All Old School tournaments hosted by ChannelFireball use this rule set.
Legal Sets
Decks in Old School may contain cards printed in any of these sets:
Limited Edition Alpha
Limited Edition Beta
Unlimited
Arabian Nights
Antiquities
Legends
The Dark
Fallen Empires
1994 Book Promos (Arena & Sewers of Estark)
Reprinted Cards
Some reprinted versions of cards from these sets are also allowed. In order for a reprint to be allowed, the following must be true:
- It must be a non-foil card
- It must use the original Magic card border
- It must have art that matches the art of any version printed in the above legal sets
- It must be a legal Magic card (no proxies, no Collector’s edition, etc.)
Cards may be printed in any language so long as they obey the above rules. Final rulings on the legality of any cards in dispute will be made by the Head Judge of the event and ChannelFireball event staff.
Exception: The Revised Edition printings of Serendib Efreet and Plateau are legal in Old School.
Deck Construction
Decks must follow the normal rules for Magic deck construction:
- 60-card minimum
- 0-15 card sideboard
- Maximum of 4 copies of any card that isn’t a basic land
Banned Cards
The following cards are banned in ChannelFireball’s Old School Tournaments:
Restricted Cards
The following cards are restricted (max 1 copy of each in a deck):
- Ancestral Recall
- Balance
- Black Lotus
- Braingeyser
- Chaos Orb
- Channel
- Demonic Tutor
- Library of Alexandria
- Mana Drain
- Maze of Ith
- Mind Twist
- Mox Emerald
- Mox Jet
- Mox Pearl
- Mox Ruby
- Mox Sapphire
- Recall
- Regrowth
- Sol Ring
- Strip Mine
- Time Vault
- Time Walk
- Timetwister
- Wheel of Fortune
Format-Specific Errata and Rules
Old School uses the current rules of Magic, with the following exceptions:
Mana Burn
Mana burn still applies in Old School and uses the following rule:
When a step or phase ends, any unused mana left in a player's mana pool is lost. That player loses 1 life for each 1 mana lost this way. This is called mana burn. Mana burn is loss of life, not damage, so it can't be prevented or altered by effects that affect damage. This game action doesn't use the stack.
Additionally, 1 card has format-specific errata in Old School: Chaos Orb.
Chaos Orb - (2)
Artifact
1, Tap: Choose a nontoken permanent on the battlefield. If Chaos Orb is on the battlefield, flip Chaos Orb onto the battlefield from a height of at least one foot. If Chaos Orb turns over completely at least once during the flip, and lands resting on the chosen permanent, destroy that permanent. Then destroy Chaos Orb.
(NB: Players are allowed a “fair flip” on Chaos Orb, which means they can move the targeted card to the center of the table for the flip.)