We take a while to get started, so once I'm passed my packs I'm ready to go. I open my first pack only to discover a pile of trash - a Dark Banishing and a Disrupting Scepter. Not a great way to start a Sealed tournament. Pack two rewards me with an ultra-bomb in the form of Hammer of Bogardan and another Dark Banishing. Pack three, I see another red bomb... Inferno! I discover some playable commons in the pack like Shock Troops and Canyon Wildcat. Packs four and five both contain rare blue enchantments - Trade Routes and Coastal Piracy. I was mildly disappointed when I discovered I didn't have enough black to make it a main color, so I looked to blue and red. I didn't make it a point to write down my decklist, so I'll try my damndest to remember what it was. Here's a vague outline of my deck:

Creatures:
1 Shock Troops
1 Coral Eel
1 Coastal Hornclaw
1 Viashino Sandstalker
1 Sabertooth Tiger
1 Canyon Wildcat
1 Spiketail Hatchling
1 Wind Drake
1 Cinder Wall
1 Gluttonous Zombie
1 Anaba Shaman
1 Goblin Chariot

Other:
2 Dark Banishing
1 Hammer of Bogardan
1 Guerrilla Tactics
1 Trade Routes
1 Coastal Piracy
1 Rewind
1 Disrupting Scepter
1 Coercion
1 Boomerang
1 Inspiration

Round 1: Drew Dushnicky - W/G/B
Game One: Drew casts an early Master Decoy and holds me back for a while. I cast my Viashino a few times and get a couple of hits in before he plays a Spitting Spider. I cast a Wind Drake and a Coastal Hornclaw and play the waiting game. Eventually, I thin through my deck with Trade Routes and draw tons of cards with Coastal Piracy, then Inferno for the win.

Game Two: I side in Flashfires and hope to screw him over before he gets out anything big. Unfortunately, I don't manage to draw any non-land spells to cast for a long time and I just beat him upside the head with Viashino until he plays an Aladdin's Ring. Time to topdeck...

Inferno! Drew takes enough damage from the Viashino for Inferno to force a draw and we're on to the third game.

Game Three: I draw a very speedy hand and play second-turn Coral Eel, third-turn Goblin Chariot, and then a fourth-turn Coastal Piracy gets me way ahead in cards. He manages to stall the ground long enough to cast the Aladdin's Ring again and I have to draw something amazing to win it before he burns the hell out of me. Time to topdeck once again!

Flashfires! I burn out three of his lands and he is unable to activate it for the time being. Next turn I swing with everything with him being at eight, Coral Eel takes him to six and Inferno seals the deal.

1-0

Round Two: Grant Dushnicky - U/R/G
What the hell? I'm paired up with my previous opponent's younger brother, which I find amusing.

Game One: Grant and I kid around for awhile and he plays a Hunted Wumpus; all I can muster up with its drawback is a Coastal Hornclaw. Moving on.

Game Two: I get a poor hand but continue to draw spell after spell and beat him down with fliers as he sits behind his Vine Trellis and takes it.

Game Three: Grant and I get into a bit of a ground stall and neither of us seem to draw anything good for about five turns. Yawn. On approximately the fifteen turn, I draw my card....Hammer of Bogardan! Score!

I Hammer him and say go. I repeat that process for about nine turns, and he dies a slow and hilarious death. I tried to refrain from singing"Hammer Time" during the game, but I couldn't resist. It's hamma time!

2-0

Round Three: U/W
Game One: We match creature for creature for a while until he decides to play the almighty Tidal Kraken (and foily, too!). I need to topdeck a land to win with Inferno this turn or I'll lose, but my deck spits in my face with Urborg Volcano. Scooooop.

Game Two: Things are going well for awhile... Until he plays an Ensnaring Bridge with a bunch of cards in hand. No problem, right? Nah; he decides to play every friggin' card in his hand, including a Millstone. Slowly but surely he decks me. I'm disappointed that I lost that match because another Magic player informs me I could have won that game. Aww.

2-1

Round Four: G/W/B
Game One: I lay the early beats with creatures with two power, and he finally plays a fatty. Dark Banishing! He casts Raise Dead on that very fatty and plays it again. Dark Banishing! I kill him.

Game Two: Even more quick beats! He dies like last time, and I feel bad because his deck was vastly superior to mine, featuring such hits as Primeval Force and Blinding Angel. (I was his only loss for the day and he makes second place later on.)

3-1

Round Five: Stephan Doerkson - W/?
Stephan did the math and informed me that we could ID to the top 8, and so we did.

Top Eight - Round One: Darius Wajda - G/R/W
Game One and Two: He gets mana screwed both games and I feel bad after hulk smashing him, so I give him a foil.

Quarterfinals: Stephan Doerkson W/B
Game One and Two: He just plain wins both games and I don't really mind.

I walk away with two draft sets and a foil Rukh Egg. Afterwards I do an Eighth Edition draft and get possibly the worst deck I've ever seen... Goody! I lose right away and go home.