# 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.

## 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
