Gilded: A Fixed, Historical Non-Rotating Format Based Around the Golden Age of Extended

[wildfire393]

I've had an idea kicking around in my head for a bit, and for 2023 I'm determined to bring it to reality.

The past few years have seen a huge growth of the popularity of fixed, historical formats. 93-94/Old School is the most well-known of these, but Premodern (Ice Age/4th through Scourge) has an extremely dedicated fanbase as well.

Now, I love Premodern, and have multiple decks constructed for it, but the format has some issues. Pricy Reserved List cards with multi-hundred dollar pricetags and no hope of those ever coming down dominate the format - cards like Gaea's Cradle, Mox Diamond, Survival of the Fittest, Replenish, and Phyrexian Dreadnought especially. There's also a lot of strategies with a high nostalgia value that don't crack it in the format, either due to being outclassed or missing key pieces from the blocks immediately following the legality. There's also a hefty banlist of cards from the latter half of the format that are broken by cards from the earlier half, like Entomb being too good with the cheap reanimation from Urza's and prior.

So I've been tinkering with the idea of a format that's similar to Premodern but rotated forward a bit. Extended during that time included the Invasion block all the way through Eventide, before rotating out those last three pre-Modern blocks. Rather than recreate this format entirely, I thought it would be interesting to start with the Mercadian Masques block. This was the first block after the abolition of the Reserved List, and the Lorwyn/Shadowmoor block was the last block before the Mythic Rarity was introduced, so those brackets make some sense and help maximize format accessibility. I'm open to the possibility of starting at Invasion and/or ending at Future Sight (the last set before the Mending and the introduction of the Planeswalker type) should testing determine that to be necessary. But the idea would be a place where cards and strategies can shine where otherwise they are overlooked. Cards from Modern's early history, cards that predate Modern but aren't good enough for Legacy, etc.

Looking at the banlist from that era, it was surprisingly sparse. Entomb was banned, but that ban happened while Reanimate and Exhume were still legal. Likewise Dark Ritual was banned because Necropotence was legal at the time. Aether Vial and Disciple of the Vault were the only Affinity-related bans, and those came about in part due to frustration with the deck from Standard. The only card that stands out as 100% needing to be banned is Skullclamp.

So I figure a good starting point would be the following.

Legal Sets

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7th Edition
8th Edition
9th Edition
10th Edition

Mercadian Masques
Nemesis
Prophecy

Invasion
Planeshift
Apocalypse

Odyssey
Torment
Judgment

Onslaught
Legions
Scourge

Mirrodin
Darksteel
Fifth Dawn

Champions of Kamigawa
Betrayers of Kamigawa
Saviors of Kamigawa

Ravnica
Guildpact
Dissension

Coldsnap

Time Spiral
Planar Chaos
Future SIght

Lorwyn
Morningtide
Shadowmoor
Eventide

The following Scryfall query will take you to the complete list of cards from legal sets in the format: https://scryfall.com/search?q=date%3E%3 ... %3Acore%29

Banned:
Skullclamp

Watch List:
Dark Ritual
Entomb
Disciple of the Vault/Affinity as a deck
Mind's Desire/Tendrils of Agony/Storm as a Deck
Brainstorm/Ponder
Daze
Umezawa's Jitte
Tarmogoyf
Allied Fetchlands (Would prefer not to ban if able, but worth watching)
Sensei's Divining Top/Counterbalance

It will be interesting in particular to see the era approached with modern deckbuilding sensibilities. Ponder was not particularly popular the first time through, for instance.

Decks I expect to see/to experiment with:

Burn
Affinity
Zoo
Goblins
Next Level Blue/Countertop
Threshold/Miracle Gro/Other UX Tempo
Madness
Astral Slide
Faeries
Psychatog
Storm
Aggro Loam
Balancing Tings
Dredge
Tron/8Post
Enduring Ideal
Cephalid Breakfast
Elves

[Diz]

Could you put a spoiler in the OP containing legal sets for this format? I think that'd help a lot with engagement, at least with regards to deckbuilding.

[wildfire393]

Could you put a spoiler in the OP containing legal sets for this format? I think that'd help a lot with engagement, at least with regards to deckbuilding.

Done. There's also a scryfall link in that spoiler to query the complete list.

[Diz]

Have you gotten around to testing any of the matchups as of yet?

[wildfire393]

Apparently I am not alone in the desire to create a similar format. There's now a small Discord for it, which we are tentatively calling "Millennium". After some discussion, we're adopting the following initial banlist:

Skullclamp
Umezawa's Jitte
Sensei's Divining Top
The five allied Fetchlands

The decision to ban fetchlands is something I came around on. It means the format won't be as close to the Extended of that era, but that's potentially a positive thing. The mana was a little too good, and fetches synergize just a bit too well with a lot of stuff, particularly the most interesting cards from the Masques block like Brainstorm, Gush, and Daze. It also means the format gets considerably cheaper, as fetchlands are some of the most expensive legal cards.

[Npeircemitch]

Hi, how could I get involved in the discord for Millenium? I am very interested by it, I heard about it on the Premodcast podcast, and I have been trying to find out more about it. Thanks!