# Strategy Specifications
## Deck Name And Archetype

Doc Aurlock - GU Pauper is a Pauper Commander Simic deck with `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius` as the command-zone identity and a registered 100-card main deck plus a 10-card Veles policy sideboard. The active format validation passes under the supplied Pauper Commander contract: the main deck is exactly 100 cards, nonbasic main-deck cards are singleton, basic lands are allowed in quantity, and the sideboard is exactly 10 cards. Do not judge this list as a 60-card Pauper deck, and do not flag the 100-card construction as an over-size issue.

The registered mana base is `19 Island`, `20 Forest`, and `Simic Guildgate`, so the deck is legally two-color but tactically color-sensitive. Runtime mulligans and sequencing should prioritize hands that produce both green and blue by turn 3, because blue cards such as `Think Twice`, `Behold the Multiverse`, `Ravenform`, `Deep Analysis`, and `Dispel` can strand in Forest-heavy starts, while green cards such as `Coiling Oracle`, `Growth Spiral`, `Path to the Festival`, `Elephant Ambush`, and large creatures can strand in Island-heavy starts. Treat `Growth Spiral`, `Coiling Oracle`, `Eureka Moment`, `Path to the Festival`, and `Rosethorn Acolyte // Seasonal Ritual` as development tools only when Veles exposes legal actions and the visible hand/lands make their color or land-drop value real.

The source archetype tags are `midrange`, `tribal`, `midrange,tribal`; normalize them for play as Simic midrange with tribal or creature-synergy texture, not as a stock format deck. This is a rogue/hybrid Pauper Commander build whose decisions should come from its registered cards and Veles legal actions, not from imported assumptions about familiar commander packages, format staples, or absent utility cards. The deck’s practical role is flexible midrange: stabilize with blockers and tempo, convert graveyard or alternate-zone value through `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius` when legal, and close with evasive, oversized, or token pressure.

The main strategic concern is whether card flow turns into board presence before the opponent’s clock becomes lethal. The list has velocity from `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Scour All Possibilities`, `Secrets of the Key`, `Think Twice`, `Deep Analysis`, `Behold the Multiverse`, `Tapping at the Window`, and `Eureka Moment`, but those cards should be judged by whether they find lands, interaction, or closers on time. Stabilizing and closing threats include `Aeromunculus`, `Slippery Bogle`, `Fractal Summoning`, `Tumbleweed Rising`, `Beanstalk Wurm // Plant Beans`, `Djinn of Fool's Fall`, `Spinewoods Paladin`, `Scuttlegator`, `Starbreach Whale`, `Elephant Ambush`, and `Shadowbeast Sighting`.

The interaction suite is broad but mostly conditional, so the pilot must spend it on visible threats and stack objects rather than theoretical danger. `Ravenform`, `Snakeform`, `Temporal Spring`, `Silent Departure`, `Applied Biomancy`, `Winged Coatl`, `Fog`, and `Moment's Peace` should be reserved for board states where they preserve life, answer evasion, win combat, or buy the turn needed to deploy a larger stabilizer. Combat-enhancement cards such as `Favor of the Overbeing`, `Shielding Plax`, `Square Up`, `Bioshift`, and `Sylvan Might` require blowout awareness because investing multiple resources into one creature can lose tempo if the opponent has visible or represented interaction.

The registered sideboard is `Hydroblast`, `Blue Elemental Blast`, `Dispel`, `Negate`, `Weather the Storm`, `Return to Nature`, `Scattershot Archer`, `Spore Frog`, `Relic of Progenitus`, and `Gleeful Sabotage`. Sideboard decisions must be driven by public information, legal target patterns, and matchup evidence: bring narrow answers only when they answer observed cards, colors, stack threats, graveyard pressure, artifacts, enchantments, flying swarms, or damage bursts. Exact executable sideboard plans belong only in `## Sideboard Map`.

Opponent information is currently unspecified, so runtime play must respect visible board state, public zones, revealed information, match context supplied by Veles, and rules-engine legal actions. Do not invent hidden cards, unobserved removal, unknown combat tricks, graveyard contents, commander identity, or legality certainty. Card text check required for obscure or newer registered cards whenever Veles exposes a legal action whose exact strategic value is not clear from visible action text.

## Thesis

Doc Aurlock - GU Pauper assembles color-stable development, early creatures, graveyard or alternate-zone value, and late oversized pressure. Prioritize hands and lines that produce both green and blue, create a board before falling behind, and let `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius` multiply legal value from flashback, adventure, graveyard, or exile actions only when Veles exposes those actions.

The deck wins by stabilizing first and closing second. Early blockers and trades from `Coiling Oracle`, `Needlethorn Drake`, `Winged Coatl`, `Shambleshark`, `Slippery Bogle`, and token makers buy time; velocity cards find lands, interaction, or finishers; larger bodies such as `Scuttlegator`, `Spinewoods Paladin`, `Starbreach Whale`, `Sword Coast Serpent // Capsizing Wave`, `Beanstalk Wurm // Plant Beans`, `Germinating Wurm`, `Shadowbeast Sighting`, and `Elephant Ambush` turn the corner.

The deck is not trying to race blindly, hold up permission forever, or stack auras and pump onto one creature without a reason. `Favor of the Overbeing`, `Shielding Plax`, `Square Up`, `Bioshift`, and `Sylvan Might` should be used when they win combat, create lethal or near-lethal pressure, protect a key threat through visible legal play, or punish tapped-out opponents; do not spend them merely because mana is available.

The priority is to convert card flow into board impact. `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Scour All Possibilities`, `Tapping at the Window`, `Secrets of the Key`, `Think Twice`, `Deep Analysis`, `Behold the Multiverse`, and `Eureka Moment` are successful when they produce land drops, correct colors, stabilizers, interaction, or closing threats before the opponent’s clock becomes decisive.

## Role Package

- Threats: Use `Slippery Bogle`, `Aeromunculus`, `Freestrider Commando`, `Loan Shark`, `Drix Fatemaker`, `Mechanozoa`, `Sinister Cryologist`, `Pond Prophet`, `Quandrix Pledgemage`, `Snapping Voidcraw`, and `Undercover Crocodelf` as pressure or board presence when their legal text and visible board position support it. Card text check required for newer or obscure threat bodies before assuming evasion, counters, combat triggers, or draw triggers.

- Payoffs: Treat `Scuttlegator`, `Spinewoods Paladin`, `Starbreach Whale`, `Sword Coast Serpent // Capsizing Wave`, `Djinn of Fool's Fall`, `Beanstalk Wurm // Plant Beans`, `Germinating Wurm`, `Sarulf's Packmate`, `Fractal Summoning`, `Tumbleweed Rising`, `Elephant Ambush`, and `Shadowbeast Sighting` as the main ways to end games after stabilization. Commit these when the deck can survive the crack-back or when waiting risks losing tempo, cards, or commander-window value.

- Engines: Build around `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius` only when the current hand, graveyard, exile, adventure, or flashback actions make the commander immediately relevant. Pair it with legal actions from `Think Twice`, `Deep Analysis`, `Silent Departure`, `Scour All Possibilities`, `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Secrets of the Key`, `Moment's Peace`, `Sylvan Might`, `Artful Dodge`, `Beanstalk Wurm // Plant Beans`, `Sword Coast Serpent // Capsizing Wave`, and `Rosethorn Acolyte // Seasonal Ritual` when Veles shows they are available.

- Velocity: Use `Growth Spiral`, `Coiling Oracle`, `Eureka Moment`, `Path to the Festival`, `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Scour All Possibilities`, `Tapping at the Window`, `Secrets of the Key`, `Think Twice`, `Deep Analysis`, and `Behold the Multiverse` to hit colors, land drops, and relevant action density. Avoid taking pure card-selection lines under pressure if a legal stabilizer, blocker, or removal spell is already available.

- Interaction: Spend `Ravenform`, `Snakeform`, `Temporal Spring`, `Silent Departure`, `Applied Biomancy`, `Winged Coatl`, `Fog`, and `Moment's Peace` on visible threats, lethal races, evasive pressure, or tempo turns that unlock a larger play. Do not use narrow interaction on low-impact permanents while a stronger board problem is already public.

- Protection: Use `Shielding Plax`, `Favor of the Overbeing`, `Bioshift`, `Square Up`, `Sylvan Might`, `Artful Dodge`, `Needlethorn Drake`, and `Winged Coatl` as combat or threat-preservation tools, not default mana sinks. Prefer protection or pump when it preserves the best clock, forces a favorable exchange, or converts a stabilized board into a closing line.

- Recursion and graveyard value: Treat `Retrieve the Esper`, `Deep Analysis`, `Think Twice`, `Silent Departure`, `Moment's Peace`, `Sylvan Might`, `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Secrets of the Key`, `Chatter of the Squirrel`, `Elephant Ambush`, and `Shadowbeast Sighting` as value only when the graveyard, mana, and legal-action output make them real. Card text check required for `Retrieve the Esper` before assuming exact recursion targets.

- Mana: Use `Forest`, `Island`, `Simic Guildgate`, `Growth Spiral`, `Coiling Oracle`, `Eureka Moment`, `Path to the Festival`, and `Rosethorn Acolyte // Seasonal Ritual` to keep both colors live. Prioritize untangling color requirements over casting a lower-impact spell on curve.

- Sideboard modules: Use `Hydroblast`, `Blue Elemental Blast`, `Dispel`, `Negate`, `Weather the Storm`, `Return to Nature`, `Scattershot Archer`, `Spore Frog`, `Relic of Progenitus`, and `Gleeful Sabotage` as evidence-driven role cards. Match them to observed red spells, stack fights, burst damage, artifacts, enchantments, flying pressure, graveyard reliance, or combat clocks rather than theoretical matchup labels.

## Primary Win Conditions

- Stabilize into oversized pressure: Use `Coiling Oracle`, `Needlethorn Drake`, `Winged Coatl`, `Shambleshark`, `Slippery Bogle`, `Chatter of the Squirrel`, and `Fractal Summoning` to contest the board until large threats are legal. Execute by committing `Scuttlegator`, `Spinewoods Paladin`, `Starbreach Whale`, `Sword Coast Serpent // Capsizing Wave`, `Beanstalk Wurm // Plant Beans`, `Germinating Wurm`, `Sarulf's Packmate`, or `Djinn of Fool's Fall` once the crack-back is survivable or the opponent cannot race the visible body. Protect this line from disruption by holding `Snakeform`, `Applied Biomancy`, `Silent Departure`, `Temporal Spring`, `Fog`, or `Moment's Peace` for the threat that invalidates combat math. Prioritize this path when the deck has enough mana, both colors, and at least one stabilizing body already present.

- Convert graveyard and alternate-zone value into inevitability: Cast `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius` when the current hand, graveyard, exile, adventure, or flashback actions make immediate value legal rather than speculative. Execute through legal follow-up actions involving `Think Twice`, `Deep Analysis`, `Silent Departure`, `Scour All Possibilities`, `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Secrets of the Key`, `Moment's Peace`, `Sylvan Might`, `Artful Dodge`, `Elephant Ambush`, `Shadowbeast Sighting`, `Beanstalk Wurm // Plant Beans`, `Sword Coast Serpent // Capsizing Wave`, and `Rosethorn Acolyte // Seasonal Ritual` only when Veles exposes them. Protect this line by not casting the commander into obvious tempo loss without a same-turn or next-turn value action. Prioritize this path in long games, against removal-light visible boards, or when the hand otherwise lacks enough pressure.

- Win through evasive or forced-damage combat: Use `Artful Dodge`, `Aeromunculus`, `Favor of the Overbeing`, `Shielding Plax`, `Square Up`, `Bioshift`, and `Sylvan Might` to turn a stable board into a fast clock. Execute only after checking visible blockers, removal mana, and whether one protected or evasive attacker creates lethal or forces a decisive trade. Disruption risk is highest when multiple resources are stacked onto one creature, so avoid aura or pump commitment if losing that creature would reopen the game. Prioritize this path when the opponent has stabilized the ground but cannot answer a known evasive attacker.

## Secondary Win Conditions

- Token pressure can close games without exposing one creature: Use `Chatter of the Squirrel`, `Elephant Ambush`, `Shadowbeast Sighting`, `Biomathematician`, `Wavesifter`, `Tumbleweed Rising`, and `Fractal Summoning` to spread threats across the battlefield. This line is strongest when opposing removal is single-target, when life totals make multiple small attacks relevant, or when a large creature would be too slow. Card text check required for exact token size or extra effects when Veles action text is ambiguous.

- Tempo-locking a key permanent can buy the winning turn: Use `Temporal Spring`, `Silent Departure`, `Ravenform`, `Snakeform`, `Applied Biomancy`, `Winged Coatl`, `Fog`, and `Moment's Peace` to interrupt one visible threat long enough for existing attackers to finish. This is not a hard lock; treat it as a bridge from stabilization to lethal, not as a plan to answer every card indefinitely.

- Incremental creature value can win stalled games: Use `Freestrider Commando`, `Loan Shark`, `Drix Fatemaker`, `Mechanozoa`, `Sinister Cryologist`, `Pond Prophet`, `Quandrix Pledgemage`, `Snapping Voidcraw`, `Trapjaw Kelpie`, and `Undercover Crocodelf` as role creatures when their visible text, legal triggers, or board size make them relevant. Card text check required before assuming evasion, counters, card draw, graveyard value, or combat triggers.

## Emergency Lines

- Behind on life: Stop racing unless lethal is visible. Prioritize `Fog`, `Moment's Peace`, `Winged Coatl`, `Needlethorn Drake`, `Snakeform`, `Applied Biomancy`, `Silent Departure`, and token blockers before slow card draw, and use `Artful Dodge` or pump only if it ends the game or removes the need to survive another attack.

- Behind on board: Trade resources for time. Use `Ravenform` or `Temporal Spring` on the public permanent creating the largest immediate damage or inevitability problem, and commit `Elephant Ambush`, `Shadowbeast Sighting`, `Beanstalk Wurm // Plant Beans`, `Spinewoods Paladin`, or `Scuttlegator` as stabilizers before speculative selection.

- Behind on cards: Convert legal graveyard and draw actions before committing low-impact bodies. Prefer `Deep Analysis`, `Think Twice`, `Behold the Multiverse`, `Eureka Moment`, `Secrets of the Key`, `Scour All Possibilities`, and `Tapping at the Window` when life total and board state allow the tempo spend.

- Behind on mana or colors: Use `Growth Spiral`, `Coiling Oracle`, `Eureka Moment`, `Path to the Festival`, `Simic Guildgate`, `Forest`, `Island`, and `Rosethorn Acolyte // Seasonal Ritual` to restore development. Do not keep spending turns on blue-only velocity if green sources are required for the stabilizer, or green-only development if blue interaction is the only answer.

- Engine removed or graveyard denied: Shift to battlefield pressure. Treat `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius` as a bonus rather than a dependency, and win through large creatures, token pressure, and combat tempo if legal graveyard value is unavailable.

- Opposing combo or inevitability visible: Shorten the clock while preserving one relevant interruption. Commit the fastest legal threat, hold stack or board interaction when Veles shows it matters, and avoid slow selection unless it finds a specific public answer or lethal setup.

## Resource Model

- Life is a spendable buffer only when the next combat step is controlled. Use life to buy time for `Deep Analysis`, `Think Twice`, `Behold the Multiverse`, `Eureka Moment`, or graveyard actions only if visible attackers do not create a short clock; when under pressure, convert life preservation into board time with `Fog`, `Moment's Peace`, `Needlethorn Drake`, `Winged Coatl`, `Snakeform`, `Silent Departure`, or `Applied Biomancy`.

- Hand size is strongest when it contains both mana development and one stabilizer. Prioritize hands and draw lines that turn cards into battlefield presence through `Coiling Oracle`, `Growth Spiral`, `Path to the Festival`, `Sarulf's Packmate`, `Beanstalk Wurm // Plant Beans`, `Elephant Ambush`, `Shadowbeast Sighting`, `Spinewoods Paladin`, `Scuttlegator`, or `Starbreach Whale`; do not spend multiple turns on velocity if no legal play catches up on board.

- Mana is the deck's main bottleneck because the list is two-color singleton with many expensive plays. Treat `Forest`, `Island`, `Simic Guildgate`, `Growth Spiral`, `Coiling Oracle`, `Eureka Moment`, `Path to the Festival`, and `Rosethorn Acolyte // Seasonal Ritual` as development resources first, then as enablers for double-spell turns or commander-plus-flashback turns after the board is stable.

- Board presence protects the slow value engine. Early creatures such as `Slippery Bogle`, `Shambleshark`, `Coiling Oracle`, `Needlethorn Drake`, `Winged Coatl`, `Pond Prophet`, `Karfell Harbinger`, and `Vigean Hydropon` should trade, block, or enable later turns rather than preserve theoretical long-term value when life is under attack.

- Graveyard value is a tactical extension of the hand, not a guarantee. Use `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius` to improve legal graveyard, adventure, exile, flashback, or aftermath-style actions only when Veles exposes those actions; key cards to monitor include `Deep Analysis`, `Think Twice`, `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Scour All Possibilities`, `Secrets of the Key`, `Silent Departure`, `Moment's Peace`, `Artful Dodge`, `Sylvan Might`, `Elephant Ambush`, `Shadowbeast Sighting`, `Beanstalk Wurm // Plant Beans`, and `Sword Coast Serpent // Capsizing Wave`.

- Exile and alternate-zone resources must follow engine legality. Do not assume `Ravenform`, adventure halves, flashback-like actions, or command-zone sequencing produce future actions unless Veles lists them; if a card is exiled by an opponent effect or graveyard hate, pivot to battlefield pressure.

- Lands are both resource count and color access. Missing either `Forest` or `Island` matters more than total land count when the hand contains `Coiling Oracle`, `Growth Spiral`, `Path to the Festival`, `Think Twice`, `Behold the Multiverse`, `Ravenform`, or `Dispel` after sideboarding.

- Sacrifice fodder is incidental and should not be promised. Tokens or expendable bodies from `Chatter of the Squirrel`, `Biomathematician`, `Fractal Summoning`, `Elephant Ambush`, `Shadowbeast Sighting`, `Tumbleweed Rising`, or `Wavesifter` can protect life and attacks when legal text confirms them; Card text check required before relying on exact token sizes or sacrifice synergies.

- Tempo is gained by denying one decisive turn. `Temporal Spring`, `Silent Departure`, `Ravenform`, `Snakeform`, `Applied Biomancy`, `Fog`, and `Moment's Peace` should be spent where they change combat, stop lethal, protect a winning attack, or prevent a snowball permanent from converting immediately.

- Information is a resource for avoiding overcommitment. Use public zones, revealed cards, visible mana, current stack objects, and Veles legal actions to decide whether to expose `Favor of the Overbeing`, `Shielding Plax`, `Square Up`, `Bioshift`, or `Sylvan Might`; never infer hidden removal with certainty.

- Sideboard bullets are narrow resources that must match observed facts. `Hydroblast`, `Blue Elemental Blast`, `Dispel`, `Negate`, `Weather the Storm`, `Return to Nature`, `Scattershot Archer`, `Spore Frog`, `Relic of Progenitus`, and `Gleeful Sabotage` are valuable only when their legal targets, prevented damage, stack role, or board impact is visible or strongly supported by public game context.

## Mana Guide

- Keep hands that can cast a legal early play and reach both colors by turn 3. A hand with only `Forest` should be suspicious if it strands `Think Twice`, `Behold the Multiverse`, `Ravenform`, `Dispel`, or `Negate`; a hand with only `Island` should be suspicious if it strands `Coiling Oracle`, `Growth Spiral`, `Path to the Festival`, `Rosethorn Acolyte // Seasonal Ritual`, or large green creatures.

- Sequence tapped fixing early when tempo allows. Play `Simic Guildgate` before untapped basics if no one-mana legal action matters this turn, but prefer untapped `Forest` or `Island` when the turn requires `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Chatter of the Squirrel`, `Fog`, `Dispel`, `Hydroblast`, `Blue Elemental Blast`, or another visible instant-speed action.

- Choose land drops to unlock the next two turns, not only the current spell. Prioritize the missing color over redundant basics unless a same-turn legal action prevents lethal or creates a necessary blocker.

- Cast draw-before-land-drop when it can change the land choice. If Veles offers `Coiling Oracle`, `Growth Spiral`, `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Think Twice`, `Scour All Possibilities`, `Tapping at the Window`, `Behold the Multiverse`, or `Eureka Moment` before a land drop and mana remains for the intended play, consider drawing or selecting first to find the correct `Forest`, `Island`, or `Simic Guildgate`.

- Play land-before-draw when the spell requires the mana or when holding the land risks wasting the turn. If the only legal draw spell needs the land to be cast, or if the hand already contains the needed color and curve play, make the land drop first and preserve tempo.

- Use `Growth Spiral` and `Coiling Oracle` as development bridges when behind on mana. Prefer them before speculative threats if they can create a legal extra land, reveal acceleration, or fix the next turn; Card text check required if action text does not show the exact land-putting effect.

- Use `Path to the Festival`, `Eureka Moment`, and `Rosethorn Acolyte // Seasonal Ritual` to fix expensive turns only when the board can survive the tempo spend. If the opponent is presenting lethal or a short clock, prioritize blockers, bounce, `Fog`, or `Moment's Peace` over slow mana repair unless the repair enables the survival action immediately.

- Do not treat `Beanstalk Wurm // Plant Beans` as a land or a color source. It is a spell-side or adventure-style card whose exact legal mode must come from Veles; it should affect mana planning only by requiring enough green mana after `Forest`, `Island`, `Simic Guildgate`, ramp, or draw sequencing has already produced a stable land base.

