First time drafting in a long time and first time drafting at a new store! I think I did very well, especially considering I lost only one game in the final round. I had a ton of fun too.

P1P1 was pacifism. There wasn't much else in the pack and a quality removal spell like that is a perfectly decent first pick. Then I got a Master of Diversion and Charging Griffin and I thought White might be open, but nothing else in White came through. However, a very late Marauding Maulhorn, followed by a Volcanic Geyser, followed by another Marauding Maulhorn clued me in that Red was wide open in Pack 1. So going into pack 2 I knew I was in red and completely open to any other color. P2P1 was Witchstalker and I had picked up 1 or 2 decent green cards pack 1, so I grabbed it. I was hoping to find an Advocate of the Beast for my Maulhorns, but none came to me. I did get some good green cards like Deadly Recluse and Giant Spider that made me confident Green would be my second color, even without the Advocate. Also picked up a Fireshrieker. So I had that going for me. Which was nice. Pack 3 had a lot more Red and a lot less Green. But I still filled out my deck and managed to cut a couple of very late Liturgy of Bloods and a Domestication (which actually wheeled, lol). I felt like I not only had a solid deck, but a good sideboard with Academy Raider if my opponent wasn't in red, Windstorm if s/he played flyers, and Seismic Stomp if they didn't.

Round 1 put me up against what seemed to be a newer player. He was mono-green with 24 lands in his deck. So with only 16 spells to contend with (and a couple of those being Lay of the Land and Into the Wilds), games 1 and 2 were over fairly quickly. Nice kid. We played a Standard game after our draft games were done.

In Round 2 I was facing an older, quiet gentleman also playing mono-green. He was a much tougher opponent playing Sporemounds, Woodborn Behemoths, spiders, Trollhides and some Hunt the Weak for removal. I won game one fairly quickly, but game two resulted in a board stall that almost went to time. At one point I made a play mistake and tried Volcanic Geysering his Groundshaker Sliver when I forgot about the 2 Predatory Slivers he had on board. As a result, I had 1 forest untapped leaving my Battle Sliver equipped with Trollhide vulnerable to removal. This was a play mistake on my part, but my opponent thought I kept that forest open because I had a Fog in my hand. This kept him from alpha-striking me and easily killing me (since I was at only 6 life and he had far more creatures than I had defenders) because if I did have a fog, I would have killed him on the crack-back. This unintentional deception of mine allowed my Academy Raider to loot through almost my entire deck to fine the Seismic Stomp I had sideboarded in. It was the second to last card in my deck and it allowed me to win. That was a nerve wracking game.

In the finals I was up against a nice guy playing BW fliers. I had a pretty much perfect start in game 1. Turn 1 Elvish Mystic, T2 Deadly Recluse, T3 Marading Maulhorn, T4 Battle Sliver, T5 Fireshreiker and equip. I sideboarded in the Academy Raider and Windstorm for game 2 and at one point he attacked into my Giant Spider and Deadly Recluse even though I would have killed his only two fliers on the battlefield. I expected a Show of Valor so I let the damage through, but  didn't expect the Planar Cleansing that followed. I was able to rebuild my board in a couple of turns afterwards, but couldn't get an answer for the Colossal Whale he followed up the Cleansing with. So he took game 2 in an impressive way. Game 3 was a back-and-forth match that ultimately ended with me casting windstorm with x=7 to kill a griffin with Illusionary Armor along with 2 of his other defenders in a 4-for-1 that let me swing in for the kill. We both agreed that the games were very fun.

A couple of cards that I felt performed unexpectedly well were Fireshieker and Academy Raider. It turns out that the format is slow enough to reliably get enough mana to cast a fatty and give it doublestrike, which can end games quick. I was skeptical of a 1/1 for 3, but if you're facing a deck without red creatures, it's just a mini looting machine that gives you insane card advantage and pings your opponent each turn as a bonus. Hands down my best sideboard card. I doubt I would have won M2G2 without him.

All in all, my first experience at Epic Gaming was great and if it was closer, I'd go all the time. As it is, I'm not sure if I'll be able to come back as often as I'd like.