Guilds of Ravnica Pre-Release

I'll spare you some suspense: I went 1-4. That is a day of some bad beats. I had a pretty good time, though; my opponents were at least pleasant and occasionally engaging. I enjoyed the experience, even if my games were less than optimal. 

Round 1 vs Geoff, paying G/B with splash U
While he had all the mana he needed and I was short -peaking at five mana in both games- I was able to keep the pressure on. He didn't have enough deathtouch creatures to make my attacks unprofitable & the tap dude was great. I felt as though I had made some good decisions with my build at this point.

Round 2 vs Joey, playing U/B
These were rough games. Game one I got beat down from Dimir Spybug, buffed by the Surveil cards. In game two I came out of the gate fast and got him to two, was still at twenty life, aaaaaaand he used Disinformation Campaign and Enhanced Surveillance to see his entire library twice. I hadn't boarded in any enchantment removal, since I didn't see any in game one. What this means? Eventually he was able to grind me out, using his removal and draw over and over. A great game but a bad beat on the loss.

Round 3 vs Andy, R/U splash B
Although I went 1-2 here, I feel like the games were just not balanced well. Surveil once again made a huge difference. I made the mistake in game 2 of keeping a hand that didn't have a lot of action until turn 4, which game him a chance to build up faster than me. I've been under the impression that 2/3 fliers are turn 4 are solid but maybe not. Or, maybe running 3 Parhelion Patrol isn't helpful? I swapped one out for a Wild Ceratok after this in order to put a little more beef in the deck but I was disappointed to give up the consistency.

Round 4 vs Nicolas, W/G
I made two mistakes that cost me the round. In game one, instead of keeping my Conclave Guildmage back to block his Blade Instructor, I attacked and had no defenses. He made 3/3s and I couldn't stop the bleeding. In game three, I had the opportunity to cast a second Locket, break the first and draw two cards, which might've helped me get the Collar the Culprit I needed to get rid of Trostani Discordant.  Eventually I drew BOTH of my Collars but by then the damage was done and I didn't have enough mana to cast both of them in one turn, which would have been necessary to stay alive.

Rebound 5 vs Chris, W/R
I went 1-2 again and in the second game, it was because I kept a hand that didn't have enough action early, and Boros gonna Boros. In game three I kept a solid opening hand but hit a land puddle in my deck that the activation of TWO Seleysna Lockets could not dig me out of (my 5th and 6th draws were also lands). I got overrun after that.

Since when in 17 lands and two mana rocks too many, in a deck that is running 9 drops?

So it was a fairly frustrating day. Sometimes I could tell I'd made a mistake. Other times I just felt like I'd been put in an inevitable loss situation, especially against U/B centered decks.

I may have gotten fixated on W/G, since that was my guild: I had a lot of options and, I thought, consistency there is better than wild power fluxes.

Looking back at the pool, it might have been possible to go W/U/R-there wasn't a LOT of support for it, but there was some. There wasn't enough to go Blue/Red, the blue was especially shallow. But the mana support was there, and I also had opened a Niv-Mizzet, Parun and a Quasiduplicate, so maybe I just got sucked into something that wasn't there.

However, as a way to get back into the public scene, I feel good about the experience.