Went to a different LGS than usual yesterday for a Modern tournament.
First time playing Modern, scraped together a rough Bant Hexblade deck from cards that I and two of my friends had. And by rough, I mean I played Brushland in place of Temple Gardens, Condemns in place of Paths, and an Arbor Elf and two Avacyn's Pilgrims in place of three Noble Hierarchs. My mana was terrible (but not as bad as it could have been, I still had mostly shocks and fetches), and I didn't have as many swords as I'd have liked.
My two friends went 3-0-1, I went 3-1, my only loss being to one of them. The three of us - all new to the store - took first, second, and third. Turns out it had been true that the competition at that store was much softer than my normal LGS.
First round was against Mono-Green. Game one I was mana-screwed and just barely didn't hold off two Dungrove Elders in a close game. Games two and three saw a Sword of Feast and Famine ping-ponging between an attacking creature and a creature I held back to hold off his Dungroves for the win.
Second round, I played against one of my friends, and between keeping bad hands and his always insane luck, I lost a quick 0-2 against what was quite literally almost exactly his Standard Boros deck, just with Arid Mesas, Lightning Bolts, and Grim Lavamancers. He always top-decks like a champ, always has exactly what he needs, and it's insane. I know he's not stacking his deck, because one of his hands isn't fully functional and someone else has to shuffle his deck; usually his opponent. It's not like he's ever done any insanely complex plays, or bluffed well, or anything. It's always pure luck. And I always complain about it.
Third round was against the Bump in the Night/Lava Spike deck. Two quick games against that saw a 2-0 win for me, with nothing spectacular. At one point, I had to clarify that animating a Stirring Wildwood was not it entering the battlefield when he tried to insist it would be tapped because of his Urabrask the Hidden. I feel like he thinks I was cheating, but I offered to call over the local L2 and he declined.
Final round was against a B/R vampires brew. Fun match-up, and it reminded me of a rougher version of my old B/R vampires deck from Zendikar-Scars Standard, but I ultimately won out 2-0 through a combination of Geist of Saint Trafts, Rancors, and Invisible Stalkers. We played a third game for fun, and her Vampire Nighthawk beat me over the head repeatedly thanks to Blade of the Bloodchief making it an 8/9 before I finally scooped when I didn't topdeck a much-needed Condemn.
Prizes were handed out with 3 packs to each player in the Top 4 and everyone else getting 1 pack. In a way, I like that prize distribution since it was only 12 players, but had we had more players I would have wanted a proper Top 8 prize distribution. My 'lucky' friend pulled a Godless Shrine, my other friend pulled a Deathrite Shaman, Steam Vents, and something else. Meanwhile the best I pulled was a Giant Adephage, which was a little bit of a downer. That's why I don't buy packs; such a gamble, and I never win that lottery.