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Online leagues

Online leagues: history & results

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.

This page brings together the history and results of the online MTG Old Frame League. Browse the league reports for individual editions.

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.

Growatog - John Longo - First Place
Growatog – John Longo’s deck to win the first MTG Old Frame League.

How the online leagues were played

The league was played by webcam, with players arranging their matches and playing with physical cards. Formats and tournament structures varied between editions; each report records the details.

Proxies were allowed so that players could take part without owning every card in their decks.

Early editions used a round-robin stage followed by a Top 4 playoff. Individual reports describe the structures used in later editions.

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.

Magic The Gathering Korean Visions Booster Pack.

And lately, we have been giving altered foil versions of old staples of the format, like this Mystical Tutor.

Altered Mystical Tutor card, given as a prize to the winner of the XII MTG Old Frame League.
Altered Mystical Tutor card, given as a prize to the winner of the XII MTG Old Frame League.

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!

The Hall of Fame of the MTG Old Frame League

The tables below record the editions, formats, winners, decks and runners-up of the MTG Old Frame League.

EditionFormatDateWinnerWinning DeckRunner-Up
I LeagueOld Frame VintageJune-July 2020John LongoGrowatogSimon Schoofs
II LeagueOld Frame VintageSeptember-October 2020John LongoStiflenoughtOscar Canedo
III LeagueOld Frame VintageNovember-December 2020Karl AkbariTPSJohn Longo
IV LeagueOld Frame VintageJanuary-February 2021Felipe GuzmanTPSVedast Sanxis
V LeagueOld Frame VintageMarch 2021James WhitehouseDoomsdayFelipe Guzman
VI LeagueOld Frame VintageApril 2021Vedast SanxisTools and TubbiesJoe Martin-Knoll
VII LeagueOld Frame VintageJune-July 2021Felipe GuzmanBear Deck WinsFabio Zanasi
VIII LeagueOld Frame VintageSeptember-October 2021David KaplanTPSKarl Akbari
IX LeagueOld Frame VintageNovember-December 2021David Kaplan4-Color StiflenoughtKarl Akbari
X LeagueOld Frame VintageJanuary-February 2022David KaplanGhoulnoughtPhil Thorson
XI LeagueOld Frame CommanderMarch-April 2022Vedast SanxisSliver QueenKarl Akbari
XII LeagueOld Frame VintageMay-July 2022Karl AkbariThe ShiningPhil Thorson
XIII LeagueOld Frame VintageAugust-October 2022David KaplanTPSKarl Akbari
XIV LeagueOld Frame VintageOctober 2022-February 2023David AparicioLandstillAttilio Bragantini
XV LeagueOld Frame LegacyMarch 2023-May 2023Michael ArnoldGoblinsVinícius Braga
XVI LeagueOld Frame VintageMay 2023-July 2023Nicholas BoltucPitch LongVíctor Martínez
XVII LeagueOld Frame VintageJuly 2023-September 2023Juan EspadasTPSNicholas Boltuc
XVIII LeagueOld Frame VintageOctober 2023-December 2023Karl AkbariHulk SmashNicholas Boltuc
XIX LeagueApocalypse StandardDecember 2023-February 2024Michael ArnoldNether GoDavid Daniel
XX LeagueOld Frame VintageMarch 2024 – May 2024Karl AkbariHulk SmashVedast Sanxis
XXI LeagueOld Frame LegacyJune 2024 – July 2024Karl AkbariCanadian ThresholdRaymond Mitchell
XXII LeagueOld Frame VintageNovember 2024 – January 2025Vedast SanxisAggro BazaarNicholas Boltuc
XXIII LeagueUnreservedDecember 2025 – January 2026Lukas K9PsychatogRaya Ayllon

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.

PlayerVictoriesSecond Places
Karl Akbari54
David Kaplan40
Vedast Sanxis32
John Longo21
Felipe Guzman21
Michael Arnold20
James Whitehouse10
David Aparicio10
Nicholas Boltuc13
Juan Espadas10
Rafa Ayllon10
Phil Thorson02
Simon Schoofs01
Oscar Canedo01
Joe Martin-Knoll01
Fabio Zanasi01
Attilio Bragantini01
Vinícius Braga01
Víctor Martínez01
Raymond Mitchell01
Lukas K901

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!

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