# Strategy Specifications
## Deck Name And Archetype

- Identity: `(Vo-)Racios Passios cPDH` is a Pauper Commander Dimir combo-control deck built around `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` as the command-zone card, with a 100-card main deck and a 10-card Veles policy sideboard. Treat the deck as a reactive spell-density engine that wants to survive, sculpt, and then convert a specific legal opening into a protected combo or commander-centered kill rather than as a generic blue-black good-stuff control deck.

- Validation status: The active format/deck validation contract reports Pauper Commander as the active format, `100` main-deck cards, `10` sideboard cards, singleton compliance outside `Island` and `Swamp`, and a passing format-aware validation result. Do not apply 60-card constructed deck-size heuristics to this guide, and do not flag the 10-card sideboard as illegal inside Veles policy runs because the provided contract explicitly permits no sideboard or exactly 10 cards.

- Registered-card discipline: Use only exact registered names when identifying deck actions, sideboard actions, or tactical policies, including `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Freed from the Real`, `Retraction Helix`, `Octopus Form`, `Dizzy Spell`, `Perplex`, `Drift of Phantasms`, `Arcane Signet`, `Dimir Signet`, `Springleaf Drum`, `Moonsnare Prototype`, `Basilica Screecher`, `Raven of Fell Omens`, and the sideboard cards `Deathgreeter`, `Spinning Darkness`, `Utter Insignificance`, `Resculpt`, `Essence Scatter`, `Cremate`, `Peppersmoke`, `Negate`, `Doom Blade`, and `Run Away Together`. Do not import familiar Pauper, Commander, combo, protection, tutor, ramp, or utility names that are absent from this registered 110-card inventory.

- Archetype tags: The current strategic tags are `combo` and `control`, with combo-control as the operative runtime role. The deck should delay, answer, protect, and filter until a high-leverage window appears; when the rules engine exposes a decisive combo or commander-damage line, the agent should verify visible mana, stack pressure, card identities, and legal targets before committing.

- Stock status: Classify this list as rogue/hybrid, not stock. It uses recognizable Dimir control pieces such as `Counterspell`, `Arcane Denial`, `Mana Leak`, `Spell Pierce`, `Dispel`, `Go for the Throat`, `Cast Down`, `Defile`, and `Tragic Slip`, but the central plan appears deck-specific because `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, aura/protection cards, cheap cantrips, and transmute-like selection pieces are arranged around a particular cPDH engine rather than a widely standardized shell.

- Legality posture: Trust the supplied Veles validation result for deck construction, but require runtime legality from the rules engine for every cast, target, mana payment, attack, block, sideboard action, and priority decision. If a visible action contradicts this guide, obey the legal action list and treat the guide as advisory context rather than authority.

- Card-text certainty: Several card roles are inferable from known names, but any exact line involving unfamiliar or newer cards such as `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Bender's Waterskin`, `Serpent's Pass`, `Murky Sewer`, `Geyser Drake`, `Take the Fall`, `Octopus Form`, `Spell Stutter`, `Magic Damper`, or `Tune the Narrative` needs rules-engine confirmation or card text check required before assuming a deterministic outcome. Use legal action labels and visible prompts to resolve uncertainty rather than inventing card text.

- Mana-role concern: The deck is heavily blue with a black interaction package, so opening hands need blue access early for `Opt`, `Consider`, `Brainstorm`, `Spell Pierce`, `Dispel`, `Counterspell`, `Arcane Denial`, `Snap`, and selection lines, while black access matters for `Defile`, `Tragic Slip`, `Cast Down`, `Go for the Throat`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Basilica Screecher`, and recursion-protection effects such as `Not Dead After All`, `Undying Malice`, `Undying Evil`, and `Feign Death`. Colorless accelerants like `Arcane Signet`, `Dimir Signet`, `Fellwar Stone`, `Springleaf Drum`, and `Moonsnare Prototype` are important only if their runtime mana output and tap requirements are legal and currently available.

- Opponent-info status: No specific opponent deck, commander, metagame decklist, or known hidden cards were supplied for this guide. Matchup logic must therefore begin from archetype-level observations, visible board state, public zones, revealed information, commander identity when known, and engine-provided legal actions; any named opposing card outside the registered list must be treated as an opponent example in prose or prefixed with `opponent:` when used in policy card fields.

## Thesis

- Assemble protection plus velocity around `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, then convert the first rules-engine-confirmed opening into either a commander-centered kill, a protected evasive damage plan, or a locked-up control finish. Treat exact commander text, `Octopus Form`, `Bender's Waterskin`, `Geyser Drake`, `Serpent's Pass`, `Murky Sewer`, `Take the Fall`, `Spell Stutter`, `Magic Damper`, and `Tune the Narrative` as Card text check required unless the visible legal action labels prove the line.

- Prioritize blue mana, cheap selection, and stack discipline before committing fragile permanents. The deck wants to see extra cards with `Opt`, `Consider`, `Brainstorm`, `Thought Scour`, `Peek`, `Reach Through Mists`, `Whispers of the Muse`, `Frantic Search`, `Tune the Narrative`, `Fleeting Distraction`, `Obsessive Search`, `Aphotic Wisps`, `Cerulean Wisps`, and `Shadow Rift`, while keeping enough mana or free interaction to protect a pivotal creature, aura, or combo action.

- Win by making one protected threat matter rather than by flooding the board. `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Terror`, `Basilica Screecher`, `Raven of Fell Omens`, `Windrider Wizard`, `Geyser Drake`, `Undercity Scrounger`, and `Disciple of the Vault` are pressure or payoff bodies, but the agent should not turn them sideways blindly when they are needed for `Springleaf Drum`, `Moonsnare Prototype`, `Retraction Helix`, `Freed from the Real`, protection layering, or sacrifice value.

- Do not play this as tap-out Dimir midrange. Preserve `Counterspell`, `Arcane Denial`, `Mana Leak`, `Spell Pierce`, `Dispel`, `Unwind`, `Foil`, `Lofty Denial`, and `Magic Damper` for turns where the opponent can break the engine, remove the protected threat, force through lethal pressure, or punish a combo commitment.

- Prioritize legality over theory at runtime. If Veles exposes only a pass, cast, target, pay, attack, block, or sideboard action that differs from this guide, choose from the legal list and use this document only to rank the visible choices.

## Role Package

- Threats: `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` is the command-zone anchor and should be treated as the highest-context threat; commit it when mana, protection, and opponent pressure justify the risk. `Terror`, `Geyser Drake`, `Raven of Fell Omens`, `Basilica Screecher`, `Windrider Wizard`, `Undercity Scrounger`, `Melancholic Poet`, `Disciple of the Vault`, `Naiad of Hidden Coves`, and `Drift of Phantasms` can pressure, block, enable artifacts, or carry auras, but their exact tactical role depends on visible text and legal actions.

- Payoffs: `Freed from the Real`, `Retraction Helix`, `Octopus Form`, `Eternal Thirst`, `Unexpected Fangs`, `Blessing of Leeches`, `Eel Umbra`, and `Shadow Rift` are the cards most likely to turn one creature into the main plan. Do not attach or fire them into open interaction unless the line advances a protected kill, stabilizes a race, or forces the opponent to answer on bad terms.

- Engines: `Freed from the Real`, `Retraction Helix`, `Moonsnare Prototype`, `Springleaf Drum`, `Arcane Signet`, `Dimir Signet`, `Fellwar Stone`, `Bender's Waterskin`, `Naiad of Hidden Coves`, `Windrider Wizard`, and `Deadly Dispute` are the resource-conversion package. Treat tap requirements, creature availability, artifact availability, and summoning sickness as rules-engine facts, not assumptions.

- Velocity: `Opt`, `Consider`, `Brainstorm`, `Thought Scour`, `Peek`, `Reach Through Mists`, `Whispers of the Muse`, `Frantic Search`, `Dizzy Spell`, `Perplex`, `Drift of Phantasms`, `Tune the Narrative`, `Obsessive Search`, `Aphotic Wisps`, `Cerulean Wisps`, `Fleeting Distraction`, `Leap`, and `Shadow Rift` find lands, protection, interaction, or the specific engine piece the current hand lacks. Use selection before land drops only when the selection can change which land or mana rock is correct.

- Interaction: `Counterspell`, `Arcane Denial`, `Mana Leak`, `Spell Pierce`, `Dispel`, `Unwind`, `Foil`, `Lofty Denial`, `Magic Damper`, `Snap`, `Snapback`, `Go for the Throat`, `Cast Down`, `Defile`, `Tragic Slip`, `Ghastly Demise`, and `Anoint with Affliction` are the survival and commitment shields. Spend removal early against lethal pressure; save counters for sweepers, exile effects, combo breaks, and decisive opposing engines when life total allows.

- Protection and recursion: `Not Dead After All`, `Undying Malice`, `Undying Evil`, `Feign Death`, `Shore Up`, `Mizzium Skin`, `Eel Umbra`, `Blessing of Leeches`, `Unexpected Fangs`, and `Take the Fall` protect a chosen creature or swing combat math. Hold these for `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` or the current engine creature unless a different visible permanent is the only route to survival.

- Mana: `Island`, `Swamp`, `Command Tower`, `Ice Tunnel`, `Contaminated Aquifer`, `Sinister Hideout`, `Serpent's Pass`, `Waterfront District`, `Murky Sewer`, `Arcane Signet`, `Dimir Signet`, `Fellwar Stone`, `Springleaf Drum`, and `Moonsnare Prototype` must support early blue interaction and enough black for removal or recursion. Keep hands that cast selection plus interaction; distrust hands that need unproven artifact tapping or off-color lands to function.

- Sideboard modules: `Deathgreeter` is for creature-death races, `Spinning Darkness`, `Doom Blade`, `Peppersmoke`, `Utter Insignificance`, and `Resculpt` are extra removal or answer density, `Essence Scatter` and `Negate` tune the counter suite, `Cremate` is graveyard pressure with a card-flow floor, and `Run Away Together` is tempo against board-centric or aura-centric opponents.

## Primary Win Conditions

- Protected commander kill: make `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` the central threat when the hand contains mana, at least one protection effect, and either evasion or card-flow support. Setup is blue-heavy mana, a stable land count, and protection such as `Shore Up`, `Mizzium Skin`, `Eel Umbra`, `Not Dead After All`, `Undying Malice`, `Undying Evil`, `Feign Death`, `Blessing of Leeches`, or `Take the Fall`; execution is to commit the commander, protect it from the first decisive answer, then use `Shadow Rift`, `Leap`, `Aphotic Wisps`, `Cerulean Wisps`, `Unexpected Fangs`, `Eternal Thirst`, or `Octopus Form` only when the rules engine shows a legal line that improves damage, evasion, or survival. Disruption to respect is instant-speed removal, bounce, exile, counter magic, and combat tricks; prioritize this path when the opponent is light on board pressure or when commander damage/large evasive pressure is the clearest clock. Card text check required for exact `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Take the Fall`, and `Octopus Form` details.

- Protected engine-combo line: assemble a creature or artifact tap engine with `Freed from the Real`, `Retraction Helix`, `Moonsnare Prototype`, `Springleaf Drum`, `Bender's Waterskin`, `Naiad of Hidden Coves`, `Windrider Wizard`, `Arcane Signet`, `Dimir Signet`, and `Fellwar Stone` only after visible mana and tap permissions are confirmed. Setup is an untapped eligible permanent, enough blue mana to begin, and either stack protection or opponent shields down; execution is to follow the exact legal actions exposed by Veles for untap, tap, target, bounce, mana, or spell sequencing without assuming an infinite loop. Disruption to respect is removal aimed at the enchanted or enabled permanent, artifact removal, counter magic on the aura or payoff, and tempo that breaks the tap chain; prioritize this path when it creates a deterministic legal action chain or a decisive mana/card advantage before the opponent can win. Card text check required for `Bender's Waterskin` and any line depending on exact `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` text.

- Control-to-airborne or recursive finish: use `Counterspell`, `Arcane Denial`, `Mana Leak`, `Spell Pierce`, `Dispel`, `Unwind`, `Foil`, `Lofty Denial`, `Magic Damper`, `Snap`, `Snapback`, `Go for the Throat`, `Cast Down`, `Defile`, `Tragic Slip`, `Ghastly Demise`, and `Anoint with Affliction` to trade down the opponent's decisive turns, then win with whatever threat remains. Setup is making land drops and conserving interaction; execution is to protect `Terror`, `Geyser Drake`, `Basilica Screecher`, `Raven of Fell Omens`, `Windrider Wizard`, `Undercity Scrounger`, `Disciple of the Vault`, or `Melancholic Poet` long enough for incremental damage, drain, or value to matter. Disruption to respect is card-advantage engines and threats that invalidate one-for-one removal; prioritize this path when the opening hand is reactive, the opponent is faster, or the main engine pieces are missing.

## Secondary Win Conditions

- Evasive chip damage becomes a real plan when `Shadow Rift`, `Leap`, `Aphotic Wisps`, `Cerulean Wisps`, `Fleeting Distraction`, `Unexpected Fangs`, or `Eternal Thirst` lets one creature attack safely while interaction protects the race. Prefer this line when the opponent is low on blockers, life totals make two or three attacks meaningful, or the combo is not assembled.

- Graveyard and recursion pressure can recover a removed threat when `Not Dead After All`, `Undying Malice`, `Undying Evil`, `Feign Death`, `Melancholic Poet`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Thought Scour`, and `Ghastly Demise` create legal value from death or graveyard density. Use recursion on the creature that currently wins or stabilizes, not automatically on the commander if another permanent is carrying `Freed from the Real`, `Retraction Helix`, `Unexpected Fangs`, or a lethal attack.

- Card velocity can substitute for a missing payoff when `Opt`, `Consider`, `Brainstorm`, `Peek`, `Reach Through Mists`, `Whispers of the Muse`, `Frantic Search`, `Dizzy Spell`, `Perplex`, `Drift of Phantasms`, `Tune the Narrative`, and `Obsessive Search` find the missing land, counter, removal spell, protection effect, or engine piece. Use `Dizzy Spell`, `Perplex`, and `Drift of Phantasms` as selection or tutor-like tools only when Veles shows the legal mode and target; do not assume hidden library contents or exact tutor ranges without engine output.

- Artifact-assisted pressure is acceptable when `Moonsnare Prototype`, `Springleaf Drum`, `Arcane Signet`, `Dimir Signet`, and `Fellwar Stone` let the deck double-spell while small creatures still attack or block. Do not sacrifice tempo creatures to attacks if they are needed to tap for mana, enable `Retraction Helix`, or hold protection open.

## Emergency Lines

- Behind on life: stabilize before assembling a slow engine by removing the highest visible damage source with `Cast Down`, `Go for the Throat`, `Defile`, `Tragic Slip`, `Ghastly Demise`, `Anoint with Affliction`, `Snap`, or `Snapback`, then use `Unexpected Fangs`, `Eternal Thirst`, or a protected blocker only when the legal action improves survival now. Do not spend the last protection spell on a nonessential threat while lethal or near-lethal combat is visible.

- Behind on board: trade cards for time and keep mana open for interaction rather than attaching fragile auras into pressure. `Drift of Phantasms`, `Basilica Screecher`, `Raven of Fell Omens`, `Geyser Drake`, `Terror`, and `Undercity Scrounger` can block or race only if Veles shows legal combat that does not expose the only win condition unnecessarily.

- Behind on cards: prioritize legal draw, filtering, or sacrifice-value lines from `Brainstorm`, `Frantic Search`, `Whispers of the Muse`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Consider`, `Opt`, and `Thought Scour`, but keep one answer for the opponent's decisive threat if the board is dangerous. Avoid using cantrips only to spend mana when holding up `Counterspell`, `Dispel`, or removal is the safer route.

- Behind on mana: sequence untapped blue sources, rocks, and cheap selection before expensive commitments. Keep `Arcane Signet`, `Dimir Signet`, `Fellwar Stone`, `Moonsnare Prototype`, and `Springleaf Drum` when they fix the next two turns, but do not rely on creature-tap mana if the needed creature is summoning sick, tapped, removed, or required to block.

- Engine broken or win condition removed: shift immediately into control finish rather than chasing the same lost line. Protect the next credible threat, recycle value with recursion if legal, and use commander recasts only when commander tax, available protection, and opponent pressure make the recast better than passing with interaction.

## Resource Model

- Life is a buffer for assembling protected control-combo turns, not a resource to spend casually. Accept early chip damage when it preserves `Counterspell`, `Dispel`, `Spell Pierce`, `Mana Leak`, `Foil`, `Cast Down`, `Go for the Throat`, or `Snap` for a decisive threat, but pivot to stabilization when visible attackers can shorten the clock to two turns; `Unexpected Fangs`, `Eternal Thirst`, `Basilica Screecher`, and `Raven of Fell Omens` can convert a protected creature into life recovery only if the creature survives the current legal exchange.

- Hand size is the deck's main control resource because most answers are one-for-one and timing-sensitive. Preserve a mix of permission, removal, protection, and velocity rather than firing `Opt`, `Consider`, `Brainstorm`, `Reach Through Mists`, `Peek`, or `Whispers of the Muse` just to spend mana; spend cantrips early when missing lands or colors, and hold them later when `Brainstorm`, `Frantic Search`, `Obsessive Search`, `Dizzy Spell`, `Perplex`, or `Drift of Phantasms` can convert known information into a specific line.

- Mana converts into leverage through double-spelling and protected commitments. `Arcane Signet`, `Dimir Signet`, `Fellwar Stone`, `Springleaf Drum`, `Moonsnare Prototype`, and cost reducers or enablers such as `Naiad of Hidden Coves` support turns where the deck casts a threat or engine piece while still representing `Dispel`, `Spell Pierce`, `Shore Up`, `Mizzium Skin`, `Undying Evil`, `Feign Death`, or removal.

- Board presence is both pressure and infrastructure, so do not treat every creature as expendable. `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Basilica Screecher`, `Raven of Fell Omens`, `Disciple of the Vault`, `Undercity Scrounger`, `Windrider Wizard`, `Geyser Drake`, `Terror`, `Melancholic Poet`, and `Drift of Phantasms` should be evaluated by their current job: blocker, attacker, tap-mana enabler, aura carrier, sacrifice material, or engine piece.

- Graveyard value matters, but graveyard assumptions must follow public zones and legal actions. `Ghastly Demise`, `Terror`, `Thought Scour`, `Consider`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Melancholic Poet`, `Not Dead After All`, `Undying Malice`, `Undying Evil`, and `Feign Death` can reward stocked graveyards or death events; do not assume threshold, recursion targets, or death-trigger outcomes unless Veles exposes the relevant card, zone, and legal action.

- Exile is mostly a tracking zone unless a current card grants legal play permission or a sideboard bullet changes graveyard pressure. Respect public exile information for `Anoint with Affliction`, `Resculpt`, `Utter Insignificance`, and any opponent cards exiled by effects, but do not infer hidden hand contents from exile beyond visible game history.

- Sacrifice fodder is valuable only when the sacrificed permanent has finished its current job. `Deadly Dispute` and `Undercity Scrounger` style lines should prefer expendable artifacts, creatures that would die anyway, or material no longer needed for `Springleaf Drum`, `Moonsnare Prototype`, `Retraction Helix`, `Freed from the Real`, blocking, or aura pressure.

- Information converts into timing advantage through `Peek`, open mana, revealed zones, and recent public actions. Use known hand or stack information to decide whether to commit `Freed from the Real`, `Retraction Helix`, `Octopus Form`, `Unexpected Fangs`, or `Eternal Thirst`; without known shields-down evidence, treat tap-out engine commitments as judgment calls requiring current state reasoning.

- Sideboard bullets convert narrow exchanges into tempo only when their text matches the visible problem. `Essence Scatter`, `Negate`, `Doom Blade`, `Peppersmoke`, `Spinning Darkness`, `Cremate`, `Resculpt`, `Run Away Together`, `Utter Insignificance`, and `Deathgreeter` should be valued by matchup and board texture, not treated as generic upgrades; Card text check required for exact `Utter Insignificance` and `Run Away Together` use cases.

## Mana Guide

- Blue mana is the highest-priority color because the deck's protection, permission, velocity, bounce, and engine cards are blue-heavy. Opening hands should normally contain blue access from `Island`, `Command Tower`, `Ice Tunnel`, `Contaminated Aquifer`, `Waterfront District`, `Murky Sewer`, `Sinister Hideout`, `Serpent's Pass`, `Arcane Signet`, `Dimir Signet`, `Fellwar Stone`, `Springleaf Drum`, or `Moonsnare Prototype`; hands with only black mana need a strong reason and early legal plays.

- Black mana is required for removal, recursion, drain, and several threats, but it is usually the second color to secure after blue. Prioritize black access when holding `Cast Down`, `Go for the Throat`, `Defile`, `Tragic Slip`, `Ghastly Demise`, `Anoint with Affliction`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Basilica Screecher`, `Undercity Scrounger`, `Terror`, `Eternal Thirst`, `Blessing of Leeches`, `Not Dead After All`, `Undying Malice`, `Undying Evil`, or `Feign Death`.

- Tapped lands should be played early unless the current turn needs untapped interaction. Lead with `Ice Tunnel`, `Contaminated Aquifer`, `Waterfront District`, `Murky Sewer`, `Sinister Hideout`, or `Serpent's Pass` when the hand has no turn-one instant that must be held; prefer untapped `Island`, `Swamp`, or `Command Tower` when representing `Spell Pierce`, `Dispel`, `Opt`, `Consider`, `Tragic Slip`, `Defile`, `Shore Up`, or `Mizzium Skin` changes the opponent's turn.

- Utility and artifact mana should be sequenced before expensive commitments when it enables protection on the same turn. Cast `Arcane Signet`, `Dimir Signet`, `Fellwar Stone`, `Springleaf Drum`, or `Moonsnare Prototype` before committing `Freed from the Real`, `Retraction Helix`, `Octopus Form`, `Geyser Drake`, or commander recasts if the extra mana lets the deck keep a counter, protection spell, or removal spell live.

- Keep mana hands that cast spells on turns one and two and contain both a plan and interaction. A strong keep has blue access, a second mana source, and at least one of cheap selection, cheap answer, mana artifact, or protection; a risky keep has one land plus cantrips; a poor keep has tapped lands only with no early selection, single-color mana that misses most spells, or multiple expensive commitments without interaction.

- Play land before draw when the land drop is predetermined or when holding up interaction matters more than maximizing selection. Draw first with `Opt`, `Consider`, `Brainstorm`, `Peek`, `Reach Through Mists`, `Thought Scour`, or `Frantic Search` when the current hand has multiple plausible land drops, is missing a color, may need an untapped source, or needs to know whether to commit a tapped land.

- Preserve blue mana through priority passes when the opponent can present stack interaction or removal. Do not spend the last blue source on low-impact cantrips, optional abilities, `Freed from the Real` activations, or aura commitments if `Counterspell`, `Dispel`, `Spell Pierce`, `Mana Leak`, `Mizzium Skin`, `Shore Up`, or `Snap` is the visible protection for the turn.

## Mulligan Guide

- Strong keeps start with blue access, a second mana source, and either cheap velocity or protected interaction. Keep hands like `Island`, `Command Tower`, `Opt`, `Counterspell`, `Cast Down`, `Arcane Signet`, and `Shore Up` because they develop mana, see cards, answer early threats, and preserve a protected commander or engine turn.

- Strong engine keeps have mana plus a creature or artifact that turns later cards on. Keep `Island`, `Swamp`, `Springleaf Drum`, `Basilica Screecher`, `Retraction Helix`, `Dispel`, and `Consider` when the hand can establish material, hold protection, and threaten a later tap or bounce line without needing hidden assumptions.

- Medium keeps contain functional mana and one plan but need the draw step to become excellent. Keep `Ice Tunnel`, `Island`, `Brainstorm`, `Mana Leak`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Undying Malice`, and `Terror` on the draw more often than on the play because the hand has interaction and selection but may need a third land or expendable permanent.

- Risky keeps are one-land blue hands with multiple cheap cantrips and at least one defensive spell. Keep `Island`, `Opt`, `Consider`, `Peek`, `Spell Pierce`, `Tragic Slip`, and `Mizzium Skin` only when a slow matchup or draw step gives time to find black mana; ship similar hands without `Opt`, `Consider`, or `Brainstorm`.

- Automatic ships lack blue mana, lack castable early spells, or require an unsupported combo commitment. Ship hands such as `Swamp`, `Swamp`, `Defile`, `Go for the Throat`, `Eternal Thirst`, `Blessing of Leeches`, and `Freed from the Real` because they cannot cast the deck's selection or protection and do not pressure the opponent quickly.

- Matchup-dependent keeps change around removal and pressure. Keep `Ghastly Demise`, `Defile`, `Cast Down`, `Snap`, and `Unexpected Fangs` against creature pressure; keep `Spell Pierce`, `Dispel`, `Counterspell`, `Arcane Denial`, and `Peek` against spell-heavy decks; avoid hands that are all narrow permission against visible creature swarm plans.

- Play/draw discipline matters because this deck wants both shields and mana. On the play, prefer hands with untapped blue and a turn-two development card such as `Arcane Signet`, `Dimir Signet`, `Fellwar Stone`, `Springleaf Drum`, or `Moonsnare Prototype`; on the draw, tolerate one extra tapped land or reactive spell if `Opt`, `Consider`, `Brainstorm`, or `Peek` can smooth sequencing.

- Trap hands contain named power cards but no safe timing. Do not keep `Freed from the Real`, `Octopus Form`, `Retraction Helix`, `Eternal Thirst`, and protection-heavy hands without an early creature, mana stability, or card selection; those cards need a legal target, a reason to commit, and enough mana to avoid walking into removal.

## Turn Arc

- Turn 1 should establish blue, information, or cheap selection before committing fragile plans. Prefer `Island`, `Command Tower`, or a tapped blue dual into `Opt`, `Consider`, `Peek`, `Thought Scour`, `Dizzy Spell`, `Spell Pierce`, `Dispel`, `Tragic Slip`, `Defile`, `Shore Up`, or `Mizzium Skin` as legal context dictates; play `Springleaf Drum` or `Moonsnare Prototype` early only when a follow-up creature or artifact plan is visible.

- Turn 1 deviations protect against pressure or color failure. Lead `Swamp` only when the hand already has blue access or must represent `Defile`, `Tragic Slip`, `Ghastly Demise`, or a black one-mana protection spell; lead tapped `Ice Tunnel`, `Contaminated Aquifer`, `Waterfront District`, `Murky Sewer`, `Sinister Hideout`, or `Serpent's Pass` when no one-mana action is needed.

- Turn 2 should build mana or board while leaving interaction when possible. Prioritize `Arcane Signet`, `Dimir Signet`, `Fellwar Stone`, `Basilica Screecher`, `Disciple of the Vault`, `Undercity Scrounger`, `Naiad of Hidden Coves`, `Raven of Fell Omens`, or commander development when legal; hold `Counterspell`, `Mana Leak`, `Spell Pierce`, `Dispel`, `Cast Down`, `Go for the Throat`, or `Snap` if the opponent's visible line threatens a stronger snowball.

- Turn 3 is the first commitment checkpoint, not an automatic combo turn. Cast `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Drift of Phantasms`, `Windrider Wizard`, `Terror`, `Freed from the Real`, `Retraction Helix`, `Unexpected Fangs`, or `Eternal Thirst` only when the target is legal and the visible board, open mana, and protection make the commitment acceptable; otherwise spend the turn on selection, removal, or mana plus a cheap shield.

- Turns 4-5 should convert setup into protected advantage. Sequence `Frantic Search`, `Whispers of the Muse`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Brainstorm`, `Tune the Narrative`, `Reach Through Mists`, `Aphotic Wisps`, `Cerulean Wisps`, `Shadow Rift`, or `Fleeting Distraction` to find land, interaction, or a safe threat window, then double-spell with `Dispel`, `Spell Pierce`, `Mizzium Skin`, `Shore Up`, `Undying Evil`, `Feign Death`, or `Not Dead After All` available when committing a key permanent.

- Turns 4-5 deviations are defensive when the opponent is ahead on board. Use `Cast Down`, `Go for the Throat`, `Anoint with Affliction`, `Ghastly Demise`, `Defile`, `Tragic Slip`, `Snap`, or `Snapback` before slow draw if life total or commander access is under pressure; attach `Unexpected Fangs`, `Eel Umbra`, `Blessing of Leeches`, or `Eternal Thirst` only after checking target legality and removal risk.

- Late game should preserve action density and turn every legal window into leverage. Recast `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` when commander tax is affordable and protection exists, buy time with removal and counters, use `Melancholic Poet`, `Undying Malice`, `Undying Evil`, `Feign Death`, and `Not Dead After All` only around visible legal death or recursion opportunities, and avoid tapping out for nonlethal auras when the opponent can present a decisive spell or attack.

## Card Roles

- `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` is the command-zone plan and the card most worth protecting before committing a fragile aura, tap engine, or combat upgrade. Card text check required, so runtime should treat its exact trigger, stats, and combat role as conditional on visible legal actions; do not assume it draws, mills, reduces costs, or wins without engine output confirming the line.

- `Basilica Screecher`, `Raven of Fell Omens`, `Geyser Drake`, `Naiad of Hidden Coves`, `Undercity Scrounger`, `Windrider Wizard`, `Disciple of the Vault`, and `Melancholic Poet` are the creature material package. Use them to turn on `Springleaf Drum`, `Moonsnare Prototype`, `Retraction Helix`, `Freed from the Real`, protection spells, sacrifice lines, and incremental damage; do not expose the creature that matters most to a visible removal window unless the hand can answer with `Mizzium Skin`, `Shore Up`, `Eel Umbra`, `Undying Evil`, `Undying Malice`, `Feign Death`, `Not Dead After All`, or `Blessing of Leeches`.

- `Arcane Signet`, `Dimir Signet`, `Fellwar Stone`, `Springleaf Drum`, and `Moonsnare Prototype` are acceleration and fixing, not automatic early dumps. Cast them early when they improve a protected commander turn or let the deck hold `Counterspell`, `Dispel`, `Spell Pierce`, `Mana Leak`, `Arcane Denial`, `Lofty Denial`, `Unwind`, or `Foil`; delay tap-based artifacts if the only available creature must stay back as a blocker or protected combo target.

- `Freed from the Real`, `Retraction Helix`, `Octopus Form`, `Eternal Thirst`, `Unexpected Fangs`, `Eel Umbra`, and `Blessing of Leeches` are commitment auras or upgrades. Commit them only after checking the legal target, open interaction, protection, and whether waiting preserves a better line; do not attach them for small damage when the opponent can answer the target and collapse multiple cards at once.

- `Mizzium Skin`, `Shore Up`, `Take the Fall`, `Dispel`, `Spell Pierce`, `Counterspell`, `Mana Leak`, `Arcane Denial`, `Lofty Denial`, `Unwind`, `Magic Damper`, and `Foil` are the permission and protection shell. Spend narrow protection to preserve `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, a creature carrying `Freed from the Real`, or a lethal/evasive threat; spend broad permission on spells that remove the engine, create an irreversible board, stop the combo turn, or beat the current hand if allowed to resolve. Card text check required for `Magic Damper` and `Take the Fall` before relying on their exact modes.

- `Cast Down`, `Go for the Throat`, `Anoint with Affliction`, `Ghastly Demise`, `Defile`, `Tragic Slip`, `Snap`, and `Snapback` are the creature-control suite. Use them before slow card selection when life total, commander access, or a key blocker is under pressure; prefer the cheapest legal answer that preserves black or blue mana for protection, and avoid using conditional removal until graveyard, morbid, snowball threat, artifact status, or target legality is confirmed by runtime state.

- `Opt`, `Consider`, `Brainstorm`, `Peek`, `Thought Scour`, `Reach Through Mists`, `Whispers of the Muse`, `Frantic Search`, `Tune the Narrative`, `Obsessive Search`, `Aphotic Wisps`, `Cerulean Wisps`, `Shadow Rift`, and `Fleeting Distraction` are velocity, information, and tactical cantrips. Cast cheap selection early to hit mana or find interaction, but hold instant-speed cantrips when they can conceal information, trigger `Windrider Wizard`, set up a protected stack fight, or change combat math; Card text check required for `Tune the Narrative` and `Obsessive Search` before assuming their exact discard, energy, or madness relevance.

- `Dizzy Spell`, `Perplex`, and `Drift of Phantasms` are flexible spell roles with likely search or defensive utility. Card text check required for exact transmute costs and legal search ranges at runtime; when a legal search action appears, choose the target that completes the visible plan, such as protection, removal, mana, or an engine piece, instead of taking a generically strong card without a near-term use.

- `Deadly Dispute` is the cleanest sacrifice-for-cards pivot when a creature, artifact, or doomed permanent can be converted without losing the only engine body. Use it in response to removal or when excess material exists; do not sacrifice the only `Springleaf Drum` enabler, the only blocker against lethal pressure, or a creature carrying a must-protect aura unless the alternative is worse.

- `Undying Evil`, `Undying Malice`, `Feign Death`, and `Not Dead After All` are death-conversion shields. Hold them for removal, combat, sacrifice, or commander-tax leverage; do not fire them into exile, bounce, counterspell, or non-destroy effects unless legal text and engine prompts show they still produce the intended result.

- `Leap`, `Shadow Rift`, `Aphotic Wisps`, `Cerulean Wisps`, `Fleeting Distraction`, and `Unexpected Fangs` are combat texture cards as much as cantrips or upgrades. Use evasion, untap, shrink, lifelink, or color-changing effects only when the visible combat step, damage race, or protected lethal line rewards the mana; avoid spending them merely to cycle if holding them threatens a better attacker, blocker, or spell-trigger turn.

- `Terror` is a threat or removal-role card depending on exact game text and legality. Card text check required, so use runtime action labels to distinguish whether it is being cast as a creature, removal spell, or cost-reduced threat; do not assume it answers artifact or black creatures without legal target output.

- `Bender's Waterskin` is utility material with uncertain tactical text. Card text check required; until confirmed, value it as a possible artifact permanent for `Moonsnare Prototype`, `Retraction Helix`, `Deadly Dispute`, and artifact-count decisions only when the engine exposes legal actions that support that use.

- `Ice Tunnel`, `Contaminated Aquifer`, `Command Tower`, `Waterfront District`, `Murky Sewer`, `Sinister Hideout`, and `Serpent's Pass` are fixing lands that determine whether the deck can hold blue interaction while casting black removal. Card text check required for the newer named lands before assuming tapped status or extra abilities; sequence tapped lands on turns without one-mana interaction and preserve untapped `Island` or `Swamp` when `Counterspell`, `Dispel`, `Defile`, `Tragic Slip`, or protection is the visible priority.

- `Island` and `Swamp` are not filler because this deck's decisions are color-stretched. Prioritize `Island` early for selection and counters, add `Swamp` when removal or black protection is needed, and avoid keeping hands whose basic-land mix cannot cast both the interaction and the engine cards already visible in hand.

### Card Hover Notes

#### Voracious Tome-Skimmer
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; command-zone core piece and primary protected threat.
- Role type: engine payoff; threat/clock; card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Turn opponent-turn spells into extra cards by paying 1 life, while attacking as a 2/3 flyer in the same games where `Dispel`, `Spell Pierce`, `Counterspell`, `Opt`, `Consider`, `Snap`, and `Go for the Throat` already want to be held up.
- Timing: Cast when blue/black mana and at least one shield such as `Shore Up`, `Mizzium Skin`, `Eel Umbra`, `Feign Death`, or `Undying Malice` can protect it, or when the board requires a flying blocker.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes commander mana and sometimes life; outputs cards when you cast spells during an opponent's turn.
- Partners / packages: Best with opponent-turn spells `Opt`, `Consider`, `Peek`, `Dispel`, `Spell Pierce`, `Snap`, `Go for the Throat`, `Frantic Search`, `Unwind`, and `Whispers of the Muse`.
- Role peers: Closest role overlap is `Windrider Wizard` for card flow and `Basilica Screecher` / `Raven of Fell Omens` for flying pressure.
- Failure modes: Paying life while behind to attackers can make the draw engine lethal against you; committing it without protection can convert commander tax into a lost turn.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent into slow stack games; against aggro, stop paying life once visible attacks make the next combat step dangerous.

#### Ice Tunnel
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; tapped dual mana resource.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Provides either `Island` or `Swamp` access for early blue interaction and black removal while increasing `Defile`'s Swamp count and counting as an Island card for effects that care about Island cards only if the rules engine treats land type accordingly.
- Timing: Play early when no one-mana interaction must remain available; prefer untapped `Island`, `Swamp`, or `Command Tower` when holding `Spell Pierce`, `Dispel`, `Opt`, `Consider`, `Defile`, or `Tragic Slip` matters this turn.
- Inputs / outputs: Enters tapped; later taps for `{U}` or `{B}`.
- Partners / packages: Supports `Counterspell`, `Arcane Denial`, `Cast Down`, `Go for the Throat`, `Defile`, `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, and `Perplex`.
- Role peers: `Contaminated Aquifer` is the closest exact peer; `Waterfront District`, `Sinister Hideout`, `Serpent's Pass`, and `Murky Sewer` are similar Dimir sources with different tempo or utility text.
- Failure modes: Keeping a hand where this is the only early mana can strand turn-one interaction.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Stronger in slow games; weaker against fast commanders where tapped mana loses a removal window.

#### Contaminated Aquifer
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; tapped dual mana resource.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Fixes both deck colors and raises `Defile`'s Swamp count while also being an Island for blue-heavy sequencing around `Counterspell`, `Foil`, `Opt`, and `Consider`.
- Timing: Lead with it when the hand has no critical one-mana play; delay if an untapped source is needed for `Dispel`, `Spell Pierce`, `Tragic Slip`, `Defile`, `Shore Up`, or `Mizzium Skin`.
- Inputs / outputs: Enters tapped; taps for `{U}` or `{B}` after that.
- Partners / packages: Enables double-color hands containing `Counterspell`, `Cast Down`, `Go for the Throat`, `Undying Evil`, `Perplex`, and `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`.
- Role peers: `Ice Tunnel` is the direct registered peer; `Command Tower` is the untapped premium version without basic land types.
- Failure modes: Tapped timing can make a one-land keep too slow even though it technically fixes both colors.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Prioritize untapped alternatives when the opponent can present turn-two pressure or a must-counter spell.

#### Unexpected Fangs
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; lifelink upgrade and combat stabilizer.
- Role type: lifegain/stabilization; protection/evasion; threat/clock.
- Deck-specific job: Permanently puts a +1/+1 counter and lifelink counter on the creature that will matter most, usually `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Basilica Screecher`, `Raven of Fell Omens`, `Geyser Drake`, `Windrider Wizard`, or a creature already being protected by `Eel Umbra`.
- Timing: Use when lifelink changes the race this turn or when a protected flyer can convert future attacks into a life buffer; avoid casting into open removal unless `Shore Up`, `Mizzium Skin`, `Dispel`, or `Counterspell` can cover.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{1}{B}` and a legal target creature; outputs a +1/+1 counter and lifelink counter.
- Partners / packages: Strongest on evasive bodies `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Raven of Fell Omens`, `Basilica Screecher`, `Geyser Drake`, and `Windrider Wizard`; stacks well with `Eternal Thirst`.
- Role peers: `Eternal Thirst` gives lifelink plus growth from opposing deaths; `Octopus Form` and `Eel Umbra` are different creature upgrades.
- Failure modes: A two-for-one risk if the target is removed before it matters; does not give hexproof or regeneration.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: High value versus burn and creature races; trim or delay against control unless the creature is already protected.

#### Dizzy Spell
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; cheap combat interaction and one-mana transmute search.
- Role type: tutor/search; interaction-removal; card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Either shrinks an attacking or blocking creature by -3/-0 for a turn, or transmutes as a sorcery to find mana value 1 cards that solve the current bottleneck.
- Timing: Cast as an instant when -3/-0 saves life, wins combat, or protects a key creature; transmute only when the turn can spare `{1}{U}{U}` and the searched one-mana card is better than holding the trick.
- Inputs / outputs: Instant mode consumes `{U}` and targets a creature; transmute consumes `{1}{U}{U}`, discards `Dizzy Spell`, searches a same-mana-value card, reveals it, puts it into hand, then shuffles.
- Mode map: Shrink mode protects combat math; transmute finds exact one-mana cards such as `Opt`, `Consider`, `Dispel`, `Spell Pierce`, `Tragic Slip`, `Defile`, `Shore Up`, `Mizzium Skin`, `Undying Evil`, `Feign Death`, `Thought Scour`, `Retraction Helix`, or `Springleaf Drum`.
- Partners / packages: Searches protection for `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, removal such as `Tragic Slip` or `Defile` for one-toughness and low-toughness creatures, or `Retraction Helix` for a tap-bounce setup.
- Role peers: `Perplex` and `Drift of Phantasms` search mana value 3 instead.
- Failure modes: Transmute is sorcery-speed and discards the card, so it cannot answer combat after being used.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Better as transmute in slow games; better as shrink versus fast attackers.

#### Perplex
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; conditional stack interaction and three-mana transmute search.
- Role type: interaction-stack; tutor/search.
- Deck-specific job: Forces a spell's controller to choose between having that spell countered or discarding their hand, while also searching for key mana value 3 cards when the board allows a sorcery-speed setup.
- Timing: Use as a counter when either outcome is punishing; transmute only when finding a specific three-mana card outweighs holding stack interaction.
- Inputs / outputs: Counter mode consumes `{1}{U}{B}` and targets a spell on the stack; transmute consumes `{1}{U}{B}`, discards `Perplex`, searches a same-mana-value card, reveals it, puts it into hand, then shuffles.
- Mode map: Counter mode attacks a spell on the stack but lets its controller discard their hand instead; transmute can find `Freed from the Real`, `Drift of Phantasms`, `Geyser Drake`, `Bender's Waterskin`, `Unwind`, `Frantic Search`, `Blessing of Leeches`, `Naiad of Hidden Coves`, `Undercity Scrounger`, `Windrider Wizard`, or `Terror`.
- Partners / packages: Finds `Freed from the Real` for a tap engine or `Unwind` for protected stack turns.
- Role peers: `Drift of Phantasms` is a creature plus the same transmute mana value; `Counterspell` is cleaner stack interaction.
- Failure modes: Opponents with empty or low-value hands may choose discard and resolve the spell.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong versus combo/control hands that cannot afford either outcome; weaker against topdecked creatures and expendable spells.

#### Raven of Fell Omens
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; flying drain role player.
- Role type: threat/clock; lifegain/stabilization; mechanic payoff.
- Deck-specific job: Converts your targeted interaction into once-per-turn drain while also attacking or blocking in the air. Crimes in this list include targeting opponents or their things with `Peek`, `Thought Scour`, `Go for the Throat`, `Cast Down`, `Defile`, `Tragic Slip`, `Ghastly Demise`, `Anoint with Affliction`, `Snap`, `Snapback`, `Retraction Helix`, `Cremate`, or `Resculpt`.
- Timing: Deploy when you can follow with a target spell on either turn cycle or when a 1/2 flyer blocks profitably.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{1}{B}`; outputs flying pressure and once-per-turn each-opponent life loss plus your life gain when you commit a crime.
- Partners / packages: Pairs especially with instant-speed target spells `Peek`, `Thought Scour`, `Snap`, `Dispel` only when targeting a legal opponent-controlled instant spell, and black removal.
- Role peers: `Basilica Screecher` drains through extort; `Melancholic Poet` drains from your instant or sorcery spells that target creatures.
- Failure modes: Does not trigger from non-targeted cantrips such as `Opt`, `Consider`, `Brainstorm`, or `Reach Through Mists`.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against slow decks where repeated targeted spells happen naturally; fragile against pingers and one-damage effects.

#### Snap
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; tempo bounce and mana-recoup interaction.
- Role type: interaction-removal; tempo utility.
- Deck-specific job: Returns a target creature to its owner's hand and untaps up to two lands, letting this deck clear a blocker, reset a commander, stop a lethal attacker, or protect its own creature while keeping mana open.
- Timing: Best in combat, on an opponent end step, or before a protected spell sequence where untapping two lands lets `Counterspell`, `Dispel`, `Shore Up`, or black removal remain available.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{1}{U}` and a target creature; outputs bounce plus up to two untapped lands.
- Mode map: Bounce target creature is mandatory; untapping up to two lands is optional and should preserve `Counterspell`, `Dispel`, `Shore Up`, `Go for the Throat`, `Cast Down`, `Defile`, or `Tragic Slip` mana when possible.
- Partners / packages: Combines with `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` as an opponent-turn spell draw trigger, and with `Unwind` / `Frantic Search` style untap sequencing.
- Role peers: `Snapback` is similar bounce with a blue-card exile alternate cost; `Run Away Together` can bounce two creatures with different controllers.
- Failure modes: Poor against cheap enter-the-battlefield creatures or when replaying the creature costs the opponent little.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: High value against aura stacks, commander tempo, and lethal combat; lower value against spell-combo with few creatures.

#### Go for the Throat
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; efficient black creature removal.
- Role type: interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: Destroys target nonartifact creature, covering many commanders and attackers that `Defile` or `Ghastly Demise` may not kill yet.
- Timing: Use before combat damage when the creature creates lethal pressure or after the opponent invests an Aura/equipment if waiting is safe; save for a bigger nonartifact creature when smaller threats can be handled by `Defile`, `Tragic Slip`, `Peppersmoke`, or blocking.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{1}{B}` and a legal nonartifact creature target; outputs destruction.
- Partners / packages: Protects `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` by removing blockers or lethal attackers; works with `Raven of Fell Omens` because targeting an opponent's creature commits a crime.
- Role peers: `Cast Down` cannot hit legendary creatures; `Terror` and `Doom Blade` cannot hit black creatures, and `Terror` also cannot hit artifact creatures.
- Failure modes: Cannot target artifact creatures; does not stop death triggers or recursion by itself.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Prioritize versus creature-commanders and Voltron threats unless artifact status makes it illegal.

#### Spell Pierce
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; one-mana soft counter.
- Role type: interaction-stack.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target noncreature spell unless its controller pays `{2}`, protecting early `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Freed from the Real`, `Unexpected Fangs`, or mana development from removal, counters, and noncreature engines.
- Timing: Strongest turns one to four, or later when the opponent taps low; do not hold too long if visible mana will make `{2}` easy.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{U}` and targets a noncreature spell on the stack; outputs a tax counter if unpaid.
- Partners / packages: Protects aura commitments `Freed from the Real`, `Eternal Thirst`, `Eel Umbra`, and `Octopus Form`; pairs with `Peek` to know if a shields-down window is real.
- Role peers: `Mana Leak` taxes any spell for `{3}`; `Negate` counters noncreature spells without a tax; `Dispel` is narrower for instant spells.
- Failure modes: Cannot counter creature spells or resolved permanents, and late-game opponents may pay.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Premium against control, combo, and removal-heavy opponents; weaker against creature swarms.

#### Opt
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; one-mana instant selection.
- Role type: card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Smooths land drops, finds protection or interaction, and triggers `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` on an opponent's turn while preserving the option to scry away the wrong card.
- Timing: Cast before land drop when finding a specific color changes the turn; otherwise hold until opponent end step to preserve `Spell Pierce`, `Dispel`, `Shore Up`, or removal.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{U}`; outputs scry 1, then draw a card.
- Partners / packages: Helps find `Counterspell`, `Cast Down`, `Freed from the Real`, `Unexpected Fangs`, `Island`, `Swamp`, or `Command Tower` depending on the bottleneck.
- Role peers: `Consider` surveils instead of scrying; `Reach Through Mists` draws without selection; `Tune the Narrative` draws and adds energy.
- Failure modes: Casting it just to use mana can expose a key turn if that blue mana was needed for protection.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Against aggro, dig for removal early; against control, hold to keep mana represented.

#### Frantic Search
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; instant draw-discard and land-untap velocity.
- Role type: card selection; discard outlet; role glue.
- Deck-specific job: Digs two cards deep, discards excess or mismatched pieces, and untaps up to three lands so the deck can keep interaction live after filtering.
- Timing: Best when untapping lands changes the same turn, such as digging for `Dispel` while preserving blue mana, or pitching `Obsessive Search` when madness is legally useful.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{2}{U}`; draws two, discards two, then untaps up to three lands.
- Partners / packages: Works with `Obsessive Search` as a madness card, fuels `Ghastly Demise`, and can trigger `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` on an opponent's turn.
- Role peers: `Brainstorm` fixes hand without discarding; `Deadly Dispute` draws two via sacrifice; `Windrider Wizard` repeatedly loots from spell casts.
- Failure modes: Discarding the only protection, only black source, or only creature can break the next turn.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in control mirrors and mana-rich games; risky under fast pressure if three mana should answer the board.

#### Consider
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; one-mana surveil cantrip.
- Role type: card selection; engine fuel/material.
- Deck-specific job: Looks at the top card, may put it into the graveyard, then draws, helping hit land drops or stock `Ghastly Demise` without spending a full card.
- Timing: Cast before land drop when missing a color or answer; otherwise save for opponent end step to trigger `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` and preserve interaction.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{U}`; outputs surveil 1 and draw 1, possibly adding one card to your graveyard.
- Partners / packages: Fuels `Ghastly Demise`, alternate-cost `Spinning Darkness` after sideboarding if black cards are milled naturally, and finds `Shore Up`, `Mizzium Skin`, `Cast Down`, or `Counterspell`.
- Role peers: `Opt` bottom-scries instead of milling; `Thought Scour` mills target player two then draws.
- Failure modes: Milling a needed singleton can matter in a 100-card commander deck if no recursion can recover it.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Against graveyard opponents, avoid targeting or enabling their graveyard with other effects; `Consider` only mills yourself.

#### Dispel
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; one-mana instant-speed stack shield.
- Role type: interaction-stack.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target instant spell, protecting `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Freed from the Real`, `Unexpected Fangs`, `Retraction Helix`, or a lethal attack from opposing instant removal and counter wars.
- Timing: Hold for the instant spell on the stack that breaks your current plan; do not spend it on a low-impact instant if `Counterspell` or `Mana Leak` must cover a bigger follow-up.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{U}` and targets an instant spell on the stack; outputs a hard counter against that spell.
- Partners / packages: Best with tap-out commitments backed by one blue, especially `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` plus `Shore Up` or `Freed from the Real`.
- Role peers: `Spell Pierce` hits noncreature spells but can be paid through; `Counterspell` hits any spell for `{U}{U}`; `Negate` is sideboard noncreature coverage.
- Failure modes: Cannot target creatures, sorceries, artifacts, enchantments, or planeswalker spells unless they are instants by the rules engine.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Bring its value up against removal-heavy, tempo, and control decks; lower against creature-only pressure.

#### Tragic Slip
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; one-mana conditional creature shrink/removal.
- Role type: interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: Gives target creature -1/-1, or -13/-13 instead if a creature died this turn, letting the deck trade up after combat, sacrifice, or removal.
- Timing: Use early on one-toughness utility creatures such as mana creatures or Faerie-style attackers; wait for morbid when a large commander, Voltron creature, or lethal attacker must die and a creature death is visible this turn.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{B}` and targets a creature; outputs temporary -1/-1 or morbid -13/-13.
- Partners / packages: Morbid can follow `Deadly Dispute`, normal combat trades, `Go for the Throat`, `Cast Down`, `Defile`, `Peppersmoke`, or an opponent's removal.
- Role peers: `Defile` scales with Swamps; `Peppersmoke` is sideboard -1/-1 with possible Faerie draw.
- Failure modes: Without morbid it may not kill the relevant target; it is not damage and does not bypass all protection.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent against boards full of one- and two-toughness attackers and against large single threats once morbid is active.

#### Defile
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; scalable one-mana black removal.
- Role type: interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: Gives target creature -1/-1 for each Swamp you control, using `Swamp`, `Ice Tunnel`, and `Contaminated Aquifer` as actual Swamp permanents.
- Timing: Cast when the current Swamp count kills the relevant creature; do not fire it early on a low-value target if a later land drop will let it answer the real threat.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{B}` and a target creature; outputs temporary -X/-X based on Swamps controlled.
- Partners / packages: `Swamp`, `Ice Tunnel`, and `Contaminated Aquifer` directly increase the effect; `Sinister Hideout`, `Serpent's Pass`, `Waterfront District`, `Murky Sewer`, and `Command Tower` do not unless the rules engine says they are Swamps, which the Card Reference does not.
- Role peers: `Tragic Slip` can be larger with morbid; `Ghastly Demise` scales from graveyard count with color/toughness restrictions.
- Failure modes: Mana fixing lands without Swamp type do not grow it; low Swamp count can leave it stranded.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Stronger in longer games and against black-safe threats where destroy restrictions matter less.

#### Not Dead After All
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; black death-conversion protection.
- Role type: protection/evasion; recursion.
- Deck-specific job: Gives target creature you control a death trigger that returns it tapped under its owner's control and creates a Wicked Role token attached to it, turning removal or `Deadly Dispute` into material.
- Timing: Use in response to destroy effects, damage-based death, combat trades, or sacrifice lines where the creature dying is expected; it does not help against exile, bounce, countering the creature spell, or -X/-X that prevents a useful returned body only if the engine says state-based effects still kill it again.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{B}` and targets your creature; outputs a delayed return plus Wicked Role token after that creature dies this turn.
- Partners / packages: Protects `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Windrider Wizard`, `Raven of Fell Omens`, `Basilica Screecher`, or `Undercity Scrounger`; can pair with `Deadly Dispute`.
- Role peers: `Feign Death` and `Undying Malice` are similar +1/+1 counter returns; `Undying Evil` grants undying.
- Failure modes: Must be cast before the creature dies and only targets your creature.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against destroy-heavy midrange; weak against exile removal and bounce tempo.

#### Unwind
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; noncreature counter with mana recoup.
- Role type: interaction-stack.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target noncreature spell and untaps up to three lands, letting the deck defend a key turn while reopening mana for `Opt`, `Dispel`, `Shore Up`, removal, or commander-trigger draw.
- Timing: Hold for artifact, enchantment, instant, sorcery, or other noncreature spell on the stack that matters; best when untapping lands lets you continue interacting.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{2}{U}` and a target noncreature spell; outputs counter plus up to three untapped lands.
- Partners / packages: Excellent alongside `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` because it is an opponent-turn spell and can leave mana for another trigger spell.
- Role peers: `Negate` is cheaper sideboard hard noncreature permission; `Spell Pierce` is cheaper but taxable.
- Failure modes: Cannot counter creature spells or resolved permanents; if lands are tapped awkwardly, untap may not restore the right colors.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Premium versus control/combo and artifact/enchantment engines; cut value against creature swarm.

#### Shore Up
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; one-mana creature protection and untap.
- Role type: protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: Gives target creature you control +1/+1, hexproof until end of turn, and untaps it, protecting `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` or a tap-engine creature while also changing combat.
- Timing: Hold until the opponent targets your creature or until untapping wins combat, enables a block, or resets a tapped creature for `Springleaf Drum`, `Moonsnare Prototype`, `Retraction Helix`, or `Freed from the Real`.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{U}` and targets your creature; outputs temporary +1/+1, hexproof, and untap.
- Partners / packages: Protects `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Windrider Wizard`, `Geyser Drake`, a `Freed from the Real` enchanted creature, or a `Retraction Helix` target.
- Role peers: `Magic Damper` and `Octopus Form` have the same referenced effect; `Mizzium Skin` gives +0/+1 and can overload.
- Failure modes: Hexproof does not stop sweepers, sacrifice effects, edicts, or already legal non-targeting effects.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Keep up against removal-heavy opponents and tempo decks with bounce.

#### Undying Malice
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; black death-return shield.
- Role type: protection/evasion; recursion.
- Deck-specific job: Gives a target creature a death trigger returning it tapped under its owner's control with a +1/+1 counter, protecting the creature carrying the deck's current plan.
- Timing: Cast before a creature dies from removal, combat, or a planned sacrifice; do not use against exile, bounce, counterspells, or effects that do not kill.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{B}` and targets a creature; outputs a delayed return with a +1/+1 counter after death this turn.
- Partners / packages: Works on `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Windrider Wizard`, `Geyser Drake`, `Raven of Fell Omens`, `Basilica Screecher`, or a creature sacrificed to `Deadly Dispute`.
- Role peers: `Feign Death` is text-identical in this reference; `Not Dead After All` adds a Wicked Role token instead; `Undying Evil` uses undying and fails if the creature already has a +1/+1 counter.
- Failure modes: Returning tapped can matter when you needed a blocker; does not protect Auras attached to the creature from going away.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Best versus destroy removal and combat; weaker against blue bounce and white exile-style answers.

#### Shadow Rift
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; evasion cantrip.
- Role type: protection/evasion; card selection; threat/clock.
- Deck-specific job: Gives target creature shadow until end of turn and draws a card, often making `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Basilica Screecher`, `Raven of Fell Omens`, `Geyser Drake`, or a lifelink creature connect through normal blockers.
- Timing: Use when shadow creates a meaningful hit, commander damage, lifelink swing, or lethal clock; avoid cycling into an irrelevant target if the spell can win a later combat.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{U}` and a target creature; outputs shadow for the turn and one card drawn.
- Partners / packages: Strong with `Unexpected Fangs`, `Eternal Thirst`, and commander pressure from `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`.
- Role peers: `Leap` grants flying instead; `Aphotic Wisps` grants fear; `Cerulean Wisps` untaps and draws without direct evasion unless color matters.
- Failure modes: Shadow can also stop your creature from blocking non-shadow creatures that turn, and opposing shadow creatures can still interact.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong versus ground stalls and Voltron races; low value when the opponent has no blockers or when defense is required.

#### Peek
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; information cantrip.
- Role type: card selection; interaction-discard.
- Deck-specific job: Looks at target player's hand and draws a card, giving exact information before committing `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Freed from the Real`, `Unexpected Fangs`, `Eternal Thirst`, or a counter fight.
- Timing: Cast before a major commitment if the information changes whether to play into removal; otherwise hold until opponent end step for commander trigger and card replacement.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{U}` and targets a player; outputs hand information and a card draw.
- Partners / packages: Helps sequence `Spell Pierce`, `Dispel`, `Counterspell`, `Mizzium Skin`, `Shore Up`, `Feign Death`, and aura commitments.
- Role peers: No direct peer for hand information; closest card-flow peers are `Opt`, `Consider`, and `Reach Through Mists`.
- Failure modes: Does not remove the card it sees; targeting an opponent can commit a crime for `Raven of Fell Omens`, but only if Raven is present and the trigger limit allows it.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against control/combo; side out more often against fast creature decks where knowing the hand does not stop attacks.

#### Foil
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; broad counter with alternate cost.
- Role type: interaction-stack.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target spell either for `{2}{U}{U}` or by discarding an Island card and another card, letting the deck defend while tapped low.
- Timing: Preserve for decisive spells that remove `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, resolve a commander-scale threat, or break a combo turn; use alternate cost when mana is unavailable and the discarded cards are less valuable than the spell being countered.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes mana or discards an Island card plus another card; outputs a hard counter for target spell on the stack.
- Mode map: Mana mode preserves hand size but needs four mana including two blue; alternate-cost mode preserves tempo but consumes an Island card such as `Island`, `Ice Tunnel`, or `Contaminated Aquifer` if the rules engine treats typed lands as Island cards, plus another card.
- Partners / packages: Works with card flow from `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Brainstorm`, `Frantic Search`, and `Windrider Wizard`.
- Role peers: `Counterspell` is cheaper but needs `{U}{U}`; `Arcane Denial` is easier to cast but gives cards.
- Failure modes: Alternate cost can cripple mana if the discarded Island was needed for future turns.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong versus combo/control; costly against attrition if every card matters.

#### Cerulean Wisps
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; untap and cantrip trick.
- Role type: protection/evasion; card selection; role glue.
- Deck-specific job: Makes target creature blue until end of turn, untaps it, and draws a card, letting the deck reuse a tapped creature for blocking, `Springleaf Drum`, `Moonsnare Prototype`, or a tap ability granted by `Retraction Helix`.
- Timing: Use when untap changes combat or engine sequencing; avoid casting only to draw if the target requirement exposes poor timing or if blue mana must remain for `Dispel` or `Shore Up`.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{U}` and a target creature; outputs temporary blue color, untap, and one card.
- Partners / packages: Pairs with `Retraction Helix`, `Springleaf Drum`, `Moonsnare Prototype`, `Freed from the Real`, and `Windrider Wizard`.
- Role peers: `Shore Up`, `Magic Damper`, and `Octopus Form` untap your creature with protection; `Aphotic Wisps` changes color and grants fear.
- Failure modes: Does not grant hexproof or pump; changing a creature blue can matter for opposing color-specific effects.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in tempo turns and against combat math; weak when no creature is present.

#### Spell Stutter
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; Faerie-scaling soft counter.
- Role type: interaction-stack.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target spell unless its controller pays `{2}` plus `{1}` for each Faerie you control, with `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` as the main registered Faerie and `Peppersmoke` as a sideboard Kindred Faerie spell that does not itself become a Faerie creature.
- Timing: Use while the tax is still constraining; stronger when `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` is on board and the opponent has little spare mana.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{1}{U}` and targets a spell on the stack; outputs a tax counter.
- Partners / packages: Works with `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`; `Peppersmoke` only cares about controlling a Faerie for its own draw condition and does not add a permanent Faerie body.
- Role peers: `Mana Leak` taxes for `{3}`; `Lofty Denial` taxes more with a flyer; `Spell Pierce` hits only noncreature spells for `{2}`.
- Failure modes: Weak late when opponents can pay; with no Faerie it is only `{2}`.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Better in games where the commander survives; worse while behind without board presence.

#### Magic Damper
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; one-mana creature shield and untap.
- Role type: protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: Gives target creature you control +1/+1, hexproof, and untaps it, functioning as another `Shore Up`-style answer for the protected creature plan.
- Timing: Save for targeted removal, combat that would kill a key creature, or a turn where untapping a `Retraction Helix` or `Freed from the Real` creature matters.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{U}` and targets your creature; outputs temporary +1/+1, hexproof, and untap.
- Partners / packages: Protects `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Geyser Drake`, `Windrider Wizard`, `Basilica Screecher`, or a creature wearing `Unexpected Fangs`, `Eternal Thirst`, `Eel Umbra`, or `Blessing of Leeches`.
- Role peers: `Shore Up` and `Octopus Form` share the same referenced effect; `Mizzium Skin` has a smaller pump and overload access.
- Failure modes: Does not counter sweepers, sacrifice effects, or non-targeted -X/-X.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Prioritize against decks with visible targeted removal or tempo bounce; less useful against go-wide boards with no key target.

#### Lofty Denial
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; flyer-powered soft counter.
- Role type: interaction-stack.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target spell unless its controller pays `{1}`, upgraded to `{4}` if you control a creature with flying.
- Timing: Use early even without a flyer if it stops a decisive spell; with `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Raven of Fell Omens`, `Basilica Screecher`, `Geyser Drake`, `Drift of Phantasms`, or `Windrider Wizard` in play, hold it for spells that matter.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{1}{U}` and targets a spell on the stack; outputs a tax based on flying presence.
- Partners / packages: Flyer enablers are exact current-list cards `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Raven of Fell Omens`, `Basilica Screecher`, `Geyser Drake`, `Drift of Phantasms`, and `Windrider Wizard`.
- Role peers: `Mana Leak` taxes for `{3}`; `Spell Stutter` scales with Faeries; `Counterspell` is unconditional.
- Failure modes: Without a flyer it is a weak `{1}` tax; late game can be paid through.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in normal commander-board games; weaker after removal clears all flyers.

#### Tune the Narrative
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; cantrip plus energy resource.
- Role type: card selection; role glue.
- Deck-specific job: Draws a card and gives two energy counters; in this exact list the energy has no other listed payoff, so the main job is one-mana instant card flow for `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` and `Windrider Wizard`.
- Timing: Use as instant-speed draw when looking for land, protection, or interaction; prefer opponent end step unless you need to hit a land before playing it.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{U}`; outputs one card drawn and `{E}{E}`.
- Partners / packages: Triggers `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` on an opponent's turn and can trigger `Windrider Wizard` because it is an instant.
- Role peers: `Reach Through Mists` is the clean one-card draw peer; `Opt` and `Consider` add selection; `Whispers of the Muse` can buy back late.
- Failure modes: Energy counters are not converted by any card in the supplied decklist, so do not overvalue the energy.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Fine in slow games; against lethal pressure, prioritize removal over this cantrip.

#### Obsessive Search
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; draw spell with madness.
- Role type: card selection; discard outlet; role glue.
- Deck-specific job: Draws a card for `{U}`, or can be cast for madness `{U}` if discarded by `Frantic Search`, `Windrider Wizard`, cleanup, or an opposing discard effect.
- Timing: Cast normally when you need a card now; preserve in hand when a known discard outlet will let you convert the discard into a spell instead of losing a card.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{U}` to draw; madness consumes `{U}` when discarded into exile and cast from the madness trigger.
- Mode map: Normal cast draws one from hand; madness line happens only after it is discarded, then you either cast it for `{U}` or put it into your graveyard.
- Partners / packages: Best with `Frantic Search` and `Windrider Wizard`; also acceptable as a cheap opponent-turn spell for `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`.
- Role peers: `Reach Through Mists` is simpler draw; `Whispers of the Muse` has buyback.
- Failure modes: Madness still costs `{U}`; if no blue is available after discard, it may end in the graveyard.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Better in attrition games where every card matters; lower priority under fast board pressure.

#### Aphotic Wisps
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; black fear cantrip.
- Role type: protection/evasion; card selection; threat/clock.
- Deck-specific job: Makes target creature black and gives fear until end of turn, then draws a card, pushing damage through nonartifact, nonblack blockers.
- Timing: Use when fear makes `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Basilica Screecher`, `Raven of Fell Omens`, `Geyser Drake`, or a lifelink creature connect; avoid firing into artifact or black blockers that can still block.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{B}` and a target creature; outputs black color, fear, and one card drawn.
- Partners / packages: Combines with `Unexpected Fangs`, `Eternal Thirst`, and commander damage pressure.
- Role peers: `Shadow Rift` gives shadow; `Leap` gives flying; `Cerulean Wisps` untaps and draws.
- Failure modes: Fear does not bypass artifact creatures or black creatures; changing your creature black can interact with color-based removal.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong versus green/white/red creature boards without artifact blockers; weak against black-heavy or artifact-creature decks.

#### Anoint with Affliction
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; exile creature removal.
- Role type: interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: Exiles target creature if it has mana value 3 or less; corrupted upgrade requires that creature's controller to have three or more poison counters, which this deck has no listed way to create, so treat the base restriction as the normal case.
- Timing: Spend on low-mana commanders, recursive creatures, death-trigger creatures, or creatures that destroy effects handle poorly; save broader destroy spells for larger targets.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{1}{B}` and a target creature; outputs exile if mana value condition is met, or if corrupted is somehow active.
- Partners / packages: Complements `Cast Down`, `Go for the Throat`, `Defile`, `Tragic Slip`, and `Ghastly Demise` by answering small recursion pieces cleanly.
- Role peers: `Resculpt` sideboard exiles artifact or creature but gives a 4/4; `Utter Insignificance` neutralizes and can exile with `{2}{C}`.
- Failure modes: No poison source appears in this decklist, so do not count on corrupted.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: High value versus cheap commanders and graveyard recursion; weaker against expensive single threats.

#### Ghastly Demise
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; graveyard-scaling black removal.
- Role type: interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: Destroys target nonblack creature if its toughness is less than or equal to the number of cards in your graveyard.
- Timing: Use once your graveyard count meets the target's toughness; early game it may be dead unless `Consider`, `Thought Scour`, `Frantic Search`, trades, or removal have stocked the graveyard.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{B}` and a target nonblack creature; checks your graveyard count against toughness.
- Partners / packages: Fueled by `Consider`, `Thought Scour` targeting yourself, `Frantic Search`, `Deadly Dispute`, normal trades, and used instants.
- Role peers: `Defile` scales with Swamps; `Doom Blade` and `Terror` side/maindeck restrictions also care about nonblack.
- Failure modes: Cannot target black creatures, and high-toughness creatures may exceed the graveyard count.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in long attrition games; weak in opening hands against fast black creatures.

#### Bender's Waterskin
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; three-mana artifact mana resource.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; engine piece.
- Deck-specific job: Taps for one mana of any color and untaps during each other player's untap step, supporting opponent-turn spell chains with `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`.
- Timing: Cast when the game is about mana development and you can afford a three-mana artifact; prioritize cheaper interaction if the opponent threatens immediate pressure.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{3}` to cast; later taps for one mana of any color and naturally untaps on other players' untap steps.
- Partners / packages: Helps cast `Perplex`, `Unwind`, `Frantic Search`, `Blessing of Leeches`, commander recasts, and `Utter Insignificance`'s `{2}{C}` activation only if the engine exposes Bender's Waterskin as a legal colorless source.
- Role peers: `Arcane Signet`, `Fellwar Stone`, `Dimir Signet`, `Springleaf Drum`, and `Moonsnare Prototype` are cheaper or different mana artifacts.
- Failure modes: Three-mana setup can be too slow; artifact removal or bounce can undo the tempo.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Better in slow multiplayer-like turn cycles; worse versus fast aggro.

#### Sinister Hideout
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; tapped Dimir land with late surveil.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Fixes `{U}` or `{B}` early, then turns excess mana into surveil 1 to find interaction or stock the graveyard for `Ghastly Demise`.
- Timing: Play tapped early unless you need untapped interaction; activate surveil only when four mana plus tapping the land does not block a counter, removal spell, or commander recast.
- Inputs / outputs: Enters tapped; taps for `{U}` or `{B}`; `{4}, {T}` lets you surveil 1.
- Partners / packages: Supports `Counterspell`, `Cast Down`, `Perplex`, and graveyard count for `Ghastly Demise`.
- Role peers: `Serpent's Pass` and `Waterfront District` are tapped Dimir lands with draw-sacrifice abilities; `Murky Sewer` may enter untapped late.
- Failure modes: The surveil activation is expensive and can waste a turn if used while under pressure.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Activate more in control mirrors; treat as a tapped fixer against aggro.

#### Serpent's Pass
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; tapped Dimir land with sacrifice draw.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Fixes both colors until late game, then can be sacrificed for a card when extra lands matter less than action.
- Timing: Play early on turns without critical one-mana interaction; sacrifice only when mana is abundant or the drawn card is needed more than future land count.
- Inputs / outputs: Enters tapped; taps for `{U}` or `{B}`; `{4}, {T}, sacrifice it` draws a card.
- Partners / packages: Helps cast `Counterspell`, `Go for the Throat`, `Perplex`, `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, and late interaction.
- Role peers: `Waterfront District` has a colored four-mana draw activation; `Sinister Hideout` surveils without sacrificing.
- Failure modes: Sacrificing too early can strand `Foil`, `Unwind`, commander tax, or buyback `Whispers of the Muse`.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Stronger in long games; keep as mana in fast games.

#### Waterfront District
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; tapped Dimir land with expensive draw.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Provides `{U}` or `{B}` while later converting `{2}{U}{B}`, tapping, and sacrificing into a card when the deck floods.
- Timing: Sequence early when tapped mana is acceptable; use the draw ability only once commander tax, counters, and removal mana are accounted for.
- Inputs / outputs: Enters tapped; taps for `{U}` or `{B}`; draw activation consumes `{2}{U}{B}`, tap, and the land itself.
- Partners / packages: Supports the two-color requirements of `Perplex`, `Dimir Signet`, `Cast Down`, `Counterspell`, and `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`.
- Role peers: `Serpent's Pass` has a generic activation; `Sinister Hideout` surveils.
- Failure modes: Its draw activation is expensive and can leave no mana for stack defense.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Use as late-game flood insurance in control; avoid sacrificing it while stabilizing.

#### Murky Sewer
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; conditional untapped Dimir land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Adds `{U}` or `{B}` and enters tapped unless a player has 13 or less life, which can make it a late untapped source for a protected swing or removal turn.
- Timing: Early, treat it as a tapped land; late, check life totals before sequencing because it may enable same-turn `Counterspell`, `Cast Down`, or commander protection.
- Inputs / outputs: Taps for `{U}` or `{B}`; tempo output depends on life total condition.
- Partners / packages: Casts blue protection/counters and black removal; supports `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` recast turns.
- Role peers: `Command Tower` is always untapped; `Ice Tunnel`, `Contaminated Aquifer`, `Sinister Hideout`, `Serpent's Pass`, and `Waterfront District` normally enter tapped.
- Failure modes: Assuming it enters untapped before a player is at 13 or less can miss a critical spell window.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: More valuable in races where life totals drop; less special in slow games.

#### Geyser Drake
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; flying cost-reducer threat.
- Role type: threat/clock; engine piece; mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Attacks or blocks as a 2/3 flyer while reducing spells you cast during turns other than yours by `{1}`, supporting `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` opponent-turn draw chains.
- Timing: Cast when you can untap with instant interaction or when a 2/3 flyer stabilizes combat; protect if its cost reduction makes your hand much stronger.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{2}{U}`; outputs flying pressure and generic cost reduction on other turns.
- Partners / packages: Reduces opponent-turn spells `Opt`, `Consider`, `Dispel`, `Spell Pierce`, `Snap`, `Frantic Search`, `Unwind`, `Whispers of the Muse`, `Go for the Throat`, and `Cast Down`.
- Role peers: `Naiad of Hidden Coves` has the same cost-reduction text without flying; `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` pays life to draw from those spells instead.
- Failure modes: Does not reduce spells on your own turn; removal before the opponent's turn denies the mana advantage.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in draw-go games; against aggro, value the flying blocker first.

#### Freed from the Real
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; Aura engine piece.
- Role type: engine piece; protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: Enchants a creature and gives `{U}: Tap enchanted creature` and `{U}: Untap enchanted creature`, enabling repeated tap/untap utility when the enchanted creature has a relevant tap role.
- Timing: Commit only when the enchanted creature matters immediately or protection is ready; do not put it on an exposed creature just to spend mana.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{2}{U}` and a creature target; later consumes `{U}` per tap or untap activation.
- Mode map: Tap activation can disable the enchanted creature or use it if tapping itself matters; untap activation reuses `Retraction Helix`, `Springleaf Drum`, `Moonsnare Prototype`-enabled creatures, or blocks after attacking when legal.
- Partners / packages: Best with a creature granted `Retraction Helix`, or a creature needed repeatedly for `Springleaf Drum`; can protect a race by tapping an opposing enchanted creature only if you chose to enchant that opponent's creature.
- Role peers: `Retraction Helix` grants a temporary bounce tap ability; `Cerulean Wisps` and `Shore Up` offer one-shot untaps.
- Failure modes: Aura two-for-one risk; `{U}` activations can consume counterspell mana.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong when board is stable; dangerous into open removal.

#### Drift of Phantasms
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; flying defender and three-mana transmute search.
- Role type: tutor/search; lifegain/stabilization; card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Blocks as a 0/5 flying defender or transmutes for a mana value 3 card that advances the current plan.
- Timing: Cast when a flying wall buys multiple turns; transmute only as a sorcery when finding the exact three-mana card is better than blocking.
- Inputs / outputs: Creature mode consumes `{2}{U}`; transmute consumes `{1}{U}{U}`, discards it, searches same mana value, reveals, puts into hand, then shuffles.
- Mode map: Board mode blocks flyers and protects life; transmute finds `Freed from the Real`, `Geyser Drake`, `Bender's Waterskin`, `Unwind`, `Frantic Search`, `Blessing of Leeches`, `Naiad of Hidden Coves`, `Undercity Scrounger`, `Windrider Wizard`, `Terror`, or `Perplex`.
- Partners / packages: Finds `Freed from the Real` for engine setup or `Unwind` for stack protection.
- Role peers: `Perplex` transmutes for the same mana value while being a counter; `Dizzy Spell` searches one-mana cards.
- Failure modes: Defender cannot attack, so it is not a clock.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Better as creature versus flyers/aggro; better as tutor versus slow decks.

#### Reach Through Mists
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; one-mana instant draw.
- Role type: card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Draws a card at instant speed, keeping the spell density high for `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` and `Windrider Wizard` without requiring a target.
- Timing: Cast when digging for land or an answer; otherwise hold for opponent end step so mana remains available for `Spell Pierce`, `Dispel`, `Shore Up`, or removal.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{U}`; outputs one card drawn.
- Partners / packages: Triggers `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` on an opponent's turn and `Windrider Wizard` whenever cast.
- Role peers: `Tune the Narrative` also draws one and adds energy; `Opt` and `Consider` add selection.
- Failure modes: No scry, surveil, or target means it cannot filter a bad top card before drawing.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Fine in slow matchups; against pressure, cast only if it can find needed interaction without giving up defense.

#### Take the Fall
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; shrink cantrip with outlaw upgrade.
- Role type: interaction-removal; card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Targets a creature, gives -1/-0 until end of turn, or -4/-0 if you control an outlaw; in this list `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` is a Rogue and `Undercity Scrounger` is a Rogue, so either can enable the larger shrink.
- Timing: Use during combat when the power reduction saves life, lets a creature survive, or changes a race; do not cast just to draw if holding it threatens a better combat step.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{U}` and a target creature; outputs temporary power reduction and one card drawn.
- Partners / packages: Outlaw enablers are exact current-list creatures `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` and `Undercity Scrounger`.
- Role peers: `Fleeting Distraction` always gives -1/-0 and draws; `Dizzy Spell` gives -3/-0 but does not draw.
- Failure modes: Does not reduce toughness or remove abilities; without an outlaw it only reduces by 1.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against large single attackers if outlaw is present; weak against noncombat combo.

#### Whispers of the Muse
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; instant draw with buyback.
- Role type: card selection; engine payoff.
- Deck-specific job: Draws a card for `{U}`, or with buyback `{5}` returns to hand as it resolves, giving a late-game mana sink that repeatedly triggers `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` on opponent turns.
- Timing: Early, cast only when digging is needed; late, buy back when six mana does not prevent holding interaction.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{U}` for one card; with buyback consumes an additional `{5}` and returns itself to hand as it resolves.
- Mode map: Normal mode is cheap card flow; buyback mode is repeatable card flow but ties up six total mana.
- Partners / packages: Strong with `Bender's Waterskin`, `Dimir Signet`, `Arcane Signet`, and `Geyser Drake` / `Naiad of Hidden Coves` cost reduction on other turns.
- Role peers: `Reach Through Mists` is cheaper one-shot; `Brainstorm` sees more cards but needs top-deck management.
- Failure modes: Buyback can be a trap if it taps out of `Counterspell`, `Dispel`, or removal.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent in control mirrors; sideboard down against fast pressure.

#### Swamp
- Deck role: Main, 11 copies; basic black mana resource.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Provides `{B}` for removal, death shields, drain creatures, and black auras while increasing `Defile`'s count.
- Timing: Prioritize when hand has `Defile`, `Tragic Slip`, `Cast Down`, `Go for the Throat`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Undying Evil`, `Feign Death`, `Not Dead After All`, or `Basilica Screecher`; do not lead Swamp over blue unless blue access is already secured or black interaction is urgent.
- Inputs / outputs: Taps for `{B}` and increases Swamp count.
- Partners / packages: Powers `Defile` most directly; casts `Ghastly Demise`, `Aphotic Wisps`, `Anoint with Affliction`, `Eternal Thirst`, and `Blessing of Leeches`.
- Role peers: `Ice Tunnel` and `Contaminated Aquifer` also have Swamp type and produce black; `Command Tower` produces black but is not a Swamp.
- Failure modes: Too many Swamps without blue strands most cantrips and counters.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Higher priority versus creature decks; balance carefully versus control where blue stack mana is central.

#### Island
- Deck role: Main, 15 copies; basic blue mana resource.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Casts the deck's dense one-mana selection, counters, protection, bounce, and commander support, and can be discarded to `Foil`'s alternate cost as an Island card.
- Timing: Usually prioritize early so `Opt`, `Consider`, `Spell Pierce`, `Dispel`, `Counterspell`, `Shore Up`, `Mizzium Skin`, `Snap`, and `Retraction Helix` are live.
- Inputs / outputs: Taps for `{U}`; supports double-blue costs and `Foil`.
- Partners / packages: Enables `Counterspell`, `Arcane Denial`, `Mana Leak`, `Lofty Denial`, `Unwind`, `Frantic Search`, `Freed from the Real`, and `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`.
- Role peers: `Ice Tunnel` and `Contaminated Aquifer` have Island type but enter tapped; `Command Tower` gives blue without Island type.
- Failure modes: Too many Islands without black can strand removal and death-protection effects.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Highest priority in stack matchups and opening hands with cantrips.

#### Octopus Form
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; one-mana protection trick and Lesson.
- Role type: protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: Gives target creature you control +1/+1, hexproof, and untaps it until end of turn, functioning as another cheap shield for the creature carrying the plan.
- Timing: Use in response to targeted removal or when untapping changes combat or a tap-engine line; avoid precombat use unless the pump or untap creates a real attack.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{U}` and targets your creature; outputs temporary +1/+1, hexproof, and untap.
- Partners / packages: Protects `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Windrider Wizard`, `Geyser Drake`, `Basilica Screecher`, or a creature with `Retraction Helix`, `Unexpected Fangs`, `Eternal Thirst`, or `Freed from the Real`.
- Role peers: `Shore Up` and `Magic Damper` share the same tactical text; `Mizzium Skin` can protect multiple creatures with overload.
- Failure modes: Does not protect from sweepers, edicts, sacrifice, or non-targeting effects.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: High value against targeted removal; lower against go-wide combat with no key creature.

#### Mizzium Skin
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; single or overloaded creature protection.
- Role type: protection/evasion; modal utility.
- Deck-specific job: Gives target creature you control +0/+1 and hexproof, or for overload `{1}{U}` gives each creature you control +0/+1 and hexproof.
- Timing: Use normal mode to save `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` or an enchanted creature from targeted removal; overload when multiple creatures are targeted or combat math across several blockers matters.
- Inputs / outputs: Normal cost `{U}` targets one creature you control; overload cost `{1}{U}` changes "target" to "each" and protects all your creatures.
- Mode map: Normal mode is efficient single-threat protection; overload mode covers board-wide targeted effects and multiple combat trades.
- Partners / packages: Protects creatures carrying `Freed from the Real`, `Eternal Thirst`, `Unexpected Fangs`, `Eel Umbra`, or `Blessing of Leeches`.
- Role peers: `Shore Up`, `Magic Damper`, and `Octopus Form` add untap and +1/+1 but do not overload.
- Failure modes: Hexproof only stops opponents' targeted spells or abilities; it does not counter non-targeting sweepers or sacrifice effects.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent against removal-heavy decks with targeted effects; weaker against edicts and board wipes.

#### Blessing of Leeches
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; flash Aura regeneration shield.
- Role type: protection/evasion; lifegain/stabilization.
- Deck-specific job: Enchants a creature at instant speed, costs you 1 life at each upkeep, and grants `{0}: Regenerate enchanted creature`.
- Timing: Flash onto the creature that must survive destruction, then activate regeneration before the destruction event; the shield replaces destruction, taps the creature, removes damage, and removes it from combat.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{2}{B}` and a creature target; costs 1 life each upkeep; outputs repeatable zero-mana regeneration shields.
- Partners / packages: Best on `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Geyser Drake`, `Windrider Wizard`, or a creature carrying `Eternal Thirst` or `Unexpected Fangs`.
- Role peers: `Eel Umbra` gives one destruction replacement without upkeep life loss; `Undying Evil`, `Feign Death`, and `Undying Malice` return after death instead.
- Failure modes: Regeneration does not stop exile, sacrifice, bounce, -X/-X to 0 toughness, or counterspells; upkeep life loss can matter against burn.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong versus destroy-heavy midrange; risky versus life-pressure decks.

#### Undying Evil
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; black undying protection.
- Role type: protection/evasion; recursion.
- Deck-specific job: Gives target creature undying until end of turn, returning it with a +1/+1 counter if it dies and had no +1/+1 counters on it.
- Timing: Cast before a destruction, combat trade, or sacrifice line when the creature lacks a +1/+1 counter; use another death shield if the creature already has a +1/+1 counter.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{B}` and targets a creature; outputs an undying death trigger for that turn.
- Partners / packages: Protects `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Raven of Fell Omens`, `Basilica Screecher`, `Windrider Wizard`, or sacrifice material for `Deadly Dispute`.
- Role peers: `Feign Death` and `Undying Malice` return with +1/+1 counters without undying's no-counter condition; `Not Dead After All` adds a Wicked Role.
- Failure modes: Fails to return a creature that already had a +1/+1 counter when it died.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Great against destroy effects; weaker after `Unexpected Fangs` or `Eternal Thirst` has already placed +1/+1 counters.

#### Snapback
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; bounce spell with alternate cost.
- Role type: interaction-removal; modal utility.
- Deck-specific job: Returns target creature to its owner's hand for `{1}{U}` or by exiling a blue card from your hand, giving tempo while tapped out.
- Timing: Use to stop lethal combat, reset a commander, undo an Aura stack, clear a blocker, or save your own creature from worse removal.
- Inputs / outputs: Mana mode consumes `{1}{U}`; alternate mode exiles a blue card from hand; both require a target creature and output bounce.
- Mode map: Mana mode preserves cards; exile mode preserves mana for `Counterspell`, `Dispel`, `Shore Up`, or black removal but costs a blue card.
- Partners / packages: Exile candidates should usually be redundant blue cantrips, not `Counterspell`, `Freed from the Real`, or the only protection spell.
- Role peers: `Snap` bounces and untaps lands; `Run Away Together` bounces two creatures with different controllers.
- Failure modes: Exiling the wrong blue card can lose the next protected line; bounce is temporary.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against Voltron and tempo; weaker against cheap value creatures.

#### Melancholic Poet
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; drain payoff for targeted instant/sorcery spells.
- Role type: mechanic payoff; lifegain/stabilization; threat/clock.
- Deck-specific job: Drains each opponent for 1 and gains you 1 whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell that targets a creature.
- Timing: Deploy before turns where `Defile`, `Tragic Slip`, `Snap`, `Take the Fall`, `Fleeting Distraction`, `Aphotic Wisps`, `Cerulean Wisps`, `Shadow Rift`, `Leap`, or protection spells will target creatures.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{1}{B}`; outputs repeat drain from qualifying targeted instant/sorcery casts.
- Partners / packages: Triggers from your creature-targeting instants and sorceries including `Shore Up`, `Magic Damper`, `Octopus Form`, `Mizzium Skin`, `Retraction Helix`, `Unexpected Fangs`, and black removal that targets creatures.
- Role peers: `Raven of Fell Omens` drains from crimes once each turn; `Basilica Screecher` drains through extort mana payments.
- Failure modes: Auras such as `Eternal Thirst`, `Freed from the Real`, and `Eel Umbra` are not instant or sorcery spells.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in creature-heavy games with many target spells; weak if the opponent presents few creatures and removes it immediately.

#### Moonsnare Prototype
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; one-mana artifact ramp with channel bounce.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; modal utility; interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: Taps itself and another untapped artifact or creature you control to add `{C}`, or channels for `{4}{U}` to make the owner of target nonland permanent put it on top or bottom of their library.
- Timing: Play early when you have creatures or artifacts to tap; channel only when a nonland permanent is worth a five-mana tempo answer.
- Inputs / outputs: Mana ability consumes tapping this artifact and another untapped artifact or creature; outputs `{C}`. Channel consumes `{4}{U}`, discards the card, and targets a nonland permanent.
- Mode map: Artifact mode is repeatable colorless ramp; channel mode is one-shot nonland permanent interaction where the owner chooses top or bottom.
- Partners / packages: Taps `Bender's Waterskin`, `Arcane Signet`, `Dimir Signet`, `Fellwar Stone`, `Springleaf Drum`, `Disciple of the Vault`, `Basilica Screecher`, or `Raven of Fell Omens` when they are expendable to tap.
- Role peers: `Springleaf Drum` makes any color but needs a creature; `Resculpt` sideboard exiles artifact or creature instead.
- Failure modes: `{C}` is not colored mana; tapping the only blocker or engine creature can be costly.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Channel matters against single permanent engines and commanders; ramp mode matters in slower setup games.

#### Arcane Denial
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; broad two-mana counter with delayed draws.
- Role type: interaction-stack; card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Counters any target spell, then its controller may draw up to two cards at the next upkeep while you draw one.
- Timing: Use on spells that must not resolve even if the opponent gets cards, such as commander-scale threats, removal over your protected engine, or combo payoffs.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{1}{U}` and targets a spell on the stack; outputs counter now, delayed card draw later.
- Partners / packages: Easier to hold with `Arcane Signet`, `Dimir Signet`, `Fellwar Stone`, and cost reducers `Geyser Drake` / `Naiad of Hidden Coves` on other turns.
- Role peers: `Counterspell` gives no cards but needs `{U}{U}`; `Mana Leak` is taxable; `Foil` can be free at card cost.
- Failure modes: Giving the opponent up to two cards is dangerous if the countered spell was not decisive.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Best versus combo and must-answer threats; lower value against low-impact spells from attrition decks.

#### Eel Umbra
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; flash Aura protection and small pump.
- Role type: protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: Enchants a creature at instant speed, gives +1/+1, and uses umbra armor to replace destruction by removing all damage from the creature and destroying the Aura.
- Timing: Flash in to counter a destruction event or win combat; can be cast proactively only when a protected attacker or blocker matters immediately.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{1}{U}` and a creature target; outputs +1/+1 and one destruction replacement.
- Partners / packages: Protects `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Geyser Drake`, `Windrider Wizard`, `Basilica Screecher`, or a lifelink-upgraded creature.
- Role peers: `Blessing of Leeches` repeats regeneration with upkeep life loss; `Shore Up` gives hexproof and untap for one turn.
- Failure modes: Umbra armor only replaces destruction; it does not stop exile, bounce, sacrifice, -X/-X to 0 toughness, or counterspells.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong versus damage/destroy removal and combat; weak against exile-heavy answers.

#### Counterspell
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; unconditional two-blue permission.
- Role type: interaction-stack.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target spell, serving as the cleanest answer to anything on the stack that would beat the current plan.
- Timing: Hold for commander-scale threats, removal targeting `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, combo pieces, sweepers, or card-advantage engines; spend earlier only if the spell creates a faster clock than your hand can answer.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{U}{U}` and targets a spell on the stack; outputs hard counter.
- Partners / packages: Requires reliable blue from `Island`, `Command Tower`, `Ice Tunnel`, `Contaminated Aquifer`, `Sinister Hideout`, `Serpent's Pass`, `Waterfront District`, or `Murky Sewer`.
- Role peers: `Arcane Denial` is easier but gives cards; `Foil` can be alternate-costed; `Mana Leak` and `Spell Pierce` tax.
- Failure modes: Double-blue can be stranded by black-heavy draws or tapped lands.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Highest value against combo/control and big mana; still good versus aggro if it stops the key threat before combat.

#### Brainstorm
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; instant hand sculpting.
- Role type: card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Draws three, then puts two cards from hand on top, letting the deck find immediate interaction or hide key cards while managing weak cards with shuffle/mill effects.
- Timing: Cast when you need an immediate answer, can pair with transmute shuffle from `Dizzy Spell`, `Perplex`, or `Drift of Phantasms`, or can clear top cards with `Thought Scour` targeting yourself; avoid casual use with two dead cards and no reset.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{U}`; temporarily sees three new cards but returns two hand cards to the library top.
- Partners / packages: Best with `Thought Scour`, transmute searches, and fetchless sequencing where putting back expensive or situational cards is still acceptable.
- Role peers: `Opt` and `Consider` are safer one-card smoothing; `Frantic Search` discards instead of locking top cards.
- Failure modes: Can lock bad cards on top if no shuffle, mill, or draw-through exists.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent against discard and stack fights; risky under pressure if it does not find immediate removal.

#### Feign Death
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; black death-return shield.
- Role type: protection/evasion; recursion.
- Deck-specific job: Gives target creature a death trigger that returns it tapped under its owner's control with a +1/+1 counter.
- Timing: Use in response to destroy removal, expected combat death, or a `Deadly Dispute` sacrifice where returning the creature matters.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{B}` and a target creature; outputs a delayed tapped return with +1/+1 counter if it dies this turn.
- Partners / packages: Protects `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Windrider Wizard`, `Raven of Fell Omens`, `Basilica Screecher`, `Geyser Drake`, or `Undercity Scrounger`.
- Role peers: `Undying Malice` is the same referenced effect; `Not Dead After All` adds Wicked Role; `Undying Evil` has the no-+1/+1-counter undying condition.
- Failure modes: Does not help against exile, bounce, counterspells, or theft; returned tapped may not block.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong versus black/red destroy-heavy decks; lower value versus blue tempo bounce.

#### Mana Leak
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; two-mana soft counter.
- Role type: interaction-stack.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target spell unless its controller pays `{3}`, covering any spell type while the opponent's mana is constrained.
- Timing: Use early and midgame before opponents can easily pay; hold only if the visible mana count keeps `{3}` meaningful.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{1}{U}` and targets a spell on the stack; outputs a tax counter if unpaid.
- Partners / packages: Protects `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Freed from the Real`, and tap-out mana artifact turns.
- Role peers: `Spell Pierce` costs one but only noncreature; `Lofty Denial` can tax `{4}` with a flyer; `Counterspell` is unconditional.
- Failure modes: Decays late, especially against big mana or after the opponent holds lands untapped.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong versus tempo and curve-out decks; weaker in late control mirrors unless fighting over a tap-out turn.

#### Thought Scour
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; targeted mill cantrip.
- Role type: card selection; engine fuel/material.
- Deck-specific job: Target player mills two cards, then you draw a card, fueling your `Ghastly Demise` when aimed at yourself or disrupting top-deck setup when aimed at an opponent.
- Timing: Target yourself when graveyard count matters or after `Brainstorm` put unwanted cards on top; target an opponent only when milling them is safer than feeding their graveyard.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{U}` and targets a player; outputs two milled cards from that player and one card drawn.
- Partners / packages: Clears `Brainstorm` top cards, fuels `Ghastly Demise`, and can commit a crime for `Raven of Fell Omens` when targeting an opponent.
- Role peers: `Consider` mills at most one by choice; `Cremate` sideboard exiles a specific graveyard card and draws.
- Failure modes: Milling opponents can help graveyard, flashback, delve, or recursion strategies.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Avoid targeting graveyard decks unless disrupting known top cards is worth it.

#### Leap
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; flying cantrip.
- Role type: protection/evasion; card selection; threat/clock.
- Deck-specific job: Gives target creature flying until end of turn and draws a card, letting a ground creature attack over blockers or block a flyer unexpectedly.
- Timing: Use when flying changes combat math, enables a lifelink hit, blocks an opposing flyer, or creates lethal; avoid cycling with no meaningful target.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{U}` and targets a creature; outputs flying until end of turn and one card drawn.
- Partners / packages: Best on `Disciple of the Vault`, `Undercity Scrounger`, `Melancholic Poet`, or a lifelink creature from `Unexpected Fangs` / `Eternal Thirst`; redundant on existing flyers except for cantrip timing.
- Role peers: `Shadow Rift` gives shadow; `Aphotic Wisps` gives fear; `Cerulean Wisps` untaps.
- Failure modes: Existing flyers do not gain much except a card draw, and opposing reach/flying blockers still matter.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Useful in board stalls; lower value when the deck must defend on the stack.

#### Cast Down
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; efficient nonlegendary creature removal.
- Role type: interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: Destroys target nonlegendary creature, answering ordinary attackers and engines at instant speed.
- Timing: Use on high-pressure nonlegendary creatures before combat or on engine creatures before they untap; save if the visible board suggests a more dangerous nonlegendary follow-up.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{1}{B}` and targets a nonlegendary creature; outputs destruction.
- Partners / packages: Complements `Go for the Throat` against artifact creatures only if nonlegendary, and `Terror` / `Doom Blade` against black creatures only if nonlegendary.
- Role peers: `Go for the Throat` hits legendary nonartifact creatures; `Doom Blade` sideboard hits nonblack creatures including legendary nonblack.
- Failure modes: Cannot target commanders or other legendary creatures.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against creature swarms and nonlegendary engines; lower against commander-centric single-threat decks.

#### Fleeting Distraction
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; small shrink cantrip.
- Role type: interaction-removal; card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Gives target creature -1/-0 until end of turn and draws, buying a point in combat while maintaining spell velocity.
- Timing: Use when -1 power lets a blocker survive, reduces lethal damage, or supports a profitable attack; otherwise preserve blue mana for stronger interaction.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{U}` and targets a creature; outputs -1/-0 and one card.
- Partners / packages: Triggers `Melancholic Poet` because it is an instant targeting a creature, and can trigger `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` on an opponent's turn.
- Role peers: `Take the Fall` can be -4/-0 with `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` or `Undercity Scrounger`; `Dizzy Spell` shrinks by -3/-0 without drawing.
- Failure modes: Does not kill, reduce toughness, or stop noncombat abilities.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Best against combat math and one-turn races; weak against combo and big noncombat threats.

#### Retraction Helix
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; temporary tap-bounce enabler.
- Role type: engine piece; interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: Gives a target creature until end of turn: `{T}: Return target nonland permanent to its owner's hand`, turning any untapped creature into a tempo engine for the turn.
- Timing: Use when the target creature can tap immediately and bouncing a nonland permanent changes the game; do not cast on a summoning-sick or needed blocker unless the legal line is worth it.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{U}` and targets a creature; output is a temporary activated ability that taps that creature to target a nonland permanent.
- Partners / packages: Strong with `Freed from the Real`, `Cerulean Wisps`, `Shore Up`, `Magic Damper`, `Octopus Form`, `Springleaf Drum`, and creatures that can safely tap.
- Role peers: `Snap` and `Snapback` bounce creatures directly; `Run Away Together` sideboard bounces two creatures.
- Failure modes: The granted ability targets, so hexproof/shroud-like restrictions matter; losing the creature before activation wastes the spell.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: High value versus aura stacks, token makers, and single key permanents; weaker against cheap replay threats.

#### Arcane Signet
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; two-mana commander-color artifact.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Taps for one mana of any color in `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`'s color identity, meaning blue or black in this Dimir deck.
- Timing: Cast early when it enables a protected commander or double-spell turn; delay if holding up interaction is necessary against a visible threat.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{2}`; outputs `{U}` or `{B}` through commander color identity.
- Partners / packages: Helps cast `Counterspell`, `Perplex`, `Cast Down`, `Freed from the Real`, `Unwind`, and commander tax.
- Role peers: `Fellwar Stone` depends on opponent lands; `Dimir Signet` filters `{1}` into `{U}{B}`; `Bender's Waterskin` costs more but taps for any color.
- Failure modes: Artifact removal or tapping out on turn two can lose tempo if the opponent's threat needed answering.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in slower games; against aggro, compare to immediate `Cast Down` or `Defile`.

#### Springleaf Drum
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; one-mana creature-tap color fixer.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; engine piece.
- Deck-specific job: Taps itself and an untapped creature you control to add one mana of any color, turning `Basilica Screecher`, `Deathgreeter`, `Disciple of the Vault`, `Melancholic Poet`, `Undercity Scrounger`, or the commander into acceleration for protected double-spell turns.
- Timing: Play before deploying creatures when the hand can use it next turn; do not tap the only blocker or the creature needed for `Retraction Helix` unless the mana immediately matters more.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{1}` to cast; activation taps Drum and one untapped creature to output any color.
- Partners / packages: Good with `Basilica Screecher`, `Raven of Fell Omens`, `Disciple of the Vault`, `Melancholic Poet`, `Undercity Scrounger`, and untap tricks `Shore Up`, `Cerulean Wisps`, `Magic Damper`, `Octopus Form`.
- Role peers: `Moonsnare Prototype` taps artifact or creature for `{C}`; `Arcane Signet` does not need a creature.
- Failure modes: Creature-light hands make it do nothing; summoning sickness does not stop a creature from being tapped by Drum, but needing that creature for combat can.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in setup hands; risky when blockers are precious.

#### Command Tower
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; untapped Dimir mana resource.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Adds one mana of any color in commander color identity, giving untapped blue or black without the tempo loss of most dual lands.
- Timing: Usually play early when holding mixed-color interaction or double-spell turns; preserve sequencing around `Counterspell` needing two blue and `Defile` caring about actual Swamps.
- Inputs / outputs: Taps for `{U}` or `{B}` in this deck.
- Partners / packages: Casts `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Counterspell`, `Cast Down`, `Go for the Throat`, `Dizzy Spell`, `Perplex`, and black death shields.
- Role peers: `Ice Tunnel` and `Contaminated Aquifer` have land types but enter tapped; `Murky Sewer` can be untapped only with a low-life condition.
- Failure modes: Does not count as Island or Swamp for `Foil` alternate cost or `Defile`.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent in all matchups, especially hands balancing blue counters and black removal.

#### Deadly Dispute
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; sacrifice draw and Treasure pivot.
- Role type: engine piece; engine fuel/material; card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Sacrifices an artifact or creature as an additional cost, then draws two and creates a Treasure token, converting expendable material or a doomed permanent into cards and fixing.
- Timing: Best in response to removal, after blocks, or when sacrificing an artifact/creature no longer needed for `Springleaf Drum`, `Moonsnare Prototype`, `Retraction Helix`, or defense.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{1}{B}` plus an artifact or creature sacrifice; outputs two cards and a Treasure token.
- Partners / packages: Sacrifice candidates include expendable `Treasure`, `Bender's Waterskin` only if no longer needed, `Basilica Screecher`, `Deathgreeter`, or `Disciple of the Vault` under removal, or a creature protected by `Feign Death`, `Undying Malice`, `Undying Evil`, or `Not Dead After All`.
- Role peers: `Frantic Search` filters without sacrifice; `Undercity Scrounger` creates Treasure after a creature died.
- Failure modes: Sacrificing the only blocker, commander, or mana enabler can lose more than two cards gain.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in attrition and removal exchanges; risky against lethal combat.

#### Basilica Screecher
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; flying extort role player.
- Role type: threat/clock; lifegain/stabilization; engine payoff.
- Deck-specific job: Provides a 1/2 flying body and extort, letting every later spell optionally drain each opponent for 1 if you pay `{W/B}`; in this deck, black mana pays the extort cost.
- Timing: Cast early when it blocks flyers, enables `Springleaf Drum`, or turns spell chains into life swings; do not pay extort if that black mana is needed for removal or protection.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{1}{B}`; outputs flying body and optional extort drains on future spell casts.
- Partners / packages: Works with cheap spells `Opt`, `Consider`, `Dispel`, `Spell Pierce`, `Defile`, `Tragic Slip`, `Shore Up`, and `Mizzium Skin`.
- Role peers: `Raven of Fell Omens` drains once each turn from crimes; `Melancholic Poet` drains from creature-targeting instant/sorcery spells.
- Failure modes: Extort payments compete with interaction mana; 1/2 body dies to small removal.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong versus burn and races; lower priority when stack mana must remain untapped.

#### Naiad of Hidden Coves
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; opponent-turn cost reducer.
- Role type: engine piece; mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Makes spells you cast during turns other than yours cost `{1}` less, supporting draw-go turns with `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`.
- Timing: Cast when you can untap and exploit the discount; avoid tapping out if the opponent's next play must be answered immediately.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{2}{U}`; outputs generic cost reduction on other turns.
- Partners / packages: Discounts `Snap`, `Go for the Throat`, `Cast Down`, `Frantic Search`, `Unwind`, `Whispers of the Muse`, `Arcane Denial`, `Mana Leak`, `Lofty Denial`, and `Perplex` if cast on another turn.
- Role peers: `Geyser Drake` has the same cost-reduction text plus flying; `Bender's Waterskin` produces mana on other players' turns.
- Failure modes: Does nothing for spells cast on your own turn and dies as an enchantment creature to more removal classes.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against control/tempo; weaker against fast creature decks where three-mana setup is too slow.

#### Eternal Thirst
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; lifelink Aura and growth payoff.
- Role type: lifegain/stabilization; engine payoff; threat/clock.
- Deck-specific job: Enchants a creature, gives lifelink, and puts a +1/+1 counter on it whenever a creature an opponent controls dies.
- Timing: Commit when the enchanted creature is likely to survive or immediately changes a race; avoid playing into open removal without `Mizzium Skin`, `Shore Up`, `Dispel`, or a death shield.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{1}{B}` and a creature target; outputs lifelink and future +1/+1 counters from opposing creature deaths.
- Partners / packages: Best on evasive creatures `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Raven of Fell Omens`, `Basilica Screecher`, `Geyser Drake`, or `Windrider Wizard`; grows with removal `Cast Down`, `Go for the Throat`, `Defile`, `Tragic Slip`, `Ghastly Demise`, and `Anoint with Affliction`.
- Role peers: `Unexpected Fangs` gives immediate permanent counters; `Blessing of Leeches` protects rather than racing.
- Failure modes: Aura two-for-one risk; does not grow from your creatures dying.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent versus creature decks if protected; weak versus control with few creatures.

#### Disciple of the Vault
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; artifact-death drain role player.
- Role type: engine payoff; threat/clock.
- Deck-specific job: Makes target opponent lose 1 life whenever an artifact is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, turning Treasure sacrifices and artifact trades into reach.
- Timing: Deploy when artifacts are likely to die or when a one-mana body enables `Springleaf Drum` / `Moonsnare Prototype`.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{B}`; outputs target-opponent life loss from artifact graveyard events.
- Partners / packages: Triggers from `Treasure` created by `Deadly Dispute` or `Undercity Scrounger`, sacrificed artifacts, destroyed `Arcane Signet`, `Dimir Signet`, `Fellwar Stone`, `Bender's Waterskin`, `Moonsnare Prototype`, `Springleaf Drum`, and opposing artifacts.
- Role peers: `Basilica Screecher`, `Raven of Fell Omens`, and `Melancholic Poet` are other drain bodies with different trigger conditions.
- Failure modes: Low impact with no artifacts going to graveyards; 1/1 body is fragile.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Stronger against artifact decks and grindy sacrifice games; weak against spell-combo with no artifacts.

#### Undercity Scrounger
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; Treasure engine body.
- Role type: engine piece; mana/fixing/ramp; engine fuel/material.
- Deck-specific job: Taps to create a Treasure token, but only if a creature died this turn, giving ramp and artifact material after combat, removal, or sacrifice.
- Timing: Cast as a 1/4 blocker or mana engine setup; activate after a creature death when tapping it does not compromise blocking or `Springleaf Drum` use.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{2}{B}`; activation taps it and outputs a Treasure token if a creature died this turn.
- Partners / packages: Creature deaths can come from combat, `Cast Down`, `Go for the Throat`, `Defile`, `Tragic Slip`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Peppersmoke`, or opponent removal.
- Role peers: `Bender's Waterskin` taps for any color without the death condition; `Deadly Dispute` creates one Treasure immediately through sacrifice.
- Failure modes: No creature death means no activation; tapping a 1/4 blocker can expose life total.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against creature decks and attrition; slow against control/combo.

#### Windrider Wizard
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; flying loot engine.
- Role type: engine piece; card selection; threat/clock.
- Deck-specific job: Whenever you cast an instant, sorcery, or Wizard spell, you may draw a card; if you do, discard a card, letting the deck churn through reactive spells.
- Timing: Cast when you can protect it or immediately follow with cheap instants/sorceries; keep it back if its 2/2 flying body is needed to block.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{2}{U}`; outputs optional draw-discard triggers from your instant, sorcery, or Wizard spells.
- Partners / packages: Triggers from most of the deck's instants and sorceries including `Opt`, `Consider`, `Counterspell`, `Cast Down`, `Frantic Search`, `Retraction Helix`, and `Unexpected Fangs`; can discard `Obsessive Search` for madness if blue is available.
- Role peers: `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` draws from opponent-turn spells for life; `Frantic Search` is one-shot draw-discard.
- Failure modes: Looting is optional but discard can cost a key singleton if used carelessly.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in slow spell-heavy games; fragile versus cheap removal.

#### Terror
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; restricted destroy removal.
- Role type: interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: Destroys target nonartifact, nonblack creature and prevents regeneration, covering many green, white, red, and blue threats efficiently.
- Timing: Use on creatures where regeneration or combat snowball matters; save more flexible removal for black or artifact creatures.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{1}{B}` and targets a nonartifact, nonblack creature; outputs destruction that cannot be regenerated.
- Partners / packages: Complements `Cast Down`, `Go for the Throat`, `Defile`, `Tragic Slip`, and `Anoint with Affliction` by adding another instant removal slot.
- Role peers: `Doom Blade` sideboard also cannot hit black but can hit artifact creatures if they are nonblack; `Go for the Throat` cannot hit artifact creatures but can hit nonartifact black creatures.
- Failure modes: Dead against black creatures and artifact creatures.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong versus nonblack creature pressure; sideboard out or devalue against black/artifact creature decks.

#### Fellwar Stone
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; two-mana opponent-dependent artifact fixer.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Taps for one mana of any color a land an opponent controls could produce, usually helping if the opponent has blue or black but not guaranteed.
- Timing: Cast early when it likely fixes or ramps; check visible opponent lands before assuming it produces needed colors.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{2}`; outputs a color based on opponent lands.
- Partners / packages: Supports protected turns with `Counterspell`, `Cast Down`, `Perplex`, `Freed from the Real`, and commander recasts when it provides the right color.
- Role peers: `Arcane Signet` is reliable commander-color fixing; `Dimir Signet` needs `{1}` input but always makes `{U}{B}`.
- Failure modes: Against colorless or off-color opponent lands, it may not provide blue or black.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Stronger against Dimir or multicolor opponents; weaker when the opponent's lands do not match your color needs.

#### Dimir Signet
- Deck role: Main, 1 copy; two-mana filtering artifact.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Converts `{1}` and tapping into `{U}{B}`, enabling double-spell turns and fixing both colors from colorless or off-color sources.
- Timing: Cast early when the next turns need both colors; remember it requires one mana to activate, so it is not immediate free mana by itself.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{2}` to cast; activation consumes `{1}` and tap to output `{U}{B}`.
- Partners / packages: Works with `Moonsnare Prototype`'s `{C}`, basic lands, and `Command Tower` to cast `Perplex`, `Counterspell` plus black spell, or commander recasts.
- Role peers: `Arcane Signet` taps directly for one color; `Fellwar Stone` depends on opponent lands.
- Failure modes: Awkward when you have no spare mana to feed activation; artifact removal can punish a tap-out turn.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in longer games; against aggro, compare to holding removal on turn two.

#### Deathgreeter
- Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy; creature-death life buffer bullet.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; lifegain/stabilization.
- Deck-specific job: Gains 1 life whenever another creature dies, buying turns against creature combat, sacrifice decks, token decks, and attrition mirrors.
- Timing: Bring in when creatures will reliably die; cast early enough that normal trades, removal, and sacrifice events convert into life.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{B}`; outputs optional life gain from each other creature death.
- Partners / packages: Works with your removal `Cast Down`, `Go for the Throat`, `Defile`, `Tragic Slip`, `Peppersmoke`, `Doom Blade`, `Spinning Darkness`, and creature combat.
- Role peers: `Basilica Screecher`, `Raven of Fell Omens`, and `Unexpected Fangs` also gain life through different conditions.
- Failure modes: Does nothing against spell-combo or control with few creatures; does not trigger from itself dying.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Side in versus aggro, go-wide, sacrifice, and creature attrition; leave out versus creature-light stack decks.

#### Spinning Darkness
- Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy; alternate-cost removal and life swing.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; interaction-removal; lifegain/stabilization.
- Deck-specific job: Deals 3 damage to target nonblack creature and you gain 3 life, with an alternate cost of exiling the top three black cards of your graveyard instead of paying `{4}{B}{B}`.
- Timing: Bring in versus aggressive nonblack creatures when graveyard fuel will be available; cast for alternate cost when preserving mana for counters or protection matters.
- Inputs / outputs: Mana mode consumes `{4}{B}{B}`; alternate cost exiles the top three black cards of your graveyard; output is 3 damage to target nonblack creature and 3 life gained.
- Mode map: Paid mode is expensive but preserves graveyard; alternate-cost mode is tempo-positive but consumes specific graveyard cards.
- Partners / packages: Graveyard fuel comes from `Consider`, `Thought Scour`, `Frantic Search`, trades, removal, and discarded black cards.
- Role peers: `Doom Blade` kills nonblack creatures cleanly; `Peppersmoke` handles one-toughness creatures.
- Failure modes: Cannot target black creatures, and damage may not kill high-toughness creatures.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent versus burn/aggro with nonblack creatures; poor versus black creature decks and graveyard hate.

#### Utter Insignificance
- Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy; flash Aura neutralizer with exile activation.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; interaction-removal; modal utility.
- Deck-specific job: Enchants a creature at flash speed, removes all abilities, sets it to base 1/1, and can later exile the enchanted creature for `{2}{C}`.
- Timing: Bring in against single large creatures, commanders, Voltron threats, and ability-based creatures; flash it in before combat damage or in response to activation windows when legal.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{1}{U}` and a creature target; later consumes `{2}{C}` to exile enchanted creature.
- Mode map: Aura mode immediately shrinks and blanks abilities; activated mode permanently exiles but needs true colorless mana from `Moonsnare Prototype` or another legal source that produces `{C}`.
- Partners / packages: `Moonsnare Prototype` is the explicit current-list colorless source; check engine output before assuming `Bender's Waterskin` or other any-color sources can pay `{C}`.
- Role peers: `Resculpt` exiles artifact or creature immediately but gives a 4/4; `Run Away Together` bounces tempo targets.
- Failure modes: Aura can be removed before exile; does not hit noncreature permanents.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: High value versus Voltron and commander threats; lower against boards of many low-power creatures where one Aura does not stabilize combat.

#### Resculpt
- Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy; exile answer with compensation token.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: Exiles target artifact or creature, then that permanent's controller creates a 4/4 blue and red Elemental token.
- Timing: Bring in when exile matters more than the 4/4 drawback, especially against resilient creatures, artifact engines, or graveyard-recursion targets.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{1}{U}` and targets an artifact or creature; outputs exile plus a 4/4 token for that controller.
- Partners / packages: Complements `Anoint with Affliction` for exile, and answers artifact creatures that `Go for the Throat` cannot target.
- Role peers: `Utter Insignificance` neutralizes creatures and can exile later; `Doom Blade` kills nonblack creatures without giving a token but cannot hit artifacts unless they are creatures and nonblack.
- Failure modes: The 4/4 can be lethal pressure if you are behind; cannot target enchantments unless they are also artifacts or creatures.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong versus artifacts, big creatures, and recursion; risky against aggro if the token is larger than the original problem.

#### Essence Scatter
- Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy; creature-spell counter.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; interaction-stack.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target creature spell before it enters the battlefield, avoiding death triggers, enter-the-battlefield pressure only if the creature never resolves, and commander bodies.
- Timing: Bring in when opposing creatures or creature-commanders are decisive; hold for the creature spell on the stack that your removal cannot efficiently answer later.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{1}{U}` and targets a creature spell on the stack; outputs hard counter.
- Partners / packages: Pairs with `Counterspell`, `Arcane Denial`, `Mana Leak`, and `Lofty Denial` to increase stack coverage versus creature decks.
- Role peers: `Remove` peers are `Cast Down`, `Go for the Throat`, and `Doom Blade`, but those answer creatures after resolution.
- Failure modes: Cannot counter noncreature spells or resolved creatures.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against creature-combo, big commanders, and Voltron; weak against spell-combo and artifact/enchantment engines.

#### Cremate
- Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy; graveyard hate cantrip.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; hate piece; card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Exiles target card from a graveyard and draws a card, interrupting recursion, flashback, escape, reanimation, or graveyard-count plans without losing a card.
- Timing: Bring in when public graveyards matter; use before the opponent casts or pays costs from the graveyard, or when a target is selected, not after costs have already been paid.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{B}` and targets a card in a graveyard; outputs exile of that card and a card drawn.
- Partners / packages: Protects your control plan while replacing itself; can target an opponent's graveyard card to commit a crime for `Raven of Fell Omens`.
- Role peers: `Thought Scour` mills and draws but does not exile; `Anoint with Affliction` exiles target creatures with mana value 3 or less on the battlefield.
- Failure modes: One card only; firing it blindly to cycle can miss the actual graveyard window.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Bring in versus graveyard recursion, flashback, delve, escape, and threshold-style decks; leave out when graveyards are irrelevant.

#### Peppersmoke
- Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy; small removal with Faerie draw bonus.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; interaction-removal; card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Gives target creature -1/-1 until end of turn and draws a card if you control a Faerie; `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` is the main registered Faerie creature.
- Timing: Bring in against one-toughness creatures, small commanders, mana creatures, and combat math where -1/-1 matters; cast when `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` is present if drawing matters.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{B}` and targets a creature; outputs -1/-1 and possibly one card.
- Partners / packages: Faerie draw condition is enabled by `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`; the spell also triggers `Melancholic Poet` because it targets a creature.
- Role peers: `Tragic Slip` is -1/-1 or morbid -13/-13; `Defile` scales with Swamps.
- Failure modes: Without a Faerie, it is card-negative; -1/-1 will not kill larger creatures.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong versus go-wide small boards; poor against big creatures and creature-light decks.

#### Negate
- Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy; noncreature hard counter.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; interaction-stack.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target noncreature spell, cleanly defending against removal, opposing counters, sweepers, noncreature combo pieces, and artifact/enchantment spells on the stack.
- Timing: Bring in versus control, combo, removal-heavy decks, and noncreature engines; hold for the noncreature spell that breaks your current plan.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{1}{U}` and targets a noncreature spell on the stack; outputs hard counter.
- Partners / packages: Protects `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Freed from the Real`, `Unexpected Fangs`, `Eternal Thirst`, `Retraction Helix`, and `Deadly Dispute` turns.
- Role peers: `Unwind` also counters noncreature spells and untaps lands; `Spell Pierce` is cheaper but taxable; `Dispel` hits only instants.
- Failure modes: Cannot counter creature spells or resolved permanents.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent into stack/combo/control; side out versus creature-heavy aggro when most threats are creatures.

#### Doom Blade
- Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy; extra nonblack creature removal.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: Destroys target nonblack creature, adding efficient removal against creature pressure and commanders that are not black.
- Timing: Bring in when the opponent's main threats are nonblack creatures; cast before combat or in response to Auras/equipment when killing the creature is better than waiting.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{1}{B}` and targets a nonblack creature; outputs destruction.
- Partners / packages: Complements `Go for the Throat`, `Cast Down`, `Terror`, `Defile`, `Tragic Slip`, `Ghastly Demise`, and `Anoint with Affliction`.
- Role peers: `Terror` also cannot hit black and also cannot hit artifact creatures but prevents regeneration; `Cast Down` misses legendary creatures instead.
- Failure modes: Dead against black creatures; destroy effects may not stop recursion or death triggers.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Bring in versus nonblack creature decks; avoid versus black commander decks or spell-combo.

#### Run Away Together
- Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy; two-creature tempo bounce.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: Chooses two target creatures controlled by different players and returns them to their owners' hands, letting you bounce an opposing commander, Aura carrier, or lethal attacker plus one of your own creatures when that exchange is favorable.
- Timing: Bring in against aura stacks, commander tempo, and board states where resetting one opposing creature plus saving or reusing one of yours matters.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes `{1}{U}` and requires two target creatures controlled by different players; outputs both returned to owners' hands.
- Partners / packages: Your target can be a creature under removal, a creature with a useful recast role like `Basilica Screecher` or `Raven of Fell Omens`, or a creature whose Aura loss is acceptable.
- Role peers: `Snap` and `Snapback` bounce one target creature; `Retraction Helix` grants repeatable nonland permanent bounce for a turn.
- Failure modes: Cannot be cast without legal creatures controlled by different players; bouncing your Aura-stacked creature can lose attached `Freed from the Real`, `Eternal Thirst`, `Unexpected Fangs`, `Eel Umbra`, or `Blessing of Leeches`.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against Voltron and tempo races; weak against enter-the-battlefield value creatures.

## Interaction Priorities

- Remove board threats first when they shorten the clock faster than this deck can assemble `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, protection, and a mana engine. Use `Cast Down`, `Go for the Throat`, `Anoint with Affliction`, `Ghastly Demise`, `Defile`, and `Tragic Slip` on commanders, combo creatures, evasive pressure, repeatable value engines, and creatures that invalidate blocking; save conditional removal until target legality and graveyard or morbid conditions are visible.

- Counter spells first when they answer the protected engine, create a must-answer permanent, or force an unwinnable race. Spend `Counterspell`, `Arcane Denial`, `Mana Leak`, `Lofty Denial`, `Unwind`, `Spell Pierce`, `Dispel`, `Spell Stutter`, `Magic Damper`, or `Foil` on removal aimed at `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, sweepers or sacrifice effects that beat death shields, opposing combo commitments, and card-advantage engines that outscale one-for-one removal; Card text check required for exact `Magic Damper` and `Spell Stutter` coverage.

- Bounce threats when tempo matters more than permanent disposal. Use `Snap` or `Snapback` to clear a lethal attacker, undo a stacked aura/equipment turn, open a protected attack, or reset a commander when the opponent will lose tempo to recasting it; do not bounce a low-impact creature if the same mana must protect `Freed from the Real`, `Retraction Helix`, or a commander turn.

- Exile or cleanly answer recursion targets before ordinary bodies. Prioritize `Anoint with Affliction` or sideboard exile effects only on creatures that return, enable graveyard loops, carry decisive counters, or punish destroy effects; ignore small attackers if lifelink from `Unexpected Fangs` or a blocker can stabilize without spending scarce unconditional interaction.

- Discard decisions should preserve the current protected line. When `Foil`, `Frantic Search`, `Obsessive Search`, cleanup, or an opponent effect creates a legal discard choice, discard excess lands after colors are secured, redundant slow cantrips, or uncertain utility like `Bender's Waterskin` before `Counterspell`, `Dispel`, `Mizzium Skin`, `Shore Up`, `Undying Evil`, `Undying Malice`, `Feign Death`, `Not Dead After All`, or the only removal spell for a visible threat; Card text check required for `Obsessive Search` before treating it as discard-positive.

- Bait interaction with low-commitment spells before risking a stacked creature. Lead with `Opt`, `Consider`, `Reach Through Mists`, `Peek`, `Thought Scour`, or a mana rock when the opponent is representing permission; commit `Freed from the Real`, `Eternal Thirst`, `Unexpected Fangs`, `Octopus Form`, or `Retraction Helix` only after the stack is safer or protection is available.

- Ignore cards that do not change the clock, engine, or stack fight. Let cosmetic cantrips, small ground creatures, and nonlethal value permanents resolve when answering them would leave no mana for commander protection or a true combo stop; against aggressive decks, this threshold moves lower because every attacker can become a life-total problem.

## Combat And Trading Rules

- Attack only when the attacker is not needed as mana material, protection target, or essential blocker. `Basilica Screecher`, `Raven of Fell Omens`, `Disciple of the Vault`, `Naiad of Hidden Coves`, `Undercity Scrounger`, `Windrider Wizard`, `Geyser Drake`, `Drift of Phantasms`, and `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` each may matter as engine bodies or defensive resources, so check visible crack-back damage before taking chip damage.

- Preserve `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` over ordinary combat damage. Do not expose the commander to blocks, fight effects, or open mana unless `Mizzium Skin`, `Shore Up`, `Eel Umbra`, `Blessing of Leeches`, `Undying Evil`, `Undying Malice`, `Feign Death`, `Not Dead After All`, or countermagic can cover the visible punish; Card text check required for exact protection ranges.

- Trade creatures when the trade buys a full turn or converts with a shield. Accept trades with expendable bodies against fast pressure, but prefer death-conversion lines when `Undying Evil`, `Undying Malice`, `Feign Death`, `Not Dead After All`, or `Deadly Dispute` turns removal or combat into material; avoid sacrificing the only creature enabling `Springleaf Drum`, `Moonsnare Prototype`, or a pending aura plan.

- Block conservatively above 12 life and urgently below 8 life. At higher life totals, preserve creatures for mana, spell triggers, and protected setup; at low life, block even with useful bodies if a single untap step with removal, lifelink, or a draw spell can recover the game.

- Use combat tricks for measurable swings, not cosmetic cycling. `Shadow Rift`, `Leap`, `Aphotic Wisps`, `Cerulean Wisps`, `Fleeting Distraction`, `Unexpected Fangs`, and `Take the Fall` should change lethal math, save a key creature, enable an evasive hit, or win a race; if the visible combat result is unchanged, hold them for a later stack or combat window.

- Shift posture by archetype. Against aggro, trade early, spend removal before card selection, and value `Unexpected Fangs` highly; against control, avoid overcommitting auras and attack with protected incremental threats; against combo, combat is secondary unless it forces the opponent to act before they can protect their own decisive turn.

## Selection And Tutor Rules

- Sequence cheap selection before commitment when it can change the turn's land, protection, or counterspell posture. Cast `Opt`, `Consider`, `Brainstorm`, `Reach Through Mists`, `Thought Scour`, `Peek`, `Tune the Narrative`, `Whispers of the Muse`, or `Fleeting Distraction` before exposing `Freed from the Real`, `Retraction Helix`, `Eternal Thirst`, `Unexpected Fangs`, or `Octopus Form` unless waiting preserves needed instant-speed interaction; Card text check required for exact `Tune the Narrative` and `Whispers of the Muse` modes before assuming extra draw or repeat use.

- Make the land drop after selection when the hand has multiple land choices or is missing a color. Use one-mana filtering first if it can find `Island` for `Counterspell`, `Arcane Denial`, `Mana Leak`, `Lofty Denial`, or blue protection, or `Swamp` for `Cast Down`, `Go for the Throat`, `Defile`, `Tragic Slip`, `Anoint with Affliction`, `Undying Evil`, `Undying Malice`, `Feign Death`, and `Not Dead After All`; make the land drop first only when the selected spell itself requires that mana.

- Treat `Dizzy Spell`, `Perplex`, and `Drift of Phantasms` as tutor-like only when the rules engine exposes a legal transmute or search action. Use `Dizzy Spell` to find a missing cheap setup, protection, or interaction piece when the hand already has mana; use `Perplex` or `Drift of Phantasms` to find a decisive three-mana engine, answer, or stabilizer such as `Freed from the Real`, `Retraction Helix`, `Eternal Thirst`, `Unwind`, or `Geyser Drake` only after comparing the visible board clock and the value of holding the card as an actual spell.

- Bottom or mill low-impact cards according to the immediate bottleneck. With `Opt`, `Consider`, or `Thought Scour`, prioritize missing lands through turn three, then protection for `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, then interaction for visible threats; bottom redundant tapped lands, slow auras without a protected creature, or narrow counters when the opponent is attacking on board.

- Use `Brainstorm` as a setup tool, not automatic velocity. Cast it when you need to hide cards from discard, fix a land-light hand, or pair with a visible shuffle/search decision from transmute or another legal library action; avoid locking two weak cards on top when no shuffle, mill, or draw-through action is visible.

- Use `Frantic Search` when untapping lands changes the same turn. Prefer it when it can dig while preserving `Counterspell`, `Dispel`, `Mizzium Skin`, `Shore Up`, or a removal spell, or when discarding excess lands and uncertain cards improves the protected engine turn; do not discard the only creature, only protection spell, or only black source unless the legal line immediately replaces that function.

- Use cantrip combat tricks only when the target choice changes a real outcome. `Shadow Rift`, `Leap`, `Cerulean Wisps`, `Aphotic Wisps`, and `Fleeting Distraction` should draw or filter while enabling an attack, saving a blocker, triggering relevant visible text, or forcing damage through; if the target is merely available and the board does not change, hold the spell for a more informative window.

## Priority And Stack Rules

- Pass priority by default only when the stack and board do not threaten the protected plan. Hold mana for `Counterspell`, `Arcane Denial`, `Mana Leak`, `Lofty Denial`, `Unwind`, `Spell Pierce`, `Dispel`, `Magic Damper`, `Foil`, `Mizzium Skin`, `Shore Up`, `Eel Umbra`, `Undying Evil`, `Undying Malice`, `Feign Death`, and `Not Dead After All` when `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` or a stacked aura/engine creature is exposed; Card text check required for exact `Magic Damper` coverage.

- Fight on the stack over cards that beat the deck's current role. Counter removal aimed at `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, effects that remove a protected engine through ordinary death shields, opposing combo commitments, must-answer commanders, and card-advantage engines that will bury one-for-one play; let small creatures, harmless cantrips, and nonlethal setup resolve when spending a counter would leave no answer to the next decisive spell.

- Use protection after the opponent commits a target, not before. Respond to targeted removal or combat damage with `Mizzium Skin`, `Shore Up`, `Eel Umbra`, `Blessing of Leeches`, `Undying Evil`, `Undying Malice`, `Feign Death`, or `Not Dead After All` only when the legal target and outcome matter; Card text check required for exact protection ranges, regeneration limits, and death-return timing.

- Cast instant removal in the latest safe window. Use `Cast Down`, `Go for the Throat`, `Defile`, `Tragic Slip`, `Ghastly Demise`, or `Anoint with Affliction` before combat damage when a creature will deal lethal or invalidate blocks, during end step when tapping low is safer, or in response to an aura/equipment/activation when the target is visible and legal.

- Use `Snap`, `Snapback`, and `Run Away Together`-style effects only when tempo or stack interaction is worth the card. Bounce a creature to stop lethal, break a multi-card commitment, clear a blocker for a decisive attack, or protect your own key permanent from worse removal; avoid bouncing low-impact creatures that the opponent can replay while you lose a counterspell window.

- Treat optional payments and triggered choices as resource decisions. Pay for visible optional value only when it does not consume mana needed for counters, protection, removal, commander recast, or a known tax; decline optional triggers or payments that merely add small value while exposing the engine to the next stack fight.

- Use graveyard timing deliberately. Fire `Cremate` or graveyard-interacting choices only when a visible card is about to be reused, counted, targeted, or reanimated; otherwise preserve the card for a window where the rules engine exposes the opponent's target or the graveyard dependency is public.

- Commit `Freed from the Real`, `Retraction Helix`, `Eternal Thirst`, `Unexpected Fangs`, or `Octopus Form` only through a protected window. Prefer casting these when the opponent is tapped low, after baiting a counter with selection, or with a legal response available; do not tap out into open interaction unless waiting loses to the visible board or misses a decisive legal engine line.

## Sideboard Map

Use sideboarding to tune the interaction band while preserving the core Dimir command-zone plan: cheap blue protection, black creature control, selection, and a protected `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` or creature-engine finish. Exact plans below are executable baselines; adapt only when Veles exposes legal sideboard choices and the revealed opponent strategy makes the role change clear.

Creature-pressure baseline
Side in: Deathgreeter; Spinning Darkness; Utter Insignificance; Essence Scatter; Peppersmoke; Doom Blade
Cut: Peek; Obsessive Search; Whispers of the Muse; Take the Fall; Magic Damper; Bender's Waterskin

Stack-and-combo baseline
Side in: Cremate; Negate; Resculpt; Run Away Together; Essence Scatter
Cut: Eternal Thirst; Unexpected Fangs; Octopus Form; Fleeting Distraction; Take the Fall

Graveyard-recursion baseline
Side in: Cremate; Spinning Darkness; Utter Insignificance; Resculpt
Cut: Peek; Whispers of the Muse; Bender's Waterskin; Take the Fall

Artifact-or-big-permanent baseline
Side in: Resculpt; Negate; Run Away Together; Utter Insignificance
Cut: Defile; Tragic Slip; Ghastly Demise; Fleeting Distraction

- `Deathgreeter`: Add against creature-heavy decks, sacrifice decks, token decks, and attrition mirrors where creatures reliably die on either side. Its role is life-buffer and board-speed stabilizer, especially when the main plan needs time to hold `Counterspell`, `Arcane Denial`, `Mana Leak`, `Dispel`, or protection for `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`. It is bad against spell-combo, control with few creatures, and decks that ignore life totals until one decisive stack turn. Its role changes from stabilizer to low-priority body when the opponent has exile-heavy removal or when spending a card on life gain delays a necessary answer.

- `Spinning Darkness`: Add against aggressive black-legal creature pressure when graveyard resources are naturally stocked by `Consider`, `Thought Scour`, `Frantic Search`, trades, and removal. Its role is emergency tempo removal plus life swing when mana is tight or held for counters. It is bad when the graveyard must be preserved for other visible plans, when the target set is poor, or when the opponent presents mostly black creatures or noncreature threats; Card text check required for exact targeting restrictions and alternate cost. Against burn-style pressure, value the life swing higher; against midrange, use it only on creatures that matter to the next combat step.

- `Utter Insignificance`: Add against commanders, single large attackers, indestructible or death-trigger creatures, and permanent-based threats that ordinary destroy removal handles poorly. Its role is broad creature answer that can shrink or neutralize a visible problem while buying time for the control plan. It is bad against go-wide pressure, low-value utility creatures, and opponents where keeping instant-speed stack mana is more important than sorcery-speed containment; Card text check required for exact duration, type changes, and commander-zone implications. Against Voltron-style boards, treat it as a high-value answer if the legal target carries multiple visible enhancements.

- `Resculpt`: Add against artifacts, large creatures, resilient commanders, and graveyard-recursion targets when exile is more valuable than a clean battlefield exchange. Its role is flexible exile interaction that can answer a permanent class the main deck may struggle to remove. It is bad when the token or compensation body creates lethal pressure, when the target is a small creature already answered by `Cast Down`, `Doom Blade`, `Go for the Throat`, `Defile`, or `Tragic Slip`, or when the opponent can exploit the new body. Against combo permanents, prefer `Resculpt` over damage-style removal if the legal target is the engine piece and the resulting board remains survivable.

- `Essence Scatter`: Add against creature-commanders, creature-combo, ramp creatures, and decks whose decisive threats must resolve as creatures. Its role is clean stack denial that protects the deck from battlefield problems before they demand removal. It is bad against spell-heavy control, artifact engines, and opponents whose key plays are noncreature spells. Against creature pressure, it raises the value of keeping two untapped mana; against creature-light combo, keep it only when public information shows a commander or specific creature is central.

- `Cremate`: Add against graveyard recursion, reanimation, flashback-like lines, delve or threshold-style resource use, death-trigger loops, and public graveyard targets. Its role is precise graveyard interruption with card replacement when the engine exposes a target or dependency. It is bad when no graveyard card is currently relevant, when the opponent does not rely on graveyard resources, or when spending black mana blocks removal needed for the board. Use it reactively when a target is visible on the stack or in a legal prompt; do not fire it merely to cycle unless mana would otherwise be unused and the hand lacks action.

- `Peppersmoke`: Add against one-toughness creatures, Faerie-like boards, small commanders, mana creatures, and combat states where one point changes blocks. Its role is cheap tactical removal or combat modifier with possible card flow; Card text check required for the exact draw condition. It is bad against large creatures, empty boards, and decks where every removal spell must answer a high-toughness threat. In creature mirrors, treat it as a tempo card that lets `Basilica Screecher`, `Raven of Fell Omens`, `Windrider Wizard`, or another small creature trade up only when the legal target and combat math are visible.

- `Negate`: Add against control, combo, removal-heavy decks, artifact or enchantment engines, board wipes, and noncreature spells that break the protected engine. Its role is stack protection for `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, aura commitments such as `Freed from the Real`, `Eternal Thirst`, `Unexpected Fangs`, and key turns involving `Retraction Helix`. It is bad against low-curve creature decks where threats are mostly creatures and the game is decided by combat. In stack mirrors, prioritize `Negate` for opposing counters, removal aimed at a committed engine, or noncreature payoff spells rather than cantrips.

- `Doom Blade`: Add against nonblack creature pressure and commanders where an extra efficient destroy effect improves survival. Its role is redundant creature removal alongside `Cast Down`, `Go for the Throat`, `Defile`, `Tragic Slip`, `Ghastly Demise`, and `Anoint with Affliction`. It is bad against black creature decks, artifact-heavy creature suites if `Go for the Throat` coverage is already strained, and spell-combo decks with few targets; Card text check required for exact targeting restriction. Against creature-heavy decks, value `Doom Blade` higher than narrow cantrips when the opening hand already has selection.

- `Run Away Together`: Add against aura stacks, commander tempo decks, token-plus-real-threat boards, and situations where bouncing one opposing creature plus one of your own creatures protects material or breaks a combat step. Its role is tempo interaction, protection, and multi-permanent reset when the targets are legal and the exchange favors the next turn cycle. It is bad against enter-the-battlefield value decks, boards where returning your own creature loses an aura or engine, and opponents with cheap redeployments. Treat it as a light-model card unless the legal action text makes both targets deterministic and beneficial from visible state.

- Archetype rule: Against fast creature decks, add role cards: `Deathgreeter`; `Spinning Darkness`; `Peppersmoke`; `Doom Blade`; `Essence Scatter`; `Utter Insignificance`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow card draw, narrow information spells, and aura commitments that do not immediately stabilize.

- Archetype rule: Against control and spell-combo, add role cards: `Negate`; `Cremate` when graveyards matter; `Resculpt` when public permanents matter; `Run Away Together` only for commander or aura-tempo leverage. Reduce main-deck emphasis: creature-only removal with poor target density and combat-only tricks.

- Archetype rule: Against graveyard decks, add role cards: `Cremate`; `Spinning Darkness`; `Utter Insignificance`; `Resculpt`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow engines that do not interact before the opponent’s graveyard turn, especially when the visible clock or public graveyard count is already high.

- Archetype rule: Against artifact or permanent engines, add role cards: `Resculpt`; `Negate`; `Run Away Together`; `Utter Insignificance`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: black removal that cannot legally target the permanent class the opponent is presenting.

## Matchup Guidance

- Aggro: Prioritize survival turns over engine elegance; keep hands with early black removal, cheap blockers, or lifegain access before hands built only around cantrips and protection. `Defile`, `Tragic Slip`, `Cast Down`, `Go for the Throat`, `Ghastly Demise`, `Anoint with Affliction`, and `Snap` should trade for the first threat that converts multiple combat steps into lethal pressure. Add role cards: `Deathgreeter`; `Spinning Darkness`; `Peppersmoke`; `Doom Blade`; `Essence Scatter`; `Utter Insignificance`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow draw loops, narrow information spells, and aura commitments such as `Freed from the Real`, `Eternal Thirst`, or `Octopus Form` unless the board is already stable or the aura immediately changes the race.

- Control: Force the opponent to answer compact threats while preserving stack leverage for the turn that matters. `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Basilica Screecher`, `Raven of Fell Omens`, `Windrider Wizard`, and `Naiad of Hidden Coves` are valuable because they make normal cantrip turns matter without overcommitting. Hold `Dispel`, `Spell Pierce`, `Counterspell`, `Mana Leak`, `Arcane Denial`, `Foil`, `Lofty Denial`, `Unwind`, and `Negate` for opposing counters, removal aimed at a committed engine, or card-advantage plays that break parity. Add role cards: `Negate`; `Resculpt` when a resolved permanent matters; `Cremate` only if public graveyards matter. Reduce main-deck emphasis: creature-only removal when target density is low.

- Combo: Identify the opponent’s required object, zone, or stack window before spending interaction on setup pieces. Counter decisive spells with `Counterspell`, `Mana Leak`, `Arcane Denial`, `Spell Pierce`, `Dispel`, `Foil`, `Lofty Denial`, `Unwind`, or `Negate`; remove creature engines only when they are visible legal targets and the next turn cycle is survivable. Use `Peek`, `Opt`, `Consider`, `Brainstorm`, `Thought Scour`, `Frantic Search`, `Reach Through Mists`, `Tune the Narrative`, `Whispers of the Muse`, and `Obsessive Search` to find the relevant answer rather than to maximize raw card flow. Add role cards: `Negate`; `Essence Scatter` for creature-combo; `Cremate` for graveyard-combo; `Resculpt` for permanent-combo. Reduce main-deck emphasis: combat tricks and removal that cannot hit the presented engine.

- Tempo: Do not let the opponent convert a small threat plus soft permission into a locked race; spend mana efficiently and avoid walking auras into open interaction. `Snap`, `Snapback`, `Run Away Together`, `Shore Up`, `Mizzium Skin`, `Eel Umbra`, `Not Dead After All`, `Feign Death`, `Undying Evil`, and `Undying Malice` can turn their tempo exchange around only when the legal target and stack context are visible. Use `Spell Pierce`, `Mana Leak`, and `Lofty Denial` early while they still constrain mana. Add role cards: `Run Away Together`; `Peppersmoke`; `Doom Blade`; `Essence Scatter`; `Negate` if their tempo shell is spell-heavy. Reduce main-deck emphasis: expensive or sorcery-speed lines that do not affect the next combat.

- Midrange: Trade one-for-one early, then win by making every draw step and commander recast more effective than the opponent’s creature chain. `Deadly Dispute`, `Frantic Search`, `Whispers of the Muse`, `Windrider Wizard`, `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, and recursive protection effects help recover from attrition, but do not sacrifice board material if it exposes life total or commander access. `Unexpected Fangs`, `Eternal Thirst`, `Blessing of Leeches`, and `Eel Umbra` matter when they convert a surviving creature into a stabilizing threat; Card text check required for exact aura or regeneration details on `Blessing of Leeches`. Add role cards: `Doom Blade`; `Spinning Darkness`; `Utter Insignificance`; `Resculpt` for resilient threats. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow counters after the opponent has already resolved the board.

- Big mana: Attack the payoff turn, not the mana count, unless a visible mana permanent is the only bottleneck. Hold hard counters for large threats, commander recasts, and noncreature engines; use `Resculpt` only when exiling a resolved artifact or creature is worth the replacement body. `Perplex`, `Dizzy Spell`, and `Drift of Phantasms` can support a selected line only after checking exact legal modes and tutor/transmute text; Card text check required for exact transmute costs and eligible cards. Add role cards: `Negate`; `Essence Scatter`; `Resculpt`; `Utter Insignificance` for single large threats. Reduce main-deck emphasis: tiny creature interaction that does not answer payoff permanents.

- Graveyard: Treat public graveyards as an active resource, not a passive discard pile. `Cremate` should answer a visible target, recursion dependency, or stack-linked graveyard action before it becomes material advantage; do not spend it just to replace itself when a known graveyard window is likely. `Ghastly Demise`, `Spinning Darkness`, `Terror`, and `Thought Scour` require text-aware use because graveyard count, target restrictions, or self-mill can change value; Card text check required for exact restrictions if Forge presents unusual prompts. Add role cards: `Cremate`; `Spinning Darkness`; `Utter Insignificance`; `Resculpt`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: self-mill or discard lines that strengthen the opponent’s visible graveyard plan without immediate payoff.

- Artifact/enchantment: Use stack interaction for noncreature engines and exile/bounce for resolved permanents that black removal cannot touch. `Resculpt` is the cleanest sideboard answer to many permanent classes if the resulting token does not create lethal pressure. `Negate`, `Spell Pierce`, `Counterspell`, `Mana Leak`, and `Arcane Denial` should cover the turn an engine is cast, while `Run Away Together` is mostly for creature-attached or aura-tempo states with legal targets. Add role cards: `Resculpt`; `Negate`; `Run Away Together`; `Utter Insignificance`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Doom Blade`-style creature removal when the important objects are not creatures.

- Go-wide: Preserve life total and block quality before chasing a fragile combo setup. One-for-one removal should hit lords, sacrifice outlets, token engines, or attackers that make blocks fail; do not spend premium removal on a low-impact body if the visible board has a better pressure source. `Basilica Screecher`, `Raven of Fell Omens`, `Geyser Drake`, `Melancholic Poet`, and protected commander bodies can buy time, but only attack when the crackback is acceptable. Add role cards: `Deathgreeter`; `Peppersmoke`; `Spinning Darkness`; `Doom Blade`; `Run Away Together`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: single-target aura upgrades that leave too few blockers.

- Single-threat: Answer the threat cleanly, then protect the answer from stack or recursion pressure. `Cast Down`, `Go for the Throat`, `Defile`, `Tragic Slip`, `Doom Blade`, `Utter Insignificance`, `Resculpt`, `Snap`, and `Snapback` should be evaluated by target legality, commander-zone consequences, and whether the opponent can redeploy immediately. Add role cards: `Utter Insignificance`; `Resculpt`; `Doom Blade`; `Essence Scatter`; `Run Away Together`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: sweep-free chip damage plans that cannot race one enhanced attacker.

- Burn: Treat life total as the central resource and avoid unnecessary pain, taps, or shields-down turns. `Unexpected Fangs`, `Eternal Thirst`, `Deathgreeter`, and removal on haste or repeat-damage creatures can swing the race, while `Dispel`, `Spell Pierce`, `Counterspell`, `Mana Leak`, `Arcane Denial`, and `Negate` should be saved for lethal or high-damage spells when visible. Add role cards: `Deathgreeter`; `Spinning Darkness`; `Negate`; `Peppersmoke`; `Doom Blade` when creatures are part of the burn plan. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow cantrips and life-neutral setup when already under a short clock.

- Removal-heavy: Do not commit `Freed from the Real`, `Eternal Thirst`, `Unexpected Fangs`, `Octopus Form`, or `Retraction Helix` into open mana unless protection, recursion, or a decisive payoff is ready. `Shore Up`, `Mizzium Skin`, `Eel Umbra`, `Blessing of Leeches`, `Feign Death`, `Not Dead After All`, `Undying Evil`, and `Undying Malice` are strongest when they counter a visible removal exchange while keeping the creature relevant. Add role cards: `Negate`; `Run Away Together`; `Resculpt` for exile-resistant threats; `Cremate` if removal is paired with graveyard recursion. Reduce main-deck emphasis: low-impact creatures that die without generating cards, mana, or pressure.

## Specific Matchup Notes

- General/archetype-only: Treat these notes as matchup assumptions until Veles exposes revealed cards, commander identity, board texture, and legal actions; revealed cards override every archetype label. Prioritize actions that preserve functional blue-black mana, commander access to `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, and stack interaction before spending setup cards on a speculative line.

- Fast creature pressure: Stabilize first, then turn the corner with protected evasive or lifelink pressure. Priority targets are haste threats, sacrifice outlets, lords, repeat attackers, and creatures that make blocks fail. Add role cards: `Deathgreeter`; `Peppersmoke`; `Spinning Darkness`; `Doom Blade`; `Run Away Together`; `Essence Scatter`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow selection chains and aura commitments that leave no blocker or protection.

- Spell-heavy tempo/control: Fight over the spell that breaks the exchange, not every cantrip. Keep `Dispel`, `Spell Pierce`, `Mana Leak`, `Counterspell`, `Arcane Denial`, `Unwind`, `Foil`, `Lofty Denial`, and `Negate` for removal aimed at a committed threat, opposing counters over `Freed from the Real`, or a payoff that changes the clock. Add role cards: `Negate`; `Run Away Together` when creature tempo matters; `Resculpt` for resolved artifact or creature engines. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow creature removal when the opponent is winning on stack leverage.

- Removal-heavy midrange: Do not expose `Freed from the Real`, `Eternal Thirst`, `Unexpected Fangs`, `Octopus Form`, or `Retraction Helix` until protection or recursion is visible and mana is available. Use `Shore Up`, `Mizzium Skin`, `Eel Umbra`, `Blessing of Leeches`, `Feign Death`, `Not Dead After All`, `Undying Evil`, and `Undying Malice` only when the rules engine presents a legal protective exchange; Card text check required for exact regeneration or shield behavior on `Blessing of Leeches`. Add role cards: `Negate`; `Run Away Together`; `Utter Insignificance`; `Doom Blade` if creature threats remain central.

- Graveyard or recursion decks: Preserve graveyard interaction for a visible card or stack-linked graveyard action. `Cremate` should answer the card that matters, not cycle blindly. `Ghastly Demise`, `Spinning Darkness`, `Terror`, and `Thought Scour` need text-aware checks because graveyard counts, exile costs, and target restrictions can alter legality. Add role cards: `Cremate`; `Spinning Darkness`; `Utter Insignificance`; `Resculpt`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: self-mill or discard lines that improve the opponent’s public graveyard before you gain a concrete payoff.

- Big mana or single-threat decks: Hold hard counters and exile-style answers for the payoff turn. Priority targets are commanders, large creatures, artifact engines, and noncreature engines that invalidate one-for-one removal. `Cast Down`, `Go for the Throat`, `Defile`, `Tragic Slip`, `Anoint with Affliction`, `Snap`, and `Snapback` should be chosen by visible target legality and whether the opponent can immediately redeploy. Add role cards: `Essence Scatter`; `Negate`; `Resculpt`; `Utter Insignificance`; `Doom Blade` if legal threats are black-safe.

## Risk Summary

- Mana risk: The deck is color-hungry and tempo-sensitive, so hands without early blue plus black access can strand counters, removal, or commander protection. `Arcane Signet`, `Dimir Signet`, `Fellwar Stone`, `Springleaf Drum`, `Moonsnare Prototype`, `Command Tower`, `Ice Tunnel`, `Contaminated Aquifer`, `Waterfront District`, `Sinister Hideout`, `Serpent's Pass`, and `Murky Sewer` should be sequenced around tapped-land tempo and exact legal mana prompts.

- Matchup risk: The list can draw the wrong half when pressure and stack fights arrive together. Creature-heavy opponents punish slow cantrips, while spell-heavy opponents punish spending `Counterspell`, `Dispel`, or `Negate` on low-impact threats.

- Draw risk: `Brainstorm`, `Opt`, `Consider`, `Peek`, `Reach Through Mists`, `Whispers of the Muse`, `Frantic Search`, `Tune the Narrative`, `Obsessive Search`, and `Thought Scour` can smooth awkward hands, but they do not replace a missing answer when lethal pressure is already visible.

- Over-sideboarding risk: Adding too many reactive sideboard cards can dilute the protected-threat and combo-control plan. Keep enough creatures, commander support, selection, and mana artifacts to make `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Freed from the Real`, and backup pressure lines functional.

- Graveyard risk: Self-mill, discard, and death-trigger lines can empower opposing recursion if no immediate payoff exists. Check public graveyards before `Thought Scour`, `Deadly Dispute`, sacrifice choices, or graveyard-cost actions.

- Sweeper/removal risk: Aura and creature-attachment plans lose heavily to timed removal. Commit `Unexpected Fangs`, `Eternal Thirst`, `Octopus Form`, `Freed from the Real`, or `Retraction Helix` only when the payoff, protection, or necessity justifies the exposure.

- Closer risk: The deck may stabilize without ending the game quickly. Convert safe windows into commander damage, evasive pressure, lifelink racing, or a protected engine before opponents rebuild.

- Interaction risk: Soft counters decay as the game goes long. Use `Spell Pierce`, `Mana Leak`, and `Lofty Denial` before opponents can pay, while preserving `Counterspell`, `Dispel`, `Unwind`, `Foil`, and `Negate` for decisive stack fights.

- Sequencing risk: Tapping out for selection before land drops, protection, or known threat windows can lose the critical exchange. Prefer legal sequences that leave the mana type needed for the next visible counter, protection spell, removal spell, or sideboard answer.

## Test Feedback Checklist

- Deciding factor: Identify the exact turn and exchange that decided the game, naming the visible cards involved, such as `Counterspell` protecting `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Go for the Throat` stopping a threat, or `Freed from the Real` becoming a committed engine.

- Mulligans: Record whether the opener had blue mana, black mana, a playable early spell, and either interaction or selection; flag hands where `Island`, `Swamp`, `Command Tower`, `Ice Tunnel`, `Contaminated Aquifer`, or a mana rock failed to support the first three turns.

- Mana: Note every turn where `Arcane Signet`, `Dimir Signet`, `Fellwar Stone`, `Springleaf Drum`, or `Moonsnare Prototype` changed the line, and every turn where tapped lands, missing black, or missing blue stranded `Counterspell`, `Defile`, `Mana Leak`, `Dispel`, or protection.

- Velocity: Check whether `Brainstorm`, `Opt`, `Consider`, `Peek`, `Reach Through Mists`, `Whispers of the Muse`, `Frantic Search`, `Tune the Narrative`, `Obsessive Search`, or `Thought Scour` found action in time, or merely spent mana while the opponent advanced pressure.

- Engine commitment: Ask whether `Freed from the Real`, `Retraction Helix`, `Eternal Thirst`, `Unexpected Fangs`, or `Octopus Form` was committed with protection, urgency, or a clear payoff, and record when waiting would have preserved material.

- Removal quality: Track whether `Cast Down`, `Go for the Throat`, `Terror`, `Defile`, `Tragic Slip`, `Ghastly Demise`, `Anoint with Affliction`, `Snap`, or `Snapback` answered the threat that mattered, or whether target restrictions and timing made them awkward.

- Protection quality: Record whether `Shore Up`, `Mizzium Skin`, `Eel Umbra`, `Blessing of Leeches`, `Feign Death`, `Not Dead After All`, `Undying Evil`, and `Undying Malice` protected a relevant creature, sat stranded, or forced a poor mana posture.

- Sideboard impact: For each match, note which of `Deathgreeter`, `Spinning Darkness`, `Utter Insignificance`, `Resculpt`, `Essence Scatter`, `Cremate`, `Peppersmoke`, `Negate`, `Doom Blade`, and `Run Away Together` would have changed a lost exchange if drawn and legal.

- Closing: Record whether the deck converted stabilization into commander pressure, evasive damage, lifelink racing, or protected engine advantage; flag games where `Voracious Tome-Skimmer`, `Basilica Screecher`, `Raven of Fell Omens`, `Geyser Drake`, or `Windrider Wizard` failed to close.

- Role accuracy: Ask whether the pilot correctly chose control, tempo, or combo posture from visible board state, and identify any turn where the deck defended too long, attacked too early, or spent interaction on a low-impact spell.

- Mistakes: Log all illegal-action rejections, stale-action submissions, missed land-drop sequencing, poor priority passes, weak target choices, and stack fights where a cheaper answer should have been used first.

- Stranded cards: Name cards stuck in hand for two or more turns and why, especially `Foil`, `Unwind`, `Perplex`, `Dizzy Spell`, `Drift of Phantasms`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Disciple of the Vault`, `Bender's Waterskin`, or narrow removal.

- Overperformers and underperformers: Mark every card that created a decisive advantage or failed in its assigned role, separating card strength from matchup texture, mana availability, and visible legal targets.

## First Tuning Questions

- Mana base: Is the `15 Island` and `11 Swamp` split correct after logs show early color failures, or should the deck adjust basic counts and tapland density around `Counterspell`, `Defile`, `Tragic Slip`, and commander protection?

- Mana artifacts: Did `Arcane Signet`, `Dimir Signet`, `Fellwar Stone`, `Springleaf Drum`, and `Moonsnare Prototype` accelerate meaningful turns, or did some artifacts fail without enough creatures or follow-up spells?

- Commander plan: Did `Voracious Tome-Skimmer` function as a reliable centerpiece, or did commander tax, removal, and tempo pressure require more protection, more cheap interaction, or a lower-commitment backup plan?

- Engine density: Did `Freed from the Real`, `Retraction Helix`, `Eternal Thirst`, `Unexpected Fangs`, and `Octopus Form` win games when supported, or did aura-style exposure create too many two-for-one losses?

- Counter suite: Are `Spell Pierce`, `Mana Leak`, `Lofty Denial`, `Dispel`, `Arcane Denial`, `Counterspell`, `Unwind`, `Foil`, `Spell Stutter`, and `Magic Damper` the right spread, or are soft counters decaying before decisive turns?

- Removal suite: Which target restrictions mattered most among `Go for the Throat`, `Cast Down`, `Terror`, `Doom Blade`, `Ghastly Demise`, `Anoint with Affliction`, `Defile`, and `Tragic Slip`, and does the sideboard need broader answers like `Resculpt` or `Utter Insignificance` more often?

- Velocity package: Did the one-mana selection suite improve keep quality enough, or should low-impact cantrips be rebalanced against additional threats, protection, or interaction?

- Sacrifice/value package: Did `Deadly Dispute`, `Disciple of the Vault`, `Melancholic Poet`, `Undercity Scrounger`, and death-protection spells form a coherent plan, or did they appear as disconnected pieces?

- Aggro plan: Are `Deathgreeter`, `Peppersmoke`, `Spinning Darkness`, `Doom Blade`, and `Run Away Together` enough after sideboarding, or does the deck need more main-deck early stabilization?

- Control plan: Are `Negate`, `Dispel`, `Spell Pierce`, and `Counterspell` sufficient against spell-heavy opponents, or does the deck need more threats that punish opponents for passing with mana open?

- Closer package: Did games end through protected commander damage, evasive creatures, or lifelink pressure, or does the list need a clearer finishing package that does not rely on one exposed permanent?

- Role conflict: Are creature-light control hands weakening `Springleaf Drum`, `Moonsnare Prototype`, `Lofty Denial`, and aura plans, while creature-heavy hands weaken counterspell posture?

- Sideboard slots: Which sideboard card was never wanted across test matches, and which repeated loss pattern most clearly asks for another graveyard, creature, stack, bounce, or exile-effect slot?

## Veles Tactical Policy

### Policy: Pregame Keep Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: mulligan; pregame
Cards: Voracious Tome-Skimmer; Island; Swamp; Command Tower; Ice Tunnel; Contaminated Aquifer; Arcane Signet; Dimir Signet; Fellwar Stone; Springleaf Drum; Moonsnare Prototype
Phase windows: opening hand; mulligan decisions
Runtime cues: prompt:mulligan; action:keep; action:mulligan
Use when: opening hand and visible commander identity are available.
Avoid when: rules engine reports a forced keep or no mulligan choice.
Instructions: Keep only hands with usable mana for the first two turns and either cheap selection, interaction, or an accelerator; ship hands that cannot cast blue or black spells before turn three unless the hand has a legal artifact-mana route and early selection.
Pilot skill floor: light-model.
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Early Setup Permanent
Priority: Medium
Decision families: mana; priority
Cards: Arcane Signet; Dimir Signet; Fellwar Stone; Springleaf Drum; Moonsnare Prototype; Naiad of Hidden Coves; Basilica Screecher; Raven of Fell Omens; Windrider Wizard
Phase windows: turns 1-4 main phases
Runtime cues: action:cast; action:play
Use when: the turn has a legal development action and no immediate survival or stack obligation.
Avoid when: holding up Counterspell, Dispel, Spell Pierce, Mana Leak, or removal is needed against a visible threat or decisive spell.
Instructions: Develop mana artifacts before fragile aura engines, prefer a cheap creature when Springleaf Drum or Moonsnare Prototype needs a body, and leave interaction mana open once the opponent can present a commander, combo piece, or lethal pressure.
Pilot skill floor: light-model.
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Commander Commitment Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: priority; interaction; mana
Cards: Voracious Tome-Skimmer; Shore Up; Mizzium Skin; Eel Umbra; Blessing of Leeches; Feign Death; Not Dead After All; Undying Evil; Undying Malice; Counterspell; Dispel
Phase windows: main phases; opponent end step if flash timing exists
Runtime cues: action:cast Voracious Tome-Skimmer; action:cast commander
Use when: commander casting is legal and the pilot must decide whether to expose the centerpiece.
Avoid when: commander text is unresolved; Card text check required for exact combat or engine payoff.
Instructions: Cast Voracious Tome-Skimmer when mana supports protection or the opponent is constrained; delay when visible untapped mana and prior revealed interaction make a clean answer likely and the current board does not demand a blocker or clock.
Pilot skill floor: light-model.
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Aura Engine Commitment Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: priority; interaction; mana
Cards: Freed from the Real; Eternal Thirst; Unexpected Fangs; Octopus Form; Eel Umbra; Blessing of Leeches; Shore Up; Mizzium Skin; Retraction Helix
Phase windows: main phases; combat setup
Runtime cues: action:cast Freed from the Real; action:cast Eternal Thirst; action:cast Unexpected Fangs; action:cast Octopus Form; action:cast Retraction Helix
Use when: an aura or self-targeting engine spell is legal and the target creature is visible.
Avoid when: the target is summoning-sick for the intended tap ability, lacks protection against visible interaction, or the board requires immediate removal instead.
Instructions: Commit aura-style pieces only when the target survives common visible answers, the payoff starts this turn or changes the race, and losing the creature does not collapse all remaining resources.
Pilot skill floor: light-model.
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Deterministic Self-Protection Target
Priority: Medium
Decision families: interaction
Cards: Shore Up; Mizzium Skin; Eel Umbra; Blessing of Leeches; Feign Death; Not Dead After All; Undying Evil; Undying Malice
Phase windows: any priority window; combat damage prevention windows
Runtime cues: action:target self Shore Up; action:target self Mizzium Skin; action:target self Eel Umbra; action:target self Blessing of Leeches; action:target self Feign Death; action:target self Not Dead After All; action:target self Undying Evil; action:target self Undying Malice
Use when: exactly one legal target is controlled by self and the selected spell is already on the stack or being cast.
Avoid when: two or more self-controlled legal targets are available.
Instructions: Choose the sole self-controlled legal target named by the engine after the protection line has already been selected.
Pilot skill floor: no-api.
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Removal Target Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: interaction; priority
Cards: Go for the Throat; Cast Down; Terror; Defile; Tragic Slip; Ghastly Demise; Anoint with Affliction; Snap; Snapback; Spinning Darkness; Doom Blade; Peppersmoke; Utter Insignificance; Resculpt; Run Away Together
Phase windows: opponent main phase; combat; end step; stack response windows
Runtime cues: action:cast Go for the Throat; action:cast Cast Down; action:cast Terror; action:cast Defile; action:cast Tragic Slip; action:cast Ghastly Demise; action:cast Anoint with Affliction
Use when: removal is legal and at least one opposing permanent or creature is visible.
Avoid when: the only visible target is low impact and the opponent threatens a stronger commander, combo piece, lethal attacker, or protection exchange.
Instructions: Save hard removal for commanders, combo enablers, lethal attackers, and creatures invalidating the race; use bounce or shrink effects when tempo is enough and preserve exile or unrestricted answers for targets with recursion or death value.
Pilot skill floor: light-model.
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Counterspell Commitment Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: interaction; priority
Cards: Counterspell; Arcane Denial; Mana Leak; Spell Pierce; Dispel; Unwind; Foil; Lofty Denial; Spell Stutter; Magic Damper; Negate; Essence Scatter
Phase windows: stack response windows
Runtime cues: action:cast Counterspell; action:cast Arcane Denial; action:cast Mana Leak; action:cast Spell Pierce; action:cast Dispel; action:cast Unwind; action:cast Foil; action:cast Negate; action:cast Essence Scatter
Use when: the opponent has a spell or ability on the stack and permission is legal.
Avoid when: the spell is nondecisive, soft counters are already dead to visible mana, or countering exposes the pilot to a known stronger follow-up.
Instructions: Counter spells that kill Voracious Tome-Skimmer, break the engine, create lethal pressure, resolve a commander-scale threat, or stop the pilot from untapping with control; conserve narrow permission when cheaper removal or bounce answers the same visible object.
Pilot skill floor: light-model.
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Cantrip And Draw Sequencing
Priority: Medium
Decision families: selection; mana; priority
Cards: Brainstorm; Opt; Consider; Peek; Reach Through Mists; Whispers of the Muse; Frantic Search; Tune the Narrative; Obsessive Search; Thought Scour; Dizzy Spell; Perplex; Drift of Phantasms
Phase windows: upkeep; draw step; main phases; opponent end step
Runtime cues: action:cast Brainstorm; action:cast Opt; action:cast Consider; action:cast Peek; action:cast Frantic Search; action:transmute
Use when: selection is legal and the pilot is choosing timing or a tutor/transmute line.
Avoid when: tapping mana removes protection or permission against a live stack or combat threat.
Instructions: Cast instant-speed selection late unless digging for land, protection, or an immediate answer; use transmute-style actions only after deciding the exact missing role from visible state and current mana.
Pilot skill floor: light-model.
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Brainstorm Lock Check
Priority: Medium
Decision families: selection
Cards: Brainstorm; Thought Scour; Consider; Opt
Phase windows: main phases; opponent end step
Runtime cues: action:cast Brainstorm
Use when: Brainstorm is legal and no shuffle or graveyard movement is guaranteed by visible actions.
Avoid when: the hand already contains two dead cards and no way to clear them before the next draw.
Instructions: Use Brainstorm to protect key cards from discard, find immediate mana or interaction, or set up Thought Scour only when the follow-up is legal or the current need outweighs the risk of redraws.
Pilot skill floor: light-model.
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Exact Opponent Target After Line Selection
Priority: Low
Decision families: interaction
Cards: Peek; Thought Scour; Shadow Rift; Fleeting Distraction; Aphotic Wisps; Cerulean Wisps; Take the Fall
Phase windows: legal target prompt windows
Runtime cues: action:target opponent Peek; action:target opponent Thought Scour
Use when: exactly one opponent is a legal target and the spell has already been selected.
Avoid when: the target prompt includes a permanent, self, or multiple opponents.
Instructions: Choose the sole opponent target only when the engine presents exactly one opponent target for the selected spell.
Pilot skill floor: no-api.
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Combat Race Gate
Priority: Medium
Decision families: combat; interaction
Cards: Basilica Screecher; Raven of Fell Omens; Geyser Drake; Windrider Wizard; Voracious Tome-Skimmer; Unexpected Fangs; Eternal Thirst; Octopus Form; Leap; Shadow Rift
Phase windows: declare attackers; declare blockers; combat tricks
Runtime cues: prompt:declare attackers; prompt:declare blockers; action:attack; action:block
Use when: combat choices are available and at least one creature is visible.
Avoid when: exactly one legal no-attack or no-block action is forced by the engine.
Instructions: Attack when evasion, lifelink, or commander pressure advances the clock without exposing the only engine creature; block when preserving life matters more than future aura or tap synergies, and account for visible tricks before trading.
Pilot skill floor: light-model.
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Sacrifice And Death-Value Gate
Priority: Medium
Decision families: priority; interaction; selection
Cards: Deadly Dispute; Disciple of the Vault; Melancholic Poet; Undercity Scrounger; Bender's Waterskin; Feign Death; Not Dead After All; Undying Evil; Undying Malice
Phase windows: main phases; combat; removal response windows
Runtime cues: action:cast Deadly Dispute; action:activate Undercity Scrounger; action:activate Bender's Waterskin
Use when: sacrificing, recurring, or death-trigger-adjacent actions are legal.
Avoid when: the only sacrifice candidate is the protected commander or the only creature enabling Springleaf Drum, Moonsnare Prototype, or aura engine play.
Instructions: Cash in expendable material to draw or recur only when the exchange protects a key card, answers removal, finds missing mana, or converts a creature that would die anyway.
Pilot skill floor: light-model.
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Mana Payment Preservation
Priority: Medium
Decision families: mana; priority
Cards: Counterspell; Dispel; Spell Pierce; Mana Leak; Shore Up; Mizzium Skin; Arcane Signet; Dimir Signet; Fellwar Stone; Springleaf Drum; Moonsnare Prototype
Phase windows: all payment prompts; main phases; end steps
Runtime cues: prompt:pay mana; action:tap; action:add mana
Use when: multiple legal mana payments or source taps are available.
Avoid when: the engine presents exactly one legal payment.
Instructions: Preserve blue for permission and protection, preserve black for removal, and spend colorless artifact mana before colored lands when it does not shut off a required tap-creature artifact.
Pilot skill floor: light-model.
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Forced Single Mana Payment
Priority: Low
Decision families: mana
Cards: none
Phase windows: payment prompts
Runtime cues: action:pay mana
Use when: the legal action list contains exactly one mana-payment action.
Avoid when: two or more payment actions are visible.
Instructions: Submit the single legal mana-payment action exactly as presented by the rules engine.
Pilot skill floor: no-api.
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Bounce Tempo Gate
Priority: Medium
Decision families: interaction; combat; priority
Cards: Snap; Snapback; Run Away Together; Retraction Helix; Unwind
Phase windows: combat; opponent end step; stack response windows; own main phase with mana recoup
Runtime cues: action:cast Snap; action:cast Snapback; action:cast Run Away Together; action:cast Retraction Helix
Use when: bounce is legal and a target choice affects tempo, mana, or survival.
Avoid when: bouncing gives the opponent a stronger enter-the-battlefield trigger or fails to change lethal math.
Instructions: Use bounce to break aura/equipment stacks, remove blockers for lethal pressure, reset a commander only when tax matters, or create a mana-positive turn with Snap while keeping protection available.
Pilot skill floor: light-model.
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Sideboard Role Selection
Priority: High
Decision families: sideboard
Cards: Deathgreeter; Spinning Darkness; Utter Insignificance; Resculpt; Essence Scatter; Cremate; Peppersmoke; Negate; Doom Blade; Run Away Together
Phase windows: sideboard step; between games
Runtime cues: prompt:sideboard; action:submit sideboard
Use when: Veles asks for a post-game sideboard decision.
Avoid when: an exact Sideboard Map plan for the matchup is already locked and validated.
Instructions: Add creature removal against creature pressure, Negate against noncreature engines, Essence Scatter against commander-centric creature plans, Cremate against graveyard reliance, and Deathgreeter or Peppersmoke against small-creature races; respect registered 100 plus 10 legality.
Pilot skill floor: light-model.
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Emergency Survival Override
Priority: High
Decision families: interaction; combat; priority
Cards: Defile; Tragic Slip; Cast Down; Go for the Throat; Terror; Ghastly Demise; Anoint with Affliction; Spinning Darkness; Doom Blade; Snap; Snapback; Unexpected Fangs
Phase windows: combat; opponent main phase; end step before lethal turn
Runtime cues: visible:lethal pressure; prompt:priority; prompt:declare blockers
Use when: visible attackers, burn-like stack objects, or next-turn board damage threaten lethal.
Avoid when: the engine reports game over or no legal survival action exists.
Instructions: Spend the narrowest legal answer that prevents lethal, block before preserving speculative engines, and choose lifegain or removal over card selection when the current life total cannot survive the visible clock.
Pilot skill floor: light-model.
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Pass With Interaction Check
Priority: Medium
Decision families: priority; interaction
Cards: Counterspell; Dispel; Spell Pierce; Mana Leak; Arcane Denial; Unwind; Foil; Go for the Throat; Cast Down; Defile; Shore Up; Mizzium Skin
Phase windows: all priority windows
Runtime cues: action:pass; prompt:priority
Use when: passing priority is legal while instant-speed interaction is also legal.
Avoid when: the stack contains a spell that threatens the commander, lethal, or a visible engine.
Instructions: Pass only after checking whether available interaction has a current target worth answering; prefer holding interaction when the opponent has not committed the decisive spell and the stack is empty.
Pilot skill floor: light-model.
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes
