[MTG] My Experience at GP San Jose

My team had prepared extremely hard leading up to this event. However, we did not like the format (we believed there was too much variance compared to something like KTK due a considerable increase to bombs and spells). We opened our pool and built 3 decks. Mardu control, Temur Combo, and Jeskai Tempo. We gave Temur a 7.5/10, Jeskai a 6.5-7/10, and Mardu like a 5/10.
Mardu was weak, the removal suite didn't have any real way to kill off the biggest of creatures which was problematic. Burn away was our top end burn and the creatures in that deck weren't that great either (only an Archfiend of Depravity was a real threat).
Temur (my deck) was really combo-centric. It involved getting a 4 power creature on board (of which I had many), fighting them with my opponent's creatures for removal (2x hunt, 1x punch) and burst them down with 2x Battle rage and pump spells.
Jeskai had almost its entire creature suite with prowess creatures (a Monastery Mentor which honestly, does not do as much work as you think). Standard Jeskai base White/Blue.

We finshed 1-2 drop with this pool. As mentioned above, variance is high in this format and the matchups we got paired into were awkward.
Round 1: We narrowly won 2-0. Mardu won 2-0 from purely outplaying his opponent. Temur won 2-1 from close matches vs Mardu bombs. Jeskai went 1-1 (and probably would have lost game 3) vs Trail of Mystery Temur w/ Knuckleblade and Sagu Mauler. Stressful first round, but we pulled through.
Round 2: Lost 0-2. I punted Game 2 vs Mardu warriors (I was already down 0-1) by using Arcbond and Temur Battle-rage on the same guy, wasting my Arcbond that would have won me the game had I still had it in my hand later on. Jeskai lost the mirror match and Mardu was 1-1 vs another Sultai control deck. Our matchups were extremely clunky, and would have been much better with Mardu control vs Mardu warriors, Temur vs Jeskai, and Jeskai vs control.
Round 3: Jeskai lost to UB tempo 0-2, Temur lost to Temur + Ojutai splash 0-2, and Mardu control... ide remember that matchup. Again, variance killed us. I would have loved to play vs UB tempo and Jeskai would just fly over Meandering Towershell and have hard removal for Ojutai.
We were disappointed, but honestly did not expect to make Day 2 with our pool and shitty variance.

After dropping, we just traded and sold bulk shit for cards. Blah blah on to Day 2.

The rest of my team left (they had to drive back down to San Diego) while I stayed for some side events. 20 dollar buy in for On-demand drafts, I attended 2 drafts. I had no prior experience in FRF draft, so I was expecting the worst.
Draft 1: Read some signals, got passed 2 Reach the Shadows, and went BW midrange splash green for some sideboard and sagu archer. Drafted a lot more morphs than I would have, but I pack 3 windmilled a Ghostfire Blade.
Set 1, paired vs Sultai + splash for crater's claw. Curved out amazingly vs him game 1, game 2 i died to creater's claw and a weak mull to 6 (no mana), and game 3 he mulled to 5 when I curved out again.
Set 2, I played a fast 2-0 vs a mediocre sultai deck which was just too slow for me.
Set 3, I lost to sultai control + splash for 2 abzan guides. His deck was insane and the powerlevel was extremely high.
Draft 2: No real powerhouse cards, just solid synergy with Blue/white evasion tempo. A ton of fliers, 2 Mystic of the Hidden ways as my win cons, and a ton of blue and white tempo cards.
Set 1: Played vs Sultai. His deck never really drew the right answers to my unblockables and fliers, and my clock got there. Quick 2-0.
Set 2: vs Jeskai based Red/Blue splash white for Flying Crane Technique. Game 1 I got there with enough fliers and outtempoed her. Game 2 a real grinder, I was at 9, she was at 1. I waterwhirled her dude back to her hand, which got mindswiped for 4, then played deflecting palm on my 5 power Mystic, killing me. Was really tight game and was super interesting. Game 3, I mulled to 5, and kept 4x land + smite the monstrous. I thought surely it was over. But she drafted very few creatures, and the creatures which she did have I had answers for the entire game. My clock got there and she was also about to mill herself out with Monastery Siege. Game 3, crushed a green/white aggro player 2-0 who played 2x siegecraft (???). I questioned his play to which he responded, "THESE ARE AMAZING". ok man, I mean they got you to the finals so I guess I can't comment.

260 Tix from winnings and a playmat, but I already got the playmat from the main event, so I traded a guy my playmat for 100 tix. 350 for a Vendillion Clique and 10 tix got my a Fate Reforged pack... a pack I will never forget. Inside contained a foil Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, approx 82 dollars. I turned around and sold it for 75 dollars and bought some more modern cards with it.