Artifacts 'n' Stuff

First Round was a mirror match against elves, which i thought was a little funny. He had a bit less experience with the deck, and I ended up with the luckier draws and went 2-0

1-0

Second Round was against burn, which I would normally call a tough matchup, but my opponent neglected to shoot the important creatures with his chain lightning and they ended up getting there in 2 games.

2-0

Third Round was against OmniTell. He went off turn 3 the first game, before I got a chance to do much. Second game I nearly punted on a poor mulligan decision. I kept a hand with thoughtseize and no way to produce black mana. I also had forgotten that i boarded out Birchlore Rangers and attempted to Green Sun's for it. Luckily though, when I finally did get the black, he spent his Force of Will to counter Thoughtseize, leaving room for me to Natural Order for the win. Game 3 was a Turn 2 win for me, which was good because he had the Show and Tell but no Ancient Tomb

3-0

Fourth Round was against Merfolk, which I'm not a huge fan of facing, especially when they go turn 1 Vial, turn 2 Jitte like this guy did. Won that game after a large Glimpse of Nature, but lost game 2 to a 5 power True-Name Nemesis. Game 3 I won with a Natural Order facing lethal.

4-0

Fifth Round was against RUG Delver, which has far too many Stifles for my liking. I lost game 1 to said stifles. Game 2 I went off before he could get a foothold. Game 3 I lost to a topdecked red source for his Rough//Tumble. However, it turned out this guy would go on to get 2nd place so I felt a little better about this loss.

Bonus this round: I got to sit next to Feline Longmore, who plays a gorgeous High Tide deck and who is fantastic at executing the deck. It was a lot of fun to watch.

4-1

Sixth Round was against Maverick. This is normally a pretty good matchup, and I won the first game, but game 2 went to a mediocre 6 and lost to Knight of the Reliquary. Game 3 I was locked out by a Gaddock Teeg, and then when it finally left the board, i was 1 mana short of Green Sun's for Craterhoof due to a Thalia. the next turn Gaddock was replayed and I died shortly to creatures bigger than mine.

4-2

Seventh Round was against Zoo which I did not expect at all. Game 1 he got me down to 2 life with 5 creatures on the board, and all i had was 3 mana dorks, a Glimpse in hand and a Quirion Ranger. I tried for the Glimpse, ended up ripping Heritage Druid, Nettle Sentinel, Nettle Sentinel, Wirewood Symbiote, Green Sun's Zenith, Nettle Sentinel, Green Sun's Zenith, Natural Order. I ended up with exactly enough blockers to survive and NO for the win next turn. Game 2 he didn't find any burn spells and I went off turn 3.

5-2

Eighth Round was against ANT. Game 1 he played Gitaxian Probe, Cabal Therapy, Duress. I went off turn 3 and never figured out what he was playing. On a hunch I sideboarded in a Gaddock Teeg and an extra Natural Order. He proceeded to once again rip my hand apart, but I topdecked Green Sun's Zenith on my turn 3 and found the Gaddock Teeg, still not knowing what he was playing. He seemed surprised that I had boarded that in, but had no responses. I won that game pretty easily after that.

6-2

Ninth Round I was against ANT again, and it was the same guy that had been playing Feline earlier. We agreed to draw, since neither of us had anything to gain, though we played some matches just for fun. I managed to win game 1 and he took game 2, then we got distracted by trades and we left it at that.

6-2-1

Overall it was a great experience, the people that end up at the top table are fun for the most part, and will joke around a lot between games or during them. I really hope i can continue to go to these tournaments and do well at them, because playing at this level is a whole lot of fun.