# Strategy Specifications
## Deck Name And Archetype
Dina, Soul Steeper - PDH (1931) is a format-valid Pauper Commander Golgari lifegain-drain, ramp, and graveyard-value deck with command-zone access to Dina, Soul Steeper. The active validation contract passes for 100 main-deck cards, singleton construction outside basic lands, 14 Forest, 15 Swamp, and a registered 10-card Veles policy sideboard; do not apply 60-card constructed size heuristics to this command-zone format.

Treat the deck as a rogue-hybrid attrition engine rather than a stock format staple shell. Its current archetype/mechanic tags are ramp and graveyard, but runtime role selection should be more specific: stabilize with life buffer and blockers, convert lifegain into drain through Dina, Soul Steeper and backup payoffs, then recycle key creatures or value cards with graveyard tools when the rules engine exposes legal actions.

Respect the registered inventory when naming card-specific plans. Main-deck tactical anchors include Dina, Soul Steeper; Essence Warden; Jaddi Offshoot; Kazandu Nectarpot; Grazing Gladehart; Pristine Talisman; Radiant Fountain; Daggerdrome Imp; Farbog Revenant; Ghastly Gloomhunter; Vault Skirge; Vampire Envoy; Marauding Blight-Priest; Epicure of Blood; Falkenrath Noble; Creeping Bloodsucker; Dogged Pursuit; Ill-Gotten Inheritance; Lampad of Death's Vigil; Deathgreeter; Serrated Scorpion; Viscera Seer; Unearth; Urborg Repossession; Grapple with Death; Sign in Blood; Night's Whisper; Rampant Growth; Golgari Signet; Llanowar Elves; Environmental Sciences; Bake into a Pie; Breathe Your Last; Feed the Swarm; Nature's Claim; Return to Nature; and Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher. Sideboard cards are Appetite for the Unnatural; Fog; Pull from the Grave; Dutiful Return; Quiet Disrepair; Natural End; Crypt Rats; Weather the Storm; Snuff Out; and Nihil Spellbomb.

Use legal actions and visible board state before any archetype rule. The pilot must not assume that lifegain triggers, death triggers, split-card modes, lesson access, graveyard recursion, commander recast timing, alternative costs, or sacrifice outlets are legal unless Forge/Veles exposes the action or the visible rules context clearly supports it.

Prioritize mana realism because the deck is color-sensitive despite a broad green-black shell. Early green enables Llanowar Elves, Rampant Growth, Essence Warden, Jaddi Offshoot, Kazandu Nectarpot, Grazing Gladehart, Grapple with Death, Nature's Claim, Return to Nature, Pest Summoning, Send in the Pest, and Witherbloom Pledgemage, while early black enables Dina, Soul Steeper, Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Feed the Swarm, Breathe Your Last, Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher, Unearth, Viscera Seer, and several drain creatures. Command Tower, Jungle Hollow, Path of Ancestry, Golgari Rot Farm, Evolving Wilds, Riveteers Overlook, Bojuka Bog, Radiant Fountain, Adventurer's Inn, Forest, Swamp, Golgari Signet, Rampant Growth, Environmental Sciences, and Pristine Talisman should be sequenced from visible tapped status and current legal land-play or mana actions, not from assumed perfect fixing.

Classify the default role as stabilizing inevitability unless visible pressure demands emergency control or a cautious race. The deck can win slowly through repeated drain, but it can lose after stabilizing if Dina, Soul Steeper or backup finishers are absent, removed, or delayed; the pilot should track whether the missing half is lifegain, drain payoff, mana, recursion, removal, or closing power.

Treat unfamiliar or low-context cards as conditional tactical pieces until card text is verified. Card text check required for Adventurer's Inn, Bogwater Lumaret, Agate-Blade Assassin, Drossclaw, Chrome Companion, Rooftop Assassin, Mukotai Ambusher, Shopkeeper's Bane, Sanguine Syphoner, Pest Mascot, Social Climber, Moldering Karok, Stonefare Crocodile, and Witherbloom Pledgemage before relying on specific non-obvious abilities, keywords, or trigger timing.

Assume opponent information is unknown at guide load time. Do not infer hidden cards, protection, removal, graveyard hate, commander identity, combat tricks, or exact clock math beyond public zones, revealed cards, matchup metadata, visible legal actions, and logged game history; if opponent or metagame examples are later needed in policy card fields, off-list names must be prefixed with `opponent:` or kept in prose outside `Cards:`.

## Thesis
Dina, Soul Steeper - PDH (1931) assembles a lifegain-drain attrition board where small life events become damage, death triggers punish trades, and recursion lets the pilot keep rebuilding after removal. The ideal game produces early mana or life-buffer material, lands Dina, Soul Steeper when she can convert triggers immediately or safely pressure over multiple turns, then stacks backup payoffs such as Marauding Blight-Priest, Epicure of Blood, Falkenrath Noble, Creeping Bloodsucker, Dogged Pursuit, Ill-Gotten Inheritance, Lampad of Death's Vigil, and Blood Researcher so the opponent is forced to answer several engines instead of one commander.

Win by turning time into inevitability, not by racing blindly. Prioritize both colors, early development, and one active engine half: lifegain from Essence Warden, Jaddi Offshoot, Kazandu Nectarpot, Grazing Gladehart, Pristine Talisman, Radiant Fountain, Daggerdrome Imp, Farbog Revenant, Ghastly Gloomhunter, Vault Skirge, Vampire Envoy, Vampire Neonate, or Sanguine Syphoner, plus drain from Dina, Soul Steeper or a backup payoff. If only one half is visible, spend early turns finding, protecting, or recurring the missing half rather than deploying low-impact bodies into bad trades.

Do not play this deck as a pure aggro deck, a pure life-gain pillow deck, or a tap-out midrange pile with no closing plan. Small attackers such as Banehound, Night Market Lookout, Thornbow Archer, Serrated Scorpion, Daggerdrome Imp, Farbog Revenant, Ghastly Gloomhunter, Vault Skirge, and Vampire Envoy should attack only when the visible race, lifelink swing, death trigger, or no-block board makes the exchange favorable; otherwise they are life-buffer, sacrifice, or defensive resources.

Prioritize survival before inevitability when visible pressure is high. Removal such as Bake into a Pie, Breathe Your Last, Feed the Swarm, Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher, Nature's Claim, Return to Nature, and sideboard Snuff Out, Crypt Rats, Appetite for the Unnatural, Natural End, Quiet Disrepair, or Nihil Spellbomb should answer the permanent or graveyard resource that changes the clock, not the first legal target by habit.

## Role Package
- Threats: Use Dina, Soul Steeper as the commander-pressure center, but treat Blood Researcher, Epicure of Blood, Falkenrath Noble, Creeping Bloodsucker, Dogged Pursuit, Ill-Gotten Inheritance, Specter of the Fens, Lampad of Death's Vigil, and repeated lifelink attackers as the closing package when Dina is taxed, removed, or unsafe to cast.

- Payoffs: Convert every legal lifegain trigger into damage when Dina, Soul Steeper, Marauding Blight-Priest, Epicure of Blood, or Blood Researcher is active; convert creature deaths into reach when Deathgreeter, Falkenrath Noble, Serrated Scorpion, Viscera Seer, Lampad of Death's Vigil, Infuse with Vitality, Unearth, or Urborg Repossession can turn a trade into life, drain, selection, or material.

- Engines: Build repeating engines from landfall lifegain with Jaddi Offshoot, Kazandu Nectarpot, Grazing Gladehart, Evolving Wilds, Riveteers Overlook, Golgari Rot Farm, Radiant Fountain, and normal land drops; build creature-entry and death engines with Essence Warden, Deathgreeter, Falkenrath Noble, Serrated Scorpion, Viscera Seer, and Lampad of Death's Vigil. Trespasser's Curse is an opponent-action tax engine when its legal attachment target and timing are exposed.

- Velocity: Use Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Environmental Sciences, Grapple with Death, Filigree Familiar, Urborg Repossession, Unearth, Pull from the Grave, and Dutiful Return to find missing engine halves or rebuild after trades. Do not spend life on Sign in Blood or Night's Whisper into a visible lethal clock unless the legal alternatives fail to stabilize.

- Interaction: Reserve Bake into a Pie, Breathe Your Last, Feed the Swarm, Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher, Nature's Claim, Return to Nature, Infuse with Vitality, Undercity Uprising, and sideboard removal or artifact/enchantment answers for clock-changing permanents, engine-breaking hate, or blockers that stop a decisive drain race. Card text check required for Undercity Uprising before relying on exact combat or removal timing.

- Protection: Protect the engine by sequencing Dina, Soul Steeper after immediate lifegain when possible, keeping expendable creatures for blocks, and using Infuse with Vitality only when the visible trade, removal target, or death-trigger value justifies the card. Fog and Weather the Storm are sideboard survival tools against visible burst damage or wide combat pressure.

- Recursion: Treat Unearth, Urborg Repossession, Grapple with Death, Pull from the Grave, and Dutiful Return as ways to recover Dina support pieces, drain payoffs, or removal bodies, not as automatic value clicks. Choose recursion targets from visible graveyards and current legal actions; do not assume a creature is eligible unless Veles exposes it.

- Mana: Stabilize color access with Command Tower, Jungle Hollow, Path of Ancestry, Golgari Rot Farm, Evolving Wilds, Riveteers Overlook, Bojuka Bog, Radiant Fountain, Forest, Swamp, Llanowar Elves, Rampant Growth, Golgari Signet, Environmental Sciences, Pristine Talisman, and Adventurer's Inn. Card text check required for Adventurer's Inn before relying on non-mana utility.

- Sideboard Modules: Add Appetite for the Unnatural, Natural End, Quiet Disrepair, Nature's Claim overlap, and Return to Nature overlap against visible artifact or enchantment reliance; add Nihil Spellbomb against graveyard dependence; add Crypt Rats, Fog, Weather the Storm, and Snuff Out against fast creature pressure; add Pull from the Grave and Dutiful Return when attrition and removal exchanges matter more than speed.

## Primary Win Conditions
- Drain engine first: Assemble Dina, Soul Steeper with repeatable lifegain from Essence Warden, Jaddi Offshoot, Kazandu Nectarpot, Grazing Gladehart, Pristine Talisman, Radiant Fountain, Daggerdrome Imp, Farbog Revenant, Ghastly Gloomhunter, Vault Skirge, Vampire Envoy, Vampire Neonate, or Sanguine Syphoner. Execute by creating legal life events while preserving enough blockers and mana to avoid losing the race; prioritize this line when Dina, Soul Steeper can trigger immediately or when commander recast tax is still manageable. Disruption to respect is visible removal, commander tax, and board pressure that makes tap-out lifegain too slow.

- Redundant payoff pressure: Pair lifegain sources with Marauding Blight-Priest, Epicure of Blood, Blood Researcher, Creeping Bloodsucker, Dogged Pursuit, Ill-Gotten Inheritance, or Lampad of Death's Vigil when Dina, Soul Steeper is absent, removed, too expensive, or unsafe. Execute by stacking multiple drain payoffs before spending one-shot lifegain where possible, then convert each Pristine Talisman activation, landfall trigger, lifelink attack, or incidental life gain into damage. Prioritize this line against opponents with repeated commander answers or when visible legal actions show a stable board but no clean combat attack.

- Death-value attrition: Use Deathgreeter, Falkenrath Noble, Serrated Scorpion, Viscera Seer, Lampad of Death's Vigil, Infuse with Vitality, Unearth, and Urborg Repossession to make trades, sacrifices, and removal exchanges advance the clock. Execute by blocking profitably, sacrificing creatures only when the legal action produces visible drain, scry, recursion, or survival value, and recurring the creature or payoff that best restores the engine. Prioritize this line when the opponent is attacking with creatures, when removal has traded down both boards, or when lifegain sources are present but direct drain payoffs are missing.

- Stabilize-then-close: Use Bake into a Pie, Breathe Your Last, Feed the Swarm, Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher, Nature's Claim, Return to Nature, and sideboard Snuff Out, Crypt Rats, Appetite for the Unnatural, Natural End, Quiet Disrepair, or Nihil Spellbomb to remove the permanent or graveyard resource that changes the clock, then pivot into repeated drain. Prioritize this line when behind on board or life; do not spend a removal spell on a low-impact target if a visible larger threat or engine piece is setting up lethal pressure.

## Secondary Win Conditions
- Lifelink combat pressure: Attack with Daggerdrome Imp, Farbog Revenant, Ghastly Gloomhunter, Vault Skirge, Banehound, Vampire Envoy, or Sanguine Syphoner when the visible attack gains life, triggers drain, races favorably, or cannot be punished by blocks. Hold these creatures back when their block preserves more life than their attack gains, especially without Dina, Soul Steeper or Marauding Blight-Priest active.

- Incremental burn-drain: Close stalled boards with Dogged Pursuit, Ill-Gotten Inheritance, Creeping Bloodsucker, Vampire Neonate, Duskwielder, Specter of the Fens, Epicure of Blood, and Lampad of Death's Vigil if legal actions expose repeatable life-loss or drain activations. Card text check required for any unclear activation timing or cost; choose this line when combat is locked and mana is available after survival obligations.

- Card-flow attrition: Use Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Environmental Sciences, Grapple with Death, Filigree Familiar, Unearth, Urborg Repossession, Pull from the Grave, and Dutiful Return to rebuild after trades or find missing engine halves. Prioritize velocity when life total is buffered or blockers are stable; avoid life-payment draw into a visible lethal attack unless the draw is the only legal path to removal or a stabilizer.

- Board-pressure fallback: Use Blood Researcher, Moldering Karok, Stonefare Crocodile, Witherbloom Pledgemage, Pest Mascot, Pest Summoning, Send in the Pest, Agate-Blade Assassin, Rooftop Assassin, Mukotai Ambusher, Chrome Companion, Drossclaw, Bogwater Lumaret, Shopkeeper's Bane, and Adventurer's Inn only according to exposed legal actions and visible text. Card text check required for unclear combat, token, dungeon, disguise, or utility functions; these cards are fallback pressure or stabilizers, not reasons to abandon the drain plan.

## Emergency Lines
- Behind on life: Stop racing and spend legal actions on blockers, lifegain, and clock-changing removal. Favor Pristine Talisman, Radiant Fountain, lifelink creatures, Bake into a Pie, Breathe Your Last, Feed the Swarm, Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher, Fog, Weather the Storm, Snuff Out, or Crypt Rats when they visibly prevent lethal or buy a full turn cycle.

- Behind on board: Trade creatures aggressively only when Deathgreeter, Falkenrath Noble, Serrated Scorpion, Infuse with Vitality, Viscera Seer, Lampad of Death's Vigil, Unearth, or Urborg Repossession converts the exchange into life, drain, selection, or material. Do not sacrifice the last meaningful blocker for minor drain unless the legal action is lethal or prevents a worse loss.

- Behind on cards: Choose Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Environmental Sciences, Grapple with Death, Filigree Familiar, Pull from the Grave, Dutiful Return, Unearth, or Urborg Repossession when the board can absorb the tempo cost. If the opponent has visible pressure, prefer recursion or removal that affects the board over pure draw.

- Behind on mana: Prioritize Command Tower, Jungle Hollow, Path of Ancestry, Golgari Rot Farm, Evolving Wilds, Riveteers Overlook, Forest, Swamp, Llanowar Elves, Rampant Growth, Golgari Signet, Environmental Sciences, and Pristine Talisman to restore both colors. Delay double-spell turns and commander recasts until legal mana actions prove they can be paid without skipping necessary interaction.

- Engine removed: Rebuild from the graveyard or switch payoff families instead of recasting into the same failure. If Dina, Soul Steeper is taxed or answered, lean on Marauding Blight-Priest, Epicure of Blood, Falkenrath Noble, Creeping Bloodsucker, Dogged Pursuit, Ill-Gotten Inheritance, Lampad of Death's Vigil, and Blood Researcher; if graveyard recursion is blocked, win through board presence, lifelink attacks, and repeatable drain permanents already on the battlefield.

## Resource Model
- Life is a spendable buffer only when it produces a stronger position than preserving blocks. Spend life on Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Snuff Out, Vault Skirge, or painful race decisions only when visible attacks do not make that payment lethal and the action finds removal, engine material, or a faster drain clock.

- Life gain is a damage engine when Dina, Soul Steeper, Marauding Blight-Priest, Epicure of Blood, Blood Researcher, or other visible payoff text converts it into pressure. Save one-shot life events from Radiant Fountain, Environmental Sciences, Bake into a Pie, Breathe Your Last, Natural End, Appetite for the Unnatural, and lifelink attacks when waiting can add a payoff first without risking lethal damage.

- Hand size is best converted into engine density, not raw spell count. Favor keeping or drawing toward one lifegain source, one drain payoff, and one stabilizing action; avoid spending Sign in Blood or Night's Whisper into an already full hand if mana or board tempo prevents deploying the cards before the opponent attacks again.

- Mana is the deck's choke point because early green enables setup while black enables Dina, Soul Steeper, draw, removal, and drain payoffs. Treat two-color access as a resource separate from land count, and avoid lines that leave Feed the Swarm, Breathe Your Last, Sign in Blood, or commander recast stranded behind Forest-heavy mana.

- Board presence converts into survival first and drain second. Small creatures such as Essence Warden, Deathgreeter, Serrated Scorpion, Banehound, Daggerdrome Imp, Farbog Revenant, Ghastly Gloomhunter, Vault Skirge, Vampire Envoy, and Thornbow Archer should attack only when the visible race improves; otherwise they are blockers, lifegain triggers, sacrifice material, or death-value pieces.

- Graveyard resources matter after trades, removal, or self-mill selection. Use Grapple with Death, Unearth, Urborg Repossession, Pull from the Grave, and Dutiful Return to restore the missing half of the engine, not merely the largest creature, unless the board needs size immediately.

- Exile is mostly a one-way resource unless a legal action says otherwise. Respect Bojuka Bog and Nihil Spellbomb as graveyard-control tools, and do not assume exiled creatures, lessons, or split-card halves are reusable without explicit rules-engine legal actions.

- Lands are both mana and triggers. Evolving Wilds, Riveteers Overlook, Golgari Rot Farm, Radiant Fountain, Jungle Hollow, Bojuka Bog, Path of Ancestry, Command Tower, Forest, and Swamp should be sequenced to balance color access, landfall lifegain from Jaddi Offshoot, Kazandu Nectarpot, and Grazing Gladehart, and the need to hold up Nature's Claim, Return to Nature, or Snuff Out.

- Sacrifice fodder becomes damage or selection only with visible payoffs. Use Viscera Seer, Lampad of Death's Vigil, Dina, Soul Steeper, Falkenrath Noble, Deathgreeter, Serrated Scorpion, Infuse with Vitality, and recursive spells to turn dying creatures into scry, drain, life, or material; do not sacrifice the last stabilizing blocker for minor value unless it prevents lethal or creates lethal.

- Tempo is gained by spending mana on the action that changes the next combat step. Against pressure, removal, blockers, Pristine Talisman, Radiant Fountain, lifelink creatures, Fog, Weather the Storm, Crypt Rats, and Snuff Out outrank slow permanents such as Dogged Pursuit or Ill-Gotten Inheritance unless those permanents immediately change survival math.

- Information should come from visible state, public logs, revealed cards, and legal action text. Use Card text check required for unclear functions on Adventurer's Inn, Bogwater Lumaret, Drossclaw, Chrome Companion, Rooftop Assassin, Mukotai Ambusher, Shopkeeper's Bane, and any other card whose runtime text is not exposed.

- Sideboard bullets convert narrow matchups into survival, recursion, artifact/enchantment control, graveyard control, or sweepers. Add role cards by matchup pressure: Fog and Weather the Storm for burst combat or spell-chain survival, Crypt Rats and Snuff Out for creature pressure, Nihil Spellbomb for graveyard reliance, Appetite for the Unnatural, Natural End, and Quiet Disrepair for artifacts or enchantments, and Pull from the Grave or Dutiful Return for attrition.

## Mana Guide
- Keep mana bases that produce both colors or can credibly find the missing color by turn two or three. Command Tower, Jungle Hollow, Path of Ancestry, Golgari Rot Farm, Evolving Wilds, Riveteers Overlook, Rampant Growth, Golgari Signet, Environmental Sciences, and Llanowar Elves make one-color openers more acceptable; Forest-heavy or Swamp-heavy hands without these fixers are high-risk.

- Prioritize early green when the hand contains Llanowar Elves, Rampant Growth, Essence Warden, Jaddi Offshoot, Kazandu Nectarpot, Grazing Gladehart, Grapple with Death, Nature's Claim, Return to Nature, Pest Summoning, Send in the Pest, or Witherbloom Pledgemage. Prioritize early black when the hand contains Dina, Soul Steeper, Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Feed the Swarm, Breathe Your Last, Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher, Unearth, Viscera Seer, Marauding Blight-Priest, or removal-heavy survival lines.

- Sequence tapped lands before urgent spell turns unless a landfall or color need changes the math. Jungle Hollow, Path of Ancestry, Golgari Rot Farm, Bojuka Bog, Evolving Wilds, and Riveteers Overlook often cost immediate tempo, so play them on turns where the lost mana does not delay Dina, Soul Steeper, Rampant Growth, Golgari Signet, Feed the Swarm, or a necessary blocker.

- Use Golgari Rot Farm as fixing and land-count recovery, not as free tempo. Prefer returning Radiant Fountain, Bojuka Bog, Evolving Wilds, Riveteers Overlook, Jungle Hollow, or a basic land when replay value, color balance, or landfall triggers matter; avoid playing it when bouncing the only untapped source prevents an available removal spell or blocker.

- Play lands before draw when landfall lifegain or immediate mana is needed. With Jaddi Offshoot, Kazandu Nectarpot, Grazing Gladehart, Dina, Soul Steeper, Marauding Blight-Priest, Epicure of Blood, or Blood Researcher visible, a land before Sign in Blood or Night's Whisper can create life or drain immediately; delay the land until after draw only when choosing the land drop from new information matters more than the known trigger.

- Preserve black mana for interaction and commander access when under pressure. Do not spend the only black source on low-impact activations from Vampire Neonate, Duskwielder, Specter of the Fens, or Lampad of Death's Vigil if Feed the Swarm, Breathe Your Last, Bake into a Pie, Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher, Unearth, or Dina, Soul Steeper recast is the action that changes the next turn.

- Preserve green mana for artifact, enchantment, and graveyard-adjacent answers when visible targets matter. Nature's Claim, Return to Nature, Appetite for the Unnatural, Natural End, Quiet Disrepair, Grapple with Death, and Rampant Growth should not be locked out by unnecessary two-spell sequencing when their legal actions answer the opponent's current engine or restore the deck's missing engine piece.

- Treat Pristine Talisman and Golgari Signet as development with tactical timing. Cast them early when the board is not collapsing, but use Pristine Talisman activations as lifegain events when Dina, Soul Steeper or other payoffs are visible and the mana is not needed for removal, Weather the Storm, Snuff Out alternatives, or a postcombat action.

- Avoid double-spell plans until the rules engine proves exact mana. Before sequencing Sign in Blood plus removal, lifegain plus payoff, or commander plus protection-through-blocking, check visible untapped sources, floating mana, tapped lands, commander tax, and legal actions rather than assuming generic mana can cover colored requirements.

## Mulligan Guide
- Strong keep: Keep two-to-four land hands that produce both colors by turn two and contain an early play plus either card velocity or a lifegain/drain half. Examples include Command Tower plus Forest with Dina, Soul Steeper and Essence Warden; Jungle Hollow plus Swamp with Night's Whisper and Feed the Swarm; or Forest plus Evolving Wilds with Rampant Growth and Marauding Blight-Priest.

- Strong keep: Keep one-color openers only when the hand has credible fixing and a first action. Forest-heavy hands with Rampant Growth, Golgari Signet, Environmental Sciences, Evolving Wilds, Riveteers Overlook, Command Tower, Jungle Hollow, Path of Ancestry, or Golgari Rot Farm can keep if they also cast a real early spell; Swamp-heavy hands need the same fixer quality before trusting green spells.

- Medium keep: Keep slower engine hands when the opponent is not visibly fast and the hand has lands, Dina, Soul Steeper or another payoff, and a stabilizer. A hand with Pristine Talisman, Kazandu Nectarpot, Sign in Blood, and mixed lands is acceptable if it can reach turn three without missing color; a hand with Dogged Pursuit or Ill-Gotten Inheritance but no early blocker, ramp, draw, or removal is not a strong keep.

- Risky keep: Keep one-land hands only with an untapped source, a legal one-mana play, and a fixing or draw path already present. Forest plus Llanowar Elves plus Rampant Growth is plausible on the play if the rest of the hand functions; Swamp plus Banehound plus Sign in Blood is still risky because missing land two can strand the deck.

- Automatic ship: Ship hands with no lands, one land and no legal early play, five or more lands with no card velocity or payoff, or hands that cannot cast either color's relevant spells by turn three. Ship Forest-heavy hands full of Dina, Soul Steeper, Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Feed the Swarm, and Breathe Your Last without black access or fixing; ship Swamp-heavy hands full of Rampant Growth, Essence Warden, Jaddi Offshoot, Kazandu Nectarpot, and Return to Nature without green access or fixing.

- Matchup-dependent keep: Keep removal-heavy hands against visible creature pressure, even if the engine is incomplete. Feed the Swarm, Breathe Your Last, Bake into a Pie, Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher, Snuff Out after sideboard, and Crypt Rats after sideboard can justify a slower engine hand if mana supports them.

- Play/draw adjustment: On the play, value Llanowar Elves, Rampant Growth, Golgari Signet, Jaddi Offshoot, Essence Warden, and Dina, Soul Steeper because tempo can snowball. On the draw, value Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Environmental Sciences, removal, and lifelink blockers because recovering from the opponent's first board development matters more.

- Trap hand: Do not keep lifegain-only hands that lack a payoff, draw, removal, or mana development. Essence Warden, Jaddi Offshoot, Kazandu Nectarpot, Grazing Gladehart, Radiant Fountain, Daggerdrome Imp, and Vault Skirge need Dina, Soul Steeper, Marauding Blight-Priest, Epicure of Blood, Blood Researcher, or card flow to become pressure.

## Turn Arc
- Turn 1: Prefer untapped color development into Llanowar Elves, Essence Warden, Jaddi Offshoot, Banehound, Vault Skirge if legal, Viscera Seer, Night Market Lookout, Thornbow Archer, or tapped fixing when no one-mana play matters. Use Evolving Wilds or Riveteers Overlook early when they fix a missing color or set up landfall; hold Bojuka Bog only when opponent graveyard timing matters and another land covers the curve.

- Turn 2: Prefer Dina, Soul Steeper when a lifegain trigger is already available or likely next turn, and prefer Rampant Growth, Golgari Signet, Environmental Sciences, Sign in Blood, or Night's Whisper when the hand needs mana or material. Deviate into Feed the Swarm, Nature's Claim, Return to Nature, or Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher only when the visible permanent or creature changes the next combat or engine race.

- Turn 3: Build the first real engine layer before spending mana on low-impact attacks. Preferred plays are Marauding Blight-Priest, Kazandu Nectarpot, Grazing Gladehart, Pristine Talisman, Filigree Familiar, Vampire Envoy, Daggerdrome Imp, Farbog Revenant, Ghastly Gloomhunter, or a draw-plus-one-drop sequence if legal; hold small lifelink creatures back when blocking preserves more life than attacking gains.

- Turns 4-5: Stabilize first, then convert life events into damage. Use Breathe Your Last, Bake into a Pie, Feed the Swarm, Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher, Return to Nature, Nature's Claim, Snuff Out, or Crypt Rats after sideboard on the permanent that changes the clock; deploy Epicure of Blood, Falkenrath Noble, Creeping Bloodsucker, Dogged Pursuit, Ill-Gotten Inheritance, Lampad of Death's Vigil, or Blood Researcher when survival is not immediately at risk.

- Turns 4-5 deviation: Use Grapple with Death, Unearth, Urborg Repossession, Pull from the Grave, or Dutiful Return to recover the missing engine half, not simply the largest graveyard card. Recover Dina, Soul Steeper pressure, lifegain density, removal, or Falkenrath Noble-style death value according to the visible board and legal targets.

- Late game: Prioritize repeatable drain, commander access, and safe sacrifice loops over chip combat. Use Pristine Talisman, landfall triggers, lifelink bodies, Vampire Neonate, Duskwielder, Specter of the Fens, Lampad of Death's Vigil, Dogged Pursuit, Ill-Gotten Inheritance, and Creeping Bloodsucker as closing tools when legal actions support them; preserve blockers unless an attack creates lethal or removes a planeswalker-like threat shown by the rules engine.

- Late game caution: Treat unclear cards as conditional until legal text appears. Card text check required for Adventurer's Inn, Bogwater Lumaret, Drossclaw, Chrome Companion, Rooftop Assassin, Mukotai Ambusher, Shopkeeper's Bane, Send in the Pest, Pest Mascot, and Pest Summoning before relying on exact mode, token, combat, or zone outcomes.

## Card Roles
- Commander payoff: Dina, Soul Steeper is the default engine commander and should be cast when at least one lifegain trigger, sacrifice body, or near-term protected drain sequence is available. Do not expose Dina, Soul Steeper into open removal just to spend mana if the hand already has Marauding Blight-Priest, Epicure of Blood, Dogged Pursuit, Ill-Gotten Inheritance, or Creeping Bloodsucker carrying pressure.

- Lifegain engines: Essence Warden, Jaddi Offshoot, Kazandu Nectarpot, Grazing Gladehart, Radiant Fountain, Jungle Hollow, Pristine Talisman, Social Climber, Filigree Familiar, Moldering Karok, Sanguine Syphoner, Daggerdrome Imp, Farbog Revenant, Ghastly Gloomhunter, Vault Skirge, Vampire Envoy, and Vampire Neonate create the life events that turn Dina, Soul Steeper and other drain payoffs into a clock. Sequence landfall pieces before Evolving Wilds, Riveteers Overlook, Rampant Growth, or Golgari Rot Farm when legal; do not spend a fetch land before Jaddi Offshoot, Kazandu Nectarpot, or Grazing Gladehart unless color fixing is more urgent.

- Drain payoffs: Marauding Blight-Priest, Epicure of Blood, Dogged Pursuit, Ill-Gotten Inheritance, Creeping Bloodsucker, Falkenrath Noble, Lampad of Death's Vigil, Serrated Scorpion, Duskwielder, Specter of the Fens, Thornbow Archer, Night Market Lookout, Trespasser's Curse, and Blood Researcher are the closing package. Cast cheap payoffs before repeatable lifegain when survival allows; hold expensive payoffs when the opponent has a faster visible clock and removal or blockers are still needed.

- Sacrifice package: Viscera Seer, Lampad of Death's Vigil, Dina, Soul Steeper, Falkenrath Noble, Deathgreeter, Serrated Scorpion, Infuse with Vitality, Unearth, and Urborg Repossession let the deck convert dying creatures into selection, drain, life, or recursion. Sacrifice only when it prevents exile, blanks opposing removal, produces lethal or survival math, enables a recursion line, or turns a creature that would die anyway into extra value.

- Removal package: Feed the Swarm answers dangerous creatures or enchantments, Breathe Your Last and Bake into a Pie are creature removal with lifegain relevance, Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher pressures creature-light boards, Return to Nature and Nature's Claim answer artifacts, enchantments, or graveyard problems when legal. Spend removal on the permanent that changes the next combat, disables the engine, or prevents closing; do not fire Nature's Claim on a low-impact target if the life gain helps the opponent more than the removed permanent matters.

- Card velocity and recovery: Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Environmental Sciences, Grapple with Death, Unearth, Urborg Repossession, Pull from the Grave after sideboard, and Dutiful Return after sideboard keep the deck from becoming lifegain without payoff. Use draw before committing narrow threats when the hand lacks lands, a drain payoff, or removal; use recursion for the missing engine half rather than the largest card in the graveyard.

- Mana development: Llanowar Elves, Rampant Growth, Golgari Signet, Environmental Sciences, Command Tower, Path of Ancestry, Jungle Hollow, Golgari Rot Farm, Evolving Wilds, Riveteers Overlook, Radiant Fountain, Bojuka Bog, Forest, and Swamp determine whether the deck can double-spell. Prioritize black access for Dina, Soul Steeper, Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Feed the Swarm, Breathe Your Last, and late drain activations; prioritize green access for Rampant Growth, Essence Warden, Jaddi Offshoot, Kazandu Nectarpot, Grapple with Death, Return to Nature, and Nature's Claim.

- Combat bodies: Banehound, Daggerdrome Imp, Farbog Revenant, Ghastly Gloomhunter, Vault Skirge, Vampire Envoy, Moldering Karok, Stonefare Crocodile, Witherbloom Pledgemage, Blood Researcher, Pest Mascot, and Filigree Familiar are primarily stabilizers until drain math makes attacks meaningful. Preserve lifelink and drain bodies as blockers against creature pressure; attack only when the legal attack improves a race, triggers a known effect, or leaves enough defense.

- Pressure one-drops: Night Market Lookout, Thornbow Archer, Serrated Scorpion, Banehound, Viscera Seer, Essence Warden, Jaddi Offshoot, and Llanowar Elves define the first turn. Choose Llanowar Elves or fixing when mana is fragile; choose Essence Warden or Jaddi Offshoot when the hand already has lands and payoffs; choose Banehound or Serrated Scorpion when early combat or sacrifice pressure matters.

- Conditional and unclear role cards: Adventurer's Inn, Bogwater Lumaret, Agate-Blade Assassin, Drossclaw, Chrome Companion, Rooftop Assassin, Mukotai Ambusher, Shopkeeper's Bane, Send in the Pest, Pest Summoning, and Undercity Uprising require visible rules text or legal action confirmation before tactical reliance. Card text check required; when the engine exposes legal actions, treat these as role-fillers for removal, bodies, tokens, combat, or value only according to the exact prompt.

- Graveyard and hate timing: Bojuka Bog is a land first only when color or land count demands it, but a timed graveyard exile effect when the opponent's public graveyard enables recursion or combo. Grapple with Death, Unearth, Urborg Repossession, and post-board Pull from the Grave or Dutiful Return become stronger after trading, sacrifice, or removal exchanges; do not spend them before the graveyard contains a card that changes the current plan.

- Sideboard role awareness: Appetite for the Unnatural, Natural End, Quiet Disrepair, Nihil Spellbomb, Snuff Out, Crypt Rats, Fog, Weather the Storm, Pull from the Grave, and Dutiful Return should be evaluated as narrow upgrades, not generic power cards. Bring them in only when the opponent's visible plan makes the role better than a main-deck engine piece, and avoid diluting lifegain-plus-drain density unless survival, graveyard control, or artifact/enchantment pressure requires it.

## Interaction Priorities
- Remove clock-changing permanents first with Feed the Swarm, Breathe Your Last, Bake into a Pie, Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher, Snuff Out after sideboard, or Crypt Rats after sideboard. Spend removal on the creature, commander, enchantment, or board piece that changes the next combat, blanks Dina, Soul Steeper pressure, or prevents the deck from stabilizing through lifegain.

- Answer engines before bodies when the opponent is not presenting lethal pressure. Use Return to Nature, Nature's Claim, Appetite for the Unnatural, Natural End, or Quiet Disrepair on artifact/enchantment engines that generate cards, mana, repeated damage, or graveyard access; ignore low-impact permanents that do not affect the clock or engine unless they block the only legal drain line.

- Exile graveyards only when public information shows the graveyard matters. Bojuka Bog, Return to Nature, and Nihil Spellbomb should hit recursion, escape-style pressure, reanimation, or graveyard-combo setup; do not spend graveyard hate just because cards are present if the opponent's visible battlefield is the real threat.

- Preserve premium removal for evasive, commander, or snowball threats against aggressive decks. Against wide boards, value Crypt Rats, Fog, Weather the Storm, Breathe Your Last, Bake into a Pie, and lifelink blockers higher than slow drains such as Dogged Pursuit or Ill-Gotten Inheritance.

- Bait removal with redundant payoffs before exposing Dina, Soul Steeper when the hand already has lifegain online. Marauding Blight-Priest, Epicure of Blood, Creeping Bloodsucker, Dogged Pursuit, Ill-Gotten Inheritance, or Blood Researcher can draw interaction first if commander recast tax would be costly.

- Protect engine density by not overcommitting all payoffs into visible sweepers or sacrifice pressure. If one of Dina, Soul Steeper, Marauding Blight-Priest, Epicure of Blood, Falkenrath Noble, Dogged Pursuit, or Ill-Gotten Inheritance already converts lifegain into damage, keep the next payoff until it improves lethal math or replaces a removed engine.

- Use sacrifice as protection only for concrete value. Viscera Seer, Lampad of Death's Vigil, and Dina, Soul Steeper should sacrifice a creature in response to removal, exile risk, lethal damage, or a known death trigger with Deathgreeter, Falkenrath Noble, Serrated Scorpion, Infuse with Vitality, Unearth, or Urborg Repossession available; do not sacrifice stabilizing blockers for speculative selection.

- Do not wait for counters, discard, or bounce because the registered list has no counterspell, hand-discard spell, or bounce spell. Treat opponent stack actions through legal priority windows only; respond with removal, sacrifice, lifegain, artifact/enchantment interaction, graveyard hate, or pass according to visible legal actions.

## Combat And Trading Rules
- Preserve blockers when life total is below 12 or the opponent has a short visible clock. Daggerdrome Imp, Farbog Revenant, Ghastly Gloomhunter, Vault Skirge, Vampire Envoy, Banehound, Serrated Scorpion, Deathgreeter, and Filigree Familiar usually matter more as stabilizers than as small attackers until drain payoffs create a race advantage.

- Attack with lifelink creatures when the life swing changes the race and blocks remain acceptable. Daggerdrome Imp, Farbog Revenant, Ghastly Gloomhunter, Vault Skirge, and Banehound can pressure safely through evasion or lifelink, but should stay back against crack-back lethal, known combat tricks, or when they are the only body protecting Dina, Soul Steeper.

- Trade small creatures when death triggers or recursion turn the exchange favorable. Serrated Scorpion, Filigree Familiar, Deathgreeter, Falkenrath Noble, Infuse with Vitality, Unearth, Urborg Repossession, Pull from the Grave, and Dutiful Return make trades attractive when the trade reduces pressure or reloads a missing engine half.

- Do not trade away unique engine pieces without a payoff. Essence Warden, Jaddi Offshoot, Kazandu Nectarpot, Grazing Gladehart, Dina, Soul Steeper, Marauding Blight-Priest, and Viscera Seer should survive unless the trade prevents lethal damage, forces lethal drain, or recursion is already legal and useful.

- Block early against aggro and race cautiously against control. Against creature pressure, prioritize life-total buffer, Crypt Rats math, Fog timing, Weather the Storm turns, and lifelink blocks; against slow control, chip in with Night Market Lookout, Thornbow Archer, evasive lifelinkers, and drain creatures while holding extra payoffs against removal.

- Keep large bodies defensive until they unlock lethal or stabilize the board. Moldering Karok, Stonefare Crocodile, Witherbloom Pledgemage, Blood Researcher, Pest Mascot, Drossclaw, Chrome Companion, Rooftop Assassin, Mukotai Ambusher, Bogwater Lumaret, and Shopkeeper's Bane require visible card text or legal action confirmation before relying on special combat roles.

- Use Undercity Uprising, Send in the Pest, Pest Summoning, and Infuse with Vitality only according to engine-exposed legal actions. Card text check required for exact combat, token, or fight outcomes; choose these lines when the visible result protects life total, converts a dying body, or removes the permanent that changes combat.

- Shift to closing attacks when repeated drain has put the opponent under 8 life or legal actions show a lethal sequence. At that point, attacks from evasive lifelinkers, Thornbow Archer, Night Market Lookout, Specter of the Fens, Duskwielder, Lampad of Death's Vigil, and drain payoffs can outrank preserving every blocker, but only if the crack-back is not lethal.

## Selection And Tutor Rules
- Treat the deck as pseudo-selection, not a true tutor deck. Rampant Growth, Evolving Wilds, Riveteers Overlook, Environmental Sciences, Grapple with Death, Unearth, Urborg Repossession, Pull from the Grave, Dutiful Return, Viscera Seer, Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, and Path of Ancestry improve access, but none should be assumed to find any exact card unless the legal action text says so.

- Prioritize missing colors before engine luxury. Use Rampant Growth, Evolving Wilds, Riveteers Overlook, and Environmental Sciences to fix whichever of black or green is absent, with black favored when Dina, Soul Steeper, Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Feed the Swarm, Breathe Your Last, Bake into a Pie, or drain payoffs are waiting.

- Time land drops around landfall lifegain when legal and not costing mana efficiency. If Jaddi Offshoot, Kazandu Nectarpot, Grazing Gladehart, Dina, Soul Steeper, Marauding Blight-Priest, Epicure of Blood, Blood Researcher, or Creeping Bloodsucker is already visible, prefer playing Radiant Fountain, Jungle Hollow, Riveteers Overlook, Evolving Wilds, or Golgari Rot Farm when the resulting lifegain trigger advances stabilization or lethal math.

- Do not delay the first land drop for small future value. Holding Evolving Wilds, Riveteers Overlook, Radiant Fountain, or Jungle Hollow is acceptable only when the current turn still spends mana efficiently and the delayed lifegain or landfall trigger clearly matters next turn.

- Use Sign in Blood and Night's Whisper to find the missing half of the deck. Draw when the hand has lifegain but no payoff, payoff but no lifegain, removal but no pressure, or mana but no action; avoid paying life when visible combat damage or burn-like pressure makes the life loss a survival risk.

- Use Sign in Blood as a finishing target only when legal actions show opponent targeting and the opponent's visible life total makes the damage lethal or strategically decisive. Do not aim it at the opponent just to reduce life if the deck still needs cards to stabilize.

- Use Viscera Seer scry as a conversion tool, not as free card selection. Sacrifice Serrated Scorpion, Filigree Familiar, creatures already dying, or recursive targets when the scry, death trigger, and drain/lifegain triggers improve the board; do not sacrifice the only stabilizing blocker or unique engine creature for speculative digging.

- Bottom redundant slow engines when under pressure. With scry from Viscera Seer, Path of Ancestry, or other engine-exposed prompts, keep lands until both colors and four mana are secure, keep removal against a short clock, and bottom extra Dogged Pursuit, Ill-Gotten Inheritance, Epicure of Blood, or expensive recursion when the battlefield needs immediate survival.

- Keep recursion targets tied to a visible plan. Unearth, Urborg Repossession, Pull from the Grave, and Dutiful Return should return Dina, Soul Steeper support pieces, lifegain creatures, drain payoffs, Viscera Seer, Falkenrath Noble, or removal-relevant bodies only when those cards are legal targets and matter more than developing a new board piece.

- Treat Grapple with Death, Adventurer's Inn, Bogwater Lumaret, Drossclaw, Chrome Companion, Rooftop Assassin, Mukotai Ambusher, Shopkeeper's Bane, and Send in the Pest as card-text-dependent. Card text check required before relying on selection, graveyard, combat, or token outcomes from these cards.

## Priority And Stack Rules
- Pass priority when no legal action changes the current exchange. The deck should not spend removal, sacrifice, lifegain, graveyard hate, or artifact/enchantment interaction just because priority is offered; use the visible stack, combat state, and legal targets to decide whether action changes survival, engine assembly, or lethal math.

- Respond to removal on key creatures with sacrifice or protection only for concrete value. If Dina, Soul Steeper, Marauding Blight-Priest, Essence Warden, Kazandu Nectarpot, Viscera Seer, Falkenrath Noble, or a lifelink stabilizer is being removed, consider Infuse with Vitality, Viscera Seer, Lampad of Death's Vigil, or Dina, Soul Steeper sacrifice lines when legal and when the result preserves value or creates drain.

- Let low-impact opponent spells resolve when interaction is needed for a clock-changing permanent. Save Feed the Swarm, Nature's Claim, Return to Nature, Bake into a Pie, Breathe Your Last, Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher, Snuff Out, Appetite for the Unnatural, Natural End, or Crypt Rats for permanents that alter combat, engine access, graveyard recursion, or lethal pressure.

- Use instant-speed graveyard hate only when public information shows a live graveyard line. Bojuka Bog is a land-timing decision, but Return to Nature and Nihil Spellbomb should be held for visible recursion targets, graveyard combo steps, or a spell/ability on the stack that depends on graveyard contents.

- Sequence optional lifegain and drain triggers according to legal prompts. If Dina, Soul Steeper, Marauding Blight-Priest, Epicure of Blood, Creeping Bloodsucker, Blood Researcher, Falkenrath Noble, Dogged Pursuit, Ill-Gotten Inheritance, Deathgreeter, or Lampad of Death's Vigil creates choices, accept lines that increase survival or shorten the clock, and decline only when the payment or sacrifice cost would lose a key resource.

- Hold Fog and Weather the Storm for swing turns after sideboard. Fog should prevent lethal or a major combat collapse, while Weather the Storm should be cast after enough visible spells have resolved or been cast to produce meaningful life, unless immediate life gain is required to survive.

- Use Crypt Rats with exact life-total math after sideboard. Activate only when the engine exposes a legal amount and the resulting damage does not kill this player before lifegain, death triggers, or board clearing creates a better state.

- Treat combat trick windows as real decision points. Before damage, consider Infuse with Vitality, sacrifice outlets, removal, Fog, Weather the Storm, Nature's Claim, or Return to Nature only if the legal action changes blocker survival, kills an attacker, saves life total, or converts a dying creature into drain or recursion value.

## Sideboard Map
- Sideboard rule: choose sideboard cards for the opponent's visible plan, not for generic power. Dina, Soul Steeper wants its lifegain-drain core intact, so reactive cards should enter only when they answer a specific pressure pattern, permanent type, graveyard line, combat burst, or attrition exchange shown by matchup metadata or public game state.

- Appetite for the Unnatural: add against artifact or enchantment engines where the life gain matters alongside removal. It is good when a visible permanent is changing combat, mana, card flow, graveyard access, or damage output; it is bad when the opponent presents mostly creatures and the only targets are low-impact incidental permanents. Its role changes from emergency answer to stabilizing life swing when Dina, Soul Steeper, Marauding Blight-Priest, Epicure of Blood, Blood Researcher, or Creeping Bloodsucker can convert the gained life into pressure.

- Fog: add against go-wide combat, commander-damage pressure, pump turns, or board states where one combat step can erase the life buffer. It is bad against slow control, noncombat combo, or decks attacking with one small creature while winning through cards or graveyards. Its role changes from survival spell to time-buying finisher when the deck already has Dogged Pursuit, Ill-Gotten Inheritance, Creeping Bloodsucker, Epicure of Blood, or Dina, Soul Steeper draining over turns.

- Pull from the Grave: add against removal-heavy, discard-heavy, or attrition matchups where recurring a key creature creates a better engine than drawing a random card. It is bad when graveyards are being exiled often, when the opponent's clock demands immediate removal, or when the deck has not traded creatures yet. Its role changes from value recursion to finisher access if Dina, Soul Steeper, Falkenrath Noble, Marauding Blight-Priest, Epicure of Blood, Viscera Seer, or a stabilizing lifelinker is already in the graveyard and legal to return.

- Dutiful Return: add for slow exchanges where two creature returns can rebuild after sweepers, sacrifice chains, or one-for-one removal. It is bad against fast pressure, graveyard denial, and hands that already contain too many expensive non-board actions. Its role changes from attrition reload to combo-support recovery when it can recover both a lifegain source and a drain payoff after the first engine is broken.

- Quiet Disrepair: add against artifact or enchantment permanents that can be neutralized over time or when repeated life gain matters more than immediate destruction. It is bad when the threatening permanent must be answered before the next turn cycle or when the opponent has few legal targets. Its role changes from removal-adjacent utility to lifegain engine if the rules engine shows an upkeep life-gain mode and Dina, Soul Steeper or another drain payoff is active; Card text check required before assuming exact timing or modes.

- Natural End: add against artifact and enchantment decks where the gained life can stabilize or trigger drain while removing a real permanent. It is bad against creature-only pressure and when cheaper Nature's Claim or Return to Nature already covers the visible target class. Its role changes from redundant permanent answer to life-swing interaction when the opponent's clock is tight but an artifact or enchantment target is public.

- Crypt Rats: add against small-creature boards, token pressure, utility-creature engines, and creature swarms that the main deck cannot block profitably. It is bad when this player has the lower life total, when the board is dominated by large creatures outside a safe activation range, or when wiping friendly drain pieces would remove the only clock. Its role changes from sweeper to finisher only when visible life totals and legal activation amounts show that damage plus lifegain/death triggers will not kill this player first.

- Weather the Storm: add against spell-chain turns, burn-like pressure, tempo decks trying to race, and matchups where one large life swing buys multiple drain turns. It is bad against slow board stalls, low-spell-count creature decks, or when it cannot be cast for meaningful life before lethal pressure. Its role changes from emergency life gain to lethal amplifier when the stack history shows several spells and Dina, Soul Steeper or drain payoffs are active.

- Snuff Out: add against fast creature commanders, must-kill attackers, and creature engines where free interaction preserves tempo. It is bad when life total is low, black creature targets dominate the opponent's board, or paying life makes a visible attack lethal. Its role changes from removal to tempo protection when holding mana for Dina, Soul Steeper, Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Rampant Growth, or two-spell sequencing matters.

- Nihil Spellbomb: add against graveyard recursion, flashback-like lines, sacrifice recursion, creature loops, and visible graveyard setup. It is bad when the opponent has no graveyard dependency and the deck needs board presence. Its role changes from hate piece to cantrip-pressure safety valve when the graveyard threat is real but the deck can wait for a stack or activation cue before using it.

Aggro / Go-Wide Combat Stabilization
Side in: Fog; Crypt Rats; Weather the Storm; Snuff Out
Cut: Dogged Pursuit; Ill-Gotten Inheritance; Adventurer's Inn; Shopkeeper's Bane

- Use this plan when the opponent's visible plan is creature damage before long-game engines matter. Dogged Pursuit and Ill-Gotten Inheritance are reduced because slow inevitability is weaker than surviving the next combat steps; Adventurer's Inn and Shopkeeper's Bane are reduced because Card text check required and they should not displace proven survival cards without visible text or matchup proof.

Artifact / Enchantment Engine Pressure
Side in: Appetite for the Unnatural; Natural End; Quiet Disrepair
Cut: Drossclaw; Chrome Companion; Rooftop Assassin

- Use this plan when public information shows artifacts or enchantments as the opponent's engine, prison, clock, or combo material. Drossclaw, Chrome Companion, and Rooftop Assassin are reduced first because Card text check required and their tactical jobs are less certain than exact permanent interaction in a matchup defined by noncreature permanents.

Graveyard Attrition And Recursion
Side in: Nihil Spellbomb; Pull from the Grave; Dutiful Return
Cut: Trespasser's Curse; Undercity Uprising; Mukotai Ambusher

- Use this plan when the opponent's graveyard is a resource and games are likely to trade creatures. Nihil Spellbomb checks the opposing graveyard line, while Pull from the Grave and Dutiful Return reinforce Dina, Soul Steeper engine rebuilding; Trespasser's Curse is reduced when the opponent is not presenting repeated creature entry pressure, and Undercity Uprising plus Mukotai Ambusher require Card text check required before being trusted over known recursion roles.

Removal-Heavy Control Or Midrange
Side in: Pull from the Grave; Dutiful Return; Snuff Out
Cut: Night Market Lookout; Thornbow Archer; Banehound

- Use this plan when the opponent is answering creatures one at a time and winning through larger threats or attrition. Pull from the Grave and Dutiful Return let the deck reassemble lifegain plus drain after removal, while Snuff Out protects tempo against a key creature; Night Market Lookout, Thornbow Archer, and Banehound are reduced because small attackers are less important than recurring engine pieces and answering a decisive threat.

Spell-Burst Or Burn-Like Race
Side in: Weather the Storm; Snuff Out; Fog
Cut: Dogged Pursuit; Adventurer's Inn; Bogwater Lumaret

- Use this plan when the opponent can compress damage into one turn or race before the drain engine stabilizes. Weather the Storm answers stack-density pressure, Snuff Out preserves mana while stopping a creature clock, and Fog prevents a lethal combat; Dogged Pursuit is reduced for speed, while Adventurer's Inn and Bogwater Lumaret require Card text check required before being prioritized in a fast race.

- Add role cards: against fast creatures, prioritize Fog, Crypt Rats, Weather the Storm, and Snuff Out. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow drain enchantments, unclear-text creatures, and speculative value cards that do not block, remove, or gain immediate life.

- Add role cards: against artifacts and enchantments, prioritize Appetite for the Unnatural, Natural End, and Quiet Disrepair. Reduce main-deck emphasis: unclear-text midrange bodies and low-certainty value cards unless the engine exposes decisive legal text.

- Add role cards: against graveyard decks, prioritize Nihil Spellbomb first, then Pull from the Grave and Dutiful Return if the game also becomes attrition-based. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow creature-entry punishment and combat-only cards when the opponent is not trying to win through normal attacks.

- Add role cards: against slow removal decks, prioritize Pull from the Grave and Dutiful Return, with Snuff Out only for must-answer creature threats. Reduce main-deck emphasis: one-shot small attackers that do not generate lifegain, drain, sacrifice value, or recursion value.

- Keep sideboarding from diluting the engine. At least one lifegain source, one drain payoff or commander access plan, and enough early mana must remain after any plan; do not load every reactive sideboard card just because it has a legal target.

- Re-evaluate after each game using public evidence. If the previous game was lost to combat, increase survival roles; if it was lost to a permanent type, increase artifact/enchantment answers; if it was lost after stabilizing but failing to close, preserve Dina, Soul Steeper, Marauding Blight-Priest, Epicure of Blood, Falkenrath Noble, Creeping Bloodsucker, Dogged Pursuit, Ill-Gotten Inheritance, Specter of the Fens, and Lampad of Death's Vigil rather than overloading on answers.

## Matchup Guidance

- Aggro: prioritize survival turns before slow inevitability. Keep or develop Essence Warden, Jaddi Offshoot, Kazandu Nectarpot, Grazing Gladehart, Pristine Talisman, Daggerdrome Imp, Farbog Revenant, Ghastly Gloomhunter, Vault Skirge, Vampire Envoy, Serrated Scorpion, Banehound, and Filigree Familiar as life-buffer or blocking material, then convert that buffer into pressure with Dina, Soul Steeper, Marauding Blight-Priest, Falkenrath Noble, Creeping Bloodsucker, Epicure of Blood, Dogged Pursuit, Ill-Gotten Inheritance, Lampad of Death's Vigil, or Specter of the Fens. Add role cards: Fog, Crypt Rats, Weather the Storm, and Snuff Out. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow drain-only permanents when they do not affect the next attack, unclear-text cards such as Adventurer's Inn, Bogwater Lumaret, Drossclaw, Chrome Companion, Rooftop Assassin, Mukotai Ambusher, and Shopkeeper's Bane until Card text check required is satisfied.

- Go-wide: answer the combat math rather than the largest single creature. Crypt Rats is the sideboard role card that can reset many small attackers, Fog can buy a decisive extra drain turn, Weather the Storm can offset a wide attack plus spell chain, and Snuff Out can remove the one anthem-like, evasive, or must-kill creature when the rules engine exposes a legal target. Preserve Deathgreeter, Falkenrath Noble, Serrated Scorpion, Viscera Seer, Lampad of Death's Vigil, and Dina, Soul Steeper because trading creatures can become damage or life swings. Do not attack with small lifelink creatures when visible blockers or counterattacks make them more valuable as survival material.

- Burn: treat life total as the primary resource and stop paying it casually. Vault Skirge, Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Snuff Out, and any optional life payment must be judged against visible lethal ranges, known revealed burn, and current stack pressure; do not assume life can be spent because the deck contains lifegain. Add role cards: Weather the Storm, Fog when creature damage matters, and Snuff Out only when free removal prevents more damage than its life payment risks. Prioritize Pristine Talisman, Radiant Fountain, Jungle Hollow, Kazandu Nectarpot, Grazing Gladehart, Daggerdrome Imp, Farbog Revenant, Ghastly Gloomhunter, Vampire Neonate, Sanguine Syphoner, and Dina, Soul Steeper if they turn life gain into a race swing.

- Tempo: protect mana development and avoid falling behind to one unanswered evasive threat. Rampant Growth, Golgari Signet, Llanowar Elves, Environmental Sciences, Golgari Rot Farm, Evolving Wilds, Riveteers Overlook, Command Tower, Path of Ancestry, Jungle Hollow, and Bojuka Bog matter because tempo decks punish missed colors and tapped-land sequencing. Add role cards: Snuff Out for tempo-positive removal, Weather the Storm against spell-density turns, and Fog when the opponent's tempo lead is combat-based. Reduce main-deck emphasis: expensive engines that do not stabilize immediately, especially Dogged Pursuit and Ill-Gotten Inheritance when the next two turns require interaction, blockers, or card velocity.

- Control: pressure with recursive inevitability rather than overextending fragile bodies. Dina, Soul Steeper is important because commander access lets the deck rebuild a payoff after removal, but do not recast into open visible answers if hand and board already contain Marauding Blight-Priest, Epicure of Blood, Falkenrath Noble, Creeping Bloodsucker, Dogged Pursuit, Ill-Gotten Inheritance, or Lampad of Death's Vigil. Add role cards: Pull from the Grave and Dutiful Return to recover engine creatures, Nihil Spellbomb only if the control deck uses the graveyard, and Snuff Out only if a creature finisher must be answered. Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Grapple with Death, Unearth, Urborg Repossession, Environmental Sciences, and Pull from the Grave are premium if they convert one-for-one removal into renewed material.

- Removal-heavy midrange: trade resources only when death and recursion make the trade asymmetrical. Preserve Viscera Seer, Lampad of Death's Vigil, Dina, Soul Steeper, Deathgreeter, Falkenrath Noble, Serrated Scorpion, Unearth, Urborg Repossession, Pull from the Grave, and Dutiful Return because they make creature exchanges into drain, scry, life, or rebuilt board presence. Add role cards: Pull from the Grave, Dutiful Return, and Snuff Out for must-answer creatures. Reduce main-deck emphasis: one-shot small attackers such as Night Market Lookout, Thornbow Archer, and Banehound when they cannot safely attack or generate engine value before dying.

- Midrange: become the inevitability deck if the board is stable, but become control if a single large creature changes the clock. Bake into a Pie, Breathe Your Last, Feed the Swarm, Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher, Nature's Claim, Return to Nature, Snuff Out, Appetite for the Unnatural, Natural End, and Crypt Rats should be aimed at threats or permanents that alter lethal timing, shut off lifegain, or overpower blocks. Build toward repeated triggers from landfall lifegain, Pristine Talisman, lifelink creatures, and drain payoffs instead of spending all cards on small tempo gains. Card text check required before relying on Agate-Blade Assassin, Drossclaw, Chrome Companion, Rooftop Assassin, Mukotai Ambusher, Bogwater Lumaret, Adventurer's Inn, or Shopkeeper's Bane as midrange stabilizers.

- Big mana: apply a real clock before the opponent's larger actions invalidate incremental drain. Dina, Soul Steeper plus Essence Warden, Jaddi Offshoot, Kazandu Nectarpot, Grazing Gladehart, Radiant Fountain, Pristine Talisman, Daggerdrome Imp, or Vault Skirge can start chip-drain early, while Dogged Pursuit, Ill-Gotten Inheritance, Epicure of Blood, Creeping Bloodsucker, Specter of the Fens, and Lampad of Death's Vigil help close after stabilization. Use Bake into a Pie, Breathe Your Last, Feed the Swarm, Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher, Snuff Out, and Crypt Rats only on threats that are visibly decisive; do not spend premium answers on replaceable ramp creatures unless the engine says tempo denial is the only route to survival.

- Combo: identify whether the combo uses graveyard, artifacts, enchantments, creatures, or spell chains before spending narrow interaction. Add role cards: Nihil Spellbomb for graveyard setup, Appetite for the Unnatural, Natural End, and Quiet Disrepair for artifact or enchantment engines, Snuff Out for creature-based combo pieces, and Weather the Storm if the opponent's kill involves a high-spell-count damage race. Hold Nature's Claim and Return to Nature until the legal target matters; do not fire them at a random permanent when public information suggests a more important engine card may appear. Dina, Soul Steeper plus fast lifegain is a clock, but combo matchups often require holding interaction over maximizing one extra drain trigger.

- Graveyard decks: use graveyard hate at the decision point, not merely because a graveyard contains cards. Nihil Spellbomb should answer a visible recursion target, flashback-like line, threshold-like dependency, or stack cue when possible, while Bojuka Bog should be sequenced to maximize graveyard disruption without breaking color development. Add role cards: Nihil Spellbomb, Pull from the Grave, and Dutiful Return when both decks are trading resources. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Trespasser's Curse when the opponent is not repeatedly creating creatures, and combat-only cards when the graveyard engine ignores normal attacks.

- Artifact/enchantment decks: preserve exact answers for the permanent type that actually matters. Nature's Claim, Return to Nature, Appetite for the Unnatural, Natural End, Quiet Disrepair, and Feed the Swarm should target engines, locks, lifegain prevention, sacrifice outlets, evasive clocks, or combo pieces rather than low-impact permanents. Add role cards: Appetite for the Unnatural, Natural End, and Quiet Disrepair. Reduce main-deck emphasis: uncertain-text bodies and slow combat cards when the opponent's visible plan is noncreature permanent advantage.

- Single-threat decks: answer the one creature or permanent that determines combat, then win through drain inevitability. Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher is strongest when the opponent has one exposed creature or a board where the sacrifice is forced onto the important threat; Bake into a Pie, Breathe Your Last, Feed the Swarm, Snuff Out, and Nature's Claim or Return to Nature cover other legal target types. Do not waste removal on support creatures if visible combat math shows the commander, large attacker, aura carrier, equipment carrier, or repeated engine is the actual clock. Keep blockers back if one attack from the threat would undo multiple turns of lifegain.

- Removal-light creature decks: curve lifegain into drain and make combat miserable. Dina, Soul Steeper, Marauding Blight-Priest, Blood Researcher, Epicure of Blood, Falkenrath Noble, Creeping Bloodsucker, Dogged Pursuit, Ill-Gotten Inheritance, Lampad of Death's Vigil, Vampire Neonate, and Specter of the Fens should be prioritized once early blockers and mana are stable. Deathgreeter, Essence Warden, Jaddi Offshoot, Kazandu Nectarpot, Grazing Gladehart, and Pristine Talisman can turn ordinary development into a clock. Use Infuse with Vitality when legal text shows it saves or recurs a creature in a trade that matters; Card text check required if the exact mode or target condition is not visible.

- Removal-heavy decks: sequence threats so no single answer breaks the entire engine. Lead with redundant lifegain or drain pieces when possible, keep commander recast tax in mind, and use Unearth, Urborg Repossession, Pull from the Grave, Dutiful Return, Grapple with Death, Sign in Blood, and Night's Whisper to recover material. Do not sacrifice Dina, Soul Steeper or another payoff for small damage unless the visible line closes the game or protects against exile, theft, or lethal combat. If the opponent repeatedly answers creatures, preserve noncreature pressure from Dogged Pursuit and Ill-Gotten Inheritance when speed allows.

## Specific Matchup Notes
- General/archetype-only: revealed cards, revealed commander text, legal actions, and public board state override all assumptions here. Use these notes as runtime priors for likely sideboarding, priority targets, and role selection, not as certainty about hidden cards or exact matchup contents.

- Fast creature pressure: prioritize survival before engine greed. Add role cards: Fog, Weather the Storm, Crypt Rats, Snuff Out, and Pull from the Grave when the opponent is presenting repeated combat damage. Priority targets are evasive attackers, pump-enabling permanents, sacrifice-proof threats, and any creature that turns a two-turn clock into a one-turn clock. Keep Daggerdrome Imp, Farbog Revenant, Ghastly Gloomhunter, Vault Skirge, Vampire Envoy, Serrated Scorpion, Deathgreeter, and Filigree Familiar available for blocking or lifegain unless attacking changes lethal timing. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow pressure from Dogged Pursuit, Ill-Gotten Inheritance, and Specter of the Fens when those cards do not affect the next combat step.

- Commander-centric decks: answer the commander or the permanent that makes the commander decisive. Bake into a Pie, Breathe Your Last, Feed the Swarm, Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher, Snuff Out, Nature's Claim, Return to Nature, Appetite for the Unnatural, and Natural End should be held for public threats that change combat math, lifegain access, recursion, or inevitability. Dina, Soul Steeper can race many commanders only when paired with repeatable lifegain from Pristine Talisman, landfall lifegain, lifelink creatures, or Vampire Neonate-style activations. Add role cards: Snuff Out, Crypt Rats, and Quiet Disrepair when the opponent's commander plan depends on creatures or noncreature permanents.

- Graveyard attrition mirrors: protect your own recursion while disrupting the opponent's highest-leverage graveyard turn. Nihil Spellbomb and Bojuka Bog should be timed around visible recursion actions, flashback-like permissions, or a graveyard stack target, not spent merely because cards are present. Grapple with Death, Unearth, Urborg Repossession, Pull from the Grave, and Dutiful Return are strongest when they recover Dina, Soul Steeper, Marauding Blight-Priest, Epicure of Blood, Falkenrath Noble, Blood Researcher, or a stabilizing lifegain creature. Add role cards: Nihil Spellbomb, Pull from the Grave, and Dutiful Return.

- Artifact or enchantment engine decks: preserve removal for the permanent that creates the clock, lock, or combo. Nature's Claim, Return to Nature, Appetite for the Unnatural, Natural End, Quiet Disrepair, and Feed the Swarm should not be spent on low-impact legal targets when the opponent's visible plan suggests a more important artifact or enchantment may decide the game. Add role cards: Appetite for the Unnatural, Natural End, and Quiet Disrepair. Reduce main-deck emphasis: uncertain-text creatures such as Adventurer's Inn, Bogwater Lumaret, Chrome Companion, Drossclaw, Mukotai Ambusher, Rooftop Assassin, and Shopkeeper's Bane until Card text check required is resolved.

- Spell-chain or burst-damage decks: keep life buffer and instant interaction above incremental drain. Weather the Storm, Pristine Talisman, Radiant Fountain, lifelink creatures, and Dina, Soul Steeper-backed lifegain can buy turns, but priority should remain on surviving the visible stack and the next public attack. Add role cards: Weather the Storm, Fog, Snuff Out, and Nihil Spellbomb when public information shows graveyard or creature setup. Reduce main-deck emphasis: small attackers that do not block well or pressure quickly.

- Slow control decks: diversify threats and force answers across permanent types. Dogged Pursuit, Ill-Gotten Inheritance, Creeping Bloodsucker, Epicure of Blood, Marauding Blight-Priest, Falkenrath Noble, Lampad of Death's Vigil, and Specter of the Fens should be sequenced so a single removal spell or sweeper does not erase every closing route. Use Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Environmental Sciences, Grapple with Death, Unearth, and Urborg Repossession to keep material flowing. Add role cards: Pull from the Grave, Dutiful Return, and Quiet Disrepair if the opponent wins through attrition or noncreature permanents.

## Risk Summary
- Mana risk: Forest-heavy hands can strand Dina, Soul Steeper, Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Feed the Swarm, Bake into a Pie, Breathe Your Last, and black drain payoffs, while Swamp-heavy hands can strand Rampant Growth, Nature's Claim, Return to Nature, Essence Warden, Jaddi Offshoot, Kazandu Nectarpot, Grazing Gladehart, and Grapple with Death. Mulligan or sequence cautiously when Command Tower, Jungle Hollow, Path of Ancestry, Evolving Wilds, Riveteers Overlook, Golgari Rot Farm, Rampant Growth, Golgari Signet, Environmental Sciences, or Llanowar Elves is absent.

- Matchup risk: fast evasive or wide boards can punish slow hands that only contain Dogged Pursuit, Ill-Gotten Inheritance, Epicure of Blood, or Specter of the Fens. Treat life total as a resource only when blockers, removal, or repeatable lifegain visibly covers the next attack.

- Draw risk: the deck can draw the lifegain half without the drain half, or the drain half without enough life events. Track whether Essence Warden, Jaddi Offshoot, Kazandu Nectarpot, Grazing Gladehart, Pristine Talisman, Radiant Fountain, Daggerdrome Imp, Farbog Revenant, Ghastly Gloomhunter, Vault Skirge, and Vampire Envoy are paired with Dina, Soul Steeper, Marauding Blight-Priest, Epicure of Blood, Falkenrath Noble, Creeping Bloodsucker, Dogged Pursuit, Ill-Gotten Inheritance, Lampad of Death's Vigil, or Blood Researcher.

- Over-sideboarding risk: too many reactive sideboard cards can dilute the lifegain-drain engine. Add role cards only when the opponent's visible plan makes Fog, Weather the Storm, Crypt Rats, Snuff Out, Nihil Spellbomb, Quiet Disrepair, Appetite for the Unnatural, Natural End, Pull from the Grave, or Dutiful Return answer a real pressure point.

- Graveyard risk: recursion lines fail when graveyards are exiled, when legal targets are absent, or when tempo is too poor. Do not rely on Unearth, Urborg Repossession, Grapple with Death, Pull from the Grave, or Dutiful Return unless the public graveyard and legal action list support the line.

- Sweeper/removal risk: committing Dina, Soul Steeper plus multiple payoff creatures into visible removal pressure can lose the engine. Stagger Marauding Blight-Priest, Epicure of Blood, Falkenrath Noble, Blood Researcher, and Lampad of Death's Vigil when current pressure allows.

- Closer risk: the deck can stabilize without ending the game. Prioritize repeated finishers from Dina, Soul Steeper, Epicure of Blood, Marauding Blight-Priest, Falkenrath Noble, Creeping Bloodsucker, Dogged Pursuit, Ill-Gotten Inheritance, Specter of the Fens, or Lampad of Death's Vigil once survival is secure.

- Interaction risk: removal is sparse and type-limited. Spend Bake into a Pie, Breathe Your Last, Feed the Swarm, Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher, Nature's Claim, Return to Nature, Snuff Out, Appetite for the Unnatural, Natural End, and Crypt Rats on threats that change the clock, lock resources, or stop the engine.

- Sequencing risk: tapped lands, bounce lands, and landfall triggers create real timing costs. Sequence Golgari Rot Farm, Jungle Hollow, Bojuka Bog, Radiant Fountain, Riveteers Overlook, Evolving Wilds, Jaddi Offshoot, Kazandu Nectarpot, and Grazing Gladehart around both color access and life-trigger value.

## Test Feedback Checklist
- Deciding factor: For each game, ask whether the result turned on life-total buffer, repeated drain, commander access to Dina, Soul Steeper, graveyard recursion, combat survival, removal timing, sideboard card impact, or failure to close after stabilizing.

- Result class: Label each win or loss as a card quantity problem, card selection problem, mana problem, tempo problem, matchup problem, sideboard problem, pilot sequencing problem, or closing-power problem, then name one primary cause and one secondary cause.

- Mulligan check: Record whether the opener had both colors, an early play, and either lifegain or card velocity. Flag Forest-heavy or Swamp-heavy keeps that lacked Command Tower, Jungle Hollow, Path of Ancestry, Evolving Wilds, Riveteers Overlook, Golgari Rot Farm, Rampant Growth, Golgari Signet, Environmental Sciences, or Llanowar Elves.

- Mana timing: Note every turn where Dina, Soul Steeper, Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Feed the Swarm, Nature's Claim, Rampant Growth, Grapple with Death, Return to Nature, or a two-spell sequence was delayed by color access, tapped lands, Golgari Rot Farm timing, or failure to fetch the needed basic.

- Velocity check: Ask whether Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Environmental Sciences, Grapple with Death, Unearth, Urborg Repossession, Pull from the Grave, or Dutiful Return found meaningful material, or whether the deck spent too many turns drawing lifegain pieces without payoffs.

- Engine assembly: Track which half was missing. Lifegain sources include Essence Warden, Jaddi Offshoot, Kazandu Nectarpot, Grazing Gladehart, Pristine Talisman, Radiant Fountain, Daggerdrome Imp, Farbog Revenant, Ghastly Gloomhunter, Vault Skirge, Vampire Envoy, Social Climber, and Filigree Familiar. Drain or payoff pieces include Dina, Soul Steeper, Marauding Blight-Priest, Epicure of Blood, Falkenrath Noble, Creeping Bloodsucker, Dogged Pursuit, Ill-Gotten Inheritance, Lampad of Death's Vigil, Blood Researcher, Vampire Neonate, Duskwielder, Serrated Scorpion, Night Market Lookout, and Thornbow Archer.

- Removal review: Ask whether Bake into a Pie, Breathe Your Last, Feed the Swarm, Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher, Nature's Claim, Return to Nature, Snuff Out, Appetite for the Unnatural, Natural End, or Crypt Rats answered the permanent that actually changed the clock, blocked the engine, or threatened lethal.

- Combat review: Check whether Daggerdrome Imp, Farbog Revenant, Ghastly Gloomhunter, Vault Skirge, Vampire Envoy, Banehound, Night Market Lookout, Thornbow Archer, Serrated Scorpion, Deathgreeter, or Viscera Seer attacked too early instead of preserving blocks, sacrifice value, or lifegain triggers.

- Sacrifice and death value: Record whether Viscera Seer, Lampad of Death's Vigil, Dina, Soul Steeper, Deathgreeter, Falkenrath Noble, Serrated Scorpion, Infuse with Vitality, Unearth, or Urborg Repossession converted dying creatures into damage, material, selection, or survival.

- Sideboard impact: Ask whether Fog, Weather the Storm, Crypt Rats, Snuff Out, Nihil Spellbomb, Quiet Disrepair, Appetite for the Unnatural, Natural End, Pull from the Grave, or Dutiful Return matched the opponent's visible plan, or whether reactive cards diluted the lifegain-drain engine.

- Closing check: Mark games where the deck stabilized but lacked a finisher, then identify whether Dina, Soul Steeper, Epicure of Blood, Marauding Blight-Priest, Falkenrath Noble, Creeping Bloodsucker, Dogged Pursuit, Ill-Gotten Inheritance, Specter of the Fens, Lampad of Death's Vigil, or Blood Researcher was absent, removed, stranded, or sequenced too late.

- Stranded-card review: List cards stranded by mana, timing, target absence, or board state, especially Undercity Uprising, Send in the Pest, Pest Summoning, Shopkeeper's Bane, Drossclaw, Chrome Companion, Rooftop Assassin, Mukotai Ambusher, Bogwater Lumaret, Adventurer's Inn, Agate-Blade Assassin, Moldering Karok, Pest Mascot, Sanguine Syphoner, and Stonefare Crocodile. Use Card text check required for unclear functions.

- Guidance compliance: Record whether the pilot followed the Deck Strategy and Tactical Policy on mulligans, commander timing, removal conservation, graveyard recursion, sideboard discipline, combat restraint, and transition from stabilization to closing.

## First Tuning Questions
- Mana question: Does the deck need more reliable early black, early green, or untapped dual access if Dina, Soul Steeper, Rampant Growth, Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Feed the Swarm, and Nature's Claim are repeatedly delayed?

- Basics question: Are 14 Forest and 15 Swamp correct after tracking games where Evolving Wilds, Riveteers Overlook, Rampant Growth, Environmental Sciences, and Golgari Rot Farm searched or fixed for the wrong color under pressure?

- Velocity question: Does the list need more card-flow emphasis if Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Environmental Sciences, Grapple with Death, Unearth, and Urborg Repossession are not enough to assemble lifegain plus payoff?

- Engine-density question: Are there too many low-impact lifegain pieces without drain payoffs, or too many expensive payoffs such as Epicure of Blood, Dogged Pursuit, Ill-Gotten Inheritance, and Creeping Bloodsucker without enough early life events?

- Aggro-plan question: Should the sideboard or main deck add more survival emphasis if Fog, Weather the Storm, Crypt Rats, Snuff Out, Bake into a Pie, Breathe Your Last, and Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher do not stop fast creature clocks?

- Control-plan question: Does the deck need more resilient closers if Dina, Soul Steeper, Marauding Blight-Priest, Epicure of Blood, Falkenrath Noble, Dogged Pursuit, Ill-Gotten Inheritance, and Lampad of Death's Vigil are answered one at a time?

- Graveyard question: Are Grapple with Death, Unearth, Urborg Repossession, Pull from the Grave, and Dutiful Return overperforming as recursion, or are they stranded too often by missing targets, exile effects, or tempo pressure?

- Sideboard-slot question: Which sideboard card most often lacked a visible job: Appetite for the Unnatural, Fog, Pull from the Grave, Dutiful Return, Quiet Disrepair, Natural End, Crypt Rats, Weather the Storm, Snuff Out, or Nihil Spellbomb?

- Role-conflict question: Is the pilot losing by mixing cautious control with small attacker pressure, especially when Banehound, Night Market Lookout, Thornbow Archer, Vault Skirge, Daggerdrome Imp, and Serrated Scorpion could either chip in or preserve blocks?

- Text-confidence question: Which unclear cards need verified rules text before future tuning decisions: Adventurer's Inn, Bogwater Lumaret, Chrome Companion, Drossclaw, Mukotai Ambusher, Rooftop Assassin, Shopkeeper's Bane, Agate-Blade Assassin, Pest Mascot, Sanguine Syphoner, and Stonefare Crocodile?

## Veles Tactical Policy

### Policy: Opening Hand Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: mulligan
Cards: Dina, Soul Steeper; Command Tower; Jungle Hollow; Path of Ancestry; Evolving Wilds; Riveteers Overlook; Golgari Rot Farm; Golgari Signet; Rampant Growth; Environmental Sciences; Llanowar Elves; Sign in Blood; Night's Whisper
Phase windows: pregame
Runtime cues: opening hand; mulligan choice; commander available
Use when: Decide keep or mulligan from visible opener, commander access, land count, colors, and first three turns.
Avoid when: Do not keep one-land hands without Llanowar Elves plus green source, or hands with only one color and no listed fixer.
Instructions: Keep hands with both colors or one color plus a legal fixer, two or more lands, and either early lifegain, card velocity, ramp, or removal. Mulligan slow hands that only contain expensive drain payoffs and no path to cast Dina, Soul Steeper.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Early Engine Setup
Priority: Medium
Decision families: mana; priority
Cards: Dina, Soul Steeper; Essence Warden; Jaddi Offshoot; Kazandu Nectarpot; Grazing Gladehart; Pristine Talisman; Marauding Blight-Priest; Blood Researcher; Deathgreeter
Phase windows: turns 1-4 main phases
Runtime cues: legal cast actions for early lifegain creature, Dina, Soul Steeper, ramp, or payoff
Use when: Choose first board commitment after mana development is legal.
Avoid when: Visible pressure requires immediate removal, or casting Dina, Soul Steeper exposes the only payoff before any lifegain trigger is available.
Instructions: Lead with cheap lifegain or ramp when it enables multiple future Dina, Soul Steeper triggers. Cast Dina, Soul Steeper early when at least one near-term lifegain source is visible or the commander body stabilizes combat.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Commander Commitment Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: priority; mana
Cards: Dina, Soul Steeper
Phase windows: main phases; post-removal rebuild turns
Runtime cues: legal cast action for Dina, Soul Steeper; commander tax visible
Use when: Decide whether to spend mana on commander access instead of removal, card draw, or board development.
Avoid when: Opponent has lethal pressure this turn and a legal stabilizing action exists, or commander tax consumes the turn without triggering lifegain soon.
Instructions: Cast Dina, Soul Steeper when visible lifegain is ready, when repeated drain shortens the clock, or when recasting is necessary to convert board presence into damage. Delay when survival or mana fixing is the bottleneck.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Mana Color Discipline
Priority: Medium
Decision families: mana
Cards: Forest; Swamp; Evolving Wilds; Riveteers Overlook; Rampant Growth; Environmental Sciences; Golgari Rot Farm; Command Tower; Jungle Hollow; Path of Ancestry; Golgari Signet
Phase windows: land plays; search choices; main phases
Runtime cues: legal land play; search basic action; mana payment prompt
Use when: Choose land sequencing, fixing targets, and payment sources.
Avoid when: A legal action requires preserving untapped black or green this turn and a tapped land would prevent it.
Instructions: Prioritize black for Dina, Soul Steeper, Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Feed the Swarm, Bake into a Pie, Breathe Your Last, and drain payoffs. Prioritize green when Rampant Growth, Nature's Claim, Return to Nature, Grapple with Death, or early lifegain creatures are the next legal plays.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Deterministic Rampant Growth Basic
Priority: Low
Decision families: mana; selection
Cards: Rampant Growth; Forest; Swamp
Phase windows: main phases; library search prompt
Runtime cues: action:choose Forest Rampant Growth; action:choose Swamp Rampant Growth
Use when: Exactly one missing color prevents a visible legal card in hand from being cast next turn, and Rampant Growth offers the basic for that missing color.
Avoid when: Both colors are already available, both colors are missing from future costs, or the legal action text does not identify the basic land.
Instructions: Choose the basic land that supplies the missing color for the visible next-turn spell.
Pilot skill floor: low
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Card-Flow Timing
Priority: Medium
Decision families: priority; mana
Cards: Sign in Blood; Night's Whisper; Environmental Sciences; Grapple with Death
Phase windows: main phases; low-pressure priority windows
Runtime cues: legal cast action for card draw, learn/search, or graveyard selection
Use when: The hand lacks either lifegain, payoff, land development, or removal and life total is not under immediate lethal pressure.
Avoid when: Paying life or spending mana leaves no answer to visible lethal pressure or skips a needed blocker.
Instructions: Use Sign in Blood and Night's Whisper to assemble missing engine halves, but do not treat card draw as stabilization when the board demands removal or combat survival.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Sign In Blood Lethal Target
Priority: High
Decision families: interaction; priority
Cards: Sign in Blood
Phase windows: main phases; lethal windows
Runtime cues: action:target opponent Sign in Blood
Use when: Opponent life total is 2 or less, the legal action text offers opponent as target, and no visible prevention, redirection, or replacement prompt is pending.
Avoid when: Opponent life total is above 2, self is the only legal target, or the stack indicates the spell is not resolving now.
Instructions: Target opponent to end the game.
Pilot skill floor: low
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Removal Conservation Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: interaction; priority
Cards: Bake into a Pie; Breathe Your Last; Feed the Swarm; Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher; Nature's Claim; Return to Nature; Snuff Out; Appetite for the Unnatural; Natural End; Crypt Rats
Phase windows: main phases; combat trick windows; opponent end step
Runtime cues: legal removal action; visible opposing permanent; lethal or engine-blocking threat
Use when: Decide whether a visible permanent must be answered now.
Avoid when: The target is low impact, the opponent is not pressuring life or engine, and spending removal prevents a stronger legal play.
Instructions: Spend removal on commanders, evasive clocks, lifegain-hate, graveyard hate, combo pieces, or permanents that stop Dina, Soul Steeper from converting lifegain into pressure. Prefer cheaper interaction when double-spelling matters.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Artifact And Enchantment Answer Gate
Priority: Medium
Decision families: interaction; priority
Cards: Nature's Claim; Return to Nature; Appetite for the Unnatural; Natural End; Quiet Disrepair
Phase windows: main phases; opponent end step; response windows
Runtime cues: legal target action for artifact or enchantment removal
Use when: A visible artifact or enchantment changes the clock, blocks lifegain-drain, enables opponent recursion, or threatens immediate advantage.
Avoid when: The target is incidental and the mana is needed for commander, removal, or lethal drain.
Instructions: Use flexible answers sparingly; preserve them when the opponent has shown artifact, enchantment, or graveyard reliance.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Graveyard Recursion Target Gate
Priority: Medium
Decision families: selection; priority
Cards: Unearth; Urborg Repossession; Pull from the Grave; Dutiful Return; Grapple with Death
Phase windows: main phases; graveyard selection prompts
Runtime cues: legal graveyard target actions; visible graveyard contents
Use when: Choose a creature or card to return from graveyard.
Avoid when: Returning a low-impact body does not affect survival, engine assembly, or closing speed.
Instructions: Prefer Dina, Soul Steeper support pieces, drain payoffs, removal creatures if applicable, or lifegain sources that immediately rebuild the engine. Route exact target choice through light-model unless only one legal target exists.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Single Legal Graveyard Target
Priority: Low
Decision families: selection
Cards: Unearth; Urborg Repossession; Pull from the Grave; Dutiful Return
Phase windows: graveyard target prompts
Runtime cues: action:target graveyard
Use when: The rules engine exposes exactly one legal graveyard target action for the resolving spell.
Avoid when: Two or more legal target actions are present.
Instructions: Select the only legal graveyard target.
Pilot skill floor: low
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Sacrifice Value Gate
Priority: Medium
Decision families: priority; selection
Cards: Viscera Seer; Lampad of Death's Vigil; Dina, Soul Steeper; Serrated Scorpion; Deathgreeter; Falkenrath Noble; Infuse with Vitality
Phase windows: combat damage setup; removal response; end step; lethal drain windows
Runtime cues: legal sacrifice action; creature dying; drain or death trigger visible
Use when: Decide whether sacrificing a creature converts a dying body into scry, drain, lifegain, or lethal pressure.
Avoid when: Sacrificing removes the only blocker before combat or breaks the lifegain engine without meaningful return.
Instructions: Sacrifice creatures that are already dying, blanked in combat, or lethal with death triggers. Preserve engine creatures when their future triggers outweigh immediate damage.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Combat Restraint And Race Shift
Priority: High
Decision families: combat
Cards: Daggerdrome Imp; Farbog Revenant; Ghastly Gloomhunter; Vault Skirge; Vampire Envoy; Banehound; Night Market Lookout; Thornbow Archer; Serrated Scorpion; Blood Researcher
Phase windows: declare attackers; declare blockers; combat trick windows
Runtime cues: legal attack or block actions; visible opposing attackers; life totals
Use when: Choose between attacking for chip damage and preserving blockers/lifegain bodies.
Avoid when: Exactly lethal attack is visible and legal with no relevant blockers or prevention prompts.
Instructions: Default to blocking and life preservation against faster boards. Attack when lifelink, drain triggers, or evasive damage improves the race without opening lethal crack-back.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Exact No-Attack Under Lethal Crackback
Priority: Medium
Decision families: combat
Cards: none
Phase windows: declare attackers
Runtime cues: action:pass attackers; action:no attackers
Use when: Opponent has visible lethal attack power next turn, this creature is needed as a legal blocker, and the attack is not lethal this turn.
Avoid when: The current attack is lethal or the creature cannot block the visible lethal attacker.
Instructions: Choose the no-attack or pass-attackers action.
Pilot skill floor: low
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Lifegain Trigger Payoff Conversion
Priority: Medium
Decision families: priority
Cards: Dina, Soul Steeper; Marauding Blight-Priest; Epicure of Blood; Creeping Bloodsucker; Dogged Pursuit; Ill-Gotten Inheritance; Blood Researcher; Pristine Talisman; Radiant Fountain; Kazandu Nectarpot; Grazing Gladehart; Jaddi Offshoot; Essence Warden
Phase windows: main phases; landfall turns; end steps; activated ability windows
Runtime cues: legal lifegain action; visible drain payoff; land play available
Use when: Sequence lifegain events after a payoff is already on board or can be cast first.
Avoid when: Waiting exposes lethal pressure or prevents a needed land drop or removal spell.
Instructions: When legal, cast payoff before landfall lifegain, Pristine Talisman activation, or lifelink combat so the life event also drains or grows Blood Researcher.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Priority Pass With Interaction Available
Priority: Medium
Decision families: priority; interaction
Cards: Snuff Out; Nature's Claim; Return to Nature; Feed the Swarm; Bake into a Pie; Breathe Your Last; Fog; Weather the Storm
Phase windows: opponent main phase; combat; stack response windows; end step
Runtime cues: legal pass action plus legal interaction action
Use when: Decide whether to hold or spend instant-speed or sorcery-speed-looking interaction when priority is offered.
Avoid when: Passing allows visible lethal, a key engine piece to be removed without response, or a must-answer permanent to resolve.
Instructions: Pass when the visible stack and board do not demand action; respond when the legal interaction prevents lethal, protects the engine indirectly, or stops a decisive opponent permanent.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Survival Spell Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: interaction; priority; combat
Cards: Fog; Weather the Storm; Crypt Rats; Snuff Out
Phase windows: combat damage prevention windows; storm/life swing windows; emergency board wipes
Runtime cues: legal Fog, Weather the Storm, Crypt Rats, or Snuff Out action; visible lethal or near-lethal pressure
Use when: The opponent threatens lethal or a short clock and the legal action can preserve survival or reset the board.
Avoid when: The spell only delays a nonlethal attack while a permanent stabilizer or removal line is legal and stronger.
Instructions: Use survival cards to buy the turn that enables drain stabilization, commander recast, or a board reset. Do not spend Weather the Storm without checking visible storm count and life-total need.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Sideboard Plan Selection
Priority: High
Decision families: sideboard
Cards: Appetite for the Unnatural; Fog; Pull from the Grave; Dutiful Return; Quiet Disrepair; Natural End; Crypt Rats; Weather the Storm; Snuff Out; Nihil Spellbomb
Phase windows: between games
Runtime cues: sideboard request; opponent game-one public plan; registered sideboard available
Use when: Choose a legal sideboard plan after observing opponent pressure, graveyard use, artifact/enchantment reliance, or control attrition.
Avoid when: Adding reactive cards removes too many lifegain sources and drain payoffs for the deck to close.
Instructions: Add Fog, Weather the Storm, Crypt Rats, and Snuff Out against creature pressure; add Nihil Spellbomb against graveyard reliance; add Appetite for the Unnatural, Natural End, and Quiet Disrepair against artifacts/enchantments; add Pull from the Grave or Dutiful Return for attrition.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes
