Always Know The Enemy
Right now, your biggest enemy is Stompy. So before I move on to other decks, I'm going to look at the composition of successful Stompy decks, see what makes them tick and hopefully figuring out what the best configuration is. At the end of the article are the decklists of the six Stompy decks that won during the first week of States, and I'm going to use them as a base.
First, the core of the deck (52 cards): 4 Albino Troll
I don't think there should be much argument about these cards. These creatures are just too undercosted not to play. Three Lyrists may or may not be enough, but you definitely want at least that many. You don't want to go overboard with Uktabi either, because it's a little expensive and you don't want redundant copies you can't use. It's less of a concern now that you don't have Cursed Scroll, since there's no longer the danger of having them actually stuck in your hand, so if there are a lot of artifacts in your local metagame, it makes perfect sense to start all four. There's also no agreement on the last few lands in the deck. Without Wasteland, running all four Cradles is more risky than it used to be. But looking at the base we already have, there's no question that the huge mana payoff of the card is worth sometimes getting stuck with two. The problem here is if you either have trouble getting the basic Forest to get started, or no longer have any use for that much mana. Thirteen forests is enough for me together with Village, so I think the fourth Cradle should be in the deck unless your curve stays incredibly low. There is certainly a point where the deck becomes too fast for the Cradle, and the Extended version of Stompy is way beyond that point.
In addition to Rancor and Giant Growth, are the other non-creature spells worth it? The only ones I think are worth considering in the main deck are other similar cards. Running "sleepers" in the main deck will only give you less consistency and give your opponent the chance to slow you down. Running Creeping Mold or Splinter main I also consider a mistake. With Thwart ready in most blue decks to stop you from killing Masticore, and few other decks containing really problematic cards you can get rid of like this, it will almost always be better to run either a big creature or another pumping card in its place. Similarly, Plow Under also doesn't make sense with a curve this small, compared to dropping a big creature or Might of Oaks. This deck is better off running player removal. So I consider the choices to be only Blanchwood Armor, Might of Oaks and Invigorate. Clearly Symbiosis (which one player used) isn't as good as Invigorate. The other possibility is Crop Rotation, which would also make the deck use Yavimaya Hollow. I think this deck gets into too many situations where the Rotation isn't useful enough, and you're already short on space, but I could be wrong. The Treetop Villages combine to eliminate Blanchwood Armor from consideration; the Villages are too good to give up, and the two don't mix. So Might of Oaks or Invigorate? Invigorate is already big enough to win a normal creature combat, but Might of Oaks is much better player removal. You probably want a mix to increase your sideboard options, give yourself more options when you draw one of each and to keep your opponents guessing. I'd say twelve spells is this deck's practical limit before you start to lose too much from the creature base, so I'd run two of each. That makes the deck 56 cards already. I can't think of a good reason that the first Yavimaya Hollow isn't a good idea, and I also think the fourth Treetop Village belongs. That gives the deck twenty lands. You would like very much to use Rishadan Port as well, or even Dust Bowl, but you just can't afford to run enough lands to use both Port and enough basic Forests.
The last two slots seem like they belong to a big creature. The reasonable options are Weatherseed Treefolk, Rushwood Elemental, Masticore and Megatherium. Given that this deck will normally be holding 1-2 cards for later, Megatherium isn't as good as the others. It's a little cheaper in the right situation, but with so few copies you can afford to pay for quality here. By the same token, you don't want more than you need. Rushwood Elemental basically has to be removed by absolute removal, but can be taken care of by a lot of cards that can't get rid of Weatherseed Treefolk for very long. And if the Treefolk stays on the table it too will win the game in short order. The exceptions are when you're facing off against control's big creatures: Masticore, Morphling and Palinchron, and against Wildfire. The Rushwood can solve these problems, and Treefolk can't. On the other side of the coin, black removal and quickly-used red removal will kill the Elemental but will only stall the Treefolk. The key question is which of these cards are going to appear in the decks you need help against. Blue is generally an easy match (and the edge isn't all that large anyway because of Treachery), the others are not. Again I think this decision comes down to what you expect to face, but overall I'd say the Treefolk have the edge for me. They present a much more unique challenge than just another big creature to remove. So now the main deck is complete:
Note that you should be prepared to deal with all the possibilities mentioned above, and maybe even some others. Because the deck is all about beatdown, it can afford to be built somewhat sub-optimally and it will still do reasonably well. That makes it dangerous at the lower levels of play.
Now to determine the sideboard. One thing all green players fear is Perish and other black removal, even more so now that Stompy is known to be the most popular deck. Its second fear is the mirror matchup, which the main deck has given less attention to than it probably should have. Clearly, versions with Masticore will have some advantage in the mirror even though I think they'll do a little worse overall. The third fear is still Bargain, which is just so fast that everyone has to worry about it. In fact, decks with very good activated abilities like Albino Troll and Llanowar Elves were using Cursed Totem in their sideboards. That may strike you as a little much, but what other choices are there to combat Bargain?
To deal with the black removal you need Thran Lens or Distorting Lens. Thran stops Perish, Distorting helps against Perish and taps to counter any other black removal spell. Which is better? This version fears Perish a lot. However, Thran Lens doesn't do anything in multiples. So after the first two I would start with Distorting Lens. In a version with more artifact creatures or a higher curve I would be even more inclined to side with the Distorting Lens.
The mirror matchup us something you really need to test to understand sideboarding for. Back during testing for PT: NY 1999 we concluded that the right strategy was to out-mana your opponent. Problem is, the mana curve has gotten too small to make that strategy viable without also sideboarding in things worth casting with all that mana. In addition to all that, you have to consider Titania's Chosen. The best big creature is obviously going to be Masticore, which also solves a lot of other problems. Two Uktabis go in the sideboard almost by assumption as well.
So right now, we already have: 2 Thran Lens, 4 Titania's Chosen, 2 Masticore, 2 Uktabi Orangutan. There are only five slots left. Enchantment removal is still missing, so add 2 Tranquil Grove. The last three slots are a metagame call between the various remaining threats: Distorting Lens, Cursed Totem, Thran Foundry, Priest of Titania (works wonders in the mirror; if you go this route, up the rest of the curve slightly). Defense Grid is also possible, but ideally, blue is a good enough matchup that you don't need to target it like that. More Uktabis should be enough.
Now, Stompy is not my area of expertise, and I dislike creature rushes in general. Also, my decision to "split the difference" in the one place that mattered was the opposite of what I tell most people for the Clinic: The first thing I do to most decks after adjusting the lands is I take out the cards that aren't as good for more copies of the better ones. This was an exception due to the need for flexibility and unpredictability, but in general there needs to be good reason for a deck not to be mostly a string of "fours."
I highly recommend looking at the six decks below, to get a feel for the kinds of personal variants different people play.
The best reason of all to avoid Stompy is that the mirror matchup is all about three things: Drawing better, going first, and devoting more sideboard and maindeck cards to it. I wouldn't look foreward to that at all.
The Champions (Congratulations all!):
Sean Broughton - Idaho
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Scott Simmons (Kansas)
Clayton Morris (Oklahoma!)
James Casey (Pennsylvania)
Amanda McIntosh (Wyoming)
Adam Perry (Manitoba)