2025 Year in Review

SILENCE, FOOL! A champion is speaking! Sara Schaefer managed to slay 120-sumfin lesser wizards at the Duress Crew Winter regional. Billy has an enlightening chat with her about how she got into Premodern, what's it like to be a Replenish homie in a tideless world, and her tournament experience.Sara's list:https://mtgtop8.com/event?e=80894&f=PREM

Billy had the good fortune to visit Adrian aka NeonMushroom during a work trip to Michigan. We chat MTGO cold takes, building a scene from scratch, and what PM looks like in the frigid north. You can follow him on Twitch and YouTube by his various monikers: Neon Mushroom, Fluorescent Fungus, and maybe some others I forgot.

After yet another stunning performance, Duress Crew has decided to celebrate with none other than a carcast. Join T8 finisher Brad, T4 finisher Sac, T8 finisher Brendan, and . . . Jay on the way back from the Roc Royals' Winter Ball.

2025 was a hell of a year for Premodern and Duress Crew. Jay, Brad, and Nick go over the gang's achievements for the year preceding.Check out our shit at duresscrew.com

Not only is the PM playerbase getting wider, it's also getting taller. Recently, several PM scenes have developed a second-tier of tournament, or meta-tournaments linking several events together. Never afraid to experiment, Billy does a sequence of small interviews with Hodge (New England), TQ (Portland), and Phil N (NYC) about the recent changes in both the length and girth of the PM paper scene. As a reward, this episode's soundtrack is from Hymns to Tourach II, by Ben Gauthier - one of us!

Justin "Pro-ven-sall," Sac, and Billy have a nice chat about recent developments in Suvival decks. We each bring a perspective on different subspecies of the archetype. Note that this episode was recorded somewhere in early December so some info about LC signups is dated.https://www.duresscrew.com/

So, uh, Lobstercon just sold out in 90 seconds. Brad and Jay speak for the gang on this one. While we're definitely not going to apologize for being the baddest game in town, we thought we'd speak to what we learned REAL QUICK about what we could (and couldn't) do to make it a smoother experience for y'all.Postscript for clarity: We are at currently 339/320 registered due to a bug in Spicerack. Slots up to 339 will get into the event. Waitlist spots will begin filling in once drops get us below 320.leave us a shitty voicemail:https://www.speakpipe.com/duresscrewour shitty linktree:https://linktr.ee/duresscrewread more about not-shitty LC here:https://sentineloldschoolmtg.com/2025/11/09/premodern-lobstercon-2026-info-and-registration/

Piping hot! Daybreak Games, the keepers of MTGO, have created a new research tool for niche formats, Contraption, and the first tranche of sanctioned formats is none other than Premodern. Join Jay as he performs an actual act of journalism, while Aiden, Sac, and Billy come along to give their hot takes.Read the Daybreak PM on MTGO announcement: https://www.mtgo.com/news/premodern-on-mtgo-2025Cry about missing LC registration because you didn't hit this link: https://sentineloldschoolmtg.com/2025/11/09/premodern-lobstercon-2026-info-and-registrationLeave us a shitty voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/duresscrew

Billy interviews Jonathan Phillips, who had slain 113 other, lesser wizards at the NEPM Fall Regional. Wielding a mildly spicy version of RG Goblins, he goes through his tournament. Listener mail at the end.decklist: https://mtgtop8.com/event?e=76330&d=779172&f=PREMleave us a shitty voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/duresscrew

Duress Crew ventures deep into Dominaria's forbidden archives in their newest project: Lore Whores. Hosts Matty and Ben light a candle, brush the cobwebs, and crack open an ancient tome: The Gathering Dark, by Jeff Grub. This arcane scripture was the first book of the Ice Age Cycle of MTG novels, and you're invited to listen to an eldritch book review.