# Strategy Specifications
## Deck Name And Archetype
Sultai Midrange is a Vintage-legal 60-card main deck with a 15-card sideboard under the provided validation contract. The registered main deck count is 60, the registered sideboard count is 15, and the active format is Vintage; the current format-aware validation result says the list passes, so pilot decisions should treat the registered configuration as legal unless the rules engine later reports a legality or card-implementation problem.

- Identity: Use the normalized tags `midrange`, `control`, and `graveyard`; the supplied tag line repeats `midrange,control,graveyard`, so runtime indexing should collapse duplicates rather than treat them as separate plans.
- Stock/Rogue/Hybrid status: Treat this as a hybrid Vintage Sultai shell, combining stock blue permission and restricted power with a custom creature-pressure package built around `Deathrite Shaman`, `Collector Ouphe`, `Psychic Frog`, `Plagon, Lord of the Beach`, `Leovold, Emissary of Trest`, `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, `Barrowgoyf`, `Orcish Bowmasters`, and `Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow`.
- Core role: Begin most games as disruptive midrange, then pivot between mana denial, stack control, graveyard pressure, and creature damage based on visible opposing development.
- Control role: Against fast spell decks, prioritize survival through `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Mindbreak Trap`, `Flusterstorm`, `Mental Misstep`, and `Collector Ouphe` before investing in slower damage.
- Pressure role: Against slower blue or artifact-heavy opponents, use early `Deathrite Shaman`, `Psychic Frog`, and `Collector Ouphe` to force action while `Wasteland` and `Strip Mine` constrain mana.
- Graveyard role: Treat the graveyard as a resource for `Deathrite Shaman`, `Dig Through Time`, `Psychic Frog`, and `Barrowgoyf`, but never assume the graveyard remains usable through visible hate or replacement effects.
- Mana concern: The deck is three colors with fetchlands, dual lands, `Hedge Maze`, `Mox Emerald`, `Mox Jet`, `Mox Sapphire`, and `Black Lotus`; preserve access to blue and black early unless a visible matchup demands green immediately for `Collector Ouphe` or `Abrupt Decay`.
- Tension concern: `Collector Ouphe` shuts off `Black Lotus`, `Mox Emerald`, `Mox Jet`, and `Mox Sapphire`, so sequence artifact mana before committing `Collector Ouphe` when legal, visible, and strategically necessary.
- Land-denial concern: `Wasteland` and `Strip Mine` are tactical interaction, not automatic land drops; use them to cut off visible colors, protect `Collector Ouphe` pressure, or break up a known high-value land plan rather than spending them without a target plan.
- Removal concern: Main-deck spot removal is narrow but efficient with `Fatal Push` and `Abrupt Decay`; do not point removal at low-impact creatures when a visible engine, attacker, planeswalker-support creature, or lethal pressure piece is more important.
- Card-text concern: Card text check required for `Plagon, Lord of the Beach` before assigning exact combat, trigger, or selection policies; use only rules-engine legal actions and visible Oracle/runtime text for tactical decisions involving that card.
- Opponent information status: No specific opponent decklist or metagame target is supplied for this batch, so the guide must reason from visible board state, public zones, known revealed information, and broad Vintage archetype cues rather than assuming hidden cards.
- Runtime discipline: The agent must obey Veles legal actions first, visible state second, and this deck guide third; never invent targets, card text, hidden hand contents, graveyard legality, or stack outcomes when the engine has not exposed them.

## Thesis
Sultai Midrange assembles early mana, cheap blue stack interaction, disruptive creatures, and selective removal into a board state where the opponent is forced to play through both pressure and denial. The ideal game starts with stable blue-black access, deploys `Deathrite Shaman`, `Psychic Frog`, or `Collector Ouphe`, and then trades permission, removal, fetchland pressure, and `Wasteland` effects until a creature threat converts the resource gap into lethal damage.

- Prioritize survival against explosive starts before developing slow pressure, because `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Mindbreak Trap`, `Flusterstorm`, `Mental Misstep`, and `Collector Ouphe` are the deck's best protection against losing before combat matters.
- Prioritize threat-plus-disruption hands over pure card-advantage hands, because the deck wins by forcing constrained decisions while creatures attack, not by sitting behind an inevitability engine.
- Prioritize graveyard-aware sequencing, because `Deathrite Shaman`, `Psychic Frog`, `Dig Through Time`, and `Barrowgoyf` all care about graveyards in different ways and visible hate or empty graveyards can change their value sharply.
- Prioritize mana discipline, because `Collector Ouphe` disables `Black Lotus`, `Mox Emerald`, `Mox Jet`, and `Mox Sapphire`; spend or decline reliance on artifact mana before committing `Collector Ouphe` when the legal sequence allows it.
- Prioritize information when cheap and legal, because `Gitaxian Probe`, visible public zones, and revealed cards should steer whether to hold permission, tap out for a threat, use `Wasteland`, or commit `Demonic Tutor`.
- Do not pilot this deck as a pure combo deck, because no registered line requires assembling deterministic lethal from specific hidden cards; even `Time Walk`, `Ancestral Recall`, and `Demonic Tutor` are used to widen a fair-game advantage unless runtime actions expose a concrete lethal line.
- Do not pilot this deck as draw-go control by default, because the creature suite must close games before opposing topdecks or engines recover from the first wave of disruption.
- Do not pilot this deck as all-in mana denial, because `Wasteland` and `Strip Mine` are strongest when paired with pressure or when cutting off visible colors, not when fired without a follow-up plan.

## Role Package
- Threats: `Psychic Frog`, `Deathrite Shaman`, `Collector Ouphe`, `Leovold, Emissary of Trest`, `Orcish Bowmasters`, `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, `Barrowgoyf`, `Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow`, and `Plagon, Lord of the Beach` are the primary ways to make disruption matter; choose threats that match the visible game, with `Collector Ouphe` favored against artifact mana, `Psychic Frog` favored for early pressure and card-flow leverage, and `Deathrite Shaman` favored when graveyards and mana development are live. Card text check required for `Plagon, Lord of the Beach`; use only engine-exposed actions for its exact combat or trigger decisions.
- Payoffs: `Ancestral Recall`, `Time Walk`, `Dig Through Time`, `Demonic Tutor`, `Leovold, Emissary of Trest`, `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, `Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow`, and large combat from `Psychic Frog` or `Barrowgoyf` are the payoff layer; treat them as ways to snowball after interaction has traded, not as excuses to ignore immediate lethal, stack, or mana threats.
- Engines: `Deathrite Shaman` turns graveyards into mana, damage, or life if the rules engine exposes those actions; `Psychic Frog` can convert cards and graveyard resources into pressure when legal; `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` and `Orcish Bowmasters` reward specific visible play patterns; `Collector Ouphe` functions as a denial engine against artifact mana while also taxing this deck's own artifacts.
- Velocity: `Ancestral Recall`, `Brainstorm`, `Gitaxian Probe`, `Dig Through Time`, `Demonic Tutor`, and fetchlands such as `Polluted Delta`, `Misty Rainforest`, `Scalding Tarn`, and `Flooded Strand` shape card quality; preserve shuffle timing for `Brainstorm` when possible, but do not delay urgent interaction or mana development solely for perfect selection.
- Interaction: `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Mindbreak Trap`, `Flusterstorm`, `Mental Misstep`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Fatal Push`, `Wasteland`, and `Strip Mine` are the main disruptive tools; spend them according to visible threat severity, stack timing, and whether a resolved permanent invalidates the current plan.
- Protection: `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Mindbreak Trap`, `Flusterstorm`, and `Mental Misstep` protect the game from explosive spells and protect key permanents after they are deployed; value blue cards as pitch resources, especially when the hand already contains a threat and enough mana.
- Recursion: No dedicated recursion package is registered, so do not hold cards for imagined loops; treat graveyards as consumable resources for `Deathrite Shaman`, `Dig Through Time`, `Psychic Frog`, and `Barrowgoyf`, while respecting any visible replacement, exile, or graveyard-lock effect.
- Mana: `Black Lotus`, `Mox Emerald`, `Mox Jet`, `Mox Sapphire`, `Deathrite Shaman`, dual lands, fetchlands, `Hedge Maze`, `Wasteland`, and `Strip Mine` form a fast but tension-heavy base; establish blue for permission, black for threats and removal, and green for `Collector Ouphe` or `Abrupt Decay` according to the hand and visible opponent.
- Sideboard modules: `Leyline of the Void` is the graveyard-hate package, `Consign to Memory` and the extra `Flusterstorm` are stack-interaction upgrades, extra `Fatal Push`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Sheoldred's Edict`, and `Soul Rend` expand removal, and `The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale` is the creature-pressure mana-tax tool; bring these in only through exact sideboard plans or matchup guidance that preserves the registered 75.

## Primary Win Conditions
- Pressure-plus-permission is the default win path: deploy `Deathrite Shaman`, `Psychic Frog`, `Collector Ouphe`, `Leovold, Emissary of Trest`, `Orcish Bowmasters`, `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, `Barrowgoyf`, `Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow`, or `Plagon, Lord of the Beach`, then use `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Mindbreak Trap`, `Flusterstorm`, `Mental Misstep`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Fatal Push`, `Wasteland`, and `Strip Mine` to prevent the opponent from stabilizing. Prioritize this path when the opening hand has one castable threat, blue interaction, and enough mana to act on turns one and two.
- `Psychic Frog` is the cleanest fair-game closer when it survives: set it up with early blue-black mana, protect it from visible removal or combat blowouts, and use only engine-exposed discard, graveyard, combat, or evasion actions. Prioritize `Psychic Frog` when the opponent is low on blockers, when extra cards matter, or when graveyards can support its legal activated lines without weakening a needed `Deathrite Shaman` or `Dig Through Time` line.
- `Collector Ouphe` plus mana denial wins by shrinking the opponent's usable resources while small creatures attack. Spend or sequence `Black Lotus`, `Mox Emerald`, `Mox Jet`, and `Mox Sapphire` before committing `Collector Ouphe` when possible, then use `Wasteland` and `Strip Mine` on visible critical lands if pressure is already present or the opponent is visibly constrained. Prioritize this path against artifact-mana starts and decks whose visible battlefield depends on artifact acceleration.
- Card-advantage snowball wins by resolving `Ancestral Recall`, `Dig Through Time`, `Demonic Tutor`, `Brainstorm`, `Time Walk`, or a protected value creature after the first exchange. Use this path when immediate survival is covered, when the opponent is not presenting a must-counter stack line, and when extra cards can convert into pressure or interaction before the opponent recovers.
- Evasive or surprise combat closes games through `Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow`, unblocked creatures, and legal combat actions the engine exposes. Prioritize this only when the board shows a real attack path; do not force speculative attacks through profitable opposing blocks unless the visible clock, life totals, or hand quality make waiting worse.
- `Plagon, Lord of the Beach` can be a main threat only through rules-engine legal actions. Card text check required; choose its attacks, triggers, targets, and protection based on visible engine output rather than assumed text.

