Pre-Release Shinanigans

Okay, I just want to say first of all. I had the coolest thing happen that could possibly happen at a pre-release, (besides getting 1'st place that is) I used a god hand. Yes, that's right. A 6 turn annihilation of perfect cards that gave me a 5 minute win with my life total at 20 and his at 0. Gotcha!

So for my decklist

Creatures: (15)
1x Blistercoil Weird              = R/U
1x Skinbrand Goblin            = 1R
1x Zhur-Taa Druid               = RG
1x Disciple of the Old Ways = 1G
1x Slaughterhorn                  = 2G
1x Battering Krasis              = 2G
2x Wind Drake                    = 2U
1x Beetleform Mage             = 1GU
1x Scorchwalker                  = 3R
1x Runewing                         = 3U
1x Zhur-Taa Swine               = 3RG
1x Species Gorger                = 3GU
1x Scab-Clan Giant              = 4RG
1x Malek, Izzet Paragon    

Instants: (7)
1x Mending Touch               = G
1x Weapon Surge                = R
1x Gruul Charm                   = RG
1x Predator's Rapport         = 2G
1x Annihilating Fire              = 1RR
1x Counterflux                    = UUR
1x Essence Backlash          = 2UR

Sorcery: (3)
1x Phytoburst                      = 1G
1x Hidden Strings                = 1U
1x Clan Defiance                 = X,RG

Artifact (1)
1x Izzet Keyrune                  = 3

Land: (16)
1x Izzet Guildgate
1x Gruul Guildgate
4x Island
4x Mountain
5x Forest

Okay, so basic strategy here was this. I had a bunch of pump spells and counters, plus a couple decent chances at getting some free hits for damage with the Hidden Strings, which worked well, and also worked well for getting the mana you need when you first cast it early on. The reason for so many Instants and Sorceries was to try to pump my one drop each turn, or later on, to cast them with Malek, which only happened twice the entire night. A lot of the creatures I intended strictly for bloodrushing actually played some pretty vital roles as creatures on the field instead of being bloodrushed.

So anyways, the rundown on the matches. There were 6 rounds.

Round I - (0-2)
Played a guy who was running an Orzhov/Rakdos combo.
I mana screwed game one and couldn't get any islands out and just got mowed.
Game two went my way and had him down to 4 life, had 6 lands out and was holding Essence Backlash, Phytoburst and Malek in my hand. I thought to wait to play the Malek in case he tried bombing me with a large creature. I didn't. Aaaaand he dropped Obzedat, Ghost Council next turn and proceeded to give it to me right in the shorts.

Round II - (2-0)
Played a clustered mess of a Golgari/Simic deck. I he had me on the ropes for a bit, but I ended up walking away with two fairly easy wins.

Round III - (2-1)
I played a very tough matchup against a guy running Orzhov/Golgari, he beat me round 1 and I countered back with my best hand of the night.
 Turn 1 dropped a Gruul Guildgate, turn 2 dropped a Forest and a Disciple of the Old Ways, he has 2 mana, no creatures. Turn 3, drop an Izzet Guildgate and a Phytoplasm hitting him for 7. He now has 3 lands. No creatures. Next turn, I drop a Battering Krasis and swing for 2. He now has 11 life and 4 lands, still no creatures. Turn 5 I drop an Island. Swing for 5, he is down to 6 life. He finally drops a creature, a 3/3 something, I counter it with Essence backlash, dealing 3 damage to him. He is down to 3. Turn 6, swing for 5, game over.
Game 3 was fun as well. He dropped a creature early on and I managed to get my Zhur-Taa Druid out, as did he. Then I dropped my Slaughterhorn onto the field and on turn 5 with his creatures tapped I Phytoplasm'd my Slaughterhorn, declared him as an attacker and swung a Disciple of the Old Ways, then bloodrushed Scorchwalker onto the Slaughterhorn, swinging 15 at him in one turn, he was now down to 2, next turn swung for 5, and 2 hit. That was game.

Round IV - (1-2)
Got my butt handed to me from a guy who had an extremely organized Simic and Selesnya deck. He had an answer for everything I tried.

Round V - (1-2)
Lost again to a Selesnya/Boros combo. Got completely mana flooded for 5 turns, and then every other card was a land card. Then just got thrashed with token craziness.

Round VI - (1-2)
Handily got beat game 1 by a guy I had played for fun earlier in the night. Game 2 went my way by a landslide, and game 3 went on for forever, it was down to him 5 life and me 1 and time ran on the round.

So 2-4 on the night. But got some great cards and had a ton of fun.