The Scroll Rack

 Going back as far as I can remember, I’ve always had a great fondness for the outdoors. I might not get outside as much as I’d like to nowadays, but whenever I get the chance, I try to make it count for something. I spent a good part of my early adulthood navigating the forests of the United States as a Wildland Firefighter on a Heli-tack hotshot crew for the National Park Service. (I’ll dig up some photos). So, when I do hike, I want to make it at least somewhat exciting and challenging to see if I still have it in me to push the pace. 

 

Before Chalice this year, there was talk of a small group going up beforehand and staying the night to have a calm-before-the-storm get-together. We dubbed this gathering, Operation “People of the Woods”. The initial party was supposed to be six to eight of us. But by the time the trip had arrived, it was down to three. I had spent the few weeks leading up to the trip, mapping out the hike from the night one site down to Chalice. The hike itself wasn’t difficult. A moderate trail for 90 percent of the hike, with only about 10 percent being somewhat difficult due to recent weather.

 

From my time as a wildland Firefighter, I have a pretty good understanding of topography reading and land-based navigation. And from that time traveling up and down the Pacific Northwest, I know not to underestimate these mountains, for it’s a forest of true giants. I had a custom map made on Mytopo.com of the area we’d be in, adjusted my compass declination to 13 degrees west to get a true north bearing, and looked for a trail that’d give me the adventure I was looking for.

 

Ken Fritz and I landed at SFO on Thursday morning and were picked up by his longtime friend Justin. The weather I mentioned earlier arrived right as we left the airport. We took a trip to Trader Joe’s to get dinner and drinks for the evening (We went overboard) and then took a trip up the coast, stopping at the Taco Bell Cantina for an early lunch as well as a couple of spots for some good sightseeing and to watch the monster waves, rain, and hail the storm brought in.

 

The drive up to our cabin went up the same windy road you’d take up to Chalice. Once we arrived, we put away all the food from our trip to Trader Joe’s, cracked open a few beers, and all took in the view. Dinner featured a large spread of meats, cheeses, beer, and wine. And we spent the night jamming games of Quest for Ice, theorizing our 93/94 decks for the main event, and looking up at the stars. Ken and I both settled on a Guardian Beast build for Chalice that we had been talking about for weeks, since we felt it exploited the special one-time rules the best. By the time I went to bed, it was around 3 am.

 

The next morning was the big hike; unfortunately, Ken had a lot of fun the night before and was in less than hiking shape. I went back and forth on taking the trek myself and decided to do the hike after messaging my next-door neighbor, 93/94 club member, and master of all things hiking, Noah Borthren. Like, seriously, if hiking were an Olympic sport, he’d be a multi-gold medalist. Noah looked over the trail and agreed that it would be no problem for me. With the trail information handed off, I headed out. The trail started out crossing through a park boundary onto an over field for about a half mile, where I saw deer, before crossing through another gate into the forest, where I saw all the moss and fungi my plant-loving self could handle.

 If you haven’t been up into the redwoods, there’s absolutely no phone service, at least in the areas I’ve hiked. So having a map and a compass comes in handy. If you ventured onto this trail with no knowledge, it would be very easy to get lost. There were a few times when I had to set my map down, find true north, and adjust my bearing to determine which path to take. The forest, being so tall and dense, with rapid elevation changes, makes using a sighting mirror relatively useless. So being able to compare the direction and the physical terrain around you with that on a topographic map is essential for staying confident and calm with your plotted course in such a massive area.

 

Once I made it out of the forest, it was about a one-mile walk down the side of a road to arrive at Chalice. Walking through the front door at Chalice always feels like a home away from home. I made my initial rounds, saying hi to everyone, before snagging my room keys to get cleaned up. Walking into my room, I saw Joe Fairbanks asleep on the cot and decided to scream to wake him because that’s what friends do! Joe and I caught up and chatted before walking down to the Dungeon, where I grabbed some well-deserved pizza and beer to carb-load after that hike. 

 

There are two classes of players who attend Chalice: your “main event 93/94 players” and your real main event players. There, for… yes, you guessed it, “Urza’s Ante”!!!! While I eat, breathe, and dream of 93/94 Old School, Urza’s Ante is the Michelin Star event in this community—a fine-crafted event using only the best ingredients and ideas to complete an unforgettable experience. I really must tip my hat to the Beasts for this event each year, as it’s truly what I look forward to the most. Maybe I should start a TSR “Michelin Star” award I can send out for events that really hit the spot.

[Stay tuned for an end article addition from the Beast of the Bay planning committee and Urza’s Ante architect, Neil. On the idea behind this year’s Urza’s Ante!]

 

To level this experience up, the Beasts even created their own Buy, Trade, Sale market for Urza’s Ante this year, utilizing a bronze, silver, gold, and medallion currency you obtained in UA booster packs initially. And then earned more through whatever means you took to get them later. “I didn’t see a brothel open up for coins, so that’s good”. These coins had a fluctuating market value that was set 100% by Stephen Hines each day as he ran the booth all weekend. I did attempt to manipulate the market currency value a few times for pure fun by saturating it with silver one night while holding back a bunch of gold and a medallion in my room. The Vendor station had a great variety of merchandise and only got better throughout the weekend as Stephen bought and sold traded. Thank you, Stephen, for your dedication to the vendor role. It was like shopping at a Magic GP vendor hall, but held at a swap meet. One might call it a “bazaar of Baghdad”.

 

The main 93/94 event this year was a special twist on PAC rules to include a modified twist on the Legends banding lands. This erratum removed the banding ability and changed the lands into tri-lands, which, when used to cast a legendary creature successfully, gave that creature Shroud. Yes, you read that right, Shroud. Truly a spicy brewer’s delight. This meant a lot of the big-time removal spells were now dead! At least for the decks that were going the legend route. The second the ruleset was announced, I, as well as almost every other one of the 70 players that were attending this invitational event, darted to the interweb to snag a playset of Arena of the Ancient… Yes, it wasn’t some YouTuber talking about Commander that spiked the price of Arena of the Ancients; it was Chalice. But hey, at least it wasn’t some MTG finance bros. So now you know the truth of the price spike on Arena of the Ancients.

 

Ken Fritz and I both had a similar idea for our 93/94 main build: running a counter-format deck by building a Guardian Beast toolbox deck utilizing a single Arena, backed by a Meek Stone in the main. And I think our decks would’ve gone the distance, but we were both unfortunate enough to run into a deck that was illegal for the PAC format… One of our opponents (I won’t name) happened to be playing Twiddle Vault with four Time Vaults in it; Time Vault is restricted in PAC. Something I didn’t catch until talking my game out with a friend after it happened, and by then, Ken Fritz was already finishing his match, not knowing his disadvantage. It’s unfortunate because, thinking back to it, in both games, I was able to handle and control the initial Time Vaults with ease, but once they started stacking, that’s when it became problematic. Our match went 2-1, but I have no doubt it would’ve been 2-0 in my favor, thinking back to game two. I was in the zone and wasn’t thinking about whether my opponent was running a legal deck; I just assumed everyone was playing by the same rules.

 

I’m not very competitive as an Old School player. I play good decks, but I also play fun niche decks. From UR Counterburn, UW Skies, all the way to Beast Orb and Powerball, I want to have fun. But as a Tournament Organizer, it does irritate me. With all the information we put out for these events, you still get players who don’t read what you send them, and then you end up with feel-bads like this for the players who did take the time. So, please, READ THE EMAILS WE SEND YOU. THERE’S NO EXCUSE! I could go in harder on this encounter, but it’s beating a dead 0/1 horse while it’s down with no possibility of regeneration. So, let’s move on to a more positive train of thought and not muddy this article down. Unless that’s what you guys and gals want, I’ll fire away with a separate article (Let me know in the DMs).

 

The deck was humming through the rest of the tournament. It was so much fun! I’d drop an early Will-O-The-Wisp or Sedge Troll and hide behind them, backing them with an early Ivory Tower and chip in with an attack when I could. Or sit back behind these creatures as blockers until I get a Guardian Beast online and start to destroy everything with a Chaos Orb or “two”. I wasn’t running two Chaos orbs; I had Copy Artifact, don’t worry, my deck was legal! BA DUM TSS! But my favorite kills were when I straight toasted my opponents with Rocket Launcher, backed by Guardian Beasts. Chaos Orb also proved to be the Legend slayer as it doesn’t “target” it “chooses” so it gets around Shroud. All in all, the main event was a blast.

 

For Mono Green in the Woods, I ran my usual Thallid Spore Fog deck. If you have played against this deck of mine at Chalice, you know it’s a grind, but I do want you to win; you’re going to have to work for it. This year’s side quest of mono green was Alpha to Alliances, and the inclusion of Ice Age gave me access to Skull Catapult. Oh, sweet, sweet Saproling Catapult, you were so much fun.

Chalice has so much to offer in terms of quests; there was a Premodern event and a mono-white event dubbed Urza’s Transcendence. I didn’t play in those events as there’s a buffet of unofficial Chalice events running as well by attendees; Cube drafts, drinking games, “The Dule of Chaos”, vintage video game tournaments, and just hanging out with some of your favorite people around a bonfire talking about life.

 

The Painting class this year was led by no other than Byron Wackwitz, and while I was really clutching out for the painting to be Homerid, mainly because it would’ve been funny as all hell. The class turned out to be what I feared and expected: Pendlehaven. Not that I don’t like art (Byron clearly doesn’t), but because I hate painting landscapes. I attempted to go against the grain, and my painting came out as muted, snow-covered Pendlehaven. I attempted to pull it back multiple times, but it just made it worse, which was fine by me. About three-fourths of the way through, we broke for lunch, and I’d take that break as my opportunity to bail from the class and hang out.

 

The “not cafeteria food” was top tier as always. From midnight steaks, lumpia, street tacos, 24-7 hotdogs on a gas station roller, nachos, to dino nuggets with caviar! That last one was truly interesting, and it was probably the best pairing of caviar I’ve ever had.

I want to thank the Beast of the Bay planning committee for always putting on a top-quality event. And your attention to detail doesn’t go unnoticed. Hopefully, that invite letter will fall back in my mailbox for the 2027 Chalice. and from what the winds are saying, there’s change coming… 

Until next time, take care of yourself, your friends, and family, and keep making this the best Magic: The Gathering community out there. ROLL PHOTOS!!

A special piece from Beast of the Bay Urza’s Ante planning community – Neil.

Designing Urza’s Ante

Urza’s Ante at Chalice VII was planned to be on theme with the entire weekend of “Legends Unite”. Early on, Jeff and I thought the Legendary triome lands could be in both the main event and UA. The 5 lands led beautifully into an attempt to capture the book Arena by William Forstchen (1994), in which 5 houses battle in a tournament to crown a single victor. 

The 5 houses have unique magics that align with their colors, and betting plays a major part in the book. The betting part played nicely into the idea of having a vendor, since we are providing the currency to the participants. Although betting didn’t pick up much on the weekend, the currency was valuable. Jeff had an early idea of the duplicate sealed to make our lives easier, so we theorycrafted lists of maybe the top 5-8 cards in the colors that weren’t crazy bombs. The 5 houses having unique color pies allowed for minor modification, leading to 5x duplicate sealed piles in the room for the first round. 

We knew we needed to give people more things to play with, and in the first three rounds, everyone had identical packs to draft with their opponent. This gave everyone roughly 1/2 the power, 1/2 the triomes, and so on. What people didn’t know was that there wouldn’t be any power for the rest of the weekend. The rest of the weekend, the packs were curated to drip out or turn the format in different directions. Portal 3 Kingdoms was present because probably none of us had ever played it before, so why not? It has a lot of legends. 

Obvious omissions of cards from the beginning were Blood Moon, Mishra’s Factory, etc., as they muck up the gameplay and make it stale. The game design allowed for a natural top 8 on Sunday, which was appreciated for crowning a true UA winner. Throughout the weekend, joke cards, ad cards, puzzle cards, and hand-painted cards were also included, along with foils, to give a chase card for everyone.

NEXT ARTICLE: War of the Roses 2026.