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After all the training I got during the week before the prerelease, I was pumped at max for that great event.
On this Saturday morning, I went to my local store 15 minutes before the official time to make sure I'd pick up Orzhov. I'm not really sure if it was to cool us down a little, but we ended-up waiting 15min outside with 20+ people until they decided to open the store. That's totally fine, it was only -11 degrees outside. A few minutes later, got my nice box and waited til everyone got his. We are playing in a 70m2 room, and we were 62 for this prerelease. As I opened my box, I was hoping for only 1 thing, get 5+ removals. I didn't care so much on opening Ozbedat or any other bomb, I just wanted the removals to have a decent game day. One thing that the practice taught me, is that it's very easy to get underwhelmed with the guild pack, so I decided to open that one last, as to not be biased on the strenghts of my pool. After the first 5 packs, I had already a decent white/black deck (removals and extort), and a great splash in red. The guild pack was not amazing, but it provided me a useful Orzhov keyrune When building my deck, I found out that I even had to cut some removals to add a few more creatures... I couldn't be happier.  Here is the deck I mounted: Creatures (14): Extort (6): 1 Thrull Parasite 1 Basilica Screecher 1 Basilica Guards 1 Knight of Obligation 1 Crypt Ghast 1 Treasury Thrull Others(8): 1 Vizkopa Guildmage 1 Armored Transport 1 Deathcult Rogue 2 Balustrade Spy 1 Firemane Avenger 1 Alms Beast 1 Ogre Slumlord Spells (9): Removal(7): 3 Smite 1 Executioner's Swing 1 Arrows of Justice 1 Grisly Spectacle 1 Angelic Edict Others: 1 Madcap Skills 1 Orzhov Keyrune Lands(17): 1 Orzhov Guildgate 4 Mountain 5 Plains 7 Swamp Notable Sideborad cards: Red: 1 Cinder Elemental 1 Homing Lightning 2 Warmind Infantry 1 Massive Raid 2 Act of Treason 1 Pit fight 1 Towering Thunderfist Black: 1 Ogre Slumlord 1 Gateway Shade 1 Undercity Informer 1 Shadow Slice Orzhov: 1 Cartel Aristocrat White: 1 Daring Skyjek 1 Knight Watch Artifact: 1 Millennial Gargoyle I was pretty happy with my pool in general, even though there were some key Orzhov elements missing: Kingpin's Pet Dutiful Thrull Syndic of Tithes Orzhov Charm Gift of Orzhova Guardian of the Gateless Death's Approach Devour Flesh Killing Glare Shadow Alley Denizen I was ready for the fight, and was thinking I had a fair chance to make it to the TOP8 this time. (At our local store, TOP9-16 goes home with 3 boosters and TOP8 compete in a draft. 1st goes home with a full box!) Coming Next, the battle! 
Thanks for sharing, and for giving us a chance to look at your pack. Look forward to the next section!
Couple of thoughts: it looks like you are playing red for Firemane Avenger, and 1 Madcap Skills (Arrows of Justice can be treated as White since you're Orzhov). While the Avenger is a bomb, I am not sure it is worth warping your mana for it. On top of which, I am guessing the Armored Transport was an include as a nod towards enabling Firemane Avenger (otherwise, a 2/1 attacker that doesn't die on the attack seems to be a bit awkward in a Extorting/Evasion Orzhov deck). If you took out Firemane Avenger, Madcap Skills and Armored Transport, you could take out the Mountains, and then play: +2 Swamps +2 Plains +Ogre Slumlord +Daring Skyjek (gets in early for 3-6 points if lucky, trades reasonably as a 3/1, and if drawn late, cheap to trigger extort) +1 more other card (I like Aristocrat, but it is much better when it has pants to wear, so maybe Informer with Rats as alternate win-con, or you can add in a combat trick here if you have a black/white trick). This trades off a little power for more consistency. Just my $0.02 - and given I actually haven't played GTC yet (only have access online), so maybe it's only worth $0.01. 
Round 1 - Dimir
As I was expecting, Dimir is probably one of the worst matchup for Orzhov (together with mirror match) Game 1 I could see quite early that he was pretty much discovering the set on that day, which took a lot of preasure off my shoulders from the beginning. I quickly pull out the Armored Transport He stumbled into an horrible curve, playing Metropolis Sprite I was at 27 lives when he died. Game 2 This game was the complete opposite of Game 1, since he managed to take over the board position fairly quickly with a turn 4 Lazav, Dimir Mastermind I had no removal, but I had my flyer team on the board Balustrade Spy Lavaz was still Lazav (3/3). I could play my Treasury Thrull He quickly dropped Agoraphobia He pretty quickly transformed his Lazav, Dimir Mastermind This is the kind of game where you think you are dead, and unless a large number of misunderstandings, there is no way you get out of this as winner. After a few rounds, I had chump blocked with *almost* everything I could. He had 3 rats, Lazav, Dimir Mastermind I had Basilica Screecher I had 8 cards left in my deck (I sided-in 5 cards between both games not to get milled...) HOWEVER... I was at 17, and he was at 3 lifes. The early flying aggresion, combined with the mutliple extort had brought him down to his knees. I looked at my graveyard and saw 3 out of 4 mountains. I had Madcap skills I drew it. I won. End of the story. He couldn't believe it, so did the 6 other players looking at the game (we were getting close to time), who where both staring and nervously laughing. I came back from nowhere, really nowhere. I cannot forget to say that I got extremely lucky because he didn't know the cards well, and got too scared to attack properly. He should have won the game 6-7 turns earlier if he had attack just with what he had on the board. Also the dices to replace the Treasury Thrull Round 1: 2-0, Next! 
Round 2 - Simic
I had a good feeling about playing Simic, since the large amount of removal in my deck was perfect to destroy the "evolve" curve on its way. Game 1 I had a slow start, while my opponent started quite well pulling out a cloudfin Raptor That was a far has he went. A Smite Game 2 It was almost no game there. I had a quick start with the Thrull Parasite I never felt in a bad position on that match and was on my way to Rnd 3 pretty confident. Round 2: 2-0 (4-0), Next!
Round 3 - Boros #1
Boros was the guild I was the most worried about, since a 2-0 Boros could mean a good deck. And for practicing a little with Boros beforehand, I knew it could go terribly wrong. Game 1 We both developped our board in a "slow" mode. I got a few early hits with Bomber Corps On my side, I played a Basilica Guards I just didn't count on a Wrecking Ogre Game 2 He pulled out a Blind Obedience After that, I had plenty of mana, and no answers... My Knight of Obligation He had a very consistent Boros deck, and there was very little I could do to beat it. He had all the good battalion cards, the guildmage, 2x Skyknight Legionnaire Blind Obedience Foundry Champion Wrecking Ogre Spark Trooper Boros Reckoner Round 3: 0-2 (4-2), Next!
Round 4 - Boros #2
In this round, I played the complete other side of Boros compared with the Boros player I faced the round before. Game 1 He started with the traditional Boros development Turn 1 Boros Elite Then he played in one turn Foundry Champion  8/5 Flying, Boostable, Lifelink, that needed to be double blocked... Obvisouly, plan A was no longer valid, and I needed an exit, and quick!I didn't draw any answer and took 13 damage on the next turn 20/3 >>> 7/16 ... Ouch! Next turn, I drew a semi-answer in Arrows of Justice I could double blocked with Balustrade Spy Then he top-decked Angelic Skirmisher Game 2 He did not draw any of his bombs, and lost to me beating him with flyers, extort and Alms Beast Game 3 I was confident as I could see he was making several play mistakes in the first 2 games, and I believed I had a fair chance to win Game 3. He decided to play and mulligan to 6. It started to smell good. I kept a 2-land hand with a 1-drop and a 2-drop, and dince I was on the draw, I hopped I would draw my further lands without too much trouble. Unfortunately, that did not happen. I had a very weak board with a Thrull Parasite He top-decked into Ordruun Veteran I drew Alms Beast He then topdecked into his Angelic Skirmisher I finally got my 5th land, and Angelic Edict He drew land and attack for 2. I was on 2. I played Ogre Slumlord He top-decked a white creature, tapped my Ogre and went for lethal. Gosh, that loss was painful. Not only I was worried to lose vs. an average player (he ended up with 4v.-3l.) in top-deck mode, supported by a great Boros deck (he also had Aurelia, the Warleader  Round 4: 1-2 (5-4), Next!
Round 5: Simic #2
After playing 2 Boros, I was happy to get back to Simic, since for some reason, I wasn't afraid of Simic at all for that pre-release sealed. Game 1 and 2 Both games were pretty similar, as I could pull out my cheap extort creatures early on Thrull Parasite I killed him rather quickly on both games (one of them finishing over 25 lifes), and I could just see his incredulous face when playing a perfect curve and extort at the same time with the support of Crypt Ghast What I remember from that game was a masterpiece: "I play Alms Beast The chance made that this player was to be my next opponent. Round 5: 2-0 (7-4), On the road again...  Next!
