# Strategy Specifications
## Deck Name And Archetype
Golgari Token Spellslinger Burn Pauper EDH is a Pauper Commander deck built around `Broodspinner` as the command-zone identity card, with a validated 100-card singleton main deck and a 10-card Veles policy sideboard. The active validation contract says the list passes Pauper Commander sizing rules: exactly 100 main-deck cards with singleton constraints outside basic lands, 11 `Forest`, 11 `Swamp`, and exactly 10 registered sideboard cards when sideboarding policy is enabled. Do not apply 60-card constructed deck-size warnings to this list.

The deck should be treated as a rogue hybrid strategy rather than a stock archetype. Its declared tags are burn, combo, graveyard, tokens, and tribal, but the tactical identity is more specific: generate expendable bodies, convert bodies into cards or damage triggers, use graveyard and selection tools to keep material flowing, and finish through drain/burn-style pressure or a board that turns small creatures into meaningful damage. Runtime decisions must still follow legal actions first, visible board state second, and this guide third.

The commander status matters, but exact `Broodspinner` text must be checked whenever a decision depends on a specific trigger, cost, body size, token type, or activated ability. Card text check required for `Broodspinner` until the rules engine exposes the relevant legal action labels and visible triggered/activated ability text. The pilot should not assume a commander effect is available unless Veles lists it as a legal action or visible object text confirms the relevant state.

The main deck is Golgari but has several colorless or utility lands that can create opening-hand tension. `Command Tower`, `Golgari Rot Farm`, `Witherbloom Campus`, `Crystal Grotto`, `Hidden Grotto`, `Conduit Pylons`, `Holdout Settlement`, `Survivors' Encampment`, `Tree of Tales`, `Vault of Whispers`, `Tocasia's Dig Site`, `Titan's Grave`, `Rumble Arena`, `Desert`, `Bojuka Bog`, and `Khalni Garden` should be evaluated as functional only according to their visible legal mana actions at runtime. Do not keep a hand merely because it has lands; keep it because it can cast early green or black setup, interaction, sacrifice, draw, or token production on time.

The role package is intentionally broad and synergy-driven, so the agent should avoid generic commander heuristics that name absent staples. The registered deck does not contain `Sol Ring`, `Arcane Signet`, `Lightning Greaves`, `Swiftfoot Boots`, or broad tutor packages unless a named card appears in the decklist. Policy and explanations must use exact registered names such as `Carrion Feeder`, `Viscera Seer`, `Village Rites`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Fanatical Offering`, `Reckoner's Bargain`, `Mirkwood Bats`, `Nadier's Nightblade`, `Siege Zombie`, `Chatterstorm`, `Saproling Migration`, `Scatter the Seeds`, `Night Soil`, `Crawling Infestation`, `Grisly Salvage`, `Malevolent Rumble`, and `Crop Rotation` rather than format shorthand.

The legality concern is not deck construction; it is runtime action ownership. The pilot must never invent a sacrifice target, graveyard target, token line, damage outcome, storm count, combat result, or sideboard change that the rules engine has not made legal. If a line appears strategically correct but Veles does not list the needed action, choose among the listed legal actions and record the limitation in the decision reason.

Opponent information status is unknown at guide load. No specific opposing commander, colors, graveyard plan, storm plan, flyers, artifacts, enchantments, sweepers, or removal suite has been supplied. Matchup decisions should infer only from revealed commanders, visible permanents, public zones, legal action prompts, known sideboard stage, and logged revealed information. Sideboard cards such as `Duress`, `Crypt Rats`, `Weather the Storm`, `Snuff Out`, `Chainer's Edict`, `Faerie Macabre`, `Scattershot Archer`, `Gleeful Sabotage`, `Wrap in Vigor`, and `Spore Frog` are registered options, but the agent should commit them only through explicit sideboard plans or matchup sections that match observed opponent roles.

## Thesis
Golgari Token Spellslinger Burn Pauper EDH assembles a board of expendable creatures and tokens, then turns that material into damage, drain, cards, selection, mana pressure, and combat leverage. The deck is strongest when it has at least one body-maker or cheap creature, one conversion outlet, and one payoff such as `Mirkwood Bats`, `Nadier's Nightblade`, `Siege Zombie`, `Black Mage's Rod`, or a large token turn involving `Chatterstorm`, `Saproling Migration`, `Scatter the Seeds`, `Fists of Ironwood`, `Chatter of the Squirrel`, `Khalni Garden`, `Blisterpod`, `Nested Shambler`, `Eldrazi Repurposer`, `Eyeblight Cullers`, or `Undercellar Myconid`.

Prioritize material loops over isolated card quality. `Carrion Feeder`, `Viscera Seer`, `Witch's Cauldron`, `Bushmeat Poacher`, `Village Rites`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Fanatical Offering`, `Reckoner's Bargain`, `Eviscerator's Insight`, `Bequeathal`, and `Casting of Bones` should convert creatures that are already outclassed, doomed, enchanted, or replaceable into new cards or board texture. Do not sacrifice the only pressure piece, the only convoke body, or a commander-dependent engine piece unless the legal action wins, prevents a major loss, or keeps the deck from stalling.

Win by stacking small advantages into an unavoidable finish. Drain and burn-style cards reward creature death, artifact sacrifice, token volume, spell volume, or tapped-creature pressure, while the board plan forces the opponent to respect chump blocks, convoke, sacrifice value, and chip attacks. `You Are Already Dead`, `Tragic Slip`, `Vendetta`, `Scarblade's Malice`, `Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher`, `Zuko's Exile`, `Return to Nature`, `Heritage Reclamation`, and `Nihil Spellbomb` should clear blockers, answer engines, or disrupt graveyard/artifact/enchantment plans only when the visible target matters more than preserving the answer.

Do not pilot this list as a generic ramp deck, a pure aristocrats deck, or a pure control deck. `Journey of Discovery`, `Explore`, `Caravan Vigil`, `Harrow`, `Nissa's Pilgrimage`, `Return from the Wilds`, `Arboreal Grazer`, `Skyshroud Ranger`, `Sakura-Tribe Scout`, `Utopia Sprawl`, `Crop Rotation`, and the utility lands support the token-sacrifice engine; they are not the finish by themselves. `Broodspinner` is the command-zone identity card, but card text check required before assuming exact triggers, token production, costs, or combat stats.

## Role Package
- Threats: Use `Broodspinner`, `Carrion Feeder`, `Mirkwood Bats`, `Nadier's Nightblade`, `Siege Zombie`, `Elfsworn Giant`, `Howling Golem`, `Undercellar Myconid`, `Infestation Sage`, `Nezumi Linkbreaker`, and token makers as the visible pressure suite. Treat exact threat sizing, tap abilities, and commander synergies as rules-engine dependent when card text is not visible.

- Payoffs: Convert death, sacrifice, token creation, spell volume, and tapped-creature density through `Mirkwood Bats`, `Nadier's Nightblade`, `Siege Zombie`, `Black Mage's Rod`, `Chatterstorm`, `Mobilize`, `Presence of Gond`, and `Consuming Sepulcher` if transformed or otherwise legally available. Card text check required for any payoff whose trigger condition or activation cost is not exposed by Veles.

- Engines: Build repeatable value around `Crawling Infestation`, `Night Soil`, `Presence of Gond`, `Witch's Cauldron`, `Bushmeat Poacher`, `Carrion Feeder`, `Viscera Seer`, `Tocasia's Dig Site`, `Witherbloom Campus`, and commander access to `Broodspinner`. Prefer engines that leave bodies behind or turn spare bodies into cards before engines that only improve future draws.

- Velocity: Use `Village Rites`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Fanatical Offering`, `Reckoner's Bargain`, `Eviscerator's Insight`, `Sign in Blood`, `Night's Whisper`, `Funeral Rites`, `Grisly Salvage`, `Malevolent Rumble`, `You Meet in a Tavern`, `Bequeathal`, `Casting of Bones`, and `Explore` to keep the deck moving. Sequence draw before land drops when the legal action can change the land or spell for the turn.

- Interaction: Hold `Vendetta`, `Tragic Slip`, `You Are Already Dead`, `Scarblade's Malice`, `Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher`, `Zuko's Exile`, `Return to Nature`, `Heritage Reclamation`, `Nihil Spellbomb`, `Bojuka Bog`, and `Desert` for visible threats, graveyards, blockers, or permanent types that interrupt the engine or shorten the clock. Do not spend narrow answers on low-impact targets just because mana is available.

- Protection: Protect the engine through timing, sacrifice discipline, and selective use of `Not Dead After All`; sideboard protection comes from `Wrap in Vigor`, `Spore Frog`, and `Weather the Storm` when the matchup calls for survival. Prefer preserving payoff permanents over saving random tokens unless the token is required for a legal lethal, convoke, sacrifice, or commander line.

- Recursion: Treat `Not Dead After All`, `Funeral Rites`, `Night Soil`, `Crawling Infestation`, `Bequeathal`, and graveyard-selection cards as the deck's practical recursion or resource-rebuy layer. Card text check required before assuming exact zone movement from `Eviscerator's Insight`, `Casting of Bones`, `Zuko's Exile`, `Return from the Wilds`, or `Malevolent Rumble`.

- Mana: Stabilize both colors with `Command Tower`, `Golgari Rot Farm`, `Crystal Grotto`, `Hidden Grotto`, `Conduit Pylons`, `Witherbloom Campus`, `Tree of Tales`, `Vault of Whispers`, `Forest`, `Swamp`, `Utopia Sprawl`, `Harrow`, `Nissa's Pilgrimage`, `Journey of Discovery`, and creature-land helpers. Use `Holdout Settlement` and `Survivors' Encampment` only when tapping a creature does not cost a more important attack, block, sacrifice, or `Siege Zombie` line.

- Sideboard modules: `Duress` fights visible or expected spell-heavy disruption, `Crypt Rats` resets creature boards, `Weather the Storm` buys time against burst damage, `Snuff Out` and `Chainer's Edict` increase removal density, `Faerie Macabre` adds graveyard interaction, `Scattershot Archer` pressures flyers, `Gleeful Sabotage` answers artifacts/enchantments, `Wrap in Vigor` protects from sweepers, and `Spore Frog` covers combat-race emergencies.

## Primary Win Conditions
- Drain-conversion win: Prioritize `Mirkwood Bats`, `Nadier's Nightblade`, `Siege Zombie`, and `Black Mage's Rod` when the hand or battlefield already contains token material and sacrifice outlets. Set up with `Chatterstorm`, `Saproling Migration`, `Scatter the Seeds`, `Fists of Ironwood`, `Chatter of the Squirrel`, `Khalni Garden`, `Blisterpod`, `Nested Shambler`, `Eldrazi Repurposer`, `Eyeblight Cullers`, `Undercellar Myconid`, or `Broodspinner`; card text check required before assuming exact `Broodspinner` token or trigger behavior. Execute by landing the payoff before mass sacrifice, then convert expendable creatures through `Carrion Feeder`, `Viscera Seer`, `Witch's Cauldron`, `Bushmeat Poacher`, `Village Rites`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Fanatical Offering`, `Reckoner's Bargain`, or `Eviscerator's Insight`. Protect the line by not sacrificing the last payoff creature or the last convoke body unless the visible legal action advances lethal, prevents lethal, or replaces the resource immediately. Prioritize this path when combat is stalled, the opponent has few visible answers, or repeated small life loss is safer than attacking.