## Secondary Win Conditions
- `Deathrite Shaman` can become a secondary damage, life-buffer, or mana engine when graveyards contain legal resources. Use it to pressure life totals when the board is stalled, to stabilize against creature races when legal life-gain actions appear, or to accelerate into `Leovold, Emissary of Trest`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Demonic Tutor`, or protected double-spell turns.
- `Orcish Bowmasters` can punish visible draw effects and produce board pressure if the engine exposes those triggers or actions. Deploy it when the opponent is likely to draw cards soon, when a small creature or token matters in combat, or when holding up interaction is less urgent than adding instant-speed pressure.
- `Leovold, Emissary of Trest` wins attrition games by making opposing targeted interaction and draw patterns awkward. Prioritize it when mana is stable, when `Force of Will` or `Force of Negation` can cover a critical response, and when the opponent is trying to recover through card draw rather than raw battlefield size.
- `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` is a value threat only through visible legal actions. Card text check required for exact transformation or ability timing; treat it as a protected snowball permanent when the engine shows that attacking, drawing, or activating advances the board without sacrificing survival.
- `Barrowgoyf` is the fallback large-body plan when graveyards are stocked and combat is relevant. Prioritize it when removal has traded off, when graveyard hate is absent or already answered, and when the opponent's blockers cannot profitably absorb repeated attacks.
- `Time Walk` is a damage multiplier, mana-development tool, or safe extra setup turn. Use it to add lethal pressure, untap with protected threats, make an extra land drop, or convert a narrow tempo edge into a board lock; do not spend it as a cantrip substitute when the board is stable and interaction must stay open.

## Emergency Lines
- When behind on life, stabilize before maximizing value: use `Fatal Push`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Orcish Bowmasters`, `Deathrite Shaman`, and legal blocks to reduce incoming damage, then rebuild with `Ancestral Recall`, `Brainstorm`, `Dig Through Time`, or `Demonic Tutor` only after the visible clock is contained.
- When behind on board, trade resources aggressively and preserve only the interaction needed for stack-critical threats. `Abrupt Decay` and `Fatal Push` should answer the permanent most responsible for immediate damage or locked-out mana, while `Force of Will` and `Mindbreak Trap` should remain available for explosive follow-up spells when the stack demands it.
- When behind on cards, shift toward high-impact draw and tutor lines: protect `Ancestral Recall`, set up `Brainstorm` with fetchlands when legal, cast `Dig Through Time` only when graveyard cost and timing are acceptable, and use `Demonic Tutor` for the card that changes the current visible state rather than the abstract strongest card.
- When behind on mana, prioritize land drops, `Deathrite Shaman` mana actions, and safe fetchland sequencing over speculative attacks or slow threats. Avoid locking your own artifact mana under `Collector Ouphe` unless the opponent loses more mana functionality than you do.
- When the graveyard is weak or exiled, downgrade `Deathrite Shaman`, `Dig Through Time`, `Psychic Frog`, and `Barrowgoyf` lines that require graveyard fuel. Win instead through protected creatures, mana denial, and stack interaction until public graveyards rebuild.
- When key threats are removed, do not chase a single replacement card blindly. Convert into a control posture with `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Mindbreak Trap`, `Flusterstorm`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Wasteland`, and `Strip Mine`, then let any surviving creature become the clock.
- When facing a combo turn, abandon slow combat math and answer the stack. Use `Mindbreak Trap`, `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Flusterstorm`, or `Mental Misstep` according to visible legal targets and costs; if no answer exists, choose the line that maximizes next-turn lethal pressure or mana denial.

## Resource Model
- Life is a spendable buffer only while the visible clock is slow and the stack is not threatening a deterministic kill. Pay life through fetchlands and blue pitch interaction when it preserves a stronger resource such as `Psychic Frog`, `Collector Ouphe`, `Deathrite Shaman`, or a protected draw spell; stop treating life as disposable once opposing attackers represent a two-turn clock or burn-like reach is visible.
- Hand size is the deck's main permission reserve and threat reload. Preserve blue cards for `Force of Will` and `Force of Negation` when the opponent can present a stack-based swing, but cash in excess cards through `Psychic Frog`, `Brainstorm`, `Dig Through Time`, or `Demonic Tutor` when the board asks for a specific answer or clock.
- Mana converts into time by making one impactful play while still representing interaction. Prefer turns that cast `Deathrite Shaman`, `Collector Ouphe`, `Psychic Frog`, `Abrupt Decay`, or `Leovold, Emissary of Trest` while leaving a legal free or cheap answer available over turns that tap out for marginal pressure.
- Board presence is valuable because it lets permission become selective. Once `Deathrite Shaman`, `Psychic Frog`, `Collector Ouphe`, `Orcish Bowmasters`, `Barrowgoyf`, `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, `Leovold, Emissary of Trest`, `Plagon, Lord of the Beach`, or `Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow` is applying pressure, spend counters on cards that break the board, not on every exchangeable spell.
- Graveyards are a shared fuel pile, not a guaranteed resource. Use public graveyards to power `Deathrite Shaman`, `Dig Through Time`, `Psychic Frog`, and `Barrowgoyf`, but avoid consuming cards that are visibly needed for a stronger imminent line unless the current legal action prevents damage, produces lethal pressure, or denies the opponent their own graveyard plan.
- Exile is both a cost record and a denial zone. Track cards exiled to `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Dig Through Time`, `Deathrite Shaman`, `Mindbreak Trap`, and sideboard `Leyline of the Void`; do not plan future graveyard lines from cards that the engine already moved to exile.
- Lands are the most durable resource and the cleanest way to beat opposing mana pressure. Protect access to `Underground Sea` for black-blue plays, `Tropical Island` or `Hedge Maze` for green-blue plays, and fetchlands for `Brainstorm` cleanup; use `Wasteland` and `Strip Mine` when denying a visible critical land is better than making another colored spell.
- Sacrifice fodder is minimal, so do not assume disposable permanents. Treat every creature as either pressure, mana, permission leverage, or combat material; sacrifice only when the engine exposes a legal action and the exchange clearly beats losing the permanent normally.
- Tempo comes from early pressure plus free interaction. Convert `Black Lotus`, `Mox Emerald`, `Mox Jet`, `Mox Sapphire`, `Time Walk`, `Wasteland`, `Strip Mine`, and free counters into turns where the opponent cannot both answer the threat and progress their plan.
- Information is a tactical resource from `Gitaxian Probe`, visible actions, known revealed cards, and public zones. Use it to decide whether to commit `Collector Ouphe`, protect `Ancestral Recall`, tutor with `Demonic Tutor`, or hold up interaction; never infer exact hidden cards beyond what the engine shows.
- Sideboard bullets shift which resource matters most. `Leyline of the Void` attacks graveyards, `Consign to Memory` handles specific stack or permanent classes only as engine legality confirms, extra `Fatal Push`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Sheoldred's Edict`, and `Soul Rend` increase board control, `The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale` pressures creature mana, and extra `Flusterstorm` increases stack density.

## Mana Guide
- Prioritize early black-green-blue access because the deck's best starts use `Deathrite Shaman`, `Psychic Frog`, `Collector Ouphe`, blue interaction, and black removal. A keep should normally produce at least one colored land or a fetchland plus a coherent plan; artifact-only mana is risky when `Collector Ouphe` is part of the hand.
- Fetchlands should fix the current hand before chasing perfect colors. Use `Polluted Delta`, `Misty Rainforest`, `Scalding Tarn`, and `Flooded Strand` for the land the visible hand needs now, usually `Underground Sea` for black-blue, `Tropical Island` for green-blue, or `Hedge Maze` when the tapped timing is acceptable and future green-blue stability matters.
- `Hedge Maze` entering tapped can cost a protection window. Play it early when the hand has no immediate one-mana interaction requirement, but avoid it as the only land on turns where `Mental Misstep`, `Fatal Push`, `Flusterstorm`, `Brainstorm`, `Deathrite Shaman`, or a fetchland shuffle line must remain available.
- Utility lands trade spell density for denial. Use `Wasteland` and `Strip Mine` aggressively when the opponent is visibly constrained, when `Collector Ouphe` is cutting artifact mana, or when a single land unlocks their threat; hold them when your own colored development is incomplete.
- Artifact mana should usually be spent before `Collector Ouphe` resolves. If `Black Lotus`, `Mox Emerald`, `Mox Jet`, or `Mox Sapphire` is available, convert it into a threat, draw spell, tutor, or protected interaction turn before choosing a legal `Collector Ouphe` line that shuts it off.
- `Deathrite Shaman` is acceleration only when public graveyards support legal mana actions. Do not keep a mana-light hand assuming `Deathrite Shaman` will fix everything unless fetchlands, opposing graveyard cards, or visible engine output make that mana line real.
- Play land before draw when the land enables a required spell, protects against mana denial, or the engine already shows the current action depends on available mana. Hold fetchlands before `Brainstorm`, `Ancestral Recall`, `Gitaxian Probe`, or `Dig Through Time` when no immediate mana use is required and a shuffle or information update could improve sequencing.
- Mulligan mana-light hands that cannot cast a threat, answer, or selection spell before falling behind. Keep slower hands only when they contain stable lands plus `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Mindbreak Trap`, or sideboard hate that directly matches the visible matchup plan.

