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Eternal

Eternal formats follow the basic Constructed format rules for deck construction, but expands the available cards to include virtually all published Magic sets. The ratings are kept separate from other Constructed formats because of the barrier to the participation of new players. While ratings and rankings are maintained for this category, only Limited and Constructed format rankings are used for invitations to major tournaments, like Pro Tours or World Championships.

• Vintage (formerly Type 1) allows every published Magic set with the exception of the silver-bordered Unglued and Unhinged sets. All cards from the remaining sets are allowed except cards involving ante, any card that is "flipped" on the table, and Shahrazad, which involves playing a "subgame", as the DCI considers such cards inappropriate for tournament competition. The Vintage format is the only format to have a restricted list in addition to a banned list. Each card on the restricted list is limited to one per deck. This is the only format that allows the "Power Nine".
• Legacy (formerly Type 1.5) uses the same sets as Vintage, but has no restricted list and a separate banned list^[3].

Vintage and Legacy were very closely related until September 1, 2004, when R&D decided that splitting the formats was a good idea. Certain cards formerly banned in Legacy were unbanned and the format was allowed to develop on its own. Legacy once had a reputation for being the "poor man's Vintage" but today has developed into a format very distinct from Vintage.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DCI_(Wizards_of_the_Coast)#Eternal

Eternal formats are DCI tournament formats which allow cards from all Magic: The Gathering sets with the standard card back and black or white borders. (Unglued and Unhinged have silver borders and are therefore not included.)

The two eternal formats are Vintage and Legacy.

wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Eternal_(format) 

Aug 19, 2011 -- 8:18AM, Touraant wrote:

I think you guys need to look up the definition of Eternal Format 

Nonrotational and Eternal are not the same thing Legacy and Vintage are the only Eternal Formats

Modern is a new format. Before Modern came along, the only Constructed formats that didn't rotate were Vintage and Legacy.

Since the normal English meaning of the word "eternal" is something that continues to exist forever into the future, without stating how far it went into the past, and, in any case, Magic: the Gathering only came into existence in 1992, not at the dawn of time... there was no obvious reason why the word "eternal" wouldn't apply to Modern.

Apparently, Wizards is going to choose to distinguish Modern from Vintage and Legacy, and not officially class it among the Eternal formats, as Zammm has noted. But there was no real reason for people to have known that ahead of time, which is why Modern has been referred to as a new Eternal format - rather than coining the new term "non-rotational format". Which, apparently, we will now need to do.

Aug 17, 2011 -- 9:07PM, richeyz wrote:

Yeah, I kind of like Modern too. Now I just need to replace my five circle of protections from unlimited, and one from ice age, for the ones from 8th edtion..

No, no. Don't bother, because you don't need to. It's in the Tournament Rules. A Circle of Protection: Black can be played in a format in which cards with that name are legal, regardless of the set it came from. So you can play with a Beta Giant Spider in Standard, even though cards aren't legal in Standard because they were in Beta. A card that is legal because it was in Magic: 2011 is legal by its name, not by where it actually came from.

That's true in Modern too, even if the sets included were chosen by card frame.

Sort-of... By design Modern is the better format. Why? Because the "power" is marginalized, and the "power level" is streamlined to the modern Magic standards of post 7th Ed. The reason that this is important is that even though "staples" exist within the context of the format, each card has a limit to it's true utility (even intentionally powerful cards such as the Titan cycle), making the difference so marginal that subjectivity rules (ultimately a format where players can "use their cards") as opposed to being stuck on a few archetypes. Legacy had several older cards which were just plain crazy designs because they honestly didn't think Magic would live to see 7 years of age. But for as much as design and R&D learned about card design and appropriate amounts of utility Wizard's was violated in business practice too, which is the real reason for this format.

The problem this format will have though is a very simple one and the reason why certain rivaling games have been on the decline for years: people don't want to play an expensive TCG. I remember when I was younger one of the appeals to Magic was that the cards were sold on their subjective cost, but that usually meant that wicked good cards went for more than $1, and a $10 card was unheard of. Today, within a years time, in two different formats we have seen 2 cards break the $100 mark without even being on the reserved list, and every special product released that is specfically for brick and mortar shops has a jacked up price in reality because why charge MSRP when people want to play bad enough? Honestly, Wizards needs to find a way to force Brick and Mortars (as well as online retailers) to play nice with their customers or the customers are going to start disappearing, and probably take their friends as well.