The sixth edition of the Quest for Urza's Chalice, the Beasts of the Bay yearly event, just ended. It ran from Feb 21th to 24th 2025. I went with the intend of playing OldSchool and meeting nice people. I expected it to be fun but it went beyond my wildest expectations. Despite just having turned 46, these three days made me feel like I was in my 20's again.
There were OG MtG artists, OldSchool, Wizardry, Premodern, VHS, 90s movies, burgers, and side events. But what really took my breath away was Urza Ante.
Upon arrival each of the 80 attendees were given a unique pre-constructed deck from the following lists.
The power level was low to replicate the experience of a new player having just purchased a few starters/boosters. Already I was impressed by the level of care and the colossal amount of work it must have taken for the Beasts to organize this.
To help with the mana base, a few special cards were created for the occasion, like the "Discovered Paradise", "Urza's Garden", and "Forever Mine".
I landed deck #80. My rare was the Sol'kanar the Swamp King and I had to play three colors. Dom, sitting across me, got deck #3 "Zoo" and wrecked me 5 times in a row. Each time I lost a card to ante.
My game against Yeti (who got #17 sneak attack) ended with him trampling me with a Colossus of Sardia (which he also scarified to a Diamond Valley to add insult to injury).
I spent most of the first hour losing games after games. Each time I basically prayed I drew Tetsuo Umezawa. But it was fun.
To further mimic the journey of an emerging player, one additional booster was given after each meal. Over the course of the next two days we opened packs with increasingly good cards in them. And of course we were free to trade as much as we wanted.
That is where the Magic clicked for me. What a brilliant idea to get everybody to know each others and interact to inspire them to trade and make their deck better!
I found myself avidly trading up to 3:30am and only stopping because I had to pass out! With roommates on East coast time awakening at 5am that was not a lot of sleep but I was thrilled nonetheless.
My bad luck turned the very next day when I opened a God pack which seemed to contain a lot of good cards along with a truly Blue Hurricane (with (X)U casting cost). At lunch I cracked a Phyrexian Dreadnought. Since I already had a Vision Charm I went all in.
Not so subtle inquires to Neil revealed that a grand total of eight Dreadnought had been printed for the whole event. I set on getting all of them. What a reversal for someone who was once terrified to utter a word to decide to go talk to eighty strangers.
In the end, I located all of Dreadnought but only managed to trade away four. Two of them flew back to Hawaii with Ken.F from the Dudes of Paradise. The last one could not be pried out of the hands of Simon.C from the The Falling Stars.
Nonetheless I ended up with a nice pile which could often land a 12/12 on turn one. I did not go all in on dual lands for fear of Blood Moon. The Control Magic/Dragon/Disk were here to have an answer against Icy, Royal Assassin, and Ali from Cairo.
When I reached five Dread, I got my revenge on Dom (who had been building a gorgeous Erhnamgeddon). My deck even managed a win against McBainstorm's Necro Infestation which was undefeated up to that point.
I enjoyed trading so much that, as my deck became close to "complete", I dreaded losing a Dreadnought via defeat. That made me reluctant to play for ante and players understandably declined some duels. I really wanted to keep a full souvenir deck of my first Chalice but next year I will try to be more aligned with the ante spirit.
I was not the only one to embrace Urza Ante and many built gorgeous decks. McBainstorm crafted a feared Necro, Dom managed to not only complete his deck but also added nice foils of Mox Diamond, Wasteland, and Armagueddon. Paul build a bloody ViseFortune deck. Iskra went all-in workshop.
Jeff built a Prosperous Bloom combo.
Maxpower went with Enchantress Ranchor (and even lost because they drew too many cards :P). DFB created Eureka/Crossroads. Nikoa dared three-color with Naya (I loooove Naya).
Overall, the highlight of the Chalice was the community. Everybody I met was curious, eager to connect, kind, caring, and I would even dare to say loving. Dom kindly told me who had Dreadz, or even sometimes traded on my behalf. Nikoa came to find me with an Illusionary Mask. When I was worried about my backpack, Yeti immediately reassured me "Nobody is going to touch your stuff". Even when I left behind a 1994 SpellGround playmat at the venue, it was quickly recovered by a stream of people behaving like if they were family (you rock Mothraelite).
Perhaps the one anecdote that embodies all of that is the Gentleman Agreement that was extended by Tapan during the OldSchool event.
I cannot wait to see you all again next year.
If you attended and your deck is not featured, please send me a photo. I will add it here.
Iskra workshop final form
Brett A's pestilence/Gnomes
Jeremy's merfolks was just gross.
Goku's BW
