# Strategy Specifications
## Deck Name And Archetype
Y'shtola, Night's Blessed is a Commander Esper singleton combo-control deck with graveyard, life-drain, and protected deterministic-combo pressure. The active validation contract reports 100 main-deck cards and a 10-card Veles policy sideboard, which is valid for this command-zone configuration; do not apply 60-card constructed sizing logic to this guide.

- Format: Commander.
- Commander: Y'shtola, Night's Blessed.
- Main count: 100 cards.
- Sideboard count: 10 cards for Veles policy use.
- Tags: combo, graveyard, tribal.
- Stock status: hybrid rogue/staple-shell list; the deck uses familiar Esper Commander acceleration, tutors, protection, and interaction, but its exact commander-centered role assumptions require runtime verification against Y'shtola, Night's Blessed card text and legal engine output.
- Legality status: format-aware validation passes under the supplied contract, including singleton construction outside basic lands and the exact 10-card Veles sideboard inventory.
- Opponent info status: no opponent deck, matchup, commander, colors, speed, or known hate pieces were supplied, so early policy must default to visible-board and public-information discipline.

The deck should be piloted as an Esper combo-control shell rather than as generic value Commander. Primary structural anchors are fast mana and fixing from Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, Talisman of Dominance, Talisman of Hierarchy, Talisman of Progress, Ancient Tomb, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, and Smothering Tithe; protected combo assembly through Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Fabricate, Entomb, Brainstorm, Frantic Search, Windfall, Rhystic Study, Esper Sentinel, The One Ring, and Bolas's Citadel; and win pressure through Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Laboratory Maniac, Bloodchief Ascension, Mindcrank, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Heliod, Sun-Crowned, Walking Ballista, and Y'shtola, Night's Blessed.

The deck has credible protection and stack-control density, so the pilot should not fire all tutors or combo pieces into open mana without checking available protection. Key protection and interaction cards include Fierce Guardianship, Flusterstorm, Swan Song, An Offer You Can't Refuse, Mindbreak Trap, Angel's Grace, Teferi's Protection, Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Mithril Coat, Spellskite, Deadly Rollick, Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares, Cyclonic Rift, Toxic Deluge, Farewell, Vindicate, Void Rend, Fractured Identity, and Akroma's Will.

Mana concerns are real despite strong fixing because the deck wants early blue for stack interaction, early black for tutors and rituals, and white for protection, removal, and sideboard hate. Runtime keep decisions must verify at least one functional early mana path rather than assuming Command Tower, Reflecting Pool, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Hallowed Fountain, Watery-style duals, pain lands, filter lands, and verge lands cover every opener. Card text check required for Bleachbone Verge, Floodfarm Verge, Shadowy Backstreet, Undercity Sewers, Meticulous Archive, Erode, Morningtide's Light, Decorum Dissertation, High Fae Trickster, Emeritus of Woe, Hope Estheim, and Y'shtola, Night's Blessed whenever the rules engine has not already exposed exact legal actions.

Role concerns center on timing and table threat perception. The deck can appear defensive with Kambal, Consul of Allocation, Rhystic Study, Monologue Tax, Smothering Tithe, Painful Quandary, Esper Sentinel, and removal, but its best wins usually come from assembling a compact protected line rather than grinding indefinitely. The pilot should treat commander deployment as conditional until Y'shtola, Night's Blessed text is confirmed by the engine, and should never assume tribal synergies exist unless legal actions or visible oracle text prove them.

Sideboard identity is anti-combo and anti-graveyard with stack reinforcement. Dovin's Veto, Dispel, Grand Abolisher, Teferi, Time Raveler, Drannith Magistrate, Rest in Peace, Dauthi Voidwalker, Grafdigger's Cage, Chain of Vapor, and Pithing Needle give Veles precise knobs for faster combo tables, graveyard decks, commander-centric engines, activated-ability engines, and permanent-based lock pieces.

## Thesis
This deck assembles compact Esper win packages behind fast mana, tutors, card-flow engines, and layered protection. The highest-priority wins are Thassa's Oracle plus Demonic Consultation, Bloodchief Ascension plus Mindcrank, Exquisite Blood plus Sanguine Bond or Bloodthirsty Conqueror, and Heliod, Sun-Crowned plus Walking Ballista when the rules engine exposes the required legal actions. Laboratory Maniac is a backup self-library payoff, not a reason to exile or draw the deck without visible protection or a deterministic follow-up.

This deck wins by converting a small protected opening into a decisive stack or life-drain line, not by playing slow fair Esper value forever. Prioritize early mana from Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, the Talismans, Ancient Tomb, Dark Ritual, and Cabal Ritual; then use Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Fabricate, Entomb, Brainstorm, Frantic Search, Windfall, The One Ring, Rhystic Study, Esper Sentinel, Smothering Tithe, and Bolas's Citadel to find either a win package or the protection needed to force it through.

This deck is not trying to be a generic creature-combat Commander deck. Combat damage from Y'shtola, Night's Blessed, Orcish Bowmasters, Kambal, Consul of Allocation, Delney, Streetwise Lookout, High Fae Trickster, Emeritus of Woe, Hope Estheim, Elesh Norn, or incidental bodies matters only when it advances clock pressure, defends life total, or complements a drain/lock plan. Card text check required for Y'shtola, Night's Blessed, High Fae Trickster, Emeritus of Woe, Hope Estheim, Morningtide's Light, Decorum Dissertation, Erode, Bleachbone Verge, Floodfarm Verge, Shadowy Backstreet, Undercity Sewers, and Meticulous Archive unless the engine exposes exact legal actions.

Prioritize protected commitment over raw speed when opponents have open mana, known hate, or public interaction. Do not cast Demonic Consultation for Thassa's Oracle or Laboratory Maniac lines unless the payoff is present or guaranteed by visible legal actions and the current stack can be defended with cards such as Fierce Guardianship, Flusterstorm, Swan Song, An Offer You Can't Refuse, Mindbreak Trap, Angel's Grace, Teferi's Protection, Grand Abolisher, Teferi, Time Raveler, Dovin's Veto, or Dispel.

## Role Package
- Threats: Use Y'shtola, Night's Blessed as a command-zone pressure card only after card text is confirmed; use Orcish Bowmasters, Kambal, Consul of Allocation, Painful Quandary, Bloodchief Ascension, Rhystic Study, Esper Sentinel, Monologue Tax, and Smothering Tithe to punish opponents for normal game actions and compress their safe windows.
- Payoffs: Treat Thassa's Oracle, Laboratory Maniac, Bloodchief Ascension, Mindcrank, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Heliod, Sun-Crowned, Walking Ballista, Bolas's Citadel, and Akroma's Will as finishers or finisher enablers that require commitment checks before exposure.
- Engines: Develop Rhystic Study, The One Ring, Esper Sentinel, Smothering Tithe, Monologue Tax, Bolas's Citadel, Bloodchief Ascension, Mindcrank, Kambal, Consul of Allocation, Painful Quandary, Delney, Streetwise Lookout, and Y'shtola, Night's Blessed when they produce mana, cards, drain, or repeatable pressure without sacrificing a near-term protected combo.
- Velocity: Use Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Fabricate, Entomb, Brainstorm, Frantic Search, Windfall, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Reanimate, and The One Ring to turn a partial hand into either a deterministic win attempt or a protected midgame engine.
- Interaction: Preserve Cyclonic Rift, Farewell, Toxic Deluge, Deadly Rollick, Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares, Vindicate, Void Rend, Fractured Identity, Erode, Mindbreak Trap, Flusterstorm, Swan Song, An Offer You Can't Refuse, Fierce Guardianship, and Angel's Grace for cards or stack actions that stop a win, kill a payoff, or end the game before this deck can act.
- Protection: Shield payoff turns with Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Mithril Coat, Spellskite, Teferi's Protection, Fierce Guardianship, Flusterstorm, Swan Song, An Offer You Can't Refuse, Mindbreak Trap, Angel's Grace, Grand Abolisher, Teferi, Time Raveler, Dovin's Veto, and Dispel rather than spending them on low-impact disputes.
- Recursion: Use Reanimate and Entomb as tactical graveyard tools for exact visible targets, but do not assume a creature is worth reanimating without checking life payment, graveyard hate, and whether the target advances combo, protection, or survival.
- Mana: Build toward blue-black-white flexibility with Command Tower, Reflecting Pool, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Hallowed Fountain, Marsh Flats, Fabled Passage, Adarkar Wastes, Caves of Koilos, Underground River, the filter lands, the check lands, the surveil/cycling lands, Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, Talisman of Dominance, Talisman of Hierarchy, Talisman of Progress, Ancient Tomb, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Smothering Tithe, and Monologue Tax.
- Sideboard modules: Use Dovin's Veto, Dispel, Grand Abolisher, and Teferi, Time Raveler for stack fights and protected combo windows; use Rest in Peace, Dauthi Voidwalker, and Grafdigger's Cage for graveyard pressure; use Drannith Magistrate for commander/cast-from-outside-pressure; use Pithing Needle for visible activated-ability engines; use Chain of Vapor as flexible cheap bounce.

## Primary Win Conditions
- Thassa's Oracle plus Demonic Consultation is the cleanest compact win when the payoff is in hand or on the stack and protection is visible. Set up with blue mana, black mana, and either immediate protection or a low-interaction table; execute by resolving Thassa's Oracle and only committing Demonic Consultation when the engine shows the relevant legal action and the stack state supports the library-empty line. Prioritize this line when opponents are tapped low, Grand Abolisher or Teferi, Time Raveler is active, or backup interaction such as Fierce Guardianship, Flusterstorm, Swan Song, An Offer You Can't Refuse, Mindbreak Trap, Dovin's Veto, or Dispel can cover the attempt.

- Laboratory Maniac plus Demonic Consultation is a backup self-library win, not the default line. Use it only when Laboratory Maniac can survive through the required draw event and the rules engine exposes a legal draw or resolution path; do not exile the library merely because Laboratory Maniac is present. Prioritize this line when Thassa's Oracle is unavailable, known exile effects removed the Oracle, or a protected draw source such as Brainstorm, Frantic Search, The One Ring, Windfall, or Bolas's Citadel is already usable.

- Bloodchief Ascension plus Mindcrank is the preferred permanent-based drain loop when Bloodchief Ascension is active or close to active by visible counters. Set up Bloodchief Ascension early behind Esper Sentinel, Rhystic Study, Kambal, Consul of Allocation, Orcish Bowmasters, or Painful Quandary pressure; execute only after the engine confirms the triggered or damage/loss event that starts the loop. Prioritize this line in slower pods, against life-payment or spell-heavy opponents, and when stack protection is weaker but permanent pressure is sticking.

- Exquisite Blood plus Sanguine Bond or Bloodthirsty Conqueror is the main life-loop finish when enough mana and protection are available. Set up by tutoring one missing half with Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, or Grim timing through Mystical Tutor only if the target is legal; execute after confirming a legal life-gain or life-loss event starts the loop. Prioritize this line when life totals have been pressured by Kambal, Consul of Allocation, Orcish Bowmasters, Bloodchief Ascension, Painful Quandary, or Y'shtola, Night's Blessed if its engine text confirms drain pressure.

- Heliod, Sun-Crowned plus Walking Ballista is a creature/permanent combo line that requires exact rules-engine confirmation. Card text check required for any devotion, counter, lifelink, or damage details at runtime; do not assume the loop is legal unless Forge exposes the necessary activation and target actions. Prioritize this line when artifact or creature tutors such as Fabricate or Enlightened Tutor can complete it and creature removal is less threatening than stack interaction.

## Secondary Win Conditions
- Bolas's Citadel is the best value-to-combo bridge when life total is high and top-deck access is useful. Use it to convert life, fast mana, and card selection into a decisive line, but stop before unnecessary life payments if Angel's Grace, Teferi's Protection, or a winning follow-up is not visible.

- Smothering Tithe, Rhystic Study, Esper Sentinel, Monologue Tax, and The One Ring are pressure engines that turn stalled games into inevitability. Prioritize them when no protected combo is ready, and use the extra mana or cards to assemble a two-card win rather than drifting into unfocused value plays.

- Kambal, Consul of Allocation, Orcish Bowmasters, Bloodchief Ascension, Painful Quandary, and Mindcrank can win through cumulative punishment. Treat this as the fallback burn/drain plan when opponents are interacting too much with compact combos, and avoid trading these pieces away unless survival or a deterministic combo turn requires it.

- Reanimate plus Entomb is a tactical recursion package, not a generic graveyard plan. Use Entomb for a creature only when Reanimate is visible or the graveyard target immediately advances survival, protection, or a win attempt; check life payment before choosing a large target such as Elesh Norn or Bloodthirsty Conqueror.

- Combat is a closing tool after engines constrain opponents. Attack with Y'shtola, Night's Blessed, Elesh Norn, Hope Estheim, High Fae Trickster, Delney, Streetwise Lookout, Emeritus of Woe, Orcish Bowmasters, or Walking Ballista only when visible attacks preserve blockers, pressure a vulnerable player, or support a lethal noncombat line. Card text check required for Y'shtola, Night's Blessed, Hope Estheim, High Fae Trickster, Emeritus of Woe, and Decorum Dissertation.

## Emergency Lines
- When behind on life, preserve survival before advancing slow engines. Use Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Deadly Rollick, Toxic Deluge, Cyclonic Rift, Farewell, Teferi's Protection, Angel's Grace, Glacial Chasm, or life-gain loops only when legal actions and visible threats show they prevent lethal or regain control.

- When behind on board, spend broad answers before narrow protection. Toxic Deluge and Farewell reset creature or permanent pressure; Cyclonic Rift buys a tempo window; Void Rend, Vindicate, Fractured Identity, Erode, Swords to Plowshares, and Path to Exile answer the single permanent most likely to stop a win or kill you.

- When behind on cards, prioritize live engines over speculative tutors. The One Ring, Rhystic Study, Esper Sentinel, Brainstorm, Frantic Search, Windfall, Bolas's Citadel, and Y'shtola, Night's Blessed if confirmed should refill toward a protected win; tutors should find the missing card only when the other half or protection is already visible.

- When behind on mana, slow down commitment and develop rocks first. Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, Talisman of Dominance, Talisman of Hierarchy, Talisman of Progress, Ancient Tomb, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Smothering Tithe, and Monologue Tax should enable one protected turn rather than expose an unsupported payoff.

- When graveyard recursion is shut off, abandon Reanimate and Entomb dependency unless removal for the hate is visible. Shift to Thassa's Oracle, Bloodchief Ascension, Mindcrank, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Heliod, Sun-Crowned, Walking Ballista, or value-engine pressure.

- When a win condition is removed, identify the remaining compact packages before spending tutors. Do not chase an exiled piece; retarget Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, or Fabricate toward the next legal package with protection and mana already available.

## Resource Model
- Life is a combo resource, but survival is the first gate. Spend life on Ancient Tomb, Adarkar Wastes, Caves of Koilos, Underground River, The One Ring, Bolas's Citadel, Reanimate, Toxic Deluge, and pain-free shock/utility sequencing only when the visible board does not present a short lethal clock or when the spend enables a protected win attempt. Preserve Angel's Grace, Teferi's Protection, and Glacial Chasm for lethal prevention or a decisive Bolas's Citadel turn rather than routine value.

- Hand size is the deck's main protection buffer. Convert extra cards from Rhystic Study, Esper Sentinel, The One Ring, Brainstorm, Frantic Search, Windfall, and likely Y'shtola, Night's Blessed only into a line that includes mana, payoff, and interaction; Card text check required for Y'shtola, Night's Blessed. A seven-card hand with no protection can be weaker than a four-card hand containing Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, and Fierce Guardianship.

- Mana is strongest when held for one protected turn cycle. Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, Talisman of Dominance, Talisman of Hierarchy, Talisman of Progress, Ancient Tomb, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Smothering Tithe, and Monologue Tax should either accelerate a durable engine or support combo plus protection in the same turn. Avoid tapping final blue mana before a win attempt if Swan Song, Flusterstorm, Fierce Guardianship, An Offer You Can't Refuse, Mindbreak Trap, Dovin's Veto, or Dispel is part of the protection plan.

- Board resources are engines first and attackers second. Protect Bloodchief Ascension, Mindcrank, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Heliod, Sun-Crowned, Walking Ballista, Rhystic Study, Smothering Tithe, and The One Ring unless a visible lethal attack or rules-confirmed combo requires using them differently. Use Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Mithril Coat, and Spellskite to shield the commander or the current combo piece, not the most expensive permanent by default.

- Graveyard resources are tactical, not a full reanimation identity. Entomb and Reanimate should target a creature only when the target changes the current game state, protects a line, or completes a win; check life loss from Reanimate before returning Elesh Norn, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Laboratory Maniac, or another large-risk target. If opponent hate is visible, shift away from graveyard dependency until Chain of Vapor, Void Rend, Vindicate, Farewell, Fractured Identity, Erode, or another legal answer is available.

- Exile is mostly a cost and risk zone. Demonic Consultation can win with Thassa's Oracle or Laboratory Maniac, but it can also remove backup plans; use it only when the draw or Oracle trigger path is legal and protected. Track cards exiled by The One Ring, Bolas's Citadel, Farewell, Mindbreak Trap, Dauthi Voidwalker, Rest in Peace, and Grafdigger's Cage effects from public information before choosing the next package.

- Sacrifice fodder is scarce and should be counted explicitly. Do not treat key permanents as expendable unless Bolas's Citadel exposes a legal sacrifice-ten-nonlands activation that is lethal or clearly stabilizing; preserve Esper Sentinel, Orcish Bowmasters, Kambal, Consul of Allocation, Bloodchief Ascension, and protection equipment when they are still taxing opponents or shielding a combo.

- Information converts directly into tutor precision. Use revealed hands, public graveyards, known exile, stack contents, commander identities, and recent decision history to decide whether Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Fabricate, or Entomb finds payoff, protection, mana, or removal.

- Sideboard bullets convert matchup texture into lower-risk wins. Add role cards: Dovin's Veto and Dispel for stack fights, Grand Abolisher and Teferi, Time Raveler for protected combo turns, Rest in Peace, Dauthi Voidwalker, and Grafdigger's Cage for graveyard pressure, Drannith Magistrate for command-zone or cast-from-exile pressure, Chain of Vapor for cheap escape, and Pithing Needle for visible activated engines.

## Mana Guide
- Keep hands that produce early blue plus either white or black by turn two. Blue protects and selects with Brainstorm, Swan Song, Flusterstorm, An Offer You Can't Refuse, Mystical Tutor, Cyclonic Rift, and countermagic; black powers Demonic Consultation, Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Entomb, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Reanimate, Toxic Deluge, and Deadly Rollick; white enables Enlightened Tutor, Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Esper Sentinel, Smothering Tithe, Teferi's Protection, Angel's Grace, Farewell, and Heliod, Sun-Crowned.

- Mulligan mana that cannot cast spells before turn three unless Sol Ring or Ancient Tomb produces a clear engine line. A keep should usually contain two lands, one land plus Sol Ring or Arcane Signet, or a land plus fast mana and a tutor/draw action; a one-land hand without Brainstorm, Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, or a cheap tutor is risky even with strong payoffs.

- Sequence untapped rainbow or dual lands before color-filter lands when colors are uncertain. Command Tower, Reflecting Pool with another colored source, Vault of Champions when enabled by multiplayer, Hallowed Fountain when life is safe, Watery-style access from Undercity Sewers or Meticulous Archive if untapped legally, and pain lands such as Adarkar Wastes, Caves of Koilos, and Underground River are preferred when holding mixed interaction. Fetid Heath and Sunken Ruins are powerful after another colored source, but weak as the only early color source.

- Treat tapped lands as planning costs. Irrigated Farmland, Prairie Stream, Sunken Hollow, Drowned Catacomb, Glacial Fortress, Isolated Chapel, Shattered Sanctum, Choked Estuary, Shadowy Backstreet, Floodfarm Verge, Bleachbone Verge, Shineshadow Snarl, Meticulous Archive, and Undercity Sewers may enter tapped depending on visible conditions; play them early when no one-mana interaction is needed, and avoid them on the planned combo turn unless the rules engine confirms untapped mana.

- Use utility lands for timing, not decoration. Ancient Tomb accelerates engines but taxes life; Glacial Chasm buys survival but can disrupt normal land development and attacks; Reliquary Tower is strongest after The One Ring, Rhystic Study, Windfall, or heavy draw; Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth improves black access and can change opponent mana too, so account for visible enemy benefits.

- Play land before draw when the hand already contains the needed colors and the turn requires maximum mana. Play land after Brainstorm, Frantic Search, The One Ring draw, or a tutor-to-top line when land identity matters, when fetchland timing with Marsh Flats or Fabled Passage can clear unwanted cards, or when the draw may reveal the missing color.

- Preserve fetches and tutors for color correction when the hand is close to a win. Marsh Flats and Fabled Passage should find the color that lets the current hand cast both payoff and protection; do not fetch a basic automatically if Hallowed Fountain, Shadowy Backstreet, Meticulous Archive, Undercity Sewers, Plains, Island, or Swamp changes the turn's legal action set.

- Float and spend ritual mana only inside a committed line. Dark Ritual and Cabal Ritual should support Demonic Tutor into a win, Bolas's Citadel, protected Thassa's Oracle plus Demonic Consultation, or emergency Toxic Deluge; avoid using rituals for routine value if the resulting shields are down and the table can untap into removal.

## Mulligan Guide
- Strong keep: keep two to three lands with early blue plus black or white, one fast-mana piece, and one engine, tutor, or shield. Command Tower plus Underground River plus Sol Ring plus Rhystic Study, Demonic Tutor, Swan Song, and Swords to Plowshares is a strong opener because it develops, interacts, and can pivot toward Thassa's Oracle plus Demonic Consultation, Bloodchief Ascension plus Mindcrank, Exquisite Blood plus Sanguine Bond, or Bolas's Citadel.

- Strong keep: keep one land plus Sol Ring or Ancient Tomb only when the hand has castable setup. Ancient Tomb plus Arcane Signet plus Esper Sentinel, Vampiric Tutor, Flusterstorm, and The One Ring is keepable if colors come online by turn two; one land plus Dark Ritual and only expensive payoffs is not equivalent.

- Medium keep: keep two lands, one cheap selection spell, and one defensive spell when the hand lacks an immediate payoff. Brainstorm, Mystical Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Fabricate, Entomb, or Frantic Search can find the missing half, but this hand needs patience and should not tutor before visible threats or shields clarify the target.

- Risky keep: keep one-land Brainstorm hands only with a shuffle effect or fast mana. Marsh Flats, Fabled Passage, Brainstorm, Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Path to Exile, and Rhystic Study is plausible; Island, Brainstorm, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Farewell, and Elesh Norn is a trap because it needs too many draws before functioning.

- Automatic ship: mulligan hands with no land, hands with four or more expensive noninteractive cards and no acceleration, and hands that cannot produce a legal spell before turn three. Bolas's Citadel, Farewell, Painful Quandary, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, and a single tapped land should be shipped unless rules output shows an exceptional free-interaction reason.

- Matchup-dependent keep: keep interaction-heavy hands against fast combo, graveyard, or commander-centric pods even without a payoff. Swan Song, Flusterstorm, Fierce Guardianship, Mindbreak Trap, An Offer You Can't Refuse, Deadly Rollick, Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares, Void Rend, or Cyclonic Rift can buy enough time for topdeck tutors, but do not keep all-answer hands against slow value tables without card draw.

- Play/draw adjustment: on the play, prefer Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Esper Sentinel, Rhystic Study, Bloodchief Ascension, or Smothering Tithe starts that force opponents to answer. On the draw, value cheap interaction and card selection more because visible opposing acceleration or commanders can make a tap-out engine unsafe.

- Trap hand: do not keep a named combo with no protection and no mana to execute. Thassa's Oracle plus Demonic Consultation is not a keep by itself if the colors are missing, if the only blue source enters tapped, or if opponents are likely to hold open interaction before you can protect with Swan Song, Flusterstorm, Fierce Guardianship, Angel's Grace, Teferi's Protection, Grand Abolisher, or Teferi, Time Raveler after sideboarding.

- Text-dependent keep: treat Y'shtola, Night's Blessed, Decorum Dissertation, Emeritus of Woe, High Fae Trickster, Morningtide's Light, Hope Estheim, and Erode as Card text check required for mulligan valuation. Keep them for curve or synergy only when runtime card text confirms they advance the current plan.

## Turn Arc
- Turn 1 priority: deploy fast mana or low-cost taxation before speculative tutors. Preferred starts are Sol Ring, Arcane Signet off Sol Ring, Esper Sentinel, Bloodchief Ascension, or a held-up Swan Song, Flusterstorm, An Offer You Can't Refuse, Path to Exile, or Swords to Plowshares when opponents threaten a faster start.

- Turn 1 deviation: tutor only when the target changes the next two turns. Vampiric Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Entomb, and Fabricate should find mana, protection, The One Ring, Rhystic Study, Smothering Tithe, Mindcrank, or the missing deterministic combo piece based on visible pressure, not a generic favorite.

- Turn 2 priority: establish the first persistent advantage engine or complete color fixing. Rhystic Study, Smothering Tithe, Monologue Tax, Fellwar Stone, Talisman of Dominance, Talisman of Hierarchy, Talisman of Progress, Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Spellskite, or Bloodchief Ascension are preferred when shields or table speed allow.

- Turn 2 deviation: answer a commander, graveyard engine, or fast combo piece before developing. Use Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Deadly Rollick, Swan Song, Flusterstorm, An Offer You Can't Refuse, Dovin's Veto, Dispel, Chain of Vapor, Pithing Needle, Rest in Peace, Grafdigger's Cage, Dauthi Voidwalker, or Drannith Magistrate after sideboarding only when the visible permanent or spell materially beats your clock.

- Turn 3 priority: choose between protected setup and commitment. The One Ring, Y'shtola, Night's Blessed, Kambal, Consul of Allocation, Orcish Bowmasters, Delney, Streetwise Lookout, Heliod, Sun-Crowned, or protection equipment can come down here; Card text check required for Y'shtola, Night's Blessed before treating the commander as the best proactive play.

- Turn 3 deviation: start a combo only with mana, legal actions, and protection aligned. Thassa's Oracle plus Demonic Consultation, Bloodchief Ascension plus Mindcrank, Exquisite Blood plus Sanguine Bond or Bloodthirsty Conqueror, and Heliod, Sun-Crowned plus Walking Ballista require runtime confirmation of legality, opponent interaction windows, life totals, and available shields.

- Turns 4-5 priority: convert advantage into a protected win attempt. Use Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Fabricate, Brainstorm, Frantic Search, Windfall, The One Ring, or Bolas's Citadel to assemble the shortest legal line while preserving Fierce Guardianship, Swan Song, Flusterstorm, Mindbreak Trap, Teferi's Protection, Angel's Grace, Mithril Coat, Spellskite, Lightning Greaves, or Swiftfoot Boots.

- Turns 4-5 deviation: stabilize before comboing if the board threatens lethal. Toxic Deluge, Farewell, Cyclonic Rift, Void Rend, Vindicate, Fractured Identity, Deadly Rollick, Path to Exile, and Swords to Plowshares should be spent when survival or a clear protected follow-up is more valuable than holding perfect interaction.

- Late-game priority: force one decisive stack fight rather than many partial fights. Build to a turn with protected Thassa's Oracle plus Demonic Consultation, Bolas's Citadel pressure, Exquisite Blood loops, Mindcrank loops, or Walking Ballista lines, and avoid exposing Laboratory Maniac or Bloodthirsty Conqueror without protection unless waiting is visibly worse.

- Late-game deviation: use emergency effects for survival when the table can kill you before your next turn. Angel's Grace, Teferi's Protection, Cyclonic Rift, Farewell, Toxic Deluge, Glacial Chasm, and Akroma's Will should be treated as bridge cards to a winning turn, not as permission to spend tutors on slow value.

## Card Roles
- Commander role: Y'shtola, Night's Blessed is the named commander and should be treated as a synergy engine only after runtime card text confirms what it rewards. Card text check required; do not keep, tutor, or tap out for Y'shtola, Night's Blessed over a known combo piece unless visible legal text shows the commander materially advances the current line.

- Fast mana role: Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, Talisman of Dominance, Talisman of Hierarchy, Talisman of Progress, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, and Ancient Tomb compress the win turn and let the deck hold interaction while developing. Spend one-shot rituals when they cast a protected engine, tutor plus payoff, Bolas's Citadel, or a same-turn win attempt; avoid using them for medium value if the hand still needs colored protection.

- Tax and draw role: Esper Sentinel, Rhystic Study, Smothering Tithe, Monologue Tax, Kambal, Consul of Allocation, Painful Quandary, The One Ring, Brainstorm, Frantic Search, Windfall, and Bolas's Citadel are resource engines, not automatic tap-out plays. Deploy Esper Sentinel, Rhystic Study, Smothering Tithe, or Monologue Tax early when shields are not required; hold Windfall until it improves your hand, disrupts stocked opponents, or reloads after fast mana.

- Primary combo role: Thassa's Oracle plus Demonic Consultation is the cleanest deterministic win pattern when legal actions, blue mana, and protection align. Laboratory Maniac is a backup empty-library payoff, but it is more fragile because it normally needs a draw or maintained battlefield presence; do not expose Laboratory Maniac without a same-turn draw line or protection unless waiting is visibly worse.

- Drain-loop role: Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Bloodchief Ascension, and Mindcrank create life-loss or mill loops once the correct triggers and state requirements exist. Card text check required for Bloodthirsty Conqueror if runtime text is unavailable; do not assume Bloodchief Ascension is active unless counters or engine output confirm it.

- Ballista role: Heliod, Sun-Crowned and Walking Ballista form a creature-combo package only when legal actions show the counters, lifelink, damage, and protection pieces work from the visible board. Use Walking Ballista earlier as removal only when it prevents a faster loss or clears a stax creature blocking the win; otherwise preserve it as a payoff.

- Tutor role: Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Entomb, and Fabricate should find the shortest protected line, not the flashiest card. Find Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Mindcrank, Bloodchief Ascension, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bolas's Citadel, The One Ring, Sol Ring, or protection based on visible mana, opponent pressure, and current hand; Entomb should be treated as Card text check required for graveyard purpose unless Reanimate or another legal graveyard line is visible.

- Reanimation role: Reanimate converts a graveyard card into a battlefield shortcut, most often after Entomb, discard, opposing mill, or a destroyed threat. Use it for Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Esper Sentinel, Orcish Bowmasters, Grand Abolisher after sideboarding, or another visible high-impact creature only when life loss and removal risk are acceptable; Card text check required for unfamiliar creature targets.

- Stack protection role: Fierce Guardianship, Flusterstorm, Swan Song, Mindbreak Trap, An Offer You Can't Refuse, Angel's Grace, Teferi's Protection, and Akroma's Will protect winning turns or prevent lethal turns. Use free or cheap counters to stop opposing wins, removal pointed at a decisive payoff, or interaction against Thassa's Oracle; do not spend them on minor value unless the table’s next action will invalidate your plan.

- Permanent protection role: Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Mithril Coat, and Spellskite protect exposed combo creatures and the commander. Equip or redirect only when the protected permanent is part of a current plan; avoid moving protection away from Laboratory Maniac, Walking Ballista, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Y'shtola, Night's Blessed, or another key piece without checking all visible removal windows.

- Removal role: Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Deadly Rollick, Toxic Deluge, Farewell, Cyclonic Rift, Vindicate, Void Rend, Fractured Identity, and Erode are for survival, stax removal, and opening a protected combo turn. Card text check required for Erode; use Toxic Deluge and Farewell when multiple opposing permanents beat your clock, and prefer Void Rend, Vindicate, or Fractured Identity for single hate pieces that prevent the win.

- Creature pressure role: Orcish Bowmasters punishes draw bursts and controls small creatures; Delney, Streetwise Lookout may multiply small-creature triggers if runtime text confirms the interaction; Elesh Norn can suppress or double enter-the-battlefield patterns depending on exact printed text. Card text check required before treating Delney, Streetwise Lookout or Elesh Norn as combo engines in this deck.

- Unknown synergy role: Decorum Dissertation, Emeritus of Woe, High Fae Trickster, Morningtide's Light, and Hope Estheim need runtime card text before strategic commitment. Play them only when legal text shows immediate protection, card advantage, combo progress, or board stabilization; otherwise prioritize known engines, tutors, interaction, or mana.

- Land utility role: Glacial Chasm and Reliquary Tower change resource math more than color fixing. Use Glacial Chasm as an emergency bridge when combat damage threatens lethal and a win or reset is likely soon; use Reliquary Tower to preserve large hands from Rhystic Study, The One Ring, Windfall, or Bolas's Citadel lines.

- Color land role: Command Tower, Reflecting Pool, Hallowed Fountain, Watery dual-style lands, pain lands, filter lands, and surveil or cycling lands make early color choices matter. Sequence untapped blue and black sources before a Demonic Consultation or counterspell turn, preserve white for Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Teferi's Protection, Farewell, and Enlightened Tutor, and use Marsh Flats or Fabled Passage to support Brainstorm or fix missing colors.

### Card Hover Notes

#### Y'shtola, Night's Blessed
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, command-zone core piece.
- Role type: engine piece; lifegain/stabilization; threat/clock.
- Deck-specific job: Rewards this Esper shell for casting noncreature spells with mana value 3 or greater by draining each opponent for 2 and gaining 2 life, then can draw at each end step if any player lost 4 or more life that turn.
- Timing: Cast when the turn can still preserve protection or when the drain trigger immediately turns on Bloodchief Ascension, Hope Estheim, Sanguine Bond, Exquisite Blood, or Bloodthirsty Conqueror pressure.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes four colored mana; outputs life gain, opponent life loss, card draw, and a vigilant 2/4 body.
- Partners / packages: Best with Farewell, Smothering Tithe, The One Ring, Bolas's Citadel, Painful Quandary, Akroma's Will, Fractured Identity, Decorum Dissertation, Fierce Guardianship, and Teferi's Protection.
- Role peers: Closest role overlap is Kambal, Consul of Allocation for noncreature punishment and Hope Estheim for life-gain-to-mill conversion.
- Failure modes: Tapping out for Y'shtola before a protected combo turn can leave Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, or Exquisite Blood lines exposed.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong into spell-heavy pods and slow fair tables; weaker when commander tax or creature removal makes repeated deployment too expensive.

#### Adarkar Wastes
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, mana resource.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Provides untapped white or blue for early Brainstorm, Swan Song, Esper Sentinel, Enlightened Tutor, Swords to Plowshares, or Path to Exile.
- Timing: Use the colorless mode when colored mana is not needed; spend life for white or blue when it protects a combo line or enables a key early spell.
- Inputs / outputs: Produces {C}, or {W}/{U} while dealing 1 damage to you.
- Partners / packages: Fixes Thassa's Oracle, Fierce Guardianship, Rhystic Study, Teferi's Protection, Enlightened Tutor, and Akroma's Will.
- Role peers: Closest role overlap is Underground River for blue plus pain mana and Caves of Koilos for white plus pain mana.
- Failure modes: Pain matters with Ancient Tomb, The One Ring, Toxic Deluge, Vampiric Tutor, Reanimate, and Bolas's Citadel.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Preserve life against burn and creature pressure; use aggressively against combo when colored interaction matters more than life total.

#### An Offer You Can't Refuse
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, cheap stack shield.
- Role type: interaction-stack.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target noncreature spell on the stack, protecting Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Bolas's Citadel, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bloodchief Ascension, or a key tutor.
- Timing: Hold for a spell that wins, stops your win, removes a decisive noncreature payoff, or resolves a hate piece; spend on lower value only when waiting loses the game.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {U}; gives that spell's controller two Treasure tokens.
- Partners / packages: Protects Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Laboratory Maniac, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, and Bolas's Citadel.
- Role peers: Fierce Guardianship also counters noncreature spells; Swan Song is narrower but can counter enchantment, instant, or sorcery spells; Flusterstorm targets instant or sorcery spells.
- Failure modes: The Treasure tokens can let an opponent rebuild or fight further on the same turn.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent against combo and control; risky against big-mana turns if the Treasures enable a second payoff.

#### Ancient Tomb
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, fast mana resource.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Accelerates Sol Ring follow-ups, The One Ring, Bolas's Citadel, Rhystic Study plus protection, or early commander deployment.
- Timing: Use when two generic mana changes the turn meaningfully; avoid routine activation under lethal pressure or when colored mana is the actual bottleneck.
- Inputs / outputs: Produces {C}{C}; deals 2 damage to you.
- Partners / packages: Casts Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, The One Ring, Mindcrank, and Walking Ballista.
- Role peers: Sol Ring produces the same colorless burst without life loss; Cabal Ritual and Dark Ritual produce black bursts for different lines.
- Failure modes: Does not cast colored spells alone and compounds life loss from Adarkar Wastes, Caves of Koilos, Underground River, Toxic Deluge, and Bolas's Citadel.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against combo races; dangerous against burn and creature decks when life is already low.

#### Angel's Grace
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, survival and combo shield.
- Role type: protection/evasion; lifegain/stabilization.
- Deck-specific job: With split second, prevents you from losing and opponents from winning this turn, while damage that would reduce your life below 1 reduces it to 1 instead.
- Timing: Save for lethal combat, lethal spell stacks, or a decisive Bolas's Citadel turn; do not spend as a routine fog if removal or Glacial Chasm covers the turn.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {W}; outputs one-turn loss prevention and damage floor protection.
- Partners / packages: Best with Bolas's Citadel, The One Ring burden pressure, Toxic Deluge survival math, and protected Thassa's Oracle or Laboratory Maniac turns.
- Role peers: Teferi's Protection is broader but costs {2}{W}; Glacial Chasm prevents damage over multiple turns at a land and life-upkeep cost.
- Failure modes: Does not remove threats and does not stop non-damage life loss from reducing life unless the loss would make you lose this turn.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: High priority against combo, burn, and alpha strikes.

#### Arcane Signet
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, core mana rock.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Turns generic mana into any commander-color mana, smoothing Esper requirements for tutors, interaction, and combo.
- Timing: Prioritize early unless holding up one-mana interaction is necessary; later, use it to keep lands untapped for blue or black protection.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}; taps for {W}, {U}, or {B}.
- Partners / packages: Casts Demonic Tutor, Thassa's Oracle, Swan Song, Enlightened Tutor, Kambal, Consul of Allocation, Rhystic Study, and Teferi's Protection.
- Role peers: Talisman of Dominance, Talisman of Hierarchy, Talisman of Progress, Fellwar Stone, and Sol Ring overlap as acceleration.
- Failure modes: Vulnerable to artifact sweep modes from Farewell and opposing artifact hate; not a card to protect over a live combo piece.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong keep signal in openers, especially with one land or Ancient Tomb.

#### Bleachbone Verge
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, conditional white-black mana resource.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Supplies black unconditionally and white only if you control a Plains or Swamp.
- Timing: Sequence after Plains, Swamp, Hallowed Fountain, Meticulous Archive, Prairie Stream, Shadowy Backstreet, Sunken Hollow, Undercity Sewers, or Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth when white is needed.
- Inputs / outputs: Taps for {B}; taps for {W} only with a Plains or Swamp you control.
- Partners / packages: Supports Demonic Consultation, Vampiric Tutor, Entomb, Enlightened Tutor, Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, and Teferi's Protection.
- Role peers: Floodfarm Verge is the white-blue version; Caves of Koilos gives untapped white-black with pain.
- Failure modes: Can strand white spells if no Plains or Swamp type is present.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Check current land types before relying on it for protection in combo turns.

#### Bloodchief Ascension
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, permanent combo payoff.
- Role type: engine payoff; combo enabler.
- Deck-specific job: Accumulates quest counters when an opponent lost 2 or more life in a turn, then at three counters turns opposing graveyard movement into 2 life loss and 2 life gain.
- Timing: Deploy early when Y'shtola, Kambal, Orcish Bowmasters, Painful Quandary, Mindcrank, or combat can trigger counters; do not treat it as active until it has three quest counters.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {B}; outputs quest counters, opponent life loss, and your life gain.
- Partners / packages: Combos with Mindcrank once active; also feeds Sanguine Bond, Exquisite Blood, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Hope Estheim, and Y'shtola draw thresholds.
- Role peers: Exquisite Blood and Sanguine Bond are life-loop pieces; Kambal, Consul of Allocation is a fair drain engine.
- Failure modes: Too slow if played after opponents can already win; graveyard replacement effects can disrupt the trigger.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Best against spell-heavy and fetch/wheel tables where life loss and graveyard movement happen naturally.

#### Bloodthirsty Conqueror
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, life-drain combo creature.
- Role type: combo finisher; lifegain/stabilization; threat/clock.
- Deck-specific job: Flying deathtouch body that gains you life whenever an opponent loses life, enabling a loop with Sanguine Bond and stabilizing races.
- Timing: Commit when you can protect it or immediately pair it with Sanguine Bond or another opponent-life-loss event.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {3}{B}{B}; outputs life gain equal to opponent life loss, plus a 5/5 flying deathtouch body.
- Partners / packages: Combos with Sanguine Bond; works with Kambal, Consul of Allocation, Y'shtola, Bloodchief Ascension, Painful Quandary, Orcish Bowmasters, Walking Ballista, and Mindcrank.
- Role peers: Exquisite Blood is the enchantment version of the life-gain trigger; Hope Estheim converts life gain into mill.
- Failure modes: Creature removal can break the loop before it starts; exposing it as a fair five-drop is risky.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong versus creature pressure and burn if it survives; protect against exile removal.

#### Bolas's Citadel
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, high-ceiling engine and finisher.
- Role type: engine piece; reach/finisher.
- Deck-specific job: Lets you look at and play the top card of your library, casting spells from top by paying life equal to mana value, with a sacrifice-ten-nonland-permanents drain finisher.
- Timing: Cast when life is high, top-card manipulation or draw is available, and protection or Angel's Grace/Teferi's Protection can cover risk.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {3}{B}{B}{B}; converts life into spells and can convert ten nonland permanents into 10 life loss for each opponent.
- Partners / packages: Excellent with Brainstorm, Vampiric Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, The One Ring, Angel's Grace, Y'shtola, and Smothering Tithe.
- Role peers: The One Ring draws without life-to-cast risk; Rhystic Study draws reactively.
- Failure modes: Top card can lock the chain; low life makes it unusable; sacrificing key permanents can dismantle protection.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Powerful in slower pods; dangerous into burn, combat pressure, or artifact removal.

#### Brainstorm
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, cheap card selection.
- Role type: card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Draws three, then puts two cards from hand on top, setting up tutors, hiding combo pieces, or clearing weak cards with shuffle effects.
- Timing: Best with Marsh Flats, Fabled Passage, Vampiric Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, or Bolas's Citadel; hold if blue mana must remain for interaction.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {U}; temporarily increases hand cards by three then returns two to library top.
- Partners / packages: Pairs with Marsh Flats, Fabled Passage, Bolas's Citadel, Vampiric Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Thassa's Oracle, and Laboratory Maniac.
- Role peers: Frantic Search digs and untaps lands; The One Ring provides repeat draw; Windfall replaces hands.
- Failure modes: Without shuffle or top-card use, bad cards remain on top and future draws can be locked.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Use defensively to find Swords to Plowshares or Swan Song, or proactively to assemble Oracle Consultation.

#### Cabal Ritual
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, black ritual acceleration.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Adds {B}{B}{B}, or {B}{B}{B}{B}{B} with threshold if there are seven or more cards in your graveyard.
- Timing: Use inside committed tutor, Citadel, Toxic Deluge, or combo turns; avoid spending for medium value if protection remains missing.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{B}; outputs black mana and cares about exact graveyard count for threshold.
- Partners / packages: Powers Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor follow-up turns, Bolas's Citadel, Toxic Deluge, Reanimate, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, and Bloodthirsty Conqueror.
- Role peers: Dark Ritual is cheaper but always produces three black; Ancient Tomb accelerates generic mana.
- Failure modes: Rest in Peace, Grafdigger's Cage pressure, or graveyard exile can reduce threshold planning.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in combo races; post-sideboard, reassess if Rest in Peace is part of your plan.

#### Caves of Koilos
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, white-black pain land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Provides untapped white or black for removal, tutors, protection, and drain engines.
- Timing: Use {C} when possible; spend life for {W} or {B} when enabling a relevant spell this turn.
- Inputs / outputs: Produces {C}, or {W}/{B} while dealing 1 damage to you.
- Partners / packages: Casts Enlightened Tutor, Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Demonic Consultation, Vampiric Tutor, Entomb, and Kambal, Consul of Allocation.
- Role peers: Adarkar Wastes provides white-blue pain mana; Underground River provides blue-black pain mana.
- Failure modes: Repeated life payments conflict with Ancient Tomb, Toxic Deluge, The One Ring, and Bolas's Citadel.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Prioritize painless routes in burn and aggro matchups.

