With the prevalence of unapologetic Midrange decks in the current Standard format, such as B/W Midrange, B/W Control, U/W Control, R/G Monsters and Jund Midrange, I knew it would be wise to gear up for the game day 9 Aug 14 against these types of decks. A few hours after my FNM the previous night, I decided on a BUG Midrange list featuring, among others Genesis Hydra. With the effectiveness of U/W Control and variants (including the vaunted USA Control) against midrange decks, I knew I needed a method around counterspells. My solution was Genesis Hydra and Mistcutter Hydra. Once I had my win condition against control established, I needed to emulate it against the majority of other decks I would face. For that, I adopted a favoured Golgari tactic, and so I just tried to pack as much bare removal as I could while keeping to my colours. At this stage I hadn't considered any blue spells at all, though I had access to the right Temples and M15 dual lands. (Point of fact: four of each Llanowar Wastes and Yavimaya Coast are all the M15 dual lands I have.) It pretty much confirmed my descent into Blue for the event. At least that gave me access to some much-needed tempo in the form of Prophet of Kruphix and Simic Charm, the blue component of the deck. From there it was just logical to round out my creatures with Elvish Mystic and Sylvan Caryatid playsets for ramp and Reaper of the Wilds for early game pressure. Running a full four Golgari Charms was a last minute decision. Originally I had two of each Curse of the Swine and Desecration Demon (I know, right?). But, luckily for me, common sense prevailed and I realized I needed protection against wrath and spot destruction, so the regenerative properties of the Charm were necessary. So, that completed my list and I was ready to hit the store, knowing I was toting the big guns for basically all matches.
The sideboard is basically what you'd expect, just playsets of Dissolve, Cancel, and three of each Negate and Essence Scatter. There was also a singleton In Garruk's Wake. I never actually had to sideboard since I didn't find a control matchup at all. Actually, only four players were running U/W Control decks out of twenty-five or so players there. There was also another player running BUG, but his was a straight counter/mill strategy. That was a fun game to watch. Someone also played a Gate deck, going top four with it. Now that was something else, B/W Gates could be a thing for the next month or so.
For the record, I don't know what place a got, but I went 4/1, losing to a stupidly fast R/W Aggro Aura deck, 0-2. Mostly I was going 2-1, with a couple of 2-0 results in there. I think I got at least 80% though. Not bad at all for a deck whipped together in about three hours. It just goes to show that with a little thought and time, anybody can come up with something nobody would expect to do well at all.
Like with any Green strategy, there's a good deal of ramp with the fairly obvious critters taking the lead role. Though this is hardly a Devotion deck, so not an overly large portion of ramp exists, 8 curved sources really does get the ball rolling, especially when one is a turn-one bomb and the other is a two-drop superfix. Just make sure you're opening had has at least two land and one ramp engine. That's just the way the deck seems to work best.
Once a solid hypercurved mana base is sorted out, then begin to focus on establishing a solid defence. Don't worry if you've been hit once or twice, just go at it with whatever you have, meaning removal OR creatures.
Past turn four is when the deck truly kicks off. The optimum strategy is to drop either a Mistcutter for full, or a Genesis for full if you have either of them, as spearhead for a fairly speedy assault. Buy then you should have no problem sending in your rampers to sneak through or absorb blockers. You should have a good enough mana base to use removal once a turn or so, followed by a heavy hitter or two.
Past turn eight, I can't really say. Most games didn't last that long.
That's all I've got for now. I'll bring up a more comprehensive player's guide soon!
Cheerio and happy hunting!