I have play testing a list similar to the one Ravenrei posted and Chandra's Phoenix is extremely helpful against Esper. The fact that they can't Thoughtseize it away is super relevant. They also have to have to syncopate or detention sphere, to properly deal with it. By itself it can create card advantage as well as provide early consistent pressure. It also synergizes well with steam augury.
Really its just being willing to travel to stores in distance and find the ones that sell at msrp as others have said. It also is nice to go other stores once and a while for fnm's just to expand your trading area.
I Honestly see him as more of a control/midrange card for standard. With decks like Naya Blitz casting a Farseek can prove deadly. He will allow you to bog the board state down long enough to stabilize and take control. In older formats however he will be used in aggro decks. I can see him as a amazing card in a list optimized for him, however overall I see him as a 2/2 bear with some abilities that can be amazing.
I am glad I am not the only one seeing messed up drafts. Though I have to disagree greatly on Dimir, It has been my most successful guild to draft. Hands of binding is really effective at stalling out a aggro strategy. Wight of precinct six with paranoid delusions is insanely good. I think right now people are just drafting horribly, because its a new set so some guilds look better and worse based on it.
I played gruul for 3 prereleases went to 10-2 the whole weekend. The only deck I lost to was Dimir. That guild is a lot stronger in paper then I thought. The only issue I noted was the lack of removal. If I were to draft it, I think I would put higher priority to removal then normal. The advantage I found most useful in playing gruul is, since all the common/uncommon creatures have blood rush creature quality is mostly a non-issue.
I focused mainly on being fast and curving from 2-4 drops. Mixing in some boros creatures though helps a lot. Firefist striker combined with act of treason is brutal to slower decks trying to stabilize. The people I noticed having the biggest issue, were people trying hold their blood rush guys in hand trying to wait for alpha strikes.
I think the real problem is you need to play blue and have access to counter magic. You need to be able to protect yourself from wrath effects and fog/charm. The other problem is a lot of the exalted creatures you can play are very weak x/1's. In this meta your opponents creatures will be bigger so you will lose on blocks. This does not even include the fact supreme verdict can not be countered.
I can't give you any input for turn one plays but I love using elvish visionary for turn two. It gives me a blocker early and replaces itself. This deck tends to be top heavy so using elvish visionary alleviates it a bit.
I would add loxodon smiter and call of the conclave for w/g. You may want to change out the avenging arrows for selesnya charm. You are really only worried about creatures that outclass your threats. If you went more green you could also run strangleroot geist.
I could see it in a delver list since it achieves a lot of things like card draw and by time. Being a instant wouldn't help it since you would lose the free swing the detain gives you. It also fills up the bin for pike.
I like him in lists that run blood artists, he also interacts favorably with harvester of souls. If your opponent is sacking a creature every turn to keep him from attacking and you can not take advantage of that fact, you deserve to lose.
Your mana base looks shaky to try and play 4 drops and have most your creatures be 3 drops or greater. For your one drops why did you chose slitherhead over say diregraf or radkos crackler?
For sideboard consider knight of infamy, golgari charm, deathrite shaman, and possibly appetite for brains. The knight will help against bant/selesnya decks and dodges all their removal. Golgari charm out of the board has a ton of applications depending on matchups. Deathrite shaman in mirror matches and against any control/snapcaster style deck does work. Without there being dismember and gut shot 1 drops got a whole lot better. Apetite is nice because it gets rid of a lot of things you just hate to see and is disruptive like thragtusk and planeswalkers.
I focused mainly on being fast and curving from 2-4 drops. Mixing in some boros creatures though helps a lot. Firefist striker combined with act of treason is brutal to slower decks trying to stabilize. The people I noticed having the biggest issue, were people trying hold their blood rush guys in hand trying to wait for alpha strikes.
For sideboard consider knight of infamy, golgari charm, deathrite shaman, and possibly appetite for brains. The knight will help against bant/selesnya decks and dodges all their removal. Golgari charm out of the board has a ton of applications depending on matchups. Deathrite shaman in mirror matches and against any control/snapcaster style deck does work. Without there being dismember and gut shot 1 drops got a whole lot better. Apetite is nice because it gets rid of a lot of things you just hate to see and is disruptive like thragtusk and planeswalkers.