# Strategy Specifications
## Deck Name And Archetype
Blue Tinker is a Vintage combo-control artifact deck built around `Tinker`, fast artifact mana, blue permission, restricted card selection, and compact artifact finishers. The active deck validation contract reports 60 main-deck cards and 15 sideboard cards, with the main deck meeting the Vintage minimum and the sideboard meeting the maximum.

- Format: Vintage.
- Strategy name: Blue Tinker.
- Registered main deck: 60 cards.
- Registered sideboard: 15 cards.
- Current archetype tags: control; combo; artifact.
- Cleaned archetype tags: control; combo; artifact.
- Validation status: passes the supplied active format/deck validation result.
- Opponent information status: no opponent decklist, matchup field, metagame target, or testing concern was supplied, so runtime decisions must rely on legal actions, visible board state, public zones, known revealed information, and the engine-reported matchup context.

This is a hybrid stock-and-custom Vintage blue artifact shell rather than a pure stock list. The stock core is recognizable: `Ancestral Recall`, `Time Walk`, `Timetwister`, `Black Lotus`, `Mox Sapphire`, `Mox Ruby`, `Mox Jet`, `Mox Pearl`, `Mox Emerald`, `Sol Ring`, `Mana Crypt`, `Tolarian Academy`, `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Flusterstorm`, `Tinker`, `Time Vault`, `Manifold Key`, `Bolas's Citadel`, `Yawgmoth's Will`, `Demonic Tutor`, `Vampiric Tutor`, and `Mystical Tutor`. The custom pressure points are the full playsets of `Flow State`, `Stock Up`, and `Lorien Revealed`, plus `Hexing Squelcher` and `Vexing Bauble`; card text check required for unfamiliar or recently printed cards before assigning deterministic tactical meaning to those cards.

The primary role concern is that Blue Tinker must choose when to convert fast mana and tutors into a protected combo or artifact threat, rather than spending restricted resources on low-impact movement. A Veles agent should treat `Tinker`, `Time Vault` plus `Manifold Key`, `Bolas's Citadel`, and `Yawgmoth's Will` as commitment points that usually require stack, mana, and opponent-interaction reasoning, not automatic execution from card names alone.

The mana concern is that the list has extreme artifact acceleration but few conventional lands: `Island`, `Volcanic Island`, `Underground Sea`, `Thundering Falls`, `Urza's Saga`, `Tolarian Academy`, `Flooded Strand`, `Scalding Tarn`, and `Polluted Delta` must be sequenced around blue interaction, black tutors, red sideboard cards, and artifact-count payoffs. Runtime pilots must not assume perfect colors from artifact mana unless Forge exposes the source and color choices as legal payable options.

The legality concern is that this guide must defer to the rules engine on action availability, target legality, payment legality, priority windows, and hidden information. The agent may prefer lines involving `Tinker`, `Time Vault`, `Manifold Key`, `Ancestral Recall`, `Hullbreacher`, or sideboard cards such as `Pyroblast`, `Hurkyl's Recall`, `Abrade`, `Opposition Agent`, `Mindbreak Trap`, `Commandeer`, `Sphinx of the Steel Wind`, and `Portal to Phyrexia`, but it must choose only among current legal Veles action IDs.

The sideboard identity is flexible anti-blue, anti-artifact, anti-creature, and alternate-threat coverage. `Pyroblast`, `Mindbreak Trap`, `Commandeer`, `Opposition Agent`, and extra `Hullbreacher` support stack and card-flow fights; `Abrade`, `Hurkyl's Recall`, `Dismember`, and `Long Goodbye` answer battlefield pressure or artifacts; `Sphinx of the Steel Wind` and `Portal to Phyrexia` provide alternate `Tinker` targets or high-impact artifact plans when the matchup calls for a different payoff.

## Thesis
Blue Tinker assembles a protected artifact kill or overwhelming restricted-card advantage before the opponent can convert pressure or disruption into a stable game. The deck’s cleanest endings are `Tinker` into `Bolas's Citadel`, `Time Vault` plus `Manifold Key`, `Yawgmoth's Will` after artifact mana and tutors have traded, or sideboard artifact payoffs such as `Sphinx of the Steel Wind` and `Portal to Phyrexia` when the matchup demands a different `Tinker` target.

Blue Tinker wins by compressing several Vintage turns into one decisive window. Prioritize hands and lines that combine fast mana, blue protection, and a payoff path; a hand with `Black Lotus`, `Mox Sapphire`, `Mana Crypt`, `Sol Ring`, or `Tolarian Academy` is valuable only when it produces a meaningful spell, protected setup, or tutor chain rather than empty acceleration.

Blue Tinker is not trying to become a fair draw-go deck with perfect answers to every permanent. Use `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Flusterstorm`, `Mental Misstep`, `Chain of Vapor`, `Vexing Bauble`, and `Hexing Squelcher` to force through the deck’s own broken turn, stop opposing broken turns, or buy exactly enough time for `Tinker`, `Time Vault`, `Bolas's Citadel`, or `Yawgmoth's Will`.

Blue Tinker should prioritize commitment quality over raw speed when the opponent has untapped mana, visible stack interaction, known disruptive cards, or a threatening permanent that changes payoff legality. The agent should usually reason before casting `Tinker`, activating `Manifold Key` toward `Time Vault`, firing `Timetwister`, tutoring with `Demonic Tutor`, `Vampiric Tutor`, or `Mystical Tutor`, or spending pitch interaction, because those choices determine whether the deck becomes the combo player or the control player.

Card text check required for `Flow State`, `Stock Up`, and `Hexing Squelcher` before treating them as deterministic engines or interaction. Until verified by Forge-visible legal actions and card text, treat these cards as registered role pieces whose tactical use must follow current legal action text, visible costs, visible targets, and engine-provided prompt context.

## Role Package
- Threats: `Bolas's Citadel`, `Time Vault`, `Manifold Key`, `Hullbreacher`, `Urza's Saga`, and sideboard `Sphinx of the Steel Wind` or `Portal to Phyrexia` are the deck’s primary board-changing threats. Commit them when the current stack, visible mana, and known interaction allow the threat to resolve or when waiting gives the opponent a clearer window.

- Payoffs: `Tinker` is the highest-leverage payoff because it converts expendable artifacts into `Bolas's Citadel`, `Time Vault` support, or post-board artifact finishers. Treat `Tinker` as a protected commitment point, not as a routine value spell, unless the legal action text shows an already forced or deterministic target line.

- Engines: `Time Vault` plus `Manifold Key`, `Bolas's Citadel`, `Yawgmoth's Will`, `Timetwister`, `Hullbreacher`, `Tolarian Academy`, and `Urza's Saga` are the repeatable or explosive engines. Preserve artifacts, land drops, and blue cards when they materially increase the chance that these engines resolve and immediately convert.

- Velocity: `Ancestral Recall`, `Brainstorm`, `Gitaxian Probe`, `Demonic Tutor`, `Vampiric Tutor`, `Mystical Tutor`, `Flow State`, `Stock Up`, `Lorien Revealed`, `Time Walk`, and `Timetwister` find the commitment window. Use unrestricted or lower-risk selection to clarify the line before spending restricted tutors when the hand has multiple possible kills.

- Interaction: `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Flusterstorm`, `Mental Misstep`, `Chain of Vapor`, `Vexing Bauble`, and `Hexing Squelcher` protect the combo turn and contest opposing engines. Spend interaction aggressively against opposing cards that stop `Tinker`, break `Time Vault`, deny artifact mana, win before the next turn, or invalidate `Bolas's Citadel` life-based play patterns.

- Protection: `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Flusterstorm`, `Mental Misstep`, `Vexing Bauble`, `Gitaxian Probe`, and `Chain of Vapor` form the protection shell. Prefer lines that expose the opponent’s hand or tax the stack before committing a single irreplaceable payoff.

- Recursion: `Yawgmoth's Will` turns spent `Black Lotus`, Moxen, tutors, `Ancestral Recall`, and interaction into a second combo turn. Save graveyard-dependent sequencing for a turn where mana, storm-like spell density, and known graveyard interaction make the replayed cards likely to matter.

- Mana: `Black Lotus`, `Mox Sapphire`, `Mox Ruby`, `Mox Jet`, `Mox Pearl`, `Mox Emerald`, `Sol Ring`, `Mana Crypt`, `Tolarian Academy`, `Island`, `Underground Sea`, `Volcanic Island`, `Thundering Falls`, `Flooded Strand`, `Scalding Tarn`, and `Polluted Delta` create fast but fragile color access. Sequence blue first for permission, black for tutors and `Yawgmoth's Will`, and red mainly when post-board cards require it.

- Sideboard modules: `Pyroblast`, `Mindbreak Trap`, `Commandeer`, `Opposition Agent`, and extra `Hullbreacher` increase stack and blue-card-fight density. `Abrade`, `Hurkyl's Recall`, `Dismember`, and `Long Goodbye` answer battlefield or artifact pressure. `Sphinx of the Steel Wind` and `Portal to Phyrexia` diversify `Tinker` outcomes when life racing, creature boards, or artifact mirrors make `Bolas's Citadel` less reliable.

## Primary Win Conditions
- `Tinker` into `Bolas's Citadel` is the default fastest kill when an expendable artifact is available and the agent can protect the stack. Set up with `Black Lotus`, a Mox, `Mana Crypt`, `Sol Ring`, `Vexing Bauble`, `Time Vault`, or another artifact that can be sacrificed without breaking the active line; execute only when current legal actions show `Tinker` can be cast and a high-impact artifact target is available. Prioritize this line against slow hands, low-pressure boards, and opponents who are tapped low or already taxed by `Flusterstorm`, `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Mental Misstep`, `Vexing Bauble`, or visible stack constraints.

- `Time Vault` plus `Manifold Key` is the cleanest deterministic permanent-based kill when both pieces can be assembled and the opponent cannot easily remove or disable the artifact pair. Set up by tutoring for the missing piece with `Demonic Tutor`, `Vampiric Tutor`, or `Mystical Tutor` only after checking whether `Tinker` for a missing artifact piece is stronger than spending a restricted tutor. Execute extra-turn loops only through legal engine prompts; do not assume shortcut legality beyond what Forge exposes.

- `Yawgmoth's Will` is the highest-ceiling comeback and second-wave kill after fast mana, tutors, and draw spells have entered the graveyard. Set up by trading resources early, using `Gitaxian Probe` to identify the commitment window when legal, and preserving black mana from `Underground Sea`, `Mox Jet`, `Black Lotus`, or `Tolarian Academy` plus artifacts. Prioritize `Yawgmoth's Will` when the graveyard contains mana plus action such as `Ancestral Recall`, `Demonic Tutor`, `Vampiric Tutor`, `Mystical Tutor`, `Time Walk`, `Tinker`, or spent Moxen, and avoid it when visible graveyard hate or stack pressure makes the replayed sequence unlikely to resolve.

