Welcome to the MTG Old Frame League!
If you are a nostalgic Magic the Gathering player and remember the thrill of competition during the first 10 years of life of our favourite game, you will remember a time in which artifacts were coloured brown; the rarest cards were exactly that, rare; planeswalkers were more of a lore concept than an actual thing and the very few foil cards you had seen were easy to recognise thanks to a shooting star in all of them.
Friendly competition in that environment that finished with the release of Eight Edition in 2003 is exactly what you can expect by joining the online MTG Old Frame League.
How/When Did the MTG Old Frame League Start?
The starting point for the MTG Old Frame project, and thus its league too would be July 10, 2018. The collectible boom of Magic the Gathering cards was still in much earlier stages than we saw in the past few years, but there was clearly a need to share nostalgia and pimp those beautiful foreign language cards, mint condition releases with more than 20 years of age and shiny shooting stars. So the MTG Old Frame Facebook group was created.
Of course, deep down, we are not collectors, we are mostly players. And the rise of formats like Old School and Premodern proved that we really wanted to use those cool Vintage cards without the power creep that Magic: The Gathering has seen in the last two decades.
The first MTG Old Frame League would be arranged by the Facebook group users and played during the end of June and most of July 2020. The rest, three years already of dual lands, Moxen, counterspells, Storm, Goblins, graveyard interaction and tons of brown artifacts.
How Is the MTG Old Frame League Played
Our League is played online bimonthly. Every two months registration starts and after a few days, a round-robin tournament of two-three groups is arranged. Players will agree on the right time for them to play this tournament online via video call, with actual cards. That’s the whole point, to forego the digital products and feel the cards in your hands again!
Of course, not everyone can afford a full-on competitive Old Frame deck, thus any number of proxies is allowed. Print your Power Nine away!
After the round-robin portion of the MTG Old Frame League is played, the top four players will fight for a place in the finals, which will see the winner of the league.
Not only do we fight for the pleasure of enjoying old frame Magic the Gathering, but for the past few Leagues, the winner has enjoyed beautiful sealed products, like this Korean Visions booster pack that was sent to the winner of the XI MTG Old Frame League.
And lately, we have been giving altered foil versions of old staples of the format, like this Mystical Tutor.
As the game and the interest of people increases, we are also delving into different Old Frame formats, and for the eleventh edition, we moved from the classical Old Frame Vintage format to a Commander Format that was very exciting and fun to play!
Expect even more formats to be played in the future, and remember you can have your saying on the Facebook Group.
The Hall of Fame of the MTG Old Frame League
Let’s take this opportunity to recap previous editions of the MTG Old Frame League with the following table that showcases the winners and runner-ups of each one of the leagues we have had so far. Will your name be written here too?
| Edition | Format | Date | Winner | Winning Deck | Runner-Up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I League | Old Frame Vintage | June-July 2020 | John Longo | Growatog | Simon Schoofs |
| II League | Old Frame Vintage | September-October 2020 | John Longo | Stiflenought | Oscar Canedo |
| III League | Old Frame Vintage | November-December 2020 | Karl Akbari | TPS | John Longo |
| IV League | Old Frame Vintage | January-February 2021 | Felipe Guzman | TPS | Vedast Sanxis |
| V League | Old Frame Vintage | March 2021 | James Whitehouse | Doomsday | Felipe Guzman |
| VI League | Old Frame Vintage | April 2021 | Vedast Sanxis | Tools and Tubbies | Joe Martin-Knoll |
| VII League | Old Frame Vintage | June-July 2021 | Felipe Guzman | Bear Deck Wins | Fabio Zanasi |
| VIII League | Old Frame Vintage | September-October 2021 | David Kaplan | TPS | Karl Akbari |
| IX League | Old Frame Vintage | November-December 2021 | David Kaplan | 4-Color Stiflenought | Karl Akbari |
| X League | Old Frame Vintage | January-February 2022 | David Kaplan | Ghoulnought | Phil Thorson |
| XI League | Old Frame Commander | March-April 2022 | Vedast Sanxis | Sliver Queen | Karl Akbari |
| XII League | Old Frame Vintage | May-July 2022 | Karl Akbari | The Shining | Phil Thorson |
| XIII League | Old Frame Vintage | August-October 2022 | David Kaplan | TPS | Karl Akbari |
| XIV League | Old Frame Vintage | October 2022-February 2023 | David Aparicio | Landstill | Attilio Bragantini |
| XV League | Old Frame Legacy | March 2023-May 2023 | Michael Arnold | Goblins | Vinícius Braga |
| XVI League | Old Frame Vintage | May 2023-July 2023 | Nicholas Boltuc | Pitch Long | Víctor Martínez |
| XVII League | Old Frame Vintage | July 2023-September 2023 | Juan Espadas | TPS | Nicholas Boltuc |
| XVIII League | Old Frame Vintage | October 2023-December 2023 | Karl Akbari | Hulk Smash | Nicholas Boltuc |
| XIX League | Apocalypse Standard | December 2023-February 2024 | Michael Arnold | Nether Go | David Daniel |
| XX League | Old Frame Vintage | March 2024 – May 2024 | Karl Akbari | Hulk Smash | Vedast Sanxis |
| XXI League | Old Frame Legacy | June 2024 – July 2024 | Karl Akbari | Canadian Threshold | Raymond Mitchell |
Let us take now the opportunity to look at the best performers of our league so far with the following table that gives an idea of who has been red hot in the past couple of years.
| Player | Victories | Second Places |
|---|---|---|
| Karl Akbari | 5 | 4 |
| David Kaplan | 4 | 0 |
| John Longo | 2 | 1 |
| Felipe Guzman | 2 | 1 |
| Vedast Sanxis | 2 | 2 |
| Michael Arnold | 2 | 0 |
| James Whitehouse | 1 | 0 |
| David Aparicio | 1 | 0 |
| Nicholas Boltuc | 1 | 2 |
| Juan Espadas | 1 | 0 |
| Phil Thorson | 0 | 2 |
| Simon Schoofs | 0 | 1 |
| Oscar Canedo | 0 | 1 |
| Joe Martin-Knoll | 0 | 1 |
| Fabio Zanasi | 0 | 1 |
| Attilio Bragantini | 0 | 1 |
| Vinícius Braga | 0 | 1 |
| Víctor Martínez | 0 | 1 |
| Raymond Mitchell | 0 | 1 |
Join Us in the Next MTG Old Frame League!
Don’t be shy or lazy and do your best to have your name up there in the Hall of Fame. Join us in the next MTG Old Frame league by looking for the next round of inscriptions in our Facebook Group or our Discord Server. Remember, you don’t even need to own any cards, you can simply print some proxies.
But, of course, if you have some beautiful Old Frame cards, make sure you share them with all of us on a post! We love to see the bling!