Why you would play that many myr and then not play the myr galvanizer is beyond my comprehension. Also myr galvanizer interacts with heavy arbalest.

Your mana curve was a mess. You have no 3 drops (another reason to play the galvanizers). Fume Spitter was a somewhat silly card as it only interacts with contagion clasp and you are not playing an aggressive deck where removing a 1/1 creature would help you win the game.

1) You tended to not understand your cards well which is why you sacrificed your necrotic ooze for nothing. You played individual cards rather than a deck. If you were playing a deck with a plan you would've prepared better for using the ooze. Ooze with removal is great. You can grasp a masticore and then zap your opponent to death for example. INstead you just threw cards together with no plan which was why there was poison in there.

Given your high artifact count, the sunchaser would've fit into your deck as you were certain to achieve metalcraft even with removal from the other guy. Also you had a ton of mana myrs. With the galvanizers you had a way to really ramp into big spells. What's expensive in your pool? Playing and equipping heavy arbalest, mindslaver, and untamed might (when ramped). I probably would've tried to see if I could play all 3 (you should have played a splahs of green anyways) for sylvok replica as you have no shatter effects and this format is full of artifact bombs. Not playing Kemba was silly. A 2/4 for 3 is a fine creature and a decent blocker. With 2 equipment that are good enough to play on their own already, you would've had a card advantage machine in many cases, and a solid creature in all cases.

My changes would have been

-1 Fume Spitter
-2 Chrome Steed
-1 Wall of Tanglechord
-1 Silver Myr (too many 2 drops)

+1 Sylvok Replica
+2 Myr Galvanizer
+1 Bladed Pinions
+1 auriok sunchaser

Change your mana pool to add 1 or 2 forest to play the sylvok. (yes it's worth it because you really do need the shatter and you have on-color-myrs in your main colors for fixing already).

SB plan would have been to ditch the sunchaser against poison decks for the wall as an obvious move. Ditching metalcraft-dependent cards against removal deck is also a good idea.

So what's your plan here? Plan A is to simply ramp into chrome steed and skinrender on turn 3 with your mana myrs and get in some damage. Your end game will be your fliers (your hippo, angel, and bladed pinions-equipped ground pounder). You would have multiple side plans. Plan B is heavy arbalest ramped into with your mana myr whcih wiht galvanizer would zap people twice a turn for 4. Plan C is using your good removal suite to make your necrotic ooze awesome. Kill their bloodshot trainee. Remove a creature on their board every turn. Kill their steel hellkite with the sylvok then have your bladed-pinions equipped ooze wipe their board. Etc. Etc. Plan D is equipping your Kemba and making a ton of kitties and just alpha striking for the win. Plan E is getting your tempered steel out which with a myr galvanizer out would turn yoiur crappy mana myrs into chrome steeds.

Your sealed pool was pretty awesome. You just needed to think about the interactions between your cards and build a deck with synergy.

2) It's not about whether you think you're better or worse than an opponent. You need to respect the cards. Magic is like poker in this aspect. Crappy players only look at their hand. Mediocre players think about what their opponents have. Great players think about what their opponents think they have. For example, great players like brad nelson will not play a 3rd land on their 3rd turn because he wants his opponent to think he is mana screwed and shatter his myr instead of the steel hellkite he has in hand.

In that respect, you should strive to be at least a decent player for the time being and at least and worry about what an opponent could have. Usually its pretty easy, just expect them to have at least one piece of removal at least and see if you can play arond it. That will solve over 50% of misplays in my opinion.

That's my advice. If you want to elevate your play some more go read Patrick Chapin's next level magic or something.

You sound like you've gotten into a common rut for players who have played the game a long time, and feel like they should be better than they truly are. I'm still trying to work my way out of it, as well. Your friend gave you some good, honest advice that really sums it up.

There's a sense of entitlement that comes from having played a game like this for a long time, that often isn't particularly appropriate. Even if you've played since Revised, if you're not actively trying to get better ad learn from your mistakes (or paying attention enough to know when you're making them), then you're just going to plateau and be the same mediocre player for the rest of your career.

I do agree with you, though – writing things like this (as painful as it may be), is a way to improve. You force yourself to examine what you did wrong, and hopefully remember to avoid it in the future. Bravo, and better luck in the future.