# Strategy Specifications
## Deck Name And Archetype

- Identity: `Infect Or Hammer` is a Modern white-blue Hammer deck with a rogue hybrid kill profile: it uses the stock `Colossus Hammer` shell of `Esper Sentinel`, `Ornithopter`, `Memnite`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Sigarda's Aid`, `Steelshaper's Gift`, and `Urza's Saga`, but it adds a high-leverage `Inkmoth Nexus` infect creature-land plan that changes combat math, damage replacement, and protection priorities.

- Deck registration: the submitted list validates as 60 main-deck cards and 15 sideboard cards for Modern under the provided active validation contract. There is no Commander registered. Legal `Cut:` names are limited to the listed main-deck cards, and legal `Side in:` names are limited to `Blacksmith's Skill`, `Lavinia, Azorius Renegade`, `March of Otherworldly Light`, `Path to Exile`, `Pithing Needle`, `Relic of Progenitus`, `Sanctifier en-Vec`, `Soul-Guide Lantern`, and the sideboard `Spell Pierce`.

- Archetype status: classify this as hybrid stock-rogue, not pure stock Hammer. The core game plan is recognizable Modern Hammer, but `Inkmoth Nexus` makes some normally acceptable damage-race decisions wrong because an equipped Nexus can threaten poison kills instead of life-total kills, while `Kaldra Compleat`, `Cranial Plating`, `Shadowspear`, and `Urza's Saga` provide non-poison backup pressure.

- Mechanic tags: use `attach/equip timing`, `infect creature-land`, `construct tokens`, `combat math`, `damage replacement`, `edge-case`, and `draft-only` as active strategic tags. Treat `hammer`, `equip timing`, and `combat math` as deck-defining tags for retrieval. Treat `draft-only` and `edge-case` as warnings that the guide should preserve legality/support uncertainty instead of overclaiming engine behavior.

- Legality status: the provided format-aware validation result says the list passes Modern counts and sideboard limits, but the seed still flags unresolved legality/support around Hammer plus `Inkmoth Nexus` and attach/equip handling. Runtime policy must trust rules-engine legal actions over guide assumptions, especially for `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Urza's Saga`, Equipment attachment, creature-land animation, and infect damage assignment.

- Mana identity: the deck is primarily white with blue interaction from `Spell Pierce`, protection from `Surge of Salvation`, and artifact acceleration through `Springleaf Drum`. `Godless Shrine` and `Marsh Flats` give limited black access relevant to `Cranial Plating`'s black activated attachment line if the rules engine exposes it, but the agent must not assume reliable double-black availability; prefer ordinary equip, `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, and `Stoneforge Mystic` attachment lines when those are legal and tactically sound.

- Role concern: the list has only 19 lands if `Inkmoth Nexus` and `Urza's Saga` are counted as lands, plus `Springleaf Drum` and zero-mana creatures for acceleration. Mulligan and sequencing decisions must protect functional mana, a carrier, and an Equipment access route; hands with only colorless lands or no creature to enable `Springleaf Drum` need special scrutiny.

- Opponent information status: no specific opponent, metagame target, or user testing concern is supplied. The guide should make decisions from public information, revealed cards, rules-engine legal actions, current life and poison totals, visible mana, stack contents, known removal windows, and matchup class inferred during play; it must not invent hidden interaction, assume the opponent lacks removal, or name opponent cards inside policy `Cards:` fields unless prefixed as opponent examples elsewhere.

## Thesis

- Priority: `Infect Or Hammer` assembles one protected carrier plus one oversized Equipment path, then converts a narrow combat window into either lethal damage or lethal poison. The ideal game is not a long fair exchange; it is a compressed setup where `Ornithopter`, `Memnite`, `Esper Sentinel`, an `Urza's Saga` Construct token, or animated `Inkmoth Nexus` receives `Colossus Hammer`, `Cranial Plating`, `Shadowspear`, or `Kaldra Compleat` through a legal attach, equip, search, or cheat window.

- Win rule: treat `Inkmoth Nexus` as the deck's highest-upside carrier when infect math makes one combat step decisive, but do not tunnel on poison when a noninfect carrier already presents safer lethal damage. `Colossus Hammer` on `Inkmoth Nexus` can change the kill from life-total pressure to poison pressure, so combat evaluation must track life totals and poison totals separately and must not compare them as the same resource.

- Setup rule: prioritize a keepable mix of mana, carrier, Equipment access, and protection over raw card count. The deck can win from very few cards when `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Steelshaper's Gift`, or `Urza's Saga` connects the right Equipment to the right body, but it stumbles badly when it has Equipment with no carrier, carriers with no payoff, or colorless lands with no white spell access.

- Tactical identity: this is an attach/equip timing deck, not a generic artifact swarm deck. `Memnite` and `Ornithopter` are valuable because they enable fast carriers, `Springleaf Drum`, metalcraft-style board states for `Puresteel Paladin` when supported by rules output, and `Urza's Saga` Construct sizing; they are not meant to be conserved as ordinary attackers if using them creates a protected Hammer line.

- What not to do: do not spend early turns playing a slow midrange game unless forced by disruption. Do not animate `Inkmoth Nexus` just to attack for small poison when that exposes a land, consumes mana needed for `Spell Pierce` or `Surge of Salvation`, or delays a deterministic equip window. Do not fire `Spell Pierce` at low-impact spells when the real loss condition is the opponent interacting with `Colossus Hammer`, `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Inkmoth Nexus`, or the current lethal carrier.

- Runtime guardrail: trust rules-engine legal actions over guide assumptions for all attach, equip, tutor, creature-land, and Equipment-entry interactions. If support metadata is missing for `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Urza's Saga`, `Cranial Plating`, or `Inkmoth Nexus`, keep tactical recommendations conditional and choose only among visible legal actions.

## Role Package

- Threats: `Inkmoth Nexus`, `Ornithopter`, `Memnite`, `Esper Sentinel`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, and `Urza's Saga` Construct tokens are the practical carriers. `Inkmoth Nexus` is the poison-kill carrier and needs activation timing discipline; `Ornithopter` supplies evasion when visible; `Memnite` supplies speed; `Esper Sentinel` taxes interaction while carrying Equipment; `Puresteel Paladin` and `Stoneforge Mystic` can become carriers after their setup job is complete.

- Payoffs: `Colossus Hammer` is the primary damage or poison multiplier, `Cranial Plating` is the artifact-count pressure payoff, `Kaldra Compleat` is the single high-impact Equipment threat package, and `Shadowspear` is the stabilizing combat Equipment when its visible text and legal actions matter. Choose the payoff by kill texture: poison math favors `Inkmoth Nexus` plus `Colossus Hammer`; attrition or blocker-heavy boards may favor `Shadowspear`, `Cranial Plating`, `Kaldra Compleat`, or an `Urza's Saga` Construct line.

- Engines: `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, and `Urza's Saga` are the deck's engine cards. `Sigarda's Aid` and `Puresteel Paladin` can turn Equipment timing from slow equip costs into explosive legal attachment sequences when rules output permits; `Stoneforge Mystic` converts a creature into Equipment access and possible deployment; `Urza's Saga` supplies pressure and can find registered low-cost artifact tools when the legal chapter/search action is exposed.

- Velocity: `Steelshaper's Gift`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, and `Urza's Saga` are the main selection package because they find Equipment or artifact utility from the registered list. `Esper Sentinel` can function as taxing card-flow when opponents choose to pay or not pay according to visible game actions. The deck has little generic card selection, so tutor choices must be concrete rather than speculative.

- Interaction: main-deck `Spell Pierce` protects setup and contests stack-based disruption, sweepers, planeswalkers, or noncreature spells only when the rules engine exposes a legal counter action. Sideboard interaction expands through `March of Otherworldly Light`, `Path to Exile`, `Pithing Needle`, `Soul-Guide Lantern`, `Relic of Progenitus`, the extra `Spell Pierce`, `Lavinia, Azorius Renegade`, and `Sanctifier en-Vec`.

- Protection: `Surge of Salvation` is the main-deck protective layer, and `Blacksmith's Skill` is the sideboard supplement. Use protection to defend a committed carrier, an Equipment engine, or a lethal stack/combat window; avoid spending it just to save replaceable zero-mana creatures unless that creature is the current or next-turn carrier.

- Recursion: the registered list has no true recursion package. Once a carrier, Equipment, `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, or `Stoneforge Mystic` is gone, the plan is to rebuild through redundant copies, `Urza's Saga`, `Steelshaper's Gift`, or the next legal carrier rather than retrieve the lost card from the graveyard.

- Mana: `Plains`, `Hallowed Fountain`, `Godless Shrine`, `Seachrome Coast`, `Marsh Flats`, `Springleaf Drum`, `Urza's Saga`, and `Inkmoth Nexus` form a low-land, artifact-assisted mana base. White access is the priority for setup, blue access matters for `Spell Pierce`, black access is narrow and mostly relevant only if `Cranial Plating` exposes a legal black attachment line, and colorless lands must be sequenced without cutting off early white spells.

- Sideboard modules: `Sanctifier en-Vec` is a graveyard/color-pressure creature for relevant matchups, `March of Otherworldly Light` and `Path to Exile` are creature or permanent interaction according to legal text, `Lavinia, Azorius Renegade` attacks nonstandard casting/mana patterns, `Pithing Needle` handles activated abilities with visible or known names, `Soul-Guide Lantern` and `Relic of Progenitus` are graveyard hate, sideboard `Spell Pierce` increases stack interaction, and `Blacksmith's Skill` increases protection density.

## Primary Win Conditions

- Poison kill: `Inkmoth Nexus` plus `Colossus Hammer` is the cleanest one-hit plan when the rules engine exposes a legal animation and attachment/equip sequence. Set up white access, `Inkmoth Nexus`, `Colossus Hammer`, and either `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, or another visible legal attachment path; execute only after tracking whether mana must stay open for `Spell Pierce` or `Surge of Salvation`. Prioritize this line when life-total combat is slowed by blockers, the opponent cannot profitably remove the animated land on visible resources, or one poison hit is worth more than preserving `Inkmoth Nexus` as mana.

- Hammer combat kill: `Ornithopter`, `Memnite`, `Esper Sentinel`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, or an `Urza's Saga` Construct token carrying `Colossus Hammer` is the primary life-total kill. Set up a carrier plus `Colossus Hammer` and a legal attach/equip route from `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, or rules-visible Equipment actions; execute when the carrier survives to combat or the Equipment can be attached at a timing window the engine confirms. Prioritize evasive or resilient carriers first, but do not abandon a ground carrier when lethal combat math is visible and protection covers the relevant removal.

- `Urza's Saga` Construct pressure is the main non-Hammer win when the game stretches. Build artifact count with `Ornithopter`, `Memnite`, `Springleaf Drum`, `Colossus Hammer`, `Shadowspear`, `Cranial Plating`, and `Kaldra Compleat` when drawn or deployed; use the Saga search action only on legal registered hits exposed by the engine. Prioritize this plan when the opponent has answered early carriers, when a single all-in `Inkmoth Nexus` line is too exposed, or when large Constructs force blocks that open later Hammer or poison attacks.

- `Stoneforge Mystic` into `Kaldra Compleat` is the highest-impact standalone threat path when speed is less important than resilience. Use `Stoneforge Mystic` to access the Equipment named by the visible legal search action, then deploy or equip only through legal actions. Prioritize `Kaldra Compleat` when the opponent is prepared for small artifact creatures, when `Colossus Hammer` lacks a safe carrier, or when repeated combat pressure is better than one fragile lethal attempt.

## Secondary Win Conditions

- `Cranial Plating` converts artifact density into backup lethal pressure without requiring the same setup as `Colossus Hammer`. Favor it when the battlefield already contains multiple artifacts from `Ornithopter`, `Memnite`, `Springleaf Drum`, Equipment, and `Urza's Saga` tokens, especially if rules output exposes a legal attachment line that keeps pressure and protection mana available.

- `Shadowspear` stabilizes races and pushes damage through board stalls when its legal equip or ability actions are visible. Use it to turn an `Urza's Saga` Construct, `Ornithopter`, `Esper Sentinel`, or other carrier into a racing tool when life total is under pressure, but do not treat it as a poison-kill substitute unless the actual combat math justifies the line.

- Small-creature pressure matters when the opponent stumbles or spends too much interaction on Equipment. `Memnite`, `Ornithopter`, `Esper Sentinel`, `Puresteel Paladin`, and `Stoneforge Mystic` can chip in, carry later Equipment, or grow Construct tokens; attack with them when they are not needed for `Springleaf Drum`, future metalcraft-style rules output, blocking, or a protected Hammer turn.

- Tax-and-protect tempo can win by making the opponent answer the wrong layer. `Esper Sentinel` pressures noncreature interaction, `Spell Pierce` contests stack-based answers, and `Surge of Salvation` protects a committed window when legal and text-relevant. Use this line when the opponent is constrained on mana and the deck can make them choose between stopping the carrier, the Equipment, and the follow-up threat.

## Emergency Lines

- Behind on life: shift from pure speed to stabilized combat. Prefer `Shadowspear` on the largest safe carrier, preserve blockers when attacks are not lethal or near-lethal, and avoid animating `Inkmoth Nexus` for low-value poison if losing the land or mana source makes the next turn worse. Use `Surge of Salvation` for survival-critical combat or removal windows rather than replaceable bodies.

- Behind on board: stop trading carriers casually and rebuild through selection. `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Steelshaper's Gift`, and `Urza's Saga` should find the Equipment or artifact tool that creates the next real threat, while `Path to Exile`, `March of Otherworldly Light`, or other sideboard cards are used only when present after sideboarding and legally exposed. If a single blocker prevents lethal, choose interaction or evasion only after visible combat math confirms the payoff.

- Behind on cards: make each tutor or protection spell answer a concrete bottleneck. Do not spend `Steelshaper's Gift` on redundant Equipment when the missing piece is a carrier, and do not spend `Spell Pierce` on a low-impact noncreature spell if the hand cannot beat later removal, sweeper, or stack disruption.

- Behind on mana: protect white access and avoid unnecessary `Inkmoth Nexus` activation. `Springleaf Drum` can convert zero-mana creatures into acceleration when legal, but tapping the only carrier may delay the kill; use `Marsh Flats`, `Hallowed Fountain`, `Godless Shrine`, `Seachrome Coast`, and `Plains` to preserve white first, then blue for `Spell Pierce` when the matchup makes stack protection decisive.

- Engine removed: rebuild with redundancy instead of waiting for recursion. The deck has no registered graveyard-recursion plan, so a destroyed `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Colossus Hammer`, or carrier must be replaced by another copy, an `Urza's Saga` line, `Steelshaper's Gift`, or a different Equipment threat.

- Opponent combo or lock pressure: prioritize the fastest protected kill or the exact hate card sideboard plan already available. `Spell Pierce`, `Pithing Needle`, `Lavinia, Azorius Renegade`, `Soul-Guide Lantern`, and `Relic of Progenitus` only matter in their legal zones and matchup contexts; if none are available, force the opponent to answer a lethal `Colossus Hammer`, `Inkmoth Nexus`, `Cranial Plating`, or `Kaldra Compleat` clock.

