Banding with Andy
PLUS: What would pushing black in Premodern look like, Brewer’s Challenge with Gabe Farkas, and Premodern trophies deserve a trophy
I’m back today to interview brewer extraordinaire, deck photographer/historian, and all-around good guy Andy Culpepper. I actually owe a lot to Andy, as I’m fairly confident that he was the one that got me into Premodern back in 2018 thanks to this Trix deck photo surfacing on my Instagram:
Later in this newsletter issue, I’ll briefly react to Martin Berlin’s indication that he would “push black in 2025”, share a new brewing guest segment from Gabe Farkas, and, as always, highlight some amazing content from the Premodern community.
Interview with Andy Culpepper
BANDING: How and when did you get into Premodern?
Andy Culpepper: In October of 2017 I started my Instagram account (@mtgdojoera) after drooling over Greg’s (@oldschoolmtg) account for some time. I wanted to do what he was doing but for the years in which I originally played Magic, from about ‘94/’95 to 2001. These years also overlapped almost exactly with when the Dojo was active. This was before I knew anything about Premodern, but I found out about it very quickly once Martin Berlin went public with the Facebook page. I started building Premodern decks in about February or March of 2018.
What were some of the first decks you built? Did you primarily play via webcam or was there a local scene?
The very first deck I built was a Mono U Trix build. I also built some other lists based on my favorite decks from old Extended and Type II, like ProsBloom, Hermit Opposition and Maher Oath, but I learned fairly quickly that the Premodern card pool and ban list were different enough to warrant a totally fresh approach.
I don’t live in a very populated area so there was certainly no local Premodern scene at first, and it took me until 2020 to finally get a webcam set up. I did however convince my neighbor John to get into the format as we had previously played Modern and Legacy together, and we even did some gameplay streams to the Premodern Facebook page in the early days.
You’re known as a prolific brewer having created or significantly worked on decks like Mono U Tide, Trix Tide, UR Sneak Attack, Counter Slivers, Temporal Fissure Storm, and probably more! What’s your process for brewing up decks?
I’ve gone through periods of time where I brew very compulsively, usually about one deck per day. I have hundreds of Premodern lists on my phone, but very few of them get to the point that I would play them in an event. I would test them all against myself playing tier 1 decks, in side by side windows on tappedout.net. Most would have multiple glaring weaknesses but a few would feel promising so I would run them through a monthly, and some ended up doing really well like my Pit-Rack build, various Tide Control and Replenish variants. A lot of decks were just too fun to resist playing too.
I think I’m probably a better brewer than player, because I had lists very similar to the Mono-Green TerraOath and the current Survival Rock deck, both of which I didn’t fare well with in monthlies so I stopped working on them.
I feel like your work on Pit-Rack helped revitalize interest in the deck (unfortunately at the same time I was playing many janky combo decks). Can you discuss a bit more about the innovations you worked on for that and who you worked with?
At that time in 2020/2021 there were some Pox lists floating around, but they were playing a lot of cards that I felt were too clunky like Chimeric Idol, Ensnaring Bridge and Charcoal Diamond. Robin Lundh and I both had the idea independently to streamline the deck a bit and focus more on discard and efficient spells, though 1-2 Pox remained in the deck longer than they probably should have. I was the first to add Chain of Smog, and later incorporated Plague Spitter during the height of Survival Elves which launched the deck into prominence. Gabe Farkas helped give the deck meme value by coming up with the name SPUD (Spitters and Pits Under Duress).
Similarly, you were one of the first players to take a more controlling route with Replenish by adding in more counter magic, right? What was the logic behind that? Do you think there could be other existing combo decks that could benefit from adding counter magic?
I had seen Replenish lists playing counter magic like Arcane Denial in the sideboard, but I really felt like it needed them in the main. It has never been the fastest combo deck in the format so it really felt more at home as combo-control, and I also felt like I could abuse it mercilessly with my Mono U Tide Control. Adding counters to the deck totally changed that matchup among others, though it turned out that Mana Leak was the more responsible choice.
Other combo decks that could use counters… I feel like there may be a more controlling Storm build that could be possible. And I think UR Sneak Attack could be explored more.
Talk to me about Brewing with Andy on Premodern’s official blog… how did this content series begin?
When Martin first launched the format publicly, my Instagram account was getting a decent following with a very similar era of cards and decks. I wanted to help out with spreading and popularizing the format so he let me write the article series on the blog, sharing some of the brew ideas that started flooding into my brain.
Looking through a few of the articles, you can really see the seeds of decks that are significant parts of the meta game now, like the OathStill article had the beginnings of RG Terra Oath, the Jund article had the Call of the Herd tech, and the Angry Ghoul article featured a deck that has continued to be refined. Looking back now, which of the decks are you most proud of? Which do you think still have the most opportunity to be refined?
I think for the most part the decks are pretty rough honestly. I’ll even admit I had big gaps in my knowledge of the card pool from 2001-2003 since I wasn’t playing during those years. You’ll notice that some decks don’t even have fetchlands which should, and some cards I just plain had no idea existed, like Cunning Wish and many more from that time period. But I certainly think I planted some seeds. I know Flint was inspired by my Angry Ghoul article, and my Reanimator deck made some waves since before that, people were playing slower builds with Buried Alive. I would like to see PandeBurst Replenish worked on more.
I saw that you’ve begun posting on @mtgdojoera again on Instagram. Tell me about the origins of this account and what you’re looking to do with it going forward.
I want to get back to my role of being a historian of the game and telling the stories of competitive Magic during the years I was active. Every year more articles are removed from the internet and some old decklists have gotten harder to find. I love preserving historical decks in visual format and just appreciating the beauty of both the old cards and the deck designs. The Dojo has been preserved for now and is still a gold mine of interesting relics. There are still a lot of iconic and popular decks that I still haven’t posted about so it’s an ongoing project.
What’s your local scene like these days? Any shoutouts?
Nowadays things are totally different than when I started, and there are multiple great Premodern scenes within driving distance. I’ll give a shoutout to the Rochester Royals, as well as Carl Winter, Ben Landers, Chris, Ryan, Josh and everyone else in Impulse Crew!
Pushing Black in Premodern
As you may have read from the 2025 Premodern Roundtable earlier this month, Martin Berlin indicated in his most clear statements yet of changes to come. When asked “If it were up to you, would you ban or unban anything right now? Or in the near future?” he responded:
I intend to make a change to push black in 2025. But I have to keep you guessing as to how...
And while those are his most direct comments yet that change is on the horizon, it’s still cryptic enough to have had the Premodern community ablaze with wild speculations. One other notable answer was to the question “What are your thoughts on the health of Premodern’s meta?”, which I’ll quote partially (emphasis mine):
A third observation, and this one is negative, is that black is significantly weaker and less played than the other colors. Many of black's most powerful creatures are of the suicide variety and are thus extremely weak to red's burn spells. Although black has some excellent discard and removal it lacks strong enough build-around cards to get ahead, so it has become more of a support color at best.
I was originally going to send out a special issue of BANDING last week, breaking down all the options but to misquote Dr. Ian Malcolm: “Life, uh… gets in the way”. Instead, I’ll break down my thoughts on potential scenarions in abbreviated fashion, which broadly fall into three categories:
Unbanning one or more cards
Banning one or more cards
Expanding the Premodern card pool
Unbanning
There are nine black cards banned in Premodern, plus two tangentially black cards in Worldgorger Dragon and Memory Jar. Here’s where I would personally rank them, moving from least likely to most likely, based on my own thoughts:
Timmerian Fiends — Ante is a non-starter, but I like the idea of players of Phyrexian Dreadnought, Mox Diamond, and winter Mishra’s Factory having to pause to evaluate their decisions. Plus, Homelands!
Demonic Consultation — One of the best tutors ever and leads to somewhat streamlined deck building because it’s not so much a toolbox tutor (given the need to exile the top six cards) but rather just increases the consistency of cards you’re playing a lot of. UB Stiflenought having instant-speed access to combo pieces, Gush, or Foil sounds rough… but on the other hand maybe Hatred becomes more playable?
Memory Jar — Not technically a black card but one of the card’s most famous uses was alongside Megrim. The card would also see play in Devourer and MUD variants alongside Tinker, but ultimately this doesn’t fulfill the goal of a black “build-around” card, if that is a goal. I did win a Donato Giancola altered Memory Jar at the BAH Humbug charity event recently though, so maybe it should see more play…
Swag from NYC’s BAH Humbug charity event and raffle Vampiric Tutor — This is a card that is technically black, but would really see play in all sorts of decks and wouldn’t really define any deck in particular (maybe Napster makes a comeback). This one is tough to evaluate as it would help black decks and black-splash decks (e.g., UB Stiflenought), but I seem to recall Martin once saying that he was hesitant to unban either Mystical Tutor or Vampiric Tutor (I forget which he was referring to) because tutors enhance consistency, making each possible subsequent unban that much more dangerous.
Yawgmoth’s Bargain — This card was actually legal in Premodern until August 2019, when it was banned not due to meta dominance but because of the powerful potential of the Rector-Bargain deck. Premodern is a very different place now and it’s possible that the format could actually handle it now, even with the unbanning of Show and Tell (which coincidentally may also need a home). My fear with Bargain is that it wouldn’t breathe a ton of life into black strategies… it likely just opens up one UBw deck.
Worldgorger Dragon — The Worldgorger Dragon combo, which utilizes cards like Animate Dead to infinitely blink your permanents, usually resulting in infinite mana, is an option if you wanted to open up a single deck. Having played the deck in The Banned Series as well as in the Legacy format, I think fears of intentional draws are overstated. It’s fairly easy to disrupt the combo and very punishing if it happens (i.e., all your permanents are exiled).
Mind Twist — Mind Twist would be played in black decks of all flavors as even “value” Twists for two would be pretty disruptive. The card would also revitalize Dark Ritual, a card that outside of combo has seen less gameplay of late. The card would also easily find a home in places that splash black and could be a contender in traditionally non-black, big mana decks like Elves or Devourer. Although “fun” is subjective in Magic, there are certainly audiences that would find the random element of Mind Twist very unpleasant on the first or second turn. It’s not a bad option for unbanning, but also somewhat unexciting.
Tendrils of Agony — Likely the most famous spell with the Storm mechanic, I honestly think the card might be OK for the Premodern format. It would give a boost to spell-based combo, which some feel is lacking representation in Premodern. One concern is that Premodern would lose some of its identity as one of the stated goals of the format was to ban cards that are dominant in other formats in order to leave room for other cards to prosper (e.g., Brainstorm and Force of Will). Even with Tendrils unbanned, I do think there is still room for Brain Freeze and Hunting Pack given the unique colors they have and instant-speed nature.
Entomb — For a long while, this was the card that people expected would be freed. In my view, unbanning this card would be fine but unexciting. The card would open up Reanimator to have more toolbox threats in the main (e.g., Ascendent Evincar, Multani, Petradon) and power-up Nether Spirit decks. As I’ve said for a long while, Entomb Reanimator would likely remain a worse version of Stiflenought, potentially stretch sideboards too thin, further accelerate the format, and put additional pressure on aggressive creature decks.
Necropotence — If you’re looking for a black pillar, I think this is it. My fear though is there will be a non-zero amount of games that are just real feel bad with T1 Necropotence. That said, there are many other powerful cards in Premodern that already feel pretty bad to be across the table from, so maybe we have to get a little uncomfortable? Brian Kowal hosted a Necro Summer webcam league in 2023 that featured half of the players using Necro brews while the other half played standard Premodern decks. The Top 10 featured only three Necro decks: False Cure (played by me), Deadguy Ale, and Pebbles. It’s true that these likely aren’t the most tuned lists, but it’s something to consider.
The hard part with Necro is how to finish the game, which at first glance seems trivial if you’re drawing a bunch of cards… but surprisingly difficult once you actually start putting together a list. Maybe it’s StifleNought, but you give up Gush and get Unmask? Maybe it’s Trix? Or maybe alongside Shallow Grave? Or black aggro or control or midrange? I don’t know. But I think the idea of Necro showing up in a lot of distinct places and acting in different ways is pretty intriguing.
Yawgmoth’s Will — This one took me a little while to come around to, but now I’m intrigued. Many of us who have played with the card in the past have strong feelings about the card… but those were also other formats. I’ve started to think about the card like Tinker, which many people are shocked to find out that Premodern decks can contain four of. They’re both among the most powerful cards ever but need supporting cards to push them over the line. Will is a card that can win by itself, but mirrors in some way to Replenish. It’s a card that needs time to accrue resources in the graveyard so there won’t be as many feel-bad situations like with Entomb or Necropotence in which a turn one action could determine the game. It can still go fast, of course, with cards like Dark Ritual and Lion’s Eye Diamond, but what I’m comforted by is that Premodern in general already runs a fair amount of graveyard hate — every deck has the tools to combat Yawgmoth’s Will. The card would also fit into many shells, ranging from combo decks to others looking for value (e.g., Rich Shay has even suggested it in Burn for value with fetches and Mishra’s Bauble, as well as late game reach). I could be wrong here and it’s possible that Yawgmoth’s Will is too powerful, but it’s slowly crept up to be the card I’d be most interested to learn more about in Premodern.
Banning
I won’t dwell here too much as I think the possibilities are just too remote. Swords to Plowshares, for example, could be banned and suddenly black is now the premier color for spot removal. Or if Burn, which black decks have a really hard combating, was taken down a peg through the loss of, say, Fireblast. These types of maneuvers are a bit too clever and disruptive for my taste, but I suppose it’s an option!
Expanding
Many people often ask why Fallen Empires or Portal aren’t in the Premodern card pool, which is defined as cards that were standard legal between 1995 and 2003. The addition of Fallen Empires would add Hymn to Tourach (as well as High Tide, Goblin Grenade, and Orcish Spy), but I think would just be too messy. That said, I have recently been more open on the potential of adding era-appropriate box sets like Anthologies and Beatdown, discussed previously be the Shared Discovery podcast and others, which would add eight cards to the Premodern card pool: Combat Medic, Goblin Grenade, Hymn to Tourach, Icatian Javlineers, Kird Ape, Lady Orca, Pendelhaven, and Snapping Drake.
Hymn to Tourach, while not terribly exciting, would still provide a boost to black decks and wouldn’t be splashable as Mind Twist. Not a ton of brew space with the card, but if you’re looking for a direct way to boost black, it’s one option. This proposal would also add fan favorite cards like Icatian Javlineers, Kird Ape, and Pendelhaven, all of which would see play. The one card I’m dubious about is Goblin Grenade, which has the power to boost an already strong deck (or create a hybrid Burn-Goblins deck). I checked the Romancing the Stones previous Middle School results (most Goblins decks did not play the card), where Goblin Grenade is legal, to see if Goblins decks played it, as well as asking the Goblins thread in the Premodern Discord (they would test a few). It’s true that adding to the card pool is perhaps a bit inelegant and opens the door to more questions, but the gains might be worth it if you’re looking for a slightly more off-the-wall solution.
Guest Segment: Brewer’s Challenge Corner with Gabe Farkas
Hi Premodern People! Gabe Farkas here, and I’m excited to partner with Phil on this new and hopefully recurring segment of his awesome newsletter. For Brewer’s Challenge Corner, I’m going to pick an unused or underused card in the Premodern card pool and present it to you, loyal reader. Then you’ll have until the deadline announced here to brew around this card and submit your deck ideas to premodernbrewing@gmail.com.
Then I’ll review all the submissions, and in the next issue present which ones were the best or most intriguing, as well as add some commentary and/or my own interpretations of it: other cards to consider adding, apparent strengths/weaknesses, etc. And finally I'll present the next card for everyone to consider.
Complete deck lists are preferred. However, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a full 60 or full 75, it can be just the shell of the deck idea. Just try to include the card as a central part of whatever the deck is trying to do. In general I’m going to try to identify cards that saw play in Standard/Block/Extended back in the day but haven’t seen action in Premodern yet. However, by no means will all the cards fit that description.
For the first challenge, we’re going with a card that saw some play in Standard in 1999-2001 but never did break into Extended or formats with a larger card pool: Thieving Magpie.
Send your submissions to premodernbrewing@gmail.com with “Thieving Magpie” in the subject line by February 14.
And since this is the first brewer’s challenge, I’m going to proactively point out a couple of things to keep in mind:
Cards like Shadowmage Infiltrator and Hystrodon mention “combat damage”, but Magpie draws a card on any damage.
Ophidian’s card draw triggers when it’s attacking and not blocked, and it is a “may” ability that results in no damage being dealt. On the other hand, Magpie both deals damage and gives the card draw unconditionally.
I’m excited to see what ideas you’ve got! Good luck and happy brewing!
What I’ve Been Playing Lately
When I was a kid, it was pretty much impossible to build any of the combo decks that I read about in Scrye and InQuest due to budget constraints. However, there were two combo decks I did build since they used common cards: 1) Horseshoe Crab + Hermetic Study and 2) Life Combo. I decided to take a fresh look at the latter for the January webcam monthly, opting to build the deck entirely in mono white. Life Combo has pretty much coalesced around the Survival of the Fittest engine but I wanted to see what would happen if you traded consistency for explosiveness, plus a solid mana base. To that end, I ran a deck pretty much entirely composed of combo pieces, adding in combo enablers not typically seen like Reconnaissance, Angelic Protector, and Animal Boneyard.
The other thing I wanted to test out was a “no wincon” list. Infinite life doesn’t win the game on its own and so many Life decks will play cards like Test of Endurance, Serra Avatar, Unspeakable Symbol, About Face, Transmutation, etc. These cards are often pretty lackluster before you combo so my strategy was to win through creature beatdowns through a big hit with Reverent Mantra (also used as protection) and chipping in with Angelic Protector and early beats with Reconnaissance to protect your creatures.
Ultimately I finished 2-4 in the pod, just shy of my goal of an even record. I beat BG RecSur and Mono Red Ponza, but fell to two close matches in Wg Weenie and UB Zombie Infestation and two very lopsided matches in Frantic Storm and UWG Oath Tide — both of which didn’t really care about infinite life. I’ll probably take another crack at Life Combo in the future, probably trying something similar to the UW list that Top 8’ed Dutch Nationals.
Last Call for Spice Paradise Signup
Signups for the second season of Spice Paradise will close tomorrow, Friday, January 24th. The first pairings will go up on Monday, January 27th.
This is a low commitment way to play Premodern in a casual environment with brews or under-represented decks in the format. You can learn more about the beginnings of Spice Paradise, a wrap-up from last season, or read the full rules, deck guidelines, schedule, and more.
Premodern Trophy Highlight
Can I just say how constantly amazed I am with the creativity of the Premodern community? Just take a look at the first place prizes for upcoming events…
Content
Read
⚔️📊 The Duress Crew launched their Premodern Data Analysis Project, showcasing matchup win percentages from thousands of collected games
🏃♂️💨 Our friends at Eternal Durdles have launched a website and have an article about how “Premodern is the Legacy Experiencing You’re Chasing”, by Chris James
Listen
🧪📝 Andy Levine sits down with Spike Colony to discuss playtesting and more
💀📊 The Duress Crew introduces their data analysis project and the background and methodology behind it all
🍑🎙️ Shared Discovery is back to discuss interesting deck lists and their Peach Clobbering event
⁇🤍 Gary Roth chats with I’ve Got ?????’s about White Weenie, Premodern Dan-Dan, and the Premodern Super League
Watch
🤝⚔️ Heavy Play and Neon Mushroom collaborate on what I believe to be one of the best produced paper webcam videos I’ve come across… doesn’t hurt that it also features Guilty Oath (vs. UG Madness)
✊🎭 The Old Mage MTG podcast reviews Rebels in Premodern
🪦👻 Legacy combo aficionado Tony Scapone has started to dip his toes into Premodern, with videos featuring Tin Fins, Iggy Pop, and Frantic Storm.
🐗📜 Lannynyny is back with another take on his Beast Attack deck… quite possibly one of my favorite decks in recent history
🍂💀 The Duress Crew has uploaded the first video from their Autumn Regional… Mono U Stiflenought vs. Burn
🤡🎨 Fpawlusz takes Stasis for a spin
🤡🐕 The Impulse Crew shows off a pair of classic decks… Stasis vs. Madness
⛪️📚 And in a battle of less classic, but super sweet decks, Moxforge showcases Mono White Clerics vs. Battle of Wits (!!)
🐼💥 Phil Shary (Premodern has so many awesome Phil’s) plays a classic, RG Pandemonium Burst
🏅😈 Opening up Brian Selden’s World Championship RecSur deck with Tenshoku TCG
🕶️🍄🟫 Neon Mushroom features Tin Fins vs. Stiflenought
Other
Artist Jeff Miracola is launching a playmat Kickstarter on February 2. He’s illustrated 77 cards that are Premodern legal, including Frantic Search, Donate, Horn of Greed, Propaganda, Sterling Grove, and more.