Quest For The Crown.

Richard Garfield started something more than just a game when he decided to gather a group of his friends to test the first iteration of Alpha Magic: The Gathering; Gamma in the summer of 1991.. 30 years later, an uncountable number of gatherings and hundreds of branched TCGs later (including Pokémon). A group of friends and I have finally answered a 30-year question, and something I’ve heard a close friend, Nick Aiello, often say, “Is it the game itself, or the group of people you play the game with, that keeps us in it?

In late 2023, the Beta set for a new TCG, Sorcery: Contested Realms, came out, and this provided another opportunity for those of us who didn’t get in on the Kickstarter for Alpha. When I heard about Sorcery, Alpha boxes sold for around $1,600. I wasn’t going to invest into Sorcery as I already had my money tied into 93/94 MTG (that’s Alpha–Fallen Empires for those that aren’t Magic players, too). When beta dropped, it gave me a second opportunity to try my hand at a game that bridged some play gaps. Magic: The Gathering was missing. Fortunately, I had a friend like Brian Urbano who sold me a case out the back of his car in the Sams Town parking lot for cost. I was able to flip a foil core for a second case that same week, and I was well on my way to having what I needed to play just about anything.

As our community grew in the 93/94 scene, we did what we do best… planned an event! And from that, (Quest for the Crown) was born. There have been plenty of meetups since the conception of Sorcery, but we needed more; we needed a community event. Jeremy Chien and fellow Beast of the Bay club members stepped up to the plate to host a mini-Chalice-style Sorcery event in the Hayward hills of the Bay Area, California.

Brain Vegso and I arrived at Oakland Airport a little later than anticipated (four hours) due to mechanical issues with our plane. Still, Jeremy promptly snatched us up in the G-Wagon once we landed. I was excited to get up to the (Hayward Spell House), as we dubbed it for the weekend and see some familiar faces.

I felt right at home at the house, and I knew the weekend would be another one to remember. Once I got settled in, Steven Hines and I claimed the living room as a basecamp for the weekend and dropped off our luggage. I knew I wanted to trade some of my foils off for non-foil playable cards, so I immediately unloaded a handful of foils into cards on my buy list to finish a couple of decks. During this trip, I just focused on playing as many games as possible and enjoying the weekend with some of the best people I know. The first day into the following morning, you had to complete four best of one match. A list was posted with your four opponents, and it was up to you to set a time and place to complete them. It was only fitting for my first weekend opponent to be my (living roommate… All puns intended). Steven Hines.

I was playing Fire/Air Battlemage for the competitive event. It was my first time playing Battlemage, and the deck is as aggressive as the avatar’s name implies. Looked at a few lists on the Curiosa website and settled on a hybrid version, playing a few creatures but leaning heavily on the Relics. Screaming Skull is seriously broken with Battlemage allowing you to Pacman through the battlefield while drawing cards. Even with this aggression, Steven bested me in our first game playing Fury Road. As usual, with any event I must board a plane to, I somehow end up playing Brain Vegso. It’s not enough that we playtest, brew, travel, and run a club together. We can travel to the other side of the world to a 1000-person event and eventually be paired against each other.

If you have read my article on or attended Chalice, You already know how the Beast of the Bay boyz gets down regarding food. Night one, Jeremy threw down a four-generation family recipe. Deep-fried pork chops, white rice, Bok choy, and mustard greens topping! Following dinner was one of the highlights of the whole weekend: Mike Vandyke’s mother-in-law’s homemade cheesecake. I would lie if I said I ate less than three slices over the weekend. After dinner, I played my third game against Nick Aiello. This was a game I never expected to win, only because I was new to the game, and Nick played a lot of Sorcery. But like they say, “Every wizard finds their spell book every once in a while.”

After our game, we tossed around the idea of cracking one of the many sealed Beta boxes and doing a draft. We asked around the room, and once we got 6 people interested, we would start (it didn’t take much convincing). Before the draft started, I threw out four Frog and four Foot Soldier tokens face down, mixed them up, and each player took one to determine what team they’d be playing on. My pack one and pick one was Ancient Dragon. Pack two; Vile Imp, pack three; Vile Imp, and you guessed it, pack four… VILE IMP! I was off to a tremendously aggressive start with a late to mid-game fatty. I also drafted notable cards: Askelon Phoenix, East West Dragon, and Firebolts. The deck was strong; I went 3-0, and my teammates also did well, leading Team Frogs to victory.

Tired and just wanting to kick back and relax, I turned on the TV, and we decided on Pacific Rim for the movie. It seemed like the perfect movie after to wind down a day of attacking each other with monsters. Everyone eventually started to dwindle off to bed around 2 am, and Steven and I hung out in the living room talking before we passed out on our makeshift beds. The following morning, everyone was back up at around 6 am. I refer to this as the Chalice FOMO sleep deprivation (fear of missing out). Jacob and I played out of the final league match. It was unfavorable to him as he was playing Water Deck, and his strategy was controlling the board through creature removal. Battlemage did what it does best again, and I finished the tournament 2-2, placing out of the top 6 in 7th place.

We had McDonald’s steak sandwiches for breakfast, something I hadn’t seen on the menu back home, and it tasted exactly how it sounded, Delicious! Once in a while, you need to treat yourself to some good old fast food. I played casual games for most of day two and brought out my Flying Pudge and Waterworld decks. While Battlemage is quick, it’s not what I’m looking for in Sorcery: Contested Realm. I play Sorcery for the casual fun aspect I want to brew and find exciting interactions like my early days playing Magic: The Gathering, something I got too far away from during the long streak I played before finding my inner brewer again through 93/94 Old School. There’s a lot of room for this game to grow, and we talked quite a bit about how the format can shift and what we hope gets support to become more viable play strategies. I am a fan of combos and graveyard recursion, so my fingers are crossed for future sets to bring more support to these archetypes.

The second main event took place halfway through day two. It was the 14-man single pod double pack draft. Yes, we drafted two packs at a time. For your first pick, you took two cards, and each pick following was a single card. We split the teams into Frogs and Foot soldiers by placing eight of each token face down and randomly picking one each. Once the teams were decided, I took the tokens and numbered them from one to eight, and each team drew the respective tokens to pair up who they were playing against by number (we did this for each round). My draft strategy wasn’t as focused on this game. I opened a Pudge Butcher and Grapple Shot for my first double pick and attempted to draft an Air/Earth deck. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t get the deck to synergize appropriately. This battle ultimately proved too much for the Frogs to handle, and our team collectively lost 3 rounds straight.

Jeremy made Prime rib, Lobster mashed potatoes, sautéed mushrooms, and fried chicken hearts for dinner. We all sat around the table for the rest of the night, talking and enjoying each other’s company. Yeti had a case of dark chocolate KitKats surprise delivered Via Amazon. After I told the guys the night before, my favorite guilty pleasure was dark chocolate KitKats and a glass of top-shelf Whiskey poured Neat at night. We all indulged in my signature dessert and relaxed for the night.

The following morning, we said our goodbyes and were shuttled to the airport in groups by the local Beast of the Bay crew. Over the years of playing TCGs, I learned a few things. It’s not about expansion sets, formats, or who has the best synergistic deck that matters. It’s about the people you enjoy it with that matters. One thing isn’t “Contested.” Erik Curiosa knows how to capture the true essence of The Gathering that WOTC left behind so long ago, and with a new game comes a new future for us all to look forward to.

ROLL PHOTOS!!!!!!