## Resource Model

- Life is a spendable clock buffer, not the primary damage plan. Preserve life aggressively when one more turn enables `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Steelshaper's Gift`, `Urza's Saga`, or protected `Inkmoth Nexus` lethal; spend life on `Marsh Flats`, `Hallowed Fountain`, or `Godless Shrine` only when the untapped color changes the current turn or protects a committed kill. Do not shock purely to improve future options if the same legal line remains available tapped.

- Hand cards convert into threat layers, not long-game card volume. A functional hand should contain a carrier or `Inkmoth Nexus`, an Equipment or tutor, and enough white access to deploy the attach engine; keep redundant `Colossus Hammer` only when there is a visible attach/equip path or `Puresteel Paladin` can turn extra Equipment deployment into engine pressure. `Spell Pierce` and `Surge of Salvation` are held for stack or protection windows that matter to a carrier, Equipment, or lethal combat step.

- Mana is the bottleneck that decides whether the deck is explosive or clumsy. White mana unlocks `Esper Sentinel`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Sigarda's Aid`, `Steelshaper's Gift`, and `Surge of Salvation`; blue mana mostly preserves `Spell Pierce`; black mana from `Godless Shrine` is only relevant when the rules engine exposes a black-cost `Cranial Plating` action or other registered black requirement. Colorless from `Inkmoth Nexus` and `Urza's Saga` supports artifacts and activations but cannot replace white setup.

- Board presence is a resource because carriers, artifacts, and `Urza's Saga` Constructs multiply each other. `Ornithopter`, `Memnite`, `Springleaf Drum`, `Colossus Hammer`, `Shadowspear`, `Cranial Plating`, `Kaldra Compleat`, and Construct tokens raise artifact density for pressure, while creatures also become `Springleaf Drum` inputs and Equipment carriers. Do not cash in a creature as an attacker, tapper, or blocker if that removes the only legal Hammer carrier for the next decisive window.

- Graveyard and exile are mostly accounting zones, not value engines. The registered main deck has no recursion plan, so destroyed carriers, Equipment, `Sigarda's Aid`, or `Puresteel Paladin` should be replaced through redundancy, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Steelshaper's Gift`, or `Urza's Saga`; after sideboarding, `Soul-Guide Lantern` and `Relic of Progenitus` convert graveyard access into opponent disruption, while exiled own cards usually represent spent resources rather than future material.

- Lands are both mana and threats. `Inkmoth Nexus` is a poison carrier and mana source, so animate it only when the poison damage or Equipment line is worth risking a land and losing that mana for the turn. `Urza's Saga` is a colorless land, a Construct engine, and a later artifact-search effect; sequence around its chapter timing instead of treating it like a permanent colored source.

- Sacrifice fodder is not a deck plan. Do not volunteer `Memnite`, `Ornithopter`, Equipment, `Springleaf Drum`, `Urza's Saga` Constructs, or lands to opponent effects unless the legal action is mandatory or the visible exchange preserves a more decisive kill. The deck wins by retaining artifacts and carriers, not by filling the graveyard.

- Tempo and information are protection resources. `Esper Sentinel` taxes or reveals pressure on noncreature interaction, `Spell Pierce` asks whether the opponent can pay, and `Surge of Salvation` should be aligned with the exact visible removal, discard, or damage window it can legally affect. Sideboard bullets such as `Pithing Needle`, `Lavinia, Azorius Renegade`, `Sanctifier en-Vec`, `March of Otherworldly Light`, `Path to Exile`, `Soul-Guide Lantern`, `Relic of Progenitus`, `Spell Pierce`, and `Blacksmith's Skill` should convert matchup knowledge into narrower answers, not dilute the carrier-plus-Equipment core.

## Mana Guide

- Keep hands that produce early white and a real plan. A strong opener has white access from `Plains`, `Hallowed Fountain`, `Godless Shrine`, `Seachrome Coast`, or `Marsh Flats` fetching `Plains`, `Hallowed Fountain`, or `Godless Shrine`, plus a carrier or `Inkmoth Nexus` and an Equipment, tutor, or attach engine. Mulligan hands that rely only on `Inkmoth Nexus` plus `Urza's Saga` for mana unless zero-mana artifacts and a delayed color source still create a legal, competitive plan.

- Sequence colored lands before utility lands when setup is missing. Lead on untapped white for `Esper Sentinel`, `Sigarda's Aid`, `Steelshaper's Gift`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, or `Puresteel Paladin`; play `Inkmoth Nexus` early only when it is the intended carrier or colorless mana is enough for the current artifact line. Play `Urza's Saga` early when its chapter progression is central, but do not let it strand white spells unless the hand already has stable white.

- Fetch with `Marsh Flats` for the exact missing color and life need. Get `Hallowed Fountain` when blue for `Spell Pierce` matters or a second white/blue source improves current sequencing; get `Godless Shrine` when white is needed and black access for a visible `Cranial Plating` line may matter; get `Plains` when life preservation and white stability are more important than splash colors. Avoid untapped shock lands unless the current turn uses that mana or protects a decisive next-turn window.

- Preserve blue only when `Spell Pierce` changes the stack. Do not weaken Hammer development just to hold up blue against an opponent who is tapped out, presenting creature pressure, or forcing battlefield answers already resolved. Hold `Hallowed Fountain` or `Seachrome Coast` untapped when the opponent can cast a noncreature spell that stops `Sigarda's Aid`, kills the carrier on the stack-relevant turn, sweeps the board, or wins before combat.

- Use `Springleaf Drum` as acceleration without losing the only carrier. Tapping `Memnite` or `Ornithopter` is attractive when it deploys `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Sigarda's Aid`, `Steelshaper's Gift`, or Equipment ahead of curve; tapping the only evasive or lethal carrier is wrong when it prevents an immediate or protected attack. Recheck legal summoning-sickness and tap-status output before assuming a creature can pay for `Springleaf Drum`.

- Play lands before draw or selection when the mana is needed for visible actions. Play a land first if it enables `Spell Pierce`, `Surge of Salvation`, `Steelshaper's Gift`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Inkmoth Nexus` activation, or an Equipment action already planned. Delay the land when `Puresteel Paladin` draw triggers, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Steelshaper's Gift`, or `Urza's Saga` search could reveal which color or utility land matters, unless delaying would miss a required mana window.

- Treat `Inkmoth Nexus` activation as a mana commitment. Activating it removes a land from mana production for that turn and exposes a threat to creature interaction once it is a creature; animate only for poison pressure, a legal `Colossus Hammer`, `Cranial Plating`, or `Shadowspear` line, or necessary blocking. Do not animate in upkeep or draw steps without a rules-visible reason.

- Plan `Urza's Saga` turns around colorless pressure and the search chapter. Use its mana while available, build artifact count when Construct pressure is the plan, and leave enough colored mana from other lands for `Surge of Salvation` or `Spell Pierce` if the decisive turn depends on protection. When the search trigger resolves, choose only legal registered artifact hits exposed by the engine, with `Colossus Hammer`, `Springleaf Drum`, or `Shadowspear` selected according to the visible bottleneck.

## Mulligan Guide

- Strong keep: Keep `Plains`, `Memnite`, `Ornithopter`, `Sigarda's Aid`, `Colossus Hammer`, `Spell Pierce`, and `Surge of Salvation` because it has turn-one carrier plus attach engine, lethal Equipment pressure, and stack/protection cover. If the opponent is unlikely to interact on turn one, lead `Sigarda's Aid`; if visible matchup context says removal is heavy, lead a free carrier plus `Esper Sentinel` when available.

- Strong keep: Keep `Marsh Flats`, `Hallowed Fountain`, `Esper Sentinel`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Colossus Hammer`, `Ornithopter`, and `Springleaf Drum` because it has white access, a tax creature, acceleration, a carrier, and either `Stoneforge Mystic` pressure or natural Hammer pressure. Fetch `Hallowed Fountain` only untapped when the turn uses blue or white immediately.

- Medium keep: Keep `Urza's Saga`, `Plains`, `Memnite`, `Springleaf Drum`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Colossus Hammer`, and `Shadowspear` because it has a real engine but needs artifact density and chapter timing to carry the game. This hand improves on the play, where `Urza's Saga` can start early without falling behind; on the draw against fast removal, it is riskier without `Surge of Salvation` or `Spell Pierce`.

- Risky keep: Keep `Inkmoth Nexus`, `Marsh Flats`, `Colossus Hammer`, `Sigarda's Aid`, `Surge of Salvation`, `Spell Pierce`, and `Steelshaper's Gift` only when a protected poison kill is plausible and the opponent cannot easily punish a single land-creature threat. This hand has a high ceiling but is fragile because `Inkmoth Nexus` must become both mana source and carrier.

- Matchup-dependent keep: Keep `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Kaldra Compleat`, white mana, and protection when a slower opponent is likely to answer Hammer carriers but struggle with a large Equipment threat from `Stoneforge Mystic`. Against fast combo or wide creature pressure, prefer hands with `Sigarda's Aid`, `Colossus Hammer`, `Ornithopter`, `Memnite`, `Inkmoth Nexus`, or `Spell Pierce` over a slower `Kaldra Compleat` plan.

- Automatic ship: Mulligan zero-land hands, hands with only `Urza's Saga` and `Inkmoth Nexus` as mana plus multiple colored spells, and hands with Equipment but no carrier, tutor, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Puresteel Paladin`, or `Urza's Saga` path to action. Ship hands that cannot cast a white spell or deploy a meaningful artifact board by turn two.

- Trap hand: Do not keep `Colossus Hammer`, `Cranial Plating`, `Kaldra Compleat`, `Shadowspear`, `Spell Pierce`, `Surge of Salvation`, and one colorless land just because the cards are powerful. The deck needs a carrier, early white, and legal attach/equip access; unsupported Equipment is not pressure.

## Turn Arc

- Turn 1 preferred play: Deploy untapped white and either `Sigarda's Aid`, `Esper Sentinel`, or free carriers plus `Springleaf Drum` when the hand converts that mana immediately. Lead `Sigarda's Aid` when a turn-two `Colossus Hammer` attack is likely; lead `Esper Sentinel` when taxing noncreature interaction matters; lead `Urza's Saga` when the hand already has white stability and wants chapter pressure.

- Turn 1 deviations: Play `Inkmoth Nexus` early when it is the planned poison carrier, but do not animate it without a legal attack, block, or attach purpose. Hold up `Spell Pierce` only when blue is available and the opponent's first-turn noncreature spell can stop your engine or win quickly; otherwise advance board material.

- Turn 2 preferred play: Convert setup into either `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Steelshaper's Gift`, `Colossus Hammer` with `Sigarda's Aid`, or a protected `Inkmoth Nexus` line. If `Stoneforge Mystic` resolves, choose the Equipment that matches the bottleneck: `Colossus Hammer` for immediate kill pressure, `Kaldra Compleat` for a slower standalone threat, `Shadowspear` for lifelink/trample needs, or `Cranial Plating` when artifact count is already high.

- Turn 2 deviations: Use `Springleaf Drum` to accelerate only if tapping `Memnite` or `Ornithopter` does not remove the only carrier needed for combat. Keep `Surge of Salvation` or `Spell Pierce` available when the visible opponent can answer the carrier, `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, or the decisive Equipment window.

- Turn 3 preferred play: Present a lethal or near-lethal attack with `Colossus Hammer`, `Inkmoth Nexus`, `Ornithopter`, `Memnite`, or a `Urza's Saga` Construct when legal actions and mana allow it. With `Puresteel Paladin`, sequence Equipment casts before equip decisions when draw triggers and metalcraft-like equip access are visible in engine output.

- Turn 3 deviations: If the opponent keeps open interaction, make the protected line rather than the fastest line. A lower-damage attack with `Surge of Salvation` or `Spell Pierce` support is better than exposing the only `Inkmoth Nexus` or carrier to removal when no backup threat exists.

- Turns 4-5 preferred play: Shift from burst kill to layered threats using `Urza's Saga` Constructs, `Stoneforge Mystic` activations, `Puresteel Paladin` redraws, and repeated Equipment movement. Search with `Urza's Saga` for the visible bottleneck, most often `Colossus Hammer`, `Shadowspear`, or `Springleaf Drum`, not an abstract best card.

- Late game plan: Preserve live carriers and mana sources until one protected combat step ends the game. Rebuild through `Urza's Saga`, tutor remaining Equipment with `Stoneforge Mystic` or `Steelshaper's Gift`, and use `Inkmoth Nexus` as a threat only when poison damage, blocking, or Equipment attachment is worth risking a land.

## Card Roles

`Colossus Hammer` is the deck's primary kill card; cast or find it only when a carrier, `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, or `Urza's Saga` line can convert it into damage. `Ornithopter`, `Memnite`, `Inkmoth Nexus`, and Construct tokens are the main carriers, while `Surge of Salvation` and `Spell Pierce` protect the decisive window.

`Sigarda's Aid` and `Puresteel Paladin` are the attach engines, but they ask different questions. `Sigarda's Aid` rewards instant-speed Equipment timing and surprise lethal; `Puresteel Paladin` rewards artifact density, Equipment sequencing, and visible legal equip actions. Do not treat unsupported Equipment as pressure.

`Stoneforge Mystic` and `Steelshaper's Gift` are bottleneck solvers. Find `Colossus Hammer` for fast kills, `Kaldra Compleat` for a standalone threat, `Shadowspear` for trample/lifelink or keyword removal, and `Cranial Plating` when artifacts already make a large attacker. `Stoneforge Mystic` can also put Equipment from hand onto the battlefield through its activated ability when the engine exposes that legal action.

`Esper Sentinel`, `Springleaf Drum`, `Urza's Saga`, and free artifacts create the resource bridge. `Esper Sentinel` taxes removal and noncreature setup, `Springleaf Drum` turns free bodies into colored mana, and `Urza's Saga` supplies Construct pressure plus exact artifact search. Do not tap the only lethal carrier to `Springleaf Drum` unless the resulting mana creates a stronger protected line.

`Spell Pierce`, `Surge of Salvation`, and sideboard protection are not generic holds; spend them on the stack or turn where they protect a carrier, attach engine, lethal attack, or survival-critical board. `Spell Pierce` is stack-only against noncreature spells. `Surge of Salvation` is strongest when opponent interaction is damage or targeted effects that the card legally covers.

### Card Hover Notes

#### Esper Sentinel
- Deck role: main deck, 4 copies, core one-mana tax creature and Equipment carrier.
- Role type: engine piece; threat/clock; role glue.
- Deck-specific job: taxes the opponent's first noncreature spell each turn and becomes a real attacker when `Colossus Hammer`, `Cranial Plating`, or `Shadowspear` is attached.
- Timing: deploy early when white mana is available unless `Sigarda's Aid` plus `Colossus Hammer` creates a faster protected kill.
- Inputs / outputs: consumes {W}; may draw a card unless the opponent pays {X}, where X is Esper Sentinel's power, so `Colossus Hammer` or `Cranial Plating` can make the tax much harder to pay.
- Partners / packages: `Colossus Hammer`, `Cranial Plating`, `Shadowspear`, `Springleaf Drum`, `Surge of Salvation`, and `Blacksmith's Skill`.
- Role peers: `Memnite` and `Ornithopter` are cheaper artifact bodies, but only `Esper Sentinel` taxes noncreature spells.
- Failure modes: tapping it to `Springleaf Drum` or attacking with it can remove a needed blocker or Drum source; do not assume the opponent fails to pay the tax.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: strongest against removal, control, combo setup, and artifact hate spells; weaker when the opponent mostly casts creatures.
- Low-skill guidance: play it early, then treat it as both a tax piece and a possible Hammer carrier, not just a 1/1 attacker.

#### Ornithopter
- Deck role: main deck, 4 copies, core zero-mana evasive artifact carrier.
- Role type: mechanic enabler; threat/clock; mana/fixing/ramp; engine fuel/material.
- Deck-specific job: provides the best free flying body for `Colossus Hammer`, increases artifact count for `Puresteel Paladin`, `Cranial Plating`, and `Urza's Saga` Constructs, and taps to `Springleaf Drum`.
- Timing: usually cast immediately when it enables `Springleaf Drum`, metalcraft, `Cranial Plating`, or a Hammer attach; hold only when a visible sweeper or artifact-punisher makes extra battlefield artifacts dangerous.
- Inputs / outputs: costs {0}; produces artifact count, a flying carrier, and a creature that can be tapped by `Springleaf Drum`.
- Partners / packages: `Colossus Hammer`, `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Springleaf Drum`, `Cranial Plating`, `Shadowspear`, and `Urza's Saga`.
- Role peers: `Memnite` is the other zero-mana artifact body, but `Ornithopter` has flying and starts with 0 power.
- Failure modes: `Colossus Hammer` makes equipped creature lose flying, so Hammered `Ornithopter` does not keep evasion; tapping it to `Springleaf Drum` can remove the best attacker for that turn.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: valuable against ground stalls before Hammer attachment and as artifact count against attrition.
- Low-skill guidance: cast it early, but do not tap or trade it away if it is the chosen Equipment carrier.

#### Memnite
- Deck role: main deck, 4 copies, core zero-mana artifact creature and fast carrier.
- Role type: mechanic enabler; threat/clock; mana/fixing/ramp; engine fuel/material.
- Deck-specific job: creates free artifact and creature material for `Springleaf Drum`, `Puresteel Paladin` metalcraft, `Cranial Plating`, `Urza's Saga` Construct sizing, and early `Colossus Hammer` attachment.
- Timing: deploy early when artifact count or Drum acceleration matters; hold only if committing an extra small creature into a visible sweeper is worse than preserving a later carrier.
- Inputs / outputs: costs {0}; outputs a 1/1 artifact creature, artifact count, Drum fuel, and a ground Equipment body.
- Partners / packages: `Colossus Hammer`, `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Springleaf Drum`, `Cranial Plating`, `Shadowspear`, and `Urza's Saga`.
- Role peers: `Ornithopter` is the other zero-mana body and has flying; `Esper Sentinel` costs mana but taxes noncreature spells.
- Failure modes: Card Reference omits Memnite's Oracle text beyond type/stats, so text-sensitive claims should stay limited to its visible 0-mana 1/1 artifact-creature role; ground blockers can blank it without `Shadowspear` trample or removal.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: strongest in hands that need a free body for Drum or artifact count more than evasion.
- Low-skill guidance: cast it to build the Hammer board, but avoid attacking or tapping it when it is the only legal carrier.

#### Puresteel Paladin
- Deck role: main deck, 4 copies, core Equipment engine.
- Role type: engine piece; card selection; mechanic payoff.
- Deck-specific job: turns Equipment entering under your control into optional card draw and gives Equipment you control equip {0} while you control three or more artifacts.
- Timing: cast before `Colossus Hammer`, `Shadowspear`, `Cranial Plating`, or `Kaldra Compleat` enters when the draw matters; protect it when it is the only route to free equip.
- Inputs / outputs: consumes {W}{W}; needs Equipment entering for cards and at least three artifacts for Metalcraft equip {0}; outputs card flow and legal equip access.
- Partners / packages: `Colossus Hammer`, `Shadowspear`, `Cranial Plating`, `Kaldra Compleat`, `Ornithopter`, `Memnite`, `Springleaf Drum`, and `Urza's Saga`.
- Role peers: `Sigarda's Aid` also solves attachment, but Paladin rewards Equipment sequencing and artifact count instead of instant-speed Equipment entry.
- Failure modes: casting Equipment before Paladin misses draw triggers; losing artifact count can turn off equip {0}; double-white cost is strained by `Inkmoth Nexus` and `Urza's Saga`.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: excellent in attrition games if it survives; fragile against removal-heavy open mana without `Surge of Salvation`, `Spell Pierce`, or `Blacksmith's Skill`.
- Low-skill guidance: play Paladin before Equipment when possible, then check artifact count before assuming Hammer can equip for free.

#### Stoneforge Mystic
- Deck role: main deck, 4 copies, core Equipment tutor and deployment engine.
- Role type: tutor/search; engine piece; threat/clock.
- Deck-specific job: finds the Equipment that solves the current bottleneck, then can put an Equipment card from hand onto the battlefield with {1}{W}, {T}.
- Timing: cast on turn two when white is stable; activate later when putting `Kaldra Compleat`, `Colossus Hammer`, `Shadowspear`, or `Cranial Plating` onto the battlefield is better than spending main-phase mana.
- Inputs / outputs: consumes {1}{W}; searches only Equipment cards here: `Colossus Hammer`, `Shadowspear`, `Kaldra Compleat`, and `Cranial Plating`; activation consumes {1}{W}, tapping Mystic, and an Equipment in hand.
- Mode map: enters-the-battlefield search reveals an Equipment and puts it into hand; activated ability puts an Equipment card from hand onto the battlefield without casting it.
- Partners / packages: `Kaldra Compleat` for standalone pressure, `Colossus Hammer` for fastest kill, `Shadowspear` for trample/lifelink, `Cranial Plating` for artifact-count damage, and `Sigarda's Aid` for attach triggers.
- Role peers: `Steelshaper's Gift` searches cheaper but has no body and no battlefield-put ability.
- Failure modes: tutoring the wrong Equipment wastes the deck's scarce selection; Mystic activation does not attach Equipment by itself unless `Sigarda's Aid` or another legal attach/equip action applies.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: prioritize `Kaldra Compleat` into removal-heavy fair games and `Colossus Hammer` when a carrier is already ready.
- Low-skill guidance: default to `Colossus Hammer` when missing a kill piece; choose `Kaldra Compleat` when the game needs one durable threat.

#### Sigarda's Aid
- Deck role: main deck, 4 copies, core instant-speed Equipment and attach engine.
- Role type: mechanic enabler; engine piece; protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: lets Equipment be cast as though they had flash and attaches Equipment that enters under your control to target creature you control.
- Timing: deploy before a decisive `Colossus Hammer`, `Shadowspear`, `Cranial Plating`, or `Kaldra Compleat` turn; use flash timing to wait until the safest legal window.
- Inputs / outputs: consumes {W}; outputs instant-speed Equipment casting and an Equipment-enter attach trigger that needs a target creature you control.
- Partners / packages: `Colossus Hammer`, `Inkmoth Nexus`, `Ornithopter`, `Memnite`, `Esper Sentinel`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Surge of Salvation`, and `Spell Pierce`.
- Role peers: `Puresteel Paladin` also enables cheap Equipment movement, but Aid works through Equipment entering and can use flash timing.
- Failure modes: if the chosen creature becomes illegal, the Aid attach trigger will not attach to it; rules-engine support for attach/equip must be trusted over assumptions.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: strongest when the opponent taps low or when `Surge of Salvation`, `Spell Pierce`, or `Blacksmith's Skill` covers the exposed carrier.
- Low-skill guidance: play it before Hammer, then attach Equipment only to the carrier that creates lethal, poison lethal, or the safest two-turn clock.

#### Colossus Hammer
- Deck role: main deck, 4 copies, core kill Equipment.
- Role type: engine payoff; reach/finisher; threat/clock.
- Deck-specific job: gives +10/+10 and turns `Inkmoth Nexus`, `Ornithopter`, `Memnite`, `Esper Sentinel`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, or an `Urza's Saga` Construct into a one-hit or near-one-hit threat.
- Timing: cast when `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin` metalcraft, `Stoneforge Mystic`, or an exposed legal equip action can convert it into combat; avoid casting it as stranded board clutter.
- Inputs / outputs: costs {1}; equip cost is {8} at sorcery speed unless another legal effect changes access; equipped creature loses flying.
- Partners / packages: `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Steelshaper's Gift`, `Urza's Saga`, `Inkmoth Nexus`, `Ornithopter`, and `Surge of Salvation`.
- Role peers: `Cranial Plating` scales with artifacts, `Kaldra Compleat` is slower standalone pressure, and `Shadowspear` adds trample/lifelink rather than huge power.
- Failure modes: attaching to `Ornithopter` removes flying; equipping into open removal without `Surge of Salvation`, `Spell Pierce`, or `Blacksmith's Skill` can lose both tempo and the carrier.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: prioritize poison math with `Inkmoth Nexus` when ten poison is faster than normal damage.
- Low-skill guidance: do not cast Hammer just because it is cheap; make sure a legal carrier and attach/equip route exists.

#### Springleaf Drum
- Deck role: main deck, 3 copies, role-player mana artifact and artifact-count glue.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; mechanic enabler; engine fuel/material.
- Deck-specific job: converts untapped creatures into any color of mana for white setup, blue `Spell Pierce`, black `Cranial Plating` attachment, sideboard spells, and faster engine turns.
- Timing: play early when `Memnite`, `Ornithopter`, or `Esper Sentinel` can tap without ruining the chosen attack, block, or Equipment line.
- Inputs / outputs: costs {1}; tapping Drum and an untapped creature you control adds one mana of any color.
- Partners / packages: `Memnite`, `Ornithopter`, `Esper Sentinel`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Spell Pierce`, `Surge of Salvation`, and `Cranial Plating`.
- Role peers: `Hallowed Fountain`, `Godless Shrine`, `Seachrome Coast`, and `Plains` provide colored mana without tapping creatures; Drum is more flexible but costs a body tap.
- Failure modes: tapping the only Hammer carrier, only blocker, or only `Inkmoth Nexus` protection mana path can lose the combat turn.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: better in explosive hands with zero-mana creatures; worse under pressure when every creature must attack or block.
- Low-skill guidance: use Drum for missing colors, but check whether the creature you tap was needed for combat or Equipment.

#### Shadowspear
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, singleton combat utility Equipment.
- Role type: protection/evasion; lifegain/stabilization; modal utility.
- Deck-specific job: gives +1/+1, trample, and lifelink to make Hammer-sized or Construct-sized attacks push through blockers and stabilize races.
- Timing: tutor or search it when trample, lifelink, or removing opposing hexproof/indestructible matters more than raw `Colossus Hammer` size.
- Inputs / outputs: costs {1}; equip costs {2}; activated ability costs {1} and makes permanents opponents control lose hexproof and indestructible until end of turn.
- Mode map: equip mode improves combat with trample/lifelink; activated mode does not target and removes hexproof/indestructible from opponents' permanents for the turn.
- Partners / packages: `Colossus Hammer`, `Urza's Saga` Constructs, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Steelshaper's Gift`, `Inkmoth Nexus`, and `Cranial Plating`.
- Role peers: `Cranial Plating` gives larger power with enough artifacts, but no lifelink/trample; `Kaldra Compleat` has trample on its equipped creature but is much slower.
- Failure modes: lifelink does not make poison counters from `Inkmoth Nexus` increase the opponent's life loss plan; searching Shadowspear when Hammer lethal is available can be too slow.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: high value against creature races, indestructible blockers, hexproof blockers, and board stalls.
- Low-skill guidance: get it when trample or lifelink changes combat, not as the default Equipment over Hammer.

#### Kaldra Compleat
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, singleton high-impact Equipment threat.
- Role type: threat/clock; engine payoff; protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: gives a standalone normal-damage plan, especially when `Stoneforge Mystic` can put it onto the battlefield.
- Timing: prefer accessing it through `Stoneforge Mystic`; hard-casting for {7} or equipping for {7} is a late-game fallback, not the default plan.
- Inputs / outputs: costs {7}; has living weapon and indestructible; equipped creature gets +5/+5, first strike, trample, indestructible, haste, and exiles creatures it deals combat damage to.
- Partners / packages: `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Surge of Salvation`, and `Blacksmith's Skill`.
- Role peers: `Colossus Hammer` is faster and larger, `Cranial Plating` scales with artifacts, and `Shadowspear` is cheaper stabilization.
- Failure modes: clunky in opening hands without Mystic; normal damage from Kaldra does not combine with poison counters from `Inkmoth Nexus`.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: best against removal-heavy or blocker-heavy fair decks where a single resilient threat matters.
- Low-skill guidance: do not plan to cast it normally early; use Mystic to deploy it when Hammer is too fragile or unsupported.

#### Cranial Plating
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, singleton artifact-scaling Equipment payoff.
- Role type: engine payoff; threat/clock; modal utility.
- Deck-specific job: turns high artifact count from `Ornithopter`, `Memnite`, `Springleaf Drum`, `Colossus Hammer`, `Shadowspear`, `Kaldra Compleat`, `Urza's Saga` Constructs, and graveyard-hate artifacts after boarding into large normal-damage attacks.
- Timing: choose it when artifact count is already high or the Hammer attach path is unavailable; count artifacts before committing.
- Inputs / outputs: costs {2}; equipped creature gets +1/+0 for each artifact you control; equip costs {1}; {B}{B} attaches it to target creature you control.
- Mode map: normal equip is cheap but sorcery-speed unless modified; black attach ability needs real {B}{B}, usually from `Godless Shrine` plus `Springleaf Drum` or another legal black source.
- Partners / packages: `Memnite`, `Ornithopter`, `Springleaf Drum`, `Urza's Saga`, `Godless Shrine`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, and `Steelshaper's Gift`.
- Role peers: `Colossus Hammer` gives fixed huge power; `Shadowspear` supplies trample/lifelink instead of scaling damage.
- Failure modes: weak with only one or two artifacts; do not assume double black is available just because the deck has one `Godless Shrine`.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: strong in board stalls with many artifacts and against opponents focused on stopping Hammer specifically.
- Low-skill guidance: count artifacts and black sources first; if the count is low, tutor Hammer or Shadowspear instead.

#### Spell Pierce
- Deck role: main deck, 3 copies, plus sideboard, 1 copy; stack-interaction protection slot.
- Role type: interaction-stack; protection/evasion; sideboard bullet.
- Deck-specific job: counters a target noncreature spell unless its controller pays {2}, protecting `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, a carrier, or a lethal Equipment turn.
- Timing: hold {U} when the opponent can cast a noncreature spell that removes the carrier, breaks the engine, sweeps the board, or wins before combat.
- Inputs / outputs: consumes {U}; only interacts with a spell on the stack; output depends on whether that spell's controller can pay {2}.
- Partners / packages: `Hallowed Fountain`, `Seachrome Coast`, `Springleaf Drum`, `Surge of Salvation`, `Blacksmith's Skill`, `Colossus Hammer`, and `Inkmoth Nexus`.
- Role peers: `Surge of Salvation` and `Blacksmith's Skill` protect permanents differently; `Lavinia, Azorius Renegade` disrupts certain casting patterns proactively.
- Failure modes: cannot answer resolved permanents or creature spells; holding blue instead of presenting lethal is wrong if the opponent's visible mana makes Pierce ineffective.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: bring the sideboard copy against combo, control, sweepers, artifact/enchantment hate, and noncreature removal-heavy decks.
- Low-skill guidance: cast it only on a decisive noncreature spell on the stack, not on a permanent already in play.

#### Surge of Salvation
- Deck role: main deck, 3 copies, core protection instant.
- Role type: protection/evasion; lifegain/stabilization.
- Deck-specific job: gives you and permanents you control hexproof until end of turn and prevents all damage black and/or red sources would deal to creatures you control this turn.
- Timing: hold for the turn where a removal spell, targeted discard/burn at you, black/red damage to your creatures, or lethal combat window would otherwise break the plan.
- Inputs / outputs: consumes {W}; protects the player and permanents from targeting via hexproof, and prevents damage from black and/or red sources to your creatures.
- Partners / packages: `Inkmoth Nexus`, `Colossus Hammer`, `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Ornithopter`, and `Esper Sentinel`.
- Role peers: `Blacksmith's Skill` protects one target permanent and adds indestructible; `Spell Pierce` counters a noncreature spell on the stack.
- Failure modes: does not counter spells, does not stop sacrifice effects, and does not prevent nonblack/nonred damage to creatures; casting it before the opponent commits interaction can waste the turn.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: best against targeted removal, burn, black/red damage, and discard or targeted effects aimed at you.
- Low-skill guidance: save it for the equipped carrier, `Inkmoth Nexus`, or key engine, not a replaceable body.

#### Steelshaper's Gift
- Deck role: main deck, 2 copies, sorcery Equipment tutor role player.
- Role type: tutor/search; card selection.
- Deck-specific job: searches for the exact Equipment needed: `Colossus Hammer` for fast kills, `Shadowspear` for trample/lifelink, `Kaldra Compleat` for a standalone Mystic plan, or `Cranial Plating` for artifact-count pressure.
- Timing: cast during your main phase when the chosen Equipment can be deployed soon or when the hand needs a future line; avoid spending the turn tutoring if a carrier or protection gap is the real bottleneck.
- Inputs / outputs: consumes {W}; searches library for an Equipment card, reveals it, puts it into hand, then shuffles.
- Partners / packages: `Colossus Hammer`, `Shadowspear`, `Kaldra Compleat`, `Cranial Plating`, `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, and `Inkmoth Nexus`.
- Role peers: `Stoneforge Mystic` also searches Equipment but adds a body and battlefield-put ability.
- Failure modes: tutoring redundant Equipment with no carrier, no attach path, or no protection can be slower than developing `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, or `Urza's Saga`.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: pivot to `Shadowspear` against races, `Kaldra Compleat` against removal-heavy games, and `Cranial Plating` when artifacts already create lethal.
- Low-skill guidance: default to Hammer only when a carrier and attach/equip route exist; otherwise choose the Equipment that solves the visible problem.

#### Urza's Saga
- Deck role: main deck, 4 copies, core utility land, Construct engine, and artifact search.
- Role type: engine piece; tutor/search; threat/clock; mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: supplies colorless mana, creates Construct artifact creature tokens that scale with artifacts, and finds a mana value {0} or {1} artifact from this deck.
- Timing: play early when colored mana is already covered; plan around chapter III sacrificing Saga after the search.
- Inputs / outputs: gains "{T}: Add {C}" at chapter I; chapter II adds "{2}, {T}: Create a 0/0 colorless Construct artifact creature token with 'This token gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control'"; chapter III searches for `Ornithopter`, `Memnite`, `Colossus Hammer`, `Springleaf Drum`, `Shadowspear`, `Pithing Needle`, `Soul-Guide Lantern`, or `Relic of Progenitus` when those are in the library and legal.
- Mode map: mana source after chapter I; Construct-maker after chapter II; chapter III artifact search then sacrifice.
- Partners / packages: `Ornithopter`, `Memnite`, `Springleaf Drum`, `Colossus Hammer`, `Shadowspear`, `Cranial Plating`, `Pithing Needle`, `Soul-Guide Lantern`, and `Relic of Progenitus`.
- Role peers: `Inkmoth Nexus` is another threat land, but Saga provides tokens and search instead of infect.
- Failure modes: it does not produce white or blue; keeping Saga plus `Inkmoth Nexus` without colored mana can strand core spells.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: excellent against removal-heavy decks because it pressures without committing all carriers.
- Low-skill guidance: use Saga as a plan, not just a land; search for the artifact that fixes the current bottleneck.

#### Inkmoth Nexus
- Deck role: main deck, 4 copies, core infect creature-land and mana resource.
- Role type: threat/clock; reach/finisher; mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: threatens poison kills with `Colossus Hammer` while producing colorless mana before the commitment turn.
- Timing: animate only when it must attack, block, receive Equipment, or become the selected lethal carrier; use the latest legal window that still supports the line.
- Inputs / outputs: taps for {C}; {1} makes it a 1/1 Phyrexian Blinkmoth artifact creature with flying and infect until end of turn, still a land.
- Mode map: mana mode produces colorless; creature-land mode creates a temporary flying infect artifact creature that deals poison counters to players and -1/-1 counters to creatures.
- Partners / packages: `Colossus Hammer`, `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Cranial Plating`, `Shadowspear`, `Surge of Salvation`, `Spell Pierce`, and `Blacksmith's Skill`.
- Role peers: `Ornithopter` is an evasive carrier without land risk; `Urza's Saga` is a threat land without poison.
- Failure modes: optional animation exposes a land to creature removal and consumes mana; normal damage from other attackers does not combine with poison counters.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: highest value when poison lethal bypasses life gain or ground blockers.
- Low-skill guidance: do not animate for one poison by default; animate when poison, blocking, or Equipment math makes it worth risking the land.

#### Marsh Flats
- Deck role: main deck, 4 copies, core fetch land and white-source fixer.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: finds registered Plains or Swamp targets: `Plains`, `Hallowed Fountain`, or `Godless Shrine`.
- Timing: fetch before casting the current-turn spell when the mana is needed; wait when opponent information or life total makes the target choice unclear.
- Inputs / outputs: tap, pay 1 life, sacrifice Marsh Flats; search for a Plains or Swamp card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
- Partners / packages: `Plains` for painless white, `Hallowed Fountain` for white/blue and `Spell Pierce`, `Godless Shrine` for white/black and `Cranial Plating` black attachment.
- Role peers: `Hallowed Fountain`, `Godless Shrine`, `Seachrome Coast`, and `Plains` produce mana directly but do not shuffle or choose a target.
- Failure modes: fetching `Godless Shrine` when `Spell Pierce` needs blue or shocking unnecessarily against burn can cost the game.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: get `Plains` when life matters and white is enough; get `Hallowed Fountain` when blue stack interaction matters.
- Low-skill guidance: fetch white first, blue when Pierce matters, and black only for a real `Cranial Plating` or sideboard need.

#### Hallowed Fountain
- Deck role: main deck, 2 copies, core fetchable white-blue shock land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: casts white setup while enabling `Spell Pierce` from the same land slot.
- Timing: pay 2 life only when untapped {W} or {U} changes this turn or protects a decisive next-turn window.
- Inputs / outputs: Plains Island with "{T}: Add {W} or {U}"; may enter untapped for 2 life, otherwise enters tapped.
- Partners / packages: `Spell Pierce`, `Esper Sentinel`, `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Steelshaper's Gift`, `Surge of Salvation`, and `Lavinia, Azorius Renegade`.
- Role peers: `Seachrome Coast` gives painless early {W}/{U}; `Plains` gives painless white only; `Godless Shrine` gives white/black.
- Failure modes: unnecessary shock damage weakens races; entering tapped can miss turn-one `Sigarda's Aid` or `Esper Sentinel`.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: high priority against combo/control where `Spell Pierce` matters; lower priority against pure creature pressure if `Plains` casts the hand.
- Low-skill guidance: shock it only for a spell or protection window, not just because it can enter untapped.

#### Godless Shrine
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, narrow fetchable white-black shock land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: supplies white for the main plan and black access for `Cranial Plating`'s {B}{B} attach line when the second black source is also real.
- Timing: fetch when white is needed and black access has concrete value; avoid it when blue for `Spell Pierce` is the important splash.
- Inputs / outputs: Plains Swamp with "{T}: Add {W} or {B}"; may enter untapped for 2 life, otherwise enters tapped.
- Partners / packages: `Cranial Plating`, `Marsh Flats`, `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Surge of Salvation`, and `Blacksmith's Skill`.
- Role peers: `Hallowed Fountain` is the main fetchable white splash land; `Plains` is the painless white target.
- Failure modes: one Godless Shrine alone does not guarantee {B}{B}; fetching it over `Hallowed Fountain` can strand `Spell Pierce`.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: most relevant in artifact-heavy games where Plating's instant-speed attach is realistic.
- Low-skill guidance: treat black as a corner case; do not fetch Shrine unless black matters or it is the best white source.

#### Seachrome Coast
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, early painless white-blue mana resource.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: casts white setup and holds up `Spell Pierce` without costing life.
- Timing: strongest in the first three land drops because it enters tapped unless you control two or fewer other lands.
- Inputs / outputs: taps for {W} or {U}; tempo output depends on whether it enters untapped.
- Partners / packages: `Esper Sentinel`, `Sigarda's Aid`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Spell Pierce`, `Surge of Salvation`, and `Lavinia, Azorius Renegade`.
- Role peers: `Hallowed Fountain` is fetchable and can enter untapped later at a life cost; `Plains` is painless but not blue.
- Failure modes: late tapped entry can miss a protection or counterspell window; it does not help `Cranial Plating`'s black attach.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: valuable against burn and aggro because it preserves life while enabling blue.
- Low-skill guidance: play it early when possible; do not rely on it as an untapped late-game land.

#### Plains
- Deck role: main deck, 2 copies, strategically important basic white mana resource.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: casts the white core without life loss and gives `Marsh Flats` a painless target.
- Timing: fetch or play it when white is enough and conserving life matters more than blue or black access.
- Inputs / outputs: basic Plains with "{T}: Add {W}"; supports `Esper Sentinel`, `Sigarda's Aid`, `Steelshaper's Gift`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Surge of Salvation`, `Path to Exile`, `March of Otherworldly Light`, and `Blacksmith's Skill`.
- Partners / packages: `Marsh Flats`, `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Steelshaper's Gift`, `Surge of Salvation`, and sideboard white interaction.
- Role peers: `Hallowed Fountain` adds blue, `Godless Shrine` adds black, and `Seachrome Coast` adds early blue.
- Failure modes: Plains-only mana cannot cast `Spell Pierce` or `Lavinia, Azorius Renegade`; too many colorless lands beside Plains can still strain double-white.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: best against burn, aggro, and games where shock-land life loss changes the race.
- Low-skill guidance: take Plains when you just need white; take a shock land only when the splash color matters.

#### Sanctifier en-Vec
- Deck role: sideboard, 3 copies, color-protection graveyard hate creature and post-board carrier.
- Role type: hate piece; protection/evasion; threat/clock; sideboard bullet.
- Deck-specific job: attacks black/red graveyard resources and becomes a protected Equipment carrier against black or red interaction.
- Timing: side in and deploy early when the opponent relies on black cards, red cards, black/red removal, burn, or graveyard cards of those colors.
- Inputs / outputs: consumes {W}{W}; protection from black and from red; exiles all black or red cards from all graveyards on entry; replaces black/red cards going to graveyards with exile.
- Partners / packages: `Colossus Hammer`, `Shadowspear`, `Cranial Plating`, `Surge of Salvation`, `Blacksmith's Skill`, `Soul-Guide Lantern`, and `Relic of Progenitus`.
- Role peers: `Soul-Guide Lantern` and `Relic of Progenitus` are artifact graveyard hate; Sanctifier is narrower by color but also attacks and carries Equipment.
- Failure modes: weak against white, blue, green, colorless, or non-graveyard plans; double-white can be hard with `Inkmoth Nexus` and `Urza's Saga`.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: bring against red damage races, black removal decks, Rakdos-style graveyard pressure, and red/black graveyard engines.
- Low-skill guidance: board it in for black/red or graveyard matchups, then use it as a safe Hammer carrier when protection colors matter.

#### March of Otherworldly Light
- Deck role: sideboard, 2 copies, flexible exile interaction.
- Role type: interaction-removal; sideboard bullet.
- Deck-specific job: exiles a target artifact, creature, or enchantment with mana value X or less that blocks lethal, races faster, or shuts off Equipment.
- Timing: use before combat to clear a decisive blocker or at instant speed before a hate permanent or attacker decides the game.
- Inputs / outputs: costs {X}{W}; may exile any number of white cards from hand as an additional cost to reduce the spell by {2} for each card exiled; consumes cards and mana for exile output.
- Partners / packages: `Colossus Hammer`, `Inkmoth Nexus`, `Ornithopter`, `Memnite`, `Surge of Salvation`, `Path to Exile`, and `Spell Pierce`.
- Role peers: `Path to Exile` hits only creatures but costs {W}; `Pithing Needle` stops activated abilities without removing the permanent.
- Failure modes: exiling needed white cards such as `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Surge of Salvation`, `Steelshaper's Gift`, or `Blacksmith's Skill` can strand the kill; X must cover the target's mana value.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: bring against artifact hate, enchantment hate, large blockers, creature-combo pieces, and permanents that prevent Hammer combat.
- Low-skill guidance: use it on the permanent that stops your kill or kills you first, not on the first legal target.

#### Lavinia, Azorius Renegade
- Deck role: sideboard, 2 copies, anti-free-spell and anti-cost-cheating hate creature.
- Role type: hate piece; threat/clock; sideboard bullet.
- Deck-specific job: slows opponents casting noncreature spells with mana value greater than their land count and counters spells cast with no mana spent.
- Timing: side in and cast early only when the opponent's revealed or known plan uses free spells, cascade-style casting, cost bypass, or oversized noncreature spells ahead of lands.
- Inputs / outputs: consumes {W}{U}; produces a disruptive static effect and a 2/2 Equipment carrier.
- Partners / packages: `Hallowed Fountain`, `Seachrome Coast`, `Springleaf Drum`, `Colossus Hammer`, `Shadowspear`, `Spell Pierce`, and `Blacksmith's Skill`.
- Role peers: `Spell Pierce` is one-shot stack interaction; Lavinia is a permanent hate creature for specific casting patterns.
- Failure modes: low impact against fair creature decks and removal-heavy decks that do not care about its restrictions; white-blue cost can delay Hammer development.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: bring against combo, cascade/free-spell shells, and big-mana noncreature patterns when the text applies.
- Low-skill guidance: do not board it in as a generic two-drop; use it only when the opponent's casting pattern matters.

#### Pithing Needle
- Deck role: sideboard, 2 copies, one-mana activated-ability hate artifact.
- Role type: hate piece; sideboard bullet; engine fuel/material.
- Deck-specific job: names a card and shuts off activated abilities of sources with that name unless they are mana abilities.
- Timing: cast when public information identifies a relevant activated ability that beats the Hammer plan; delay or request model reasoning when the name is uncertain.
- Inputs / outputs: costs {1}; adds artifact count for `Puresteel Paladin`, `Cranial Plating`, and `Urza's Saga` Constructs; requires a strategic card-name choice as it enters.
- Partners / packages: `Urza's Saga`, `Cranial Plating`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Colossus Hammer`, and `March of Otherworldly Light`.
- Role peers: `March of Otherworldly Light` removes artifacts, creatures, or enchantments by mana value; Needle prevents activated abilities without removing static or triggered abilities.
- Failure modes: blind names waste the card; it does not stop mana abilities, triggered abilities, static abilities, or spells on the stack.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: strongest against visible planeswalkers, creature-lands, Equipment engines, sacrifice outlets, and activated combo pieces.
- Low-skill guidance: name a visible or known activated-ability card that matters; do not guess hidden cards as certainty.

#### Path to Exile
- Deck role: sideboard, 2 copies, efficient creature exile interaction.
- Role type: interaction-removal; sideboard bullet.
- Deck-specific job: removes a creature that blocks lethal Hammer or poison, races faster than the deck, or is a creature-combo piece.
- Timing: cast before combat to clear a decisive blocker, or during the opponent's turn when a creature would create lethal or combo pressure.
- Inputs / outputs: consumes {W}; exiles target creature; that creature's controller may search their library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle.
- Partners / packages: `Colossus Hammer`, `Inkmoth Nexus`, `Shadowspear`, `March of Otherworldly Light`, `Spell Pierce`, and `Surge of Salvation`.
- Role peers: `March of Otherworldly Light` can also hit artifacts and enchantments but needs X to match mana value.
- Failure modes: ramping the opponent is costly if the target was not stopping your kill or threatening theirs; cannot target noncreature hate permanents.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: bring against creature aggro, creature combo, large blockers, and single-threat decks.
- Low-skill guidance: save it for the creature that changes combat math or the race, not a low-impact attacker.

#### Soul-Guide Lantern
- Deck role: sideboard, 1 copy, graveyard-hate artifact and Saga-searchable utility.
- Role type: hate piece; modal utility; engine fuel/material; sideboard bullet.
- Deck-specific job: disrupts graveyard resources while increasing artifact count for `Puresteel Paladin`, `Cranial Plating`, and `Urza's Saga` Constructs.
- Timing: deploy before the opponent pays graveyard costs; choose the single-card exile immediately when one graveyard card is the clear resource.
- Inputs / outputs: costs {1}; entering exiles target card from a graveyard; tap-sacrifice exiles each opponent's graveyard; {1}, tap, sacrifice draws a card.
- Mode map: enter trigger targets one card in a graveyard; first sacrifice mode exiles each opponent's graveyard; second sacrifice mode cashes Lantern in for a card.
- Partners / packages: `Urza's Saga`, `Cranial Plating`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Relic of Progenitus`, and `Sanctifier en-Vec`.
- Role peers: `Relic of Progenitus` pressures graveyards repeatedly; `Sanctifier en-Vec` attacks black/red graveyard cards specifically.
- Failure modes: exiling graveyards after flashback, delve, escape, or reanimation costs are already paid usually does not stop that spell; do not call it artifact hate.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: bring against graveyard engines, reanimation, delve, escape, flashback, and decks with a single key graveyard card.
- Low-skill guidance: use it before the graveyard is spent; sacrifice for a card only when graveyard pressure is no longer needed.

#### Relic of Progenitus
- Deck role: sideboard, 1 copy, repeatable graveyard-hate artifact and Saga-searchable utility.
- Role type: hate piece; modal utility; engine fuel/material; sideboard bullet.
- Deck-specific job: forces graveyard decks to spend resources early while adding artifact count and later replacing itself.
- Timing: deploy early against graveyard reliance; activate before the opponent can convert the graveyard into costs or recursion.
- Inputs / outputs: costs {1}; tap ability targets a player, and that player exiles a card from their graveyard; {1}, exile Relic exiles all graveyards and draws a card.
- Mode map: tap mode pressures one target player's graveyard but that player chooses the card; exile mode clears all graveyards and draws.
- Partners / packages: `Urza's Saga`, `Cranial Plating`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Soul-Guide Lantern`, and `Sanctifier en-Vec`.
- Role peers: `Soul-Guide Lantern` can target one specific graveyard card on entry; Relic is better for repeated pressure and full-graveyard reset.
- Failure modes: the tap ability does not let you choose the exact card; full exile also removes your graveyard, though this deck has no true recursion plan.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: bring against graveyard decks that accumulate resources across turns.
- Low-skill guidance: tap it early and often when graveyards matter; use the full exile before the opponent pays graveyard costs.

#### Blacksmith's Skill
- Deck role: sideboard, 1 copy, one-mana protection bullet.
- Role type: protection/evasion; sideboard bullet.
- Deck-specific job: protects a key permanent, usually an equipped carrier, animated `Inkmoth Nexus`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Sigarda's Aid`, `Colossus Hammer`, or `Kaldra Compleat`.
- Timing: cast in response to targeted removal, destruction, or combat damage when hexproof and indestructible actually cover the threat.
- Inputs / outputs: consumes {W}; target permanent gains hexproof and indestructible until end of turn; if it is an artifact creature, it gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
- Partners / packages: `Inkmoth Nexus` after animation, `Ornithopter`, `Memnite`, `Esper Sentinel`, `Colossus Hammer`, `Kaldra Compleat`, `Puresteel Paladin`, and `Surge of Salvation`.
- Role peers: `Surge of Salvation` protects you and all permanents you control with hexproof but does not grant indestructible; `Spell Pierce` stops a noncreature spell on the stack.
- Failure modes: does not stop edicts, sacrifice effects, counterspells, or non-targeted exile/sweeper effects that ignore indestructible; cannot target a spell on the stack.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: bring against targeted removal, artifact removal, and interactive decks where one permanent decides the game.
- Low-skill guidance: protect the current kill permanent, not a replaceable zero-mana creature.

## Interaction Priorities

- Priority: protect the first real kill turn before fighting routine exchanges. Hold `Surge of Salvation`, `Spell Pierce`, or sideboard `Blacksmith's Skill` for the spell or ability that would remove the equipped carrier, stop `Inkmoth Nexus` after animation, counter `Colossus Hammer` access, or break `Puresteel Paladin`/`Sigarda's Aid` before lethal damage is assigned.

- Priority: counter noncreature interaction that changes the kill turn, not every spell. `Spell Pierce` is best against removal, sweepers, planeswalkers, artifact/enchantment hate, stack interaction, and setup spells that will make the next combat unwinnable; ignore low-impact card draw or tapped-permanent development when a protected Hammer attack is already lined up and the opponent cannot pay the tax shown by the rules engine.

- Priority: remove blockers or hate pieces only when they block the current plan. Sideboard `Path to Exile` should answer a creature that blocks a lethal `Colossus Hammer` carrier, races faster than the Hammer clock, or forces `Inkmoth Nexus` to wait; `March of Otherworldly Light` should answer visible nonland permanents that stop attacking, equipping, infect, tokens, or protection. Do not spend these on small threats when `Kaldra Compleat`, Construct tokens, or an equipped zero-mana creature already wins the race.

- Priority: exile graveyards before the opponent spends them. `Soul-Guide Lantern` and `Relic of Progenitus` are preemptive interaction against graveyard costs and recursion; they are not artifact hate, and activating after an opposing graveyard spell has already been legally cast is often too late unless the exact activation still affects the stack or future resources.

- Priority: name activated abilities with `Pithing Needle` only from public information or matchup certainty. Name visible creature-lands, equipment engines, planeswalkers, or other activated-ability permanents that beat the Hammer plan; do not invent hidden-card names as certainty, and do not treat Needle as removal for static or triggered abilities.

- Bait rule: spend expendable carriers before premium engines when sequencing into open mana. `Memnite`, `Ornithopter`, and sometimes `Esper Sentinel` can draw removal before `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, or `Inkmoth Nexus` commits; do not bait with the only legal carrier if `Sigarda's Aid` plus `Colossus Hammer` is the current lethal line.

- Ignore rule: life-total pressure matters less than poison or one-hit damage math. Ignore small ground attacks when the opponent cannot kill before the next Hammer combat; shift to removal/protection mode once your life total plus visible attackers creates a real next-turn lethal, especially if equipping `Colossus Hammer` would tap the only blocker.

- Archetype changes: against removal-heavy decks, preserve protection and avoid exposing `Inkmoth Nexus` until the turn it attacks. Against creature decks, prioritize clearing blockers and keeping at least one blocker back when lethal is not guaranteed. Against spell-combo or big-mana decks, `Spell Pierce`, `Lavinia, Azorius Renegade`, and fast pressure matter more than attrition. Against graveyard decks, deploy `Soul-Guide Lantern`, `Relic of Progenitus`, or `Sanctifier en-Vec` early enough to affect resources before they are spent.

- Deck limitation: this registered list has no discard spell and no bounce spell. Do not route decisions as though the deck can strip hidden cards or return resolved permanents unless the rules engine presents a legal effect from a card actually in the game.

## Combat And Trading Rules

- Attack for lethal first, poison second, and chip damage last. A `Colossus Hammer` carrier usually threatens a one-combat kill; `Inkmoth Nexus` converts the same Equipment pressure into poison, so prefer infect when the visible line reaches ten poison counters or dodges life-gain math better than damage.

- Commit `Inkmoth Nexus` only when the combat or mana math justifies exposing it. Animate it for lethal poison, protected pressure, or when ordinary carriers are unavailable; avoid animating it into open removal merely to deal one poison unless the matchup clock or `Colossus Hammer` setup makes that poison tactically necessary.

- Preserve carriers according to role, not size. `Ornithopter` is a premium evasive carrier, `Memnite` is a cheap ground carrier and Drum body, `Esper Sentinel` taxes interaction while carrying Equipment, and Construct tokens from `Urza's Saga` can win fair board stalls; do not trade these away if they are the only body that can carry `Colossus Hammer` next turn.

- Trade creatures only when the trade protects a future kill. Blocking with `Puresteel Paladin` is poor unless losing the life race immediately matters, because metalcraft equip lines and card flow are worth more than a few damage; blocking with `Stoneforge Mystic` is acceptable after it has found the needed Equipment and no longer enables a better attack.

- Attack with `Kaldra Compleat` carriers when the token or attached threat can pressure through blockers without sacrificing the Hammer plan. Do not move all resources onto a noninfect attacker when `Inkmoth Nexus` plus `Colossus Hammer` is a cleaner protected kill.

- Use `Shadowspear` when trample or lifelink changes combat math. Trample helps push Hammer damage through blockers; lifelink stabilizes races, but it does not help poison damage from `Inkmoth Nexus`, so choose the carrier based on whether life total or poison is the current win axis.

- Treat `Cranial Plating` as pressure that rewards artifact count and instant-speed equip opportunities only when legal. It can create non-Hammer lethal attacks with artifact-heavy boards, but do not let a Plating attack consume mana or bodies needed for a protected `Colossus Hammer` turn.

- Protect during combat only against effects the protection spell actually covers. `Surge of Salvation` is strongest against targeted interaction and relevant red or black damage to your creatures; `Blacksmith's Skill` protects a legal permanent target according to its text. Neither should be assumed to stop sacrifice, edicts, global sweepers, or combat choices the card text does not cover.

- Block conservatively when not killing back. Keep enough toughness or disposable bodies to survive visible lethal, but avoid chump-blocking with the only Hammer carrier, the only `Springleaf Drum` enabler, or the only artifact needed for Construct size unless survival requires it.

- Archetype changes: race combo and big-mana opponents with the fastest protected kill, even if it means taking nonlethal damage. Against creature swarms, value evasion, trample, lifelink, and blocker removal over chip attacks. Against control, avoid overcommitting carriers into sweepers when `Urza's Saga`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, or protected `Inkmoth Nexus` can stagger threats across turns.

## Selection And Tutor Rules

- Selection priority: find the missing half of the fastest protected kill. If the hand already has `Colossus Hammer`, `Steelshaper's Gift` or `Stoneforge Mystic` should usually find `Shadowspear`, `Cranial Plating`, or `Kaldra Compleat` only when the board needs trample, artifact-count pressure, or a standalone threat; if the hand lacks `Colossus Hammer`, default to finding `Colossus Hammer` unless the visible game state demands a different Equipment.

- Tutor with `Stoneforge Mystic` before committing fragile mana when the opponent can interact. Its search reveals information and puts the Equipment into hand, so choose the Equipment that creates the next legal line, then preserve mana for `Spell Pierce`, `Surge of Salvation`, or the Mystic activation if that line is better than hard-casting the Equipment.

- Use `Steelshaper's Gift` as the cleanest exact Equipment tutor. It should usually get `Colossus Hammer` for a current or next-turn `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, or `Inkmoth Nexus` kill; get `Shadowspear` when trample or lifelink changes a race; get `Cranial Plating` when artifact count creates a non-Hammer lethal line; get `Kaldra Compleat` when a resilient standalone threat matters more than immediate Hammer math.

- Let `Urza's Saga` search for the artifact that completes the board, not automatically for damage. The registered relevant hits are `Colossus Hammer`, `Shadowspear`, `Springleaf Drum`, `Ornithopter`, and `Memnite`; it cannot find `Cranial Plating` or `Kaldra Compleat`. Choose `Colossus Hammer` for a carrier already present, `Shadowspear` for trample/lifelink, `Springleaf Drum` for mana conversion, or a zero-mana creature only when an extra artifact body is the missing piece.

- Sequence land drops around `Urza's Saga` and `Inkmoth Nexus` roles. Play `Urza's Saga` early when Construct pressure or chapter-three selection matters; delay `Inkmoth Nexus` exposure when the kill does not happen soon or open removal makes the creature-land vulnerable. Fetchlands such as `Marsh Flats` should get the color needed for current spells, usually white first for `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Steelshaper's Gift`, and protection.

- Treat `Esper Sentinel` and `Puresteel Paladin` as card-flow engines, not generic draw spells. Cast `Esper Sentinel` before taxing interaction when possible; cast `Puresteel Paladin` before Equipment enters when the line can afford the tempo and the card draw matters. Do not delay a visible lethal `Colossus Hammer` line just to draw from `Puresteel Paladin`.

- Bottom or reject speculative lines that require unsupported text. This deck has no library scry effects and no true card filtering; if runtime presents selection from opponent effects or unusual generated actions, prefer visible lethal pieces, white mana, protection, legal carriers, and Equipment in that order.

## Priority And Stack Rules

- Hold priority-sensitive threats until the attach window is real. `Sigarda's Aid` lets Equipment be cast at instant speed and can attach Equipment that enters under your control to a creature you control, so use it to make `Colossus Hammer` lethal after blockers or at the latest safe pre-damage window when the rules engine exposes a legal cast and attach sequence.

- Use `Stoneforge Mystic` activation at instant speed to bypass normal casting only when the Equipment in hand is the right threat. Putting `Kaldra Compleat` onto the battlefield on the opponent's end step or before combat can create a threat without tapping main-phase mana; putting `Colossus Hammer` in this way is strongest when `Sigarda's Aid` can attach it or `Puresteel Paladin` metalcraft can equip it legally afterward.

- Respect `Puresteel Paladin` timing. Its Equipment draw trigger rewards casting or putting Equipment onto the battlefield while it is present, and its metalcraft equip reduction matters only when artifact count is high enough and the rules engine offers legal equip actions. Do not assume equip can happen at instant speed unless a legal effect or prompt explicitly allows it.

- Spend `Spell Pierce` on stack-only problems that stop the kill or win before the Hammer plan. Counter removal, sweepers, opposing protection, combo pieces, or planeswalker/noncreature spells when the opponent can pay neither the Pierce cost nor survive your next attack; do not point it at resolved permanents or creature spells unless the engine text makes that legal.

- Cast `Surge of Salvation` only when its protection text applies to the visible stack or combat event. Use it to preserve a lethal carrier, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, or `Inkmoth Nexus` from covered targeted effects or relevant red/black damage; do not assume it beats sacrifice effects, untargeted sweepers outside its coverage, or blockers already legally assigned.

- Activate `Inkmoth Nexus` in the last safe window that still allows attacking, blocking, equipping, or attaching. Do not animate into open removal during upkeep or main phase without a reason; do animate before combat when it must be a creature to receive Equipment, attack for poison, or block a lethal attacker.

- Resolve optional Equipment and trigger choices by kill math first. If `Sigarda's Aid` offers an attach target, choose the legal carrier that produces lethal damage, lethal poison, trample breakthrough with `Shadowspear`, or the safest protected clock. Decline or redirect attachments that strand `Colossus Hammer` on a summoning-sick or easily blocked creature when a better legal carrier exists.

- Use graveyard and sideboard stack tools in their correct windows. `Soul-Guide Lantern` and `Relic of Progenitus` should exile graveyards before the opponent pays graveyard costs; `March of Otherworldly Light` and `Path to Exile` should answer blockers, hate permanents, or lethal attackers before combat damage or before the relevant ability resolves when legally possible.

## Sideboard Map

- Sideboard priority: preserve the fastest `Colossus Hammer` or `Inkmoth Nexus` kill while adding only interaction that changes a visible matchup axis. This deck loses too much speed when too many zero-mana bodies, tutors, or attach engines leave, so bring role cards in by matchup need rather than by generic card quality.

- `Sanctifier en-Vec`: add against red or black removal decks, graveyard decks using red or black cards, Rakdos-style attrition, black discard plus removal shells, and red damage races. Its role is a protected carrier, graveyard pressure piece, and stabilizer that can carry `Colossus Hammer`, `Shadowspear`, or `Cranial Plating`; it becomes weaker against colorless, white, blue, or green decks where protection does not blank removal or combat. Role changes: against red damage, value lifelink from `Shadowspear` on `Sanctifier en-Vec`; against black removal, use it as the safest Hammer carrier if `Inkmoth Nexus` is exposed.

- `March of Otherworldly Light`: add when the opponent presents artifacts, enchantments, creature blockers, hate permanents, or large must-answer attackers that prevent a Hammer attack from connecting. Its role is flexible instant-speed exile interaction that can clear a blocker, remove a hate piece, or stop a lethal creature; it is worse against mostly spell-based combo, draw-go control with few targets, or matchups where card disadvantage from exiling white cards makes the kill less protected. Role changes: when ahead, save it for hate; when behind, use it before combat to reopen attacks or survive.

- `Lavinia, Azorius Renegade`: add against decks casting noncreature spells ahead of land count, cascade shells, free-spell engines, and combo decks where a two-mana permanent meaningfully delays the opponent. Its role is disruptive pressure that can still carry Equipment; it is weaker against fair creature decks, removal-heavy red or black decks that answer it cleanly, and matchups where the opponent wins through normal-cost creatures or permanents. Role changes: protect it only when it blocks the opponent's current line; do not protect it over a lethal Hammer carrier unless the lock effect is the only reason you survive.

- `Pithing Needle`: add against decks relying on named activated abilities from planeswalkers, creature-lands, artifacts, sacrifice outlets, or utility permanents. Its role is one-mana preemptive disruption that also increases artifact count for `Puresteel Paladin`, `Cranial Plating`, and `Urza's Saga` Construct tokens; it is bad when the opponent's threats are mostly static, triggered, spell-based, or unknown. Role changes: if the runtime cannot identify a high-impact activated ability from public information, prefer a different sideboard card or use a model decision rather than guessing.

- `Path to Exile`: add against creature decks where one blocker, large attacker, or creature-combo piece must leave immediately. Its role is clean creature interaction that preserves tempo for the Hammer kill; it is worse against decks that punish the extra basic land, decks with few creatures, and matchups where `Spell Pierce` or protection matters more than creature removal. Role changes: use it aggressively to clear the final blocker for poison or Hammer lethal, but hold it when the opponent's only visible creature is not stopping the next attack.

- `Soul-Guide Lantern`: add against graveyard decks, escape/delve/flashback engines, reanimation, or decks where a single named graveyard card must be controlled. Its role is targeted or sweeping graveyard pressure that is also an artifact for metalcraft and Construct sizing; it is weaker when graveyards are incidental and the opponent can win through battlefield pressure alone. Role changes: use the single-card exile early when it removes the opponent's key resource, and save the sacrifice mode when the whole graveyard matters more than one card.

- `Relic of Progenitus`: add against graveyard decks that accumulate many resources over several turns. Its role is repeatable graveyard pressure plus a later redraw, and it supports artifact count while forcing graveyard decks to act early; it is weaker when this deck needs to keep its own cards in graveyard for minor value or when one-shot `Soul-Guide Lantern` is enough. Role changes: activate it before the opponent pays graveyard costs; do not wait until a spell has already been cast from graveyard unless the rules engine still exposes a legal relevant response.

- `Spell Pierce`: add the fourth copy against combo, control, sweepers, artifact/enchantment hate, and removal-heavy decks where one cheap stack answer protects the decisive attack. Its role is tempo permission for noncreature spells only; it is weaker against creature-heavy decks, Cavern-style creature plans, and late games where opponents can pay. Role changes: on the play it can protect early `Sigarda's Aid` or `Puresteel Paladin`; on the draw it should be saved for the spell that stops lethal or wins first.

- `Blacksmith's Skill`: add against targeted removal, artifact removal, and interactive decks where protecting one creature or artifact decides the game. Its role is a one-mana protection spell for a Hammer carrier, `Colossus Hammer`, `Kaldra Compleat`, `Puresteel Paladin`, or `Urza's Saga` artifact threat depending on legal target text; it is weaker against edicts, sweepers that do not target, counterspells, and combo decks with little removal. Role changes: treat it as extra `Surge of Salvation` only when the visible effect is actually covered.

Rakdos Midrange / black-red removal
Side in: 3 Sanctifier en-Vec; 1 Blacksmith's Skill; 1 Spell Pierce
Cut: 2 Steelshaper's Gift; 1 Cranial Plating; 1 Memnite; 1 Spell Pierce

Burn / red damage race
Side in: 3 Sanctifier en-Vec; 1 Blacksmith's Skill; 2 Path to Exile
Cut: 2 Steelshaper's Gift; 1 Cranial Plating; 1 Kaldra Compleat; 1 Memnite; 1 Spell Pierce

Cascade / free-spell combo
Side in: 2 Lavinia, Azorius Renegade; 1 Spell Pierce; 2 Pithing Needle
Cut: 3 Surge of Salvation; 1 Shadowspear; 1 Cranial Plating

Graveyard engine / reanimation / delve pressure
Side in: 1 Soul-Guide Lantern; 1 Relic of Progenitus; 3 Sanctifier en-Vec; 1 Spell Pierce
Cut: 2 Steelshaper's Gift; 1 Cranial Plating; 1 Kaldra Compleat; 1 Memnite; 1 Spell Pierce

Creature-combo or large-creature pressure
Side in: 2 Path to Exile; 2 March of Otherworldly Light; 1 Blacksmith's Skill
Cut: 2 Steelshaper's Gift; 1 Cranial Plating; 1 Kaldra Compleat; 1 Spell Pierce

Artifact/enchantment hate or Hammer mirror
Side in: 2 March of Otherworldly Light; 2 Pithing Needle; 1 Blacksmith's Skill
Cut: 2 Steelshaper's Gift; 1 Cranial Plating; 1 Kaldra Compleat; 1 Spell Pierce

- Against control: Add role cards: `Spell Pierce`, `Blacksmith's Skill`, and sometimes `Lavinia, Azorius Renegade` when the opponent depends on free or over-cost noncreature spells. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow Equipment redundancy and combat-only cards that do not protect a threat. Keep `Sigarda's Aid`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, and enough carriers because control often gives a short opening before sweepers or removal chains.

- Against creature aggro: Add role cards: `Path to Exile`, `March of Otherworldly Light`, `Sanctifier en-Vec` when protection colors matter, and `Blacksmith's Skill` when removal is targeted. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slower tutor lines and expensive standalone Equipment. Prioritize `Shadowspear` when lifelink or trample changes the race.

- Against linear combo: Add role cards: `Spell Pierce`, `Lavinia, Azorius Renegade`, and `Pithing Needle` only when public information names a relevant activated ability. Reduce main-deck emphasis: protection that does not interact with the combo and slow combat backup. Keep the fastest `Colossus Hammer` kills because sideboard disruption is only a bridge to lethal.

- Against graveyard decks: Add role cards: `Soul-Guide Lantern`, `Relic of Progenitus`, `Sanctifier en-Vec` when red or black graveyard cards matter, and `Spell Pierce` against noncreature enablers. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow Equipment packages and excess protection that does not stop graveyard setup. Fire graveyard hate before costs are paid, not after the opponent has already converted the graveyard into a spell or ability.

- Against artifact or activated-ability decks: Add role cards: `Pithing Needle`, `March of Otherworldly Light`, and `Spell Pierce` when key noncreature spells are on the stack. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow protection and expensive threats. Use `Pithing Needle` only on a known public activated ability; if the opponent has several possible names, choose through model reasoning from visible permanents, revealed cards, and matchup context.

## Matchup Guidance

- Against aggro: Race with `Colossus Hammer` first and stabilize only when the opponent can present lethal before your next attack. `Ornithopter`, `Memnite`, and `Inkmoth Nexus` are carriers before they are blockers; block only when survival requires it or when a token from `Urza's Saga` can absorb pressure without delaying lethal. Add role cards: `Path to Exile`, `March of Otherworldly Light`, `Sanctifier en-Vec` when red or black creatures and damage matter, and `Blacksmith's Skill` when targeted interaction is visible. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow tutor turns with `Steelshaper's Gift`, expensive `Kaldra Compleat` lines, and redundant Equipment that does not change the immediate race.

- Against control: Force them to answer cheap battlefield permanents before committing the all-in Hammer attack. Lead with `Esper Sentinel`, `Sigarda's Aid`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, or `Urza's Saga` depending on available mana and known stack interaction; avoid exposing every carrier to one sweeper when one protected carrier is enough. Add role cards: the fourth `Spell Pierce`, `Blacksmith's Skill`, and sometimes `Lavinia, Azorius Renegade` when the opponent depends on free or over-cost noncreature spells. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Cranial Plating`, excess `Memnite`, and slower tutor density. Save `Surge of Salvation` for targeted removal or damage lines it actually covers; it does not beat every sweeper or counterspell.

- Against combo: Be the fastest lethal deck unless a specific disruptive card buys a full turn. Keep hands with a credible `Colossus Hammer` plus carrier path, `Inkmoth Nexus` poison line, or `Stoneforge Mystic` into `Kaldra Compleat` when speed and protection align. Add role cards: `Spell Pierce`, `Lavinia, Azorius Renegade`, and `Pithing Needle` only when public information or matchup knowledge names a relevant activated ability. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Shadowspear`, `Cranial Plating`, and protection that does not interact with the combo. Use `Spell Pierce` on the enabling noncreature spell, not on a low-impact cantrip unless that spell is the last visible mana-efficient setup action before the combo turn.

- Against tempo: Protect mana efficiency more than raw card count. `Esper Sentinel` is strong when it taxes their interaction, but the winning line is often a one-turn window where `Sigarda's Aid`, `Colossus Hammer`, and a cheap carrier resolve through one answer. Add role cards: `Spell Pierce`, `Blacksmith's Skill`, and `Path to Exile` when their pressure is creature-based. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slower `Steelshaper's Gift` sequencing and clunky `Kaldra Compleat` if bounce, counterspells, or temporary answers make it poor. Do not animate `Inkmoth Nexus` into open removal unless poison lethal, protection, or forcing a decisive exchange is worth losing the land.

- Against midrange: Make every threat demand a different answer. `Urza's Saga` pressures removal-light hands, `Stoneforge Mystic` threatens `Kaldra Compleat` or `Colossus Hammer`, and `Inkmoth Nexus` attacks from a land slot that strains sorcery-speed removal. Add role cards: `Sanctifier en-Vec` against black-red pressure, `Blacksmith's Skill` against targeted removal, `Path to Exile` for large blockers, and the fourth `Spell Pierce` when planeswalkers, discard follow-up, or removal stacks matter. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Cranial Plating`, some slow tutor dependence, and all-in attacks without protection when the opponent has untapped interaction.

- Against big mana: Kill before their payoff turn and use stack interaction for the payoff or enabler that changes the clock. `Colossus Hammer` on `Inkmoth Nexus`, `Ornithopter`, or `Memnite` is the primary plan; `Urza's Saga` is acceptable only when it still produces lethal pressure before the opponent stabilizes. Add role cards: `Spell Pierce`, `Lavinia, Azorius Renegade` against free or cost-bypassing plans, and `Pithing Needle` only for known activated abilities from visible or reliably inferred cards. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Surge of Salvation` when their interaction is not targeted damage or targeted removal, `Shadowspear`, and expensive backup threats that arrive after their battlefield engine is online.

- Against graveyard decks: Attack while graveyard hate delays their most explosive turn. Add role cards: `Soul-Guide Lantern`, `Relic of Progenitus`, `Sanctifier en-Vec` when red or black graveyard cards matter, and `Spell Pierce` for noncreature enablers. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow Equipment redundancy and protection that does not stop graveyard conversion. Use `Soul-Guide Lantern` or `Relic of Progenitus` before the opponent pays flashback, delve, escape, reanimation, or similar graveyard costs; once a spell is already cast, graveyard exile may no longer stop it unless the rules engine exposes a legal relevant response.

- Against artifact/enchantment decks: Separate cards that stop your Equipment from cards that race through permanents. `March of Otherworldly Light` answers a visible artifact, creature, or enchantment according to legal targets; `Pithing Needle` handles activated abilities only and must name a card with a relevant public ability. Add role cards: `March of Otherworldly Light`, `Pithing Needle`, `Spell Pierce`, and `Blacksmith's Skill` when artifact removal or targeted hate is central. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Cranial Plating` and slow tutor lines if the opponent can answer Equipment cleanly. Keep `Puresteel Paladin` when metalcraft makes equip timing resilient.

- Against go-wide decks: Do not trade the Hammer carrier for small bodies unless trample, lifelink, or poison math fails. `Shadowspear` is important because trample can convert a huge `Colossus Hammer` creature into lethal through blockers, while `Inkmoth Nexus` can bypass ground stalls but still respects flying/reach blockers and instant-speed removal. Add role cards: `Path to Exile` and `March of Otherworldly Light` for the creature that invalidates combat math. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Kaldra Compleat` when it is too slow and `Spell Pierce` when the opponent's relevant pressure is mostly creatures. Count lethal carefully because normal damage and infect poison are separate win tracks.

- Against single-threat decks: Remove or ignore the threat based on the clock. If one blocker or attacker decides the race, `Path to Exile` and `March of Otherworldly Light` are high-impact; if your `Colossus Hammer` attack is lethal first, preserve mana and protection for that attack instead. Add role cards: `Path to Exile`, `March of Otherworldly Light`, `Pithing Needle` for activated single-card engines, and `Blacksmith's Skill` when they aim removal at the carrier. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow search chains that do not affect the immediate threat. Use `Stoneforge Mystic` for `Shadowspear` when lifelink or trample changes the one-threat race more than another Hammer.

- Against burn: Treat life total as a resource only until it endangers the next turn cycle. `Shadowspear`, `Sanctifier en-Vec`, `Surge of Salvation`, and a fast `Colossus Hammer` clock are the key cards; fetch-shock sequencing with `Marsh Flats`, `Hallowed Fountain`, and `Godless Shrine` must be conservative unless the extra color immediately produces lethal or protection. Add role cards: `Sanctifier en-Vec`, `Blacksmith's Skill`, `Path to Exile` for creature pressure, and sometimes `Spell Pierce` on noncreature burn or hate. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Kaldra Compleat`, `Cranial Plating`, and slow tutor turns. Do not assume `Surge of Salvation` protects artifacts or creatures from every effect; follow the legal text exposed at runtime.

- Against removal-heavy decks: Make them answer multiple card types and preserve the final protection spell for the lethal carrier. `Urza's Saga`, `Inkmoth Nexus`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, and `Sigarda's Aid` attack from different angles, so avoid collapsing the whole hand into one removable creature unless the attack is lethal or protected. Add role cards: `Blacksmith's Skill`, `Spell Pierce`, `Sanctifier en-Vec` against black or red removal, and `Pithing Needle` only if their removal engine is activated. Reduce main-deck emphasis: extra zero-mana bodies after a carrier is established and Equipment that does not improve the current lethal line. Let `Esper Sentinel` tax removal chains, but do not delay a winning equip line just to draw an extra card.

## Specific Matchup Notes

- General/archetype-only note: exact opponents are absent, so these notes are matchup heuristics and revealed cards override assumptions. Use public information, legal actions, and visible mana before relying on archetype labels; when the opponent shows removal, blockers, graveyard conversion, activated engines, or sweepers, update the plan immediately.

- Against removal-heavy midrange or control: Spread threats across `Urza's Saga`, `Inkmoth Nexus`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, and creature carriers instead of making one unprotected all-in body. Add role cards: `Blacksmith's Skill`, the sideboard `Spell Pierce`, `Sanctifier en-Vec` against black-red interaction, and `Pithing Needle` only for a visible activated engine. Priority targets are removal that breaks a lethal `Colossus Hammer` turn, sweepers that reset zero-mana creatures, and permanents that repeatedly answer Equipment or carriers.

- Against fast creature decks: Race with the largest protected carrier and use sideboard removal only on creatures that change combat math. Add role cards: `Path to Exile`, `March of Otherworldly Light`, `Blacksmith's Skill`, and `Sanctifier en-Vec` when red or black pressure matters. Priority targets are evasive attackers racing `Inkmoth Nexus`, blockers that stop poison lethal, and creatures whose combat ability makes a Hammer attack fail.

- Against burn or direct-damage pressure: Protect life total while preserving a fast kill. Add role cards: `Sanctifier en-Vec`, `Blacksmith's Skill`, `Path to Exile` for creature pressure, and sometimes the sideboard `Spell Pierce` for noncreature damage or hate. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow `Kaldra Compleat` and `Cranial Plating` lines. Fetch with `Marsh Flats` conservatively; shock `Hallowed Fountain` or `Godless Shrine` only when the mana immediately enables lethal, protection, or a decisive setup.

- Against big mana or spell-based engines: Prioritize speed plus stack disruption over grinding. Add role cards: the sideboard `Spell Pierce`, `Lavinia, Azorius Renegade` against free or cost-bypassing play patterns, and `Pithing Needle` for known activated abilities. Priority targets are payoff spells, enablers that advance the opponent by a full turn, and activated permanents that invalidate combat.

- Against graveyard decks: Pressure first and use graveyard hate before the opponent converts the graveyard into costs or effects. Add role cards: `Soul-Guide Lantern`, `Relic of Progenitus`, `Sanctifier en-Vec` when red or black graveyard cards matter, and the sideboard `Spell Pierce` for noncreature enablers. Priority targets are graveyard setup spells before resolution when counterable, and graveyard cards before flashback, delve, escape, reanimation, or similar costs are paid.

- Against artifact, enchantment, or equipment mirrors: Keep `Puresteel Paladin` and `Sigarda's Aid` high-value because equip timing decides combat. Add role cards: `March of Otherworldly Light`, `Pithing Needle`, `Blacksmith's Skill`, and the sideboard `Spell Pierce`. Priority targets are permanents that stop `Colossus Hammer`, activated abilities that strand Equipment, and opposing carriers that win the race before your next attack.

## Risk Summary

- Mana risk: `Marsh Flats` can find `Hallowed Fountain`, `Godless Shrine`, or `Plains`, but fetching the wrong source can strand `Spell Pierce`, `Surge of Salvation`, `Puresteel Paladin`, or sideboard cards. `Inkmoth Nexus` and `Urza's Saga` are powerful threats but do not cast white or blue spells, so opening hands with too many colorless lands need a real plan.

- Matchup risk: The deck can look like a normal Equipment deck while needing an infect kill from `Inkmoth Nexus`; normal damage from `Kaldra Compleat`, `Cranial Plating`, or `Shadowspear` does not combine with poison counters. Choose one lethal track when racing, and avoid spending turns improving the wrong clock.

- Draw risk: Hands with zero-mana creatures but no `Colossus Hammer`, `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Steelshaper's Gift`, or `Urza's Saga` can flood the battlefield without a payoff. Hands with only Equipment and no carrier can lose to any removal or blocker.

- Over-sideboarding risk: Removing too much of the core Hammer package for reactive cards makes the deck slower than the opponent's plan. Add role cards for a specific visible axis, but preserve enough carriers, Equipment access, and pressure to force action.

- Graveyard risk: `Soul-Guide Lantern` and `Relic of Progenitus` can be too slow if held for maximum value. Use them before the opponent pays graveyard costs; do not expect graveyard exile to undo a spell already cast unless the rules engine exposes a legal relevant response.

- Sweeper and removal risk: All-in `Colossus Hammer` lines lose badly to instant-speed removal if `Surge of Salvation`, `Blacksmith's Skill`, or `Spell Pierce` cannot legally answer the effect. Sweepers also punish committing every `Memnite`, `Ornithopter`, and `Esper Sentinel` when one carrier is enough.

- Closer risk: `Kaldra Compleat` closes normal-damage games but can be clunky when the opponent is faster or has bounce, exile, or artifact hate. `Shadowspear` matters when trample or lifelink changes combat; do not treat it as a default tutor target when poison lethal is available.

- Interaction risk: `Spell Pierce` is stack interaction, not an answer to resolved permanents. `Pithing Needle` needs a relevant named card with an activated ability; do not use it as generic hate without public information.

- Sequencing risk: `Sigarda's Aid` rewards holding Equipment until combat or the opponent's end step, while `Puresteel Paladin` rewards artifact count and equip timing. Animate `Inkmoth Nexus` only when the attack, block, or equip line justifies exposing a land to removal.

## Test Feedback Checklist

- Deciding factor: Record whether the game was won or lost by poison from `Inkmoth Nexus`, normal damage from `Kaldra Compleat`, `Cranial Plating`, `Shadowspear`, or a generic `Colossus Hammer` carrier, or by failing to assemble a carrier plus Equipment line before the opponent stabilized.

- Mulligan quality: Ask whether the opening hand had a real payoff path through `Colossus Hammer`, `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Steelshaper's Gift`, or `Urza's Saga`, and whether any kept hand merely deployed `Memnite`, `Ornithopter`, and `Esper Sentinel` without pressure.

- Mana quality: Track whether `Marsh Flats`, `Hallowed Fountain`, `Godless Shrine`, `Seachrome Coast`, `Plains`, `Inkmoth Nexus`, and `Urza's Saga` produced the colors and timing needed for `Spell Pierce`, `Surge of Salvation`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, and sideboard interaction.

- Velocity check: Note whether the deck converted early zero-mana creatures into pressure, or whether `Springleaf Drum`, `Esper Sentinel`, and artifact bodies created board presence without finding or supporting a lethal Equipment line.

- Engine check: Verify whether `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, and `Urza's Saga` actually changed equip timing, card flow, or tutor access, and flag games where the pilot ignored a legal instant-speed attach, equip, or construct-token pressure line.

- Removal and protection check: Record whether `Spell Pierce`, `Surge of Salvation`, `Blacksmith's Skill`, `March of Otherworldly Light`, `Path to Exile`, and `Pithing Needle` answered the axis that mattered, or were held while the opponent used the decisive spell, creature, or activated ability.

- Sideboard check: Ask whether added cards were tied to visible opponent pressure, graveyard use, activated abilities, free/cost-bypassing spell patterns, or removal density, and whether the deck kept enough carriers, Equipment access, and fast pressure after sideboarding.

- Closing check: Identify the first turn where poison lethal, normal-damage lethal, or a protected two-turn clock was available, then ask whether the pilot spent that turn improving the right clock or diluted the plan with unnecessary setup.

- Role check: Decide whether the deck correctly acted as the faster combo-pressure deck, a protected threat deck, or a post-board interactive deck; flag games where it tried to grind without `Esper Sentinel`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Urza's Saga`, or protected pressure.

- Mistake check: Look for premature `Inkmoth Nexus` animation, exposing an equipped land to removal without lethal or protection, tutoring the wrong Equipment, fetching the wrong shock land, using `Pithing Needle` without relevant public information, or confusing poison damage with normal damage.

- Stranded-card check: Record every stranded `Spell Pierce`, `Surge of Salvation`, `Steelshaper's Gift`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Kaldra Compleat`, `Cranial Plating`, sideboard hate card, or colored spell, and identify whether the cause was mana, timing, opponent role, or over-sideboarding.

- Rules-support check: Flag any attach, equip, construct-token, living weapon, infect, or creature-land interaction where the rules engine did not expose the expected legal action; if card-reference metadata is missing, treat text-sensitive tactical claims as unvalidated.

## First Tuning Questions

- Core quantity: Should `Steelshaper's Gift` remain at 2 copies if games are lost with carriers but no `Colossus Hammer`, or should the deck increase Equipment access at the cost of protection, interaction, or zero-mana bodies?

- Protection quantity: Should the main deck keep 3 `Surge of Salvation` and 3 `Spell Pierce`, or does the testing split show too many stack/protection cards against creature combat while still lacking enough answers to resolved permanents?

- Mana base: Do `4 Inkmoth Nexus` and `4 Urza's Saga` create too many colorless-land hands for `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Spell Pierce`, and `Surge of Salvation`, or is the threat-land density worth the failed colored-spell games?

- Fetch targets: Is 1 `Godless Shrine` only supporting sideboard and corner cases, or does it create enough awkward opening damage and color tension that another white-blue or basic source would improve consistency?

- Aggro plan: Against fast creature decks, are `Path to Exile`, `March of Otherworldly Light`, `Shadowspear`, and protected Hammer carriers enough, or does the sideboard need more low-cost creature interaction instead of slower hate pieces?

- Control plan: Against removal-heavy opponents, does the deck win more through `Urza's Saga` and `Esper Sentinel` pressure or through protected `Inkmoth Nexus` kills, and should sideboard slots favor `Blacksmith's Skill`, the extra `Spell Pierce`, or more resilient threats?

- Graveyard plan: Are 1 `Soul-Guide Lantern`, 1 `Relic of Progenitus`, and 3 `Sanctifier en-Vec` enough against graveyard conversion decks, or are graveyard slots too narrow when the main plan already needs speed and protection?

- Closer mix: Does `Kaldra Compleat` win enough normal-damage games to justify its clunky draws, or should testing consider whether `Cranial Plating`, `Shadowspear`, and `Colossus Hammer` already cover non-poison closing roles?

- Sideboard pressure: Are 2 `Lavinia, Azorius Renegade`, 2 `Pithing Needle`, and graveyard artifacts appearing in enough matchups, or are those slots competing with cards needed for creature removal, protection, and anti-removal plans?

- Role conflict: Does the draft concept of `Infect Or Hammer` cause the pilot to split resources between poison and normal damage too often, and should policy or card quantities push harder toward one primary kill in common board states?

## Veles Tactical Policy

### Policy: Mulligan For A Real Hammer Or Saga Path
Priority: High
Decision families: mulligan
Cards: Colossus Hammer; Sigarda's Aid; Puresteel Paladin; Stoneforge Mystic; Steelshaper's Gift; Urza's Saga; Inkmoth Nexus
Phase windows: opening hand; mulligan decisions
Runtime cues: opening hand contains payoff, carrier, mana, protection, or tutor pieces
Use when: evaluating whether the hand can produce Equipment access plus a carrier, `Urza's Saga` pressure, or an `Inkmoth Nexus` poison line by the early turns.
Avoid when: the hand only casts `Memnite`, `Ornithopter`, or `Esper Sentinel` without Equipment access, draw engine, Saga pressure, or stable mana.
Instructions: Keep hands with a coherent path to `Colossus Hammer`, `Urza's Saga`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, or `Puresteel Paladin`; reject hands that are fast only on board count but cannot convert that board into damage or poison.
Pilot skill floor: Level 1
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Deploy The First Enabler Before Extra Bodies
Priority: Medium
Decision families: mana; priority
Cards: Sigarda's Aid; Puresteel Paladin; Esper Sentinel; Springleaf Drum; Memnite; Ornithopter
Phase windows: turns 1-2 main phases
Runtime cues: legal cast actions for `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Esper Sentinel`, `Springleaf Drum`, `Memnite`, or `Ornithopter`
Use when: choosing the first setup spell before the opponent has committed decisive pressure.
Avoid when: colored mana must be held for visible stack interaction or protection against an immediate removal window.
Instructions: Prefer the permanent that turns future Equipment or artifacts into pressure: `Sigarda's Aid` for instant attach lines, `Puresteel Paladin` for artifact-count draw/equip lines, `Esper Sentinel` for tax pressure, and `Springleaf Drum` when it fixes a hand that already has a creature.
Pilot skill floor: Level 1
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Mandatory Zero-Mana Carrier Execution
Priority: Low
Decision families: priority
Cards: Memnite; Ornithopter
Phase windows: main phase with priority
Runtime cues: action:cast Memnite; action:cast Ornithopter
Use when: the legal action costs zero mana, the card is in hand, and casting it does not expose a selected hidden-information line.
Avoid when: a visible effect taxes or punishes creature casting in a way the engine exposes before payment.
Instructions: Cast the zero-mana carrier when the line already wants battlefield artifacts for `Puresteel Paladin`, `Springleaf Drum`, `Cranial Plating`, `Urza's Saga`, or an Equipment carrier.
Pilot skill floor: Level 1
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Fetch For Spell Windows, Not Just Life Total
Priority: Medium
Decision families: mana
Cards: Marsh Flats; Hallowed Fountain; Godless Shrine; Plains; Seachrome Coast
Phase windows: land play; fetch activation; precombat main; opponent end step
Runtime cues: legal land play or fetch activation; hand contains white, blue, or sideboard black-adjacent requirements
Use when: selecting mana that must cast `Sigarda's Aid`, `Puresteel Paladin`, `Stoneforge Mystic`, `Spell Pierce`, `Surge of Salvation`, or sideboard spells on schedule.
Avoid when: fetching a shock land creates unnecessary damage and a basic `Plains` still supports the selected line.
Instructions: Secure white first for the deck's core, add blue when `Spell Pierce` or `Lavinia, Azorius Renegade` matters, and use `Godless Shrine` only when sideboard or current hand requirements justify the black-producing land.
Pilot skill floor: Level 2
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Do Not Animate Inkmoth Nexus Without A Reason
Priority: High
Decision families: mana; combat; priority
Cards: Inkmoth Nexus; Colossus Hammer; Sigarda's Aid; Puresteel Paladin; Surge of Salvation; Spell Pierce
Phase windows: precombat main; beginning of combat; declare attackers; opponent removal windows
Runtime cues: legal activation for `Inkmoth Nexus`; legal equip or attach actions; visible removal or open mana
Use when: poison damage, blocking, metalcraft/equip execution, or a protected lethal setup requires `Inkmoth Nexus` to become a creature.
Avoid when: animation only spends mana, exposes a land to creature removal, or reduces colored mana needed for `Spell Pierce` or `Surge of Salvation`.
Instructions: Treat `Inkmoth Nexus` as a land until the chosen line needs it as an infect carrier or blocker; prefer delaying animation until the latest legal window that still supports the attack or equip.
Pilot skill floor: Level 2
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Hammer Commitment Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: combat; priority; selection
Cards: Colossus Hammer; Sigarda's Aid; Puresteel Paladin; Inkmoth Nexus; Ornithopter; Memnite; Surge of Salvation; Spell Pierce
Phase windows: precombat main; beginning of combat; declare attackers; instant-speed attach windows
Runtime cues: legal cast, attach, equip, or attack actions involving `Colossus Hammer`
Use when: deciding whether to start a lethal or two-turn `Colossus Hammer` line into open mana, blockers, or known interaction.
Avoid when: the carrier dies to visible interaction, the attack is not lethal or stabilizing, and waiting preserves protection or a better carrier.
Instructions: Commit Hammer when the carrier can connect, protection or stack interaction covers the exposed window, or waiting gives the opponent a stronger answer; do not burn the Equipment line into a disposable creature if `Inkmoth Nexus` or an evasive carrier is available on the selected clock.
Pilot skill floor: Level 2
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Execute Selected Sigarda's Aid Attach
Priority: Medium
Decision families: priority
Cards: Sigarda's Aid; Colossus Hammer; Shadowspear; Cranial Plating; Kaldra Compleat
Phase windows: Equipment enters battlefield; instant-speed priority windows
Runtime cues: action:attach Colossus Hammer; action:attach Shadowspear; action:attach Cranial Plating; action:attach Kaldra Compleat
Use when: the engine exposes a legal `Sigarda's Aid` attach action for the Equipment and the target creature was already selected by a higher-level line.
Avoid when: multiple legal carriers exist and no previous policy or model decision selected the exact carrier.
Instructions: Take the attach action that matches the selected carrier and Equipment; do not reassign the plan inside this deterministic execution step.
Pilot skill floor: Level 1
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Stoneforge And Gift Choose The Missing Role
Priority: Medium
Decision families: selection
Cards: Stoneforge Mystic; Steelshaper's Gift; Colossus Hammer; Kaldra Compleat; Shadowspear; Cranial Plating
Phase windows: tutor resolution; main phase; opponent end step for available put-onto-battlefield actions
Runtime cues: legal search or selection action for `Stoneforge Mystic` or `Steelshaper's Gift`
Use when: choosing which registered Equipment advances the current clock, protection, or stabilizing role.
Avoid when: the rules engine lacks card-reference metadata for the candidate Equipment; then prefer a conservative known-role choice already validated by visible text.
Instructions: Select `Colossus Hammer` for fastest poison or combat kills, `Kaldra Compleat` for resilient normal-damage pressure, `Shadowspear` for racing and lifelink/trample needs, and `Cranial Plating` for artifact-count damage when Hammer is unavailable or too exposed.
Pilot skill floor: Level 2
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Urza's Saga Is A Threat And A Tutor
Priority: Medium
Decision families: mana; selection; combat
Cards: Urza's Saga; Colossus Hammer; Shadowspear; Springleaf Drum; Memnite; Ornithopter
Phase windows: land sequencing; Saga chapter triggers; construct activation windows
Runtime cues: `Urza's Saga` chapter trigger or construct-token activation is legal
Use when: balancing construct pressure, mana use, and the eventual search for a registered low-mana artifact.
Avoid when: spending mana on construct activation prevents lethal Hammer, poison, or required protection on the same turn.
Instructions: Use Saga to create material when time allows, but prioritize the chapter search that completes the current plan: `Colossus Hammer` for a kill line, `Shadowspear` for trample/lifelink pressure, `Springleaf Drum` for mana fixing, or a zero-mana artifact only when artifact count or carrier density is the immediate bottleneck.
Pilot skill floor: Level 2
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Spend Spell Pierce Only On Decisive Stack Objects
Priority: High
Decision families: interaction
Cards: Spell Pierce
Phase windows: opponent spell on stack; own combo turn protection window
Runtime cues: legal cast action for `Spell Pierce`; opponent noncreature spell on stack
Use when: the spell on stack removes the selected carrier, stops the Equipment line, wins the game for the opponent, or prevents your lethal/survival turn.
Avoid when: the opponent can pay the tax with visible mana or the spell does not change the current clock, board, or selected line.
Instructions: Preserve `Spell Pierce` for stack-only interaction that matters; it does not answer resolved permanents, so spend it before the relevant noncreature spell resolves.
Pilot skill floor: Level 2
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Protection Commitment Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: interaction; priority
Cards: Surge of Salvation; Blacksmith's Skill
Phase windows: opponent removal on stack; combat trick window; own lethal turn
Runtime cues: legal cast action for `Surge of Salvation` or `Blacksmith's Skill`
Use when: the visible spell, ability, or combat result would remove the selected carrier, break a lethal line, or cause immediate survival failure.
Avoid when: the protected object is not part of the current pressure or survival line, or the effect does not cover the visible threat class.
Instructions: Use protection to preserve a Hammer carrier, poison attacker, or decisive engine permanent; do not spend it on replaceable artifacts when the deck still needs protection for `Inkmoth Nexus`, `Puresteel Paladin`, or the equipped attacker.
Pilot skill floor: Level 2
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Puresteel Metalcraft Equip Timing
Priority: Medium
Decision families: priority; combat
Cards: Puresteel Paladin; Colossus Hammer; Cranial Plating; Shadowspear; Kaldra Compleat; Memnite; Ornithopter; Springleaf Drum
Phase windows: main phase; beginning of combat; post-blocker combat windows if legal actions exist
Runtime cues: legal equip action with `Puresteel Paladin` on battlefield; artifact count visible
Use when: the engine exposes reduced or alternate equip actions and the equipped creature changes the clock or combat outcome.
Avoid when: equipping before attacks exposes the only carrier to sorcery-speed interaction that could have been avoided by waiting.
Instructions: Convert metalcraft into damage at the latest useful window; keep artifacts on battlefield when they enable equip access, `Springleaf Drum`, `Cranial Plating`, or construct sizing.
Pilot skill floor: Level 2
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Infect Damage And Normal Damage Are Separate Clocks
Priority: High
Decision families: combat
Cards: Inkmoth Nexus; Colossus Hammer; Cranial Plating; Shadowspear; Kaldra Compleat
Phase windows: declare attackers; declare blockers; combat damage planning
Runtime cues: legal attack with `Inkmoth Nexus` or equipped creature; opponent poison and life totals visible
Use when: choosing whether to pursue poison lethal, normal-damage lethal, or a two-turn clock.
Avoid when: mixing clocks gives the opponent an extra turn compared with focusing one lethal axis.
Instructions: Count poison from `Inkmoth Nexus` separately from life damage; choose the attack that reaches lethal soonest while respecting blockers, removal, protection, and whether trample or evasion is actually present.
Pilot skill floor: Level 2
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Attack Only With Needed Carriers Protected By The Plan
Priority: Medium
Decision families: combat
Cards: Esper Sentinel; Ornithopter; Memnite; Puresteel Paladin; Stoneforge Mystic; Inkmoth Nexus
Phase windows: declare attackers; declare blockers
Runtime cues: legal attack actions for battlefield creatures
Use when: deciding whether a carrier, engine creature, or mana creature should attack.
Avoid when: attacking taps a needed `Springleaf Drum` enabler, risks an equipped carrier without payoff, or gives up a blocker needed against visible lethal.
Instructions: Attack with creatures that advance the selected clock; keep back creatures whose main job is carrying future Equipment, enabling mana, drawing cards, or preventing immediate counterattack lethal.
Pilot skill floor: Level 1
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Removal Sideboard Cards Must Match The Threat Axis
Priority: Medium
Decision families: interaction; sideboard
Cards: March of Otherworldly Light; Path to Exile; Pithing Needle
Phase windows: sideboarding; opponent permanent on battlefield; stack and priority windows for legal removal
Runtime cues: legal cast action for `March of Otherworldly Light` or `Path to Exile`; legal naming/selection action for `Pithing Needle`
Use when: the opponent presents a creature, artifact, enchantment, or activated-ability threat that blocks the selected kill, races faster, or disables your engine.
Avoid when: using removal on a low-impact object leaves a known decisive blocker, hate permanent, or activated ability unresolved.
Instructions: Match `Path to Exile` to creatures, `March of Otherworldly Light` to its visible legal target classes and payment limits, and `Pithing Needle` to a public-information activated ability that matters to the current plan.
Pilot skill floor: Level 2
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Graveyard Hate Is Preemptive Pressure Support
Priority: Medium
Decision families: sideboard; interaction
Cards: Soul-Guide Lantern; Relic of Progenitus; Sanctifier en-Vec
Phase windows: sideboarding; main phase deployment; graveyard-use priority windows
Runtime cues: opponent graveyard contains named cards; legal activation for `Soul-Guide Lantern` or `Relic of Progenitus`
Use when: the opponent's graveyard is a visible resource for recursion, cost reduction, flashback, escape, or similar conversion.
Avoid when: holding hate until after the opponent has already paid a graveyard-based cost and the spell is on the stack.
Instructions: Deploy hate without diluting the Hammer plan; use artifact graveyard hate before the graveyard is converted, and use `Sanctifier en-Vec` when its color-based text is relevant and validated by card metadata.
Pilot skill floor: Level 2
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Sideboard Without Cutting The Engine Below Function
Priority: High
Decision families: sideboard
Cards: Spell Pierce; Surge of Salvation; Blacksmith's Skill; Lavinia, Azorius Renegade; Sanctifier en-Vec; March of Otherworldly Light; Path to Exile; Pithing Needle; Soul-Guide Lantern; Relic of Progenitus
Phase windows: sideboarding
Runtime cues: sideboard configuration screen; opponent archetype and revealed cards known
Use when: adding interaction for removal-heavy, graveyard, activated-ability, creature, or cost-cheating matchups.
Avoid when: cuts leave too few carriers, Equipment access pieces, or mana sources to execute `Colossus Hammer`, `Urza's Saga`, or `Inkmoth Nexus` plans.
Instructions: Add only cards that answer the opponent's proven axis, and reduce main-deck emphasis from redundant pressure or narrow interaction while preserving carriers, Equipment, enablers, and enough colored mana.
Pilot skill floor: Level 2
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Lavinia Enters Only When The Opponent's Casting Pattern Matters
Priority: Medium
Decision families: sideboard; priority
Cards: Lavinia, Azorius Renegade; Hallowed Fountain; Seachrome Coast; Plains
Phase windows: sideboarding; main phase casting decisions
Runtime cues: legal cast action for `Lavinia, Azorius Renegade`; opponent has shown cost-bypass or high-mana spell patterns
Use when: the opponent's revealed plan relies on casting spells through cost mismatch, free casting, or large mana patterns that `Lavinia, Azorius Renegade` can constrain according to validated card text.
Avoid when: the matchup is decided by creature combat or removal and `Lavinia, Azorius Renegade` does not affect the visible axis.
Instructions: Cast `Lavinia, Azorius Renegade` early only when the mana supports white-blue without delaying Hammer pressure; otherwise keep the proactive plan ahead of hate deployment.
Pilot skill floor: Level 2
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Execute Selected Lethal Attack
Priority: High
Decision families: combat
Cards: Inkmoth Nexus; Colossus Hammer; Cranial Plating; Shadowspear; Kaldra Compleat
Phase windows: declare attackers
Runtime cues: action:attack with Inkmoth Nexus; action:attack with Ornithopter; action:attack with Memnite
Use when: a previous model decision selected the exact attacker and visible damage or poison is lethal after legal blocks and replacement effects exposed by the engine.
Avoid when: multiple attack sets are legal and no previous decision selected the exact attacker set.
Instructions: Submit the selected lethal attack exactly; do not add extra attackers that change blocker assignment or expose unnecessary resources.
Pilot skill floor: Level 1
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes
