Written by David Tai

Flying across the Pacific Ocean for a side event? The first-place cash prize wouldn't cover half my expenses. My wife will be stuck with our 2.5-year-old son at home. So, why fly?

I need to give the audience a bit of background about myself. I’m a 42-year-old guy who grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii, a huge fan and advocate of Premodern, and I've been trying to build a local community for two years by organizing meetups on Discord, in Facebook groups, and through word of mouth. To reframe the question: Why am I so in love with Premodern?

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Reminisce

My earliest memory of playing Magic: The Gathering (MTG) was in 5th grade, sleeveless on the concrete steps near the classrooms with a friend; I cast Howl from Beyond MTG on my Drudge Skeletons, only for my opponent to cast a Stream of Life for double digits the next turn. Fun times.

We didn't know what we were doing, and our cards were beaten to absolute shit. Deck boxes? I knew how to use rubber bands to hold my deck together before I threw it into my backpack. Perhaps that carefree attitude toward preservation is why a mint-condition Beta Shivan Dragon is so expensive now.

A few years passed. I played competitive MTG in high school, made top 8 of the Junior Super Series with David Price’s Sligh deck in my freshman year — lost to White Weenie's Pariah’d Soltari Priest — and played in a number of Pro Tour Qualifiers (PTQs), Regional Qualifiers, and State Championship events.

Most of the events were organized by our lone Level 3 judge at the time, Mark Morimoto. Mark flew to New York to participate in the first Pro Tour in 1996. He did a lot to popularize MTG in Hawaii. I played my best during the so-called Golden Era of MTG; Necro-Summer? Combo Winter? I survived it.

Matt Linde was my hero because he was my age and he took down Mike Long to win the USA Nationals. I had that on VHS.

Hawaii hosted Pro Tours in 2006, 2009, 2012, 2014, and 2016. Older players might remember Pro-Tour Honolulu in 2012. I wasn’t even playing MTG at the time. I sold my cards during college because I was busy slaying demons in Diablo II or dropping lurkers on your SCVs in StarCraft.

I returned to MTG 10 years later during Khans of Tarkir (KTK). I should’ve kept my dual lands. Several people who went to my Friday Night Magic (FNM) had DCI numbers fewer than 8-10 digits long (mine had six digits). I wondered why all the cards looked so shitty in these new frames. Why aren't artifacts brown?!

By then, most of my buddies who played had moved away or grown out of the game and sold their cards. The MTG scene was still robust, and Honolulu had many Local Game Stores (LGS) that held weekly or monthly DCI-sanctioned FNM events.

I didn’t have any MTG friends, but I had so much fun drafting and playing sealed with KTK. It triggered my itch to return to 1v1 constructed.

At that time, Modern was the most intriguing to me. It was healthy and diverse, so I bought back in. I loved playing Abzan Midrange; Siege Rhino was busted!

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Gloom

I still play Modern on and off, but not nearly as much as when I was a young adult. I never stray too far from MTG, though. Mark, our long-time Level 3 judge, retired a while ago. COVID in 2019 was devastating to the Hawaii MTG scene.

With the rise of online play via Magic: The Gathering Online (MTGO), some of my LGSs have closed or are gradually moving to smaller spaces due to a lack of in-person gameplay. MTG's core objective—bringing players together—once did the exact opposite. It was disheartening.

After the fear of social gatherings eased, players slowly returned, but the damage to in-person gameplay was irreversible. Many factors contributed, including the rising popularity of Commander, the saturation of set releases, and power creep.

Like many MTG players, I was fed up with the force-fed pay-to-play model of Modern Horizons. I couldn't afford to continue buying in with nothing to show for it. It was a rat race between who was the best at piloting the best deck in the field. I was tired.

Real competitive MTG has been absent from the islands for almost 14 years. I was disappointed. I took another hiatus, logging on MTGO only during Vintage Cube season. I felt like a granny who goes to Las Vegas, aimlessly pushing buttons on slot machines. I cube-draft and watch streamers' cube drafts. It was sort of a routine entertainment. It was fun, but not fulfilling.

Ray of Revelation

One day, I was watching a Twitch video of CalebD drafting Vintage Cube. He mentioned that he was going to play Premodern at his LGS. He briefly outlined the format.

When I first heard of Premodern, I thought, “Huh, that sounds pretty interesting.” Without looking further into it, I assumed it was a kitchen-table, thrown-together format.

Months later, in mid-2023, I heard more chatter about Premodern, so I finally did my research. I read about Martin Berlin, inclusivity — gold border and proxy-friendly — LobsterCon, the ban list, and diversity. Holy shit. I need to get in on this.

Tradewind Survival? Psychatog? Madness? White Weenie? Draco Blast? And they all have a chance against each other pre- and post-sideboard? I could make a deck and leave it alone for three years, and it would stay viable? Sign me up.

I built my first paper deck: Sligh. Then, I built The Rock and Terragadon. With these decks, I posted a message in the Honolulu MTG Facebook group and got a single reply from a guy named Ken, who resides across town, about 30 minutes away. He invited me to meet up to jam some games.

Ken is around my age and plays Old School. He jammed 5c Gators against me while we drank a few beers. We had a great time.

Meeting up with Ken validated that there were players on the island with Premodern cards on hiatus. Playing Premodern was really, really fun.

From then on, I was fully invested in Premodern. It could be played casually or competitively. It evokes nostalgia—I grew up playing these decks. I could pick up most Premodern decks in a foreign language and know what the cards do and how they interact. Premodern is perfect because of its imperfections.

Exploration

So, why am I willing to fly six hours to play in a Premodern 1K side event? Because I really want to play paper MTG!

My intent is to continue growing the Premodern scene in Hawaii. As Premodern gains popularity (not loving the buy-outs and the increase in card prices), it's only a matter of time before people learn about the format and fall in love with it.

I want to play in real, organized events within established communities and immerse myself in the culture so I can pass it on to others. Ultimately, Premodern is about people coming together and having fun. Not who plays the best deck wins the sweatiest tournament.

Truth be told, I wanted to attend the 2026 Lobster Con, but logging in 17 minutes after registration opened wasn't early enough. With a young child at home, it isn’t easy to leave everything and go on a trip, even if it’s only for a weekend. Luckily, my time off coincided with the SCGCON in Portland, OR. I hope to see you all there!