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Legendary Land
{tap}: Add {blue} for each artifact you control.
The academy worked with time—until time ran out.
Ban history
The original Combo Winter ban (Dec 1998); never unbanned in any non-Vintage format.
- Banned in Premodern
- On or before May 2018
- On earliest archived list; likely since 2012 founding
- Category
- Power
- Research
- Research confidence: Medium confidence
- First printed
- First printed in Urza's Saga (12 October 1998).
Why it’s banned
Power level (no published rationale).
Official reason
No official reason published.
Community & historical context (not an official statement)
Historically the face of Combo Winter: banned in Standard, Extended and Type 1.5 and restricted in Vintage in December 1998, about seven weeks after Urza's Saga; never unbanned anywhere except as restricted in Vintage. Analytical: with cheap artifacts and Tinker in the Premodern pool, Academy enables explosive mana.[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
The story
Tolarian Academy (Urza's Saga, October 1998) powered the Academy combo decks that drove Combo Winter, and Wizards banned it in Standard, Extended and Type 1.5 (restricted in Vintage) on December 1, 1998. MTG Wiki notes it has never been unbanned. Premodern has banned it on every archived list; no reason was published.
Premodern changes
- On listOn the earliest archived Premodern ban list.[6]
Other formats (Wizards)
Historical context, not Premodern decisions.
- StandardBanned
- VintageRestricted
- LegacyBanned
- ExtendedBanned
Related cards
Sources
- MTG Wiki: Combo Winter
- MTG Wiki: Banned and restricted cards/Timeline
- MTGBans.info per-card timelines (effective dates; site's AI-generated rationales NOT used)
- Draftsim: The Premodern Ban List: All 33 Cards Banned (A.L. Walser, 2026-04-24) — community
- Premodern Chronicles: Premodern Banlist (2026) — community
- Wayback: premodernmagic.com/banned-watched/ 2018-05-06 (34 banned, 5 watched)
- Scryfall card data (printings, release dates)
- premodernmagic.com legal sets endpoint
Research as of 18 October 2026.
In our decks
Not in any of our curated decklists yet. Find similar cards.
Played in tournaments
Share of published Premodern decklists that play Tolarian Academy (main or sideboard): 2,950 lists from paper events and MTGO in the last 90 days, through .
Not seen in any of the 2,950 tournament lists from the last 90 days. Browse the meta.
Printings (1)
Every tournament-legal paper printing (no gold-border, World Championship or oversized cards). Hover or tap a row to preview that printing.
