The Top 8 Old School Decks from Cardmarket Series Paris

Mardu Good Stuff claims the trophy among thirteen players, defeating Four-Color Control in the finals. Let's take a closer look at these two and the rest of the decks that made it to the Top 8 at Cardmarket Series Paris in Old School — the most nostalgic and posh tournament format in the world.

Don't know what I'm writing about here? Check out this article for an introduction to Old School! Already a fan of Old School? You'll find some interesting deck choices below, ranging from the classic "The Deck" passing through powerful builds to a sweet Goblin Aggro.

black lotus

The First Old School Main Event at the Series

I'm very happy that the Old School tournament at the Cardmarket Series was upgraded to the status of main event. Many of you may be thinking that this is a niche format dominated by expensive cards, with few deckbuilding choices and no room for skill or innovation. But personally I love the atmosphere of this kind of tournament and the sensation of seeing so many iconic cards on the tables, all with more than 25 years of history. If you can't imagine why Old School is unlike any other format, take the time to read my last tournament report.

Speaking of the metagame, don't take for granted that a static format without rotation or addition can't change in terms of strategies. When I started playing Old School, "Arabian Aggro" and "Ernhamgeddon" were among the top decks alongside Monoblack, but when people started including cards like and in their sideboards, the face of Old School changed quite a bit.

Also, the different banned and restricted lists used across countries and tournaments is a defining factor for the metagame …

A Few Words on Different Rule Sets


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Despite its limited player base and reach, Old School doesn't have a uniform set of rules. The two main rule sets are the original Swedish, most popular in Europe, and the ones from Eternal Central, most played in the United States and used during the famous and widely attended Eternal Weekend.

The main differences are:

  • EC rules allow Fallen Empires cards. Swedish rules don't.
  • EC rules include "mana burn" while Swedish don't.
  • EC rules allow Collector's Edition cards. Swedish rules don't.
  • EC allows any language. Swedish rules allow only English cards.
  • EC allows up to four copies of , , and , which are restricted in Swedish rules. Swedish rules allow up to four copies of and , which are restricted under EC rules.

Old School rules used at the Cardmarket Series, which you can find in full here, are very close to EC rules: Fallen Empires, four and allowed, but without mana burn and with all the normal and actual Magic: The Gathering rules in effect.

The Top 8 Breakdown

Coming to the core of the tournament, here's a quick breakdown of the decks that reached the Top 8:

  • 1 The Deck
  • 1 Mardu Good Stuff
  • 1 Four-Color Control
  • 3 Robots
  • 1 Esper Skies
  • 1 Goblins

Although this breakdown could speak of a varied and totally open metagame, you will see from the decklists that the artifact and control decks are quite similar, sharing much of the main shell. In the whole Top 8, there's no trace of cards commonly and often played in various decks: , , , … but also , , , and .

Nevertheless, some interesting choices are here to be analyzed: you will see that every noncontrol deck plays four . Many Old School enthusiasts have argued that this card alone decides many matches. A couple of Mines in a starting hand can end a match quickly, generating no-fun and noninteractive games. These considerations are very similar to the ones following the un-restriction of in the Swedish rules. However, also consider that most Old School decks are playing five Moxen, , and , together with 18 or 19 lands.


strip mine black vise

Below I will try to analyze in some depth the deck choices the players made starting with the quarterfinalists, then moving on to the Top 4 players and to the finalist, with a dedicated section on the winner's deck.

The Decks


Top 8 – Philippe Royer's The Deck
Main DeckSideboard
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 6
  • 6
  • 1
  •  
  • 1
  • 4
  • 1
  •  
  • 4
  • 1
  • 4
  •  
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  • 2
  • 2
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  • 2
  • 1
  •  
 

Philippe is a well known Old School player, here with a quite peculiar version of the most classic, loved, and hated deck of the format. Old School experts will immediately notice some strange features of Philippe's list. The main one is the choice of colors played: white-blue-red with just a splash of black for instead of the classic five-color version, to be virtually immune to and color screw. The other important difference is the absence of Moxen, , and . This is a choice that I've never seen in this archetype, maybe due to the fear of artifact hate brought about by the "4 Workshops" metagame. Playing four copies of and without Moxen and fellwars seems quite ambitious and problematic, also considering …

On the other hand, I like the variety of the sideboard and in particular the choice of for mirror matches and against control in general.

  • PROS: Solid and consistent.
  • CONS: Slow. Could suffer from the lack of artifact mana.

Top 8 – Julien Raeis's Esper Skies
Main DeckSideboard
  • 3
  • 3
  • 4
  • 4
  • 1
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  •  
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 4
  • 4
  • 2
  •  
  • 4
  • 1
  • 4
  • 3
  • 3
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 3
  • 2
  • 1
  • 2
  • 4
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  •  
 

An interesting evolution of the classic Skies deck, with the introduction of black to gain access to , , , and , other than the mandatory and . This list is quicker than the classic version and four copies each of and can gain the right time to make and lethal.

Nice sideboard choices too, with to fight card draw, for Robots and artifact decks and one of my favorite cards — — against discard decks playing and Twist.

  • PROS: Considerable early pressure with back-up for the midgame.
  • CONS: Bad against and creature hate. Would play at least three Chains and three Flux in the sideboard to see them more often.