- Wide-board pressure win: Build a board that turns spare bodies into damage, taps, and forced blocks before committing draw-only engines. Set up with early creatures, token makers, `Presence of Gond`, `Mobilize`, `You Meet in a Tavern`, and land acceleration from `Explore`, `Journey of Discovery`, `Harrow`, `Nissa's Pilgrimage`, `Return from the Wilds`, `Arboreal Grazer`, `Skyshroud Ranger`, `Sakura-Tribe Scout`, and `Utopia Sprawl`. Execute by attacking when profitable, tapping creatures for `Siege Zombie` if that legal action produces a safer clock than combat, and using `Scatter the Seeds` or `Chatterstorm` after earlier spells when visible storm or convoke value is available. Disruption risk is sweepers, flyers racing over tokens, and removal on payoff permanents; preserve `Not Dead After All` for the creature whose survival keeps the clock or engine intact. Prioritize this path when the opponent is low on blockers, life total pressure matters more than cards, or sacrifice payoffs are not visible.

- Attrition-engine win: Convert low-impact bodies into cards until the opponent runs out of answers. Set up `Crawling Infestation`, `Night Soil`, `Witch's Cauldron`, `Bushmeat Poacher`, `Tocasia's Dig Site`, `Witherbloom Campus`, `Grisly Salvage`, `Malevolent Rumble`, `Sign in Blood`, `Night's Whisper`, and `Funeral Rites` while holding enough bodies to block or convoke. Execute by trading creatures, sacrificing doomed material, and using graveyard or selection effects to find payoff permanents, removal, or more token production. Disruption risk is graveyard pressure and tempo loss from spending mana without affecting board; use `Nihil Spellbomb` and `Bojuka Bog` against opposing graveyard engines, but do not fire them if your own graveyard plan is the stronger visible resource. Prioritize this path when neither player can end the game quickly and the battlefield rewards repeated small exchanges.

## Secondary Win Conditions
- Commander fallback: Use `Broodspinner` as a recurring command-zone threat or engine only when the legal action and visible text justify the mana. Card text check required before assuming attack stats, token output, sacrifice value, or trigger timing. Recast through commander tax when the hand lacks another payoff and the board can defend the tempo loss.

- Removal-into-pressure line: Turn `Vendetta`, `Tragic Slip`, `You Are Already Dead`, `Scarblade's Malice`, `Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher`, `Zuko's Exile`, `Desert`, `Return to Nature`, and `Heritage Reclamation` into damage by clearing the one blocker, flyer, engine creature, artifact, or enchantment that stops the current plan. Use `Consuming Sepulcher` only if the transformed or available face is legal and visibly advances a win. Do not spend premium interaction on a small creature that tokens can block unless life total, evasion, or a combo role makes it urgent.

- Big-creature and chip-combat line: Let `Carrion Feeder`, `Elfsworn Giant`, `Howling Golem`, `Nezumi Linkbreaker`, `Infestation Sage`, `Undercellar Myconid`, and incidental tokens force damage when drain payoffs are absent. Card text check required for exact combat sizing or triggered abilities not shown by Veles. Trade tokens freely when the trade fuels `Nadier's Nightblade`, `Mirkwood Bats`, death-trigger draw, or a post-combat sacrifice spell.

- Utility-land pressure and stabilization: Use `Bojuka Bog`, `Desert`, `Tocasia's Dig Site`, `Witherbloom Campus`, `Hidden Grotto`, `Crystal Grotto`, `Conduit Pylons`, `Holdout Settlement`, `Survivors' Encampment`, `Tree of Tales`, `Vault of Whispers`, and `Golgari Rot Farm` as role players, not standalone plans. Tap creatures to `Holdout Settlement` or `Survivors' Encampment` only when that mana beats attacking, blocking, sacrificing, or activating `Siege Zombie`.

## Emergency Lines
- Behind on life: Stabilize before engine greed. Block with expendable tokens, convert dying blockers with `Village Rites`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Fanatical Offering`, `Reckoner's Bargain`, `Witch's Cauldron`, or `Bushmeat Poacher`, and spend `Vendetta`, `Tragic Slip`, `Scarblade's Malice`, or `Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher` on the visible threat that changes the clock. Avoid `Sign in Blood`, `Night's Whisper`, and other life-costing or tempo-negative plays unless they find immediate survival.

- Behind on board: Reset the exchange by making multiple bodies or answering the largest pressure point. Prioritize `Saproling Migration`, `Scatter the Seeds`, `Fists of Ironwood`, `Chatter of the Squirrel`, `Chatterstorm`, `Eldrazi Repurposer`, `Eyeblight Cullers`, `Undercellar Myconid`, and `Mobilize` when blockers are needed, and use removal only where a token wall cannot absorb the attack.

- Behind on cards: Sacrifice creatures that are already outclassed, enchanted by `Bequeathal`, marked to die, or no longer needed for convoke. Use `Sign in Blood`, `Night's Whisper`, `Funeral Rites`, `Grisly Salvage`, `Malevolent Rumble`, `You Meet in a Tavern`, `Casting of Bones`, and repeatable outlets to rebuild, but keep at least one body if the next turn requires blocking or `Siege Zombie` pressure.

- Behind on mana: Choose land drops and fixing over speculative engines. Use `Caravan Vigil`, `Explore`, `Journey of Discovery`, `Harrow`, `Nissa's Pilgrimage`, `Return from the Wilds`, `Utopia Sprawl`, `Arboreal Grazer`, `Skyshroud Ranger`, and `Sakura-Tribe Scout` to reach both colors, then resume payoff sequencing once the deck can cast two relevant spells in a turn.

- Behind on engines or graveyard: Pivot from recursion to visible board value. If `Crawling Infestation`, `Night Soil`, payoff creatures, or graveyard resources are removed, stop holding sacrifice spells for ideal triggers and cash in material for cards, removal, or tokens. Use `Bojuka Bog` and `Nihil Spellbomb` defensively only when opposing graveyard value is more dangerous than preserving your own delayed resources.

- Win conditions removed: Shift to commander recast, chip attacks, `Siege Zombie` tap pressure, and attrition draw. Treat every remaining creature as either damage, a blocker, a convoke resource, or sacrifice fuel; do not concede inevitability unless the rules engine has ended the game.

## Resource Model
- Life is a spendable buffer only when the exchange preserves a higher-value engine or stops a faster clock. Use `Vendetta`, `Sign in Blood`, `Night's Whisper`, and `Funeral Rites` with current life total, opposing visible attack power, and likely next-turn pressure in view; avoid paying life for cards when blockers, removal, or `Weather the Storm`-style recovery would be needed to survive.

- Hand size is the deck's permission to keep spending small pieces. Convert cards into board through `Saproling Migration`, `Fists of Ironwood`, `Chatter of the Squirrel`, `Blisterpod`, `Nested Shambler`, `Eldrazi Repurposer`, `Eyeblight Cullers`, `Undercellar Myconid`, `Mobilize`, and `Scatter the Seeds`; convert creatures back into cards through `Village Rites`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Fanatical Offering`, `Reckoner's Bargain`, `Eviscerator's Insight`, `Witch's Cauldron`, and `Bushmeat Poacher` when the sacrificed permanent is expendable, doomed, or worth more as a trigger.

- Mana is the bottleneck for double-spell turns, commander recasts, convoke, and holding interaction. Prioritize reaching both black and green before slow engines, then use excess mana on `Tocasia's Dig Site`, `Witherbloom Campus`, `Night Soil`, `Witch's Cauldron`, `Bushmeat Poacher`, or command-zone recasts only when board safety is stable.

- Board material is both offense and fuel. Keep enough creatures to block, convoke `Scatter the Seeds`, tap for `Siege Zombie`, tap with `Holdout Settlement` or `Survivors' Encampment`, and sacrifice for value; sacrifice only the body whose loss least harms combat unless `Nadier's Nightblade`, `Mirkwood Bats`, `Carrion Feeder`, `Viscera Seer`, `Casting of Bones`, `Bequeathal`, or a death-window draw spell changes the payoff.

- Graveyard is a delayed resource, not a dump zone to ignore. `Grisly Salvage`, `Malevolent Rumble`, `Funeral Rites`, `Crawling Infestation`, `Night Soil`, and `Not Dead After All` can make graveyard texture matter; fire `Bojuka Bog` or `Nihil Spellbomb` at the opponent only when their graveyard value, combo, or recursion is more dangerous than preserving your own graveyard plans.

- Exile is mostly a public accounting zone for resolved graveyard hate and temporary permissions. Respect Veles-visible exile when choosing `Return from the Wilds`, `Zuko's Exile`, flashback-like legal actions, or graveyard hate timing; do not assume an exiled card can be used unless the rules engine exposes a legal action.

- Lands are spells in this deck when they fix, make tokens, enable graveyard control, or provide late selection. Treat `Khalni Garden`, `Bojuka Bog`, `Desert`, `Hidden Grotto`, `Crystal Grotto`, `Conduit Pylons`, `Tocasia's Dig Site`, `Witherbloom Campus`, `Tree of Tales`, `Vault of Whispers`, and `Golgari Rot Farm` as tactical resources with timing costs, not interchangeable mana sources.

- Information turns discard, removal, and sideboard bullets into precision tools. Use public zones, revealed hands, legal action text, and prior decisions to aim `Duress`, `Faerie Macabre`, `Snuff Out`, `Chainer's Edict`, `Crypt Rats`, `Scattershot Archer`, `Gleeful Sabotage`, `Wrap in Vigor`, `Spore Frog`, and `Weather the Storm`; never name hidden cards or assume a role card is correct without visible matchup pressure.

## Mana Guide
- Keep mana hands that cast early green setup or black interaction with a believable second color path. A strong keep has two or more mana sources, at least one green source for `Utopia Sprawl`, `Caravan Vigil`, `Explore`, `Journey of Discovery`, `Harrow`, `Nissa's Pilgrimage`, `Return from the Wilds`, `Arboreal Grazer`, `Skyshroud Ranger`, or `Sakura-Tribe Scout`, or at least one black source with cheap action like `Viscera Seer`, `Carrion Feeder`, `Village Rites`, `Vendetta`, `Tragic Slip`, `Nihil Spellbomb`, or `Night's Whisper`.

- Mulligan mana hands that cannot produce both colors in time to affect the board. One-land hands need a legal and castable acceleration path, not just expensive payoffs; colorless-heavy hands with `Desert`, `Tocasia's Dig Site`, `Conduit Pylons`, `Tree of Tales`, or `Vault of Whispers` need visible fixing from `Command Tower`, `Golgari Rot Farm`, `Crystal Grotto`, `Hidden Grotto`, `Holdout Settlement`, `Survivors' Encampment`, `Witherbloom Campus`, `Forest`, or `Swamp`.

- Sequence tapped and utility lands around the first real play. Lead with `Khalni Garden`, `Bojuka Bog`, `Golgari Rot Farm`, `Witherbloom Campus`, `Hidden Grotto`, or `Tocasia's Dig Site` when the turn has no urgent one-mana spell; lead untapped colored lands when the hand needs `Utopia Sprawl`, `Caravan Vigil`, `Carrion Feeder`, `Viscera Seer`, `Vendetta`, `Tragic Slip`, or `Village Rites` now.

- Choose `Utopia Sprawl` targets conservatively. Put it on a `Forest` that is likely to remain available, choose the color that completes the hand's next two turns, and prefer black if green is already abundant but black cards are stranded; verify the legal color choice exposed by Forge rather than assuming all colors are offered.

- Use land-search spells to fix before accelerating greedily. `Caravan Vigil`, `Journey of Discovery`, `Harrow`, `Nissa's Pilgrimage`, `Crop Rotation`, and `Return from the Wilds` should find missing colors, protect future commander tax, or unlock double-spell turns before they chase marginal landfall or graveyard value. `Harrow` and `Crop Rotation` sacrifice lands as costs, so avoid them when losing that land breaks a current or next-turn legal line unless the searched land immediately solves the problem.

- Play lands before draw when the land drop is forced or needed to cast the draw spell. If the hand already has the only legal land drop and mana is needed for `Sign in Blood`, `Night's Whisper`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Fanatical Offering`, `Reckoner's Bargain`, `Grisly Salvage`, or `Malevolent Rumble`, play it first.

- Draw or select before land when the land choice can change. Use `Grisly Salvage`, `Malevolent Rumble`, `Night's Whisper`, `Sign in Blood`, `Funeral Rites`, `Tocasia's Dig Site`, `Witherbloom Campus`, `Crystal Grotto`, or `Hidden Grotto` before the land drop if the deck may reveal a better colored source, `Khalni Garden` for a body, `Bojuka Bog` for timing, or an untapped land needed for interaction.

- Tap creature-based lands only after checking combat and sacrifice value. `Holdout Settlement` and `Survivors' Encampment` can turn any creature into fixing, but the tapped creature cannot also block, attack, convoke, tap for `Siege Zombie`, or be held as a sacrifice shield that turn; use them when the spell cast is worth more than that creature's immediate board role.

## Mulligan Guide
- Strong keeps start with castable mana plus early material. Keep two- or three-land hands with both colors, `Command Tower`, or a clear fixer plus one early body or setup spell such as `Arboreal Grazer`, `Sakura-Tribe Scout`, `Skyshroud Ranger`, `Utopia Sprawl`, `Caravan Vigil`, `Blisterpod`, `Chatter of the Squirrel`, `Nested Shambler`, `Viscera Seer`, or `Carrion Feeder`, especially when the hand also has `Village Rites`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Fanatical Offering`, `Night's Whisper`, `Sign in Blood`, `Grisly Salvage`, or `Malevolent Rumble`.

- Medium keeps need one missing piece but have time to find it. Keep a one-color hand with `Forest` plus `Caravan Vigil`, `Utopia Sprawl`, `Explore`, `Journey of Discovery`, `Nissa's Pilgrimage`, `Return from the Wilds`, or `Harrow` when it already has cheap green plays; keep a black-heavy hand with `Swamp`, `Night's Whisper`, `Sign in Blood`, `Village Rites`, `Vendetta`, `Tragic Slip`, or `Nihil Spellbomb` when it has either a second land or an early draw path toward green.

- Risky keeps are acceptable only with a visible low-curve path. A one-land `Forest` hand can stay on the draw with `Utopia Sprawl` plus `Caravan Vigil` or `Explore`; a one-land `Swamp` hand can stay only with multiple one-mana black actions and draw, such as `Carrion Feeder`, `Viscera Seer`, `Village Rites`, or `Night's Whisper`, and should ship on the play without a second mana source or selection spell.

- Automatic ships fail mana, board, or action density. Mulligan zero-land hands, five-plus-land hands without `Tocasia's Dig Site`, `Witherbloom Campus`, `Hidden Grotto`, `Crystal Grotto`, draw, or commander access; colorless-heavy hands built around `Desert`, `Tocasia's Dig Site`, `Tree of Tales`, `Vault of Whispers`, or `Conduit Pylons` with no colored source; and hands containing only sacrifice payoffs like `Village Rites`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Reckoner's Bargain`, or `Eviscerator's Insight` with no expendable permanent.

- Matchup-dependent keeps should answer the opponent's pressure type. Keep `Nihil Spellbomb`, `Bojuka Bog`, `Night Soil`, or `Faerie Macabre` only when graveyard pressure is known or likely; keep `Vendetta`, `Tragic Slip`, `Scarblade's Malice`, `Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher`, or `Snuff Out` higher against creature commanders; keep `Return to Nature`, `Heritage Reclamation`, or `Gleeful Sabotage` higher only when artifacts or enchantments are visible in the matchup context.

- Play/draw changes the tolerance for tapped lands and slow draw. On the play, prioritize untapped colored mana and a turn-one body or fixer; on the draw, accept `Golgari Rot Farm`, `Khalni Garden`, `Bojuka Bog`, `Witherbloom Campus`, or `Hidden Grotto` starts when the next two turns still produce a spell.

- Trap hands look synergistic but do not function. Ship hands with `Nadier's Nightblade`, `Mirkwood Bats`, `Siege Zombie`, or `Black Mage's Rod` but no early bodies; hands with `Presence of Gond`, `Fists of Ironwood`, `Scatter the Seeds`, or `Chatterstorm` but no setup; and hands with `Crop Rotation` or `Harrow` where sacrificing a land would break both colors.

## Turn Arc
- Turn 1 priority is mana or a reusable body. Lead `Forest` into `Utopia Sprawl`, `Caravan Vigil`, `Arboreal Grazer`, `Sakura-Tribe Scout`, or `Skyshroud Ranger` when legal; lead `Swamp` into `Carrion Feeder`, `Viscera Seer`, `Vendetta`, `Tragic Slip`, or `Nihil Spellbomb` when interaction or sacrifice infrastructure matters. Use `Khalni Garden` early when the Plant token enables `Village Rites`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Holdout Settlement`, `Survivors' Encampment`, convoke, or blockers.

- Turn 2 priority is color completion plus material. Cast `Chatter of the Squirrel`, `Blisterpod`, `Nested Shambler`, `Fists of Ironwood`, `Grisly Salvage`, `Malevolent Rumble`, `Night's Whisper`, `Sign in Blood`, `Explore`, or `Journey of Discovery` according to the missing resource; hold `Village Rites`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Fanatical Offering`, or `Reckoner's Bargain` until a creature is targeted, doomed in combat, or truly expendable.

- Turn 3 priority is the first engine or commander-support turn. Deploy `Broodspinner` when the board can use commander pressure and mana remains stable, or instead set up `Nadier's Nightblade`, `Mirkwood Bats`, `Crawling Infestation`, `Night Soil`, `Witch's Cauldron`, `Bushmeat Poacher`, `Undercellar Myconid`, `Saproling Migration`, or `Infestation Sage` when those permanents convert existing bodies into damage, cards, or board width.

- Turns 4-5 priority is conversion without overextending. Use `Scatter the Seeds`, `Mobilize`, `Chatterstorm`, `Eldrazi Repurposer`, `Eyeblight Cullers`, `Elfsworn Giant`, or `You Meet in a Tavern` to widen only when removal risk and combat math justify it; otherwise spend turns drawing with `Deadly Dispute`, `Village Rites`, `Fanatical Offering`, `Eviscerator's Insight`, `Night's Whisper`, `Sign in Blood`, or `Funeral Rites` while leaving bodies for blocks and sacrifice.

- Late game priority is inevitability through repeatable mana sinks and drain pressure. Activate `Siege Zombie`, `Night Soil`, `Witch's Cauldron`, `Bushmeat Poacher`, `Tocasia's Dig Site`, `Witherbloom Campus`, and commander recasts when legal and useful; aim sacrifice chains through `Mirkwood Bats`, `Nadier's Nightblade`, `Carrion Feeder`, `Viscera Seer`, `Casting of Bones`, `Bequeathal`, or `Not Dead After All` only when visible board state supports the exchange.

- Deviate from the curve to survive or stop a known engine. Spend `Vendetta`, `Tragic Slip`, `You Are Already Dead`, `Scarblade's Malice`, `Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher`, `Return to Nature`, `Heritage Reclamation`, `Bojuka Bog`, or `Nihil Spellbomb` before developing if the opponent's visible permanent, graveyard, or attack step threatens more damage or value than your planned turn creates.

## Card Roles
- `Broodspinner` is the command-zone identity card, so cast it when its visible rules text advances tokens, sacrifice, drain, or graveyard pressure without exposing the turn to a tempo collapse. Card text check required before assuming exact trigger timing, creature type, or payoff math; treat commander recasts as worthwhile only when the board has fodder, mana stability, or immediate conversion.

- `Carrion Feeder` and `Viscera Seer` are free sacrifice infrastructure, not random early attackers. Use them to blank removal, trigger death or token-leave payoffs, enable morbid-style removal, protect enchanted creatures from exile, and convert doomed blockers; avoid sacrificing the only mana creature, only convoke body, or only payoff unless the current line stabilizes or wins.

- `Mirkwood Bats`, `Nadier's Nightblade`, `Siege Zombie`, and `Black Mage's Rod` are reach engines that turn board width or spell velocity into damage. Deploy `Mirkwood Bats` before token creation or sacrifice chains when possible; deploy `Nadier's Nightblade` before token-leave turns; use `Siege Zombie` as a late-game tap outlet for stalled boards; Card text check required for `Black Mage's Rod`, but treat it as a slow inevitability piece when noncreature spells and life totals make it relevant.

- `Blisterpod`, `Nested Shambler`, `Chatter of the Squirrel`, `Saproling Migration`, `Fists of Ironwood`, `Scatter the Seeds`, `Mobilize`, `Chatterstorm`, `Khalni Garden`, `Eldrazi Repurposer`, `Eyeblight Cullers`, `Infestation Sage`, `Undercellar Myconid`, and `Elfsworn Giant` are material makers. Prefer them before sacrifice draw, convoke, `Holdout Settlement`, `Survivors' Encampment`, `Mirkwood Bats`, or `Nadier's Nightblade`; Card text check required for `Mobilize`, `Eldrazi Repurposer`, `Eyeblight Cullers`, `Infestation Sage`, `Undercellar Myconid`, and `Elfsworn Giant` before relying on exact token quantity, creature type, or combat stats.

- `Crawling Infestation`, `Night Soil`, and `Presence of Gond` are repeatable board-production engines. Cast them when the opponent cannot punish a slow setup turn or when graveyards, untapped creatures, or disposable bodies already make the next activation likely; avoid `Presence of Gond` on a creature that must attack, block, or be sacrificed before it can tap for value.

- `Village Rites`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Fanatical Offering`, `Reckoner's Bargain`, `Eviscerator's Insight`, `Witch's Cauldron`, and `Bushmeat Poacher` are sacrifice-to-cards converters. Hold instant-speed versions until a creature is targeted, blocked, doomed, or low-value; use sorcery-speed or activated versions when excess tokens would otherwise sit idle. Card text check required for `Fanatical Offering` and `Eviscerator's Insight` before assuming token creation, bargain-like costs, or flashback-like use.

- `Bequeathal`, `Casting of Bones`, `Not Dead After All`, and `You Are Already Dead` reward planned death events. Attach `Bequeathal` or `Casting of Bones` only when the creature is likely to die or be sacrificed soon; use `Not Dead After All` to preserve a key commander, payoff, or sacrifice target through removal when legal; cast `You Are Already Dead` after damage or a death-enabling exchange, not as a speculative cantrip unless the rules engine confirms a legal target.

- `Night's Whisper`, `Sign in Blood`, `Funeral Rites`, `Howling Golem`, `Grisly Salvage`, `Malevolent Rumble`, and `You Meet in a Tavern` are velocity and selection. Use cheap draw to hit land drops before committing engines; use graveyard-feeding selection when `Night Soil`, recursion-like effects, sacrifice payoffs, or commander plans benefit. Card text check required for `Malevolent Rumble`, `Howling Golem`, and `You Meet in a Tavern` before assuming exact card flow, creature hit restriction, or team pump mode.

- `Vendetta`, `Tragic Slip`, `Scarblade's Malice`, `Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher`, `Return to Nature`, `Heritage Reclamation`, `Nihil Spellbomb`, and `Bojuka Bog` are interaction. Save `Vendetta` for creatures whose damage, commander text, or combo role outweighs the life loss; enable `Tragic Slip` with sacrifice or combat when the larger mode matters; use `Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher` when edict pressure hits a real threat, not a disposable token. Card text check required for `Scarblade's Malice` and `Heritage Reclamation` before choosing modes or targets.

- `Crop Rotation`, `Caravan Vigil`, `Explore`, `Journey of Discovery`, `Harrow`, `Nissa's Pilgrimage`, `Return from the Wilds`, `Utopia Sprawl`, `Arboreal Grazer`, `Skyshroud Ranger`, and `Sakura-Tribe Scout` are mana development. Use them to fix black-green access before double-spelling; do not sacrifice a land to `Crop Rotation` or `Harrow` if the after-state cannot cast the hand. Card text check required for `Return from the Wilds` before treating it as ramp, fixing, or token support.

- `Command Tower`, `Forest`, `Swamp`, `Golgari Rot Farm`, `Crystal Grotto`, `Hidden Grotto`, `Conduit Pylons`, `Witherbloom Campus`, `Holdout Settlement`, `Survivors' Encampment`, `Tree of Tales`, `Vault of Whispers`, `Tocasia's Dig Site`, `Rumble Arena`, `Titan's Grave`, `Desert`, and `Bojuka Bog` are role lands, not interchangeable mana. Lead untapped colored sources when early spells matter; use creature-tap lands after token setup; preserve artifact lands when artifact sacrifice or permanent type matters; treat utility lands as late sinks unless the hand already casts its spells. Card text check required for `Rumble Arena` and `Titan's Grave` before valuing them as utility beyond visible mana output.

- `Nezumi Linkbreaker`, `Cornered by Black Mages`, and `Zuko's Exile` need runtime text validation before tactical commitments. Use them only according to legal action text and visible targets; if they function as removal, protection, discard, or token support, apply the matching interaction or material rule rather than assuming a generic value role.

## Interaction Priorities
- Remove command-zone or engine creatures first when they turn one turn cycle into lethal pressure, repeatable cards, or a locked board. Spend `Vendetta`, morbid-enabled `Tragic Slip`, `Scarblade's Malice`, `Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher`, or sideboard `Snuff Out` on the permanent that changes the clock or breaks the token engine, not on the first attacker that can be chumped.

- Preserve graveyard interaction for cards that convert the graveyard into material, mana, damage, or recursion. Use `Bojuka Bog`, `Nihil Spellbomb`, and sideboard `Faerie Macabre` on the opponent's graveyard when a visible legal action or public zone indicates a real payoff; do not fire them just to shrink an ordinary graveyard if your own `Night Soil`, `Crawling Infestation`, `Grisly Salvage`, `Funeral Rites`, or `Malevolent Rumble` plan needs graveyard texture.

- Aim artifact/enchantment removal at repeatable engines, prison pieces, graveyard hate, or evasive damage sources before one-shot value permanents. `Return to Nature`, `Heritage Reclamation`, and sideboard `Gleeful Sabotage` should answer the permanent that prevents sacrifice, disables tokens, blocks graveyard use, or races reach damage; Card text check required for `Heritage Reclamation` before choosing exact modes.

- Use sideboard `Duress` to clear the card that stops a commitment turn, not simply the most expensive noncreature spell. Prioritize visible or revealed interaction that can break `Presence of Gond`, counter a token burst, exile the graveyard before `Night Soil`, or remove `Mirkwood Bats`, `Nadier's Nightblade`, `Siege Zombie`, or `Broodspinner` before they convert material into damage.

- Treat `Vendetta` as high-impact but life-sensitive removal. Cast it on a creature whose damage, evasion, commander role, or combo role is worse than the life payment; avoid using it on a small ground creature when tokens from `Blisterpod`, `Nested Shambler`, `Chatter of the Squirrel`, `Saproling Migration`, `Fists of Ironwood`, or `Scatter the Seeds` can absorb combat.

- Enable `Tragic Slip` with sacrifice or combat when the larger mode is needed. If `Carrion Feeder`, `Viscera Seer`, `Village Rites`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Fanatical Offering`, `Reckoner's Bargain`, `Witch's Cauldron`, or `Bushmeat Poacher` can create a death event, line up the sacrifice before choosing the removal action when the rules engine offers that sequence.

- Bait opposing interaction with replaceable setup before exposing the payoff. Lead with low-commitment material or value such as `Chatter of the Squirrel`, `Saproling Migration`, `Crawling Infestation`, `Night Soil`, `Howling Golem`, or `Witch's Cauldron` when the opponent is representing removal, then commit `Mirkwood Bats`, `Nadier's Nightblade`, `Presence of Gond`, `Siege Zombie`, or `Broodspinner` once the shields are lower or immediate value is available.

- Ignore low-impact blockers, tapped creatures without relevant text, and one-shot chip damage when your board can chump safely. This deck wins many games by preserving engines and converting bodies into drain or cards, so do not spend scarce removal on a creature that neither shortens the clock below your setup window nor interrupts sacrifice, graveyard, or token production.

## Combat And Trading Rules
- Attack only when the body is less valuable than the damage, trigger, or pressure it creates. Tokens can attack freely into boards where trades are acceptable, but keep creatures needed for `Holdout Settlement`, `Survivors' Encampment`, convoke-like actions, `Presence of Gond`, `Siege Zombie`, sacrifice draw, or protection lines untapped unless the attack materially changes the race.

- Block aggressively once life total is under pressure, but block with expendable tokens before engine creatures. Preserve `Carrion Feeder`, `Viscera Seer`, `Mirkwood Bats`, `Nadier's Nightblade`, `Siege Zombie`, `Bushmeat Poacher`, and `Broodspinner` unless blocking prevents lethal damage or sets up a decisive sacrifice/draw/removal sequence.

- Convert doomed blockers into cards or drain before damage when the legal action window appears. If a blocked creature will die anyway, prefer sacrificing it to `Village Rites`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Fanatical Offering`, `Reckoner's Bargain`, `Witch's Cauldron`, or `Bushmeat Poacher` when that preserves life through the block and adds resources; verify that removing it from combat will not increase incoming damage beyond survival.

- Trade tokens for real creatures and refuse trades involving payoffs unless survival demands it. `Blisterpod`, `Nested Shambler`, `Chatter of the Squirrel`, `Saproling Migration`, `Fists of Ironwood`, `Scatter the Seeds`, and `Khalni Garden` material can trade with attackers to buy time for reach engines; a payoff creature should trade only for an opposing commander, evasive lethal threat, or engine piece.

- Use `Not Dead After All` as protection for a creature that immediately matters after surviving. Prefer saving `Broodspinner`, `Mirkwood Bats`, `Nadier's Nightblade`, `Siege Zombie`, `Carrion Feeder`, `Viscera Seer`, or a creature carrying `Presence of Gond`; do not spend it on a generic token unless the rules text and visible board make that token central to a lethal or survival line.

- Treat `Bequeathal`, `Casting of Bones`, and `You Are Already Dead` as planned-death tools. Put death-reward effects on creatures expected to block, be sacrificed, or die in combat; cast `You Are Already Dead` only when legal target text confirms a damaged or dying creature line rather than guessing from board texture.

- Race differently by archetype. Against fast creature decks, hold back enough bodies to block and prioritize `Crypt Rats`, `Spore Frog`, `Weather the Storm`, `Chainer's Edict`, or `Scattershot Archer` when sideboarded; against control, chip in with expendable tokens while preserving engines; against graveyard or combo decks, pressure life totals while saving `Bojuka Bog`, `Nihil Spellbomb`, `Faerie Macabre`, or `Duress` for the visible commitment point.

## Selection And Tutor Rules
- Choose lands first when the hand cannot cast both colors on time. `Crop Rotation`, `Caravan Vigil`, `Journey of Discovery`, `Return from the Wilds`, `Harrow`, and `Nissa's Pilgrimage` should fix missing black or green before chasing specialty lands; `Command Tower`, `Golgari Rot Farm`, `Bojuka Bog`, `Khalni Garden`, `Tree of Tales`, and `Vault of Whispers` become targets only when their visible role matters.

- Time `Crop Rotation` around the land drop and opposing interaction. Use it before land drop when the target changes this turn's mana or creates `Bojuka Bog` graveyard interaction; use it after land drop when sacrificing a tapped land preserves mana and the rules engine still offers the line.

- Prefer `Bojuka Bog` only when graveyard timing is real. Find it with `Crop Rotation` when the opponent has a visible graveyard payoff, recursion target, or imminent graveyard action; avoid spending the tutor on `Bojuka Bog` just because cards are present in the graveyard.

- Use `Khalni Garden` as selection for material, not only mana. Fetch or play it when one extra body enables `Village Rites`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Fanatical Offering`, `Reckoner's Bargain`, `Holdout Settlement`, `Survivors' Encampment`, `Scatter the Seeds`, `Siege Zombie`, or sacrifice protection.

- Sequence draw before land only when the land choice is still uncertain. Cast `Sign in Blood`, `Night's Whisper`, `Funeral Rites`, `Eviscerator's Insight`, or `Howling Golem` before land drop if finding a missing color, untapped land, or specialty land changes the turn; otherwise make the land drop first to preserve legal action breadth.

- Turn sacrifice draw into selection by sacrificing expendable or already-doomed bodies. `Blisterpod`, `Nested Shambler`, `Chatter of the Squirrel`, `Saproling Migration`, `Fists of Ironwood`, `Scatter the Seeds`, and `Khalni Garden` tokens are preferred fuel before payoff creatures.

- Treat graveyard self-fill as engine selection. `Grisly Salvage`, `Malevolent Rumble`, `Crawling Infestation`, and `Tocasia's Dig Site` should look for mana, token engines, sacrifice payoffs, or action density while keeping in mind that `Night Soil` and graveyard recursion-style lines need usable graveyard material; Card text check required for exact `Malevolent Rumble` and `Tocasia's Dig Site` choices.

- Bottom low-impact cards when scry or surveil appears and the current hand lacks mana or action. Keep lands while below stable mana, keep sacrifice outlets with token makers, keep payoffs with material, and bottom redundant slow engines when under a short creature clock.

- Use `You Meet in a Tavern` as conditional selection after checking exact mode text. Card text check required; choose the mode that either finds enough creatures to rebuild or converts an already-wide board into immediate pressure when legal options confirm that role.

## Priority And Stack Rules
- Pass priority by default only when no instant-speed action improves survival, mana, information, or damage. Before passing with mana open, check legal actions for `Village Rites`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Fanatical Offering`, `Reckoner's Bargain`, `Vendetta`, `Tragic Slip`, `Return to Nature`, `Heritage Reclamation`, `Nihil Spellbomb`, `Crop Rotation`, `Harrow`, `Not Dead After All`, `You Are Already Dead`, and activated abilities.

- Convert doomed creatures before they leave if the stack window permits. When removal, combat damage, or an edict effect targets or will kill a creature, sacrifice it to `Viscera Seer`, `Carrion Feeder`, `Village Rites`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Fanatical Offering`, `Reckoner's Bargain`, `Witch's Cauldron`, or `Bushmeat Poacher` if doing so does not worsen lethal combat math.

- Hold removal for the spell or ability that changes the game state now. Use `Vendetta`, `Tragic Slip`, `Scarblade's Malice`, `Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher`, or sideboard `Snuff Out` in response windows when killing the source or target prevents lethal, breaks a combo, or protects `Mirkwood Bats`, `Nadier's Nightblade`, `Siege Zombie`, `Presence of Gond`, or `Broodspinner`.

- Set up morbid-style removal before casting it when legal sequencing allows. If `Tragic Slip` is offered and a death event can be created through sacrifice or combat, create the death first unless waiting risks losing the target or passing a decisive window.

- Use graveyard hate at the last safe visible moment. Activate `Nihil Spellbomb`, play or fetch `Bojuka Bog`, or use sideboard `Faerie Macabre` in response to a graveyard spell, recursion ability, threshold-like payoff, or public commitment; do not fire before the opponent commits if waiting is legal and safe.

- Protect payoffs only when the protected permanent still has a job. Cast `Not Dead After All` on `Broodspinner`, `Mirkwood Bats`, `Nadier's Nightblade`, `Siege Zombie`, `Carrion Feeder`, `Viscera Seer`, or a `Presence of Gond` creature when the stack shows removal or combat death and the post-resolution board remains useful.

- Resolve your own token and drain engines in damage-aware order. When `Mirkwood Bats`, `Nadier's Nightblade`, `Black Mage's Rod`, or `Siege Zombie` actions are available, check whether creating tokens, sacrificing permanents, or tapping creatures first produces extra life loss before choosing a plain pass or attack.

- Use combat priority windows for tricks, not autopilot passes. After blocks and before damage, consider sacrificing a blocked creature for cards, using `Not Dead After All`, casting `You Are Already Dead` on a legal damaged/dying creature, or activating `Spore Frog` when sideboarded; let damage resolve only after survival and value checks pass.

## Sideboard Map

- Sideboard with role discipline: this Commander-family deck is built around bodies, sacrifice outlets, drain triggers, and spell-chip pressure, so most matchups want only one to three swaps. Protect the token-sacrifice core unless public information proves that axis is too slow, too exposed, or pointed at the wrong battlefield.

- `Duress` role: bring it for spell-combo, control, sweepers, graveyard payoffs that begin as noncreature spells, and removal-heavy decks where clearing a path for `Broodspinner`, `Mirkwood Bats`, `Nadier's Nightblade`, `Presence of Gond`, or `Siege Zombie` matters. It is weak against creature-dense aggro when the opponent's hand is mostly bodies or when the current game state demands immediate board interaction.

- `Crypt Rats` role: bring it when the opponent floods the battlefield with small creatures, tokens, low-toughness flyers, or utility creatures that must die together. Treat it as a reset button that can also pressure life totals, but check your own life, token board, and whether `Mirkwood Bats`, `Nadier's Nightblade`, or `Carrion Feeder` turns creature deaths into an advantage. It is weak when your life total is low, when your own board is the main route to winning, or when opposing threats survive the likely X value.

- `Weather the Storm` role: bring it against burn, storm-like chains, red pressure, and tempo decks that win by counting damage rather than building an unbeatable board. Cast it after multiple spells if legal, but do not wait past a lethal stack window. It is weak against slow control, graveyard combo, and creature decks that deal large combat chunks while ignoring life gain.

- `Snuff Out` role: bring it for fast creature decks, commander-centric creature plans, and combo creatures that must be answered while preserving mana for development. Treat the alternate-cost line as a tempo play only when life loss is acceptable and the creature is worth the life. It is weak against black creatures if legality prevents targeting, against noncreature engines, and against burn when the life payment places you in range.

- `Chainer's Edict` role: bring it against single large creatures, hexproof-style or protection-heavy threats, sacrifice-light commanders, and decks that commit one meaningful body at a time. It is weak against token decks, disposable creature decks, and board states where the opponent can sacrifice a low-value creature.

- `Faerie Macabre` role: bring it against graveyard combo, recursion loops, dredge-like self-mill, flashback-heavy decks, and reanimation plans. Prefer using it at the last safe visible moment, especially in response to a spell or ability that names graveyard cards. It is weak when graveyards are incidental and the matchup is decided by battlefield tempo.

- `Scattershot Archer` role: bring it against flyer swarms, Faeries-style boards, small evasive commanders, and token flyers. Treat it as repeatable battlefield control rather than a beater. It is weak against ground-based decks, large flyers, and removal-heavy control where it has no target class.

- `Gleeful Sabotage` role: bring it against artifact or enchantment engines, equipment-like pressure, aura plans, treasure/artifact synergies, and prison pieces that restrict combat or casting. Use conspire-style creature participation only if legal action text confirms the extra copy and tapping creatures does not damage the current combat plan. It is weak when the opponent has few noncreature permanents or when your creatures must stay untapped for blocking, convoke, `Siege Zombie`, `Holdout Settlement`, or `Survivors' Encampment`.

- `Wrap in Vigor` role: bring it against sweepers, damage-based removal, combat blowouts, and board states where saving multiple creatures preserves `Broodspinner`, token mass, `Presence of Gond`, or sacrifice payoffs. It is weak against exile, bounce, edict effects, single-target removal that can be answered by `Not Dead After All`, and matchups where you rarely keep a wide board.

- `Spore Frog` role: bring it against combat-based aggro, voltron-like creature pressure, and decks that need one decisive attack step. Use it to buy the turn needed for `Crypt Rats`, drain engines, sacrifice draw, or a lethal token turn. It is weak against burn, control, combo, and evasion plans that do not rely on combat damage from creatures.

Anti-Burn / Spell-Damage Plan
Side in: Weather the Storm; Duress
Cut: Vendetta; Howling Golem

- Plan rule: use this when the opponent's wins come from direct damage, spell chains, or noncreature payoff spells rather than durable battlefield threats. `Weather the Storm` protects life total, `Duress` attacks the highest-impact noncreature spell, `Vendetta` is risky life payment, and `Howling Golem` can give the opponent more burn access.

Anti-Graveyard Combo Plan
Side in: Faerie Macabre; Duress
Cut: Howling Golem; You Are Already Dead

- Plan rule: use this when the opponent's graveyard is a resource and their commitment points are visible through spells, recursion abilities, or stocked graveyards. `Faerie Macabre` adds zero-mana timing, `Duress` can take the enabler, `Howling Golem` is too generous, and `You Are Already Dead` is conditional when creatures are not the main axis.

Anti-Creature Swarm Plan
Side in: Crypt Rats; Spore Frog; Snuff Out
Cut: Howling Golem; Journey of Discovery; Funeral Rites

- Plan rule: use this against low-curve creature decks where survival matters more than long-game card volume. `Crypt Rats` resets small boards, `Spore Frog` buys a combat step, `Snuff Out` answers tempo-critical creatures, and the removed main-deck cards are slower than the pressure window.

Anti-Flyers Plan
Side in: Scattershot Archer; Snuff Out
Cut: Fists of Ironwood; Funeral Rites

- Plan rule: use this when small flyers create a clock that ground tokens cannot block. `Scattershot Archer` changes repeated combat math, `Snuff Out` handles a key evasive creature, and the removed cards lower slow ground development.

Anti-Artifact / Enchantment Engine Plan
Side in: Gleeful Sabotage; Duress
Cut: Tragic Slip; You Are Already Dead

- Plan rule: use this when the opponent's visible or expected engine is artifact/enchantment based and creature kill is less important. `Gleeful Sabotage` expands permanent interaction, `Duress` can remove a noncreature enabler, and conditional creature-damage cards lose priority.

Anti-Tall Creature / Protected Threat Plan
Side in: Chainer's Edict; Snuff Out
Cut: You Are Already Dead; Howling Golem

- Plan rule: use this when one creature matters more than a wide board and target legality may be contested. `Chainer's Edict` pressures sacrifice-light boards, `Snuff Out` adds tempo removal, and the reduced cards are slow or conditionally reactive.

Anti-Sweeper / Damage-Removal Plan
Side in: Wrap in Vigor; Duress
Cut: Vendetta; Funeral Rites

- Plan rule: use this when the opponent repeatedly answers creature clusters or when keeping a wide board alive is the path to `Siege Zombie`, `Mirkwood Bats`, `Nadier's Nightblade`, or `Broodspinner`. `Wrap in Vigor` protects the board, `Duress` can take the sweeper or removal spell, and life-cost or slow graveyard setup becomes lower priority.

## Matchup Guidance

- Aggro: preserve life total before engine value, because this deck wins late by turning bodies into drain, sacrifice, and repeated chip damage. Keep early blockers such as `Blisterpod`, `Nested Shambler`, `Arboreal Grazer`, `Saproling Migration`, `Chatter of the Squirrel`, and `Khalni Garden` when mana works. Spend `Vendetta`, `Tragic Slip`, `Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher`, `Scarblade's Malice`, and `Zuko's Exile` on creatures that change the clock, not on replaceable attackers. Role cards are `Crypt Rats`, `Spore Frog`, `Snuff Out`, and sometimes `Weather the Storm`. Reduce emphasis on `Howling Golem`, slow graveyard setup, and expensive mana development when a current attack step threatens survival.

- Control: tax the opponent's answers by presenting multiple low-investment threats rather than one fragile engine. Lead with token makers and recursive material before exposing `Presence of Gond`, `Mirkwood Bats`, `Nadier's Nightblade`, or `Broodspinner` into open mana and visible removal. Use `Village Rites`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Fanatical Offering`, `Reckoner's Bargain`, `Witch's Cauldron`, and `Bushmeat Poacher` to punish removal only when a legal sacrifice body and mana are available. Role cards are `Duress` against noncreature answers and `Wrap in Vigor` against destroy-based sweepers. Reduce emphasis on conditional creature kill when control has few targets.

- Combo: identify the public commitment point and hold interaction for that moment unless your own lethal setup is faster. `Duress` is the cleanest proactive sideboard card, while `Nihil Spellbomb`, `Bojuka Bog`, `Faerie Macabre`, `Return to Nature`, `Heritage Reclamation`, and `Gleeful Sabotage` matter only when their visible object classes line up. Pressure with `Siege Zombie`, token mass, `Mirkwood Bats`, `Nadier's Nightblade`, and sacrifice draw so the opponent cannot wait indefinitely. Reduce emphasis on combat-only tricks and creature removal if the opponent's win is not creature-centered.

- Tempo: make land drops, refuse low-impact tapped-land turns when under pressure, and favor cheap plays that double-spell. `Utopia Sprawl`, `Explore`, `Caravan Vigil`, `Return from the Wilds`, `Crop Rotation`, `Sakura-Tribe Scout`, and `Skyshroud Ranger` are good only when they produce a faster stabilizing turn or fix missing colors. Do not walk `Chatterstorm`, `Scatter the Seeds`, or a key draw spell into a predictable counter window unless waiting loses more tempo. Role cards are `Snuff Out`, `Scattershot Archer` against small flyers, and `Duress` against permission-heavy builds. Reduce emphasis on slow draw engines that do not affect the board.

- Midrange: build material density and turn every trade into a resource edge. Tokens from `Fists of Ironwood`, `Saproling Migration`, `Chatter of the Squirrel`, `Crawling Infestation`, `Eyeblight Cullers`, `Eldrazi Repurposer`, `Infestation Sage`, and `Undercellar Myconid` let `Carrion Feeder`, `Viscera Seer`, `Witch's Cauldron`, and sacrifice draw convert stalled boards into advantage. Save `Not Dead After All` for a creature whose survival or death trigger matters in the visible exchange. Role cards are `Chainer's Edict` for tall boards and `Crypt Rats` for small creature clusters. Reduce emphasis on narrow artifact/enchantment removal when no relevant permanents are expected.

- Big mana: apply pressure before the opponent's expensive plays dominate, and use discard or permanent interaction on the mana engine when legal. `Siege Zombie`, `Mirkwood Bats`, `Nadier's Nightblade`, `Chatterstorm`, and wide token turns are important because pure removal rarely keeps up with bigger threats. Hold `Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher`, `Chainer's Edict`, `Snuff Out`, or `Vendetta` for the first threat that will end the game quickly. Role cards are `Duress`, `Chainer's Edict`, and `Gleeful Sabotage` when the opposing ramp or payoff is noncreature or artifact/enchantment based. Reduce emphasis on small combat-only trades.

- Graveyard: treat the opponent's graveyard as a timed resource, not a zone to clear automatically. Use `Bojuka Bog`, `Nihil Spellbomb`, and `Faerie Macabre` at the last safe visible moment, especially when a spell or ability on the stack names graveyard cards or when public information shows a graveyard threshold. Your own graveyard also supports `Night Soil`, `Crawling Infestation`, `Funeral Rites`, `Casting of Bones`, and sacrifice-value loops, so avoid self-disruption unless the opponent's payoff is stronger. Role cards are `Faerie Macabre` and `Duress`. Reduce emphasis on `You Are Already Dead` and other conditional creature tactics when the battlefield is secondary.

- Artifact/enchantment: prioritize permanent-answer timing over generic creature exchanges. `Return to Nature`, `Heritage Reclamation`, and `Gleeful Sabotage` should answer engines, prison pieces, aura pressure, or artifact mana that visibly unlocks the opponent's plan. Use creature tapping for `Gleeful Sabotage` only when legal action text confirms extra value and the tapped creatures are not needed for blocking, `Siege Zombie`, `Holdout Settlement`, `Survivors' Encampment`, convoke, or sacrifice. Role cards are `Gleeful Sabotage` and `Duress`. Reduce emphasis on removal with no relevant object class.

- Go-wide: win the resource mirror by making your small bodies matter more than theirs. `Crypt Rats` is the strongest reset if life and black mana support it; otherwise block profitably, grow `Carrion Feeder`, scry with `Viscera Seer`, and turn dying creatures into `Mirkwood Bats` or `Nadier's Nightblade` damage when legal. `Siege Zombie` can break board stalls if enough creatures survive. Role cards are `Crypt Rats`, `Spore Frog`, and `Wrap in Vigor` when mass damage or combat alpha turns define the game. Reduce emphasis on one-for-one removal that does not answer the swarm.

- Single-threat: force the opponent to commit more bodies or lose the threat to sacrifice pressure. `Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher` and `Chainer's Edict` are premium when the opposing board has one important creature; `Snuff Out`, `Vendetta`, `Tragic Slip`, `Scarblade's Malice`, and `Zuko's Exile` cover targetable threats when legal. Keep token blockers available if the threat must be raced or if removal legality is uncertain. Role cards are `Chainer's Edict` and `Snuff Out`. Reduce emphasis on slow symmetrical draw and token-only development if the single threat is already lethal.

- Burn: protect life total as a resource, and do not pay life unless the alternative is clearly worse by visible clock math. `Weather the Storm` is the key sideboard card; `Duress` can take a noncreature burst spell; `Spore Frog` matters only when creature combat is the damage source. Avoid enabling the opponent with `Howling Golem` unless your follow-up is decisive. Role cards are `Weather the Storm` and `Duress`. Reduce emphasis on `Vendetta`, slow draw, and pain-for-tempo exchanges.

- Removal-heavy decks: diversify threats and keep sacrifice outlets or protection mana ready before committing important creatures. `Broodspinner`, `Mirkwood Bats`, `Nadier's Nightblade`, `Presence of Gond`, and `Siege Zombie` are high-value permanents, so avoid exposing all of them into the same removal window. `Village Rites`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Fanatical Offering`, `Eviscerator's Insight`, `Reckoner's Bargain`, `Not Dead After All`, and `Wrap in Vigor` can turn removal into advantage when legal actions align. Role cards are `Duress` and `Wrap in Vigor`. Reduce emphasis on all-in combat lines that lose to one public answer.

## Specific Matchup Notes

- General/archetype-only: exact opponents are absent, so revealed cards and rules-engine legal actions override every assumption here. Classify the opponent from public information before committing: creature swarm, single tall threat, graveyard engine, spell-combo, artifact/enchantment engine, burn race, flyers, or removal-heavy midrange. Because this is a singleton Commander-family deck, sideboarding should usually correct a matchup stress point rather than transform the whole deck.

- Creature swarm: preserve blockers until `Crypt Rats`, `Spore Frog`, `Wrap in Vigor`, or a draining sacrifice turn is ready. Role cards are `Crypt Rats`, `Spore Frog`, and `Wrap in Vigor`. Priority threats are anthem-like permanents, sacrifice engines, and creatures that make combat math impossible; otherwise trade tokens while converting deaths through `Mirkwood Bats`, `Nadier's Nightblade`, `Carrion Feeder`, `Viscera Seer`, `Witch's Cauldron`, `Village Rites`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Fanatical Offering`, `Eviscerator's Insight`, or `Reckoner's Bargain`.

- Single tall threat: force sacrifice pressure or hold target removal for the creature that actually changes the clock. Role cards are `Chainer's Edict` and `Snuff Out`. Priority threats are evasive, protected, or lethal creatures; use `Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher`, `Vendetta`, `Tragic Slip`, `Scarblade's Malice`, `Zuko's Exile`, or `You Are Already Dead` only when legal text and visible damage/death conditions support the line.

- Graveyard engine: hold graveyard hate until the last safe visible window rather than clearing low-impact cards early. Role cards are `Faerie Macabre` and `Duress`. Priority objects are public graveyard cards named by a spell or ability on the stack, threshold-like graveyard counts, and recursion engines; balance `Bojuka Bog`, `Nihil Spellbomb`, and `Night Soil` against your own `Crawling Infestation`, `Funeral Rites`, `Casting of Bones`, and sacrifice-value graveyard needs.

- Spell-combo or control: pressure first, then use discard and stack discipline to force awkward timing. Role cards are `Duress`, `Weather the Storm` against burst-damage decks, and `Gleeful Sabotage` only when permanent engines are visible. Priority threats are noncreature payoff spells, sweepers, counterspells seen by reveal effects, and mana engines; avoid feeding the opponent cards with `Howling Golem` unless the follow-up turn is immediately decisive.

- Artifact/enchantment engine: answer the permanent that unlocks the opponent's plan, not the first legal object. Role cards are `Gleeful Sabotage` and `Duress`. Priority permanents are artifacts or enchantments that generate mana, lock combat, enable repeated damage, or blank tokens; use `Return to Nature`, `Heritage Reclamation`, and `Gleeful Sabotage` with attention to whether tapping creatures disables `Siege Zombie`, `Holdout Settlement`, `Survivors' Encampment`, convoke, blocking, or sacrifice lines.

- Flyers and small evasive boards: stabilize the air before racing on the ground. Role cards are `Scattershot Archer` and `Snuff Out`. Priority threats are repeat-damage flyers and creatures carrying visible enhancement; keep `Scattershot Archer` alive when it answers multiple bodies, and do not spend it as a normal attacker unless lethal or survival math demands it.

- Burn and spell-damage: treat every life payment as a tactical cost, not a default shortcut. Role cards are `Weather the Storm` and `Duress`; `Snuff Out` should stay out unless a creature must die and life loss is acceptable. Priority spells are burst damage, repeat damage engines, and cards that multiply a spell chain; avoid `Vendetta` and `Howling Golem` patterns when they put the opponent closer to finishing the game.

- Removal-heavy midrange: sequence threats so one answer does not break the whole engine. Role cards are `Duress` and `Wrap in Vigor` when the opponent relies on noncreature removal or destroy-based sweepers. Priority protection spots are `Broodspinner`, `Mirkwood Bats`, `Nadier's Nightblade`, `Presence of Gond`, and board states where several tokens convert into lethal `Siege Zombie` or drain pressure.

## Risk Summary
- Mana risk: the deck needs both colors, enough untapped development, and creature-tap lands to line up with token usage. `Golgari Rot Farm`, `Crystal Grotto`, `Hidden Grotto`, `Conduit Pylons`, `Tocasia's Dig Site`, `Rumble Arena`, `Titan's Grave`, `Tree of Tales`, and `Vault of Whispers` can create tempo or color tension, so sequence `Utopia Sprawl`, `Caravan Vigil`, `Journey of Discovery`, `Explore`, `Harrow`, `Nissa's Pilgrimage`, `Return from the Wilds`, `Sakura-Tribe Scout`, and `Skyshroud Ranger` around the current legal play and not a hoped-for future draw.

- Matchup risk: the list can misidentify whether it is the control deck or the clock. Against burn, life payments from `Vendetta`, black draw, or greedy `Snuff Out` lines can lose the race; against big mana or combo, slow token-only turns can give the opponent too much time.

- Draw risk: draw engines are strong but sometimes symmetrical or sacrifice-bound. `Howling Golem` can help the opponent first, and `Bequeathal`, `Casting of Bones`, `Village Rites`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Fanatical Offering`, `Eviscerator's Insight`, `Reckoner's Bargain`, `Bushmeat Poacher`, `Sign in Blood`, `Night's Whisper`, and `Funeral Rites` require checking life, board material, and whether the sacrificed creature is needed for mana, convoke, blocking, or `Siege Zombie`.

- Over-sideboarding risk: adding too many narrow answers can dilute the token-drain engine. Keep enough bodies and payoffs for `Broodspinner`, `Chatterstorm`, `Saproling Migration`, `Fists of Ironwood`, `Scatter the Seeds`, `Mirkwood Bats`, `Nadier's Nightblade`, and `Siege Zombie` to close games.

- Graveyard risk: graveyard hate can damage your own plan if fired casually. `Bojuka Bog`, `Nihil Spellbomb`, `Faerie Macabre`, and `Night Soil` should respect public recursion threats while preserving your own graveyard value when the opponent is not presenting an immediate payoff.

- Sweeper/removal risk: committing every payoff into a visible reset or removal-heavy line loses the deck's best engines at once. Stagger `Mirkwood Bats`, `Nadier's Nightblade`, `Presence of Gond`, `Carrion Feeder`, `Viscera Seer`, and `Broodspinner`, and keep `Not Dead After All` or `Wrap in Vigor` only when legal action text confirms it protects the relevant exchange.

- Closer risk: token count alone may not end the game through blockers. Prioritize drain, tap, and sacrifice closers through `Mirkwood Bats`, `Nadier's Nightblade`, `Siege Zombie`, `Black Mage's Rod`, and `Carrion Feeder` when combat stalls.

- Interaction and sequencing risk: conditional cards punish loose timing. Verify `Tragic Slip`, `You Are Already Dead`, `Scarblade's Malice`, `Return to Nature`, `Heritage Reclamation`, `Crop Rotation`, `Presence of Gond`, and `Gleeful Sabotage` against visible legality, stack state, and needed mana before choosing them.

## Test Feedback Checklist
- Deciding factor: Record whether the game was decided by token volume, drain from `Mirkwood Bats` or `Nadier's Nightblade`, tap pressure from `Siege Zombie`, commander access through `Broodspinner`, graveyard leverage, removal timing, mana stumble, or an unanswered opposing engine.

- Mulligans: Note whether the opener had both colors, an early land-development card such as `Utopia Sprawl`, `Caravan Vigil`, `Explore`, `Harrow`, `Nissa's Pilgrimage`, `Sakura-Tribe Scout`, or `Skyshroud Ranger`, and at least one engine, token maker, draw spell, or interaction spell.

- Mana: Track every game where `Golgari Rot Farm`, `Conduit Pylons`, `Crystal Grotto`, `Hidden Grotto`, `Tocasia's Dig Site`, `Rumble Arena`, `Titan's Grave`, `Tree of Tales`, `Vault of Whispers`, `Holdout Settlement`, or `Survivors' Encampment` delayed a key spell or forced a creature-tap tradeoff.

- Velocity: Ask whether `Sign in Blood`, `Night's Whisper`, `Funeral Rites`, `Village Rites`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Fanatical Offering`, `Eviscerator's Insight`, `Reckoner's Bargain`, `Bushmeat Poacher`, `Bequeathal`, `Casting of Bones`, or `Howling Golem` found action without giving up survival.

- Engine setup: Check whether `Carrion Feeder`, `Viscera Seer`, `Witch's Cauldron`, `Crawling Infestation`, `Night Soil`, `Presence of Gond`, `Black Mage's Rod`, `Mirkwood Bats`, and `Nadier's Nightblade` entered in an order that converted bodies into damage, cards, or selection.

- Removal: Review whether `Vendetta`, `Tragic Slip`, `Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher`, `Scarblade's Malice`, `Zuko's Exile`, `You Are Already Dead`, `Return to Nature`, and `Heritage Reclamation` answered the threat that mattered most from visible board state.

- Sideboard: Record whether `Duress`, `Crypt Rats`, `Weather the Storm`, `Snuff Out`, `Chainer's Edict`, `Faerie Macabre`, `Scattershot Archer`, `Gleeful Sabotage`, `Wrap in Vigor`, or `Spore Frog` changed a matchup outcome or sat stranded.

- Closing: Identify whether stalled boards needed more drain, more `Siege Zombie` activations, a larger `Carrion Feeder`, a wide `Chatterstorm`, `Saproling Migration`, `Scatter the Seeds`, or commander pressure from `Broodspinner`.

- Role and mistakes: Mark every turn where the pilot played control while needing to race, raced while needing to preserve blockers, sacrificed a creature needed for mana or convoke, or passed with a legal stabilizing action available.

- Overperformers and underperformers: Name the exact cards that won time, cards, or damage, and name the exact cards stranded by mana, target restrictions, timing, board state, or role mismatch.

## First Tuning Questions
- Mana base: Does the deck need a different `Forest` and `Swamp` balance, fewer tapped or colorless utility lands, or more emphasis on reliable green starts for `Utopia Sprawl`, `Caravan Vigil`, `Explore`, `Harrow`, `Nissa's Pilgrimage`, and early token development?

- Token density: Are `Blisterpod`, `Chatter of the Squirrel`, `Nested Shambler`, `Fists of Ironwood`, `Saproling Migration`, `Scatter the Seeds`, `Eyeblight Cullers`, `Eldrazi Repurposer`, `Undercellar Myconid`, `Mobilize`, and `Chatterstorm` enough bodies to support sacrifice, convoke, `Siege Zombie`, and `Broodspinner` in the same game?

- Payoff density: Are `Mirkwood Bats`, `Nadier's Nightblade`, `Black Mage's Rod`, `Siege Zombie`, `Carrion Feeder`, and `Broodspinner` appearing often enough to turn token production into a kill, or are too many games only making blockers?

- Sacrifice balance: Are `Village Rites`, `Deadly Dispute`, `Fanatical Offering`, `Eviscerator's Insight`, `Reckoner's Bargain`, `Witch's Cauldron`, `Bushmeat Poacher`, `Carrion Feeder`, and `Viscera Seer` too many sacrifice outlets without enough disposable creatures in removal-heavy games?

- Aggro plan: Against fast creature decks, are `Crypt Rats`, `Spore Frog`, `Wrap in Vigor`, `Chainer's Edict`, `Snuff Out`, `Vendetta`, `Tragic Slip`, and token blockers enough to stabilize without draining life too aggressively?

- Control plan: Against slow or spell-heavy decks, does the deck need more pressure before `Duress`, `Howling Golem`, `Sign in Blood`, `Night's Whisper`, and recursive graveyard engines become safe, or is it giving opponents too much time?

- Graveyard role conflict: Are `Bojuka Bog`, `Nihil Spellbomb`, `Faerie Macabre`, and `Night Soil` harming `Crawling Infestation`, `Funeral Rites`, `Casting of Bones`, and sacrifice recursion plans, or are they winning enough graveyard matchups to justify the tension?

- Sideboard slots: Which of `Scattershot Archer`, `Gleeful Sabotage`, `Weather the Storm`, `Wrap in Vigor`, `Spore Frog`, `Faerie Macabre`, `Duress`, `Crypt Rats`, `Snuff Out`, and `Chainer's Edict` had clear targets, and which lacked enough matchups or legal windows?

- Stranded-card diagnosis: Were `Presence of Gond`, `Bequeathal`, `You Are Already Dead`, `Scarblade's Malice`, `Heritage Reclamation`, `Return to Nature`, `Crop Rotation`, or `Journey of Discovery` stranded because of missing targets, timing, mana, or conservative pilot choices?

- Closing package: If losses happen after stabilizing, should tuning favor more drain-style effects, more evasive or tap-based pressure, more card draw, or more protection for `Mirkwood Bats`, `Nadier's Nightblade`, `Siege Zombie`, and `Broodspinner`?

## Veles Tactical Policy

### Policy: Opening Hand Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: mulligan
Cards: Utopia Sprawl; Caravan Vigil; Explore; Sakura-Tribe Scout; Skyshroud Ranger; Chatter of the Squirrel; Blisterpod; Village Rites; Deadly Dispute; Vendetta; Tragic Slip
Phase windows: opening hand, mulligan decisions
Runtime cues: prompt:mulligan; action:keep; action:mulligan
Use when: the engine asks for keep or mulligan.
Avoid when: a forced keep rule or game-specific hand-size rule overrides normal evaluation.
Instructions: Keep two-color or green-start hands with early mana plus either a token maker, sacrifice draw, payoff, or cheap interaction. Mulligan hands with no early green, no castable spell before turn three, or only payoffs without bodies.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: First Mana Development
Priority: Medium
Decision families: mana
Cards: Forest; Swamp; Command Tower; Utopia Sprawl; Arboreal Grazer; Sakura-Tribe Scout; Skyshroud Ranger; Caravan Vigil; Explore; Golgari Rot Farm
Phase windows: turns 1-3 main phases
Runtime cues: action:play; action:cast; action:activate mana ability
Use when: multiple legal land or early ramp actions are visible.
Avoid when: spending the action blocks required black interaction against a visible lethal or near-lethal threat.
Instructions: Build green first, then black, because green unlocks land development and token setup. Play `Golgari Rot Farm` only when the bounce will not strand the next spell or lose tempo against pressure.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Creature-Tap Mana Discipline
Priority: Medium
Decision families: mana
Cards: Holdout Settlement; Survivors' Encampment; Conduit Pylons; Crystal Grotto; Hidden Grotto; Tocasia's Dig Site; Rumble Arena; Titan's Grave
Phase windows: main phases and payment prompts
Runtime cues: action:pay mana; action:activate mana ability
Use when: payment choices can tap a creature or use a utility land.
Avoid when: the tapped creature is needed this turn for `Siege Zombie`, convoke, blocking, sacrifice fodder, or a visible combo step.
Instructions: Use creature-tap lands when the creature is expendable or summoning sick and no combat/tap payoff is pending. Prefer colored stability over utility activation when casting a payoff.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Token Engine Setup
Priority: Medium
Decision families: priority
Cards: Chatter of the Squirrel; Saproling Migration; Scatter the Seeds; Fists of Ironwood; Blisterpod; Nested Shambler; Khalni Garden; Mobilize; Chatterstorm; Crawling Infestation; Night Soil; Broodspinner
Phase windows: main phases, early and midgame
Runtime cues: action:cast; action:activate
Use when: legal actions can create bodies or establish a repeatable token engine.
Avoid when: a visible threat requires immediate removal or leaving blockers untapped.
Instructions: Make bodies before payoffs when hand contains sacrifice draw, `Siege Zombie`, `Broodspinner`, `Mirkwood Bats`, or `Nadier's Nightblade`. Prefer repeatable engines in slow games and immediate bodies under pressure.
Pilot skill floor: low
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Drain And Sacrifice Commitment Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: priority
Cards: Mirkwood Bats; Nadier's Nightblade; Black Mage's Rod; Carrion Feeder; Viscera Seer; Witch's Cauldron; Bushmeat Poacher; Broodspinner
Phase windows: main phases, end steps, sacrifice prompts
Runtime cues: action:cast; action:activate; prompt:sacrifice
Use when: the line commits a payoff, starts a sacrifice chain, or exposes a key engine permanent.
Avoid when: opponent has visible untapped interaction, lethal pressure, or the sacrifice would consume the only blocker without ending or stabilizing the game.
Instructions: Commit engines when there are expendable bodies and a payoff converts each death, cast, or token into damage, cards, or selection. Do not sacrifice irreplaceable mana or defense for marginal churn.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Deterministic Sacrifice Draw Execution
Priority: Low
Decision families: selection
Cards: Village Rites; Deadly Dispute; Fanatical Offering; Eviscerator's Insight; Reckoner's Bargain
Phase windows: sacrifice cost prompts after the spell is selected
Runtime cues: action:sacrifice Blisterpod; action:sacrifice token
Use when: the only visible sacrifice candidates are one `Blisterpod` or one nonessential token, and the selected spell already requires a sacrifice.
Avoid when: multiple nontoken creatures are legal candidates or the visible token is the only blocker against lethal combat damage.
Instructions: Execute the sacrifice on the visible expendable body named in the legal action text. Do not choose among materially different creatures without model reasoning.
Pilot skill floor: low
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Card Velocity Timing
Priority: Medium
Decision families: priority
Cards: Sign in Blood; Night's Whisper; Funeral Rites; Howling Golem; You Meet in a Tavern; Grisly Salvage; Malevolent Rumble; Eviscerator's Insight; Fanatical Offering; Deadly Dispute
Phase windows: main phases, end steps, selection prompts
Runtime cues: action:cast; prompt:choose card; prompt:mill
Use when: the hand needs land, bodies, payoff, or interaction and life total can absorb the tempo.
Avoid when: spending mana or life leaves no answer to a visible lethal attack or stack threat.
Instructions: Draw before land drop when the card found can change the land. Prefer instant-speed sacrifice draw after blockers or removal unless main-phase mana is needed for follow-up.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Removal Commitment Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: interaction
Cards: Vendetta; Tragic Slip; Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher; Scarblade's Malice; Zuko's Exile; You Are Already Dead; Snuff Out; Chainer's Edict; Crypt Rats
Phase windows: priority windows, combat, opponent main phase, stack responses
Runtime cues: action:cast; action:activate; prompt:target
Use when: a legal interaction spell can answer a visible threat, protect a payoff race, or prevent lethal damage.
Avoid when: the target is replaceable and a more dangerous visible threat is already on board or stack.
Instructions: Spend removal on engines, evasive clocks, lethal attackers, and blockers that prevent a winning attack. Check conditional text at runtime; Card text check required for unfamiliar or transformed effects.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Artifact, Enchantment, And Graveyard Interaction
Priority: Medium
Decision families: interaction
Cards: Return to Nature; Heritage Reclamation; Nihil Spellbomb; Bojuka Bog; Night Soil; Faerie Macabre; Gleeful Sabotage
Phase windows: priority windows, land play, selection prompts
Runtime cues: action:cast; action:activate; action:play Bojuka Bog; prompt:target
Use when: a visible graveyard, artifact, or enchantment is enabling an opposing plan.
Avoid when: using graveyard hate would weaken your own active `Crawling Infestation`, `Night Soil`, or recursion-adjacent resource without stopping an opposing payoff.
Instructions: Time graveyard hate immediately before the opponent can use the graveyard. Use artifact/enchantment removal on engines or lock pieces, not low-impact permanents.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Presence Of Gond Target Gate
Priority: Medium
Decision families: selection
Cards: Presence of Gond; Siege Zombie; Viscera Seer; Carrion Feeder; Broodspinner
Phase windows: main phases, aura target prompts
Runtime cues: action:target Presence of Gond
Use when: `Presence of Gond` has been selected and target choices are visible.
Avoid when: only a creature likely needed for immediate blocking or sacrifice is available.
Instructions: Route target choice through reasoning because the target must survive, tap profitably, and not conflict with `Siege Zombie`, convoke, or creature-tap mana. Do not infer protection from hidden cards.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Deterministic Opponent Burn Target
Priority: Medium
Decision families: interaction
Cards: Sign in Blood; Black Mage's Rod
Phase windows: main phase, lethal or exact-damage target prompts
Runtime cues: action:target opponent Sign in Blood; action:target opponent Black Mage's Rod
Use when: legal action text explicitly targets opponent, the visible life total is at or below the damage/life-loss shown by the action, and no required alternate target is present.
Avoid when: the action text does not show opponent targeting or the stack contains prevention, redirection, or a pending tax choice.
Instructions: Choose the opponent target only for exact visible lethal execution already selected by the engine action list.
Pilot skill floor: low
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Combat Pressure And Preservation
Priority: Medium
Decision families: combat
Cards: Siege Zombie; Carrion Feeder; Broodspinner; Mirkwood Bats; Nadier's Nightblade; Scatter the Seeds; Wrap in Vigor; Spore Frog
Phase windows: declare attackers, declare blockers, combat trick windows
Runtime cues: prompt:declare attackers; prompt:declare blockers; action:attack; action:block
Use when: combat choices affect race math, blocker preservation, tap payoffs, or sacrifice value.
Avoid when: exactly one forced legal combat action exists and the engine provides no alternative.
Instructions: Preserve payoff creatures and tap engines unless attacking changes the clock materially. Block with disposable tokens before sacrificing real engines; use protection or prevention only when it changes survival or board retention.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Counter-Sweeper And Protection Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: interaction
Cards: Wrap in Vigor; Spore Frog; Weather the Storm; Crypt Rats
Phase windows: combat, damage, sweeper, and life-gain response windows
Runtime cues: action:cast Wrap in Vigor; action:activate Spore Frog; action:cast Weather the Storm; action:activate Crypt Rats
Use when: a legal defensive action can prevent lethal damage, preserve a critical board, or reset an opposing creature swarm.
Avoid when: the action saves only replaceable material and prevents a stronger follow-up this turn.
Instructions: Use `Spore Frog` and `Weather the Storm` for survival turns, `Wrap in Vigor` for board-preservation swings, and `Crypt Rats` only after checking your life total and own board losses.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Tutor And Land Search Choices
Priority: Medium
Decision families: selection
Cards: Crop Rotation; Journey of Discovery; Harrow; Nissa's Pilgrimage; Caravan Vigil; Return from the Wilds; Grisly Salvage; Malevolent Rumble
Phase windows: main phases, search prompts, reveal/selection prompts
Runtime cues: prompt:search library; prompt:choose card; action:cast Crop Rotation
Use when: a legal search or selection choice can fix mana, find utility land, or load the graveyard.
Avoid when: sacrificing a land for `Crop Rotation` cuts off required colors or exposes a tempo loss under pressure.
Instructions: Fix missing colors first, then choose utility lands only for an immediate tactical purpose such as graveyard hate, token body, or mana smoothing. Route all search selections through model reasoning.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Sideboard Role Selection
Priority: Medium
Decision families: sideboard
Cards: Duress; Crypt Rats; Weather the Storm; Snuff Out; Chainer's Edict; Faerie Macabre; Scattershot Archer; Gleeful Sabotage; Wrap in Vigor; Spore Frog
Phase windows: between games sideboard prompts
Runtime cues: prompt:sideboard; action:submit sideboard
Use when: Veles asks for post-game or revised sideboard choices and no exact prevalidated plan is already selected.
Avoid when: public information is too thin to justify weakening the token-sacrifice core, or when a higher-level matchup plan has already been locked.
Instructions: Prefer one to three role cards. Choose discard for spell-heavy decks, sweepers and prevention for creature races, graveyard hate for graveyard engines, artifact/enchantment removal for visible permanent engines, flying hate only when opposing flyers mattered, and protection only when preserving a wide board is central.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Deterministic Sideboard Lock Submission
Priority: Low
Decision families: sideboard
Cards: Duress; Crypt Rats; Weather the Storm; Snuff Out; Chainer's Edict; Faerie Macabre; Scattershot Archer; Gleeful Sabotage; Wrap in Vigor; Spore Frog
Phase windows: between games sideboard submit prompt
Runtime cues: action:submit sideboard; validation:registered-110; validation:legal-swaps
Use when: the current sideboard plan exactly matches a prevalidated add/remove mapping from the Sideboard Map and Veles shows one submit action for that mapping.
Avoid when: any card count, card spelling, registered-zone validation warning, or hidden generated swap is present.
Instructions: Submit the validated mapping exactly as provided. Do not improvise names, counts, or extra swaps. If validation is uncertain, request a fresh strategic sideboard decision instead of locking.
Pilot skill floor: low
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Narrow Sideboard Card Restraint
Priority: Medium
Decision families: sideboard
Cards: Weather the Storm; Faerie Macabre; Scattershot Archer; Gleeful Sabotage; Wrap in Vigor; Spore Frog
Phase windows: between games sideboard prompts
Runtime cues: opponent:burn; opponent:graveyard; opponent:flyers; opponent:artifact; opponent:enchantment; opponent:sweeper; opponent:combat-alpha
Use when: a narrow sideboard card appears attractive but the opponent's public plan only partially matches its role.
Avoid when: the matchup has already shown repeated direct-damage kills, graveyard dependency, small flyers, artifact/enchantment engines, destroy-based sweepers, or combat-alpha turns.
Instructions: Keep narrow cards out unless they answer the opponent's actual winning axis. Do not trade away token production, sacrifice draw, drain payoffs, or mana development for a card that only answers a hypothetical threat class.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes
