The first gathering of what would much later become the Beasts of The Bay occured on Sunday October 6, 2016. Dominic Dotterrer, Stephen Hines, and myself met at Heritage Coffee in Google building 1950 (Mountain View).

We did not have a name yet. We were just three dude happy to have found people to play oldschool with (I had been trying to build an oldschool community in Toronto since 2012, what a time it was).

I don't have enough time to go to meetings as often as I wish anymore. So I made myself decks to remember that sweet sweet era.

For a while, Stephen played a mean black deck (before he moved to his dreaded workshop prison). Notice the four strip mines which are the signature of West Coast oldschool.

Trivia: The four cities used to belong to Stephen's brother!

Dom was always very creative and rarely played the same deck twice. I do remember well his taste for Sylvan Library and "Big Dudes" in his earlier deck.

He was also a talented artist and altered most of his cards. It made sense to put my City of Brass from hell^[1] in that deck.

fab.dec was inspired by an article in Lotus Noir Magazine #15. I actually played it in Paris against Tigrou, Robby, and Sylvain. I also played this deck at Dom's going away tournament when he left California. That was a spicy themed tournament and I did not know what that word meant. I went 5-0. Oops.

Everybody signed this Serra, except for Dom who had already left. I left a dot-lined space for him so he can sign it someday.

An homage to the Beasts would not be complete without a Guardian Beast/ Workshop deck (four off, another signature of West Coast Old School).

Trivia: This Beta Demonic Tutor has a story. When I immigrated to Canada, I was so broke that I sold all my Magic cards in 2006. Tigrou, a member of my French crew in Paris, bought that Beta Tutor. After I got back in financial shape, he kindly sold it back to me in Dec 2015.

The deck that started it all for me is Bertran Lestrée's Zoo from 1994 World Championship.

I never placed well in Beasts meetings but somehow they was always a Pixies left to pick in the reward set. Notice how we did not have a name yet, we just wrote "Bay Area Oldschool"

In 1996 Bertrand once again got second place again in NYC Pro Tour^[2][3].

When I started to play oldschool I wanted my deck to be all black-bordered. But that meant none of the cards were special anymore. By mixing black and white border cards, I get excited again when I draw a Beta!

It is also more historically accurate. since in the photos^[4] it looks like Bertrand used at least one Unlimited bird and a Beta Ruby.

Bertrand left a strong impression. It is not uncommon to see people paying him homage.

I won my first tournament in USA with this White Weenie at EudoGames Berkeley on Sun Jul 26, 2015 vs Steve M's control. This version is inspired by a deck which also took first place...but I forgot who made it :/ !

My favorite "Bay Area Oldschool" disenchants. Notice one of them says "Santa Cruz", which was an event organized by Tapan.

^	[1]	Took me six months to get my cards back from MT..
^	[2]	Bertrand Lestrée career
^	[3]	Bertrand Lestrée interview 1996
^	[4]	MTG World Championship 1994 report