Round 6: Gruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuul!
I was interested to see what kind of match-up I would have against Gruul, and the chance put one on my road. It was epic! Game 1 I honestly can't remember how Game 1 went but I won that game without much trouble. I think he had a hard time getting green manas and got stuck for a too long time to be able to recover. Game 2 He didn't start super aggressively, but got the Rubblebelt Raiders That's how I got an idea of what he was playing... I milled 2 Scorchwalker On the board, he had Bomber Corps He had his 3 creatures, and I had the 2 Spy and a Basilica Screecher Game 3 Game 3 was decisive in the sense that the one who would lose would definitely go out of the prize pool. It went incredibly fast. I'll detail the play to highlight it. He is on the play. Turn 1 Him - Mountain Me - Swamp Turn 2 Him - Forest - Bomber Corps Me - Plain - Vizkopa Guildmage Turn 3 Him - Mountain - attack for 1 (didn't feel like blowing my guildmage)- Firefist Striker Me(19) - Moutain - Madcap Skills Turn 4 Him(15) - Mountain - Attack for 3 Me(16) - Swamp - Attack for 5 Orzhov Keyrune Turn 5 Him(10) - Mountain - Attack for 3 + Bloodrush Scorchwalker Me(5) - Plain - Attack for 5 - Use both capacities of Vizkopa Guildmage He stared at the board and his hand for a little bit... he had 2 more Bloodrush creatures and a Boros Charm This was - by far - the Best Gruul deck I've seen in the whole prerelease. I believe he got lucky enough to get more than 12 Bloodrush creatures. Something a few players in this forum would envy by quite a bit. Round 6: 2-1 (9-5), Next!
(Final) Round 7: Simic #3
My opponent and I both being at 4-2, I believe that Simic deck was pretty solid... Game 1 I had a very slow start while he curved out very nicely. Turn 1 Cloudfin Raptor In the meantime, I played a Turn 2 Vizkopa Guildmage I went for a strike to launch Batalion with my Firemane Avenger When I commented that he got a pretty great curve, he replied that it was "average"... I believe it got heard. It was a hundred miles away of all the Simic decks I had seen on that day. I reckon that guy is a good player and knows how to build a solid deck. Game 2 This time, the Simic miracle didn't happen. He got a Turn 1 Experiment One The prize packs and potentially the Top8 were 1 game away... Game 3 He decided to play and we both mulliganed. I ended up with a hand with 2 plains, Orzhov keyrune He had a very slow start and played a Turn 3 Slaughterhorn Of course, I missed my 3rd land. However, I was pilling up the threats He already had hit me for 6 with his Slaughterhorn By the time I manage to stabilize the board, I was down to 8 and he was still at 20. From then on, I slowly extort him with both Basilica dudes and the Parasite while he was not drawing any proper answer. He even had to use a Pit Fight Round 7: 2-1 Final result: 5-2 (11-6)
Epilogue and Final Thoughts...
Due to bad tie-breakers, I ended up #10 out of 62 players, got 3 boosters prize, and was overall really happy about it. The 1st Boros I lost to, went into TOP8 with the same result (5-2), while the 2nd Boros didn't make the TOP16 (limit of the prize pool), mainly due to lack of skills while his deck had all the ingredients to finish TOP8. In the player pool, we had (can't remember the exact numbers): - 20 Boros (~32%) - 17 Simic (~27%) ~ 12 Gruul (~19%) ~ 8 Orzhov (~13%) ~ 5 Dimir (~8%) I can't remember exactly who ended in the TOP8, but I know there was at least 4 Boros, a Simic and an Orzhov. I don't think any Gruul nor Dimir went into TOP8. Most of them opened crazy pools. The Swiss winner opened both Aurelia and Aurelia's Fury. The Simic was ridiculous. That player almost got a contruscted deck in his pool. Among others, he got: Fathom Mage Master Biomancer Prime Speaker Zegana Zameck Guildmage Elusive Krasis Drakewing Krasis Spire Tracer Madcap Skills Ghor-Clan Rampager Gridlock ... This guy is the archetype of the player you want to take them down a peg. Not only he's extremely lucky anytime he opens a single pack (I remember him opening Vraska the unseen I'm pretty sure there are a few guys like that at every single Magic store. Back to the topic, Madcap skills The Prerelease was mainly ruled by Boros (they were also so many...) and the few Orzhov decks. I had a lot of fun playing the GTC Prerelease, and I'm looking forward to the next one in April.
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