Took this to an event at Jupiter Games in Vestal NY in 2009.  Won a Mana Drain in a side event.

29 people show up for the main event.  (5 rounds of swiss).

Matchups:

Round 1. Faeries (Ryan): Draw due to time (1-1)
Game 1: An early vial sneaks Scions past my countermagic and he beats me to death.
Game 2: I grind him into oblivion.
Game 3: 3 Active Grindstones are wreaking havoc on his library, but not until we are in
the 5 turns after time has been called.

Round 2.  Canadian Thresh (Ben): Loss (0-2)
Game 1: Goose Turns 1 and 2.  My deck doesn’t do anything to solve the problem.
Game 2: Similar problems to game one… come on deck!

Round 3.  Landstill (Geoff Smelski): Loss (0-2)
Games 1 and 2: He constantly has answers for my stuff.  Really nice guy though.

I keep playing, hoping to make top 16 to get into the side event for Mana Drains for free.

Round 4.  Landstill (Josh): Win (2-0)
Game 1: Grind him to death after his deck doesn’t do too much.
Game 2: We both zone out dropping lands and such… I forget to remove counters from an Ancestral Vision… eventually grind him to death.

Round 5.  W Stax (Zach): Win (2-0)
Zach seems to have given up on making his deck work (it was loaned to him).  Very talkative, fun to play against.
Game 1:
Game 2: Turn 1 Chalice.  Armageddon.  Plays a morphed Exalted Angel.  I have two Servants on the board.  He plays Magus of the Tabernacle.  No second white source appears for the angel and the upkeep of his creatures is eating away at his life total (has to use his tombs) so he winds up just sacking the face-down Angel.  I Eventually draw the Vindicate for Chalice @ 1, but it doesn’t matter too much, as he has dealt himself insane amounts of damage with Ancient Tombs by this time and I just attack with a lone Painter’s Servant for the win (I had to let the other one die to be able to Vindicate).

I get 17th place, so I have to shell out $10 for the side event.  I drove too far not to play more, though, so I go for it.  It would good experience at the very least.

Side Event (single elimination):

Round 1. A bye!  Trade with Anthony Costa while he simultaneously plays a top 8 game.  Eventually trade away some alpha/beta/dark stuff and a Taiga for a Tropical Island, completing my goal of owning 1 of each dual land!

Round 2.  Planswalkers and creatres.dec?  (Tariq White).  Win (2-1)
Game 1: Early Goyf beats and a shadowmage given flying by Elspeth win it for him.
Game 2: I answer all of his threats and deck him with Grindstone(s).
Game 3: This was a ridiculously long game.  He resolves and Elspeth and starts making tokens.  I have a Grindstone and am just looking for the Painter, but he gets down a Deed.  I find an Academy Ruins AND a Servant and start recurring Explosives, Painter, and Grindstone while he ramps up to the big ability on Elspeth and aims a Swords at my Painter in play.  It resolves.  I Grind myself to find another Painter, am successful, and win 1 turn before he would attack me for lethal with a flying, indestructible soldier token.

Semi-Finals.  Dread/Land/Tezzeretstill (Rick - Source name Jandor).  Win 2-0
Game 1: I counter 2 Tezzerets, blow up his own Grindstone, and go off.
Game 2: He sees little to no threats I and grind him away.

Finals.  Grb Survival (Kevin source name beastman).  Lose 1-2.
Game 1: He winds the die roll.  I keep a mediocre hand.  Re resolves a Survival turn 2 and goes apeshit.  I am quickly facing down 2 5/6 hasty goyf.  No fun.
Game 2: I keep him off balance for long enough to rip a Grindstone off the top with 4 mana open and a Painter in play (conveniently naming black so that Shriekmaw can’t hit it) for the win.
Game 3: I get the whole Academy Ruins with the whole combo in the grave thing going, by he topdecks Krosan Grip, giving him the turn he needed to go lethal with Goyfs…

It’s all good, though, as I win an Italian Mana Drain!  Risucchia Potere ftw!!!

Afterwards, I go to dinner at Tully’s with Dave Price (Quicksilver), Jesse (Krieger), Kevin (beastman), and Chuck (cdr).  Dave Price had to feed Jesse cake for making top 8… hilarious.  Jesse played Ichorid to 3rd place.  They head off to N. Virginia and me bak to Bard…  all in all, a great day.

Matches:
5-3-1
Games:
10-8-1

In retrospect:
-Innocent Blood should have been Diabolic Edict (mainly so that it could kill Mishra’s Factory…)
-My sideboards still don’t work for me.