wow, my first topic!
i want to talk about the deck played by Becker, Klep and others at Roanoke, slightly modified by me to play in a tournament here in italy, obv. with a different meta.
i have no intentions to steal any of the merit about the designing of this deck, i waited for some time to see if the mentioned people would have posted, but i wanted to talk about what i found to be a funny to play and powerful deck. for the above persons, feel free to intervene and anything.

first the original list for not having to go back to the report by JD:

    Gro-A-Thing
4x Dark Confidant
4x Quirion Dryad
2x Jotun Grunt

4x Force Of Will
3x Misdirection
1x Gush
1x Ancestral
1x Time Walk
1x Mystical
1x DT
2x Orim's Chant
4x Duress
3x Merchant Scroll
1x Wipe Away
1x Yawgmoth's Will
4x Brainstorm
1x Regrowth

4x Flooded Strand
4x Polluted Delta
2x Tropical Island
2x Underground Sea
2x Tundra
1x Scrubland
2x City OF Brass
4x On color Mox
1x Black Lotus

SB:
4x Seal OF Cleansing
3x Sacred Ground
2x Tormod's Crypt
2x Trygon Predator
2x Threads Of Disloyalty
1x STP
1x Darkblast

you can see the pretty interactions between jotun and merchant+ancestral or gush, the confidant providing a constant flux of cards to keep the dryad growing and the general look of the old Gro.

before playing it i adapted it to my meta and p9 availability (sapphire ancestral walk).
here the deck choices with a few motivations and comments

      4c Gro
4x Dark Confidant
4x Quirion Dryad
3x Jotun Grunt

i wanted another grunt expecting to use it sometimes as a 2 turn wall vs aggressive decks when i hadn't a dryad out or enough cards in the graveyard

4x Force Of Will
3x Daze
3x Misdirection
3x Duress

i cutted 1Duress and the Chants because i was aware of the small presence of gifts and combo and 'cause i founded it to be an awful topdeck in 4x. i added the daze but i found it to be suboptimal without mana denial. in the future and in more powerful contest i might want to revert to the original or try something else

4x Brainstorm
3x Opt
1x DT
3x Merchant Scroll
1x Gush
1x Ancestral
1x Time Walk

i cutted the card disvantage tutors and the YWill for not having access to Lotus and for presaging short and  intense matches. i added 3 opt to help hit land drop (my mana base is more terrible than the original, you'll see it soon) at instant speed and cycle through the deck. i considered serum visions but it was sorcery and also intuition/ak like the old GroATog but was too mana intensive for my manabase (again on this...)

1x Wipe Away
1x Rushing River

i added another tutorable bounce that worked well with its double target option: i founded useful to bounce oath+angel at the same time or to remove 2 blockers while growing my dryad, and it was another tool to escape chalice at 2

4x Flooded Strand
4x Polluted Delta
3x Tropical Island
3x Underground Sea
2x Tundra
1x Island
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Diamond
1x Lotus Petal

the bad part: i played the poor's man accelleration and cutted the CoB in favour of 2 duals for not wanting to damage myself more with already 8 fetches. i added the basic island for mana stability (sounds funny!) and cutted the scrubland for running the daze.

SB:
3x Oxidize
3x Sacred Ground
3x STP
1x Darkblast
2x Ray of Revelation
3x Meddling Mage

here there are the majour changes: i cutted the 4Seal fearing an unanswerable chalice at 2 where i couldn't even scroll for bounce, so i diversified (does it exists?) to oxidize for artifact and, having access to both G and W, to Ray for oath. i kept the sacred ground for stax if it showed and more probably for post side crucible out of fish and hate decks. i dropped the crypt as i upped the grunts main. i went with 3+1 removal for the various creatures i was foreseeing to met and lastly i added 3 meddling mage versus the less traditional combo i saw at the tournament

---thoughts about the deck (put down in disorder)---

-trickbind, that is tutorable, in the side versus combo and gift? versus the latter you can usually race the TPC if it's not very fast so trickbind or stifle could make the day

-post side we have a lot of white, so maybe we can cut the island for the 3rd tundra?

-i never felt like losing to manascrew or wastes was a concern. i kept my fetchlands alive until the last moment i needed to cast something and saved them with plays like these: he fetches, i fetch in responses, he stifles i misdirect the stifle on his fetch's triggered GG

-the opt are not very powerful but they are instants,help find more fuel for the dryad, are blue cards and help hit land drop. what can we have in their place?

-how can we improve the manabase? more basic? gemstone or cities again?

-i understand that renouncing to YWill it's a huge handicap, but with grunt and scroll i casted my ancestral like more than once per game on average, sometime even thrice plus two gushes in the same game.

-i tried fastbond and founded it to be controversial, broken sometimes esp with gush, crappy with a light manabase. the daze made him more useful than normal, but what do you think?

thank you for the attention, props again for klep, becker and sonataotc and i'm eager to hear your thoughts
for everyone, feel free to comment also about the structure of my post, i'm not touchy...

dear duncan, i have to agree with you. right now i'm preparing for this or next sunday's tournament and i'm having the following changes:
-1 lotus petal/+1 cotv
sideboard:
2 cow
2 seal of cleansing
2 ray of revelation
3 energy flux (or kataki?)
2 stp
3 jotun grunt/t crypt?
1 stifle

i'm looking for the following switch, any suggestions appreciated,
 
gift/dark gift
 +2 cow,+1 stifle/-1 repeal,-2 mental note
 i expect the game to go long and i want to deny their mana, chanting against drain, or if  they get a fast mana start against gift or rebuild

oath
 +2 seal,+2 ray,+1 stifle/-2mental note,-2 ninja,-1 misdirection if they play classic i expect sss so out 2stp in the note

stax build
 +2cow,+2seal,+3energy flux,+3 jotun grunt,+1 stifle(what a mess)/-2 misdirection,-4 mmage,-gush,-2 mental note,-2 daze
 many cards, too many maybe but it's though. the best are the werebear for beating and mana and the stifle

fish
 +2cow,+2stp,+2 seal+1stifle/-2ninja,-4chalice,-1daze
 chant against jotun grunt and keep jitte to no counter and you win easy.remenber mental note tricks for threshold out of nowhere

tps-pitch,grim
 +1 stifle,+3jotun/-2 ninja,-1repeal,-1rushing river
 remember to sword your own 4/4 to stay alive, often they duress you out stifle. with jotun eat only their grave unless it's letal cause they could bring massacre

this is all, hope to have been useful with this review. feel free to comment and correct, i'm in no way an expert nor a touchy

hi duncan
 many of my meta consist of unpowered deck (mainly wu-tang and even gayfish, and also mono-B and FCG!!!) or dark gift that wins often via rebuild, both are not very fast barred some insane draws.
i found myself casting chalice@1 quite as often as at0 and versus gift i think my magi are more powerful (that's the reason besides lotus petal, with an early mage against mana drain i actually have more counters and i can deploy chalice or more magi with ease, while denying their mana with waste and stifle.besides, here in italy noone plays CS nor welder anymore, only awful red/green aggro deck) given their need to build storm around jewelry my fast clock of 3/3 and 4/4 is my best weapon.
 about my 2 bounce main i liked the rushing for working around chalice and for giving me the opportunity to bounce 2 (like oath+dude, or 2lock from stax, or remove 2 blockers...) but i felt i needed another over the 3rd s2p to manage my own chalice, bounce their jewelry back, recast my magi and, as i said, i didn't wanted my spell forked back to me.
 for the oath matchup, here classical oath has faded in favor of tyrant oath, so my +2swords and chalice are worthyer (it exist in english?) than the ray that i too played in the past.
 sorry for having so many card choices built around a somehow distorted meta but that's what i found around here.
thanks for the input and see you soon

hi to everyone, this is my 1st post!
back on topic, i tested and played a version of birdshit quite classical
        4 Flooded Strand
        2 Polluted Delta
        1 Island
        3 Tundra
        3 Tropical Island
        4 Wasteland
        1 Strip Mine
        1 Lotus Petal
        1 Mox Sapphire
        4 Meddling Mage
        4 Nimble Mongoose
        3 Werebear
        2 Ninja of the Deep Hours
        3 Chalice of the Void
        2 Swords to Plowshares
        4 Brainstorm
        3 Daze
        2 Stifle
        2 Mental Note
        1 Gush
        1 Repeal
        1 Rushing River
        1 Time Walk
        1 Ancestral Recall
        2 Misdirection
        4 Force of Will
SB:  2 Crucible of Worlds
SB:  2 Swords to Plowshares
SB:  2 Energy Flux
SB:  2 Serenity
SB:  3 Sacred Ground
SB:  1 Chalice of the Void
SB:  3 Null Rod

i played the 3 powers i own (pretty obvious) and was somehow undecided about the number and type of removal/bounce i had to play. in the end i went with 2 s2p and repel over chain, thinking i didn't wanted my magi bounced back, and rriver to exit from the most probable chalice or to bounce two pieces of jewelry to deploy my own chalice.
i wanted to play mongoose and bear to have a decent clock and overrun other fish decks and others based around confidant. the mmagi are awesome and the ninja offered some draw along the process
my side was a bit of unsure also and i think there are better card choices. i liked pretty much the SGround but i think i have to choose betwen them and the cow
thanks for any comment