#### Choked Estuary
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, blue-black conditional land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Provides {U} or {B}, and can enter untapped if you reveal an Island or Swamp card from hand.
- Timing: Reveal Island, Swamp, Meticulous Archive, Prairie Stream, Irrigated Farmland, Sunken Hollow, Undercity Sewers, or Shadowy Backstreet only when the information cost is worth untapped mana.
- Inputs / outputs: Produces blue or black; may cost tempo if it enters tapped.
- Partners / packages: Supports Brainstorm, Swan Song, Demonic Consultation, Vampiric Tutor, Entomb, Dark Ritual, and Thassa's Oracle.
- Role peers: Drowned Catacomb and Darkslick Shores also cover blue-black with different entry conditions.
- Failure modes: Revealing a key land type can expose color needs; entering tapped can break one-mana interaction timing.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Untapped early blue is crucial against combo and control.

#### Command Tower
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, premium mana resource.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Produces any of Y'shtola's commander colors, making it the cleanest source for Esper sequencing.
- Timing: Lead on it when you need flexibility; preserve it untapped when holding Swan Song, Vampiric Tutor, Path to Exile, or Angel's Grace.
- Inputs / outputs: Taps for {W}, {U}, or {B}.
- Partners / packages: Casts every colored spell in the deck, including Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Enlightened Tutor, and Y'shtola.
- Role peers: Arcane Signet and Reflecting Pool can approximate rainbow access, with different dependencies.
- Failure modes: No special failure beyond land destruction; do not waste it on generic costs when another source can pay.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strongest opener with any cheap interaction or tutor.

#### Cyclonic Rift
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, flexible bounce and reset.
- Role type: interaction-removal; modal utility.
- Deck-specific job: Buys tempo by returning target nonland permanent you don't control, or overloads to return each nonland permanent you don't control.
- Timing: Use single-target mode to clear a hate permanent or lethal threat; overload when it opens a same-turn win or prevents a losing board.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{U} normally or {6}{U} for overload; outputs tempo and temporary access.
- Mode map: Normal cast targets one nonland permanent you don't control; Overload changes "target" to "each," hitting all nonland permanents you don't control and avoiding targeting restrictions.
- Partners / packages: Clears blockers or hate before Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bloodchief Ascension, Mindcrank, or Bolas's Citadel turns.
- Role peers: Chain of Vapor is cheaper sideboard bounce; Void Rend destroys target nonland permanent permanently.
- Failure modes: Bounced cards can be replayed; overload costs seven mana.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent against go-wide, stax, and protected-permanent boards.

#### Dark Ritual
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, burst black mana.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Converts one black mana into three black mana to accelerate tutors, removal, and black combo permanents.
- Timing: Use when it enables a protected same-turn line, Bolas's Citadel, Demonic Tutor plus follow-up, or emergency Toxic Deluge.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {B}; outputs {B}{B}{B}.
- Partners / packages: Casts Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor follow-ups, Entomb plus Reanimate, Toxic Deluge, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, and Bloodthirsty Conqueror.
- Role peers: Cabal Ritual is larger with threshold; Ancient Tomb and Sol Ring accelerate generic mana instead.
- Failure modes: Ritual into a countered payoff can leave you down a card and mana.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Best against fast combo and when opponents are tapped low.

#### Deadly Rollick
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, free commander-enabled creature exile.
- Role type: interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: Exiles target creature, often for free if you control Y'shtola.
- Timing: Hold for a creature that threatens lethal, stops your combo, or enables an opponent's win; use proactively only when clearing a decisive hate creature.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {3}{B}, or no mana if you control a commander; outputs creature exile.
- Partners / packages: Protects Thassa's Oracle, Laboratory Maniac, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Walking Ballista, and Bolas's Citadel turns from creature-based disruption.
- Role peers: Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile exile creatures with different drawbacks; Toxic Deluge handles multiple creatures.
- Failure modes: Cannot hit artifacts, enchantments, planeswalkers, or noncreature spells.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Premium against commander-centric creature combo and lethal attackers.

#### Decorum Dissertation
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, slow card-flow drain spell.
- Role type: card selection; engine piece.
- Deck-specific job: Target player draws two cards and loses 2 life, then paradigm can let you cast a copy from exile at the beginning of each first main phase after the first resolution.
- Timing: Aim at yourself when two cards matter more than 2 life; aim at an opponent only when loss of life, decking pressure, or forced draw matters.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {3}{B}{B}; outputs two cards to target player, 2 life loss to that player, and future paradigm access.
- Mode map: The spell has one effect, but paradigm creates a recurring cast-copy access from exile after the first resolution.
- Partners / packages: Triggers Y'shtola for 2 drain/life gain, can advance Bloodchief Ascension, Sanguine Bond, Exquisite Blood, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, and Hope Estheim.
- Role peers: The One Ring and Rhystic Study are stronger card engines; Painful Quandary is a stronger punishment enchantment.
- Failure modes: Five mana sorcery speed is slow; targeting an opponent can give them cards.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Better in grindy games than fast combo races.

#### Delney, Streetwise Lookout
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, power-2-or-less trigger enhancer.
- Role type: engine piece; role glue.
- Deck-specific job: Makes your power-2-or-less creatures harder for power-3-or-greater creatures to block and doubles triggered abilities of your creatures with power 2 or less.
- Timing: Deploy before Esper Sentinel, Orcish Bowmasters, Kambal, Hope Estheim, Laboratory Maniac, Thassa's Oracle, or Y'shtola triggers matter.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}{W}; outputs trigger doubling and combat evasion rules for your power-2-or-less creatures.
- Partners / packages: Doubles Esper Sentinel, Orcish Bowmasters, Kambal, Consul of Allocation, Hope Estheim, Thassa's Oracle enter trigger, and Y'shtola because Y'shtola has power 2.
- Role peers: No direct peer; closest role overlap is Elesh Norn for triggered/permanent pressure and Kambal for repeated drain.
- Failure modes: Does not protect creatures from removal and can make Thassa's Oracle trigger math more complex.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against creature boards with large blockers and spell-heavy pods where small triggers accumulate.

#### Demonic Consultation
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, primary combo enabler.
- Role type: combo enabler; tutor/search.
- Deck-specific job: Names a card, exiles the top six library cards, then reveals until that card is found, putting it into hand and exiling other revealed cards; paired with Thassa's Oracle or Laboratory Maniac to empty the library.
- Timing: Use as a commitment card with Oracle trigger, Laboratory Maniac draw setup, or desperate tutor need; avoid casual setup if exiling key win pieces would matter.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {B}; outputs one named card if found and potentially exiles much of the library.
- Partners / packages: Primary with Thassa's Oracle; backup with Laboratory Maniac plus Brainstorm, Frantic Search, The One Ring, or Windfall.
- Role peers: Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor find cards without exile risk; Tainted-style effects are absent.
- Failure modes: Naming a visible or needed card incorrectly can lose the game; removal on Laboratory Maniac can strand an empty library.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Best when protected by Fierce Guardianship, Swan Song, Flusterstorm, Angel's Grace, Grand Abolisher, or Teferi, Time Raveler.

#### Demonic Tutor
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, unconditional tutor.
- Role type: tutor/search.
- Deck-specific job: Finds any card directly to hand, selecting the nearest protected win, missing mana, protection, or answer.
- Timing: Cast when the target will affect the next turn cycle; avoid telegraphing a slow target into open interaction unless waiting is worse.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{B}; outputs any library card into hand.
- Partners / packages: Finds Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Bloodchief Ascension, Mindcrank, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Bolas's Citadel, The One Ring, or Fierce Guardianship.
- Role peers: Vampiric Tutor is instant but top-deck and costs life; Mystical Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Fabricate, and Entomb have narrower target classes.
- Failure modes: Tutoring payoff without protection can invite losing the key exchange.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Against fast combo, find interaction or Oracle Consultation; against stax, find Void Rend, Cyclonic Rift, or Chain of Vapor post-board.

#### Drowned Catacomb
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, blue-black check land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Produces {U} or {B}, entering untapped if you control an Island or Swamp.
- Timing: Sequence after Island, Swamp, Meticulous Archive, Irrigated Farmland, Prairie Stream, Sunken Hollow, Undercity Sewers, Shadowy Backstreet, or Urborg where applicable.
- Inputs / outputs: Outputs blue or black mana; may enter tapped without required land type.
- Partners / packages: Enables Brainstorm, Swan Song, Demonic Consultation, Vampiric Tutor, Entomb, and Thassa's Oracle.
- Role peers: Choked Estuary and Darkslick Shores also fill blue-black fixing.
- Failure modes: Entering tapped can prevent turn-one interaction or a same-turn combo.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Count land types before assuming it supports a protected Oracle turn.

#### Emeritus of Woe
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, prepared tutor creature and flex slot.
- Role type: tutor/search; threat/clock.
- Deck-specific job: A 5/4 Vampire Warlock that enters prepared, letting you cast a copy of its Demonic Tutor face while prepared; it can become prepared again at your end step if two or more creatures died this turn.
- Timing: Use the prepared Demonic Tutor copy when it immediately finds a protected line or survival answer; recast as creature when body plus future tutor matters.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {3}{B} for the creature or uses prepared access to a {1}{B} Demonic Tutor copy; outputs a tutor or 5/4 body.
- Mode map: Creature face is Emeritus of Woe; prepared spell face is Demonic Tutor, which searches any card to hand then shuffles.
- Partners / packages: Finds Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Mindcrank, Bloodchief Ascension, Bolas's Citadel, or Toxic Deluge.
- Role peers: Demonic Tutor is the clean direct version; Vampiric Tutor is faster but top-deck.
- Failure modes: Reference metadata for combined oracle is missing, so rely on listed face text for prepared sequencing.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Better in grindy creature games where deaths can re-prepare it.

#### Enlightened Tutor
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, instant artifact/enchantment tutor.
- Role type: tutor/search.
- Deck-specific job: Searches an artifact or enchantment, reveals it, shuffles, and puts it on top for next draw or top-card access.
- Timing: Cast end step before your turn or before a draw effect; use upkeep only if immediate draw access exists.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {W}; outputs a revealed artifact or enchantment on top of library.
- Partners / packages: Finds Bloodchief Ascension, Mindcrank, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bolas's Citadel, The One Ring, Rhystic Study, Smothering Tithe, Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Mithril Coat, Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Grafdigger's Cage, Pithing Needle, or Rest in Peace.
- Role peers: Fabricate finds artifacts to hand; Vampiric Tutor finds any card to top.
- Failure modes: Top-deck tutor can be disrupted by forced shuffle or discard, and revealing gives opponents information.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong when a specific permanent beats the visible board or completes a drain loop.

#### Entomb
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, graveyard tutor.
- Role type: tutor/search; recursion.
- Deck-specific job: Searches any card into your graveyard, mostly to enable Reanimate or set up graveyard resources.
- Timing: Use when Reanimate is available, graveyard hate is absent, or placing a card in graveyard directly supports a line.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {B}; outputs a chosen library card into your graveyard.
- Partners / packages: Sets up Reanimate for Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Laboratory Maniac, Esper Sentinel, Orcish Bowmasters, Kambal, Consul of Allocation, Hope Estheim, Elesh Norn, or Grand Abolisher post-board.
- Role peers: Demonic Tutor finds to hand; Vampiric Tutor finds to top.
- Failure modes: Rest in Peace, Dauthi Voidwalker, Grafdigger's Cage, or opposing graveyard exile can blank the setup.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Avoid in graveyard-hate matchups unless the graveyard card is immediately used or baiting is intentional.

#### Erode
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, one-mana removal.
- Role type: interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: Destroys target creature or planeswalker, then its controller may search for a basic land card onto the battlefield tapped.
- Timing: Use on a creature or planeswalker that threatens lethal, stops your combo, or provides an engine that outpaces you.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {W}; destroys a creature or planeswalker; may ramp that permanent's controller with a tapped basic.
- Partners / packages: Covers threats that Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile also answer, while freeing Void Rend and Vindicate for noncreature permanents.
- Role peers: Swords to Plowshares exiles target creature with life gain; Path to Exile exiles target creature with basic-land ramp.
- Failure modes: Cannot target artifacts, enchantments, lands, or spells on the stack.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Good against commander creatures and planeswalkers; poor into creature-light combo.

#### Esper Sentinel
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, early tax draw creature.
- Role type: engine piece; card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Taxes each opponent's first noncreature spell each turn by {X}, where X is Esper Sentinel's power, drawing if they do not pay.
- Timing: Cast turn one when possible; later, deploy before expected stack exchanges or with Delney to multiply triggers.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {W}; outputs cards or opponent mana tax pressure.
- Partners / packages: Works with Delney, Streetwise Lookout, Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Mithril Coat, and Reanimate.
- Role peers: Rhystic Study taxes every spell; Monologue Tax and Smothering Tithe produce mana instead of cards.
- Failure modes: Base power 1 makes the tax easy to pay later; fragile to sweepers and removal.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent against spell-heavy pods and control; less impactful against creature-heavy decks.

#### Exquisite Blood
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, life-loop combo enchantment.
- Role type: combo finisher; lifegain/stabilization.
- Deck-specific job: Whenever an opponent loses life, you gain that much life, enabling infinite life-loss loops with Sanguine Bond.
- Timing: Commit when you can immediately pair with Sanguine Bond or when repeated opponent life loss will stabilize the table.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {4}{B}; outputs life gain tied to opponent life loss.
- Partners / packages: Combos with Sanguine Bond; works with Kambal, Bloodchief Ascension, Y'shtola, Orcish Bowmasters, Painful Quandary, Walking Ballista, and Mindcrank.
- Role peers: Bloodthirsty Conqueror has the same trigger on a creature body.
- Failure modes: Does nothing until opponents lose life; enchantment removal breaks the loop.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in damage-heavy games and when life total is pressured.

#### Fabled Passage
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, land-search utility.
- Role type: tutor/search; mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Sacrifices to find Island, Plains, or Swamp; the basic enters tapped, then untaps if you control four or more lands.
- Timing: Hold for Brainstorm cleanup or color correction unless early mana is required.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes land drop and sacrifice; outputs a basic land card from library and a shuffle.
- Mode map: Tap and sacrifice Fabled Passage, search for Island, Plains, or Swamp, put it onto the battlefield tapped, shuffle, then untap it if you control four or more lands.
- Partners / packages: Pairs with Brainstorm, Vampiric Tutor top-card decisions, Mystical Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, and check-land setup for Drowned Catacomb, Glacial Fortress, Isolated Chapel, Prairie Stream, and Sunken Hollow.
- Role peers: Marsh Flats finds Plains or Swamp cards untapped but costs 1 life.
- Failure modes: Basic targets are only Island, Plains, and Swamp; do not assume dual-land access.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Valuable against mana pressure and for shuffle discipline.

#### Farewell
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, broad exile sweeper.
- Role type: interaction-sweeper; modal utility.
- Deck-specific job: Exiles chosen battlefield/graveyard classes: artifacts, creatures, enchantments, and/or graveyards.
- Timing: Use when multiple permanent classes or graveyards must be reset; avoid if it destroys your active combo route without stopping a worse threat.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {4}{W}{W}; outputs mass exile across selected classes.
- Mode map: Choose one or more: exile artifacts; exile creatures; exile enchantments; exile graveyards. Each chosen mode affects your permanents too.
- Partners / packages: Can clear hate before Thassa's Oracle, reset creatures for Laboratory Maniac safety, or exile graveyards when Reanimate and Cabal Ritual threshold are deprioritized.
- Role peers: Toxic Deluge is cheaper creature-only shrink; Cyclonic Rift is one-sided temporary bounce.
- Failure modes: Exiles your Bloodchief Ascension, Mindcrank, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, The One Ring, Sol Ring, and protection artifacts if those modes are chosen.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Best versus go-wide, graveyard, artifact, or enchantment boards.

#### Fellwar Stone
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, conditional mana rock.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Adds one mana of any color that a land an opponent controls could produce, often providing Esper colors in Commander.
- Timing: Cast early when opponents' lands make useful colors; check actual visible land production before relying on a color.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}; outputs opponent-land-dependent mana.
- Partners / packages: Supports Rhystic Study, Y'shtola, Demonic Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Teferi's Protection, and combo protection turns.
- Role peers: Arcane Signet is more reliable; Talismans provide defined color pairs with pain.
- Failure modes: Cannot guarantee white, blue, or black unless an opponent land can produce that color.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in multicolor pods; weaker against colorless-heavy or mono-color boards missing your needed color.

#### Fetid Heath
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, white-black filter land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Turns white or black input into double white, white-black, or double black; also taps for colorless.
- Timing: Use after another white or black source is available; do not keep as sole colored source.
- Inputs / outputs: Produces {C}, or filters {W/B} plus tap into {W}{W}, {W}{B}, or {B}{B}.
- Partners / packages: Casts Heliod, Sun-Crowned, Grand Abolisher post-board, Demonic Consultation plus protection, Sanguine Bond, Exquisite Blood, and Bloodthirsty Conqueror.
- Role peers: Sunken Ruins filters blue-black; Caves of Koilos gives direct white-black with pain.
- Failure modes: Strands colored spells if it is your only land with no white or black input.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Great for double-pip turns once base color is established.

#### Fierce Guardianship
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, free commander shield.
- Role type: interaction-stack.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target noncreature spell on the stack, often for no mana if you control Y'shtola.
- Timing: Preserve for opposing win attempts, removal/countermagic against your combo, or hate spells that stop the chosen route.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}{U}, or zero mana with commander; outputs noncreature spell counter.
- Partners / packages: Protects Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Laboratory Maniac, Bolas's Citadel, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bloodchief Ascension, and Mindcrank.
- Role peers: An Offer You Can't Refuse and Dovin's Veto also counter noncreature spells; Swan Song has narrower spell classes.
- Failure modes: Cannot counter creature spells or resolved permanents.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Premier protection against control, combo, sweepers, and stack fights.

#### Floodfarm Verge
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, conditional white-blue mana resource.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Supplies white unconditionally and blue only if you control a Plains or Island.
- Timing: Sequence after Plains, Island, Hallowed Fountain, Meticulous Archive, Irrigated Farmland, Prairie Stream, Shadowy Backstreet, Sunken Hollow, Undercity Sewers, or Urborg plus land-type context when relevant.
- Inputs / outputs: Taps for {W}; taps for {U} only with a Plains or Island.
- Partners / packages: Supports Enlightened Tutor, Esper Sentinel, Brainstorm, Swan Song, Thassa's Oracle, Rhystic Study, and Teferi's Protection.
- Role peers: Bleachbone Verge is the black-white analogue; Adarkar Wastes gives direct white-blue with pain.
- Failure modes: Can strand blue interaction if no Plains or Island is controlled.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Verify blue availability before representing countermagic.

#### Flusterstorm
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, stack-fight specialist.
- Role type: interaction-stack.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target instant or sorcery spell unless its controller pays {1}, with storm copies for each spell cast before it this turn.
- Timing: Hold for counter wars, tutors, extra turns, removal pointed at combo, or storm-like turns; weaker as a turn-one tax with no storm count.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {U}; outputs one or more soft counters against instant or sorcery spells.
- Partners / packages: Protects Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Laboratory Maniac, Reanimate, Demonic Tutor, and Bolas's Citadel setup.
- Role peers: Swan Song hits enchantment too; Dispel hits instant only; Mindbreak Trap exiles spells.
- Failure modes: Cannot hit creatures, artifacts, enchantments, or planeswalkers, and opponents can pay for copies if mana is ample.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent against control and spell combo; poor against permanent-heavy creature decks.

#### Frantic Search
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, instant-speed filter and mana reset.
- Role type: card selection; discard outlet.
- Deck-specific job: Draws two, discards two, then untaps up to three lands, converting bad cards into velocity while preserving mana.
- Timing: Cast when digging for protection or combo while lands can untap for interaction; avoid discarding unique combo pieces unless recursion or redundancy exists.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}{U}; outputs two draws, two discards, and up to three untapped lands.
- Partners / packages: Digs for Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Reanimate, Entomb, Fierce Guardianship, Swan Song, and Toxic Deluge; can discard Reanimate targets like Bloodthirsty Conqueror or Elesh Norn.
- Role peers: Brainstorm preserves cards on top; Windfall replaces hands.
- Failure modes: Discarding wrong cards can break the only live route.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong when holding up blue interaction or setting up Reanimate.

#### Glacial Chasm
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, emergency defensive utility land.
- Role type: lifegain/stabilization.
- Deck-specific job: Prevents all damage that would be dealt to you, stops your creatures from attacking, and requires sacrificing a land on entry plus cumulative upkeep of 2 life per age counter.
- Timing: Play only when damage prevention buys a win, reset, or survival turn; avoid if you need to attack with Akroma's Will or commander damage.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes a land sacrifice, land drop, and escalating life; outputs damage prevention.
- Partners / packages: Bridges to Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Toxic Deluge, Farewell, Cyclonic Rift, The One Ring, or Bolas's Citadel.
- Role peers: Angel's Grace and Teferi's Protection prevent losing or damage for one turn without land sacrifice.
- Failure modes: Does not stop life loss, milling, poison, or non-damage combo wins.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong versus combat and burn damage; weak versus spell combo.

#### Glacial Fortress
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, white-blue check land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Produces {W} or {U}, entering untapped if you control a Plains or Island.
- Timing: Sequence after Plains, Island, Hallowed Fountain, Meticulous Archive, Irrigated Farmland, Prairie Stream, Shadowy Backstreet, or Undercity Sewers when possible.
- Inputs / outputs: Outputs white or blue mana; may enter tapped without required land type.
- Partners / packages: Casts Esper Sentinel, Enlightened Tutor, Brainstorm, Swan Song, Rhystic Study, Thassa's Oracle, and Teferi's Protection.
- Role peers: Drowned Catacomb and Isolated Chapel are check lands for other Esper pairs.
- Failure modes: Tapped entry can cost one-mana interaction on critical turns.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong when land types are already established; risky in one-land openers.