- `Hullbreacher` plus `Timetwister` is a disruptive win path when `Hullbreacher` can survive the setup window and `Timetwister` is legal to cast. Use this line when the opponent relies on hand resources, the deck needs a fresh grip, or the agent can defend the creature with pitch interaction. Treat this as a commitment gate because exposing `Hullbreacher` before the wheel can lose tempo if the opponent has visible removal, open mana, or a threatening board.

- `Bolas's Citadel` chains can convert life total into cards when the deck is not under lethal pressure. Prioritize Citadel when life is high, top-card access is live, and artifact mana or cheap spells can keep the chain moving; deprioritize it when life is low, the opponent has visible pressure, or the top card cannot be played through current mana and legal-action limits.

## Secondary Win Conditions
- `Urza's Saga` is the main fallback pressure and utility line when the game slows down. Use it to create creature-land pressure, find a cheap artifact when the chapter ability is legal, and force the opponent to answer the board while the hand rebuilds toward `Tinker`, `Time Vault`, or `Yawgmoth's Will`.

- `Hullbreacher` can win fair games by attacking while constraining opposing draw effects. Deploy it as pressure when the opponent is likely to spend turns sculpting, but avoid treating it as protection against unknown hidden cards unless public information supports that read.

- `Time Walk` is both a combo bridge and a tempo finisher. Use it to untap after a protected setup permanent, convert `Urza's Saga` constructs or `Hullbreacher` attacks into a clock, or buy one more draw step toward `Tinker`, `Time Vault`, or tutors.

- `Ancestral Recall`, `Brainstorm`, `Flow State`, `Stock Up`, and `Lorien Revealed` support attrition wins by finding more restricted cards and protection. Card text check required for `Flow State` and `Stock Up`; until verified, use them according to current legal action text rather than assuming exact selection, draw, or graveyard behavior.

- Post-board `Tinker` targets can become primary finishers in specific matchups. `Sphinx of the Steel Wind` is the life-race and creature-board stabilizer when legal and boarded in; `Portal to Phyrexia` is the battlefield-reset artifact when legal and boarded in. Choose them over `Bolas's Citadel` when visible pressure, low life, or matchup texture makes Citadel too risky.

## Emergency Lines
- When behind on life, stop using life as a free resource unless the payoff immediately stabilizes or wins. Favor `Tinker` for `Sphinx of the Steel Wind` post-board, bounce with `Chain of Vapor`, removal from sideboard, `Time Walk` to buy a turn, or a protected `Time Vault` line over speculative `Bolas's Citadel` chains.

- When behind on board, identify whether the board must be answered or raced before spending tutors on pure card advantage. `Chain of Vapor`, post-board `Abrade`, `Dismember`, `Long Goodbye`, `Hurkyl's Recall`, `Portal to Phyrexia`, and `Sphinx of the Steel Wind` are the recovery cards; main-deck lines should lean toward `Tinker`, `Time Walk`, and protected combo rather than fair trading.

- When behind on cards, make the next spell matter more than the card count. Prioritize `Ancestral Recall`, `Timetwister`, `Yawgmoth's Will`, `Bolas's Citadel`, `Stock Up`, `Flow State`, or `Lorien Revealed` only if the current stack and mana allow the gained cards to convert before the opponent’s next decisive turn.

- When behind on mana, preserve lands and artifact mana that enable a real payoff. Fetch basics or stable blue/black sources when pressure on mana is visible, cycle or cast `Lorien Revealed` only as legal text supports, and avoid sacrificing the only critical artifact to `Tinker` if doing so strands the payoff.

- When the main win condition is removed, shift immediately to the remaining axis. If `Bolas's Citadel` is gone, pursue `Time Vault` plus `Manifold Key`, `Yawgmoth's Will`, `Hullbreacher` plus `Timetwister`, or `Urza's Saga`; if `Time Vault` or `Manifold Key` is gone, prioritize `Tinker`, Citadel, recursion, and post-board artifact threats.

## Resource Model
- Life is a spendable combo resource until the visible board threatens a short clock. Use life aggressively for `Bolas's Citadel` only when current life, top-card playability, and available mana can plausibly chain into a win or locked position; stop treating life as free when creatures, burn pressure, or combat math make the next turn cycle dangerous.

- Hand size is both protection and fuel. Convert excess blue cards into `Force of Will` and `Force of Negation` only for decisive opposing spells, protected combo turns, or survival; protect restricted engines such as `Tinker`, `Ancestral Recall`, `Yawgmoth's Will`, `Timetwister`, `Time Walk`, and tutors more highly than routine cantrips.

- Mana is explosive but fragile because artifacts power the deck and also feed `Tinker`. Treat `Black Lotus`, `Mana Crypt`, `Sol Ring`, Moxen, and `Tolarian Academy` as acceleration first, but keep at least one expendable artifact available when `Tinker` is the active plan.

- Board resources matter mostly as artifacts, utility permanents, and fallback pressure. `Time Vault` plus `Manifold Key` is a board-based win, `Urza's Saga` is a pressure and artifact-access plan, `Vexing Bauble` is a stack-shaping permanent, and `Hullbreacher` is both disruption and a clock.

- Graveyard resources become a second hand for `Yawgmoth's Will`. Value the graveyard higher after fast mana, tutors, `Ancestral Recall`, `Time Walk`, or `Tinker` are spent; value it lower when public effects or sideboard cards threaten graveyard access, and never assume hidden graveyard hate.

- Exile is usually a cost ledger, not a resource engine. Track cards exiled to `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, or opponent effects because losing a restricted payoff changes the active plan; do not plan to recover exiled cards unless the rules engine exposes a legal action.

- Lands provide color stability and special mana more than raw count. `Underground Sea` supplies black for tutors and `Yawgmoth's Will`, `Volcanic Island` supplies red for sideboard interaction, `Island` protects blue development, `Tolarian Academy` scales with artifacts, and `Urza's Saga` converts land drops into board and artifact access.

- Sacrifice fodder should be deliberately assigned before casting `Tinker`. Sacrifice a redundant Mox, spent `Black Lotus`, `Mana Crypt`, `Sol Ring`, `Vexing Bauble`, or a no-longer-needed artifact before sacrificing `Time Vault`, `Manifold Key`, or an artifact required for current mana unless the payoff immediately wins or stabilizes.

- Tempo comes from forcing the opponent to answer the wrong axis. Use `Time Walk`, protected `Tinker`, `Urza's Saga`, `Hullbreacher`, cheap counters, and bounce from `Chain of Vapor` to buy the turn where the real engine resolves.

- Information is a resource when it changes commitment timing. Use `Gitaxian Probe` and visible public actions to decide whether to jam `Tinker`, hold protection, deploy `Hullbreacher`, or tutor; do not infer exact hidden cards beyond revealed information.

- Sideboard bullets convert generic velocity into narrow answers. `Pyroblast`, `Mindbreak Trap`, `Commandeer`, `Opposition Agent`, `Abrade`, `Dismember`, `Long Goodbye`, `Hurkyl's Recall`, `Sphinx of the Steel Wind`, `Portal to Phyrexia`, and extra `Hullbreacher` should be treated as role cards whose value depends on visible matchup texture and legal sideboard plans.

## Mana Guide
- Utility-land sequencing: explicitly track `Flooded Strand`, `Bolas's Citadel` as the deck's named nonbasic or utility-land decisions. Use these lands to satisfy the next visible color or utility requirement before taking speculative lines: play or fetch colored sources before cantrips and discard that need exact mana, keep utility lands when their activated or disruptive text is part of the current plan, and delay utility-land sacrifices until the follow-up spell or ability is already legal. When choosing between a stable colored source and a utility land, choose the source that casts the current hand under visible pressure, then use the utility land once the required colors are secure.

- Keep hands that cast blue interaction and progress a payoff. A strong opener usually has a blue source or blue artifact acceleration, at least one action spell, and either protection, a tutor, `Tinker`, `Ancestral Recall`, `Stock Up`, `Flow State`, `Lorien Revealed`, or a path to `Time Vault` plus `Manifold Key`; Card text check required for `Stock Up` and `Flow State`, so follow legal action text for exact use.

- Mulligan hands that make mana but do not do anything decisive. Multiple Moxen without a draw spell, tutor, restricted payoff, or protection can still lose to one answer; hands with only colorless mana and black/red spells should be treated as unstable unless `Tolarian Academy`, `Urza's Saga`, or artifact count creates a concrete line.

- Prioritize blue mana first because nearly every protected line needs it. `Island`, `Volcanic Island`, `Underground Sea`, `Mox Sapphire`, and fetchlands that find blue sources enable `Ancestral Recall`, `Brainstorm`, `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Flusterstorm`, `Mental Misstep`, `Time Walk`, `Tinker`, and most setup spells.

- Prioritize black mana when the hand contains tutors or recursion. `Underground Sea`, `Mox Jet`, `Black Lotus`, and sometimes artifact-driven `Tolarian Academy` sequencing should support `Demonic Tutor`, `Vampiric Tutor`, and `Yawgmoth's Will` before spending flexible mana on lower-impact setup.

- Treat red mana as mostly post-board or utility. `Volcanic Island`, `Mox Ruby`, `Scalding Tarn`, `Flooded Strand`, and `Polluted Delta` matter more when `Pyroblast` or `Abrade` is boarded in, while `Thundering Falls` may enter tapped or have special text; Card text check required before relying on nonbasic timing beyond visible legal actions.

- Sequence `Tolarian Academy` after artifacts when possible. Play zero- and one-mana artifacts before using `Tolarian Academy` if doing so increases available mana this turn, but avoid exposing artifacts into known removal or sacrificing all blue-producing permanents before holding up interaction.

- Sequence `Urza's Saga` early when the game will slow down. Play it before ordinary lands when construct pressure or chapter access matters, but delay it when colored mana is required immediately for `Ancestral Recall`, tutors, `Tinker`, `Flusterstorm`, or sideboard interaction.

- Use fetchlands after deciding whether top-card manipulation matters. With `Brainstorm`, `Vampiric Tutor`, or `Mystical Tutor`, preserve `Flooded Strand`, `Polluted Delta`, or `Scalding Tarn` until the shuffle effect improves the line; fetch before drawing only when color access, life pressure, or legal action timing makes waiting worse.

- Play lands before draw spells when the draw spell needs that mana or when landfall-like utility is irrelevant. Hold the land until after `Ancestral Recall`, `Brainstorm`, `Stock Up`, `Flow State`, or `Lorien Revealed` when the hand can still cast the spell and the extra information may change which land is best.

- Spend artifact mana before land mana when the turn is a one-shot combo push. Spend land mana first when preserving `Black Lotus`, Moxen, `Mana Crypt`, `Sol Ring`, or an artifact body keeps `Tinker`, `Tolarian Academy`, `Urza's Saga`, or post-board artifact payoffs live.

## Mulligan Guide
- Strong keep: Keep blue mana plus protection plus a payoff path. `Underground Sea`, `Mox Sapphire`, `Force of Will`, `Tinker`, any expendable artifact, and a blue card is a premium hand because it can threaten `Tinker` while defending the commitment.

- Strong keep: Keep fast mana plus restricted draw or tutor when colors work. `Black Lotus`, `Ancestral Recall`, `Demonic Tutor`, `Vampiric Tutor`, `Brainstorm`, `Stock Up`, or `Lorien Revealed` with a blue source can find either `Tinker`, `Time Vault` plus `Manifold Key`, or protection.

- Medium keep: Keep `Urza's Saga` plus stable blue interaction when the hand has time. `Urza's Saga`, `Island`, `Force of Will`, `Flusterstorm`, and a draw spell is slower but credible if it can make pressure, find an artifact, and avoid dying before the third chapter.

- Medium keep: Keep `Tolarian Academy` hands only when artifacts are already visible. `Tolarian Academy`, one Mox, `Sol Ring`, and blue interaction can accelerate hard, but a hand relying on `Tolarian Academy` without artifacts should usually be treated as a weak land-light hand.

- Risky keep: Keep `Mana Crypt` acceleration only when the hand uses the tempo immediately. `Mana Crypt` plus `Tinker`, `Time Walk`, `Bolas's Citadel`, or a tutor is acceptable; `Mana Crypt` plus only slow setup is dangerous because life loss and empty action windows punish durdling.

- Automatic ship: Ship hands with no mana source, no blue source or blue artifact path, and no `Lorien Revealed` land-cycling action. A hand full of `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Flusterstorm`, and expensive cards cannot function without castable development.

- Automatic ship: Ship hands that are only artifacts and no payoff. `Mox Ruby`, `Mox Pearl`, `Mox Emerald`, `Sol Ring`, and `Mana Crypt` without draw, tutor, `Tinker`, `Time Vault`, `Manifold Key`, `Urza's Saga`, or disruption is a trap because it empties quickly and loses to any real plan.

- Matchup-dependent keep: Keep heavier interaction hands against fast spell decks. `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Mindbreak Trap`, `Pyroblast`, `Flusterstorm`, or `Mental Misstep` can justify slower development post-board, but only if the hand still has a route to cards or mana.

- Matchup-dependent keep: Keep bounce or artifact answers when the visible or known matchup makes them live. `Chain of Vapor`, `Abrade`, `Hurkyl's Recall`, `Long Goodbye`, or `Dismember` should not replace a game plan, but they can make a hand keepable when the opponent's axis is known.

- Play/draw adjustment: On the play, value `Vexing Bauble`, fast `Tinker`, `Urza's Saga`, and protected `Hullbreacher` more highly because initiative matters. On the draw, value free interaction, `Gitaxian Probe`, `Mental Misstep`, and cheap selection more highly because the opponent may act first.

- Trap hand: Do not keep a hand that has `Tinker` but no artifact to sacrifice unless another visible line finds one immediately. Do not keep `Time Vault` without mana, selection, protection, or `Manifold Key` unless the rest of the hand is independently strong.

- Card text caution: `Flow State`, `Stock Up`, and `Hexing Squelcher` require card text checks for exact tactical valuation. Treat them according to legal runtime actions, visible costs, and revealed effects rather than assuming a familiar role.

## Turn Arc
- Turn 1: Establish blue mana and either protection or a decisive engine. Preferred starts are `Island` or blue dual plus Mox into `Ancestral Recall`, `Gitaxian Probe`, `Brainstorm`, `Vexing Bauble`, `Demonic Tutor`, `Vampiric Tutor`, `Urza's Saga`, or protected `Tinker` when the sacrifice artifact and payoff are available.

- Turn 1 deviation: Jam `Tinker` early only when waiting is worse or protection is present. If the hand has `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Flusterstorm`, `Mental Misstep`, or revealed safety from `Gitaxian Probe`, a fast `Tinker` for `Bolas's Citadel`, `Portal to Phyrexia`, or `Sphinx of the Steel Wind` can be correct when those cards are in the registered post-board configuration and legal to find.

- Turn 1 deviation: Use `Lorien Revealed` as mana development when the hand needs a land more than a future draw spell. If legal action text offers land-cycling, prioritize finding a blue source, `Underground Sea` for black tutor lines, or red access post-board when `Pyroblast` or `Abrade` matters.

- Turn 2: Convert setup into a protected threat or card advantage. Look for `Time Walk`, `Tinker`, `Demonic Tutor`, `Mystical Tutor`, `Vampiric Tutor`, `Stock Up`, `Flow State`, `Hullbreacher`, or `Urza's Saga` chapter pressure while preserving free interaction for the opponent's most explosive spell.

- Turn 2 deviation: Assemble `Time Vault` plus `Manifold Key` when both pieces or a tutor line are visible. Do not expose one half into obvious removal or bounce if a protected `Tinker`, `Ancestral Recall`, or `Urza's Saga` line advances the game with less risk.

- Turn 3: Force the opponent to answer a real axis. Preferred plays are protected `Tinker`, `Bolas's Citadel`, `Time Vault` plus `Manifold Key`, `Urza's Saga` construct pressure, `Hullbreacher` backed by counters, or `Yawgmoth's Will` after fast mana and tutors have filled the graveyard.

- Turns 4-5: Shift from setup to closure. Use `Time Walk` to compound board pressure, use `Chain of Vapor` to clear a blocking permanent or hate piece only when the follow-up is ready, and use tutors for the missing win piece rather than for generic value.

- Turns 4-5 deviation: Protect resources if the first engine was answered. Rebuild with `Stock Up`, `Flow State`, `Lorien Revealed`, `Brainstorm`, `Timetwister`, or `Yawgmoth's Will`, but track exiled blue cards from `Force of Will` and `Force of Negation` because each pitch changes what remains available.

- Late game: Treat every draw step as a search for a compact win or lock-breaking answer. Prioritize `Yawgmoth's Will`, `Tinker`, `Time Vault`, `Manifold Key`, `Bolas's Citadel`, `Urza's Saga`, and high-impact tutors over low-impact interaction unless the opponent has a lethal or combo-critical spell on the stack.

- Late game deviation: Do not spend the last counter on a non-lethal exchange. Save `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Flusterstorm`, `Pyroblast`, `Mindbreak Trap`, or `Commandeer` for cards that stop your win, create an immediate loss, or invalidate your only recovery line.

## Card Roles
- `Tinker` is the primary artifact-conversion threat and should be cast only when an artifact sacrifice, a legal library target, and a protection or urgency reason are visible. Use it to find `Bolas's Citadel` in Game 1 when the life total, mana, and stack allow an immediate engine turn; post-board, use it for `Portal to Phyrexia` or `Sphinx of the Steel Wind` only when those cards are actually in the deck and legal to find. Do not cast `Tinker` into obvious open interaction just because it is available; this deck often wins by waiting one turn with `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Flusterstorm`, or `Mental Misstep` held up.

- `Bolas's Citadel` is the main Game 1 `Tinker` payoff and a hard card-advantage engine when life total is high. Prioritize it against slower blue decks, artifact mirrors that cannot immediately remove it, and hands with cheap mana already deployed. Avoid selecting or casting it when the visible top-card sequence, life pressure, or opponent stack threat makes passing with a tapped-out six-mana permanent worse than assembling `Time Vault` plus `Manifold Key`.

- `Time Vault` and `Manifold Key` form the compact deterministic win package once both pieces are present and protected. Cast one half early only when the other half, a tutor, or `Urza's Saga` pressure makes the exposure worthwhile; otherwise avoid giving the opponent a full turn to answer a naked artifact. `Manifold Key` also matters as a cheap artifact for `Tinker`, `Tolarian Academy`, `Urza's Saga`, and storm-like `Yawgmoth's Will` turns, but do not spend it casually if the `Time Vault` line is the cleanest win.

- `Ancestral Recall`, `Brainstorm`, `Flow State`, `Stock Up`, and `Lorien Revealed` are the blue card-flow core that keeps the deck from becoming all mana and counters. `Ancestral Recall` is the highest-impact draw spell and should usually be protected like a threat against blue opponents; target self unless a legal lethal deck-out or opponent-denial line is explicitly visible. `Brainstorm` is strongest with `Flooded Strand`, `Polluted Delta`, or `Scalding Tarn` to clear weak cards, and it should be held if the hand already has action but needs to hide cards from discard or improve a fetchland. `Flow State` has Card text check required; treat it as a registered four-copy selection spell only according to legal runtime text, and prefer it when it finds protection, mana, `Tinker`, or combo pieces. `Stock Up` has Card text check required; treat its four copies as major setup cards, but do not assume card quantity, speed, or graveyard behavior until Forge exposes the legal action. `Lorien Revealed` is both a late draw spell and early mana smoothing; land-cycle it when the hand lacks blue, black, or post-board red access, and cast it only when reaching the expensive draw mode is legal and does not forfeit a decisive stack fight.

- `Force of Will` is the defining free counter and should be saved for spells that stop the deck's win, create an immediate opposing win, or resolve an overwhelming engine. Pitch decisions are real costs: avoid exiling the only blue card that enables `Force of Negation`, `Tinker` protection, or post-board `Pyroblast` support unless the stack requires it. Against fast combo, protect life total and hand less than survival; against fair blue decks, do not burn `Force of Will` on low-impact bait if `Tinker`, `Ancestral Recall`, or `Time Vault` can win a later fight.

- `Force of Negation`, `Flusterstorm`, and `Mental Misstep` are specialized permission that shape the first two turns. `Force of Negation` protects against noncreature combo and opposing engines, but its exile cost and timing restrictions mean it should not replace `Force of Will` in every fight. `Flusterstorm` is best in stack-heavy turns around tutors, draw spells, and opposing protection; avoid using it where a single payment is clearly easy. `Mental Misstep` should trade for opposing one-mana interaction, acceleration, or card draw when that exchange protects your development or stops an early snowball.

- `Vexing Bauble` is a disruptive artifact and `Tinker` fodder, but its exact tactical value depends on visible rules text and matchup context. Deploy it early against opponents relying on free spells when it does not shut off your own planned free interaction at the wrong moment. Do not treat it as automatic; this deck also relies on `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Mental Misstep`, and fast artifacts, so runtime legal actions and current stack plans decide whether it helps more than it hurts.

- `Demonic Tutor`, `Vampiric Tutor`, and `Mystical Tutor` are commitment tools, not generic value buttons. Use `Demonic Tutor` for the missing combo piece, `Tinker`, `Yawgmoth's Will`, or an answer only when the mana and protection plan are clear. Use `Vampiric Tutor` when the life payment and next draw are worth the tempo, especially before `Time Walk`, draw spells, or a protected kill. Use `Mystical Tutor` for `Ancestral Recall`, `Tinker`, `Time Walk`, `Timetwister`, `Yawgmoth's Will`, or interaction according to the current stack; do not tutor a powerful card that cannot be cast before the opponent's decisive turn.

- `Yawgmoth's Will`, `Timetwister`, and `Time Walk` are swing cards that convert early resources into a locked game. `Yawgmoth's Will` is strongest after `Black Lotus`, Moxen, fetchlands, tutors, and counters have entered the graveyard; cast it when replayed mana produces a win or overwhelming reload, not merely because the graveyard is full. `Timetwister` rebuilds from an empty hand and punishes opponents after `Hullbreacher`, but it can also refresh the opponent, so avoid it when ahead on resources unless it wins immediately. `Time Walk` should usually advance a threat, Saga chapter, Citadel turn, or combo setup; do not spend it as a blank cantrip unless the extra draw step is tactically required.

- `Hullbreacher` is a flash threat and draw-punisher that becomes explosive with `Timetwister` and opposing draw spells. Deploy it when the opponent is likely to draw extra cards, when it can safely pressure planeswalkers or life totals, or when `Timetwister` is available. Do not run it into open removal or counters without a reason; it is strongest when it changes a resource exchange, not when it is just a 3-power creature.

- `Chain of Vapor` is the flexible reset button for hate permanents, opposing threats, and sometimes your own permanent in a high-resource line. Use it to clear a blocker, lock piece, artifact hate, or resolved permanent that prevents `Tinker`, `Bolas's Citadel`, or `Time Vault` from winning. Respect the opponent's legal copy choices and lands available; do not assume bounce is final removal.

- `Hexing Squelcher` has Card text check required and should be treated as a two-copy registered interaction or utility card only through visible legal actions. Cast or hold it according to exact Forge prompts, visible targets, and matchup role. Do not assume it counters abilities, protects permanents, removes threats, or attacks profitably unless runtime card text and legal actions confirm that role.

- `Gitaxian Probe` is information and velocity. Use it before choosing whether to commit `Tinker`, expose `Time Vault`, fire a tutor, or fight over a spell, especially on turns where hidden interaction changes the line. Do not overvalue the life-free mode if life total matters against aggressive pressure or `Mana Crypt` damage.

- `Black Lotus`, `Mana Crypt`, `Sol Ring`, `Mox Sapphire`, `Mox Jet`, `Mox Ruby`, `Mox Pearl`, and `Mox Emerald` are acceleration, artifact count, and `Tolarian Academy` fuel. Spend `Black Lotus` on decisive turns rather than minor smoothing unless it unlocks a protected early win. `Mox Sapphire` is premium because blue cards and counters define the deck; `Mox Jet` enables black tutors and `Yawgmoth's Will`; `Mox Ruby` matters more post-board for `Pyroblast` and `Abrade`; `Mox Pearl` and `Mox Emerald` are still valuable as free artifacts even when their colors are less central. `Mana Crypt` and `Sol Ring` enable `Tinker`, `Bolas's Citadel`, `Time Vault`, and large draw turns, but avoid slow keeps that take repeated `Mana Crypt` damage without a payoff.

- `Urza's Saga` is both a threat and a tutor path for cheap artifacts. Use it to create pressure in slower games, find `Manifold Key`, `Time Vault` support when legal, `Vexing Bauble`, or a Mox-level artifact according to available targets. Do not keep hands that rely on `Urza's Saga` alone for colored mana; it is a plan, not a blue source.

- `Tolarian Academy`, `Island`, `Underground Sea`, `Volcanic Island`, `Thundering Falls`, `Flooded Strand`, `Polluted Delta`, and `Scalding Tarn` define the colored-mana map. Prioritize blue early for counters and selection, black when a tutor or `Yawgmoth's Will` line is live, and red post-board when `Pyroblast` or `Abrade` matters. Fetch basics with `Island` when wasteland-style pressure or life stability matters; fetch duals when the hand needs immediate black or red action. `Thundering Falls` requires exact land text at runtime, so use it according to legal entry timing and color needs rather than assuming it is always untapped or always a fetch target.

## Interaction Priorities
- Counter the spell that changes the game state beyond repair, not the first spell that looks powerful. Use `Force of Will` for opposing combo commitments, protected draw bursts, lock pieces that shut off `Tinker` or `Time Vault`, and threats that win before `Bolas's Citadel` or `Urza's Saga` can matter.

- Save `Force of Negation` for noncreature engines, tutors, draw spells, prison pieces, and stack fights on the opponent's turn. Exile the least tactically live blue card, usually redundant selection or a second protection spell, but do not exile the only blue card needed to pitch `Force of Will` if a second fight is likely.

- Use `Flusterstorm` on stack-dense turns where the opponent has already spent mana or protection. Prioritize opposing tutors, draw spells, combo rituals, and counter-wars over low-impact setup; ignore bait spells if the opponent can pay for every copy and the real fight is still coming.

- Use `Mental Misstep` aggressively only when the one-mana spell threatens tempo, information, mana, or protection. Counter opposing one-mana draw, opposing one-mana interaction aimed at `Tinker` or `Time Vault`, and early acceleration when it decides the race; let minor cantrips resolve when your hand already has a protected kill and needs the card for a later fight.

- Bounce the permanent that blocks the current winning line. `Chain of Vapor` should answer hate permanents, a resolved blocker to `Bolas's Citadel`, a lock piece stopping free spells or artifacts, or an opposing threat only when the tempo gained matters; respect the opponent's visible lands and legal copy options.

- Remove or answer creature pressure according to clock, not card fame. Main deck removal is mostly bounce and stack interaction, so post-board `Long Goodbye`, `Dismember`, `Abrade`, `Pyroblast`, `Hurkyl's Recall`, `Mindbreak Trap`, `Opposition Agent`, `Commandeer`, `Sphinx of the Steel Wind`, and `Portal to Phyrexia` change which fights matter; use these only when present after sideboarding and legal actions expose the relevant targets.

- Treat discard as absent from the registered deck unless a runtime effect creates a discard choice. Do not plan around stripping the opponent's hand; use `Gitaxian Probe`, `Ancestral Recall`, `Brainstorm`, `Stock Up`, `Flow State`, and tutors to choose whether to force a commitment through visible or revealed interaction. Card text check required for `Stock Up` and `Flow State` before assigning exact tactical draw or selection roles.

- Bait with expendable artifacts, `Vexing Bauble`, low-urgency selection, or a visible `Urza's Saga` line before committing `Tinker` or `Time Vault`. Do not bait with `Ancestral Recall`, `Black Lotus`, `Demonic Tutor`, `Vampiric Tutor`, or `Mystical Tutor` unless losing that fight still leaves a concrete winning follow-up.

- Ignore low-impact creatures when a protected combo is available. Against creature decks, life total and `Mana Crypt` damage decide whether to spend interaction; above a stable life buffer, prioritize stopping disruption and closing, while at low life prioritize preventing lethal attacks over sculpting.

- Change priorities by archetype. Against combo, counter mana, tutors, draw-sevens, and deterministic payoff spells before creatures. Against blue control, fight over card advantage and protected commitments, not every cantrip. Against artifact decks, value `Hurkyl's Recall`, `Abrade`, `Tinker`, and `Tolarian Academy` tempo. Against graveyard or spell-chain decks, protect `Yawgmoth's Will` only when it wins or reloads through visible resistance.

## Combat And Trading Rules
- Attack only when the damage advances a clock without exposing the engine. `Hullbreacher`, `Urza's Saga` Constructs, and sideboard creatures should pressure opponents who are spending turns sculpting, but they should stay back when blocking preserves enough life to untap into `Tinker`, `Bolas's Citadel`, `Time Vault`, or `Yawgmoth's Will`.

- Preserve `Hullbreacher` when draw denial matters more than three damage. Do not trade it into a small attacker if `Timetwister`, opposing draw spells, or a flash punish window is likely; trade it when life total is under immediate pressure and no draw-punish line is visible.

- Preserve artifact permanents that enable `Tolarian Academy`, `Tinker`, `Urza's Saga`, `Time Vault`, or `Manifold Key`. Do not sacrifice or expose `Black Lotus`, Moxen, `Mana Crypt`, `Sol Ring`, `Vexing Bauble`, `Time Vault`, or `Manifold Key` casually if they are the visible bridge to a combo turn; accept losing expendable artifacts only when the resulting play is decisive.

- Block to survive the next turn cycle, not to maximize material. This deck often wins from low board presence, so block aggressively once combat damage plus `Mana Crypt` triggers or known burn-style pressure threatens lethal before the next protected action. At high life, take damage if preserving `Hullbreacher` or a Construct creates a faster clock or protects a draw-punish line.

- Trade `Urza's Saga` Constructs according to matchup role. Against combo and control, attacking with large Constructs can force the opponent to act before they are ready; against aggressive creature decks, holding a Construct back is correct when it blanks multiple attackers or buys the turn needed for `Tinker`.

- Protect `Bolas's Citadel` life total before and after it resolves. Do not make optional attacks or pay life for `Gitaxian Probe`, `Vampiric Tutor`, fetchlands, or `Mana Crypt` exposure without checking whether the remaining life supports Citadel casting and top-deck chaining.

- Use `Sphinx of the Steel Wind` as a stabilizer only when it is actually present and legal. If sideboarded and reachable through `Tinker`, favor it against creature pressure where lifelink-style stabilization is confirmed by visible card text; Card text check required at runtime if Forge exposes unexpected text or restrictions.

- Use `Portal to Phyrexia` as a commitment payoff only when the board and mana justify it. If sideboarded and legal through `Tinker` or hard-cast lines, treat it as a battlefield reset or long-game engine, but do not assume it beats every permanent type or timing situation without rules-engine confirmation.

- Avoid judgment-free attack or block shortcuts. Broad combat choices require visible attackers, blockers, life totals, known tricks, `Mana Crypt` risk, and whether the next turn is a combo turn; choose the single legal no-combat action only when it is literally the only safe legal action exposed by the engine.

## Selection And Tutor Rules
- Tutor for the card that turns the current legal sequence into a protected win, not the most famous card. `Demonic Tutor` can find `Tinker`, `Time Vault`, `Manifold Key`, `Bolas's Citadel`, `Yawgmoth's Will`, `Ancestral Recall`, or protection, so choose only after checking visible mana, artifacts available to sacrifice, pitch cards, opponent shields, and whether the turn must win now.

- Use `Vampiric Tutor` and `Mystical Tutor` when the top-card timing is exploitable. Prefer end-step tutor lines when passing is safe, immediate upkeep/top-deck lines when mana is constrained, and same-turn draw lines with `Ancestral Recall`, `Brainstorm`, `Timetwister`, `Stock Up`, `Flow State`, or `Bolas's Citadel` when legal actions show the drawn card can be used before the opponent untaps.

- Treat `Tinker` as both tutor and commitment. Find `Bolas's Citadel` when life total, top-deck access, and mana artifacts support chaining; find `Time Vault` only when `Manifold Key` is present, searchable, or already likely; consider sideboard `Sphinx of the Steel Wind` or `Portal to Phyrexia` only after sideboarding and only when the board state makes those payoffs superior.

- Use `Urza's Saga` selection to complete the visible engine. Search `Manifold Key` when `Time Vault` is present or strongly reachable, search `Vexing Bauble` when the stack or matchup rewards taxing free interaction, and search mana artifacts only when extra mana is the bottleneck.

- Sequence `Brainstorm` around fetchlands and known top cards. With `Flooded Strand`, `Polluted Delta`, or `Scalding Tarn`, preserve the fetch until after `Brainstorm` unless mana is needed now; with `Vampiric Tutor` or `Mystical Tutor`, avoid shuffling away the tutored card unless the plan changed.

- Use `Gitaxian Probe` before irreversible commitments when the life payment is safe. Probe can clarify whether `Tinker`, `Yawgmoth's Will`, `Timetwister`, or `Time Vault` should be forced immediately, but do not spend life casually when `Bolas's Citadel`, fetchlands, or `Mana Crypt` are already pressuring life total.

- Use `Ancestral Recall` as a protected resource swing or tutor enabler. Cast it early when the hand needs mana, blue pitch cards, or protection; hold it when `Hullbreacher` can punish a draw step, when it can draw a tutored card, or when casting it into open interaction would weaken a more important stack fight.

- Treat `Timetwister` as a reset, not a default cantrip. Use it when the hand is empty, `Hullbreacher` is active, graveyards need resetting, or fast mana converts the new hand first; avoid it when it refills an opponent who is constrained, disrupts a stocked graveyard for `Yawgmoth's Will`, or shuffles away a known top card.

- Use `Lorien Revealed` according to the immediate resource bottleneck. Find a land when hitting blue mana or land count matters more than card volume; cast it as a draw spell only when the game has slowed enough and mana is available without exposing a better commitment.

- Treat `Stock Up` and `Flow State` as conditional selection until card text is confirmed. Card text check required; use them only according to legal choices shown by Forge, prioritizing missing mana, protection, `Tinker`, `Time Vault`, `Manifold Key`, or a decisive draw spell.

## Priority And Stack Rules
- Take priority actions only when the stack or phase changes the outcome. This deck wins by compressing mana, tutors, and protection into one decisive turn, so pass harmless windows quickly but stop for opposing tutors, draw-sevens, artifact hate, graveyard hate, counter-wars, and lethal combat pressure.

- Fight hardest over protected commitments. Use `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Flusterstorm`, `Mental Misstep`, `Pyroblast`, `Mindbreak Trap`, or `Commandeer` only when present and legal; prioritize protecting `Tinker`, `Time Vault`, `Bolas's Citadel`, `Yawgmoth's Will`, `Ancestral Recall`, or a winning `Timetwister` over defending routine setup.

- Let low-impact spells resolve when the next fight matters more. Do not spend pitch counters on minor selection if the opponent still has mana and the current hand needs protection for `Tinker`, `Yawgmoth's Will`, or `Time Vault`; conserve blue cards unless the visible stack threatens the win or survival.

- Use `Chain of Vapor` at the last safe moment that unlocks the line. Bounce hate before committing, bounce a threat before lethal combat, or bounce an opposing lock piece during the end step if untapping converts the window into a win; respect legal copy choices shown by the engine.

- Activate `Manifold Key` only with a concrete artifact purpose. Untap `Time Vault` for the deterministic extra-turn engine when legal, untap mana artifacts only when the resulting mana is needed now, and avoid exposing `Manifold Key` into removal if waiting preserves a protected combo.

- Use `Time Vault` timing around vulnerability. If `Time Vault` plus `Manifold Key` is assembled, prioritize converting it immediately when legal unless visible interaction or a required mana step makes a protected wait stronger.

- Cast `Yawgmoth's Will` only when the graveyard produces a decisive turn. Count replayable fast mana, tutors, draw, fetchlands, and protection before committing; do not fire it as a medium reload if graveyard hate is visible or the opponent can untap into a better window.

- Use `Bolas's Citadel` priority with life as a real resource. After it resolves, check each life payment against visible lethal pressure, `Mana Crypt`, fetchlands, and available top-card information; stop chaining when the next legal action risks losing before the engine pays off.

- Hold `Hullbreacher` for draw-punish windows when mana allows. Flash it before an opposing draw spell or before your own `Timetwister` when legal and protected; cast it as a creature only when pressure, blocking, or mana curve matters more than the ambush.

- Treat optional payments and triggered choices as strategic, not automatic. Pay life, sacrifice artifacts, use free counters, and commit sideboard answers only when the resulting board or stack state advances the win, prevents a loss, or preserves the next protected turn.

## Sideboard Map
- Sideboard principle: preserve the fast protected `Tinker` shell unless the matchup makes a sideboard card answer a specific visible axis better than a main-deck flex slot. Keep enough blue cards for `Force of Will` and `Force of Negation`, enough artifacts for `Tolarian Academy`, `Tinker`, and `Urza's Saga`, and enough selection to assemble `Time Vault` plus `Manifold Key`.

- `Pyroblast`: Bring in against blue control, combo mirrors, draw-heavy decks, and stack fights where countering or destroying blue permanents is likely to matter. It is poor against artifact prison, Bazaar-style graveyard decks with few blue spells, and creature decks where red interaction does not line up. After sideboarding, treat `Pyroblast` as a cheap protection spell for `Tinker`, `Yawgmoth's Will`, `Bolas's Citadel`, `Ancestral Recall`, and `Timetwister`; do not spend it on low-impact blue selection if a decisive stack fight is likely.

- `Long Goodbye`: Bring in against creature decks where a small creature must be answered through stack pressure or where uncounterability matters. Card text check required; use only according to legal targets shown by the rules engine. It is poor against creature-light combo and artifact decks. Its role is to preserve life, break hate-bear pressure, or clear a creature that blocks a sideboard creature plan.

- `Dismember`: Bring in against fast creature pressure, disruptive creatures, and threats that must die even when colored mana is strained. It is poor when life total is already pressured by `Mana Crypt`, fetchlands, `Gitaxian Probe`, or `Bolas's Citadel`; treat the life payment as a real cost. Prefer `Dismember` over slower answers when surviving one combat step or clearing a hate creature unlocks `Tinker` or `Yawgmoth's Will`.

- `Hullbreacher`: Bring in extra copies against blue draw engines, draw-seven decks, control mirrors, and combo decks that rely on card velocity. It is poor against creature-heavy decks where a three-mana 3/2 does not stabilize and against prison decks where mana denial prevents holding it up. With more copies post-board, plan for `Hullbreacher` plus `Timetwister` more often, but still require visible mana, timing, and protection before committing.

- `Sphinx of the Steel Wind`: Bring in when `Tinker` needs a lifelinking stabilizer instead of `Bolas's Citadel`, especially against red damage, black removal-light creature pressure, or fair combat decks. It is poor against exile effects, bounce-heavy blue decks, artifact theft, or matchups where immediate combo is safer than a combat clock. Treat it as a `Tinker` target selected by board state, not as a default payoff.

- `Mindbreak Trap`: Bring in against storm, free-spell chains, draw-seven combo, and stack-heavy turns where exiling spells is materially better than countering one object. It is poor against low-spell creature decks and slow control where normal permission trades more efficiently. Preserve it for a decisive chain or uncounterable-style stack position; do not fire it at the first spell unless that spell is the committed win.

- `Abrade`: Bring in against artifact prison, `Time Vault` mirrors, aggressive artifact starts, and creature decks with must-answer small or medium threats. It is poor against spell-only combo and control mirrors with few artifact permanents or creatures. Its role changes by matchup: against artifacts, answer mana or lock pieces; against creatures, buy time for `Tinker`; against mirrors, break `Time Vault`, `Manifold Key`, or hate artifacts when legal.

- `Portal to Phyrexia`: Bring in when a high-impact `Tinker` target can recover a creature-dominated board or punish opponents who cannot answer a large artifact. It is poor against very fast combo, bounce-heavy blue decks, and artifact hate-heavy opponents. Choose it only when the visible battlefield makes the sacrifice trigger or reanimation plan stronger than `Bolas's Citadel`, `Time Vault`, or `Sphinx of the Steel Wind`.

- `Hurkyl's Recall`: Bring in against artifact prison, Shops-style boards, fast artifact mana clusters, and opposing artifact combo. It is poor against creature decks with few artifacts and control decks where bouncing artifacts does not create a winning window. Use it as a timed reset: end-step bounce before a combo turn, respond to lethal artifact pressure, or clear lock pieces so fast mana and tutors can function.

- `Opposition Agent`: Bring in against tutor-heavy combo, fetchland-heavy control, and decks where search effects are central. It is poor against decks with few searches and against board states where holding up three mana prevents a needed protected commitment. Treat it as interaction, not a creature clock; flash timing matters more than attacking unless the game has slowed.

- `Commandeer`: Bring in against blue control, combo mirrors, high-impact noncreature spells, and games where free interaction matters despite card disadvantage. It is poor when the hand lacks spare blue cards or when the opposing deck presents mostly creatures and artifacts. Use it for decisive theft or protection spots, especially opposing draw, tutor, planeswalker, artifact payoff, or stack fight actions when legal.

Blue Control / Combo Mirror
Side in: 2 Pyroblast; 2 Hullbreacher; 1 Mindbreak Trap; 1 Opposition Agent; 1 Commandeer
Cut: 1 Chain of Vapor; 1 Vexing Bauble; 1 Hexing Squelcher; 1 Flow State; 1 Stock Up; 1 Lorien Revealed; 1 Mana Crypt

Artifact Prison / Shops
Side in: 2 Hurkyl's Recall; 2 Abrade; 1 Portal to Phyrexia; 1 Dismember
Cut: 2 Flusterstorm; 1 Mental Misstep; 1 Gitaxian Probe; 1 Flow State; 1 Stock Up

Creature Pressure / Red Or Black Aggro
Side in: 1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind; 1 Dismember; 1 Long Goodbye; 2 Abrade; 1 Portal to Phyrexia
Cut: 1 Gitaxian Probe; 1 Mana Crypt; 1 Timetwister; 1 Flow State; 1 Stock Up; 1 Lorien Revealed

Graveyard Or Bazaar-Style Pressure
Side in: 2 Hurkyl's Recall; 1 Dismember; 1 Long Goodbye; 1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
Cut: 2 Flusterstorm; 1 Gitaxian Probe; 1 Flow State; 1 Stock Up

- Against blue control: Add role cards: `Pyroblast`, extra `Hullbreacher`, `Opposition Agent`, `Commandeer`, and sometimes `Mindbreak Trap`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow selection, narrow bounce, and artifact-tax pieces that do not protect the decisive stack fight. Keep `Tinker`, `Yawgmoth's Will`, `Ancestral Recall`, `Time Walk`, and enough blue pitch density.

- Against spell combo: Add role cards: `Mindbreak Trap`, `Commandeer`, `Pyroblast` when blue spells matter, `Opposition Agent` when searches matter, and extra `Hullbreacher` when draw-sevens matter. Reduce main-deck emphasis: creature removal and slow artifact payoffs unless `Tinker` must win immediately. Prioritize interaction density over marginal card selection.

- Against artifact prison: Add role cards: `Hurkyl's Recall`, `Abrade`, and sometimes `Portal to Phyrexia`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Flusterstorm`, `Mental Misstep`, and hand-information cards that do not answer permanents. Protect mana development, value basic `Island`, and avoid hands that cannot cast spells through early artifact pressure.

- Against creature decks: Add role cards: `Sphinx of the Steel Wind`, `Dismember`, `Long Goodbye`, `Abrade`, and sometimes `Portal to Phyrexia`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: life-cost cards, slow draw-sevens, and selection spells that do not affect survival. `Tinker` becomes a stabilizing line more often, and `Bolas's Citadel` becomes weaker when life is already low.

- Against tutor-heavy decks: Add role cards: `Opposition Agent`, `Commandeer`, `Mindbreak Trap`, and `Pyroblast` if blue. Reduce main-deck emphasis: low-impact selection and narrow artifact disruption. Hold up flash interaction when the opponent has mana and visible search timing, but commit first if waiting gives them a better protected turn.

- Against unknown opponents: Add no role cards by default unless Game 1 revealed a clear axis. Preserve the main deck's compact engine, then adjust only for confirmed artifacts, creatures, blue stack fights, search dependency, or spell-chain combo. When evidence is mixed, prefer flexible cards such as `Abrade`, `Pyroblast`, or `Hullbreacher` over narrow high-cost targets.

## Matchup Guidance

- Aggro: Stabilize first, then convert one protected artifact payoff into inevitability. Mulligan hands that spend life with `Mana Crypt`, `Gitaxian Probe`, `Vampiric Tutor`, fetchlands, or `Bolas's Citadel` without either fast `Tinker`, meaningful permission, or a clear path to `Sphinx of the Steel Wind` after sideboard. Add role cards: `Sphinx of the Steel Wind`, `Dismember`, `Long Goodbye`, `Abrade`, and sometimes `Portal to Phyrexia`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow selection, low-impact probes, and draw-seven lines that refill the opponent before the board is stabilized. Treat `Force of Will` and `Force of Negation` as survival tools against the spell that creates the fastest clock or shuts off your stabilizer, not as automatic protection for every cantrip.

- Burn: Preserve life total as a combo resource and avoid unnecessary self-damage. `Bolas's Citadel` is powerful only when life is high enough to use it safely; if the visible clock is short, prefer `Tinker` for `Sphinx of the Steel Wind` after sideboard or assemble `Time Vault` plus `Manifold Key` with protection. Add role cards: `Sphinx of the Steel Wind`, `Dismember` only when a creature materially increases the clock, `Long Goodbye` for cheap creature pressure, and `Pyroblast` only when the opponent actually showed blue interaction. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Mana Crypt`, `Gitaxian Probe`, and risky `Timetwister` timing. Do not use `Vampiric Tutor` casually under burn pressure; pay life only for a card that changes the next turn cycle.

- Tempo: Fight over mana efficiency and protect the single turn where the game swings. Keep hands with fast mana, blue pitch cards, and cheap interaction; hands full of expensive selection are risky if the opponent can pressure life while trading on stack. Add role cards: `Pyroblast` against blue tempo, `Long Goodbye` and `Dismember` against must-answer creatures, `Abrade` if artifacts or creatures both matter, and extra `Hullbreacher` when draw spells are central. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow `Stock Up` or `Lorien Revealed` use when tapping out hands the opponent a profitable turn. Use `Flusterstorm`, `Mental Misstep`, `Force of Will`, and `Force of Negation` to defend mana development, stop the threat that shortens the clock, or force through `Tinker`, `Yawgmoth's Will`, or `Time Vault`.

- Control: Build a protected commitment rather than trading every spell one-for-one. Prioritize land drops, blue card count, and information from `Gitaxian Probe` when legal, then choose a window where `Ancestral Recall`, `Tinker`, `Yawgmoth's Will`, `Timetwister`, or `Time Vault` can resolve with backup. Add role cards: `Pyroblast`, extra `Hullbreacher`, `Opposition Agent`, `Commandeer`, and sometimes `Mindbreak Trap`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow bounce, excess life-risk mana, and slow cards that do not improve stack fights. `Vexing Bauble` matters when it constrains free interaction; if it also constrains your own legal line, let the current action list and visible stack decide whether to deploy it or hold it.

- Combo: Identify whether the opponent wins through a spell chain, a permanent, a search, or the graveyard before spending permission. Against spell-chain combo, hold `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Flusterstorm`, `Mindbreak Trap`, and `Commandeer` for the committed payoff, tutor, draw engine, or protection fight rather than the first low-impact setup spell. Add role cards: `Mindbreak Trap`, `Commandeer`, `Opposition Agent`, `Pyroblast` against blue engines, and extra `Hullbreacher` against draw-seven or draw-heavy plans. Reduce main-deck emphasis: creature removal and slow artifact payoffs unless `Tinker` immediately wins or stabilizes. `Vampiric Tutor`, `Demonic Tutor`, and `Mystical Tutor` should usually find the missing half of a protected win or the exact interactive card for the next opposing turn.

- Midrange: Turn their removal and discard into awkward cards by shifting between combo, draw, and artifact mana. Keep hands with multiple engines or tutors because a single `Tinker` plan can be disrupted by discard, removal for `Hullbreacher`, or artifact answers. Add role cards: `Sphinx of the Steel Wind` if combat and life matter, `Portal to Phyrexia` if creature density is high, `Long Goodbye`, `Dismember`, and `Abrade` for efficient board interaction, plus `Pyroblast` only if the opponent is blue. Reduce main-deck emphasis: fragile life-cost lines and unprotected `Bolas's Citadel` when the battlefield already pressures life. Use `Stock Up` and `Lorien Revealed` as resource rebuilders when Card text check required confirms the visible action is selection or card access rather than immediate tempo loss.

- Big mana: Win before the opponent converts mana into a decisive permanent or protected chain. Do not over-sideboard into small removal unless their threats require it; the core plan is fast artifact acceleration, `Tolarian Academy`, tutors, `Time Vault`, `Manifold Key`, `Tinker`, and permission for the turn that matters. Add role cards: `Commandeer` for high-impact noncreature spells, `Opposition Agent` if search is central, `Abrade` if artifacts are important, and `Portal to Phyrexia` only when a creature battlefield must be reset. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow creature answers and slow value spells that do not stop the next payoff. Counter ramp only when the visible hand or board implies the payoff is otherwise unavoidable.

- Graveyard decks: Separate graveyard engine pressure from normal creature pressure. This deck has no dedicated graveyard hate in the registered sideboard, so rely on speed, stack interaction, bounce, and artifact or creature answers shown by the legal action list. Add role cards: `Mindbreak Trap` for spell-chain graveyard turns, `Hurkyl's Recall` when artifact engines are involved, `Dismember` and `Long Goodbye` for creature enablers, `Sphinx of the Steel Wind` for racing, and `Portal to Phyrexia` when a creature board is the actual threat. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow selection and `Timetwister` if it materially helps the opponent reuse public graveyard resources. Do not assume hidden graveyard cards; act from public graveyard, battlefield, stack, and known reveal information.

- Artifact/enchantment decks: Treat artifacts as the main axis and enchantments as a case-by-case threat because the registered answers are stronger against artifacts than enchantments. Add role cards: `Hurkyl's Recall`, `Abrade`, and sometimes `Portal to Phyrexia`; add `Commandeer` only for high-impact noncreature spells where theft matters. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Flusterstorm`, `Mental Misstep`, and narrow hand-information cards when permanents already dominate the board. Use `Chain of Vapor` as a temporary opening, not a complete answer, unless bouncing one permanent creates a legal winning line that turn. `Tinker` can find `Bolas's Citadel`, `Portal to Phyrexia`, or `Sphinx of the Steel Wind` depending on whether the visible game asks for cards, board reset, or lifelink stabilization.

- Go-wide creature decks: Prioritize board-swinging payoffs over one-for-one trading. `Dismember`, `Long Goodbye`, and `Abrade` buy time, but `Portal to Phyrexia` or `Sphinx of the Steel Wind` is often the sideboard plan that actually turns the battlefield. Add role cards: `Portal to Phyrexia`, `Sphinx of the Steel Wind`, `Dismember`, `Long Goodbye`, and `Abrade`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow card selection and life-cost engines that do not affect combat before lethal pressure. Use permission on anthem-like effects, draw engines, or the threat that makes blocking impossible; do not counter a small creature if a later visible spell will decide combat math.

- Single-threat decks: Answer or ignore the threat based on the clock and your protected win timing. If the threat kills slowly, spend mana on `Tinker`, `Time Vault`, `Manifold Key`, tutors, or `Yawgmoth's Will`; if it kills quickly or blocks your payoff, prioritize `Chain of Vapor`, `Dismember`, `Long Goodbye`, `Abrade`, or stack interaction. Add role cards: the cheapest answer matching the threat type, with `Sphinx of the Steel Wind` when lifelink racing is reliable. Reduce main-deck emphasis: broad defensive cards that do not interact with the actual threat. Do not use `Force of Will` on a creature automatically; compare the threat's clock against the legal winning line in hand and on board.

- Removal-heavy decks: Make removal awkward by forcing them to answer artifacts, spells, and card advantage rather than only creatures. `Hullbreacher` is strongest when protected or when the opponent is forced to act into draw effects; do not rely on it as the only plan if removal is open. Add role cards: `Commandeer`, `Pyroblast` against blue, extra `Hullbreacher` when draw spells remain central, and `Sphinx of the Steel Wind` only if their removal profile visibly struggles with it. Reduce main-deck emphasis: creature-dependent pressure and unprotected payoff creatures. Lean on `Time Vault`, `Manifold Key`, `Bolas's Citadel`, `Yawgmoth's Will`, and high-impact draw to make one-for-one removal trade below rate.

## Specific Matchup Notes
- General/archetype-only note: exact opponents are not supplied, so revealed cards, public zones, stack objects, and Veles legal actions override every archetype assumption here. Use these notes as priority filters, not as permission to name hidden cards or force lines the engine does not expose.

- Blue mirrors: Protect the turn that actually wins rather than fighting every draw spell. Add role cards: `Pyroblast`, `Mindbreak Trap`, `Commandeer`, `Opposition Agent`, and extra `Hullbreacher`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow creature removal and slow artifact payoffs when they are not protected. Priority targets are opposing stack fights over draw engines, tutors, `Tinker`-class payoff attempts, and any visible effect that would stop `Time Vault` plus `Manifold Key`.

- Fast combo: Keep stack density high and make the opponent commit before spending hard permission. Add role cards: `Mindbreak Trap`, `Commandeer`, `Opposition Agent`, `Pyroblast` against blue combo, and sometimes extra `Hullbreacher` if draw-seven effects are visible. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Chain of Vapor`, creature removal, and slow battlefield-only plans. Priority targets are the committed payoff, the tutor that clearly finds it, or the protection spell that would force through a lethal or deterministic chain.

- Artifact-heavy decks: Convert sideboard space into artifact interaction without diluting the win package too far. Add role cards: `Hurkyl's Recall`, `Abrade`, `Portal to Phyrexia`, and `Commandeer` for high-impact noncreature artifacts or artifact-enabled spells. Reduce main-deck emphasis: soft permission that is poor after permanents resolve. Priority targets are mana denial pieces, lock pieces, and artifacts that prevent casting or activating `Time Vault`, `Manifold Key`, `Tinker`, `Bolas's Citadel`, or `Yawgmoth's Will`.

- Creature-pressure decks: Stabilize with one decisive swing instead of trading every card for a small body. Add role cards: `Sphinx of the Steel Wind`, `Portal to Phyrexia`, `Dismember`, `Long Goodbye`, and `Abrade` when artifacts or small creatures matter. Reduce main-deck emphasis: life-cost engines and slow selection when the battlefield threatens lethal. Priority targets are threats that shorten the clock below the next protected combo turn, creatures that stop lifelink stabilization, and permanents that make blocking impossible.

- Graveyard-centric decks: Race or interact on stack because the registered sideboard has no dedicated graveyard hate. Add role cards: `Mindbreak Trap`, `Dismember`, `Long Goodbye`, `Sphinx of the Steel Wind`, `Portal to Phyrexia`, and `Hurkyl's Recall` only when artifacts are part of the public engine. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Timetwister` and slow selection if public graveyard resources make them risky. Priority targets are visible enablers, stack payoffs, and battlefield threats, not imagined hidden graveyard cards.

- Mana-denial or prison decks: Prioritize artifact mana deployment before lock pieces resolve, then use bounce or recall effects to create one winning turn. Add role cards: `Hurkyl's Recall`, `Abrade`, `Commandeer`, and sometimes `Portal to Phyrexia`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: expensive reactive cards that cannot be cast through the visible restriction. Priority targets are effects that shut off artifact mana, prevent activated abilities, or block the exact legal path to `Tinker`, `Time Vault`, or `Yawgmoth's Will`.

## Risk Summary
- Mana risk: The deck can produce explosive starts, but colored sources are thin and artifact mana is vulnerable to visible artifact hate. Do not keep hands that only function if `Tolarian Academy`, `Mana Crypt`, `Sol Ring`, or a Mox survives when the opponent already shows pressure or denial.

- Matchup risk: The deck can be pulled in opposite directions after sideboarding because it is both a control deck and a combo deck. Avoid adding every plausible answer; preserve enough tutors, artifact mana, `Tinker`, `Time Vault`, `Manifold Key`, `Bolas's Citadel`, and card draw to end games.

- Draw risk: `Ancestral Recall`, `Brainstorm`, `Timetwister`, `Stock Up`, `Flow State`, and `Lorien Revealed` are powerful only when their legal action advances the current state. Card text check required for `Stock Up`, `Flow State`, and `Lorien Revealed`; treat their tactical use as conditional on visible engine output.

- Over-sideboarding risk: Sideboard cards can make the deck fair without making it safer. Do not overload on `Dismember`, `Long Goodbye`, `Abrade`, `Hurkyl's Recall`, or extra `Hullbreacher` if the resulting deck lacks a protected closer.

- Graveyard risk: `Yawgmoth's Will` is a major comeback and combo card, but public graveyard hate or an opponent benefiting from `Timetwister` can reverse its value. Use graveyard lines only from visible graveyard contents and legal actions.

- Sweeper/removal risk: `Hullbreacher`, `Sphinx of the Steel Wind`, and artifact payoffs can be exposed to removal or bounce. Commit them when they immediately constrain the opponent, stabilize life, or open a protected win.

- Closer risk: `Tinker` targets are context-sensitive; `Bolas's Citadel` is not always safe under low life or pressure, while `Sphinx of the Steel Wind` and `Portal to Phyrexia` are sideboard closers with different battlefield jobs. Choose the closer from visible clock, mana, stack, and answer profile.

- Interaction risk: Free permission is finite and expensive. Pitching `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Commandeer`, or `Mindbreak Trap` too early can leave the actual payoff turn undefended.

- Sequencing risk: Tutor timing leaks plans and can lose to visible interaction. Use `Vampiric Tutor`, `Demonic Tutor`, and `Mystical Tutor` when the searched card can be deployed, protected, or drawn before the opponent gains a decisive window.

## Test Feedback Checklist
- Deciding factor: Identify the exact turn, stack exchange, or battlefield pivot that decided the game, and record whether it was driven by `Tinker`, `Time Vault` plus `Manifold Key`, `Bolas's Citadel`, `Yawgmoth's Will`, `Timetwister`, `Hullbreacher`, or opponent pressure.

- Mulligans: Record whether the opening hand had colored mana, artifact acceleration, a real card-velocity plan, and at least one protected route to action; flag any keep that relied on `Mana Crypt`, `Sol Ring`, `Tolarian Academy`, or a single Mox without a fallback.

- Mana: Check whether `Underground Sea`, `Volcanic Island`, `Island`, `Thundering Falls`, fetch lands, Moxen, `Black Lotus`, and `Tolarian Academy` produced the colors needed on the decisive turns, and note any hand where blue cards for `Force of Will` or `Force of Negation` competed with actual spell casting.

- Velocity: Track whether `Ancestral Recall`, `Brainstorm`, `Gitaxian Probe`, `Timetwister`, `Flow State`, `Stock Up`, and `Lorien Revealed` found mana, protection, tutors, or a closer in time. Card text check required for `Flow State`, `Stock Up`, and `Lorien Revealed`; evaluate only from engine-visible choices and outcomes.

- Engines: Ask whether `Vexing Bauble`, `Urza's Saga`, `Time Vault`, `Manifold Key`, `Bolas's Citadel`, and `Yawgmoth's Will` were committed at the right time, stranded, answered, or protected too cautiously.

- Interaction: Review every `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Flusterstorm`, `Mental Misstep`, `Chain of Vapor`, `Hexing Squelcher`, `Pyroblast`, `Mindbreak Trap`, `Commandeer`, `Abrade`, `Dismember`, `Long Goodbye`, and `Hurkyl's Recall` use for whether it stopped a decisive action rather than a replaceable one.

- Sideboard: Record whether added cards had live targets, whether sideboarding weakened the combo density, and whether extra `Hullbreacher`, `Opposition Agent`, `Sphinx of the Steel Wind`, or `Portal to Phyrexia` changed the opponent's required answers.

- Closing: Note whether the deck won promptly after resolving a tutor, draw burst, `Tinker`, `Time Walk`, `Yawgmoth's Will`, or `Time Vault` setup, or whether it gave the opponent unnecessary draw steps.

- Role: Mark whether the pilot correctly played control, combo, or stabilization in each game; flag role mistakes such as protecting a slow engine while dying, racing without protection, or sideboarding into answers without a win plan.

- Stranded cards: List cards that stayed in hand because of mana, timing, target absence, pitch conflicts, or sideboard mismatch, especially `Bolas's Citadel`, `Tinker`, `Yawgmoth's Will`, `Hullbreacher`, `Portal to Phyrexia`, `Sphinx of the Steel Wind`, and high-cost interaction.

- Over/underperformers: Record which maindeck and sideboard cards generated the largest swing, which were dead, and whether poor performance came from card choice, sideboard plan, runtime legal actions, or pilot sequencing.

## First Tuning Questions
- Card quantities: Is `Hexing Squelcher` worth two maindeck slots in observed games, or should one slot become more universal interaction, velocity, or a second flexible answer?

- Card text uncertainty: Do `Flow State`, `Stock Up`, and `Lorien Revealed` perform as intended after card text verification, and do four copies of each velocity card create enough early action without flooding on setup spells?

- Mana base: Does the deck need another stable blue or black source if hands with `Tinker`, `Demonic Tutor`, `Yawgmoth's Will`, `Flusterstorm`, and pitch counters repeatedly fail to line up colors?

- Artifact acceleration: Are `Mana Crypt`, `Sol Ring`, Moxen, `Black Lotus`, and `Tolarian Academy` enabling wins often enough to justify vulnerability to artifact hate, or are post-board games demanding more lands and fewer fragile mana assumptions?

- Aggro plan: Against creature pressure, is `Sphinx of the Steel Wind` the correct primary sideboard stabilizer, or does `Portal to Phyrexia` produce more recoverable boards despite being slower?

- Control plan: Against blue decks, is the sideboard mix of `Pyroblast`, `Mindbreak Trap`, `Commandeer`, `Opposition Agent`, and extra `Hullbreacher` too heavy, or does it preserve enough threats and tutors to close?

- Closer selection: Is maindeck `Bolas's Citadel` the right `Tinker` payoff in enough game states, or should sideboard `Sphinx of the Steel Wind` or `Portal to Phyrexia` appear more often in post-board plans?

- Sideboard slots: Are `Dismember`, `Long Goodbye`, and `Abrade` covering distinct threat classes, or are removal slots overlapping while artifact, graveyard, or prison matchups remain undercovered?

- Role conflict: Does sideboarding ever turn Blue Tinker into a reactive deck with too few proactive wins, and should exact plans preserve minimum counts of `Tinker`, `Time Vault`, `Manifold Key`, tutors, and premium draw?

- Tutor priorities: Are `Vampiric Tutor`, `Demonic Tutor`, and `Mystical Tutor` finding the same card too often, or should runtime guidance more clearly split their targets between protection, mana, payoff, and recovery?

- Interaction discipline: Are `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, and `Flusterstorm` being spent before the opponent commits, and should the pilot become stricter about saving them for payoff turns or lethal prevention?

- Closing speed: If games are lost after gaining control, should the deck increase redundant win pieces, change sideboard closers, or tune policy to prioritize `Time Walk`, `Timetwister`, `Yawgmoth's Will`, and `Time Vault` conversion lines sooner?

## Veles Tactical Policy

### Policy: Mulligan To Protected Engine Access
Priority: High
Decision families: mulligan
Cards: Tinker; Time Vault; Manifold Key; Bolas's Citadel; Force of Will; Force of Negation; Flusterstorm; Black Lotus; Mox Sapphire; Underground Sea; Volcanic Island
Phase windows: opening hand and London mulligan decisions
Runtime cues: prompt:mulligan; visible:opening hand
Use when: opening hand decision is legal and the hand must be evaluated before any hidden information changes.
Avoid when: engine state already reports a forced keep or no mulligan choice.
Instructions: Keep hands with real mana, blue access, and either a protected engine route or premium velocity; reject hands that only contain colorless acceleration without castable blue or black action. Treat pitch counters as protection only if a blue card can be spared without collapsing the hand.
Pilot skill floor: light-model
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Early Artifact And Land Setup
Priority: Medium
Decision families: mana; priority
Cards: Black Lotus; Mana Crypt; Sol Ring; Mox Sapphire; Mox Jet; Mox Ruby; Mox Pearl; Mox Emerald; Tolarian Academy; Urza's Saga; Vexing Bauble
Phase windows: precombat main, early priority windows
Runtime cues: action:cast; action:play land; action:activate mana ability
Use when: legal actions include artifact mana, land deployment, or an enabling permanent before a payoff is committed.
Avoid when: visible opponent pressure or stack interaction makes holding a zero-mana artifact materially relevant.
Instructions: Establish blue-producing and artifact-count mana before expensive engines; deploy `Vexing Bauble` only when its visible effect does not interfere with your own immediate noncreature free-spell plan. Prefer land sequencing that preserves black for tutors and blue for interaction.
Pilot skill floor: light-model
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Tinker Commitment Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: priority; selection; interaction
Cards: Tinker; Bolas's Citadel; Sphinx of the Steel Wind; Portal to Phyrexia; Force of Will; Force of Negation; Flusterstorm; Mental Misstep
Phase windows: main phases with priority and enough mana
Runtime cues: action:cast Tinker
Use when: `Tinker` is a legal spell and an artifact sacrifice plus payoff selection is available through the rules engine.
Avoid when: visible stack, mana, or known revealed information indicates the payoff is likely to be answered before stabilizing or winning.
Instructions: Cast `Tinker` when the payoff solves the current game state or ends the game soon, and protect it more aggressively than normal card draw. Choose `Bolas's Citadel` for conversion when life total and library access are workable; choose sideboard artifact creatures or artifacts only when they are present and the board calls for stabilization.
Pilot skill floor: light-model
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Deterministic Tinker Payoff Selection
Priority: Medium
Decision families: selection
Cards: Tinker; Bolas's Citadel
Phase windows: Tinker resolution
Runtime cues: action:choose Bolas's Citadel Tinker
Use when: the only intended visible payoff action for resolving `Tinker` names `Bolas's Citadel`, and no sideboard payoff option is being evaluated in the current prompt.
Avoid when: legal choices include `Sphinx of the Steel Wind` or `Portal to Phyrexia`, or visible board state requires comparing payoffs.
Instructions: Select `Bolas's Citadel` after the pilot has already committed to the maindeck Tinker conversion line.
Pilot skill floor: no-api
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Time Vault Combo Commitment Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: priority; mana; interaction
Cards: Time Vault; Manifold Key; Tinker; Demonic Tutor; Vampiric Tutor; Force of Will; Force of Negation; Flusterstorm
Phase windows: main phases, end-step setup, protected priority windows
Runtime cues: action:cast Time Vault; action:cast Manifold Key; action:activate Manifold Key
Use when: legal actions can assemble or start the `Time Vault` plus `Manifold Key` turn loop.
Avoid when: the line exposes both pieces to visible removal or counterplay without protection and waiting preserves a stronger protected turn.
Instructions: Commit when the engine can immediately threaten extra turns or when delay gives the opponent a lethal or disruptive window. Use tutors to complete the missing piece only when mana and protection line up for the current or next turn.
Pilot skill floor: light-model
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Target Time Vault With Manifold Key
Priority: Medium
Decision families: selection; mana
Cards: Time Vault; Manifold Key
Phase windows: activated-ability target selection and resolution
Runtime cues: action:target Time Vault Manifold Key
Use when: a legal target action names `Time Vault` for an ability from `Manifold Key`, `Time Vault` is visible under the pilot's control, and the combo line has already been selected.
Avoid when: the prompt includes multiple `Time Vault` objects or the source is not `Manifold Key`.
Instructions: Choose `Time Vault` as the target for `Manifold Key` to execute the selected combo line.
Pilot skill floor: no-api
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Tutor Commitment And Target Choice
Priority: High
Decision families: selection; priority
Cards: Demonic Tutor; Vampiric Tutor; Mystical Tutor; Tinker; Time Vault; Manifold Key; Ancestral Recall; Yawgmoth's Will; Force of Will
Phase windows: main phases, upkeep, end step, stack setup windows
Runtime cues: action:cast Demonic Tutor; action:cast Vampiric Tutor; action:cast Mystical Tutor
Use when: a tutor is legal and the target card choice changes the next major line.
Avoid when: no draw, mana, or protection exists to convert the tutored card before the opponent gets a decisive window.
Instructions: Tutor for the missing half of an engine, protection for a payoff turn, or a draw burst when the hand lacks conversion. Do not spend a tutor on a narrow answer unless the visible threat is lethal, locking, or blocks the selected win route.
Pilot skill floor: light-model
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Premium Draw And Wheel Timing
Priority: Medium
Decision families: priority; selection
Cards: Ancestral Recall; Brainstorm; Gitaxian Probe; Timetwister; Flow State; Stock Up; Lorien Revealed
Phase windows: main phases, opponent end step, response windows
Runtime cues: action:cast Ancestral Recall; action:cast Brainstorm; action:cast Gitaxian Probe; action:cast Timetwister; action:cast Flow State; action:cast Stock Up; action:cast Lorien Revealed
Use when: legal actions include card-velocity spells and no deterministic combo action is currently being executed.
Avoid when: casting a velocity spell taps mana needed for protection, a known tax, or immediate lethal prevention.
Instructions: Use draw to find mana, protection, or payoff rather than to pad hand size. Card text check required for `Flow State`, `Stock Up`, and `Lorien Revealed`; follow only engine-visible choices and do not infer unverified modes.
Pilot skill floor: light-model
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Yawgmoth's Will Recovery Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: priority; mana; selection
Cards: Yawgmoth's Will; Black Lotus; Ancestral Recall; Demonic Tutor; Tinker; Time Walk; Timetwister; Force of Will
Phase windows: main phases with graveyard visible
Runtime cues: action:cast Yawgmoth's Will
Use when: `Yawgmoth's Will` is legal and graveyard contents are public to the pilot through the visible state.
Avoid when: available mana cannot cast meaningful graveyard spells or visible graveyard hate/stack pressure makes the turn fail before payoff.
Instructions: Treat `Yawgmoth's Will` as a commitment turn, not a routine value spell. Prioritize replaying mana, tutors, draw, and payoff pieces that convert before passing priority.
Pilot skill floor: light-model
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Permission Spending Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: interaction; priority
Cards: Force of Will; Force of Negation; Flusterstorm; Mental Misstep; Mindbreak Trap; Commandeer; Pyroblast
Phase windows: stack response windows
Runtime cues: action:cast Force of Will; action:cast Force of Negation; action:cast Flusterstorm; action:cast Mental Misstep; action:cast Mindbreak Trap; action:cast Commandeer; action:cast Pyroblast
Use when: opponent spell or ability is on the stack and a counter, exile, copy-control, or blast action is legal.
Avoid when: the stack object is replaceable and saving permission protects `Tinker`, `Time Vault`, `Bolas's Citadel`, or survival next turn.
Instructions: Spend free permission on opposing payoff, lethal, prison, or anti-combo interaction; conserve it against low-impact cantrips unless `Hullbreacher`, `Opposition Agent`, or a combo turn changes the exchange. Count pitch costs as real card loss.
Pilot skill floor: light-model
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Hullbreacher And Wheel Trap
Priority: Medium
Decision families: priority; interaction
Cards: Hullbreacher; Timetwister; Ancestral Recall; Gitaxian Probe; Force of Will; Flusterstorm
Phase windows: flash windows, main phases, opponent draw-spell response windows
Runtime cues: action:cast Hullbreacher; action:cast Timetwister
Use when: legal actions can deploy `Hullbreacher` before a draw event or pair it with `Timetwister`.
Avoid when: tapping out for `Hullbreacher` leaves an opposing decisive spell unresolved or unanswerable.
Instructions: Commit `Hullbreacher` when it constrains a visible draw sequence or enables a protected wheel swing. Do not assume hidden opponent draw spells; act from stack, hand reveal, or matchup context only.
Pilot skill floor: light-model
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Bounce And Removal Survival Gate
Priority: Medium
Decision families: interaction; priority
Cards: Chain of Vapor; Abrade; Dismember; Long Goodbye; Hurkyl's Recall
Phase windows: response windows, combat, end step, main phase
Runtime cues: action:cast Chain of Vapor; action:cast Abrade; action:cast Dismember; action:cast Long Goodbye; action:cast Hurkyl's Recall
Use when: legal interaction can remove, bounce, or reset a visible permanent that blocks the win route or threatens lethal.
Avoid when: the target is not pressuring life, mana, stack control, or combo access.
Instructions: Use `Chain of Vapor` for temporary access, stack protection, or clearing a blocker to the selected line; use sideboard removal on threats that actually change the race or stop the engine. `Hurkyl's Recall` is a high-impact reset against artifact boards, not routine tempo unless the visible board demands it.
Pilot skill floor: light-model
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Combat Minimalism
Priority: Low
Decision families: combat
Cards: Hullbreacher; Sphinx of the Steel Wind; Opposition Agent
Phase windows: declare attackers, declare blockers, combat trick windows
Runtime cues: action:attack; action:block
Use when: legal combat decisions involve the deck's creatures and no combo execution prompt is pending.
Avoid when: attacking exposes a key disruptive creature to a visible unfavorable block or removes necessary defense against lethal pressure.
Instructions: Treat combat as secondary unless `Sphinx of the Steel Wind` is stabilizing or small creature damage materially shortens the clock. Preserve `Hullbreacher` and `Opposition Agent` when their static or flash role matters more than damage.
Pilot skill floor: light-model
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Deterministic Single Attack With Sphinx
Priority: Low
Decision families: combat
Cards: Sphinx of the Steel Wind
Phase windows: declare attackers
Runtime cues: action:attack with Sphinx of the Steel Wind
Use when: exactly one legal attack action names `Sphinx of the Steel Wind`, no other attacker choice is offered, and the engine shows no required blocker assignment before damage.
Avoid when: multiple attack configurations are legal or visible combat text indicates a cost, restriction, or triggered choice.
Instructions: Attack with `Sphinx of the Steel Wind` when this is the sole legal named attack action after the stabilizer plan is already active.
Pilot skill floor: no-api
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Sideboard Role Selection
Priority: Medium
Decision families: sideboard
Cards: Pyroblast; Long Goodbye; Dismember; Hullbreacher; Sphinx of the Steel Wind; Mindbreak Trap; Abrade; Portal to Phyrexia; Hurkyl's Recall; Opposition Agent; Commandeer
Phase windows: between games
Runtime cues: prompt:sideboard; match_stage:post-board
Use when: sideboard plan selection is legal and matchup label or prior-game public information is available.
Avoid when: exact Sideboard Map plans are absent from the current strategy context.
Instructions: Add interaction that has visible or matchup-supported targets while preserving enough combo density to close. Use extra `Hullbreacher`, `Pyroblast`, `Mindbreak Trap`, `Commandeer`, and `Opposition Agent` for stack/search-heavy opponents; use `Abrade`, `Hurkyl's Recall`, `Dismember`, `Long Goodbye`, `Sphinx of the Steel Wind`, or `Portal to Phyrexia` when board or artifact pressure matters.
Pilot skill floor: light-model
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Pass Discipline Under Protection Needs
Priority: Medium
Decision families: priority; interaction
Cards: Force of Will; Force of Negation; Flusterstorm; Time Vault; Manifold Key; Tinker; Bolas's Citadel
Phase windows: all priority windows
Runtime cues: action:pass priority
Use when: pass is legal and the stack, battlefield, mana, and hand context must determine whether acting now is required.
Avoid when: a legal action wins, prevents lethal, stops a decisive stack object, or commits a protected payoff this turn.
Instructions: Pass when holding interaction is stronger than spending mana, but do not pass through a window that lets the opponent untap into known disruption or lethal pressure. Re-evaluate after every public change to stack, mana, combat, or revealed information.
Pilot skill floor: light-model
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes
