks from personal experience, but I can say for certain that they stomp dreadnought. WW is certainly weaker to combo than UW due to counterspells. UW has more access to card advantage/selection, while WW can play a much more linear beatdown plan. Weenies and Armageddon is a pretty sound strategy against the rest of the field, and the deck has put up some good finishes, so I’d respect it. The decks are also highly customizable, you can include more splashes, enlightened tutor toolboxes, utility lands, whatever your heart desires. Plus they crush GAT.

Stasis:

What it does: Fuel Stasis with land drops, Gush, Thwart, and Forsaken City while they die to Black Vise or an eventual Brain Freeze/Stroke of Genius.

Every time I’ve published an iteration of this tier list, people chime in asking where Stasis is. I’ve never had much respect for the archetype and believe that it’s a bit one-dimensional and mostly steals wins against players that don’t know what they’re doing against it. However, Chris Roy has breathed some new life to the archetype with a list that broke most of the conventional wisdom and took down a big tournament. I think the deck is still going to struggle against capable opponents as well as just fast efficient decks, but on the other hand, it’s definitely very consistent and sometimes the perfect pick against a meta that’s been increasingly casting expensive spells at sorcery speed. I’m interested to see if it can keep some decks honest.

Devourer:

What it does: Tinker out or cast a Phyrexian Devourer, pump it up and Fling it or Altar of Dementia it before the sacrifice trigger resolves.

As a rule, I don’t like to include decks in my tier list that only one pilot has been performing with, but I think Devourer has enough pedigree that it deserves some respect. What I like most about the archetype is that it dodges creature removal, and is resilient to artifact removal and mana disruption. I haven’t been satisfied with its consistency in my own testing, but as you can see, Tom’s build is designed to grind a little bit into the midgame to potentially solve this issue. The easily included Tsabo’s Web do give this deck free wins against RG Oath.

Mono Black Typal Beatdown:

What it does: Beatdown

Zombies and, more recently, Clerics have been pushing on the fringe of the metagame, sometimes claiming top finishes. However, they have a gigantic Oath of Druids sized hole in their game plan. That said, you may catch the Oath with discard or string together enough removal spells for the stream of giant Terravores to close out, so not all hope is lost. I love the ritual powered beatdown plans followed up with reach in the form of Cabal Archon or Shephard of the Rot. It’s hard for me not to see these decks as strictly worse than Goblins though.

Storm:

What it does: Use cost reducers to turn free spells like Frantic Search into ritual effects, churning through your deck with card draw until you can mill them with a Brain Freeze or two or three.

Storm hasn’t been topping tournaments outside of Easter Champs this year, but in my testing, the deck has been very impressive. I don’t feel like it can lose to any midrange or control decks. It does seem vulnerable to Dreadnought and unfortunately Pyroblasts and cheap artifact removal backed up by pressure can be tough out of Burn and Goblins. I’m optimistic that with some additional optimization, this could become a real threat.

Breakfast:

Full English Breakfast variants have been taking fewer headlines but are still important to be aware of. I think the deck thrives on information asymmetry as its infrequent play means players have been slow to pick up on its unique interactions and patterns. It’s still a resilient combo deck with lots of explosive potential. For the uninitiated, the deck wins primarily through either using a Survival to make your Volrath’s Shapeshifter first into a Phyrexian Devourer with a bunch of counters and then a Triskelion to kill you or using Hermit Druid to mill their library, unearth a Shapeshifter that enters as a Karmic Guide which brings a Psychatog into play, puts the tog back on top of the yard to flash back Cabal Therapy, making the Shapeshifter a Psychatog which can eat the graveyard until you have just Akroma on top, and then attacks with the now gigantic Akroma/Shapeshifter. There are some other complicated sequences available, so if you’re worried about facing this deck, you’ll have to study up, there’s no simple answer on how to beat it. Watch out for UWG ‘Classic FEB’ builds that can just as easily win by survival-ing up a bunch of Meddling Mages as it can with the combo.

Angry Hermit:

What it does: Mills their own deck with Hermit Druid and Reanimates a hasty giant Sutured Ghoul thanks to Dragon’s Breath to kill your opponent. Alternately can cast Phyrexian Dreadnought with an enabler.

This deck barely deserves a spot as I haven’t played it and it hasn’t been seen in recent results. However, it still has a history of strength. A lot of the things that make it great are still great, plus graveyard hate out of sideboards seems to be at a low point. The Doomsday list that Flint took to a monthly finish provided above is probably too cute, but it does demonstrate that there’s room for experimentation and tuning to perhaps push the deck forward. I’d safely ignore it in my preparation, making it an interesting sleeper pick to catch people by surprise.

Survival Madness:

What it does: Mostly play at instant speed thanks to the madness mechanic. Stay gassed and find answers with Survival and sprinkle in some countermagic.

Survival Madness continues to stay relevant thanks to Stanley ‘Cyberpunker’ Chen one-tricking the deck for all time. It has a little bit of everything – madness beatdown, Survival grinding, Counterspell disruption, Wasteland, and even sweepers out of the sideboard. However, I view it as inconsistent, sometimes delivering you the wrong kind of action against a given opponent, or simply being manascrewed or colorscrewed.

‘Playable Deadguy Ale’ or BW Control:

What it does: Grind with Eternal Dragon and cast big decrees after slowing the game down.

This deck has really fallen off recently with its difficulty dealing with mana denial and keeping up with the card advantage and power the metagame is bringing.

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Past Updates:

Update Notes 3/13/25: There’s a tier 0 now. Going into Lobstercon I cannot imagine recommending anything other than dreadnought or maybe replenish.

Update Notes 11/9/24: The innovative new Mono-U Dreadnought list has claimed the top spot of the metagame. I’m hoping to see shifts to rebalance around the deck, which could be seismic, as previous heavyweights in Replenish and GR Oath would be seriously knocked down in any room with a reasonable representation of dreadnought. If you’re going to a tournament you care about winning, bring dreadnought or a strategy to beat it.

Update Notes 9/15/24: Lobstercon and Euros are right around the corner and Replenish is seeing even more success in tournaments. I’ve promoted it to upper Tier 1 against my own personal judgement as it’s hard to ignore its recent accomplishments. GR Oath is still the most consistent and powerful deck in my opinion, and while it doesn’t have a high play rate, I expect it to have a very high success rate at the world’s two largest tournaments. GW Oath may also be a sleeper answer to defeat GR Oath in the heads up while maintaining most of its equity against the field. I’m hard at work trying to stay on top of the new tech coming to these lists as archetype-specialists continuously tinker, but it’s also hard to gauge if the card of the week has staying power, so make sure to do your own research!

Update Notes 8/17/24: Since the May edition of this list, GWu Terrageddon lists have claimed a place in tier 2. Replenish has also been on the rise in the hands of multiple pilots across regions and I’ve given it a spot in tier 1. I’ve also added Mono-Blue Tide and Stasis. Looking ahead to Lobstercon, I think this list is still pretty accurate with regards to relative power of these decks, but play rate will be unpredictable as always, outside of a somewhat reliable 10%+ meta share each for dreadnought and burn.

Update Notes 5/07/24: Premodern feels like it’s getting wider. The momentum surrounding RG Oath has finally been met with reasonable resistance in players’ deck/tech selection. An overall meta trend I’m noticing is that resiliency is more important than explosiveness – linear decks are pushing their fundamental turn back to interact more with their opponents. Similarly reactive decks are also adopting some proactive elements to meet the rest of the meta in the middle.