first off, massive congrats to mike for making it all the way and kicking ass. Enjoy every second of it.
Now, my recap from my perspective...
Round 1: Evil Dave Fogle's Jericho
My critical mistake here was taking 15 for Highlight Reel. Aside from that, it was a solid match, and he (following a trend today) complimented my deck and playing style after he won.
0-1
Round 2: Random Crippler deck.
He had obviously never seen anyone use B2B, because he tried to Hell Cell me. After crying over that, he US Title'd me to keep me one less pre than him (and DIDN'T PLAY HOLDING ME BACK) So, I reverse his first Lariat Takedown, then blank rules, to which he cries some more. After that, it was pretty much a standard B2B beatdown, where he kept trying to Lariat Takedown me for fort and got reversed nastier and NASTIER. I offered him a Tombstone...he said he wanted pepperoni.
1-1
Round 3: People's Champ
I think this dude was from Alternate Realms...Scott would know who he is...one of the few people from AR that he actually talked to. He pump kicked me, I oversold. after seeing heel and seeing him taunt for a Claw, I make sure to use a Beating as one of my two cards. I then hit my move+stagger+move...he FORGETS fine print, which let's me luck out and get to 8 for free. So instead of his move getting just elbow'd, it got Tori Enters, which got all three Iron wills back and put me at 10. Next turn...Hellfire and Brimstone the hands away. I blank the Shades, and Drop Toe Hold the bull away. he later tells me he forgot his ref bump to save himself for that turn. I walk into the Kip Up on purpose, and he draws nothing. From there, it was just ugly, and he wanted Sausage on his Tombstone.
2-1
Round 4: Edge (Andrew Ferrence)
Ugh...I HATE Flunderdog Edge...I have NO defense against it until the next set, when I can knock my own SSV down 4 with Newcastle. So, once again, he ends up with a nice 24-sized hand. This time, however, I had a strategy worked out to crush the Flunderdog thing. I let him have the Front Chancery, keeping the Fort Surge on the board. He let me go, knowing I had a backlash. I then blanked one with Temper, which he thought was an incredible play. Then I walked right into YTYKM, like i knew I would. We both somehow got stuck at 13, and I'm just trying to punch something through. He Backs By Steph me, but runs both times into Let's Wrestle Already. It ends up that he knocks my arsenal under 5, and Turns Up into a Superkick which I don't have a BTO for. Lesson 1 of 2 that this deck needs some kind of Backlash deck hate...Not Today Pal, anyone? I was surprised that I had made some strategy and deck tweaks to make an "auto-loss" seem winable.
2-2
The only other Big Freak'n Machine is 1-3 at this point, and his first round was a double-loss, so I have an edge going so far.
Round 5: Victoria
When he found out Stevie was useless to him for my first two cards, he cried. This was just a brutal beatdown where he lost his hand via Hellfire, and then i walked into Stevie so he couldn't recover it. I beat through his Victoria control deck, and he wanted green peppers on his tombstone.
3-2
Round 6: Torrie Wilson
I have to give it to this guy...he's got amazing t3ch. If he sees you're face through Centerfold, he searches for and plays a Heel Turn first action. Since I did NOT draw a face card first turn, he simply laid down the JR Slobberknocker and I was screwed. He had just enough in hand to stop or negate every maneuver I had. Here's where a Not Today, Pal or a Simply would have helped. Hell, even a Money Talks (which fits better with my fort curve) would be kickass. But, no actions, in this case, equaled death, as he was well prepared for me. Nice deck, I gotta admit.
3-3
Round 7: Team Angle
Well, there were three Team Angles in the house...and I thought that 4-3 wouldn't be good enough to make it into the round of 32...so I figured that the best thing i could do for the team is destroy Team Angle for Scott's sake. He got a Panic/Clutch off, but since I Old-Schooled his collegiates, he had to just blindly walk into all of my big reversals. In the end, he wanted Anchovies on his tombstone.
4-3
I made the cut thanks to diversity and strength of schedule (something like 10 evo's and 5 bald jews)
Playoffs 1: Daniel Ewing (Undertaker)
This is the match that will make my name onto the CI website.
He just had a better deck than mine...his flowed better, and my deck has little defense against the whole Panic strategy. it ended up that The undertaker Sat up and beat me with something like a Superkick.
Got a CW belt (and hopefully a rankings boost) for my efforts. And now i have tweaking to do for my next qualifying attempt, whether it be Toronto or Indiana (or both). After all, someone's gotta help Mike with directions.
And that's what it was... Goldberg's Spear for the win.
He just had a better deck than mine...his flowed better, and my deck has little defense against the whole Panic strategy. it ended up that The undertaker Sat up and beat me with something like a Superkick.
).... but I did have to give Mike credit for this one and Hamus will love this play 
