7 Players - started roughly at 11:25:
Norvik and John Paul; father and son Mark and Ian(I believe) from Bakersfield; Lawrence(newish to the game), the last guy I've played with/against a bunch, but am completely blanking on his name, and myself.
I went to see how the format would play, and heard there was good prize support so that was a bonus. (I already was qualified, and can not even make GenCon :*( )
So we all got Draenei Mage Deckboxes, we all qualified for the top 8 draft. Norvik beat me in the 'semi-finals' of draft, so I walked away with an EA Invocation, and 2 EA The Ring of Blood: Skar'gath. Between us we each got 9 packs of cards for the $30 (not too bad) and then 1-2 got 4 packs, and 3-4 got 2 packs. 11 packs for me, a deckbox and 3 decent EA's. In the packs the rares I snagged were 1 Undercity, 1 Valeera, 1 Gladiator's Sanctuary, and about 13 others in total from rare drafting a bit.
In Sealed I went Druid, due to a nice ability lineup and Gladiator's Sanctuary. (2 Tanglevines, 1 Immobilization, 1 Pack Tactics, 1 Starshot) I also had some cool synergy horde - taking circle of blood, Glad Zimo, a Arcanite Dragonling, and a few other small ones to just rush em out.
I lost game one to Mark running Defiance. He had a nice curve and was able to slow me enough with Defiance and Collateral damage that I couldnt keep up the pressure attacking once per turn - My ability removal was in my side, and game 1 ended right at time (later finding out the 1st 2 rounds were only 45mins long.)
The 2nd round was an all out rush both games, pack tactics wrecked his board by turn 7 both games. The 3rd round was about the same, but we both reset the first game due to not popping pack tactics on a crucial turn, and he scooped his cards up before we could reset, but I beat him the next 2 games.
Draft: I started to go Alliance first card I pulled, but was passed a pack full of big horde allies - I saw Rensarth and nabbed him passing up a bloodseeker. As I look at the abilities being passed I start to think I should be going hunter. I begin to draft specifically for Longeye, hating where I can. Little do I know the guy right next to me is drafting for Longeye as well! We both end up going Longeye and it explains why some of the weaker abilities didn't make it back to me. I won the first game fairly easily with some rensarth tricks. Then I went up against Norvik next, who had even better Rensarth tricks.. He was running a ton of 2 drops, with 2 Twin spire ruins.. I think he said he got 4 zari'zari's and 1 or 2 rensarths, and I saw at least 2 Himul's. He went Horde Shaman, and with Spark and a few other broken Shaman cards, he wrecked me bad. (My guess is that Norvik won, but I left after that round in 3rd/4th @ 6:40pm)
Nico's Shady Trading