# Strategy Specifications
## Deck Name And Archetype
Dredgeless Dredge is an Explorer 60-card main deck with a 15-card sideboard, and the active validation contract reports that the list passes current format-aware deck-count validation. The registered main deck is exactly 60 cards and the registered sideboard is exactly 15 cards, so Veles should treat `Cut:` names as restricted to the main-deck inventory and `Side in:` names as restricted to the sideboard inventory during sideboarding.

Dredgeless Dredge is best classified as a rogue-to-hybrid graveyard combo-midrange deck rather than a stock linear aggro deck. The list uses self-mill and graveyard-entry payoffs around `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Stitcher's Supplier`, `Dredger's Insight`, `Creeping Chill`, `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, `Silversmote Ghoul`, `Willow Geist`, `Souls of the Lost`, and `Timeline Culler`, then pressures the opponent through recursive bodies, life swings, and scaling threats. Card text check required for any unfamiliar or newly printed card before relying on exact trigger timing, targeting restrictions, or alternative casting patterns, especially `Dredger's Insight`, `Timeline Culler`, and any Explorer-specific implementation details.

The archetype tags are combo, midrange, and graveyard, with the repeated supplied tag set normalized to `combo, midrange, graveyard`. Veles should pilot the deck as a graveyard engine first when the opening hand supports self-mill plus recursive payoff density, and as a midrange creature deck when the graveyard is constrained, the opponent presents hate, or the visible legal actions do not yet support a safe engine commitment.

The deck's role identity is proactive but not blind all-in. Veles should respect the rules engine's legal action list before executing any graveyard plan, because many important decisions depend on visible trigger order, available land drops, graveyard contents, life total, and whether a recursive creature has actually become legal to return. The pilot should never assume that `Creeping Chill`, `Prized Amalgam`, `Silversmote Ghoul`, or `Bloodghast` will resolve or return unless Forge exposes the corresponding action, trigger, or resulting state.

The mana base is Sultai-centered and life-total sensitive. `Mana Confluence`, `Blooming Marsh`, `Botanical Sanctum`, `Darkslick Shores`, `Watery Grave`, `Overgrown Tomb`, and `Breeding Pool` support black, green, and blue requirements, but sequencing must preserve early black or green for `Stitcher's Supplier`, `Willow Geist`, `Witherbloom Command`, and graveyard-engine turns while avoiding unnecessary self-damage when racing. Any choice involving paying life, using `Mana Confluence`, or exposing tapped-color constraints should be made from visible mana needs, current life total, and immediate legal actions rather than generic curve assumptions.

The sideboard confirms a flexible post-board posture rather than a single combo-only plan. `Leyline of the Void` covers graveyard mirrors and graveyard-dependent opponents, `Damping Sphere` pressures spell-chain or mana-engine opponents, `Fatal Push` adds cheap creature interaction, `Duress` adds hand disruption against noncreature interaction and sweepers, `Tear Asunder` answers problematic permanents, and extra `Witherbloom Command` increases flexible interaction or graveyard-adjacent utility where its legal modes matter. Exact sideboard execution belongs only in the Sideboard Map section.

Opponent information status is currently unspecified. Veles should treat opponent archetype, hidden hand contents, sideboard configuration, and exact removal profile as unknown unless provided by match context, public game actions, revealed cards, or runtime state. Metagame assumptions may guide broad caution, but card-specific opponent policies must either use `opponent:` examples outside registered `Cards:` fields later or wait for visible public information.

## Thesis
Dredgeless Dredge assembles a graveyard-fed battlefield, not a traditional draw-and-cast curve. The core plan is to use `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Stitcher's Supplier`, `Dredger's Insight`, and `Witherbloom Command` to put cards into the graveyard, then convert those cards into pressure through `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, `Silversmote Ghoul`, `Creeping Chill`, `Willow Geist`, `Souls of the Lost`, and `Timeline Culler`. Card text check required for `Dredger's Insight` and `Timeline Culler` before relying on exact timing, targeting, or trigger assumptions.

Dredgeless Dredge wins by making the graveyard behave like extra hand and board presence. Prioritize early self-mill when it can enable recursive creatures, drain swings, or scaling threats, but do not self-mill blindly if the visible board already demands interaction, a land drop, or a stabilizing blocker. Treat graveyard contents as a live resource only after the rules engine confirms the relevant card, trigger, or legal action exists.

Dredgeless Dredge is not trying to trade one-for-one forever, hold up permission, or win by protecting one irreplaceable threat. It can play midrange games, but its best exchanges are those where a milled `Creeping Chill`, returning `Bloodghast`, delayed `Prized Amalgam`, or graveyard-scaling creature changes the exchange rate. Avoid lines that spend mana and cards merely to imitate fair creature combat when a legal self-mill or recursion line would create more material.

Prioritize engine continuity over cosmetic tempo. Early black and green access matters for `Stitcher's Supplier`, `Willow Geist`, and `Witherbloom Command`, while blue access matters for `Otherworldly Gaze` and any legal `Dredger's Insight` lines. Preserve life total against fast boards because `Mana Confluence`, shock lands, and slow recursive setup can make `Creeping Chill` life swings strategically important rather than incidental.

## Role Package
- Threats: `Willow Geist`, `Souls of the Lost`, and `Timeline Culler` are the main board-facing threats when the deck needs visible power instead of delayed recursion. Commit them when they either grow from graveyard activity, stabilize combat, or force removal that clears the way for recursive bodies; do not expose them just to spend mana if the graveyard engine is not advancing.

- Payoffs: `Creeping Chill`, `Prized Amalgam`, `Silversmote Ghoul`, and `Bloodghast` are the deck's payoff layer because they turn milling and land drops into damage, life swings, and battlefield presence. Treat a mill effect as higher priority when it can reveal or enable multiple payoff types, especially when the opponent is racing or spending removal on creatures that can return.

- Engines: `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Stitcher's Supplier`, `Dredger's Insight`, and `Witherbloom Command` are the practical engine starters. Use them to fill the graveyard, select for missing resources, and bridge between early setup and recursive pressure; if exact card text is uncertain, make the decision conditional on the legal actions and visible outcome exposed by Forge.

- Velocity: `Otherworldly Gaze` is the cleanest early velocity card when blue mana is available, while `Stitcher's Supplier` is the best creature-based setup piece when black mana is available. `Dredger's Insight` belongs in velocity planning only after its current card text and legal modes are known, because the pilot must not assume draw, mill, cost, or graveyard behavior from the name alone.

- Interaction: Main-deck `Witherbloom Command` is the flexible interaction slot, with exact use dependent on visible legal modes and targets. Post-board `Fatal Push`, `Duress`, `Tear Asunder`, additional `Witherbloom Command`, `Damping Sphere`, and `Leyline of the Void` let the deck answer creatures, noncreature disruption, permanents, spell-chain engines, and opposing graveyards without abandoning its own pressure plan.

- Protection: `Duress` is the sideboard protection module because it can clear opposing interaction before a graveyard or board commitment when its target is legal and revealed by the engine. `Leyline of the Void` and `Damping Sphere` are protective only in matchup terms: they reduce opposing engines rather than directly shielding this deck's threats.

- Recursion: `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, and `Silversmote Ghoul` form the recursive body package. Sequence land drops, mill choices, and trigger decisions around the actual visible graveyard and battlefield, and prefer lines that return more than one body or make removal inefficient.

- Mana: `Mana Confluence`, `Blooming Marsh`, `Botanical Sanctum`, `Darkslick Shores`, `Watery Grave`, `Overgrown Tomb`, and `Breeding Pool` must produce early black, green, and blue without giving away too much life. Use untapped painful mana only when it changes the current turn's legal line or prevents a meaningful tempo loss.

- Sideboard modules: `Leyline of the Void` fights graveyard opponents, `Damping Sphere` attacks mana or spell-chain opponents, `Fatal Push` improves creature matchups, `Duress` pressures noncreature interaction, `Tear Asunder` answers problematic permanents, and extra `Witherbloom Command` increases flexible interaction where its legal modes line up.

## Primary Win Conditions
- Recursion pressure wins by making `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, and `Silversmote Ghoul` convert self-mill and land drops into repeated attackers. Setup requires early graveyard filling from `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Stitcher's Supplier`, `Witherbloom Command`, or a legal `Dredger's Insight` line, then execution means choosing land-drop and trigger timing that returns bodies before combat or before the opponent can profitably race. Prioritize this path when the opponent is spending spot removal, when your hand has mill plus lands, or when a visible `Creeping Chill` trigger or `Silversmote Ghoul` legal return can swing life totals. Disruption to respect includes graveyard exile, replacement effects, sweepers, and board stalls; if the engine does not expose a return trigger or legal action, do not assume the creature returns.

- Drain-plus-board flood wins by pairing `Creeping Chill` life swings with recursive creatures. Setup is mostly library-to-graveyard velocity, so `Otherworldly Gaze` and `Stitcher's Supplier` are high-value early plays when they can expose `Creeping Chill`, `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, or `Silversmote Ghoul`. Execution is not to cast a fair race if a legal mill line can create damage, life gain, and bodies at the same time. Prioritize this path against fast creature pressure, painful `Mana Confluence` or shock-land openings, and races where life total matters more than one extra small attacker. Disruption to respect includes effects that stop graveyard triggers or exile milled cards before payoff resolution.

- Scaling-threat combat wins through `Willow Geist`, `Souls of the Lost`, and `Timeline Culler` when the graveyard is active but recursion alone is too slow or contained. Setup requires enough graveyard movement, creature deaths, or legal card-specific actions to make these threats meaningful; card text check required for `Timeline Culler`, and exact `Souls of the Lost` sizing should follow runtime state rather than assumption. Execute by committing the threat when it changes combat math, pressures planeswalkers or life totals, or forces removal away from recursive bodies. Prioritize this path when graveyard hate is partial, when the opponent can block small recursive creatures, or when a single large body stabilizes the board. Disruption to respect includes exile-based removal, bounce, deathtouch blockers, and sweepers that undo the tempo of tapping out.

## Secondary Win Conditions
- Fair creature pressure is acceptable when the graveyard engine is delayed but the opening still has castable threats. Use `Stitcher's Supplier`, `Willow Geist`, `Souls of the Lost`, `Timeline Culler`, `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, or `Silversmote Ghoul` as attackers only when the legal board state supports damage or trades that feed later recursion; avoid trading a scaling threat into a low-impact blocker unless it protects life total or unlocks graveyard payoffs.

- Incremental value from `Witherbloom Command` can bridge games where neither player is goldfishing. Use its legal modes only as exposed by the rules engine: remove a relevant permanent, recover a land or graveyard resource, mill, or affect life totals only when that mode is legal and tactically connected to the board. Prioritize `Witherbloom Command` when it both answers something and advances graveyard or mana development; do not spend it for a marginal effect if a known opposing permanent or creature will soon demand it.

- Selection-heavy games can win by using `Otherworldly Gaze` and legal `Dredger's Insight` actions to find the missing half of the deck. Card text check required for `Dredger's Insight`; treat it as a tactical option only after Forge shows the exact legal action and result category. Use selection to find land drops for `Bloodghast`, self-mill for `Creeping Chill` and `Prized Amalgam`, or interaction when behind. When the opponent is holding up visible interaction, value redundancy over one fragile threat.

## Emergency Lines
- When behind on life, stabilize before maximizing graveyard greed. Prefer legal lines that produce blockers, trigger or enable `Creeping Chill`, or use `Witherbloom Command` on a relevant creature/permanent over speculative self-mill that does not affect the current turn. Treat painful mana from `Mana Confluence`, `Watery Grave`, `Overgrown Tomb`, and `Breeding Pool` as a real cost unless it unlocks a stabilizing play.

- When behind on board, trade recursively and preserve scaling bodies. Block with creatures that can return or have already delivered value before risking `Willow Geist`, `Souls of the Lost`, or `Timeline Culler`; if the legal action list offers removal or a meaningful `Witherbloom Command` mode, compare that line against simply adding another attacker. Do not assume future recursion will save the game if the current visible attack is lethal or creates an unrecoverable board.

- When behind on cards or engines, use the graveyard as the recovery axis. Prioritize `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Stitcher's Supplier`, and legal `Dredger's Insight` lines that can create multiple future resources over casting one body into obvious removal. If graveyard recursion is shut off, pivot to castable threats and interaction until the hate piece can be answered or raced.

- When mana-constrained, sequence lands for the current legal play instead of theoretical perfection. Early black enables `Stitcher's Supplier` and many creature lines, green supports `Willow Geist` and `Witherbloom Command`, and blue supports `Otherworldly Gaze`; choose untapped painful sources only when the action changes the turn. If missing a land drop with `Bloodghast` in graveyard, value land access and selection highly.

- When win conditions are removed or exiled, stop chasing the lost plan. If `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, or `Silversmote Ghoul` are unavailable, lean on `Willow Geist`, `Souls of the Lost`, `Timeline Culler`, and `Creeping Chill` pressure. If large threats are answered, rebuild with self-mill and recursive bodies. If `Creeping Chill` is exhausted or inaccessible, win through combat rather than waiting for drain that the engine no longer exposes.

## Resource Model
- Life: Spend life deliberately because `Mana Confluence`, `Watery Grave`, `Overgrown Tomb`, and `Breeding Pool` can turn smooth mana into race liability. Pay life when it unlocks immediate self-mill, a recursive creature trigger, `Witherbloom Command`, or interaction; conserve life when the current legal play is only marginal pressure and the opponent already presents a short clock. `Creeping Chill` can reverse races only when the engine actually mills or resolves it, so do not pre-spend life on assumed future drain.

- Hand: Treat hand cards as either engine access, castable board presence, or interaction. `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Stitcher's Supplier`, `Dredger's Insight`, and `Witherbloom Command` convert a small hand into graveyard resources; `Willow Geist`, `Souls of the Lost`, `Timeline Culler`, `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, and `Silversmote Ghoul` convert mana and graveyard movement into pressure. Card text check required for `Dredger's Insight` and `Timeline Culler`; follow runtime legal actions over assumptions.

- Mana: Use mana to create multiple future resources, not just one permanent. The best early mana often casts `Stitcher's Supplier` or `Otherworldly Gaze`, enables `Witherbloom Command`, or lets a land drop pair with `Bloodghast`. Avoid spending all mana on a single fair threat when a legal graveyard setup line can expose `Creeping Chill`, recursive creatures, and future action selection.

- Board: Value board presence by recursion density and combat relevance. `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, and `Silversmote Ghoul` are strongest when they can return or enable other returns; `Willow Geist`, `Souls of the Lost`, and `Timeline Culler` matter when they alter attacks, blocks, or removal pressure. Trade recursive bodies earlier than scaling bodies unless survival requires the block.

- Graveyard: Treat the graveyard as the deck's second hand and main engine zone. Self-mill that finds `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, `Silversmote Ghoul`, or `Creeping Chill` is resource-positive when triggers or legal future actions are exposed. If graveyard hate is visible, prioritize lines that answer it, diversify onto castable threats, or force damage before the graveyard is emptied.

- Exile: Treat exiled engine cards as mostly unavailable unless the rules engine exposes a legal permission to use them. Count exiled `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, `Silversmote Ghoul`, and `Creeping Chill` as reduced inevitability, then pivot toward board combat, `Willow Geist`, `Souls of the Lost`, `Timeline Culler`, and remaining interaction.

- Lands: Lands are both mana and trigger fuel. Hold or sequence land drops carefully when `Bloodghast` is in the graveyard, but do not miss necessary color development for a speculative future trigger. Later `Blooming Marsh`, `Botanical Sanctum`, and `Darkslick Shores` may enter tapped, so early sequencing should preserve untapped access to black, green, and blue.

- Sacrifice fodder: Use `Stitcher's Supplier` and recursive creatures as expendable bodies when legal sacrifice, chump-block, or trade lines produce graveyard value or preserve life. Do not sacrifice or trade a scaling `Willow Geist`, `Souls of the Lost`, or `Timeline Culler` unless the visible exchange prevents lethal damage or unlocks a stronger engine result.

- Tempo and information: Spend tempo on self-mill when it creates current or next-turn pressure; spend tempo on interaction when a visible permanent or attack makes racing unsafe. Use public information from graveyards, exile, revealed cards, and logged actions to decide whether to race, answer, or rebuild; never assume hidden cards.

- Sideboard bullets: `Leyline of the Void`, `Damping Sphere`, `Fatal Push`, `Duress`, `Tear Asunder`, and extra `Witherbloom Command` convert sideboard slots into hate, disruption, removal, and flexible answers. Use them as narrow resource converters after sideboarding, not as generic upgrades that replace the graveyard engine without a matchup reason.

## Mana Guide
- Keep mana when it casts an early engine spell and supports at least two colors. Ideal starts have black for `Stitcher's Supplier` or creature development, blue for `Otherworldly Gaze`, and green-black for `Witherbloom Command` or `Willow Geist`. Mulligan hands that cannot cast any setup spell by turn two unless the engine confirms a strong legal alternative.

- Sequence untapped color access before life efficiency. `Blooming Marsh`, `Botanical Sanctum`, and `Darkslick Shores` are best early because they can enter untapped without life loss; use them before turn four when they unlock black, green, or blue. Choose `Mana Confluence` when it fixes the exact current action, but avoid repeated pain if a shock land or fast land can cover the same colors.

- Shock lands should enter untapped only for meaningful action. Pay for `Watery Grave`, `Overgrown Tomb`, or `Breeding Pool` when the spell advances the engine, stabilizes the board, or prevents falling behind. Let them enter tapped when the turn has no relevant legal play or when life total is under pressure and the mana is not needed immediately.

- Play lands before self-mill when a visible `Bloodghast` return, current spell, or untapped color requirement depends on the land drop. Consider waiting until after `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Dredger's Insight`, or another legal selection effect only when the engine shows no immediate landfall need and seeing more information could change which land should be played.

- Preserve green-black access for `Witherbloom Command` when the opponent has a visible answer target or when milling plus recovery is likely to matter. Preserve blue for `Otherworldly Gaze` when selection is the hand's main engine. Preserve black as the default fallback because many early creatures and graveyard-pressure lines depend on it.

- Use late lands as trigger resources before treating them as blanks. If `Bloodghast` is in the graveyard, a land drop can be more valuable than a small spell. If no landfall or color need exists, prioritize spell sequencing that creates graveyard movement, board pressure, or interaction before exposing unnecessary information through land choice.

## Mulligan Guide
- Strong keep: Keep two or three lands with black plus blue or green, `Stitcher's Supplier` or `Otherworldly Gaze`, and at least one payoff such as `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, `Silversmote Ghoul`, `Willow Geist`, or `Souls of the Lost`. This hand can spend turn one on setup and convert early graveyard movement into pressure.

- Strong keep: Keep `Mana Confluence` plus another untapped land when it casts `Stitcher's Supplier` or `Otherworldly Gaze` and also supports a turn-two `Witherbloom Command`, `Dredger's Insight`, `Willow Geist`, or `Timeline Culler`. Card text check required for `Dredger's Insight` and `Timeline Culler`; choose only legal engine actions exposed by Veles.

- Medium keep: Keep three lands, `Witherbloom Command`, one self-mill spell, and one recursive threat when the hand has early colors but no immediate payoff in graveyard yet. This hand is slower but has selection, interaction, and a route to `Creeping Chill` or recursive creatures.

- Medium keep: Keep two lands with `Willow Geist`, `Souls of the Lost`, and `Stitcher's Supplier` when the opponent is unknown and at least one land produces black. This hand can play fair pressure while graveyard setup develops.

- Risky keep: Keep one-land hands only with untapped access to `Otherworldly Gaze` or `Stitcher's Supplier` and at least one cheap follow-up if a second land appears. Ship one-land hands full of `Prized Amalgam`, `Silversmote Ghoul`, `Creeping Chill`, and expensive or uncertain-action cards.

- Automatic ship: Mulligan hands with no land, hands with only lands, hands unable to cast any spell by turn two, and hands whose only action is hard-casting graveyard payoffs without self-mill or pressure. Also ship hands relying on `Creeping Chill` as if it were a guaranteed life swing.

- Matchup-dependent keep: Keep interaction-heavy hands with `Witherbloom Command` against visible artifact, enchantment, small-creature, or graveyard-resource pressure when Veles shows relevant legal modes. Keep faster self-mill hands against slow decks; prefer more castable creatures and interaction against aggressive starts.

- Play/draw adjustment: On the play, prefer a turn-one setup spell and a turn-two board engine over a slower three-land hand. On the draw, accept a slightly slower hand with more colors, `Witherbloom Command`, or multiple threats because the extra card can find missing setup.

- Trap hand: Do not keep a hand of `Prized Amalgam`, `Silversmote Ghoul`, `Creeping Chill`, lands, and no `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Stitcher's Supplier`, `Dredger's Insight`, or `Witherbloom Command` unless the runtime legal actions reveal a strong alternative. Payoffs without a graveyard entry point are not a plan.

## Turn Arc
- Turn 1: Prefer `Stitcher's Supplier` or `Otherworldly Gaze` over fair creature deployment when both are legal. Play `Blooming Marsh`, `Botanical Sanctum`, or `Darkslick Shores` first when they provide untapped action; use `Mana Confluence` only when exact color fixing matters. Deviate to `Willow Geist` if the hand lacks self-mill but needs a body that can scale from later graveyard movement.

- Turn 1 deviation: If `Bloodghast` is in hand with no self-mill and an untapped black source, casting it can be correct as early pressure, but avoid this line when `Otherworldly Gaze` or `Stitcher's Supplier` would create a better graveyard engine. If life is pressured, avoid unnecessary shock or `Mana Confluence` damage for a marginal play.

- Turn 2: Prefer the line that creates both board pressure and graveyard velocity. Strong patterns include `Stitcher's Supplier` plus a one-mana follow-up if legal, `Otherworldly Gaze` into a payoff setup, or `Witherbloom Command` when its visible modes answer something or advance the graveyard. Cast `Souls of the Lost`, `Willow Geist`, or `Timeline Culler` when the board needs a scaling threat and mana is clean.

- Turn 2 deviation: If `Bloodghast` is already in the graveyard, sequence the land drop to return it before spending mana when legal and useful. If `Prized Amalgam` or `Silversmote Ghoul` trigger timing appears in Veles actions, follow the rules-engine prompts rather than assuming recursion timing.

- Turn 3: Convert setup into pressure. Use self-mill or selection to expose `Creeping Chill`, `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, and `Silversmote Ghoul`; deploy `Souls of the Lost`, `Willow Geist`, or `Timeline Culler` when they change attacks or force removal. Choose `Witherbloom Command` over another threat when a visible permanent, land need, or graveyard line makes its legal mode high impact.

- Turns 4-5: Start measuring the race, not just the engine. Attack with recursive bodies when trades favor future recursion, preserve scaling creatures when they are the main lethal clock, and spend interaction before damage only when the visible board says racing is unsafe. Use lands as `Bloodghast` trigger fuel before treating them as blanks.

- Turns 4-5 deviation: Against graveyard hate or exile pressure, pivot to castable threats and visible interaction instead of continuing to mill blindly. Against slow opponents, keep forcing recursive pressure and use `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Dredger's Insight`, and `Witherbloom Command` to find more engine material.

- Late game: Prioritize legal actions that rebuild after removal, create multiple bodies, or convert the graveyard into lethal pressure. Recursive `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, and `Silversmote Ghoul` matter more than a single fair body unless a `Willow Geist`, `Souls of the Lost`, or `Timeline Culler` is visibly the fastest clock.

- Late-game deviation: Hold a land when no current trigger, color, or spell requires it and a future `Bloodghast` return could matter. Spend the land immediately if missing colors would strand `Witherbloom Command`, `Otherworldly Gaze`, or a legal action that stabilizes the board.

## Card Roles
- `Stitcher's Supplier`: Treat `Stitcher's Supplier` as the cleanest turn-one graveyard starter and a disposable body that improves almost every recursive draw. Cast it early when black mana is available unless the hand needs `Otherworldly Gaze` first to fix land drops or choose what enters the graveyard. Use it to enable `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, `Silversmote Ghoul`, `Creeping Chill`, `Willow Geist`, `Souls of the Lost`, and any legal graveyard-dependent action from `Dredger's Insight` or `Timeline Culler`. Do not protect it like a normal creature; trading it, chumping, or letting it die is often progress if the resulting graveyard movement matters. Against aggressive decks, its body buys time while stocking the graveyard; against control, it pressures minimally but makes sweepers less effective by feeding recursive follow-up.

- `Otherworldly Gaze`: Use `Otherworldly Gaze` as the most precise setup spell because it can decide whether cards stay on top or move toward the graveyard. Cast it early when the hand needs lands, a self-mill trigger, or a payoff in the graveyard; hold it when an upcoming draw step or visible decision makes selection more valuable than immediate velocity. Put recursive creatures, `Creeping Chill`, and redundant graveyard cards into the graveyard when legal and tactically aligned; keep needed lands, interaction, or castable threats on top when the hand is short on mana or under pressure. Do not mill blindly when graveyard hate is already visible and interaction or fair pressure is available.

- `Bloodghast`: Treat `Bloodghast` as land-drop pressure and recursion fuel, not as a card that must be protected in hand. Prefer putting it into the graveyard when self-mill or selection allows, then sequence land drops after it is in the graveyard when Veles exposes a legal return. Cast it from hand only when early pressure is needed, the hand lacks self-mill, or graveyard hate makes recursion unreliable. Preserve unused land drops when a future `Bloodghast` return is more valuable than immediate mana, but play the land when it unlocks `Witherbloom Command`, `Otherworldly Gaze`, or another stabilizing legal action. Against removal-heavy opponents, `Bloodghast` is a repeatable damage source; against fast creature decks, it may be a weak blocker, so race math matters.

- `Prized Amalgam`: Use `Prized Amalgam` as the high-leverage graveyard payoff that rewards returning other creatures from the graveyard. Prefer milling it over casting it when the hand already has `Bloodghast`, `Silversmote Ghoul`, or another visible recursion path. Hard-cast it when graveyard access is blocked, pressure is needed, or the runtime legal actions do not show a recursion route soon. Do not assume its trigger timing; accept only the triggers and actions Forge exposes. Against sweepers and spot removal, `Prized Amalgam` is one of the best rebuild cards; against exile-based hate, avoid overcommitting all payoffs to the graveyard without interaction.

- `Silversmote Ghoul`: Treat `Silversmote Ghoul` as a recursive payoff tied to life-gain conditions, especially when `Creeping Chill` or other visible life-gain events occur. Prefer it in the graveyard when a legal life-gain trigger is likely or already on the stack; cast it when the deck must block, pressure planeswalkers, or function through graveyard disruption. Card text and exact trigger timing must be respected through Veles prompts; do not assume it will return unless the rules engine shows the event. Against aggressive decks, its body and life-swing synergies can stabilize; against slow decks, it contributes to layered recurring pressure.

- `Creeping Chill`: Treat `Creeping Chill` as a graveyard-hit payoff, not a normal card to plan on casting unless Veles shows a legal and useful cast. Its best role is changing race math when self-milled by `Stitcher's Supplier`, `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Dredger's Insight`, `Witherbloom Command`, or other legal graveyard movement. Do not keep hands because they contain `Creeping Chill`; it is strongest when found incidentally. When choosing selection order, move it to the graveyard if the engine text and legal action indicate that doing so creates the drain effect. Against burn or creature aggro, the life swing can be decisive; against control, it shortens the clock without spending mana.

- `Willow Geist`: Use `Willow Geist` as an early scaling threat when cards are leaving the graveyard or when the deck needs a castable creature before recursive pressure starts. Card text check required for exact trigger and combat abilities; make attack and block decisions only from visible stats, counters, keywords, and legal actions. Cast it early when the hand has self-mill plus expected graveyard movement, or when fair pressure is needed against graveyard hate. Avoid exposing it into obvious removal if recursive threats already create enough pressure and `Willow Geist` is the best long-term clock. Against creature decks, evaluate whether it can grow before combat matters; against control, it can force answers while recursive bodies tax removal.

- `Souls of the Lost`: Treat `Souls of the Lost` as a graveyard-scaling body whose quality depends on current visible graveyard composition and legal stats. Card text check required for exact power, toughness, blocking restrictions, and other abilities; trust Forge’s visible card state over assumptions. Cast it when self-mill has already made it large enough to affect combat, or when the hand needs a non-recursive threat that does not rely on a trigger window. Do not cast it as a small creature if a self-mill spell can first improve its size or enable recursive bodies. Against removal-light decks, it can become a fast clock; against bounce, exile, or graveyard hate, avoid relying on it alone.

- `Timeline Culler`: Use `Timeline Culler` only according to Veles-visible card text, legal actions, and current battlefield context. Card text check required, so do not assume its trigger conditions, graveyard interaction, stats, or timing. Treat it as a main-deck engine or payoff slot until proven otherwise: cast it when the legal action advances board pressure, selection, or graveyard conversion, and hold it when mana is needed for setup or interaction. Look for synergies with `Stitcher's Supplier`, `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, and `Silversmote Ghoul` only if the rules engine shows relevant triggers or choices. Against fast decks, prioritize whether it blocks or stabilizes; against slow decks, prioritize whether it snowballs.

- `Dredger's Insight`: Use `Dredger's Insight` as a conditional graveyard or card-flow tool only after checking its exact Veles action text. Card text check required, so do not invent whether it mills, draws, returns cards, or selects from graveyard. Cast it when the legal modes visibly improve the hand, stock the graveyard, recover a needed card, or enable recursive threats. Hold it when immediate board development, `Witherbloom Command`, or a creature deployment is more urgent. Against interaction-heavy decks, value it as a reload spell if it finds or recovers pressure; against aggro, avoid spending mana on low-board-impact card flow while facing a short clock.

- `Witherbloom Command`: Treat `Witherbloom Command` as the flexible glue card that can combine graveyard progress, small-permanent interaction, life-buffering, or land support depending on legal modes. Choose modes from the visible board state; do not assume every mode is legal or useful. Cast it early when it kills a relevant small permanent, fills the graveyard while finding land, or stabilizes life total without sacrificing tempo. Hold it when the opponent may present a more important target next turn and the current mode is low impact. Against artifact, enchantment, graveyard, or small-creature pressure, it is a high-priority interaction card; against slow decks, use it to keep mana flowing and graveyard pressure dense.

- `Mana Confluence`: Use `Mana Confluence` as the emergency perfect fixer, not as the default land when pain-free lands cast the same spell. Play it early when it unlocks turn-one `Stitcher's Supplier` or `Otherworldly Gaze`, turn-two `Witherbloom Command`, or multi-color sequencing. Avoid unnecessary life payment against burn, aggressive starts, or races already involving shock lands. It is often the land that lets awkward hands function, but it can turn close races into losses if tapped carelessly.

- `Blooming Marsh`, `Botanical Sanctum`, and `Darkslick Shores`: Prioritize these fast lands in the first turns when they enter untapped and cast the current hand. Choose `Blooming Marsh` for black-green starts with `Stitcher's Supplier`, `Willow Geist`, or `Witherbloom Command`; choose `Botanical Sanctum` for green-blue setup involving `Otherworldly Gaze` plus green follow-up; choose `Darkslick Shores` for black-blue starts. Do not delay them until they enter tapped if they are needed for early velocity.

- `Watery Grave`, `Overgrown Tomb`, and `Breeding Pool`: Use shock lands to complete missing color pairs, but pay life only when the immediate legal action matters. `Watery Grave` supports black-blue starts, `Overgrown Tomb` supports black-green interaction and creatures, and `Breeding Pool` supports green-blue setup. Against slow decks, early untapped shocks are more acceptable; against pressure, tapped shock sequencing is often correct if no crucial spell is lost.

## Interaction Priorities
- Priority: Use `Witherbloom Command`, `Fatal Push`, `Tear Asunder`, `Duress`, `Leyline of the Void`, and `Damping Sphere` to protect the graveyard engine or buy the turn cycle needed for recursive pressure. Do not fire interaction at the first legal target if the visible board shows a higher-impact hate permanent, combo enabler, lethal attacker, or stack piece likely to matter before the next draw step.

- Removal: Point `Fatal Push` first at creatures that either shorten the clock below two full turns, block recurring attackers profitably, or enable the opponent’s engine. Use `Witherbloom Command` removal modes first on visible small permanents that shut off attacks, pressure life total, or disrupt graveyard sequencing; card text check required for exact target limits and modes. Use `Tear Asunder` first on resolved graveyard hate, lock pieces, or high-impact artifacts/enchantments before spending it on ordinary creatures or low-pressure value permanents.

- Discard: Use `Duress` to take the card that prevents the next engine turn, not merely the most expensive card. Prioritize visible hand cards that exile graveyards, counter or remove the only payoff, sweep recursive bodies, stop self-mill, or assemble a faster combo. If the hand contains both interaction and a proactive threat, take interaction when the current hand already has pressure; take the threat when the deck is behind on board and recursion is not yet online.

- Exile and lock pieces: Mulligan or sequence toward `Leyline of the Void` only when the opponent’s graveyard is strategically central or the matchup guidance says it is a sideboard anchor. Cast or deploy `Damping Sphere` when the opponent’s visible plan depends on repeated spells or large mana, but avoid spending turn two on it against creature pressure if `Stitcher's Supplier`, `Willow Geist`, `Souls of the Lost`, or self-mill creates a better stabilizing board.

- Counter and bounce handling: The registered deck has no normal counterspell or bounce package, so any legal counter or bounce action must come from a rules-engine-visible temporary effect. Choose that action only if the visible spell or permanent would stop the graveyard engine, create lethal pressure, remove multiple recursive threats, or invalidate a committed attack.

- Bait: Lead with redundant engines before unique payoffs when the opponent is representing open interaction. `Stitcher's Supplier`, `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Willow Geist`, or a medium `Souls of the Lost` can draw removal before committing `Prized Amalgam`, `Silversmote Ghoul`, `Bloodghast`, or a key `Timeline Culler` line. Do not bait with the only self-mill card if the hand otherwise cannot start the graveyard.

- Ignore: Ignore opposing creatures that neither race effectively nor block profitably if attacking and self-milling creates a faster lethal line. Ignore low-impact artifacts, enchantments, and planeswalker-adjacent value permanents unless Veles shows they affect combat, graveyards, spell volume, or immediate life total. Preserve `Tear Asunder` and `Witherbloom Command` for cards that change the legality or payoff of the deck’s core actions.

- Archetype shift: Against aggro, interaction buys life and board parity; kill attackers before utility cards and value `Creeping Chill` life swings highly. Against control, interaction clears permission, exile, and sweepers; pressure first, then use `Duress` to force a recursive turn. Against combo or big mana, prioritize `Duress` and `Damping Sphere` over fair board trades unless lethal combat is visible. Against graveyard decks, `Leyline of the Void` matters early, but do not dilute the plan so far that the deck cannot apply pressure.

## Combat And Trading Rules
- Attacks: Attack when recurring bodies make the exchange favorable even if individual creatures die. `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, and `Silversmote Ghoul` are best when they force blocks, tax removal, and return through legal trigger sequences; confirm all recursion through Veles instead of assuming a trigger will happen. Push damage aggressively when `Creeping Chill` has changed the race or when the opponent is likely to stabilize with hate or sweepers.

- Blocks: Block to preserve life total when the opponent can reduce the deck below a safe two-turn window, especially against aggressive starts. Trade `Stitcher's Supplier` readily when death or milling advances the graveyard plan. Trade recursive creatures when a legal future return is visible or likely from current public actions, but avoid risking `Willow Geist`, `Souls of the Lost`, or `Timeline Culler` if they are the only scaling threat and the board can absorb damage.

- Engine preservation: Preserve the first functional engine piece when the hand cannot replace it. Do not chump with `Willow Geist` or `Souls of the Lost` unless survival requires it or Veles shows the creature is no longer strategically important. Let `Stitcher's Supplier` die more freely than payoff creatures because its death can be part of the setup plan. Treat `Timeline Culler` as card-text-dependent; card text check required before using it as disposable combat material.

- Race thresholds: Treat life total as a resource above roughly 10 against slow decks, but tighten sharply at 8 or less against red, go-wide, or evasive pressure. Avoid unnecessary `Mana Confluence`, `Watery Grave`, `Overgrown Tomb`, or `Breeding Pool` life payments when already racing. At 5 or less, prioritize legal lines involving blockers, `Creeping Chill`, `Witherbloom Command`, and removal over marginal extra self-mill unless self-mill is the only route to immediate stabilization.

- Trades: Accept trades that convert nonrecursive opposing creatures into graveyard velocity, drain triggers, or recurring attacks. Decline trades that remove the only large `Souls of the Lost`, only growing `Willow Geist`, or only engine payoff while leaving the opponent with a faster clock. When multiple attackers are legal, send recursive creatures first and hold fragile scaling creatures if they are better as blockers.

- Protection: Protect the graveyard plan by forcing the opponent to answer many medium bodies rather than one irreplaceable threat. If the opponent has visible exile removal or graveyard hate, diversify with castable pressure from `Willow Geist`, `Souls of the Lost`, and `Timeline Culler` instead of relying only on `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, and `Silversmote Ghoul`. When `Duress` is available after sideboarding, clear interaction before attacking into a turn where a key payoff must survive.

- Archetype differences: Against aggro, block earlier and use recursive creatures as speed bumps once they can return. Against control, attack into removal and sweepers when the board can rebuild from graveyard pressure; hold extra castable threats if the current attack already demands an answer. Against combo, shorten the clock and accept worse trades if they reduce the opponent’s available turns. Against graveyard hate decks, value ordinary creature sizing and mana-efficient attacks more than speculative graveyard recursion.

## Selection And Tutor Rules
- Selection starts with graveyard access, not card search. The deck has no true tutor in the registered main deck, so treat `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Stitcher's Supplier`, `Witherbloom Command`, and any legal `Dredger's Insight` action as pseudo-selection that converts library cards into graveyard pressure; card text check required for `Dredger's Insight` before assuming draw, mill, or recursion details.

- `Otherworldly Gaze` should set up recursion before smoothing marginal value. Put `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, `Silversmote Ghoul`, and `Creeping Chill` into the graveyard when Veles shows that is legal and no immediate hate punishes the move. Keep lands on top when the hand needs a land drop to trigger `Bloodghast`, cast a second spell, pay for `Mana Confluence` alternatives, or curve into `Souls of the Lost` or `Timeline Culler`.

- `Otherworldly Gaze` flashback timing should follow information gain. Use it before a land drop if finding or binning `Bloodghast` changes the land-drop value; use it before combat if `Creeping Chill` or recursive bodies can change the race; hold it through the opponent’s turn when the current board is stable and instant-speed selection can respond to visible graveyard hate, removal, or lethal math.

- `Stitcher's Supplier` is the preferred early blind mill when the hand needs a graveyard immediately. Cast it before discretionary selection if the top of library is unknown and the deck needs volume, but cast `Otherworldly Gaze` first when the current hand specifically needs to preserve a land, avoid milling an important castable threat, or line up a known top-card sequence.

- `Witherbloom Command` selection is mode-dependent. Use its mill-and-land-return mode when Veles confirms that mode exists and the graveyard contains a useful land or the deck needs to rebuy a land drop for `Bloodghast`. Prefer removal or life-drain modes over mill when a visible creature, small noncreature permanent, or life-total swing changes survival this turn.

- Land-drop timing is a tactical choice because `Bloodghast` turns lands into pressure. Delay the land drop until after `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Stitcher's Supplier`, or a legal mill mode when the line can put `Bloodghast` into the graveyard first. Make the land drop earlier only when mana is needed to cast the selection spell, pay for a second action, or avoid losing tempo against a fast clock.

- Graveyard stocking should be selective after hate is visible. If the opponent controls or can immediately use graveyard exile, value castable `Willow Geist`, `Souls of the Lost`, and `Timeline Culler` more highly than speculative mills. If no hate is visible, prioritize cards that create automatic pressure from the graveyard over ordinary castable bodies.

- Bottoming and graveyard choices should preserve functional hands. Keep a colored land when the hand lacks black or green access, keep the first cheap engine piece when no `Stitcher's Supplier` or `Otherworldly Gaze` is available, and bin excess recursive creatures when the hand already has enough mana and a way to trigger their return. Do not bottom or mill the only visible answer to a lethal board unless another legal line wins first.

## Priority And Stack Rules
- Priority decisions should favor action when the stack is clear and the deck can add graveyard pressure. Cast `Stitcher's Supplier`, `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Willow Geist`, `Souls of the Lost`, or a legal `Dredger's Insight` line before passing if the action improves this turn’s board or next turn’s recursion. Pass when mana must be held for instant-speed `Otherworldly Gaze`, sideboard `Fatal Push`, `Tear Asunder`, or another Veles-shown interaction window.

- Let opposing spells resolve when they do not affect the graveyard engine, combat clock, life total, or a key permanent. The deck has no main-deck counterspell package, so any legal response should be used only if Veles shows a real action and the visible spell threatens graveyard access, lethal damage, a sweeper, exile, or a lock piece.

- Use `Otherworldly Gaze` at instant speed when the information or timing matters. Respond to removal only if selection can improve a replacement line, put recursive pressure into the graveyard before a land drop on the next turn, or find a stabilizing card before combat damage. Avoid spending it into open graveyard exile if waiting forces the opponent to commit first.

- Resolve recursion triggers in the order that maximizes board presence and legal follow-up. Confirm `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, and `Silversmote Ghoul` trigger choices through the rules engine; do not assume a creature returns unless Veles presents or logs the trigger. If multiple return triggers are optional or ordered, prefer the sequence that creates blockers before damage or attackers before the next combat.

- `Creeping Chill` timing is rules-driven. When Veles presents a trigger from milling `Creeping Chill`, take the life swing unless a visible replacement or prevention effect makes the action illegal or harmful. Treat the life gain as race math immediately, but do not assume future copies are available from hidden library cards.

- Optional payments and optional triggers need board-specific reasoning. Pay optional costs only when the resulting body, drain, removal, or selection advances the current clock or survival plan more than preserving mana. Decline optional value when mana is needed for visible interaction, a land-shock decision would put life total in danger, or the stack contains a must-answer threat.

- Sideboard interaction changes priority discipline. With `Duress`, act before committing a graveyard-heavy turn when the opponent may hold exile, sweeper, combo, or counterplay. With `Fatal Push`, hold priority through combat or end step if killing a visible attacker, blocker, or engine piece changes the race. With `Tear Asunder`, save it for visible hate or a permanent that blocks the deck’s plan unless lethal requires another target.

- Combat stack windows should be used for survival or lethal setup, not routine value. Cast instant-speed selection before blockers only if it can reveal `Creeping Chill`, enable recursive blockers later, or change whether an attack is profitable. After blockers, use legal removal or selection only when it changes damage, saves a key scaling creature, or creates a stronger next-turn graveyard turn.

## Sideboard Map
- `Leyline of the Void` is the graveyard mirror breaker and should enter when the opponent’s visible or expected plan uses the graveyard as a resource. Add it against recursive creature decks, graveyard combo, escape-style engines, flashback-heavy control, and decks where opposing death triggers or self-mill convert into inevitability. It is poor against creature decks that win from battlefield tempo without relying on the graveyard, and it becomes weaker on the draw when the hand cannot afford a nonfunctional midgame topdeck. Keep it when the opening hand already has lands plus one graveyard enabler or threat; question it when the hand is only `Leyline of the Void` plus slow pressure.

- `Damping Sphere` is the anti-combo and anti-big-mana role card. Add it when the opponent’s plan depends on producing multiple mana from lands, casting many spells in one turn, or resolving a chain turn before `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, and `Creeping Chill` can finish the race. It is bad against normal fair creature decks, slow removal decks that cast one spell per turn, and board states where taxing both players matters more to this deck’s ability to double-spell with `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Stitcher's Supplier`, and `Dredger's Insight`. After adding it, value land-heavy openers slightly more because this deck still needs to deploy pressure through the tax.

- `Fatal Push` is the cheap battlefield-stabilization card. Add it against low-curve creature decks, creature-combo decks with a visible must-kill engine creature, and aggressive decks where preserving life total matters more than maximizing self-mill volume. It is less useful against spell combo, graveyard decks with few creatures, and control decks whose primary threats do not line up with a small removal spell. When `Fatal Push` is present, the pilot can keep more reactive hands, but only if the hand also has a graveyard enabler or a fast threat; do not keep removal-only hands that fail to start the deck’s own engine.

- `Duress` is the proactive protection and disruption card. Add it against control, combo, sweepers, graveyard hate, exile effects, and decks whose key early play is a noncreature spell. It is bad against creature-dense aggro where the opponent can empty pressure before discard matters. Use `Duress` before committing a large self-mill sequence when the opponent may hold graveyard hate or a sweeper; use it before a threat-light keep only if the hand already has enough mana and a follow-up engine piece. `Duress` changes the deck from blind graveyard pressure into information-led sequencing, so later `Otherworldly Gaze` and land drops should account for the revealed hand.

- `Tear Asunder` is the flexible answer to permanents that stop the graveyard plan or create a battlefield lock. Add it against graveyard hate permanents, artifact or enchantment engines, and midrange decks where one permanent can invalidate recursive pressure. It is bad when the opponent has no meaningful noncreature permanent targets or when the matchup is decided before two mana interaction is efficient. Treat the kicker mode as optional upside, not the baseline plan; if Veles shows only the two-mana mode as legal, use it on the hate piece that blocks `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, `Silversmote Ghoul`, `Creeping Chill`, or graveyard access.

- Extra `Witherbloom Command` is for matchups where flexible mode density matters more than raw speed. Add it against small permanent decks, aggressive starts where life swing is relevant, graveyard mirrors where milling plus land recursion can rebuild pressure, and matchups where returning a land enables repeated `Bloodghast` triggers. It is worse against fast combo that ignores small permanents, control decks with few targets, and games where self-mill exposes the deck to graveyard hate without creating immediate pressure. After adding extra copies, prioritize hands that can cast green-black spells reliably without leaning too hard on painful `Mana Confluence` activations.

Graveyard Mirror Or Recursive Engine
Side in: 4 Leyline of the Void; 1 Tear Asunder; 2 Witherbloom Command
Cut: 2 Timeline Culler; 2 Dredger's Insight; 2 Willow Geist; 1 Souls of the Lost

- Plan rule: `Leyline of the Void` is the main reason to accept slightly slower pressure in graveyard mirrors. `Tear Asunder` answers visible hate or opposing engine permanents, while extra `Witherbloom Command` adds flexible interaction and land recursion. `Timeline Culler`, `Dredger's Insight`, `Willow Geist`, and `Souls of the Lost` lose some emphasis because the matchup can turn on graveyard denial rather than simply scaling the biggest board.

Spell Combo Or Big Mana
Side in: 4 Duress; 2 Damping Sphere
Cut: 2 Witherbloom Command; 2 Timeline Culler; 1 Souls of the Lost; 1 Dredger's Insight

- Plan rule: `Duress` and `Damping Sphere` buy the time needed for recursive creatures and `Creeping Chill` to end the game. Reduce main-deck emphasis on slower removal-like flexibility and slower body development because the opponent’s key turns often happen on the stack or through mana volume. Keep hands with early pressure plus disruption; mulligan hands that only disrupt but do not clock.

Low-Curve Creature Aggro
Side in: 2 Fatal Push; 2 Witherbloom Command
Cut: 2 Timeline Culler; 1 Dredger's Insight; 1 Otherworldly Gaze

- Plan rule: `Fatal Push` and extra `Witherbloom Command` are for survival without abandoning the graveyard clock. Preserve `Stitcher's Supplier`, `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, `Silversmote Ghoul`, and `Creeping Chill` because racing still matters. Reduce main-deck emphasis on slower selection and expensive board development when life total is under immediate pressure. Keep `Otherworldly Gaze` when the hand needs setup, but do not spend the whole early game selecting while the opponent attacks freely.

Control With Sweepers Or Exile
Side in: 4 Duress; 1 Tear Asunder
Cut: 2 Witherbloom Command; 2 Timeline Culler; 1 Stitcher's Supplier

- Plan rule: `Duress` is protection for the turn where self-mill and recursion commit multiple cards to the battlefield or graveyard. `Tear Asunder` gives one answer to a resolved hate permanent. Reduce main-deck emphasis on small removal modes and some battlefield-only pressure because control games are decided by sequencing around sweepers, exile, and graveyard shutdown. Keep recurring threats and flashback-capable selection high because they punish one-for-one removal.

Permanent-Based Hate Or Artifact/Enchantment Engine
Side in: 1 Tear Asunder; 2 Witherbloom Command; 4 Duress
Cut: 2 Timeline Culler; 2 Dredger's Insight; 2 Witherbloom Command; 1 Souls of the Lost

- Plan rule: This plan increases the chance of seeing or answering a hate permanent while keeping enough self-mill to operate. The exact `Witherbloom Command` movement is a density reset: the deck keeps two total from the main and adds two sideboard copies only when the matchup rewards all four flexible commands. If the opponent’s hate is mostly noncreature and not battlefield-based, prefer `Duress`; if it is already visible on board, prioritize `Tear Asunder` and `Witherbloom Command` lines Veles confirms as legal.

- Archetype rule: Add role cards only when they answer the opponent’s actual axis. Against unknown opponents, avoid overloading on narrow sideboard cards before seeing a graveyard, combo, permanent-hate, or creature-pressure signal. Against mixed decks, choose the package that answers the card type most likely to beat this deck: `Duress` for hidden noncreature disruption, `Fatal Push` for visible creature pressure, `Leyline of the Void` for opposing graveyard reliance, `Damping Sphere` for explosive mana or spell chains, `Tear Asunder` for permanent hate, and extra `Witherbloom Command` for flexible small-permanent and land-recursion games.

## Matchup Guidance

- Aggro: Prioritize survival only when it preserves the graveyard clock. Keep hands that produce an early `Stitcher's Supplier`, `Willow Geist`, `Bloodghast`, or `Otherworldly Gaze` setup, then race through recursive bodies and incidental `Creeping Chill` life swings. Add role cards: `Fatal Push`; `Witherbloom Command`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slower `Timeline Culler` development and selection-heavy hands that spend early turns without affecting combat. Use `Mana Confluence` carefully because every activation changes race math; prefer shocklands untapped only when Veles shows the life payment is necessary to cast a stabilizing spell or trigger a strong graveyard sequence.

- Burn: Treat life total as the primary resource gate. Keep hands that can self-mill quickly into `Creeping Chill`, cast cheap creatures, or use `Witherbloom Command` for life-relevant modes when legal. Add role cards: `Duress`; `Witherbloom Command`; sometimes `Fatal Push` if the opponent’s damage comes from creatures. Reduce main-deck emphasis: painful mana lines through repeated `Mana Confluence`, slow `Timeline Culler`, and speculative `Dredger's Insight` turns that do not add life, blockers, or immediate recursive pressure. Do not overpay life to make a better-looking graveyard if the visible board and hand already provide a legal slower route.

- Go-wide creature decks: Build a board that blocks while recurring pressure. `Stitcher's Supplier`, `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, and `Silversmote Ghoul` are important because they make repeated attacks and trades less costly. Add role cards: `Fatal Push`; `Witherbloom Command`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: single large creature reliance from `Souls of the Lost` or `Willow Geist` when the opponent can attack around one blocker. Trade recursive creatures aggressively when they can return; protect unique scaling threats only if they are the visible path to stabilizing.

- Single-threat decks: Answer or race the named threat depending on legal interaction. Add role cards: `Fatal Push`; `Tear Asunder` when the threat or support piece is an artifact or enchantment; `Duress` when the key card is a noncreature spell. Reduce main-deck emphasis: pure self-mill hands that cannot either pressure before the threat matters or interact after it appears. Use `Otherworldly Gaze` to set up recursive pressure, but do not pass with a visible removal action unused if one threat will dominate combat next turn.

- Tempo: Make them answer recursive threats repeatedly instead of investing into one fragile creature. `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, `Silversmote Ghoul`, and `Creeping Chill` are the best pressure because they punish bounce, spot removal, and counter-heavy pacing. Add role cards: `Duress`; sometimes `Fatal Push` for early evasive creatures. Reduce main-deck emphasis: mana-painful sequences and expensive turns where `Timeline Culler` or `Dredger's Insight` walks into open interaction without immediate pressure. Lead with low-cost enablers when possible; force them to spend mana before committing a larger graveyard payoff.

- Control: Play information-led pressure and avoid committing every resource into one sweeper window. Add role cards: `Duress`; `Tear Asunder` for resolved graveyard hate or lock permanents. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Witherbloom Command` modes with no visible targets and some battlefield-only creature pressure that fails into exile or sweepers. Use `Duress` before a large `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Stitcher's Supplier`, or `Dredger's Insight` commitment when legal. Keep recursive threats high because `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, and `Silversmote Ghoul` convert self-mill into repeated post-removal pressure.

- Removal-heavy midrange: Stretch their answers by diversifying threats across battlefield and graveyard. `Bloodghast` and `Prized Amalgam` are the core pressure, while `Willow Geist` and `Souls of the Lost` can punish graveyard movement or full graveyards if card text and visible legality support the line. Add role cards: `Duress`; `Tear Asunder`; sometimes extra `Witherbloom Command`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: low-impact setup that does not create a return trigger or a must-answer threat. Trade early creatures when recursion is available, but avoid exposing a single scaling creature to removal if recursive pressure is already winning.

- Big mana: Become the aggressor and disrupt the mana burst. Add role cards: `Damping Sphere`; `Duress`; sometimes `Tear Asunder` for artifact or enchantment engines. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow `Witherbloom Command` lines without a target and board plans that wait for perfect graveyard value. Mulligan hands that cannot clock; a hand with `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Stitcher's Supplier`, and recursive creatures is better than a reactive hand with no pressure. Do not spend early mana on marginal selection if `Damping Sphere` or `Duress` is legal and the opponent’s next turn is the danger point.

- Spell combo: Disruption plus clock is mandatory. Add role cards: `Duress`; `Damping Sphere`; sometimes `Leyline of the Void` if the opponent’s combo uses the graveyard. Reduce main-deck emphasis: creature interaction and slow threat-sculpting. Keep `Creeping Chill` pressure in mind because noncombat damage can shorten the opponent’s setup window. Use `Duress` before committing to a slower line, but do not keep a hand that only disrupts and fails to present `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, `Silversmote Ghoul`, `Willow Geist`, or `Souls of the Lost` pressure.

- Graveyard decks: Decide whether the game is about speed, denial, or both. Add role cards: `Leyline of the Void`; `Tear Asunder`; `Witherbloom Command`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slower self-scaling cards when opposing graveyard denial decides the game. If `Leyline of the Void` is in the opening hand, value it highly only when the opponent’s deck visibly relies on the graveyard; do not assume hidden synergy without public evidence. If both players have graveyard hate, shift toward castable threats and land drops that still enable `Bloodghast` pressure.

- Artifact or enchantment engines: Identify whether the permanent blocks the graveyard plan, races it, or merely generates value. Add role cards: `Tear Asunder`; `Witherbloom Command`; `Duress`; sometimes `Damping Sphere` for spell or mana engines. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow creature pressure that cannot beat the visible permanent. Prioritize removing hate that stops `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, `Silversmote Ghoul`, `Creeping Chill`, `Otherworldly Gaze`, or `Dredger's Insight` from converting graveyard resources into pressure. Use `Tear Asunder` on the hate piece only when Veles confirms a legal target and the board state makes the graveyard plan worth reopening.

- Midrange mirrors: Trade resources early and let recursion win long games. `Stitcher's Supplier` is a strong early body because it blocks and stocks the graveyard; `Otherworldly Gaze` is strong when it sets up multiple future triggers instead of only one card. Add role cards: `Duress`; `Fatal Push`; `Tear Asunder`; `Witherbloom Command` based on their visible threat mix. Reduce main-deck emphasis: all-in self-mill if the opponent shows graveyard hate. Choose attacks that force trades when `Bloodghast` or `Prized Amalgam` can return, but hold back when a single `Souls of the Lost` or `Willow Geist` is the only stabilizer.

- Unknown opponents: Keep the deck proactive until public information proves a different axis. Game 1 hands should start with mana plus self-mill or recursive pressure, not narrow answers. After seeing the opponent, map sideboard roles by card type: `Duress` for hidden noncreature interaction or combo, `Fatal Push` for creature pressure, `Leyline of the Void` for graveyard reliance, `Damping Sphere` for spell chains or big mana, `Tear Asunder` for artifact/enchantment hate, and `Witherbloom Command` for flexible small-permanent, life, graveyard, or land-recursion games where Veles confirms the relevant legal modes.

## Specific Matchup Notes

- General/archetype-only: Treat these notes as assumptions until the opponent reveals cards; public cards, legal actions, and Veles state output override matchup labels. Keep Game 1 proactive with `Stitcher's Supplier`, `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, `Silversmote Ghoul`, and `Creeping Chill`; shift only after visible evidence shows that removal, graveyard hate, combo speed, or creature pressure is the deciding axis.

- Against fast creature pressure: Stabilize before maximizing graveyard volume. Likely sideboarding uses `Fatal Push`, extra `Witherbloom Command`, and sometimes `Tear Asunder` if the pressure depends on artifacts or enchantments. Priority targets are visible creatures that shorten the clock, blockers that stop recursive attacks, and small permanents that make combat impossible. Do not shock or pay `Mana Confluence` life casually when `Creeping Chill` has not yet offset the race.

- Against removal-heavy midrange: Make their one-for-one answers line up poorly. Likely sideboarding uses `Duress`, `Tear Asunder`, and flexible `Witherbloom Command` when visible targets exist. Priority targets are exile-based answers, graveyard hate, and planeswalker-like or permanent engines only if Veles exposes legal interaction. Preserve recursive pressure from `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, and `Silversmote Ghoul`; avoid relying on a single `Willow Geist` or `Souls of the Lost` unless the opponent is low on visible answers.

- Against control: Lead with information and stagger threats. Likely sideboarding uses `Duress`, `Tear Asunder`, and sometimes extra `Witherbloom Command` for legal hate or small-permanent targets. Priority targets are sweepers, exile effects, graveyard hate, and permission that stops a decisive `Dredger's Insight` or `Timeline Culler` turn. Card text check required for `Dredger's Insight` and `Timeline Culler`; use them according to legal action text and visible payoff, not assumed wording.

- Against spell combo or big mana: Pair disruption with a fast clock. Likely sideboarding uses `Duress`, `Damping Sphere`, and sometimes `Leyline of the Void` only when the opponent’s revealed plan uses the graveyard. Priority targets are the revealed noncreature spell that starts the combo, the mana engine that enables the burst turn, and any artifact or enchantment engine that `Tear Asunder` can legally answer. Do not keep a hand that only disrupts while failing to pressure with recursive creatures or `Creeping Chill`.

- Against graveyard decks: Decide whether `Leyline of the Void` is worth the cost to your own plan. Likely sideboarding uses `Leyline of the Void`, `Tear Asunder`, and `Witherbloom Command` based on whether the opponent’s graveyard matters more than your graveyard. Priority targets are their graveyard enablers, hate pieces, and recursive threats. If both graveyards are constrained, value castable bodies, land drops for `Bloodghast`, and clean combat over all-in self-mill.

## Risk Summary

- Mana risk: `Mana Confluence`, `Watery Grave`, `Overgrown Tomb`, and `Breeding Pool` can make the deck deal too much damage to itself in races. Prioritize untapped colors only when the legal action materially advances pressure, interaction, or survival.

- Matchup risk: The deck can misidentify its role if it treats every opponent as slower than it is. Fast creature decks require stabilization; control and combo require pressure plus disruption; graveyard mirrors require hate-aware pacing.

- Draw risk: Hands with self-mill but no recursion can spin without a payoff, while hands with `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, `Silversmote Ghoul`, or `Creeping Chill` but no enabler can underperform. Mulligan decisions should require mana plus either an enabler, pressure, or matchup-relevant sideboard action.

- Over-sideboarding risk: Cutting too much self-mill or recursive density makes the deck a weak midrange pile. Use `Duress`, `Fatal Push`, `Damping Sphere`, `Leyline of the Void`, `Tear Asunder`, and extra `Witherbloom Command` to answer a proven axis, not to dilute the main engine preemptively.

- Graveyard risk: Opposing hate can turn `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Stitcher's Supplier`, `Dredger's Insight`, `Timeline Culler`, `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, `Silversmote Ghoul`, and `Creeping Chill` into low-impact cards. When hate is visible, prioritize legal answers and castable threats before adding more cards to a locked graveyard.

- Sweeper/removal risk: `Willow Geist` and `Souls of the Lost` can become exposed single-threat plans. Use recursive threats to pressure through removal, and avoid overcommitting nonrecursive creatures unless the opponent’s visible resources force a faster clock.

- Closer risk: The deck may fail to end the game if it self-mills without converting pressure into damage. Track whether `Creeping Chill` triggers, `Bloodghast` landfall returns, `Prized Amalgam` triggers, and `Silversmote Ghoul` recursion are actually producing lethal pressure.

- Interaction risk: `Witherbloom Command`, `Fatal Push`, `Duress`, and `Tear Asunder` are only strong when their legal targets matter. Do not fire them into low-impact targets if a near-term combo piece, hate permanent, or lethal attacker is the real priority.

- Sequencing risk: Playing lands, self-mill spells, and recursion in the wrong order can lose triggers or tempo. When Veles shows land-drop choices, graveyard actions, or return triggers, sequence to maximize visible recursive returns before passing priority.

## Test Feedback Checklist

- Deciding factor: Identify whether the game was decided by graveyard velocity, recursive pressure, mana pain, opposing hate, combat tempo, or failure to close after early setup. Record the exact turn where the game shifted and the visible board or stack state that caused the shift.

- Mulligans: Check whether kept hands had colored mana plus either `Stitcher's Supplier`, `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Dredger's Insight`, `Timeline Culler`, or a castable pressure plan. Flag keeps that had only recursive payoffs like `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, `Silversmote Ghoul`, or `Creeping Chill` with no reliable way to move cards into the graveyard.

- Mana: Review every life payment from `Mana Confluence`, `Watery Grave`, `Overgrown Tomb`, and `Breeding Pool`. Mark payments as correct only when they enabled a meaningful spell, recursion sequence, sideboard answer, or lethal/survival line.

- Velocity: Measure whether `Stitcher's Supplier`, `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Dredger's Insight`, and `Timeline Culler` actually converted into battlefield pressure or life swings. Card text check required for `Dredger's Insight` and `Timeline Culler` when judging exact tactical outcomes.

- Engine conversion: Track how often graveyard setup produced `Bloodghast` returns, `Prized Amalgam` returns, `Silversmote Ghoul` returns, `Creeping Chill` drains, `Willow Geist` pressure, or `Souls of the Lost` pressure. A self-mill turn that does not produce pressure, interaction, or future inevitability should be tagged as low conversion.

- Removal and disruption: Evaluate whether `Witherbloom Command`, `Fatal Push`, `Duress`, and `Tear Asunder` were aimed at the visible card or permanent most responsible for the opponent's plan. Note any use on a low-impact target while a hate piece, lethal attacker, combo enabler, or sweeper remained the real problem.

- Sideboard execution: Check whether each sideboarded card matched a proven opponent axis. `Leyline of the Void` should answer graveyard reliance, `Damping Sphere` should answer spell chains or big mana, `Fatal Push` should answer creature pressure, `Duress` should answer hidden noncreature pressure, `Tear Asunder` should answer artifacts or enchantments, and extra `Witherbloom Command` should have relevant legal modes.

- Closing: Record whether the deck turned early graveyard setup into lethal pressure quickly enough. Flag games where repeated setup actions delayed attacks from `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, `Silversmote Ghoul`, `Willow Geist`, or `Souls of the Lost` despite a clear damage race.

- Role: Decide whether the pilot correctly played as aggressor, stabilizer, disruption-plus-clock, or hate-aware midrange deck. Mark role mistakes where the pilot raced a faster board, over-defended against control, or diluted the engine against an opponent without relevant hate.

- Mistakes: Note any missed land-drop sequencing for `Bloodghast`, missed attack opportunities with recursive creatures, unnecessary shock-land or `Mana Confluence` damage, premature self-mill into graveyard hate, or failure to hold interaction for a higher-impact visible threat.

- Stranded cards: List cards stuck in hand and why they failed: wrong colors, no legal targets, graveyard hate, low battlefield relevance, or timing constraints. Separate stranded main-deck cards from stranded sideboard cards so tuning does not blame the wrong package.

- Overperformers and underperformers: Identify which exact cards changed outcomes rather than which cards merely appeared often. Give special attention to `Creeping Chill`, `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, `Silversmote Ghoul`, `Willow Geist`, `Souls of the Lost`, `Witherbloom Command`, and each sideboard card.

## First Tuning Questions

- Card quantities: Is the deck drawing enough enablers, or do games show too many hands with `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, `Silversmote Ghoul`, and `Creeping Chill` but no `Stitcher's Supplier`, `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Dredger's Insight`, or `Timeline Culler`? If setup is too thin, investigate whether payoff density is higher than the deck can reliably enable.

- Mana base: Is `Mana Confluence` plus shock-land damage causing losses against aggressive decks? If life loss repeatedly decides races, test whether the current balance of `Blooming Marsh`, `Botanical Sanctum`, `Darkslick Shores`, `Watery Grave`, `Overgrown Tomb`, `Breeding Pool`, and `Mana Confluence` is too painful for the required early colors.

- Aggro plan: Are `Fatal Push`, extra `Witherbloom Command`, and recursive blockers enough after sideboarding? If fast creature decks still win before `Creeping Chill` or recursion stabilizes, consider whether more cheap interaction or fewer painful lands are needed.

- Control plan: Does `Duress` plus staggered recursive pressure beat sweepers and exile effects often enough? If control wins by answering one large `Willow Geist` or `Souls of the Lost`, tune toward more resilient pressure and fewer exposed single-threat lines.

- Graveyard hate plan: Does `Tear Asunder`, `Witherbloom Command`, or a castable creature plan beat visible hate, or does the deck keep self-milling into a locked graveyard? If hate dominates, decide whether the sideboard needs more answers or the main deck needs a stronger non-graveyard fallback.

- Combo and big-mana plan: Does `Damping Sphere` plus `Duress` buy enough time for a clock? If games are lost with disruption in play but no pressure, tune toward maintaining engine density after sideboarding rather than adding more narrow answers.

- Closer package: Are `Willow Geist` and `Souls of the Lost` ending games, or are they stranded, removed, or too small too late? If recursive creatures create board presence but not lethal damage, reassess whether the deck needs different closing pressure or better protection through sequencing.

- Sideboard slots: Which sideboard card is least associated with wins: `Leyline of the Void`, `Damping Sphere`, `Fatal Push`, `Duress`, `Tear Asunder`, or extra `Witherbloom Command`? Use match logs, not assumptions, before reallocating narrow slots.

- Role conflict: Is sideboarding turning the deck into a weak control deck that no longer pressures? If post-board losses show fewer graveyard conversions and slower clocks, reduce main-deck emphasis only where the opponent's revealed plan demands it.

## Veles Tactical Policy

### Policy: Opening Hand Engine Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: mulligan
Cards: Stitcher's Supplier; Otherworldly Gaze; Dredger's Insight; Timeline Culler; Bloodghast; Prized Amalgam; Silversmote Ghoul; Creeping Chill
Phase windows: pregame, opening hand, London mulligan
Runtime cues: prompt:mulligan, opening_hand, game_number
Use when: deciding keep or mulligan before the first turn.
Avoid when: the rules engine has already locked the keep decision or hidden card identities are unavailable.
Instructions: Keep hands with colored mana plus at least one real graveyard enabler, castable pressure plan, or sideboard hate required by matchup. Mulligan hands that only contain recursive payoffs and lands unless the visible sideboard plan demands a specific hate card. Treat `Creeping Chill` in hand as lower engine value than in library or graveyard.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Early Setup Permanent
Priority: Medium
Decision families: priority; mana
Cards: Stitcher's Supplier; Willow Geist; Souls of the Lost; Otherworldly Gaze; Dredger's Insight; Timeline Culler
Phase windows: turns 1-3 main phases
Runtime cues: legal cast actions, empty stack, available mana
Use when: choosing the first proactive play that enables graveyard conversion.
Avoid when: a visible opposing threat or hate permanent must be answered immediately.
Instructions: Lead with `Stitcher's Supplier` when it is castable and graveyard setup is missing. Prefer `Willow Geist` or `Souls of the Lost` when the hand already has self-mill queued and the battlefield needs a scaling threat. Use `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Dredger's Insight`, or `Timeline Culler` to create graveyard velocity when creature setup is absent; card text check required for exact `Dredger's Insight` and `Timeline Culler` choices.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Graveyard Commitment Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: priority; selection
Cards: Otherworldly Gaze; Stitcher's Supplier; Dredger's Insight; Timeline Culler; Witherbloom Command
Phase windows: main phases, end step, response windows
Runtime cues: action:cast, action:activate, graveyard_hate_visible, opponent_open_mana
Use when: committing a self-mill or graveyard-loading action that may expose multiple payoffs.
Avoid when: a visible `Leyline of the Void` or other active exile replacement makes graveyard conversion impossible unless the line is only digging for an answer.
Instructions: Commit when the action can unlock `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, `Silversmote Ghoul`, `Creeping Chill`, `Willow Geist`, or `Souls of the Lost` before the opponent's clock closes. Wait or answer hate when visible graveyard disruption would convert the action into card loss. Respect runtime legal actions over deck theory.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Landfall Recursion Sequencing
Priority: Medium
Decision families: mana; priority
Cards: Bloodghast; Prized Amalgam; Silversmote Ghoul; Creeping Chill
Phase windows: main phases before land play
Runtime cues: land_play_available, graveyard contains Bloodghast, legal land actions
Use when: a land drop can return `Bloodghast` or enable a chain into `Prized Amalgam` or `Silversmote Ghoul`.
Avoid when: the land must be held for a known stronger post-combat or post-mill trigger shown by legal actions.
Instructions: Delay the land drop until after self-mill when the current turn can put `Bloodghast` into the graveyard first. Play the land before combat when returning attackers changes damage or blockers. Sequence shock lands and `Mana Confluence` to preserve life unless the color immediately unlocks recursion, sideboard interaction, or lethal pressure.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Exact Land Play For Bloodghast
Priority: Low
Decision families: mana
Cards: Bloodghast
Phase windows: main phases
Runtime cues: action:play land, graveyard contains Bloodghast, land_play_available
Use when: `Bloodghast` is in your graveyard, exactly one land-play action is legal, and no spell or ability is on the stack.
Avoid when: more than one land-play action is legal or any visible replacement effect changes graveyard return behavior.
Instructions: Choose the single legal land-play action to trigger the visible `Bloodghast` return path.
Pilot skill floor: low
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Painful Mana Conservation
Priority: Medium
Decision families: mana
Cards: Mana Confluence; Watery Grave; Overgrown Tomb; Breeding Pool; Blooming Marsh; Botanical Sanctum; Darkslick Shores
Phase windows: all payment windows
Runtime cues: pay_life, shock_land_choice, source_choice
Use when: selecting lands or mana sources for castable spells and abilities.
Avoid when: lethal, survival, or a required sideboard answer demands the painful source now.
Instructions: Use painless lands first when they produce the required colors this turn. Pay life from `Mana Confluence`, `Watery Grave`, `Overgrown Tomb`, or `Breeding Pool` only for a spell, trigger, or answer that changes pressure, recursion, hate, or survival. Do not preserve life by skipping a decisive engine conversion.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Recursive Threat Attack Discipline
Priority: Medium
Decision families: combat
Cards: Bloodghast; Prized Amalgam; Silversmote Ghoul; Willow Geist; Souls of the Lost
Phase windows: declare attackers, combat damage setup
Runtime cues: attackers_prompt, visible blockers, life totals
Use when: choosing attacks with recursive creatures or scaling threats.
Avoid when: a visible crack-back, lifelink race, or required blocker changes survival math.
Instructions: Attack aggressively with recursive creatures when trades still preserve graveyard pressure. Hold back `Willow Geist` or `Souls of the Lost` when losing the creature would remove the only credible clock or blocker. Prefer damage over idle setup once recursion has created multiple bodies.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Survival Blocking Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: combat
Cards: Stitcher's Supplier; Bloodghast; Prized Amalgam; Silversmote Ghoul; Willow Geist; Souls of the Lost
Phase windows: declare blockers
Runtime cues: blockers_prompt, lethal_on_board, short_clock
Use when: the opponent attacks and visible damage threatens lethal or a two-turn clock.
Avoid when: blocking sacrifices the only route to lethal on the return attack and life total remains outside visible lethal range.
Instructions: Block first to prevent lethal, then to preserve a stabilizing life total, then to trade recursive bodies for nonrecursive pressure. `Stitcher's Supplier` can block to mill when the board needs graveyard conversion. Do not throw away a large `Willow Geist` or `Souls of the Lost` unless survival requires it.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Witherbloom Command Mode Gate
Priority: Medium
Decision families: interaction; selection
Cards: Witherbloom Command
Phase windows: main phases, legal sorcery-speed windows
Runtime cues: action:cast Witherbloom Command, mode_prompt, target_prompt
Use when: choosing modes or targets for `Witherbloom Command`.
Avoid when: the relevant mode text or target legality is unclear; card text check required for exact mode evaluation.
Instructions: Prioritize a visible hate permanent, lethal small creature, needed land return, or self-mill conversion according to runtime mode text. Do not spend `Witherbloom Command` on low-impact damage or milling while a visible artifact, enchantment, creature, or land axis is the real blocker.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Duress Opponent Target
Priority: Low
Decision families: interaction
Cards: Duress
Phase windows: target selection after casting Duress
Runtime cues: action:target opponent Duress
Use when: the legal target list for `Duress` contains exactly one opponent and no other player target.
Avoid when: multiple opponent or player targets are legal.
Instructions: Choose the single opponent target for `Duress`.
Pilot skill floor: low
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Hand Disruption Selection
Priority: High
Decision families: interaction; selection
Cards: Duress
Phase windows: resolution choice after opponent hand reveal
Runtime cues: revealed_hand, action:choose, source:Duress
Use when: selecting a noncreature nonland card from the revealed hand.
Avoid when: no legal revealed card exists.
Instructions: Take the revealed card that most directly stops the current plan: graveyard hate, sweeper, combo piece, removal for the only threat, or high-impact card draw. Against unknown future threats, prefer the card that interacts with `Bloodghast`, `Prized Amalgam`, `Silversmote Ghoul`, `Willow Geist`, or `Souls of the Lost` already visible in your plan.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Fatal Push Removal Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: interaction
Cards: Fatal Push
Phase windows: priority windows, combat, main phases
Runtime cues: action:cast Fatal Push, target_creature, lethal_on_board
Use when: choosing whether to spend `Fatal Push` or selecting its creature target.
Avoid when: the target is low pressure and a stronger visible creature or combo enabler is likely to require the answer this turn.
Instructions: Use `Fatal Push` to stop lethal, protect a decisive attack, remove a hate creature, or break a tempo race. Do not fire it merely because mana is available. Respect exact legality and revolt-like runtime text if exposed by the engine.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Graveyard Hate Answer Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: interaction; priority
Cards: Tear Asunder; Witherbloom Command
Phase windows: main phases, legal interaction windows
Runtime cues: visible artifact, visible enchantment, action:cast Tear Asunder, action:cast Witherbloom Command
Use when: a visible artifact or enchantment suppresses graveyard use, recursion, or lethal pressure.
Avoid when: the hate permanent does not affect the current battlefield plan and spending the answer loses the race.
Instructions: Remove graveyard hate before loading more payoffs into exile or replacement effects. Use `Tear Asunder` or `Witherbloom Command` according to legal targets, mana, and mode text. Preserve the answer if the current plan can win through the hate without exposing additional resources.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Creeping Chill Trigger Resolution
Priority: Low
Decision families: priority
Cards: Creeping Chill
Phase windows: triggered ability resolution
Runtime cues: action:resolve Creeping Chill, trigger:Creeping Chill
Use when: a `Creeping Chill` trigger is on the stack and the only legal action is to resolve or acknowledge that trigger.
Avoid when: the engine offers a target, optional payment, or alternate choice beyond resolving the visible trigger.
Instructions: Resolve the visible `Creeping Chill` trigger according to engine output.
Pilot skill floor: low
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Sideboard Role Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: sideboard
Cards: Leyline of the Void; Damping Sphere; Fatal Push; Duress; Tear Asunder; Witherbloom Command
Phase windows: between games
Runtime cues: sideboard_prompt, opponent_archetype, revealed_cards, game_number
Use when: choosing a sideboard plan after Game 1 or Game 2.
Avoid when: the exact registered 75 validation fails.
Instructions: Add `Leyline of the Void` only for graveyard reliance, `Damping Sphere` for spell chains or big mana, `Fatal Push` for creature pressure, `Duress` for noncreature disruption or combo, `Tear Asunder` for artifact or enchantment hate, and extra `Witherbloom Command` when its legal modes match visible axes. Preserve enough enablers and payoffs that the deck still pressures.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Leyline Pregame Placement
Priority: Medium
Decision families: pregame
Cards: Leyline of the Void
Phase windows: pregame opening-hand effect
Runtime cues: action:put Leyline of the Void onto battlefield, opening_hand contains Leyline of the Void
Use when: `Leyline of the Void` is in the opening hand and the engine offers its pregame battlefield action.
Avoid when: the matchup plan did not sideboard `Leyline of the Void` for graveyard reliance and the action is somehow optional with hidden costs exposed by the engine.
Instructions: Put `Leyline of the Void` onto the battlefield when it is in the opener and was included for the matchup's graveyard axis.
Pilot skill floor: low
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Priority Pass Under Pressure
Priority: Medium
Decision families: priority
Cards: Bloodghast; Prized Amalgam; Silversmote Ghoul; Willow Geist; Souls of the Lost; Fatal Push; Witherbloom Command; Tear Asunder; Duress
Phase windows: all priority windows
Runtime cues: action:pass, legal_actions, short_clock, interaction_available
Use when: deciding whether to pass priority with castable action available.
Avoid when: passing allows visible lethal, wastes mana before a required landfall line, or misses an answer to a known hate piece.
Instructions: Pass only when available actions do not improve pressure, survival, disruption, or graveyard conversion this window. Cast interaction before pass when the target is threatening lethal or blocking the engine. Preserve instant-speed action only when the opponent's next visible step creates a better window.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes
