Last year, I raved about the Quest for Urza's Chalice Ante. I was eager to return for three days of MtG, 2026 edition. It turned out to be even cooler! Each of the 60+ attendees was given a pouch containing a pack of cards, some coins, and a "Death" card.

There were several colors of pouches. Every player belonged to a house. The best of each house entered the Top 8 at the end of the event.

With the cards, players had to build a deck of 40 cards. The extra cards could be used for trading (and it was highly encouraged to do so). Over the course of three days, all players would get additional boosters to better their deck.

Each duel involved an ante. Players could play for a Death card or for a scribble. Gaining a Death card meant increased odds of making the top 8. Scribbling simply meant the opponent got to sign the ante card.

Running out of Death cards meant you had to retrieve another one if you wanted to continue playing "for death". Coins could be used for trading cards or death cards. One of the coolest parts of the whole event was Steve opening a shop, The Library's Rarities!

Defacing a card usually meant a signature. Sometimes an alter. Crude alters were permitted but only after obtaining consent of the owner.

To add some spice to the set, five special lands were printed to grant shroud to any creature.

But legendary creatures are rare. To allow the legendary lands to work for any spells, any cards could be played face down from our hand. The back of all Ante 2026 cards being the Chalice tower which can grant one mana of any color and make the next spell you play legendary.

The result was a format where you got a lot of mana very fast and could play a lot of creatures you usually would not have (Akroma, Angel of Wrath!).

In the beginning the decks were not very good but over the course of three days, they slowly improved. One trade here, one booster there. Players always swarmed Steve's The Library's Rarities to negotiate and get a good deal.

The most powerful cards were the legendary lands which allowed you to cast extremely powerful spells very early in the game. I rapidly developed a taste for finishing my opponents with fireball for 1X. I was having so much fun, I completely forgot about Top 8 and barely played for Death.

My biggest trade was to give away my foil Black Lotus for two Fireball + normal Black Lotus. Fireball was one of the most sought after cards in the event along with Lavalanche.

As usual many players ended up with gorgeous decks. Paul won the event with a beauty featuring three Akroma, Angel of Wrath. That card was nearly impossible to destroy if it was cast with Shroud (hence the value of Lavalanche and Balance in this format).

The Ante event was one of the many side-events occurring at the Chalice VII. Everywhere in the facility, and at all times of the day or night, you couldn't walk around without running into something cool.

Neil built a very high resolution camera to catalogue the pattern alignment of MtG Alpha cards. I thought they all had the same alignment...except that sometimes they don't! Don't miss Neil's website, an homage to the oldschool The Magic Dojo.

Every Chalice features an artist. This year we had two visiting us, Bryon Wackwitz and Andi Rusu. For a Frenchy like myself, growing up in the French Alps, it felt unreal to have shared a few moments with Bryon. Back when I started playing MtG, in 1996, the USA felt like another planet far far away that I would never get to visit.

Totally unrelated bonus image of Tom Wänerstrand at MagiCon Las Vegas 2026, signing the card I always wanted as a teenager: Royal Assassin.

Bryon altered my Brushlands, three sets of Order of the White Shield, and a few Angus Mackenzie.

Bryon also had brought photos he took back in the days to explain how he used them as models for his drawings.

In the basement, was a Chaos Orb inspired NES game, Chaos Orb Chaos. Not running in an emulator. It was an actual cartridge, in an actual NES! The game did not crash and was very well done.

Another cool event was the raffle. Since Neil came back from the 2025 Fishliver Oil Cup in Genova (Italia) with a cool playmat, I wanted to find one. Two were available in the raffle. I spared no expense for those tickets and won one, which Andi Rusu himself signed!

Joel spent three days walking around the venue with a slightly noticeable but very important piece of ornament. In the front pocket of his shirt was tucked the holy graal of oldschool Magic, a Beckett graded Black Lotus. On the last day he freed the flower from its case in front of everyone. It truly does not belong in a museum! Joel had been talking about getting one for a while and it was so thoughtful of him to share his joy and passion with us all.

Last year we drew Wheel of Fortune with Daniel Gelon as our coach. This time, we painted Pendelhaven. It was a very difficult piece to get right. And I'm not sure we nailed it. Daniel was abundantly clear about how hard a time he had back in 1994 to paint it. It reportedly took him three days and he hated every single second of it.

I said it last year, but it is worth repeating. The best part of Chalice is the people. I saw creativity, kindness, passion, camaraderie, and so much more. Special thanks to the Beast of The Bay for organizing another amazing ever-lasting-memory event.

And what a pleasure to be reunited with the gang from 2016. Some of us moved away but they still found the time, sometimes even crossing the continent, to be there and spend three days together.