# Strategy Specifications
## Deck Name And Archetype
- Deck identity: Rakdos Madness is a Pauper black-red aggressive midrange deck built around discard outlets, madness payoffs, burn reach, and graveyard-enabled pressure.
- Format validation: Pauper is the target format, and the registered maindeck validates to 60 cards with a 15-card sideboard.
- Count validation: the maindeck contains 19 lands and 41 nonlands; the land package is 8 Mountain, 4 Swamp, 4 Jagged Barrens, and 3 Razortrap Gorge.
- Sideboard validation: the sideboard contains 2 Duress, 3 Nihil Spellbomb, 3 Cast into the Fire, 3 Extract a Confession, 2 Dark Withering, and 2 Breath Weapon.
- Tag validation: normalize the supplied repeated tags to aggro, midrange, madness, and graveyard.
- Stock status: treat this as a hybrid-stock Rakdos Madness shell, because the core plan uses familiar Pauper Rakdos pressure and burn cards while the exact mix with Highway Robbery, Grab the Prize, Sneaky Snacker, Tectonic Hazard, Jagged Barrens, and Razortrap Gorge should be tested as this registered build rather than assumed to match a stock list.
- Legality concern: none of the registered card names appear on the current official Wizards Pauper banned list checked on June 14, 2026, but final legality should still be enforced by Veles and the rules/card database at runtime; source: https://magic.wizards.com/en/banned-restricted-list.
- Card-text caution: Card text check required for Highway Robbery, Grab the Prize, Sneaky Snacker, Razortrap Gorge, Jagged Barrens, Cast into the Fire, Extract a Confession, Dark Withering, and Breath Weapon before writing deterministic execution rules that depend on exact wording.
- Role concern: start from the beatdown role against slower opponents, but shift into burn-control or attrition when the visible battlefield shows a faster clock, large blockers, or life-total pressure that makes racing unsafe.
- Mana concern: keep decisions sensitive to the 19-land count, because low-resource hands can function only when the legal actions and visible hand actually show early mana, discard outlets, and castable threats or burn.
- Color concern: red appears to be the heavier maindeck color because Mountain, Faithless Looting, Lightning Bolt, Grab the Prize, Voldaren Epicure, Fiery Temper, and several sideboard cards demand red access, while black access remains essential for Alms of the Vein, Kitchen Imp, Vampire's Kiss, and black sideboard interaction.
- Runtime information rule: the pilot must respect only legal Veles actions, public zones, revealed cards, current visible board state, and engine prompts; do not infer hidden opponent cards as certain even when an archetype makes them likely.
- Opponent info status: no specific opponent deck, matchup, play/draw status, or post-sideboard configuration is supplied in this batch, so later matchup guidance must be conditional on public matchup labels, revealed cards, known decklists from the test manifest, or cards seen in the current match.
- Pilot objective: convert discard costs and loot effects into tempo-positive damage, evasive pressure, card flow, and reach while avoiding hands or lines that spend resources without producing pressure or stabilizing the board.

## Thesis
- Core assembly: Rakdos Madness assembles discard outlets, madness cards, cheap burn, evasive pressure, and small life-drain swings into a low-curve damage engine that turns looting or discard costs into tempo instead of card loss.
- Primary win pattern: win by sticking early pressure from Voldaren Epicure, Kitchen Imp, and Sneaky Snacker, then converting Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, Vampire's Kiss, Alms of the Vein, Lightning Bolt, and Fiery Temper into enough reach to end the game before the opponent's larger plan stabilizes.
- Role priority: begin most unknown Game 1s as the proactive deck, but become burn-control when the opponent presents a faster visible clock, must-kill utility creatures, or blockers that make creature combat inefficient.
- Resource priority: value every discard outlet by what it enables this turn and next turn; discard a madness card only when the rules engine offers the madness action or when graveyard placement is still part of a visible, legal plan.
- Damage priority: count life-total swings, not only damage; Alms of the Vein, Vampire's Kiss, Jagged Barrens, and possible lifegain or drain text from other cards can change races, but exact use remains conditional on engine actions and verified card text.
- Velocity priority: use Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, and Highway Robbery to find lands, pressure, and burn, but avoid spending a turn only filtering when the visible board demands removal, blockers, or immediate lethal setup.
- Interaction priority: treat Lightning Bolt and Fiery Temper as both removal and reach; aim them at creatures when that preserves pressure or survival, and aim them at the opponent when the visible clock or legal lethal line justifies it.
- What this deck is not: do not pilot this as a pure control deck that hoards all burn for perfect targets, a pure combo deck that waits for an ideal discard chain, or a graveyard deck that ignores board damage and life totals.
- Runtime discipline: choose only legal Veles actions, use only visible and revealed information, and never assume a madness trigger, graveyard return, token, Treasure, drain, or damage mode exists unless the rules engine exposes that action.
- Text caution: Card text check required for Highway Robbery, Grab the Prize, Sneaky Snacker, Tectonic Hazard, Razortrap Gorge, Jagged Barrens, Cast into the Fire, Extract a Confession, Dark Withering, and Breath Weapon before relying on exact wording beyond legal engine prompts.

## Role Package
- Threats: Voldaren Epicure is the preferred early board presence when legal because it starts damage while supporting later discard or resource conversion if the engine exposes that functionality; Kitchen Imp is the main evasive pressure card when castable or madness-enabled; Sneaky Snacker is a recurring or graveyard-adjacent pressure card only if the card database and legal actions confirm that role.
- Payoffs: Alms of the Vein and Fiery Temper are the central madness payoffs because they convert discard into immediate life-total pressure or removal; prioritize lines where Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, or any visible discard action turns these cards into legal tempo-positive actions.
- Engines: Faithless Looting is the cleanest velocity engine because it improves hand quality and can set up madness or graveyard plans; Grab the Prize and Highway Robbery are additional engine pieces, but their exact tactical role requires card text confirmation and should be inferred from legal prompts rather than memory.
- Velocity: Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, and Vampire's Kiss keep the deck moving through low land counts, redundant lands, and extra burn; use them to assemble pressure plus reach, not to churn cards while falling behind on board.
- Interaction: Lightning Bolt is the most flexible maindeck answer and reach card; Fiery Temper is interaction when a discard outlet makes it efficient or when hard-casting is the best legal tempo play; Tectonic Hazard is a singleton tactical tool whose exact role requires card text confirmation.
- Protection: the maindeck has little true protection, so protect wins by sequencing threats before discard velocity, holding burn when it stops a race-breaking blocker, and using sideboard Duress to clear known or likely interaction when public information supports that plan.
- Recursion: treat Faithless Looting flashback and any Sneaky Snacker graveyard functionality as the deck's grind layer only when Veles exposes legal actions; do not discard key cards merely because a future graveyard line seems plausible.
- Mana: Mountain is the most important basic because the red core includes Faithless Looting, Lightning Bolt, Grab the Prize, Voldaren Epicure, and Fiery Temper; Swamp is still required for Alms of the Vein, Kitchen Imp, Vampire's Kiss, and black sideboard cards; Jagged Barrens and Razortrap Gorge provide Rakdos fixing, with tapped-land or damage implications handled from runtime legal state.
- Sideboard modules: Duress is the disruption module for spell-heavy or control-combo opponents; Nihil Spellbomb is the graveyard module; Cast into the Fire is the artifact/small-permanent or damage module pending exact text; Extract a Confession and Dark Withering are black removal modules pending exact text; Breath Weapon is the sweeper module pending exact text.
- Strategic package rule: assemble at least one pressure source, one velocity or discard outlet, and one payoff or interaction spell before spending resources on low-impact filtering, because this deck wins by compressing the opponent's decision window, not by maximizing raw card count.

## Primary Win Conditions
- Pressure-plus-madness is the default win path: set up with Mountain or Rakdos fixing, an early Voldaren Epicure or castable Kitchen Imp, and at least one discard outlet from Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, or Vampire's Kiss; execute by turning Alms of the Vein and Fiery Temper into legal madness actions while attacking in the air or on the ground. Prioritize this path when the opponent is still developing, when your hand contains both outlet and payoff, or when a tapped-land turn would otherwise waste tempo.
- Burn-reach conversion is the cleanest closing path: set up by tracking visible life totals, available red mana, and known burn in hand or graveyard; execute with Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Alms of the Vein, Vampire's Kiss, and any legally exposed damage or drain from Grab the Prize or Highway Robbery. Prioritize opponent-target burn when it produces lethal this turn, sets up an unavoidable next-turn lethal through visible blockers, or wins a race better than killing a creature.
- Evasive creature damage is the resilient midgame path: set up with Kitchen Imp and any legal Sneaky Snacker recursion or cast action, then use Lightning Bolt and Fiery Temper to clear blockers only when the blocked damage over the next turn cycle exceeds the value of saving burn for face. Prioritize this path against decks with slow removal, expensive blockers, or graveyard pressure that makes relying on recursive or flashback resources unsafe.
- Velocity into redundant threats is the grind path: set up by using Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, and Blood or discard actions from Vampire's Kiss or Voldaren Epicure only when the legal action improves hand quality without surrendering the board. Execute by discarding excess lands, redundant late threats, or madness cards when the engine offers the madness action; do not discard Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, or Alms of the Vein merely because they are in the way unless the current legal line converts them into damage, removal, or a necessary draw.
- Disruption to the win path comes mainly from graveyard hate, lifegain, large blockers, sweepers, counterspells, and faster creature pressure; answer by shifting from recursion assumptions to hard-cast threats, from face burn to removal, or from filtering to immediate board stabilization. Card text check required for Sneaky Snacker, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, and Tectonic Hazard before treating any exact graveyard, draw-count, damage, or sweep effect as guaranteed.

## Secondary Win Conditions
- Incremental drain can win stalled races: use Alms of the Vein, Vampire's Kiss, Jagged Barrens life changes if exposed by the engine, and any verified drain mode from Highway Robbery to stretch life totals while preserving enough burn to close. Favor this line when attacks are poor, the opponent is pressuring your life total, or your hand contains multiple small life-swing effects rather than a single large threat.
- Hard-cast madness cards become a backup plan when discard outlets are missing: cast Kitchen Imp, Fiery Temper, and Alms of the Vein for their normal legal costs if waiting for a discard outlet would lose tempo, miss lethal, or let a critical creature survive. Do not hold a playable Fiery Temper for ideal madness value when it must kill a blocker, utility creature, or lethal attacker now.
- Blood and loot smoothing are fallback pressure engines when the first wave is answered: use legal Blood, Faithless Looting flashback, Grab the Prize, or Highway Robbery actions to convert excess lands into more burn and evasive bodies. Keep at least one future red source available when possible so the cards drawn can become immediate Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, or Faithless Looting lines.
- Tectonic Hazard is a singleton tactical finisher or stabilizer only if its legal action text confirms the needed effect; use it as a backup win condition when it visibly damages the opponent or clears small blockers and creatures without harming your higher-value plan. Card text check required before relying on it as a sweeper, face damage, or combat modifier.
- Post-board creature-control wins are secondary but real: after sideboarding, Extract a Confession, Dark Withering, Breath Weapon, and Cast into the Fire can create enough time for small threats and burn to finish. Treat these as support for the same pressure plan rather than as permission to become a slow control deck.

## Emergency Lines
- Behind on life: become burn-control immediately, aim Lightning Bolt and Fiery Temper at creatures that represent the most visible damage, and prefer Alms of the Vein or Vampire's Kiss lines that both affect life totals and keep cards moving. Attack only when the damage meaningfully shortens the race or the creature cannot profitably block.
- Behind on board: stabilize before filtering, especially against multiple attackers or a short clock; use Kitchen Imp as a blocker if legal and necessary, spend burn on attackers before they deal another turn of damage, and use Tectonic Hazard or sideboard sweepers only when the exposed action actually improves combat math.
- Behind on cards: prioritize Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, Blood actions, and flashback only when the current board can survive the mana and tempo cost. Discard lands first if mana is sufficient, then redundant threats, and only discard burn or madness cards when their legal follow-up is visible.
- Behind on mana: keep two-color access over speculative value, play Jagged Barrens or Razortrap Gorge when fixing is required, and use cheap legal plays over expensive discard chains. Mulligan or sequence future games to avoid hands that need both black madness cards and red outlets without a credible second color.
- Graveyard recursion disrupted: stop planning around Faithless Looting flashback or Sneaky Snacker recursion until Veles exposes legal actions again, and shift to hard-casting Kitchen Imp, using Lightning Bolt and Fiery Temper efficiently, and draining with Alms of the Vein or Vampire's Kiss.
- Opponent combo or engine ahead: race with the fastest visible damage line unless a legal Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Duress, Nihil Spellbomb, Cast into the Fire, or removal action attacks the exact public engine piece. Do not spend a turn on low-impact looting if the opponent's next public step threatens a decisive payoff.
- Win conditions removed: rebuild with velocity rather than panic-burn, using Faithless Looting and Blood-style actions to find remaining Kitchen Imp, Sneaky Snacker, Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Alms of the Vein, and Vampire's Kiss. Preserve the last burn spells for either lethal or survival, not chip damage that leaves no route to finish.

## Resource Model
- Life is a racing resource: spend life only through normal damage exposure when the exchange keeps pressure moving, and favor Alms of the Vein, Vampire's Kiss, and Jagged Barrens life swings when they change a race or buy one more attack step. Do not take a slower loot line over a stabilizing burn or drain line when the visible board presents a short clock.
- Hand size is fuel for discard conversion: use Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, Blood actions from Vampire's Kiss or Voldaren Epicure, and any legal discard outlet to turn excess lands or redundant cards into damage, threats, or selection. Discard madness cards only when Veles exposes the matching madness action or when hard evidence says the hand cannot function otherwise.
- Mana is the deck's main bottleneck: red enables Faithless Looting, Lightning Bolt, Grab the Prize, Voldaren Epicure, Fiery Temper, and most velocity; black enables Alms of the Vein, Vampire's Kiss, Kitchen Imp, Sneaky Snacker, and sideboard disruption. Prioritize stable access to both colors before maximizing untapped damage tempo.
- Board presence is light but meaningful: use Voldaren Epicure, Kitchen Imp, and Sneaky Snacker to create pressure, block when racing fails, and force the opponent to answer creatures so burn can finish. Do not throw away evasive pressure for minor chip damage if that creature is the only route around blockers.
- Graveyard value is conditional, not guaranteed: Faithless Looting flashback, Sneaky Snacker recursion, madness timing, and post-discard value matter only when the engine exposes legal actions. Treat opponent graveyard hate as a reason to hard-cast threats and use burn cleanly rather than banking on future graveyard access.
- Exile is mostly a warning zone: once a card is exiled by flashback, graveyard hate, or opponent effects, stop counting it as future fuel. Use Nihil Spellbomb from the sideboard to convert the opponent's graveyard into a managed public resource when their deck visibly relies on it.
- Lands are functional resources after the first three to four: keep early lands to cast spells, then convert extras through Faithless Looting, Blood actions, Grab the Prize, or Highway Robbery when legal. Avoid discarding the only source of a color unless the current action wins, stabilizes, or Veles shows another source already available.
- Sacrifice fodder mainly comes from Blood tokens if legal actions exist: spend Blood to fix clunky hands, enable madness, or find lethal burn, but preserve it when the hand already has a strong line and a future discard trigger may matter more. Card text check required for any non-Blood sacrifice interaction in this list.
- Tempo is damage plus mana efficiency: prefer one-mana plays and madness discounts when they keep pressure and use otherwise wasted cards, but switch to removal tempo when a visible creature threatens more damage than a face-burn line creates. Passing with mana open is acceptable only when legal instant-speed interaction or a stronger future line is visible.
- Information is gained through public zones and sideboard cards: use Duress only when the matchup rewards knowing and disrupting a key noncreature spell, and do not infer exact hidden cards beyond revealed information. Use decision history and graveyards to estimate risk, not to pretend certainty.
- Sideboard bullets are role tools: Duress fights spell-based interaction or combo, Nihil Spellbomb fights graveyard engines, Cast into the Fire fights artifact-heavy boards or small permanents only if action text confirms, Extract a Confession and Dark Withering fight creatures, and Breath Weapon fights small-creature boards. Card text check required for exact modes on Cast into the Fire, Extract a Confession, Dark Withering, and Breath Weapon before relying on a specific effect.

## Mana Guide
- Two-color access is the default keep rule: keep hands with red plus black access, or red plus Faithless Looting/Grab the Prize-style smoothing and a realistic path to black. Mulligan hands that cannot cast early red spells and cannot reach black before Alms of the Vein, Vampire's Kiss, Kitchen Imp, or Sneaky Snacker matter.
- Red is the first operational color: prioritize Mountain, Razortrap Gorge, or Jagged Barrens lines that unlock Faithless Looting, Lightning Bolt, Voldaren Epicure, Grab the Prize, and Fiery Temper. A hand with only Swamp should be very strong and have legal black plays before it is acceptable.
- Black is the pressure-support color: sequence Swamp, Jagged Barrens, or Razortrap Gorge to enable Alms of the Vein, Vampire's Kiss, Kitchen Imp, Sneaky Snacker, and post-board Duress, Nihil Spellbomb activations if black is required by action text, Extract a Confession, and Dark Withering. Do not delay black access if the hand contains multiple black cards and no discard outlet yet.
- Tapped lands buy fixing at tempo cost: play Jagged Barrens early when the hand already has a one-mana play covered or when both colors are not yet secured. Avoid playing a tapped land on a turn where Lightning Bolt, Faithless Looting, Voldaren Epicure, or a madness sequence must happen to survive or maintain pressure.
- Razortrap Gorge should be treated as conditional fixing until Veles confirms its current mana action: use it to cover whichever color is missing when legal, but do not assume future untapped or damage behavior beyond exposed rules output. Card text check required for exact land conditions.
- Play-land-before-draw when the needed action depends on available mana now: make the land drop before Faithless Looting, Blood sacrifice, Grab the Prize, or Highway Robbery if the extra mana or missing color enables a visible follow-up this turn. This is especially important when a drawn Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Alms of the Vein, or madness action could immediately affect the board or lethal math.
- Draw-before-land when land choice depends on new information: use Faithless Looting, Blood, Grab the Prize, or Highway Robbery before land drop if you already have enough mana for the draw action and need to decide between Mountain, Swamp, Jagged Barrens, or Razortrap Gorge. Preserve the land drop to fix the cards actually drawn.
- Discard-land policy depends on thresholds: keep the second land almost always, keep the third land when the hand contains Kitchen Imp, flashback Faithless Looting, Highway Robbery, or multiple spells in one turn, and start discarding extra lands after both colors and the next meaningful turn are covered. Do not discard a colored source that is the only path to a sideboard bullet.
- Madness sequencing must reserve mana: before discarding Fiery Temper, Alms of the Vein, Kitchen Imp, or any card with an exposed madness prompt, check whether the current mana can pay the legal madness action. Prefer a different discard if the madness spell would be stranded and the card is still useful later.
- Sideboard mana stays conservative: after adding Duress, Extract a Confession, Dark Withering, Nihil Spellbomb, Cast into the Fire, or Breath Weapon, keep hands that can cast the boarded interaction on the turn it matters. Do not board into a reactive plan and keep a hand whose lands only cast the wrong half of the deck.

## Mulligan Guide
- Strong keep: keep two or three lands with red and black access, one early red action, and at least one pressure or value card such as Voldaren Epicure, Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Kitchen Imp, Sneaky Snacker, Fiery Temper, or Alms of the Vein. The best openers convert discard into damage or board presence instead of merely cycling cards.
- Strong keep: keep Mountain plus Jagged Barrens or Razortrap Gorge with Faithless Looting and any two of Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Kitchen Imp, Alms of the Vein, Sneaky Snacker, or Voldaren Epicure. This hand has red velocity, black access, and multiple ways to turn filtering into pressure.
- Medium keep: keep two lands with only red, Faithless Looting or Grab the Prize, and castable red cards if the hand can find black before black cards clog the line. This is better on the draw and worse when the hand already contains multiple Alms of the Vein, Vampire's Kiss, Kitchen Imp, or Sneaky Snacker.
- Medium keep: keep three lands with Vampire's Kiss, Highway Robbery, Lightning Bolt, and a madness card when both colors are covered. This hand is slower, but it has reach, stabilization, and a discard/draw path to recover tempo.
- Risky keep: keep one-land Mountain only when the hand has Faithless Looting plus multiple one-mana or madness-adjacent plays and the matchup is not punishing early stumbles. Ship most one-land hands without Faithless Looting, Voldaren Epicure, or immediate legal smoothing.
- Risky keep: keep Jagged Barrens-heavy hands only when the tapped tempo loss still leaves a turn-one or turn-two play. A hand that spends the first two turns only playing tapped lands is acceptable only against slow opponents and only if the spells are very high impact.
- Automatic ship: mulligan zero-land, one-land no-filter, five-plus-land no-engine, no-red-source, or all-black-spell hands. The deck needs early red to function, and a hand that cannot cast Faithless Looting, Lightning Bolt, Voldaren Epicure, Grab the Prize, or Fiery Temper on schedule is usually not a real opener.
- Automatic ship: mulligan hands with only burn and no creature, draw, discard, or Blood-producing action unless visible matchup context says racing from hand is enough. Rakdos Madness wins by combining pressure with reach, not by hoping four spells alone are lethal.
- Matchup-dependent keep: keep removal-heavy hands with Lightning Bolt and Fiery Temper against small-creature aggro even if the threat count is light. Against control or combo, the same hand may fail to apply pressure and should lean toward Faithless Looting, Sneaky Snacker, Kitchen Imp, or post-board Duress.
- Matchup-dependent keep: keep Nihil Spellbomb or Duress hands post-board only when the opponent's known plan makes that card matter and the rest of the hand still casts pressure. Do not keep a weak hand because it contains a sideboard card with no immediate visible target or matchup purpose.
- Play/draw rule: on the play, favor Voldaren Epicure, Faithless Looting, Lightning Bolt, and untapped red because tempo matters more than perfect card quality. On the draw, accept slightly slower Jagged Barrens or Highway Robbery hands if they have both colors and can answer the opponent's first threat.
- Trap hand: Mountain, Mountain, Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Alms of the Vein, Kitchen Imp, Sneaky Snacker looks powerful but is suspect without a discard outlet or black source. Keep only if matchup pressure and draw position justify gambling on the top of the deck.
- Trap hand: Swamp, Jagged Barrens, Vampire's Kiss, Alms of the Vein, Sneaky Snacker, Kitchen Imp, Highway Robbery can cast spells eventually but may concede the first two turns. Keep only on the draw or against slow decks; ship against fast creature starts.

## Turn Arc
- Turn 1 priority: play an untapped red source when possible and cast Voldaren Epicure or Faithless Looting if legal and useful. Voldaren Epicure is preferred when board pressure and Blood setup matter; Faithless Looting is preferred when the hand needs lands, colors, or a madness setup.
- Turn 1 deviation: hold Lightning Bolt unless killing a visible must-answer creature prevents more damage than a face-burn plan creates. Do not spend Lightning Bolt on the opponent by default unless the hand already has pressure and a clear race plan.
- Turn 1 land sequencing: play Jagged Barrens early when no untapped one-mana action is available or when fixing both colors is more important than tempo. Avoid tapped-land starts when the hand contains Voldaren Epicure, Faithless Looting, or Lightning Bolt that must be used immediately.
- Turn 2 priority: deploy Kitchen Imp, Sneaky Snacker, Vampire's Kiss, Grab the Prize, or a madness-enabled Fiery Temper/Alms of the Vein line according to legal prompts and available mana. Prefer the line that leaves a creature or converts discard into damage rather than only drawing cards.
- Turn 2 deviation: use Lightning Bolt or Fiery Temper as creature removal when the opponent's visible threat will race your evasive damage or punish a tapped-out draw turn. Preserve burn to face only when your board is already pressuring and the opposing creature is not changing the clock.
- Turn 2 setup rule: spend Blood or cast Faithless Looting when the hand has a stranded madness card, extra land, or missing color. Preserve Blood if the hand already curves cleanly and a later discard can enable a stronger Fiery Temper, Alms of the Vein, Kitchen Imp, or Sneaky Snacker turn.
- Turn 3 priority: combine pressure plus reach, such as casting a creature and holding or using Lightning Bolt, resolving Grab the Prize with madness follow-up, or using Vampire's Kiss/Highway Robbery to maintain cards and life swing. Make the land drop before draw/discard when extra mana enables a visible same-turn madness action.
- Turn 3 deviation: switch from development to stabilization when the opponent has a faster board. A removal turn with Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Extract a Confession, Dark Withering, Cast into the Fire, or Breath Weapon post-board is correct if it preserves life and lets evasive threats win later; Card text check required for exact sideboard effects before relying on a mode.
- Turns 4-5 priority: count visible damage from creatures, Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Alms of the Vein, Vampire's Kiss, Grab the Prize, and Highway Robbery before choosing draw versus burn. If a two-turn lethal line is visible, preserve the cards and mana that make it happen rather than filtering for abstract value.
- Turns 4-5 pressure rule: keep attacking with Kitchen Imp, Sneaky Snacker, and other evasive or expendable pressure when trades are not required for survival. Do not trade away the only evasive clock for minor ground damage prevention unless the life total demands it.
- Turns 4-5 resource rule: flashback or repeat draw/filter actions only when they improve the current race, find lethal, or reload after interaction. Do not spend a whole turn on Faithless Looting flashback or Highway Robbery if the opponent can use that window to establish a lethal board.
- Late-game priority: turn extra lands into action through Faithless Looting, Blood, Grab the Prize, or Highway Robbery when legal. Preserve colored sources until both current interaction and potential madness payments are covered.
- Late-game reach rule: aim burn at the opponent when visible life totals, stack state, and likely next attacks create a lethal or near-lethal clock. Aim burn at creatures when failing to answer them loses before your reach matters.
- Late-game graveyard rule: treat Sneaky Snacker recursion, Faithless Looting flashback, and madness value as bonuses exposed by legal actions, not assumptions. If the opponent has public graveyard hate or Nihil Spellbomb-like effects, prioritize hard-cast threats and immediate burn over delayed graveyard plans.

## Card Roles
- Sneaky Snacker: treat Sneaky Snacker as recurring evasive pressure that rewards draw/discard turns rather than as a normal three-mana creature. Prefer enabling it from the graveyard with Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, Blood tokens from Voldaren Epicure, or other legal draw sequences when the engine shows the relevant trigger or action. Do not discard Sneaky Snacker casually if graveyard hate is public, if the opponent can exile it before the draw trigger matters, or if hard-casting it is the only pressure line. Against removal-heavy decks, Sneaky Snacker is one of the best threats to trade into removal because it can return; against fast aggro, its tapped return and low blocking value mean it is pressure first, stabilization second.

- Voldaren Epicure: use Voldaren Epicure as the cleanest turn-one setup card because it creates early damage, a body, and a Blood artifact that converts madness cards or excess lands into action. Cast it early when legal unless holding it meaningfully improves a discard turn or a sacrifice/artifact requirement from another visible card. Preserve the Blood token when the hand contains Fiery Temper, Alms of the Vein, Kitchen Imp, Sneaky Snacker, or dead lands that can become a stronger later turn. Do not spend Blood just to cycle if the next turn needs a guaranteed discard outlet for a madness spell.

- Faithless Looting: use Faithless Looting to fix bad hands, load Sneaky Snacker, and turn madness cards into discounted spells when legal prompts allow the discarded card to be cast. Cast it early when missing land, missing color, holding multiple madness cards, or needing a graveyard threat. Hold it when the hand already curves well and later Looting can convert extra lands into lethal reach. Do not flash it back for abstract value if the opponent can punish a low-tempo turn or if discarding two real spells would reduce your immediate clock.

- Grab the Prize: treat Grab the Prize as a midgame discard outlet and reach card, but verify legal modes and prompt text before assuming exact damage or discard timing. Use it when the discarded card creates an immediate madness spell, Sneaky Snacker setup, or lethal math. Avoid casting it into open pressure merely to see more cards if removal or board development is required first. Against control, it is a way to keep spell density high; against aggro, its best turns are those that also remove a creature or drain with Alms of the Vein.

- Highway Robbery: use Highway Robbery as a card-flow engine and discard outlet when the turn can absorb sorcery-speed setup. Card text check required for exact alternate timing and costs, so rely on the rules engine prompts rather than assuming plot or sacrifice details. Prefer it when discarding a madness card, extra land, or Sneaky Snacker creates immediate value. Do not spend a whole early turn on Highway Robbery against a threatening board unless the drawn cards or madness follow-up can stabilize before the next attack.

- Vampire's Kiss: use Vampire's Kiss as life-buffering reach plus Blood setup, especially when the Blood token will later enable Fiery Temper, Alms of the Vein, Kitchen Imp, Sneaky Snacker, or Faithless Looting cleanup. Cast it proactively when racing or when you need a discard outlet banked for later. Hold it if the immediate life swing is low impact and the mana is needed for removal or a creature. Against burn and red aggro, its life swing matters; against slow decks, value the Blood token as delayed pressure.

- Kitchen Imp: treat Kitchen Imp as a madness threat first and a hard-cast backup only when the engine offers no better tempo line. Discard it to Faithless Looting, Blood, Grab the Prize, or Highway Robbery when paying the madness cost lets you add evasive pressure while still advancing cards or damage. Do not throw it into trades unless survival requires it, because evasive damage is one of the deck's cleanest ways to make burn lethal. Against decks with many ground blockers, Kitchen Imp is a primary clock; against removal-heavy decks, sequence it so losing it does not strand your whole pressure plan.

- Fiery Temper: use Fiery Temper as premium flexible burn, with madness lines preferred when they save mana or combine with draw/discard. Point it at creatures when that prevents a faster clock, protects your evasive race, or removes a must-answer engine. Point it at the opponent when visible life totals and attacks create a lethal or near-lethal line. Do not spend Fiery Temper on a small creature by habit if Lightning Bolt, Tectonic Hazard, or combat can handle it and face damage is the path to winning.

- Lightning Bolt: use Lightning Bolt as the most efficient instant-speed interaction and reach card. Hold it through priority when the opponent may present a more important creature, combat trick window, or lethal race decision. Cast it at the opponent only when the damage meaningfully advances a counted clock or forces the opponent into defensive play. Against small-creature aggro, Lightning Bolt is often removal first; against control and combo, it is often reach unless a visible permanent must die.

- Alms of the Vein: use Alms of the Vein as a race-swing spell that is strongest through madness and weaker as a slow hard-cast drain. Discard it when the legal prompt allows the madness cast and the life swing changes the race, punishes burn, or builds lethal reach. Avoid discarding it with no mana or no legal madness follow-up unless graveyard placement is still better than the card in hand. Against burn or creature races, it can be one of the highest-priority payoff cards; against decks where life total is not pressured, use it as reach rather than stabilization.

- Tectonic Hazard: use Tectonic Hazard as a one-copy sweeper/reach tool for opposing small creatures and go-wide boards. Card text check required for exact affected objects, so follow visible legal action text before relying on it to clear specific creatures. Preserve it if the opponent's deck is likely to present multiple one-toughness creatures; cash it in when delaying lets the opponent grow, sacrifice, or protect the board. Be careful with sequencing if your own creatures or damage race could be affected by the exact rules text.

- Jagged Barrens: treat Jagged Barrens as fixing plus incidental life, not as a free tapped land. Play it early when no one-mana red action is required or when both colors are needed for Alms of the Vein, Highway Robbery, Kitchen Imp, or sideboard cards. Avoid keeping hands where Jagged Barrens is the only functional early land against fast starts unless the rest of the hand contains cheap interaction.

- Razortrap Gorge: use Razortrap Gorge as a red-black source whose tactical value depends on the engine's visible land rules and current hand. Card text check required for exact entry conditions or restrictions. Prioritize it when it unlocks both Lightning Bolt/Fiery Temper and black madness or draw spells. Do not sequence it after a tapped land if doing so prevents turn-one Voldaren Epicure, Faithless Looting, or Lightning Bolt without a strong reason.

- Mountain and Swamp: value Mountain higher in most openers because the deck's cheapest setup and interaction are red. Value Swamp when the hand already has red and needs to cast Alms of the Vein, Kitchen Imp, Highway Robbery, Sneaky Snacker, or post-board black interaction. Do not discard the last black source to Faithless Looting or Blood unless the legal line wins quickly or the hand no longer needs black mana.

### Card Hover Notes

#### Sneaky Snacker
- Deck role: Main-deck 4-of core piece; recursive flyer that rewards planned draw-three turns.
- Role type: threat/clock; mechanic payoff; engine payoff.
- Deck-specific job: recursive evasive pressure for Rakdos Madness when Faithless Looting, Highway Robbery, Grab the Prize, Blood tokens from Voldaren Epicure, or Blood tokens from Vampire's Kiss make the third-card-drawn turn happen while Sneaky Snacker is already in the graveyard.
- Timing: discard or trade it off only when a draw sequence is realistic; Sneaky Snacker must already be in the graveyard before Faithless Looting's draw-two sequence for those draws to count toward returning that copy.
- Inputs / outputs: consumes graveyard access and a third draw in one turn; outputs a tapped 2/1 flyer without spending mana.
- Partners / packages: Faithless Looting; Highway Robbery; Grab the Prize; Voldaren Epicure Blood token; Vampire's Kiss Blood tokens.
- Role peers: Kitchen Imp is the closest evasive clock, but Sneaky Snacker is recursion-based while Kitchen Imp is madness/haste-based.
- Failure modes: graveyard exile, drawing only one or two cards in the turn, or needing an untapped blocker immediately makes the tapped return low value.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: strongest against removal-heavy decks and stalled ground boards; weaker against Nihil Spellbomb-style graveyard hate or fast aggro where tapped recursion cannot block in time.

#### Tectonic Hazard
- Deck role: Main-deck 1-of singleton/flex slot; one-sided small-board sweeper and incidental reach.
- Role type: interaction-sweeper; reach/finisher.
- Deck-specific job: one-copy sorcery-speed way to deal 1 damage to each opponent and each creature they control, clearing small opposing boards while leaving Voldaren Epicure, Kitchen Imp, and Sneaky Snacker unharmed.
- Timing: cash it in when it kills multiple one-toughness creatures, removes blockers before attacks, or adds the last point to the opponent; do not hold too long against boards that can grow out of one damage.
- Inputs / outputs: consumes one red mana and a sorcery-speed turn; outputs opponent life loss plus damage to only opposing creatures.
- Partners / packages: pairs with Lightning Bolt and Fiery Temper when one damage finishes damaged creatures; clears blockers for Kitchen Imp and Sneaky Snacker.
- Role peers: Breath Weapon overlaps as a sweeper from the sideboard but hits each non-Dragon creature, including your Voldaren Epicure, Kitchen Imp, and Sneaky Snacker.
- Failure modes: poor against high-toughness creatures, life gain, and boards where one damage does not change combat.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: keep in mind against Faeries, tokens, Elves, and other small-creature starts; board out more often when the opponent is creature-light or presents only large threats.

#### Mountain
- Deck role: Main-deck 8-of core piece; untapped red source for the deck's fastest setup and burn turns.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: primary untapped red source for Faithless Looting, Lightning Bolt, Voldaren Epicure, Tectonic Hazard, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, Fiery Temper, Cast into the Fire, and Breath Weapon.
- Timing: prioritize early Mountain when turn-one Faithless Looting, Lightning Bolt, or Voldaren Epicure is needed; keep enough Mountains or red duals to support multiple red spells and madness Fiery Temper turns.
- Inputs / outputs: outputs red mana; preserves tempo because it enters untapped.
- Partners / packages: enables Faithless Looting into Alms of the Vein, Fiery Temper, Kitchen Imp, or Sneaky Snacker; casts Lightning Bolt while Jagged Barrens or Razortrap Gorge covers black.
- Role peers: Jagged Barrens and Razortrap Gorge also make red, but Jagged Barrens always enters tapped and Razortrap Gorge may enter tapped before a player is at 13 or less life.
- Failure modes: too many Mountains without Swamp, Jagged Barrens, or Razortrap Gorge strands Alms of the Vein, Vampire's Kiss, Kitchen Imp, Sneaky Snacker, Duress, Extract a Confession, and Dark Withering.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: against fast decks, untapped Mountain often matters more than incidental Jagged Barrens damage because it keeps Lightning Bolt or Voldaren Epicure online immediately.

#### Swamp
- Deck role: Main-deck 4-of core piece; untapped black source for madness payoffs and sideboard interaction.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: untapped black source for Alms of the Vein, Vampire's Kiss, Kitchen Imp, Sneaky Snacker, Duress, Nihil Spellbomb's draw trigger payment, Extract a Confession, and Dark Withering.
- Timing: play Swamp early when the hand has black spells or black madness payments; do not discard the only black source to Faithless Looting or Blood unless the current line wins or another black source is already secured.
- Inputs / outputs: outputs black mana without tapped-land tempo loss.
- Partners / packages: supports Alms of the Vein and Kitchen Imp after Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, Voldaren Epicure Blood token, or Vampire's Kiss Blood tokens create discard windows.
- Role peers: Jagged Barrens and Razortrap Gorge also make black, but their tapped timing can cost early plays.
- Failure modes: Swamp-only starts can fail to cast Faithless Looting, Lightning Bolt, Voldaren Epicure, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, Fiery Temper, Tectonic Hazard, Cast into the Fire, or Breath Weapon.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: more important post-board when Duress, Nihil Spellbomb draw payments, Extract a Confession, and Dark Withering enter the deck.

#### Highway Robbery
- Deck role: Main-deck 4-of core piece; draw engine and plot card that converts spare cards or lands into velocity.
- Role type: card selection; discard outlet; mechanic enabler; engine piece.
- Deck-specific job: sorcery-speed draw engine that can discard Alms of the Vein, Fiery Temper, Kitchen Imp, or Sneaky Snacker, or sacrifice an expendable land, then draw two cards if that cost choice is made.
- Timing: use when the turn can absorb a sorcery and the discard or sacrificed land improves the current or next turn; plot for {1}{R} only when spending mana now to cast it as a later sorcery without paying its mana cost preserves a stronger future double-spell turn.
- Inputs / outputs: consumes {1}{R}; then may consume one discarded card or one land sacrificed on resolution to output two drawn cards. Plot consumes {1}{R} and exiles Highway Robbery from hand for later sorcery-speed casting.
- Mode map: Normal cast draws now if you discard a card or sacrifice a land on resolution; plot pays {1}{R} now, exiles it, and sets up a later sorcery-speed cast without paying mana.
- Partners / packages: discards Alms of the Vein, Fiery Temper, Kitchen Imp, or Sneaky Snacker; finds Lightning Bolt, Vampire's Kiss, Voldaren Epicure, or lands.
- Role peers: Faithless Looting is cheaper and has flashback but goes down cards; Grab the Prize requires discard as an additional cost and can damage each opponent if the discarded card was not a land.
- Failure modes: sacrificing a needed Mountain, Swamp, Jagged Barrens, or Razortrap Gorge can strand colors; casting it while behind may spend the turn without affecting combat.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: trim or delay against fast creature pressure; value highly against control or attrition when extra cards and discard conversion matter.

#### Faithless Looting
- Deck role: Main-deck 4-of core piece; cheapest selection spell and primary madness/graveyard setup.
- Role type: card selection; discard outlet; mechanic enabler; recursion.
- Deck-specific job: Red velocity spell for {R} that finds Mountain, Swamp, Jagged Barrens, Razortrap Gorge, Kitchen Imp, Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, or Alms of the Vein while discarding Alms of the Vein, Fiery Temper, Kitchen Imp, or Sneaky Snacker into the right zone.
- Timing: cast early when missing Mountain/Swamp access or holding Alms of the Vein, Fiery Temper, or Kitchen Imp with a legal madness follow-up; save when the hand curves cleanly and later Looting can convert extra mana sources into lethal. Flashback for {2}{R} only when discarding two cards will not weaken the current clock or survival line.
- Inputs / outputs: draws two cards then discards two cards; flashback casts from the graveyard for {2}{R}, then exiles Faithless Looting.
- Mode map: hand-cast for {R} is the low-cost setup line; flashback for {2}{R} is the graveyard reload line and removes Faithless Looting from future graveyard use.
- Partners / packages: Alms of the Vein; Fiery Temper; Kitchen Imp; Sneaky Snacker; Mountain; Swamp; Jagged Barrens; Razortrap Gorge.
- Role peers: Grab the Prize and Highway Robbery draw two while tying discard to different costs; Blood tokens from Voldaren Epicure and Vampire's Kiss are slower one-card filters.
- Failure modes: Sneaky Snacker does not use madness; discarding Sneaky Snacker after the two Looting draws means that copy was not in the graveyard for those draws. Flashing back into graveyard hate or while under lethal pressure can lose tempo.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: excellent in grindy games, but against aggro it must find removal, blockers, drain, or lands quickly rather than churn for abstract value.

#### Lightning Bolt
- Deck role: Main-deck 4-of core piece; efficient interaction and reach that keeps the race honest.
- Role type: interaction-removal; reach/finisher.
- Deck-specific job: most efficient instant-speed spell for killing a creature, damaging a planeswalker-like target if legal, or dealing 3 damage to the opponent when counted reach matters.
- Timing: hold through combat or opponent end step when a better creature target may appear; point at the opponent only for lethal, near-lethal with named follow-up, or when no visible creature changes the race.
- Inputs / outputs: consumes one red mana and one card; outputs 3 damage to any target.
- Partners / packages: combines with Fiery Temper and Tectonic Hazard to finish larger creatures; pairs with Kitchen Imp and Sneaky Snacker attacks to close two-turn clocks.
- Role peers: Fiery Temper also deals 3 to any target but is best with madness; Cast into the Fire can exile target artifact or deal 1 damage to each of up to two target creatures, but cannot hit the opponent.
- Failure modes: using it on a low-impact creature can leave no reach; sending it face while an opposing attacker represents more than 3 future damage can lose the race.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: removal first against fast aggro and must-kill utility creatures; reach first against control, combo, and empty boards.

#### Grab the Prize
- Deck role: Main-deck 4-of core piece; discard-as-cost draw spell that turns madness and nonland discards into damage.
- Role type: discard outlet; card selection; mechanic enabler; reach/finisher.
- Deck-specific job: sorcery that discards as an additional cost, draws two cards, and adds 2 damage to each opponent when the discarded card was not a land, turning madness payoffs or Sneaky Snacker setup into pressure.
- Timing: use when the discard has a payoff now or when drawing two is worth spending the main phase; avoid casting into a board that demands Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Tectonic Hazard, Extract a Confession, Dark Withering, Cast into the Fire, or Breath Weapon first.
- Inputs / outputs: consumes {1}{R}, one card discarded before casting, and a sorcery-speed window; outputs two drawn cards plus 2 damage to each opponent if the discarded card was not a land card.
- Mode map: Nonland discard is the pressure line with 2 opponent damage; land discard is the no-damage refuel line; madness cards discarded this way need the correct mana in the discard window.
- Partners / packages: Alms of the Vein; Fiery Temper; Kitchen Imp; Sneaky Snacker; Mountain; Swamp; Jagged Barrens; Razortrap Gorge.
- Role peers: Faithless Looting draws before discarding and has flashback; Highway Robbery can discard or sacrifice a land on resolution but does not have Grab the Prize's nonland-discard damage.
- Failure modes: because discard is an additional cost, counterspells or fizzles still leave the discarded card spent; discarding a needed land turns off the damage clause and can create mana problems.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: strong against control and midrange as reach plus velocity; slower against aggro unless paired with madness removal, Alms of the Vein, or Kitchen Imp.

#### Alms of the Vein
- Deck role: Main-deck 4-of core piece; black madness drain that swings races and closes games.
- Role type: mechanic payoff; lifegain/stabilization; reach/finisher.
- Deck-specific job: race-swing spell that makes target opponent lose 3 life and you gain 3 life, especially efficient when discarded to madness for {B}.
- Timing: cast via madness when the 6-point life swing changes a race, punishes burn, or sets up lethal; hard-cast for {2}{B} when waiting for a discard outlet would lose tempo or miss reach.
- Inputs / outputs: consumes black mana, a target opponent, and possibly a discard outlet; outputs 3 opponent life loss and 3 life gained.
- Mode map: normal cast for {2}{B} is slower but reliable from hand; madness for {B} happens after discard into exile and must be cast for the madness cost or put into the graveyard.
- Partners / packages: Faithless Looting; Grab the Prize; Highway Robbery; Voldaren Epicure Blood token; Vampire's Kiss Blood tokens.
- Role peers: Vampire's Kiss also drains and gains life but targets any player, loses/gains 2, and creates two Blood tokens; Lightning Bolt and Fiery Temper provide damage without lifegain.
- Failure modes: discarding it without black mana or a legal madness choice can waste the best stabilization card; targeting must be a target opponent, not any player.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: premium against burn and creature races; still reach against control when opponent life total is the bottleneck.

#### Jagged Barrens
- Deck role: Main-deck 4-of core piece; tapped Rakdos fixing that adds a point of reach.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; reach/finisher; role glue.
- Deck-specific job: tapped Rakdos fixing land that deals 1 damage to target opponent when it enters, helping color access while contributing incidental reach.
- Timing: play early when no untapped one-mana red action is needed or when both colors must be secured; avoid tapped-land sequencing that delays Faithless Looting, Lightning Bolt, Voldaren Epicure, or a madness turn under pressure.
- Inputs / outputs: enters tapped, targets an opponent for 1 damage, then taps for {B} or {R} on later turns.
- Partners / packages: casts Alms of the Vein, Vampire's Kiss, Kitchen Imp, Sneaky Snacker, Faithless Looting, Lightning Bolt, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, and Fiery Temper.
- Role peers: Razortrap Gorge also fixes both colors and can enter untapped once a player has 13 or less life; Mountain and Swamp are untapped but single-color.
- Failure modes: too many tapped early lands can make strong hands too slow; the damage trigger does not justify missing a necessary turn-one play.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: safer against slow decks; riskier against fast starts where immediate Lightning Bolt or Voldaren Epicure matters.

#### Kitchen Imp
- Deck role: Main-deck 4-of core piece; evasive madness threat that converts discard outlets into immediate pressure.
- Role type: threat/clock; mechanic payoff.
- Deck-specific job: main evasive haste threat, best when discarded to madness for {B} and immediately added to the board while the outlet also draws cards or deals damage.
- Timing: madness it when it creates pressure this turn; hard-cast for {3}{B} only when discard access is missing and a 2/2 flying haste body is still worth the mana.
- Inputs / outputs: consumes black mana, and often a discard outlet; outputs a 2/2 flying haste attacker or blocker.
- Mode map: normal cast for {3}{B} is the backup plan; madness for {B} happens after discard into exile and must be cast for the madness cost or put into the graveyard.
- Partners / packages: Faithless Looting; Grab the Prize; Highway Robbery; Voldaren Epicure Blood token; Vampire's Kiss Blood tokens; Lightning Bolt and Fiery Temper to clear blockers or attackers.
- Role peers: Sneaky Snacker is the other flying pressure card but returns tapped from graveyard rather than using madness; Voldaren Epicure is cheaper but much smaller and ground-bound.
- Failure modes: trading it for a ground creature can lose the best evasive clock; discarding without black mana wastes its tempo advantage.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: excellent against ground stalls and control; may need to block against aggro only when survival beats damage output.

#### Vampire's Kiss
- Deck role: Main-deck 4-of core piece; drain, stabilization, and Blood-token setup for madness turns.
- Role type: lifegain/stabilization; discard outlet; mechanic enabler; reach/finisher.
- Deck-specific job: drains target player for 2, gains 2 life, and creates two Blood tokens that turn extra lands or madness cards into later draw/discard actions.
- Timing: cast proactively when the life swing matters or when banking Blood will enable Alms of the Vein, Fiery Temper, Kitchen Imp, or Sneaky Snacker; hold when black mana must answer a creature or when a Blood activation is not yet useful.
- Inputs / outputs: consumes {1}{B}; outputs target player loses 2 life, you gain 2 life, and two Blood tokens with "{1}, {T}, Discard a card, Sacrifice this token: Draw a card."
- Aspect guidance: Separate the drain, lifegain, and two Blood artifacts; Blood is often more valuable as future madness access than as immediate filtering.
- Partners / packages: Blood tokens discard Alms of the Vein, Fiery Temper, Kitchen Imp, or Sneaky Snacker; drain pairs with Alms of the Vein and Jagged Barrens in races.
- Role peers: Voldaren Epicure creates one Blood token and one damage to each opponent with a creature body; Alms of the Vein has a larger life swing but no Blood.
- Failure modes: spending Blood too early can lose a future madness window; targeting a player means it does not remove creatures or planeswalkers.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: high value against burn and aggro; against control, the Blood tokens often matter more than the immediate 2-point drain.

#### Razortrap Gorge
- Deck role: Main-deck 3-of role player; dual land that improves color access once the damage plan turns it on.
- Role type: mana/fixing/ramp.
- Deck-specific job: black-red fixing land that may preserve tempo once any player has 13 or less life, matching this deck's burn-and-drain pressure plan.
- Timing: play when it unlocks the missing color; before a player is at 13 or less life, account for the enters-tapped cost and do not let it block urgent Faithless Looting, Lightning Bolt, Voldaren Epicure, or Duress turns.
- Inputs / outputs: enters tapped unless a player has 13 or less life; taps for {B} or {R}.
- Aspect guidance: Before the 13-life condition it is tapped fixing; after any player is at 13 or less, it becomes tempo-neutral Rakdos fixing.
- Partners / packages: casts the red package of Faithless Looting, Lightning Bolt, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, Fiery Temper, Tectonic Hazard, Cast into the Fire, and Breath Weapon; casts the black package of Alms of the Vein, Vampire's Kiss, Kitchen Imp, Sneaky Snacker, Duress, Extract a Confession, and Dark Withering.
- Role peers: Jagged Barrens always enters tapped but deals 1 to target opponent; Mountain and Swamp are untapped but single-color.
- Failure modes: treating it as guaranteed untapped before a player is at 13 or less life can miss early plays.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: better in games where early damage from Voldaren Epicure, Jagged Barrens, Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Alms of the Vein, or Vampire's Kiss turns it on quickly.

#### Voldaren Epicure
- Deck role: Main-deck 4-of core piece; turn-one pressure and Blood outlet for madness or Snacker setup.
- Role type: threat/clock; discard outlet; mechanic enabler; engine fuel/material.
- Deck-specific job: preferred turn-one setup creature because it deals 1 damage to each opponent and creates a Blood token for later madness, Sneaky Snacker setup, or land cleanup.
- Timing: cast early unless Lightning Bolt must answer a visible threat; preserve the Blood token when the hand contains Alms of the Vein, Fiery Temper, Kitchen Imp, Sneaky Snacker, or excess lands that need conversion.
- Inputs / outputs: consumes one red mana; outputs a 1/1 creature, 1 damage to each opponent, and one Blood token with "{1}, {T}, Discard a card, Sacrifice this token: Draw a card."
- Partners / packages: Alms of the Vein; Fiery Temper; Kitchen Imp; Sneaky Snacker; Faithless Looting; Grab the Prize; Highway Robbery.
- Role peers: Vampire's Kiss creates two Blood tokens and gains life but costs {1}{B} and has no body; Jagged Barrens gives incidental damage and fixing but no discard outlet.
- Failure modes: the 1/1 body is low impact if kept back too long; spending Blood to cycle a random card can strand a later madness payoff.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: strong against control and midrange as sticky resource setup; against aggro, the body can trade after its enter trigger and Blood token have mattered.

#### Fiery Temper
- Deck role: Main-deck 4-of core piece; red madness burn that handles creatures or finishes the opponent.
- Role type: interaction-removal; mechanic payoff; reach/finisher.
- Deck-specific job: flexible 3-damage instant that becomes premium tempo when madnessed for {R} through the deck's discard outlets.
- Timing: use on creatures when that prevents more damage than face burn creates or opens important attacks; aim at opponent life for lethal or a counted near-lethal line. Hard-cast for {1}{R}{R} when waiting for madness would lose the window.
- Inputs / outputs: consumes red mana and often a discard outlet; outputs 3 damage to any target.
- Mode map: normal cast for {1}{R}{R} is the expensive backup; madness for {R} happens after discard into exile and must be cast for the madness cost or put into the graveyard.
- Partners / packages: Faithless Looting; Grab the Prize; Highway Robbery; Voldaren Epicure Blood token; Vampire's Kiss Blood tokens; Kitchen Imp and Sneaky Snacker as evasive pressure.
- Role peers: Lightning Bolt costs {R} without setup; Dark Withering kills target nonblack creature post-board but cannot go face.
- Failure modes: discarding it without red mana wastes a major payoff; using it on a small creature when Lightning Bolt or Tectonic Hazard would suffice can cost lethal reach.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: removal first against racing creature decks; reach first against control, combo, and stalled boards where opponent life is the key resource.

#### Duress
- Deck role: Sideboard 2-of sideboard bullet; cheap hand disruption for noncreature answers, sweepers, and combo pieces.
- Role type: interaction-discard; sideboard bullet.
- Deck-specific job: post-board hand disruption for noncreature, nonland cards that stop a madness burst, remove Kitchen Imp or Sneaky Snacker, sweep the board, combo off, or gain enough life to break burn math.
- Timing: cast before committing a key Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, Kitchen Imp, Sneaky Snacker, or lethal burn turn; do not spend the turn on Duress when a visible creature must be answered immediately.
- Inputs / outputs: consumes one black mana and reveals target opponent's hand; you choose a noncreature, nonland card from it and that player discards that card.
- Partners / packages: protects Alms of the Vein, Fiery Temper, Kitchen Imp, Sneaky Snacker, Faithless Looting flashback, and Lightning Bolt reach.
- Role peers: No direct peer; closest role overlap is Nihil Spellbomb as a sideboard disruption card, but Nihil Spellbomb attacks graveyards rather than hands.
- Failure modes: misses creatures and lands; weak when the opponent is empty-handed or the battlefield already demands removal.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: bring against control, combo, fogs, sweepers, countermagic, and spell-heavy burn; trim against creature-dense aggro unless their noncreature spells are the real threat.

#### Nihil Spellbomb
- Deck role: Sideboard 3-of sideboard bullet; graveyard hate that can cycle with black mana.
- Role type: hate piece; sideboard bullet; engine fuel/material.
- Deck-specific job: graveyard hate that exiles target player's graveyard and can replace itself when put into your graveyard from the battlefield if you pay {B}.
- Timing: deploy early if you can preserve activation windows; sacrifice before flashback, delve, escape, reanimation, threshold-style payoffs, or recursive threats use the graveyard. Exiling after costs are paid usually does not undo an already-cast spell.
- Inputs / outputs: consumes {1} to cast; activation taps and sacrifices Nihil Spellbomb to exile target player's graveyard; when it is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you may pay {B} to draw a card.
- Mode map: Artifact activation exiles target player's graveyard; death trigger draw is optional and requires paying {B} when Nihil Spellbomb reaches your graveyard from the battlefield.
- Partners / packages: protects against opposing graveyard plans while your core still uses Faithless Looting and Sneaky Snacker, so time it to hurt the opponent more than yourself.
- Role peers: Duress disrupts hand-based noncreature plans; Nihil Spellbomb disrupts public graveyard resources.
- Failure modes: firing it merely because cards are present can miss the payoff window; without black mana it may not replace itself.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: bring against flashback, delve, reanimation, recursion, graveyard combo, and mirror-like Sneaky Snacker plans; it is graveyard hate even though it is an artifact permanent.

#### Cast into the Fire
- Deck role: Sideboard 3-of sideboard bullet; modal artifact hate or small-creature cleanup.
- Role type: modal utility; interaction-removal; hate piece; sideboard bullet.
- Deck-specific job: flexible instant that either deals 1 damage to each of up to two target creatures or exiles one target artifact, giving Rakdos Madness a clean answer to artifact engines and low-toughness battlefield pressure.
- Timing: hold for a visible artifact that changes mana, combat, or inevitability; use the damage mode when 1 damage to one or two creatures changes combat or survival before the opponent grows or protects them.
- Inputs / outputs: consumes {1}{R}; outputs either 1 damage to each of up to two target creatures, or exile of target artifact.
- Mode map: damage mode targets up to two target creatures and deals 1 to each; artifact mode targets one artifact and exiles it.
- Partners / packages: supplements Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Tectonic Hazard, and Breath Weapon; clears blockers for Kitchen Imp and Sneaky Snacker.
- Role peers: Tectonic Hazard damages each opponent and each creature they control at sorcery speed; Breath Weapon deals 2 to each non-Dragon creature; neither exiles target artifact.
- Failure modes: damage mode is poor against high-toughness creatures; artifact mode cannot hit nonartifact enchantments or nonartifact creatures.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: bring against Affinity-style decks, artifact creatures, artifact lands, Blood/Food/Clue-style material, and artifact engines; keep lower priority against nonartifact midrange.

#### Extract a Confession
- Deck role: Sideboard 3-of sideboard bullet; edict effect for protected, oversized, or single-threat boards.
- Role type: interaction-removal; sideboard bullet.
- Deck-specific job: sorcery-speed edict that makes each opponent sacrifice a creature of their choice, or if you collect evidence 6, each opponent instead sacrifices a creature with the greatest power among creatures they control.
- Timing: use before combat to remove a blocker or stabilize against a single important creature; save for large or protected threats when smaller disposable creatures would make the base edict poor.
- Inputs / outputs: consumes {1}{B}; optional collect evidence 6 exiles cards with total mana value 6 or greater from your graveyard; output is opponent-chosen sacrifice, upgraded to greatest-power sacrifice if evidence was collected.
- Mode map: Base mode is a normal edict where each opponent chooses any creature to sacrifice; collect evidence 6 is the upgraded mode that forces the greatest-power creature but spends graveyard resources.
- Partners / packages: combines with Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Tectonic Hazard, Cast into the Fire, and Breath Weapon to clear one-toughness or already-damaged creatures before forcing the real threat to be sacrificed.
- Role peers: Dark Withering directly destroys target nonblack creature but needs a legal target; Extract a Confession can answer untargetable creatures but gives the opponent choice unless evidence 6 is paid.
- Failure modes: weak into token boards or expendable creatures; collecting evidence can consume Faithless Looting, Sneaky Snacker setup, and other graveyard value.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: bring against large creatures, single-threat decks, and hexproof-like threat profiles; less effective against go-wide decks unless evidence 6 makes the greatest-power clause decisive.

#### Dark Withering
- Deck role: Sideboard 2-of sideboard bullet; black madness removal for large nonblack creatures.
- Role type: interaction-removal; mechanic payoff; sideboard bullet.
- Deck-specific job: instant-speed removal for target nonblack creature, especially efficient when discarded and cast for madness {B}.
- Timing: preserve for creatures that Lightning Bolt or Fiery Temper cannot cleanly answer; use madness when Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, Voldaren Epicure Blood token, or Vampire's Kiss Blood token can discard it with black mana available.
- Inputs / outputs: normal cost is {4}{B}{B}; madness cost is {B}; outputs destruction of target nonblack creature.
- Mode map: normal cast is expensive emergency removal; madness for {B} happens after discard into exile and must be cast for the madness cost or put into the graveyard.
- Partners / packages: Faithless Looting; Grab the Prize; Highway Robbery; Voldaren Epicure Blood token; Vampire's Kiss Blood tokens; Extract a Confession for threats that are black, untargetable, or protected from targeted destruction.
- Role peers: Extract a Confession answers through sacrifice but gives opponent agency; Lightning Bolt and Fiery Temper deal damage and can go face but fail against larger creatures.
- Failure modes: cannot target black creatures; discarding without black mana or without a legal nonblack creature loses its discount.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: bring against creature decks with important nonblack threats; poor against black-creature-heavy decks, creature-light control, and combo without creature payoffs.

#### Breath Weapon
- Deck role: Sideboard 2-of sideboard bullet; instant sweeper for go-wide boards and small creature swarms.
- Role type: interaction-sweeper; sideboard bullet.
- Deck-specific job: instant sweeper that deals 2 damage to each non-Dragon creature, buying time against small-creature boards and token swarms.
- Timing: fire when 2 damage kills or cripples enough creatures to change survival, attacks, or blockers; if using it to clear blockers, account for the same 2 damage hitting your own Voldaren Epicure, Kitchen Imp, and Sneaky Snacker because they are non-Dragon creatures.
- Inputs / outputs: consumes {2}{R}; outputs 2 damage marked on each non-Dragon creature.
- Partners / packages: follows or precedes Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Tectonic Hazard, and Cast into the Fire to finish larger damaged creatures; protects life total for Alms of the Vein and Vampire's Kiss to swing races.
- Role peers: Tectonic Hazard is one-sided against opposing creatures but deals only 1 and is sorcery speed; Cast into the Fire can damage up to two target creatures or exile target artifact.
- Failure modes: kills your Voldaren Epicure and can kill Kitchen Imp or Sneaky Snacker; damage does not shrink creatures and may fail against high toughness.
- Matchup / visibility hooks: bring against Faeries, Elves, tokens, and go-wide aggro; avoid when your own evasive board is more valuable than the creatures it would damage.

## Interaction Priorities

- Remove the creature that changes the next combat step first, not the creature with the highest theoretical value. Use Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Dark Withering, Extract a Confession, Cast into the Fire, Breath Weapon, or Tectonic Hazard only when the legal action text and visible board show the target or effect actually solves a clock, blocker, engine, or lethal race problem.

- Preserve Fiery Temper when face damage is part of a counted kill, but spend it on a creature when that creature will deal more than three damage before your next safe window. Madness Fiery Temper is often the best tempo removal because the discard outlet also advances Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, Blood, Alms of the Vein, Kitchen Imp, or Sneaky Snacker pressure.

- Spend Lightning Bolt before Fiery Temper when both kill the same small creature and no madness discount or discard payoff is attached. Hold Lightning Bolt over sorcery-speed options when the opponent can add an aura, sacrifice a creature, attack with a fragile threat, or expose a must-kill creature during combat.

- Use Tectonic Hazard and Breath Weapon on clustered small creatures, tokens, and go-wide starts; do not fire them at a single low-impact creature unless the race or life total demands it. Card text check required for exact affected objects, so verify whether your own Voldaren Epicure, Sneaky Snacker, or Kitchen Imp is exposed before choosing the action.

- Use Cast into the Fire primarily for artifact engines, artifact creatures, and small-creature cleanup when the visible mode and target text line up. Against Affinity-style boards, preserve it for artifact threats or enabling artifacts unless a small creature is about to decide combat or lethal.

- Use Extract a Confession and Dark Withering on creatures that dodge Lightning Bolt, dominate combat, or threaten a fast kill. Card text check required for exact targeting, sacrifice, bargain, or madness conditions, so route through the rules engine and choose only legal targets or modes shown.

- Use Duress to take the noncreature card that invalidates your current plan: sweeper before overextending, removal before committing Kitchen Imp or Sneaky Snacker pressure, counterspell before a key madness or draw turn, and combo piece before clock math. Do not take a card because it is expensive if another visible card affects the next two turns more.

- Use Nihil Spellbomb when the opponent's graveyard is about to become a resource, not merely because cards are present. Exile graveyards before flashback, reanimation, delve, threshold-like payoffs, or recursive threats matter; hold it if the opponent has not yet committed the graveyard card that makes the activation valuable.

- Ignore creatures that cannot profitably attack, cannot block flyers, or are already blanked by your race plan unless they enable sacrifice, convoke, lifegain, or combo. Small blockers are often less important than preserving burn for face if Kitchen Imp and Sneaky Snacker can keep attacking over them.

- Bait interaction with lower-stakes spells when the hand contains redundant discard outlets or reach. Lead with Vampire's Kiss, Voldaren Epicure, Faithless Looting, or a hard-cast setup spell when the opponent's open mana suggests counterspell or removal and the important follow-up is Kitchen Imp, Fiery Temper, Alms of the Vein, or a lethal burn spell.

## Combat And Trading Rules

- Attack with Kitchen Imp and Sneaky Snacker when evasive damage advances a two-turn or three-turn burn clock and the visible crackback is survivable. Preserve them over ground trades because flying pressure converts Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Alms of the Vein, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, and Vampire's Kiss into lethal reach.

- Treat Voldaren Epicure as expendable after its enter-the-battlefield value and Blood token have mattered. Trade it with an attacker when life total is under pressure, sacrifice or discard through Blood when the engine offers a madness payoff, and do not hold it back as a precious threat if it can buy a full draw step.

- Protect the discard engine by sequencing Blood, Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, and Highway Robbery before committing fragile threats only when the opponent's removal would otherwise strand madness cards. If the opponent is tapped low or under a short clock, commit the threat first when the legal line adds immediate evasive pressure.

- Trade life for tempo against slow control and combo, but defend life aggressively against burn and creature aggro. Above roughly 12 life, prioritize clock and card flow unless the opponent has visible lethal setup; between 8 and 12, count the next attack plus known burn-style public information; below 8, removal and life swings from Alms of the Vein or Vampire's Kiss become survival tools.

- Block with Kitchen Imp only when the block prevents lethal, preserves a winning race, or trades with a creature that otherwise invalidates future attacks. Do not trade an evasive threat for a ground creature that can be raced or burned later.

- Block with Sneaky Snacker more freely if the graveyard and draw pattern can recur it, but do not assume recursion unless the rules engine shows the exact trigger or legal sequence. Use it as a renewable resource only when Faithless Looting, Highway Robbery, Grab the Prize, or other visible card-draw lines can realistically turn it back on.

- Race ground blockers by attacking in the air and pointing burn at the opponent when the opponent's board cannot produce lethal first. Remove blockers only when they also attack profitably, carry equipment or auras, enable lifegain, or force your flyers to stay home.

- Against go-wide aggro, shift from pure racing to attrition until the first wave is contained. Preserve Tectonic Hazard, Breath Weapon, Lightning Bolt, and Fiery Temper for board stabilization, and use Alms of the Vein or Vampire's Kiss to reverse damage races.

- Against large-creature midrange, avoid spending burn inefficiently unless combined damage or sideboard removal cleanly answers the threat. Keep attacking with evasive creatures while using Extract a Confession, Dark Withering, or edict-like legal actions for the creature that blocks the game plan.

- Against control, force damage through early and make removal awkward by diversifying threats, graveyard pressure, Blood tokens, and burn. Do not overextend into known sweepers from Duress or public information; keep a discard outlet or burn spell in reserve when the current board already demands an answer.

## Selection And Tutor Rules

- Selection: Treat this deck as having pseudo-selection rather than true tutoring; Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, and Blood tokens from Voldaren Epicure or Vampire's Kiss convert excess lands, dead removal, duplicate discard outlets, and madness cards into velocity, but they do not guarantee a specific card.

- First filter: Use Faithless Looting early when the hand needs land, a discard outlet, or a threat, especially when discarding Alms of the Vein, Fiery Temper, Kitchen Imp, or Sneaky Snacker is legal and productive. Do not cast Faithless Looting just to spend mana if the hand already has a strong curve and discarding would reduce pressure or interaction.

- Discard priority: Prefer discarding madness cards when the engine offers a legal madness cast and the current mana supports it. If madness is not legal or mana is constrained, discard extra lands after the third or fourth land, duplicate Jagged Barrens-style tapped lands, matchup-dead removal, or recursive Sneaky Snacker only when future draw patterns can reasonably bring it back.

- Draw spell timing: Sequence Grab the Prize and Highway Robbery when the hand can use the cards immediately, enable Sneaky Snacker recursion, or turn a stranded madness card into tempo. Card text check required for exact additional costs, damage, plot, or discard clauses, so follow the rules-engine prompt rather than assuming every draw mode is available.

- Blood token timing: Use Blood tokens after deciding whether the current turn needs a land drop, madness mana, or instant-speed Lightning Bolt. Activate Blood when the discarded card has value in the graveyard or as a madness spell, and delay Blood when holding it threatens future Fiery Temper, Alms of the Vein, Kitchen Imp, or Sneaky Snacker lines.

- Land-drop timing: Usually play an untapped black or red source before filtering if it unlocks legal madness or Lightning Bolt decisions this turn. Delay the land drop only when Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, or Blood may reveal which color is needed, or when a visible legal action rewards sacrificing or discarding a land.

- Land selection: Keep enough red for Lightning Bolt, Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, Fiery Temper, Tectonic Hazard, Cast into the Fire, and Breath Weapon; keep enough black for Alms of the Vein, Kitchen Imp, Sneaky Snacker, Vampire's Kiss, Duress, Nihil Spellbomb draw activations if shown, Extract a Confession, and Dark Withering. Do not discard the only source of a color unless the current hand has no near-term use for that color.

- Graveyard awareness: Count Sneaky Snacker, Faithless Looting flashback if legal, and madness cards as resources only when the engine exposes the relevant legal actions. Do not assume recursion, flashback, or madness timing from memory if the current prompt does not show it.

- Bottom or selection prompts: When a scry, surveil, top-bottom, or card-set prompt appears from an opponent effect or sideboard card, keep lands when stuck below three mana, keep discard outlets when holding madness cards, keep burn when the opponent is within reach, and keep removal only for threats that matter in the next turn cycle. Bottom redundant tapped lands, slow setup, or low-impact removal when pressure and reach are already covered.

## Priority And Stack Rules

- Priority: Pass with intention when no legal instant-speed action changes combat, protects a threat, enables madness profitably, or changes a lethal clock. Explain what is being held, such as Lightning Bolt for a creature, Blood for a madness turn, or burn for opponent end step.

- Instant burn: Use Lightning Bolt at instant speed when killing a creature before damage, before an aura or pump effect resolves, before a sacrifice payoff can use it, or at opponent end step to preserve main-phase mana. Send Lightning Bolt to the opponent only when it advances a realistic lethal clock or no visible creature matters.

- Madness windows: When discarding Alms of the Vein, Fiery Temper, or Kitchen Imp creates a legal madness prompt, decide based on mana, clock, and target value rather than automatically casting. Cast the madness spell when it converts a discard cost into damage, board control, life swing, or evasive pressure; decline only when mana must be preserved for a higher-priority visible action.

- Stack patience: Let opponent spells resolve when the visible outcome does not affect the current race, your evasive attackers, your life-total safety, or a future lethal turn. Respond only when the stack item will remove a key threat, gain enough life to break your burn math, create a must-answer board, or deny your selected line.

- End-step usage: Prefer opponent end step for Blood activations, Lightning Bolt to face, and noncombat instant-speed choices when waiting preserves information and does not waste mana. Main-phase the same effects when they unlock Sneaky Snacker, madness casting, a land-drop decision, or lethal before the opponent untaps.

- Optional payments: Pay optional costs such as madness, flashback-like prompts, or other engine-exposed payments only when the resulting spell or ability improves the current turn cycle. Do not consume the last red or black mana on a low-impact option if that mana is needed for Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Alms of the Vein, Kitchen Imp, or sideboard interaction.

- Trigger handling: Put damage, life-drain, draw, recursion, and Blood-related triggers on the stack in the order the rules engine allows, choosing the order that preserves lethal lines and legal target clarity. Card text check required for exact Sneaky Snacker recursion and any draw-count trigger, so rely on visible prompts.

- Graveyard timing: Use Nihil Spellbomb only before the opponent can legally use the graveyard card that matters, or in response to a stack item that targets or counts graveyard resources when the engine exposes that timing. Do not exile a graveyard merely because it is large if holding the activation can catch a higher-value flashback, recursion, or delve-style window.

- Combat windows: Hold Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Dark Withering, Extract a Confession, Cast into the Fire, Tectonic Hazard, or Breath Weapon through declare attackers and declare blockers when the opponent may expose a better target. Card text check required for exact timing and affected creatures on Tectonic Hazard and Breath Weapon, so verify your own Voldaren Epicure, Kitchen Imp, and Sneaky Snacker before firing sweep effects.

- Lethal stack math: Before targeting the opponent with Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Alms of the Vein, Vampire's Kiss, Grab the Prize damage if shown, or Voldaren Epicure triggers, count visible life gain, blockers, open mana, and pending stack items. Choose immediate lethal when the legal action text and current stack show enough damage or drain without relying on hidden cards.

## Sideboard Map

- Sideboard principle: Add narrow cards only when their text interacts with the opponent's main axis, because Rakdos Madness loses equity when it removes too many discard outlets, madness payoffs, or burn spells. Keep the core of Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, Alms of the Vein, Fiery Temper, Kitchen Imp, Sneaky Snacker, Vampire's Kiss, Voldaren Epicure, and Lightning Bolt intact unless a matchup makes one role clearly low impact.

- Duress role: Add Duress against spell-heavy control, combo, fog, sweepers, countermagic, expensive removal, and decks where the critical card is not a creature on the battlefield. Duress is weak against creature-dense aggro, low-hand topdeck races, and board states where the opponent's visible threats already require removal or racing; after sideboarding, treat Duress as pre-commitment protection for a madness burst, not as a reason to slow every aggressive start.

- Nihil Spellbomb role: Add Nihil Spellbomb against graveyard recursion, reanimation, flashback, delve, threshold-style pressure, graveyard combo, and value engines that repeatedly reuse the graveyard. Nihil Spellbomb is weak against linear creature damage, artifact aggro with little graveyard reliance, and matchups where spending mana or a card on graveyard pressure delays lethal burn; after sideboarding, hold it for a meaningful graveyard window unless the rules engine shows a legal draw or cantrip line that does not damage tempo.

- Cast into the Fire role: Add Cast into the Fire against artifact decks, small-creature boards, artifact lands, Blood/Food/Clue-style material, and decks whose best permanent class is an artifact. Card text check required for exact modes, damage split, and artifact handling; it is weak against nonartifact midrange, big creatures outside damage range, and spell combo. After sideboarding, treat it as flexible interaction that can protect the race without spending Lightning Bolt on low-value artifacts.

- Extract a Confession role: Add Extract a Confession against large creatures, hexproof-like threat profiles if the engine exposes legal sacrifice or target modes, single-threat midrange, Bogles-style boards, and creatures that dodge damage removal. Card text check required for exact targeting, sacrifice, bargain, or evidence text; it is weak against token floods, disposable creature boards, and opponents with many low-value permanents. After sideboarding, preserve it for threats that Lightning Bolt or Fiery Temper cannot cleanly answer.

- Dark Withering role: Add Dark Withering against creature decks where a madness-speed removal spell can turn Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, or Blood tokens into tempo. Card text check required for exact cost, target restriction, and madness timing; it is weak against black-creature-heavy decks if targeting restrictions apply, creature-light control, and combo where removal does not disrupt the engine. After sideboarding, value discard outlets more highly when Dark Withering is in hand and a legal target is visible.

- Breath Weapon role: Add Breath Weapon against token swarms, one-toughness creature decks, Faeries, Elves, go-wide aggro, and boards where clearing small blockers creates immediate damage. Card text check required for exact damage, timing, and creature classes affected; it is weak when your own Voldaren Epicure, Kitchen Imp, Sneaky Snacker, or Blood-enabled pressure would be damaged more than the opponent's board. After sideboarding, delay Breath Weapon until it changes combat or survival, not merely because several creatures are visible.

Balanced anti-graveyard plan
Side in: 3 Nihil Spellbomb, 2 Duress
Cut: 1 Tectonic Hazard, 2 Highway Robbery, 1 Vampire's Kiss, 1 Grab the Prize

- Anti-graveyard plan rule: Use this plan against reanimation, delve, flashback, recursive threats, or graveyard combo where Nihil Spellbomb has repeated tactical relevance. Reduce main-deck emphasis on slower damage setup and one low-impact sweeper, while keeping enough draw-discard density to enable Alms of the Vein, Fiery Temper, Kitchen Imp, and Sneaky Snacker.

Balanced anti-artifact plan
Side in: 3 Cast into the Fire, 2 Duress
Cut: 1 Tectonic Hazard, 2 Highway Robbery, 1 Vampire's Kiss, 1 Sneaky Snacker

- Anti-artifact plan rule: Use this plan against artifact aggro, Affinity-style shells, artifact mana, and decks where artifact removal changes both board control and racing math. Duress enters when the opponent also has payoff spells or sweepers; if the opponent is almost entirely permanents, prefer role cards that affect the battlefield and reduce Duress priority.

Balanced anti-creature plan
Side in: 3 Extract a Confession, 2 Dark Withering, 2 Breath Weapon
Cut: 1 Tectonic Hazard, 2 Highway Robbery, 2 Vampire's Kiss, 1 Grab the Prize, 1 Sneaky Snacker

- Anti-creature plan rule: Use this plan against creature decks where survival and blocker removal matter more than raw card flow. Keep Lightning Bolt and Fiery Temper as premium interaction, keep enough discard outlets for madness, and reduce main-deck emphasis on slower drain or draw actions when board presence is the immediate problem.

- Against fast red or burn: Add role cards: 2 Duress when noncreature burn density is high, 2 Dark Withering only when creatures are central, and Breath Weapon only when the opposing board has many small creatures. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow Highway Robbery turns, Tectonic Hazard when it misses key creatures, and excess self-slowing tapped-land hands. Role change: Alms of the Vein and Vampire's Kiss become stabilization tools, not merely reach.

- Against blue control or counterspell decks: Add role cards: 2 Duress and sometimes 3 Nihil Spellbomb if their graveyard is a resource. Reduce main-deck emphasis: creature removal with no visible targets and Tectonic Hazard. Role change: sequence Duress before a key Faithless Looting flashback if legal, madness burst, or double-spell turn; avoid walking a single Kitchen Imp or Sneaky Snacker into open interaction when burn reach can be held.

- Against go-wide small creatures: Add role cards: 2 Breath Weapon, 3 Cast into the Fire if artifacts matter, and 3 Extract a Confession only if they also present large individual threats. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slower Highway Robbery lines and low-impact face-only damage when blockers or lethal pressure are visible. Role change: Lightning Bolt and Fiery Temper become board-control tools until the race stabilizes.

- Against large-creature midrange: Add role cards: 3 Extract a Confession and 2 Dark Withering when target restrictions allow useful kills. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Tectonic Hazard, Breath Weapon unless small support creatures matter, and some slow draw when under pressure. Role change: burn can finish damaged opponents, but removal must first prevent the large threat from invalidating Kitchen Imp attacks or forcing bad blocks.

- Against graveyard-light aggro: Add role cards: only creature interaction that answers visible threats. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Nihil Spellbomb and Duress unless public information shows graveyard or noncreature dependence. Role change: stay proactive, because diluting burn and madness density for narrow answers makes the deck less explosive without improving survival.

- Against combo: Add role cards: 2 Duress, 3 Nihil Spellbomb if the combo uses the graveyard, and 3 Extract a Confession only if a creature payoff must be answered. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Tectonic Hazard, Breath Weapon, and damage removal that cannot affect the combo's required permanent. Role change: choose discard and graveyard timing around the opponent's visible setup turn, then close quickly with Alms of the Vein, Fiery Temper, Kitchen Imp, and Lightning Bolt.

## Matchup Guidance

- Aggro: Take the control seat until the board is stable, then turn every madness spell into a race-ending burst. Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, and Tectonic Hazard should answer creatures when the opponent's visible attackers shorten your clock, while Alms of the Vein and Vampire's Kiss protect life total swings. Add role cards: Dark Withering against creature-centered pressure, Breath Weapon against small boards, and Extract a Confession against oversized threats. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slower Highway Robbery lines when spending the turn drawing does not affect combat.

- Burn: Preserve life total first and convert drain into a two-way race. Alms of the Vein is especially important when a legal discard outlet lets it gain life without losing tempo, and Vampire's Kiss is often better as stabilization than as setup. Add role cards: Duress against spell-heavy burn, Dark Withering only when creatures are a meaningful part of the damage, and Breath Weapon only against many small attackers. Reduce main-deck emphasis: tapped-land-heavy keeps, slow Highway Robbery turns, and Tectonic Hazard when it does not hit the opponent's relevant threats.

- Go-wide decks: Clear clusters before pushing damage, because Kitchen Imp and Sneaky Snacker race poorly into wide blocks unless burn changes combat. Breath Weapon is the primary role card when it affects the visible board favorably; Tectonic Hazard can matter if the engine shows legal damage to small creatures or the opponent. Cast into the Fire matters when the go-wide deck is artifact-based. Reduce main-deck emphasis: face-only burn while the opponent's board threatens lethal or blocks all attacks.

- Tempo decks: Fight over mana efficiency and threat windows, not raw card count. Voldaren Epicure, Vampire's Kiss, Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, and Highway Robbery are strongest when they enable Alms of the Vein, Fiery Temper, Kitchen Imp, or Sneaky Snacker while still leaving mana for interaction. Add role cards: Duress against counterspells or bounce-heavy plans, Dark Withering when their threats are legal targets, and Extract a Confession for single protected creatures if the visible board makes it effective. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow draw sequences into open tempo pressure.

- Control decks: Become a recursive burn deck and avoid presenting only one fragile threat at a time. Faithless Looting flashback, Highway Robbery, Grab the Prize, Blood tokens from Voldaren Epicure and Vampire's Kiss, Sneaky Snacker recursion, and madness costs help compress multiple threats into one turn. Add role cards: Duress for sweepers, counterspells, removal, and card draw; Nihil Spellbomb if their graveyard is a visible resource. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Tectonic Hazard and creature removal without targets. Hold Lightning Bolt and Fiery Temper when they represent reach through removal-heavy board states.

- Removal-heavy decks: Do not overvalue any single creature; make removal trade down against recursive or incidental threats. Sneaky Snacker is valuable when discard actions naturally return or enable it, Kitchen Imp is valuable when madness creates tempo, and Voldaren Epicure is valuable because it leaves a Blood token after removal. Add role cards: Duress to clear removal or sweepers before a burst turn, and Nihil Spellbomb only when graveyard recursion or flashback is public. Reduce main-deck emphasis: removal spells with few targets and low-impact Tectonic Hazard.

- Midrange decks: Trade resources early, then finish with evasive creatures and burn reach. Lightning Bolt and Fiery Temper should answer creatures that dominate combat, while Kitchen Imp and Sneaky Snacker pressure life totals over stalled ground boards. Add role cards: Extract a Confession for large or resilient creatures, Dark Withering when target restrictions and visible colors permit, and Duress against planes, removal, or expensive payoff spells. Card text check required for Extract a Confession and Dark Withering restrictions. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Breath Weapon unless small support creatures matter.

- Single-threat decks: Preserve hard answers for the threat that actually wins the game. Extract a Confession is a key role card if the engine exposes a legal way to answer the solitary threat; Dark Withering matters when its target restrictions allow the kill; Lightning Bolt and Fiery Temper are best when damage is enough or can combine cleanly. Add role cards: Duress against protection, auras, pump, or permission. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Breath Weapon and Tectonic Hazard unless they affect the visible threat or its support.

- Big mana decks: Race before inevitability, then use discard or narrow interaction to break the payoff turn. Keep proactive hands with Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, Kitchen Imp, Sneaky Snacker, Alms of the Vein, and burn reach rather than slow hands that only interact with small creatures. Add role cards: Duress for sweepers, big payoff spells, and stabilizers; Extract a Confession if they rely on large creatures; Cast into the Fire when artifacts or mana rocks are central. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Tectonic Hazard and Breath Weapon unless the visible battlefield rewards them.

- Combo decks: Identify whether the combo is spell-based, graveyard-based, creature-based, or artifact-based before choosing interaction. Duress is the default role card against noncreature combo setup, Nihil Spellbomb is essential when public zones show graveyard dependence, Extract a Confession or Dark Withering matter only when a creature is the necessary payoff, and Cast into the Fire matters only when artifacts or enchantments are part of the engine. Reduce main-deck emphasis: creature sweepers and damage removal that do not affect the combo path. Close quickly after disruption with Fiery Temper, Alms of the Vein, Kitchen Imp, Sneaky Snacker, and Lightning Bolt.

- Graveyard decks: Use Nihil Spellbomb around the opponent's commitment point, not merely because cards are in a graveyard. If the opponent is building toward a flashback, delve, reanimation, or recursive payoff, hold Nihil Spellbomb until it denies the payoff unless waiting risks losing the window. Add role cards: Duress for enablers or protection and Extract a Confession for creature payoffs. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow damage setup when the opponent can win from the graveyard faster than you can race.

- Artifact/enchantment decks: Treat Cast into the Fire as flexible role interaction when public permanents make it relevant, with card text check required for exact artifact, enchantment, exile, damage, or mode details. Against Affinity-style artifact boards, interaction should either slow mana, remove a key payoff, or open attacks for Kitchen Imp and Sneaky Snacker. Add role cards: Duress when noncreature payoffs or sweepers matter, Extract a Confession for large creatures, and Breath Weapon only against small creature clusters. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow burn pointed at the opponent while artifact permanents are determining combat or mana.

- Creature-light decks: Maximize discard-draw pressure and burn reach. Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, Voldaren Epicure Blood, and Vampire's Kiss Blood should turn extra lands or redundant cards into madness spells and recurring pressure. Add role cards: Duress first, Nihil Spellbomb only for graveyard dependence, and Cast into the Fire only for important artifacts or enchantments. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Dark Withering, Breath Weapon, Extract a Confession, Tectonic Hazard, and creature-only removal when no legal targets matter.

- Creature-dense decks: Survive first, then use evasion and drain to finish. Lightning Bolt and Fiery Temper should remove blockers or attackers that change the clock, and Kitchen Imp should attack when flying damage is not needed back on defense. Add role cards: Breath Weapon for small boards, Dark Withering for legal high-impact targets, Extract a Confession for large threats, and Cast into the Fire against artifact creatures. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow Highway Robbery turns when the opponent's visible board threatens lethal.

- Mirror or madness-adjacent decks: Respect burst damage from discard outlets and count visible mana, cards in hand, graveyards, Blood tokens, and flashback access before passing priority. Nihil Spellbomb can interrupt Sneaky Snacker-style recursion or graveyard value if public information supports it, while Duress can clear a key draw-discard or burn spell before a race swing. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Breath Weapon unless many small creatures are visible and Tectonic Hazard unless it changes the battlefield or lethal math.

## Specific Matchup Notes

- General/archetype-only scope: Use these notes only until the opponent's revealed cards, public zones, and rules-engine legal actions identify the real matchup. Revealed cards override assumptions, and sideboard choices should follow visible engines, threats, and interaction rather than deck-name guesses.

- Fast red or creature-aggro: Protect life total first, then pivot to burn reach once Alms of the Vein, Vampire's Kiss, Lightning Bolt, and Fiery Temper can close the race. Priority targets are haste creatures, repeatable damage sources, and creatures that make Kitchen Imp unable to race. Add role cards: Breath Weapon for small-creature boards and Dark Withering for legal larger attackers. Card text check required for Breath Weapon and Dark Withering. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow Highway Robbery turns when the board threatens lethal.

- Blue tempo, Faeries, or permission: Force them to answer cheap pressure before leaning on expensive discard-draw turns. Voldaren Epicure and Kitchen Imp are important because they create board pressure without committing every resource; Sneaky Snacker is strongest when discard actions make removal inefficient. Add role cards: Duress to clear Counterspell-style interaction or sweepers, and Extract a Confession only if a protected creature or large finisher is public. Card text check required for Extract a Confession. Priority targets are Spellstutter Sprite-style blockers, Ninja-style card-advantage attackers, and any revealed permission that stops a madness burst.

- Black midrange or removal-heavy decks: Trade resources willingly and make the opponent answer recursive or incidental threats. Sneaky Snacker, Voldaren Epicure Blood tokens, Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, and Highway Robbery help convert removal attrition into velocity. Add role cards: Duress for removal, sweepers, and card-advantage spells; Nihil Spellbomb only if graveyard recursion or flashback is public. Priority targets are lifegain engines, monarch/initiative-style advantage, and creatures too large for clean burn.

- Big mana or control: Race before inevitability, but do not spend burn into life totals if a visible stabilizer must die first. Keep pressure hands that combine discard outlets with madness payoffs, especially Faithless Looting or Grab the Prize plus Fiery Temper, Alms of the Vein, Kitchen Imp, or Sneaky Snacker. Add role cards: Duress for sweepers and payoffs, Cast into the Fire when artifacts or mana pieces are public, and Extract a Confession for large creature finishers. Card text check required for Cast into the Fire.

- Artifact-heavy decks: Treat Cast into the Fire as a role card only when visible artifacts or enchantments matter to mana, combat, or inevitability. Lightning Bolt and Fiery Temper should remove payoff creatures when damage is enough; Extract a Confession or Dark Withering matter when a large legal target dominates combat. Priority targets are artifact mana that enables explosive turns, large blockers that stop Kitchen Imp and Sneaky Snacker, and lifegain artifacts that erase burn reach.

- Graveyard or combo decks: Disrupt the enabling zone or commitment window, then close quickly. Nihil Spellbomb should be saved for a public flashback, delve, reanimation, recursion, or threshold-like payoff unless waiting loses the window. Duress is the default role card against spell combo; Extract a Confession and Dark Withering matter only if a creature is the visible necessary piece. Priority targets are graveyard payoffs, discard outlets that enable a faster combo than yours, and protection spells revealed by Duress.

## Risk Summary

- Mana risk: The deck can stumble when Jagged Barrens, Razortrap Gorge, Mountain, and Swamp do not line up with black drains, red burn, and discard outlets. Do not keep speculative one-color hands unless Faithless Looting, Voldaren Epicure Blood, or other visible actions provide a realistic path to both colors.

- Draw risk: Hands with only payoffs or only outlets fail differently. Alms of the Vein, Fiery Temper, Kitchen Imp, and Sneaky Snacker are strongest with Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, Voldaren Epicure, or Vampire's Kiss available; outlet-heavy hands need enough pressure or interaction to avoid spinning wheels.

- Matchup risk: Rakdos Madness can become the wrong role if it races when it must stabilize or stabilizes when it must force lethal. Reassess after every public threat, life-total swing, and graveyard reveal, especially against aggro, graveyard combo, and big mana.

- Over-sideboarding risk: Do not dilute the discard-madness core for narrow answers. Duress, Nihil Spellbomb, Cast into the Fire, Extract a Confession, Dark Withering, and Breath Weapon must answer a visible or strongly inferred axis; removing too many threats or outlets makes Sneaky Snacker, Kitchen Imp, Alms of the Vein, and Fiery Temper worse.

- Graveyard risk: Sneaky Snacker and Faithless Looting reward graveyard use, but opposing Nihil Spellbomb-style effects can punish careless sequencing. If graveyard hate is visible, prefer extracting value immediately from madness, Blood, and burn rather than banking on future recursion.

- Sweeper/removal risk: Kitchen Imp and Sneaky Snacker can pressure through spot removal, but broad removal can erase a creature-heavy push. Use Duress when available before committing multiple creatures into a suspected sweeper, and keep Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Alms of the Vein, or Highway Robbery as post-sweeper reach when possible.

- Closer risk: Burn pointed at creatures can leave no way to finish, while burn pointed at the opponent can lose to a creature that changes the clock. Count visible life totals, known drains, Blood tokens, flashback access, and likely next attacks before spending Lightning Bolt or Fiery Temper.

- Interaction risk: Sideboard answers have restrictions and timing details that must come from rules-engine legal actions. Card text check required for Cast into the Fire, Extract a Confession, Dark Withering, and Breath Weapon before relying on exact modes, target restrictions, or damage patterns.

- Sequencing risk: Discarding the wrong card can strand madness payoffs, shrink future decisions, or miss Sneaky Snacker timing. Use the legal action text and visible mana to confirm whether a discard creates immediate value before choosing between lands, duplicate outlets, burn, and creatures.

## Test Feedback Checklist

- Deciding factor: Record whether wins came from early Voldaren Epicure, Kitchen Imp, and Sneaky Snacker pressure, burn reach from Lightning Bolt and Fiery Temper, drain from Alms of the Vein and Vampire's Kiss, or attrition from Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, and Highway Robbery. For losses, identify whether the decisive failure was mana, outlet/payoff mismatch, removal timing, lifegain, graveyard hate, racing error, or sideboard-role mismatch.

- Mulligans: Check whether each keep had a credible first-three-turn plan rather than just powerful isolated cards. Note hands that lacked red for Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Lightning Bolt, or Fiery Temper, lacked black for Alms of the Vein, Vampire's Kiss, Sneaky Snacker, or Kitchen Imp, or kept madness cards without a visible discard outlet.

- Mana: Track how often Jagged Barrens entering tapped changed the turn sequence, how often Razortrap Gorge enabled or failed to enable the needed color, and how often Mountain-heavy or Swamp-heavy draws stranded spells. Flag games where a tapped land delayed a discard outlet, madness creature, or removal spell at a decisive combat or lethal window.

- Velocity: Review whether Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, Vampire's Kiss, and Voldaren Epicure Blood tokens converted weak cards into pressure or merely spent mana without affecting the race. Mark decisions where discarding Alms of the Vein, Fiery Temper, Kitchen Imp, or Sneaky Snacker created immediate value, and decisions where discarding a land or duplicate outlet would have preserved more future damage.

- Engine function: Record how often Sneaky Snacker returned or threatened to return from legal discard and life-gain patterns, and whether the pilot sequenced Vampire's Kiss, Alms of the Vein, and Blood tokens to support that plan. Note whether Kitchen Imp arrived early enough to matter or sat stranded as a normal-cost creature.

- Removal and reach: Check every Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Tectonic Hazard, Extract a Confession, Dark Withering, Cast into the Fire, and Breath Weapon use against the visible clock. Mark whether the spell removed a necessary blocker/threat, preserved survival, opened attacks, or should have been saved for opponent life total; card text check required for sideboard removal details.

- Sideboard impact: After each post-board game, identify which sideboard cards were drawn, cast, stranded, or irrelevant. Track Duress against interaction/combo, Nihil Spellbomb against public graveyard reliance, Cast into the Fire against artifacts, Extract a Confession and Dark Withering against larger creatures, and Breath Weapon against small-creature boards.

- Closing discipline: Count missed lethal or near-lethal turns involving Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Alms of the Vein, Highway Robbery, Vampire's Kiss, and combat damage. Also count premature burn-to-face decisions that lost to a visible creature, lifegain source, or board swing.

- Role accuracy: Ask whether Rakdos Madness correctly chose beatdown, stabilizer, or attrition role after each major public change. Flag games where the pilot raced into lethal pressure, over-controlled when burn reach was enough, or spent velocity turns while the opponent’s board demanded action.

- Stranded and standout cards: List main-deck cards that were repeatedly uncast, low-impact, or excellent. Separate mana-stranded cards from tactically wrong cards, and separate sideboard cards that lacked legal targets from cards that were available but misused.

## First Tuning Questions

- Card quantity question: If Sneaky Snacker is underperforming, is the issue card quantity, insufficient life-gain/discard sequencing, opposing graveyard hate, or games ending before recursion matters? Do not reduce graveyard-engine emphasis without checking whether Faithless Looting, Vampire's Kiss, Blood tokens, and Alms of the Vein were used to enable it.

- Outlet/payoff balance question: If Alms of the Vein, Fiery Temper, Kitchen Imp, or Sneaky Snacker are stranded, does the deck need more reliable discard access, different sequencing guidance for Faithless Looting and Grab the Prize, or fewer payoff-heavy keeps? If Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, and Highway Robbery are low-impact, does the deck need more threats, more burn, or stricter mulligans.

- Mana question: If color screw or tapped-land tempo losses recur, should the Mountain, Swamp, Jagged Barrens, and Razortrap Gorge balance change, or is the pilot keeping hands that fail the deck’s two-color velocity requirements? Track whether black was missing for drain/creatures or red was missing for outlets/removal before changing land counts.

- Aggro-plan question: If fast decks win races, does Rakdos Madness need more early removal emphasis, more Breath Weapon or Dark Withering sideboard reliance, or tighter rules for spending Lightning Bolt and Fiery Temper on creatures. Confirm whether losses came from failing to block, failing to remove, or drawing too many slow Highway Robbery turns.

- Control-plan question: If control stabilizes, does the deck need more Duress pressure, more resilient threat sequencing with Sneaky Snacker and Kitchen Imp, or more discipline preserving burn reach. Check whether the pilot overextended into sweepers, missed flashback value from Faithless Looting, or spent damage into nonlethal windows.

- Closer question: If opponents survive at low life, examine whether Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Alms of the Vein, Vampire's Kiss, and Highway Robbery counts are sufficient or whether creature attacks are being traded too freely. Distinguish life-gain matchups from ordinary missed sequencing before changing closers.

- Sideboard-slot question: If Duress, Nihil Spellbomb, Cast into the Fire, Extract a Confession, Dark Withering, or Breath Weapon remain unused across expected matchups, ask whether the metagame axis is misread or the sideboard card has too narrow a legal target profile. Card text check required before judging Extract a Confession, Dark Withering, Cast into the Fire, and Breath Weapon.

- Role-conflict question: If post-board games feel slower but not stronger, ask whether too many role cards reduced the core madness engine. Preserve enough Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Voldaren Epicure, Vampire's Kiss, Sneaky Snacker, Kitchen Imp, Alms of the Vein, and Fiery Temper functionality for the deck to still close games.

## Veles Tactical Policy

### Policy: Opening Keep Gate
- Priority: High
- Decision families: mulligan, pregame
- Cards: Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, Vampire's Kiss, Voldaren Epicure, Alms of the Vein, Fiery Temper, Kitchen Imp, Sneaky Snacker, Lightning Bolt
- Phase windows: opening hand, mulligan, post-mulligan bottom
- Runtime cues: prompt:mulligan; visible hand; land count; color access
- Use when: deciding whether the hand can produce an honest first-three-turn plan with lands, red outlet access, and at least one pressure, burn, drain, or filtering payoff.
- Avoid when: keeping only because the hand has several powerful madness cards but no legal discard outlet, no red source, or no black source for its black-heavy spells.
- Instructions: Keep hands with two or three lands, at least one red source or clear access to one, and a way to convert cards into pressure. Mulligan one-land hands unless Faithless Looting plus red mana creates a credible recovery line. Value hands that pair Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, Vampire's Kiss, or Voldaren Epicure with Alms of the Vein, Fiery Temper, Kitchen Imp, or Sneaky Snacker.
- Pilot skill floor: compare color access and discard access before evaluating raw card power.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: London Bottom Selection
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: mulligan, selection
- Cards: Mountain, Swamp, Jagged Barrens, Razortrap Gorge, Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, Alms of the Vein, Fiery Temper, Kitchen Imp, Sneaky Snacker
- Phase windows: post-mulligan bottom decisions
- Runtime cues: prompt:bottom; visible hand; chosen keep size
- Use when: selecting which cards to put on the bottom after a legal mulligan keep.
- Avoid when: the rules engine offers only one legal bottom set.
- Instructions: Bottom surplus tapped lands after preserving two functional mana sources. Bottom expensive or timing-dependent cards before bottoming the only outlet. Preserve one discard outlet plus one payoff when possible. Bottom duplicate Kitchen Imp, duplicate Highway Robbery, or redundant lands before losing the only red source or only black source.
- Pilot skill floor: preserve a castable curve and a discard-payoff pair.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: First Enabler Setup
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: mana, priority, selection
- Cards: Voldaren Epicure, Faithless Looting, Vampire's Kiss, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery
- Phase windows: turns 1-3 main phases, early priority windows
- Runtime cues: action:cast; action:play; visible hand with discard outlet or Blood source
- Use when: choosing the first permanent, spell, or resource that enables later madness, graveyard, or burn sequencing.
- Avoid when: a visible opposing threat must be answered immediately by Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Tectonic Hazard, Extract a Confession, Dark Withering, Cast into the Fire, or Breath Weapon.
- Instructions: Lead with Voldaren Epicure when its body and Blood token advance both pressure and future discard. Cast Faithless Looting early when the hand needs color smoothing or has madness/payoff cards. Cast Vampire's Kiss when life swing, Blood access, and black mana use matter. Use Grab the Prize or Highway Robbery when the turn can spend mana without falling behind on board.
- Pilot skill floor: create future discard access before holding multiple madness cards.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Land Sequencing And Color Discipline
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: mana
- Cards: Mountain, Swamp, Jagged Barrens, Razortrap Gorge
- Phase windows: land play decisions, early main phases, pre-combat main phases
- Runtime cues: action:play; visible hand colors; tapped land status
- Use when: choosing which land to play for the turn.
- Avoid when: exactly one land is legally playable.
- Instructions: Prioritize untapped red when Faithless Looting, Lightning Bolt, Grab the Prize, Fiery Temper, or Tectonic Hazard must be available. Prioritize black when Alms of the Vein, Vampire's Kiss, Sneaky Snacker, Kitchen Imp, Extract a Confession, Dark Withering, Duress, or Nihil Spellbomb activation requirements are relevant. Play Jagged Barrens on turns where tapped mana does not block a needed outlet, removal spell, or madness line. Treat Razortrap Gorge as a tempo source whose sequencing depends on current legal untapped access.
- Pilot skill floor: choose the land that keeps the next two turns castable.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Madness Commitment Gate
- Priority: High
- Decision families: priority, selection, mana
- Cards: Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, Voldaren Epicure, Alms of the Vein, Fiery Temper, Kitchen Imp, Sneaky Snacker
- Phase windows: main phases, discard prompts, Blood token activation windows, stack follow-up prompts
- Runtime cues: action:discard; action:madness; visible hand; visible mana; visible opponent pressure
- Use when: deciding whether to start a discard sequence that may require immediate mana payments, target choices, or madness casts.
- Avoid when: the discard would strand a madness card without mana, expose the pilot to lethal pressure, or spend the only answer before the opponent's next combat.
- Instructions: Commit when the sequence converts a card into damage, board presence, life swing, or needed filtering this turn. Wait when the hand can preserve Fiery Temper, Alms of the Vein, or Kitchen Imp for a stronger window and the board is not forcing action. Consider visible open interaction, the opponent clock, and whether waiting loses damage or mana efficiency.
- Pilot skill floor: confirm available mana before discarding a madness payoff.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Cast Madness Spell Already Offered
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: priority, mana
- Cards: Alms of the Vein, Fiery Temper, Kitchen Imp
- Phase windows: madness replacement prompts, stack payment prompts
- Runtime cues: action:cast Alms of the Vein; action:cast Fiery Temper; action:cast Kitchen Imp
- Use when: a legal action explicitly offers casting the named card through its current madness or discard-triggered permission and the prior discard line has already been selected.
- Avoid when: the legal actions include multiple incompatible madness spells and available mana cannot pay for all desired follow-up choices.
- Instructions: Cast the offered madness spell when it was the reason for the discard sequence. Decline only if visible mana, target legality, or a higher-priority survival action changed after the discard.
- Pilot skill floor: execute the selected madness line instead of losing the payoff.
- No-API allowed: yes
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Target Opponent With Drain Spell
- Priority: Low
- Decision families: interaction
- Cards: Alms of the Vein, Vampire's Kiss
- Phase windows: target-selection prompts for cast spells
- Runtime cues: action:target opponent Alms of the Vein; action:target opponent Vampire's Kiss
- Use when: the legal action text explicitly offers targeting opponent for Alms of the Vein or Vampire's Kiss in a two-player game.
- Avoid when: the legal target list does not include opponent text or more than one opponent is legally targetable.
- Instructions: Select the opponent target for the drain spell because the deck's normal plan is to reduce the opponent's life total while gaining life or resources. Do not infer target legality beyond the action text.
- Pilot skill floor: choose the explicit opponent target when the drain spell asks.
- No-API allowed: yes
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Burn Target Gate
- Priority: High
- Decision families: interaction, priority
- Cards: Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Tectonic Hazard, Cast into the Fire, Breath Weapon, Dark Withering, Extract a Confession
- Phase windows: main phases, combat trick windows, end steps, stack windows
- Runtime cues: action:target; visible opposing creatures; opponent life total; lethal math
- Use when: choosing whether burn or removal targets a creature, planeswalker-like object if legal, or the opponent.
- Avoid when: a no-target pass is forced or the spell text is uncertain; card text check required for sideboard removal details.
- Instructions: Aim Lightning Bolt and Fiery Temper at opponent life when it creates lethal, near-lethal with known follow-up damage, or prevents stabilization by racing. Aim removal at creatures when the visible threat changes survival, blocks critical attacks, or will outpace burn reach. Use Tectonic Hazard, Breath Weapon, Extract a Confession, Dark Withering, and Cast into the Fire only according to legal targets and verified card text.
- Pilot skill floor: count life totals and next combat before spending burn.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Lethal Burn Execution
- Priority: High
- Decision families: interaction, priority
- Cards: Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Alms of the Vein, Vampire's Kiss, Highway Robbery
- Phase windows: any legal cast or target window
- Runtime cues: action:target opponent Lightning Bolt; action:target opponent Fiery Temper; action:target opponent Alms of the Vein; action:target opponent Vampire's Kiss
- Use when: visible opponent life is less than or equal to the legal spell's visible damage or life-loss amount and no required additional target choice is unresolved.
- Avoid when: the legal action text does not identify opponent as the target or visible prevention, tax, ward, or counter-like stack object requires additional reasoning.
- Instructions: Choose the explicit opponent-targeting lethal action. If more than one lethal action is legal, prefer the one that spends the least constrained mana and preserves the most future legal burn.
- Pilot skill floor: execute visible lethal without delaying for extra value.
- No-API allowed: yes
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Priority Pass With Held Interaction
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: priority, interaction
- Cards: Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Tectonic Hazard, Cast into the Fire, Extract a Confession, Dark Withering, Breath Weapon, Duress, Nihil Spellbomb
- Phase windows: opponent main phases, combat steps, end steps, stack windows
- Runtime cues: action:pass; visible open mana; legal interaction actions
- Use when: deciding whether to pass despite having a legal spell or activation.
- Avoid when: the opponent has visible lethal pressure, a must-answer permanent, or a stack object that must be answered now.
- Instructions: Pass when interaction gains more by waiting for combat, a target declaration, a graveyard action, or an end-step window. Act now when mana will be lost, the opponent can deny the target, or the visible threat will deal decisive damage before the next priority window.
- Pilot skill floor: explain what action is being declined when passing.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Combat Pressure Gate
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: combat
- Cards: Voldaren Epicure, Kitchen Imp, Sneaky Snacker
- Phase windows: declare attackers, declare blockers, combat trick windows
- Runtime cues: prompt:attackers; prompt:blockers; visible power/toughness; visible life totals
- Use when: deciding attacks or blocks with the deck's creatures.
- Avoid when: exactly one legal combat action exists and it has no strategic alternatives.
- Instructions: Attack when damage advances the race without sacrificing needed blockers into a bad visible trade. Keep back creatures when the opponent's next attack threatens lethal or when a creature is needed to trade with a larger clock. Treat Kitchen Imp evasion as pressure when it can connect; treat Voldaren Epicure and Sneaky Snacker as expendable only when the exchange advances life total, board, or lethal setup.
- Pilot skill floor: identify whether Rakdos Madness is racing or stabilizing.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Single Forced Combat Action
- Priority: Low
- Decision families: combat
- Cards: none
- Phase windows: declare attackers, declare blockers
- Runtime cues: action:attack with; action:block with
- Use when: exactly one attack or block action is legal and all alternative legal actions are pass/decline actions from the same prompt.
- Avoid when: multiple creature subsets, multiple blockers, or target-like assignments are legal.
- Instructions: Select the only concrete combat action only if it is the sole non-pass legal action shown by the engine. Use light-model reasoning whenever combat contains multiple legal creature choices.
- Pilot skill floor: recognize deterministic engine prompts.
- No-API allowed: yes
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Blood And Loot Filtering
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: selection, priority
- Cards: Voldaren Epicure, Faithless Looting, Highway Robbery, Grab the Prize, Alms of the Vein, Fiery Temper, Kitchen Imp, Sneaky Snacker
- Phase windows: main phases, end steps, discard prompts, draw/discard resolution
- Runtime cues: action:discard; action:draw; action:activate; visible hand
- Use when: choosing whether and what to discard to Blood, Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, or Highway Robbery.
- Avoid when: discarding removes the only needed land, only answer, or only castable threat under pressure.
- Instructions: Discard cards that unlock immediate madness, graveyard recursion, or card-quality improvement. Prefer discarding excess lands after land drops are secured, duplicate slow spells, or madness cards with mana available. Preserve Lightning Bolt or Fiery Temper when they are needed for visible survival or lethal reach.
- Pilot skill floor: discard for a concrete current-turn or next-turn payoff.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Graveyard Engine Awareness
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: selection, priority
- Cards: Sneaky Snacker, Faithless Looting, Vampire's Kiss, Alms of the Vein, Nihil Spellbomb
- Phase windows: discard prompts, life-gain windows, graveyard interaction windows
- Runtime cues: visible graveyard; action:discard Sneaky Snacker; action:activate Nihil Spellbomb
- Use when: graveyard contents or public graveyard hate affects whether to discard, recur, or protect a graveyard plan.
- Avoid when: the rules engine has not exposed graveyard contents or the card text interaction is unclear.
- Instructions: Treat Sneaky Snacker as a resource when discard and life-gain patterns make recursion possible, but do not assume recursion unless Forge exposes the trigger or legal action. Use Nihil Spellbomb only against visible opposing graveyard reliance or a graveyard action window; preserve it if the opponent's graveyard is not currently relevant.
- Pilot skill floor: separate public graveyard facts from inferred future triggers.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Duress Timing
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: interaction, selection
- Cards: Duress
- Phase windows: early main phases, pre-combo turns, pre-removal or pre-threat turns
- Runtime cues: action:cast Duress; revealed hand prompt
- Use when: Duress is legal and the opponent's archetype or visible play pattern suggests noncreature interaction, combo pieces, sweepers, or removal may matter.
- Avoid when: immediate board survival requires removal or blocking instead.
- Instructions: Cast Duress before committing a fragile pressure or madness chain when disruption matters. From revealed legal choices, take the card that most directly stops the current plan or wins the opponent's next turn; do not name hidden cards not shown by the engine.
- Pilot skill floor: use revealed hand information only after it is legally exposed.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Sideboard Plan Selection
- Priority: High
- Decision families: sideboard, pregame
- Cards: Duress, Nihil Spellbomb, Cast into the Fire, Extract a Confession, Dark Withering, Breath Weapon, Tectonic Hazard, Highway Robbery, Vampire's Kiss, Voldaren Epicure, Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Alms of the Vein, Fiery Temper, Kitchen Imp, Sneaky Snacker, Lightning Bolt
- Phase windows: sideboarding after game 1, sideboarding after game 2
- Runtime cues: prompt:sideboard; matchup label; previous public game evidence
- Use when: choosing a legal sideboard plan for the next game.
- Avoid when: no registered sideboard swap is legal or the plan would reduce the main deck below 60 or alter the registered 75.
- Instructions: Add Duress against control, combo, and spell-heavy decks. Add Nihil Spellbomb against graveyard engines. Add Cast into the Fire against artifact pressure or artifact engines; card text check required. Add Extract a Confession and Dark Withering against creature decks where their legal target profiles matter; card text check required. Add Breath Weapon against small-creature boards; card text check required. Reduce slower or lower-impact main-deck emphasis without cutting so many outlets or payoffs that madness stops functioning.
- Pilot skill floor: preserve the core outlet-payoff engine while adding matchup cards.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Artifact And Graveyard Hate Activation
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: interaction, priority
- Cards: Nihil Spellbomb, Cast into the Fire
- Phase windows: opponent graveyard-action windows, main phases, end steps, stack windows
- Runtime cues: action:activate Nihil Spellbomb; action:cast Cast into the Fire; visible artifact; visible graveyard
- Use when: a visible graveyard or artifact permanent is central to the opponent's current line.
- Avoid when: the action has no visible target, the graveyard is empty or low-impact, or card text check is required for an unclear mode.
- Instructions: Fire Nihil Spellbomb when it interrupts a visible recursion, delve, flashback, threshold, or graveyard-combo window, or when delaying risks losing the chance. Use Cast into the Fire only on legal targets that matter to the opponent's board or engine. Do not spend hate only because mana is available.
- Pilot skill floor: time hate for the opponent's dependency window.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Survival Override
- Priority: High
- Decision families: interaction, combat, priority
- Cards: Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Tectonic Hazard, Extract a Confession, Dark Withering, Breath Weapon, Cast into the Fire, Kitchen Imp, Sneaky Snacker, Voldaren Epicure
- Phase windows: combat, opponent main phase, end step before lethal attack, removal windows
- Runtime cues: visible lethal attack; visible short clock; legal removal or block actions
- Use when: the opponent's visible board threatens lethal or a short clock before Rakdos Madness can close with burn.
- Avoid when: visible lethal for Rakdos is already available this turn and does not require surviving another combat.
- Instructions: Spend removal, blockers, or sweep effects to survive when the opponent's next combat beats available burn reach. Trade creatures when preserving life total matters more than chip damage. Use reach to end the game only after confirming survival is not required first.
- Pilot skill floor: survival beats engine value when the clock is immediate.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: End-Step Reach Setup
- Priority: Low
- Decision families: priority, interaction, selection
- Cards: Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Vampire's Kiss, Highway Robbery, Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Voldaren Epicure
- Phase windows: opponent end step, own end step with unused mana, late main phase
- Runtime cues: action:cast; action:activate; opponent life total; available mana
- Use when: unused mana can be converted into burn, drain, filtering, or a Blood-driven setup without weakening survival.
- Avoid when: holding mana for interaction is better against visible threats or stack risks.
- Instructions: Use end-step windows to filter dead cards, prepare madness, or reduce the opponent into next-turn lethal range. Preserve instant-speed interaction when the opponent can still present a meaningful threat. Do not cast sorcery-speed velocity into no payoff when the next draw step could improve discard choices.
- Pilot skill floor: convert mana only when it improves the next turn cycle.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes
