# Strategy Specifications
## Deck Name And Archetype
Glarb, Calamity's Augur is a Sultai Duel Commander combo-control deck built around command-zone access to Glarb, Calamity's Augur, dense one-mana interaction, compact win packages, and singleton card selection. The registered strategy name is `Glarb, Calamity's Augur`; the active format is Duel Commander; the current archetype tags are combo and control, with combo as the decisive endgame role and control as the default survival shell.

- Validation: The registered main deck contains 100 cards and the registered sideboard contains 10 cards, matching the active Veles Duel Commander validation contract supplied for this guide.
- Singleton status: The main deck is singleton outside basic lands; Forest, Island, and Swamp are the only basic-land names present, and no nonbasic or spell name is repeated.
- Command-zone status: Glarb, Calamity's Augur is the commander identity anchor for this guide, so runtime choices should account for commander access, commander tax, and commander recasting only when the rules engine exposes those legal actions.
- Sideboard status: The sideboard is registered for Veles policy use and contains exactly Veil of Summer, Endurance, Force of Vigor, Hydroblast, Blue Elemental Blast, Nihil Spellbomb, Grafdigger's Cage, Pithing Needle, Dauthi Voidwalker, and Culling Ritual.
- Legality status: The supplied format-aware validation result passes; this guide should not raise 60-card deck-size concerns, commander-format sideboard mismatch concerns, or duplicate-card concerns unless a later runtime deck export contradicts the registered inventory.
- Color identity status: The deck is Sultai by card inventory and commander plan, with black, blue, and green requirements across Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Doomsday, Thought Lash, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Counterspell, Force of Negation, Abrupt Decay, Deathrite Shaman, Oko, Thief of Crowns, and Toxic Deluge.
- Mana concern: The manabase is powerful but decision-sensitive because early blue interaction, early black discard or combo setup, and green utility compete for untapped sources; keep and sequencing decisions must value lands that cast Ponder, Preordain, Brainstorm, Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, Duress, Deathrite Shaman, Force Spike, Spell Pierce, Fatal Push, Cut Down, and Abrupt Decay on time.
- Role concern: The deck should not be piloted as a generic midrange pile when a protected deterministic win is available, and it should not force a fragile combo line when the visible board, opponent mana, known hand information, or stack pressure says waiting is safer.
- Stock/rogue/hybrid status: Treat this as a hybrid list: the Consultation, Pact, Doomsday, Thought Lash, and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries endgame resembles established combo-control structures, while Glarb, Calamity's Augur and the exact 100-card singleton mix make the tactical guide deck-specific rather than stock.
- Information status: Opponent archetype, commander, decklist, hand, and sideboard plan are not supplied in this batch; matchup and sideboard advice must therefore remain conditional on visible permanents, revealed cards, public graveyards, known stack objects, and legal actions exposed by Veles.
- Runtime rule: The pilot must choose only legal action IDs offered by Veles, must treat hidden zones as unknown unless revealed, and must avoid assuming that cards such as Demonic Tutor, Intuition, Mystical Dispute, Sink into Stupor, Waterlogged Teachings, Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Requiting Hex, Flow State, or Rakshasa's Bargain have a specific mode or text until the engine presents the legal choices.
- Quality gate: Every later section should preserve exact registered names, prioritize Glarb, Calamity's Augur control-combo decisions over generic Commander heuristics, and mark uncertain card-text-dependent guidance as conditional rather than invented.

## Thesis
Glarb, Calamity's Augur assembles a protected Sultai combo-control endgame by using cheap discard, countermagic, removal, tutors, and selection to reach a decisive library-manipulation win. The cleanest wins revolve around Jace, Wielder of Mysteries paired with Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Thought Lash, or a Doomsday line, but the pilot must only commit when Veles exposes legal actions and the visible stack, mana, hand information, graveyard state, and clock make the attempt defensible.

- Prioritize protected inevitability over early pressure: spend Force Spike, Spell Pierce, Spell Snare, Mental Misstep, Mana Leak, Lose Focus, Remand, Memory Lapse, Counterspell, Daze, Force of Negation, Subtlety, Wash Away, Mystical Dispute, and Cryptic Command to prevent the opponent from establishing a faster kill, disabling the combo, or forcing the pilot to go off before ready.
- Prioritize information before commitment: use Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, Duress, Gitaxian Probe, Vendilion Clique, and visible public information to decide whether a combo attempt is safe; do not assume unknown cards are absent because the opponent passed priority.
- Prioritize card selection that fixes the current bottleneck: Ponder, Preordain, Brainstorm, Gush, Stock Up, Lorien Revealed, Waterlogged Teachings, Consult the Star Charts, and Flow State should be evaluated by whether the deck needs land, protection, a payoff, or a specific enabler. Card text check required for Consult the Star Charts and Flow State; follow only legal choices shown by the engine.
- Prioritize commander access as a repeatable plan enabler only when recasting Glarb, Calamity's Augur is legal and mana-efficient; do not overpay commander tax into open interaction if the same turn can hold up countermagic or advance a protected tutor line.
- Avoid playing as a fair creature deck unless forced: Psychic Frog, Barrowgoyf, Abhorrent Oculus, Orcish Bowmasters, Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, Snapcaster Mage, Deathrite Shaman, Vendilion Clique, Oko, Thief of Crowns, and Glarb, Calamity's Augur can win games through pressure, but they are backup clocks and resource engines unless the combo is inaccessible or too risky.
- Avoid speculative all-in lines: Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Thought Lash, Doomsday, and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries can convert immediately, but they also expose the pilot to losing if the required follow-up is countered, removed, or unavailable; commit only after checking visible protection, opponent mana, known hand contents, and whether waiting is worse.

## Role Package
- Threats: Glarb, Calamity's Augur, Psychic Frog, Barrowgoyf, Abhorrent Oculus, Orcish Bowmasters, Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, Vendilion Clique, Deathrite Shaman, Snapcaster Mage, and Oko, Thief of Crowns provide pressure, blockers, planeswalker pressure, or recurring value; use them to stabilize first, then shorten the game once protection is assembled.
- Payoffs: Jace, Wielder of Mysteries is the primary deterministic payoff with Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Thought Lash, and Doomsday; treat any line involving these cards as a commitment gate rather than routine value unless the engine reveals a forced or clearly legal deterministic action.
- Engines: Glarb, Calamity's Augur, Thought Lash, Doomsday, Oko, Thief of Crowns, Deathrite Shaman, Psychic Frog, Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, and Mystic Sanctuary are the recurring-resource or structural pieces; Card text check required for exact Glarb, Calamity's Augur, Psychic Frog, Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, and Abhorrent Oculus decisions.
- Velocity: Ponder, Preordain, Brainstorm, Gitaxian Probe, Gush, Lorien Revealed, Stock Up, Waterlogged Teachings, Consult the Star Charts, Flow State, Demonic Tutor, Profane Tutor, Intuition, Tainted Pact, Demonic Consultation, and Doomsday find lands, protection, payoff pieces, or compact wins; Card text check required for Stock Up, Waterlogged Teachings, Consult the Star Charts, and Flow State.
- Interaction: Fatal Push, Cut Down, Long Goodbye, Abrupt Decay, Tear Asunder, Murderous Cut, Toxic Deluge, Requiting Hex, Legolas's Quick Reflexes, Otawara, Soaring City, Sink into Stupor, Orcish Bowmasters, Subtlety, Vendilion Clique, and the counterspell suite answer board, stack, and tempo problems; Card text check required for Requiting Hex, Long Goodbye, Legolas's Quick Reflexes, and Sink into Stupor targeting or mode choices.
- Protection: Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, Duress, Gitaxian Probe, Veil of Summer, Force of Negation, Daze, Spell Pierce, Counterspell, Mana Leak, Mental Misstep, Force Spike, Lose Focus, Mystical Dispute, Cryptic Command, Remand, Memory Lapse, Stern Scolding, Spell Snare, Wash Away, and Subtlety protect the combo or prevent lethal pressure.
- Recursion: Snapcaster Mage, Noxious Revival, Unearth, Mystic Sanctuary, Cling to Dust, Deathrite Shaman, and Rakshasa's Bargain recover spent cards, rebuy interaction, or convert graveyard resources; Card text check required for Rakshasa's Bargain.
- Mana: Command Tower, Underground Sea, Tropical Island, Bayou, Watery Grave, Overgrown Tomb, Breeding Pool, fetch lands, filter/check/verge lands, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Reflecting Pool, Horizon of Progress, Mistrise Village, Multiversal Passage, Otawara, Soaring City, and Mystic Sanctuary support Sultai color density while still demanding careful untapped-source sequencing.
- Sideboard modules: Veil of Summer fights green or blue interaction and discard; Endurance, Nihil Spellbomb, Grafdigger's Cage, and Dauthi Voidwalker pressure graveyard plans; Force of Vigor and Culling Ritual answer artifact/enchantment or small-permanent clusters; Hydroblast and Blue Elemental Blast fight red pressure or red stack threats; Pithing Needle targets visible activated abilities only when the named card is known or strategically forced.

## Primary Win Conditions
- Protected Jace win: prioritize Jace, Wielder of Mysteries plus Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Thought Lash, or Doomsday when the hand or board contains enough mana, protection, and information to survive the commitment turn. Set up with discard or Gitaxian Probe first when available, hold Force of Negation, Daze, Counterspell, Spell Pierce, Mana Leak, Mental Misstep, or similar interaction for the decisive exchange, and do not begin a library-exile line if Jace, Wielder of Mysteries can be answered before the draw or replacement effect resolves.
- Thought Lash conversion: use Thought Lash as a win-path engine only when the legal action text and visible state show how it connects to Jace, Wielder of Mysteries or another safe library-empty payoff. Prioritize this path in slower games where the pilot can defend a permanent, but delay it against visible pressure if spending mana on Thought Lash leaves no answer to lethal combat or stack interaction.
- Consultation or Pact conversion: treat Demonic Consultation and Tainted Pact as decisive combo tools, not generic card selection, unless the engine exposes a legal low-risk use that does not endanger the library plan. Prioritize these cards when Jace, Wielder of Mysteries is already protected or immediately castable, and avoid firing them into unknown open mana unless discard, Vendilion Clique, Gitaxian Probe, or public information has reduced the relevant risk.
- Doomsday conversion: cast Doomsday only after checking life total, mana, draw access, known interaction, and whether the pile can be executed through visible constraints. Prioritize Doomsday when the opponent clock forces a compact win or when tutors and selection can finish the line; postpone it when a normal control turn improves protection without giving the opponent a lethal window.
- Tutor assembly: use Demonic Tutor, Profane Tutor, Intuition, Waterlogged Teachings, and selection spells to find the missing category: payoff, enabler, protection, land, or emergency interaction. Card text check required for Waterlogged Teachings; choose only from legal engine candidates and visible revealed information.

## Secondary Win Conditions
- Creature pressure closes disrupted games: pivot to Glarb, Calamity's Augur, Psychic Frog, Barrowgoyf, Abhorrent Oculus, Orcish Bowmasters, Vendilion Clique, Snapcaster Mage, Deathrite Shaman, Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, and Oko, Thief of Crowns when combo pieces are exiled, countered, or too dangerous to expose. Card text check required for exact Glarb, Calamity's Augur, Psychic Frog, Barrowgoyf, Abhorrent Oculus, and Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student combat or transformation implications.
- Oko pressure stabilizes while winning: use Oko, Thief of Crowns as a board-control and long-game threat when a fair game is safer than forcing combo. Prioritize Oko, Thief of Crowns if it neutralizes a visible attacker, protects life, or creates a clock while leaving cheap interaction available.
- Graveyard value sustains the fallback plan: use Snapcaster Mage, Noxious Revival, Mystic Sanctuary, Unearth, Cling to Dust, Murderous Cut, Deathrite Shaman, and Rakshasa's Bargain to rebuy interaction, recover a threat, or convert stocked graveyards into tempo. Card text check required for Rakshasa's Bargain; do not consume graveyard resources needed for Murderous Cut, Deathrite Shaman, Cling to Dust, Mystic Sanctuary, or Snapcaster Mage without comparing the next-turn use.
- Incremental damage matters when combo is locked out: chip with safe attackers and Deathrite Shaman only when this does not expose a key blocker or lose a planeswalker defense. Prefer pressure that keeps mana open over all-in attacks unless the visible clock shows a faster kill than the combo route.

## Emergency Lines
- Behind on life: spend removal and sweepers before sculpting, using Fatal Push, Cut Down, Long Goodbye, Abrupt Decay, Tear Asunder, Murderous Cut, Requiting Hex, Legolas's Quick Reflexes, Subtlety, Otawara, Soaring City, Sink into Stupor, Cryptic Command, or Toxic Deluge according to legal targets and visible urgency. Card text check required for Long Goodbye, Requiting Hex, Legolas's Quick Reflexes, and Sink into Stupor.
- Behind on board: stabilize first with Toxic Deluge, Oko, Thief of Crowns, cheap removal, Subtlety, Cryptic Command, or blockers, then resume tutor or Jace planning after the opponent no longer threatens lethal. Do not keep a slow combo hand on board if the current visible attack step or next turn forces survival decisions.
- Behind on cards: use Ponder, Preordain, Brainstorm, Gush, Stock Up, Lorien Revealed, Consult the Star Charts, Flow State, Cling to Dust, or commander-driven selection to rebuild, but choose interaction over velocity when a single opposing permanent or spell will end the game. Card text check required for Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, and Flow State.
- Behind on mana: fetch and sequence untapped blue and black sources first, because countermagic, discard, tutors, and Jace lines are mana-color sensitive. Use Lorien Revealed, Waterlogged Teachings, Ponder, Preordain, Brainstorm, and land choices to fix the bottleneck, and avoid commander tax or expensive plays that prevent holding up interaction.
- Engine disrupted: if Thought Lash, Doomsday, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries is gone or unsafe, transition to fair control with creatures, Oko, Thief of Crowns, Snapcaster Mage, Mystic Sanctuary, and countermagic. If graveyard recursion is shut off, value hand-based selection and hard-cast threats over lines that require Snapcaster Mage, Unearth, or Mystic Sanctuary.

## Resource Model
- Life is a combo resource until the opponent presents a visible lethal or two-turn clock. Spend life for Thoughtseize, Gitaxian Probe, Watery Grave, Overgrown Tomb, Breeding Pool, Toxic Deluge, and similar legal costs when the exchange buys information, removes a decisive card, enables Jace, Wielder of Mysteries setup, or keeps mana untapped for protection; conserve life when the fair plan already controls the stack and board.
- Hand size is protection plus assembly, not raw volume. Keep at least one category of payoff, enabler, tutor, discard, counterspell, removal, or selection unless a legal cantrip or tutor action can immediately repair the missing role; avoid cashing Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain, Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, or Flow State into a low-impact line while a combo gate or removal gate is unresolved. Card text check required for Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, and Flow State.
- Mana converts into timing advantage. Cheap interaction such as Force Spike, Mental Misstep, Spell Snare, Spell Pierce, Daze, Mana Leak, Counterspell, Remand, Memory Lapse, Lose Focus, Wash Away, Stern Scolding, Mystical Dispute, Force of Negation, and Subtlety lets the deck sculpt while staying alive, so do not tap out for a slow permanent unless the visible board and known hand information make the shields-down turn acceptable.
- Board presence is a stabilizer before it is a clock. Use Deathrite Shaman, Orcish Bowmasters, Snapcaster Mage, Vendilion Clique, Psychic Frog, Barrowgoyf, Abhorrent Oculus, Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, Glarb, Calamity's Augur, and Oko, Thief of Crowns to absorb pressure, pressure planeswalkers, or shorten the game after disruption; do not trade away the only blocker protecting Jace, Wielder of Mysteries unless the trade prevents a larger loss.
- Graveyard cards are shared fuel. Preserve the graveyard when Murderous Cut, Cling to Dust, Deathrite Shaman, Snapcaster Mage, Unearth, Mystic Sanctuary, Noxious Revival, Rakshasa's Bargain, or Gush lines need specific cards or thresholds; spend it aggressively only when survival, a protected combo turn, or a decisive tempo swing is visible.
- Exile is a cost and a warning zone. Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Thought Lash, Doomsday, Force of Negation, Subtlety, and Murderous Cut can convert exile into a win or emergency answer, but exiling Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, a needed draw spell, or the only remaining protection may collapse the plan; verify legal action text and visible libraries before committing.
- Lands are both mana and spell access. Fetchlands, Mystic Sanctuary, Otawara, Soaring City, Sink into Stupor, Waterlogged Teachings, Lorien Revealed, Mistrise Village, Horizon of Progress, and Multiversal Passage should be evaluated as utility slots as well as sources; card text check required for Sink into Stupor, Waterlogged Teachings, Mistrise Village, Horizon of Progress, and Multiversal Passage.
- Sacrifice fodder is scarce. Do not spend expendable creatures or tokens casually if a visible line needs a body for blocking, Oko, Thief of Crowns pressure, Rakshasa's Bargain, or future edict insulation; card text check required for Rakshasa's Bargain.
- Information is worth mana when it changes commitment. Use Duress, Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize, Gitaxian Probe, Vendilion Clique, and legal reveal windows to decide whether to force Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Doomsday, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, or Thought Lash now or wait.
- Sideboard bullets convert narrow cards into matchup leverage. Veil of Summer protects green/black-blue fights, Endurance and Nihil Spellbomb pressure graveyards, Grafdigger's Cage and Dauthi Voidwalker disrupt graveyard or library-cast plans, Force of Vigor and Culling Ritual answer artifact/enchantment or small-permanent clusters, Hydroblast and Blue Elemental Blast answer red pressure, and Pithing Needle names only a known or clearly exposed activated-ability card.

## Mana Guide
- Keep hands that produce early blue and black, then green. Blue supports cantrips and counters, black supports discard, tutors, removal, and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries setup, while green supports Abrupt Decay, Tear Asunder, Oko, Thief of Crowns, Deathrite Shaman, and sideboard cards such as Veil of Summer, Endurance, Force of Vigor, and Culling Ritual.
- Mulligan mana that cannot cast a turn-one or turn-two play. A hand with only colorless or slow conditional access is suspect unless it has Ponder, Preordain, Brainstorm, Lorien Revealed, Waterlogged Teachings, or another legal fixing action plus enough time against the visible matchup. Card text check required for Waterlogged Teachings.
- Fetch for untapped interaction first when under pressure. Polluted Delta, Misty Rainforest, Verdant Catacombs, Marsh Flats, Scalding Tarn, Flooded Strand, Bloodstained Mire, Windswept Heath, Wooded Foothills, and Prismatic Vista should normally secure Underground Sea, Tropical Island, Bayou, Watery Grave, Breeding Pool, Overgrown Tomb, Island, Swamp, or Forest according to the hand's immediate spells, with blue-black prioritized for discard plus counterplay.
- Sequence tapped or conditional lands around the turn's legal spell. Drowned Catacomb, Shipwreck Marsh, Deathcap Glade, Gloomlake Verge, Willowrush Verge, Hedge Maze, Underground Mortuary, Undercity Sewers, Clearwater Pathway, Reflecting Pool, Sunken Ruins, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Command Tower, and utility lands require runtime color checks; do not strand Counterspell, Abrupt Decay, or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries by choosing the wrong early source.
- Play land before draw when mana is already known and needed this turn. If the hand requires holding up Spell Pierce, Fatal Push, Cut Down, Stern Scolding, Mental Misstep, or Daze, make the land drop that enables the legal interaction before passing priority unless a selection spell can materially improve the land choice.
- Draw before land when the land choice is uncertain. Cast Ponder, Preordain, Brainstorm, Gitaxian Probe, Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Flow State, or commander-enabled top-library selection before the land drop if the result may choose between untapped blue, black discard, green removal, Mystic Sanctuary setup, or utility-channel timing.
- Preserve Mystic Sanctuary deliberately. Fetch an Island type and track graveyard spell quality before relying on Mystic Sanctuary, because rebuying Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Counterspell, Abrupt Decay, Toxic Deluge, or a tutor can decide the game only if the land enters with its condition satisfied and the recast timing is legal.
- Treat Otawara, Soaring City, Sink into Stupor, Lorien Revealed, and Waterlogged Teachings as modal resources. Use them as lands when color or curve is the bottleneck, and hold them as spells only when the hand already has stable mana and their legal text answers a visible problem or advances a protected combo line.
- Do not overcommit green early at the expense of blue-black. Green is important for Abrupt Decay, Tear Asunder, Oko, Thief of Crowns, Deathrite Shaman, and sideboard cards, but most protected wins require blue for Jace, Wielder of Mysteries or counters and black for tutors, discard, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, and removal.

## Mulligan Guide
- Strong keep: keep two to three lands with early blue-black access plus one selection spell and one disruption piece, such as Polluted Delta plus Underground Sea, Ponder, Thoughtseize, Counterspell, Fatal Push, and Demonic Consultation. This hand can sculpt, trade, and threaten the Jace, Wielder of Mysteries or Consultation/Pact axis once protection appears.
- Strong keep: keep one-land hands only when the land casts a one-mana cantrip and the hand has redundant looks, such as Island, Ponder, Preordain, Brainstorm, Force Spike, Fatal Push, and Duress. Ship the same shell on the draw against fast pressure if missing black or a second mana source after the first selection action.
- Medium keep: keep two-color hands with interaction but no engine, such as Watery Grave, Deathcap Glade, Inquisition of Kozilek, Mana Leak, Abrupt Decay, Snapcaster Mage, and Oko, Thief of Crowns. This hand is a fair-control opener and should prioritize hitting land drops over forcing an early combo search.
- Medium keep: keep Glarb, Calamity's Augur plus stable mana and cheap plays when the hand already functions without commander text. Card text check required for commander-specific top-library lines, so do not keep a weak hand only because Glarb might fix it.
- Risky keep: keep Demonic Tutor or Profane Tutor hands without protection only when the rest of the hand interacts early. A hand of three lands, Demonic Tutor, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Doomsday, and no discard or counter is powerful but fragile, and should wait for information before committing.
- Risky keep: keep Thought Lash plus Jace, Wielder of Mysteries only with enough mana development or protection to survive the setup. Do not assume Thought Lash wins alone, and do not expose Jace into known pressure or open interaction unless waiting is worse.
- Automatic ship: ship zero-land, six-plus-land, or single slow-land hands with no Ponder, Preordain, Brainstorm, Lorien Revealed, Waterlogged Teachings, Gitaxian Probe, or cheap interaction. Card text check required for Waterlogged Teachings, so it cannot rescue an otherwise uncastable hand unless the legal action confirms it.
- Automatic ship: ship hands that cannot cast any spell before turn three against an unknown opponent. This list is built to trade early with Duress, Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize, Fatal Push, Cut Down, Stern Scolding, Spell Pierce, Spell Snare, Mental Misstep, Daze, or Force Spike.
- Matchup-dependent keep: keep removal-heavy hands with Fatal Push, Cut Down, Long Goodbye, Abrupt Decay, Orcish Bowmasters, or Toxic Deluge against visible creature decks, but downgrade them against spell-combo unless discard or permission is also present.
- Matchup-dependent keep: keep permission-heavy hands with Counterspell, Mana Leak, Remand, Memory Lapse, Mystical Dispute, Force of Negation, or Subtlety against stack-centric decks, but require a blocker, removal, or faster selection against aggressive boards.
- Play/draw adjustment: on the play, value Force Spike, Daze, Spell Pierce, Duress, Thoughtseize, and Inquisition of Kozilek more highly because they can seize tempo before the opponent develops. On the draw, value Fatal Push, Cut Down, Mental Misstep, Stern Scolding, and cheap cantrips more because they recover lost tempo.
- Trap hand: do not keep multiple expensive or setup cards with no bridge, such as Cryptic Command, Intuition, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Thought Lash, Toxic Deluge, and only two awkward lands. The hand has names that matter but no early legal way to avoid dying or being disrupted.
- Trap hand: do not keep Demonic Consultation or Tainted Pact as a blind early play without Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Thought Lash, a tutor target, or a protected reason. These cards can be decisive, but unscaffolded exile can remove the deck's own win resources.

## Turn Arc
- Turn 1: lead with untapped blue-black access when possible and cast the spell that changes the next decision most. Prefer Duress, Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize, Gitaxian Probe, Ponder, Preordain, Brainstorm, Deathrite Shaman, Fatal Push, Cut Down, Mental Misstep, or Spell Pierce according to legal actions and visible matchup pressure.
- Turn 1 deviation: hold Brainstorm when a fetchland is already available and there is no urgent land or answer to find. Cast it immediately only to fix a failing hand, protect a card from discard if rules output supports the line, or find a one-mana answer before passing.
- Turn 1 deviation: keep Daze, Force Spike, Spell Pierce, Stern Scolding, or Fatal Push available when the opponent's first meaningful play is more important than improving your own hand. Do not tap out for a cantrip if the visible threat window is likely to punish it.
- Turn 2: either keep interaction open or deploy a resilient setup piece. Preferred plays include Counterspell, Mana Leak, Memory Lapse, Remand, Abrupt Decay, Orcish Bowmasters, Psychic Frog, Barrowgoyf, Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, Snapcaster Mage only with a useful legal target, or a second selection spell plus held one-mana interaction.
- Turn 2 deviation: use Demonic Tutor, Profane Tutor, or Intuition only when the hand already has safety, mana, or a clear missing piece. The default tutor search should complete a protected Jace, Wielder of Mysteries line, find interaction that prevents losing, or assemble a control bridge into Glarb, Calamity's Augur.
- Turn 3: choose between commander development, planeswalker pressure, and protected combo setup. Cast Glarb, Calamity's Augur, Oko, Thief of Crowns, Vendilion Clique, Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, or Abhorrent Oculus only when the battlefield and stack allow the tempo loss; card text check required for Consult the Star Charts and Abhorrent Oculus.
- Turn 3 deviation: prioritize Toxic Deluge, Murderous Cut, Long Goodbye, Tear Asunder, Abrupt Decay, Subtlety, or Force of Negation over engine setup when the opponent's board or stack threatens to invalidate the next turn. Survival beats sculpting when a short clock is visible.
- Turns 4-5: start asking whether the game is about winning now, locking control, or stabilizing. Protected commitment lines include Jace, Wielder of Mysteries plus Demonic Consultation or Tainted Pact, Doomsday with enough follow-up, Thought Lash with a confirmed payoff, or Mystic Sanctuary/Noxious Revival loops for a known high-impact card.
- Turns 4-5 deviation: tap out for Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Doomsday, Thought Lash, Cryptic Command, Gush, or Rakshasa's Bargain only after checking known interaction, opponent mana, current pressure, and follow-up protection. Card text check required for Rakshasa's Bargain.
- Late game: convert every draw step into either a protected win attempt or a hard control exchange. Reuse Snapcaster Mage, Mystic Sanctuary, Noxious Revival, Cling to Dust, Deathrite Shaman, Gush, Lorien Revealed, Waterlogged Teachings, and Otawara, Soaring City as legal text permits, but preserve win conditions from exile or graveyard costs.
- Late game deviation: stop trading one-for-one when the opponent has inevitability or repeated commander access. Shift to a commitment gate by using discard or probe effects first, then force the cleanest legal win attempt with counter backup rather than waiting for a perfect hand.

## Card Roles
- Commander: treat Glarb, Calamity's Augur as a control-combo engine, not an automatic curve play. Cast it when legal text and visible board state make its information or card-flow role matter, and hold it when commander tax, removal exposure, or tapping down shields would make the next combo gate weaker. Card text check required before relying on any specific top-library permission or selection mode.
- Fast information: Gitaxian Probe, Duress, Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize, and Vendilion Clique decide whether to sculpt, defend, or commit. Use them before Demonic Tutor, Doomsday, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Thought Lash, Demonic Consultation, or Tainted Pact whenever the choice can reveal counterplay; do not spend discard on a low-impact card while a visible combo, commander, or pressure card will decide the next turn.
- Cheap selection: Ponder, Preordain, Brainstorm, Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Lorien Revealed, Waterlogged Teachings, Flow State, and Gush are the hand-shaping layer. Use Ponder and Preordain early to hit land and interaction, hold Brainstorm for fetchland or discard-pressure spots when possible, and treat Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Waterlogged Teachings, and Flow State as card text check required until the rules engine exposes exact legal modes. Do not cantrip past a required answer when visible lethal or a stack threat is already present.
- Tutors and combo assembly: Demonic Tutor, Profane Tutor, Intuition, Doomsday, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Noxious Revival, Mystic Sanctuary, and Snapcaster Mage are precision tools. Search or select the missing piece only after checking whether the current hand needs Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Thought Lash, protection, mana, or removal more; do not fire Demonic Consultation or Tainted Pact blindly when exiling unknown resources can remove the intended payoff. Use Noxious Revival, Mystic Sanctuary, and Snapcaster Mage to rebuy a known high-impact spell, protect a deterministic pile, or force a second exchange after the opponent spends interaction.
- Win payoffs: Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Thought Lash, Doomsday, Demonic Consultation, and Tainted Pact form the highest-risk winning package. Commit only through a visible safety gate: enough mana, known opponent hand or constrained opponent mana, protection available, and a reason waiting is worse. Do not expose Jace, Wielder of Mysteries as a fair planeswalker against pressure unless its static or activated role is immediately relevant and legal text confirms the line.
- Permission suite: Force Spike, Daze, Spell Pierce, Spell Snare, Mental Misstep, Stern Scolding, Wash Away, Lose Focus, Mana Leak, Counterspell, Remand, Memory Lapse, Mystical Dispute, Force of Negation, Subtlety, and Cryptic Command protect tempo, stop opposing commanders, and clear combo turns. Prioritize cheap permission early when it trades up on mana, preserve hard counters for cards that beat the win attempt, and remember that Remand and Memory Lapse are delay spells rather than permanent answers. Card text check required for Lose Focus and Stern Scolding targeting constraints at runtime.
- Removal suite: Fatal Push, Cut Down, Long Goodbye, Abrupt Decay, Tear Asunder, Murderous Cut, Toxic Deluge, Requiting Hex, Otawara, Soaring City, and Legolas's Quick Reflexes answer board states that permission missed. Spend one-mana removal on snowballing attackers or must-answer utility creatures, hold Abrupt Decay and Tear Asunder for permanents that counterspells cannot cleanly solve, and use Toxic Deluge as the reset button when life loss leaves a survivable path. Card text check required for Requiting Hex and Legolas's Quick Reflexes before assuming protection, fight, or removal behavior.
- Creature threats: Deathrite Shaman, Orcish Bowmasters, Psychic Frog, Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, Barrowgoyf, Abhorrent Oculus, Vendilion Clique, Snapcaster Mage, and Subtlety bridge control into pressure. Deploy them when they either defend life total, tax opposing card draw, pressure planeswalkers, or force the opponent to act before a combo turn; avoid attacking with a necessary blocker under a short clock. Card text check required for Psychic Frog, Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, Barrowgoyf, and Abhorrent Oculus whenever the line depends on exact counters, transform conditions, graveyard sizing, or evasion.
- Graveyard tools: Deathrite Shaman, Cling to Dust, Murderous Cut, Abhorrent Oculus, Barrowgoyf, Snapcaster Mage, Noxious Revival, Mystic Sanctuary, Unearth, and Rakshasa's Bargain all care about graveyards or recursion. Sequence them so delve, escape-like costs, exile costs, or card draw do not consume the spell needed for Snapcaster Mage, Mystic Sanctuary, or a future tutor line. Card text check required for Rakshasa's Bargain and Abhorrent Oculus before spending graveyard resources.
- Fair engines and stabilizers: Oko, Thief of Crowns, Psychic Frog, Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, Barrowgoyf, Orcish Bowmasters, Glarb, Calamity's Augur, and Deathrite Shaman are the non-combo way to win. Use them when the opponent is constrained or when the board demands a permanent answer, but do not let fair value distract from a protected Jace, Wielder of Mysteries line if the combo window is open.
- Mana acceleration and land-flow cards: Exploration, Deathrite Shaman, Lorien Revealed, Gush, Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain, and fetchlands smooth awkward singleton mana. Exploration is strongest with extra lands or Gush-style refills; do not cast it as a do-nothing into pressure if holding interaction matters more. Use Lorien Revealed as mana fixing when land development is failing, and as a spell only when legal text and tempo permit.
- Land roles: Command Tower, Underground Sea, Tropical Island, Bayou, Watery Grave, Overgrown Tomb, Breeding Pool, Darkslick Shores, Drowned Catacomb, Shipwreck Marsh, Deathcap Glade, Gloomlake Verge, Willowrush Verge, Clearwater Pathway, Sunken Ruins, Reflecting Pool, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Hedge Maze, Underground Mortuary, Undercity Sewers, Horizon of Progress, Mistrise Village, Multiversal Passage, Forest, Island, and Swamp set up blue-black first with green as support. Fetchlands Bloodstained Mire, Flooded Strand, Marsh Flats, Misty Rainforest, Polluted Delta, Prismatic Vista, Scalding Tarn, Verdant Catacombs, Windswept Heath, and Wooded Foothills should preserve Brainstorm, Mystic Sanctuary, color fixing, and life total according to matchup pressure. Card text check required for Horizon of Progress, Mistrise Village, and Multiversal Passage before treating them as utility beyond mana.
- Modal spell-lands and channel lands: Sink into Stupor, Waterlogged Teachings, Otawara, Soaring City, and Mystic Sanctuary are lands when mana is the bottleneck and spells when the game is about a specific stack or board exchange. Do not spend them early as spells if the hand cannot still cast Counterspell, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, or the chosen tutor line on curve.

### Card Hover Notes

#### Glarb, Calamity's Augur
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, commander and core control-combo engine.
- Role type: engine piece; card selection; threat/clock; role glue.
- Deck-specific job: Lets you look at the top card any time, play lands from the top, and cast mana value 4+ spells from the top, which especially matters for Thought Lash, Cryptic Command, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Gush, Murderous Cut, Subtlety, Lorien Revealed, Waterlogged Teachings, Rakshasa's Bargain, Force of Vigor, and Culling Ritual.
- Timing: Cast when the board will not punish a three-mana shields-down turn; delay into open removal if the same mana must hold Counterspell, Abrupt Decay, or a combo-protection spell.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {B}{G}{U} and later tap tempo; outputs top-library information, extra land access, graveyard fuel from surveil 2, and a deathtouch blocker.
- Mode map: Static top-card access fixes land drops and high-mana-value spell access; {T}: surveil 2 sets up draws, graveyard fuel, or clears bad top cards, but tapping removes Glarb from blocking.
- Partners / packages: Works with Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain, Mystic Sanctuary, Noxious Revival, fetchlands, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Thought Lash, Doomsday, Demonic Consultation, and Tainted Pact.
- Role peers: No direct peer; closest role overlap is Mystic Sanctuary, Brainstorm, Ponder, and Preordain for top-library control.
- Failure modes: Do not mill needed Jace, Wielder of Mysteries or protection without a recovery line; do not recast through commander tax when cheaper interaction keeps the combo window safer.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong when games slow down around selection and permission; weaker when visible attackers force immediate Fatal Push, Cut Down, Long Goodbye, or Toxic Deluge.

#### Force Spike
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, early blue tempo-protection slot.
- Role type: interaction-stack; protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target spell unless its controller pays {1}, buying early turns for cantrips, discard, Glarb, Calamity's Augur, or a protected Jace, Wielder of Mysteries setup.
- Timing: Use early on commanders, mana engines, tutors, or pressure spells before the opponent has spare mana; late, preserve it only if the opponent is tapping out.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {U}; outputs a one-mana tempo exchange when the opponent cannot pay.
- Partners / packages: Protects Demonic Tutor, Doomsday, Thought Lash, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Demonic Consultation, and Tainted Pact turns alongside Daze, Spell Pierce, Mana Leak, Lose Focus, and Counterspell.
- Role peers: Daze, Spell Pierce, Mana Leak, Lose Focus, and Mystical Dispute are closest tax-counter peers.
- Failure modes: Do not hold it until the opponent can pay; do not cast it at low-impact spells if a decisive spell is likely this turn.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Best on the play and against curve-out commanders; weak against big-mana boards with untapped excess mana.

#### Memory Lapse
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, temporary counter and draw-step denial slot.
- Role type: interaction-stack; tempo protection.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target spell and puts it on top of its owner's library instead of the graveyard, delaying a threat while denying the opponent a fresh draw.
- Timing: Use when one turn is enough to resolve Demonic Tutor, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Doomsday, Thought Lash, or a stabilizing Toxic Deluge; prefer hard counters for spells that must never be recast.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{U}; outputs tempo, draw-step compression, and no graveyard card for opposing recursion.
- Partners / packages: Pairs with discard from Thoughtseize, Duress, Inquisition of Kozilek, and Vendilion Clique to punish the delayed card later.
- Role peers: Remand is the closest delay peer; Counterspell and Force of Negation are stronger permanent stack answers.
- Failure modes: Bad against cheap spells the opponent can immediately recast or commanders where top-of-library delay is not enough.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against expensive payoff spells and combo turns; weaker when the opponent's board already demands removal.

#### Forest
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, basic green mana resource.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Provides {G} for Deathrite Shaman, Exploration, Abrupt Decay, Oko, Thief of Crowns, Tear Asunder, Legolas's Quick Reflexes, Glarb, Calamity's Augur, plus Veil of Summer, Endurance, Force of Vigor, and Culling Ritual.
- Timing: Fetch when green is required and life or nonbasic punishment makes a basic safer; do not prioritize it over blue-black access if Counterspell, discard, or Jace setup is the bottleneck.
- Inputs / outputs: Enters untapped and outputs {G}; costs the land drop or a fetch activation.
- Partners / packages: Searchable by Verdant Catacombs, Windswept Heath, Misty Rainforest, Wooded Foothills, and Prismatic Vista.
- Role peers: Bayou, Tropical Island, Overgrown Tomb, Breeding Pool, Hedge Maze, Underground Mortuary, Willowrush Verge, and Deathcap Glade overlap as green sources.
- Failure modes: A Forest-only opener can strand blue cantrips, black discard, and most counters.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: More important post-board when Veil of Summer, Endurance, Force of Vigor, and Culling Ritual are live.

#### Island
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, basic blue mana and Island-type resource.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; role glue.
- Deck-specific job: Casts Ponder, Preordain, Brainstorm, Force Spike, Spell Pierce, Counterspell support pieces, and fuels Island requirements for Daze, Gush, Mystic Sanctuary, and Lorien Revealed.
- Timing: Fetch early when blue interaction or selection is the current bottleneck; preserve Island count for Mystic Sanctuary entering untapped when that recursion line matters.
- Inputs / outputs: Enters untapped and outputs {U}; contributes an Island subtype for Daze, Gush, Mystic Sanctuary, and Lórien Revealed-style Islandcycling targets.
- Partners / packages: Searchable by Scalding Tarn, Misty Rainforest, Flooded Strand, Polluted Delta, Prismatic Vista, and Lorien Revealed.
- Role peers: Underground Sea, Tropical Island, Watery Grave, Breeding Pool, Mystic Sanctuary, Hedge Maze, and Undercity Sewers overlap as Island cards.
- Failure modes: Basic Island does not cast black discard or Abrupt Decay by itself.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Best against tempo and control where untapped blue on turn one changes Force Spike, Spell Pierce, Brainstorm, Ponder, and Preordain timing.

#### Swamp
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, basic black mana resource.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Provides untapped {B} for Thoughtseize, Duress, Inquisition of Kozilek, Fatal Push, Cut Down, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Demonic Tutor, and early removal.
- Timing: Fetch when black interaction or tutor access matters more than holding up blue; pair with blue sources before committing to Counterspell or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries.
- Inputs / outputs: Enters untapped and outputs {B}; costs the land drop or a fetch activation.
- Partners / packages: Searchable by Marsh Flats, Verdant Catacombs, Bloodstained Mire, Polluted Delta, and Prismatic Vista.
- Role peers: Underground Sea, Bayou, Watery Grave, Overgrown Tomb, Undercity Sewers, Underground Mortuary, Drowned Catacomb, Darkslick Shores, and Gloomlake Verge overlap as black sources.
- Failure modes: Swamp-only starts can miss blue cantrips and counters.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: More valuable against combo and control where turn-one discard changes the whole game plan.

#### Remand
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, tempo counter and cantrip interaction slot.
- Role type: interaction-stack; card selection; protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target spell, returns it to its owner's hand, and draws a card, buying a turn while replacing itself.
- Timing: Use when the opponent cannot profitably recast before your combo or stabilization turn; prefer Counterspell, Force of Negation, or Cryptic Command when the spell must be permanently stopped.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{U}; outputs a delayed spell, one card drawn, and tempo.
- Partners / packages: Draw can advance Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student third-card turns and can win with Jace, Wielder of Mysteries if your library is empty.
- Role peers: Memory Lapse is the closest delay peer; Mana Leak and Lose Focus are closer tax counters.
- Failure modes: Returning a cheap removal spell or commander enabler can be too temporary; beware drawing from an empty library without Jace, Wielder of Mysteries.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Best against expensive stack plays and when one extra turn converts to Demonic Tutor, Doomsday, Thought Lash, or Toxic Deluge.

#### Watery Grave
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, blue-black shock land and typed mana resource.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Provides {U} or {B} while counting as Island and Swamp for Drowned Catacomb, Mystic Sanctuary math, Daze, Gush, and fetchland target needs.
- Timing: Pay 2 life when untapped blue or black changes the current turn; let it enter tapped when life matters more than immediate Force Spike, Fatal Push, Duress, or Ponder access.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes possible 2 life on entry; outputs {U} or {B}.
- Partners / packages: Searchable by Marsh Flats, Verdant Catacombs, Bloodstained Mire, Scalding Tarn, Flooded Strand, Misty Rainforest, Polluted Delta, and Lorien Revealed.
- Role peers: Underground Sea is the no-life closest peer; Darkslick Shores, Drowned Catacomb, Shipwreck Marsh, and Clearwater Pathway overlap as blue-black lands.
- Failure modes: Shock damage can shorten red or creature clocks; tapped entry can strand one-mana interaction.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Prioritize untapped against combo and tempo; conserve life against burn or visible lethal pressure.

#### Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, legendary black-fixing utility land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; role glue.
- Deck-specific job: Makes each land a Swamp in addition to its other land types, improving black access for Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Demonic Tutor, Thoughtseize, Fatal Push, and Toxic Deluge.
- Timing: Play when black is constrained or when Sunken Ruins, fetchlands, or utility lands need to produce black through Swamp typing; consider whether it also improves the opponent's lands.
- Inputs / outputs: Costs a land drop; outputs Swamp typing across the battlefield and black mana access through legal Swamp mana abilities.
- Partners / packages: Helps Horizon of Progress, Reflecting Pool, Sunken Ruins, Mistrise Village, Otawara, Mystic Sanctuary, and fetchlands function as black-supporting mana pieces.
- Role peers: Command Tower, Underground Sea, Bayou, Watery Grave, Overgrown Tomb, and Gloomlake Verge provide black without helping the opponent.
- Failure modes: Legendary land conflicts if another Urborg appears; giving the opponent black can enable their removal or discard.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in black-heavy hands; risky when the opponent is visibly color-screwed off black.

#### Mana Leak
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, early-to-midgame tax counter.
- Role type: interaction-stack; protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target spell unless its controller pays {3}, protecting setup turns and checking commanders or payoff spells before the opponent has excess mana.
- Timing: Spend before the opponent reaches enough mana to pay; late-game use only when their tap pattern makes {3} unavailable.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{U}; outputs a tempo-positive counter when the tax is binding.
- Partners / packages: Shields Demonic Tutor, Doomsday, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Thought Lash, Tainted Pact, and Demonic Consultation with Force Spike, Daze, Spell Pierce, Lose Focus, and Counterspell.
- Role peers: Lose Focus is the closest scalable tax peer; Force Spike and Daze are cheaper but narrower on payment.
- Failure modes: Holding Mana Leak too long turns it into a bluff; do not cast into obvious spare mana unless forcing a payment matters.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent against curve-out decks and tap-out control; weaker against big mana or late commander recasts.

#### Demonic Tutor
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, unrestricted sorcery tutor and core assembly piece.
- Role type: tutor/search; combo tutor; role glue.
- Deck-specific job: Finds the missing axis: Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Doomsday, Thought Lash, Counterspell, Force of Negation, Toxic Deluge, Abrupt Decay, a land, or sideboard hate after boarding.
- Timing: Cast when the target can be used soon or protected; avoid revealing a slow plan by tutoring while shields are down if discard, Gitaxian Probe, or Vendilion Clique can first clear the way.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{B} and a sorcery-speed main-phase window; outputs any chosen card to hand.
- Partners / packages: Primary Jace win package cards are Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Doomsday, and Thought Lash.
- Role peers: Profane Tutor is delayed; Intuition gives the opponent choice; Waterlogged Teachings searches only instant cards or cards with flash.
- Failure modes: Do not automatically find combo if the board requires Fatal Push, Toxic Deluge, Abrupt Decay, or mana; do not tutor into known counterplay without protection.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Against aggro, tutor for survival first; against control or combo, tutor for the protected deterministic line or the interaction that wins the stack fight.

#### Cryptic Command
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, premium flexible blue interaction.
- Role type: modal utility; interaction-stack; interaction-removal; card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Covers stack, board, combat, and card-flow needs while buying time for Jace, Wielder of Mysteries or fair engines.
- Timing: Hold for high-impact turns where two modes matter; casting for only draw plus low-value bounce is usually worse than preserving a hard counter.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{U}{U}{U}; outputs two chosen effects from counter, bounce, tap, and draw.
- Mode map: Counter target spell stops a spell on the stack; return target permanent to its owner's hand handles a resolved permanent temporarily; tap the creatures your opponents control can fog or open attacks; draw a card replaces itself and can trigger Jace wins from an empty library.
- Partners / packages: Protects Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Thought Lash, Doomsday, Demonic Consultation, and Tainted Pact; stabilizes with Toxic Deluge, Oko, Thief of Crowns, and Subtlety.
- Role peers: Counterspell is cleaner stack interaction; Sink into Stupor and Otawara, Soaring City overlap on bounce; Remand overlaps on counter-plus-card.
- Failure modes: Triple-blue can be stranded; bounce is temporary; tap mode does not stop noncombat wins.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Best versus creature alpha turns, control stack fights, and single permanent engines that need one turn of delay.

#### Ponder
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, one-mana blue selection spell.
- Role type: card selection; role glue.
- Deck-specific job: Looks at the top three cards, orders them, optionally shuffles, then draws to find lands, protection, combo pieces, or removal.
- Timing: Cast before land drop when it can decide the land; hold if Brainstorm plus fetch or open interaction is more important this turn.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {U}; outputs one drawn card, top-card ordering, and optional shuffle.
- Partners / packages: Works with Brainstorm, Preordain, fetchlands, Glarb, Calamity's Augur, Mystic Sanctuary, Noxious Revival, Doomsday, and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries.
- Role peers: Preordain is the closest one-mana peer; Brainstorm is stronger with shuffle; Flow State, Stock Up, and Consult the Star Charts dig deeper later.
- Failure modes: Do not keep bad top cards without shuffling when the current board demands an answer; do not tap out if Spell Pierce or Fatal Push must stay up.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Against pressure, dig for Fatal Push, Cut Down, Long Goodbye, Abrupt Decay, or Toxic Deluge; against control, dig for discard, counters, or protected combo.

#### Vendilion Clique
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, flash disruption threat.
- Role type: interaction-discard; threat/clock; protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: Flash flying 3/1 that looks at target player's hand; you may choose a nonland card, that player reveals it, puts it on the bottom of their library, then draws a card.
- Timing: Cast in the opponent's draw step to catch a new card, end step before your combo turn, or in combat when a flying blocker matters.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{U}{U}; outputs hand information, possible card exchange, and a fast evasive clock.
- Partners / packages: Clears the way for Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Doomsday, and Thought Lash; pairs with Counterspell, Force of Negation, and Spell Pierce.
- Role peers: Thoughtseize, Duress, Inquisition of Kozilek, and Gitaxian Probe overlap on information; Snapcaster Mage and Orcish Bowmasters overlap as flash creatures.
- Failure modes: The target player draws a replacement card; do not give the opponent a redraw when the current nonland is harmless and the unknown card could be worse.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against control, combo, planeswalkers, and low-removal decks; fragile against ping effects and cheap flyers.

#### Reflecting Pool
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, conditional fixing land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Adds one mana of any type a land you control could produce, smoothing Sultai requirements once another functional land is present.
- Timing: Keep only with another land that already produces relevant colors; sequence after Command Tower, Underground Sea, Bayou, Tropical Island, Watery Grave, Breeding Pool, Overgrown Tomb, or typed lands.
- Inputs / outputs: Costs a land drop; outputs mana based on your current lands, not your hand's wishes.
- Partners / packages: Works with Command Tower, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Sunken Ruins, Horizon of Progress, Clearwater Pathway, Gloomlake Verge, Willowrush Verge, and shock/dual lands.
- Role peers: Command Tower is the closest unconditional five-color-for-commander land; Horizon of Progress also copies land-produced mana types at a life cost.
- Failure modes: Bad as the only land or with lands that do not currently produce the needed color.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Fine in slower hands; risky in mulligans where turn-one Ponder, Duress, or Fatal Push must be guaranteed.

#### Sunken Ruins
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, blue-black filter land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Produces {C} alone or filters {U/B} into {U}{U}, {U}{B}, or {B}{B}, enabling Counterspell, Cryptic Command, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Doomsday, and black discard/tutors.
- Timing: Play when another blue or black source is available; avoid relying on it alone for colored one-mana interaction.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes a land drop and sometimes one blue or black mana; outputs colorless or two blue/black mana.
- Partners / packages: Strong with Underground Sea, Watery Grave, Drowned Catacomb, Darkslick Shores, Clearwater Pathway, Gloomlake Verge, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Island, and Swamp.
- Role peers: Reflecting Pool and Command Tower smooth colors differently; Clearwater Pathway gives one chosen color without filtering.
- Failure modes: A Sunken Ruins-only opener cannot cast Force Spike, Ponder, Duress, or Fatal Push.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Valuable in hands aiming for Counterspell plus black interaction or Jace turns requiring heavy blue.

#### Thought Lash
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, core library-exile combo engine.
- Role type: combo enabler; engine piece; protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: Enables Jace, Wielder of Mysteries wins by emptying your library through cumulative upkeep failure or repeated top-card exiling, while also preventing damage one point at a time.
- Timing: Cast only when Jace, Wielder of Mysteries access, draw timing, protection, and life/board state make the commitment safe; avoid tapping out against lethal pressure or open enchantment removal.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}{U}{U}; consumes library cards for upkeep and prevention; outputs damage prevention and potential empty-library win state.
- Mode map: Cumulative upkeep exiles top cards as upkeep payment; declining upkeep exiles your library; activated ability exiles the top card to prevent the next 1 damage to you this turn.
- Partners / packages: Core package with Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Doomsday, Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain, Gitaxian Probe, and Gush.
- Role peers: Demonic Consultation and Tainted Pact also empty the library; Doomsday reshapes it instead of immediately emptying it.
- Failure modes: Without Jace or an immediate draw-win plan, emptying the library can lose the game; cumulative upkeep can consume key cards before the win is ready.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in slow control games; dangerous against artifact/enchantment removal, pressure, or discard that removes Jace.

#### Demonic Consultation
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, instant-speed library-exile combo piece and risky tutor.
- Role type: combo enabler; combo tutor.
- Deck-specific job: With Jace, Wielder of Mysteries and a draw available, can empty the library by choosing an absent name; as a tutor, can choose an exact needed card but risks exiling critical resources before finding it.
- Timing: Use as a commitment spell after information from Gitaxian Probe, Thoughtseize, Duress, Inquisition of Kozilek, or Vendilion Clique; avoid blind early use.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {B}; exiles top six cards, then reveals until the chosen name appears, puts that card into hand, and exiles the other revealed cards.
- Partners / packages: Jace win package includes Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Tainted Pact, Thought Lash, Doomsday, Brainstorm, Gitaxian Probe, Ponder, Preordain, and Gush.
- Role peers: Tainted Pact is the closest instant library-exile peer; Demonic Tutor is the safer search spell.
- Failure modes: Naming a card still in the library can exile Jace, protection, or draw pieces before finding it; naming an absent card without Jace/draw setup can lose.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Best when opponent shields are known or constrained; poor into open blue/black interaction without protection.

#### Drowned Catacomb
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, conditional blue-black land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Produces {U} or {B} and enters untapped if you control an Island or Swamp, supporting early selection, discard, and counters.
- Timing: Sequence after Island, Swamp, Watery Grave, Underground Sea, Tropical Island, Bayou, Breeding Pool, Overgrown Tomb, Mystic Sanctuary, Hedge Maze, Underground Mortuary, or Undercity Sewers when possible.
- Inputs / outputs: Costs land drop; outputs {U} or {B}; tempo depends on Island/Swamp presence.
- Partners / packages: Fetchlands that find Island or Swamp cards help turn it on; Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth also makes lands Swamps.
- Role peers: Shipwreck Marsh, Darkslick Shores, Clearwater Pathway, Watery Grave, and Underground Sea overlap as blue-black lands.
- Failure modes: Enters tapped in hands without Island/Swamp support, which can miss one-mana interaction.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong when your first land is a typed dual/basic; weak as a lone opener against fast decks.

#### Marsh Flats
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, fetchland for black fixing and shuffle utility.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; tutor/search; role glue.
- Deck-specific job: Searches for a Plains or Swamp card; in this registered deck its relevant Swamp targets are Swamp, Watery Grave, Overgrown Tomb, Bayou, Underground Sea, Underground Mortuary, and Undercity Sewers.
- Timing: Crack when the color is needed, after Brainstorm to clear bad cards, or to enable revolt for Fatal Push; preserve when Mystic Sanctuary or top-card control matters later.
- Inputs / outputs: Pays 1 life, taps, sacrifices itself; outputs a land onto the battlefield and a shuffle.
- Partners / packages: Works with Brainstorm, Fatal Push, Deathrite Shaman, Mystic Sanctuary planning, Deathrite graveyard fuel, and Drowned Catacomb.
- Role peers: Verdant Catacombs, Polluted Delta, Bloodstained Mire, and Prismatic Vista also find black sources.
- Failure modes: No registered Plains target; do not search for white access or assume it finds Forest/Island.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Life payment matters against burn; revolt matters against early creature pressure.

#### Verdant Catacombs
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, fetchland for black-green and Sultai fixing.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; tutor/search; role glue.
- Deck-specific job: Searches for a Swamp or Forest card: Swamp, Forest, Watery Grave, Overgrown Tomb, Breeding Pool, Bayou, Tropical Island, Underground Sea, Hedge Maze, Underground Mortuary, and Undercity Sewers.
- Timing: Use to get the missing color, enable Fatal Push revolt, shuffle after Brainstorm, or preserve for Mystic Sanctuary Island-count planning when other fetches are absent.
- Inputs / outputs: Pays 1 life, taps, sacrifices itself; outputs a typed land and a shuffle.
- Partners / packages: Supports Deathrite Shaman, Abrupt Decay, Glarb, Calamity's Augur, Oko, Thief of Crowns, and black discard.
- Role peers: Misty Rainforest overlaps on Forest access; Polluted Delta overlaps on Swamp and Island access.
- Failure modes: Fetching green too early can strand Counterspell or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries; fetching black too early can strand Oko or Abrupt Decay.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent in unknown matchups because it covers both discard/removal and green answers.

#### Inquisition of Kozilek
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, one-mana black hand disruption.
- Role type: interaction-discard; protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: Target player reveals their hand; you choose a nonland card with mana value 3 or less and that player discards it, clearing cheap counters, removal, pressure, or combo pieces.
- Timing: Cast before tutors or combo commitment when hand information changes the plan; on turn one, take the card that most affects the next two turns.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {B}; outputs revealed hand information and one eligible nonland discard.
- Partners / packages: Protects Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Doomsday, Thought Lash, Demonic Tutor, and Glarb, Calamity's Augur.
- Role peers: Thoughtseize is broader but costs 2 life; Duress misses creatures; Vendilion Clique is flash-speed but gives a redraw.
- Failure modes: Cannot take lands or mana value 4+ cards; do not fire after the opponent's key cheap card has already resolved unless information is still worth it.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong versus tempo, combo, and cheap interaction; weaker against big top-end hands.

#### Preordain
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, one-mana blue selection spell.
- Role type: card selection; role glue.
- Deck-specific job: Scry 2, then draw a card, finding land, discard, counterspells, removal, or a combo piece while cleaning weak top cards.
- Timing: Cast before land drop when it can find a land; hold interaction instead if the opponent's next spell must be answered.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {U}; outputs one drawn card and top/bottom control over two cards.
- Partners / packages: Works with Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student third-draw sequences, Doomsday piles, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries empty-library wins, and Glarb top-card decisions.
- Role peers: Ponder, Brainstorm, Gitaxian Probe, Flow State, Stock Up, and Consult the Star Charts overlap as selection.
- Failure modes: Bottoming protection or lands too aggressively can leave combo stranded; drawing from empty library without Jace loses.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Against aggro, prioritize Fatal Push, Cut Down, Long Goodbye, Toxic Deluge, or lands; against control, prioritize discard, counters, and Jace lines.

#### Darkslick Shores
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, early blue-black fast land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Produces {U} or {B} and enters untapped while you control two or fewer other lands, enabling turn-one cantrip, discard, or removal.
- Timing: Lead on it early; later expect it to enter tapped after your third land is already present.
- Inputs / outputs: Costs a land drop; outputs {U} or {B}; loses untapped value in longer sequencing.
- Partners / packages: Casts Ponder, Preordain, Brainstorm, Duress, Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, Fatal Push, Cut Down, Force Spike, and Spell Pierce.
- Role peers: Underground Sea and Watery Grave are stronger typed blue-black sources; Clearwater Pathway, Drowned Catacomb, and Shipwreck Marsh overlap by color.
- Failure modes: Late tapped entry can block Counterspell or combo turns; it has no Island or Swamp subtype.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent in low-curve interaction hands; less ideal when kept as the only land for long-game color planning.

#### Gitaxian Probe
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, free-information cantrip.
- Role type: card selection; interaction-discard; role glue.
- Deck-specific job: Looks at target player's hand and draws a card, letting the pilot choose between discard, tutor, control, or combo commitment with real information.
- Timing: Cast before Demonic Tutor, Doomsday, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Thought Lash, or Jace turns when life payment is acceptable.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {U} or 2 life; outputs hand information and one card drawn.
- Partners / packages: Enables Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student third-draw turns, Doomsday piles, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries empty-library wins, and discard targeting with Thoughtseize, Duress, and Inquisition of Kozilek.
- Role peers: Duress, Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, and Vendilion Clique reveal hands but interact differently.
- Failure modes: Paying 2 life can be wrong against burn or lethal combat; looking at a hand does not remove the threat.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Best before commitment turns and against unknown blue/black interaction; be conservative with life under red pressure.

#### Mental Misstep
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, zero- or one-mana narrow stack interaction.
- Role type: interaction-stack; protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target spell with mana value 1, protecting early turns from discard, cantrips, cheap removal, and one-mana engines.
- Timing: Use on high-impact one-mana spells; do not spend it on a low-impact cantrip if a one-mana discard or removal spell is likely to decide the turn.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {U} or 2 life; outputs a counter for a mana value 1 spell on the stack.
- Partners / packages: Protects Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Glarb, Calamity's Augur, Psychic Frog, Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, and combo setup from cheap disruption.
- Role peers: Spell Snare, Stern Scolding, Wash Away, Force Spike, and Spell Pierce are other narrow cheap counters.
- Failure modes: Cannot counter mana value 0, 2, or higher spells; life payment matters against burn and creature pressure.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong versus tempo, discard, cheap commanders, and one-mana removal; weak against big mana and expensive control.

#### Noxious Revival
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, graveyard-to-top recursion and disruption tool.
- Role type: recursion; card selection; graveyard interaction.
- Deck-specific job: Puts target card from a graveyard on top of its owner's library, rebuying a key spell or forcing the opponent to redraw a weak or stranded card.
- Timing: Use end step or in response to graveyard exile when the top card will be immediately drawn, cast with Glarb, or protected by a known sequence.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {G} or 2 life; outputs one graveyard card moved to the top of its owner's library.
- Partners / packages: Rebuys Demonic Tutor, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Counterspell, Toxic Deluge, Abrupt Decay, Doomsday, or a cantrip; works with Mystic Sanctuary and Brainstorm.
- Role peers: Mystic Sanctuary, Snapcaster Mage, Unearth, Cling to Dust, and Tamiyo, Seasoned Scholar overlap on graveyard use.
- Failure modes: Top-decking a card without a draw can be too slow; targeting the opponent can accidentally improve their draw.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in counter wars, against discard, and versus graveyard removal; weak when tempo requires an immediate hand card.

#### Snapcaster Mage
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, flash recursion creature.
- Role type: recursion; engine piece; threat/clock.
- Deck-specific job: Gives target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard flashback until end of turn with flashback cost equal to its mana cost, then provides a 2/1 body.
- Timing: Cast when the target spell and mana are ready now; do not flash it in without a meaningful target unless blocking is essential.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{U} plus the flashed-back spell's mana cost; exiles that spell after flashback resolves; outputs a reused spell and body.
- Partners / packages: Rebuys Fatal Push, Cut Down, Abrupt Decay, Counterspell, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain, Thoughtseize, Duress, or Toxic Deluge if legal.
- Role peers: Mystic Sanctuary and Noxious Revival return spells to top; Tamiyo, Seasoned Scholar returns instant/sorcery to hand; Unearth can return Snapcaster Mage itself.
- Failure modes: Grafdigger's Cage stops casting spells from graveyards; exiling the target to Murderous Cut, Cling to Dust, or Deathrite Shaman removes the line.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Best in long interaction games; weaker when graveyard hate is visible or mana is too constrained.

#### Duress
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, one-mana noncreature hand disruption.
- Role type: interaction-discard; protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: Target opponent reveals their hand; you choose a noncreature, nonland card and that player discards it, clearing counters, removal, tutors, planeswalkers, sweepers, or combo pieces.
- Timing: Cast before committing Demonic Tutor, Doomsday, Thought Lash, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Demonic Consultation, or Tainted Pact.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {B}; outputs opponent hand information and one noncreature nonland discard.
- Partners / packages: Pairs with Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, Gitaxian Probe, Vendilion Clique, Counterspell, Force of Negation, and Veil of Summer.
- Role peers: Thoughtseize hits creatures too but costs life; Inquisition of Kozilek is mana-value capped; Vendilion Clique works at flash speed but replaces the card.
- Failure modes: Misses creature threats and lands; do not use it after the opponent empties their noncreature interaction unless information still matters.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against control, combo, and removal-heavy decks; weak against creature-heavy aggro hands.

#### Abrupt Decay
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, uncounterable cheap permanent removal.
- Role type: interaction-removal; sideboard bullet.
- Deck-specific job: Can't be countered and destroys target nonland permanent with mana value 3 or less, answering hate pieces, commanders, cheap planeswalkers, artifacts, enchantments, and pressure.
- Timing: Hold for permanents that block the Jace line, create lethal pressure, or invalidate one-for-one counters; spend earlier if waiting risks losing life or mana.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {B}{G}; outputs destruction of one eligible nonland permanent.
- Partners / packages: Complements Fatal Push, Cut Down, Long Goodbye, Tear Asunder, Murderous Cut, Toxic Deluge, Otawara, Soaring City, and Force of Vigor.
- Role peers: Long Goodbye is uncounterable for mana value 3 or less creatures or planeswalkers; Tear Asunder exiles artifacts/enchantments or kicked nonland permanents; Assassin-style effects are not otherwise present.
- Failure modes: Cannot hit lands or mana value 4+ permanents; destruction misses indestructible.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent against tempo, artifact/enchantment hate, cheap planeswalkers, and creature engines.

#### Deathrite Shaman
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, mana creature, graveyard tool, and stabilizer.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; hate piece; lifegain/stabilization; reach/finisher.
- Deck-specific job: Converts graveyard cards into mana, life drain, or life gain while pressuring opposing recursion and supporting early Sultai colors.
- Timing: Deploy early when it accelerates interaction; keep untapped when graveyard activation matters more than attacking or blocking.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes tap access and specific graveyard card types; outputs any-color mana from exiled land cards, opponent life loss from instant/sorcery exile with {B}, or life gain from creature exile with {G}.
- Mode map: {T} exile target land card from a graveyard for one mana of any color; {B},{T} exile target instant or sorcery from a graveyard and each opponent loses 2; {G},{T} exile target creature from a graveyard and you gain 2.
- Partners / packages: Fetchlands feed land targets; pairs with Barrowgoyf, Murderous Cut, Cling to Dust, Snapcaster Mage, Mystic Sanctuary, Unearth, Abhorrent Oculus, and Noxious Revival through graveyard tension.
- Role peers: Exploration and Horizon of Progress overlap on mana acceleration; Cling to Dust, Nihil Spellbomb, Endurance, and Dauthi Voidwalker overlap on graveyard pressure.
- Failure modes: Exiling your own key instant, sorcery, creature, or land can shrink later lines; summoning sickness delays activation.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong versus graveyard decks, burn races, and mana-hungry hands; fragile against cheap removal.

#### Overgrown Tomb
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, black-green shock land and typed mana resource.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Provides {B} or {G}, counts as Swamp and Forest, and supports discard/removal plus Abrupt Decay, Oko, Thief of Crowns, Tear Asunder, and sideboard green cards.
- Timing: Pay 2 life when untapped black or green affects the turn; let it enter tapped when life is under pressure and mana is not immediately needed.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes possible 2 life on entry; outputs {B} or {G}.
- Partners / packages: Searchable by Marsh Flats, Verdant Catacombs, Bloodstained Mire, Windswept Heath, Misty Rainforest, Wooded Foothills, and Lorien Revealed only if searching for typed Island? Lorien cannot search it because it is not an Island.
- Role peers: Bayou is the no-life closest peer; Deathcap Glade, Underground Mortuary, and Bloom-style green-black access overlap.
- Failure modes: Does not produce blue; shock damage matters against burn.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Prioritize when Abrupt Decay, Deathrite Shaman, Thoughtseize, or sideboard green spells are immediate.

#### Breeding Pool
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, green-blue shock land and typed mana resource.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Provides {G} or {U}, counts as Forest and Island, and supports cantrips/counters plus Glarb, Oko, Tear Asunder, and Mystic Sanctuary Island count.
- Timing: Pay 2 life when untapped blue or green changes the turn; fetch tapped when life is more important and no one-mana action is needed.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes possible 2 life on entry; outputs {G} or {U}.
- Partners / packages: Searchable by Verdant Catacombs, Windswept Heath, Scalding Tarn, Misty Rainforest, Wooded Foothills, Flooded Strand, and Lorien Revealed.
- Role peers: Tropical Island is the no-life closest peer; Hedge Maze and Willowrush Verge overlap by colors with different tempo.
- Failure modes: Does not produce black, so it can strand discard, Fatal Push, Demonic Tutor, and Tainted Pact.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong when holding blue interaction plus green answers; risky if black is the missing color.

#### Spell Snare
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, narrow one-mana counter.
- Role type: interaction-stack; protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target spell with mana value 2, trading up against many commanders, removal spells, engines, and counterspells.
- Timing: Hold when the opponent's critical two-mana play is likely; use early if the target changes the clock or stops your combo setup.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {U}; outputs a counter for a mana value 2 spell on the stack.
- Partners / packages: Protects Psychic Frog, Demonic Tutor, Tainted Pact, Glarb setup, and Jace lines alongside Mental Misstep, Stern Scolding, Spell Pierce, and Counterspell.
- Role peers: Mental Misstep hits mana value 1; Stern Scolding hits small creature spells; Wash Away hits spells not cast from hand unless cleaved.
- Failure modes: Dead against mana value 1, 3, or higher spells; do not hold it if visible pressure requires a different answer.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against tempo, cheap commanders, and two-mana interaction; weak against big mana and expensive control.

#### Thoughtseize
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, broad one-mana hand disruption.
- Role type: interaction-discard; protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: Target player reveals their hand; you choose a nonland card and that player discards it, at the cost of 2 life.
- Timing: Cast before committing combo, tutors, or planeswalkers; against aggro, take the card that prevents the most damage or disruption, not automatically the most expensive card.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {B} and 2 life; outputs hand information and one nonland discard.
- Partners / packages: Clears for Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Thought Lash, Doomsday, Demonic Tutor, and Oko, Thief of Crowns.
- Role peers: Duress avoids life loss but misses creatures; Inquisition of Kozilek is capped at mana value 3; Vendilion Clique is flash-speed but grants a draw.
- Failure modes: Life loss can turn burn or combat into lethal; cannot take lands.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Premium against combo and control; use carefully against red aggro or low-life board states.

#### Command Tower
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, unconditional Sultai commander-color land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Adds one mana of any color in Glarb, Calamity's Augur's color identity, covering {B}, {G}, or {U} cleanly.
- Timing: Lead with it when the hand needs flexible turn-one or turn-two access for Thoughtseize, Ponder, Deathrite Shaman, or Abrupt Decay; preserve typed lands if Mystic Sanctuary or fetch target math matters.
- Inputs / outputs: Costs a land drop; outputs black, green, or blue for Thoughtseize, Ponder, Deathrite Shaman, Abrupt Decay, Counterspell, or Glarb, Calamity's Augur.
- Partners / packages: Casts Thoughtseize, Ponder, Deathrite Shaman, Abrupt Decay, Counterspell, Glarb, Calamity's Augur, Veil of Summer, Hydroblast, Blue Elemental Blast, and Culling Ritual.
- Role peers: Reflecting Pool and Horizon of Progress can mimic colors with conditions; shock/dual lands provide typed fixing.
- Failure modes: Has no basic land types and cannot be found by fetchlands or Lorien Revealed.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in openers where exact Sultai color flexibility matters more than fetch/shuffle utility.

#### Brainstorm
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, instant-speed hand/top-library manipulation.
- Role type: card selection; combo enabler; role glue.
- Deck-specific job: Draws three, then puts two cards from hand on top, fixing bad hands, hiding cards from discard, setting Glarb top access, and enabling Doomsday or fetchland shuffles.
- Timing: Prefer with a fetchland or known top-library payoff; cast immediately only to find urgent land, removal, counter, or combo protection.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {U}; outputs three draws and two cards placed on top.
- Partners / packages: Works with Polluted Delta, Misty Rainforest, Verdant Catacombs, Marsh Flats, Scalding Tarn, Flooded Strand, Bloodstained Mire, Windswept Heath, Wooded Foothills, Prismatic Vista, Glarb, Mystic Sanctuary, Noxious Revival, Doomsday, and Jace.
- Role peers: Ponder and Preordain are safer early selection; Gush is larger card draw with Island bounce.
- Failure modes: Brainstorm without shuffle or top-card use can lock bad cards on top; drawing from empty library needs Jace, Wielder of Mysteries.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against discard, combo setup, and mana issues; risky when holding up interaction is mandatory.

#### Counterspell
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, hard blue stack answer.
- Role type: interaction-stack; protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target spell with no payment clause, anchoring protection for Jace, Wielder of Mysteries and stopping must-answer opposing spells.
- Timing: Save for cards that soft counters may miss, especially combo breakers, payoff spells, hate, or removal aimed at the decisive permanent.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {U}{U}; outputs a clean counter to a spell on the stack.
- Partners / packages: Protects Jace, Thought Lash, Doomsday, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Oko, and Glarb alongside Force of Negation, Spell Pierce, Daze, and Veil of Summer.
- Role peers: Cryptic Command is flexible but expensive; Force of Negation is narrower but can be free on the opponent's turn.
- Failure modes: Double-blue can be hard under awkward lands; cannot answer resolved permanents.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Premium against control, combo, big mana payoffs, and protected commander spells.

#### Gush
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, high-impact blue draw and alternate-cost spell.
- Role type: card selection; engine fuel/material; combo enabler.
- Deck-specific job: Draws two cards, often for the alternate cost of returning two Islands you control, refueling while preserving mana for protection.
- Timing: Use when bouncing Islands will not strand interaction or land drops; in combo turns, use as a draw source for Jace, Wielder of Mysteries or Doomsday piles.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {4}{U} or returns two Islands you control; outputs two drawn cards and possible land replay opportunities.
- Mode map: Hard-cast when mana is abundant; alternate cost returns two Island permanents such as Island, Underground Sea, Tropical Island, Watery Grave, Breeding Pool, Mystic Sanctuary, Hedge Maze, or Undercity Sewers you control.
- Partners / packages: Works with Exploration, Mystic Sanctuary, Glarb, Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, Jace, Doomsday, Brainstorm, and fetchlands.
- Role peers: Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain, Lorien Revealed, Stock Up, Rakshasa's Bargain, and Consult the Star Charts are other card-flow tools.
- Failure modes: Returning Islands can turn off Counterspell, Mystic Sanctuary, or future blue mana; drawing without Jace from empty library loses.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in control and combo turns; risky versus tempo or burn when returning lands or paying mana costs time/life.

#### Bayou
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, black-green dual land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Provides {B} or {G} and counts as Swamp and Forest, supporting Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, Fatal Push, Abrupt Decay, Deathrite Shaman, Tear Asunder, Oko, Thief of Crowns, Veil of Summer, Endurance, Force of Vigor, and Culling Ritual.
- Timing: Fetch when blue is already covered or when black-green is the critical pair.
- Inputs / outputs: Costs a land drop or fetch target; outputs {B} or {G} with no life payment.
- Partners / packages: Searchable by Marsh Flats, Verdant Catacombs, Bloodstained Mire, Windswept Heath, Misty Rainforest, and Wooded Foothills.
- Role peers: Overgrown Tomb is the shock-land closest peer; Underground Mortuary is slower but surveils.
- Failure modes: Does not produce blue; fetching it too early can strand Counterspell, Ponder, or Jace.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against creature and permanent decks where black removal plus green answers are needed.

#### Tropical Island
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, green-blue dual land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Provides {G} or {U} and counts as Forest and Island, supporting cantrips, counters, Glarb, Oko, Tear Asunder, and Mystic Sanctuary planning.
- Timing: Fetch when blue-green is needed and black is already covered, or when Island count matters.
- Inputs / outputs: Costs a land drop or fetch target; outputs {G} or {U}.
- Partners / packages: Searchable by Verdant Catacombs, Windswept Heath, Scalding Tarn, Misty Rainforest, Wooded Foothills, Flooded Strand, and Lorien Revealed.
- Role peers: Breeding Pool is the shock-land closest peer; Hedge Maze is slower but surveils.
- Failure modes: No black mana for discard, tutors, or Fatal Push.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in hands with blue interaction plus green removal; weak when black one-mana spells decide the early game.

#### Underground Sea
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, blue-black dual land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Provides {U} or {B} and counts as Island and Swamp, the cleanest source for cantrips, counters, discard, tutors, and Jace setup.
- Timing: Fetch early when blue-black access is the priority; preserve life compared to Watery Grave.
- Inputs / outputs: Costs a land drop or fetch target; outputs {U} or {B}.
- Partners / packages: Searchable by Marsh Flats, Verdant Catacombs, Bloodstained Mire, Scalding Tarn, Flooded Strand, Misty Rainforest, Polluted Delta, and Lorien Revealed.
- Role peers: Watery Grave is the shock-land closest peer; Darkslick Shores, Drowned Catacomb, and Shipwreck Marsh overlap by color.
- Failure modes: Does not provide green for Abrupt Decay, Oko, or Veil of Summer.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Best default fetch in unknown matchups because blue-black supports the deck's cheapest interaction and combo pieces.

#### Murderous Cut
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, delve creature removal.
- Role type: interaction-removal; graveyard resource.
- Deck-specific job: Destroys target creature, using delve to turn graveyard cards into generic mana payment.
- Timing: Cast when a creature threatens life, planeswalkers, or combo legality; preserve graveyard if Snapcaster Mage, Mystic Sanctuary, Unearth, Cling to Dust, Barrowgoyf, Abhorrent Oculus, or Flow State needs specific cards.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {4}{B} reduced by exiling graveyard cards for delve; outputs destruction of one target creature.
- Partners / packages: Fetchlands, surveil lands, Rakshasa's Bargain, Flow State, Thought Lash, and cantrips fill the graveyard; Deathrite Shaman and Cling to Dust compete for the same fuel.
- Role peers: Fatal Push, Cut Down, Long Goodbye, Abrupt Decay, Requiting Hex, Subtlety, and Toxic Deluge are other creature answers.
- Failure modes: Delve can exile combo protection or shrink Barrowgoyf; cannot hit planeswalkers or noncreature hate.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against large creature decks; weaker against graveyard hate or low-creature control.

#### Bloodstained Mire
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, black fetchland and shuffle utility.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; tutor/search; role glue.
- Deck-specific job: Searches for a Swamp or Mountain card; in this deck the relevant targets are Swamp, Watery Grave, Overgrown Tomb, Bayou, Underground Sea, Underground Mortuary, and Undercity Sewers, with no registered Mountain card target.
- Timing: Use for black fixing, Brainstorm shuffle, Fatal Push revolt, or Deathrite Shaman fuel.
- Inputs / outputs: Pays 1 life, taps, sacrifices itself; outputs a Swamp-type land and a shuffle.
- Partners / packages: Works with Brainstorm, Deathrite Shaman, Fatal Push, Drowned Catacomb, Mystic Sanctuary planning, and Barrowgoyf.
- Role peers: Marsh Flats, Verdant Catacombs, and Polluted Delta also find Swamp cards.
- Failure modes: Do not claim red or Mountain access from this registered list; life payment matters.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong when black is needed early; weaker when blue-green is the missing pair.

#### Windswept Heath
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, green fetchland and shuffle utility.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; tutor/search; role glue.
- Deck-specific job: Searches for a Forest or Plains card; relevant registered Forest targets are Forest, Overgrown Tomb, Breeding Pool, Bayou, Tropical Island, Hedge Maze, and Underground Mortuary, with no registered Plains target.
- Timing: Use for green fixing, blue via Forest-Island lands, Brainstorm shuffle, Fatal Push revolt, or Deathrite fuel.
- Inputs / outputs: Pays 1 life, taps, sacrifices itself; outputs a Forest-type land and a shuffle.
- Partners / packages: Supports Abrupt Decay, Oko, Tear Asunder, Glarb, Deathrite Shaman, and Mystic Sanctuary Island count if fetching Breeding Pool, Tropical Island, or Hedge Maze.
- Role peers: Verdant Catacombs, Misty Rainforest, and Wooded Foothills overlap on Forest access.
- Failure modes: No registered Plains target; fetching Forest-only can strand black interaction.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Good for green sideboard games and hands needing Oko or Abrupt Decay.

#### Intuition
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, instant-speed opponent-choice tutor.
- Role type: tutor/search; combo tutor; graveyard setup.
- Deck-specific job: Searches for three cards, reveals them, target opponent chooses one for your hand, and the rest go to your graveyard, turning card choice into both hand access and graveyard setup.
- Timing: Best at opponent end step when any chosen card advances the plan; avoid piles where one opponent choice strands the entire line.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}{U}; outputs one opponent-chosen card to hand and two revealed cards to graveyard.
- Partners / packages: Jace-line piles can involve Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Thought Lash, Doomsday, Noxious Revival, Snapcaster Mage, and Mystic Sanctuary depending on visible zones.
- Role peers: Demonic Tutor and Profane Tutor search without opponent choice; Waterlogged Teachings is instant-speed but restricted to instant cards or cards with flash.
- Failure modes: The opponent chooses the worst card for you; graveyard hate can punish the two cards placed there.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in control mirrors and slow combo games; risky against Dauthi Voidwalker-style replacement effects or active graveyard hate.

#### Daze
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, free/cheap tempo counter.
- Role type: interaction-stack; protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target spell unless its controller pays {1}, with alternate cost returning an Island you control to hand.
- Timing: Use early when the opponent taps low; preserve only if it protects a decisive turn or the opponent cannot pay.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{U} or returns an Island you control; outputs a tax counter.
- Mode map: Hard-cast when mana is available; alternate cost returns Island, Watery Grave, Breeding Pool, Tropical Island, Underground Sea, Mystic Sanctuary, Hedge Maze, Undercity Sewers, or basic Island you control.
- Partners / packages: Protects Jace, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Thought Lash, Doomsday, Demonic Tutor, and early engines.
- Role peers: Force Spike and Mana Leak are tax peers; Force of Negation is the stronger free noncreature counter.
- Failure modes: Returning Island can break Counterspell, Mystic Sanctuary, or land development; late opponents often pay {1}.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong on the play and in combo-protection turns; weaker against big mana or patient opponents.

#### Exploration
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, land-acceleration engine.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; engine piece.
- Deck-specific job: Allows one additional land play on each of your turns, converting Gush, Brainstorm, Ponder, Glarb top lands, and fetch-heavy hands into mana advantage.
- Timing: Cast early when you have extra lands or a draw engine; skip it when it spends the turn's only mana and does not affect pressure or interaction.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {G}; outputs extra land-drop capacity each turn.
- Partners / packages: Works with Gush, Glarb, Calamity's Augur, Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain, Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Horizon of Progress, fetchlands, and Mystic Sanctuary.
- Role peers: Deathrite Shaman and Horizon of Progress also accelerate mana, but through graveyards or activated land abilities.
- Failure modes: Bad with low land count or against pressure where Fatal Push, Cut Down, or Spell Pierce must be held.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in slower games and mana-heavy hands; poor topdeck when behind on board.

#### Spell Pierce
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, cheap noncreature tax counter.
- Role type: interaction-stack; protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target noncreature spell unless its controller pays {2}, protecting combo turns and disrupting planeswalkers, removal, tutors, discard, sweepers, and counters.
- Timing: Use early or in stack fights when mana is constrained; late, check whether the opponent can pay.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {U}; outputs a tax counter against a noncreature spell on the stack.
- Partners / packages: Protects Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Doomsday, Thought Lash, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Oko, and Glarb.
- Role peers: Force Spike hits any spell for {1}; Mana Leak hits any spell for {3}; Force of Negation hits noncreature spells cleanly.
- Failure modes: Cannot counter creature spells; loses value as opponent mana grows.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Premium against control and combo; weaker against creature-heavy decks unless their key cards are noncreature.

#### Scalding Tarn
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, blue fetchland and shuffle utility.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; tutor/search; role glue.
- Deck-specific job: Searches for an Island or Mountain card; relevant registered Island targets are Island, Watery Grave, Breeding Pool, Tropical Island, Underground Sea, Mystic Sanctuary, Hedge Maze, and Undercity Sewers, with no registered Mountain card target.
- Timing: Preserve for Brainstorm or Mystic Sanctuary when possible; crack early for blue if holding Ponder, Force Spike, Spell Pierce, or Counterspell setup.
- Inputs / outputs: Pays 1 life, taps, sacrifices itself; outputs an Island-type land and a shuffle.
- Partners / packages: Supports Brainstorm, Mystic Sanctuary, Daze, Gush, Lorien Revealed target planning, Fatal Push revolt, and Deathrite Shaman.
- Role peers: Flooded Strand, Misty Rainforest, and Polluted Delta also find Island cards.
- Failure modes: No registered Mountain target; life payment matters under burn.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in blue-heavy openers and Mystic Sanctuary games.

#### Fatal Push
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, one-mana creature removal.
- Role type: interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: Destroys target creature with mana value 2 or less, or mana value 4 or less if revolt is active because a permanent left your battlefield this turn.
- Timing: Use before combat on attackers that change life math; trigger revolt with fetchlands when a mana value 3-4 creature must die.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {B}; may require a permanent leaving your battlefield for the expanded target range.
- Partners / packages: Fetchlands Marsh Flats, Verdant Catacombs, Bloodstained Mire, Windswept Heath, Scalding Tarn, Prismatic Vista, Misty Rainforest, Wooded Foothills, Flooded Strand, and Polluted Delta enable revolt.
- Role peers: Cut Down, Requiting Hex, Long Goodbye, Abrupt Decay, Murderous Cut, and Toxic Deluge answer creatures with different restrictions.
- Failure modes: Cannot hit high-mana-value creatures without revolt; cannot answer noncreature hate.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Premium against aggressive commanders, mana creatures, and cheap threats.

#### Doomsday
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, high-risk combo-assembly sorcery.
- Role type: combo enabler; combo tutor.
- Deck-specific job: Searches your library and graveyard for five cards, exiles the rest, orders the chosen cards on top, and loses half your life rounded up, building a deterministic Jace path when protected.
- Timing: Cast only after checking life, mana, draw access, known interaction, and whether the opponent can punish the low-library state.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {B}{B}{B} and half your life rounded up; outputs a five-card library stack and exiles all other library/graveyard cards.
- Partners / packages: Common support cards are Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain, Gitaxian Probe, Gush, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Thought Lash, Counterspell, and Force of Negation.
- Role peers: Demonic Consultation and Tainted Pact are faster library-exile enablers; Demonic Tutor is safer but slower.
- Failure modes: A countered or removed payoff after Doomsday can lose; graveyard/library exile removes backup plans.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong when the opponent clock forces a compact win; risky against open blue, discard, burn, or immediate creature pressure.

#### Unearth
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, cheap creature recursion with cycling.
- Role type: recursion; modal utility; engine fuel/material.
- Deck-specific job: Returns a target creature card with mana value 3 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield, or cycles for {2}.
- Timing: Reanimate when the creature immediately stabilizes or advances the plan; cycle when there is no good target and you need land, protection, or combo access.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {B} for recursion or {2} plus discarding Unearth for cycling; outputs a creature to battlefield or one drawn card.
- Mode map: Recursion targets include Glarb, Deathrite Shaman, Snapcaster Mage, Vendilion Clique, Orcish Bowmasters, Psychic Frog, Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, Barrowgoyf, and Abhorrent Oculus; cycling discards Unearth and draws a card.
- Partners / packages: Works with surveil lands, Rakshasa's Bargain, Barrowgoyf, Snapcaster Mage, and Tamiyo third-draw sequences.
- Role peers: Snapcaster Mage reuses spells; Noxious Revival and Mystic Sanctuary return cards to top; Tamiyo, Seasoned Scholar returns instant/sorcery to hand.
- Failure modes: Grafdigger's Cage stops creature cards in graveyards entering; cycling is not recursion and can remove access to the spell.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong after removal trades; weaker against graveyard hate or exile-based removal.

#### Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, primary deterministic win payoff.
- Role type: combo finisher; engine payoff; card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Wins if you would draw while your library has no cards, and provides +1 mill-two/draw to trigger that condition or sculpt.
- Timing: Commit when you can protect Jace or immediately draw after emptying the library; avoid fair deployment into attackers or open removal unless the +1 is necessary and defensible.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{U}{U}{U}; outputs a static win replacement, +1 draw/mill, and possible -8 draw-seven win.
- Mode map: Static ability wins on an attempted draw from empty library; +1 targets a player to mill two then draw; -8 draws seven and then wins if your library is empty.
- Partners / packages: Core enablers are Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Thought Lash, Doomsday, Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain, Gitaxian Probe, Gush, Remand, and Cling to Dust.
- Role peers: No direct peer; closest role overlap is Thought Lash, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, and Doomsday as library-state combo pieces.
- Failure modes: If Jace is removed before the draw, an empty library can lose; triple-blue cost stresses mana.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against slow control once protected; fragile against creature pressure, haste attackers, burn, and instant-speed planeswalker removal.

#### Force of Negation
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, free opponent-turn noncreature counter.
- Role type: interaction-stack; protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target noncreature spell and exiles it if countered this way; on an opponent's turn, you may exile a blue card from hand rather than pay.
- Timing: Hold for decisive noncreature spells or protection during the opponent's turn; hard-cast on your turn only when {1}{U}{U} is acceptable.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{U}{U} or a blue card from hand on an opponent's turn; outputs exiled noncreature spell.
- Mode map: Hard-cast for normal interaction; alternate cost on opponent turn trades a blue card for zero-mana protection.
- Partners / packages: Protects Jace, Thought Lash, Doomsday setup, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, and planeswalkers; blue pitch options include Brainstorm, Counterspell, Gush, Subtlety, Cryptic Command, and many blue selection/counter spells.
- Role peers: Counterspell is broader but not free; Spell Pierce and Mana Leak are cheaper tax counters.
- Failure modes: Cannot counter creature spells; exiling the wrong blue card can remove the draw, tutor, or protection needed later.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Premium versus combo, control, sweepers, and noncreature hate; weaker against creature-heavy boards.

#### Prismatic Vista
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, basic-land fetch and shuffle utility.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; tutor/search; role glue.
- Deck-specific job: Searches for a basic land card, which in this registered deck means Forest, Island, or Swamp.
- Timing: Use to get untapped basic access, enable Fatal Push revolt, shuffle after Brainstorm, or feed Deathrite Shaman.
- Inputs / outputs: Pays 1 life, taps, sacrifices itself; outputs Forest, Island, or Swamp onto the battlefield and shuffles.
- Partners / packages: Supports Brainstorm, Ponder shuffle decisions, Fatal Push, Deathrite Shaman, and basics-safe sequencing.
- Role peers: Fetchlands with typed dual access are broader; Prismatic Vista is cleaner for untapped basic mana.
- Failure modes: Cannot find duals, Mystic Sanctuary, surveil lands, or utility lands.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against life/nonbasic-sensitive pressure and hands needing exact basic blue or black early.

#### Mystical Dispute
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, blue-skewed tax counter.
- Role type: interaction-stack; protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target spell unless its controller pays {3}; costs {2} less to cast if it targets a blue spell.
- Timing: Use efficiently against blue spells; against nonblue spells, treat it as a three-mana Mana Leak and check whether the opponent can pay.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {U} against a blue target or {2}{U} otherwise; outputs a {3} tax counter.
- Partners / packages: Protects Jace, Thought Lash, Doomsday, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, and control mirrors with Counterspell, Force of Negation, Spell Pierce, and Veil of Summer.
- Role peers: Mana Leak and Lose Focus are general tax peers; Counterspell is hard interaction.
- Failure modes: Do not assume the cost reduction unless the spell being targeted is blue; late opponents may pay {3}.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent against blue tempo/control and blue commanders; weaker against nonblue aggro.

#### Oko, Thief of Crowns
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, fair-game planeswalker stabilizer.
- Role type: engine piece; interaction-removal; lifegain/stabilization; threat/clock.
- Deck-specific job: Makes Food, turns artifacts or creatures into 3/3 green Elk creatures with no abilities, and can exchange your artifact/creature for an opponent's small creature.
- Timing: Cast when it neutralizes a threat or forces fair pressure while leaving enough cheap interaction; avoid tapping out when a combo window is safer.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{G}{U}; outputs loyalty, Food artifact tokens, ability removal, bodies, and possible control exchange.
- Mode map: +2 creates Food with {2},{T}, sacrifice for 3 life; +1 targets artifact or creature and makes it a 3/3 green Elk with no abilities; -5 exchanges target artifact/creature you control with target opponent creature power 3 or less.
- Partners / packages: Works with Food tokens, Orcish Bowmasters bodies, Deathrite Shaman, Glarb blockers, Toxic Deluge stabilization, and Veil of Summer protection.
- Role peers: Abrupt Decay, Long Goodbye, Tear Asunder, and Toxic Deluge answer permanents differently; Psychic Frog and Barrowgoyf overlap as fair pressure.
- Failure modes: Elk mode can upgrade a tiny creature or remove your own useful abilities if misused; Oko can die to attacks if cast behind.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against single creatures, artifact threats, and midrange; weaker against spell combo and wide boards without Deluge.

#### Mystic Sanctuary
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, Island utility land and spell recursion piece.
- Role type: recursion; mana/fixing/ramp; card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Adds {U}; if it enters untapped while you control three or more other Islands, you may put target instant or sorcery from your graveyard on top of your library.
- Timing: Plan fetches and Island count before playing it; hold until the graveyard target is worth a draw or Glarb top-cast line.
- Inputs / outputs: Costs a land drop; may enter tapped; outputs {U} and a graveyard spell placed on top when the condition is met.
- Partners / packages: Recurs Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Demonic Tutor, Counterspell, Force of Negation, Toxic Deluge, Abrupt Decay, Ponder, Brainstorm, or Gush; fetchable by Scalding Tarn, Flooded Strand, Misty Rainforest, and Polluted Delta.
- Role peers: Noxious Revival also top-decks cards; Snapcaster Mage gives flashback; Tamiyo, Seasoned Scholar returns to hand.
- Failure modes: Needs three other Islands to enter untapped; graveyard hate or Grafdigger's Cage-style restrictions can change follow-up value.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in grindy control games and after counter wars; slow against fast pressure.

#### Cling to Dust
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, graveyard interaction and escape cantrip/stabilizer.
- Role type: hate piece; lifegain/stabilization; card selection; recursion.
- Deck-specific job: Exiles target card from a graveyard; if it was a creature you gain 3 life, otherwise you draw a card. Escape lets it be cast again from the graveyard.
- Timing: Use before the opponent can spend a graveyard card on flashback, delve, escape, reanimation, or recursion; do not wait until costs are already paid.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {B}; escape consumes {3}{B} and exiles five other cards from your graveyard; outputs exile plus life or draw.
- Mode map: Normal cast from hand trades one card for graveyard disruption and possible draw/life; escape casts from graveyard using five other graveyard cards, then resolves as the same spell without invented exile-on-resolution text.
- Partners / packages: Competes with Murderous Cut, Snapcaster Mage, Mystic Sanctuary, Unearth, Barrowgoyf, Abhorrent Oculus, Deathrite Shaman, and Noxious Revival.
- Role peers: Deathrite Shaman, Endurance, Nihil Spellbomb, Grafdigger's Cage, and Dauthi Voidwalker are other graveyard tools.
- Failure modes: Exiling your own fuel can shut off delve, escape, Oculus, or recursion; drawing from empty library needs Jace.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against graveyard decks and burn races; low impact against decks with no graveyard reliance.

#### Clearwater Pathway
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, blue-or-black modal land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; modal utility.
- Deck-specific job: Enters as either Clearwater Pathway for {U} or Murkwater Pathway for {B}, fixing the color the hand needs most.
- Timing: Choose the face based on current and future turns; blue supports cantrips/counters/Jace, black supports discard/removal/tutors/Consultation.
- Inputs / outputs: Costs a land drop; outputs only the chosen face's color after entry.
- Mode map: Clearwater Pathway face taps for {U}; Murkwater Pathway face taps for {B}; once played, it does not switch faces on the battlefield.
- Partners / packages: Supports Counterspell, Ponder, Brainstorm, Thoughtseize, Fatal Push, Demonic Tutor, Tainted Pact, and Glarb color requirements.
- Role peers: Darkslick Shores, Drowned Catacomb, Shipwreck Marsh, Watery Grave, and Underground Sea overlap as blue-black lands.
- Failure modes: Wrong face choice can strand the other color; it has no Island or Swamp subtype for fetches, Daze, Gush, or Mystic Sanctuary.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Choose blue against stack fights; choose black when discard/removal/tutor timing is decisive.

#### Tainted Pact
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, instant library-exile combo piece and risky selection spell.
- Role type: combo enabler; card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Exiles cards from the top one at a time and may put one into hand; because this main deck is singleton by name, it can empty the library for Jace, Wielder of Mysteries if you keep declining cards.
- Timing: Use as a protected commitment with Jace plus draw access, or as emergency selection only when losing otherwise.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{B}; outputs either one chosen exiled card to hand or a potentially empty library.
- Partners / packages: Core with Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Demonic Consultation, Thought Lash, Doomsday, Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain, Gitaxian Probe, Gush, and Cling to Dust.
- Role peers: Demonic Consultation is the closest fast library-exile peer; Demonic Tutor is safer search.
- Failure modes: Exiling needed protection or payoff before taking a card can collapse the plan; empty library without Jace/draw protection can lose.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against tapped-out or known hands; risky into open counters, instant removal for Jace, or discard follow-up.

#### Lose Focus
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, scalable blue tax counter.
- Role type: interaction-stack; protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target spell unless its controller pays {2}; replicate {U} creates copies that can pressure the same or different spells if legal targets exist.
- Timing: Use early as a Mana Leak variant; replicate in stack fights when extra blue mana converts into multiple payment demands.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{U} plus optional {U} per replicate copy; outputs one or more tax-counter copies.
- Mode map: Base cast taxes one target spell for {2}; each replicate payment copies Lose Focus and may choose a new target, often stacking taxes on a decisive spell.
- Partners / packages: Protects Jace, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Doomsday, Thought Lash, Oko, and Glarb with Counterspell, Spell Pierce, Daze, and Force of Negation.
- Role peers: Mana Leak is a single {3} tax; Force Spike and Daze tax {1}; Mystical Dispute taxes {3}.
- Failure modes: Blue-intensive replicate can strand other interaction; late opponents may pay through the taxes.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in early stack fights and against tap-out commanders; weaker against big mana.

#### Subtlety
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, flash tempo creature and free pitch interaction.
- Role type: interaction-stack; threat/clock; protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: Flash flying 3/3 that can put up to one target creature spell or planeswalker spell on the top or bottom of its owner's library, with the owner choosing top or bottom.
- Timing: Use evoke to stop a decisive creature/planeswalker spell when mana is unavailable; hard-cast when a flash flyer also pressures or blocks.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}{U}{U} or exiles a blue card for evoke; outputs stack tempo and possibly a 3/3 body.
- Mode map: Hard-cast keeps Subtlety as a creature; evoke trades a blue card and sacrifices Subtlety after it enters while still getting the enter trigger.
- Partners / packages: Protects Jace, Oko, Glarb, and life total; blue pitch cards include Brainstorm, Counterspell, Gush, Cryptic Command, Force of Negation, Sink into Stupor, and Waterlogged Teachings.
- Role peers: Wash Away, Stern Scolding, and Spell Snare handle narrower stack classes; Vendilion Clique is another flash flyer.
- Failure modes: Cannot target resolved permanents or noncreature nonplaneswalker spells; opponent chooses top or bottom.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against creature commanders, planeswalker decks, and tap-out threats; weaker versus spell combo.

#### Profane Tutor
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, delayed unrestricted tutor.
- Role type: tutor/search; combo tutor.
- Deck-specific job: Suspends for {1}{B} with two time counters, then searches your library for any card when the last counter is removed and you may cast it without paying its mana cost.
- Timing: Suspend early in slow games; avoid relying on it when the opponent can win before it resolves.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{B} and two upkeep cycles; outputs any card to hand after resolution.
- Mode map: Suspend is the access mode from hand; the delayed cast searches for any card, puts it into hand, then shuffles.
- Partners / packages: Finds Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Doomsday, Thought Lash, Counterspell, Force of Negation, Toxic Deluge, Abrupt Decay, or sideboard hate.
- Role peers: Demonic Tutor is immediate; Intuition is instant but opponent-choice; Waterlogged Teachings is restricted.
- Failure modes: Too slow under pressure; the future tutor turn is telegraphed and can be attacked by discard/counters.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against slow control and midrange; weak against fast aggro, tempo, or combo races.

#### Misty Rainforest
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, blue-green fetchland and shuffle utility.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; tutor/search; role glue.
- Deck-specific job: Searches for a Forest or Island card: Forest, Island, Overgrown Tomb, Breeding Pool, Bayou, Tropical Island, Watery Grave, Underground Sea, Mystic Sanctuary, Hedge Maze, Underground Mortuary, and Undercity Sewers.
- Timing: Use for missing blue/green, Brainstorm shuffle, Fatal Push revolt, Mystic Sanctuary setup, or Deathrite fuel.
- Inputs / outputs: Pays 1 life, taps, sacrifices itself; outputs a typed land and shuffles.
- Partners / packages: Supports Ponder, Counterspell, Abrupt Decay, Oko, Glarb, Lorien Revealed target planning, Daze, and Gush.
- Role peers: Verdant Catacombs, Windswept Heath, Scalding Tarn, Flooded Strand, Polluted Delta, and Wooded Foothills overlap on typed targets.
- Failure modes: Fetching green-blue can leave black unavailable; life payment matters.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent in hands needing blue interaction plus green removal.

#### Shipwreck Marsh
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, later-game blue-black land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Produces {U} or {B}; enters tapped unless you control two or more other lands.
- Timing: Weak as turn-one land; strong from turn three onward when it can enter untapped and hold up interaction.
- Inputs / outputs: Costs a land drop; outputs {U} or {B} if tempo condition is acceptable.
- Partners / packages: Casts Counterspell support, Demonic Tutor, Tainted Pact, Fatal Push, Cut Down, and Jace setup cards.
- Role peers: Drowned Catacomb, Darkslick Shores, Clearwater Pathway, Watery Grave, and Underground Sea overlap as blue-black sources.
- Failure modes: Early tapped entry can miss turn-one discard, cantrip, or removal; no Island/Swamp subtype.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Fine in slower hands; risky in one-land openers against pressure.

#### Wash Away
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, commander and alternate-zone counter.
- Role type: interaction-stack; modal utility; protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: For {U}, counters target spell that wasn't cast from its owner's hand; with cleave {1}{U}{U}, counters target spell without that restriction.
- Timing: Use base mode against commanders, flashback, cascade-style, graveyard, exile, or other non-hand casts; cleave only when the unrestricted counter is worth three mana.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {U} or {1}{U}{U}; outputs a counter to a spell on the stack.
- Mode map: Base text counters only a spell not cast from its owner's hand; cleave removes the bracketed restriction and counters any target spell.
- Partners / packages: Protects Jace lines and checks opposing commanders alongside Counterspell, Force of Negation, Spell Pierce, Daze, and Stern Scolding.
- Role peers: Counterspell is always unrestricted; Stern Scolding and Spell Snare are narrower cheap counters.
- Failure modes: Base mode cannot counter normal hand-cast spells; cleave is mana-intensive.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Premium in Duel Commander against command-zone spells; weaker versus normal hand-cast fair curves unless cleave mana is available.

#### Deathcap Glade
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, later-game black-green land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Produces {B} or {G}; enters tapped unless you control two or more other lands.
- Timing: Better after turn two; avoid as the only early source when one-mana discard, removal, or cantrips are needed.
- Inputs / outputs: Costs a land drop; outputs {B} or {G}.
- Partners / packages: Casts Abrupt Decay, Deathrite Shaman, Thoughtseize, Fatal Push, Demonic Tutor, Tear Asunder, and Glarb with a blue source.
- Role peers: Bayou, Overgrown Tomb, Underground Mortuary, and Bloom-style green-black access overlap.
- Failure modes: No blue mana; early tapped entry can lose tempo.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in midgame removal/tutor hands; weak in blue-counter heavy openers.

#### Wooded Foothills
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, green fetchland and shuffle utility.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; tutor/search; role glue.
- Deck-specific job: Searches for a Mountain or Forest card; relevant registered Forest targets are Forest, Overgrown Tomb, Breeding Pool, Bayou, Tropical Island, Hedge Maze, and Underground Mortuary, with no registered Mountain card target.
- Timing: Use for green, blue via Tropical Island/Breeding Pool/Hedge Maze, black via Bayou/Overgrown Tomb/Underground Mortuary, Brainstorm shuffle, or Fatal Push revolt.
- Inputs / outputs: Pays 1 life, taps, sacrifices itself; outputs a Forest-type land and shuffle.
- Partners / packages: Supports Abrupt Decay, Oko, Tear Asunder, Glarb, Deathrite Shaman, and Mystic Sanctuary Island count through Forest-Island targets.
- Role peers: Windswept Heath, Verdant Catacombs, and Misty Rainforest overlap on Forest access.
- Failure modes: No registered Mountain target or red access; life payment matters.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong for Veil of Summer, Endurance, Force of Vigor, Culling Ritual, and Sultai fixing when the correct typed dual is available.

#### Otawara, Soaring City
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, blue legendary utility land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; modal utility; interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: Taps for {U} or channels to return target artifact, creature, enchantment, or planeswalker to its owner's hand.
- Timing: Play as land when blue mana is tight; hold as channel when a resolved permanent blocks Jace, attacks lethal, or dodges counterspells.
- Inputs / outputs: Land mode costs land drop and outputs {U}; channel costs {3}{U}, discard Otawara, reduced by {1} per legendary creature you control.
- Mode map: Mana mode is a blue land; channel mode is an activated ability, not a spell, and bounces artifact, creature, enchantment, or planeswalker, not lands or spells.
- Partners / packages: Legendary creature discount from Glarb, Calamity's Augur, Vendilion Clique, or Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student; complements Abrupt Decay, Tear Asunder, Sink into Stupor, and Cryptic Command.
- Role peers: Sink into Stupor and Cryptic Command overlap on bounce; Boseiju-style land is not present.
- Failure modes: Channel discards a land source; bounce is temporary and cannot hit opposing spells on the stack.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against hate permanents, commanders, and planeswalkers; weaker when permanent can be cheaply recast.

#### Cut Down
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, one-mana black creature removal.
- Role type: interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: Destroys target creature with total power and toughness 5 or less, answering small efficient attackers and utility creatures.
- Timing: Use before combat when the creature changes damage math or protects a snowball engine; hold if Fatal Push or Requiting Hex can handle a smaller target and Cut Down is needed for a 3/2 or 2/3.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {B}; outputs destruction of one qualifying creature.
- Partners / packages: Complements Fatal Push, Requiting Hex, Long Goodbye, Abrupt Decay, Murderous Cut, Toxic Deluge, Subtlety, and Oko.
- Role peers: Fatal Push checks mana value; Requiting Hex checks mana value 2 or less; Long Goodbye checks creature/planeswalker mana value 3 or less.
- Failure modes: Cannot hit large-stat creatures such as 3/3s with total 6; cannot answer noncreature permanents.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong versus aggro, mana creatures, and small commanders; weak against large threats and combo.

#### Tear Asunder
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, exile-based artifact/enchantment or kicked permanent answer.
- Role type: interaction-removal; modal utility.
- Deck-specific job: Exiles target artifact or enchantment for {1}{G}; if kicked for {1}{B}, exiles target nonland permanent instead.
- Timing: Hold for hate pieces that stop combo or permanents Abrupt Decay cannot answer; kick when a creature or planeswalker must be exiled.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{G} or {2}{B}{G} total when kicked; outputs exile of a legal target.
- Mode map: Unkicked targets artifact or enchantment only; kicked targets any nonland permanent.
- Partners / packages: Clears hate for Jace, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Thought Lash, Doomsday; overlaps with Abrupt Decay, Force of Vigor, Otawara, and Culling Ritual.
- Role peers: Abrupt Decay is uncounterable but mana-value capped; Force of Vigor can hit two artifacts/enchantments post-board; Long Goodbye handles mana value 3 or less creatures or planeswalkers.
- Failure modes: Unkicked mode cannot hit ordinary creatures or planeswalkers; kicked cost is color-intensive.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against artifacts, enchantments, planeswalkers, and prison pieces.

#### Lorien Revealed
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, Island search early and draw-three late.
- Role type: modal utility; card selection; mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Either hard-casts to draw three cards or Islandcycles for {1} to find an Island card.
- Timing: Islandcycle early when land access is the bottleneck; hard-cast only when five mana and sorcery speed do not expose the stack or board.
- Inputs / outputs: Hard-cast consumes {3}{U}{U} and draws three; Islandcycling consumes {1}, discards Lorien Revealed, searches, reveals, puts an Island card into hand, then shuffles.
- Mode map: Draw-three mode increases cards drawn this turn; Islandcycling discards Lorien Revealed, searches for Island, Watery Grave, Breeding Pool, Tropical Island, Underground Sea, Mystic Sanctuary, Hedge Maze, or Undercity Sewers, reveals that Island card, puts it into hand, then shuffles.
- Partners / packages: Supports Mystic Sanctuary count, Daze, Gush, Glarb, Tamiyo third-draw turns only when hard-cast, and Brainstorm shuffle.
- Role peers: Waterlogged Teachings is another spell-land/fixing tool; Ponder, Preordain, Stock Up, and Gush are other card-flow spells.
- Failure modes: Do not treat Islandcycling as a draw trigger; hard-cast sorcery speed can be too slow.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent in mana-light hands; hard-cast is strongest in slow control games.

#### Stern Scolding
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, one-mana small-creature counter.
- Role type: interaction-stack.
- Deck-specific job: Counters target creature spell with power or toughness 2 or less, stopping many early commanders, mana creatures, utility creatures, and cheap pressure on the stack.
- Timing: Use before the creature resolves; once resolved, Stern Scolding cannot interact.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {U}; outputs a counter to an eligible creature spell.
- Partners / packages: Complements Mental Misstep, Spell Snare, Wash Away, Fatal Push, Cut Down, Long Goodbye, and Subtlety.
- Role peers: Spell Snare counters mana value 2 spells; Wash Away counters command-zone casts; Subtlety handles creature or planeswalker spells.
- Failure modes: Cannot hit noncreature spells, resolved creatures, or creatures whose printed/current stack power and toughness both exceed 2.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against low-curve creature decks and small commanders; weak against control and big creatures.

#### Orcish Bowmasters
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, flash draw-punisher and small-board control threat.
- Role type: threat/clock; interaction-removal; engine payoff.
- Deck-specific job: Flash 1/1 that deals 1 damage to any target and amasses Orcs 1 when it enters and whenever an opponent draws beyond the first card in each draw step.
- Timing: Flash in response to opposing extra draws, to pick off a 1-toughness creature/planeswalker, or to establish pressure while holding up mana.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{B}; outputs damage to any target, an Orc Army counter/body, and repeat punishment for opposing draw.
- Partners / packages: Pairs with Vendilion Clique hand disruption, Counterspell protection, Oko food/Elk fair games, and Toxic Deluge cleanup.
- Role peers: Snapcaster Mage and Vendilion Clique are flash creatures; Deathrite Shaman provides incremental reach.
- Failure modes: Trigger cares about opponent draws, not your own; 1/1 body is fragile.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against Brainstorm-style decks, planeswalkers at low loyalty, X/1 creatures, and control cantrips.

#### Legolas's Quick Reflexes
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, split-second protection/combat removal trick.
- Role type: protection/evasion; interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: Untaps target creature and gives it hexproof, reach, and a tap-trigger that deals damage equal to its power to up to one target creature.
- Timing: Use to protect a key creature from targeted interaction, ambush flyers with reach, or set up a tap damage trigger before combat or a tap ability.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {G}; outputs untap, temporary hexproof/reach, and possible creature damage when the creature becomes tapped.
- Mode map: Single effect can target any creature; split second prevents spells and nonmana activated abilities while it is on the stack; the granted damage hits up to one target creature, not players or planeswalkers.
- Partners / packages: Strong with Glarb, Calamity's Augur because deathtouch applies to damage Glarb deals; also works with Psychic Frog, Barrowgoyf, Abhorrent Oculus, Deathrite Shaman, and Vendilion Clique.
- Role peers: Veil of Summer protects from blue/black targeting post-board; Fatal Push, Cut Down, and Long Goodbye are cleaner removal.
- Failure modes: Does not stop sweepers, edicts, sacrifice effects, or non-targeted damage; requires a creature.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against targeted removal, flyers, and creature combat; weak against spell combo.

#### Long Goodbye
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, uncounterable small creature/planeswalker removal.
- Role type: interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: Can't be countered, including by ward, and destroys target creature or planeswalker with mana value 3 or less.
- Timing: Use on low-mana commanders, hate creatures, planeswalkers, or pressure pieces that would punish a combo setup.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{B}; outputs destruction of one eligible creature or planeswalker.
- Partners / packages: Complements Fatal Push, Cut Down, Abrupt Decay, Requiting Hex, Murderous Cut, Toxic Deluge, and Oko.
- Role peers: Abrupt Decay is uncounterable and broader for nonland permanents but capped at mana value 3; Fatal Push is cheaper but creature-only.
- Failure modes: Still targets, so hexproof/protection can make targets illegal; cannot hit mana value 4+ or artifacts/enchantments unless they are also eligible creature/planeswalker targets.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against ward creatures, cheap planeswalkers, and tempo; weaker against large creatures or noncreature engines.

#### Hedge Maze
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, tapped green-blue surveil dual.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; card selection; graveyard setup.
- Deck-specific job: Enters tapped, surveils 1, counts as Forest and Island, and produces {G} or {U}.
- Timing: Fetch or play when tapped tempo is acceptable and surveil can set up graveyard or top-card quality; avoid when one-mana interaction must stay live immediately.
- Inputs / outputs: Costs tapped land tempo; outputs {G}/{U}, Forest/Island typing, and surveil 1.
- Partners / packages: Searchable by Verdant Catacombs, Windswept Heath, Scalding Tarn, Misty Rainforest, Wooded Foothills, Flooded Strand, and Lorien Revealed; fuels Murderous Cut, Barrowgoyf, Flow State, and Abhorrent Oculus.
- Role peers: Tropical Island and Breeding Pool are faster green-blue typed peers; Underground Mortuary and Undercity Sewers are surveil-land peers.
- Failure modes: Tapped entry can lose tempo; surveilling away a needed card without recursion is costly.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in slow setup games; weak against fast aggro or tempo.

#### Underground Mortuary
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, tapped black-green surveil dual.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; card selection; graveyard setup.
- Deck-specific job: Enters tapped, surveils 1, counts as Swamp and Forest, and produces {B} or {G}.
- Timing: Play when the turn can absorb tapped mana and surveil improves a future draw or graveyard threshold.
- Inputs / outputs: Costs tapped land tempo; outputs {B}/{G}, Swamp/Forest typing, and surveil 1.
- Partners / packages: Searchable by Marsh Flats, Verdant Catacombs, Bloodstained Mire, Windswept Heath, Misty Rainforest, and Wooded Foothills; fuels Murderous Cut, Barrowgoyf, Flow State, Abhorrent Oculus, and Deathrite Shaman.
- Role peers: Bayou and Overgrown Tomb are faster black-green typed peers; Hedge Maze and Undercity Sewers are surveil-land peers.
- Failure modes: No blue; tapped entry can miss discard/removal/counter windows.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Useful in attrition games and graveyard setup; risky against fast pressure.

#### Undercity Sewers
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, tapped blue-black surveil dual.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; card selection; graveyard setup.
- Deck-specific job: Enters tapped, surveils 1, counts as Island and Swamp, and produces {U} or {B}.
- Timing: Fetch or play when tapped entry is acceptable and blue-black typed access matters for Mystic Sanctuary, Daze, Gush, or Drowned Catacomb.
- Inputs / outputs: Costs tapped land tempo; outputs {U}/{B}, Island/Swamp typing, and surveil 1.
- Partners / packages: Searchable by Marsh Flats, Verdant Catacombs, Bloodstained Mire, Scalding Tarn, Flooded Strand, Misty Rainforest, Polluted Delta, and Lorien Revealed; fuels graveyard mechanics.
- Role peers: Underground Sea and Watery Grave are faster blue-black typed peers; Hedge Maze and Underground Mortuary are surveil-land peers.
- Failure modes: Tapped entry can miss one-mana interaction; surveil can bin a needed combo card.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in slower sculpting games; poor when tempo demands untapped mana.

#### Flooded Strand
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, blue fetchland and shuffle utility.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; tutor/search; role glue.
- Deck-specific job: Searches for a Plains or Island card; relevant registered Island targets are Island, Watery Grave, Breeding Pool, Tropical Island, Underground Sea, Mystic Sanctuary, Hedge Maze, and Undercity Sewers, with no registered Plains target.
- Timing: Preserve for Brainstorm or Mystic Sanctuary when possible; crack for blue when interaction or selection is needed now.
- Inputs / outputs: Pays 1 life, taps, sacrifices itself; outputs an Island-type land and a shuffle.
- Partners / packages: Supports Brainstorm, Daze, Gush, Mystic Sanctuary, Fatal Push revolt, Deathrite Shaman, and Lorien Revealed target planning.
- Role peers: Scalding Tarn, Misty Rainforest, and Polluted Delta also find Island cards.
- Failure modes: No registered Plains target; life payment matters against burn.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in blue-heavy and Mystic Sanctuary hands.

#### Sink into Stupor
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, blue spell-land tempo answer.
- Role type: modal utility; interaction-stack; interaction-removal; mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Spell face returns target spell or nonland permanent an opponent controls to its owner's hand; land face Soporific Springs provides blue mana with a 3-life untapped option.
- Timing: Play as land when blue mana is short; hold as spell when a stack object or opposing nonland permanent must be delayed.
- Inputs / outputs: Spell consumes {1}{U}{U}; land consumes a land drop and may cost 3 life to enter untapped; outputs bounce or {U}.
- Mode map: Normal cast Sink into Stupor targets a spell or nonland permanent an opponent controls; Soporific Springs is the land face, enters tapped unless you pay 3 life, and taps for {U}.
- Partners / packages: Complements Otawara, Cryptic Command, Remand, Memory Lapse, Counterspell, and Jace protection turns.
- Role peers: Otawara handles resolved artifacts/creatures/enchantments/planeswalkers; Cryptic Command can bounce any permanent and counter/draw/tap.
- Failure modes: Card Reference aggregate Oracle is missing, but provided face data defines the tactical text; do not assume unlisted modes. Bounce is temporary and land untap costs 3 life.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against expensive stack plays, hate permanents, and tempo races; weaker when permanent removal is required.

#### Waterlogged Teachings
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, instant-speed tutor spell-land.
- Role type: modal utility; tutor/search; mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Searches for an instant card or a card with flash, reveals it, puts it into hand, then shuffles; land face Inundated Archive enters tapped and produces {U} or {B}.
- Timing: Play as land when mana is constrained; cast end step when the exact instant/flash card will decide the next turn.
- Inputs / outputs: Spell consumes {3}{U/B}; land consumes tapped land tempo; outputs a revealed instant/flash card or blue-black mana.
- Mode map: Waterlogged Teachings can find win enablers Demonic Consultation/Tainted Pact, protection Counterspell/Force of Negation/Cryptic Command, removal Fatal Push/Cut Down/Long Goodbye/Abrupt Decay/Tear Asunder/Murderous Cut/Requiting Hex/Sink into Stupor, or flash cards Snapcaster Mage/Vendilion Clique/Orcish Bowmasters/Subtlety; Inundated Archive taps for {U} or {B}.
- Partners / packages: Supports Jace combo, control mirrors, and emergency stabilization.
- Role peers: Demonic Tutor is unrestricted and cheaper but sorcery; Intuition is instant but opponent-choice.
- Failure modes: Card Reference aggregate Oracle is missing, but provided face data defines the search/land faces; reveal gives information, and the land always enters tapped.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in slow stack games; too slow against fast pressure unless played as land.

#### Toxic Deluge
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, scalable creature sweeper.
- Role type: interaction-sweeper; lifegain/stabilization.
- Deck-specific job: As an additional cost, pays X life; each creature gets -X/-X until end of turn, clearing boards that spot removal cannot handle.
- Timing: Cast when the life payment leaves a survivable total and the board otherwise threatens lethal or overwhelms one-for-one answers.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}{B} and X life; outputs -X/-X to each creature, including your Glarb, Deathrite Shaman, Orcish Bowmasters, Psychic Frog, Tamiyo, Barrowgoyf, Abhorrent Oculus, and Snapcaster Mage.
- Partners / packages: Pairs with Oko stabilization, Fatal Push/Cut Down cleanup, Jace combo turns after board reset, and Deathrite Shaman life recovery.
- Role peers: Culling Ritual is the sideboard cheap-permanent sweeper; spot peers are Fatal Push, Cut Down, Long Goodbye, Abrupt Decay, Murderous Cut, and Requiting Hex.
- Failure modes: Life payment can put you dead to burn or attackers; -X/-X kills your own creatures and does not affect noncreature permanents.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Premium against go-wide and creature decks; weak against spell combo and planeswalker-only boards.

#### Psychic Frog
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, two-mana threat, card engine, and graveyard sink.
- Role type: threat/clock; engine piece; discard outlet; protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: Draws a card when it deals combat damage to a player or planeswalker, grows by discarding cards, and gains flying by exiling three graveyard cards.
- Timing: Deploy when it can connect or block profitably; preserve graveyard for flying only when evasion changes damage, card draw, or lethal math.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes cards from hand for +1/+1 counters and three graveyard cards for flying; outputs pressure, card draw, and potential evasive attacks.
- Mode map: Combat trigger draws on player/planeswalker damage; discard ability puts a +1/+1 counter on Psychic Frog; graveyard exile ability gives flying until end of turn.
- Partners / packages: Works with Tamiyo third-draw turns, Barrowgoyf graveyard tension, Murderous Cut, Cling to Dust, Abhorrent Oculus, Snapcaster Mage, and Unearth.
- Role peers: Barrowgoyf and Abhorrent Oculus are larger graveyard threats; Orcish Bowmasters and Vendilion Clique are disruptive threats.
- Failure modes: Discarding protection or combo pieces can lose; exiling graveyard cards can turn off Murderous Cut, Cling to Dust, Flow State, Barrowgoyf, or Abhorrent Oculus.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong versus control and midrange; keep back against aggro if it is the needed blocker.

#### Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, cheap flying value creature and transform engine.
- Role type: engine piece; card selection; recursion; threat/clock.
- Deck-specific job: Front face attacks to investigate, transforms when you draw your third card in a turn, and back face protects, recurs instants/sorceries, or draws a huge hand.
- Timing: Cast early when a 0/3 flyer blocks or can attack safely; set up third-draw turns deliberately.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {U}; outputs Clue tokens from attacks, planeswalker loyalty after transform, instant/sorcery recursion, and large draw potential.
- Mode map: Front face has flying, attack-investigate, and third-card-drawn transform; Tamiyo, Seasoned Scholar +2 shrinks attackers by -1/-0 until next turn, -3 returns target instant/sorcery from graveyard to hand and adds one mana if it is green, -7 draws half your library rounded up and gives no maximum hand size emblem.
- Partners / packages: Third-draw sequences include draw step plus Gush, Brainstorm, hard-cast Lorien Revealed, Gitaxian Probe plus Ponder/Preordain, or Clue draw plus another draw spell.
- Role peers: Psychic Frog and Oko are fair engines; Snapcaster Mage, Mystic Sanctuary, and Noxious Revival overlap with recursion.
- Failure modes: Card Reference aggregate Oracle is missing, but provided face data defines the transform and planeswalker text; Stock Up, Flow State, Rakshasa's Bargain, and Consult the Star Charts put cards into hand but do not draw.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong versus small flyers and control; vulnerable to Bowmasters-style pings and cheap removal before transforming.

#### Polluted Delta
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, premier blue-black fetchland.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; tutor/search; role glue.
- Deck-specific job: Searches for an Island or Swamp card: Island, Swamp, Watery Grave, Overgrown Tomb, Breeding Pool, Bayou, Tropical Island, Underground Sea, Mystic Sanctuary, Hedge Maze, Underground Mortuary, and Undercity Sewers.
- Timing: Use for exact blue-black fixing, Brainstorm shuffle, Mystic Sanctuary setup, Fatal Push revolt, or Deathrite fuel.
- Inputs / outputs: Pays 1 life, taps, sacrifices itself; outputs a typed land and shuffle.
- Partners / packages: Supports Ponder, Thoughtseize, Counterspell, Demonic Tutor, Jace, Daze, Gush, and Lorien Revealed target planning.
- Role peers: Marsh Flats, Scalding Tarn, Flooded Strand, Misty Rainforest, and Verdant Catacombs cover overlapping typed targets.
- Failure modes: Life payment matters; choosing the wrong typed dual can strand green or black/blue next turn.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Best all-purpose fetch for the deck's blue-black core.

#### Barrowgoyf
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, graveyard-scaling lifelink/deathtouch threat.
- Role type: threat/clock; lifegain/stabilization; engine payoff.
- Deck-specific job: Power equals the number of card types among cards in all graveyards and toughness is that number plus 1; combat damage to a player may mill that many and may put a creature card milled this way into hand.
- Timing: Cast when graveyards already contain multiple card types or when deathtouch/lifelink stabilizes combat.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}{B}; outputs scalable body, lifelink, deathtouch, milling, and possible creature card to hand.
- Partners / packages: Surveil lands, fetchlands, Rakshasa's Bargain, Flow State, Thoughtseize, instants, creatures, Jace/Oko planeswalkers, and Thought Lash enchantment increase type count; Deathrite Shaman, Cling to Dust, Murderous Cut, and graveyard hate reduce resources.
- Role peers: Psychic Frog and Abhorrent Oculus are other graveyard-aware threats; Deathrite Shaman offers lifegain without attacking.
- Failure modes: Graveyard exile shrinks it; milling can put key noncreature combo pieces into graveyard without direct access.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong versus midrange and aggro races; weaker against graveyard hate or exile-heavy removal.

#### Horizon of Progress
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, flexible utility land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; modal utility; card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Fixes mana based on lands you control, puts extra lands from hand onto the battlefield tapped, or sacrifices to draw.
- Timing: Use mana mode when color is needed; use land-drop mode when extra land in hand accelerates a protected turn; sacrifice only when mana is stable or a draw is urgent.
- Inputs / outputs: Mana mode costs 1 life and taps; land-put mode costs {3} and taps; draw mode costs {1}, taps, and sacrifices Horizon.
- Mode map: Activated mode choices are {T}, pay 1 life to add one mana of any type a land you control could produce; {3},{T} to put a land from hand onto battlefield tapped; and {1},{T}, sacrifice to draw a card.
- Partners / packages: Works with Exploration, Gush, Brainstorm, Glarb top lands, Jace empty-library wins, and Fatal Push revolt.
- Role peers: Reflecting Pool copies land-produced types without life; Exploration adds land drops; Prismatic Vista sacrifices for basic fixing.
- Failure modes: Mana mode needs another land producing the desired type; draw sacrifice can reduce future mana.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in grindy mana games; risky against burn because repeated life payment matters.

#### Gloomlake Verge
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, blue-first conditional black land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Taps for {U}; taps for {B} only if you control an Island or a Swamp.
- Timing: Good as a blue source early; do not count on black turn one unless another Island/Swamp is already on the battlefield.
- Inputs / outputs: Costs a land drop; outputs unconditional {U} or conditional {B}.
- Partners / packages: Island/Swamp sources include Island, Swamp, Watery Grave, Overgrown Tomb, Breeding Pool, Bayou, Tropical Island, Underground Sea, Mystic Sanctuary, Hedge Maze, Underground Mortuary, and Undercity Sewers.
- Role peers: Darkslick Shores, Clearwater Pathway, Drowned Catacomb, Shipwreck Marsh, and Underground Sea overlap as blue-black sources.
- Failure modes: Can strand Thoughtseize, Fatal Push, or Demonic Consultation if no Island/Swamp is present.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Better for blue-heavy keep decisions than black-discard openers.

#### Abhorrent Oculus
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, graveyard-fueled evasive finisher.
- Role type: threat/clock; engine payoff; graveyard resource.
- Deck-specific job: 5/5 flyer that requires exiling six cards from your graveyard as an additional cast cost and manifests dread at each opponent upkeep.
- Timing: Cast when the graveyard cost does not cannibalize Murderous Cut, Cling to Dust, Snapcaster Mage, Mystic Sanctuary, Unearth, Barrowgoyf, Flow State, or Noxious Revival needs.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}{U} and six graveyard cards; outputs a flying 5/5 and recurring manifest dread.
- Mode map: Manifest dread looks at top two, puts one onto battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature and the other into your graveyard; a manifested creature card can be turned face up for its mana cost.
- Partners / packages: Surveil lands, Rakshasa's Bargain, fetchlands, cantrips, Psychic Frog discard, and Thoughtseize fuel the graveyard.
- Role peers: Barrowgoyf and Psychic Frog are other graveyard threats; Oko is a fair-game permanent engine.
- Failure modes: Exiling six cards can ruin recursion/combo support; manifesting a critical noncreature hides it as a 2/2 rather than putting it in hand.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against fair decks lacking exile removal; weak against graveyard hate and bounce tempo.

#### Stock Up
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, sorcery-speed deep selection.
- Role type: card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Looks at the top five cards, puts two into hand, and puts the rest on the bottom in any order, finding missing combo, interaction, land, or protection.
- Timing: Cast when the board allows a three-mana sorcery; under pressure, use only if it digs for the answer better than spending mana on removal.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}{U}; outputs two selected cards to hand and bottoming of three.
- Partners / packages: Finds Jace, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Doomsday, Thought Lash, Counterspell, Force of Negation, Toxic Deluge, Abrupt Decay, or lands.
- Role peers: Flow State, Consult the Star Charts, Rakshasa's Bargain, Ponder, Preordain, Brainstorm, and Lorien Revealed are other selection/card-flow cards.
- Failure modes: Does not draw, so it does not trigger Tamiyo third-card or Jace empty-library win; sorcery speed can be too slow.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in control/midrange; weak when creature pressure demands immediate interaction.

#### Willowrush Verge
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, blue-first conditional green land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Taps for {U}; taps for {G} only if you control a Forest or an Island.
- Timing: Use as early blue; plan Forest/Island support before relying on green for Abrupt Decay, Oko, Tear Asunder, or Legolas's Quick Reflexes.
- Inputs / outputs: Costs a land drop; outputs unconditional {U} or conditional {G}.
- Partners / packages: Forest/Island sources include Forest, Island, Overgrown Tomb, Breeding Pool, Bayou, Tropical Island, Watery Grave, Underground Sea, Mystic Sanctuary, Hedge Maze, Underground Mortuary, and Undercity Sewers.
- Role peers: Tropical Island, Breeding Pool, Hedge Maze, and Command Tower overlap as blue-green sources.
- Failure modes: Can strand green spells without Forest/Island support; no land subtype itself.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in blue interaction hands; check green availability before sideboarding into Veil of Summer, Endurance, Force of Vigor, or Culling Ritual.

#### Rakshasa's Bargain
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, instant-speed card selection and graveyard fuel.
- Role type: card selection; graveyard setup; role glue.
- Deck-specific job: Looks at the top four cards, puts two into hand, and the rest into your graveyard, finding action while stocking graveyard resources.
- Timing: Cast when holding up mana is useful and the graveyard output helps; avoid if milling two unknowns risks losing critical combo pieces without recursion.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes the legal payment for {2/B}{2/G}{2/U}; outputs two cards to hand and two to graveyard.
- Partners / packages: Fuels Murderous Cut, Cling to Dust, Barrowgoyf, Abhorrent Oculus, Flow State, Snapcaster Mage, Mystic Sanctuary, Unearth, and Noxious Revival.
- Role peers: Stock Up digs one card deeper but bottoms instead of fueling graveyard; Consult the Star Charts scales with lands; Flow State needs instant+sorcery in graveyard for two cards.
- Failure modes: Does not draw, sacrifice, or gain life per Card Reference; do not count it for Tamiyo third draw or Jace empty-library draw.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in grindy and graveyard-aware games; risky against graveyard hate or when life/board demands removal.

#### Mistrise Village
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, blue land with anti-counter utility.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; protection/evasion.
- Deck-specific job: Taps for {U} and can make the next spell you cast this turn unable to be countered.
- Timing: Play when blue mana is needed; use {U},{T} before Jace, Doomsday, Demonic Tutor, Thought Lash, or a critical answer if a counter war is expected.
- Inputs / outputs: Enters tapped unless you control a Mountain or Forest; outputs {U}; utility activation consumes {U} and tap.
- Mode map: Mana mode taps for {U}; protection mode makes the next spell you cast this turn unable to be countered.
- Partners / packages: Forest sources that help untapped entry include Forest, Overgrown Tomb, Breeding Pool, Bayou, Tropical Island, Hedge Maze, and Underground Mortuary; protects Jace, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Doomsday, and Thought Lash.
- Role peers: Veil of Summer and Counterspell protect stack fights differently; Cavern-style creature naming is not present.
- Failure modes: No registered Mountain source needs to be assumed; entering tapped can cost tempo, and the utility does not stop discard or removal.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong versus blue control; less relevant against aggro or removal that answers resolved permanents.

#### Consult the Star Charts
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, instant-speed scalable selection spell.
- Role type: modal utility; card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Looks at the top X cards where X is the number of lands you control, puts one into hand, or two if kicked.
- Timing: Cast end step when holding interaction is possible; kick when the second card matters and {1}{U} extra does not weaken protection.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{U} or {2}{U}{U} kicked; outputs one or two selected cards to hand and puts the rest on the bottom in a random order.
- Mode map: Base mode puts one card into hand from the top X; kicked mode puts two cards into hand from the top X.
- Partners / packages: Finds Jace, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Thought Lash, Doomsday, Counterspell, Force of Negation, Toxic Deluge, Abrupt Decay, or lands.
- Role peers: Stock Up sees five at sorcery speed; Flow State sees three and rewards instant+sorcery graveyard; Rakshasa's Bargain puts extras into graveyard.
- Failure modes: Does not draw, so it does not trigger Tamiyo or Jace; low land count makes X small.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in slower land-heavy games; weaker when immediate board interaction is required.

#### Multiversal Passage
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, basic-type choice utility land.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; modal utility.
- Deck-specific job: As it enters, chooses a basic land type, may pay 2 life to enter untapped, and becomes the chosen type.
- Timing: Choose Island, Swamp, or Forest according to current hand needs; choosing Mountain or Plains has no registered spell payoff in this deck unless the engine exposes a very specific reason.
- Inputs / outputs: Costs a land drop and optional 2 life; outputs the chosen basic land type and corresponding legal mana behavior as exposed by the rules engine.
- Mode map: Choose Island for Ponder, Preordain, Counterspell, and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries; choose Swamp for Thoughtseize, Fatal Push, Demonic Tutor, and Tainted Pact; choose Forest for Abrupt Decay, Oko, Thief of Crowns, Tear Asunder, Veil of Summer, Endurance, Force of Vigor, and Culling Ritual.
- Partners / packages: Supports Drowned Catacomb-style type checks, Gloomlake Verge, Willowrush Verge, Mistrise Village if Forest is chosen, and color-heavy spells.
- Role peers: Command Tower fixes without life; shock lands provide two types but fixed choices.
- Failure modes: Wrong type choice is permanent for that card; do not infer unlisted red plans from Mountain because no registered red spell requires it.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong when exact blue, black, or green access matters more than fetchability; life payment matters versus burn.

#### Requiting Hex
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, cheap black removal with optional blight lifegain.
- Role type: interaction-removal; lifegain/stabilization; modal utility.
- Deck-specific job: Destroys target creature with mana value 2 or less; as an additional cost you may blight 1, and if paid you gain 2 life.
- Timing: Use on cheap attackers, mana creatures, or hate creatures; pay blight only when the -1/-1 counter on your creature is acceptable or life gain changes race math.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {B}; optional blight puts a -1/-1 counter on a creature you control; outputs destruction of a small creature and possible 2 life.
- Mode map: Base cast destroys target creature with mana value 2 or less; blight-paid cast also gains 2 life after paying the additional cost.
- Partners / packages: Pairs with expendable or durable creatures such as Orcish Bowmasters Army tokens, Barrowgoyf, Glarb, or Oko-created Elk only when the counter will not cost the game.
- Role peers: Fatal Push, Cut Down, Long Goodbye, Abrupt Decay, and Murderous Cut are other spot removal.
- Failure modes: Do not blight a 1-toughness key creature casually; cannot target mana value 3+ creatures.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against low-curve aggro; weaker against large commanders and noncreature engines.

#### Flow State
- Deck role: main deck, 1 copy, graveyard-threshold sorcery selection.
- Role type: card selection; graveyard payoff.
- Deck-specific job: Looks at the top three, puts one into hand, or puts two into hand if there is an instant card and a sorcery card in your graveyard.
- Timing: Cast after an instant and sorcery are stocked when possible; use earlier if the hand needs land or interaction now.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{U}; outputs one or two cards to hand and bottoms the rest.
- Partners / packages: Instant cards such as Brainstorm, Fatal Push, Counterspell, Abrupt Decay, and Tainted Pact plus sorcery cards such as Ponder, Preordain, Thoughtseize, Demonic Tutor, Doomsday, and Toxic Deluge enable the upgraded output.
- Role peers: Stock Up sees five and always takes two; Rakshasa's Bargain sees four and fills graveyard; Consult the Star Charts scales with lands.
- Failure modes: Does not draw, so it does not trigger Tamiyo or Jace; Deathrite Shaman, Cling to Dust, Murderous Cut, and Abhorrent Oculus can remove the instant/sorcery threshold.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in attrition games after early trades; weaker in opening hands without graveyard setup.

#### Veil of Summer
- Deck role: sideboard, 1 copy, anti-blue/black protection bullet.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; protection/evasion; interaction-stack.
- Deck-specific job: Draws a card if an opponent cast a blue or black spell this turn, makes your spells unable to be countered this turn, and gives you plus permanents you control hexproof from blue and black until end of turn.
- Timing: Bring in and hold for discard, counters, or targeted blue/black removal around Jace, Doomsday, Thought Lash, Demonic Consultation, or Tainted Pact.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {G}; outputs counter protection, blue/black hexproof, and conditional card draw.
- Partners / packages: Protects Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Glarb, Psychic Frog, Tamiyo, Oko, Demonic Tutor, Doomsday, Thought Lash, Demonic Consultation, and Tainted Pact.
- Role peers: Mistrise Village makes one spell uncounterable; Force of Negation and Counterspell fight stack objects directly.
- Failure modes: Does not stop sweepers, edicts, red removal, artifacts, or nonblue/nonblack targeting; proactive casting may not draw.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Side in against blue control, black discard, and removal-control; avoid against creature decks with little blue or black text.

#### Endurance
- Deck role: sideboard, 1 copy, graveyard hate creature and emergency library tool.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; hate piece; lifegain/stabilization; threat/clock.
- Deck-specific job: Flash reach 3/4 that makes up to one target player put all cards from their graveyard on the bottom of their library in a random order.
- Timing: Use in response to graveyard conversion before costs are paid or at end step to reset a graveyard; evoke when mana is unavailable and the hate effect matters now.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}{G}{G} or exiles a green card for evoke; outputs graveyard reset and possibly a 3/4 reach body.
- Mode map: Hard-cast keeps Endurance; evoke trades a green card for the enter trigger and then sacrifices Endurance.
- Partners / packages: Green pitch cards include Glarb, Abrupt Decay, Deathrite Shaman, Exploration, Oko, Tear Asunder, Legolas's Quick Reflexes, Noxious Revival, Rakshasa's Bargain, Veil of Summer, Force of Vigor, and Culling Ritual.
- Role peers: Nihil Spellbomb exiles a graveyard; Grafdigger's Cage prevents graveyard/library casting and creature entry; Dauthi Voidwalker replaces opponent graveyard entry.
- Failure modes: Can weaken your Snapcaster Mage, Mystic Sanctuary, Unearth, Barrowgoyf, Murderous Cut, Abhorrent Oculus, and Cling to Dust plans.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Bring in versus reanimation, delve, escape, flashback, self-mill, and graveyard combo.

#### Force of Vigor
- Deck role: sideboard, 1 copy, artifact/enchantment swing answer.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; interaction-removal; hate piece.
- Deck-specific job: Destroys up to two target artifacts and/or enchantments, with an alternate cost on opponents' turns by exiling a green card from hand.
- Timing: Bring in when artifacts/enchantments constrain casting, graveyards, targeting, mana, or combo execution; use free mode to answer before your untap or during a protected turn cycle.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}{G}{G} or a green card on an opponent's turn; outputs destruction of up to two legal targets.
- Mode map: Hard-cast uses mana on any turn you can cast it; alternate cost works only if it is not your turn and requires exiling a green card.
- Partners / packages: Clears hate for Jace, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Thought Lash, Doomsday, Snapcaster Mage, and graveyard lines; green pitch cards include Glarb, Abrupt Decay, Exploration, Oko, Tear Asunder, Legolas's Quick Reflexes, Noxious Revival, Rakshasa's Bargain, Veil of Summer, Endurance, and Culling Ritual.
- Role peers: Tear Asunder exiles one target; Abrupt Decay is uncounterable but capped; Culling Ritual sweeps cheap nonland permanents.
- Failure modes: Does not hit creatures or planeswalkers unless they are artifacts/enchantments; destroying your own permanents may be required only in rare emergency lines.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Bring in against prison, equipment, artifact combo, enchantment hate, and permanent-based combo.

#### Hydroblast
- Deck role: sideboard, 1 copy, flexible anti-red stack/permanent answer.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; modal utility; interaction-stack; interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: Choose one: counter target spell if it's red, or destroy target permanent if it's red.
- Timing: Hold for lethal burn, red commanders, red removal aimed at Jace/Glarb/Psychic Frog/Tamiyo, or red permanents setting the clock.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {U}; outputs a counter or destruction only if the target is red on resolution.
- Mode map: Counter mode targets a spell and counters it if red; destroy mode targets a permanent and destroys it if red.
- Partners / packages: Complements Blue Elemental Blast, Fatal Push, Cut Down, Long Goodbye, Toxic Deluge, Counterspell, Spell Pierce, and Veil of Summer when red is paired with blue/black disruption.
- Role peers: Blue Elemental Blast is stricter because it targets red spell/permanent; Counterspell handles any spell but costs {U}{U}.
- Failure modes: Do not bring in if red targets are sparse; color changes or nonred targets can make the effect fail.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Bring in against red aggro, burn, red tempo, red commanders, and red combo pieces.

#### Blue Elemental Blast
- Deck role: sideboard, 1 copy, strict anti-red one-mana answer.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; modal utility; interaction-stack; interaction-removal.
- Deck-specific job: Choose one: counter target red spell or destroy target red permanent.
- Timing: Hold for the red card that changes lethal math, protects the opponent's plan, or threatens Jace, Glarb, Tamiyo, Psychic Frog, or life total.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {U}; outputs counter or destruction of a legal red target.
- Mode map: Counter mode can target only a red spell; destroy mode can target only a red permanent.
- Partners / packages: Red package with Hydroblast; works alongside Fatal Push, Cut Down, Long Goodbye, Toxic Deluge, Counterspell, Daze, and Spell Pierce.
- Role peers: Hydroblast has similar effects but different target legality/effect wording; Counterspell is broader but more expensive.
- Failure modes: Dead without red spell or red permanent targets; cannot answer nonred support cards in a multicolor deck.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Bring in when red is a primary damage, commander, combo, or removal axis.

#### Nihil Spellbomb
- Deck role: sideboard, 1 copy, graveyard hate artifact with optional draw.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; hate piece; card selection.
- Deck-specific job: Taps and sacrifices to exile target player's graveyard; when put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you may pay {B} to draw.
- Timing: Deploy early when it pressures graveyard lines; activate preemptively before the opponent can cast flashback, escape, delve, or reanimation payoff, or after they commit resources but before costs are paid. Exiling a graveyard after flashback or delve costs are paid will not undo an already-cast spell.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}; activation taps and sacrifices; optional trigger consumes {B} to draw.
- Mode map: Graveyard-exile activation targets a player; death trigger may draw if you pay {B}.
- Partners / packages: Works with Dauthi Voidwalker, Endurance, Grafdigger's Cage, Deathrite Shaman, Cling to Dust, and Pithing Needle against graveyard engines.
- Role peers: Endurance bottoms graveyards; Grafdigger's Cage prevents casting/entry; Cling to Dust and Deathrite Shaman exile individual cards.
- Failure modes: It exiles graveyards but does not remove artifacts despite being an artifact; exiling your own graveyard can hurt Snapcaster Mage, Mystic Sanctuary, Unearth, Barrowgoyf, Murderous Cut, Cling to Dust, and Abhorrent Oculus.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Bring in against graveyard recursion, reanimation, flashback, delve, escape, and self-mill.

#### Grafdigger's Cage
- Deck role: sideboard, 1 copy, graveyard/library access hate artifact.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; hate piece.
- Deck-specific job: Stops creature cards in graveyards and libraries from entering the battlefield, and stops players from casting spells from graveyards or libraries.
- Timing: Bring in only when the opponent relies on those exact zones more than this deck does; deploy before the graveyard/library engine turns on.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}; outputs a static restriction on both players.
- Partners / packages: Attacks opposing reanimation, flashback, library-cast, and creature-cheat plans; pairs with Nihil Spellbomb, Endurance, Dauthi Voidwalker, and Pithing Needle.
- Role peers: Nihil Spellbomb and Endurance remove graveyards; Dauthi Voidwalker replaces opponent graveyard entry.
- Failure modes: Hurts your Snapcaster Mage flashback, Unearth, Glarb casting spells from library, and possibly graveyard/library lines; it does not stop cards moving from hand or normal battlefield casting.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Bring in against graveyard-cast, library-cast, reanimation, and creature-cheat decks; avoid in fair matchups where it blocks your own best route.

#### Pithing Needle
- Deck role: sideboard, 1 copy, activated-ability hate artifact.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; hate piece.
- Deck-specific job: As it enters, choose a card name; activated abilities of sources with the chosen name cannot be activated unless they are mana abilities.
- Timing: Name only a known or strongly revealed card; play before the activated ability takes over if the information is public.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {1}; outputs a static lock on nonmana activated abilities of the chosen name.
- Partners / packages: Supports Force of Vigor, Tear Asunder, Abrupt Decay, Culling Ritual, Counterspell, and discard against planeswalkers, commanders, equipment, artifacts, and utility lands with activated abilities.
- Role peers: Abrupt Decay and Tear Asunder remove some permanents; Force of Vigor removes artifacts/enchantments; Pithing Needle stops abilities without removing the source.
- Failure modes: Does not stop mana abilities, triggered abilities, static abilities, spells, or unnamed cards; blind names are low quality.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Bring in against activated commanders, planeswalkers, equipment, artifact engines, and utility lands revealed by the opponent.

#### Dauthi Voidwalker
- Deck role: sideboard, 1 copy, graveyard replacement hate and shadow threat.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; hate piece; threat/clock; engine payoff.
- Deck-specific job: Shadow 3/2 that exiles opponent-owned cards with void counters instead of letting them hit the graveyard, then can tap and sacrifice to play one of those cards this turn without paying its mana cost.
- Timing: Deploy early against graveyard decks or slow control; activate sacrifice only when the exiled card changes the game now.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {B}{B}; outputs unblockable-by-most pressure, opponent graveyard denial, and one potential free spell from exile.
- Mode map: Static replacement exiles opponent cards with void counters; activated ability taps and sacrifices Dauthi Voidwalker to choose an exiled opponent-owned card with a void counter and play it this turn free.
- Partners / packages: Pairs with discard, counters, removal, Nihil Spellbomb, Endurance, Grafdigger's Cage, and Pithing Needle.
- Role peers: Endurance and Nihil Spellbomb attack graveyards differently; Orcish Bowmasters and Vendilion Clique are disruptive threats.
- Failure modes: Double-black cost stresses mana; sacrificing too early loses ongoing hate; removal before value can leave no effect.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Bring in versus graveyard decks, control, and spell combo where stolen spells are high impact.

#### Culling Ritual
- Deck role: sideboard, 1 copy, mana-value-2-or-less permanent sweeper and mana swing.
- Role type: sideboard bullet; interaction-sweeper; mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: Destroys each nonland permanent with mana value 2 or less and adds {B} or {G} for each permanent destroyed this way.
- Timing: Bring in against clusters of mana value 2 or less nonland permanents, artifact/enchantment clusters, tokens with mana value support, or boards where the mana burst converts into Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Thought Lash, Veil of Summer, or Counterspell.
- Inputs / outputs: Consumes {2}{B}{G}; outputs destruction of qualifying nonland permanents and black/green mana per permanent destroyed.
- Partners / packages: Clears opposing nonland permanents with mana value 2 or less while potentially killing your Deathrite Shaman, Exploration, Orcish Bowmasters, Psychic Frog, Tamiyo, Nihil Spellbomb, Grafdigger's Cage, Pithing Needle, and Dauthi Voidwalker.
- Role peers: Toxic Deluge sweeps creatures by toughness; Force of Vigor hits up to two artifacts/enchantments; Abrupt Decay/Tear Asunder answer single permanents.
- Failure modes: Sorcery speed; can destroy your own critical permanents; mana produced is black/green only and must be used in the current step/phase as legal.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: Bring in against boards of mana value 2 or less nonland permanents, artifact/enchantment swarms, and low-curve prison; avoid versus big threats or spell-heavy control.

## Interaction Priorities
- Priority: counter or discard cards that stop the protected win turn before cards that merely trade resources. When preparing Jace, Wielder of Mysteries plus Thought Lash, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, or Doomsday, use Thoughtseize, Duress, Inquisition of Kozilek, Gitaxian Probe, and Vendilion Clique to identify cheap permission, instant-speed planeswalker removal, graveyard hate that changes the line, and opposing combo pieces; do not take a medium creature over a visible answer to the actual win condition.
- Priority: spend Force Spike, Daze, Spell Pierce, Mana Leak, Lose Focus, Remand, Memory Lapse, Mystical Dispute, Force of Negation, Counterspell, and Cryptic Command according to whether the opposing spell matters after this turn. Use soft counters early against commanders, mana engines, tutors, and snowballing card advantage; save Counterspell, Force of Negation, and Cryptic Command for must-answer spells when the opponent has enough mana to ignore tax effects. Card text check required for Lose Focus target and payment details.
- Priority: use Mental Misstep, Spell Snare, Stern Scolding, Wash Away, and Subtlety only when the legal target class matches a high-impact threat. In tempo or commander-centric matchups, these are premium on early commanders, one-mana discard, cheap removal aimed at Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, and efficient pressure; against slow control, avoid firing narrow counters at cantrips unless the hand cannot answer the resolved card later. Card text check required for Stern Scolding and Wash Away constraints.
- Removal: kill snowballing creatures, mana creatures, hate creatures, and attackers that collapse the life-total buffer before removing replaceable bodies. Fatal Push, Cut Down, Long Goodbye, Abrupt Decay, Murderous Cut, Tear Asunder, Toxic Deluge, Otawara, Soaring City, Requiting Hex, and Legolas's Quick Reflexes should protect life, clear hate, or open a combo window; do not spend Abrupt Decay or Tear Asunder on a low-impact permanent when an enchantment, artifact, or uncounterable-style threat may be the real obstacle. Card text check required for Requiting Hex and Legolas's Quick Reflexes.
- Bounce and delay: use Remand, Memory Lapse, Cryptic Command, Subtlety, and Otawara, Soaring City to buy the exact turn needed for a tutor, commander recast, or protected win. Prefer delay over permanent removal when the opponent's next recast is too slow or mana-taxed; prefer real removal when the same threat will immediately return and keep attacking.
- Graveyard interaction: exile the card that enables the next legal opposing action, not the most famous card in the graveyard. Deathrite Shaman and Cling to Dust should tag recursive threats, flashback-style spells, reanimation targets, escape-like fuel, or a card needed for opponent delirium/threshold sizing when visible; preserve your own graveyard when Snapcaster Mage, Mystic Sanctuary, Noxious Revival, Murderous Cut, Barrowgoyf, Abhorrent Oculus, Unearth, or Rakshasa's Bargain matters.
- Bait: lead with fair engines or medium pressure when the opponent is representing permission and the hand has a second route. Oko, Thief of Crowns, Glarb, Calamity's Augur, Psychic Frog, Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, Barrowgoyf, Abhorrent Oculus, Orcish Bowmasters, Stock Up, and Consult the Star Charts can draw answers before the real Jace, Wielder of Mysteries turn, but do not bait with the only card that beats the current board.
- Ignore: let low-impact creatures, redundant cantrips, and slow value permanents resolve when life is stable and the hand is assembling a protected deterministic line. Against aggro, change posture and answer pressure first; against combo, prioritize discard and counters over creature removal; against control, fight over tutors, hand information, and end-step threats rather than every card-selection spell.

## Combat And Trading Rules
- Priority: treat life total as combo setup time, not a decorative resource. Above roughly 14 life, take small attacks if preserving removal, counters, or a key creature improves the next two turns; between 8 and 13, start trading creatures and spending spot removal on repeat damage; at 7 or less, block conservatively and value survival over card advantage unless a protected win is immediately legal.
- Attacks: attack only when the creature is not required as a blocker, mana source, graveyard engine, or combo shield. Deathrite Shaman should usually stay available when its mana or exile action matters; Snapcaster Mage and Vendilion Clique can pressure planeswalkers or chip in after their spell role is spent; Orcish Bowmasters, Psychic Frog, Barrowgoyf, Abhorrent Oculus, and Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student need card text and board-state checks before assuming evasion, counters, transformation, or combat sizing.
- Blocks: trade down on cards when the trade protects the window to resolve Demonic Tutor, Doomsday, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Thought Lash, Demonic Consultation, or Tainted Pact. A creature that already generated value, such as Snapcaster Mage or Vendilion Clique, can block aggressively; a creature still anchoring mana, card flow, or graveyard pressure should be preserved unless the damage creates lethal risk.
- Toxic Deluge: use the sweeper when one-for-one removal cannot catch up and the life payment leaves a realistic recovery path. Do not choose a life total that loses to visible attackers, burn-like pressure, commander damage risk, or a follow-up creature already known from revealed information.
- Protection: keep mana and cards available for Counterspell, Spell Pierce, Force of Negation, Daze, Abrupt Decay, Fatal Push, Cut Down, Long Goodbye, or Otawara, Soaring City when attacking would expose Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Oko, Thief of Crowns, Glarb, Calamity's Augur, or the last blocker. Legolas's Quick Reflexes is card text check required before using it as protection or combat interaction.
- Archetype changes: race combo only when discard or counters already slowed the opponent and your pressure is meaningful; otherwise hold up interaction. Against creature decks, block earlier and convert removal into life-total preservation. Against control, attack planeswalkers and life total with flash or cheap threats while avoiding combat lines that tap out before the opponent's decisive end-step or main-phase spell.

## Selection And Tutor Rules
- Sequence information first when it changes the whole turn. Gitaxian Probe and discard-revealed hands should guide whether Ponder, Preordain, Brainstorm, Demonic Tutor, Profane Tutor, Intuition, Doomsday, Demonic Consultation, or Tainted Pact searches for a combo piece, protection, land, or removal.
- Protect the land drop before sculpting a fragile combo line. Use Ponder and Preordain early to find missing colors or untapped mana; delay Brainstorm until a fetch land such as Polluted Delta, Misty Rainforest, Verdant Catacombs, Marsh Flats, Flooded Strand, Scalding Tarn, Windswept Heath, Wooded Foothills, Bloodstained Mire, or Prismatic Vista can clear unwanted cards.
- Use Brainstorm as a hand-fixing spell before the combo turn and as protection against discard when a key card can be hidden on top. Do not Brainstorm without a shuffle or top-card payoff unless the hand must immediately find interaction, land, or a lethal piece.
- Use Glarb, Calamity's Augur top-card information to choose whether to draw, shuffle, or preserve the top card. Card text check required; only cast or play from the top when the rules engine presents that action as legal.
- Use Demonic Tutor for the missing axis, not automatically for the flashiest card. Find Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Thought Lash, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, or Doomsday when protected win conditions are close; find Counterspell, Force of Negation, Abrupt Decay, Toxic Deluge, or a land when survival or protection is the bottleneck.
- Use Profane Tutor as a delayed commitment signal. Suspend or otherwise use it early when the game is slow enough to protect the future turn; avoid relying on it as the only route when the opponent can win before it resolves. Card text check required for exact timing.
- Treat Demonic Consultation and Tainted Pact as win-condition cards, emergency selection, or last-resort disruption only after checking exile risk. With Jace, Wielder of Mysteries on board or another legal deterministic win presented, name or select according to the chosen line; without payoff, do not fire them casually into an unknown library unless losing otherwise.
- Treat Doomsday as a commitment gate. Cast it only when life total, mana, draw access, and stack protection can support the pile; after it resolves, every draw/filter spell should serve the exact visible pile plan instead of general value.
- Use Intuition as an end-step setup spell when the opponent's choice cannot break the plan. Build piles around redundancy, recursion with Snapcaster Mage, Noxious Revival, Mystic Sanctuary, Unearth, or graveyard pressure only when those follow-up actions are legal or likely reachable. Card text check required for exact pile restrictions.
- Use Mystic Sanctuary and Noxious Revival to rebuy the exact card the next turn needs. Prioritize Demonic Tutor, Counterspell, Force of Negation, Toxic Deluge, Doomsday, or a lethal enabler; do not place a medium cantrip over immediate survival or combo protection.
- Use Lorien Revealed, Sink into Stupor, Waterlogged Teachings, Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Rakshasa's Bargain, Flow State, and Requiting Hex only according to legal actions and verified text. Card text check required; if the visible action is land access, removal, card selection, or card advantage, choose the mode that fixes the current bottleneck.
- Bottom redundant lands after the third or fourth mana only when colors, commander tax, Cryptic Command, Toxic Deluge recovery, and protected combo mana are already covered. Keep interaction-heavy hands supplied with blue mana, and keep black mana available for discard, tutors, and removal.

## Priority And Stack Rules
- Fight over cards that change the next two turns. Use Force Spike, Daze, Spell Pierce, Mana Leak, Lose Focus, Remand, Memory Lapse, Mystical Dispute, Counterspell, Force of Negation, and Cryptic Command on commanders, tutors, protected engines, lethal threats, planeswalkers, and hate that blocks Jace, Wielder of Mysteries or graveyard/top-library lines.
- Spend soft counters early while they are live. Force Spike, Daze, Spell Pierce, Mana Leak, Lose Focus, and Remand lose value as mana grows, so use them to preserve tempo or stop a key setup spell rather than saving them for a late stack fight they cannot win.
- Save hard or flexible answers for protected turns. Counterspell, Force of Negation, Cryptic Command, Abrupt Decay, Tear Asunder, Otawara, Soaring City, and Subtlety should cover the turn you cast Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Doomsday, Thought Lash, Demonic Consultation, or Tainted Pact when visible interaction would otherwise beat you.
- Let low-impact spells resolve when answering them exposes the combo. Do not counter replaceable cantrips, small creatures, or medium value spells if the opponent's hand, board, or commander indicates a more decisive spell is coming and life total is stable.
- Use narrow counters only on legal high-impact targets. Mental Misstep, Spell Snare, Stern Scolding, Wash Away, Mystical Dispute, and Subtlety require target checks; deploy them against cheap discard, efficient removal aimed at a key permanent, early commanders, or compact combo pieces when the rules engine confirms legality. Card text check required for Stern Scolding and Wash Away.
- Use instant-speed discard and flash threats in the opponent's draw step or end step when timing matters. Vendilion Clique can disrupt a newly drawn or protected card; Snapcaster Mage should usually wait until the target spell and mana plan are clear; Orcish Bowmasters timing is card text check required but should punish draw or protect life only through legal prompts.
- Use removal at the last safe moment unless waiting risks damage, mana, or protection. Fatal Push, Cut Down, Long Goodbye, Abrupt Decay, Murderous Cut, Tear Asunder, Toxic Deluge, Otawara, Soaring City, and Legolas's Quick Reflexes should answer hate, lethal pressure, or must-kill engines before combat damage or before the opponent untaps. Card text check required for Legolas's Quick Reflexes.
- Use graveyard actions with stack awareness. Cling to Dust, Deathrite Shaman, Noxious Revival, Snapcaster Mage, Mystic Sanctuary, Murderous Cut, Unearth, Barrowgoyf, and Abhorrent Oculus all care about graveyard contents; exile opposing recursion or combo fuel only after checking whether your own graveyard resources are more important.
- Hold priority around Jace, Wielder of Mysteries plus Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Thought Lash, or Doomsday lines when the engine offers legal follow-up actions. Do not pass through a winning stack window if the payoff, protection, and target/action text are already visible and legal.
- Decline optional payments or value triggers that consume protection mana before a decisive stack fight. Accept optional costs only when they do not prevent Counterspell, Spell Pierce, Daze, Force of Negation, Abrupt Decay, or the exact mana required for the committed combo line.

## Sideboard Map
- Version note: Policy-Compiled Guide 2026-06-17.

- Sideboard only for a verified matchup stage. Use the rules-engine game number, opponent archetype notes, visible cards, commander identity, and prior-game public information before choosing a plan; do not import every narrow card just because it is powerful. The deck remains a Glarb, Calamity's Augur Sultai interaction-combo deck first, with Jace, Wielder of Mysteries plus Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Doomsday, or Thought Lash as the highest-leverage finish when protected.

- Veil of Summer: bring in against blue or black interaction decks where counterspells, discard, targeted removal, or stack fights decide the Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Doomsday, Thought Lash, Demonic Consultation, or Tainted Pact turn. Its role is protection for a commitment turn first and value second. It is bad against creature-pressure decks with little blue or black text, artifact engines, and board states where green mana cannot be held without weakening Counterspell, Spell Pierce, Daze, or Abrupt Decay. Its role changes from defensive shield to proactive combo cover when the opponent has already shown discard or permission.

- Endurance: bring in against graveyard engines, self-mill, recursion, delve pressure, reanimation, and decks where library size or graveyard identity matters. Its role is instant-speed disruption that also leaves a body for blocking or pressure. It is bad when the opponent is not graveyard-reliant and your own graveyard resources from Snapcaster Mage, Noxious Revival, Mystic Sanctuary, Cling to Dust, Murderous Cut, Barrowgoyf, Abhorrent Oculus, or Unearth are more important. Its role changes to self-protection if your own library is under pressure from Thought Lash, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, or Doomsday lines, but only use that mode when legal actions and visible text support it.

- Force of Vigor: bring in against artifact or enchantment decks, prison pieces, hate permanents, equipment-heavy pressure, and permanent-based combo. Its role is zero- or low-tempo answer that protects combo access and keeps the battlefield from locking Jace, Wielder of Mysteries lines. It is bad against creature-only aggro, spell-heavy control, and opponents with too few legal targets. Its role changes from reactive answer to pre-combo clearing spell when the opponent has visible permanents that stop drawing, targeting, casting, graveyard use, or library manipulation.

- Hydroblast: bring in against red aggro, burn, red commanders, red combo engines, and red removal that threatens Glarb, Calamity's Augur, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Psychic Frog, Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, or early life total. Its role is cheap stack or permanent interaction that buys time for selection and combo assembly. It is bad against non-red decks, multicolor decks with only incidental red cards, and positions where a red target is unlikely before the game is decided. Its role changes from removal to protection if a red spell is aimed at the decisive permanent or a lethal stack exchange.

- Blue Elemental Blast: bring in under the same red-pressure rules as Hydroblast, with the same need for a verified red spell or red permanent axis. Its role is redundancy for one-mana red interaction in games where one cheap answer changes the clock. It is bad against non-red decks or when the opponent's red splash is too thin to justify a card that may sit idle. Its role changes to stack protection when a red answer is the most likely way the opponent can stop Jace, Wielder of Mysteries or a stabilizing removal spell.

- Nihil Spellbomb: bring in against graveyard recursion, flashback, reanimation, delve, escape-style engines, and opposing graveyard threats. Its role is low-cost graveyard pressure that can preserve mana for counters while threatening a full graveyard reset. It is bad when the opponent does not use the graveyard and when exiling graveyards would weaken your own Snapcaster Mage, Mystic Sanctuary, Noxious Revival, Cling to Dust, Murderous Cut, Barrowgoyf, Abhorrent Oculus, or Unearth more than it harms the opponent. Its role changes to cantrip or tempo bridge only if the rules engine presents a legal draw action and graveyard pressure is no longer relevant.

- Grafdigger's Cage: bring in against library-cast, graveyard-cast, reanimation, and creature-cheat strategies when its text is verified to stop the opponent more than you. Card text check required. It is bad when it blocks your own Snapcaster Mage, Unearth, graveyard recursion, or any legal top/library line you need more than it restricts the opponent. Its role changes from hate card to liability against fair control, so only include it when the opponent's engine is structurally exposed to the exact restriction.

- Pithing Needle: bring in against commanders, planeswalkers, lands, artifacts, or combo permanents with activated abilities that have already appeared or are strongly indicated by matchup notes. Its role is cheap answer to one named engine while preserving countermagic for the stack. It is bad when the opponent wins through spells, static abilities, combat stats, or unknown hidden cards that cannot be named responsibly. Its role changes from proactive lock piece to emergency answer after the opponent reveals a specific activated permanent; do not guess a name if public information is thin.

- Dauthi Voidwalker: bring in against graveyard decks, slow control, spell-combo, and decks where a disruptive threat can pressure while denying graveyard resources. Its role is both hate and clock, which matters when the combo plan needs time but cannot sit passively. It is bad against removal-heavy creature decks where a two-mana creature dies without affecting the stack, and against matchups where your own graveyard recursion is central. Its role changes to win-condition support if it creates a legal play-from-exile action, but use only rules-engine actions and verified card text.

- Culling Ritual: bring in against low-cost permanent swarms, artifact/enchantment clusters, token boards, and decks relying on many cheap nonland permanents. Its role is catch-up sweeper and mana swing. It is bad against large threats, spell-heavy control, and board states where it removes your Deathrite Shaman, Exploration, Nihil Spellbomb, Grafdigger's Cage, Pithing Needle, Dauthi Voidwalker, or other useful permanents more than opposing material. Its role changes from stabilizer to combo-enabler only when the mana burst and cleared battlefield are visible and legal; card text check required for exact mana and destruction conditions.

Balanced plan versus blue-black control or discard-permission combo
Side in: Veil of Summer; Dauthi Voidwalker; Nihil Spellbomb
Cut: Cut Down; Fatal Push; Toxic Deluge

- Plan rule: increase stack resilience and graveyard pressure while reducing creature-only answers when the opponent's visible plan is discard, counters, graveyard recursion, or slow combo. Keep Abrupt Decay, Tear Asunder, Counterspell, Force of Negation, Spell Pierce, Daze, and cheap discard because they fight the same decisive turns.

Balanced plan versus red aggro or red burn
Side in: Hydroblast; Blue Elemental Blast; Culling Ritual
Cut: Profane Tutor; Thought Lash; Gush

- Plan rule: lower slow or life-risky setup and add cheap red interaction plus a catch-up effect when the opponent is pressuring life through red creatures, red spells, or many cheap permanents. Keep Fatal Push, Cut Down, Long Goodbye, Abrupt Decay, Toxic Deluge, Orcish Bowmasters, Deathrite Shaman, and cheap counters because survival is the first gate.

Balanced plan versus red spell-combo or red tempo with blue or black interaction
Side in: Hydroblast; Blue Elemental Blast; Veil of Summer
Cut: Cut Down; Profane Tutor; Gush

- Plan rule: protect the stack from red interaction while respecting blue or black disruption. Keep Mental Misstep, Spell Pierce, Daze, Force Spike, Mana Leak, Counterspell, Force of Negation, and discard because the game is likely decided before expensive engines dominate.

Balanced plan versus artifact/enchantment prison or cheap permanent swarm
Side in: Force of Vigor; Culling Ritual; Pithing Needle
Cut: Stern Scolding; Force Spike; Memory Lapse

- Plan rule: prioritize permanent answers over soft permission when the opponent's board can invalidate hand interaction. Keep Tear Asunder, Abrupt Decay, Otawara, Soaring City, Toxic Deluge, and Demonic Tutor because they answer locks or find answers.

Balanced plan versus graveyard-centric creature or combo deck
Side in: Endurance; Nihil Spellbomb; Grafdigger's Cage; Dauthi Voidwalker
Cut: Profane Tutor; Gush; Flow State; Requiting Hex

- Plan rule: add overlapping graveyard hate only when the opponent's public plan depends on graveyard access. Re-evaluate Grafdigger's Cage carefully if your legal line needs Snapcaster Mage, Unearth, Mystic Sanctuary, or graveyard-cast actions.

Balanced plan versus activated commander or planeswalker engine
Side in: Pithing Needle; Veil of Summer; Force of Vigor
Cut: Cut Down; Stern Scolding; Requiting Hex

- Plan rule: answer the revealed activated engine while protecting the combo turn from discard, counters, or targeted interaction. Keep Abrupt Decay, Tear Asunder, Otawara, Soaring City, and counterspells because Pithing Needle alone may not cover static abilities, triggered abilities, or removal pointed at Jace, Wielder of Mysteries.

- Archetype rule versus fast creature decks: add role cards only when the axis is verified: Hydroblast and Blue Elemental Blast for red, Culling Ritual for cheap permanent swarms, Endurance for graveyard-linked pressure. Reduce main-deck emphasis on slow delayed tutors, fragile library-risk engines, and expensive card draw that does not affect the board before combat.

- Archetype rule versus control mirrors: add role cards such as Veil of Summer, Dauthi Voidwalker, Pithing Needle, and Nihil Spellbomb when graveyards, planeswalkers, commanders, or activated engines matter. Reduce main-deck emphasis on narrow creature removal and sweepers with few targets.

- Archetype rule versus permanent-based combo: add Force of Vigor, Pithing Needle, Culling Ritual, or Grafdigger's Cage when their exact restrictions line up with revealed cards. Reduce main-deck emphasis on soft counters that are already taxed by extra mana and removal that cannot touch the engine.

- Archetype rule versus graveyard combo: add Endurance, Nihil Spellbomb, Grafdigger's Cage, and Dauthi Voidwalker according to how much graveyard access the opponent needs. Preserve enough blue interaction to stop the spell that converts the graveyard action into a win.

- Sideboard discipline: never add a hate card that blocks your own chosen win route more than the opponent's route. Check whether Jace, Wielder of Mysteries plus Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Thought Lash, or Doomsday is still the best plan after sideboarding, then choose sideboard cards that protect or clear that route rather than diluting it.

## Matchup Guidance
- Aggro: prioritize survival before combo speed. Keep hands with cheap interaction, stable blue-black mana, and at least one early play such as Fatal Push, Cut Down, Long Goodbye, Stern Scolding, Force Spike, Mental Misstep, Deathrite Shaman, Orcish Bowmasters, or Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student. Use Thoughtseize, Duress, and Inquisition of Kozilek to take the fastest damage source or the spell that protects the board. Commit Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Thought Lash, Doomsday, Demonic Consultation, or Tainted Pact only after the battlefield is contained or the combo is immediately legal and protected. Role cards are Hydroblast, Blue Elemental Blast, Culling Ritual, and sometimes Endurance when red damage, many cheap permanents, or graveyard pressure are confirmed. Do not dilute the deck with narrow hate if the opponent is simply attacking.

- Control: treat the game as an information and permission fight. Lead with Gitaxian Probe, Thoughtseize, Duress, Inquisition of Kozilek, Vendilion Clique, Ponder, Preordain, Brainstorm, Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Waterlogged Teachings, and Lorien Revealed to sculpt a protected window. Preserve Counterspell, Mana Leak, Spell Pierce, Daze, Remand, Memory Lapse, Force of Negation, Mystical Dispute, Lose Focus, Wash Away, Cryptic Command, and Subtlety for cards that stop the combo, resolve a superior engine, or force a dangerous tap-low turn. Glarb, Calamity's Augur should be treated as a card-flow engine only when legal actions and card text make that role visible. Role cards are Veil of Summer, Dauthi Voidwalker, Nihil Spellbomb, and Pithing Needle when the opponent has graveyard value, planeswalkers, activated engines, discard, or permission. Reduce narrow creature removal only after targets are visibly sparse.

- Combo: become the lower-curve disruption deck unless your own deterministic line is already assembled. Use discard before countermagic when possible, because public hand information improves every later priority decision. Demonic Tutor, Profane Tutor, Intuition, Mystical Dispute, Force of Negation, Counterspell, Spell Pierce, Daze, Mana Leak, Thoughtseize, Duress, Inquisition of Kozilek, Vendilion Clique, and Snapcaster Mage are the key cards for forcing one decisive turn. Do not cast Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Doomsday, or Thought Lash merely for velocity unless the legal action text, visible library context, and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries plan support it. Role cards are Veil of Summer, Dauthi Voidwalker, Grafdigger's Cage, Pithing Needle, Nihil Spellbomb, Endurance, and Force of Vigor only when their exact restrictions match the opposing engine.

- Tempo: defend mana efficiency and avoid exposing expensive engines into open pressure. Hands with one-land cantrips are keepable only when Ponder, Preordain, Brainstorm, Gitaxian Probe, or Lorien Revealed can legally find mana and the opponent is not presenting a fast clock. Fight early threats with Fatal Push, Cut Down, Long Goodbye, Stern Scolding, Abrupt Decay, Orcish Bowmasters, Deathrite Shaman, and Subtlety, then protect a swing turn with Daze, Force Spike, Spell Pierce, Mental Misstep, Mana Leak, Remand, and Memory Lapse. Veil of Summer, Hydroblast, and Blue Elemental Blast are role cards only when the opposing colors make them live. Avoid trimming too many cheap plays; Commander-family tempo games punish clunky hands.

- Midrange: trade resources early, then convert selection into a protected combo or planeswalker-quality endgame. Oko, Thief of Crowns, Psychic Frog, Barrowgoyf, Abhorrent Oculus, Snapcaster Mage, Orcish Bowmasters, Deathrite Shaman, and Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student are the pressure-and-value cards, but card text check required for the newer threats before relying on exact combat or graveyard assumptions. Use Abrupt Decay, Tear Asunder, Fatal Push, Murderous Cut, Long Goodbye, Cut Down, Toxic Deluge, and Requiting Hex to stop permanents that pressure life or lock the combo. Endurance, Dauthi Voidwalker, Nihil Spellbomb, Pithing Needle, and Veil of Summer are role cards depending on graveyard, activated ability, discard, and removal visibility.

- Big mana: pressure their setup with discard and punish payoff turns with hard permission. Thoughtseize, Duress, Inquisition of Kozilek, Vendilion Clique, Force Spike, Spell Pierce, Daze, Mana Leak, Counterspell, Force of Negation, Cryptic Command, Memory Lapse, Remand, and Lose Focus should be aimed at ramp payoffs, mass card advantage, or any spell that invalidates Jace, Wielder of Mysteries. Use Demonic Tutor to find the fastest protected combo piece rather than incremental answers once the opponent's mana advantage is visible. Pithing Needle, Force of Vigor, and Veil of Summer are role cards if activated engines, noncreature permanents, discard, or counter fights are confirmed.

- Graveyard: define whose graveyard matters before firing hate. Cling to Dust, Deathrite Shaman, Noxious Revival, Murderous Cut, Snapcaster Mage, Mystic Sanctuary, Unearth, Barrowgoyf, Abhorrent Oculus, Endurance, Nihil Spellbomb, Grafdigger's Cage, and Dauthi Voidwalker can conflict with one another, so choose the graveyard plan from visible state. Use hate before the opponent reaches a decisive graveyard action, but keep countermagic for the spell that converts the graveyard into a win. Endurance, Nihil Spellbomb, Grafdigger's Cage, and Dauthi Voidwalker are strong role cards, but do not bring all of them when one or two pieces plus pressure is enough.

- Artifact/enchantment: preserve Abrupt Decay, Tear Asunder, Otawara, Soaring City, Force of Vigor, Culling Ritual, and Pithing Needle for permanents that constrain actions, mana, or combo execution. Do not spend Demonic Tutor on a combo piece if a revealed permanent already prevents the combo from functioning. Toxic Deluge is a creature answer, not a default answer to noncreature locks. Force of Vigor, Pithing Needle, and Culling Ritual are role cards; Grafdigger's Cage is only for exact library or graveyard restrictions that punish the opponent more than this deck.

- Go-wide: value sweepers and scalable answers above one-for-one tempo. Toxic Deluge and Culling Ritual are the stabilizing cards, while Fatal Push, Cut Down, Long Goodbye, Abrupt Decay, Orcish Bowmasters, and Deathrite Shaman should buy time until the wider reset is legal. Avoid needless attacks with Psychic Frog, Barrowgoyf, Abhorrent Oculus, Snapcaster Mage, or Glarb, Calamity's Augur if they are needed as blockers or as engine material. Hydroblast and Blue Elemental Blast matter against red swarms; Endurance matters only when the swarm is graveyard-linked.

- Single-threat: answer the threat cleanly or race with protected combo, rather than trading inefficiently into protection. Fatal Push, Cut Down, Long Goodbye, Abrupt Decay, Tear Asunder, Murderous Cut, Subtlety, Cryptic Command, Otawara, Soaring City, and Requiting Hex are the key answer names, but Requiting Hex needs card text confirmation before exact targeting assumptions. Use discard to clear protection, then resolve the answer in the safest priority window. Pithing Needle is a role card when the commander or threat relies on an activated ability; Veil of Summer matters when discard or targeted interaction is central.

- Burn: treat life as the primary resource and delay life-costly card draw unless it wins or stabilizes immediately. Fetch and shock decisions must respect visible damage pace; prefer lands and pathways that keep Counterspell, Fatal Push, Cut Down, Hydroblast, Blue Elemental Blast, Spell Pierce, Daze, Force Spike, and Deathrite Shaman active. Thoughtseize is still playable when it removes more damage than it costs, but do not fire it automatically. Hydroblast and Blue Elemental Blast are the cleanest role cards; Veil of Summer is only for black or blue disruption paired with the burn plan.

- Removal-heavy: force the opponent to answer the wrong axis. Do not rely on Deathrite Shaman, Snapcaster Mage, Orcish Bowmasters, Psychic Frog, Barrowgoyf, Abhorrent Oculus, Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, Vendilion Clique, or Glarb, Calamity's Augur as the only plan if the opponent is trading efficiently with creatures. Use them to draw removal, pressure planeswalkers, or bridge into Jace, Wielder of Mysteries plus Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Doomsday, or Thought Lash. Veil of Summer, Dauthi Voidwalker, and Nihil Spellbomb are role cards when removal is paired with discard, recursion, or graveyard value.

## Specific Matchup Notes

- General/archetype-only: use these notes as matchup priors, and let revealed cards, legal actions, commander identity, and public board state override assumptions. Prioritize survival and information before committing to Jace, Wielder of Mysteries with Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Doomsday, or Thought Lash. Sideboard cards should sharpen the existing plan, not turn the deck into a pile of narrow answers.

- Fast red or burn: protect life total first, because fetch-shock sequencing, Thoughtseize, Toxic Deluge, Gitaxian Probe, Gush, and Rakshasa's Bargain can make the opponent's clock shorter than the combo clock. Hydroblast and Blue Elemental Blast are primary role cards; Culling Ritual matters if the red deck also presents many cheap permanents; Veil of Summer is only for black or blue disruption paired with the red plan. Priority targets: direct damage that changes the lethal turn, aggressive one-drops, and stack fights over Jace, Wielder of Mysteries.

- Blue tempo or permission: trade cheap interaction early, but avoid walking Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, or Doomsday into open mana without discard, a counter backup, or a forced response window. Veil of Summer is the cleanest role card; Hydroblast and Blue Elemental Blast matter only when red is a real part of the deck. Priority targets: opposing counters, flash threats, and tempo plays that strand Glarb, Calamity's Augur or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries.

- Black discard or removal control: protect the commitment turn and avoid relying on a single creature engine. Veil of Summer is a role card when green mana can be preserved; Dauthi Voidwalker and Nihil Spellbomb matter when removal is paired with graveyard value. Priority targets: discard that breaks the combo, removal aimed at Jace, Wielder of Mysteries support turns, and recursive threats that outlast one-for-one interaction.

- Creature pressure: stabilize with Fatal Push, Cut Down, Long Goodbye, Abrupt Decay, Murderous Cut, Subtlety, Toxic Deluge, and Requiting Hex before spending turns on slow selection. Culling Ritual is a role card against multiple cheap permanents, Endurance if pressure is graveyard-linked, and Pithing Needle if an activated commander or permanent is driving damage. Priority targets: lethal attackers, snowballing commanders, and permanents that make Toxic Deluge insufficient.

- Graveyard decks: decide whether your graveyard or the opponent's graveyard matters more before using Cling to Dust, Deathrite Shaman, Noxious Revival, Murderous Cut, Mystic Sanctuary, Snapcaster Mage, Unearth, Endurance, Nihil Spellbomb, Grafdigger's Cage, or Dauthi Voidwalker. Endurance, Nihil Spellbomb, Grafdigger's Cage, and Dauthi Voidwalker are role cards, but choose the mix carefully so your own recursion and combo protection remain functional. Priority targets: reanimation spells, graveyard payoffs, escape-style resource engines, and effects that beat a single hate piece.

- Permanent engines: answer the engine before tutoring for a fragile combo if the visible permanent limits casting, targeting, graveyard access, activated abilities, or library manipulation. Force of Vigor, Pithing Needle, and Culling Ritual are role cards; Grafdigger's Cage applies only when its exact restriction is verified. Priority targets: hate permanents, planeswalkers that invalidate one-for-one interaction, mana engines, and activated abilities that stop Jace, Wielder of Mysteries from winning.

- Spell combo: fight on information, mana, and stack timing. Thoughtseize, Duress, Inquisition of Kozilek, Vendilion Clique, Spell Pierce, Daze, Mana Leak, Counterspell, Force of Negation, Mystical Dispute, Lose Focus, and Cryptic Command should line up against the spell that actually wins. Veil of Summer, Dauthi Voidwalker, Nihil Spellbomb, Grafdigger's Cage, Pithing Needle, and Force of Vigor are role cards only when they attack the verified engine rather than merely looking generically powerful.

- Big mana and ramp commanders: use discard and soft permission early, then shift into hard permission or a protected combo before their mana invalidates one-for-one exchanges. Pithing Needle is a role card for activated ramp engines or commanders, Force of Vigor for noncreature mana or lock permanents, and Veil of Summer for discard/counter fights. Priority targets: payoff spells, mana engines that jump turns, and permanents that blank Jace, Wielder of Mysteries.

- Go-wide or token decks: value Toxic Deluge and Culling Ritual above narrow tempo trades. Fatal Push, Cut Down, Long Goodbye, Abrupt Decay, Orcish Bowmasters, and Deathrite Shaman should buy time until the reset is legal. Hydroblast and Blue Elemental Blast matter when the wide board is red; Endurance matters when the board is powered by graveyard recursion. Priority targets: anthem effects, token engines, lethal attack math, and cards that rebuild immediately after a sweeper.

- Single-threat or Voltron-style decks: answer the threat cleanly, stop the protection spell, or race with a protected combo. Fatal Push, Cut Down, Long Goodbye, Abrupt Decay, Tear Asunder, Murderous Cut, Subtlety, Cryptic Command, Otawara, Soaring City, and Requiting Hex are the main answers. Pithing Needle matters when the commander or equipment engine uses activated abilities; Force of Vigor matters against equipment or aura engines; Veil of Summer matters against targeted protection and discard in the right colors. Priority targets: the threat itself, protection that beats your answer, and activated abilities that turn a fair creature into lethal pressure.

## Risk Summary

- Mana risk: the deck needs early blue and black while still supporting green for Abrupt Decay, Oko, Thief of Crowns, Deathrite Shaman, Tear Asunder, Legolas's Quick Reflexes, and sideboard cards. Do not keep hands that cast cantrips but cannot interact, and do not fetch shock lands casually when burn or combat pressure is visible.

- Matchup risk: the list can misidentify its role because it contains combo, control, and creature-pressure tools. Choose the role from the visible clock: race with combo when waiting gets worse, control the board when life is under pressure, and use Glarb, Calamity's Augur or selection only when the turn cycle is not already lethal.

- Draw risk: Ponder, Preordain, Brainstorm, Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Flow State, Lorien Revealed, Waterlogged Teachings, Gush, and Gitaxian Probe can spend mana or life without changing the board. Under pressure, select toward exact interaction or a protected win, not generic card quantity.

- Over-sideboarding risk: adding too many narrow role cards can dilute the Jace, Wielder of Mysteries plus library-exile plan and reduce cheap interaction density. Add role cards only when revealed colors, commanders, permanents, or graveyard use make Veil of Summer, Endurance, Force of Vigor, Hydroblast, Blue Elemental Blast, Nihil Spellbomb, Grafdigger's Cage, Pithing Needle, Dauthi Voidwalker, or Culling Ritual live.

- Graveyard risk: your own Cling to Dust, Deathrite Shaman, Murderous Cut, Endurance, Nihil Spellbomb, Grafdigger's Cage, and Dauthi Voidwalker can weaken Snapcaster Mage, Mystic Sanctuary, Unearth, Barrowgoyf, Abhorrent Oculus, or Noxious Revival lines. Check visible graveyard dependencies before activating hate or paying delve.

- Sweeper/removal risk: Toxic Deluge can solve combat but may put life below burn range, while Fatal Push, Cut Down, Long Goodbye, Abrupt Decay, Tear Asunder, Murderous Cut, Subtlety, and Requiting Hex are finite. Spend one-for-one answers on threats that change the clock, lock the combo, or demand immediate stack protection.

- Closer risk: Jace, Wielder of Mysteries is the cleanest deterministic finish but dies to removal, counters, and timing errors. Commit with Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Doomsday, or Thought Lash only after checking legal interaction, available mana, known disruption, and whether passing gives the opponent a better answer window.

- Interaction risk: soft counters lose value as mana grows, so Force Spike, Spell Pierce, Daze, Mana Leak, Lose Focus, Memory Lapse, Remand, Wash Away, Mystical Dispute, Spell Snare, and Stern Scolding need careful timing. Preserve Counterspell, Force of Negation, Cryptic Command, Subtlety, and discard for decisive stack fights when possible.

- Sequencing risk: Brainstorm, fetch lands, Mystic Sanctuary, Noxious Revival, Gush, Exploration, Glarb, Calamity's Augur, and top-library effects can conflict if used in the wrong order. Resolve information first when it changes a land, tutor, or combo commitment, then use shuffle or top-card manipulation only when it improves the current legal line.

## Test Feedback Checklist

- Deciding factor: identify whether the game was decided by protected combo execution, early creature pressure, mana denial, a counter war, a planeswalker/permanent engine, graveyard access, or failure to close after stabilization.

- Mulligans: record whether the opening hand had early blue and black, one cheap interaction piece, and either selection or a path to Glarb, Calamity's Augur, Demonic Tutor, Profane Tutor, Doomsday, Tainted Pact, Demonic Consultation, Thought Lash, or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries.

- Mana: note every loss where Watery Grave, Overgrown Tomb, Breeding Pool, Bayou, Tropical Island, Underground Sea, Command Tower, Reflecting Pool, Sunken Ruins, Clearwater Pathway, Gloomlake Verge, Willowrush Verge, or fetch land sequencing prevented holding up interaction.

- Life total: flag games where Thoughtseize, Gitaxian Probe, Gush, Toxic Deluge, fetch-shock choices, or Rakshasa's Bargain shortened the opponent's clock enough to change the correct role.

- Velocity: ask whether Ponder, Preordain, Brainstorm, Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Flow State, Lorien Revealed, Waterlogged Teachings, Gush, or Gitaxian Probe found a needed resource or merely spent time while pressure grew.

- Engine use: record whether Glarb, Calamity's Augur, Deathrite Shaman, Oko, Thief of Crowns, Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, Psychic Frog, Barrowgoyf, Abhorrent Oculus, or Mystic Sanctuary generated meaningful advantage before the game ended.

- Removal: check whether Fatal Push, Cut Down, Long Goodbye, Abrupt Decay, Tear Asunder, Murderous Cut, Subtlety, Requiting Hex, Legolas's Quick Reflexes, and Toxic Deluge were spent on threats that changed the clock or protected the combo.

- Stack discipline: review every pass with Force Spike, Mental Misstep, Spell Snare, Spell Pierce, Daze, Mana Leak, Lose Focus, Memory Lapse, Remand, Counterspell, Force of Negation, Mystical Dispute, Wash Away, Cryptic Command, or Subtlety available.

- Combo closing: verify whether Jace, Wielder of Mysteries was protected before Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Doomsday, or Thought Lash committed the library-exile line.

- Sideboard performance: record which of Veil of Summer, Endurance, Force of Vigor, Hydroblast, Blue Elemental Blast, Nihil Spellbomb, Grafdigger's Cage, Pithing Needle, Dauthi Voidwalker, and Culling Ritual was live, stranded, or too late.

- Role accuracy: mark whether the pilot correctly chose control, combo-race, or tap-out engine mode based on visible clock, known disruption, and legal action output.

- Mistakes: capture missequenced Brainstorm/fetch decisions, Mystic Sanctuary or Noxious Revival timing errors, unnecessary graveyard exile, missed commander windows, and counterspells spent before a decisive fight.

- Stranded cards: list cards that remained unusable because of color, mana value, opposing permanent type, graveyard state, or timing restriction.

- Overperformers and underperformers: name the exact cards that won games, stabilized losing boards, failed in hand, or conflicted with the combo-control plan.

## First Tuning Questions

- Mana base: does the deck need more reliable early blue and black access, or were losses mainly caused by sequencing lands such as Mystic Sanctuary, Mistrise Village, Horizon of Progress, Multiversal Passage, and tapped duals incorrectly?

- Life management: are Thoughtseize, Gitaxian Probe, Gush, Toxic Deluge, and shock-land lines too costly against fast red or creature pressure, or did they still buy enough information and tempo to justify the life payments?

- Combo density: does the Jace, Wielder of Mysteries package with Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Doomsday, and Thought Lash close often enough, or does the list need more protection and fewer slow advantage cards?

- Commander role: is Glarb, Calamity's Augur functioning as a real setup engine, or is commander deployment too slow against the tested aggro, tempo, and control fields?

- Interaction mix: are Force Spike, Spell Pierce, Daze, Mana Leak, Lose Focus, Memory Lapse, Remand, Mystical Dispute, Wash Away, Spell Snare, and Stern Scolding expiring too quickly, or are they essential to forcing early protected windows?

- Removal mix: are Fatal Push, Cut Down, Long Goodbye, Abrupt Decay, Tear Asunder, Murderous Cut, Requiting Hex, Subtlety, and Toxic Deluge enough against commanders and creature engines, or is the plan too dependent on drawing the exact answer?

- Graveyard conflict: are Cling to Dust, Deathrite Shaman, Murderous Cut, Nihil Spellbomb, Grafdigger's Cage, Dauthi Voidwalker, and Endurance undermining Snapcaster Mage, Mystic Sanctuary, Unearth, Barrowgoyf, Abhorrent Oculus, or Noxious Revival too often?

- Sideboard allocation: should the sideboard lean harder toward red interaction with Hydroblast and Blue Elemental Blast, graveyard pressure with Endurance, Nihil Spellbomb, Grafdigger's Cage, and Dauthi Voidwalker, or permanent cleanup with Force of Vigor, Pithing Needle, and Culling Ritual?

- Aggro plan: does the deck stabilize consistently with cheap removal plus Toxic Deluge, or should the post-board plan reduce main-deck emphasis on slow selection when facing visible fast clocks?

- Control plan: does Veil of Summer plus discard and counters produce enough protected combo turns, or do games stall because closers are too fragile or too mana-intensive?

- Role conflict: are Oko, Thief of Crowns, Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, Psychic Frog, Vendilion Clique, Orcish Bowmasters, Barrowgoyf, and Abhorrent Oculus winning fair games, or are they distracting from a faster protected Jace, Wielder of Mysteries finish?

## Veles Tactical Policy

### Policy: Opening Hand Role Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: mulligan; pregame
Cards: Glarb, Calamity's Augur; Demonic Tutor; Profane Tutor; Doomsday; Tainted Pact; Demonic Consultation; Thought Lash; Jace, Wielder of Mysteries; Ponder; Preordain; Brainstorm; Force Spike; Spell Pierce; Fatal Push; Thoughtseize; Inquisition of Kozilek; Duress
Phase windows: opening hand; mulligan decisions
Runtime cues: prompt:mulligan; action:keep; action:mulligan
Use when: deciding whether a hand can play an early interactive game or assemble a protected combo route.
Avoid when: the hand lacks colored mana actions or the rules engine shows an unkeepable hand state.
Instructions: Keep hands with early blue or black, at least two mana sources or one source plus strong selection, and either cheap interaction or a tutor/combo path. Ship hands that cannot cast early spells, have only reactive cards with no mana, or rely on naked Jace, Wielder of Mysteries plus library-exile effects without protection.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: First Engine Permanent Setup
Priority: Medium
Decision families: mana; priority; selection
Cards: Glarb, Calamity's Augur; Deathrite Shaman; Exploration; Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student; Psychic Frog; Oko, Thief of Crowns
Phase windows: early main phases; post-selection main phase
Runtime cues: action:cast Glarb, Calamity's Augur; action:cast Deathrite Shaman; action:cast Exploration; action:cast Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student; action:cast Psychic Frog; action:cast Oko, Thief of Crowns
Use when: choosing whether to commit the first permanent that improves mana, cards, board, or top-library access.
Avoid when: visible pressure requires immediate removal, or tapping low shields exposes an unprotected combo card to known interaction.
Instructions: Prefer Deathrite Shaman or Exploration when they accelerate holding up interaction; prefer Glarb, Calamity's Augur when top-library access matters and the board is not forcing a defensive spell; deploy Oko, Thief of Crowns or Psychic Frog when a fair-game pivot is better than waiting.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Early Color And Fetch Sequencing
Priority: Medium
Decision families: mana; selection
Cards: Watery Grave; Overgrown Tomb; Breeding Pool; Bayou; Tropical Island; Underground Sea; Command Tower; Reflecting Pool; Sunken Ruins; Clearwater Pathway; Gloomlake Verge; Willowrush Verge; Marsh Flats; Verdant Catacombs; Bloodstained Mire; Windswept Heath; Scalding Tarn; Prismatic Vista; Misty Rainforest; Wooded Foothills; Flooded Strand; Polluted Delta
Phase windows: precombat main; end step before untap
Runtime cues: action:play; action:activate
Use when: selecting land drops or fetch targets before casting selection, discard, removal, or counters.
Avoid when: a known top card, Mystic Sanctuary line, or life-total constraint changes the land decision.
Instructions: Prioritize blue-black access first, add green when Abrupt Decay, Oko, Thief of Crowns, Deathrite Shaman, Tear Asunder, Legolas's Quick Reflexes, or sideboard green cards are relevant, and preserve fetch lands for Brainstorm, Mystic Sanctuary, or top-card fixes when immediate color needs are already met.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Deterministic Cast Free Information
Priority: Low
Decision families: selection; priority
Cards: Gitaxian Probe
Phase windows: precombat main; before combo commitment
Runtime cues: action:cast Gitaxian Probe
Use when: Gitaxian Probe is a legal action, the life payment or mana payment is legal, and the next decision depends on opponent hand information.
Avoid when: life total is visibly low enough that paying life changes a lethal clock and mana payment is available or the spell is not legal.
Instructions: Use Gitaxian Probe before discard, tutor, or combo commitment so later actions are based on revealed information; do not assume unrevealed cards after the probe resolves.
Pilot skill floor: low
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Protected Library-Exile Combo Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: priority; interaction; selection
Cards: Jace, Wielder of Mysteries; Demonic Consultation; Tainted Pact; Doomsday; Thought Lash; Force of Negation; Daze; Counterspell; Spell Pierce; Force Spike; Mana Leak; Lose Focus; Memory Lapse; Remand; Veil of Summer
Phase windows: main phase with priority; opponent end step setup; stack fight
Runtime cues: action:cast Jace, Wielder of Mysteries; action:cast Demonic Consultation; action:cast Tainted Pact; action:cast Doomsday; action:activate Thought Lash
Use when: deciding whether to start a line that can empty or reorder the library toward Jace, Wielder of Mysteries.
Avoid when: Jace, Wielder of Mysteries is absent from battlefield or hand route, protection is insufficient against known interaction, or a visible lethal attack must be answered first.
Instructions: Commit only when the legal action set shows the payoff and enabler route, mana supports the sequence, and available protection can fight the known or likely disruption. Treat naked Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Thought Lash, or Doomsday as a loss-risk commitment unless the engine confirms the payoff condition is already secured.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Deterministic Target Self For Library Combo
Priority: Medium
Decision families: selection
Cards: Demonic Consultation; Tainted Pact; Thought Lash; Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
Phase windows: combo execution prompts
Runtime cues: action:target self Demonic Consultation; action:target self Tainted Pact; action:target self Thought Lash
Use when: the combo commitment has already been selected, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries is visible as the payoff, and the legal action text offers only self as the combo-relevant player target.
Avoid when: target choices include multiple strategic player or object options not already determined by the selected line.
Instructions: Choose the self-targeting action for the library-exile route after the prior policy has authorized the commitment.
Pilot skill floor: low
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Doomsday Pile Commitment
Priority: High
Decision families: selection; priority
Cards: Doomsday; Jace, Wielder of Mysteries; Brainstorm; Ponder; Preordain; Gush; Gitaxian Probe; Thought Lash; Demonic Consultation; Tainted Pact
Phase windows: main phase; post-discard protected turn
Runtime cues: action:cast Doomsday; prompt:choose cards; prompt:order cards
Use when: the rules engine asks whether to cast Doomsday or choose/order cards for its resolution.
Avoid when: life total cannot absorb the line, visible pressure kills before the payoff, or required draw/access cards are unavailable.
Instructions: Treat Doomsday as a commitment gate, not routine selection. Build only from visible legal candidates and known zones; if exact pile text or card availability is unclear, require light-model reasoning and mark Card text check required for unfamiliar new cards in candidate choices.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Tutor Choice Gate
Priority: Medium
Decision families: selection
Cards: Demonic Tutor; Profane Tutor; Intuition; Waterlogged Teachings; Lorien Revealed; Mystical Dispute
Phase windows: main phase tutor windows; end step instant tutor windows
Runtime cues: action:cast Demonic Tutor; action:cast Profane Tutor; action:cast Intuition; action:cast Waterlogged Teachings; action:cast Lorien Revealed
Use when: choosing a card, pile, mode, or search result from library or revealed candidates.
Avoid when: the target is not visible in legal choices or the engine presents an unfamiliar card text needed to evaluate the line.
Instructions: Prioritize missing combo payoff or protection when close to winning, early land or color access when constrained, and removal or sweeper when the visible board clock is decisive. Intuition piles require light-model reasoning because the opponent's choice changes the result.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Cantrip And Top-Deck Discipline
Priority: Medium
Decision families: selection; mana
Cards: Ponder; Preordain; Brainstorm; Stock Up; Consult the Star Charts; Flow State; Gush; Mystic Sanctuary; Noxious Revival; Glarb, Calamity's Augur
Phase windows: early main phase; end step; combo setup turn
Runtime cues: action:cast Ponder; action:cast Preordain; action:cast Brainstorm; action:cast Stock Up; action:cast Consult the Star Charts; action:cast Flow State; action:cast Gush
Use when: ordering draw, top-library manipulation, or graveyard-to-top effects.
Avoid when: the action spends mana needed for live permission or removal in the same window.
Instructions: Use selection before land drops when it can find mana; use Brainstorm with shuffle or known top-card plans; use Mystic Sanctuary and Noxious Revival only when the returned card is immediately useful or protected. Card text check required for Consult the Star Charts and Flow State.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Permission Spending Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: interaction; priority
Cards: Force Spike; Mental Misstep; Spell Snare; Spell Pierce; Daze; Mana Leak; Lose Focus; Memory Lapse; Remand; Counterspell; Force of Negation; Mystical Dispute; Wash Away; Cryptic Command; Subtlety; Veil of Summer
Phase windows: opponent spell on stack; combo protection stack fight; end step
Runtime cues: action:cast Force Spike; action:cast Spell Pierce; action:cast Counterspell; action:cast Force of Negation; action:cast Cryptic Command; action:cast Veil of Summer
Use when: deciding whether to counter, bounce, protect, or pass against a stack object.
Avoid when: the spell is low impact, the counter is likely to expire only later if unused but a bigger known threat is pending, or the legal action text does not identify the stack object.
Instructions: Spend soft counters early on mana development, commanders, hate, or pressure that changes the clock; reserve hard counters and Veil of Summer for combo fights, must-answer permanents, and discard/counter wars. Do not counter a spell only because mana is available.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Removal And Sweeper Triage
Priority: High
Decision families: interaction; combat; priority
Cards: Fatal Push; Cut Down; Long Goodbye; Abrupt Decay; Tear Asunder; Murderous Cut; Requiting Hex; Legolas's Quick Reflexes; Toxic Deluge; Subtlety; Oko, Thief of Crowns
Phase windows: opponent combat; opponent end step; own main phase before combo
Runtime cues: action:cast Fatal Push; action:cast Cut Down; action:cast Abrupt Decay; action:cast Toxic Deluge; action:cast Murderous Cut; action:cast Legolas's Quick Reflexes
Use when: a visible creature, permanent, commander, or hate piece changes survival, combo legality, or the next combat clock.
Avoid when: the target is merely inconvenient and a more decisive visible threat or hate permanent is present.
Instructions: Kill hate that stops Jace, Wielder of Mysteries or library-exile lines before committing; kill creatures that create lethal or two-turn clocks; use Toxic Deluge when single-target removal cannot stabilize and life payment still leaves survival. Card text check required for Requiting Hex.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Discard Timing And Target Choice
Priority: Medium
Decision families: interaction; selection
Cards: Thoughtseize; Inquisition of Kozilek; Duress; Vendilion Clique; Orcish Bowmasters
Phase windows: early main phase; pre-combo main phase; opponent draw step when legal
Runtime cues: action:cast Thoughtseize; action:cast Inquisition of Kozilek; action:cast Duress; action:target opponent Vendilion Clique
Use when: hand information or discard can clear a path, protect a combo, or remove a threat that beats current interaction.
Avoid when: life loss from Thoughtseize changes visible lethal math or the opponent hand is already known to contain no legal impactful target.
Instructions: Take the card that stops the current plan first, then the fastest threat, then the highest-leverage card advantage piece. Use Vendilion Clique as disruption before a protected turn or as pressure only when interaction is already covered.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Graveyard Resource Conflict
Priority: Medium
Decision families: interaction; selection; mana
Cards: Deathrite Shaman; Cling to Dust; Murderous Cut; Snapcaster Mage; Mystic Sanctuary; Unearth; Noxious Revival; Barrowgoyf; Abhorrent Oculus; Endurance; Nihil Spellbomb; Grafdigger's Cage; Dauthi Voidwalker
Phase windows: main phase; end step; opposing graveyard action on stack
Runtime cues: action:activate Deathrite Shaman; action:cast Cling to Dust; action:cast Murderous Cut; action:cast Snapcaster Mage; action:cast Endurance; action:activate Nihil Spellbomb
Use when: graveyard cards are costs, threats, recursion targets, or opposing resources.
Avoid when: exiling your own graveyard turns off a visible Snapcaster Mage, Mystic Sanctuary, Unearth, Barrowgoyf, or Abhorrent Oculus line without stopping an opposing payoff.
Instructions: Treat graveyard exile as interaction, not free value. Preserve your own high-leverage spells for Snapcaster Mage, Mystic Sanctuary, or Noxious Revival unless the exile action prevents a larger opposing play or enables immediate survival.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Fair Combat Pivot
Priority: Medium
Decision families: combat; interaction
Cards: Psychic Frog; Orcish Bowmasters; Vendilion Clique; Barrowgoyf; Abhorrent Oculus; Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student; Deathrite Shaman; Oko, Thief of Crowns; Subtlety
Phase windows: declare attackers; declare blockers; precombat main; end step flash windows
Runtime cues: prompt:declare attackers; prompt:declare blockers; action:attack; action:block
Use when: the deck is winning or stabilizing through creatures and planeswalker pressure rather than immediate combo.
Avoid when: attacking exposes needed blockers under a short clock or when holding creatures back protects Jace, Wielder of Mysteries setup.
Instructions: Attack when damage advances a real clock and does not sacrifice defensive necessity; block to preserve life against fast commanders and creature decks; prefer keeping Deathrite Shaman untapped when mana or graveyard interaction is more important than combat damage.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Emergency Stabilization
Priority: High
Decision families: combat; interaction; mana
Cards: Toxic Deluge; Fatal Push; Cut Down; Long Goodbye; Abrupt Decay; Murderous Cut; Requiting Hex; Subtlety; Cryptic Command; Oko, Thief of Crowns
Phase windows: opponent combat; own main before passing; lethal stack windows
Runtime cues: prompt:declare blockers; action:cast Toxic Deluge; action:cast Fatal Push; action:cast Cryptic Command; action:cast Subtlety
Use when: visible attackers, board power, or stack damage threatens lethal or a forced two-turn loss.
Avoid when: a protected combo line wins before the opponent's next relevant damage step.
Instructions: Spend premium interaction to survive before pursuing selection. Choose life payment for Toxic Deluge from visible lethal math, not from generic board cleanup; bounce, tap, or counter with Cryptic Command only if the selected mode changes survival or combo access.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Deterministic Opponent Target For Disruption
Priority: Low
Decision families: selection; interaction
Cards: Thoughtseize; Inquisition of Kozilek; Duress; Vendilion Clique; Gitaxian Probe
Phase windows: discard and reveal target prompts
Runtime cues: action:target opponent Thoughtseize; action:target opponent Inquisition of Kozilek; action:target opponent Duress; action:target opponent Vendilion Clique; action:target opponent Gitaxian Probe
Use when: the legal action text offers player targets for one of these spells and the intended spell effect is to inspect or disrupt the opposing hand.
Avoid when: multiple opponent-controlled objects or unusual target types are offered in the same prompt.
Instructions: Choose the opponent player target for hand-information and discard effects, then route the revealed-card choice through light-model reasoning.
Pilot skill floor: low
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Sideboard Plan Selection
Priority: High
Decision families: sideboard
Cards: Veil of Summer; Endurance; Force of Vigor; Hydroblast; Blue Elemental Blast; Nihil Spellbomb; Grafdigger's Cage; Pithing Needle; Dauthi Voidwalker; Culling Ritual
Phase windows: between games; sideboard lock prompt
Runtime cues: prompt:sideboard; action:submit sideboard
Use when: choosing a registered 10-card sideboard plan after Game 1 or Game 2.
Avoid when: the proposed plan violates registered sideboard counts, uses a non-sideboard entry, removes a non-main-deck entry, or relies on unverified matchup assumptions.
Instructions: Choose the smallest legal update that answers the opponent's verified axis. Add Veil of Summer for discard and permission fights; Hydroblast and Blue Elemental Blast for red pressure or red stack interaction; Endurance, Nihil Spellbomb, Grafdigger's Cage, and Dauthi Voidwalker for graveyard engines; Force of Vigor, Pithing Needle, and Culling Ritual for artifact, enchantment, activated-ability, or cheap-permanent boards. Preserve combo density and blue interaction unless survival requires a more controlling posture.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Deterministic Sideboard Lock Submission
Priority: Low
Decision families: sideboard
Cards: Veil of Summer; Endurance; Force of Vigor; Hydroblast; Blue Elemental Blast; Nihil Spellbomb; Grafdigger's Cage; Pithing Needle; Dauthi Voidwalker; Culling Ritual
Phase windows: sideboard confirmation
Runtime cues: action:submit sideboard
Use when: the sideboard update has already been validated, registered counts match, and the only legal action is submitting the selected configuration.
Avoid when: any card count mismatch, invalid sideboard-entry card, invalid main-deck removal, unresolved matchup choice, or visible contradiction remains.
Instructions: Submit the already selected legal configuration without changing spellings or counts. Do not improvise extra swaps at confirmation time.
Pilot skill floor: low
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Narrow Hate Deployment
Priority: Medium
Decision families: sideboard; priority; activated ability; spell casting
Cards: Endurance; Force of Vigor; Nihil Spellbomb; Grafdigger's Cage; Pithing Needle; Dauthi Voidwalker; Culling Ritual
Phase windows: precombat main; opponent end step; priority before combo turn; response to graveyard or permanent-engine action
Runtime cues: action:cast; action:activate; prompt:choose name; prompt:choose target
Use when: a sideboard card is already in the game and the opponent's visible action, graveyard, commander, permanent, or stack pattern makes its text live.
Avoid when: deploying the hate piece blocks Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Snapcaster Mage, Unearth, Mystic Sanctuary, Noxious Revival, Cling to Dust, Murderous Cut, Barrowgoyf, Abhorrent Oculus, or the protected combo route more than it harms the opponent.
Instructions: Hold graveyard interaction until it stops a meaningful conversion point unless tempo or mana efficiency demands earlier use. Name activated permanents with Pithing Needle only from public information. Use Force of Vigor and Culling Ritual to clear permanents that constrain casting, targeting, graveyard access, mana, or the decisive draw-win turn.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Anti-Red Protection And Stabilization
Priority: Medium
Decision families: sideboard; priority; removal; counterspell
Cards: Hydroblast; Blue Elemental Blast; Veil of Summer; Culling Ritual
Phase windows: opponent combat; opponent end step; precombat main; response to burn or red permanent action
Runtime cues: action:cast; prompt:target spell; prompt:target permanent
Use when: red spells, red permanents, or a red commander create the current clock, and the post-board hand contains one-mana red interaction or a verified green protection spell.
Avoid when: the opponent's red component is incidental, there is no legal red object to answer, or holding up the answer prevents a stronger stabilizing play already visible.
Instructions: Prioritize countering lethal burn, removing the fastest red permanent, or protecting Glarb, Calamity's Augur, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Psychic Frog, Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, or a stabilizing spell. Use Veil of Summer only when black or blue interaction is part of the same fight.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes
