PRERELEASE!

I played in one today. I'm not going to give a full write-up yet, Ill edit this post later with full write. here's what you need to know:

I went 3-2-1 and finished 9th place. I won 2 packs for that... total field was 28

My final deck:
Conflux:
1x Scepter of Dominance (the house!)
2x Sedraxis Alchemist
1x Rhox Bodyguard
1x Rhox Meditant
1x Armillary Sphere
1x Countersquall (never got played)
1x Aerie Mystics
Lands:
1x Rupture Spire
1x Exotic Orchard
1x Unstable Frontier

Shards of Alara:
1x Sharuum the Hegemon (the bomb)
1x Steward of Valeron
1x Waveskimmer Aven
1x Court Archers
1x Branching Bolt
1x Resounding Wave
1x Windwright Mage
1x Executioner's Capsule
1x Blister Beetle
1x Deft Duelist
1x Resounding Thunder
1x Couriers Capsule
1x Agony Warp
1x Sprouting Thrinax
1x Elvish Visionary

Basic Lands:
4x Plains
3x Islands
3x Swamps
2x Forests
2x Mountain


Round 1, Russ, 5 color Jund Focus.
Game 1 I get Mana-Flooded with 2 early Blister Beetles (I later changed one of them out for the Courier's Capsule) I'm able to hold him off for a while but his big creatures mean that my early Beetles are nothing but chump blockers (I think one of them removed a Skeleton Token.) He beats me pretty handedly.
Game 2, I get some exalted Beat-Down going on. and drop my Scepter of Dominance in the mid-game to keep my opponenet from blocking. game goes pretty quickly.
Game 3 I start of with a Turn 2 Armillary Sphere, followed by Windwright Mage, Sac the Sphere to get my forest and mountain to flesh out my manabase and give my Mage Flying. a little while later I get the Scepter of dominance out and I get my opponent down to 8 before he stabilizes off of a Rakka Mar, and a Grixis Slave Driver. I'm holding a Resounding Thunder with enough mana to cast it, Time gets called during his turn. at the end of his turn I use some removal to get rid off one of his blockers (I have 3 power on board, he has blockers for everything. I answer, he answers.) on turn 5 I top-deck a Branching Bolt to get rid of his last 2 blockers, swing and cast the Resounding thunder just in time to keep from drawing the game. It was Awesome!
RECORD: 1-0

Round 2, James - 5 color esper focus
Game 1 was not good. He gets an c out early and just begins the beatdown on me. The Fear ability means that I have very few creatures to block it and he just whittles away at me with the bad boy. I never get enough removal to take care of it before he beats me down. a couple of other creatures he plays speed things along. I dont even bother showing him the Scepter of Dominance. Side-board some Artifact hate in.
Game 2 is the exact opposite. I drop dudes on turns 2-6 including Elvish Visionary and Rhox Meditant to help keep my hand full. He cant do a thing about it.
Game 3 I open up with a bit of board advantage while he gets a bit of a mana ramp. (+1 creature) Then he drops a Skyward Eye Prophets on turn 5 off of some obelisks, I immediately cast Resounding Thunder to get rid of him (the CA that guy gives is the nuts.) his following turn: Scornful AEther-Lich he beats me down with it again before I can come up with a timely answer, Scepter of dominance helps but he answers with a bigger creature.
RECORD: 1-1

I could not find my record sheet so the rest is from jumbled memories.

Round 3 - ??? too fast to really tell
Game 1: I get mana Screwed. mull to 5 and get stuck on 2 land. I lose. fast.
Game 2: My opponent gets mana screwed, after mulling to 5 gets stuck on 1 land. I win. Fast.
Game 3: I get mana screwed after mulling to 6, get to 3 land, but the colors dont work for whats in my hand. I lose. Fast.
Record 1-2

Round 4: 5 Color Good stuff featuring Grixis focus
Game 1 We both Mulligan to 6, I land a turn 3 Scepter of Dominance and what follows is a very long game of swapped control. Early on my opponent has in play 2 1/1 creatures and a Grixis Battle Mage. I begin tapping down the Battle Mage during his upkeep to force him into making the decision on what to do early, he makes the right decision just about every time. Because of this he continues to maintain CA over me and I get a little worried. by the time he gets multiple sources of blue in play he also has Grixis Slavedriver in play, so I stop tapping down the Battle Mage in the upkeep so that I can tap down the Slavedriver during his Attack Phase. As the game goes on I eventually get to Sharuum which I drop and return to play my Courier's Capsule so that I can get more cards in my hand. I use Sharuum to block the Slave Driver at one point to which he responds with a Resounding thunder to kill my Sharuum. With Damage on the Stack I cast Resounding Wave, returning Sharuum to my hand so that I can cast him again and get yet a 3rd use of my couriers Capsule. Ultimately, he overcomes all of my efforts and finally finishes me off with Rakka Mar's 3/1 elemental tokens. This game actually lasted 40 minutes
Game 2 I keep my opening hand do to its ability to speed through and knowing I HAVE to win this game quick. my opp. mulls to 6 and informs me that he doesn't believe in mulling below that. I play a turn 2 Steward of Valeron, followed by a turn 3 Armillary Sphere to fix all my mana (sac it at opponents eot) followed that up with a rhox meditant - his life goes like: turn 3-18-16-12-8-2-scoop
Game 3: we have 4 minutes when it starts. I have a slightly slower start (dont have the mana accel/fix to start the game. time gets called on my opponents turn with him sitting at 16 life, Im at 20. at the end of his turn I kill his flyer that can block and kill mine (he still has one other reach guy on board) Turn 1 (me) I swing and get 2 damage in {14}) His turn he drops another blocker to replace the one I killed. My turn (3) I swing, get 2 more in {12} and drop Elvish Visionary plus the Scepter of Dominance I drew off of it. also am holding a branching bolt to drop during his turn, which he is actually able to counter. :( On my turn 5 I have the ability to get 6 damage through, but no more. I just needed one more turn to turn this game into a win!
Record 1-2-1

Round 5: 4 color - no white.
Game 1: Im able to drop most of my creatures in good time, get a turn 2, 4, and 5 drop down but am unable to find a second source of white mana for my Scepter. this slows me down a bit but a turn 8 Sharuum pretty much makes the Scepter Useless as I beat down for 6 in the air thanks to a waveskimmer aven. he cant compete
Game 2: Similar setup I dont get any exalted creatures down, but Sharuum comes a little bit earlier and I have executioner's capsule in the yard so I get to recur it to kill off another blocker. My opponent tries to kill off Sharuum at one point, but Im holding the resounding wave again so I just bounce him and replay. easy win.

Record 2-2-1

Match 6 5-color Naya Focus.
Game 1 - I have to mull to six and decide to keep a subpar hand. High curve lots of power in it. My opponent happens to have a very fast hand with creature drops on 2,3, and 5. The early advantage he gets and the fact that the only removal I get is the Scepter spells my defeat. Sideboard 2 2/2 pro green guys (Zombie Outlander.)
Game 2: Outlanders are GOOD. I get both of them down before turn 6 (a little draw help and deck thinning from Visionary, Meditant, and Armillary Sphere.) His Mosstodon becomes a blank and I overwhelm him with my army of small creatures. the Sprouting thrinax when he is at 5 made him scoop.
Game 3: We go back and forth in this one, early Visionary for me, answered with Rip-Clan Crasher by him. Steward of Valeron by me, Visionary by him. Rhox Meditant by me, Aerie Mystics by him. On my turn though I top-deck Branching Bolt and play a Rhox Bodyguard. He plays a Grixis Slavedriver and swings with the Mystics. I decide to take it and save the Bolt so that I can hit the slavedriver as well. I get a Windwright Mage on the following turn and wait one more turn. when my opponent swings I throw the Visionary in front of the Slave Driver, and wipe out his slavedriver and mystics with the branching bolt. the momentum shift is huge and gets bigger when I top-deck the couriers capsule and draw a resounding thunder off of it. I ride the Windwright Mage to victory.