Vintage decks may consist of cards from all Magic card sets, plus the following cards: Sewers of Estark, Windseeker Centaur, and Nalathni Dragon.
Cards from expansions and special sets (like From the Vault, Magic: The Gathering — Commander, Duel Decks, Conspiracy, etc.) are legal in the Vintage format on the date of release of the expansion or special set.
These are the cards banned in Vintage. Any of these are illegal to be played in Vintage tournaments. Generally speaking, they fall into three categories: cards dealing with the Ante zone (e.g. Demonic Attorney), cards dealing with physical manipulation of cards (e.g. Chaos Orb), and Conspiracies (e.g. Backup Plan).
The following cards are banned in Vintage tournaments:
- All cards with the card type “Conspiracy” (25 cards)
- All cards that reference “playing for ante” (9 cards)
- All cards that bring a sticker or an Attraction into the game (56 Cards). Click here for the list.
- Cards whose art, text, name, or combination thereof that are racially or culturally offensive are
banned in all formats. Click here for the list. - Chaos Orb
- Falling Star
- Shahrazad
The following cards are restricted in Vintage tournaments:
- Ancestral Recall
- Balance
- Black Lotus
- Brainstorm
- Chalice of the Void
- Channel
- Demonic Consultation
- Demonic Tutor
- Dig Through Time
- Flash
- Gitaxian Probe
- Golgari Grave-Troll
- Gush
- Imperial Seal
- Karn, the Great Creator
- Library of Alexandria
- Lion’s Eye Diamond
- Lodestone Golem
- Lotus Petal
- Mana Crypt
- Mana Vault
- Memory Jar
- Mental Misstep
- Merchant Scroll
- Mind’s Desire
- Monastery Mentor
- Mox Emerald
- Mox Jet
- Mox Pearl
- Mox Ruby
- Mox Sapphire
- Mystical Tutor
- Mystic Forge
- Narset, Parter of Veils
- Necropotence
- Sol Ring
- Strip Mine
- Thorn of Amethyst
- Time Vault
- Time Walk
- Timetwister
- Tinker
- Tolarian Academy
- Treasure Cruise
- Trinisphere
- Urza’s Saga
- Vampiric Tutor
- Vexing Bauble
- Wheel of Fortune
- Windfall
- Yawgmoth’s Will