My MTT tactic

This is for freerolls, since that's what I play.

What I usually do is try to get some chips with cheap flops in the beginning trying to catch some good cards. I don't really start playing until the blinds go up to a decent level - at least one tenth of the original stack.

Then I start blind-stealing. I raise 3x BB without limpers and 4x BB with one limper. I pretty much do this with any two cards. Since I was playing pretty tight in the beginning I might get some respect... nah, who am I kidding? I probably moved to another table at least twice now. Well people fold anyway. I do this in late position only. When I get a caller I just try to catch a piece of the flop. ANYTHING. Third button? Good enough! Someone with a stack of 1000 chips feels commited to the pot after they call 300 chips pre-flop.
Of course I rely on my reading ability to acess the texture of the flop... but third button is usually good enough because my opponent most likely holds two big cards. When I see big cards on the flop third button is no longer good of course.
Now most of the time I don't catch anything. That's fine. I break even on the steals anyway. The fact that my chips increase is due to implied odds. People call my big raise on the flop with ace high when I have a pair and I'm 80% favorite to win by the showdown. And then they are REALLY committed.
This of course involves checking it down to the end when I don't hit anything. Although I call down some habitual bluffers with ace high :)
I then try to make it into the money by playing super-tight. On pokerchamps the 5 dollar big prize is nothing compared to the dollar I make by being in the top 28. I can make one dollar, what, ten times for each time I get first place? I'll just take the dollar. Although there's no way I'm folding AK, and pocket pairs better than JJ (unless it's right on the bubble and I have to go all-in)