# Strategy Specifications
## Deck Name And Archetype
Blue Tempo is a Vintage tempo-control deck built around cheap blue interaction, graveyard-fueled threats, and card-advantage engines. The registered strategy uses `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, `Up the Beanstalk`, `Lorien Revealed`, `Ethereal Forager`, and `Murktide Regent` to turn cantrips, pitch spells, and graveyard velocity into a fast clock backed by permission.

- Validation: The registered main deck contains exactly 60 cards and the sideboard contains exactly 15 cards, matching the active Vintage deck-count contract supplied for Veles.
- Format status: The active format is Vintage, and the supplied format-aware validation result says this list passes. Runtime policy should still obey Veles legality output and should not assume a card can be cast, pitched, targeted, delved, exiled, or replayed unless the rules engine exposes that legal action.
- Archetype tags: The deck is best indexed as tempo, control, spells. The duplicate supplied tags collapse to the same functional identity: blue tempo-control with a spell-dense engine and free interaction.
- Stock status: Treat this as a hybrid or custom Vintage blue tempo shell, not a stock archetype with memorized sideboard heuristics. `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` plus `Up the Beanstalk`, `Lorien Revealed`, `Ethereal Forager`, and `Murktide Regent` creates a deck-specific resource engine that differs from generic blue Xerox, generic control, or generic graveyard tempo lists.
- Primary colors: The deck is blue-based with light green access from `Tropical Island`, `Hedge Maze`, `Mox Emerald`, and fetchlands. Most tactical decisions should prioritize blue mana stability for `Ancestral Recall`, `Brainstorm`, `Consider`, `Thought Scour`, `Daze`, `Flusterstorm`, `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Misdirection`, `Commandeer`, `Ethereal Forager`, `Murktide Regent`, `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, `Lorien Revealed`, and `Up the Beanstalk` where legal.
- Mana-role concern: The mana base is powerful but thin, with only `Island`, `Tropical Island`, `Hedge Maze`, `Mystic Sanctuary`, fetchlands, `Wasteland`, `Strip Mine`, `Black Lotus`, `Mox Sapphire`, and `Mox Emerald`. Decisions must respect visible land drops, fetch targets, blue-source count, and whether sacrificing `Wasteland` or `Strip Mine` leaves the deck unable to cast or defend key spells.
- Threat-role concern: `Murktide Regent` and `Ethereal Forager` are graveyard-dependent finishers, while `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` is an early snowball permanent. The pilot should not exile or spend graveyard resources blindly when future delve, Forager attack value, or Mystic Sanctuary recursion may matter.
- Interaction-role concern: `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Daze`, `Flusterstorm`, `Mental Misstep`, `Misdirection`, and `Commandeer` make the deck capable of fighting while tapped low, but each answer has a real card, tempo, or targeting cost. The agent should treat free interaction as a limited resource, not as permission to tap out without evaluating the visible stack and known public information.
- Card-text uncertainty: Card text check required for any precise transformed-side, triggered, or alternate-cost details of `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, plus any edge-case interaction involving `Up the Beanstalk`, `Ethereal Forager`, `Commandeer`, `Misdirection`, `Suspend`, or `Consign to Memory`. Use Veles legal actions over memory whenever those details affect a decision.
- Opponent information status: No specific opponent deck is supplied for this strategy batch. Matchup rules should therefore begin from visible game objects, revealed cards, public zones, known archetype tags if Veles provides them, and legal action text, without inventing hidden cards or assuming common Vintage staples are present.

## Thesis
Blue Tempo assembles a protected threat plus a resource engine before the opponent can safely convert their powerful spells into a stable board. The default plan is to spend early turns developing blue mana, graveyard volume, and cheap card flow, then win with `Murktide Regent`, `Ethereal Forager`, or a snowballing `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` while `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Daze`, `Flusterstorm`, `Mental Misstep`, `Misdirection`, and `Commandeer` stop the stack actions that would break parity.

The deck wins by making the opponent fight on awkward timing while every exchange feeds a later payoff. `Consider`, `Thought Scour`, `Brainstorm`, `Gitaxian Probe`, `Ancestral Recall`, `Gush`, `Lorien Revealed`, and fetchlands improve card quality or graveyard density; `Up the Beanstalk` turns the deck's large-spell axis into extra material when Veles exposes the relevant triggers and legal casts; `Murktide Regent` and `Ethereal Forager` convert stocked graveyards into pressure. Prioritize sequences that leave a threat protected, keep blue interaction live, and avoid spending the same graveyard cards twice in the plan.

The deck is not trying to be a pure prison deck, a hard-control inevitability deck, or a tap-out midrange deck. `Wasteland` and `Strip Mine` are tempo tools, not a license to ignore blue-source stability; `Up the Beanstalk` is an engine, not a reason to keep slow hands without interaction; `Murktide Regent` is a finisher, not a card to rush into visible exile, bounce, or counterplay without protection when waiting preserves a better line.

Prioritize legal actions in this order when the board is uncertain: preserve survival against immediate lethal or decisive stack threats; protect a resolved or castable engine/threat; maintain blue mana and pitch-card access; grow graveyard and hand quality; then attack mana with `Wasteland` or `Strip Mine`. If card text, trigger timing, delve cost, exile choice, alternate cost, or target legality is uncertain, use Veles output and mark Card text check required rather than assuming a rules outcome.

## Role Package
- Threats: `Murktide Regent` is the primary closing threat when the graveyard is stocked and the pilot can choose delve payments without consuming cards needed for `Ethereal Forager` or `Mystic Sanctuary`. `Ethereal Forager` is the recurring-pressure threat that rewards a graveyard containing useful instants or sorceries; Card text check required for exact exile and cast-permission details at runtime. `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` is the early snowball threat and must be developed when it can start converting card flow into pressure without exposing the pilot to a decisive tempo loss.

- Payoffs: `Up the Beanstalk` is the main noncreature value payoff and should be protected when the hand contains or can find high-mana-value spells such as `Lorien Revealed`, `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Commandeer`, `Misdirection`, `Murktide Regent`, or `Ethereal Forager` through legal casting patterns. `Time Walk` is a tempo payoff that becomes strongest after a resolved threat, before a lethal attack turn, or when an extra land drop and draw step convert into protected dominance.

- Engines: `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, `Up the Beanstalk`, `Lorien Revealed`, `Ancestral Recall`, `Gush`, and `Ethereal Forager` are the sustained-card-flow package. Do not spend protection casually when one of these engines is already carrying the game unless the visible stack threatens to remove the engine, end the game, or invalidate the current plan.

- Velocity: `Consider`, `Thought Scour`, `Brainstorm`, `Gitaxian Probe`, `Ancestral Recall`, `Gush`, and `Lorien Revealed` smooth early turns and stock the graveyard. Use `Gitaxian Probe` information, when legal and visible, to decide whether to commit `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, `Up the Beanstalk`, `Murktide Regent`, or a mana-denial line.

- Interaction: `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Daze`, `Flusterstorm`, `Mental Misstep`, `Misdirection`, and `Commandeer` are the stack-control suite. Spend them on spells that beat the current battlefield or engine, not on low-impact plays that can be ignored while a threat races.

- Protection: `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Flusterstorm`, `Daze`, `Misdirection`, and `Commandeer` also protect committed threats and engines. Preserve an appropriate blue card for pitch costs when the hand intends to tap out for `Up the Beanstalk`, `Murktide Regent`, or `Ethereal Forager`.

- Recursion: `Mystic Sanctuary` is the visible recursion land and should be planned around with fetchlands when Veles shows the land can be used legally. Highest-value returns are normally `Ancestral Recall`, `Time Walk`, `Force of Will`, or a context-specific interaction spell, but the legal target and timing must come from the rules engine.

- Mana: `Mox Sapphire`, `Mox Emerald`, `Black Lotus`, `Island`, `Tropical Island`, `Hedge Maze`, `Mystic Sanctuary`, `Polluted Delta`, `Flooded Strand`, `Misty Rainforest`, `Scalding Tarn`, `Wasteland`, and `Strip Mine` support a low-land tempo shell. Blue access is the priority; green access matters for `Up the Beanstalk` and sideboard `Collector Ouphe` when legal.

- Sideboard modules: `Grafdigger's Cage` and `Soul-Guide Lantern` are graveyard or library-cast hate pieces, with exact scope dependent on visible rules text. `Collector Ouphe` attacks artifact-heavy mana or engines but can constrain the pilot's own `Black Lotus`, `Mox Sapphire`, and `Mox Emerald`. `Echoing Truth` is a bounce answer to resolved permanents or clustered tokens. `Suspend` is creature interaction. `Consign to Memory` is specialized stack interaction; Card text check required for exact targets and modes.

## Primary Win Conditions
- `Murktide Regent` protected by stack interaction is the cleanest closing plan. Set it up by using `Consider`, `Thought Scour`, `Brainstorm`, `Gitaxian Probe`, `Ancestral Recall`, `Gush`, `Lorien Revealed`, and fetchlands to stock the graveyard while preserving at least one live protection spell when possible. Execute by casting `Murktide Regent` only when Veles shows a legal delve payment that leaves the graveyard plan coherent, then protect it with `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Daze`, `Flusterstorm`, `Misdirection`, or `Commandeer` against visible stack actions that remove it, counter it, steal tempo, or create a faster opposing win. Prioritize this line when the opponent is low on visible resources, when `Gitaxian Probe` or public information shows a safe window, when the pilot can race in the air, or when waiting risks graveyard hate or mana denial.

- `Ethereal Forager` is the grindier threat line when the graveyard contains useful instants or sorceries and the game is likely to involve repeated attacks. Card text check required for exact exile requirements, attack trigger, and casting permissions; use Veles legal prompts for every exiled-card and spell-selection choice. Set it up by filling the graveyard without consuming all premium targets for `Murktide Regent` or `Mystic Sanctuary`. Execute by attacking with `Ethereal Forager` when it is not walking into a visible unfavorable block or removal exchange, and prefer recasting high-impact legal spells such as `Ancestral Recall`, `Time Walk`, `Brainstorm`, `Consider`, `Thought Scour`, `Force of Will`, or `Flusterstorm` only when Veles presents the action and the timing is strategically useful. Prioritize this line when card advantage matters more than fastest lethal.

- `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` plus cheap card flow is the early snowball plan. Card text check required for exact trigger and transformation rules; follow Veles actions rather than assuming the trigger condition. Set it up with early blue mana and cheap draw or selection, then use `Ancestral Recall`, `Brainstorm`, `Consider`, `Thought Scour`, `Gush`, `Lorien Revealed`, or `Time Walk` to convert a protected `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` into a material advantage engine. Protect it when it is already producing cards, threatening transformation, or absorbing attacks that would otherwise pressure life total. Prioritize this line in hands with early `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, blue mana, and interaction, especially before committing graveyard-dependent threats.

- `Up the Beanstalk` is the value-overload win path, not a standalone clock. Set it up when green mana is available or clearly fetchable and the hand contains legal high-mana-value spells or threats such as `Lorien Revealed`, `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Commandeer`, `Misdirection`, `Murktide Regent`, or `Ethereal Forager`. Execute by resolving `Up the Beanstalk`, then taking legal casts that replace themselves or pull ahead while preserving interaction for decisive opposing stack actions. Prioritize this line in slower games, against attrition, or when the hand can protect the enchantment and still deploy pressure.

## Secondary Win Conditions
- Mana denial plus a single threat wins games where the opponent stumbles. Use `Wasteland` and `Strip Mine` after securing blue mana, then pair them with `Daze`, `Flusterstorm`, `Force of Will`, or `Force of Negation` to punish expensive recovery spells. This is a tempo line, not a hard lock; do not sacrifice needed colored mana development unless the visible opposing land or mana source is more important than the pilot's next protected spell.

- `Time Walk` converts any active creature into a burst kill or decisive setup turn. Prioritize `Time Walk` after `Murktide Regent`, `Ethereal Forager`, or a relevant `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` is already on board, when the extra attack or draw step changes the clock. Avoid spending it as a low-impact cantrip unless the hand needs an immediate land drop, Veles shows no better pressure line, or survival requires the extra turn.

- `Mystic Sanctuary` creates a recursion finish when the game is about one premium spell. Use fetchlands to enable it only when Veles confirms the land and target are legal, with `Ancestral Recall`, `Time Walk`, `Force of Will`, or a context-specific interaction spell as the usual high-value returns. This line is strongest when a threat is already present or when the pilot needs one exact spell to stabilize.

- Small-creature pressure is acceptable when the opponent is constrained. `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` and `Ethereal Forager` can chip in while interaction holds the stack, but avoid combat that trades away an engine unless Veles shows lethal pressure, survival necessity, or a clear race advantage.

## Emergency Lines
- When behind on life or board, stabilize before maximizing value. Prioritize legal interaction, bounce, removal-like sideboard actions after boarding, or blocks that prevent lethal over speculative `Up the Beanstalk` development. Use `Time Walk` defensively if the extra turn produces a blocker, a decisive attack back, or a draw step into live interaction.

- When behind on cards, turn every legal cantrip and engine action toward finding either a protected threat or a major draw spell. `Ancestral Recall`, `Gush`, `Lorien Revealed`, `Up the Beanstalk`, `Ethereal Forager`, and `Mystic Sanctuary` are the recovery tools; do not pitch the only viable recovery spell unless the visible stack would otherwise lose the game.

- When behind on mana, protect blue access first. Fetch or play `Island`, `Tropical Island`, `Mox Sapphire`, or other legal blue sources before using `Wasteland` or `Strip Mine`; use `Lorien Revealed` landcycling or selection only if Veles presents the legal action. `Black Lotus` can bridge a threat or engine turn, but avoid spending it into open visible disruption without a reason.

- When graveyard resources are disrupted, shift from delve pressure to `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, `Up the Beanstalk`, hard-cast threats, and mana denial. Do not force `Murktide Regent` or `Ethereal Forager` if Veles shows exile costs that consume the last meaningful recovery cards for no decisive board impact.

- When primary threats are removed, win by chaining card advantage into the next threat and by recycling a premium spell with `Mystic Sanctuary` if legal. Preserve interaction for the spell that would invalidate the comeback rather than fighting every minor card.

- When facing a visible combo or decisive stack sequence, abandon slow pressure and fight the enabling action. Use `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Flusterstorm`, `Daze`, `Mental Misstep`, `Misdirection`, or `Commandeer` according to Veles legal actions, prioritizing the spell that actually ends the game or prevents the pilot from untapping into a protected win.

## Resource Model
- Life is a tempo buffer, not a renewable resource. Spend life on `Polluted Delta`, `Flooded Strand`, `Misty Rainforest`, `Scalding Tarn`, `Force of Will`, or `Mental Misstep` when the exchange protects a threat, stops a decisive spell, or keeps a one-turn window open; preserve life when facing visible creature pressure and when a hard-cast counter or existing mana can cover the same stack action.

- Hand size is both card advantage and pitch fuel. Keep enough blue cards for `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Misdirection`, and `Commandeer`, but avoid pitching the only threat, only green access for `Up the Beanstalk`, or only recovery spell unless the visible stack demands it. `Ancestral Recall`, `Gush`, `Lorien Revealed`, `Brainstorm`, `Consider`, and `Thought Scour` convert spare mana or timing windows into fresh cards and graveyard material.

- Mana is the bottleneck that decides whether this deck is tempo or control. `Black Lotus`, `Mox Sapphire`, and `Mox Emerald` enable explosive starts, but ordinary land development matters because `Daze`, `Gush`, `Mystic Sanctuary`, `Wasteland`, and `Strip Mine` all tax lands in different ways. Treat every land drop as a future permission, threat, or denial decision.

- Board presence should be compact and protected. One `Murktide Regent`, one `Ethereal Forager`, or one active `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` is often enough if backed by stack interaction. Add more threats when removal has already been strained, lethal becomes near, or the opponent can ignore a single attacker; otherwise preserve cards for interaction and selection.

- Graveyard cards are a shared fuel pool for `Murktide Regent`, `Ethereal Forager`, `Mystic Sanctuary`, and card-selection planning. Do not exile all premium instants and sorceries for size alone if `Ethereal Forager` or `Mystic Sanctuary` can later convert them into a stronger turn. `Thought Scour` and cheap spells are valuable because they stock this pool while advancing the current turn.

- Exile is a real cost because pitch counters and graveyard threats consume future options. Track cards exiled to `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Misdirection`, `Commandeer`, `Murktide Regent`, and `Ethereal Forager`; prefer exiling redundant selection or dead interaction over unique engines and finishers when Veles offers a choice.

- Lands are both mana sources and disruption. `Wasteland` and `Strip Mine` are strongest after blue access is secure and the opposing land is visibly important. `Mystic Sanctuary` is a spell-recursion land, so sequence fetchlands and `Island` access with its legality in mind rather than treating it as a generic tapped blue source.

- Sacrifice fodder is essentially absent in the registered main deck. Do not volunteer permanents to sacrifice effects unless Veles presents a legal forced choice; if forced, preserve active threats and mana sources before low-impact permanents unless survival or lethal math says otherwise.

- Tempo is generated by trading free or cheap interaction for the opponent's mana while a threat attacks. `Daze`, `Flusterstorm`, `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Mental Misstep`, `Wasteland`, and `Strip Mine` should convert into turns, not just exchanges; if no pressure or engine follows, reassess whether the fight is worth the card.

- Information increases the value of every narrow answer. Use `Gitaxian Probe`, visible stack contents, revealed cards, graveyards, and prior decisions to decide whether to commit `Up the Beanstalk`, tap low for `Murktide Regent`, hold `Flusterstorm`, or use a pitch counter.

- Sideboard bullets change the resource axis. `Grafdigger's Cage` and `Soul-Guide Lantern` attack graveyard/library-cheat resources, `Collector Ouphe` attacks artifact mana, `Echoing Truth` buys tempo against permanents, `Suspend` answers creatures conditionally, and `Consign to Memory` is specialized stack interaction; board and deploy them only where the matchup makes that axis matter.

## Mana Guide
- Prioritize blue access in opening hands. A keep should normally produce blue from `Island`, `Tropical Island`, `Mox Sapphire`, `Polluted Delta`, `Flooded Strand`, `Misty Rainforest`, `Scalding Tarn`, `Hedge Maze`, or `Black Lotus`, or have a clear Veles-legal `Lorien Revealed` landcycling path. Hands with only `Wasteland`, `Strip Mine`, or `Mox Emerald` need exceptional free interaction and a near-term blue plan.

- Fetch basics when stability matters and duals when green matters. `Island` protects against opposing land pressure and supports `Daze`, `Gush`, and `Mystic Sanctuary`; `Tropical Island` enables `Up the Beanstalk`, `Collector Ouphe`, and green-sideboard games. Choose `Hedge Maze` only when its tapped timing is acceptable or Veles shows it as the correct searchable source.

- Play lands before draw spells when missing land drops or needing immediate mana clarity. Cast `Ancestral Recall`, `Brainstorm`, `Consider`, `Thought Scour`, `Gitaxian Probe`, or `Lorien Revealed` first when the land choice depends on new information, when `Brainstorm` can pair with a fetchland, or when holding a fetchland preserves `Mystic Sanctuary` setup.

- Sequence `Mox Sapphire` and `Mox Emerald` around both speed and exposure. Deploy them early when they enable `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, `Up the Beanstalk`, selection plus protection, or a protected threat; consider holding extra artifact mana after sideboarding if `Collector Ouphe` is planned or already active.

- Use `Black Lotus` for decisive compression. Spend it to resolve and protect `Murktide Regent`, `Ethereal Forager`, `Up the Beanstalk`, or a high-impact turn with interaction available; avoid cashing it in for low-pressure cantrips unless the hand otherwise fails to function.

- Treat `Daze` and `Gush` as land-tension cards. Returning an `Island` can protect a key turn or reload cards, but it can also delay `Murktide Regent`, hard-cast counters, `Mystic Sanctuary`, or sideboard permanents. Prefer these lines when the tempo gained exceeds the lost land drop.

- Use `Wasteland` and `Strip Mine` after colored development unless the opposing land is immediately decisive. If the pilot cannot cast blue interaction next turn after sacrificing a land, the denial line needs strong visible justification.

- Plan for hard-cast interaction in longer games. Free counters are powerful but costly; when mana allows, preserve pitch cards by casting `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Flusterstorm`, or `Daze` through ordinary mana if Veles presents that legal payment and the stack timing supports it.

## Mulligan Guide
- Strong keeps produce blue mana, one early play, and one protection axis. Keep hands like `Island` + `Mox Sapphire` + `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` + `Force of Will` + a blue pitch card + `Consider` + `Murktide Regent`, or fetchland + `Mox Emerald` + `Up the Beanstalk` + `Force of Will` + `Lorien Revealed` + `Wasteland` + selection. These hands can deploy pressure or engine while still answering the first critical spell.

- Medium keeps function but need disciplined sequencing. Keep `Tropical Island` + `Wasteland` + `Brainstorm` + `Daze` + `Ethereal Forager` + `Thought Scour` + `Force of Negation` when the hand has blue, graveyard setup, and interaction, but avoid early `Wasteland` if it strands spells.

- Risky keeps rely on one draw step or one landcycling action. A hand with `Lorien Revealed`, `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Murktide Regent`, `Up the Beanstalk`, `Mox Emerald`, and `Wasteland` is keepable only if Veles shows a legal landcycling path or the matchup demands free counters more than speed. A hand with one fetchland, two pitch counters, and no cantrip can keep on the draw against explosive combo, but it is fragile against land denial.

- Automatic ships lack blue access or a coherent first two turns. Ship hands with only `Wasteland` and `Strip Mine` as mana, hands with several delve threats but no graveyard setup or mana, and hands with `Up the Beanstalk` plus no green source or route to green. Ship hands that cannot cast spells and only interact by pitching irreplaceable threats.

- Matchup-dependent keeps should follow the visible opponent plan. Against fast artifact or graveyard strategies after sideboarding, a hand with `Collector Ouphe`, `Grafdigger's Cage`, `Soul-Guide Lantern`, or `Consign to Memory` can keep with less pressure if it has mana. Against fair blue decks, prefer hands with threat plus layered permission over narrow hate.

- Play/draw changes the tolerance for `Daze`, `Wasteland`, and one-land cantrip hands. On the play, `Daze` plus `Wasteland` can protect `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` or `Up the Beanstalk`; on the draw, require more stable mana or stronger free interaction. On the draw, `Gitaxian Probe`, `Brainstorm`, `Consider`, and `Ancestral Recall` raise medium hands because they inform the first fight.

- Trap hands look powerful but spend all resources without pressure. Do not keep `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Misdirection`, `Commandeer`, and expensive threats if the only blue cards are the threats needed to win. Do not keep `Black Lotus` hands that make one `Murktide Regent` and then lose to a single answer unless protection or follow-up is present.

## Turn Arc
- Turn 1 should establish mana, information, or a protected engine. Preferred starts are `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` off blue, `Up the Beanstalk` when green is available and protection exists, `Gitaxian Probe` before committing into unknown interaction, or `Ancestral Recall` when Veles shows a safe window. Use `Lorien Revealed` landcycling when the hand needs a land more than a future spell.

- Turn 1 deviations are correct when denial or survival is urgent. Use `Wasteland` or `Strip Mine` early only against a visibly decisive land or when colored mana remains available. Hold `Brainstorm` for a fetchland when the hand is functional; cast it immediately when missing mana or needing a pitch card for `Force of Will`.

- Turn 2 should convert setup into pressure or protected advantage. Deploy `Up the Beanstalk`, continue with `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, cast selection plus hold `Flusterstorm` or `Daze`, or prepare the graveyard with `Consider` and `Thought Scour` for `Murktide Regent` or `Ethereal Forager`. If the opponent stumbles, land denial plus a cheap threat is often better than tapping out for a slower engine.

- Turn 2 deviations should respect the stack. Keep mana open when the opponent is representing a critical spell and your hand has `Flusterstorm`, `Daze`, `Mental Misstep`, `Force of Negation`, or `Force of Will`. Spend `Black Lotus` only when it creates a protected engine, threat, or decisive draw turn.

- Turn 3 is the first major commitment point. Cast `Murktide Regent` or `Ethereal Forager` when the graveyard supports it and at least one protection line remains, or use `Time Walk` to turn an existing threat into a tempo break. If `Up the Beanstalk` is active, prioritize legal high-mana-value casts that also advance the board or stack fight.

- Turns 4-5 should turn resource trades into a clock. Attack with `Murktide Regent` or `Ethereal Forager`, preserve graveyard cards that matter for future recursion or `Mystic Sanctuary`, and use `Wasteland` or `Strip Mine` to keep the opponent from double-spelling. Hard-cast counters when possible instead of pitching unique cards.

- Late game should shift from pure tempo to controlled inevitability. Use `Mystic Sanctuary` with fetchlands and `Island` access when Veles shows legal recursion, protect one lethal threat rather than overcommitting, and let `Ancestral Recall`, `Gush`, `Lorien Revealed`, and `Up the Beanstalk` rebuild after exchanges. If behind, prioritize survival, bounce or removal from sideboard cards, and draw steps before speculative attacks.

## Card Roles
- `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` is the preferred one-mana permanent because it pressures slowly, accumulates material through attacks, and turns draw-heavy turns into a bigger engine. Cast it early when blue mana is stable and at least one protection or tempo line remains; hold it only when the opponent is clearly forcing an immediate stack fight or when exposing a legend to removal would strand a stronger `Up the Beanstalk` turn. Prioritize `Ancestral Recall`, `Brainstorm`, `Gush`, `Consider`, `Thought Scour`, and combat-generated card flow around Tamiyo only when the legal actions and visible timing make the transform line real. Do not spend all blue cards protecting Tamiyo if the hand then cannot defend `Murktide Regent` or answer a decisive spell.

- `Up the Beanstalk` is the main resource engine and turns this deck's expensive free spells and threats into card advantage. Cast it when green mana is available and the next turns can use `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Commandeer`, `Misdirection`, `Lorien Revealed`, `Murktide Regent`, or `Ethereal Forager` without losing tempo. Protect it against fair decks when the game will be about exchanges; deprioritize it against fast combo when immediate permission matters more than future cards. Avoid tapping out for `Up the Beanstalk` if the opponent has a visible critical turn and the only interaction requires mana.

- `Lorien Revealed` is both land access and a late card-flow spell, so choose the mode that fixes the current bottleneck. Landcycle early when the hand lacks blue or green, when `Mystic Sanctuary` setup requires more `Island` access, or when keeping a one-land hand depends on it. Preserve it as a spell when mana is stable, `Up the Beanstalk` is present, or the game is slowing into resource attrition. Do not hoard `Lorien Revealed` for value if missing land drops prevents `Force of Will` hard-cast turns, `Murktide Regent`, or sideboard permanents.

- `Murktide Regent` is the primary closer and the best way to convert early trading into a short clock. Commit it when the graveyard can support delve without exiling every important future resource and when at least one protection line remains. It pairs especially well with `Consider`, `Thought Scour`, fetchlands, `Gitaxian Probe`, free counters, and cantrips that stock the graveyard. Avoid casting a tiny or undefended `Murktide Regent` into a board where the opponent can remove it and immediately regain tempo; waiting one turn is often correct if the opponent is under permission pressure and your hand can still interact.

- `Ethereal Forager` is the secondary delve threat and the grind tool that can rebuy key instants or sorceries after attacks. Cast it when the graveyard includes meaningful cards to preserve or later recast, especially `Ancestral Recall`, `Time Walk`, `Brainstorm`, `Consider`, `Thought Scour`, `Flusterstorm`, `Daze`, or interaction that matters in the matchup. Choose between `Ethereal Forager` and `Murktide Regent` by board role: prefer `Murktide Regent` for fastest lethal pressure, and prefer `Ethereal Forager` when recurring a spell will decide a resource fight. Do not over-delve away the exact card you need to recast unless survival or lethal pressure requires it.

- `Force of Will` is the broad emergency answer and should protect the game plan, not every minor exchange. Use it on spells that beat your current board, break your resource engine, force through a combo, or remove the only protected threat when no cheaper answer works. Pitch cards according to redundancy: extra `Lorien Revealed`, redundant threats, or situational counters are safer than the only cantrip, only green enabler, or only win condition. Hard-cast `Force of Will` in long games whenever mana permits so the hand does not collapse from pitching.

- `Force of Negation` is the noncreature stack shield that lets the deck tap low while still contesting dangerous plays. Use it aggressively against visible noncreature combo, lock pieces, draw engines, and removal aimed at a decisive threat when the exchange preserves tempo. Be more conservative on your own turn because free casting constraints and card disadvantage can matter; if Veles offers a hard-cast line, compare it against keeping cards for `Force of Will`, `Misdirection`, and threat deployment. Do not assume it answers creatures or permanent abilities unless the rules engine presents a legal action.

- `Flusterstorm` is the efficient stack-fight finisher, strongest when the opponent has already committed spells. Hold it for counter wars, ritual-like turns, draw spells, or protection battles rather than firing it at the first low-impact spell. When `Daze`, `Force of Will`, or `Force of Negation` is also available, try to make the opponent spend mana or cards before using `Flusterstorm`. Be careful against permanent-based pressure, because `Flusterstorm` can be stranded if the opponent shifts to creatures or artifacts.

- `Daze` is a tempo counter and land-use test, not a long-game permission spell. Use it early to protect `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, `Up the Beanstalk`, or a threat while the opponent is constrained on mana. Pair it with `Wasteland` or `Strip Mine` when the colored mana base can still function after returning an `Island`. Side down or devalue it in games where the opponent has abundant mana, where you must hit every land drop, or where picking up a land prevents casting `Murktide Regent`, `Ethereal Forager`, or sideboard cards.

- `Consider` is cheap selection that also supports delve, graveyard planning, and reactive play. Cast it on the opponent's end step when holding interaction unless you need a main-phase land, pitch card, or immediate graveyard count. Put a card into the graveyard when it improves `Murktide Regent`, `Ethereal Forager`, or `Mystic Sanctuary` planning and the card is not needed for the next stack fight. Do not spend `Consider` before `Gitaxian Probe` or visible information if the order would change the decision.

- `Thought Scour` is deliberate graveyard acceleration and a way to turn air into delve fuel. Target yourself when building toward `Murktide Regent` or `Ethereal Forager`, especially if a large threat this turn or next turn is the plan. Be cautious when `Mystic Sanctuary` or `Ethereal Forager` recursion matters, because milling a key card can be good only if the deck can later access it. Targeting the opponent should require a concrete visible reason from legal action text or matchup context; the default is self-mill for tempo.

- `Ancestral Recall` is the most explosive card-advantage spell and should be protected like a decisive play. Cast it early when it fixes a weak hand, finds protection for a commitment, or triggers a draw threshold for `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`; hold it when the opponent is representing a stack fight and you can bait with lower-value spells first. Target yourself unless Veles presents an unusual legal line where targeting the opponent has an explicit tactical purpose. Preserve blue mana or free protection when possible.

- `Brainstorm` is hand repair, protection against discard effects, and fetchland synergy. Cast it with `Flooded Strand`, `Polluted Delta`, `Misty Rainforest`, or `Scalding Tarn` available when the hand has cards to hide or dead cards to shuffle away. Cast it earlier only when missing mana, needing a blue pitch card, enabling a Tamiyo draw threshold, or finding immediate interaction. Do not use `Brainstorm` as a casual cantrip if the hand already has a fetchland setup and no urgent decision.

- `Gush` is a swing resource spell that can trigger draw thresholds and refill after trading, but returning lands is a real cost. Use it when the tempo gained from cards exceeds the land setback, when it enables a protected commitment, or when `Up the Beanstalk` and free interaction make a big turn possible. Avoid `Gush` if picking up lands turns off hard-cast counters, sideboard hate, or `Mystic Sanctuary` access.

- `Gitaxian Probe` is information first and storm/tempo fuel second. Cast it before choosing whether to commit `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, `Up the Beanstalk`, `Murktide Regent`, or a land-denial line when life total and visible pressure allow. Use the revealed hand to rank counter targets and decide whether to preserve `Flusterstorm`, `Daze`, or pitch counters. Do not pay life casually when under a short clock.

- `Time Walk` is a tempo converter, strongest with a threat, engine, or mana denial already in place. Cast it to add an attack step with `Murktide Regent` or `Ethereal Forager`, transform a strong `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` turn into a decisive board state, or make `Wasteland` and `Strip Mine` denial compound. Avoid using it as a blank cantrip unless the hand needs the extra land drop or the matchup is about speed.

- `Mental Misstep` is narrow, cheap protection for the earliest fights. Use it on one-mana spells that stop your engine, win the opponent the game, or break your first protected threat. Do not hold it forever waiting for perfect value if the current one-mana spell determines whether `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` or `Ancestral Recall` resolves.

- `Misdirection` and `Commandeer` are swingy pitch interaction for stack fights where changing control or targets can reverse the exchange. Use them when the legal action clearly protects a decisive spell, steals a critical noncreature effect, or redirects interaction away from a key threat. Because both are card-intensive, avoid spending them on medium exchanges unless losing that exchange would likely lose the game. Card text check required for exact runtime legality in unusual stack states; follow only actions Veles marks legal.

- `Black Lotus`, `Mox Sapphire`, and `Mox Emerald` are acceleration, not permission to empty the hand. Use them to land protected `Up the Beanstalk`, fast `Murktide Regent`, `Ethereal Forager`, or a decisive draw turn while leaving interaction. Save artifact mana when it lets you hard-cast counters or pay for taxing effects in the same turn.

- `Wasteland` and `Strip Mine` are tempo tools that punish greedy or critical mana, but colored development comes first. Use them when the opponent's visible land is enabling a decisive line or when a protected threat is already applying pressure. `Mystic Sanctuary` is a late-game recursion land; plan fetches and `Island` counts so it can rebuy `Ancestral Recall`, `Time Walk`, or needed interaction when legal. Fetchlands and `Hedge Maze`, `Tropical Island`, and `Island` should be sequenced to preserve blue first, green second, and denial lands only after spells remain castable.

## Interaction Priorities
- Priority: counter game-ending engines, mana explosions, and stack actions that invalidate your current threat before fighting over medium value. `Force of Will` and `Force of Negation` should answer opponent combo starts, prison pieces, protected draw bursts, or removal aimed at a committed `Murktide Regent`, `Ethereal Forager`, `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, or `Up the Beanstalk` when losing that permanent collapses the plan.

- Priority: spend narrow counters before broad counters when the legal target and timing are clear. Use `Mental Misstep` on decisive one-mana spells, `Flusterstorm` on contested instant/sorcery fights, and `Daze` while the opponent is still mana-constrained. Preserve `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Misdirection`, and `Commandeer` for threats or stack states the smaller interaction cannot cover.

- Priority: protect resolved engines that convert every exchange into advantage. If `Up the Beanstalk` is active, counter or redirect the opponent's answer before chasing extra value, because `Murktide Regent`, `Ethereal Forager`, `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Commandeer`, `Misdirection`, `Gush`, and `Lorien Revealed` can all make the engine matter. If `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` is close to transforming, preserve cheap draw and protection rather than forcing a low-impact fight.

- Priority: use `Wasteland` and `Strip Mine` as interaction when they stop the opponent's next visible line. Attack restricted colored mana, workshop-style artifact mana bases, bazaar-style graveyard engines, or a single land holding up a key answer only when your own blue development remains intact. Do not sacrifice colored access just to trade land drops if the hand needs `Ancestral Recall`, `Brainstorm`, `Consider`, `Thought Scour`, or hard-cast permission.

- Priority: bait with lower-value spells when the opponent has unknown interaction and your hand contains a decisive spell. Lead with `Consider`, `Thought Scour`, `Gitaxian Probe`, `Lorien Revealed`, or a nonessential `Up the Beanstalk` before exposing `Ancestral Recall`, `Time Walk`, `Murktide Regent`, or a protected `Ethereal Forager`, unless waiting gives the opponent a faster kill or lock.

- Priority: sideboard interaction changes by archetype. `Grafdigger's Cage` and `Soul-Guide Lantern` matter first against graveyard or library-cast engines; `Collector Ouphe` matters first against artifact mana and artifact-combo decks; `Consign to Memory` matters first against colorless spells, triggers, or permanent engines it legally covers; `Echoing Truth` and `Suspend` matter first against resolved permanents or creatures that counters missed. Card text check required for exact `Suspend` and `Consign to Memory` legality in unusual board states.

- Priority: ignore replaceable threats when racing with a protected flyer is better than answering every object. Do not spend `Force of Will` or `Force of Negation` on a creature or utility permanent that neither races `Murktide Regent` nor disrupts your engine, unless life total, combat math, or sideboard configuration makes that object decisive.

## Combat And Trading Rules
- Attack rule: attack aggressively once `Murktide Regent` or `Ethereal Forager` is protected and the opponent's crack-back is not lethal. This deck wins many games by converting one resolved threat plus permission into a short clock, so passing damage for speculative defense is usually worse than forcing the opponent to act into open counters.

- Attack rule: treat transformed or protected `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` as an engine first and a body second. Avoid exposing Tamiyo to combat if the opponent can remove it through a profitable block or attack it down after combat; attack only when the damage, transform progress, or planeswalker pressure is worth the visible risk.

- Block rule: preserve `Murktide Regent` unless blocking prevents lethal damage or saves a more important engine. A large Regent is the cleanest clock and often the best blocker, but trading it for a medium attacker gives away the tempo plan. Block with it when the opponent's board would otherwise kill you, when the attacker is the opponent's only meaningful pressure, or when your hand can immediately reload.

- Block rule: trade `Ethereal Forager` more readily when its attack trigger has already produced value or when graveyard resources are low. Preserve it against control and combo if it is the active card-advantage engine; trade it against creature decks when life total is under pressure and a later `Murktide Regent` or recursion line can take over.

- Protection rule: leave mana or pitch resources available before entering combat when a removal spell would turn the race. If attacking with one large threat, plan the turn so `Daze`, `Flusterstorm`, `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Misdirection`, or `Commandeer` can legally protect it. Do not tap out for extra cantrips before combat if the opponent is likely to interact during or after attacks.

- Life rule: above roughly 10 life, prioritize pressure and stack control over defensive trades unless the opponent has visible lethal setup. From 6 to 9 life, count the next attack and haste-equivalent or direct-damage risks before using life-payment lines such as `Gitaxian Probe`. At 5 or less, stabilize first unless a protected attack plus `Time Walk` or another visible line ends the game before the opponent untaps.

- Archetype rule: against combo and control, combat is a clock attached to permission. Commit one threat, protect it, and avoid extra creatures if doing so weakens stack interaction. Against artifact prison or mana-denial decks, attack while using `Wasteland`, `Strip Mine`, `Collector Ouphe`, `Echoing Truth`, or `Consign to Memory` to keep blockers and locks from stabilizing. Against creature decks, become a control deck until a flyer safely races.

- Trade rule: do not trade engine permanents for low-impact damage. `Up the Beanstalk` should be preserved from bounce or removal when it is drawing cards; `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` should be preserved when draw spells can transform it; `Mox Sapphire`, `Mox Emerald`, and `Black Lotus` should be spent only when the resulting turn meaningfully improves threat, protection, or survival.

## Selection And Tutor Rules
- Selection rule: use cantrips to answer the next decision, not to sculpt abstract perfection. `Gitaxian Probe` should be used early when life total is safe or mana is tight so later `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Daze`, `Flusterstorm`, `Misdirection`, and `Commandeer` decisions are based on revealed information rather than guesses.

- Draw sequencing: cast `Ancestral Recall` when you can protect it or when the extra cards are needed before choosing land, counter, or threat lines. If `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` is close to transforming from draw volume, sequence cheap draw before committing combat or a major threat, but do not expose a decisive draw spell into known stack interaction without protection.

- Cantrip rule: use `Brainstorm` with a fetch land when possible, especially `Polluted Delta`, `Flooded Strand`, `Misty Rainforest`, or `Scalding Tarn`. Without a shuffle effect, cast `Brainstorm` when the hand needs immediate protection, a land drop, a blue card for pitch permission, or a card to hide from discard; avoid locking two weak cards on top if the turn can wait.

- Surveil/filter rule: use `Consider` to keep cards that supply the immediate missing piece: blue source, pitch card, protected threat, or narrow answer. Put cards into the graveyard when they fuel `Murktide Regent` or `Ethereal Forager`, when a land is excess, or when a redundant engine is worse than digging; keep interaction on top when the opponent is presenting a stack-based kill or protected permanent.

- Graveyard setup rule: aim `Thought Scour` at yourself when graveyard fuel improves `Murktide Regent` or `Ethereal Forager`, when `Mystic Sanctuary` is not setting up a known top card, or when milling yourself does not endanger a needed one-of. Target the opponent only when visible top-of-library information, graveyard hate, or matchup context makes that legal action tactically superior.

- Land selection rule: use `Lorien Revealed` as mana fixing before treating it as a late draw spell. Fetch `Tropical Island`, `Island`, `Hedge Maze`, or another legal Island-type source according to visible color needs, expected `Wasteland` pressure, and whether the hand must cast `Up the Beanstalk`, hold blue permission, or enable `Mystic Sanctuary` later.

- Fetch timing: delay cracking fetch lands when `Brainstorm` or `Mystic Sanctuary` value is likely and life total is not under pressure. Crack immediately when you need mana this turn, must play around land destruction, need to thin a known bad top card, or must hold up `Daze`, `Flusterstorm`, `Force of Negation`, or hard-cast `Force of Will`.

- Sanctuary rule: use `Mystic Sanctuary` only when the engine confirms its condition and the top-card placement is worth the tempo. High-value returns are `Ancestral Recall`, `Time Walk`, `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Gush`, `Brainstorm`, or matchup-specific interaction; do not take a tapped-land tempo loss for a low-impact spell while behind on board.

- Threat-selection rule: choose between `Murktide Regent` and `Ethereal Forager` by graveyard texture and expected game length. `Murktide Regent` is preferred when closing quickly matters or graveyard exile can make it large; `Ethereal Forager` is preferred when attack triggers can rebuy important instants or sorceries and the game is likely to revolve around repeated exchanges. Card text check required for exact attack-trigger handling.

## Priority And Stack Rules
- Priority rule: pass with intent when no legal action improves the current exchange. This deck should not fire cantrips or draw spells into open informationless windows if holding mana or pitch resources better protects `Murktide Regent`, `Ethereal Forager`, `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, or `Up the Beanstalk`.

- Stack priority: fight over spells that beat your current plan, not every spell that is powerful. Counter or redirect fast combo pieces, prison pieces, graveyard engines, opposing protection, and removal aimed at the protected threat; let replaceable creatures, redundant mana, or low-impact card selection resolve when your clock plus interaction remains ahead.

- Counter hierarchy: use the narrow legal answer before the broad pitch answer. `Mental Misstep` answers decisive one-mana spells, `Flusterstorm` answers contested instant or sorcery stacks, `Daze` punishes tap-out turns, `Force of Negation` covers noncreature threats on the opponent's turn, and `Force of Will` remains the broad emergency valve. Use `Misdirection` or `Commandeer` only when the redirected or stolen object is actually better than countering or ignoring it.

- Pitch discipline: preserve blue cards unless the stack requires immediate action. Pitch redundant selection, extra `Lorien Revealed`, spare engines, or excessive threats before sacrificing the only protection spell, only threat, or only draw engine; never assume a later draw will replace a pitched `Ancestral Recall`, `Time Walk`, `Murktide Regent`, or active-engine piece.

- Beanstalk timing: resolve `Up the Beanstalk` before expensive legal spells when tempo allows. Once it is active, prioritize protecting it if the hand contains `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Commandeer`, `Misdirection`, `Lorien Revealed`, `Gush`, `Murktide Regent`, or `Ethereal Forager`; card text check required for exact trigger legality with alternate costs.

- Combat windows: hold interaction through attacker and blocker steps when removal, bounce, prevention, or a stack fight would change lethal math. Do not spend the last blue card on a precombat cantrip if a protected `Murktide Regent` attack, `Ethereal Forager` attack, or survival block depends on stack protection.

- Graveyard timing: commit graveyard resources only after checking visible exile pressure and your own threat plan. Casting `Murktide Regent`, delving for `Ethereal Forager`, using `Soul-Guide Lantern`, or allowing opponent graveyard actions should be evaluated against current graveyard contents, visible hate, and whether the next threat needs those cards.

- Free-mana windows: use `Black Lotus`, `Mox Sapphire`, and `Mox Emerald` to create decisive protected turns rather than routine acceleration. Spend them for an early protected `Up the Beanstalk`, `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, `Murktide Regent`, `Ethereal Forager`, `Ancestral Recall`, or protected sideboard permanent when the resulting board or stack position is materially better.

- Time Walk rule: cast `Time Walk` when the extra turn produces damage, a planeswalker or engine conversion, a protected threat, or a crucial land drop plus untap. Do not spend it as a blank cantrip unless the engine has no stronger route and the legal action list shows no meaningful alternative.

- Let-resolve rule: let the opponent's spell resolve when your answer is needed for a visible follow-up or your board already beats it. Passing is correct when countering would leave no protection for a known higher-impact card, when `Daze` can be blanked by available mana, or when `Flusterstorm` would not cover the relevant permanent or ability.

## Sideboard Map
- Sideboard identity: configure the sideboard by threat axis, then keep the maindeck's blue-card density and tempo plan intact. `Grafdigger's Cage` and `Soul-Guide Lantern` fight graveyard engines, `Collector Ouphe` fights artifact mana and artifact engines, `Echoing Truth` answers resolved permanents or token clusters, `Suspend` handles creature-based pressure, and `Consign to Memory` covers colorless, artifact, Eldrazi, and ability-heavy exchanges when the engine shows legal targets.

- `Grafdigger's Cage`: bring it against graveyard decks, creature-library engines, and decks where stopping graveyard casting or library-to-battlefield lines is worth spending a nonblue slot. It is weak when the opponent attacks mostly through the stack, ordinary creatures, planeswalkers, or artifacts that do not depend on graveyard or library-entry text; avoid overloading on it if it strands your own tempo while not changing the opponent's visible engine.

- `Soul-Guide Lantern`: bring it when one-shot graveyard exile, delayed pressure on a known graveyard, or a cantrip-like graveyard hate permanent is valuable. It is weaker than `Grafdigger's Cage` when the opponent can rebuild immediately or when a continuous static effect is required; it is stronger when the game asks for a timed exile window against a visible graveyard card, delve fuel, recursion target, or escape-like resource. Card text check required for exact draw/exile sequencing.

- `Echoing Truth`: bring it against resolved prison pieces, tokens, hate permanents, creature swarms with shared names, and permanents that must be removed from the battlefield long enough to attack, counter on recast, or execute a protected turn. It is weak against pure stack combo and against decks where returning one permanent does not change the clock or lock; use it as a tempo reset, not as permanent removal unless the follow-up legal action can punish the recast.

- `Collector Ouphe`: bring it against artifact acceleration, artifact combo, and decks that rely on artifact permanents for mana or engine function. It changes your role from pure blue tempo into creature-backed prison-tempo, so protect it when it meaningfully constrains the opponent and accept that it can reduce the value of your own `Black Lotus`, `Mox Sapphire`, and `Mox Emerald` after it resolves. It is weak when your own fast mana is essential and the opponent's visible plan is mostly lands, creatures, or instants and sorceries.

- `Suspend`: bring it against creature decks, large singular threats, recursive creatures that can be delayed profitably, and board states where buying multiple turns lets `Murktide Regent` or `Ethereal Forager` win the race. It is weak when the opponent has few creature targets, when a delayed return is still lethal, or when a counterspell better answers the same threat before it enters.

- `Consign to Memory`: bring it against colorless spells, artifact-centered decks, Eldrazi-style threats, and triggered or activated ability lines where the rules engine exposes a legal answer. It is weak when the opponent is mostly colored creatures and ordinary spells; keep it only when visible targets and matchup context make the narrow answer likely to trade up.

Graveyard Engine / Dredge-Style Plan
Side in: 4 Grafdigger's Cage; 1 Soul-Guide Lantern; 2 Echoing Truth
Cut: 2 Daze; 1 Misdirection; 1 Commandeer; 1 Time Walk; 2 Up the Beanstalk

- Plan rule: prioritize an opening hand with blue mana, at least one graveyard hate permanent, and one piece of stack interaction or bounce. `Grafdigger's Cage` is the highest-impact permanent when it stops the opponent's engine; `Soul-Guide Lantern` is the timed-answer card when the graveyard already contains a specific visible payoff. `Echoing Truth` covers resolved hate answers, token pressure, or a permanent that slips under permission.

Artifact Mana / Workshop-Style Plan
Side in: 2 Collector Ouphe; 3 Consign to Memory; 2 Echoing Truth
Cut: 2 Flusterstorm; 2 Daze; 1 Gitaxian Probe; 1 Gush; 1 Up the Beanstalk

- Plan rule: become a low-curve disruption deck that prevents artifact acceleration from snowballing. `Collector Ouphe` is worth protecting when the opponent's board shows artifact mana or artifact abilities that matter; sequence your own `Black Lotus`, `Mox Sapphire`, and `Mox Emerald` before committing `Collector Ouphe` when the legal action list permits. `Consign to Memory` should be preserved for colorless threats and ability exchanges rather than spent on a low-impact object.

Creature Tempo / Initiative-Pressure Plan
Side in: 3 Suspend; 2 Echoing Truth
Cut: 1 Commandeer; 1 Misdirection; 1 Gitaxian Probe; 1 Gush; 1 Up the Beanstalk

- Plan rule: buy time, then race with one protected flyer. `Suspend` is for the creature that changes combat math or threatens a fast clock; `Echoing Truth` is for clustered permanents, tokens, or the one blocker or attacker that prevents a decisive `Murktide Regent` or `Ethereal Forager` turn. Keep `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, and `Daze` aligned with the cards that remove or outclass your threat.

Blue Mirror / Stack-Control Plan
Side in: 3 Consign to Memory; 2 Echoing Truth
Cut: 1 Commandeer; 1 Misdirection; 1 Gitaxian Probe; 1 Thought Scour; 1 Up the Beanstalk

- Plan rule: keep narrow cards only when their legal target class appears in the matchup or visible board. `Consign to Memory` is not generic permission; use it in mirrors with artifact mana, colorless threats, triggered abilities, or activated abilities that the rules engine shows as answerable. `Echoing Truth` answers a resolved `Murktide Regent`, opposing engine permanent, token group, or hate piece long enough to force a favorable stack fight.

Fast Spell Combo Plan
Side in: 3 Consign to Memory; 2 Collector Ouphe
Cut: 3 Ethereal Forager; 1 Gush; 1 Up the Beanstalk

- Plan rule: reduce slow graveyard-threat emphasis and increase disruptive permanents only when the opponent's combo uses artifacts, colorless objects, or activated/triggered abilities. `Collector Ouphe` is high value against artifact mana starts but low value against mostly spell-only engines; `Consign to Memory` needs visible or expected legal targets, so do not dilute broad blue permission if the opponent's combo is mostly colored instants and sorceries.

Fair Graveyard / Delve / Recursion Plan
Side in: 2 Grafdigger's Cage; 1 Soul-Guide Lantern; 3 Suspend
Cut: 1 Commandeer; 1 Misdirection; 1 Gitaxian Probe; 1 Gush; 1 Up the Beanstalk; 1 Thought Scour

- Plan rule: use lighter graveyard pressure when the opponent uses the graveyard as a resource rather than as the whole engine. `Soul-Guide Lantern` can clear a key graveyard at a chosen window, while partial `Grafdigger's Cage` coverage prevents the strongest recursion or library-entry lines. `Suspend` keeps creature pressure manageable while your own graveyard threats finish the game.

- Against graveyard archetypes, add role cards: `Grafdigger's Cage`; `Soul-Guide Lantern`; `Echoing Truth`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow engines, narrow redirection, and tempo counters that lose value when the opponent can operate without paying normal mana.

- Against artifact archetypes, add role cards: `Collector Ouphe`; `Consign to Memory`; `Echoing Truth`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow spell-only counters and slow card-advantage pieces that do not stop a resolved artifact engine.

- Against creature-pressure archetypes, add role cards: `Suspend`; `Echoing Truth`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: expensive pitch-only interaction, slow draw engines, and information spells that do not affect the board.

- Against stack-combo archetypes, add role cards: `Consign to Memory` only when legal targets are expected; `Collector Ouphe` only when artifact mana is central. Reduce main-deck emphasis: creature-recursion threats and slow engines when the matchup is decided before those cards attack or generate value.

## Matchup Guidance

- Aggro: act as the control-tempo deck until one flyer can race safely. Keep hands that produce early blue mana and interaction, and prefer `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, `Consider`, `Thought Scour`, or `Ancestral Recall` when they help reach `Murktide Regent` or `Ethereal Forager` without falling behind on board. Add role cards: `Suspend`; `Echoing Truth`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow `Up the Beanstalk` turns, expensive redirection such as `Commandeer` and `Misdirection`, and information-only actions like `Gitaxian Probe` when life total or tempo is under pressure. Use `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Daze`, `Flusterstorm`, and `Mental Misstep` for spells that either create multiple attackers, remove the only stabilizing blocker, or stop a race-winning flyer.

- Control: play a threat-light patience game and force the opponent to act first when your hand has more free interaction than pressure. `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` is valuable as an early source of pressure and cards, but do not expose a crucial `Murktide Regent` or `Ethereal Forager` into open mana unless the legal action set and known information support a stack fight. Add role cards: `Consign to Memory` when colorless spells, artifact mana, or answerable abilities are visible or expected; `Echoing Truth` when resolved permanents or token clusters are likely. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow tempo counters only when the opponent can pay through them easily. Preserve `Ancestral Recall`, `Time Walk`, `Gush`, and `Up the Beanstalk` as sources of advantage unless immediate pressure demands pitching them.

- Combo: prioritize a hand with blue cards, free permission, and a clock over a hand with only cantrips and delayed card advantage. `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Flusterstorm`, `Mental Misstep`, `Daze`, `Misdirection`, and `Commandeer` should answer the spell or ability that actually starts the winning chain, not every setup action the opponent offers. Add role cards: `Collector Ouphe` against artifact-mana or artifact-ability engines; `Consign to Memory` when the rules engine shows colorless spells or answerable abilities; `Grafdigger's Cage` and `Soul-Guide Lantern` when the combo uses graveyard access. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Ethereal Forager`, excess `Up the Beanstalk`, and slow graveyard setup when the game is decided before those cards generate value.

- Tempo mirrors: fight over mana, threat timing, and single-combat-turn advantages rather than raw card count. `Wasteland` and `Strip Mine` are strongest when they prevent the opponent from double-spelling or defending a key threat; avoid firing them only to trade down while your own hand needs mana for `Up the Beanstalk`, `Murktide Regent`, or protected interaction. Add role cards: `Suspend` for opposing creatures that dominate combat; `Echoing Truth` for a resolved large threat or clustered tokens; `Consign to Memory` only if its target class appears. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow engines that do not affect the current race. Treat `Time Walk` as a tempo-finisher when it grants an extra attack with `Murktide Regent` or `Ethereal Forager`.

- Midrange: preserve resource engines and answer the permanent that turns attrition into inevitability. `Up the Beanstalk` matters most when the matchup will trade spells, and `Lorien Revealed`, `Gush`, `Ancestral Recall`, and `Brainstorm` help rebuild after removal-heavy exchanges. Add role cards: `Suspend` for high-impact creatures; `Echoing Truth` for a permanent that cannot be countered after it resolves; `Soul-Guide Lantern` if graveyard recursion or delve pressure is visible. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow stack-only interaction when the opponent wins through board permanents. Use `Murktide Regent` as the stabilizing finisher, and use `Ethereal Forager` when graveyards support repeated value without exposing all threats to one answer.

- Big mana: deny mana before fighting payoff spells when the visible board makes mana denial effective. `Wasteland`, `Strip Mine`, `Daze`, `Force of Will`, and `Force of Negation` should be aligned around the turn where the opponent moves from setup into a decisive spell. Add role cards: `Consign to Memory` for colorless threats or answerable triggered and activated abilities; `Collector Ouphe` when artifact mana is part of the acceleration; `Echoing Truth` for resolved lock pieces or large permanents that must be reset. Reduce main-deck emphasis: small cantrip-only sequencing when a mana denial line is available. Deploy `Murktide Regent` quickly once the opponent is constrained.

- Graveyard decks: choose between shutting off the graveyard and using your own graveyard as fuel based on which plan is more urgent from visible information. `Grafdigger's Cage` is the broad hate permanent when the opponent needs graveyard or library-entry access; `Soul-Guide Lantern` is the timed answer when a specific graveyard pile or card must be cleared. Add role cards: `Grafdigger's Cage`; `Soul-Guide Lantern`; `Echoing Truth`; sometimes `Suspend` against creature-based graveyard pressure. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Thought Scour`, extra `Ethereal Forager`, and slow `Up the Beanstalk` lines when graveyard hate conflicts with your own delve and recursion plan. Do not assume hidden graveyard payoffs unless revealed by public zones or prior actions.

- Artifact and enchantment decks: become a disruptive permanent deck backed by free counters. `Collector Ouphe` is high priority when the opponent's artifact mana or artifact abilities are visible, but sequence `Black Lotus`, `Mox Sapphire`, and `Mox Emerald` first when the legal actions allow it and the tempo matters. Add role cards: `Collector Ouphe`; `Consign to Memory`; `Echoing Truth`; `Grafdigger's Cage` only if the artifact or enchantment strategy also uses graveyard or library-entry lines. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Flusterstorm` and `Daze` when the opponent's strongest actions are permanents already on board or spells that ignore soft permission. Use `Echoing Truth` to unlock a turn, not as a substitute for a long-term answer unless the attack is lethal.

- Go-wide decks: value sweep-like tempo from bounce and force the race around one large evasive blocker or attacker. `Echoing Truth` is the main sideboard tool when multiple same-name permanents, tokens, or clustered threats appear, and `Suspend` buys time against the creature that makes attacks impossible. Add role cards: `Echoing Truth`; `Suspend`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Gitaxian Probe`, slow `Up the Beanstalk`, and costly pitch cards that do not answer board width. Use `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` carefully; a small attacker or blocker is useful only when it does not give up a decisive combat exchange.

- Single-threat decks: focus all interaction on the one object that changes the clock. `Suspend`, `Daze`, `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Misdirection`, and `Commandeer` are strongest when they either stop that threat or protect your `Murktide Regent` from the answer that would reverse the race. Add role cards: `Suspend`; `Echoing Truth`; `Consign to Memory` if the threat is colorless or ability-based in a way the engine exposes. Reduce main-deck emphasis: broad card-advantage setup when the immediate question is whether the single threat survives. Do not spend `Wasteland` or `Strip Mine` away from a line that prevents the opponent from casting or protecting that threat.

- Burn and direct-damage pressure: conserve life total and treat free interaction as time, not just card exchange. Avoid unnecessary `Gitaxian Probe` life payments when life is pressured, and be careful with `Force of Will` if pitching a card creates a lethal burn window. Add role cards: `Suspend` for creature pressure and `Echoing Truth` for resolved permanents or token bursts; add `Consign to Memory` only when its target class is visible. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow `Up the Beanstalk` sequences that do not immediately stabilize. `Time Walk` should often be used to swing the race with an established flyer rather than to cantrip-cycle without pressure.

- Removal-heavy decks: avoid overcommitting threats and make the first protected threat matter. Lead with `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` when it can demand an answer without risking the main finisher, then use `Murktide Regent` or `Ethereal Forager` when you can protect it or when waiting lets the opponent gain more cards. Add role cards: `Echoing Truth` for resolved hate or blockers; `Soul-Guide Lantern` only if graveyard recursion is part of the removal deck; `Suspend` if their creatures also pressure. Reduce main-deck emphasis: excess soft permission on turns where the opponent has enough mana to pay. Use `Up the Beanstalk` to make high-mana-value interaction and threats pull ahead in attrition games.

## Specific Matchup Notes

- General/archetype-only note: exact opponents are not supplied for this batch, so revealed cards, public zones, and engine-offered legal actions override these assumptions. Treat each note as a runtime shortcut for sideboard roles and priority targets, not as certainty about hidden cards.

- Blue mirror and stack-heavy tempo: protect the first credible clock before fighting over low-impact cantrips. Add role cards: `Consign to Memory` only when colorless spells, triggered abilities, or activated abilities are visible; `Echoing Truth` for resolved threats or hate that blocks attacks. Reduce main-deck emphasis: excess `Up the Beanstalk` if the game is decided by one protected `Murktide Regent` or `Ethereal Forager`. Priority targets: opposing finisher, card-advantage spell, or answer aimed at your protected closer.

- Artifact acceleration and Workshop-style pressure: deploy `Black Lotus`, `Mox Sapphire`, and `Mox Emerald` before `Collector Ouphe` when the legal sequence allows and the mana is needed. Add role cards: `Collector Ouphe`; `Consign to Memory`; `Echoing Truth`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Flusterstorm`, `Daze`, and slow cantrip turns when permanents already threaten the game. Priority targets: artifact mana engines, lock permanents, colorless payoff spells, and abilities that keep you from casting or attacking.

- Graveyard combo or graveyard creature pressure: decide early whether your own graveyard fuel or hate permanent matters more. Add role cards: `Grafdigger's Cage`; `Soul-Guide Lantern`; `Echoing Truth`; sometimes `Suspend`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Thought Scour`, extra `Ethereal Forager`, and delve-heavy `Murktide Regent` timing when hate will shrink your own graveyard plan. Priority targets: the public graveyard card or engine permanent that enables the next legal graveyard action.

- Creature-combo and single-large-threat decks: use permission on the threat that changes the clock, not on setup that leaves the same lethal action available. Add role cards: `Suspend`; `Echoing Truth`; `Consign to Memory` if the decisive object is colorless or ability-based. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow `Up the Beanstalk` setup when a visible creature or stack action must be answered now. Priority targets: the creature that enables combat lethality, combo conversion, or protection from later removal.

- Fast aggro and burn pressure: conserve life and stabilize the race before spending cards for abstract advantage. Add role cards: `Suspend`; `Echoing Truth`; `Consign to Memory` only when a visible target class exists. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Gitaxian Probe` life payment, slow `Up the Beanstalk`, and pitch-counter exchanges that make the next attack or damage spell lethal. Priority targets: the current highest-power attacker, the permanent multiplying damage, or the spell that shortens the clock by a full turn.

- Removal-heavy midrange and control: make every threat demand an answer and avoid exposing all closers to one removal window. Add role cards: `Echoing Truth`; `Suspend` for creature pressure; `Soul-Guide Lantern` only if recursion is visible. Reduce main-deck emphasis: soft permission once the opponent can pay, and early `Murktide Regent` if graveyard count is low and protection is absent. Priority targets: removal aimed at the only closer, card advantage that beats `Up the Beanstalk`, or a blocker that blanks attacks.

## Risk Summary

- Mana risk: `Wasteland`, `Strip Mine`, `Mystic Sanctuary`, `Hedge Maze`, fetch lands, and only a few basic `Island` sources make color and land-count decisions fragile. Do not assume `Tropical Island` is safe when opposing land denial is visible, and do not spend `Black Lotus`, `Mox Sapphire`, or `Mox Emerald` before checking whether `Collector Ouphe` or the next spell sequence changes the value of those mana sources.

- Matchup risk: the deck can mis-role itself by playing pure control without a clock or pure tempo without protection. `Murktide Regent`, `Ethereal Forager`, and `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` should define the role once the opponent's pressure and interaction are visible.

- Draw risk: `Brainstorm`, `Consider`, `Thought Scour`, `Lorien Revealed`, `Gush`, `Ancestral Recall`, and `Gitaxian Probe` can consume tempo if cast before identifying the turn's decisive action. Prioritize cantrips that find land, protection, or a closer over cantrips that merely use mana.

- Over-sideboarding risk: too many `Grafdigger's Cage`, `Soul-Guide Lantern`, `Collector Ouphe`, `Echoing Truth`, `Suspend`, or `Consign to Memory` can dilute the threat base and weaken `Up the Beanstalk`. Add role cards only when public information confirms the target class.

- Graveyard risk: `Murktide Regent`, `Ethereal Forager`, `Thought Scour`, `Consider`, `Gush`, and `Mystic Sanctuary` all care about graveyard texture. `Grafdigger's Cage` and `Soul-Guide Lantern` can be correct but may reduce your own pressure or recursion if deployed without urgency.

- Sweeper/removal risk: one protected closer is often better than multiple exposed threats. Use `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Daze`, `Flusterstorm`, `Misdirection`, `Commandeer`, and `Mental Misstep` according to the exact stack object, not by card reputation.

- Closer risk: waiting too long to cast `Murktide Regent` or `Ethereal Forager` lets opponents recover, but casting them into visible interaction can lose the tempo plan. Commit when the clock, protection, and opponent mana make waiting worse.

- Sequencing risk: `Time Walk` is strongest with pressure, `Up the Beanstalk` is strongest before high-mana-value spells, and `Lorien Revealed` can be land access or card flow. Choose the mode the current legal game state rewards, not the default line.

## Test Feedback Checklist

- Deciding factor: record whether the match was won by an early protected `Murktide Regent`, recurring pressure from `Ethereal Forager`, a flipped or protected `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, `Up the Beanstalk` card advantage, mana denial from `Wasteland` or `Strip Mine`, or stack exchanges with `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Daze`, `Flusterstorm`, `Mental Misstep`, `Misdirection`, and `Commandeer`.

- Mulligans: ask whether opening hands had a castable threat, blue card density for pitch counters, enough mana to function after `Wasteland` or `Strip Mine`, and a plan for `Lorien Revealed` as land access versus spell velocity. Note every keep that lacked a realistic clock or relied on one fragile mana source.

- Mana: track games where `Tropical Island`, `Hedge Maze`, `Mystic Sanctuary`, fetch lands, `Mox Sapphire`, `Mox Emerald`, or `Black Lotus` were sequenced incorrectly. Record whether `Gush` returned lands at a useful tempo point or stranded follow-up spells.

- Velocity: check whether `Brainstorm`, `Consider`, `Thought Scour`, `Gitaxian Probe`, `Ancestral Recall`, `Lorien Revealed`, and `Gush` found the needed class of card: land, threat, protection, graveyard fuel, or interaction. Flag cantrip turns that spent mana while the opponent’s board or stack action remained decisive.

- Engines: record whether `Up the Beanstalk` drew cards before high-mana-value spells or arrived too late. Track whether `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` meaningfully generated advantage, flipped, or simply consumed a turn without changing combat or stack pressure.

- Interaction: review each pitch-counter or soft-counter exchange for target quality. Ask whether `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Daze`, `Flusterstorm`, `Mental Misstep`, `Misdirection`, or `Commandeer` stopped a decisive action or only traded down while the opponent’s next legal action stayed dangerous.

- Removal and bounce: after sideboarded games, record whether `Suspend` or `Echoing Truth` answered the permanent that mattered, bought a full attack step, or failed because the deck needed permanent removal, earlier pressure, or different stack interaction.

- Sideboard: record whether `Grafdigger's Cage`, `Soul-Guide Lantern`, `Collector Ouphe`, `Consign to Memory`, `Echoing Truth`, and `Suspend` had visible targets when drawn. Flag games where role cards diluted threat density or conflicted with `Murktide Regent`, `Ethereal Forager`, `Mox Sapphire`, `Mox Emerald`, or `Black Lotus`.

- Closing: ask whether `Time Walk` converted an existing threat into a faster kill, whether `Murktide Regent` was sized and protected correctly, and whether `Ethereal Forager` attacks returned the spell class needed to lock the game.

- Role and mistakes: identify turns where the pilot played control without a clock, played tempo without protection, fired land denial without a follow-up, or passed priority with useful legal interaction. Note any stranded cards, overperformers, underperformers, and visible tactical alternatives the engine offered.

## First Tuning Questions

- Card quantities: if `Up the Beanstalk` is often slow or stranded, should the main deck reduce reliance on four copies and increase cheaper velocity, protection, or threats? If it consistently converts `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Murktide Regent`, `Ethereal Forager`, and `Lorien Revealed` into wins, keep the engine central.

- Threat mix: if games are lost after early interaction because no closer appears, should the deck change the balance among `Murktide Regent`, `Ethereal Forager`, and `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`? If `Murktide Regent` conflicts too often with graveyard hate or low graveyard count, test whether the closer package needs adjustment.

- Mana base: if hands fail to cast early blue spells through land pressure, question the counts of `Island`, fetch lands, `Tropical Island`, `Hedge Maze`, `Mystic Sanctuary`, `Wasteland`, and `Strip Mine`. If `Mystic Sanctuary` is rarely enabled or too tapped, review whether its ceiling justifies the sequencing cost.

- Soft permission: if `Daze`, `Flusterstorm`, or `Mental Misstep` repeatedly lose relevance after turn two, ask whether those slots should shift toward broader interaction. If they steal tempo while protecting `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, `Murktide Regent`, or `Ethereal Forager`, preserve the low-cost stack plan.

- Pitch package: if `Commandeer`, `Misdirection`, `Force of Negation`, or extra pitch costs strand hands with too few blue cards, evaluate whether the disruptive ceiling is worth the card disadvantage. If they decide stack-heavy games, tune around maintaining blue card density.

- Aggro plan: if fast creature decks beat the deck before engines matter, test whether `Suspend` and `Echoing Truth` need more sideboard emphasis, whether `Up the Beanstalk` is too slow in those pairings, and whether early `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` blocks or pressure lines are being valued correctly.

- Control plan: if removal-heavy opponents answer every closer, ask whether the deck needs more resilient card advantage, better threat pacing, or different protection priorities. Review whether `Time Walk` is being saved for pressure turns instead of used as a low-impact cantrip turn.

- Sideboard slots: if `Grafdigger's Cage`, `Soul-Guide Lantern`, `Collector Ouphe`, or `Consign to Memory` lack visible targets across tests, reconsider their counts by matchup frequency. If artifact, graveyard, or colorless ability decks dominate losses, keep those role cards and tune main-deck emphasis around them.

- Role conflict: if `Collector Ouphe` weakens `Black Lotus`, `Mox Sapphire`, and `Mox Emerald` more than it hurts the opponent, refine sideboard plans and sequencing. If graveyard hate weakens `Murktide Regent` and `Ethereal Forager`, decide whether hate timing or threat selection is the real issue.

## Veles Tactical Policy

### Policy: Mulligan For Blue Tempo Function
Priority: High
Decision families: mulligan
Cards: Force of Will; Force of Negation; Daze; Flusterstorm; Mental Misstep; Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student; Murktide Regent; Ethereal Forager; Lorien Revealed
Phase windows: pregame mulligan decisions
Runtime cues: prompt:mulligan; action:keep; action:mulligan
Use when: opening hand evaluation is required before any public game actions.
Avoid when: the engine has already selected a final keep and asks for London bottom choices.
Instructions: Keep hands with blue mana or `Lorien Revealed` land access, at least one early interaction piece, and either a threat or velocity toward one. Reject hands that only interact without a clock unless the visible matchup demands pure survival.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: London Bottom Discipline
Priority: Medium
Decision families: mulligan, selection
Cards: Lorien Revealed; Murktide Regent; Ethereal Forager; Up the Beanstalk; Commandeer; Misdirection
Phase windows: pregame bottom decisions
Runtime cues: prompt:bottom; action:bottom
Use when: a kept hand must put one or more cards on the bottom.
Avoid when: the candidate list is hidden or the legal action text does not identify the cards.
Instructions: Bottom excess expensive spells before cutting the first blue source, first castable interaction, or only threat. Preserve blue card density for pitch counters, but do not keep multiple pitch spells if the hand lacks cards to pitch.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: First Threat Or Engine Setup
Priority: Medium
Decision families: priority, mana
Cards: Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student; Up the Beanstalk; Murktide Regent; Ethereal Forager
Phase windows: main phase with priority and an empty stack
Runtime cues: action:cast Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student; action:cast Up the Beanstalk; action:cast Murktide Regent; action:cast Ethereal Forager
Use when: the deck can commit its first permanent or threat and must choose between development and holding interaction.
Avoid when: the opponent has a visible decisive stack or board action that must be answered immediately.
Instructions: Lead with the cheapest threat or engine that leaves meaningful protection when possible. `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` is the preferred early low-mana commitment; `Up the Beanstalk` is stronger when high-mana-value spells are already castable or pitchable.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Land And Mox Sequencing
Priority: Medium
Decision families: mana
Cards: Island; Tropical Island; Hedge Maze; Mystic Sanctuary; Polluted Delta; Flooded Strand; Misty Rainforest; Scalding Tarn; Mox Sapphire; Mox Emerald; Black Lotus; Wasteland; Strip Mine
Phase windows: precombat main, postcombat main, mana payment prompts
Runtime cues: action:play; action:activate; prompt:pay mana
Use when: multiple mana sources or land drops are legal.
Avoid when: only one legal mana source can pay the cost shown by the engine.
Instructions: Preserve blue mana first, green only when `Up the Beanstalk` or sideboard cards matter, and use `Wasteland` or `Strip Mine` as tempo plays only when the deck has pressure or the opponent is visibly constrained. Do not expose a nonbasic over `Island` without a reason.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Deterministic Black Lotus Mana
Priority: Low
Decision families: mana
Cards: Black Lotus
Phase windows: mana ability prompt
Runtime cues: action:activate Black Lotus
Use when: exactly one legal `Black Lotus` mana action is offered and the pending spell or ability already requires that mana action to proceed.
Avoid when: multiple color choices are visible or no spell or ability is currently being paid for.
Instructions: Choose the legal `Black Lotus` activation that the engine offers for the already selected payment line; do not treat this as permission to choose a new spell line.
Pilot skill floor: low
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Fetch For Required Blue Access
Priority: Low
Decision families: mana, selection
Cards: Polluted Delta; Flooded Strand; Misty Rainforest; Scalding Tarn; Island; Tropical Island; Hedge Maze
Phase windows: fetch-land activation resolution
Runtime cues: action:search; action:choose Island; action:choose Tropical Island; action:choose Hedge Maze
Use when: a fetch search is resolving and the legal candidate names are visible.
Avoid when: the choice affects future color, graveyard, or `Mystic Sanctuary` planning beyond the current payment.
Instructions: For immediate blue-spell payment, choose the untapped blue source if legal. Choose green access only when `Up the Beanstalk` or sideboard cards are visible in hand or already selected.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Pitch Permission Commitment Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: interaction, priority
Cards: Force of Will; Force of Negation; Misdirection; Commandeer
Phase windows: opponent spell or ability on stack, response window
Runtime cues: action:cast Force of Will; action:cast Force of Negation; action:cast Misdirection; action:cast Commandeer
Use when: a pitch interaction decision is legal against a visible stack object.
Avoid when: the stack object is low impact, redundant, or can be answered by cheaper legal interaction.
Instructions: Spend pitch cards on actions that beat the current clock, protect a winning threat or engine, stop a decisive artifact/graveyard/spell sequence, or prevent losing before the next turn. Count blue cards before pitching.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Soft Permission Window
Priority: Medium
Decision families: interaction, priority
Cards: Daze; Flusterstorm; Mental Misstep
Phase windows: stack response windows, early turns, counter wars
Runtime cues: action:cast Daze; action:cast Flusterstorm; action:cast Mental Misstep
Use when: a soft counter is legal against the current visible stack object.
Avoid when: the opponent can visibly pay or the target does not affect the race, mana, or protected threat plan.
Instructions: Use `Mental Misstep` early on decisive one-mana plays, `Daze` when returning a land does not break the next turn, and `Flusterstorm` in spell-heavy exchanges. Prefer soft counters before pitch counters when the answer is reliable.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Beanstalk High-Mana-Value Trigger Planning
Priority: Medium
Decision families: priority, selection
Cards: Up the Beanstalk; Force of Will; Force of Negation; Commandeer; Murktide Regent; Ethereal Forager; Lorien Revealed
Phase windows: main phases and stack response windows
Runtime cues: action:cast Up the Beanstalk; action:cast Force of Will; action:cast Force of Negation; action:cast Commandeer; action:cast Murktide Regent; action:cast Ethereal Forager; action:cast Lorien Revealed
Use when: `Up the Beanstalk` is on the battlefield or can be cast before a high-mana-value spell.
Avoid when: taking a setup turn gives the opponent a visible decisive window.
Instructions: Sequence `Up the Beanstalk` before high-mana-value casts when tempo permits. Do not cast interaction merely to draw; the stack target must matter independently.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Graveyard Threat Commitment Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: priority, selection
Cards: Murktide Regent; Ethereal Forager; Thought Scour; Consider; Brainstorm; Gush; Gitaxian Probe
Phase windows: main phase with priority
Runtime cues: action:cast Murktide Regent; action:cast Ethereal Forager
Use when: a graveyard-using threat is legal and graveyard contents are visible.
Avoid when: visible graveyard hate, sideboard hate you control, or insufficient protection makes the threat likely to fail without pressure gain.
Instructions: Commit `Murktide Regent` or `Ethereal Forager` when it creates a fast clock, stabilizes combat, or forces the opponent to answer through protection. Use cantrips and self-mill to prepare, but do not exile resources needed for the other threat without reason.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Cantrip And Draw Selection
Priority: Medium
Decision families: selection, priority
Cards: Brainstorm; Consider; Thought Scour; Gitaxian Probe; Ancestral Recall; Gush; Lorien Revealed
Phase windows: main phase, end step, response windows when legal
Runtime cues: action:cast Brainstorm; action:cast Consider; action:cast Thought Scour; action:cast Gitaxian Probe; action:cast Ancestral Recall; action:cast Gush; action:cycle Lorien Revealed
Use when: card selection or draw is legal and the deck must find land, threat, protection, or pressure.
Avoid when: mana must remain open for visible interaction or a stack object requires an answer now.
Instructions: Use `Lorien Revealed` as land access when mana is missing; cast it as a draw spell when mana is abundant or `Up the Beanstalk` matters. Use `Gush` only when returning lands preserves the next meaningful play.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Time Walk Conversion Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: priority, combat
Cards: Time Walk; Murktide Regent; Ethereal Forager; Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student
Phase windows: main phase before or after combat
Runtime cues: action:cast Time Walk
Use when: `Time Walk` is legal and the current board can convert an extra turn into damage, planeswalker progress, mana development, or protected recovery.
Avoid when: it is only a low-impact draw step and the opponent’s current stack or battlefield action needs interaction.
Instructions: Cast `Time Walk` to multiply an existing threat or reset tempo after mana denial. Avoid spending it before establishing pressure unless the extra turn fixes mana or prevents immediate loss.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Combat Pressure With Flyers And Large Threats
Priority: Medium
Decision families: combat
Cards: Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student; Murktide Regent; Ethereal Forager
Phase windows: declare attackers, declare blockers, combat trick windows
Runtime cues: action:attack; action:block
Use when: attackers or blockers are legal and visible combat objects are known.
Avoid when: combat math depends on hidden tricks or unmodeled card text; request light reasoning.
Instructions: Attack when pressure advances a protected clock without sacrificing the only blocker needed for survival. Block to preserve life against lethal or short-clock pressure, especially when the threat survives or the trade buys a full turn.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Wasteland And Strip Mine Commitment Gate
Priority: Medium
Decision families: mana, priority
Cards: Wasteland; Strip Mine
Phase windows: main phase with priority
Runtime cues: action:activate Wasteland; action:activate Strip Mine
Use when: land destruction is legal against a visible land.
Avoid when: using the land denies your own required mana and you lack pressure or follow-up interaction.
Instructions: Fire land denial when it cuts the opponent off a visible color, removes a high-impact utility land, or supports an existing clock. Do not trade a land drop for marginal disruption while behind on board.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Sideboard Role-Card Commitment
Priority: Medium
Decision families: sideboard, priority
Cards: Grafdigger's Cage; Soul-Guide Lantern; Collector Ouphe; Consign to Memory; Echoing Truth; Suspend
Phase windows: sideboarding, main phases, response windows
Runtime cues: prompt:sideboard; action:cast Grafdigger's Cage; action:cast Soul-Guide Lantern; action:cast Collector Ouphe; action:cast Consign to Memory; action:cast Echoing Truth; action:cast Suspend
Use when: sideboard cards are legal to select or cast and opponent archetype or public board state supports their role.
Avoid when: the role card lacks visible targets or conflicts more with `Black Lotus`, `Mox Sapphire`, `Mox Emerald`, `Murktide Regent`, or `Ethereal Forager` than with the opponent.
Instructions: Bring and cast graveyard hate for graveyard engines, `Collector Ouphe` for artifact mana or artifact engines, `Consign to Memory` for colorless or triggered threats, and `Echoing Truth` or `Suspend` for creature or permanent tempo.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Deterministic Target Opponent For Lethal Attack Step Follow-Up
Priority: Low
Decision families: combat, priority
Cards: none
Phase windows: combat damage or direct target prompt
Runtime cues: action:target opponent
Use when: exactly one legal action contains `target opponent`, no other target choices are offered, and the already selected spell or ability requires choosing the opponent to proceed.
Avoid when: multiple players, permanents, spells, or planeswalkers are legal targets.
Instructions: Choose the visible `target opponent` action only to complete an already selected deterministic line; do not infer that a new offensive spell should be cast.
Pilot skill floor: low
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Pass Priority Under Protection Discipline
Priority: Medium
Decision families: priority, interaction
Cards: Force of Will; Force of Negation; Daze; Flusterstorm; Mental Misstep; Misdirection; Commandeer
Phase windows: any priority window
Runtime cues: action:pass
Use when: passing priority is legal while interaction may also be legal.
Avoid when: a visible stack object, combat step, or lethal board state requires an answer before resolution.
Instructions: Pass when the opponent’s action is low impact, your interaction is needed for a later decisive spell, or tapping/pitching now would expose the threat plan. Do not pass through a must-answer stack object solely to conserve cards.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes
