Loading…
Creature — Nightmare Dragon
Worldgorger Dragon
Banned3 generic, red, red, redJudgment #103Banned in Premodern (power) · why?
Creature — Nightmare Dragon
Flying, trample
When this creature enters, exile all other permanents you control.
When this creature leaves the battlefield, return the exiled cards to the battlefield under their owners' control.
7/7
Ban history
Two-card infinite loop with Animate Dead; Legacy unbanned it in 2015, Premodern has not.
- 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 Judgment (27 May 2002).
Why it’s banned
Power level / degenerate loop (no published rationale).
Official reason
No official reason published.
Community & historical context (not an official statement)
Analytical/community: with Animate Dead (or Necromancy/Dance of the Dead) it creates a loop for unbounded mana that can draw the game if not finished, and is slow to resolve (Draftsim; Chronicles). Banned when Legacy got its own list (Sept 2004); unbanned in Legacy January 2015.[1, 2, 3, 4]
The story
Worldgorger Dragon (Judgment, 2002) combines with Animate Dead for an infinite loop, and was on Legacy's first independent ban list in 2004 before being unbanned in 2015. Premodern has all the aura-based reanimation spells and has banned the Dragon on every archived list. No reason was published.
Premodern changes
- On listOn the earliest archived Premodern ban list.[5]
Other formats (Wizards)
Related cards
Sources
- Draftsim: The Premodern Ban List: All 33 Cards Banned (A.L. Walser, 2026-04-24) — community
- Premodern Chronicles: Premodern Banlist (2026) — community
- MTG Wiki: Banned and restricted cards/Timeline
- MTGBans.info per-card timelines (effective dates; site's AI-generated rationales NOT used)
- 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 Worldgorger Dragon (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 (6)
Every tournament-legal paper printing (no gold-border, World Championship or oversized cards). Hover or tap a row to preview that printing.