- Preserve colored mana for interaction when the matchup or board demands it. Do not tap the only blue source before a visible stack fight involving `Dispel`, `Negate`, `Ravenform`, `Snakeform`, or `Applied Biomancy`, and do not tap the only green source before a required `Fog`, `Moment's Peace`, `Winged Coatl`, or green stabilizer unless Veles shows no relevant window remains.

- Spend excess mana on graveyard or flashback actions after stabilizing. When both colors are established and the board is safe, convert unused mana into `Deep Analysis`, `Think Twice`, `Secrets of the Key`, `Silent Departure`, `Moment's Peace`, `Artful Dodge`, `Sylvan Might`, `Elephant Ambush`, or `Shadowbeast Sighting` only through legal Veles actions.

## Mulligan Guide

- Strong keep: Keep two-to-four-land hands with both `Forest` and `Island`, or `Simic Guildgate` plus an untapped source, when they also contain a legal early play such as `Coiling Oracle`, `Growth Spiral`, `Slippery Bogle`, `Needlethorn Drake`, `Winged Coatl`, `Think Twice`, or `Otherworldly Gaze`. These hands can develop, fix, and survive long enough for `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius`, `Deep Analysis`, `Elephant Ambush`, `Shadowbeast Sighting`, or a large creature to matter.

- Medium keep: Keep three-land single-color hands only when the hand already has legal selection or fixing for the missing color. `Forest` plus `Coiling Oracle`, `Growth Spiral`, `Path to the Festival`, or `Rosethorn Acolyte // Seasonal Ritual` is acceptable if Veles shows castable actions; `Island` plus `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Think Twice`, `Scour All Possibilities`, or `Behold the Multiverse` is acceptable when the hand can find `Forest` before green cards clog the turn.

- Risky keep: Keep slow hands with `Deep Analysis`, `Behold the Multiverse`, `Eureka Moment`, `Sarulf's Packmate`, `Spinewoods Paladin`, `Scuttlegator`, `Starbreach Whale`, or `Sword Coast Serpent // Capsizing Wave` only with three lands, both colors, and at least one early blocker or selection spell. These hands are better on the play against slow opponents and worse on the draw against visible pressure.

- Automatic ship: Mulligan zero-land, one-land without a one-mana selection action, five-plus-land hands with no card flow, and single-color hands that cannot cast any visible spell before turn 3. Ship `Forest`-heavy hands that strand `Think Twice`, `Behold the Multiverse`, `Ravenform`, or sideboard `Dispel`; ship `Island`-heavy hands that strand `Coiling Oracle`, `Growth Spiral`, `Path to the Festival`, `Rosethorn Acolyte // Seasonal Ritual`, or green finishers.

- Matchup-dependent keep: Keep `Fog`, `Moment's Peace`, `Needlethorn Drake`, `Winged Coatl`, `Snakeform`, or `Applied Biomancy` higher against creature pressure; keep `Ravenform`, `Temporal Spring`, and `Silent Departure` higher against a single visible threat plan; keep `Think Twice`, `Deep Analysis`, and `Behold the Multiverse` higher against slow opponents. After sideboarding, keep `Hydroblast`, `Blue Elemental Blast`, `Dispel`, `Negate`, `Weather the Storm`, `Return to Nature`, `Scattershot Archer`, `Spore Frog`, `Relic of Progenitus`, or `Gleeful Sabotage` only when the matchup label or public Game 1 information supports them.

- Play/draw adjustment: On the play, accept a slightly slower hand if it has both colors and a turn-2 play; on the draw, require an earlier stabilizer, legal selection, or interaction because falling behind makes `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius` and flashback value less safe. Do not keep a hand because it has a large finisher unless the hand also reaches the mana and survives the first attacks.

- Trap hand: Treat aura-or-pump hands with `Favor of the Overbeing`, `Shielding Plax`, `Square Up`, `Bioshift`, or `Sylvan Might` as weak without a durable creature and mana to protect tempo. Treat graveyard-value hands with `Deep Analysis`, `Think Twice`, `Silent Departure`, `Artful Dodge`, `Elephant Ambush`, or `Shadowbeast Sighting` as incomplete unless the front-side plan is also legal and functional.

## Turn Arc

- Turn 1: Prefer a land that unlocks turn 2, usually the missing color or `Simic Guildgate` when no untapped one-mana action matters. Cast `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Chatter of the Squirrel`, `Slippery Bogle`, or sideboard one-mana interaction only when Veles lists the action and it improves the next two turns or prevents immediate damage.

- Turn 2: Prefer development that fixes or blocks. `Coiling Oracle` and `Growth Spiral` are top priorities when they can advance mana; `Shambleshark`, `Needlethorn Drake`, `Pond Prophet`, `Karfell Harbinger`, `Think Twice`, `Scour All Possibilities`, or `Tapping at the Window` are acceptable when they are legal and match the visible board. Hold `Fog`, `Moment's Peace`, `Dispel`, or `Hydroblast` only when the opponent can punish tapping out.

- Turn 3: Prefer stabilizing the battlefield before casting slow value. Cast `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius` when the board is not under immediate threat or when legal graveyard/exile actions can follow soon; otherwise deploy blockers, `Ravenform`, `Snakeform`, `Applied Biomancy`, `Silent Departure`, `Temporal Spring`, `Winged Coatl`, or `Eureka Moment` according to visible pressure and legal actions.

- Turns 4-5: Convert mana into either a protected board or a decisive tempo swing. Use `Deep Analysis`, `Behold the Multiverse`, `Eureka Moment`, `Path to the Festival`, `Sarulf's Packmate`, `Biomathematician`, `Wavesifter`, `Fractal Summoning`, `Elephant Ambush`, or `Shadowbeast Sighting` when life is stable; use `Fog`, `Moment's Peace`, `Snakeform`, `Ravenform`, `Temporal Spring`, or `Silent Departure` when the opponent's next attack or key permanent matters more than card quantity.

- Late game: Turn stabilization into a clock with `Spinewoods Paladin`, `Scuttlegator`, `Starbreach Whale`, `Sword Coast Serpent // Capsizing Wave`, `Beanstalk Wurm // Plant Beans`, `Djinn of Fool's Fall`, `Tumbleweed Rising`, `Aeromunculus`, or evasive `Artful Dodge` lines only when Veles confirms legality. Reuse graveyard actions from `Think Twice`, `Deep Analysis`, `Moment's Peace`, `Silent Departure`, `Sylvan Might`, `Elephant Ambush`, and `Shadowbeast Sighting` before exposing fragile pump or aura lines into open interaction.

## Card Roles

- Commander role: `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius` is the deck's value amplifier for legal graveyard, exile, adventure, and flashback-style actions, not a creature to cast automatically on curve. Deploy it when Veles shows enough mana, time, and follow-up actions to gain material value; hold it when the visible board demands `Snakeform`, `Ravenform`, `Moment's Peace`, `Fog`, `Winged Coatl`, or a blocker first. Avoid casting the commander into open interaction when no immediate legal discounted or alternate-zone action is available.

- Early development role: `Coiling Oracle`, `Growth Spiral`, `Karfell Harbinger`, `Pond Prophet`, and `Rosethorn Acolyte // Seasonal Ritual` are the preferred cards for turning mixed-color hands into functional games. Cast these before slow draw when they improve land development or color access; hold only if Veles shows a higher-impact defensive action. Card text check required for `Pond Prophet` and exact `Karfell Harbinger` battlefield utility.

- Cheap body role: `Slippery Bogle`, `Shambleshark`, `Needlethorn Drake`, `Winged Coatl`, `Chatter of the Squirrel`, `Vigean Hydropon`, and `Biomathematician` buy time or make combat awkward. Prioritize `Needlethorn Drake` and `Winged Coatl` against evasive or large attackers, `Chatter of the Squirrel` when an early body plus later graveyard value matters, and `Slippery Bogle` when aura or pump lines need a durable carrier. Do not spend `Winged Coatl` as a small attacker if holding flash-speed defense can change combat.

- Midgame board role: `Quandrix Pledgemage`, `Snapping Voidcraw`, `Aeromunculus`, `Wavesifter`, `Trapjaw Kelpie`, `Undercover Crocodelf`, `Freestrider Commando`, `Loan Shark`, `Drix Fatemaker`, `Mechanozoa`, and `Sinister Cryologist` are pressure, blockers, or value creatures whose exact use depends on visible text and Veles actions. Card text check required for `Snapping Voidcraw`, `Trapjaw Kelpie`, `Undercover Crocodelf`, `Freestrider Commando`, `Loan Shark`, `Drix Fatemaker`, `Mechanozoa`, and `Sinister Cryologist`; treat them as conditional role-fillers until the rules engine exposes their legal abilities. Prefer them when they stabilize combat or add pressure without consuming interaction mana.

- Large threat role: `Scuttlegator`, `Beanstalk Wurm // Plant Beans`, `Germinating Wurm`, `Sarulf's Packmate`, `Djinn of Fool's Fall`, `Spinewoods Paladin`, `Starbreach Whale`, and `Sword Coast Serpent // Capsizing Wave` are closers and stabilizers, not early-hand excuses to keep poor mana. Cast them after survival is secured or when they are the only legal way to stop the opponent's clock. Card text check required for `Germinating Wurm`, `Djinn of Fool's Fall`, `Spinewoods Paladin`, and `Starbreach Whale`; use visible keywords, size, and legal modality rather than assumed text.

- Token and scaling threat role: `Fractal Summoning`, `Tumbleweed Rising`, `Elephant Ambush`, and `Shadowbeast Sighting` convert mana into board presence and help close after stabilization. Use these when the opponent's interaction is taxed or when multiple bodies are better than a single aura target; hold them when immediate removal, bounce, or fog prevents more damage. Value the graveyard or alternate-cast mode of `Elephant Ambush` and `Shadowbeast Sighting` when Veles shows it, especially with `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius` active.

- Card velocity role: `Think Twice`, `Deep Analysis`, `Behold the Multiverse`, `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Scour All Possibilities`, `Secrets of the Key`, `Tapping at the Window`, and `Eureka Moment` find lands, interaction, or closers. Cast selection early when colors or land drops are missing; cast raw draw later when life total and board are stable. Do not spend a full turn on `Deep Analysis` or `Behold the Multiverse` while a visible attack requires `Fog`, `Moment's Peace`, `Snakeform`, `Ravenform`, or a blocker. Card text check required for `Tapping at the Window` and `Secrets of the Key` exact selection limits.

- Mana expansion role: `Path to the Festival`, `Eureka Moment`, `Growth Spiral`, and `Beanstalk Wurm // Plant Beans` help the deck reach large spells without falling behind. Use them when they produce a next-turn payoff or fix a color bottleneck; delay them when the opponent's board makes a defensive legal action mandatory. Card text check required for exact `Path to the Festival` search constraints and `Beanstalk Wurm // Plant Beans` adventure handling.

- Tempo interaction role: `Temporal Spring`, `Silent Departure`, `Applied Biomancy`, `Ravenform`, and `Sword Coast Serpent // Capsizing Wave` change the opponent's development or remove a problematic permanent from the current battlefield. Save these for evasive threats, commanders, engines, or lethal pressure rather than spending them on replaceable creatures. Use `Silent Departure` graveyard mode only when Veles confirms legality and the tempo swing matters more than developing a threat.

- Combat interaction role: `Snakeform`, `Square Up`, `Bioshift`, `Sylvan Might`, `Artful Dodge`, `Favor of the Overbeing`, and `Shielding Plax` are tactical enhancers that can win combat, force damage, or protect a key creature, but they can also create blowout risk. Prefer `Snakeform` as interaction over a cantrip when it neutralizes a large attacker or blocker. Use `Artful Dodge` and `Sylvan Might` to close once a creature is already a credible clock; avoid aura or pump commitment when the opponent can answer the target and the deck has safer board development. Card text check required for exact `Bioshift`, `Square Up`, and `Favor of the Overbeing` effects.

- Prevention role: `Fog` and `Moment's Peace` are survival cards, not routine tempo plays. Spend them when they prevent lethal damage, preserve a stabilizing board, or buy the exact turn needed for `Spinewoods Paladin`, `Scuttlegator`, `Starbreach Whale`, `Deep Analysis`, or graveyard value to turn the game. Prefer `Moment's Peace` when future flashback value is relevant and legal; do not cast either into noncombat damage unless Veles legal text confirms the prevention applies.

- Graveyard-value role: `Deep Analysis`, `Think Twice`, `Scour All Possibilities`, `Silent Departure`, `Artful Dodge`, `Sylvan Might`, `Moment's Peace`, `Elephant Ambush`, `Shadowbeast Sighting`, and `Otherworldly Gaze` make the graveyard a resource. Sequence front-side spells so later graveyard actions remain available, but do not mill or discard blindly if the visible board needs an immediate blocker or removal spell. With `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius`, check Veles for cheaper legal graveyard or alternate-zone actions before spending mana on lower-impact hand spells.

- Utility and uncertain text role: `Dreams of Laguna` and `Retrieve the Esper` require card text verification before tactical reliance. Use them only through explicit Veles legal actions and visible targets; do not assume recursion, draw, bounce, or other effects from name alone. If a legal action exposes exact target text, choose targets that advance the current role: mana recovery when constrained, interaction when behind, and closing power when stabilized.

- Land role: `Forest`, `Island`, and `Simic Guildgate` are part of card-role evaluation because color failures strand spells. Prioritize early land sequencing that unlocks both `Coiling Oracle` or `Growth Spiral` and `Think Twice` or `Behold the Multiverse`; play `Simic Guildgate` on turns where entering tapped costs the least tempo. Do not keep or sequence as though total land count replaces actual green-blue access.

## Interaction Priorities
- Exile priority: Use `Ravenform` first on a visible permanent that will beat this deck through normal blockers, especially an evasive commander, a large scaling creature, an artifact creature, or a value engine that will outdraw `Think Twice`, `Deep Analysis`, and `Behold the Multiverse`. Do not spend `Ravenform` on a replaceable small attacker if `Needlethorn Drake`, `Winged Coatl`, `Fog`, `Moment's Peace`, `Snakeform`, or a token maker can cover the turn.

- Bounce and delay priority: Use `Temporal Spring`, `Silent Departure`, `Applied Biomancy`, and `Sword Coast Serpent // Capsizing Wave` to break the opponent's best current turn, not to tidy up low-impact permanents. Prioritize commanders, aura-stacked creatures, evasive lethal attackers, equipment carriers, and mana-heavy threats when returning or delaying them denies a full turn cycle. Card text check required for exact `Applied Biomancy` and `Sword Coast Serpent // Capsizing Wave` modes; follow Veles target legality.

- Combat interaction priority: Use `Snakeform` as a true answer when it lets a small body trade with a large attacker or turns off a visible combat keyword that matters this turn. Treat `Square Up`, `Bioshift`, and `Sylvan Might` as combat leverage only when the targeted creature survives the exchange or the damage meaningfully changes the race; avoid using them just to win a low-value trade into open interaction.

- Counter priority after sideboarding: Spend `Dispel` and `Negate` on stack actions that answer `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius`, stop a stabilizing `Elephant Ambush` or `Shadowbeast Sighting`, remove a key blocker, force lethal, or invalidate `Fog` and `Moment's Peace`. Spend `Hydroblast` and `Blue Elemental Blast` only when Veles exposes a legal red spell or red permanent whose resolution changes the game; do not hold them forever if a current legal target protects life total or commander access.

- Artifact, enchantment, and graveyard priority after sideboarding: Use `Return to Nature` and `Gleeful Sabotage` on public permanents that suppress combat, invalidate graveyard value, or create an unavoidable clock; do not fire them at cosmetic targets while a creature race is unresolved. Use `Relic of Progenitus` against visible graveyard engines, but preserve this deck's own `Deep Analysis`, `Think Twice`, `Scour All Possibilities`, `Silent Departure`, `Artful Dodge`, `Sylvan Might`, `Moment's Peace`, `Elephant Ambush`, and `Shadowbeast Sighting` unless the opponent's graveyard is more dangerous than the lost value.

- Bait priority: Lead with replaceable pressure or card flow before committing `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius`, `Shielding Plax`, `Favor of the Overbeing`, `Scuttlegator`, `Spinewoods Paladin`, or `Starbreach Whale` into obvious open mana. `Coiling Oracle`, `Growth Spiral`, `Chatter of the Squirrel`, `Pond Prophet`, `Shambleshark`, and ordinary draw spells can test whether the opponent is spending interaction before the deck exposes a key engine or finisher.

- Ignore priority: Ignore small grounded creatures when life total is high and the board can absorb attacks with tokens, `Needlethorn Drake`, `Winged Coatl`, `Biomathematician`, `Fractal Summoning`, or `Tumbleweed Rising`. Change this rule against swarm, evasion, burn, or commander-damage pressure: if the opponent's visible clock drops the deck below two safe turn cycles, interaction must shift from value targets to immediate damage prevention.

## Combat And Trading Rules
- Attack only when the crack-back is covered by blockers, prevention, or a faster clock. This deck wins many games by stabilizing first, so early damage from `Slippery Bogle`, `Aeromunculus`, `Quandrix Pledgemage`, or tokens matters only if it does not expose `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius` or the life total to a losing race.

- Trade low-value bodies for time when the hand contains card draw or large follow-up threats. Accept trades with `Coiling Oracle`, `Chatter of the Squirrel` tokens, `Biomathematician` bodies, and expendable creatures if they buy turns for `Deep Analysis`, `Eureka Moment`, `Path to the Festival`, `Elephant Ambush`, `Shadowbeast Sighting`, `Scuttlegator`, `Spinewoods Paladin`, or `Starbreach Whale`.

- Preserve unique stabilizers unless the trade prevents lethal or removes the opponent's best permanent. `Needlethorn Drake`, `Winged Coatl`, `Spore Frog` after sideboarding, and large blockers should not be thrown into medium attackers if `Fog`, `Moment's Peace`, `Snakeform`, or a bounce spell can create a better turn.

- Protect engines before auras and pump. Cast `Shielding Plax` or use protection-like legal actions on `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius` or a closing threat when that card is already central to the game; do not load `Favor of the Overbeing`, `Square Up`, `Bioshift`, or `Sylvan Might` onto a creature just because mana is available. A single enhanced creature is fragile unless Veles shows the opponent is tapped low or the damage ends the game soon.

- Spend `Fog` and `Moment's Peace` at low life, against alpha attacks, or when a preserved board wins the next turn cycle. Do not prevent a small attack if taking the damage keeps mana open for `Ravenform`, `Snakeform`, `Temporal Spring`, `Deep Analysis`, or a decisive creature. At 8 or less life, reassess every attack as potentially lethal through pump or evasion; at 4 or less life, survival beats card advantage unless Veles shows no relevant combat damage.

- Race differently by archetype. Against control or slow value, attack with safe evasive or resilient threats and force them to answer `Elephant Ambush`, `Shadowbeast Sighting`, `Fractal Summoning`, and `Tumbleweed Rising`. Against aggro, block early and value life over chip damage. Against flyers or unblockable pressure, prioritize `Ravenform`, `Snakeform`, `Needlethorn Drake`, `Winged Coatl`, `Scattershot Archer`, and bounce over ground-board development.

- Close once stabilized. When the opponent's attacks no longer threaten lethal, turn `Artful Dodge`, `Sylvan Might`, `Aeromunculus`, `Beanstalk Wurm // Plant Beans`, `Djinn of Fool's Fall`, `Spinewoods Paladin`, `Scuttlegator`, and `Starbreach Whale` into a clock instead of drawing indefinitely. Card text check required for uncertain closers; use visible power, evasion, and legal attack text rather than assumed abilities.

## Selection And Tutor Rules
- Treat this deck as pseudo-selection, not true tutoring. `Path to the Festival` is the closest registered search effect and should prioritize color correction before luxury ramp; use it to secure missing `Island`, missing `Forest`, or `Simic Guildgate` if Veles shows that target is legal and the next turns need both colors.

- Sequence land-drop information before blind draw when possible. If holding `Growth Spiral`, `Coiling Oracle`, `Eureka Moment`, or `Path to the Festival`, prefer casting the effect before making a discretionary land drop when Veles allows it and the hand contains multiple land options; after the reveal or draw, play the land that unlocks the next legal blue and green actions.

- Use cheap filtering to solve the current bottleneck. `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Scour All Possibilities`, `Tapping at the Window`, `Secrets of the Key`, `Think Twice`, and `Behold the Multiverse` should look first for missing lands, then missing color, then interaction, then closing pressure. Do not spend selection chasing a large finisher while the current board demands `Fog`, `Moment's Peace`, `Ravenform`, `Snakeform`, `Silent Departure`, or `Temporal Spring`.

- Bottom or deprioritize late cards when development is behind. Expensive threats such as `Scuttlegator`, `Spinewoods Paladin`, `Starbreach Whale`, `Sword Coast Serpent // Capsizing Wave`, `Beanstalk Wurm // Plant Beans`, and `Djinn of Fool's Fall` are keepable through selection only when mana is already stable or the visible game is slow enough to reach them.

- Convert graveyard value into action after mana is stable. `Deep Analysis`, `Think Twice`, `Scour All Possibilities`, `Silent Departure`, `Artful Dodge`, `Sylvan Might`, `Moment's Peace`, `Elephant Ambush`, and `Shadowbeast Sighting` can turn the graveyard into a second hand, especially with `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius` if Veles exposes reduced or legal alternate-zone casting. Card text check required for the exact scope of `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius`; obey legal actions rather than assuming every graveyard or exile option is discounted.

- Select threats by role, not raw size. Find `Needlethorn Drake`, `Winged Coatl`, `Fog`, or `Moment's Peace` when survival is the problem; find `Aeromunculus`, `Artful Dodge`, `Sylvan Might`, `Elephant Ambush`, `Shadowbeast Sighting`, `Fractal Summoning`, or `Tumbleweed Rising` when the board is stable and the deck needs a clock. Card text check required for exact `Tumbleweed Rising` sizing and any unfamiliar newer card modes.

## Priority And Stack Rules
- Pass priority when no legal instant-speed action changes the current exchange. This deck has many cards that reward patience, so do not cast `Think Twice`, `Secrets of the Key`, `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Behold the Multiverse`, or flashback spells into open combat or stack pressure if mana may be needed for `Snakeform`, `Applied Biomancy`, `Fog`, `Moment's Peace`, `Winged Coatl`, `Dispel`, or `Negate`.

- Respond to threats that beat the current board, not every spell. Use `Ravenform`, `Snakeform`, `Temporal Spring`, `Silent Departure`, `Applied Biomancy`, and `Sword Coast Serpent // Capsizing Wave` when Veles shows a legal target that creates lethal pressure, removes the deck's stabilizer, invalidates combat, or locks out graveyard/value sequencing. Card text check required for exact timing and modes on `Applied Biomancy` and `Sword Coast Serpent // Capsizing Wave`.

- Hold stack interaction after sideboarding for decisive exchanges. `Dispel` and `Negate` should protect `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius`, stop removal aimed at a committed finisher, counter a lethal or stabilizing stack action, or defend `Fog` and `Moment's Peace` when survival depends on prevention. `Hydroblast` and `Blue Elemental Blast` require Veles-confirmed legal red spell or permanent targets; never assume legality from matchup identity alone.

- Use combat windows deliberately. After attackers are declared, check whether `Winged Coatl`, `Snakeform`, `Applied Biomancy`, `Fog`, `Moment's Peace`, `Square Up`, `Bioshift`, or `Sylvan Might` changes blocks, saves life, or creates a favorable trade. After blockers are declared, spend pump or prevention only if visible damage math justifies it; avoid exposing a single creature to removal for a marginal trade.

- Time graveyard and alternate-zone actions around public risk. Cast flashback or adventure-style actions when mana would otherwise go unused, when `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius` makes the line efficient through legal action text, or when the effect solves the board now. Do not exile, flash back, or consume graveyard resources before checking whether `Relic of Progenitus` after sideboarding, opposing graveyard pressure, or your own future `Deep Analysis`, `Moment's Peace`, `Elephant Ambush`, and `Shadowbeast Sighting` value matters more.

- Treat optional costs and triggers as board-state decisions. Pay for optional value only when it does not prevent interaction, commander access, or a stronger main-phase play. If Veles exposes optional payments, activated abilities, or trigger ordering for cards with uncertain text such as `Pond Prophet`, `Snapping Voidcraw`, `Trapjaw Kelpie`, `Undercover Crocodelf`, `Dreams of Laguna`, `Retrieve the Esper`, `Mechanozoa`, `Sinister Cryologist`, or `Starbreach Whale`, use visible outcomes and legal text; Card text check required before relying on hidden synergy.

## Sideboard Map
- Treat the sideboard as role compression, not a second deck. Each sideboard card should enter only when the opponent's visible plan or matchup label makes its text likely to matter before the game is decided; this deck cannot afford to dilute mana development, card velocity, or closing power for narrow answers without public targets.

- Use `Hydroblast` against red decks with decisive red spells or red permanents. Its role is cheap stack or permanent interaction that protects life total, preserves `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius`, or stops a red threat that invalidates combat. It is bad when the opponent is not red, when the red cards are low impact compared with creatures already on board, or when holding one blue mana prevents a stronger legal play. Its role changes from defense to protection once the deck has stabilized behind `Needlethorn Drake`, `Winged Coatl`, `Moment's Peace`, or a large creature.

- Use `Blue Elemental Blast` under the same red-matchup rules as `Hydroblast`, with Veles-confirmed legal red targets. It is strongest when redundancy matters against burn, red removal, or red tempo plays. It is bad when the opponent's pressure is colorless, green, black, white, or blue, or when visible board pressure requires bodies rather than stack interaction.

- Use `Dispel` against decks where instants decide the game. Its best jobs are protecting `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius`, defending `Spinewoods Paladin`, `Scuttlegator`, `Starbreach Whale`, or a pumped/evasive attacker, and stopping instant-speed removal, counters, or lethal burn. It is bad against creature-heavy boards with few instant targets and when the deck needs proactive stabilization. Role changes: early it protects mana-efficient development; late it protects the single turn that converts stabilization into lethal pressure.

- Use `Negate` against control, combo, fog, removal-heavy, artifact/enchantment, or spell-engine opponents. It should answer noncreature threats that beat the deck's board, stop sweep-like effects if visible through legal action text, or protect a commander/value spell from a decisive noncreature answer. It is bad against low-curve creature decks where passing with two mana leaves the board underdeveloped. Role changes: before stabilization it is a shield against haymakers; after stabilization it is closing protection.

- Use `Weather the Storm` against burn, spell-chain aggro, and racing games where life total is the bottleneck. It is strongest when the opponent has cast multiple spells in a turn or when one life burst buys enough turns for `Deep Analysis`, `Moment's Peace`, `Elephant Ambush`, `Shadowbeast Sighting`, or a large stabilizer to matter. It is bad against slow decks, poison-like pressure if any is shown by rules text, commander damage concerns if the format engine exposes them, or boards where a creature answer is required. Card text check required for exact storm handling; obey Veles legal text.

- Use `Return to Nature` when artifacts, enchantments, or graveyard cards are public and important. Its role is flexible removal or graveyard interaction, especially when a single permanent prevents combat, blocks graveyard value, or threatens a combo turn. It is bad when there is no visible legal target worth a card or when holding it strands development. Role changes: against graveyard decks it can be a timing-sensitive denial piece; against artifact/enchantment decks it is a clean answer to the permanent that matters most.

- Use `Scattershot Archer` against flyers and small evasive boards. It is strongest when visible opposing creatures attack over ground blockers and the deck needs repeatable pressure on one-toughness flyers. It is bad against ground-heavy decks, large flyers outside its effective range, and removal-heavy games where a low-impact creature does not change combat. Role changes: early it buys life and blocks; late it can make `Artful Dodge`, `Aeromunculus`, or large ground threats race more safely by shrinking aerial pressure.

- Use `Spore Frog` against creature rushes, go-wide combat, and large single-combat lethal turns. Its role is emergency time buying while the deck reaches `Moment's Peace`, `Fog`, `Elephant Ambush`, `Shadowbeast Sighting`, `Scuttlegator`, `Spinewoods Paladin`, or `Starbreach Whale`. It is bad against spell combo, control, and matchups where the opponent wins without combat. Role changes: with graveyard or recursion effects only if Veles exposes them legally, it may become repeatable prevention; otherwise treat it as one turn of breathing room.

- Use `Relic of Progenitus` against graveyard-centric opponents only when the public graveyard matters more to them than to this deck. It can disrupt recursion, flashback, reanimation, threshold-style pressure, or graveyard combo lines, but it also threatens this deck's own `Deep Analysis`, `Think Twice`, `Scour All Possibilities`, `Silent Departure`, `Artful Dodge`, `Sylvan Might`, `Moment's Peace`, `Elephant Ambush`, and `Shadowbeast Sighting`. It is bad when the opponent's graveyard is irrelevant or when the deck's own graveyard value is the best path to win. Role changes: early it deters graveyard setup; late it can cash in only when the exchange is visibly favorable.

- Use `Gleeful Sabotage` against artifact or enchantment density, especially when two targets are public or when a single permanent shuts down combat or graveyard value. It is bad against decks with few public artifacts or enchantments and when the deck cannot spare a creature for any legal conspire-like option. Card text check required for exact additional-copy mechanics; do not assume a copied mode unless Veles exposes it as legal.

Red Spell Pressure
Side in: Hydroblast; Blue Elemental Blast; Weather the Storm
Cut: Bioshift; Square Up; Otherworldly Gaze

- Add role cards: `Hydroblast`, `Blue Elemental Blast`, and `Weather the Storm` when red damage, red removal, or red tempo is the visible axis. Reduce main-deck emphasis: single-creature pump and low-impact filtering when the game is about surviving burst damage and protecting a stabilizer.

Instant/Control Stack Pressure
Side in: Dispel; Negate
Cut: Bioshift; Square Up

- Add role cards: `Dispel` and `Negate` when the opponent's decisive plays happen on the stack or when protecting `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius` is central. Reduce main-deck emphasis: combat-only tricks that require a creature to already survive interaction.

Artifact/Enchantment Pressure
Side in: Return to Nature; Gleeful Sabotage
Cut: Fog; Bioshift

- Add role cards: `Return to Nature` and `Gleeful Sabotage` when public permanents are likely to decide combat, mana, graveyard access, or card flow. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow combat prevention if the opponent's plan is permanent-based rather than attack-based.

Flyer And Small Evasion Pressure
Side in: Scattershot Archer; Spore Frog
Cut: Otherworldly Gaze; Scour All Possibilities

- Add role cards: `Scattershot Archer` and `Spore Frog` when the opponent attacks around ground blockers or threatens a fast combat clock. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow selection that does not immediately produce a blocker, removal spell, prevention spell, or race.

Graveyard Pressure
Side in: Relic of Progenitus; Return to Nature; Negate
Cut: Sylvan Might; Scour All Possibilities; Otherworldly Gaze

- Add role cards: `Relic of Progenitus`, `Return to Nature`, and `Negate` only when public graveyard use is a major opposing resource. Reduce main-deck emphasis: self-graveyard cards when graveyard denial is necessary, while preserving enough card draw and threats to close.

- Prefer balanced plans over maximum quantity plans unless the matchup is extreme. Bringing in all ten sideboard cards is almost never correct because the main deck needs enough creatures, lands, draw, and late threats to function.

- Reassess after each game using public evidence. If a sideboard card had no legal target, no prevented damage, or no protected exchange, lower its priority for the next game; if it stopped the turn that mattered, keep that role even if the card looked narrow before play began.

## Matchup Guidance

- Aggro: Prioritize survival, two-color development, and blockers before slow graveyard value. Keep hands that can cast early green and blue spells, then use `Coiling Oracle`, `Shambleshark`, `Needlethorn Drake`, `Winged Coatl`, `Biomathematician`, `Vigean Hydropon`, and token makers to stop early damage without spending the entire turn on selection. Use `Fog`, `Moment's Peace`, `Applied Biomancy`, `Snakeform`, `Silent Departure`, and `Ravenform` only when the visible attack, evasive threat, or combat step is meaningfully changing the race; do not spend them on a creature that can be contained by a normal block. Add role cards: `Spore Frog`, `Weather the Storm`, and sometimes `Scattershot Archer` when the public pressure is combat-based or evasive. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Scour All Possibilities`, `Bioshift`, and `Square Up` when they do not immediately create a blocker, answer, or clock.

- Control: Protect card advantage and commander value instead of racing into open mana. Cast `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius` when there is immediate or near-immediate legal value from graveyard, exile, adventure, or flashback actions, or when waiting lets the opponent pull too far ahead; avoid casting the commander as a naked threat into obvious removal when `Think Twice`, `Deep Analysis`, `Behold the Multiverse`, `Secrets of the Key`, or `Eureka Moment` can develop safely. Use `Elephant Ambush`, `Shadowbeast Sighting`, `Beanstalk Wurm // Plant Beans`, `Spinewoods Paladin`, `Scuttlegator`, and `Starbreach Whale` as closing pressure only after checking visible stack interaction and mana. Add role cards: `Dispel` and `Negate` when public games show counterspells, sweepers, removal, or decisive noncreature spells. Reduce main-deck emphasis: fragile pump auras and small combat tricks that lose badly to one removal spell.

- Combo: Identify the opponent's public engine card, stack window, or graveyard requirement before spending disruption. Use `Temporal Spring`, `Silent Departure`, `Ravenform`, `Snakeform`, and `Applied Biomancy` on the visible permanent or creature that actually enables the combo, not on the first legal target. Hold `Dispel` or `Negate` for the spell that starts, protects, or completes the combo line when Veles shows a legal stack action; do not counter a low-impact setup spell if the opponent still has a clearer payoff window coming. Add role cards: `Negate`, `Dispel`, `Relic of Progenitus`, and `Return to Nature` according to the public combo resource. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Fog`, `Moment's Peace`, and creature-only blockers when the opponent is not winning through combat.

- Tempo: Fight for mana efficiency and avoid spending a full turn on a spell that can be bounced, countered, or ignored. Prefer early plays that affect the board while maintaining development, such as `Coiling Oracle`, `Growth Spiral`, `Karfell Harbinger`, `Rosethorn Acolyte // Seasonal Ritual`, `Pond Prophet`, and `Wavesifter`, when their legal text advances mana or material. Use `Artful Dodge`, `Aeromunculus`, and `Sylvan Might` as race tools only after the opposing blockers and open mana are visible; a temporary damage push is poor if it exposes the only relevant creature. Add role cards: `Dispel`, `Negate`, `Hydroblast`, or `Blue Elemental Blast` when tempo is backed by stack interaction or red removal. Reduce main-deck emphasis: expensive stabilizers that are not castable on curve and selection spells that leave the board empty.

- Midrange: Trade resources when the exchange makes your later flashback, adventure, token, or large-creature cards stronger. Accept trades with small creatures when `Deep Analysis`, `Think Twice`, `Elephant Ambush`, `Shadowbeast Sighting`, `Sarulf's Packmate`, `Germinating Wurm`, `Spinewoods Paladin`, `Scuttlegator`, or `Starbreach Whale` will dominate the next stage. Preserve `Ravenform`, `Temporal Spring`, and `Snakeform` for creatures that outsize your board, carry critical abilities, or invalidate ground combat. Add role cards: `Return to Nature`, `Negate`, or `Relic of Progenitus` only if public information shows permanents, stack threats, or graveyard recursion that matter more than creature density. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow pump if the opponent is removal-heavy, or slow selection if the board is already under pressure.

- Big mana: Pressure early while disrupting the first visible payoff or mana engine. Use `Slippery Bogle`, `Aeromunculus`, `Artful Dodge`, `Fractal Summoning`, `Tumbleweed Rising`, `Elephant Ambush`, and `Shadowbeast Sighting` to build a clock before the opponent's larger spells dominate, but keep interaction for the first public threat that actually changes the game. `Temporal Spring` is strongest when it sets back a key permanent or large spell line; `Ravenform` and `Snakeform` should answer the large creature that cannot be raced. Add role cards: `Negate`, `Return to Nature`, or `Gleeful Sabotage` when big mana relies on public noncreature permanents. Reduce main-deck emphasis: pure prevention effects if the opponent's first decisive turn is not a combat attack.

- Graveyard: Deny the opponent's graveyard only when public zones prove it is more important than your own. This deck uses its own graveyard through `Deep Analysis`, `Think Twice`, `Scour All Possibilities`, `Silent Departure`, `Artful Dodge`, `Sylvan Might`, `Moment's Peace`, `Elephant Ambush`, and `Shadowbeast Sighting`, so `Relic of Progenitus` can hurt the pilot if fired casually. Use graveyard hate after the opponent commits a named card or resource that Veles shows in a public zone, and avoid clearing your own best follow-up unless survival or combo prevention requires it. Add role cards: `Relic of Progenitus`, `Return to Nature`, and sometimes `Negate`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: self-mill or graveyard-dependent lines only when denying the opponent is the higher-value plan.

- Artifact/enchantment: Answer the permanent that blocks combat, breaks parity, fixes an engine, or threatens a combo, not the first artifact or enchantment that appears. Use `Return to Nature` and `Gleeful Sabotage` when Veles shows legal targets with visible strategic impact; Card text check required for exact `Gleeful Sabotage` copy mechanics, so choose only legal action IDs exposed by the engine. `Temporal Spring` can buy tempo against a permanent if destruction is unavailable, while `Ravenform` should be reserved for artifact creatures or other legal high-impact targets. Add role cards: `Return to Nature` and `Gleeful Sabotage`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Fog`, `Bioshift`, or `Square Up` when the fight is over static permanents rather than combat math.

- Go-wide: Preserve life-total shields and scalable blockers until the turn they swing the damage race. `Fog`, `Moment's Peace`, `Spore Frog`, `Elephant Ambush`, `Shadowbeast Sighting`, `Fractal Summoning`, `Tumbleweed Rising`, `Biomathematician`, and `Wavesifter` are important because they either prevent one decisive attack or add bodies that trade across the board. Use `Needlethorn Drake` and `Winged Coatl` to punish key attackers, but do not rely on one deathtouch-style blocker against many attackers if a prevention action is legal. Add role cards: `Spore Frog`, `Weather the Storm`, and `Scattershot Archer` if evasion is part of the swarm. Reduce main-deck emphasis: one-creature aura or pump lines that still lose to multiple attackers.

- Single-threat: Keep removal, bounce, transformation, and deathtouch blockers for the one visible creature that matters. `Ravenform`, `Snakeform`, `Silent Departure`, `Temporal Spring`, `Applied Biomancy`, `Needlethorn Drake`, and `Winged Coatl` are the core answers, while `Shielding Plax`, `Favor of the Overbeing`, `Square Up`, and `Sylvan Might` should be used carefully because enhancing one creature can lose to a single opposing answer. If the opponent's threat has evasion, prioritize answer timing over building a ground board. Add role cards: `Negate` for stack-based protection or threat deployment, `Return to Nature` for aura/equipment-style public permanents, and `Spore Frog` only if one attack step is the bottleneck. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow draw when the answer window is immediate.

- Burn: Treat life total as the primary resource and avoid paying unnecessary life or taking preventable attacks. Stabilize with cheap blockers, then use `Weather the Storm`, `Fog`, `Moment's Peace`, `Spore Frog`, and efficient interaction to buy turns for `Deep Analysis`, `Behold the Multiverse`, `Elephant Ambush`, `Spinewoods Paladin`, or another stabilizer. Add role cards: `Hydroblast`, `Blue Elemental Blast`, and `Weather the Storm`, with `Dispel` if the burn deck shows instant-speed stack pressure. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Deep Analysis` timing if life payment or tempo loss is exposed by Veles, plus low-impact filtering that does not affect the current race.

- Removal-heavy decks: Diversify threats and avoid putting all pressure onto one enhanced creature unless the legal line wins or forces a decisive exchange. Lead with card flow, recursive value, token makers, and naturally resilient threats before committing `Favor of the Overbeing`, `Shielding Plax`, `Bioshift`, `Square Up`, or `Sylvan Might`; use `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius` when it can immediately convert graveyard or alternate-zone cards into material. `Slippery Bogle` may carry enhancements better than fragile creatures if Veles confirms the legal action, but do not assume it is immune to every visible answer. Add role cards: `Dispel` and `Negate` when removal or sweepers are stack-based. Reduce main-deck emphasis: all-in combat tricks when the opponent repeatedly answers single creatures.

## Specific Matchup Notes
These notes are general/archetype-only because exact opponents are absent; revealed cards, Veles legal actions, public zones, commander identity, and combat state override every matchup assumption. Use matchup labels only to choose a starting posture, then update from visible cards, missed land drops, graveyards, stack actions, and whether the opponent is presenting combat pressure, noncreature engines, graveyard recursion, or removal density.

- Aggro and go-wide opponents: Stabilize before drawing extra cards that do not affect the board. Prioritize early `Coiling Oracle`, `Shambleshark`, `Needlethorn Drake`, `Winged Coatl`, `Biomathematician`, `Wavesifter`, `Chatter of the Squirrel`, `Elephant Ambush`, and `Shadowbeast Sighting` when they produce blockers or trades. Hold `Fog`, `Moment's Peace`, and `Spore Frog` for attack steps that change lethal math or preserve a stabilizing crack-back. Add role cards: `Spore Frog`, `Weather the Storm`, and `Scattershot Archer` when damage is wide, evasive, or burst-oriented. Priority targets: evasive attackers, anthem-like public permanents, and creatures that make blocking impossible.

- Red damage or spell-pressure opponents: Treat life total and untapped mana as tactical resources. Add role cards: `Hydroblast`, `Blue Elemental Blast`, `Weather the Storm`, `Dispel`, and sometimes `Negate` if public information shows important noncreature stack threats. Delay `Deep Analysis` if paying life or spending a turn on draw lets visible damage become lethal. Priority targets: red stack threats, haste attackers, pingers, and permanents that convert every spell into damage.

- Blue tempo or control opponents: Force them to answer multiple medium threats rather than one enhanced creature. Use `Think Twice`, `Behold the Multiverse`, `Secrets of the Key`, `Eureka Moment`, and flashback/adventure-style legal actions to fight on spare mana, but commit `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius` only when immediate value or protection from tempo loss is visible. Add role cards: `Dispel` and `Negate`. Priority targets: counter windows around `Ravenform`, `Temporal Spring`, `Deep Analysis`, large creatures, and any stack action that would strand a critical turn.

- Black removal or attrition opponents: Diversify threats and preserve graveyard value. Use token makers, flashback cards, `Sarulf's Packmate`, `Spinewoods Paladin`, `Scuttlegator`, `Starbreach Whale`, and `Sword Coast Serpent // Capsizing Wave` as separate pressure points instead of investing every resource into `Favor of the Overbeing`, `Shielding Plax`, `Square Up`, `Bioshift`, or `Sylvan Might`. Add role cards: `Relic of Progenitus` only when their public graveyard matters more than yours, plus `Dispel` or `Negate` if removal is stack-based. Priority targets: sacrifice engines, recursion pieces, and creatures that invalidate ground stalls.

- Graveyard decks: Use graveyard hate after a public card or engine is visible, not because the matchup label suggests it. `Relic of Progenitus` can weaken your own `Deep Analysis`, `Think Twice`, `Scour All Possibilities`, `Silent Departure`, `Artful Dodge`, `Sylvan Might`, `Moment's Peace`, `Elephant Ambush`, and `Shadowbeast Sighting`, so activate only when the opposing graveyard threat is worth the self-cost. Add role cards: `Relic of Progenitus`, `Return to Nature`, and `Negate` when legal targets or stack threats appear. Priority targets: recursive threats, flashback-like public spells, and graveyard-dependent engines.

- Artifact or enchantment engines: Answer the public permanent that changes combat, mana, recursion, or inevitability. Add role cards: `Return to Nature` and `Gleeful Sabotage`; Card text check required for exact `Gleeful Sabotage` copy handling, so follow only Veles legal action IDs. Use `Temporal Spring` as a tempo answer when destruction is unavailable, and reserve `Ravenform` for legal artifact-creature or high-impact creature targets. Priority targets: mana engines, lock pieces, evasive equipment-style threats, and enchantments that stop your large creatures from closing.

## Risk Summary
- Mana risk: Two-color 100-card singleton mana with `19 Island`, `20 Forest`, and `Simic Guildgate` can strand the wrong half of the hand. Flag keeps where `Forest`-heavy hands cannot cast `Think Twice`, `Behold the Multiverse`, `Ravenform`, or `Dispel`, and flag `Island`-heavy hands that delay `Coiling Oracle`, `Growth Spiral`, `Path to the Festival`, `Rosethorn Acolyte // Seasonal Ritual`, or large green creatures.

- Matchup risk: The deck can choose the wrong role because it has both defensive tools and slow value. Against fast boards, spending early mana on `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Scour All Possibilities`, `Tapping at the Window`, or `Secrets of the Key` can lose tempo; against slow decks, overcommitting small creatures into visible removal can waste the late-game edge.

- Draw risk: Velocity can delay losing without creating pressure. Check whether `Deep Analysis`, `Think Twice`, `Behold the Multiverse`, `Eureka Moment`, and `Secrets of the Key` found lands, interaction, or closers, and avoid draw actions when Veles shows lethal or a critical permanent already on board.

- Over-sideboarding risk: Sideboard cards are narrow and singleton. Do not dilute creature density, flashback value, or closing power by adding `Hydroblast`, `Blue Elemental Blast`, `Dispel`, `Negate`, `Return to Nature`, `Gleeful Sabotage`, `Scattershot Archer`, `Relic of Progenitus`, `Spore Frog`, or `Weather the Storm` without public targets or a clear tactical role.

- Graveyard risk: Self-mill and flashback value conflict with `Relic of Progenitus`. Preserve your own graveyard when `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius` or recursive legal actions can convert it into material, unless the opponent's public graveyard threatens a faster or decisive result.

- Sweeper and removal risk: Aura, counter, and pump lines can expose one creature to a blowout. Commit `Favor of the Overbeing`, `Shielding Plax`, `Square Up`, `Bioshift`, or `Sylvan Might` only when the resulting attack, block, protection, or clock justifies visible removal risk.

- Closer risk: Stabilizing is not winning. After blockers and prevention buy time, turn the corner with `Aeromunculus`, `Fractal Summoning`, `Tumbleweed Rising`, `Beanstalk Wurm // Plant Beans`, `Djinn of Fool's Fall`, `Spinewoods Paladin`, `Scuttlegator`, `Starbreach Whale`, or evasion from `Artful Dodge` before the opponent draws out.

- Interaction and sequencing risk: Spending `Ravenform`, `Snakeform`, `Temporal Spring`, `Silent Departure`, `Applied Biomancy`, `Fog`, or `Moment's Peace` on low-impact turns can leave no answer for the visible decisive threat. Let Veles legal actions and public board state decide timing, then preserve mana for follow-up prompts when `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius` changes graveyard, exile, adventure, or flashback sequencing.

## Test Feedback Checklist
- Deciding factor: For each game, name one primary cause and one secondary cause using public results and Veles logs. Classify the result as early mana, board stabilization, commander access, graveyard value, combat evasion, sideboard interaction, failure to close after stabilizing, or visible tactical mistake, and name the exact cards involved.

- Mulligans: Record whether the opener had at least two lands, both colors or a realistic path to both colors by turn 3, and one legal early play. Flag `Forest`-heavy keeps that stranded `Think Twice`, `Behold the Multiverse`, `Ravenform`, or `Dispel`, and flag `Island`-heavy keeps that stranded `Coiling Oracle`, `Growth Spiral`, `Path to the Festival`, `Rosethorn Acolyte // Seasonal Ritual`, or green closers.

- Mana: Track every turn where total mana was available but color prevented the best legal action. Judge whether `Simic Guildgate`, `Growth Spiral`, `Coiling Oracle`, `Eureka Moment`, `Path to the Festival`, and `Rosethorn Acolyte // Seasonal Ritual` fixed development in time or arrived after tempo was already lost.

- Velocity: Check whether card flow converted into lands, interaction, or pressure. Review `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Scour All Possibilities`, `Tapping at the Window`, `Secrets of the Key`, `Think Twice`, `Deep Analysis`, and `Behold the Multiverse` for whether they found the next needed role or only spent mana while the opponent advanced.

- Commander and engine use: Verify whether `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius` changed legal graveyard, exile, adventure, or flashback sequencing in a material way. If it was cast into visible pressure or removal without immediate value, note whether waiting, baiting interaction, or playing a separate threat was available.

- Removal and disruption: Record whether `Ravenform`, `Snakeform`, `Temporal Spring`, `Silent Departure`, `Applied Biomancy`, `Winged Coatl`, `Fog`, and `Moment's Peace` answered the public threat that mattered most. Mark uses that saved little life, missed evasion, or consumed mana needed for a stronger legal play.

- Combat: Evaluate whether trades supported the long game or delayed closing. Track when `Needlethorn Drake`, `Winged Coatl`, `Spore Frog`, token makers, `Elephant Ambush`, `Shadowbeast Sighting`, or large creatures stabilized, and when `Favor of the Overbeing`, `Shielding Plax`, `Square Up`, `Bioshift`, or `Sylvan Might` exposed a single creature to a visible blowout.

- Sideboard impact: Judge sideboard cards by actual legal targets, prevented damage, stopped stack threats, or stabilized turns. Review `Hydroblast`, `Blue Elemental Blast`, `Dispel`, `Negate`, `Weather the Storm`, `Return to Nature`, `Scattershot Archer`, `Spore Frog`, `Relic of Progenitus`, and `Gleeful Sabotage` against public information, not matchup labels alone.

- Closing: Check whether stabilization became a clock quickly enough. Review missed chances to attack or commit `Aeromunculus`, `Slippery Bogle`, `Fractal Summoning`, `Tumbleweed Rising`, `Beanstalk Wurm // Plant Beans`, `Djinn of Fool's Fall`, `Spinewoods Paladin`, `Scuttlegator`, `Starbreach Whale`, or `Sword Coast Serpent // Capsizing Wave`.

- Role and mistakes: Record whether the pilot played control when it needed to race, or raced when it needed to preserve life. List stranded cards, underused flashback or graveyard actions, overperformers, underperformers, and whether the Deck Strategy and Veles Tactical Policy were followed.

## First Tuning Questions
- Mana structure: Does the deck need more reliable color access, or are losses mostly from keep decisions and sequencing? Use logged skipped actions to decide whether `19 Island`, `20 Forest`, and `Simic Guildgate` supported the actual curve.

- Early plays: Are the first three turns producing enough board presence against pressure decks? If not, ask whether `Slippery Bogle`, `Shambleshark`, `Coiling Oracle`, `Needlethorn Drake`, `Winged Coatl`, `Pond Prophet`, and `Quandrix Pledgemage` are the right early package.

- Velocity package: Are `Otherworldly Gaze`, `Scour All Possibilities`, `Tapping at the Window`, `Secrets of the Key`, `Think Twice`, `Deep Analysis`, and `Behold the Multiverse` finding action quickly enough? If draw spells often delay losing without finding closers, the deck has a card selection problem rather than a card quantity problem.

- Commander plan: Is `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius` creating enough mana or timing advantage to justify commander-centric decisions? If it regularly dies before value or waits too long in command zone, tune the pilot rules before changing cards.

- Interaction mix: Are `Ravenform`, `Snakeform`, `Temporal Spring`, `Silent Departure`, `Applied Biomancy`, `Fog`, and `Moment's Peace` answering the threats that actually decide games? If losses come from evasive creatures, stack threats, or artifacts/enchantments, examine sideboard role coverage before broadening main-deck answers.

- Closing power: Does the deck fail after stabilizing because the finishers are too slow or because the pilot misses attack windows? Review `Aeromunculus`, `Fractal Summoning`, `Tumbleweed Rising`, `Beanstalk Wurm // Plant Beans`, `Djinn of Fool's Fall`, `Spinewoods Paladin`, `Scuttlegator`, `Starbreach Whale`, and `Sword Coast Serpent // Capsizing Wave`.

- Sideboard slots: Which sideboard cards produced measurable impact in logs? Keep pressure on narrow slots by comparing `Hydroblast`, `Blue Elemental Blast`, `Dispel`, `Negate`, `Weather the Storm`, `Return to Nature`, `Scattershot Archer`, `Spore Frog`, `Relic of Progenitus`, and `Gleeful Sabotage` to actual targets and saved turns.

- Role conflict: Is the list losing because it mixes tempo, graveyard value, combat tricks, and large creatures without choosing the correct role? Separate pilot sequencing failures from structural conflicts before changing the archetype identity.

## Veles Tactical Policy

### Policy: Opening Hand Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: mulligan
Cards: Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius; Simic Guildgate; Island; Forest
Phase windows: pregame, mulligan
Runtime cues: opening hand, command-zone access, visible land colors
Use when: deciding keep or mulligan before the first turn.
Avoid when: Veles has already moved past mulligans.
Instructions: Keep hands with at least two lands, a path to both colors by turn 3, and one early legal play or card-flow spell. Mulligan one-land hands, color-locked hands without a fixer, and slow hands that cannot affect board or hand by turn 3.
Pilot skill floor: basic
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Early Setup Creature
Priority: Medium
Decision families: mana; priority
Cards: Slippery Bogle; Shambleshark; Coiling Oracle; Needlethorn Drake; Winged Coatl; Pond Prophet; Quandrix Pledgemage
Phase windows: turns 1-4 main phases, early priority windows
Runtime cues: legal creature cast actions, current land colors, opponent pressure
Use when: choosing the first creature or stabilizing body.
Avoid when: holding up instant interaction prevents a visible lethal or high-damage attack.
Instructions: Establish a body before spending mana on low-impact selection against creature pressure. Prefer `Coiling Oracle` or `Pond Prophet` when development matters, defensive flyers or flash blockers when life total is pressured, and `Slippery Bogle` when a future aura/evasion line is visible.
Pilot skill floor: basic
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Commander Commitment Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: mana; priority
Cards: Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius; Deep Analysis; Think Twice; Otherworldly Gaze; Scour All Possibilities; Secrets of the Key; Beanstalk Wurm // Plant Beans
Phase windows: main phases with commander cast legal
Runtime cues: command-zone cast action, graveyard or exile cast actions, available mana
Use when: deciding whether to cast `Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius`.
Avoid when: commander would consume the turn while board pressure demands a blocker, removal, or fog.
Instructions: Cast the commander when it immediately improves legal graveyard, exile, flashback, or adventure sequencing, or when the board is stable enough that commander access will matter next turn. Do not expose commander into a losing board just because it is available.
Pilot skill floor: advanced
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Color Development
Priority: High
Decision families: mana
Cards: Island; Forest; Simic Guildgate; Growth Spiral; Coiling Oracle; Eureka Moment; Path to the Festival; Rosethorn Acolyte // Seasonal Ritual
Phase windows: land play, main phases, instant-speed ramp windows
Runtime cues: legal land play, color requirements in hand, available mana sources
Use when: choosing lands, ramp, or color-producing actions.
Avoid when: a survival interaction spell must remain castable this turn.
Instructions: Prioritize access to both green and blue by turn 3. Use `Simic Guildgate` early when tempo loss is acceptable, and sequence `Growth Spiral`, `Coiling Oracle`, `Eureka Moment`, `Path to the Festival`, and `Rosethorn Acolyte // Seasonal Ritual` to unlock stranded cards rather than merely increase total mana.
Pilot skill floor: intermediate
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Velocity Versus Pressure
Priority: Medium
Decision families: selection; priority
Cards: Otherworldly Gaze; Scour All Possibilities; Tapping at the Window; Secrets of the Key; Think Twice; Deep Analysis; Behold the Multiverse
Phase windows: main phases, end steps, graveyard or flashback windows
Runtime cues: legal draw or selection actions, opponent battlefield, life total
Use when: choosing between drawing cards, selecting cards, or affecting board.
Avoid when: visible attackers threaten lethal or force a defensive action this turn.
Instructions: Use velocity to find land, interaction, or closing pressure, not as automatic mana use. Prefer instant-speed draw on opponent end step when holding interaction is relevant, and prefer board actions before sorcery-speed card flow when behind on creatures.
Pilot skill floor: intermediate
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Removal And Tempo Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: interaction; priority
Cards: Ravenform; Snakeform; Temporal Spring; Silent Departure; Applied Biomancy; Winged Coatl
Phase windows: main phases, combat, stack windows where legal
Runtime cues: legal target actions, visible attackers, visible evasive or high-impact permanents
Use when: deciding whether to spend removal, bounce, transform, or flash blocker interaction.
Avoid when: the target is low impact and a stronger visible threat is already present.
Instructions: Spend interaction on threats that determine combat, commander access, or clock speed. Preserve flexible answers for evasive or snowballing threats when life total permits, and use bounce or tempo plays when they create a safe attack or buy a full turn.
Pilot skill floor: advanced
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Fog Survival Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: combat; interaction
Cards: Fog; Moment's Peace; Spore Frog
Phase windows: declare attackers through combat damage, flashback windows if legal
Runtime cues: legal prevent-combat-damage action, visible attackers, life total after unblocked damage
Use when: combat damage from visible attackers would cause lethal or remove the ability to stabilize next turn.
Avoid when: blocking or removal handles the attack while preserving fog effects for a larger swing.
Instructions: Use fog effects to stop lethal, protect a stabilizing crack-back, or buy the exact turn needed for a large creature or draw spell. Do not fire them merely to preserve a high life total when trades and blocks are available.
Pilot skill floor: intermediate
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Combat Trading
Priority: Medium
Decision families: combat
Cards: Needlethorn Drake; Winged Coatl; Elephant Ambush; Shadowbeast Sighting; Sarulf's Packmate; Scuttlegator; Spinewoods Paladin
Phase windows: declare attackers, declare blockers, combat damage
Runtime cues: legal attack or block actions, visible power/toughness, tapped status
Use when: choosing attacks, blocks, or ambush lines.
Avoid when: hidden combat tricks are unknown and a single exposed threat is the only route to winning.
Instructions: Trade small bodies for time when behind, but switch to attacks once a large creature or token package stabilizes the battlefield. Value deathtouch-style blockers and instant-speed bodies as ways to turn opponent attacks into material gains.
Pilot skill floor: intermediate
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Pump And Aura Exposure
Priority: Medium
Decision families: combat; interaction
Cards: Favor of the Overbeing; Shielding Plax; Square Up; Bioshift; Sylvan Might; Applied Biomancy
Phase windows: main phases, combat tricks, target-choice prompts
Runtime cues: legal pump, aura, counter-move, or target actions
Use when: deciding whether to enhance a creature.
Avoid when: the target creature can be answered by visible mana or stack interaction and losing it would collapse the board.
Instructions: Use enhancement when it creates lethal pressure, wins combat, protects a key body, or turns an evasive creature into a clock. Avoid concentrating resources on one creature when the opponent can punish the target and the deck has alternative development.
Pilot skill floor: advanced
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Exact Artful Dodge Target
Priority: Low
Decision families: interaction; combat
Cards: Artful Dodge; Slippery Bogle
Phase windows: main phase before attacks, flashback windows if legal
Runtime cues: action:target Artful Dodge Slippery Bogle
Use when: the legal action text offers `Slippery Bogle` as target for `Artful Dodge` and the current line has already committed to attacking with that creature this turn.
Avoid when: no `Slippery Bogle` target action is visible.
Instructions: Select the visible `Slippery Bogle` target for `Artful Dodge` only after the attacking line is already selected by a reasoning policy.
Pilot skill floor: basic
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Large Threat Commitment
Priority: Medium
Decision families: mana; priority; combat
Cards: Fractal Summoning; Tumbleweed Rising; Beanstalk Wurm // Plant Beans; Djinn of Fool's Fall; Spinewoods Paladin; Scuttlegator; Starbreach Whale; Sword Coast Serpent // Capsizing Wave
Phase windows: main phases, late-game priority windows
Runtime cues: legal cast actions for large threats, opponent board, available interaction
Use when: choosing whether to tap out for a finisher or stabilizer.
Avoid when: the opponent threatens lethal on board and mana must stay open for interaction.
Instructions: Commit a large threat when it stabilizes combat, starts a clock, or turns card advantage into a win. Prefer resilient or immediately relevant bodies over slow threats when behind, and begin attacking once stabilization is established.
Pilot skill floor: advanced
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Graveyard And Alternate-Zone Use
Priority: Medium
Decision families: priority; selection; mana
Cards: Deep Analysis; Think Twice; Moment's Peace; Silent Departure; Otherworldly Gaze; Scour All Possibilities; Secrets of the Key; Artful Dodge; Sylvan Might; Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius
Phase windows: main phases, end steps, graveyard-cast prompts
Runtime cues: legal graveyard, flashback, escape-like, or alternate-zone actions
Use when: choosing between hand resources and graveyard resources.
Avoid when: spending graveyard mana prevents a necessary board play or interaction spell.
Instructions: Use graveyard actions to extend resources after hand development, not to dodge making board progress. With commander access, check whether the legal action cost or timing has changed before choosing the sequence.
Pilot skill floor: advanced
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Permission Commitment
Priority: High
Decision families: interaction; priority
Cards: Dispel; Negate; Hydroblast; Blue Elemental Blast
Phase windows: opponent stack windows, combat trick windows, sideboarded games
Runtime cues: legal counter or blast action, visible stack object, available mana
Use when: deciding whether to counter, blast, or hold permission.
Avoid when: the stack object is low impact and a later visible threat class is more dangerous.
Instructions: Spend permission on spells that decide the board, stop lethal, answer a protected threat, or prevent a swingy noncreature effect. Do not counter routine setup unless tempo or life total makes waiting worse.
Pilot skill floor: advanced
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Artifact Enchantment Graveyard Sideboard Use
Priority: Medium
Decision families: sideboard; interaction
Cards: Return to Nature; Gleeful Sabotage; Relic of Progenitus
Phase windows: sideboarding, main phases, instant windows if legal
Runtime cues: public artifacts, enchantments, graveyard reliance, legal target actions
Use when: sideboarded cards have visible targets or public matchup evidence.
Avoid when: no relevant permanent or graveyard pressure is visible.
Instructions: Bring and use these cards for observed artifacts, enchantments, or graveyard engines, not vague fear. Preserve `Relic of Progenitus` timing when your own graveyard resources matter unless the opponent graveyard is the immediate problem.
Pilot skill floor: intermediate
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Anti-Red And Storm Sideboard
Priority: Medium
Decision families: sideboard; interaction
Cards: Hydroblast; Blue Elemental Blast; Weather the Storm; Spore Frog
Phase windows: sideboarding, opponent stack windows, combat, end steps
Runtime cues: opponent red spells, burn pressure, storm count, wide combat pressure
Use when: public information shows red damage, spell chains, or combat races.
Avoid when: the opponent is not presenting red spells, spell-chain damage, or combat pressure.
Instructions: Add these roles when they interact with actual threats. Use life-gain and fog cards to buy turns into larger stabilizers, and reserve blasts for red spells or permanents that materially affect the game.
Pilot skill floor: intermediate
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Evasion Defense Sideboard
Priority: Medium
Decision families: sideboard; combat; interaction
Cards: Scattershot Archer; Spore Frog; Needlethorn Drake; Winged Coatl
Phase windows: sideboarding, combat, main phases
Runtime cues: visible flyers, legal sideboard configuration, legal cast or activation actions
Use when: opponent presents flying pressure or repeated evasive attacks.
Avoid when: the opponent wins through noncombat or ground threats instead.
Instructions: Use `Scattershot Archer` and extra fog bodies against flyer-heavy pressure, while keeping main-deck reach and flash blockers relevant. Do not dilute the deck against non-evasive creature plans unless life total pressure requires more combat stops.
Pilot skill floor: intermediate
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Sideboard Plan Lock
Priority: High
Decision families: sideboard
Cards: Hydroblast; Blue Elemental Blast; Dispel; Negate; Weather the Storm; Return to Nature; Scattershot Archer; Spore Frog; Relic of Progenitus; Gleeful Sabotage
Phase windows: between games
Runtime cues: sideboard request, prior game public logs, opponent colors and threat types
Use when: submitting post-game sideboard choices.
Avoid when: the exact plan would exceed registered sideboard or main-deck counts.
Instructions: Sideboard from public evidence: red stack threats get blasts, noncreature stack threats get counters, graveyard plans get `Relic of Progenitus`, artifacts/enchantments get `Return to Nature` or `Gleeful Sabotage`, flyers get `Scattershot Archer`, and races get `Weather the Storm` or `Spore Frog`.
Pilot skill floor: advanced
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes
