Old School Rules Overview
Old school 93/94 is about playing as if you were in the year 94 with only the first sets available. I gives an original feeling by using this stable card pool, brings back memories or even nostalgia, provides a lot of fun with a nice variety of decks, iconic cards and power while still allowing budget decks to win tournaments.
Well known Old School 93 94 formats are listed below. Keep in mind every community or tournament might have house rules.
In addition we strongly recommend the variants with a points restriction, especially 7pts Singleton, X-points, Gentleman Swedish or OS Brawl. As a new addition, the Stapleless Swedish and Atlantic formats are now listed, too!
See links below the table.
All the formats are allowing cards from Alpha, Beta, Unlimited as well as Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends and The Dark. Only some are adding Fallen Empires, as shown in table below.
Format names have links to source page & below the table are some more useful or interesting links 🙂
| OS 93/ 94 | Atlantic | EC | DTFL | Eternal- Clash | M. S. Cup | UK | Swedish | Danish | Ravenna | Paladin | Pacific | Boreal | French | A40 |
| Fallen Empires | y | y | y | y | no | no | no | no | no | y | y | y | y | no |
| Reprints | y | y | y | y | y | y | no | y | y | y | y | y | y | no |
| ICE | y | y | y | y | y | y | no | no | no | y | y | y | y | no |
| WCD / Gold | * | * | * | * | * | * | no | * | * | * | * | * | * | no |
| Manaburn | y | y | y | no | no | no | no | no | no | y | y | y | y | y |
| Plague Rats errata | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | y | y | y | no | no |
| Draw = flip Orb | no | y | y | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | y | y | no | no |
| Maze of Ith | 4 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| Mishra’s Workshop | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| Recall | 4 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 0 |
| Shahrazad | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| Strip Mine | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| Time Vault | 4 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 1* |
| Mishra’s Factory | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 0 |
| The Tabernacle at P. V. | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 0 |
| Crusade… bans | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | proxy | no | no | no | no |
| Mind Twist | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0* |
| Library of Alexandria | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Stapleless formats
The banned lists were created by Hanseatic Oldschool’s Albert in order to have fun with cards rarely played. Some additional cards were banned to allow a balanced environment.
City of Brass was banned in HOT 20, but since CoB is allowed.
- Stapleless Swedish
- Based on the Swedish ruleset
- Banned cards: https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/2a09d5c2-5429-4335-ab28-aebec05c8dcd
- Allowed cards: https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/6722818e-90c4-44c9-9ac1-9b279fa2b642
- First tournament was the HOT 20 X-mas edition
Video: https://youtu.be/mfSBwk94smk - Second tournament Timmy Talks
- Stapleless Atlantic
- Based on the Atlantic ruleset
- Allowed cards: https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/96647948-c87c-44cd-b9ca-29ef9351728c
- First tournament was the HOT 22
Video: https://youtu.be/wD5x2Smgj10
Points or singleton variants:
- Alpha 40
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2545188669040349/
Full rule set: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets - Gentleman Swedish
https://urborgbuffet.wordpress.com/gentlemens-rules/ - 7pts Singleton
https://7pts-singleton.com/
www.facebook.com/groups/523946671643800/
https://ligaoldschoolmadrid.wordpress.com/2021/03/25/7-points-singleton-2/ - X Points Atlantic
https://xpointoldschool.com/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/xptos/
https://discord.gg/Qf44y6GH4z - Old School Brawl
https://sentineloldschoolmtg.com/old-school-brawl-a-93-94-commander-variant/
Useful Links
- see the Links page for helpful links as fgor example a guide to detecting fake cards