Top 8 – Laurent Brighini's Monoblue Robots
Main DeckSideboard
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 9
  • 1
  •  
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  •  
  • 3
  • 2
  • 4
  • 1
  • 4
  • 1
  •  
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 4
  • 1
  •  
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 3
  • 2
  • 3
  • 3
  • 1
  • 3
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  •  
 

Here you can find a version of Robots that's monoblue. I will discuss the archetype further when we come to the blue-black build in the Top 4. In comparison, the one without black loses obviously powerful cards like , , and . On the other hand, Laurent gains a more stable mana base and a nice sideboard with , , , and , able to combat threats like , , and .

I also like the sideboard Disks and the , even if there's no way to tutor for it. Two copies of seems the right amount, but not having and to board in seems the real negative consequence of not playing black.

  • PROS: Very solid and synergistic shell.
  • CONS: Missing real and effective solutions against creatures like .

Top 8 – Gael Bailly-Maitre's MUD Aggro
Main DeckSideboard
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  •  
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
  •  
  • 3
  • 4
  • 3
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
  • 4
  • 4
  • 3
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
  •  
 

Here's a nice example of what you can do with four ! I like the choice of playing four and all the jewelry. Basically, this deck will have many spots with four or more mana on the second turn, to drop , , , and for the win.

I like very much the // interaction, but I must say that I don't like the three and the singletons like and , having zero ways of tutoring for them. I would have rather played some copies of also in the main deck to block the opponent's artifact mana and to tap at the end of the opponent's turn to untap all lands.

  • PROS: Quick and deadly deck with a synergy.
  • CONS: Suffers from mass artifact hate like and .

Top 4 – Xavier Wangermee's Goblins
Main DeckSideboard
  • 4
  • 4
  • 2
  • 13
  •  
  • 4
  • 4
  • 3
  • 3
  • 2
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  • 1
  • 2
  • 4
  • 3
  • 3
  • 2
  • 2
  • 1
  •  
 

I love this shell! Always good to see the old Goblins as first seed at the end of the Swiss. Xavier reached the Top 4 playing an aggro Big Red with some original choices: only two copies of and only two . Honestly, I just don't like the two in a deck that doesn't play . I like the considering the fact that the format has little first strike.

The sideboard adds the white cards and useful tools like and .

  • PROS: Devastating against slow decks/starts and those without specific hate.
  • CONS: Missing recovery tools. Lack of important hosers like .

Top 4 – Guillaume Denoix's Robots
Main DeckSideboard
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 3
  • 1
  • 1
  •  
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  •  
  • 2
  • 2
  • 4
  • 4
  •  
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 3
  • 4
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 3
  • 4
  • 3
  • 3
  • 4
  • 1
  •  
 

Guillaume is a very good player and famous Old School collector. In Paris he played the "deck of the moment," Blue-Black Robots. To give you an idea, this deck is competitive and even quite strong in the Swedish metagame, where only one is allowed. Imagine it with four Shops and four !

This build is quite classic, with the usual assortment of beasts supported by , , and . is a true bomb with four Shops, and together with takes care of and . I partially like the sideboard: totally agree with three and three , not enthusiastic about the single , not having in the deck. Also, four alone aren't enough for a transformational sideboard and four copies of frankly is too much.

  • PROS: Powerful, quick, and efficient, with zero dead cards.
  • CONS: As any Robot deck, it suffers from mass artifact hate like Flux and .

Finalist – Arnaud Aubert's Four-Color Control
Main DeckSideboard
  • 1
  • 4
  • 2
  • 4
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
  • 4
  •  
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  •  
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  • 4
  • 3
  • 4
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  •  
 

Here we are with the first player reaching the final. Arnaud played quite a classic control deck mixed with White-Blue Skies: and close the job quickly while the usual singletons and utilities control the board.

While I believe that four copies of are too many and too tough to sustain, only one copy cannot be good either. I also don't like some sideboard choices, specifically the single copies of Circles of Protection, , , and , with just to fetch them.

  • PROS: Solid and able to face every metagame and matchup.
  • CONS: Too many one-ofs, especially in the sideboard.

The Winner


Romain Laroche De Roussane
Romain Laroche De Roussane

The Champion – Romain Laroche De Roussane's Mardu Good Stuff
Main DeckSideboard
  • 4
  • 4
  • 3
  • 2
  • 1
  • 2
  • 4
  •  
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 3
  • 4
  • 4
  • 3
  • 2
  • 1
  •  
  • 1
  • 3
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 4
  • 3
  • 4
  • 3
  •  
 

Romain played a deck that truly incarnates the Old School spirit, featuring some of the most iconic creatures of the format: , the mighty — which I personally celebrated in an article already — with and to press an advantage and threaten the opponent's life and cards in hand.


winner deck

Rest of the deck is built around utilities like , , , and , together with bombs like , , , and . A special mention goes to here!

The sideboard too features a sweet mix: four for blue decks, three for white, three for artifacts, and for control decks. Chatting a little with Romain, he told me that was the MVP in two or three games … It's a card that you're not sure to expect in a deck like this and which can be crucial when an opponent takes control of the game at 6 or 7 life.

  • PROS: Consistent and synergistic with strong sideboard options.
  • CONS: Vulnerable to and creature hate. Few solutions against strategies that aim to outdraw.

As always — if you want to comment, interact with us, or add some reflection, please share your opinion!

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily Cardmarket.