The fight for better performance is a battle of wits: your mind, your intelligence, and your honor pitted against the less-than-dependable whims of the Query Optimizer. But alas, the arbitrary rewrites and clunky hints leveraged by most developers to get around optimization deficiencies make things feel less like a proper duel and more like a skirmish at the sandbox. To truly engage your enemy you must comprehend his inner workings, and in the case of the Query Optimizer, that means you must delve into the mysteries of "row goals." These internal metrics are tracked and enforced within Top iterators--and they exhibit a considerable amount of influence over plan shape and flow, both at compile time and as your query runs. Attend this session to learn how to take charge of optimization, expertly mold your query plans, and gain a new set of tools for eliminating bottlenecks in even your most complex problem queries. En garde!