As luck would have it, the tournament report lives on in Google documents!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1z-LlYGM2GmgKm2Jnb9wuUUYTMttIkLy5Z13Y0IqVBGA/edit?usp=sharing

My favorite trick lately is boring, but effective:

"Something Between Us"
When an opponent's mage or creature is causing trouble, and you want it gone for a while, how do you get rid of it?  For 8 mana I love to Force Push something, and then put up a Wall of Thorns or Wall of Earth.  The thing is now effectively 3 squares away since it will have to go around the wall.  Sometimes it's worth the extra 3 mana to put them through a Wall of Thorns.  They can walk back through such a wall, but once again it will take their whole action and it won't do anything until the next turn.

I have found it can also work very well if the square in question isn't important to just walk away and throw up a wall between your mage and the square they were just in.  This saves the Force Push and 3 mana.

Now I'm wondering what the median numbers are, instead of mean.

Yeah, that's interesting too.  Clearly, some cards are important to a specific play style, so the mean is thrown off by high counts from some constituency or other.  Obviously, at some level every card choice is contextual, but still the median might be very revealing.  I'm not going to go back and do it, but based on my notes can make a close approximation.  (When the median is 0 or 1, I "round" up):
1 Geyser
3 level 1 attack spells
2 level 2 attack spells

1 Battle Forge
1 Mana Crystal
1 Mordiok's Obelisk

1 Devouring Jelly

1 Enfeeble
1 Jinx
1 Magebane
2 Nullify

2 torso armor
1 Elemental Cloak
1 Leather Boots
1 Leather Gloves
1 Regrowth Belt

3 Dispel
3 Dissolve
1 Force Push
1 Purge Magic
1 Purify
1 Seeking Dispel
2 Teleport

Wow.  Of all the methodologies, this definitely produces the list that most captures the "consensus" good cards.

Since Shad0w has helpfully posted the top books from GenCon 2014, I thought it would be interesting to look at the spells the top 4 books had in common.  (I remember way back there was a topic of common spells that all books should have, and I thought this was an interesting way of examining the question.)

The following are spells found in all 4 books:
1x Geyser
1x big attack (Hurl Boulder/Fireball)
1x spawnpoint (Lair/ Battle Forge/ Wizard's Tower/ Gate to Voltari)
1x torso armor (Bearskin/ Dragonscale Hauberk/ Stormdrake Hide)
1x Leather Boots
2x Dispel
1x Seeking Dispel
2x Dissolve (& +1 Dissolve or Acid Ball)
2x Teleport
2x healing sources

I think it's safe to say every book should 100% have those.  (Though possibly Teleports could be Force Pushes?)  It seemed to me a few cards that are very good got skipped because one person did something unusual.  So, I tallied all copies between the spellbooks to find a ratio per book:

1.75 Acid Ball
1.25 Geyser
3.50 level 1 attack spell (Arc Lightning / Jet Stream / Hurl Rock / Flameblast / Surging Wave)
2.75 level 2 attack spell (Fireball / Hurl Boulder / Lightning Bolt / Thunder Bolt)

1.25 Mana Crystal
0.75 Mordiok's Obelisk
2.50 spawnpoint
1.25 wall

2.25 level 1 creature
1.00 level 2 creature
1.25 level 3 creature

0.75 Harmonize
0.75 Hawkeye
2.00 Nullify
1.00 Rhino Hide

2.00 torso armor
1.00 Elemental Cloak
1.25 Elemental Wand
1.00 Leather Boots
0.75 Leather Gloves
1.25 Mage Wand
1.25 Suppression Cloak

3.75 Dispel
3.75 Dissolve
1.25 Force Push
0.75 Minor Heal
0.75 Purge Magic
0.75 Purify
2.00 Seeking Dispel
2.25 Teleport

1.75 passive healing (Renewing Spring / Regrowth / Regrowth Belt / Sunfire Amulet / Wand of Healing)

I think some of the counts are skewed heavily by having 3 Wizards in the top 4 (attack spells, conjurations, and enchantments), but that in other areas the card counts seem like a very good general rule of thumb (equipment, incantations).

I hope this was interesting for everyone!

Edit:

Some people asked for a report on the Top 8, so I'm adding it below.

Spells appearing in 100% of top 8 spellbooks:

1x big attack (Hurl Boulder/Fireball/Force Hammer)
1x spawnpoint
1x torso armor
2x Dispel
2x Dissolve
1x Teleport
2x healing sources

Ratios of popular spells to Top 8 books:
1.25 Acid Ball
2.37 level 1 attack (not including acid ball)
2.00 level 2 attack

1.25 Battle Forge
2.37 mana manipulation (5 Mana Crystal, 1 Mana Siphon, 5 Mordiok's Obelisk, 3 Harmonize, 6 rings, 1 Psi-Orb)
1.00 spawnpoint (1 Gate to Voltari , 1 Lair, 1 Libro Morous, 5 Wizard's Tower)
1.25 wall

1.12 level 1 creature
1.62 level 2 creature
1.37 level 3 creature

1.87 Nullify

0.87 Leather Boots
1.75 torso armor
2.25 sources of healing (Drain Life, Healing Spring, Wand of Healing, Regrowth, Regrowth Belt, Minor Heal, Sunfire Amulet)

3.25 Dispel
3.37 Dissolve + Explode (25 Dissolve, 2 Explode)
1.50 Force Push
1.62 Seeking Dispel
2.12 Teleport

Hmm, pretty interesting!  Good idea Wildhorn.

@Schwenkgott:
I think a priestress with a temple of asyra, some knights for guard action, valshalla and some clerics would bring you in a world of pain.

For a little while I abandoned the Beastmaster because I had a few bad games against Priestess.  She has one of the better economies (Temple + Cleric), and some very good creatures, including flyers, archers, and guards that can one shot an unbuffed bird.  I've also found a heal at just the right time can be very frustrating in throwing off combat math (much like Etherian Lifetree messes with it).

I think Valshalla might be overkill/too expensive/Banish bait, but I agree the rest of it may be very well positioned.

A Warlord with a fast Crimson with akiros favor could have the same effect: A dead falcon every round.
Sorry, I looked at the Spell Database, and I can't figure it out.  What is Crimson?

@RingKichard:
I'm a bit amused that your PlanA/PlanB called for Ooze vs. double move.  Aviary was always double move, with Lair only revealed on final quickcast.  Obviously, this might not have been what you meant, or could be adapted to with a game of testing, but funny all the same.    (Good catch jacksmack!)

@Biblofilter & Boomfrog:
Yeah, building a Mana Crystal or Battle Forge at NC/B2 to block the Lair is interesting.  The down side is that it's going to take a bunch of "free" hits from birds as they go from the Lair location to B2 to get in position to attack NG/A1.  However, I think it's generating mana (and tempo in the case of the forge), as well as life, and could be worth it.  Clever tactic, whether it turns out to be good enough or not.

I wonder if it's better to put the Lair at FC/B3 or A3 after that?  (Assuming Beastmaster stats at C4 here.)  I guess probably A3 since A1 is still within 2 moves, and everywhere is within 4 moves.

I really like the first Blood Demon as a Blood Reaper.  12 mana and 4 life to get a 6 dice attack (with Bloodthirsty) on a mobile and difficult to kill mid creature is nice.  The 2 life gain each time it deals damage puts your Warlock in a nice position to race vs. other aggressive plans.

 The subsequent copies of Blood Demon are a bit inefficient, they take a longer time for their mana cost to be paid off in damage.  If your book is going to go this long, you're going to need a Battleforge and defenses for your mage to turn it into more of a survival game.

I personally would want to go in on curses and fire spells after the first demon, and mostly make it a race that you should win due to your effective +2 life regen over your opponent?

So... um... is Shad0w like ... dead?