#### Heliod, Sun-Crowned
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, combo payoff enchantment creature.
- Role type: combo enabler; mechanic payoff.
- Deck-specific job: Puts +1/+1 counters on a target creature or enchantment you control whenever you gain life, and can give another target creature lifelink until end of turn.
- Timing: Commit when Walking Ballista can be assembled or when repeated life gain from Y'shtola, Kambal, Bloodchief Ascension, Exquisite Blood, or Bloodthirsty Conqueror matters.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}{W}; activated ability consumes {1}{W}; outputs lifelink and +1/+1 counters. Devotion to white below five means Heliod is not a creature.
- Mode map: Static/triggered side rewards life gain with counters; activated side targets another creature for lifelink until end of turn.
- Partners / packages: Combos with Walking Ballista when Ballista has enough counters and lifelink can create repeating damage/life-gain/counter actions.
- Role peers: Sanguine Bond and Bloodthirsty Conqueror also convert life movement into wins.
- Failure modes: Needs exact mana and counters; devotion affects creature status but not enchantment status.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Better against creature-light tables where permanent combo pieces survive.

#### High Fae Trickster
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, flash enabler and evasive threat.
- Role type: protection/evasion; role glue.
- Deck-specific job: Flash flying creature that lets you cast spells as though they had flash, creating instant-speed access to tutors, sweepers, combo permanents, and sorceries.
- Timing: Cast at end step when shields are up, then use the flash permission to threaten protected win windows.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {3}{U}; outputs 4/2 flying pressure and flash timing for your spells.
- Partners / packages: Improves Demonic Tutor, Vindicate, Farewell, Toxic Deluge, Fractured Identity, Sanguine Bond, Exquisite Blood, Bolas's Citadel, and Rhystic Study timing.
- Role peers: Teferi, Time Raveler gives your sorceries flash with +1 post-board while restricting opponents.
- Failure modes: Four mana 4/2 is fragile; does not itself protect spells from counters.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong versus tap-out control and end-step combo planning; weaker versus instant-speed removal.

#### Irrigated Farmland
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, tapped Plains Island utility land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Provides white or blue and can be cycled for a card when mana is plentiful or land is not needed.
- Timing: Play early tapped if tempo allows; cycle later when color sources are secure and a new card matters more than the land.
- Inputs / outputs: Taps for {W} or {U}; cycling costs {2}, discards Irrigated Farmland, and draws a card.
- Mode map: Land aspect enters tapped as a Plains Island mana source; cycling aspect uses {2}, discards this card, and draws one card.
- Partners / packages: Enables Glacial Fortress, Drowned Catacomb via Island, Floodfarm Verge, Choked Estuary reveal, and Fabled Passage planning.
- Role peers: Meticulous Archive is another Plains Island but surveils instead of cycling.
- Failure modes: Entering tapped can cost early interaction; cycling consumes the land drop resource.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Better in slower matchups; dangerous as the only early blue source versus combo.

#### Island
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, basic blue mana resource.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Provides reliable blue for Brainstorm, Swan Song, Flusterstorm, Mystical Tutor, Thassa's Oracle, Rhystic Study, and Cyclonic Rift.
- Timing: Fetch or play when the hand needs untapped blue and when check lands or verge lands depend on Island.
- Inputs / outputs: Taps for {U}; basic land for Fabled Passage.
- Partners / packages: Enables Drowned Catacomb, Glacial Fortress, Prairie Stream, Sunken Hollow, Choked Estuary reveal, Floodfarm Verge, and Brainstorm plus Fabled Passage sequencing.
- Role peers: Meticulous Archive, Irrigated Farmland, Prairie Stream, Sunken Hollow, and Undercity Sewers also have Island type but enter with conditions.
- Failure modes: Does not produce white or black.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Priority basic against control and combo where one-mana blue interaction matters.

#### Isolated Chapel
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, white-black check land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Produces {W} or {B}, entering untapped if you control a Plains or Swamp.
- Timing: Sequence after Plains, Swamp, Hallowed Fountain, Meticulous Archive, Prairie Stream, Shadowy Backstreet, Sunken Hollow, Undercity Sewers, or Urborg where applicable.
- Inputs / outputs: Outputs white or black; may enter tapped.
- Partners / packages: Casts Enlightened Tutor, Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Demonic Consultation, Vampiric Tutor, Entomb, and Kambal.
- Role peers: Glacial Fortress and Drowned Catacomb are the other check lands.
- Failure modes: Tapped entry can strand one-mana removal or tutor windows.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong when early land types are already visible.

#### Kambal, Consul of Allocation
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, spell-punishment engine.
- Role type: engine piece; lifegain/stabilization.
- Deck-specific job: Whenever an opponent casts a noncreature spell, that player loses 2 life and you gain 2 life, compressing stack-heavy tables.
- Timing: Cast early when opponents are likely to cast multiple noncreature spells before your next turn; protect if it is enabling Bloodchief Ascension or life loops.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{W}{B}; outputs opponent life loss, your life gain, and a 2/3 body.
- Partners / packages: Feeds Bloodchief Ascension, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Hope Estheim, Heliod, and Y'shtola draw thresholds.
- Role peers: Y'shtola drains on your expensive noncreature spells; Painful Quandary punishes all opponent spells more heavily.
- Failure modes: Weak against creature-heavy opponents and vulnerable to removal.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent against storm, control, and fast combo spell chains.

#### Laboratory Maniac
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, backup empty-library payoff.
- Role type: combo finisher.
- Deck-specific job: Wins if you would draw a card while your library has no cards, backing up Demonic Consultation lines when Thassa's Oracle is unavailable.
- Timing: Do not expose without immediate draw access or protection; cast only when removal windows are covered or the line must be forced.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}{U}; outputs a replacement win condition for draw from empty library.
- Partners / packages: Works with Demonic Consultation plus Brainstorm, Frantic Search, The One Ring, Windfall, Rhystic Study trigger, or normal draw step.
- Role peers: Thassa's Oracle wins on enter trigger and is usually cleaner.
- Failure modes: Creature removal before the draw loses the win and can leave you with no library.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Use when Oracle is exiled, unavailable, or tutor lines make Maniac plus draw safer.

#### Lightning Greaves
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, zero-equip protection artifact.
- Role type: protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: Gives equipped creature haste and shroud, protecting key creatures but also preventing you from targeting them.
- Timing: Deploy before Y'shtola, Laboratory Maniac, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Walking Ballista, Hope Estheim, or Grand Abolisher turns; move carefully because equip is free.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}; equip {0}; outputs haste and shroud.
- Partners / packages: Protects Y'shtola, Laboratory Maniac, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Esper Sentinel, Hope Estheim, Dauthi Voidwalker, and Grand Abolisher.
- Role peers: Swiftfoot Boots gives hexproof and haste with equip {1}; Mithril Coat grants indestructible.
- Failure modes: Shroud prevents your own Heliod lifelink activation, equipment movement targeting, or other targeted support while attached.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against targeted removal; weaker against sweepers and sacrifice effects.

#### Marsh Flats
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, fetch land and shuffle tool.
- Role type: tutor/search; mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Pays 1 life and sacrifices to find a Plains or Swamp card onto the battlefield.
- Timing: Hold for Brainstorm cleanup or exact color fixing; crack before mana use when white or black is urgently needed.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes 1 life and land sacrifice; finds Plains, Swamp, Hallowed Fountain, Meticulous Archive, Prairie Stream, Shadowy Backstreet, Sunken Hollow, or Undercity Sewers if those land types fit.
- Mode map: Tap, pay 1 life, sacrifice Marsh Flats, search for a Plains or Swamp card, put it onto battlefield, then shuffle.
- Partners / packages: Enables Brainstorm, Vampiric Tutor top-card lines, Enlightened Tutor timing, Isolated Chapel, Drowned Catacomb, Glacial Fortress, and verge conditions.
- Role peers: Fabled Passage finds only basic Island, Plains, or Swamp but can untap later.
- Failure modes: Life payment matters with Ancient Tomb, The One Ring, Toxic Deluge, and Bolas's Citadel.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong for fixing; preserve life against burn.

#### Meticulous Archive
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, tapped surveil Plains Island.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Provides white or blue and surveils 1 when it enters, smoothing top-deck and graveyard setup.
- Timing: Play early when tapped tempo is acceptable; use surveil to bin dead cards or Reanimate targets only when the graveyard plan is live.
- Inputs / outputs: Enters tapped; taps for {W} or {U}; surveil 1 looks at top card and may put it into graveyard.
- Partners / packages: Supports Brainstorm, Enlightened Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Fabled Passage planning, Reanimate with Bloodthirsty Conqueror or Elesh Norn, and check lands.
- Role peers: Irrigated Farmland cycles; Shadowy Backstreet and Undercity Sewers surveil in other color pairs.
- Failure modes: Tapped entry can cost one-mana protection; surveilling combo pieces away without recursion can hurt.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Better in slower games and when land types matter.

#### Mindbreak Trap
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, hard anti-stack exile.
- Role type: interaction-stack.
- Deck-specific job: Exiles any number of target spells, and can cost {0} if an opponent cast three or more spells this turn.
- Timing: Save for storm turns, uncounterable-like stack fights, or multiple spells that must not resolve.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}{U}{U}, or {0} under trap condition; exiles spells on the stack rather than countering them.
- Partners / packages: Protects Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Bolas's Citadel, and life-loop commitment turns.
- Role peers: Flusterstorm fights instant/sorcery stacks; Fierce Guardianship counters one noncreature spell.
- Failure modes: Cannot answer resolved permanents; trap condition depends on an opponent casting three or more spells this turn.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Premium versus storm, cascade-like chains, and counter wars.

#### Mindcrank
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, mill-loop combo artifact.
- Role type: combo enabler; engine payoff.
- Deck-specific job: Whenever an opponent loses life, that player mills that many cards, enabling loops with active Bloodchief Ascension.
- Timing: Deploy when Bloodchief Ascension is active or likely to become active, or when incidental life loss pressures graveyard resources.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}; converts opponent life loss into mill.
- Partners / packages: Combos with Bloodchief Ascension at three quest counters; works with Kambal, Y'shtola, Orcish Bowmasters, Painful Quandary, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Exquisite Blood, and Sanguine Bond.
- Role peers: Bloodchief Ascension is the other half; Hope Estheim mills based on your life gain.
- Failure modes: Can fuel opposing graveyard decks before Ascension is active.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Side out or sequence carefully against graveyard decks unless hate is active.

#### Mithril Coat
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, flash indestructible equipment.
- Role type: protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: Flash artifact equipment that attaches to target legendary creature you control on entry and gives equipped creature indestructible.
- Timing: Hold as surprise protection for Y'shtola, Kambal, Heliod, Elesh Norn, Hope Estheim, or another legendary creature; deploy proactively if removal is likely.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {3}; equip {3}; outputs indestructible and emergency attachment to target legendary creature you control.
- Partners / packages: Protects Y'shtola, Kambal, Consul of Allocation, Heliod, Sun-Crowned, Elesh Norn, Hope Estheim, and Grand Abolisher if legendary does not apply only use equip later for nonlegendary.
- Role peers: Lightning Greaves protects from targeting with shroud; Swiftfoot Boots gives hexproof and haste.
- Failure modes: Indestructible does not stop exile, bounce, sacrifice, -X/-X, or counterspells.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong versus destroy-based removal and sweepers, weak versus Swords to Plowshares-style exile.

#### Morningtide's Light
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, temporary creature exile and damage shield.
- Role type: interaction-removal; lifegain/stabilization.
- Deck-specific job: Exiles any number of target creatures until the next end step, prevents all damage that would be dealt to you until your next turn, then exiles itself.
- Timing: Use when selected creatures must be removed temporarily or when damage prevention buys a combo turn.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {3}{W}; outputs temporary creature exile, tapped returns under owners' control, and one-turn damage prevention.
- Partners / packages: Protects setup for Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Bolas's Citadel, Toxic Deluge alternatives, and Akroma's Will timing.
- Role peers: Angel's Grace prevents losing for one turn; Cyclonic Rift removes nonland permanents temporarily; Farewell exiles permanently.
- Failure modes: Creatures return at next end step, so it is not permanent removal.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Good versus combat alpha strikes and creature-combo boards when one turn is enough.

#### Mystical Tutor
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, instant/sorcery top-deck tutor.
- Role type: tutor/search.
- Deck-specific job: Searches an instant or sorcery, reveals it, shuffles, and puts it on top for the next draw or top-card access.
- Timing: Cast before a draw step, Brainstorm, The One Ring activation, or Bolas's Citadel access; avoid if forced shuffle can disrupt.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {U}; outputs a revealed instant or sorcery on top.
- Partners / packages: Finds Demonic Consultation, Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Cyclonic Rift, Toxic Deluge, Farewell, Windfall, Frantic Search, Reanimate, Angel's Grace, Teferi's Protection, Akroma's Will, or Fractured Identity.
- Role peers: Vampiric Tutor finds any card to top; Enlightened Tutor finds artifacts/enchantments to top.
- Failure modes: Does not put the card into hand immediately and cannot find permanents.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent for end-step setup before a protected turn.

#### Orcish Bowmasters
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, flash draw-punisher.
- Role type: engine piece; interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: On entry and whenever an opponent draws except their first draw in draw step, deals 1 damage to any target, then amasses Orcs 1.
- Timing: Flash in response to an opposing draw burst or to kill a 1-toughness target; deploy before Windfall when it will punish multiple draws.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{B}; outputs pings, Orc Army counters/tokens, and pressure.
- Partners / packages: Combines with Windfall, Rhystic Study tax decisions, Smothering Tithe draw triggers, Delney, Streetwise Lookout, Bloodchief Ascension, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, and Bloodthirsty Conqueror.
- Role peers: Kambal punishes noncreature spells; Painful Quandary punishes all spells.
- Failure modes: Low toughness creature dies easily; amass output may be small without repeated triggers.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against wheels, cantrips, control draw engines, and x/1 utility creatures.

#### Painful Quandary
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, slow punishment enchantment.
- Role type: engine piece; reach/finisher.
- Deck-specific job: Whenever an opponent casts a spell, that player loses 5 life unless they discard a card.
- Timing: Cast when table speed allows it to tax multiple spells; avoid tapping out for it when a faster combo or lethal threat is present.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {3}{B}{B}; outputs life loss or opponent card loss.
- Partners / packages: Feeds Bloodchief Ascension, Mindcrank, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Hope Estheim, and Y'shtola end-step draw.
- Role peers: Kambal is cheaper noncreature punishment; Y'shtola rewards your expensive noncreature spells.
- Failure modes: Five mana with no immediate board answer can be too slow.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in grindy control/midrange pods; weak against fast combo already prepared to win.

#### Path to Exile
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, cheap creature exile.
- Role type: interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: Exiles target creature, then its controller may search for a basic land onto the battlefield tapped.
- Timing: Use on creatures that threaten lethal, stop your combo, or enable an opponent win; avoid ramping a low-impact creature away.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {W}; outputs creature exile and possible tapped basic ramp for controller.
- Partners / packages: Protects Laboratory Maniac, Y'shtola, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Walking Ballista, and combo turns from creature hate.
- Role peers: Swords to Plowshares gives life instead of land; Deadly Rollick can be free with commander.
- Failure modes: Cannot hit noncreatures or spells on the stack; ramp can accelerate opponents.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Premium against commander creature combo and single-threat boards.

#### Plains
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, basic white mana resource.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Provides reliable white for Enlightened Tutor, Esper Sentinel, Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Angel's Grace, and Teferi's Protection.
- Timing: Fetch or play when white interaction is needed or check/verge lands need a Plains.
- Inputs / outputs: Taps for {W}; basic land for Fabled Passage and Plains target for Marsh Flats.
- Partners / packages: Enables Glacial Fortress, Isolated Chapel, Prairie Stream, Bleachbone Verge, Floodfarm Verge, Shineshadow Snarl reveal, and Marsh Flats.
- Role peers: Hallowed Fountain, Meticulous Archive, Irrigated Farmland, Prairie Stream, and Shadowy Backstreet have Plains type with extra color access.
- Failure modes: Does not produce blue or black.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Priority when Angel's Grace, Swords to Plowshares, or Enlightened Tutor is the held-up card.

#### Prairie Stream
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, Plains Island dual.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Provides white or blue and enters untapped only if you control two or more basic lands.
- Timing: Fetch or play when land types matter; expect tapped entry early unless Island, Plains, and/or Swamp basics are already present.
- Inputs / outputs: Taps for {W} or {U}; has Plains and Island types.
- Partners / packages: Enables Glacial Fortress, Drowned Catacomb via Island, Floodfarm Verge, Bleachbone Verge via Plains, Choked Estuary reveal, and Marsh Flats.
- Role peers: Hallowed Fountain can enter untapped for 2 life; Irrigated Farmland always enters tapped but cycles.
- Failure modes: Often tapped in a singleton three-basic mana base early.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Good fetch target when tempo is not urgent and both white-blue types matter.

#### Reanimate
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, graveyard recursion spell.
- Role type: recursion.
- Deck-specific job: Puts target creature card from any graveyard onto the battlefield under your control and makes you lose life equal to its mana value.
- Timing: Cast when the target immediately advances combo, stabilization, or protection and life payment is safe.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {B}; outputs a creature from graveyard and life loss equal to mana value.
- Partners / packages: Targets Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Laboratory Maniac, Esper Sentinel, Orcish Bowmasters, Kambal, Hope Estheim, Elesh Norn, High Fae Trickster, or Grand Abolisher post-board.
- Role peers: Entomb supplies targets; no other main-deck recursion spell directly returns creatures.
- Failure modes: Graveyard hate blanks it; high-mana targets can make life total unsafe.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong after removal or discard; weak when Rest in Peace, Grafdigger's Cage, or Dauthi Voidwalker effects are active.

#### Reliquary Tower
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, hand-size utility land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; role glue.
- Deck-specific job: Removes maximum hand size and taps for colorless, preserving large hands from draw engines.
- Timing: Play when The One Ring, Rhystic Study, Windfall, Brainstorm, Frantic Search, or Bolas's Citadel has produced more cards than normal hand size allows.
- Inputs / outputs: Produces {C}; outputs no maximum hand size.
- Partners / packages: Best with The One Ring, Rhystic Study, Esper Sentinel, Windfall, Brainstorm, Frantic Search, and Decorum Dissertation.
- Role peers: No direct peer; closest overlap is The One Ring as a card-volume engine.
- Failure modes: Does not produce colored mana, so it can strand early interaction or tutors.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in grindy games; risky in color-hungry openers.

#### Rhystic Study
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, core draw-tax enchantment.
- Role type: engine piece; card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Whenever an opponent casts a spell, you may draw unless that player pays {1}.
- Timing: Cast early when you can survive the tempo loss; protect only if it is drawing enough to assemble a win.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}{U}; outputs cards or opponent mana tax.
- Partners / packages: Finds Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, protection, removal, and fuels Reliquary Tower or The One Ring resource plans.
- Role peers: Esper Sentinel taxes first noncreature spell; Smothering Tithe creates Treasure from draws; Monologue Tax creates Treasure from second spells.
- Failure modes: Opponents can pay or remove it; tapping out can expose you to fast combo.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent against spell-heavy and midrange pods; slower versus immediate board pressure.

#### Sanguine Bond
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, life-gain payoff enchantment.
- Role type: combo finisher; reach/finisher.
- Deck-specific job: Whenever you gain life, target opponent loses that much life, creating loops with Exquisite Blood or Bloodthirsty Conqueror.
- Timing: Commit when life gain is available immediately or protection covers the next turn.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {3}{B}{B}; converts your life gain into targeted opponent life loss.
- Partners / packages: Combos with Exquisite Blood or Bloodthirsty Conqueror; triggered by Y'shtola, Kambal, Bloodchief Ascension, Hope Estheim lifelink, Heliod-granted lifelink, and The One Ring protection turns if life changes elsewhere.
- Role peers: Exquisite Blood and Bloodthirsty Conqueror are the life-gain halves.
- Failure modes: Requires a life-gain event and target opponent; removal before trigger chains can stop the win.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in slower pods and against damage races.

#### Shadowy Backstreet
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, tapped surveil Plains Swamp.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Provides white or black and surveils 1 when it enters.
- Timing: Play early if tapped tempo is acceptable; use surveil to keep protection or bin Reanimate targets only with a live route.
- Inputs / outputs: Enters tapped; taps for {W} or {B}; surveil 1 may put top card into graveyard.
- Partners / packages: Enables Isolated Chapel, Drowned Catacomb via Swamp, Bleachbone Verge, Shineshadow Snarl reveal, Marsh Flats target, Entomb/Reanimate planning.
- Role peers: Meticulous Archive and Undercity Sewers are surveil duals in other Esper pairs.
- Failure modes: Tapped entry can cost early interaction; surveilling away a unique combo card without recursion is costly.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Better in slower games; avoid as only turn-one white source if Angel's Grace or Swords is needed.

#### Shattered Sanctum
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, white-black slow/fast land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Produces white or black and enters untapped if you control two or more other lands.
- Timing: Better from turn three onward; risky as an early source for one-mana white or black spells.
- Inputs / outputs: Outputs {W} or {B}; may enter tapped before the third land.
- Partners / packages: Casts Enlightened Tutor, Swords to Plowshares, Demonic Consultation, Vampiric Tutor, Kambal, Heliod, Sanguine Bond, and Exquisite Blood.
- Role peers: Isolated Chapel has land-type condition; Caves of Koilos is untapped with pain.
- Failure modes: Early tapped entry can break interaction windows.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong midgame fixing; avoid relying on it against fast combo starts.

#### Shineshadow Snarl
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, reveal-based white-black land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Produces {W} or {B}, entering untapped only if you reveal a Plains or Swamp card from hand.
- Timing: Reveal Plains, Swamp, Hallowed Fountain, Meticulous Archive, Prairie Stream, Shadowy Backstreet, Sunken Hollow, or Undercity Sewers when untapped mana matters more than information.
- Inputs / outputs: Outputs white or black; may enter tapped.
- Partners / packages: Supports Enlightened Tutor, Swords to Plowshares, Demonic Consultation, Vampiric Tutor, and Kambal.
- Role peers: Choked Estuary is the blue-black reveal land; Caves of Koilos gives direct access with pain.
- Failure modes: Can expose colors and still enter tapped if no proper reveal card exists.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Untapped entry is important against fast starts and protected combo turns.

#### Smothering Tithe
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, Treasure engine.
- Role type: engine piece; mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Whenever an opponent draws, they may pay {2}; if not, you create a Treasure token.
- Timing: Cast before opponent draw-heavy turns or when the table is unlikely to pay; avoid tapping out if a faster win must be stopped.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {3}{W}; outputs Treasure tokens that sacrifice for any color.
- Partners / packages: Fuels Thassa's Oracle plus Demonic Consultation with protection, Bolas's Citadel, Farewell, Cyclonic Rift overload, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, and Windfall.
- Role peers: Monologue Tax creates Treasure from second spells; Rhystic Study creates cards from spells.
- Failure modes: Four mana do-nothing if opponents pay or immediately remove it.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent in multiplayer draw-heavy pods and with Windfall.

#### Sol Ring
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, premium fast mana.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Accelerates two generic mana for early rocks, engines, protection artifacts, and expensive spells.
- Timing: Cast as early as possible unless holding up a one-mana answer is more important.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}; taps for {C}{C}.
- Partners / packages: Casts Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Mindcrank, The One Ring, Bolas's Citadel support, and Walking Ballista.
- Role peers: Ancient Tomb produces two colorless with life loss; Mana-positive rituals produce black instead.
- Failure modes: Does not produce colored mana; can lure keeps without blue or black access.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: One of the best keep signals when paired with colored land and action.

#### Spellskite
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, redirect protection artifact creature.
- Role type: protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: Uses {U/P} to change a target of target spell or ability to Spellskite when Spellskite is a legal target.
- Timing: Deploy before exposing Laboratory Maniac, Walking Ballista, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Y'shtola, or Heliod lines; activate only when the new target is legal and worth the cost.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}; activation costs either {U} or 2 life; outputs target redirection to Spellskite.
- Partners / packages: Protects Laboratory Maniac, Walking Ballista, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Y'shtola, Heliod, Esper Sentinel, and Grand Abolisher.
- Role peers: Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots prevent many targeted spells; Mithril Coat resists destruction.
- Failure modes: Cannot redirect spells or abilities that cannot legally target Spellskite; life payment matters under pressure.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against targeted removal and Auras; weak versus sweepers, sacrifice, and non-targeting effects.

#### Sunken Hollow
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, Island Swamp dual.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Produces blue or black and enters untapped only if you control two or more basic lands.
- Timing: Fetch or play when blue-black land types matter; expect tapped early in most openers.
- Inputs / outputs: Taps for {U} or {B}; has Island and Swamp types.
- Partners / packages: Enables Drowned Catacomb, Choked Estuary reveal, Bleachbone Verge via Swamp, Floodfarm Verge via Island, Marsh Flats as Swamp target, and blue-black combo spells.
- Role peers: Undercity Sewers always enters tapped but surveils; Hallowed Fountain covers white-blue.
- Failure modes: Often tapped before two basics are in play.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Good when setting future colors, risky for urgent interaction.

#### Sunken Ruins
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, blue-black filter land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Produces colorless or filters blue/black input into double blue, blue-black, or double black.
- Timing: Use after another blue or black source; avoid as only colored source in opening hands.
- Inputs / outputs: Taps for {C}, or filters {U/B} plus tap into {U}{U}, {U}{B}, or {B}{B}.
- Partners / packages: Casts Thassa's Oracle, Counterspell-like protection, Demonic Consultation, Vampiric Tutor, Dark Ritual follow-ups, and Bloodthirsty Conqueror.
- Role peers: Fetid Heath filters white-black; Underground River provides direct blue-black with pain.
- Failure modes: Strands colored spells without blue or black input.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent on combo turns requiring double blue or double black.

#### Swamp
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, basic black mana resource.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Provides reliable black for Demonic Consultation, Vampiric Tutor, Entomb, Dark Ritual, Reanimate, and Toxic Deluge.
- Timing: Fetch or play when black is the bottleneck or when check/verge lands require Swamp.
- Inputs / outputs: Taps for {B}; basic land for Fabled Passage and Swamp target for Marsh Flats.
- Partners / packages: Enables Drowned Catacomb, Isolated Chapel, Sunken Hollow, Bleachbone Verge, Shineshadow Snarl reveal, and Cabal Ritual planning.
- Role peers: Shadowy Backstreet, Sunken Hollow, Undercity Sewers, and Urborg-related lands provide Swamp access with other functions.
- Failure modes: Does not produce white or blue.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Priority for Oracle Consultation, black tutors, and early rituals.

#### Swan Song
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, cheap narrow stack answer.
- Role type: interaction-stack.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target enchantment, instant, or sorcery spell on the stack, giving its controller a 2/2 blue Bird creature token with flying.
- Timing: Hold for interaction, tutors, sweepers, enchantment hate, or opposing win spells; spend on lower value only if waiting loses.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {U}; outputs counter plus opponent Bird token.
- Partners / packages: Protects Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Laboratory Maniac, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bloodchief Ascension, and Bolas's Citadel.
- Role peers: An Offer You Can't Refuse hits any noncreature spell but gives Treasures; Flusterstorm hits instant or sorcery only.
- Failure modes: Cannot counter artifact, creature, or planeswalker spells; Bird can pressure planeswalkers or life.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against control, combo, and enchantment-based hate.

#### Swiftfoot Boots
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, hexproof haste equipment.
- Role type: protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: Gives equipped creature hexproof and haste, protecting from opponents' targeted spells and abilities while still allowing your own targeting.
- Timing: Deploy before exposed creature combo turns; equip when the protected creature is part of the current line.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}; equip costs {1}; outputs haste and hexproof.
- Partners / packages: Protects Y'shtola, Laboratory Maniac, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Walking Ballista, Hope Estheim, Grand Abolisher, and Dauthi Voidwalker.
- Role peers: Lightning Greaves gives shroud and equip {0}; Mithril Coat grants indestructible.
- Failure modes: Does not stop sweepers, edicts, counterspells, or non-targeting effects.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent versus targeted removal-heavy pods.

#### Swords to Plowshares
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, premium creature exile.
- Role type: interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: Exiles target creature; its controller gains life equal to its power.
- Timing: Use on creatures that threaten lethal, combo, stax, or removal of your payoff; save over small attackers when life is safe.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {W}; outputs creature exile and life gain to controller.
- Partners / packages: Protects Thassa's Oracle, Laboratory Maniac, Y'shtola, Walking Ballista, Bolas's Citadel turns, and life-loop setup.
- Role peers: Path to Exile exiles with land ramp; Deadly Rollick can be free with commander.
- Failure modes: Cannot hit noncreature permanents or spells on stack; life gain can delay Bloodchief Ascension pressure.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Best against commander creatures and single-threat decks.

#### Talisman of Dominance
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, blue-black mana rock.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Provides colorless or blue/black with 1 damage to you, enabling combo colors.
- Timing: Cast early; use colored mode when needed, colorless when preserving life.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}; taps for {C}, or {U}/{B} with 1 damage.
- Partners / packages: Casts Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Brainstorm, Swan Song, Vampiric Tutor, Entomb, and Toxic Deluge.
- Role peers: Arcane Signet is painless; Talisman of Hierarchy and Talisman of Progress cover other Esper pairs.
- Failure modes: Life loss compounds with Ancient Tomb, The One Ring, Toxic Deluge, and Bolas's Citadel.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strongest Talisman for Oracle Consultation colors.

#### Talisman of Hierarchy
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, white-black mana rock.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Provides colorless or white/black with 1 damage to you, covering removal and tutor colors.
- Timing: Cast early; use colored mode when it changes legal actions or protection.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}; taps for {C}, or {W}/{B} with 1 damage.
- Partners / packages: Casts Enlightened Tutor, Swords to Plowshares, Angel's Grace, Demonic Consultation, Vampiric Tutor, Kambal, and Teferi's Protection.
- Role peers: Talisman of Dominance and Talisman of Progress cover blue pairs.
- Failure modes: Does not produce blue, so do not rely on it alone for Thassa's Oracle protection.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Useful when white interaction and black tutor access matter.

#### Talisman of Progress
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, white-blue mana rock.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Provides colorless or white/blue with 1 damage to you, enabling stack interaction and white protection.
- Timing: Cast early; preserve life by using colorless when possible.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}; taps for {C}, or {W}/{U} with 1 damage.
- Partners / packages: Casts Brainstorm, Swan Song, Thassa's Oracle, Rhystic Study, Enlightened Tutor, Angel's Grace, and Teferi's Protection.
- Role peers: Talisman of Dominance supplies blue-black; Arcane Signet covers all colors.
- Failure modes: Does not produce black for Demonic Consultation or black tutors.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against control when blue interaction and white shields are both needed.

#### Teferi's Protection
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, premier survival shield.
- Role type: protection/evasion; lifegain/stabilization.
- Deck-specific job: Until your next turn, your life total can't change, you gain protection from everything, and all permanents you control phase out; then it exiles itself.
- Timing: Save for lethal turns, sweepers, targeted combo disruption, or a decisive untap after opponents commit.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}{W}; outputs one-turn life lock, protection, and phased-out permanents.
- Partners / packages: Protects Bolas's Citadel life-total plans, The One Ring burden, Bloodchief Ascension, Mindcrank, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, and creature combo pieces.
- Role peers: Angel's Grace is cheaper but narrower; Glacial Chasm prevents damage at land/upkeep cost.
- Failure modes: Phased-out permanents cannot be used until they phase in; does not counter spells directly.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent versus alpha strikes, sweepers, burn, and combo attempts that affect you.

#### Thassa's Oracle
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, primary deterministic combo finisher.
- Role type: combo finisher.
- Deck-specific job: On entry, looks at top X cards where X is devotion to blue, puts up to one on top and rest on bottom randomly; if X is at least your library size, you win.
- Timing: Cast when Demonic Consultation, protection, and blue-black mana are aligned; avoid exposing as a blocker unless survival demands it.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {U}{U}; outputs library selection or win check based on devotion to blue.
- Partners / packages: Pairs with Demonic Consultation; protected by Fierce Guardianship, Swan Song, Flusterstorm, An Offer You Can't Refuse, Mindbreak Trap, Grand Abolisher, Teferi, Time Raveler, and Dispel.
- Role peers: Laboratory Maniac is backup empty-library payoff requiring a draw.
- Failure modes: Countering Oracle or disrupting the trigger can lose the line if Consultation already exiled the library.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Highest priority win against combo/control when protected.

#### The One Ring
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, draw engine and temporary shield.
- Role type: engine piece; card selection; lifegain/stabilization.
- Deck-specific job: If cast, gives protection from everything until your next turn, then taps to add burden counters and draw cards equal to burden counters while losing life at upkeep.
- Timing: Cast when protection buys a turn or card draw will assemble a protected win; activate with life-total math.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {4}; outputs protection, cards, burden counters, and upkeep life loss.
- Partners / packages: Works with Reliquary Tower, Angel's Grace, Teferi's Protection, Bolas's Citadel, Brainstorm, Vampiric Tutor, Mystical Tutor, and Enlightened Tutor.
- Role peers: Rhystic Study and Esper Sentinel draw through opponent actions; Bolas's Citadel converts life into spells.
- Failure modes: Burden life loss can become lethal; protection only happens when cast.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent versus combat and grindy tables; dangerous against burn.

#### Toxic Deluge
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, scalable creature sweeper.
- Role type: interaction-sweeper.
- Deck-specific job: As additional cost, pay X life; each creature gets -X/-X until end of turn.
- Timing: Choose X to kill the actual threats while preserving life for Ancient Tomb, Bolas's Citadel, The One Ring, and pain lands.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}{B} and X life; outputs temporary -X/-X to each creature.
- Partners / packages: Clears boards before Thassa's Oracle, Laboratory Maniac, Bolas's Citadel, or life-drain setup.
- Role peers: Farewell exiles chosen classes; Cyclonic Rift bounces opponents' boards.
- Failure modes: Kills your Esper Sentinel, Orcish Bowmasters, Laboratory Maniac, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Y'shtola, and sideboard hate creatures too.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Best against go-wide and creature pressure; life payment dangerous versus burn.

#### Undercity Sewers
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, tapped surveil Island Swamp.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Provides blue or black and surveils 1 on entry.
- Timing: Play when tapped mana is acceptable and top-card filtering or land types matter.
- Inputs / outputs: Enters tapped; taps for {U} or {B}; surveil 1 may put the top card into graveyard.
- Partners / packages: Supports Brainstorm, Demonic Consultation, Vampiric Tutor, Entomb, Thassa's Oracle, Reanimate setup, Drowned Catacomb, Choked Estuary, and Sunken Ruins.
- Role peers: Meticulous Archive and Shadowy Backstreet are surveil duals for other pairs.
- Failure modes: Tapped entry can lose interaction timing; surveil can bin a needed singleton.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Good in slower games and when graveyard setup is safe.

#### Underground River
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, blue-black pain land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Provides untapped blue or black for the deck's primary combo and protection colors.
- Timing: Use colorless mode when possible; spend life for blue or black when holding or casting important spells.
- Inputs / outputs: Produces {C}, or {U}/{B} while dealing 1 damage to you.
- Partners / packages: Casts Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Brainstorm, Swan Song, Vampiric Tutor, Entomb, Dark Ritual, and Toxic Deluge.
- Role peers: Adarkar Wastes and Caves of Koilos cover other pain-land pairs.
- Failure modes: Life loss adds up with Ancient Tomb, Talisman activations, fetch/shock, The One Ring, and Bolas's Citadel.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent in combo/control; manage pain against burn and aggro.

#### Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, legendary black-fixing utility land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Makes each land a Swamp in addition to its other land types, improving black access across utility and colorless lands.
- Timing: Play when extra black unlocks tutors, rituals, Consultation, or black payoffs; consider opponent benefit.
- Inputs / outputs: Land-type static effect; lets lands tap as Swamps under normal land-type rules.
- Partners / packages: Improves Ancient Tomb, Glacial Chasm, Reliquary Tower, Reflecting Pool context, Bleachbone Verge, Isolated Chapel, Drowned Catacomb, and black-heavy cards.
- Role peers: No direct peer; Command Tower and Arcane Signet are cleaner one-sided fixing.
- Failure modes: Also improves opponents' black mana access.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong when black is bottleneck; risky if opponents visibly need black.

#### Vampiric Tutor
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, instant any-card top-deck tutor.
- Role type: tutor/search.
- Deck-specific job: Searches any card, shuffles, puts it on top, and costs 2 life.
- Timing: Cast before draw access or end step before your turn; use life loss only when the chosen card meaningfully changes the next turn.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {B} and 2 life; outputs any library card on top.
- Partners / packages: Finds Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Bloodchief Ascension, Mindcrank, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bolas's Citadel, The One Ring, Fierce Guardianship, or Toxic Deluge.
- Role peers: Demonic Tutor puts card directly in hand; Mystical Tutor and Enlightened Tutor are narrower.
- Failure modes: Reveals no card but telegraphs through timing; top card can be milled, shuffled, or denied before draw.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in combo races, but life loss matters against burn.

#### Vault of Champions
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, multiplayer white-black land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Produces white or black and enters tapped unless you have two or more opponents.
- Timing: In multiplayer Commander, usually untapped early; in heads-up contexts, treat as tapped land.
- Inputs / outputs: Outputs {W} or {B}; entry depends on opponent count.
- Partners / packages: Casts Enlightened Tutor, Esper Sentinel, Swords to Plowshares, Demonic Consultation, Vampiric Tutor, Kambal, and Teferi's Protection.
- Role peers: Shattered Sanctum and Isolated Chapel also produce white-black with different conditions.
- Failure modes: Can enter tapped in duel or after opponent elimination.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in normal multiplayer pods; verify format/opponent count.

#### Vindicate
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, sorcery permanent answer.
- Role type: interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: Destroys target permanent, giving broad coverage against hate pieces, planeswalkers, lands, creatures, artifacts, and enchantments.
- Timing: Use on a permanent that blocks your selected win or threatens lethal; sorcery speed means plan before combat and before holding up counters.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{W}{B}; outputs permanent destruction.
- Partners / packages: Clears hate before Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Reanimate, Bolas's Citadel, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, or Bloodchief Ascension.
- Role peers: Void Rend is instant and uncounterable but cannot hit lands; Fractured Identity exiles nonland permanents.
- Failure modes: Sorcery speed cannot answer stack threats or instant-speed combo during opponents' turns.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against stax, activated lands, and single permanent locks.

#### Void Rend
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, uncounterable instant permanent answer.
- Role type: interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: Can't be countered and destroys target nonland permanent.
- Timing: Hold for hate pieces, combo permanents, or lethal threats that must be answered at instant speed.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {W}{U}{B}; outputs uncounterable destruction of target nonland permanent.
- Partners / packages: Clears blockers or hate before Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Bolas's Citadel, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Mindcrank, or Reanimate.
- Role peers: Vindicate hits lands but is sorcery; Fractured Identity exiles and creates copies.
- Failure modes: Cannot target lands or spells on the stack; color requirements are strict.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Premium against control-backed hate permanents and commander engines.

#### Walking Ballista
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, combo creature and scalable removal.
- Role type: combo finisher; interaction-removal; reach/finisher.
- Deck-specific job: Enters with X +1/+1 counters, can pay {4} for more counters, and removes counters to deal 1 damage to any target.
- Timing: Preserve for Heliod line unless counters are needed to stop a faster loss or remove a key creature/planeswalker.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {X}{X}; outputs counters and damage by removing counters.
- Mode map: Cast with chosen X for starting counters; activated {4} adds a counter; activated remove-counter deals 1 damage to any target.
- Partners / packages: Combos with Heliod, Sun-Crowned when lifelink and counters sustain repeated damage; protected by Swiftfoot Boots, Lightning Greaves, Spellskite, and Mithril Coat.
- Role peers: Orcish Bowmasters offers small pings; Bloodthirsty Conqueror and Sanguine Bond are alternate life-loop closers.
- Failure modes: Dies as 0/0 with no counters; removal in response can break the line.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Valuable against small utility creatures and as a deterministic closer.

#### Windfall
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, wheel and disruption spell.
- Role type: card selection; discard outlet.
- Deck-specific job: Each player discards their hand, then draws cards equal to the greatest number discarded this way.
- Timing: Cast when your hand is weaker, opponents have stocked hands, or Orcish Bowmasters/Smothering Tithe rewards the wheel; avoid when your hand already has a protected win.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}{U}; outputs discard, draw, graveyard fill, and opponent hand disruption.
- Partners / packages: Strong with Orcish Bowmasters, Smothering Tithe, Bloodchief Ascension, Mindcrank, Reanimate, and Reliquary Tower.
- Role peers: Frantic Search filters only your hand; Brainstorm protects key cards.
- Failure modes: Gives opponents fresh cards before they act if you cannot use yours first.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against sculpted control hands and with draw-punishment in play.

#### Monologue Tax
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, spell-count Treasure engine.
- Role type: engine piece; mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Creates a Treasure token whenever an opponent casts their second spell each turn.
- Timing: Deploy early into spell-heavy pods; less urgent if opponents play one large spell per turn.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}{W}; outputs Treasure tokens for any-color mana.
- Partners / packages: Fuels Thassa's Oracle plus Demonic Consultation with protection, Bolas's Citadel, Farewell, Cyclonic Rift overload, Exquisite Blood, and Sanguine Bond.
- Role peers: Smothering Tithe creates Treasure from opponent draws; Rhystic Study taxes spells for cards.
- Failure modes: No output if opponents pace to one spell per turn or remove it quickly.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Best versus storm, control, and multi-spell combo turns.

#### Fabricate
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, artifact tutor.
- Role type: tutor/search.
- Deck-specific job: Searches an artifact, reveals it, puts it into hand, and shuffles.
- Timing: Cast when the artifact solves the current bottleneck: mana, protection, draw, or combo.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}{U}; outputs an artifact card to hand.
- Partners / packages: Finds Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, Talisman of Dominance, Talisman of Hierarchy, Talisman of Progress, Mindcrank, Walking Ballista, The One Ring, Bolas's Citadel, Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Mithril Coat, Spellskite, Grafdigger's Cage, or Pithing Needle.
- Role peers: Enlightened Tutor finds artifact or enchantment to top; Demonic Tutor finds any card to hand.
- Failure modes: Sorcery speed and reveal give opponents time to respond.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Prioritize Mindcrank with active Bloodchief Ascension, The One Ring for cards, or protection artifacts for creature combo.

#### Hallowed Fountain
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, shock Plains Island.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Provides white or blue, with option to pay 2 life to enter untapped.
- Timing: Pay 2 life when immediate white/blue matters; let enter tapped when life or tempo allows.
- Inputs / outputs: Taps for {W} or {U}; may cost 2 life on entry.
- Partners / packages: Casts Brainstorm, Swan Song, Enlightened Tutor, Esper Sentinel, Thassa's Oracle, Rhystic Study, Angel's Grace, and Teferi's Protection.
- Role peers: Meticulous Archive and Irrigated Farmland share Plains Island types but enter tapped.
- Failure modes: Life payment compounds with Ancient Tomb, pain lands, Vampiric Tutor, The One Ring, and Bolas's Citadel.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Fetchable by Marsh Flats as Plains; prioritize untapped mode in fast matchups.

#### Reflecting Pool
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, dependent fixing land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Adds one mana of any type a land you control could produce, often becoming full Esper fixing once another dual or Command Tower is present.
- Timing: Strong after any colored land; weak as only land.
- Inputs / outputs: Produces mana type based on your current lands.
- Partners / packages: Mirrors Command Tower, Hallowed Fountain, Underground River, Caves of Koilos, Adarkar Wastes, and other colored lands.
- Role peers: Command Tower is independent rainbow access; Arcane Signet is commander-color rock access.
- Failure modes: Cannot produce colored mana if your other lands cannot.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent midgame fixing; mulligan risk in one-land hands.

#### Darkslick Shores
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, early blue-black land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Produces blue or black and enters untapped if you control two or fewer other lands.
- Timing: Best in turns one to three for Brainstorm, Swan Song, Demonic Consultation, Vampiric Tutor, or Entomb.
- Inputs / outputs: Outputs {U} or {B}; later may enter tapped.
- Partners / packages: Supports Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Dark Ritual, Entomb, Vampiric Tutor, Flusterstorm, and Mystical Tutor.
- Role peers: Underground River is always untapped with pain; Drowned Catacomb depends on land types.
- Failure modes: Late tapped entry can break combo-turn mana math.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent opening land against combo/control.

#### Elesh Norn
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, defensive taxing creature and transform threat.
- Role type: engine piece; interaction-sweeper; threat/clock.
- Deck-specific job: Front face taxes damage sources opponents control by making their controller lose 2 life unless they pay {1}; can transform by paying {2}{W} and sacrificing three other creatures.
- Timing: Cast when combat or damage-based pressure matters; transform only when three expendable other creatures are available and the Saga chapters are worth the sacrifice.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}{W}{W}; transform activation consumes {2}{W} and three other creatures.
- Mode map: Elesh Norn front face is a vigilant 3/5 taxing damage sources; The Argent Etchings incubates five times, gives your creatures +1/+1 and double strike, then destroys all other permanents except artifacts, lands, and Phyrexians before returning front face up.
- Partners / packages: Works with Esper Sentinel, Orcish Bowmasters Army tokens, Delney, Hope Estheim, and Akroma's Will if creature count develops.
- Role peers: Farewell and Toxic Deluge are cleaner resets; Painful Quandary taxes spells.
- Failure modes: Reference metadata for combined oracle is missing, so use listed face text; sacrifice cost is steep in this low-creature deck.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Stronger against creature/damage boards than spell combo.

#### Akroma's Will
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, combat finisher and protection burst.
- Role type: reach/finisher; protection/evasion; modal utility.
- Deck-specific job: Choose one, or both if you control Y'shtola as commander: team flying/vigilance/double strike, and/or team lifelink/indestructible/protection from each color.
- Timing: Use to close with a developed board, survive combat, or protect creatures through a decisive turn; avoid as medium pump when combo protection is needed.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {3}{W}; outputs temporary evasion, double strike, lifelink, indestructible, and color protection.
- Mode map: Offensive mode grants flying, vigilance, double strike; defensive/race mode grants lifelink, indestructible, protection from each color. With commander controlled as you cast it, choose both.
- Partners / packages: Best with Y'shtola, Orcish Bowmasters Army, Elesh Norn tokens, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Hope Estheim, Delney, and Kambal.
- Role peers: Teferi's Protection protects broadly but phases out; Angel's Grace prevents losing.
- Failure modes: Requires creatures; protection from colors may cause Auras/equipment interactions if color-relevant permanents are attached.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against creature races and stalled boards.

#### Hope Estheim
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, life-gain-to-mill role player.
- Role type: engine payoff; lifegain/stabilization.
- Deck-specific job: Lifelink 2/2 that mills each opponent at your end step for X, where X is the amount of life you gained this turn.
- Timing: Cast before turns with Y'shtola, Kambal, Bloodchief Ascension, Exquisite Blood, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, or Heliod lifelink activity.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {W}{U}; outputs lifelink damage and end-step opponent mill based on your life gained this turn.
- Partners / packages: Works with Y'shtola, Kambal, Bloodchief Ascension, Exquisite Blood, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Sanguine Bond, Heliod, and Akroma's Will.
- Role peers: Mindcrank mills based on opponent life loss; Bloodchief Ascension drains from graveyard movement.
- Failure modes: Milling opponents can fuel graveyard decks unless Rest in Peace, Dauthi Voidwalker, or Grafdigger's Cage plan is active.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in life-gain games; risky against graveyard recursion opponents.

#### Fractured Identity
- Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, high-impact exile sorcery.
- Role type: interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: Exiles target nonland permanent, then each player other than its controller creates a token copy of it.
- Timing: Use on an opposing permanent whose removal and copied benefit favor you, or on a permanent that must be exiled despite token risk.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {3}{W}{U}; outputs exile and token copies for all players except the original controller.
- Partners / packages: Clears hate before Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Bolas's Citadel, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bloodchief Ascension, or Mindcrank.
- Role peers: Void Rend destroys nonland permanent at instant speed; Vindicate destroys any permanent at sorcery speed.
- Failure modes: Giving other players copies can backfire if the permanent is universally powerful.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against single lock pieces or commanders where exiling is worth the table copies.

#### Dovin's Veto
- Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy, uncounterable noncreature stack shield.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; interaction-stack.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target noncreature spell and cannot be countered, improving control and combo matchups.
- Timing: Bring in when one noncreature spell decides the turn; hold for opposing win attempts, sweepers, counters, or hate spells.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {W}{U}; outputs uncounterable counter to a noncreature spell on the stack.
- Partners / packages: Protects Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Bolas's Citadel, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bloodchief Ascension, and Mindcrank.
- Role peers: Fierce Guardianship and An Offer You Can't Refuse also answer noncreature spells; Dovin's Veto is narrower mana-wise but uncounterable.
- Failure modes: Cannot counter creature spells or resolved permanents.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Side in against control, spell combo, extra-turn spells, and noncreature sweepers.

#### Teferi, Time Raveler
- Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy, protected-window planeswalker.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; protection/evasion; interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: Restricts opponents to sorcery-speed casting, can let you cast sorceries as though they had flash with +1, and −3 bounces up to one artifact, creature, or enchantment and draws a card.
- Timing: Bring in for counterspell/control and instant-speed interaction tables; cast before the combo turn when it can survive.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{W}{U}; outputs timing lock, flash permission for sorceries, bounce, and a card.
- Mode map: Static limits opponents; +1 gives your sorceries flash until next turn; −3 returns up to one target artifact, creature, or enchantment and draws.
- Partners / packages: Protects Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Demonic Tutor, Windfall, Toxic Deluge, Farewell, and Fractured Identity timing.
- Role peers: Grand Abolisher also protects your turn; Dovin's Veto fights one spell.
- Failure modes: Vulnerable to attacks and does not remove permanents permanently.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong versus control and instant-speed combo; weak versus wide creature boards.

#### Rest in Peace
- Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy, graveyard hate enchantment.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; hate piece.
- Deck-specific job: Exiles all graveyards on entry and exiles any card or token that would go to a graveyard from anywhere.
- Timing: Bring in when opposing graveyard reliance is more important than your Entomb, Reanimate, and Cabal Ritual threshold plans.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{W}; outputs total graveyard shutdown.
- Partners / packages: Pairs with Thassa's Oracle and non-graveyard drain loops when abandoning Reanimate; conflicts with Entomb, Reanimate, Bloodchief Ascension graveyard triggers, and Cabal Ritual threshold.
- Role peers: Grafdigger's Cage is narrower and cheaper; Dauthi Voidwalker is asymmetrical graveyard pressure.
- Failure modes: Can shut off your own graveyard routes and Bloodchief Ascension triggers involving cards going to graveyard.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Side in against reanimator, flashback, escape, dredge-like recursion, and death-loop decks.

#### Drannith Magistrate
- Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy, commander and nonhand-cast hate creature.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; hate piece.
- Deck-specific job: Opponents can't cast spells from anywhere other than their hands, blocking commanders and many exile/graveyard/library casting routes.
- Timing: Bring in against commander-centric, cascade-like, graveyard-casting, exile-casting, or adventure-style decks.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{W}; outputs a 1/3 static hate body.
- Partners / packages: Protect with Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Mithril Coat, Spellskite, Grand Abolisher, or Teferi, Time Raveler when it locks the opponent.
- Role peers: Grafdigger's Cage stops graveyard/library casting; Rest in Peace removes graveyards entirely.
- Failure modes: Dies to creature removal and does not stop spells cast from hand or activated abilities.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent versus commander-dependent strategies and cast-from-exile engines.

#### Grand Abolisher
- Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy, protected-turn creature.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: During your turn, opponents can't cast spells or activate abilities of artifacts, creatures, or enchantments.
- Timing: Bring in when the game hinges on resolving a combo through instant interaction; cast before the winning turn if it can survive.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {W}{W}; outputs a turn-cycle shield for your own turns.
- Partners / packages: Protects Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Laboratory Maniac, Bolas's Citadel, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Heliod, and Walking Ballista.
- Role peers: Teferi, Time Raveler restricts opponent spell timing; Dovin's Veto and Dispel fight specific stack objects.
- Failure modes: Does not protect during opponents' turns and does not stop planeswalker, land, or mana abilities.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against blue control and instant-speed removal.

#### Dauthi Voidwalker
- Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy, graveyard hate threat.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; hate piece; threat/clock.
- Deck-specific job: Exiles opponent cards that would go to graveyard with void counters, has shadow, and can tap/sacrifice to play one exiled card an opponent owns without paying its mana cost.
- Timing: Bring in when opponent graveyards matter but you still want pressure and theft equity rather than full Rest in Peace self-hate.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {B}{B}; outputs replacement exile, evasive 3/2 pressure, and one-shot stolen spell access.
- Partners / packages: Works with Windfall, Mindcrank, Hope Estheim, Bloodchief Ascension pressure, and opponent tutor-heavy decks.
- Role peers: Rest in Peace is broader graveyard shutdown; Grafdigger's Cage blocks specific graveyard/library access.
- Failure modes: Dies to removal; double black can strain mana; sacrificing loses ongoing hate.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent against graveyard combo, wheels, and spell-dense decks.

#### Chain of Vapor
- Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy, cheap bounce bullet.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: Returns target nonland permanent to its owner's hand, then that permanent's controller may sacrifice a land to copy Chain and choose a new target.
- Timing: Bring in to clear a hate permanent for a same-turn win or answer tempo-critical threats.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {U}; outputs bounce with possible copy chain if controller sacrifices a land.
- Partners / packages: Opens windows for Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Bolas's Citadel, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bloodchief Ascension, Mindcrank, and Reanimate.
- Role peers: Cyclonic Rift is main-deck bounce with overload; Teferi, Time Raveler −3 bounces artifact, creature, or enchantment.
- Failure modes: Opponent can copy it by sacrificing a land, potentially bouncing your key permanent.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against stax, graveyard hate, and single lock pieces.

#### Dispel
- Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy, one-mana instant counter.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; interaction-stack.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target instant spell on the stack.
- Timing: Bring in when instant-speed removal, counterspells, tutors, or combo interaction decide games; hold for the decisive exchange.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {U}; outputs counter to target instant spell.
- Partners / packages: Protects Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Laboratory Maniac, Walking Ballista, Bolas's Citadel, Exquisite Blood, and Sanguine Bond from instant interaction.
- Role peers: Flusterstorm also hits instants and sorceries with storm tax; Dovin's Veto counters noncreature spells uncounterably.
- Failure modes: Cannot counter sorceries, artifacts, creatures, enchantments, planeswalkers, or abilities.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Best against blue control, instant removal, and stack-combo mirrors.

#### Pithing Needle
- Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy, named activated-ability hate artifact.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; hate piece.
- Deck-specific job: As it enters, choose a card name; activated abilities of sources with that name cannot be activated unless they are mana abilities.
- Timing: Bring in only when public information identifies a key activated ability from a commander, planeswalker, artifact, creature, or land.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}; outputs named activated-ability shutdown.
- Partners / packages: Fetchable by Fabricate or Enlightened Tutor; protects Oracle, life-loop, Reanimate, and Citadel plans from activated hate pieces.
- Role peers: Drannith Magistrate stops nonhand casting; Chain of Vapor temporarily answers visible permanents.
- Failure modes: Does not stop triggered abilities, static abilities, mana abilities, or unnamed sources.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong versus activated commanders, planeswalkers, and artifact engines when the exact name is known.

#### Grafdigger's Cage
- Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy, graveyard/library access hate artifact.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; hate piece.
- Deck-specific job: Stops creature cards in graveyards and libraries from entering the battlefield, and stops players from casting spells from graveyards or libraries.
- Timing: Bring in when the opponent uses graveyard or library casting/battlefield entry more than you need Reanimate or Bolas's Citadel top-library casting.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}; outputs static hate against specified graveyard and library routes.
- Partners / packages: Fetchable with Fabricate or Enlightened Tutor; pairs with Thassa's Oracle, Bloodchief Ascension, Mindcrank, Exquisite Blood, and Sanguine Bond plans that do not need Reanimate.
- Role peers: Rest in Peace fully exiles graveyards; Dauthi Voidwalker exiles opponent graveyard movement.
- Failure modes: Conflicts with Reanimate and Bolas's Citadel casting from library; does not exile existing graveyards.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against reanimator, creature-library engines, flashback-like casting, and graveyard spell decks.

## Interaction Priorities

- Stop the opponent win first: spend Fierce Guardianship, Flusterstorm, Swan Song, Mindbreak Trap, An Offer You Can't Refuse, Dovin's Veto, or Dispel on a visible action that wins this turn, locks this deck out of casting spells, exiles the graveyard before a live Reanimate or Entomb line, or removes Thassa's Oracle, Laboratory Maniac, Bloodchief Ascension, Mindcrank, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Heliod, Sun-Crowned, or Walking Ballista during a committed win attempt.

- Protect the deterministic win over value: if Thassa's Oracle plus Demonic Consultation is available or being assembled, reserve cheap stack interaction for removal, counterspells, trigger denial, forced draw, or effects that change library state before the win resolves. Do not counter a minor draw spell, ramp spell, or value permanent if that leaves the Oracle turn uncovered.

- Remove rule-setting hate before engine value: use Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Deadly Rollick, Vindicate, Void Rend, Fractured Identity, Chain of Vapor, Cyclonic Rift, Toxic Deluge, or Farewell first on permanents that stop searching, casting from graveyard, tutoring, activated abilities, life gain, drawing, or noncreature spells. Use single-target answers before sweepers when only one hate piece matters.

- Bounce to win, not to tidy: Cyclonic Rift and Chain of Vapor are strongest when they clear hate or blockers immediately before a same-turn combo or lethal attack. Do not spend bounce on a permanent that can simply be ignored until the end step unless it prevents the next protected line.

- Exile graveyards only with a plan: Rest in Peace, Grafdigger's Cage, and Dauthi Voidwalker are sideboard tools that can also weaken Entomb, Reanimate, and graveyard-dependent lines. Bring them to fight opponent graveyard engines, but sequence them so they do not shut off your own selected route unless the hate effect is worth abandoning that route.

- Sweep only when behind or locked: Toxic Deluge and Farewell should answer multiple lethal attackers, several hate permanents, or a board that will kill before your next protected attempt. Preserve Esper Sentinel, Rhystic Study, Smothering Tithe, Monologue Tax, Bloodchief Ascension, Mindcrank, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, and protection creatures unless the reset prevents a faster loss.

- Discard and wheel with purpose: Windfall is interaction when opponents have sculpted large hands, when this hand is stalled, or when Orcish Bowmasters is visible and legal text supports punishing draws. Do not cast Windfall into open mana when the current hand already contains a protected win unless the wheel removes known opposing answers from public information.

- Bait with replacable engines: Esper Sentinel, Rhystic Study, Monologue Tax, Kambal, Consul of Allocation, Painful Quandary, The One Ring, and Smothering Tithe can draw removal before a combo turn. Do not bait with Thassa's Oracle, Laboratory Maniac, Walking Ballista, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, or the only tutor if losing that card ends the live line.

- Ignore low-impact permanents under combo pressure: leave ordinary attackers, mana rocks, and slow value engines alone when life total is stable and a protected win can be set up. Shift removal toward creatures and combat resets only when the clock puts you below a safe setup window.

## Combat And Trading Rules

- Treat life as a combo resource until it becomes a clock: above roughly 25 life, take small attacks to preserve cards, mana, and protection; from 10 to 15 life, prioritize blockers, removal, Glacial Chasm, The One Ring, Teferi's Protection, Angel's Grace, Toxic Deluge, or Cyclonic Rift if the next attack cycle threatens lethal; below 10 life, assume Ancient Tomb, pain lands, Reanimate, Bolas's Citadel, and Toxic Deluge costs need explicit survival math.

- Preserve engine creatures over chip damage: keep Esper Sentinel, Orcish Bowmasters, Spellskite, Laboratory Maniac, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Walking Ballista, Grand Abolisher, Drannith Magistrate, Dauthi Voidwalker, and Y'shtola, Night's Blessed out of combat unless attacking advances lethal, blocks a lethal line, or legal text confirms a combat trigger worth the risk. Card text check required before using Y'shtola, Night's Blessed, Delney, Streetwise Lookout, Emeritus of Woe, High Fae Trickster, Hope Estheim, or Elesh Norn as a combat engine.

- Trade only for time or access: block with nonessential bodies when the trade buys a full turn, protects a planeswalker or lock piece, or prevents commander damage pressure from becoming decisive. Avoid trading a protected combo creature for an attacker that can be answered later by Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Deadly Rollick, Toxic Deluge, Farewell, Cyclonic Rift, Vindicate, or Void Rend.

- Equip for survival before aggression: Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Mithril Coat, and Spellskite should protect the permanent that makes the current line work. Move equipment to an attacker only when the attack is lethal, removes a player, or does not expose Laboratory Maniac, Walking Ballista, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Thassa's Oracle setup, or a commander-based plan.

- Attack combo and control opponents sparingly: pressure life totals when it enables Bloodchief Ascension, Sanguine Bond, Exquisite Blood, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Heliod, Sun-Crowned, Walking Ballista, or Akroma's Will lines, but do not tap key blockers into an opponent who can crack back for lethal. Against spell-heavy decks, the better combat play is often holding mana and cards for stack interaction.

- Stabilize against creature decks early: use Orcish Bowmasters, Walking Ballista, spot removal, Toxic Deluge, Farewell, Glacial Chasm, The One Ring, Teferi's Protection, and Angel's Grace to survive long enough to assemble a compact win. Against go-wide boards, value small chip damage less than preserving sweepers and white mana.

- Convert combat only when decisive: Akroma's Will can turn a developed board into a kill or a protective swing, but do not cast it as a medium attack pump when the same mana protects a combo or prevents lethal. Card text check required for exact modes and legality before treating Akroma's Will as protection or evasion.

- Respect visible crack-back math: before attacking with any creature that blocks, compare current life, known opposing attackers, tapped blockers, available removal, and prevention. If the attack does not change the win turn or enable a named engine, keep the creature back.

## Selection And Tutor Rules

- Tutor for the nearest protected win, not the fanciest card: Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Fabricate, Entomb, and Demonic Consultation should point toward the live line that can be defended through visible mana and known interaction. Prefer Thassa's Oracle plus Demonic Consultation when Oracle, Consultation, protection, and blue-black mana are available or tutor-accessible.

- Use Demonic Consultation as a commitment card: do not cast Demonic Consultation for setup unless the named card and fail case are acceptable from visible library and hand context. In normal winning lines, pair it with Thassa's Oracle or Laboratory Maniac timing, and keep protection for the Oracle trigger, draw trigger, or removal aimed at Laboratory Maniac.

- Sequence top-deck tutors before draw carefully: Vampiric Tutor, Mystical Tutor, and Enlightened Tutor become strongest when Brainstorm, The One Ring, Rhystic Study, Esper Sentinel, Bolas's Citadel, or a natural draw step can immediately convert the chosen card. If the chosen card is not needed this turn, avoid exposing the plan before opponents untap unless waiting risks losing.

- Use Brainstorm with a shuffle or top-card engine: cast Brainstorm before Fabled Passage or Marsh Flats when the hand has dead cards to hide or shuffle away. With Bolas's Citadel visible, use Brainstorm to stack castable low-cost cards on top and avoid leaving expensive or uncastable cards blocking Citadel chains.

- Hold fetch lands when selection matters: delay Fabled Passage or Marsh Flats if Brainstorm, Vampiric Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Bolas's Citadel, or public top-library information can improve the shuffle decision. Crack them earlier only when color fixing, landfall timing, or untapped mana this turn is required.

- Entomb should match the selected route: find Reanimate targets only when Reanimate is available or likely soon, and avoid filling the graveyard into visible Rest in Peace, Grafdigger's Cage, Dauthi Voidwalker, or similar opponent hate. Card text check required before using Y'shtola, Night's Blessed, Emeritus of Woe, Hope Estheim, or Morningtide's Light as graveyard-selection payoffs.

- Fabricate should find the artifact that solves the current bottleneck: choose Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, Talisman of Dominance, Talisman of Hierarchy, or Talisman of Progress for mana; Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Mithril Coat, or Spellskite for protection; Mindcrank or Walking Ballista for combo; The One Ring or Bolas's Citadel for card flow; Pithing Needle or Grafdigger's Cage only after sideboarding and only when their text attacks the visible opponent plan.

- Bottom or shuffle away slow duplicates of function: when selection asks what to keep, prefer mana plus one compact win path plus one protection piece. Deprioritize extra slow engines when already holding Rhystic Study, Smothering Tithe, Monologue Tax, The One Ring, or Bolas's Citadel and the table is pressuring life.

## Priority And Stack Rules

- Protect deterministic win attempts first: hold An Offer You Can't Refuse, Fierce Guardianship, Flusterstorm, Mindbreak Trap, Swan Song, Dovin's Veto, Dispel, Grand Abolisher, Teferi, Time Raveler, Teferi's Protection, Angel's Grace, Spellskite, Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, and Mithril Coat for the turn that commits Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Laboratory Maniac, Bolas's Citadel, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Mindcrank, Heliod, Sun-Crowned, or Walking Ballista.

- Let harmless spells resolve when shields are needed: do not spend stack interaction on routine ramp, cantrips, or medium value permanents if a protected combo turn is close. Counter spells that stop drawing, tutoring, casting, graveyard use, life gain, activated abilities, or the current win attempt.

- Use removal at the last safe moment: cast Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Deadly Rollick, Vindicate, Void Rend, Chain of Vapor, Cyclonic Rift, Toxic Deluge, Farewell, or Fractured Identity when the target blocks the selected line or creates lethal pressure before the next turn. Avoid main-phase answers when waiting preserves information without risking the line.

- Treat optional payments as resource decisions: pay Rhystic Study-style taxes when the spell is a win attempt, tutor, protection piece, or survival spell and mana remains for required interaction. Decline optional extort, copy, or value payments when they consume mana needed for counterspells, protection, ward/tax triggers, or Demonic Consultation plus Thassa's Oracle sequencing.

- Stack Oracle lines with exact survival checks: when Thassa's Oracle is cast, preserve priority resources for removal on Thassa's Oracle, trigger interaction, forced draw, counterspells, and effects that alter library size. If Laboratory Maniac is the win card, protect the creature before resolving the draw that would win.

- Use Angel's Grace and Teferi's Protection as survival and combo shields: cast them only when lethal damage, loss-of-game effects, or a decisive counter-race makes them necessary. Do not fire them as general fogs if Glacial Chasm, blockers, removal, or The One Ring can cover the turn.

- Activate Walking Ballista only with a clear target map: use counters on opponents, creatures, or planeswalkers according to visible lethal math and known prevention. With Heliod, Sun-Crowned, confirm the legal action text supports the intended life-gain/counter loop before committing.

- Respect graveyard timing: cast Reanimate after opponents have passed relevant windows or after protection is available, and avoid walking it into visible graveyard hate. Use Chain of Vapor, Cyclonic Rift, Vindicate, Void Rend, Farewell, or Fractured Identity to clear hate before graveyard commitment when that route is still the fastest win.

## Sideboard Map

- Sideboarding should protect the fastest live combo while attacking the opponent's narrowest dependency: add stack shields against spell combo, hate permanents against graveyard or commander engines, and cheap bounce only when a visible permanent can stop Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Reanimate, Bolas's Citadel, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Mindcrank, Heliod, Sun-Crowned, or Walking Ballista. Do not dilute the deck into fair control unless the opponent's pressure makes an immediate combo unrealistic.

Default spell-combo and counter-war plan
Side in: Dovin's Veto; Grand Abolisher; Teferi, Time Raveler; Dispel
Cut: Painful Quandary; Decorum Dissertation; Elesh Norn; Farewell

Graveyard-combo and recursion-heavy plan
Side in: Rest in Peace; Dauthi Voidwalker; Grafdigger's Cage
Cut: Reanimate; Entomb; Morningtide's Light

Permanent-hate and activated-engine plan
Side in: Chain of Vapor; Pithing Needle; Teferi, Time Raveler
Cut: Painful Quandary; Decorum Dissertation; Elesh Norn

Commander-centric creature-combo plan
Side in: Drannith Magistrate; Dovin's Veto; Grand Abolisher; Chain of Vapor
Cut: Painful Quandary; Farewell; Elesh Norn; Fractured Identity

Fast tempo and protected-window plan
Side in: Dispel; Chain of Vapor; Grand Abolisher
Cut: Painful Quandary; Decorum Dissertation; Farewell

Big-mana payoff and activated-permanent plan
Side in: Dovin's Veto; Pithing Needle; Chain of Vapor
Cut: Decorum Dissertation; Elesh Norn; Painful Quandary

- Dovin's Veto is strongest against spell-combo, control, extra-turn, mass-removal, and counter-war tables where a single noncreature spell decides the turn. Add it when protecting Thassa's Oracle plus Demonic Consultation, stopping a sweeper before a protected creature engine, or forcing through Bolas's Citadel. Reduce main-deck emphasis on slow tap-out pressure such as Painful Quandary or Decorum Dissertation when the game is about one stack exchange. It is weak when the opponent is mostly creature combat or activated abilities already on board.

- Teferi, Time Raveler turns protected combo turns into sorcery-speed fights for opponents and gives tempo against hate permanents that can be bounced. Add it against blue control, instant-speed removal, cascade-like stack fights, and decks that rely on acting during your turn. Reduce main-deck emphasis on expensive board-reset cards when the opponent is not winning through creatures. It is weak when Teferi cannot survive the next attack or when the opponent's key interaction is already a static permanent that must be removed permanently.

- Rest in Peace is graveyard hate first and a self-hate card second: bring it only when opposing graveyards matter more than your Reanimate, Entomb, Cabal Ritual threshold potential, and any commander-specific graveyard text. Add it against reanimator, dredge-style recursion, graveyard combo, flashback engines, and death-trigger loops. Reduce main-deck emphasis on Reanimate and Entomb lines when Rest in Peace is part of the plan. Do not bring it in when your fastest route is graveyard-based or when the opponent uses graveyard only incidentally.

- Drannith Magistrate is a commander and cast-from-nonhand tax piece: prioritize it against decks that rely on their commander, exile-casting, graveyard-casting, adventure-like sequencing, or cascade-like access. Add it when delaying the opponent's commander buys enough turns to assemble Oracle, Bloodchief Ascension plus Mindcrank, or life-drain combos. Reduce main-deck emphasis on slow engines that do not affect the opponent's immediate access route. It is weak when the opponent is a normal hand-based control deck with plentiful creature removal.

- Grand Abolisher is a commitment shield, not a generic two-drop: bring it when the expected game hinges on opponents interacting during your turn. Add it against counterspell decks, instant-speed removal, activated graveyard hate, and open-mana bluff tables before Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Bolas's Citadel, Exquisite Blood, or Sanguine Bond turns. Reduce main-deck emphasis on clunky nonessential permanents when the plan needs one protected turn. It is weak when combat pressure kills you before a shield matters.

- Dauthi Voidwalker pressures graveyards while preserving a threat that can convert an opponent's spell into tempo. Add it against graveyard combo, tutor-heavy decks, wheels, sacrifice loops, and decks that expose high-impact spells to exile. Reduce main-deck emphasis on graveyard-only setup if Rest in Peace or Grafdigger's Cage also enters. It is weak when the opponent has minimal graveyard use and many small blockers or cheap removal.

- Chain of Vapor is the cheapest emergency answer to hate permanents and mana-efficient stack setup problems. Add it against Rule-of-Law-style permanents, graveyard hate, artifact hate, creature stax, opposing protection pieces, or a permanent preventing the selected combo. Reduce main-deck emphasis on expensive universal answers when one-mana bounce creates the winning window. It is weak when bouncing gives the opponent a stronger replay than your follow-up, or when sacrificing lands would break your own combo mana.

- Dispel is a narrow shield for the decisive stack window. Add it against blue interaction, instant-speed removal, instant-speed tutors, and protection fights over Thassa's Oracle, Laboratory Maniac, Walking Ballista, or Bolas's Citadel. Reduce main-deck emphasis on slow card-advantage permanents when mana efficiency matters more than broad coverage. It is weak against creature decks, planeswalkers, sorcery-speed sweepers, and permanent-based hate.

- Pithing Needle is for named activated abilities that are already known or highly likely from public information. Add it against commanders, artifacts, lands, planeswalkers, or hate pieces whose activated ability stops your combo or wins the opponent's game. Reduce main-deck emphasis on slower removal when a one-mana named answer covers the relevant permanent type. Do not bring it in when you cannot name a permanent from visible information or when the opponent wins through triggered or static abilities.

- Grafdigger's Cage attacks library and graveyard casting without shutting off every graveyard interaction the same way Rest in Peace does, but it can still conflict with your Reanimate plan. Add it against creature-library engines, graveyard casting, reanimation chains, and commander decks that use library-to-battlefield shortcuts. Reduce main-deck emphasis on Reanimate and Entomb lines when Cage blocks your own route. It is weak when the opponent uses graveyard as a resource but not for casting or battlefield entry.

- Against fast creature pressure, prioritize sideboard cards only if they directly buy a turn or protect a sweeper; Chain of Vapor can answer a key hate creature, Drannith Magistrate can slow commander pressure, and Grand Abolisher can force a stabilizing Toxic Deluge or combo turn through instant interaction. Add role cards: Chain of Vapor; Drannith Magistrate; Grand Abolisher. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Painful Quandary, Decorum Dissertation, and other slow non-stabilizers when life total is under immediate attack.

- Against graveyard opponents, choose between Rest in Peace, Dauthi Voidwalker, and Grafdigger's Cage by self-impact: Rest in Peace is the highest ceiling hate, Dauthi Voidwalker preserves pressure and theft equity, and Grafdigger's Cage is narrower but cheaper. Add role cards: Rest in Peace; Dauthi Voidwalker; Grafdigger's Cage. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Entomb, Reanimate, and Cabal Ritual threshold planning when the hate card you add weakens those lines.

- Against control and spell combo, stack protection is the main sideboard axis: Dovin's Veto and Dispel fight over the decisive spell, Grand Abolisher and Teferi, Time Raveler create a protected turn, and Chain of Vapor clears hate if the opponent shifts to permanents. Add role cards: Dovin's Veto; Dispel; Grand Abolisher; Teferi, Time Raveler; Chain of Vapor. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Farewell, Elesh Norn, and other expensive board cards when the board is not the battlefield that matters.

## Matchup Guidance

- Aggro: Preserve life first and combo speed second when multiple attackers can reduce your clock below two full turns. Prioritize Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, the Talismans, cheap interaction, and early blockers or tax pieces over slow value permanents. Use Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Deadly Rollick, Void Rend, Vindicate, Toxic Deluge, and Cyclonic Rift to break the attack curve before spending mana on Painful Quandary or Bolas's Citadel. Add role cards: Chain of Vapor when a hate creature or one large attacker must be removed temporarily; Drannith Magistrate when the opposing commander is the pressure engine; Pithing Needle when a visible activated commander or equipment-like engine is central. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow enchantment engines that do not stabilize immediately.

- Control: Force a protected commitment turn instead of trading resources until every combo piece is exposed. Develop Rhystic Study, Esper Sentinel, Monologue Tax, Smothering Tithe, The One Ring, and protected mana rocks when they resolve under low risk, then defend the decisive Thassa's Oracle plus Demonic Consultation, Bloodchief Ascension plus Mindcrank, Exquisite Blood plus Sanguine Bond, or Walking Ballista line with Fierce Guardianship, Flusterstorm, Swan Song, An Offer You Can't Refuse, Mindbreak Trap, Angel's Grace, Teferi's Protection, Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Mithril Coat, and Spellskite as applicable. Add role cards: Dovin's Veto; Dispel; Grand Abolisher; Teferi, Time Raveler. Reduce main-deck emphasis: creature sweepers and expensive sorcery-speed removal when stack fights decide the game.

- Combo: Identify whether your hand is faster, more protected, or better at disruption before committing a tutor. Keep hands with acceleration plus one compact route, or interaction plus card selection if the opponent is visibly faster. Use Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Fabricate, Entomb, Brainstorm, Frantic Search, and Windfall only after checking whether the next decision is assembling, protecting, or stopping the opponent. Hold Fierce Guardianship, Flusterstorm, Swan Song, An Offer You Can't Refuse, Mindbreak Trap, Angel's Grace, and Teferi's Protection for deterministic opponent wins rather than routine value. Add role cards: Dovin's Veto; Dispel; Grand Abolisher; Drannith Magistrate; Dauthi Voidwalker; Pithing Needle when public information identifies an activated combo piece.

- Tempo: Treat mana efficiency as the matchup resource and avoid turns where one cheap answer invalidates your whole plan. Sequence tapped lands, Fabled Passage, Irrigated Farmland, Meticulous Archive, Shadowy Backstreet, Prairie Stream, Sunken Hollow, and Undercity Sewers around whether you must hold one-mana interaction. Prefer cheap plays that advance and defend at once, such as Esper Sentinel, Orcish Bowmasters, Spellskite, Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, and relevant tutors for low-cost protection. Do not tap out for Painful Quandary, Farewell, Fractured Identity, or Bolas's Citadel while the opponent can punish with board pressure plus open mana unless waiting is worse. Add role cards: Dispel; Chain of Vapor; Teferi, Time Raveler.

- Midrange: Build a resource engine first, then convert the first clear window into a compact win. Rhystic Study, Smothering Tithe, The One Ring, Esper Sentinel, Monologue Tax, Bloodchief Ascension, Kambal, Consul of Allocation, Orcish Bowmasters, and Y'shtola, Night's Blessed can punish fair spell sequencing, but Card text check required for Y'shtola-specific triggers before relying on a commander text line. Spend Vindicate, Void Rend, Deadly Rollick, Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, and Toxic Deluge on permanents that stop combo, shorten the clock, or generate repeated material. Add role cards: Grand Abolisher for protected combo turns; Dauthi Voidwalker when graveyards and wheels matter; Pithing Needle for visible activated engines.

- Big mana: Race the payoff, not the mana count, unless a visible permanent will immediately dominate the next turn. Use Bloodchief Ascension, Mindcrank, Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Laboratory Maniac, Bolas's Citadel, and tutor chains to shorten the game before the opponent's top end stabilizes. Save Vindicate, Void Rend, Fractured Identity, Cyclonic Rift, and Farewell for the permanent that actually blocks your win or wins theirs; do not spend premium answers on ramp unless the legal action text and public board make the payoff imminent. Add role cards: Dovin's Veto for decisive noncreature payoffs; Pithing Needle for known activated mana or payoff permanents; Chain of Vapor to open a same-turn combo window.

- Graveyard: Decide whether you are the graveyard deck or the hate deck before locking in a plan. Entomb, Reanimate, Cabal Ritual threshold, Dauthi Voidwalker, and any commander-graveyard text can conflict with Rest in Peace and Grafdigger's Cage, so choose hate only when the opponent's graveyard engine is more important than your own graveyard access. Use Dauthi Voidwalker when you need hate plus pressure, Rest in Peace when total graveyard shutdown matters, and Grafdigger's Cage when graveyard or library-to-battlefield/casting routes are the visible problem. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Entomb and Reanimate lines whenever your chosen hate shuts them off.

- Artifact/enchantment: Answer the permanent that constrains your win, not the permanent that merely produces value. Void Rend, Vindicate, Fractured Identity, Farewell, Cyclonic Rift, Chain of Vapor, Erode, and Morningtide's Light are the main tools, but Card text check required for Erode and Morningtide's Light before assuming exact coverage or timing. Enlightened Tutor can find combo enchantments, protection artifacts, or hate depending on the visible threat; Fabricate can find Sol Ring, The One Ring, Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Mithril Coat, Spellskite, Mindcrank, or Walking Ballista when that artifact is the selected route. Add role cards: Chain of Vapor; Pithing Needle; Teferi, Time Raveler if timing rules matter.

- Go-wide: Treat life total and sweeper timing as the key decisions. Toxic Deluge is the cleanest reset when life payment keeps you alive afterward; Farewell is slower but can clear multiple permanent classes when the board is already beyond one-for-one removal. Cyclonic Rift can create a one-turn combo window, and Elesh Norn may stabilize if its exact text is relevant, but Card text check required before relying on any specific static or triggered effect. Do not expose Laboratory Maniac or Thassa's Oracle as blockers unless the legal action is necessary for survival and the combo line is unavailable. Add role cards: Chain of Vapor only for key anthem, hate, or protection permanents; Drannith Magistrate only when commander access fuels the swarm.

- Single-threat: Use exile and unconditional removal aggressively when one commander, creature, or permanent represents the opponent's clock. Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Deadly Rollick, Void Rend, Vindicate, Fractured Identity, and Cyclonic Rift should answer the threat before it forces defensive combo timing. Glacial Chasm and Teferi's Protection can buy a turn, but do not choose them over a permanent answer if the opponent can simply redeploy the same threat and you cannot win next turn. Add role cards: Pithing Needle for visible activated-commanders or equipment-like engines; Chain of Vapor for temporary tempo; Dauthi Voidwalker if the threat recurs from graveyard.

- Burn: Treat every life payment as a combo investment with a survival check. Ancient Tomb, Adarkar Wastes, Caves of Koilos, Underground River, Talismans, Toxic Deluge, The One Ring, Bolas's Citadel, Vampiric Tutor, and fetch/shock sequencing can make the opponent's reach lethal, so compare the line against visible open mana and known public resources. Kambal, Consul of Allocation, Bloodchief Ascension, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Heliod, Sun-Crowned, Walking Ballista, Angel's Grace, Teferi's Protection, and Glacial Chasm can swing the race if legal and protected. Add role cards: Dispel against instant burn; Dovin's Veto against noncreature finishers; Grand Abolisher for the win turn.

- Removal-heavy: Do not rely on a single creature combo piece without protection, recursion, or immediate payoff. Laboratory Maniac, Thassa's Oracle, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Walking Ballista, Esper Sentinel, Spellskite, Orcish Bowmasters, Kambal, Consul of Allocation, Delney, Streetwise Lookout, Emeritus of Woe, High Fae Trickster, Hope Estheim, and Y'shtola, Night's Blessed should be deployed according to their immediate value and protection status; Card text check required for Delney, Emeritus of Woe, High Fae Trickster, Hope Estheim, and Y'shtola-specific tactical assumptions. Lead with resilient noncreature engines when possible, force removal on lesser permanents, then commit the creature-based win with Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Mithril Coat, Spellskite, Grand Abolisher, Teferi, Time Raveler, or stack protection available.

## Specific Matchup Notes

- General/archetype-only note: Exact opponents are absent, so treat these notes as matchup heuristics until revealed cards, commanders, public zones, and legal actions identify the real plan. Revealed cards override assumptions, and the agent must not infer hidden interaction, hidden graveyard payoff, or commander text from archetype labels alone.

- Fast combo: Prioritize a protected win window over incremental engines when the opponent can win before Rhystic Study, Smothering Tithe, The One Ring, or Painful Quandary converts. Add role cards: Dovin's Veto; Dispel; Grand Abolisher; Teferi, Time Raveler; Drannith Magistrate when command-zone or cast-from-outside-hand routes are visible. Priority threats are visible combo enablers, stack-protection permanents, and tutors that resolve into an immediate known win.

- Counterspell/control: Build mana and card advantage first, then force a turn where Grand Abolisher, Teferi, Time Raveler, Fierce Guardianship, Flusterstorm, Swan Song, An Offer You Can't Refuse, Mindbreak Trap, or Dovin's Veto can protect the decisive spell. Add role cards: Grand Abolisher; Teferi, Time Raveler; Dovin's Veto; Dispel; Chain of Vapor. Priority threats are tax/protection permanents, resolved draw engines that outpace yours, and visible stack pieces that stop Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Bloodchief Ascension, Mindcrank, Exquisite Blood, or Sanguine Bond.

- Graveyard engine: Choose your graveyard posture before committing Entomb, Reanimate, Cabal Ritual threshold planning, or graveyard-dependent commander assumptions. Add role cards: Rest in Peace; Grafdigger's Cage; Dauthi Voidwalker. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Entomb; Reanimate; Cabal Ritual threshold lines when Rest in Peace or Grafdigger's Cage is the chosen answer. Priority threats are visible recursion engines, graveyard payoff permanents, and self-mill loops that can act before your next protected combo turn.

- Creature pressure: Preserve life total enough to keep Ancient Tomb, Talismans, Toxic Deluge, Bolas's Citadel, Vampiric Tutor, and fetch/shock land decisions live. Add role cards: Chain of Vapor for a key attacker, anthem, or hate permanent; Pithing Needle for a visible activated commander or equipment-like engine; Drannith Magistrate when commander recasting is central. Priority threats are haste enablers, protection pieces, and creatures that make Toxic Deluge or Farewell necessary before you can win.

- Stax/prison: Answer the lock piece that blocks the selected win, not the piece that merely slows development. Add role cards: Chain of Vapor; Teferi, Time Raveler; Pithing Needle; Dovin's Veto. Priority threats are effects that stop casting, searching, graveyard use, activated abilities, or stack interaction; use Void Rend, Vindicate, Cyclonic Rift, Fractured Identity, Farewell, Erode, or Morningtide's Light only when legal text confirms the answer covers the visible permanent. Card text check required for Erode and Morningtide's Light.

- Artifact/enchantment engines: Treat Mindcrank, Bloodchief Ascension, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bolas's Citadel, The One Ring, Rhystic Study, Smothering Tithe, and Monologue Tax as your own high-leverage permanents and spend removal on opposing permanents that outpace or invalidate them. Add role cards: Chain of Vapor; Pithing Needle; Dovin's Veto; Teferi, Time Raveler. Priority threats are visible artifact/enchantment engines, activated combo permanents, and hate that prevents the chosen combo line.

- Big mana and extra-turn payoff decks: Do not fight every ramp spell. Add role cards: Dovin's Veto for the payoff spell, Pithing Needle for known activated mana or payoff permanents, and Chain of Vapor when a single hate permanent blocks your same-turn win. Priority threats are the public payoff, the permanent that converts mana into inevitability, and the lock piece that prevents Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Bloodchief Ascension, Mindcrank, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, or Bolas's Citadel from resolving cleanly.

- Go-wide and token decks: Keep removal density high unless the sideboard card directly changes the race. Chain of Vapor can answer a single anthem or hate piece, Drannith Magistrate can matter when commander access fuels the swarm, and Grand Abolisher can protect a sweeper or combo turn through instant interaction. Do not over-sideboard into narrow stack cards if Toxic Deluge, Cyclonic Rift, Farewell, Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Deadly Rollick, Void Rend, and Vindicate are the cards that keep you alive.

- Single-threat commander decks: Treat the commander as the axis only after public information proves it. Add role cards: Drannith Magistrate to delay commander recasts, Pithing Needle for visible activated commander text, Chain of Vapor for tempo, and Dauthi Voidwalker when the threat repeatedly uses the graveyard. Maintain enough unconditional answers for the permanent itself, because sideboard hate that fails to answer the active threat can turn a winnable race into a defensive scramble.

## Risk Summary

- Mana risk: The deck has powerful colorless and pain sources, so opening hands must prove early colored access for interaction and tutors before leaning on Ancient Tomb, Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Talismans, or Fellwar Stone. Lands such as Glacial Chasm, Reliquary Tower, Ancient Tomb, and utility duals can create awkward sequencing if the hand needs early white for Swords to Plowshares, blue for Swan Song or Brainstorm, or black for Demonic Consultation and tutors.

- Matchup risk: The deck can misrole itself by playing slow engines into faster combo or rushing fragile creature wins into removal-heavy tables. Use visible clock, known public interaction, and legal-action pressure to decide whether the turn is about survival, resource accumulation, or a protected win.

- Draw risk: Hands with tutors but no protection can look stronger than they are, and hands with engines but no acceleration may lose before value matters. Brainstorm, Frantic Search, Windfall, The One Ring, Rhystic Study, Esper Sentinel, and Bolas's Citadel should be judged by immediate mana, life, and stack context, not by abstract card volume.

- Over-sideboarding risk: Rest in Peace and Grafdigger's Cage can weaken Entomb, Reanimate, Cabal Ritual threshold planning, and any graveyard text from Y'shtola, Night's Blessed if that text matters. Add hate only when the opponent's visible graveyard plan is more dangerous than your loss of graveyard access.

- Sweeper/removal risk: Toxic Deluge, Farewell, Cyclonic Rift, Fractured Identity, Vindicate, Void Rend, Deadly Rollick, Swords to Plowshares, and Path to Exile are limited pressure valves, so using them on low-impact permanents can leave no answer for the actual lock or lethal threat.

- Closer risk: Laboratory Maniac, Thassa's Oracle, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Walking Ballista, Heliod, Sun-Crowned, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bloodchief Ascension, Mindcrank, and Bolas's Citadel each need different protection and resource conditions. Do not expose a closer as a fair permanent when the hand cannot either win immediately, protect it, or recover it.

- Interaction risk: Free or cheap protection can be spent too early on convenience. Save Fierce Guardianship, Flusterstorm, Swan Song, An Offer You Can't Refuse, Mindbreak Trap, Angel's Grace, Teferi's Protection, and sideboard counters for lethal prevention, win protection, or a visible opponent win attempt unless the board state proves waiting is worse.

- Sequencing risk: Tutor and selection choices lock in later obligations. Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Entomb, Fabricate, and Brainstorm should choose the line that can be executed through current mana, visible hate, public stack context, and known turn order rather than the strongest card in isolation.

## Test Feedback Checklist

- Deciding factor: Identify the turn cycle where the game became favored or lost, and name the exact card, legal action, or missed priority window that caused the shift. Track whether the deciding factor came from a protected combo attempt, a failed setup turn, a removal bottleneck, or an opponent clock that forced premature action.

- Mulligans: Record whether the opener had colored mana, acceleration, interaction, and a credible path to Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Bloodchief Ascension plus Mindcrank, Exquisite Blood plus Sanguine Bond, Heliod, Sun-Crowned plus Walking Ballista, or Bolas's Citadel. Flag hands kept because they looked powerful but lacked either early blue/black interaction or enough mana to deploy engines before pressure mattered.

- Mana: Note every game where Ancient Tomb, Glacial Chasm, Reliquary Tower, colorless rocks, pain lands, or tapped duals changed sequencing. Track whether Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, Talisman of Dominance, Talisman of Hierarchy, Talisman of Progress, or Monologue Tax accelerated the chosen line or stranded colored interaction.

- Velocity: Check whether Brainstorm, Frantic Search, Windfall, The One Ring, Rhystic Study, Esper Sentinel, Smothering Tithe, and Bolas's Citadel created enough cards or mana before the opponent threatened a win. Mark when drawing cards was worse than tutoring, removing a hate piece, or holding protection.

- Engines: Record which permanent engine actually mattered: Bloodchief Ascension, Mindcrank, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bolas's Citadel, Painful Quandary, Decorum Dissertation, Kambal, Consul of Allocation, or Y'shtola, Night's Blessed. Card text check required for Y'shtola, Night's Blessed and Decorum Dissertation before assigning causal credit.

- Removal: Review every use of Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Deadly Rollick, Void Rend, Vindicate, Cyclonic Rift, Toxic Deluge, Farewell, Fractured Identity, Erode, and Morningtide's Light. Card text check required for Erode and Morningtide's Light; score removal as correct only when the visible target threatened the selected win, lethal survival, or a lock piece.

- Sideboard: After each sideboarded game, ask whether Dovin's Veto, Dispel, Teferi, Time Raveler, Grand Abolisher, Rest in Peace, Dauthi Voidwalker, Drannith Magistrate, Grafdigger's Cage, Pithing Needle, or Chain of Vapor addressed the actual opposing plan. Track self-conflict from Rest in Peace or Grafdigger's Cage against Entomb, Reanimate, and Cabal Ritual threshold planning.

- Closing: Record whether the deck won through Thassa's Oracle, Laboratory Maniac, Bloodchief Ascension, Mindcrank, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Heliod, Sun-Crowned, Walking Ballista, Bolas's Citadel, Akroma's Will, or combat pressure. Mark failed close attempts where protection was absent, mana was short, or the closer was exposed as a fair permanent.

- Role and mistakes: Ask whether the pilot correctly chose control, combo, engine, or survival role from visible board state. Flag passes with interaction available, tutors that found a line too slow for the clock, protection spent on nondecisive spells, and stranded cards such as Demonic Consultation without payoff or Reanimate without a target.

- Overperformers and underperformers: Name the cards that changed win probability, not merely cards that resolved. Separately list cards that were stranded, win-more, too slow, self-conflicting, or repeatedly worse than holding mana for Fierce Guardianship, Flusterstorm, Swan Song, An Offer You Can't Refuse, Mindbreak Trap, Angel's Grace, or Teferi's Protection.

## First Tuning Questions

- Mana base: Does the deck need more reliable early blue and black access, or did Ancient Tomb, Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Talismans, and Fellwar Stone already cover speed without causing colored interaction failures? Track games where Swan Song, Brainstorm, Demonic Consultation, Vampiric Tutor, or Dark Ritual was stranded by source sequencing.

- Acceleration density: Are Monologue Tax, Smothering Tithe, Fellwar Stone, Arcane Signet, Sol Ring, and the three Talismans enough fast mana for protected combo turns, or are slow engine hands losing before they convert? Compare wins from early acceleration against losses where rocks did not produce the needed colors.

- Combo package: Which closer was most executable through real legal actions: Thassa's Oracle plus Demonic Consultation, Laboratory Maniac plus library-empty lines, Bloodchief Ascension plus Mindcrank, Exquisite Blood plus Sanguine Bond or Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Heliod, Sun-Crowned plus Walking Ballista, or Bolas's Citadel? Reduce emphasis on packages that repeatedly require too many exposed pieces.

- Protection package: Did Fierce Guardianship, Flusterstorm, Swan Song, An Offer You Can't Refuse, Mindbreak Trap, Angel's Grace, Teferi's Protection, Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Mithril Coat, and Spellskite protect decisive moments, or were they awkward against the actual threats? Decide whether protection should lean more stack-based, permanent-based, or survival-based.

- Removal spread: Did single-target removal answer the correct permanent types, or were games lost to boards requiring Toxic Deluge, Farewell, Cyclonic Rift, or Fractured Identity? Recheck whether Void Rend, Vindicate, Deadly Rollick, Swords to Plowshares, and Path to Exile covered enough visible threats without overloading on reactive cards.

- Aggro plan: Is the life-cost package from Ancient Tomb, Vampiric Tutor, Toxic Deluge, Bolas's Citadel, pain lands, and fetch/shock sequencing safe against creature pressure? If not, tune toward earlier blockers, cheaper removal, or fewer life-intensive setup lines.

- Control plan: Are Rhystic Study, Esper Sentinel, The One Ring, Painful Quandary, Kambal, Consul of Allocation, and Smothering Tithe strong enough when games slow down, or does the deck need to commit faster to protected combo? Measure whether value permanents drew interaction away from wins or simply consumed setup turns.

- Graveyard tension: Did Entomb and Reanimate justify their slots when sideboard graveyard hate was active, and did Cabal Ritual threshold matter often enough to plan around it? If Rest in Peace or Grafdigger's Cage was frequently correct, evaluate whether graveyard-dependent lines should be lower priority post-board.

- Sideboard slots: Which sideboard cards were decisive rather than merely plausible: Dovin's Veto, Dispel, Teferi, Time Raveler, Grand Abolisher, Rest in Peace, Dauthi Voidwalker, Drannith Magistrate, Grafdigger's Cage, Pithing Needle, or Chain of Vapor? Keep slots that answer observed losses and question slots that never match legal targets or timing windows.

- Role conflicts: Does Y'shtola, Night's Blessed reward a tribal, graveyard, or combo posture strongly enough to shape play, or is the commander secondary to Esper combo-control execution? Card text check required before finalizing commander-centered tuning.

## Veles Tactical Policy

### Policy: Opening Hand Role Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: mulligan
Cards: Sol Ring; Arcane Signet; Talisman of Dominance; Talisman of Hierarchy; Talisman of Progress; Demonic Tutor; Vampiric Tutor; Thassa's Oracle; Demonic Consultation
Phase windows: pregame mulligan decisions
Runtime cues: prompt:mulligan; zone:opening hand
Use when: evaluating keep, free mulligan, or London mulligan bottom choices.
Avoid when: the engine has already advanced past mulligans.
Instructions: Keep hands with two usable mana sources plus acceleration, tutor, draw engine, or interaction; reject hands that cannot cast blue or black spells by turn two unless Sol Ring plus a tutor or engine is visible. Treat Thassa's Oracle without Demonic Consultation, Laboratory Maniac, or tutor support as a fragile future plan, not a keep reason by itself.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Early Mana And Color Setup
Priority: Medium
Decision families: mana
Cards: Command Tower; Underground River; Caves of Koilos; Adarkar Wastes; Darkslick Shores; Hallowed Fountain; Sol Ring; Arcane Signet; Fellwar Stone; Talisman of Dominance; Talisman of Hierarchy; Talisman of Progress
Phase windows: turns one to three main phases and fetch decisions
Runtime cues: action:play land; action:activate mana; action:cast Sol Ring
Use when: choosing first land, rock, or color source before committing engines.
Avoid when: a lethal or survival stack decision is pending.
Instructions: Prioritize untapped blue and black access for Brainstorm, Swan Song, Demonic Consultation, Vampiric Tutor, Dark Ritual, and interaction. Use Ancient Tomb aggressively only when the two mana accelerates a protected engine or combo turn and visible pressure does not make the life loss dangerous.
Pilot skill floor: low
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: First Engine Commitment
Priority: Medium
Decision families: priority; mana
Cards: Rhystic Study; Esper Sentinel; Smothering Tithe; The One Ring; Bloodchief Ascension; Mindcrank; Bolas's Citadel; Painful Quandary
Phase windows: own main phase with priority and enough mana
Runtime cues: action:cast Rhystic Study; action:cast Esper Sentinel; action:cast Bloodchief Ascension; action:cast Bolas's Citadel
Use when: selecting the first non-combo permanent that shapes the game.
Avoid when: holding mana is required for visible stack interaction or a same-turn win is available.
Instructions: Cast cheap engines before expensive prison or Citadel lines unless the table is about to win. Prefer Rhystic Study or Esper Sentinel into open mana, Smothering Tithe into draw-heavy boards, and Bloodchief Ascension only when counters can realistically accumulate or Mindcrank is accessible.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Oracle Consultation Commitment Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: priority; selection; interaction
Cards: Thassa's Oracle; Demonic Consultation; Laboratory Maniac; Angel's Grace; Fierce Guardianship; Flusterstorm; Swan Song; An Offer You Can't Refuse; Mindbreak Trap
Phase windows: own main phase or protected instant-speed window
Runtime cues: action:cast Thassa's Oracle; action:cast Demonic Consultation; stack:Thassa's Oracle trigger
Use when: deciding whether to begin or finish the library-empty win line.
Avoid when: opponents show untapped interaction, a stax piece blocks the line, or protection is absent and waiting preserves the line.
Instructions: Start the line only when payoff, exile effect, mana, and protection are visible or when waiting is worse because the opponent threatens a win. Resolve Thassa's Oracle trigger sequencing carefully; do not fire Demonic Consultation into a board state where the payoff can be removed and no backup exists.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Deterministic Oracle Name Execution
Priority: Medium
Decision families: selection
Cards: Demonic Consultation; Thassa's Oracle; Laboratory Maniac
Phase windows: during Demonic Consultation name selection after combo commitment
Runtime cues: action:choose card name
Use when: Thassa's Oracle trigger or Laboratory Maniac draw-win setup is already present and the legal action text asks for a card name for Demonic Consultation.
Avoid when: the selected line has not already been committed by a prior policy decision.
Instructions: Choose a card name that is not needed for the already-committed payoff line and is not visible in hand, battlefield, graveyard, exile, or command zone if the engine exposes those zones. If exact library status is not exposed, require light-model review.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Life-Drain Combo Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: priority; mana; interaction
Cards: Exquisite Blood; Sanguine Bond; Bloodthirsty Conqueror; Heliod, Sun-Crowned; Walking Ballista; Bloodchief Ascension; Mindcrank
Phase windows: own main phase, end step setup, or priority window with mana available
Runtime cues: action:cast Exquisite Blood; action:cast Sanguine Bond; action:cast Bloodthirsty Conqueror; action:cast Mindcrank
Use when: deciding whether to expose a two-card drain or damage loop.
Avoid when: one piece is vulnerable and passing with protection or tutoring is stronger from visible state.
Instructions: Commit the loop when both pieces are available or a tutor makes the missing piece immediate, and check visible graveyard hate, replacement effects, and removal mana before tapping out. Treat Heliod, Sun-Crowned plus Walking Ballista as a separate mana-sensitive line requiring enough counters or legal activations.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Tutor Target Selection
Priority: High
Decision families: selection
Cards: Demonic Tutor; Vampiric Tutor; Enlightened Tutor; Mystical Tutor; Entomb; Fabricate
Phase windows: tutor resolution, upkeep setup, end step, or own main phase
Runtime cues: action:search library; action:choose card
Use when: a tutor asks for a card and the game state determines whether combo, protection, removal, or mana is missing.
Avoid when: a previous deterministic no-API policy names the exact legal card and no hidden judgment remains.
Instructions: Find the missing card for the nearest protected win when safe; otherwise find protection against a visible counter-window, removal for a visible hate piece, or mana when color shortage blocks the line. Entomb is conditional because Reanimate and graveyard access must be legal and graveyard hate must be checked.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Reanimate Target Gate
Priority: Medium
Decision families: selection; priority
Cards: Reanimate; Entomb; Bloodthirsty Conqueror; Laboratory Maniac; Orcish Bowmasters; Esper Sentinel
Phase windows: graveyard target selection and own main phase priority
Runtime cues: action:target Reanimate
Use when: choosing a creature card in a graveyard for Reanimate.
Avoid when: graveyard hate is active or life payment creates lethal vulnerability.
Instructions: Route the target through light-model because life total, opposing graveyard contents, combo relevance, and removal exposure matter. Prefer a target that immediately advances a committed win or stabilizes a dangerous board; Card text check required for commander-specific graveyard synergies before commander-centered targets are prioritized.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Permission Spending Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: interaction; priority
Cards: Fierce Guardianship; Flusterstorm; Swan Song; An Offer You Can't Refuse; Mindbreak Trap; Dovin's Veto; Dispel
Phase windows: opponent casts spell, counter war, own combo turn
Runtime cues: stack:opponent spell; action:cast Fierce Guardianship; action:cast Flusterstorm; action:cast Swan Song
Use when: deciding whether to counter a spell or protect a combo piece.
Avoid when: the spell is low-impact and preserving permission protects a visible win or survival point.
Instructions: Spend permission on spells that stop a committed win, remove the payoff, win immediately for an opponent, or resolve a hate piece that shuts off the current plan. Prefer narrow counters first when they legally answer the stack object, and preserve free interaction for the decisive counter-war.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Protection Activation And Redirect Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: interaction; priority
Cards: Teferi's Protection; Angel's Grace; Lightning Greaves; Swiftfoot Boots; Mithril Coat; Spellskite; Grand Abolisher; Teferi, Time Raveler
Phase windows: removal stack, lethal combat, combo setup, own main phase protection setup
Runtime cues: action:cast Teferi's Protection; action:cast Angel's Grace; action:activate Spellskite; action:equip Lightning Greaves
Use when: protecting life total, commander, payoff permanent, or a combo turn.
Avoid when: the protected object is not part of survival or a near-term win.
Instructions: Use Teferi's Protection and Angel's Grace for lethal prevention or combo survival, not routine damage. Equip or deploy permanent protection before exposing Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Laboratory Maniac, Walking Ballista, or commander-dependent lines when timing permits.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Removal Target Priority
Priority: Medium
Decision families: interaction; selection
Cards: Swords to Plowshares; Path to Exile; Deadly Rollick; Void Rend; Vindicate; Cyclonic Rift; Toxic Deluge; Farewell; Fractured Identity; Erode; Morningtide's Light
Phase windows: opponent threat resolution, end step, own main phase sweeper window, combat survival
Runtime cues: action:target Swords to Plowshares; action:cast Toxic Deluge; action:cast Farewell
Use when: selecting removal, bounce, exile, or sweeper lines.
Avoid when: the target does not affect survival, combo access, or a lock piece from visible information.
Instructions: Remove hate pieces before fair threats when they block the chosen win; remove lethal attackers before engines; sweep only when rebuilding is better than one-for-one interaction. Card text check required for Erode and Morningtide's Light before relying on exact permanent-type coverage.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Draw And Wheel Timing
Priority: Medium
Decision families: priority; selection
Cards: Brainstorm; Frantic Search; Windfall; The One Ring; Rhystic Study; Esper Sentinel
Phase windows: own main phase, opponent end step, response to discard or wheel opportunity
Runtime cues: action:cast Brainstorm; action:cast Frantic Search; action:cast Windfall; action:activate The One Ring
Use when: choosing whether to dig, wheel, or hold interaction.
Avoid when: drawing gives opponents a fresh grip before you can use the cards or shields are down for a visible opposing win.
Instructions: Use Brainstorm with fetch or shuffle access when possible; use Frantic Search to convert dead cards into mana-positive velocity; cast Windfall when your hand is worse than opponents' public hand sizes or when it digs into a protected win without handing the next player a lethal window.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Combat Survival And Closing
Priority: Medium
Decision families: combat; interaction
Cards: Akroma's Will; Y'shtola, Night's Blessed; Orcish Bowmasters; Delney, Streetwise Lookout; Elesh Norn; Hope Estheim
Phase windows: declare attackers, declare blockers, combat trick windows, precombat main phase
Runtime cues: action:attack; action:block; action:cast Akroma's Will
Use when: combat choices can preserve life, pressure planeswalkers, or close a game.
Avoid when: the only legal attack sacrifices a key combo creature or opens lethal crackback.
Instructions: Treat combat as secondary unless Akroma's Will or a wide protected board threatens a deterministic close. Block to preserve life against commander damage or lethal clocks, and avoid exposing Laboratory Maniac, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, or protected engine creatures to unnecessary combat risk. Card text check required for Y'shtola, Night's Blessed, Hope Estheim, and Decorum Dissertation before tribal combat assumptions.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Deterministic Pass On Empty Stack
Priority: Low
Decision families: priority
Cards: none
Phase windows: opponent end step or own postcombat main phase with no legal proactive action selected
Runtime cues: action:pass priority
Use when: the stack is empty, no legal action text names a card in hand or battlefield to cast or activate, and no combat declaration is pending.
Avoid when: any legal action text names a registered card that can be cast, activated, equipped, targeted, tutored, or used for interaction.
Instructions: Pass priority exactly when the visible legal action list only advances the turn or phase and no spell, ability, attack, block, or selection choice is offered.
Pilot skill floor: low
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Deterministic Mana Payment After Spell Selection
Priority: Low
Decision families: mana
Cards: Sol Ring; Arcane Signet; Fellwar Stone; Talisman of Dominance; Talisman of Hierarchy; Talisman of Progress; Command Tower
Phase windows: mana payment prompt after a spell or ability is already selected
Runtime cues: action:pay mana
Use when: exactly one legal payment action is shown by Veles for the already-selected spell or ability.
Avoid when: multiple legal payment actions differ by colored source, life loss, Ancient Tomb use, or preserving interaction mana.
Instructions: Submit the single legal payment action shown by the rules engine. If multiple payments exist, preserve blue interaction and black combo mana through light-model reasoning.
Pilot skill floor: low
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Sideboard Plan Selection
Priority: High
Decision families: sideboard
Cards: Dovin's Veto; Dispel; Grand Abolisher; Teferi, Time Raveler; Drannith Magistrate; Rest in Peace; Dauthi Voidwalker; Grafdigger's Cage; Pithing Needle; Chain of Vapor
Phase windows: between games sideboard lock
Runtime cues: prompt:sideboard; game:2; game:3; matchup:combo; matchup:control; matchup:graveyard; matchup:artifact; matchup:activated ability; matchup:commander-centric
Use when: the opponent's public plan has revealed a narrow dependency that the registered sideboard can attack without abandoning the fastest live combo.
Avoid when: adding multiple hate cards would slow the deck more than the opposing engine, or when the opponent's revealed pressure demands maindeck removal and sweepers.
Instructions: Select the smallest plan that answers the known axis, preserve a compact win route, and keep every added card within the registered ten-card sideboard. Every removed card must be a registered main-deck card, and the post-board deck must preserve the Commander-family 100-card main deck plus 10-card sideboard contract.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Sideboard Lock Submission
Priority: High
Decision families: sideboard
Cards: Dovin's Veto; Teferi, Time Raveler; Rest in Peace; Drannith Magistrate; Grand Abolisher; Dauthi Voidwalker; Chain of Vapor; Dispel; Pithing Needle; Grafdigger's Cage
Phase windows: between games sideboard lock
Runtime cues: prompt:sideboard; validation:registered-100-plus-10; validation:swap-preserves-registration
Use when: Veles asks for final between-game sideboarding after Game 1 or revised sideboarding after Game 2.
Avoid when: any proposed addition is absent from the registered sideboard, any proposed removal is absent from the main deck, or the swap count is unbalanced.
Instructions: Submit only exact card names from the registered deck contract. Prefer no change over an invalid plan. Record the matchup reason, self-conflict check, and whether the plan protects Thassa's Oracle plus Demonic Consultation, Bloodchief Ascension plus Mindcrank, Exquisite Blood plus Sanguine Bond, Bolas's Citadel, or Walking Ballista.
Pilot skill floor: low
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Narrow Hate Deployment
Priority: Medium
Decision families: sideboard; cast-spell; tutor; sequencing
Cards: Rest in Peace; Grafdigger's Cage; Dauthi Voidwalker; Pithing Needle; Drannith Magistrate; Chain of Vapor
Phase windows: between games sideboard lock; main phase; priority with visible hate or engine
Runtime cues: matchup:graveyard; matchup:commander; matchup:artifact; matchup:activated ability; public-zone:graveyard; visible-permanent:activated-engine
Use when: the opponent has revealed a graveyard route, commander access route, library-to-battlefield route, or activated engine that is more important than your own affected route.
Avoid when: Rest in Peace or Grafdigger's Cage would disable the chosen Entomb, Reanimate, Cabal Ritual threshold, or graveyard-based backup plan without stopping an urgent opposing win.
Instructions: Deploy the narrow card only when it attacks the active opponent plan. Use Pithing Needle from visible information, use Chain of Vapor to create a same-turn combo window, and prefer Dauthi Voidwalker over harder graveyard lock pieces when pressure plus theft equity matters.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Protected Combo Turn After Sideboarding
Priority: Medium
Decision families: sideboard; cast-spell; priority; protection
Cards: Dovin's Veto; Dispel; Grand Abolisher; Teferi, Time Raveler; Chain of Vapor
Phase windows: between games sideboard lock; pre-combo main phase; opponent end step; stack fight
Runtime cues: matchup:control; matchup:spell-combo; prompt:priority; stack:noncreature-spell; visible-permanent:hate
Use when: the game will hinge on resolving or protecting Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Bolas's Citadel, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Mindcrank, Heliod, Sun-Crowned, or Walking Ballista.
Avoid when: the opponent is applying lethal board pressure and the protection card does not affect survival or a same-turn win.
Instructions: Sequence Grand Abolisher or Teferi, Time Raveler before the commitment turn when possible, hold Dovin's Veto and Dispel for decisive stack exchanges, and use Chain of Vapor only when bouncing a hate permanent opens an immediate winning or stabilizing window.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes
