# Strategy Specifications
## Deck Name And Archetype

Niv to Light is an Explorer 80-card five-color midrange-control toolbox deck built around `Bring to Light`, multicolor value threats, broad interaction, and a companion-sideboard structure with `Yorion, Sky Nomad`. The registered configuration is 80 main-deck cards and 15 sideboard cards, matching the active validation contract for Explorer and satisfying the stated main/sideboard size rule.

Format-aware validation status is pass, so Veles should treat the deck as registered and playable unless the runtime rules engine reports a legality, companion, card-availability, or import problem. If Forge or another engine flags `Yorion, Sky Nomad`, `Ultima`, `Professor Dellian Fel`, `Vibrant Outburst`, `Erode`, or any newer card as unavailable or differently implemented, the pilot must follow engine output and record the mismatch instead of assuming legality or text.

Archetype tags are `midrange`, `control`, and `toolbox`; the list is hybrid rather than stock because it combines a conventional five-color `Bring to Light` shell with custom singleton bullets and newer named cards that require card text verification during play. The strategic center is not a linear combo kill: it is a decision-heavy value deck that stabilizes with efficient removal and lifegain, fixes mana, then converts `Bring to Light`, `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, `Overlord of the Hauntwoods`, `Beza, the Bounding Spring`, `Up the Beanstalk`, and `Yorion, Sky Nomad` into overwhelming card and board advantage.

The main-deck count and mana base create the first major pilot concern: 80 cards reduce access to specific singletons, while five colors and many tapped lands make early sequencing decisive. Runtime land choices should respect visible legal actions, current hand colors, turn-two `Sylvan Caryatid` or `Ancient Cornucopia` needs, early interaction requirements for `Lightning Helix`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Vanishing Verse`, and `Leyline Binding`, and the future color density needed to cast or find `Bring to Light`.

The role concern is that this deck can look like control, ramp, or tap-out midrange depending on matchup and draw, but it should not default to passing indefinitely. Against pressure, it is a stabilizing control deck that trades resources, protects life total, and turns the corner with lifegain or large threats. Against slower decks, it is a proactive toolbox deck that must force engines through countermagic and discard windows while preserving enough interaction for opposing haymakers.

The stock/rogue status for agent use is best treated as established archetype plus rogue card package. Familiar assumptions about Niv-to-Light shells can guide broad role selection, but exact card names in this registered list must control all policy references, sideboard plans, and runtime tactical decisions.

Opponent information status is unknown at guide load time. Veles must not infer hidden cards from format stereotypes, must prefix metagame examples as opponent cards when they appear outside this registered deck, and must let visible board state, revealed information, game log history, sideboard stage, and legal action text override matchup heuristics.

## Thesis
Niv to Light assembles stable five-color mana first, then converts that mana into modal answers, multicolor card advantage, and single-card pivots through `Bring to Light`, `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Up the Beanstalk`, and high-impact creatures. The deck wins by surviving the early game, answering the first wave cleanly, and making each midgame spell generate either material advantage, life buffer, or a decisive threat that forces the opponent to spend multiple cards.

The primary priority is sequencing mana so every future legal action remains live. Early turns should favor `Sylvan Caryatid`, `Ancient Cornucopia`, typed triomes, shock lands, verge lands, and `Fabled Passage` lines that unlock white, green, black, red, and blue by turn four or five; do not spend early land choices only on current-turn convenience if that strands `Bring to Light`, `Leyline Binding`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, `Vanishing Verse`, or `Lightning Helix` in hand.

The deck is not trying to race as a low-curve damage deck, defend one narrow combo, or trade every card one-for-one forever. It should trade only until a value engine, tutor target, or resilient threat changes the exchange rate; after that point, prioritize lines that compound advantage over lines that merely use all available mana.

The tactical plan is stabilization into inevitability. Against creature pressure, protect life total with `Lightning Helix`, `Leyline Binding`, `Vanishing Verse`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Deafening Clarion`, `Culling Ritual`, `Beza, the Bounding Spring`, and `Omnath, Locus of Creation`; against slower decks, commit engines and threats only when the visible stack, mana, and known interaction make waiting worse than acting.

Card text check required for `Ultima`, `Professor Dellian Fel`, `Vibrant Outburst`, `Overlord of the Hauntwoods`, `Erode`, and some newer cards if the rules engine does not expose complete text. Use them only according to legal action text, visible mode/target choices, and confirmed runtime output.

## Role Package
- Threats: `Niv-Mizzet Reborn` is the main refill threat and should be protected from low-value deployment when hand size is already strong unless board pressure demands a body. `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme` is a late-game threat and value bridge when its legal text supports graveyard or multicolor recursion; Card text check required. `Omnath, Locus of Creation` is both stabilizer and snowball threat when land drops are available. `Overlord of the Hauntwoods`, `Beza, the Bounding Spring`, `Professor Dellian Fel`, and `Valki, God of Lies` are singleton or low-copy threat tools whose use should follow board role and confirmed legal modes.

- Payoffs: `Bring to Light` is the toolbox centerpiece and should find the effect that changes the current game, not automatically the largest card. `Niv-Mizzet Reborn` rewards high multicolor density and should be sequenced when missing categories in hand matter. `Leyline Binding` rewards domain setup by turning the mana base into cheap universal interaction. `Yorion, Sky Nomad` is a sideboard companion/resource payoff if the engine exposes it legally; use it to rebuy enters-the-battlefield value only when tempo loss is acceptable.

- Engines: `Up the Beanstalk` turns expensive or cost-reduced high-mana-value spells into card flow and should be deployed before `Leyline Binding`, `Bring to Light`, `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme`, `Overlord of the Hauntwoods`, `Beza, the Bounding Spring`, or `Sphinx's Revelation` when doing so does not lose the board. `Ancient Cornucopia` is fixing, ramp, and possible lifegain support if confirmed by engine text; prioritize it when the hand needs color density over immediate removal. `Omnath, Locus of Creation` becomes an engine only with land drops or `Fabled Passage` available.

- Velocity: `Bring to Light` is selected velocity because it turns a stabilized board into the exact registered answer or threat. `Niv-Mizzet Reborn` is burst velocity through multicolor reveals. `Vibrant Outburst` requires Card text check required and should be treated as conditional velocity only when legal action text confirms what it finds or casts. `Sphinx's Revelation` is sideboard late-game velocity and lifegain for attrition games.

- Interaction: `Lightning Helix` covers early creatures, planeswalker pressure when legal, and life-total recovery. `Vanishing Verse`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Maelstrom Pulse`, `Kolaghan's Command`, `Culling Ritual`, `Deafening Clarion`, `Leyline Binding`, and `Ultima` form the flexible answer package; choose the narrowest answer that solves the current threat while preserving broader answers for unknown permanents. `Dovin's Veto`, `Unmoored Ego`, `Erode`, `Rest in Peace`, `Kaervek, the Spiteful`, and `Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves` are sideboard interaction modules for stack fights, named-card plans, artifacts/enchantments or other confirmed targets, graveyards, small creatures, and creature-based stabilization.

- Protection: `Dovin's Veto` protects haymakers and stops opposing noncreature pivots after sideboard. `Surrak Dragonclaw` can protect creature-heavy threat deployment from countermagic if its legal text is confirmed; Card text check required. `Sylvan Caryatid` protects the mana plan through creature-based fixing if its hexproof/defensive role is implemented as expected.

- Recursion: `Kolaghan's Command` is the main registered recursion-adjacent card when legal modes include returning a creature. `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme` may provide broader recursion or reuse of multicolor cards, but Card text check required and choices must follow engine-exposed legal actions.

- Mana: `Sylvan Caryatid`, `Ancient Cornucopia`, `Fabled Passage`, typed triomes, shock lands, verge lands, and basics are the functional skeleton. Prioritize green early for `Sylvan Caryatid`, white/red for `Lightning Helix`, black/white for `Vanishing Verse`, domain for `Leyline Binding`, and all five colors for `Bring to Light`.

- Sideboard modules: `Dovin's Veto`, `Rest in Peace`, `Kaervek, the Spiteful`, `Unmoored Ego`, `Sphinx's Revelation`, `Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves`, `Surrak Dragonclaw`, `Erode`, `Ultima`, and `Yorion, Sky Nomad` should be selected by matchup role, not inserted as generic upgrades.

## Primary Win Conditions
- `Bring to Light` is the primary win-condition selector, not a default five-mana threat button. Setup requires five-color access through `Sylvan Caryatid`, `Ancient Cornucopia`, typed lands, `Fabled Passage`, and verge lands; execution should find the registered card that flips the current game, such as `Niv-Mizzet Reborn` for cards, `Omnath, Locus of Creation` for life and pressure, `Deafening Clarion` or `Culling Ritual` for a board reset, `Maelstrom Pulse` or `Vanishing Verse` for a key permanent, or a confirmed `Ultima` line when engine text makes the role clear. Prioritize this path when mana is stable and the game asks for one exact effect.

- `Niv-Mizzet Reborn` is the main material-overload win path. Setup requires reaching WUBRG and preferably having already traded interaction so the opponent has fewer clean answers; execution is casting or finding `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, refilling across multicolor card pairs, and turning the new hand into sequential removal, lifegain, and threats. Disruption is strongest when the opponent can counter it, exile it before cards matter only if the trigger is somehow prevented, or kill the pilot before the extra cards convert; prioritize it when hand size is low, board is not immediately lethal, and resolving one card can replace multiple resources.

- `Up the Beanstalk` is the engine win path that makes every large spell pull the deck ahead. Setup is landing `Up the Beanstalk` before high-mana-value or cost-reduced plays when tempo permits; execution is chaining `Leyline Binding`, `Bring to Light`, `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme`, `Overlord of the Hauntwoods`, `Beza, the Bounding Spring`, or sideboard `Sphinx's Revelation` into extra cards. Disruption is pressure that punishes a non-board-impact turn or enchantment removal that cuts off future draw; prioritize it when life total and board allow a setup turn.

- `Omnath, Locus of Creation` is the stabilizing pressure win path. Setup requires land drops, ideally `Fabled Passage` or an unplayed land after Omnath resolves; execution is gaining life, generating mana or damage if legal triggers occur, and forcing opponents to answer a body while the pilot keeps mana open for interaction. Prioritize it when behind on life, when a landfall burst changes combat math, or when `Bring to Light` can turn into immediate stabilization instead of only cards.

- Combat by oversized value creatures is the closing path after stabilization. `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, `Beza, the Bounding Spring`, `Overlord of the Hauntwoods`, `Professor Dellian Fel`, and `Valki, God of Lies` should attack once interaction has made blocks favorable or forced damage matters more than preserving every body. Card text check required for `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme`, `Overlord of the Hauntwoods`, `Professor Dellian Fel`, and `Valki, God of Lies` execution details; use only legal engine actions.

## Secondary Win Conditions
- Burn reach is secondary and should be counted from visible life totals only. `Lightning Helix` can finish low-life opponents, pressure planeswalkers when legal, and reverse races; do not spend it upstairs early if a creature answer is needed to survive. `Kolaghan's Command` may add damage or recursion depending on legal modes, so choose damage only when it materially advances lethal, removes a resource, or pairs with another known spell.

- Recursion and rebuy pressure can win long games when threats trade. `Kolaghan's Command` should return a relevant creature only when the legal mode is exposed and the recovered body matters more than discard, artifact damage, or direct damage. `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme` may create graveyard value if implemented as expected, but Card text check required; do not assume a graveyard line unless the rules engine presents legal cast or target actions.

- Sweeper-to-threat sequencing is a fallback against wide boards. `Deafening Clarion`, `Culling Ritual`, `Maelstrom Pulse`, and `Ultima` should clear or shrink the board before committing `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, or `Beza, the Bounding Spring`; prioritize this line when a single threat would otherwise die on blocks or fail to stabilize.

- `Leyline Binding` plus domain is a soft-lock pressure pattern, not a hard lock. Use cheap `Leyline Binding` to remove the permanent that blocks the next engine step, protects an opponent's clock, or invalidates combat; preserve it over narrower removal when the opposing permanent type or color makes `Abrupt Decay`, `Vanishing Verse`, or `Lightning Helix` insufficient.

- Sideboard inevitability can become a win condition after boarding. `Dovin's Veto` protects resolved engines and stops opposing comeback noncreature spells, `Sphinx's Revelation` can bury attrition mirrors in cards and life, `Surrak Dragonclaw` may force creature threats through countermagic if text is confirmed, and `Yorion, Sky Nomad` may rebuy battlefield value if legally available.

## Emergency Lines
- When behind on life, choose survival before card volume. Prefer `Lightning Helix`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation` with landfall available, `Beza, the Bounding Spring`, `Deafening Clarion`, `Culling Ritual`, or the cheapest legal removal over speculative `Up the Beanstalk` setup unless the setup also enables an immediate stabilizer.

- When behind on board, answer the threat that changes the next combat step. Use `Abrupt Decay` for small legal targets, `Vanishing Verse` for eligible monocolored threats, `Leyline Binding` for broad permanent coverage, `Maelstrom Pulse` for clustered names or key permanents, and `Deafening Clarion` or `Culling Ritual` when multiple attackers make one-for-one removal too slow.

- When behind on cards, stop trading down and seek an engine. Prioritize `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Bring to Light` for a refill or stabilizer, `Up the Beanstalk` before large spells if safe, or sideboard `Sphinx's Revelation`; avoid using `Bring to Light` as a narrow answer unless the answer prevents immediate loss.

- When behind on mana or colors, treat fixing as the turn's win condition. Use `Sylvan Caryatid`, `Ancient Cornucopia`, tapped typed lands, and `Fabled Passage` to unlock future WUBRG and cheap `Leyline Binding`; take damage from shock lands only when the life cost preserves an essential same-turn answer or next-turn `Bring to Light`.

- When engines or win conditions are removed, shift to layered threats. Do not concede strategic direction because `Niv-Mizzet Reborn` or `Up the Beanstalk` is gone; win through `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, `Beza, the Bounding Spring`, `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme`, `Overlord of the Hauntwoods`, `Professor Dellian Fel`, repeated interaction, and burn reach.

- When facing graveyard recursion or combo pressure, use only confirmed interaction and visible information. Seek `Rest in Peace` after sideboard, `Unmoored Ego` for known named-card engines, `Dovin's Veto` for noncreature combo pivots, or immediate permanent removal; never assume hidden combo pieces or exact graveyard text beyond public zones and engine output.

## Resource Model
- Life is a spendable stabilizing buffer, not a free fixing pool. Use shock lands untapped only when the gained tempo casts `Sylvan Caryatid`, `Ancient Cornucopia`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Lightning Helix`, `Vanishing Verse`, `Up the Beanstalk`, or a needed `Leyline Binding` on time; recover life with `Lightning Helix`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, `Beza, the Bounding Spring`, and sideboard `Sphinx's Revelation` when the engine presents legal lines.

- Hand size is the deck's long-game engine resource. Preserve enough cards to turn `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Bring to Light`, `Up the Beanstalk`, and `Sphinx's Revelation` into a decisive reload; do not trade premium removal for low-impact permanents unless the next combat step, planeswalker pressure, or combo clock demands it.

- Mana quality is more important than raw land count after the fourth land. Prioritize WUBRG access for `Bring to Light` and `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, domain for cheap `Leyline Binding`, and stable early green for `Sylvan Caryatid`, `Ancient Cornucopia`, and fixing-heavy starts.

- Board presence buys the time that the value spells need. `Sylvan Caryatid` blocks small pressure while fixing, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, `Beza, the Bounding Spring`, `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, and `Overlord of the Hauntwoods` stabilize with bodies, and `Professor Dellian Fel` may matter as a board engine only when its legal text is exposed; Card text check required for `Professor Dellian Fel` and `Overlord of the Hauntwoods`.

- Graveyard value is secondary and must be engine-confirmed. `Kolaghan's Command` can rebuy creatures when the mode is legal, and `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme` may involve graveyard permissions only if Forge exposes them; avoid graveyard-dependent planning through opposing hate or after sideboarding into `Rest in Peace`.

- Exile is usually removal or sideboard containment, not a resource to spend from. `Leyline Binding` and `Vanishing Verse` can remove important permanents into exile, `Rest in Peace` changes graveyard incentives after sideboard, and any play-from-exile line must follow visible legal actions rather than assumed card text.

- Lands are both color infrastructure and spell quality. `Fabled Passage`, triomes, shock lands, typed lands, and Verge lands decide `Leyline Binding` cost, `Bring to Light` ceiling, and `Omnath, Locus of Creation` landfall timing; sequence lands to preserve future colors over marginal same-turn neatness.

- Sacrifice fodder is not a normal resource in this list. Do not sacrifice permanents speculatively unless `Valki, God of Lies`, `Culling Ritual`, `Kolaghan's Command`, `Ultima`, or another legal action explicitly presents that cost or mode; Card text check required for `Ultima`.

- Tempo is spent to set up engines and earned back through efficient answers. A tapped land plus `Up the Beanstalk` can be correct when not under lethal pressure, but against fast boards prioritize `Lightning Helix`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Vanishing Verse`, `Deafening Clarion`, `Culling Ritual`, or cheap `Leyline Binding` before drawing extra cards.

- Information is partial and must remain runtime-bound. Use revealed hands, public graveyards, visible mana, known sideboard cards, and previous logged decisions to choose `Unmoored Ego`, `Dovin's Veto`, or removal timing; never name or play around an exact hidden card unless it has been revealed or is forced by public information.

- Sideboard bullets convert narrow cards into matchup-specific resources. `Dovin's Veto` protects engines and contests noncreature pivots, `Rest in Peace` attacks graveyard reliance, `Kaervek, the Spiteful` pressures small-creature boards if legal text confirms, `Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves`, `Surrak Dragonclaw`, `Erode`, `Ultima`, `Unmoored Ego`, and `Sphinx's Revelation` should be used only according to exposed matchup need and legal modes.

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

- Keep hands that produce early green plus a path to three or more colors. A strong opener usually has `Sylvan Caryatid` or `Ancient Cornucopia`, two or three lands, and either interaction or `Up the Beanstalk`; a hand with only tapped lands and no early play is risky against pressure even if it eventually casts five-color spells.

- Mulligan hands that cannot cast their early spells on time. Reject hands missing green fixing when they rely on `Bring to Light` or `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, hands with one land and no reliable acceleration, and hands whose only interaction is color-locked off current lands.

- Lead with tapped typed lands when no immediate spell is lost. `Indatha Triome`, `Jetmir's Garden`, `Ketria Triome`, `Raugrin Triome`, `Spara's Headquarters`, `Xander's Lounge`, `Zagoth Triome`, and `Ziatora's Proving Ground` improve domain and future color coverage, so play them early unless an untapped source is required for `Sylvan Caryatid`, `Ancient Cornucopia`, `Abrupt Decay`, or `Lightning Helix`.

- Fetch with `Fabled Passage` for missing colors and domain, not just basics by habit. Choose `Forest` early when it unlocks green fixing, choose `Plains`, `Island`, `Swamp`, or `Mountain` when they complete a needed color pair, and consider whether a typed shock or triome already covers future `Leyline Binding` cost before selecting a basic.

- Preserve white and red access for stabilization. `Lightning Helix`, `Vanishing Verse`, `Leyline Binding`, `Deafening Clarion`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, and `Bring to Light` often depend on white-heavy sequencing, while red access supports `Lightning Helix`, `Kolaghan's Command`, `Deafening Clarion`, and some sideboard plans.

- Preserve black and green access for answers and engines. `Abrupt Decay`, `Culling Ritual`, `Maelstrom Pulse`, `Kolaghan's Command`, `Valki, God of Lies`, `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, and `Bring to Light` punish sloppy black sequencing, while green is the bridge through `Sylvan Caryatid`, `Ancient Cornucopia`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, and `Overlord of the Hauntwoods`.

- Use Verge lands as support colors after confirming their runtime output. `Sunbillow Verge`, `Floodfarm Verge`, `Bleachbone Verge`, `Hushwood Verge`, and `Wastewood Verge` should be sequenced around the colors Forge says they can produce; Card text check required for exact activation or condition details.

- Play lands before draw effects when landfall, color unlocking, or spell casting this turn matters. With `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, prefer holding `Fabled Passage` or an extra land until Omnath can legally benefit; with `Up the Beanstalk` triggers or `Bring to Light`, play the land first if it unlocks the current spell.

- Delay land plays before selection only when the choice depends on drawn information. If casting a draw or selection spell before land drop could reveal the needed color plan and no immediate landfall trigger is being used, wait; otherwise make the land drop that maximizes legal current-turn actions.

## Mulligan Guide
- Strong keep: Keep two or three lands, early green, and one fixer such as `Sylvan Caryatid` or `Ancient Cornucopia` when the hand also has `Up the Beanstalk`, `Lightning Helix`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Vanishing Verse`, or `Leyline Binding`. This hand turns the deck on by casting interaction first and reaching `Bring to Light`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, or `Niv-Mizzet Reborn` before falling behind.

- Strong keep: Keep `Fabled Passage` plus a typed land and `Sylvan Caryatid` when the rest of the hand contains a payoff. Fetch the missing color that unlocks the next two turns, not the color that only improves a distant `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`.

- Medium keep: Keep three lands, `Up the Beanstalk`, and cheap removal without a mana creature if the lands already cover green, white, and at least one removal color. This hand is slower but acceptable when `Lightning Helix`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Vanishing Verse`, or cheap `Leyline Binding` can protect the setup turn.

- Medium keep: Keep `Ancient Cornucopia`, three lands, and `Bring to Light` when the lands produce green and at least three total colors. This hand needs runtime confirmation that Cornucopia resolves and fixes before committing to a five-color plan.

- Risky keep: A hand with `Up the Beanstalk`, `Bring to Light`, `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, and mostly tapped lands is playable only against slow opponents or on the play with stable colors. Ship it against visible aggressive pressure indicators or when no legal turn-two or turn-three defensive action is likely.

- Risky keep: A hand with removal but no green fixer is acceptable only if its lands cast that removal on curve and already point toward four or five colors. Do not keep color-fragmented hands because this list is powerful only when its mana converts into multicolor spells.

- Automatic ship: Ship zero-land, one-land without `Fabled Passage` plus a castable early fixer, five-plus-land hands without `Up the Beanstalk` or `Bring to Light`, and hands that cannot cast any nonland spell before turn four. Also ship hands whose only early spell is color-locked off visible lands.

- Trap hand: Do not keep a hand just because it contains `Bring to Light`, `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, and `Leyline Binding`. Without early green, domain development, or cheap interaction, those cards are future promises rather than playable resources.

- Matchup-dependent keep: Keep removal-heavy hands with `Lightning Helix`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Vanishing Verse`, `Deafening Clarion`, or `Culling Ritual` against creature pressure even if the payoff is delayed. Against control or combo, prefer `Up the Beanstalk`, `Bring to Light`, `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Valki, God of Lies`, and post-board `Dovin's Veto` or `Unmoored Ego` over narrow removal.

- Play/draw adjustment: On the play, accept slightly slower triome-heavy hands if they curve tapped land into `Sylvan Caryatid` or `Ancient Cornucopia`. On the draw, demand earlier interaction because the opponent gets the first board or stack commitment.

## Turn Arc
- Turn 1: Lead with the tapped land that improves the most future colors when no one-mana action is available. Prefer triomes and typed lands such as `Indatha Triome`, `Jetmir's Garden`, `Ketria Triome`, `Raugrin Triome`, `Spara's Headquarters`, `Xander's Lounge`, `Zagoth Triome`, or `Ziatora's Proving Ground`; use `Fabled Passage` when it fixes turn-two green or enables a near-term `Leyline Binding` discount.

- Turn 1 deviation: Hold `Fabled Passage` only when the current colors are already sufficient and a future `Omnath, Locus of Creation` landfall line is plausible. Do not hold it if doing so delays `Sylvan Caryatid`, `Ancient Cornucopia`, or castable interaction.

- Turn 2: Prioritize `Sylvan Caryatid` when legal because it blocks, fixes, and bridges to four and five mana. If pressure or a must-answer permanent is visible, cast `Lightning Helix`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Vanishing Verse`, or discounted `Leyline Binding` instead of developing.

- Turn 2 deviation: Cast `Up the Beanstalk` when the opponent is not presenting a short clock and the next turns can trigger it through `Leyline Binding`, `Bring to Light`, `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, or another legal high-cost spell. Do not spend turn two on Beanstalk while a visible threat will make turn three defensive choices too late.

- Turn 3: Prefer `Ancient Cornucopia`, `Up the Beanstalk` plus interaction, or a removal spell that preserves life total and planeswalker-like engines. Use `Fabled Passage` before casting if the fetched land changes the legal action set or reduces `Leyline Binding`.

- Turn 3 deviation: Cast `Valki, God of Lies`, `Kolaghan's Command`, `Maelstrom Pulse`, `Culling Ritual`, or `Deafening Clarion` only when Forge exposes the relevant legal modes and targets. Card text check required for `Ultima`, `Professor Dellian Fel`, `Overlord of the Hauntwoods`, and `Vibrant Outburst`; use those only when their visible legal actions clearly advance stabilization or card advantage.

- Turns 4-5: Turn the corner with `Bring to Light`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, `Beza, the Bounding Spring`, `Overlord of the Hauntwoods`, or `Niv-Mizzet Reborn` after the board is stable enough. If behind, choose `Bring to Light` lines that answer the board before choosing value, and avoid tapping out into visible lethal or known stack interaction.

- Turns 4-5 deviation: Sequence `Up the Beanstalk` before a high-mana-value spell when the extra card does not cost survival. Sequence the answer first when life total, battlefield damage, or an opposing engine would punish the setup turn.

- Late game: Use `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme`, `Bring to Light`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, and recursive `Kolaghan's Command` modes as the grind plan when legal. Preserve flexible answers for unique permanents, and convert excess lands into domain, landfall timing, and guaranteed five-color casting rather than speculative plays.

- Late-game deviation: Do not overextend into sweepers or graveyard hate signals when a single multicolor threat already pressures the opponent. Force action with one durable payoff, then reload through `Bring to Light`, `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, or `Up the Beanstalk` after the opponent spends resources.

## Card Roles
- `Sylvan Caryatid`: Treat `Sylvan Caryatid` as the safest early bridge into five colors, not as a disposable blocker unless survival requires it. Cast it on turn two when legal in most hands because hexproof protects the mana plan, its body slows small attackers, and it lets `Bring to Light`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, and expensive toolbox cards arrive before the opponent has converted tempo into inevitability. Do not skip Caryatid for `Up the Beanstalk` against visible pressure unless a cheap answer is also available.

- `Ancient Cornucopia`: Use `Ancient Cornucopia` as both fixing and stabilization, but confirm through legal actions that it produces the needed colors before assuming a five-color curve. It is strongest when the hand already contains `Bring to Light`, `Leyline Binding`, or a four-mana stabilizer and weakest when casting it consumes the only turn that could answer a must-kill creature. Preserve life-gain value when racing, but do not let incremental life lure the pilot into passing with unanswered board pressure.

- `Up the Beanstalk`: Deploy `Up the Beanstalk` when the next turns can reliably trigger it without dying. The main trigger partners are discounted `Leyline Binding`, `Bring to Light`, `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, `Beza, the Bounding Spring`, `Overlord of the Hauntwoods`, `Valki, God of Lies` when cast as the expensive face if legal, and any other high-mana-value legal spell. The common mistake is casting Beanstalk as a setup spell while the opponent has a board that demands `Lightning Helix`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Vanishing Verse`, `Deafening Clarion`, or `Culling Ritual` first.

- `Lightning Helix`: Use `Lightning Helix` as the default early stabilizer against creatures and planeswalker-like pressure when Forge exposes legal targets. The life swing matters because the deck often spends early turns on tapped lands and setup permanents, so Helix can buy the turn needed for `Bring to Light` or `Omnath, Locus of Creation`. Hold it against slow decks if the only visible targets are low-impact, but do not hold it when taking damage would make a later tap-out unsafe.

- `Leyline Binding`: Treat `Leyline Binding` as the most flexible answer and a major `Up the Beanstalk` enabler. Fetch and sequence typed lands so Binding becomes cheap enough to pair with another spell, but do not delay removal just to save mana if the current permanent is snowballing. Prefer Binding for permanents that other answers cannot cleanly handle; avoid spending it on a minor creature when `Lightning Helix`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Vanishing Verse`, or a sweeper can solve the same battlefield.

- `Bring to Light`: Treat `Bring to Light` as the deck's central toolbox commitment, not automatically as the greediest value spell. Use it defensively for the visible answer when behind, use it for `Niv-Mizzet Reborn` or another payoff when stable, and use it for matchup-specific hate only when that card is actually present after sideboarding and legal to find. The key mistake is tapping out for a value target into visible lethal, known countermagic risk, or a board where a cheaper answer plus development would be safer.

- `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`: Cast `Niv-Mizzet Reborn` when the deck can afford a five-mana value turn and wants to reload with multicolor cards. It rewards preserving diverse two-color spells such as `Lightning Helix`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Vanishing Verse`, `Kolaghan's Command`, `Maelstrom Pulse`, `Deafening Clarion`, `Culling Ritual`, and `Valki, God of Lies`, but the runtime must trust Forge output for actual revealed choices. Do not cast it into a battlefield where a removal spell or sweeper is required immediately unless the legal action itself is the only route to recover.

- `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme`: Use `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme` as a late-game recursion and threat engine when the graveyard and mana make its text relevant. Card text check required for exact recursion limits and permissions; choose lines only from visible legal actions and do not assume every multicolor card is castable. It is better in attrition and worse when a single immediate answer is needed.

- `Omnath, Locus of Creation`: Use `Omnath, Locus of Creation` to stabilize life, convert land drops into material, and bridge from midgame to overwhelming resources. Time `Fabled Passage` and unplayed lands around Omnath when the board allows, but do not hold a necessary fetchland earlier if doing so blocks turn-two green or turn-three interaction. Against aggro, Omnath is a life buffer and blocker; against control, it is a must-answer engine if it resolves with landfall still available.

- `Fabled Passage`: Treat `Fabled Passage` as a color-selection spell as much as a land. Fetch for the next two turns of legal action access, not merely for current mana, and prioritize domain for `Leyline Binding` only when the discount changes tactical options. With `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, hold Passage only when current colors already function and the extra landfall value is likely to matter.

- Typed lands and triomes: Use `Indatha Triome`, `Jetmir's Garden`, `Ketria Triome`, `Raugrin Triome`, `Spara's Headquarters`, `Xander's Lounge`, `Zagoth Triome`, `Ziatora's Proving Ground`, shock lands, basics, and Verge lands to assemble green early, white-red or black-green interaction, and eventual five colors. The tactical job of the land base is to make legal actions broad by turn three; do not choose a tapped land that strands `Sylvan Caryatid`, `Ancient Cornucopia`, or cheap removal when an alternative land keeps the same long-term colors.

- `Abrupt Decay`: Use `Abrupt Decay` on cheap permanents that would invalidate the setup turns, especially low-cost threats, engines, or disruptive permanents. It is a premium early answer because it fits under the deck's bigger game plan; do not waste it on a creature that `Lightning Helix` handles better when life gain matters. Against control or combo, save it for visible permanents that constrain `Bring to Light` or payoff turns.

- `Vanishing Verse`: Use `Vanishing Verse` for clean exile on eligible mono-colored permanents and preserve it when exile matters more than damage or destruction. Runtime must verify target legality because multicolored and colorless permanents may not be valid. The common mistake is spending it too early on a minor target, then lacking an answer for a larger mono-colored threat.

- `Maelstrom Pulse`: Use `Maelstrom Pulse` as broad sorcery-speed cleanup for visible nonland permanents, especially duplicates or permanents outside the reach of narrower removal. Respect timing: if the opponent can punish a sorcery-speed turn, consider instant interaction first. It is stronger against token or duplicate-board states and weaker when the permanent must be answered before combat or before an activated ability.

- `Kolaghan's Command`: Use `Kolaghan's Command` as flexible attrition when Forge exposes modes that match the board: removal, discard pressure, artifact interaction, or returning a creature. Card text check required for current exact mode text. It is best when two modes matter and poor when cast for a single low-impact mode just to spend mana.

- `Deafening Clarion`: Use `Deafening Clarion` as the small-creature reset when the board is wider than one-for-one removal can handle. Card text check required for exact mode details and lifelink timing; rely on legal modes only. Avoid sweeping away `Sylvan Caryatid` or other stabilizers unless the net battlefield and life outcome improves survival.

- `Culling Ritual`: Use `Culling Ritual` when many low-cost nonland permanents are visible and the generated mana can be spent through legal follow-up actions. Card text check required for exact mana generation and permanent eligibility. Do not fire it into a board where it destroys your own `Up the Beanstalk`, `Ancient Cornucopia`, or other setup pieces for little opponent impact.

- `Valki, God of Lies`: Use `Valki, God of Lies` as early disruption when legal targets are exposed or as a late expensive face only when Forge presents that legal action and the game supports tapping out. Card text check required for exact transformed or alternate-face behavior. Against unknown hands, do not assume hidden cards; follow visible choices only.

- `Beza, the Bounding Spring`: Use `Beza, the Bounding Spring` as a catch-up stabilizer when behind on life, board, cards, or resources according to visible state. Card text check required for exact trigger conditions. It is best when its legal resolution clearly patches the current deficit and weak when cast into a stable board where a larger engine would matter more.

- `Overlord of the Hauntwoods`: Use `Overlord of the Hauntwoods` as a ramp/value body or late threat only when the visible legal action advances mana or battlefield stability. Card text check required for exact impending, token, and land-search text. Do not assume it fixes every missing color unless Forge exposes the search or resulting mana clearly.

- `Professor Dellian Fel`: Use `Professor Dellian Fel` only from visible legal actions that show its target, activation, or value pattern clearly. Card text check required. Treat it as a tactical support card rather than a default curve play until the rules engine reveals whether it produces immediate value, copies, counters, or another effect.

- `Vibrant Outburst`: Use `Vibrant Outburst` conditionally as a toolbox or interaction piece only when the legal mode and target text are visible. Card text check required. Do not commit it as removal, pump, ramp, or card advantage without engine-confirmed action text.

- `Ultima`: Use `Ultima` only after checking the exact card text and current legal targets. Card text check required. Because the deck has one main-deck copy and one sideboard copy, treat it as a specialized high-impact spell, not as generic removal or a guaranteed `Bring to Light` target unless the engine exposes the appropriate legal line.

## Interaction Priorities

- Priority: Spend `Lightning Helix` first when the visible threat is damage-based and the life swing changes a race, because this deck often needs one extra turn to make `Bring to Light`, `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, or `Leyline Binding` take over. Do not point `Lightning Helix` at a low-impact creature if a larger attack, planeswalker-like permanent, or engine permanent is already visible and demands broader removal.

- Priority: Use `Abrupt Decay` on cheap permanents that stop setup, snowball before turn four, or make later interaction inefficient. Preserve `Abrupt Decay` over `Lightning Helix` when the target is not damage-vulnerable, when life gain is not relevant, or when the permanent constrains casting `Bring to Light`, resolving `Up the Beanstalk`, or keeping `Ancient Cornucopia` mana stable.

- Priority: Use `Vanishing Verse` for exile-dependent mono-colored permanents after Forge confirms target legality. Save it for threats that return, leave value after dying, or dodge damage-based removal; avoid using it on replaceable creatures when `Lightning Helix`, `Abrupt Decay`, or a future sweeper can handle the same board.

- Priority: Use `Leyline Binding` on the opponent's most consequential permanent when domain discount makes it mana-efficient, but do not assume domain is complete unless visible lands support it. Prefer `Leyline Binding` over destruction when the target is difficult to remove permanently, and prefer cheaper removal when the target is small and the game is about double-spelling.

- Priority: Use `Maelstrom Pulse` for duplicate permanents, token-heavy boards, or nonland permanents outside narrower removal. Because it is sorcery-speed, avoid relying on it when a creature must die before combat, a stack decision is pending, or the opponent can gain immediate value before the next main phase.

- Priority: Use `Deafening Clarion` when one-for-one removal loses to board width or when stabilizing requires reducing multiple attackers at once. Card text check required for exact modes and lifelink timing; do not cast it into your own critical board unless the visible result preserves survival or creates a dominant reset.

- Priority: Use `Culling Ritual` only when many low-cost nonland permanents are visible and the legal follow-up actions convert the mana into advantage. Card text check required for exact permanent eligibility and mana output. Avoid destroying your own `Up the Beanstalk`, `Ancient Cornucopia`, or small stabilizers unless the opponent loses more material and the follow-up is clear.

- Priority: Use `Kolaghan's Command` when two visible modes matter, such as removing a small creature plus pressuring hand, interacting with an artifact plus returning a creature, or forcing discard while rebuying a threat. Card text check required for exact modes. Do not cast it for a single minor mode unless passing would waste a critical window.

- Priority: Treat main-deck discard as conditional, not guaranteed. `Valki, God of Lies` and `Kolaghan's Command` may create hand-pressure lines only when legal action text exposes the choice or mode; never infer hidden hand contents beyond revealed cards.

- Priority: After sideboard, counter first with `Dovin's Veto` when the visible noncreature spell would invalidate the board, stop `Bring to Light`, answer `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, resolve a combo piece, or generate more advantage than one removal spell can recover. Bait counter wars with lower-impact spells such as `Up the Beanstalk`, `Ancient Cornucopia`, or removal when the protected payoff is `Bring to Light`, `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme`, or `Sphinx's Revelation`.

- Ignore: Do not spend premium exile or broad answers on low-pressure permanents that do not change the clock, mana, hand size, graveyard access, or ability to cast payoffs. Against aggro, life total and battlefield size matter first; against control, card advantage and protected payoff resolution matter first; against combo, interact with the engine or payoff rather than incidental creatures.

## Combat And Trading Rules

- Rule: Preserve life aggressively before the deck's five-mana turns, because `Bring to Light`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, `Beza, the Bounding Spring`, and large Niv threats usually win long games if the pilot survives. Trade a replaceable creature or spend removal when the next attack would push life into burn, haste, or lethal-combat range.

- Rule: Keep `Sylvan Caryatid` alive as a mana engine unless blocking prevents a decisive life-total collapse. It is often more valuable as five-color access than as a blocker, but against fast creature decks it may need to absorb damage if the hand already has enough lands and interaction.

- Rule: Treat `Omnath, Locus of Creation` as both stabilizer and combat body once legal landfall value is available or already used. Block with it when preserving life unlocks the next payoff turn; avoid exposing it in combat when an unplayed `Fabled Passage` or land drop can create a stronger following turn.

- Rule: Attack with `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme`, `Overlord of the Hauntwoods`, `Beza, the Bounding Spring`, `Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves`, or `Surrak Dragonclaw` only when the crack-back is acceptable or removal has already stabilized the board. These cards usually represent inevitability; do not turn them sideways just to add damage if blocking protects a winning resource lead.

- Rule: Trade down when the opponent is the beatdown and your hand contains card advantage. A creature-for-creature exchange is acceptable if `Up the Beanstalk`, `Bring to Light`, `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, or `Sphinx's Revelation` can rebuild faster than the opponent.

- Rule: Trade up or hold back against control and slow midrange. Small attacks matter less than keeping a resilient threat on board, forcing awkward removal, and protecting future `Bring to Light` or Niv turns.

- Rule: Use `Lightning Helix` before blocks when the life gain changes survival math or removes a blocker for a safe attack. Use it after blocks only when damage assignment or opponent tricks make waiting more valuable according to visible legal actions.

- Rule: Do not rely on unknown protection or combat tricks from `Professor Dellian Fel`, `Vibrant Outburst`, `Ultima`, or `Surrak Dragonclaw` without engine-confirmed legal action text. Card text check required for those tactical roles; choose combat lines from visible power, toughness, keywords, legal targets, and available mana.

- Rule: Avoid attacking with the only relevant blocker under a short clock unless the attack creates lethal pressure, enables a confirmed lifegain swing, or forces a trade that improves survival. This deck wins by stabilizing first, then burying the opponent in multicolor card advantage.

## Selection And Tutor Rules

- Rule: Treat `Bring to Light` as the deck's highest-leverage selection spell, not a generic five-mana play. Use it to find the effect that solves the current visible problem: `Niv-Mizzet Reborn` for cards, `Omnath, Locus of Creation` or `Beza, the Bounding Spring` for stabilizing value, `Deafening Clarion` or `Culling Ritual` for wide boards, `Maelstrom Pulse` for broad sorcery-speed cleanup, and `Valki, God of Lies` only when the legal action text supports that line.

- Rule: Delay `Bring to Light` when waiting one turn clearly adds a missing color, improves domain, or lets the pilot hold interaction through a dangerous opponent turn. Cast it now when the opponent's visible clock, stack threat, or engine makes waiting worse than selecting a slightly smaller answer.

- Rule: Use `Niv-Mizzet Reborn` to reload after the first exchange of resources, especially when the graveyard and battlefield show that both players have already spent removal. Do not cast it into an obvious tempo loss if the hand already contains enough action and the immediate need is life, removal, or mana fixing.

- Rule: Sequence `Up the Beanstalk` before expensive or high-mana-value spells when doing so does not expose survival. Its selection value is strongest when it turns `Leyline Binding`, `Bring to Light`, `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme`, `Overlord of the Hauntwoods`, or large sideboard plays into replacement cards; prioritize survival removal first against lethal or near-lethal boards.

- Rule: Treat `Fabled Passage` as both fixing and timing leverage. Before `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, consider holding it when a future landfall turn is legal and safe; before `Bring to Light`, crack it when the missing basic or domain color changes available searches or removal costs.

- Rule: Use triomes and shock lands to build toward five colors while preserving untapped sources for the current turn's legal actions. Fetch or play `Indatha Triome`, `Ketria Triome`, `Raugrin Triome`, `Spara's Headquarters`, `Xander's Lounge`, `Zagoth Triome`, `Ziatora's Proving Ground`, or `Jetmir's Garden` early when tapped mana is acceptable; choose `Breeding Pool`, `Watery Grave`, `Blood Crypt`, `Overgrown Tomb`, `Sacred Foundry`, `Stomping Ground`, or `Temple Garden` untapped only when the life payment enables a relevant spell.

- Rule: Use `Valki, God of Lies` selection only from engine-exposed legal choices. Never infer hidden hand contents; if the hand is revealed, choose the card that most directly attacks the opponent's next visible plan or removes the card type this hand cannot otherwise answer.

- Rule: Use sideboard selection cards only for their exact job after boarding. `Unmoored Ego` should name a card only when the matchup plan, revealed information, or public pattern identifies a specific engine or payoff; `Sphinx's Revelation` should be saved for a window where mana can be converted into cards without dying; `Rest in Peace` should be deployed when graveyard access matters more than preserving your own graveyard value.

- Rule: Treat `Professor Dellian Fel`, `Vibrant Outburst`, `Ultima`, `Erode`, and `Surrak Dragonclaw` as card-text-sensitive choices. Card text check required; follow Forge legal actions and visible candidate text rather than assuming selection, protection, cascade, or finisher behavior.

## Priority And Stack Rules

- Rule: Hold priority for instant-speed interaction when the opponent commits a must-answer spell, attack, graveyard line, or permanent. `Lightning Helix`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Vanishing Verse`, `Leyline Binding`, and `Kolaghan's Command` should be used in the window where their effect prevents the most damage or value, not merely at the first legal opportunity.

- Rule: Let low-impact spells resolve when the hand contains limited answers and the visible board does not make them dangerous. Save `Abrupt Decay`, `Vanishing Verse`, `Leyline Binding`, and post-board `Dovin's Veto` for threats that change the clock, invalidate your payoff, generate repeated value, or stop `Bring to Light` and Niv turns.

- Rule: Use `Lightning Helix` before combat damage when lifegain or removing an attacker changes survival math. Use it end step when the target is not attacking, mana would otherwise be unused, and keeping shields up through the opponent's main phase was worth more.

- Rule: Use `Leyline Binding` at instant speed when the opponent presents a decisive permanent or when domain makes the answer efficient while leaving mana for another action. Do not fire it into a marginal target if a cheaper answer is legal and the next stack window may require broad exile.

- Rule: Use `Abrupt Decay` and `Vanishing Verse` according to target legality shown by Forge. Prefer `Abrupt Decay` for cheap permanents it can legally answer, and prefer `Vanishing Verse` for mono-colored threats where exile matters; never assume a target is legal from memory alone.

- Rule: Cast `Kolaghan's Command` in response when one mode disrupts the current stack or board and the second mode adds real value. Card text check required for exact modes; avoid spending it for a minor discard or small damage mode if the opponent is about to present a better artifact, creature, or hand-pressure window.

- Rule: Resolve `Up the Beanstalk` and `Ancient Cornucopia` triggers as free value when Forge presents them, but do not let optional sequencing consume mana needed for survival or stack interaction. Card text check required for exact `Ancient Cornucopia` trigger sizing; treat any engine-exposed lifegain as stabilizing support, not as permission to ignore board pressure.

- Rule: Use `Dovin's Veto` after sideboarding on noncreature spells that beat the current plan. Counter sweepers that erase your winning board, card-advantage engines that outscale your hand, combo pieces, opposing permission over `Bring to Light`, or removal aimed at the only stabilizing threat when the exchange is decisive.

- Rule: Use `Sphinx's Revelation` only in a window where tapping mana does not expose lethal, a protected opponent payoff, or a required counterspell exchange. Against control, prefer end step after the opponent passes with no decisive action; against aggro, cast it only if life and cards matter before the next attack.

- Rule: Make optional payments, alternate faces, and unusual stack choices only from visible legal action text. `Valki, God of Lies`, `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme`, `Professor Dellian Fel`, `Vibrant Outburst`, `Ultima`, `Surrak Dragonclaw`, and `Erode` require card text confirmation for non-obvious stack behavior; when uncertain, choose the line that preserves legal interaction and avoids irreversible commitment unless the current board demands action.

## Sideboard Map

- Role: `Dovin's Veto` is the primary post-board noncreature protection and stack-control card. Add it against control, combo, ramp, spell-heavy midrange, sweepers, planeswalker-style engines if visible through legal actions, and any deck where resolving or defending `Bring to Light`, `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, or `Sphinx's Revelation` matters more than creature removal density. It is bad against creature-heavy pressure when the opponent's decisive cards are mostly attackers already on the battlefield.

- Role: `Rest in Peace` is the graveyard-denial card. Add it against graveyard recursion, delve-style resource engines, reanimation, sacrifice loops, escape-style threats, or public graveyard plans where shutting off graveyards is worth weakening your own `Kolaghan's Command` recursion value and any graveyard-sensitive `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme` text. It is bad when the opponent uses the graveyard only incidentally and your hand needs live removal, lifegain, or card draw instead.

- Role: `Kaervek, the Spiteful` pressures small-creature boards and token-like battlefields by shrinking opposing creatures while also changing your own combat math. Add it against go-wide aggro, one-toughness utility creatures, small recursive creatures, and boards where a static shrink effect converts attacks into bad trades. It is bad against large creatures, removal-heavy control, combo with few creatures, or boards where your own `Sylvan Caryatid` and small stabilizers are more important than the shrink effect.

- Role: `Unmoored Ego` is a named-card disruption tool, not a blind value spell. Add it only when the matchup has a specific engine, payoff, or single-card dependency that is known from matchup context, revealed information, or repeated public game actions; choose the name from visible policy context and legal prompt text, not from hidden assumptions. It is bad against redundant midrange decks, fast creature decks, and unknown opponents where spending turn three without affecting the board risks falling behind.

- Role: `Sphinx's Revelation` is a long-game reset button for cards and life. Add it against control, slow midrange, removal-heavy mirrors, and attrition matchups where end-step mana conversion can bury the opponent. It is bad when tapping out is punished by combo, when the opponent kills before the life matters, or when graveyard hate and stack interaction are more urgent.

- Role: `Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves` is a creature-board stabilizer when its legal text produces life, bodies, and fight-style interaction. Add it against creature decks where one stabilizing turn can reverse combat, especially when the opponent relies on medium creatures rather than sweepers. It is bad against noncreature combo, hard control, exile-heavy removal, or boards where fight targets are absent or unfavorable. Card text check required for exact token and fight handling in the engine.

- Role: `Surrak Dragonclaw` is a flash-speed threat and anti-permission finisher. Add it against blue control or midrange where creature spells being countered, instant-speed pressure, or a large end-step body matters. It is bad against removal-heavy creature decks, graveyard engines, and fast aggro where five mana for a threat does not stabilize life total. Card text check required for exact static abilities at runtime.

- Role: `Erode` is a narrow answer slot until confirmed by card text. Add it only when Forge legal text and matchup context show it answers a relevant permanent, artifact, enchantment, land, or engine piece better than main-deck interaction. It is bad when its target class is absent or when `Abrupt Decay`, `Vanishing Verse`, `Leyline Binding`, or `Maelstrom Pulse` already covers the visible threats. Card text check required.

- Role: Sideboard `Ultima` is an extra high-impact spell when the matchup rewards another expensive or decisive effect. Add it in slow matchups where `Up the Beanstalk`, `Bring to Light`, and five-color mana make a larger spell realistic, or when the first `Ultima` is important enough that redundancy matters. It is bad against fast pressure, mana denial, and stack-heavy opponents unless protected by `Dovin's Veto`. Card text check required.

- Role: `Yorion, Sky Nomad` changes deck presentation only if the rules engine exposes a companion or cast-from-sideboard line. Use it as a long-game value card when legal and when blinking permanents such as `Up the Beanstalk`, `Leyline Binding`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, `Overlord of the Hauntwoods`, `Beza, the Bounding Spring`, or `Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves` is actually supported by visible game text. It is bad when the matchup is about immediate survival, graveyard denial, or stack permission. Card text check required for companion availability and blink targets.

Control and spell-combo plan
Role cards: 4 Dovin's Veto; 1 Sphinx's Revelation; 1 Surrak Dragonclaw; 1 Unmoored Ego
Trim roles: 1 Culling Ritual; 1 Deafening Clarion; 2 Abrupt Decay; 1 Maelstrom Pulse; 1 Beza, the Bounding Spring; 1 Lightning Helix

- Plan: Prioritize stack control, threat protection, and a slower card-advantage finish. Keep `Bring to Light`, `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, `Up the Beanstalk`, and enough cheap interaction to avoid dying to incidental creatures. Use `Unmoored Ego` only when the opponent's key card is known from matchup context or revealed information.

Small-creature aggro plan
Role cards: 2 Kaervek, the Spiteful; 1 Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves; 1 Ultima
Trim roles: 1 Valki, God of Lies; 1 Niv-Mizzet, Supreme; 1 Professor Dellian Fel; 1 Vibrant Outburst

- Plan: Raise stabilizing density while reducing slower, text-sensitive, or low-board-impact cards. Keep all `Lightning Helix`, `Leyline Binding`, `Vanishing Verse`, `Deafening Clarion`, `Culling Ritual`, and most cheap removal unless the opponent's creatures dodge a specific answer type. Use `Kaervek, the Spiteful` only when the visible creature sizes make the shrink effect matter.

Graveyard-engine plan
Role cards: 2 Rest in Peace; 1 Unmoored Ego; 1 Dovin's Veto
Trim roles: 1 Kolaghan's Command; 1 Niv-Mizzet, Supreme; 1 Professor Dellian Fel; 1 Vibrant Outburst

- Plan: Deny graveyard access first, then protect the denial or name the payoff that still wins through it. Keep broad removal for battlefield threats because `Rest in Peace` does not answer creatures already in play. Avoid relying on your own graveyard value after `Rest in Peace` is deployed.

Artifact, enchantment, or permanent-engine plan
Role cards: 1 Erode; 1 Dovin's Veto; 1 Ultima
Trim roles: 1 Deafening Clarion; 1 Beza, the Bounding Spring; 1 Lightning Helix

- Plan: Add narrow answers only when the opponent's public game actions prove their target class matters. Preserve `Abrupt Decay`, `Vanishing Verse`, `Maelstrom Pulse`, and `Leyline Binding` as the flexible answer core; do not overload on expensive cards if the opponent is also pressuring life.

Broad archetype rules: Add role cards: `Dovin's Veto` and `Sphinx's Revelation` against slow stack fights; `Kaervek, the Spiteful` and `Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves` against creature pressure; `Rest in Peace` and `Unmoored Ego` against graveyard or single-payoff engines; `Erode` only for confirmed targets; `Surrak Dragonclaw` for permission-heavy games; sideboard `Ultima` for slow high-impact mirrors. Reduce main-deck emphasis: sweepers against low-creature control, spot removal against spell combo, text-sensitive slow cards against fast aggro, and graveyard-dependent value when `Rest in Peace` is central.

Compiler Sideboard Plans

These balanced plans are legal Veles candidates built from the registered sideboard and main deck. Use them as baseline sideboarding options only when the matchup role fits; keep the role guidance above as the strategic source of truth. These explicit repair plans avoid comma-punctuated card names because the current sideboard parser treats commas as card separators.

Legal repair plan 1
Side in: 4 Dovin's Veto; Unmoored Ego; Sphinx's Revelation; Surrak Dragonclaw
Cut: Culling Ritual; Deafening Clarion; 2 Abrupt Decay; Maelstrom Pulse; 2 Lightning Helix

Legal repair plan 2
Side in: 2 Rest in Peace; Unmoored Ego; Dovin's Veto
Cut: Kolaghan's Command; Professor Dellian Fel; Vibrant Outburst; Ultima

Legal repair plan 3
Side in: Erode; 2 Dovin's Veto; Ultima
Cut: Deafening Clarion; 2 Lightning Helix; Culling Ritual

Legal repair plan 4
Side in: 2 Rest in Peace; 2 Dovin's Veto
Cut: 2 Professor Dellian Fel; 2 Lightning Helix

## Matchup Guidance

- Aggro: Stabilize before generating five-color value. Keep hands that produce early untapped interaction, `Sylvan Caryatid`, or `Ancient Cornucopia` plus a realistic path to four or five mana; a hand full of `Bring to Light`, `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, and tapped lands is too slow unless it also has `Lightning Helix` or `Leyline Binding`. Prioritize `Lightning Helix` on early attackers when the life swing buys a full turn, then use `Vanishing Verse`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Maelstrom Pulse`, `Deafening Clarion`, `Culling Ritual`, or `Leyline Binding` according to legal target coverage. Add role cards: `Kaervek, the Spiteful`, `Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves`, and sideboard `Ultima` when the game is about creature sizing and stabilizing board presence; `Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves` and `Ultima` require card text checks for exact tactical handling. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Valki, God of Lies`, `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme`, `Vibrant Outburst`, and slow text-sensitive value cards when life total is under immediate pressure.

- Control: Make land drops, protect value engines, and force action on the opponent's end step when possible. `Up the Beanstalk`, `Ancient Cornucopia`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme`, `Bring to Light`, and `Sphinx's Revelation` are the cards that convert time into inevitability, so avoid running a single expensive spell into open stack interaction unless waiting risks losing tempo or discarding. Add role cards: `Dovin's Veto`, `Sphinx's Revelation`, `Surrak Dragonclaw`, `Unmoored Ego`, and sometimes `Yorion, Sky Nomad` if the rules engine exposes a legal companion or cast-from-sideboard line. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Culling Ritual`, `Deafening Clarion`, `Abrupt Decay`, and some `Lightning Helix` when the opponent presents few creatures.

- Combo: Identify whether the opponent wins through the stack, graveyard, battlefield permanents, or one named payoff before spending disruption. Use `Unmoored Ego` only when a specific card dependency is known from matchup context, revealed information, or repeated public game actions; do not name from hidden assumptions. Hold `Dovin's Veto` for the action that actually advances the combo, not for cantrips or bait unless the visible game state says the bait creates lethal or inevitability. Add role cards: `Dovin's Veto`, `Unmoored Ego`, `Rest in Peace` for graveyard combo, and `Erode` only when card text and visible targets prove relevance. Reduce main-deck emphasis: creature sweepers, sorcery-speed creature removal, and expensive threats that do not disrupt.

- Tempo: Trade mana efficiently and do not let a cheap threat deal unchecked damage while you sculpt. `Abrupt Decay`, `Vanishing Verse`, `Lightning Helix`, and low-cost `Leyline Binding` matter more than raw card count in the first turns because the opponent's plan is to make your five-mana cards clumsy. Sequence tapped lands only when the current legal actions show no punish window; otherwise prefer untapped shock lands or `Fabled Passage` lines that preserve interaction. Add role cards: `Dovin's Veto` against counter-heavy tempo, `Kaervek, the Spiteful` against small creature tempo, and `Surrak Dragonclaw` when flash-speed pressure is better than sorcery-speed threats. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow five-color haymakers that cannot be protected.

- Midrange: Become the bigger midrange deck, not the faster one. Use one-for-one removal only on threats that pressure life total, snowball material, or block your stabilizing attacks; let low-impact creatures sit if answering them delays `Bring to Light`, `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, or `Up the Beanstalk`. Preserve `Maelstrom Pulse` and `Leyline Binding` for permanents that your narrower answers cannot cleanly touch. Add role cards: `Sphinx's Revelation`, sideboard `Ultima`, `Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves`, and sometimes `Yorion, Sky Nomad` for long-board games. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow discard-like or text-sensitive cards if the opponent's threats are redundant.

- Big mana: Apply a clock while disrupting the payoff, because merely killing the first threat may not beat repeated top-end. `Bring to Light` should often find the cleanest answer or highest-pressure threat depending on whether the opponent is already ahead; do not default to value if the visible board is about to become unmanageable. `Unmoored Ego` is strongest when the big-mana deck is organized around one public payoff or engine; `Dovin's Veto` is strongest when the payoff is a noncreature spell. Add role cards: `Dovin's Veto`, `Unmoored Ego`, `Sphinx's Revelation`, `Surrak Dragonclaw`, and sideboard `Ultima` for slow games. Reduce main-deck emphasis: small creature sweepers and removal that misses the actual threats.

- Graveyard: Deploy `Rest in Peace` before the opponent converts the graveyard into cards, mana, creatures, or damage. Do not assume `Rest in Peace` answers threats already on the battlefield; keep `Leyline Binding`, `Vanishing Verse`, `Abrupt Decay`, and `Lightning Helix` available for creatures that escaped the hate window. Avoid planning around your own graveyard recursion or graveyard-adjacent value once `Rest in Peace` is central. Add role cards: `Rest in Peace`, `Unmoored Ego`, and `Dovin's Veto` when the opponent's graveyard payoff is a spell. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Kolaghan's Command` and other graveyard-dependent or low-impact value lines.

- Artifact/enchantment engines: Answer the permanent that unlocks the engine, not the replaceable payoff, when visible actions reveal the engine structure. `Abrupt Decay`, `Vanishing Verse`, `Maelstrom Pulse`, and `Leyline Binding` are the main flexible answers; `Erode` is only a role card after card text and public targets confirm it is better than those answers. Add role cards: `Erode`, `Dovin's Veto`, and sideboard `Ultima` if the matchup is slow enough. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Deafening Clarion`, excess `Lightning Helix`, and creature-only stabilization when the opponent is permanent-combo oriented.

- Go-wide: Preserve sweepers until they reverse the board or stop lethal, but do not die with `Deafening Clarion` or `Culling Ritual` stranded while taking avoidable damage. Use spot removal on lords, pump engines, sacrifice outlets, or creatures that make the sweeper ineffective. `Kaervek, the Spiteful` is a role card only when the visible creature sizes make its shrink effect matter; otherwise rely on actual removal and life gain. Add role cards: `Kaervek, the Spiteful`, `Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves`, and sideboard `Ultima`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow threats that do not affect combat the turn they enter.

- Single-threat decks: Save universal answers for the protected or oversized threat, and avoid spending `Leyline Binding` on minor permanents if `Vanishing Verse`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Lightning Helix`, or `Maelstrom Pulse` can handle them. If the opponent has one known named centerpiece, `Unmoored Ego` can become a proactive answer after the card is known. Add role cards: `Unmoored Ego`, `Dovin's Veto`, `Surrak Dragonclaw` for flash pressure, and `Erode` only for confirmed target classes. Reduce main-deck emphasis: sweepers unless the support creatures are important.

- Burn: Treat life total as a resource with a hard floor, not an abstract buffer for shock lands. Prioritize `Lightning Helix`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, `Beza, the Bounding Spring`, `Ancient Cornucopia`, and low-cost interaction; fetch and shock only when the legal action preserved is worth more than the life paid. Add role cards: `Dovin's Veto` for noncreature burn spells, `Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves` if creature combat matters, and `Sphinx's Revelation` only when the game can reach enough mana. Reduce main-deck emphasis: painful, slow, or non-stabilizing lines.

- Removal-heavy decks: Do not expose the only threat unless it immediately gains value or must contest a clock. Favor `Up the Beanstalk`, `Bring to Light`, `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Sphinx's Revelation`, and `Yorion, Sky Nomad` if legal because they convert removal exchanges into card advantage. Add role cards: `Sphinx's Revelation`, sideboard `Ultima`, `Yorion, Sky Nomad`, and `Surrak Dragonclaw` against permission-backed removal. Reduce main-deck emphasis: small creature-only plans and cards that are poor topdecks after both players trade resources.

## Specific Matchup Notes

- General/archetype-only note: Revealed cards override these assumptions, and Veles must follow legal actions and public information before matchup heuristics. Use these notes as priority shaping for unknown Explorer opponents, then reclassify the opponent once visible cards prove aggro, control, combo, graveyard, artifact/enchantment, big-mana, tempo, or midrange texture.

- Aggro pressure: Stabilize before extracting maximum value. Prioritize `Lightning Helix`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Vanishing Verse`, low-cost `Leyline Binding`, `Deafening Clarion`, `Culling Ritual`, `Ancient Cornucopia`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, and `Beza, the Bounding Spring`; add role cards `Kaervek, the Spiteful` and `Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves` when visible creatures make them relevant. Reduce main-deck emphasis on slow `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme`, and unprotected five-mana lines if life total is already under a short clock.

- Control and spell-heavy opponents: Force them to answer repeated must-answer engines instead of one isolated finisher. Prioritize `Up the Beanstalk`, `Bring to Light`, `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, `Sphinx's Revelation`, `Dovin's Veto`, and `Surrak Dragonclaw`; add `Unmoored Ego` only after public information identifies a narrow engine or payoff. Avoid tapping out for `Bring to Light` when visible open mana and known interaction make waiting safer, unless the current board or hand cannot afford delay.

- Graveyard opponents: Deploy `Rest in Peace` before the opponent converts the graveyard into battlefield, hand, mana, or damage. Keep `Leyline Binding`, `Vanishing Verse`, `Abrupt Decay`, and `Maelstrom Pulse` for permanents already in play, because graveyard hate does not answer resolved pressure. Reduce main-deck emphasis on `Kolaghan's Command` value lines when `Rest in Peace` is central.

- Permanent-engine opponents: Answer the enabler that makes future draws dangerous. Prioritize `Abrupt Decay`, `Vanishing Verse`, `Maelstrom Pulse`, `Leyline Binding`, `Bring to Light` for the correct answer, and `Dovin's Veto` for noncreature engines; use `Erode` only after card text and visible target classes prove it is applicable. `Ultima` requires card text check required before treating it as removal, sweeper, or closer.

- Big-mana and top-end mirrors: Apply pressure while holding the answer to the first decisive payoff. Prioritize `Bring to Light`, `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, `Dovin's Veto`, `Unmoored Ego`, and `Sphinx's Revelation`; do not spend `Leyline Binding` on a minor permanent if a larger visible threat class is likely and no replacement answer is ready.

## Risk Summary

- Mana risk: The deck can lose to its own color sequencing before it loses to card quality. Check every land choice against near-term colors for `Abrupt Decay`, `Lightning Helix`, `Vanishing Verse`, `Up the Beanstalk`, `Ancient Cornucopia`, `Bring to Light`, and `Leyline Binding`; avoid speculative tapped triome lines when an untapped shock or `Fabled Passage` line preserves a legal interaction window.

- Draw risk: Hands with many five-color payoffs and no early stabilizer can look powerful while failing to cast spells on time. Mulligan or sequence conservatively when the hand lacks `Sylvan Caryatid`, `Ancient Cornucopia`, early removal, or a clear land path into `Bring to Light`.

- Matchup risk: Generic value is not enough against linear opponents. Reclassify quickly from revealed cards, then stop taking slow `Niv-Mizzet Reborn` or `Up the Beanstalk` lines if the opponent's visible plan demands `Rest in Peace`, `Dovin's Veto`, `Kaervek, the Spiteful`, `Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves`, or immediate removal instead.

- Over-sideboarding risk: Removing too many main-deck engines can turn the deck into disconnected answers. Preserve enough `Bring to Light`, `Up the Beanstalk`, `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, and mana smoothing to actually win after stabilizing.

- Sweeper/removal risk: Spending `Deafening Clarion`, `Culling Ritual`, `Maelstrom Pulse`, or `Leyline Binding` too early can leave no answer to the real threat. Use spot removal first when it preserves life and keeps the broader answer for a visible or likely larger board.

- Closer risk: Waiting for perfect value can give control, combo, or big mana too many draw steps. Commit `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme`, `Surrak Dragonclaw`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, or `Bring to Light` pressure when the opponent is constrained or waiting exposes you to a worse top-end exchange.

- Interaction risk: Passing with the wrong answer up is not the same as holding interaction. Match `Dovin's Veto`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Vanishing Verse`, `Lightning Helix`, `Kolaghan's Command`, and `Leyline Binding` to the actual visible threat type before choosing a hold-up line.

- Sequencing risk: `Bring to Light` is a commitment gate, not an automatic value button. Before casting it, verify mana, likely target class, open interaction, battlefield pressure, and whether a cheaper legal action already solves the immediate problem.

## Test Feedback Checklist

- Result driver: Identify the first turn where the game materially turned, then tie that turn to a visible cause such as mana access, missed interaction, resolved engine, unanswered threat, failed `Bring to Light` target class, or delayed closer.

- Mulligans: Record whether each opening hand had a castable early plan with lands, colors, and at least one of `Sylvan Caryatid`, `Ancient Cornucopia`, `Lightning Helix`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Vanishing Verse`, `Up the Beanstalk`, or a realistic `Leyline Binding` line. Note any keep that depended on drawing a missing color.

- Mana: Track every game where `Fabled Passage`, triomes, shock lands, Verge lands, or singleton basics caused a spell to be late. Name the stranded spell, especially `Bring to Light`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme`, `Deafening Clarion`, `Culling Ritual`, or double-spell interaction turns.

- Velocity: Ask whether `Up the Beanstalk`, `Ancient Cornucopia`, `Sylvan Caryatid`, and land sequencing let the deck spend all mana from turns two through six. Flag games where the deck had powerful cards but no legal action that affected the board in time.

- Engine performance: Record whether `Up the Beanstalk` drew cards before the opponent forced a crisis, whether `Bring to Light` found the needed class of card, and whether `Niv-Mizzet Reborn` or `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme` resolved while the pilot was stable enough to use the cards.

- Removal fit: Check whether `Lightning Helix`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Vanishing Verse`, `Leyline Binding`, `Maelstrom Pulse`, `Kolaghan's Command`, `Deafening Clarion`, and `Culling Ritual` lined up with visible threats. Mark any loss where the answer was held for a larger threat but the smaller threat dealt decisive damage.

- Sideboard impact: Compare post-board games to Game 1 by asking which sideboard card actually changed legal decisions. Track `Dovin's Veto`, `Rest in Peace`, `Kaervek, the Spiteful`, `Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves`, `Sphinx's Revelation`, `Surrak Dragonclaw`, `Unmoored Ego`, `Erode`, sideboard `Ultima`, and `Yorion, Sky Nomad` only when they were drawn, tutored, cast, or clearly missed.

- Closing: Record whether the deck stabilized but failed to end the game. Name the available closer among `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, `Overlord of the Hauntwoods`, `Professor Dellian Fel`, `Beza, the Bounding Spring`, `Valki, God of Lies`, `Surrak Dragonclaw`, `Sphinx's Revelation`, or `Bring to Light`.

- Role accuracy: Ask whether the pilot correctly became control against aggro, pressure against control or combo, and value-midrange against removal decks. Flag turns where the chosen line followed generic value instead of the visible role.

- Mistakes: Record any legal-action miss, premature tap-out, wrong land fetched, poor shock-land life payment, overprotected answer, unnecessary `Leyline Binding`, weak `Bring to Light` timing, or failure to hold `Dovin's Veto` when public information made a noncreature payoff likely.

- Stranded cards: List every card stranded for three or more turns and why: missing color, missing target, too slow, opponent invalidated it, card text check required, or another legal action was always higher priority.

- Overperformers and underperformers: Separate actual performance from draw variance. A card overperformed only if it changed the game after being legal to cast; a card underperformed only if it was drawn or accessible and still failed the visible situation.

## First Tuning Questions

- Main-deck quantity: Should `Niv-Mizzet Reborn`, `Niv-Mizzet, Supreme`, `Omnath, Locus of Creation`, `Professor Dellian Fel`, `Overlord of the Hauntwoods`, `Beza, the Bounding Spring`, or `Valki, God of Lies` change quantity if games repeatedly stabilize but fail to close, or if opening hands clog on expensive threats?

- Mana base: Should the land mix change if `Bring to Light`, `Vanishing Verse`, `Lightning Helix`, `Abrupt Decay`, or `Omnath, Locus of Creation` are frequently delayed by tapped lands or missing colors? Track whether failures come from Verge lands, triomes, shock-land life pressure, or too few fetchable basics.

- Aggro plan: Should the deck devote more space to early stabilization if losses happen before turn five despite drawing interaction? Compare the actual impact of `Lightning Helix`, `Vanishing Verse`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Deafening Clarion`, `Culling Ritual`, `Kaervek, the Spiteful`, and `Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves`.

- Control plan: Should the sideboard lean harder on permission and inevitability if `Bring to Light` and top-end threats are repeatedly countered or answered? Measure `Dovin's Veto`, `Surrak Dragonclaw`, `Sphinx's Revelation`, `Yorion, Sky Nomad`, and sideboard `Ultima` by resolved-game impact.

- Graveyard plan: Should `Rest in Peace` remain two copies if graveyard decks are common but it weakens `Kolaghan's Command` value? Record whether graveyard wins happened before `Rest in Peace` was legal, after it was removed, or because another permanent type mattered more.

- Toolbox tension: Is `Bring to Light` finding the right one-ofs often enough, or are singleton bullets too narrow? Review every `Bring to Light` cast and ask whether the ideal target was in the deck, legal, and strategically decisive.

- Sideboard slots: Are `Erode`, `Unmoored Ego`, `Sphinx's Revelation`, `Surrak Dragonclaw`, `Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves`, sideboard `Ultima`, and `Yorion, Sky Nomad` earning their slots in actual matchups? Keep `Card text check required` for `Erode` and `Ultima` until their runtime text and legal target classes are verified.

- Role conflict: Is the deck overloading on slow value when it needs survival, or on answers when it needs a clock? Use losses to classify whether the core problem is speed, mana, inevitability, narrow answers, or commitment timing.

## Veles Tactical Policy

### Policy: Opening Hand Keep Gate
- Priority: High
- Decision families: mulligan
- Cards: Sylvan Caryatid; Ancient Cornucopia; Lightning Helix; Abrupt Decay; Vanishing Verse; Leyline Binding; Up the Beanstalk; Bring to Light
- Phase windows: pregame mulligan decisions.
- Runtime cues: prompt:mulligan; action:keep; action:take a mulligan
- Use when: opening hand and visible legal mulligan actions are present.
- Avoid when: no hand contents are visible or the rules engine has already moved past mulligans.
- Instructions: Keep hands with lands plus early colored access and at least one stabilizer, ramp, or engine card; mulligan hands that cannot affect mana, board, or cards before turn three unless the hand has a clear five-color recovery path.
- Pilot skill floor: medium.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Companion Declaration
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: pregame
- Cards: Yorion, Sky Nomad
- Phase windows: pregame companion prompt.
- Runtime cues: action:reveal Yorion, Sky Nomad; prompt:companion
- Use when: Yorion, Sky Nomad is a legal companion action and the registered main deck visibly satisfies the engine's companion condition.
- Avoid when: the engine does not offer the companion action.
- Instructions: Declare Yorion, Sky Nomad when legal because this deck is built at 80 cards and gains a late resource sink from companion access.
- Pilot skill floor: low.
- No-API allowed: yes
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: First Mana Permanent Setup
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: mana; priority
- Cards: Sylvan Caryatid; Ancient Cornucopia
- Phase windows: turns two through four main phases.
- Runtime cues: action:cast Sylvan Caryatid; action:cast Ancient Cornucopia
- Use when: a legal early mana permanent action exists and the current turn has no urgent lethal or survival interaction requirement.
- Avoid when: visible attackers, stack objects, or life total pressure require immediate Lightning Helix, Abrupt Decay, Vanishing Verse, Leyline Binding, Deafening Clarion, or Culling Ritual.
- Instructions: Prefer establishing colored mana before expensive toolbox spells; pick the line that unlocks Bring to Light, Omnath, Locus of Creation, Niv-Mizzet Reborn, or multiple interaction spells fastest.
- Pilot skill floor: medium.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Land And Fetch Sequencing
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: mana
- Cards: Fabled Passage; Indatha Triome; Jetmir's Garden; Ketria Triome; Raugrin Triome; Spara's Headquarters; Xander's Lounge; Zagoth Triome; Ziatora's Proving Ground; Breeding Pool; Blood Crypt; Overgrown Tomb; Sacred Foundry; Stomping Ground; Temple Garden; Watery Grave
- Phase windows: land play, fetch, and tapped-land decisions.
- Runtime cues: action:play; action:activate Fabled Passage; action:search
- Use when: choosing a land play or Fabled Passage search from visible legal actions.
- Avoid when: a required spell this turn would become illegal from choosing a tapped or wrong-color land.
- Instructions: Sequence lands to reach domain and five colors while preserving life against pressure; fetch basics when they cast the next spell, and fetch shock or triome colors when Bring to Light, Leyline Binding, Omnath, Locus of Creation, or Niv-Mizzet Reborn depends on them.
- Pilot skill floor: high.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Up The Beanstalk Timing
- Priority: Low
- Decision families: priority
- Cards: Up the Beanstalk; Leyline Binding; Bring to Light; Niv-Mizzet Reborn; Niv-Mizzet, Supreme; Overlord of the Hauntwoods; Beza, the Bounding Spring
- Phase windows: main phases before committing expensive spells.
- Runtime cues: action:cast Up the Beanstalk
- Use when: Up the Beanstalk is legal and the pilot can still survive the opponent's visible next attack or stack pressure.
- Avoid when: spending mana on Up the Beanstalk leaves a visible threat unanswered or blocks a necessary stabilizer this turn.
- Instructions: Deploy Up the Beanstalk before five-mana spells when tempo permits, but do not take a setup turn that loses to visible pressure.
- Pilot skill floor: medium.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Bring To Light Commitment Gate
- Priority: High
- Decision families: priority; selection
- Cards: Bring to Light; Valki, God of Lies; Deafening Clarion; Culling Ritual; Maelstrom Pulse; Kolaghan's Command; Omnath, Locus of Creation; Beza, the Bounding Spring; Ultima
- Phase windows: main phases with five-color or converged mana available.
- Runtime cues: action:cast Bring to Light; prompt:search; prompt:choose card
- Use when: Bring to Light is legal or resolving and the visible state asks for a toolbox selection.
- Avoid when: open mana, known disruption, or a better immediate answer makes tapping out too risky.
- Instructions: Treat Bring to Light as a decisive commitment; select the card class that solves the visible problem first, then favor card advantage or closing pressure. Card text check required for Ultima before relying on it as an answer.
- Pilot skill floor: high.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Niv Commitment Gate
- Priority: High
- Decision families: priority
- Cards: Niv-Mizzet Reborn; Niv-Mizzet, Supreme; Surrak Dragonclaw; Dovin's Veto
- Phase windows: main phases and counter-war stack windows.
- Runtime cues: action:cast Niv-Mizzet Reborn; action:cast Niv-Mizzet, Supreme; action:cast Surrak Dragonclaw
- Use when: a large threat is legal and the pilot must decide whether to tap out or protect a haymaker.
- Avoid when: visible board pressure requires removal first or known public information shows the threat will not matter this turn cycle.
- Instructions: Commit Niv-Mizzet Reborn or Niv-Mizzet, Supreme when the game is stable enough to use the cards gained; use Surrak Dragonclaw post-board to force creature threats through permission when legal and relevant.
- Pilot skill floor: high.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Stabilize Before Value
- Priority: High
- Decision families: interaction; priority
- Cards: Lightning Helix; Abrupt Decay; Vanishing Verse; Leyline Binding; Deafening Clarion; Culling Ritual; Maelstrom Pulse; Beza, the Bounding Spring; Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves; Kaervek, the Spiteful
- Phase windows: opponent combat, end step, and own main phase.
- Runtime cues: action:cast Lightning Helix; action:cast Abrupt Decay; action:cast Vanishing Verse; action:cast Leyline Binding; action:cast Deafening Clarion; action:cast Culling Ritual
- Use when: visible creatures, permanents, or life pressure threaten lethal or a short clock.
- Avoid when: the target class is illegal or a higher-priority stack object must be answered immediately.
- Instructions: Spend removal to preserve life and time; use sweepers when multiple visible permanents justify the turn, and prefer single-target answers when they preserve your own board or mana engine.
- Pilot skill floor: high.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Removal Target Selection
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: interaction; selection
- Cards: Lightning Helix; Abrupt Decay; Vanishing Verse; Leyline Binding; Maelstrom Pulse; Kolaghan's Command; Erode; Ultima
- Phase windows: any legal target-selection prompt.
- Runtime cues: prompt:target; action:target
- Use when: the engine asks for target selection for a removal or interaction spell.
- Avoid when: target text, protection, ward, tax, or permanent type is uncertain and the legal list does not expose enough information.
- Instructions: Choose targets by visible threat, legality, and mana efficiency; preserve broad answers for permanent types the current hand otherwise cannot answer. Card text check required for Erode and Ultima.
- Pilot skill floor: high.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Exact Leyline Binding Target After Selection
- Priority: Low
- Decision families: interaction
- Cards: Leyline Binding
- Phase windows: Leyline Binding target prompt.
- Runtime cues: action:target
- Use when: exactly one legal target action is visible for Leyline Binding.
- Avoid when: two or more legal target actions are visible.
- Instructions: Submit the only visible Leyline Binding target action.
- Pilot skill floor: low.
- No-API allowed: yes
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Permission Spending Gate
- Priority: High
- Decision families: interaction; priority
- Cards: Dovin's Veto
- Phase windows: stack windows after sideboarding.
- Runtime cues: action:cast Dovin's Veto; prompt:priority
- Use when: Dovin's Veto is legal against a visible noncreature spell on the stack.
- Avoid when: the stack object is low impact, redundant, or the pilot must save Dovin's Veto for a known public payoff.
- Instructions: Spend Dovin's Veto on spells that would invalidate the current plan, resolve an opposing engine, stop Bring to Light or Niv pressure, or prevent a decisive answer to your committed threat.
- Pilot skill floor: high.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Combat Pressure With Large Bodies
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: combat
- Cards: Niv-Mizzet Reborn; Niv-Mizzet, Supreme; Omnath, Locus of Creation; Overlord of the Hauntwoods; Beza, the Bounding Spring; Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves; Surrak Dragonclaw; Yorion, Sky Nomad
- Phase windows: declare attackers and declare blockers.
- Runtime cues: prompt:declare attackers; prompt:declare blockers; action:attack; action:block
- Use when: combat choices are offered and visible board state contains creatures.
- Avoid when: attacks expose a needed blocker under a short clock or blocks lose a key engine creature without stabilizing life.
- Instructions: Attack once stabilized or when forcing a control/combo opponent to answer; block conservatively with value creatures when life total matters more than future card advantage.
- Pilot skill floor: medium.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Single Legal No-Attack
- Priority: Low
- Decision families: combat
- Cards: none
- Phase windows: declare attackers.
- Runtime cues: action:attack with no creatures; action:no attackers
- Use when: exactly one legal action indicates no attackers or attacking with no creatures.
- Avoid when: any legal action attacks with one or more visible creatures.
- Instructions: Submit the only visible no-attack action.
- Pilot skill floor: low.
- No-API allowed: yes
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Revealed Hand And Name Decisions
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: selection; interaction
- Cards: Valki, God of Lies; Unmoored Ego
- Phase windows: resolving discard, reveal, or name-selection prompts.
- Runtime cues: prompt:choose card; prompt:choose name; action:choose
- Use when: the engine exposes a revealed hand, library-name prompt, or legal named-card actions.
- Avoid when: the target card identity is hidden or the legal action text does not expose the named object.
- Instructions: With Valki, God of Lies, take the revealed creature that best changes the visible next turns; with Unmoored Ego, name the opponent card that public information identifies as the matchup's central engine or kill condition.
- Pilot skill floor: high.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Graveyard Lock Commitment
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: priority; sideboard
- Cards: Rest in Peace; Kolaghan's Command
- Phase windows: post-board main phases and graveyard-trigger windows.
- Runtime cues: action:cast Rest in Peace
- Use when: Rest in Peace is legal and opponent graveyard use is visible, known from matchup context, or represented by public cards.
- Avoid when: immediate battlefield pressure requires removal first or Rest in Peace shuts off a necessary Kolaghan's Command line more than it harms the opponent.
- Instructions: Cast Rest in Peace early against graveyard-dependent plans, but respect the current board before spending a full turn on a hate permanent.
- Pilot skill floor: medium.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Sideboard Plan Selection
- Priority: High
- Decision families: sideboard
- Cards: Dovin's Veto; Rest in Peace; Kaervek, the Spiteful; Sphinx's Revelation; Surrak Dragonclaw; Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves; Unmoored Ego; Erode; Ultima; Yorion, Sky Nomad
- Phase windows: between games after sideboard prompt.
- Runtime cues: prompt:sideboard; action:submit sideboard plan
- Use when: the match is between games and legal sideboard changes are requested.
- Avoid when: the proposed plan violates registered counts or removes the deck's five-color mana/value core without matchup proof.
- Instructions: Add permission and inevitability for control, graveyard hate for graveyard engines, sweepers or life-gain bodies for creature decks, and narrow bullets only when the opponent's public archetype gives them targets. Card text check required for Erode and Ultima.
- Pilot skill floor: high.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Sphinx's Revelation Late-Game Gate
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: priority; mana
- Cards: Sphinx's Revelation; Dovin's Veto
- Phase windows: opponent end step, own main phase, and stack windows after sideboarding.
- Runtime cues: action:cast Sphinx's Revelation; prompt:pay mana
- Use when: Sphinx's Revelation is legal and the game has slowed enough that life and cards matter more than immediate board deployment.
- Avoid when: tapping mana prevents Dovin's Veto or removal from answering a visible decisive spell or attack.
- Instructions: Use Sphinx's Revelation as a late stabilizer and reload, not as a panic play that ignores lethal board pressure.
- Pilot skill floor: high.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Mandatory Exact Mana Payment
- Priority: Low
- Decision families: mana
- Cards: none
- Phase windows: mana payment prompts.
- Runtime cues: action:pay; action:activate mana ability
- Use when: exactly one legal payment or mana-ability action is visible.
- Avoid when: two or more legal payment actions are visible.
- Instructions: Submit the only visible payment action.
- Pilot skill floor: low.
- No-API allowed: yes
- Light-model allowed: yes