## Mulligan Guide
- Strong keeps start with real colored mana, one early body, and at least one live piece of interaction. Keep hands like `Underground Sea`, `Deathrite Shaman`, `Psychic Frog`, `Force of Will`, blue card, `Abrupt Decay`, fetchland because they pressure, answer, and still operate through disruption.
- Strong anti-fast-spell keeps can be light on board if the free interaction is dense. Keep hands with `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Mindbreak Trap`, `Mental Misstep`, `Flusterstorm`, plus a fetchland or blue source when the opponent is likely stack-combo or when Game 1 identity is unknown in Vintage.
- Medium keeps have mana and selection but need a draw step to become excellent. Keep `Polluted Delta`, `Tropical Island`, `Brainstorm`, `Fatal Push`, `Collector Ouphe`, `Force of Will`, blue card when the matchup rewards `Collector Ouphe` or removal, but sequence `Brainstorm` carefully instead of assuming it will fix everything.
- Medium creature-heavy keeps are acceptable on the play when they produce turn-one `Deathrite Shaman` or turn-two `Collector Ouphe` or `Psychic Frog`. A hand with two lands, `Deathrite Shaman`, `Collector Ouphe`, `Psychic Frog`, `Wasteland`, and one blue pitch card can win by pressure plus denial even without immediate card draw.
- Risky keeps are mana-light hands relying on artifact mana while holding `Collector Ouphe`. Keep `Black Lotus`, `Mox Emerald`, `Collector Ouphe`, `Leovold, Emissary of Trest`, `Force of Will`, blue card, land only if the legal line converts the artifact burst before `Collector Ouphe` shuts it off.
- Risky one-land hands need either `Deathrite Shaman` with fetchland support or `Brainstorm` plus protection. Ship one-land hands with no fetchland, no one-mana play, and no free interaction unless the opponent is so slow that a missed land drop is survivable.
- Automatic ships have no colored land or fetchland, no castable one-mana play, and no free interaction. Also ship hands that contain mostly `Wasteland`, `Strip Mine`, expensive threats, and reactive cards without a path to cast `Deathrite Shaman`, `Brainstorm`, `Fatal Push`, `Abrupt Decay`, or `Psychic Frog`.
- Matchup-dependent keeps change around hate density. Keep `Leyline of the Void` post-board only when the matchup is graveyard-reliant or the opener still has a functional spell plan; do not keep an otherwise dead hand just because `Leyline of the Void` is present.
- Play/draw pressure matters because the deck wants to trade early and then pull ahead. On the play, favor `Deathrite Shaman`, `Collector Ouphe`, `Psychic Frog`, `Wasteland`, and `Strip Mine`; on the draw, value `Mental Misstep`, `Fatal Push`, `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Mindbreak Trap`, and `Flusterstorm` more highly.
- Trap hands look powerful but fail to execute. `Ancestral Recall`, `Dig Through Time`, `Demonic Tutor`, `Time Walk`, `Leovold, Emissary of Trest`, `Wasteland`, `Strip Mine` is a ship without colored development; a hand full of `Mindbreak Trap` is poor against fair creature pressure unless the rest of the hand stabilizes the board.

## Turn Arc
- Turn 1 should establish mana, information, or a must-answer permanent. Preferred plays are fetchland into `Deathrite Shaman`, protected `Ancestral Recall`, `Gitaxian Probe` before committing a contested line, `Mental Misstep` on a key opposing one-drop, or artifact-mana acceleration into `Collector Ouphe` after using `Black Lotus`, `Mox Emerald`, `Mox Jet`, or `Mox Sapphire` first.
- Turn 1 denial is correct when the opponent is visibly mana-constrained. Use `Wasteland` or `Strip Mine` early if it removes their only functional land or combines with `Collector Ouphe`; delay it when you still need colored mana for `Psychic Frog`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Brainstorm`, or `Leovold, Emissary of Trest`.
- Turn 2 should put pressure on the table while preserving the right answer. Preferred plays are `Collector Ouphe` against artifact mana, `Psychic Frog` against fair or blue decks, `Abrupt Decay` or `Fatal Push` against a must-answer permanent, or `Demonic Tutor` only when the target is immediately relevant and the stack is not dangerously exposed.
- Turn 2 deviations are driven by public information. If `Gitaxian Probe` or revealed cards show a fast stack turn, hold mana and pitch cards for `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Mindbreak Trap`, or `Flusterstorm`; if the opponent is creature-heavy, prioritize `Fatal Push`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Orcish Bowmasters`, or a blocker over speculative card draw.
- Turn 3 should convert a stable exchange into advantage. Cast `Leovold, Emissary of Trest`, `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, `Barrowgoyf`, `Plagon, Lord of the Beach` with Card text check required for exact tactical role, or protect `Psychic Frog` while using `Wasteland` to lock the opponent under pressure.
- Turn 3 selection should be purposeful, not decorative. Use `Brainstorm` with fetchlands to fix a weak hand, `Demonic Tutor` for the missing answer or threat, `Dig Through Time` only when graveyards support legal delve and the spell can resolve safely, and `Time Walk` when it adds damage, mana development, planeswalker or creature snowballing, or a protected extra draw.
- Turns 4-5 should force the opponent to answer multiple axes. Combine creature pressure from `Psychic Frog`, `Collector Ouphe`, `Deathrite Shaman`, `Barrowgoyf`, `Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow`, or `Leovold, Emissary of Trest` with selective permission; counter cards that break the board or ignore combat, not every low-impact cantrip.
- Turns 4-5 removal should preserve the clock. Use `Abrupt Decay`, `Fatal Push`, sideboard `Sheoldred's Edict`, or `Soul Rend` on blockers, hate permanents, or threats that race your board; hold removal when the visible attacker is manageable and a more dangerous permanent is likely from public information.
- Late game should turn every resource into either lethal pressure or denial. Use `Deathrite Shaman` activations when legal to drain, gain, or deny graveyard value; use `Psychic Frog` graveyard and hand resources only when the engine shows legal actions that protect it, push damage, or survive combat.
- Late-game stack discipline should tighten as libraries and hands shrink. Protect `Ancestral Recall`, `Dig Through Time`, `Demonic Tutor`, and lethal or survival plays with `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Mindbreak Trap`, and `Flusterstorm`, but stop hoarding counters if the visible board says the next combat step decides the game.

## Card Roles
- `Deathrite Shaman` is the best fair-game opener because it fixes mana, attacks graveyard resources, and gives the deck a mana advantage without relying on artifact mana. Cast it early when a fetchland or opposing graveyard card can make it functional; avoid exposing it into known one-mana removal if the hand already has enough mana and needs it later as graveyard hate or reach. Prioritize activations that deny opponent recursion or fuel before using life-drain as routine damage.
- `Collector Ouphe` is the deck's clearest prison creature against artifact-heavy Vintage starts and should be sequenced after using your own `Black Lotus`, `Mox Emerald`, `Mox Jet`, and `Mox Sapphire` for any burst mana they can provide. Cast it quickly against visible artifact mana, but do not lock yourself out of the only mana line needed for `Force of Will` backup, `Abrupt Decay`, `Psychic Frog`, or `Leovold, Emissary of Trest`. Multiple copies are not automatically redundant if the first one is likely to die, but avoid flooding the board into sweepers unless pressure matters.
- `Psychic Frog` is the primary pressure-and-card-flow threat and should be protected when it is converting combat into cards or threatening a fast clock. Cast it early in fair blue games, hold it when the stack is about to decide the game, and use discard or graveyard-resource abilities only through legal engine prompts when the payoff is clear: surviving combat, forcing damage, or turning excess cards into a near-lethal threat. Do not pitch critical blue cards or scarce answers merely to grow it.
- `Force of Will` is the broad emergency answer and should be saved for spells that win the game, undo your lock, or invalidate your board. Pitch decisions matter because the deck has many blue singletons; prefer pitching redundant permission, low-impact selection, or a card that cannot be cast soon, and avoid pitching `Ancestral Recall`, `Time Walk`, or the only threat unless survival requires it.
- `Force of Negation` is narrower than `Force of Will` and is best as a free answer to noncreature combo, draw, prison, or removal spells on the opponent's turn. Use hard-cast mode when mana is available and the card will trade cleanly; avoid relying on it against creature pressure or on your own turn unless the rules engine presents a legal action that actually answers the stack.
- `Mindbreak Trap` is the anti-storm and uncounterable-stack safety valve, not a generic value counter. Keep it high in priority when the opponent has cast multiple spells, when a stack chain indicates a combo turn, or when exiling the spell matters more than countering it. Against fair creature decks, treat extra copies as pitch material unless the visible stack makes trap text relevant.
- `Abrupt Decay` is the reliable permanent answer for cheap threats, hate pieces, and prison cards that block your creatures or shut off your interaction. Hold it for a permanent that matters when you already have blockers and counters; fire it early when a visible permanent is stopping mana, card flow, graveyard use, or combat. Remember that it is not a stack answer, so do not leave up `Abrupt Decay` as though it can stop a spell already being cast unless the engine offers a legal target after resolution.
- `Fatal Push` is the efficient creature answer and should trade early when a creature threatens snowball damage, planeswalker pressure, or a key engine. Fetchlands make revolt lines plausible, but only use a fetchland for revolt when the mana and life loss remain acceptable. Post-board, extra `Fatal Push` copies make small-creature matchups more removal-heavy, so main-deck `Fatal Push` can be spent less grudgingly there.
- `Flusterstorm` is the cheap stack-fight card for spell chains and opposing permission. Use it to protect `Ancestral Recall`, `Demonic Tutor`, `Dig Through Time`, or a decisive threat, or to break up a combo sequence when storm count makes copies meaningful. It is weak against permanent-heavy boards, so do not overvalue it when the opponent is winning through creatures or artifacts already in play.
- `Mental Misstep` should answer a one-mana spell that creates lasting advantage, protects a combo turn, or removes your critical one-drop. It is often correct to fight over opposing one-mana interaction when protecting `Deathrite Shaman`, `Ancestral Recall`, or `Brainstorm`, but do not spend it on a low-impact spell if the visible hand or matchup suggests a more important one-mana card is likely.
- `Ancestral Recall` is a premium card-advantage spell and should be cast when it can resolve or when forcing a counter war benefits your hand. Target yourself unless a legal engine prompt and visible context make targeting opponent strategically necessary; in normal play, protect it with `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Flusterstorm`, or `Mental Misstep` when the exchange is favorable.
- `Brainstorm` is a hand-quality tool, not an automatic turn-one cantrip. Pair it with `Flooded Strand`, `Misty Rainforest`, `Polluted Delta`, or `Scalding Tarn` when possible, hide key cards from discard when public information supports that concern, and avoid casting it before deciding whether `Wasteland`, `Strip Mine`, `Deathrite Shaman`, or `Collector Ouphe` is the better early line.
- `Gitaxian Probe` is the information card that turns close decisions into concrete ones. Cast it before choosing whether to commit `Collector Ouphe`, fight over a stack piece, expose `Demonic Tutor`, or deploy `Psychic Frog` into removal. Do not treat the life payment as free when racing or when `Deathrite Shaman` life gain is not assured.
- `Demonic Tutor` should find the card that solves the current visible problem or creates an immediate protected advantage. Common tactical searches include permission for a stack turn, `Abrupt Decay` or `Fatal Push` for a must-answer permanent, `Ancestral Recall` for resources, `Time Walk` for tempo or lethal setup, and `Collector Ouphe` against artifact mana. Avoid slow tutor targets when the opponent can win before the card matters.
- `Dig Through Time` is the late-game selection burst and should be cast only when delve costs are legal and graveyard use does not undercut `Deathrite Shaman`, `Psychic Frog`, or known graveyard pressure. Prioritize finding the missing half of a plan: answer plus threat, counter plus clock, removal plus mana denial, or draw plus protection.
- `Time Walk` is best when the extra turn produces board development, attacks, mana denial, or a protected draw step. Cast it with `Psychic Frog`, `Collector Ouphe`, `Leovold, Emissary of Trest`, `Barrowgoyf`, `Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow`, or `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` on board when the extra combat or loyalty/card progression changes the race; avoid using it as a blank cantrip unless mana or survival requires it.
- `Leovold, Emissary of Trest` is a high-impact stabilizer against draw-heavy and targeted-interaction decks. Cast it when you can protect it or when its static pressure immediately constrains the opponent; avoid tapping out into a board where a cheaper removal spell or `Collector Ouphe` is required first.
- `Orcish Bowmasters` punishes opposing draw and cleans up small creatures, but it should still be timed around visible triggers and combat math. Hold it when an opposing draw spell is likely and the mana can stay open; cast it proactively when a small creature must die or when adding bodies changes attacks and blocks.
- `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` is a cheap value permanent with transformation implications, but exact tactical thresholds require a card text check required. Deploy it early when the matchup is slow enough to reward accumulated cards or board presence; protect it only when its visible abilities are more important than protecting `Psychic Frog`, `Collector Ouphe`, or stack interaction.
- `Barrowgoyf` is a graveyard-scaling threat with card text check required for exact combat and trigger handling. Treat it as a midgame body that benefits from traded resources and graveyard density, but do not assume a size, keyword, or trigger unless Veles visible state exposes it.
- `Plagon, Lord of the Beach` has card text check required and should be treated as a conditional threat or value permanent until exact text is confirmed. Cast it when the visible legal action and board state show that its body or abilities matter immediately; do not prioritize it over known interaction, `Psychic Frog`, or `Collector Ouphe` in uncertain spots.
- `Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow` is a pressure tool that depends on legal combat and ninjutsu-style timing if exposed by the engine. Use it when an unblocked attacker, token, or small creature can convert into damage and cards; do not force the line through bad attacks when the visible board makes a trade or removal blowout likely.
- `Black Lotus`, `Mox Emerald`, `Mox Jet`, and `Mox Sapphire` are acceleration that must be spent thoughtfully because `Collector Ouphe` turns them off. Use them before `Collector Ouphe` when they enable a decisive permanent or protected stack turn, but avoid dumping them into play without purpose if artifact hate, opposing bounce, or your own lock will strand their value.
- `Wasteland` and `Strip Mine` are interaction, not just lands. Use them to cut the opponent off a color, remove a powerful utility land, or amplify `Collector Ouphe` and creature pressure; hold them when sacrificing a land would prevent casting `Abrupt Decay`, `Psychic Frog`, `Leovold, Emissary of Trest`, or double-spell turns.
- Fetchlands and dual lands define spell access. `Flooded Strand`, `Misty Rainforest`, `Polluted Delta`, `Scalding Tarn`, `Tropical Island`, `Underground Sea`, and `Hedge Maze` should be sequenced to cover black for `Deathrite Shaman`, `Fatal Push`, `Demonic Tutor`, and `Orcish Bowmasters`, green for `Collector Ouphe` and `Abrupt Decay`, and blue for the dense permission package.

## Interaction Priorities
- Priority: Counter the spell or ability that ends the game, invalidates your board, or breaks through your lock before fighting over ordinary card flow. Use `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Mindbreak Trap`, `Flusterstorm`, and `Mental Misstep` for stack turns where the opponent converts mana, graveyard, or storm-like sequencing into an immediate win; do not spend the last counter on a replaceable cantrip when a lethal follow-up remains plausible from public actions.
- Priority: Remove the permanent that changes legal future turns first. `Abrupt Decay` and `Fatal Push` should answer hate pieces, mana engines, must-kill creatures, or pressure that races `Psychic Frog`; after sideboard, `Sheoldred's Edict` and `Soul Rend` should be reserved for threats that dodge normal targeting or removal size limits when Veles exposes them as legal and useful.
- Priority: Protect `Collector Ouphe` when artifact mana is the opponent's visible path to double-spell or combo turns. Once `Collector Ouphe` is active, counter removal only if the opponent can immediately exploit freed artifacts; if the opponent is creature-heavy or mana-light, preserve permission for their payoff instead.
- Priority: Protect `Psychic Frog` when it is drawing cards, threatening evasive damage, or stabilizing combat. Trade permission for removal on `Psychic Frog` only when the hand can still interact afterward; do not empty the hand to save it if `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, or `Mindbreak Trap` will be needed for the next stack exchange.
- Priority: Use `Deathrite Shaman` graveyard exile as interaction, not background value. Exile opponent graveyard cards that enable visible recursion, delve, escape-like costs, threshold-like sizing, or `opponent:` graveyard payoffs before using it for life drains; preserve your own graveyard when `Dig Through Time`, `Psychic Frog`, or `Barrowgoyf` needs material.
- Priority: Treat `Leovold, Emissary of Trest` and `Orcish Bowmasters` as interaction against draw, but do not assume hidden draw spells. Deploy or hold them based on visible mana, known hand from `Gitaxian Probe`, public stack activity, and whether the board needs a body now.
- Bait: Lead with lower-commitment pressure when you suspect permission and already have multiple threats. `Deathrite Shaman`, `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, or `Barrowgoyf` can draw interaction before `Psychic Frog`, `Leovold, Emissary of Trest`, or `Demonic Tutor`; do not bait with `Ancestral Recall` unless winning the counter fight or loading the graveyard is acceptable.
- Ignore: Let low-impact creature damage resolve when your hand is set up to win the stack or lock mana. Do not spend `Abrupt Decay` or `Fatal Push` on small bodies if `Wasteland`, `Strip Mine`, `Collector Ouphe`, or a protected threat will shrink their relevance.
- Archetype shift: Against combo and artifact-mana decks, prioritize counters, `Collector Ouphe`, `Mindbreak Trap`, and mana denial over creature trades. Against creature decks, shift removal toward blockers and clock reduction, value `Fatal Push`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Sheoldred's Edict`, `Soul Rend`, and `The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale`, and use permission mainly for haymakers or removal that breaks stabilization.
- Bounce note: This registered list has no main-deck bounce plan. If a legal bounce-like action appears from an opponent effect or unknown card text, choose it only from current rules-engine options and do not plan around it as a deck resource.

## Combat And Trading Rules
- Priority: Attack when damage also advances resources. `Psychic Frog`, `Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow`, `Orcish Bowmasters` tokens, and small creatures should attack when the visible blocks do not trade away the engine for little gain; `Time Walk` increases the value of attacks that create a second combat or force the opponent to answer on a compressed clock.
- Priority: Preserve `Deathrite Shaman` early unless trading denies a key attacker or protects life from a short clock. Its mana fixing, graveyard interaction, and reach matter more than two damage in most open-board states.
- Priority: Preserve `Collector Ouphe` against artifact-mana opponents unless combat damage is lethal or the lock no longer matters. Do not trade it for a generic creature while the opponent has disabled artifacts in play or public mana constraints.
- Priority: Use `Psychic Frog` as the preferred combat engine, but spend cards or graveyard resources only for a concrete combat result shown by Veles. Discard to grow it when that wins combat, preserves a card-draw attacker, or sets lethal pressure; exile graveyard cards for evasion only when the resulting attack matters more than `Deathrite Shaman`, `Dig Through Time`, or `Barrowgoyf` resources.
- Priority: Treat `Barrowgoyf` size and abilities as visible-state dependent because card text check required. Attack or block with it according to the power/toughness and keywords Veles exposes, not assumed graveyard math.
- Priority: Treat `Plagon, Lord of the Beach` combat roles as conditional because card text check required. Use it as a blocker, attacker, or protection target only when its visible stats and legal abilities justify the line.
- Trade rule: Trade expendable bodies for creatures that reduce your clock, unlock attacks for `Psychic Frog`, or protect planeswalker-style progression from `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`. Avoid trading `Leovold, Emissary of Trest`, `Collector Ouphe`, or a card-advantage `Psychic Frog` for a creature that removal can answer later.
- Block rule: Block aggressively below roughly 8 life against creature decks if the opponent has multiple attackers and you lack immediate stabilization. Above that range, prefer blocks that keep engines alive and preserve crack-back pressure unless visible pump, removal, or trample-like effects make waiting unsafe.
- Race rule: Race combo and control when you have permission plus a fast threat. A protected `Psychic Frog`, `Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow`, `Barrowgoyf`, or `Orcish Bowmasters` army should pressure life totals while leaving mana or free counters available; do not over-block when the real contest is the next stack turn.
- Protection rule: Use `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Flusterstorm`, or `Mental Misstep` in combat only when the protected permanent is central to winning or surviving. Let normal removal resolve if saving the creature would expose you to a lethal spell or leave no answer to a known payoff.
- Archetype shift: Against creature decks, block to preserve life and convert removal into favorable attacks. Against control, attack with resilient or low-cost threats and avoid walking all creatures into a sweeper-like public risk. Against graveyard decks, combat choices should preserve `Deathrite Shaman` activations and avoid feeding their graveyard unless the trade prevents immediate lethal pressure.

## Selection And Tutor Rules
- Priority: Use `Demonic Tutor` only after choosing the current role from visible state. Find `Collector Ouphe` when artifact mana is the opponent's public engine, `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Mindbreak Trap`, or `Flusterstorm` when the next stack exchange decides the game, `Abrupt Decay` or `Fatal Push` when a creature or permanent is already constraining you, and `Psychic Frog`, `Leovold, Emissary of Trest`, or `Time Walk` when you can safely convert a stable board into pressure.
- Priority: Cast `Ancestral Recall` for yourself when cards are the bottleneck and you can protect the stack if the opponent contests it. Delay it when holding it lets you fight on the opponent's end step, pitch to `Force of Will`, or avoid walking into visible draw-punishment permanents; target opponent only if a legal forced-draw line is explicitly lethal or strategically forced by Veles output.
- Priority: Use `Brainstorm` to fix immediate decisions, not as automatic value. Cast it before a fetch land such as `Polluted Delta`, `Misty Rainforest`, `Scalding Tarn`, or `Flooded Strand` when you need to clear dead cards, hide key cards from discard shown by public information, or find interaction before passing; avoid firing it with no shuffle and no urgent need unless the hand is otherwise failing.
- Priority: Use `Ponder`-style assumptions for no card not registered in the list never. This deck's true selection is `Brainstorm`, `Gitaxian Probe`, `Ancestral Recall`, `Dig Through Time`, `Demonic Tutor`, `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, `Psychic Frog`, and legal draw or surveil-like actions Veles exposes from exact card text.
- Priority: Cast `Gitaxian Probe` before committing mana, fetches, `Demonic Tutor`, or a protected threat when life payment is acceptable and the hand information changes sequencing. Use the revealed hand to decide whether `Collector Ouphe` is urgent, whether `Psychic Frog` needs protection, and whether to hold `Mindbreak Trap` for a multi-spell turn.
- Priority: Treat `Dig Through Time` as a late selection spell unless immediate survival requires it. Preserve graveyard cards for `Deathrite Shaman`, `Psychic Frog`, and `Barrowgoyf` when those resources matter more; delve aggressively only when finding interaction, a lock piece, or a finishing sequence is worth shrinking those tools.
- Priority: Make fetch-land decisions after deciding which colors must be available this turn and next turn. Prefer `Underground Sea` when black interaction or `Deathrite Shaman` matters, `Tropical Island` when green for `Collector Ouphe` or `Abrupt Decay` matters, and `Hedge Maze` only when its visible characteristics and tempo cost fit the turn; respect `Wasteland` exposure from public board state.
- Priority: Use `Time Walk` as selection by time compression. Cast it when the extra draw, land drop, attack, `Deathrite Shaman` activation, or planeswalker-style progress from `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` advances a concrete board plan; do not spend it as a blank cantrip while behind unless digging one card is the best legal survival line.

## Priority And Stack Rules
- Priority: Fight on the stack for effects that beat your current plan, not for every spell. Use `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Mindbreak Trap`, `Flusterstorm`, and `Mental Misstep` on visible combo payoffs, must-answer draw engines, lock breakers, or removal that frees artifact mana from `Collector Ouphe`; let low-impact spells resolve when board pressure, mana denial, or removal can handle them later.
- Priority: Preserve free permission when passing with shields down would lose to a known or strongly signaled stack turn. `Mindbreak Trap` is especially valuable after the opponent has cast multiple spells, `Force of Will` protects any decisive exchange, and `Force of Negation` is best for noncreature threats on the opponent's turn; do not pitch the only blue card without checking follow-up interaction.
- Priority: Use `Mental Misstep` on one-mana spells that materially change the game. Counter opposing fast selection, one-mana removal targeting a protected engine, or one-mana interaction that stops your commitment; let minor cantrips or redundant creatures resolve when your current hand answers the payoff instead.
- Priority: Use `Flusterstorm` when the stack already rewards storm copies or when trading one mana for a contested instant or sorcery keeps a stronger counter in hand. Do not rely on it against permanent spells unless Veles exposes a legal target.
- Priority: Activate `Deathrite Shaman` at the latest safe window. Exile mana-enabling lands before you need the mana, exile opponent graveyard resources before they can use them, and drain only when life totals or lethal math matter more than holding up graveyard interaction.
- Priority: Respond to removal on `Collector Ouphe`, `Psychic Frog`, `Leovold, Emissary of Trest`, or `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student` only when that permanent is central to the next turn cycle. Saving a threat is worse than losing the next stack fight if the opponent's visible mana and cards point toward a payoff.
- Priority: Use `Abrupt Decay` and `Fatal Push` during the opponent's turn when waiting preserves information and does not risk losing the window. Act earlier when mana denial, combat, triggered abilities, or a must-answer permanent will create damage or value before the next priority pass.
- Priority: Treat `Psychic Frog` discard, exile, draw, or evasion decisions as stack-and-combat resources. Use them only when the legal action text and visible board show a concrete result such as surviving combat, connecting for damage, drawing, or protecting it from a known effect.
- Priority: Let your own `Orcish Bowmasters` and `Leovold, Emissary of Trest` punish draw only from legal triggered actions Veles presents. Do not assume opponent hidden draw spells, and do not target or order triggers based on invented card text or unseen cards.
- Priority: Pass priority with a reason when holding interaction. A pass is correct when the opponent must act first, your mana denial is already constraining them, or your counters answer the payoff better than the setup; a pass is suspicious when Veles shows lethal pressure, a known graveyard window, or a legal stabilizing action you can cast now.

## Sideboard Map
- Role: Sideboard by changing which axis you overload, not by abandoning the Sultai midrange-control shell. Keep enough blue cards for `Force of Will`, enough cheap plays to use mana efficiently under `Wasteland` games, and enough threats that `Time Walk`, `Deathrite Shaman`, `Psychic Frog`, `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, `Leovold, Emissary of Trest`, and `Barrowgoyf` can actually close after disruption.
- Role: Add `Leyline of the Void` when graveyards are a primary engine, not merely incidental value. It is strongest on the opening hand, changes `Deathrite Shaman`, `Psychic Frog`, `Dig Through Time`, and `Barrowgoyf` resource math, and should be evaluated before keep decisions rather than treated as a normal castable spell.
- When bad: Reduce `Leyline of the Void` emphasis when the opponent is mainly artifact mana, planeswalker, creature-combat, or stack-combo pressure and graveyard cards are only backup resources. Drawing extra Leylines after the opener can be a severe tempo cost, especially in hands already short on lands, blue cards, or pressure.
- Role: Add `Consign to Memory` against colorless engines, artifact-heavy combo, Eldrazi-style threats, and triggered or cast abilities that Veles exposes as legal interaction. Card text check required for exact modes and targets; use it only when the rules engine presents a legal action that stops a materially important spell or ability.
- When bad: Reduce `Consign to Memory` emphasis against creature decks whose pressure is mostly colored bodies and combat damage. It is also weaker when the opponent is forcing fights over cheap creatures where `Fatal Push`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Sheoldred's Edict`, or `Soul Rend` answer the visible board more directly.
- Role: Add sideboard `Fatal Push` against creature tempo, initiative-like pressure, artifact creatures, hatebears, and fast creature starts that punish slow permission. It protects `Psychic Frog`, `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, `Collector Ouphe`, and life total while letting free counters stay reserved for stack payoffs.
- When bad: Reduce `Fatal Push` emphasis against spell-combo, prison, and decks with few legal creature targets. It is not a substitute for permission when the losing action is a noncreature spell or a deterministic stack sequence.
- Role: Add sideboard `Abrupt Decay` against cheap permanents that must be answered through permission, especially hate permanents, creature engines, artifact/enchantment lock pieces, or planeswalker-adjacent cheap threats if Veles shows a legal target. It overlaps with main `Abrupt Decay` but increases density when the opponent can win through a resolved permanent.
- When bad: Reduce extra `Abrupt Decay` emphasis when the opponent is almost entirely stack-based or when mana is under heavy pressure and the green-black requirement competes with holding up blue interaction.
- Role: Add `Sheoldred's Edict` against large single threats, ward-like or protection-like creatures, planeswalkers if the exact text and Veles legal actions allow it, and battlefields where targeting is unreliable. Card text check required for exact choice modes; prefer it when the opponent has one decisive visible permanent rather than multiple expendable bodies.
- When bad: Reduce `Sheoldred's Edict` emphasis against token-heavy, small-creature-wide, or sacrifice fodder boards where the opponent can give up a low-impact permanent.
- Role: Add `Soul Rend` when the opponent presents clustered creatures or permanents that match its legal text. Card text check required; treat it as conditional interaction until Veles reveals exact legal targets and resolution choices. It is best when one action can answer a board pattern that one-for-one removal cannot efficiently handle.
- When bad: Reduce `Soul Rend` emphasis when the opponent's threats do not match the card's legal target or when holding up cheaper removal and counters is more important than a conditional answer.
- Role: Add `The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale` against creature-wide pressure, token boards, Bazaar-style creature floods, and low-mana boards where a land slot can tax combat development. It changes your role toward mana denial and survival; combine it with `Wasteland`, `Strip Mine`, `Fatal Push`, and `Abrupt Decay` pressure on mana or creatures.
- When bad: Reduce `The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale` emphasis against spell-combo, sparse-threat control, and games where your own `Deathrite Shaman`, `Collector Ouphe`, `Psychic Frog`, `Orcish Bowmasters`, `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, `Leovold, Emissary of Trest`, `Barrowgoyf`, `Plagon, Lord of the Beach`, or `Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow` must stay in play and your mana cannot pay upkeep costs.
- Role: Add sideboard `Flusterstorm` against blue stack fights, storm-like turns, compact spell-combo, and mirrors where one mana can win a counter exchange over `Ancestral Recall`, `Demonic Tutor`, `Time Walk`, `Dig Through Time`, or a protected threat. It is strongest when you expect the game to hinge on instants and sorceries rather than creatures.
- When bad: Reduce `Flusterstorm` emphasis against permanent-heavy prison, creature swarms, and decks where the decisive spells are creatures, artifacts, enchantments, or lands outside its legal target range.

Graveyard combo or Bazaar-style graveyard pressure
Side in: 4 Leyline of the Void; 2 Fatal Push; 1 Sheoldred's Edict; 1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
Cut: 3 Collector Ouphe; 1 Flusterstorm; 1 Mental Misstep; 1 Dig Through Time; 1 Barrowgoyf; 1 Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow
- Add role cards: `Leyline of the Void` for opening-hand disruption, `The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale` for creature-count pressure, and creature removal for threats that function despite graveyard hate.
- Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Collector Ouphe` when artifacts are not the opponent's main engine, `Dig Through Time` and `Barrowgoyf` when your own graveyard will be constrained, and slower combat-only threats when survival matters first.

Artifact mana, colorless engine, or prison
Side in: 3 Consign to Memory; 1 Abrupt Decay; 1 Flusterstorm
Cut: 1 Fatal Push; 1 Barrowgoyf; 1 Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow; 1 Plagon, Lord of the Beach; 1 Dig Through Time
- Add role cards: `Consign to Memory` for legal colorless or triggered/cast interaction, extra `Abrupt Decay` for cheap resolved permanents, and `Flusterstorm` when the opponent still fights with instants and sorceries.
- Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow creature removal, slow graveyard payoff, and expensive pressure when the game is about stopping engine pieces before they convert mana into inevitability.

Creature tempo or hatebears
Side in: 2 Fatal Push; 1 Abrupt Decay; 1 Sheoldred's Edict; 2 Soul Rend; 1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
Cut: 4 Mindbreak Trap; 1 Flusterstorm; 1 Force of Negation; 1 Dig Through Time
- Add role cards: `Fatal Push`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Sheoldred's Edict`, and `Soul Rend` to answer board pressure, with `The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale` when the opponent relies on multiple creatures and limited mana.
- Reduce main-deck emphasis: stack-only interaction when the opponent is forcing combat exchanges, especially `Mindbreak Trap` in games where they are not chaining multiple spells into a payoff.

Blue spell-combo or counter-heavy control
Side in: 1 Flusterstorm; 3 Consign to Memory
Cut: 1 Fatal Push; 1 Abrupt Decay; 1 Barrowgoyf; 1 Plagon, Lord of the Beach
- Add role cards: `Flusterstorm` for stack compression and `Consign to Memory` only when Veles shows relevant legal targets or the opponent's public cards indicate colorless or ability-based pressure.
- Reduce main-deck emphasis: removal with few targets and slow threats that do not immediately protect themselves or generate pressure under counter wars.

Midrange mirror or fair blue creature-control
Side in: 2 Fatal Push; 1 Abrupt Decay; 1 Sheoldred's Edict; 2 Soul Rend; 1 Flusterstorm
Cut: 2 Mindbreak Trap; 1 Force of Negation; 1 Collector Ouphe; 1 Plagon, Lord of the Beach; 1 Gitaxian Probe; 1 Mental Misstep
- Add role cards: more removal for `Psychic Frog`-class threats, `Flusterstorm` for fights over draw and removal, and `Sheoldred's Edict` for hard-to-target permanents when Veles confirms legal modes.
- Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow free counters and low-impact information spells when the game is decided by battlefield exchanges, protected card draw, and mana efficiency.

- Archetype rule: Keep `Collector Ouphe` in high numbers whenever opponent artifact mana is central and your own Moxen are already less important than shutting theirs down. Reduce its emphasis only when the opponent's public plan is creature or graveyard based and your own mana development needs artifacts.
- Archetype rule: Keep at least one clean answer to a resolved permanent after sideboarding when the opponent can dodge counters. `Abrupt Decay`, `Fatal Push`, `Sheoldred's Edict`, and `Soul Rend` cover different board shapes; choose the mix from visible threats, not from generic archetype labels alone.
- Archetype rule: Keep blue-card density high enough for `Force of Will` after adding nonblue sideboard cards. If sideboarding makes hands unable to pitch blue cards, prioritize lands, cheap threats, and castable interaction over speculative free-counter configurations.
- Archetype rule: Recheck graveyard self-cost before adding `Leyline of the Void`. The card can weaken `Deathrite Shaman`, `Dig Through Time`, `Psychic Frog`, and `Barrowgoyf`; accept that cost only when the opponent's graveyard engine is more dangerous than your lost internal synergy.

## Matchup Guidance

- Aggro: Become the control deck immediately and make every early action reduce damage or trade up on mana. Prioritize `Deathrite Shaman`, `Fatal Push`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Orcish Bowmasters`, and `Psychic Frog` as stabilizing plays; use `Force of Will` or `Force of Negation` only when the visible spell or board state threatens a damage burst you cannot recover from. Add role cards: `Fatal Push`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Sheoldred's Edict`, `Soul Rend`, and `The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Mindbreak Trap`, slower threat density, and graveyard payoffs when the game is decided before `Dig Through Time` or `Barrowgoyf` becomes efficient.

- Control: Become the pressure deck while keeping stack discipline for the few exchanges that decide the game. Lead with low-cost threats such as `Deathrite Shaman`, `Psychic Frog`, `Collector Ouphe`, `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, and `Orcish Bowmasters` when legal, then protect card-advantage spells like `Ancestral Recall`, `Demonic Tutor`, `Time Walk`, and `Dig Through Time` only when the fight matters. Add role cards: `Flusterstorm`, `Consign to Memory` when Veles shows legal targets, and `Abrupt Decay` for resolved permanents. Reduce main-deck emphasis: excess creature removal and combat-only cards if the opponent is presenting few creatures.

- Combo: Count visible mana, spell count, known card types, and stack contents before spending interaction. `Mindbreak Trap`, `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Flusterstorm`, and `Mental Misstep` are the main protection against burst turns; preserve them for the spell that converts resources into a win rather than the first cantrip unless Veles shows a narrow legal window that will disappear. `Collector Ouphe` is a commitment piece against artifact-mana combo, and `Wasteland` plus `Strip Mine` can buy a turn when the opponent needs a specific land. Add role cards: `Flusterstorm`, `Consign to Memory`, and `Leyline of the Void` only against graveyard-dependent combo. Reduce main-deck emphasis: sorcery-speed threats and removal without legal targets.

- Tempo: Fight for mana efficiency rather than raw card count. Fetch stable blue-black-green mana early, avoid exposing a key land to mana denial when another line is legal, and use `Fatal Push`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Orcish Bowmasters`, and `Psychic Frog` to prevent early attackers from turning soft counters into a lock. `Deathrite Shaman` is a mana source, life buffer, and graveyard pressure piece, so protect it when the visible game is about one-mana margins. Add role cards: `Fatal Push`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Sheoldred's Edict`, `Soul Rend`, and `Flusterstorm`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Mindbreak Trap` when the opponent is casting one protected threat per turn.

- Midrange: Trade resources until your recursive mana, graveyard use, and compact threats pull ahead. `Deathrite Shaman`, `Psychic Frog`, `Leovold, Emissary of Trest`, `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, `Orcish Bowmasters`, and `Barrowgoyf` pressure different axes, so avoid putting every plan into the graveyard if opposing hate is visible. Use `Demonic Tutor` for the missing role: removal when behind, `Ancestral Recall` or `Dig Through Time` when stable, `Time Walk` when a threat is already converting attacks, and `Collector Ouphe` when artifact mana is still meaningful. Add role cards: `Fatal Push`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Sheoldred's Edict`, `Soul Rend`, and `Flusterstorm`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow free counters when the visible fight is permanents.

- Big mana: Attack lands, artifact mana, and payoff windows in that order. `Wasteland`, `Strip Mine`, and `Collector Ouphe` are the pressure tools that make `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Mindbreak Trap`, and `Flusterstorm` more effective; use them to keep the opponent from reaching a protected payoff turn. `Consign to Memory` should be elevated only when Veles shows legal colorless, triggered, or cast targets. Add role cards: `Consign to Memory`, `Abrupt Decay`, and `Flusterstorm`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: small creature removal and slow graveyard threats if they do not change the payoff clock.

- Graveyard: Decide before the game starts whether graveyard denial is worth weakening your own `Deathrite Shaman`, `Psychic Frog`, `Dig Through Time`, and `Barrowgoyf` lines. `Leyline of the Void` is the blunt tool when the opponent's visible or known plan depends on graveyard access; after it is present, shift toward protecting the battlefield and closing before they pivot. `Deathrite Shaman` remains useful when graveyards are not fully shut off or when life totals matter. Add role cards: `Leyline of the Void`, `Fatal Push`, `Sheoldred's Edict`, `Soul Rend`, and `The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale` for creature-based graveyard pressure. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Collector Ouphe` and graveyard-scaling cards when their text is constrained by your own hate.

- Artifact/enchantment: Prioritize `Collector Ouphe` when artifacts drive mana or engine output, then use counters for the spell that removes it or the payoff that ignores it. `Abrupt Decay` is the clean resolved-permanent answer when Veles confirms a legal target; `Consign to Memory` is a sideboard role card for legal colorless or ability-based interaction, not a generic answer to every permanent. Add role cards: `Consign to Memory`, `Abrupt Decay`, and `Flusterstorm` when stack fights support the permanent plan. Reduce main-deck emphasis: creature removal when the opponent has few creatures.

- Go-wide: Make the game about upkeep costs, removal timing, and life preservation. `The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale` is strongest when the opponent has multiple creatures and constrained mana; pair it with `Wasteland` or `Strip Mine` pressure when legal. Use `Fatal Push`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Soul Rend`, and `Orcish Bowmasters` to keep the board from crossing a lethal threshold, and block with `Psychic Frog` only when the exchange preserves a path to stabilize. Add role cards: `The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale`, `Fatal Push`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Sheoldred's Edict`, and `Soul Rend`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: stack-only counters that do not affect the current battlefield.

- Single-threat: Save flexible answers for the threat that actually ends the game. `Sheoldred's Edict` gains value when the opposing permanent is hard to target, while `Fatal Push`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Force of Will`, and `Force of Negation` cover different legal windows; let Veles legal actions determine which answer is live. Apply pressure with `Psychic Frog`, `Deathrite Shaman`, `Barrowgoyf`, `Plagon, Lord of the Beach`, or `Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow`; Card text check required for exact `Plagon, Lord of the Beach` combat and trigger valuation. Add role cards: `Sheoldred's Edict`, `Soul Rend`, `Fatal Push`, and `Abrupt Decay`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Mindbreak Trap` unless the threat arrives through a multi-spell turn.

- Burn: Preserve life total as a resource and do not spend it casually on fetch sequencing or Force costs unless the prevented spell is worth more damage than the payment. `Deathrite Shaman` is important for life stabilization when legal graveyard targets exist, `Orcish Bowmasters` can punish draw-heavy burn-adjacent lines, and cheap interaction should stop the highest-damage legal spell or creature. Add role cards: `Fatal Push`, `Flusterstorm`, `Sheoldred's Edict` only for legal creature/permanent modes, and `Soul Rend` when its legal text matches visible threats; Card text check required for exact `Soul Rend` targeting and life implications. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow engines and painful free-counter lines when castable interaction is available.

- Removal-heavy: Do not overcommit creatures into visible sweepers or repeated one-for-one removal. Sequence threats so `Deathrite Shaman`, `Psychic Frog`, `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, `Leovold, Emissary of Trest`, `Barrowgoyf`, `Plagon, Lord of the Beach`, and `Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow` force different answers, then use `Ancestral Recall`, `Brainstorm`, `Demonic Tutor`, `Time Walk`, and `Dig Through Time` to reload or exploit a safe window. Add role cards: `Flusterstorm`, `Abrupt Decay`, and `Sheoldred's Edict` for answer fights and opposing resilient threats. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow removal when their creature count is low and `Collector Ouphe` when artifacts are not part of their removal engine.

## Specific Matchup Notes
- General/archetype-only note: No exact opponents were supplied, so treat these notes as matchup heuristics until revealed cards, public game history, sideboard logs, or Veles legal actions identify the real opponent. Revealed cards override assumptions; never hold or fire `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Mindbreak Trap`, `Flusterstorm`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Fatal Push`, `Sheoldred's Edict`, `Soul Rend`, or `Consign to Memory` unless Veles shows a legal action and the visible context supports it.

- Blue spell-combo: Preserve free interaction and apply a clock before sculpting too long. Priority targets are the first spell that converts resources into a protected kill, the draw spell that clearly rebuilds through one counter, or the stack object that Veles identifies as a deterministic payoff. Likely sideboarding uses `Flusterstorm` and, when legal targets exist, `Consign to Memory`; reduce emphasis on `Fatal Push`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Sheoldred's Edict`, and `Soul Rend` unless revealed creatures or permanents demand them. `Mindbreak Trap` is strongest when the opponent has already cast multiple spells this turn, so do not pitch it casually to `Force of Will` unless the current spell must be answered.

- Artifact mana or colorless engine: Lead with `Collector Ouphe`, `Wasteland`, and `Strip Mine` pressure when the mana supports it. Priority targets are artifact mana, the permanent that lets them ignore `Collector Ouphe`, and the first colorless payoff that breaks parity. Likely sideboarding uses `Consign to Memory`, the extra `Abrupt Decay`, and possibly `The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale` against creature-heavy boards; reduce emphasis on `Fatal Push` only when the opponent is not presenting creatures. Protect `Collector Ouphe` with stack interaction when it is the card making the rest of the hand function.

- Graveyard deck: Decide whether `Leyline of the Void` is worth weakening your own `Deathrite Shaman`, `Psychic Frog`, `Dig Through Time`, and `Barrowgoyf` lines. Priority targets are graveyard enablers, recursion payoffs, and removal for `Leyline of the Void` when Veles exposes the stack object. Likely sideboarding uses all relevant `Leyline of the Void` copies, plus `Fatal Push`, `Sheoldred's Edict`, `Soul Rend`, or `The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale` when the graveyard deck wins through creatures. Do not keep a slow hand relying only on graveyard scaling if your own `Leyline of the Void` is central.

- Creature tempo or go-wide pressure: Stabilize life first, then turn `Psychic Frog`, `Deathrite Shaman`, `Orcish Bowmasters`, `Barrowgoyf`, and `Plagon, Lord of the Beach` into the closing package. Priority targets are evasive threats, snowballing value creatures, and combat steps where `The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale` or removal changes lethal math. Likely sideboarding uses `Fatal Push`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Sheoldred's Edict`, `Soul Rend`, and `The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale`; reduce emphasis on `Mindbreak Trap` when the opponent is not chaining spells. Card text check required for exact `Plagon, Lord of the Beach` and `Soul Rend` tactical valuation.

- Fair blue or removal-heavy midrange: Trade one-for-one only when a durable advantage source survives. Priority targets are `Ancestral Recall`-scale draw, planeswalker-like value permanents if legal, and removal aimed at the only active closer. Likely sideboarding uses `Flusterstorm`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Sheoldred's Edict`, and selected creature removal; reduce emphasis on `Collector Ouphe` if artifacts are not visible. `Demonic Tutor` should find the missing role, not the flashiest card.

## Risk Summary
- Mana risk: The deck is color-dense and fetchland-heavy, so sequence `Underground Sea`, `Tropical Island`, `Hedge Maze`, `Mox Emerald`, `Mox Jet`, `Mox Sapphire`, `Black Lotus`, `Deathrite Shaman`, `Wasteland`, and `Strip Mine` around the exact spells already in hand. Avoid locking yourself under your own `Collector Ouphe` when Moxen or `Black Lotus` are needed for the current turn.

- Matchup risk: The wrong half of the deck can appear in Game 1. `Mindbreak Trap`, `Flusterstorm`, `Force of Negation`, and `Force of Will` can be excessive against permanent pressure, while `Fatal Push` and `Abrupt Decay` can be too narrow against stack combo.

- Draw risk: `Ancestral Recall`, `Brainstorm`, `Dig Through Time`, `Gitaxian Probe`, and `Demonic Tutor` are powerful but can create sequencing traps. Do not spend selection before identifying whether the game needs mana, pressure, interaction, or a specific answer.

- Over-sideboarding risk: Sideboard cards must not dilute the blue card count, threat count, or mana curve so far that `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, and early pressure stop working. Add role cards for the revealed plan, then keep enough proactive cards to win.

- Graveyard risk: `Deathrite Shaman`, `Psychic Frog`, `Dig Through Time`, and `Barrowgoyf` all care about graveyard texture in different ways. `Leyline of the Void` can be correct and still reduce your own closing speed, so board and mulligan with that cost visible.

- Sweeper/removal risk: Creature-heavy draws can lose to repeated removal or sweepers. Diversify threats across `Deathrite Shaman`, `Psychic Frog`, `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, `Leovold, Emissary of Trest`, `Orcish Bowmasters`, `Barrowgoyf`, `Plagon, Lord of the Beach`, and `Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow` rather than exposing every threat at once.

- Closer risk: The deck can answer everything and still fail to close. Convert stable windows into attacks with `Psychic Frog`, `Barrowgoyf`, `Plagon, Lord of the Beach`, or `Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow`, and use `Time Walk` aggressively when a visible attacker turns it into real damage.

- Interaction risk: Free counters cost cards and sometimes life. Use `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Mindbreak Trap`, and `Flusterstorm` on spells that matter to the visible game state, not on every legal stack object.

- Sequencing risk: `Collector Ouphe`, fetchlands, `Deathrite Shaman`, delve, and land destruction all compete for timing. Choose the line that preserves legal next-turn actions, then let Veles legal actions govern exact targets and payments.

## Test Feedback Checklist
- Deciding factor: Record the exact visible event that decided the game, such as `Collector Ouphe` constraining artifact mana, `Wasteland` or `Strip Mine` denying a color, `Psychic Frog` closing, `Ancestral Recall` resolving, or a protected opposing payoff resolving through `Force of Will`, `Force of Negation`, `Mindbreak Trap`, or `Flusterstorm`.

- Mulligans: Note whether each keep had early mana, a legal proactive play, and interaction matched to the opponent. Flag hands that kept `Mindbreak Trap` or `Flusterstorm` against creature pressure, or kept `Fatal Push` and `Abrupt Decay` against a stack-only opponent.

- Mana: Track whether fetch choices found the right mix of `Underground Sea`, `Tropical Island`, and `Hedge Maze`, and whether `Mox Emerald`, `Mox Jet`, `Mox Sapphire`, or `Black Lotus` were stranded by your own `Collector Ouphe`. Mark every game where `Wasteland` or `Strip Mine` delayed your own colored development.

- Velocity: Check whether `Gitaxian Probe`, `Brainstorm`, `Ancestral Recall`, `Dig Through Time`, `Demonic Tutor`, and `Time Walk` were used to answer a known role need rather than to spend mana or cards impulsively. Record whether selection found pressure, mana, or interaction at the moment it was needed.

- Engines: Evaluate whether `Deathrite Shaman`, `Psychic Frog`, `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, `Leovold, Emissary of Trest`, `Orcish Bowmasters`, `Barrowgoyf`, `Plagon, Lord of the Beach`, and `Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow` created real advantage before dying. Card text check required for exact `Plagon, Lord of the Beach` valuation.

- Removal: Record whether `Fatal Push`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Sheoldred's Edict`, and `Soul Rend` answered threats that mattered to the current clock. Card text check required for exact `Soul Rend` tactical valuation.

- Sideboard: Verify whether `Leyline of the Void`, `Consign to Memory`, `The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale`, extra `Fatal Push`, extra `Abrupt Decay`, `Sheoldred's Edict`, `Soul Rend`, and extra `Flusterstorm` matched the opponent's revealed plan. Flag over-sideboarding that weakened blue count, threat count, or closing speed.

- Closing: Note whether stable games converted into attacks with `Psychic Frog`, `Barrowgoyf`, `Plagon, Lord of the Beach`, `Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow`, or creature-wide pressure. Mark games where `Time Walk` was held after a visible attack would have made it high impact.

- Role: Identify whether the pilot acted as tempo, control, graveyard-pressure, or mana-denial midrange, and whether that role fit the visible opponent. Flag role drift, especially counter-heavy play while behind on board or removal-heavy play while the opponent was assembling stack pressure.

- Mistakes and stranded cards: List every card that remained unused for multiple turns despite legal windows, and separate correct patience from missed opportunity. Pay special attention to stranded free counters, dead removal, late `Collector Ouphe`, and graveyard cards weakened by `Leyline of the Void`.

- Overperformers and underperformers: Name cards by exact logged impact, not expectation. Track whether repeated wins came from `Deathrite Shaman`, `Psychic Frog`, `Collector Ouphe`, `Force of Will`, or land denial, and whether repeated losses involved dead `Mindbreak Trap`, slow closers, color issues, or mismatched sideboard cards.

## First Tuning Questions
- Card quantities: Is `Mindbreak Trap` appearing too often in fair or creature matchups, or is four copies necessary to survive fast spell-combo? Is three `Collector Ouphe` enough pressure against artifact mana, or does it conflict too often with `Mox Emerald`, `Mox Jet`, `Mox Sapphire`, and `Black Lotus`?

- Mana base: Do `Wasteland`, `Strip Mine`, and color-dense Sultai costs produce too many nonfunctional starts? Should the fetch-to-dual pattern prioritize more reliable early black for `Deathrite Shaman`, `Fatal Push`, and `Demonic Tutor`, or early green for `Collector Ouphe` and `Abrupt Decay`?

- Aggro plan: Are the sideboard removal cards sufficient against creature tempo, or does the deck need more early board control than `Fatal Push`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Sheoldred's Edict`, `Soul Rend`, and `The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale` provide?

- Control plan: Does the deck have enough durable card advantage after trading resources, or do `Leovold, Emissary of Trest`, `Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student`, `Ancestral Recall`, `Dig Through Time`, and `Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow` need different support?

- Closers: Are `Psychic Frog`, `Barrowgoyf`, `Plagon, Lord of the Beach`, and `Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow` ending games quickly enough after disruption, or are too many games stabilizing without a clock?

- Graveyard tension: Does `Leyline of the Void` win enough graveyard matchups to justify weakening `Deathrite Shaman`, `Psychic Frog`, `Dig Through Time`, and `Barrowgoyf` lines?

- Sideboard slots: Are three `Consign to Memory` and the extra `Flusterstorm` producing enough value against artifact, colorless, and stack opponents, or are those slots too narrow compared with more removal or graveyard hate?

- Role conflicts: Is the deck losing because it mixes mana denial, free permission, graveyard pressure, and creature attrition in the same draw without a clear lead plan? If yes, tune toward the role that most often wins logged games rather than the role that looks strongest in isolation.

## Veles Tactical Policy

### Policy: Opening Keep Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: mulligan
Cards: Deathrite Shaman; Psychic Frog; Collector Ouphe; Force of Will; Force of Negation; Mindbreak Trap; Wasteland; Strip Mine; Underground Sea; Tropical Island
Phase windows: pregame, opening hand, mulligan decisions
Runtime cues: prompt:mulligan; opening-hand-visible
Use when: choose keep or mulligan from the visible seven or reduced hand.
Avoid when: no runtime hand contents or opponent role context is available.
Instructions: Keep hands with stable colored mana, one early threat or engine, and interaction matched to the opponent's visible or known plan. Mulligan hands that only contain narrow stack interaction against creature pressure, only removal against spell-combo, or mana that cannot cast the hand's first two relevant spells.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Leyline Pregame Deployment
Priority: Medium
Decision families: pregame
Cards: Leyline of the Void
Phase windows: game start before first turn
Runtime cues: action:put Leyline of the Void onto the battlefield
Use when: `Leyline of the Void` is in the opening hand and the legal action offers putting it onto the battlefield before the game begins.
Avoid when: the legal action is not explicitly for `Leyline of the Void` from the opening hand.
Instructions: Put `Leyline of the Void` onto the battlefield when the rules engine offers the pregame action; later strategic costs were paid during sideboarding and mulligan decisions.
Pilot skill floor: low
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: First Permanent Setup
Priority: Medium
Decision families: mana; priority
Cards: Deathrite Shaman; Collector Ouphe; Psychic Frog; Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student; Mox Emerald; Mox Jet; Mox Sapphire; Black Lotus
Phase windows: turns 1-2 main phases, early priority windows
Runtime cues: action:cast Deathrite Shaman; action:cast Collector Ouphe; action:cast Psychic Frog; action:cast Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student
Use when: deciding the first proactive permanent after seeing available mana and opposing pressure.
Avoid when: holding up interaction is visibly required against an immediate stack threat.
Instructions: Lead with `Deathrite Shaman` for mana and graveyard pressure, `Collector Ouphe` when artifact mana matters more than your own Moxen, and `Psychic Frog` when a fast clock plus card conversion is needed. Do not strand your own `Mox Emerald`, `Mox Jet`, `Mox Sapphire`, or `Black Lotus` under `Collector Ouphe` without accepting that cost.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Fetch And Dual Mana Construction
Priority: Medium
Decision families: mana; selection
Cards: Polluted Delta; Misty Rainforest; Scalding Tarn; Flooded Strand; Underground Sea; Tropical Island; Hedge Maze; Wasteland; Strip Mine
Phase windows: land drops, fetch activations, pre-spell mana setup
Runtime cues: action:activate Polluted Delta; action:activate Misty Rainforest; action:activate Scalding Tarn; action:activate Flooded Strand
Use when: choosing fetch timing or a land target from visible legal options.
Avoid when: the choice is forced by a single legal land target.
Instructions: Build early black and blue first for `Deathrite Shaman`, `Fatal Push`, `Demonic Tutor`, blue permission, and `Psychic Frog`; add green when `Collector Ouphe` or `Abrupt Decay` is part of the current line. Use `Wasteland` and `Strip Mine` after colored development unless denying the opponent's visible mana is the immediate plan.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Ouphe Commitment Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: priority; mana
Cards: Collector Ouphe; Mox Emerald; Mox Jet; Mox Sapphire; Black Lotus
Phase windows: main phases before committing artifacts or hate pieces
Runtime cues: action:cast Collector Ouphe
Use when: `Collector Ouphe` is legal and artifact mana is visible or strongly implied by matchup context.
Avoid when: your only functional mana plan depends on activating `Mox Emerald`, `Mox Jet`, `Mox Sapphire`, or `Black Lotus` after `Collector Ouphe` resolves.
Instructions: Cast `Collector Ouphe` when shutting off artifact mana or artifact engines is worth slowing your own acceleration. Delay it when spending your own artifact mana first creates a stronger board or protects the follow-up.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Free Permission Commitment
Priority: High
Decision families: interaction; priority
Cards: Force of Will; Force of Negation; Mindbreak Trap; Flusterstorm; Mental Misstep
Phase windows: stack interaction, opponent combo turns, protected payoff windows
Runtime cues: action:cast Force of Will; action:cast Force of Negation; action:cast Mindbreak Trap; action:cast Flusterstorm; action:cast Mental Misstep
Use when: a visible stack object threatens immediate loss, overwhelming advantage, or removal of the deck's critical hate piece.
Avoid when: the spell is low impact, redundant, or answerable by current board pressure and future legal actions.
Instructions: Spend free permission on decisive stack objects, not on every legal target. Prefer `Mindbreak Trap` against multi-spell turns and uncounterable-style pressure when legal text supports it; prefer `Flusterstorm` in stack fights; preserve blue-card pitch resources unless the threat justifies the card loss.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Force Pitch Selection
Priority: Medium
Decision families: interaction; selection
Cards: Force of Will; Force of Negation; Ancestral Recall; Brainstorm; Dig Through Time; Psychic Frog; Leovold, Emissary of Trest; Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student; Time Walk; Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow
Phase windows: alternate-cost payment prompts
Runtime cues: prompt:exile a blue card; action:pay alternate cost Force of Will; action:pay alternate cost Force of Negation
Use when: the rules engine asks for a blue card to exile for `Force of Will` or `Force of Negation`.
Avoid when: hard-casting permission is legal and preserves a crucial blue card without losing the stack fight.
Instructions: Pitch the least important blue card for the current role, protecting `Ancestral Recall`, `Time Walk`, and active threat engines when possible. Accept pitching a premium card only to stop a decisive stack object.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Removal Target Gate
Priority: High
Decision families: interaction; priority
Cards: Fatal Push; Abrupt Decay; Sheoldred's Edict; Soul Rend; Orcish Bowmasters
Phase windows: opponent main phase, combat, end step, stack-safe removal windows
Runtime cues: action:cast Fatal Push; action:cast Abrupt Decay; action:cast Sheoldred's Edict; action:cast Soul Rend
Use when: a visible permanent creates a clock, engine, lock, or protection problem that must be answered.
Avoid when: the target is low impact and the same mana is needed for permission, development, or a stronger answer.
Instructions: Use `Fatal Push` for cheap creatures, `Abrupt Decay` for must-answer cheap permanents, and edict-style sideboard cards when targeting or protection makes normal removal poor. Card text check required for exact `Soul Rend` valuation.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Draw And Selection Commitment
Priority: Medium
Decision families: selection; priority
Cards: Ancestral Recall; Brainstorm; Gitaxian Probe; Dig Through Time; Demonic Tutor; Time Walk
Phase windows: main phases, end steps, response windows when mana or information matters
Runtime cues: action:cast Ancestral Recall; action:cast Brainstorm; action:cast Gitaxian Probe; action:cast Dig Through Time; action:cast Demonic Tutor
Use when: choosing whether to spend selection now or hold it for a clearer role need.
Avoid when: tapping mana now exposes you to a decisive threat that current interaction can stop.
Instructions: Use draw and selection to find the missing role piece: mana, pressure, removal, or permission. Cast `Gitaxian Probe` before close sequencing decisions when legal; hold `Brainstorm` for fetchland or protection timing when possible; use `Demonic Tutor` for the card that solves the visible bottleneck.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Ancestral Target Self
Priority: Low
Decision families: selection
Cards: Ancestral Recall
Phase windows: target selection for resolved or cast `Ancestral Recall`
Runtime cues: action:target self Ancestral Recall
Use when: the legal target action explicitly targets self with `Ancestral Recall` and no deck-out or replacement-warning prompt is visible.
Avoid when: the target action does not name `Ancestral Recall` or the engine exposes a lethal library-size concern.
Instructions: Target self with `Ancestral Recall` as the deterministic default for this deck's card-advantage plan.
Pilot skill floor: low
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Probe Target Opponent
Priority: Low
Decision families: selection
Cards: Gitaxian Probe
Phase windows: target selection for `Gitaxian Probe`
Runtime cues: action:target opponent Gitaxian Probe
Use when: the legal target action explicitly targets the opponent with `Gitaxian Probe` in a two-player game.
Avoid when: more than one opponent target exists or the legal action text does not identify opponent targeting.
Instructions: Target the opponent with `Gitaxian Probe` to convert the spell into tactical hand information for later permission, removal, and sequencing decisions.
Pilot skill floor: low
No-API allowed: yes
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Graveyard Resource Gate
Priority: Medium
Decision families: mana; selection; priority
Cards: Deathrite Shaman; Dig Through Time; Psychic Frog; Barrowgoyf; Leyline of the Void
Phase windows: graveyard activations, delve payments, Frog activations, post-sideboard games
Runtime cues: action:activate Deathrite Shaman; prompt:delve; action:cast Dig Through Time; action:activate Psychic Frog
Use when: a graveyard card choice affects mana, damage, life, delve, or future threat size.
Avoid when: graveyard information is hidden or the engine has not exposed legal graveyard targets.
Instructions: Spend graveyard cards according to the current bottleneck: mana fixing for development, life or damage for races, and delve fuel for `Dig Through Time`. Respect that `Leyline of the Void` changes both players' graveyard plans and may weaken your own graveyard payoffs.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Combat Clock Conversion
Priority: Medium
Decision families: combat; priority
Cards: Psychic Frog; Barrowgoyf; Plagon, Lord of the Beach; Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow; Deathrite Shaman; Time Walk
Phase windows: declare attackers, postcombat, extra-turn setup
Runtime cues: prompt:declare attackers; action:cast Time Walk
Use when: choosing attacks, blocks, or whether `Time Walk` converts board presence into damage and tempo.
Avoid when: attacking sacrifices a needed blocker under a visible short clock.
Instructions: Attack when pressure advances the clock without exposing the stabilizing creature for no gain. Use `Time Walk` aggressively when a visible attacker or mana-denial position makes the extra turn materially increase damage, mana, or card advantage. Card text check required for exact `Plagon, Lord of the Beach` combat valuation.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Sideboard Role Selection
Priority: High
Decision families: sideboard
Cards: Leyline of the Void; Consign to Memory; Fatal Push; Abrupt Decay; Sheoldred's Edict; Soul Rend; The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale; Flusterstorm; Mindbreak Trap; Collector Ouphe
Phase windows: between games after revealed opponent plan
Runtime cues: prompt:sideboard; match_stage:postboard
Use when: choosing a legal sideboard plan from registered cards.
Avoid when: exact opponent plan is unknown and the proposed plan cuts too many threats, blue cards, or mana sources.
Instructions: Add `Leyline of the Void` for graveyard dependence, `Consign to Memory` for artifact/colorless or triggered/activated pressure where card text supports it, extra `Fatal Push`, `Abrupt Decay`, `Sheoldred's Edict`, and `Soul Rend` for creature boards, `The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale` for wide creature pressure, and extra `Flusterstorm` for stack fights. Reduce mismatched main-deck interaction without hollowing out the threat base.
Pilot skill floor: high
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Pass With Interaction Available
Priority: Medium
Decision families: priority; interaction
Cards: Force of Will; Force of Negation; Mindbreak Trap; Flusterstorm; Fatal Push; Abrupt Decay; Deathrite Shaman; Orcish Bowmasters
Phase windows: all priority passes, especially opponent turn and combat
Runtime cues: action:pass priority; legal_actions_include_interaction
Use when: pass is legal while one or more interactive actions are also legal.
Avoid when: passing allows a visible lethal attack, decisive spell, or engine activation to resolve unchecked.
Instructions: Pass only when current interaction is better held for a more important visible window or when using it now does not improve the board. Re-check stack contents, combat state, mana, and known hand information before every pass.
Pilot skill floor: medium
No-API allowed: no
Light-model allowed: yes
