I awoke early on the 26th - and after sitting awake for thirty minutes, I realized that I was not going to get any more sleep and reluctantly got up. As I pulled on my lucky flying-pig T-shirt, I glanced at the clock. 5:30. Damn.

After groggily stumbling down the stairs, I turned on the computer and went to see if there was any last-minute advice on StarCityGames. At about ten-thirty, I finally left for the local card shop. We each received five packs and were given access to up to thirty lands each. After I cracked open all my packs, this is what I had (minus the one land per pack):

Black:
1 Looming Shade
1 Nausea
2 Raise Dead
1 Ravenous Rats
2 Severed Legion
1 Spineless Thug
1 Mind Slash
1 Mind Sludge

Blue:
1 Dehydration
2 Index
1 Inspiration
1 Mana Leak
1 Remove Soul
2 Sage Owl
1 Sneaky Homunculus
1 Twiddle
1 Fighting Drake
1 Rewind
2 Spiketail Hatchling
1 Balance of Power
1 Bribery

Green:
1 Canopy Spider
2 Craw Wurm
1 Giant Growth
1 Giant Spider
1 Grizzly Bears
1 Lone Wolf
1 Norwood Ranger
1 Rushwood Dryad
1 Vine Trellis
1 Elvish Lyrist
1 Living Terrain
1 Gaea's Herald
1 Thorn Elemental

Red:
1 Anaba Shaman
1 Balduvian Barbarians
1 Cinder Wall
1 Goblin Raider
1 Hill Giant
2 Ridgeline Rager
1 Shatter
1 Shock Troops
1 Tremor
1 Flashfires
1 Orcish Artillery

White:
2 Aven Flock
1 Crossbow Infantry
1 Glory Seeker
1 Holy Day
2 Honor Guard
1 Razorfoot Griffin
2 Solidarity
1 Tundra Wolves
1 Ardent Militia
1 Circle of Protection: Red
1 Sword Dancer

Nonbasic Land:
1 Urza's Mine

Artifacts:
1 Ivory Cup
1 Throne of Bone
1 Planar Portal

After allowing myself a silent ARRRGHH! of frustration at these thoroughly unexciting cards, I set to work with what I had. Black was obviously out, because I did not have enough decent black cards to play it as a main color, and the only card I'd want to splash, Severed Legion, had two black mana in it. I then threw White out because while I had some good early game stuff, my mid-game stuff sucked and I had no late game. I knew I was going to use Green, because it is my favorite color and I am most comfortable with it... So my support colors were red or blue. I finally took Blue because I really don't like red and I needed some more flying defense.

The decklist I settled on was:
1 Canopy Spider
2 Craw Wurm
1 Dehydration
1 Giant Growth
1 Giant Spider
1 Grizzly Bears
2 Index
1 Lone Wolf
1 Mana Leak
1 Norwood Ranger
1 Remove Soul
1 Rushwood Dryad
2 Sage Owl
1 Vine Trellis
1 Fighting Drake
1 Living Terrain
2 Spiketail Hatchling
1 Bribery
1 Planar Portal
1 Thorn Elemental
9 Forest
8 Island

Sideboard Cards I Might Use:
1 Inspiration
1 Elvish Lyrist
1 Rewind
1 Balance of Power
1 Gaea's Herald

There were forty-two people at the tournament, and only thirty-nine Rukh Eggs. One of the participants donated an Arabian Nights Rukh Egg for the winner. The tournament would be six rounds of Swiss, best of three, no breaks.

Round 1: Justin, R/G
Highlights of the Deck: Plow Under, Llanowar Behemoth
The first game I drew my Aven Fisher, Fighting Drake, and used Planar Portal to get Bribery and Thorn Elemental. Believe it or not, I won.

Game two, he came roaring out of the gates with turn 1 Cinder Wall, turn 2 Vine Trellis, turn 3 Hill Giant, turn 4 Llanowar Behemoth, and on turn 6 - right before I would have been able to cast Craw Wurm, Thorn Elemental, and Planar Portal - over the next three turns, he cast Plow Under on my Living Terrained forest and an island. The last game was a drawn-out affair, but it came down to my lack of removal as his Behemoth killed every creature I had - and then me.

Record: 1-2-0, 0-1-0

Round 2: Cory Glasson, Five-Color
Highlights: Nekrataal, Royal Assassin
This guy is a friend of mine and I felt really bad about playing him because he's two years younger than me. Neither game was close.

In game one, I cast turn 1 Norwood Ranger, turn 2 Grizzly Bears, turn 3 Lone Wolf, turn 4 Aven Fisher, turn 5 Bribery, take Nekrataal, kill his only blocker, I win. The second game was the same except he didn't play anything; turn 4 was a Fighting Drake, and I took Royal Assassin with Bribery.

Record: 3-2-0, 1-1-0

Round 3: Somebody, U/W
Highlights: Intruder Alarm, Worship
I managed to win game one after about ten minutes off of a Planar Portal, which got me Bribery (which, in turn, snagged an Angel of Mercy), and a Thorn Elemental.

Game 2 was far more interesting. I kept a"three forest, no island" hand, and we were off. On turn 3 he cast Intruder Alarm, which with the number of creatures in our decks should have read,"Creatures don't tap to attack" - but as I was staring at five forests with a hand of Thorn Elemental, Craw Wurm, Craw Wurm, Fighting Drake, Aven Fisher, Index, he had the upper hand. I kept myself in the game with spiders, but when I drew an island, he topdecked a Worship - and after counting our libraries and finding out that I had three less cards (thanks to him going first and Planar Portal) I conceded.

I boarded in Gaea's Herald (because I had seen Remove Soul) and Elvish Lyrist. I then drew them both in my opening hand, with two forests, an island, Aven Fisher, and Lone Wolf. I smashed him. He never even drew Worship. The best part was when he tapped out to Remove Soul my Thorn Elemental, upon which I showed him the Gaea's Herald that had been on the table since turn 2, and he conceded after showing me a hand of Remove Soul and Mana Leak.

Record: 5-3-0, 2-1-0

Round 4: Somebody, B/G/U
Highlights: Fear, Treasure Trove, Primeval Force
The first game was not funny as he cast turn 4 Giant Cockroach, turn 5 Fear and I died in five turns. I boarded in Elvish Lyrist and hoped.

I drew the Lyrist in my opening hand, but cast Index on turn 1, as I didn't want him to die before I could use him. Around turn 6, after I had a Craw Wurm out, he cast Blanchwood Armor on a Trained Armodon, I chumped, then played the Lyrist, chumped again, played a Portal, left a green open and said go. He attacked. I looked at him quizzically, shrugged, and announced that I was destroying his enchantment. He looked at Elvish Lyrist, let out an oohh of understanding, and put his Armodon and Armor in his graveyard. He then cast Primeval Force and I Dehydrated it. A few turns later, just as I was pecking him with a Rushwood Dryad and a Spiketail Hatchling, he cast a Treasure Trove and started digging. He found his Cockroach and Fear just in time. Damn.

Record: 5-5-0, 2-2-0

I went into the fifth round disheartened, despite eating a box of KFC's potato wedges- but lightened up when I found out that I'd be playing someone who beat one of my friends.

Round 5: Evil Person, B/W/G
Highlights: None
To be honest, I never got to see much of this guy's deck. In game one, he got stuck on two swamps and I beat the crap out of him... And in the second, he got stuck with just forests, and I Mana Leaked his only play, a Fertile Ground.

Record: 7-5-0, 3-2-0

Round 6: Michael Shiver, B/W/G
Highlights: Avatar of Hope, Llanowar Behemoth
I felt really bad about playing this, because Michael was the really nice person who donated the Rukh Egg, If I beat him, I'd cut him out of the product prize; if I lost, I wouldn't get anything; and if we tied, neither of us would get any. Such are the choices of Magic.

In game one, I came out fast with Norwood Ranger, Vine Trellis, Aven Fisher, Lone Wolf, Mana Leak your Wall of Swords. On his last turn, at three life, he topdecked Diabolic Tutor for Avatar of Hope and played her for two mana. I drew Giant Growth and cast it on my Lone Wolf, then attacked for the game. The second game was more of the same, except he had numerous blockers, and was at two life when he cast Diabolic Tutor for Avatar of Hope and played her... Except that I had Remove Soul. I then drew my Lone Wolf, played it and he conceded.

Final Record: 9-5-0, 4-2-0

I don't think I did too badly, considering it was my first Limited event. After having played with the set several times, I feel that the strongest combination is Black/Green, with maybe a splash of Blue. This is because of the natural synergy between the two, and because Fecundity with Phyrexian Plaguelord is absolutely unfair. Blue gives you the nice common Aven Fisher, which is also fun with Fecundity. And of course, there is always Fear with a Nantuko Disciple, which is fearsome!

Cheers to Wizards of the Coast for a base set that is actually okay!