# Strategy Specifications
## Deck Name And Archetype
Oops All Spells is a Vintage graveyard combo deck built to convert a no-traditional-land mana base into a fast library-dump win. The registered list is 61 main-deck cards and 15 sideboard cards, which passes the active Vintage validation contract because the main deck is at least 60 cards and the sideboard is at most 15 cards. The declared tags are combo and graveyard; the repeated `combo,graveyard` tag should be treated as one strategic identity rather than two different plans.

The deck is a recognizable Oops All Spells shell with deck-specific Vintage acceleration and protection rather than a generic graveyard value deck. Its core identity comes from resolving or activating `Balustrade Spy` or `Undercity Informer` in a deck with no normal lands, then using graveyard pieces such as `Narcomoeba`, `Bridge from Below`, `Dread Return`, and `Thassa's Oracle` to finish. `Agadeem's Awakening`, `Boggart Trawler`, and `Fell the Profane` are registered as main-deck cards and should be handled by Veles according to legal engine actions, not assumed to be ordinary lands or ordinary spells without current zone/action context.

The list is hybrid-stock: the archetype is established, but this exact 61-card configuration should be treated as registered-deck-specific. `Black Lotus`, `Lotus Petal`, `Mox Emerald`, `Mox Jet`, `Dark Ritual`, `Elvish Spirit Guide`, `Summoner's Pact`, and `Wild Cantor` define the acceleration package available to the agent. `Pact of Negation`, `Mental Misstep`, `Unmask`, `Grief`, and `Cabal Therapy` define the protection and disruption package. Runtime decisions must not import absent staples, absent tutors, absent protection pieces, or commander-format heuristics into this deck's policy.

The legality status for this guide is conditional on the supplied active validation result: Format is Vintage, deck counts pass, and the registered zone inventory is the source of truth for legal `Sideboard entry:` and `Maindeck trim:` names. The guide must not claim future legality certainty, restriction-list stability, or engine legality beyond what Veles and the rules engine expose at runtime. If the rules engine rejects a card, action, sideboard configuration, or payment line, the agent must follow the engine result and treat this guide as advisory only.

The mana profile is a tactical risk and a tactical weapon. The deck can generate explosive black and green mana through zero-cost artifacts, rituals, Spirit Guide effects, and pact lines, but many hands are brittle because they must assemble mana, a library-dump action, and protection under tight timing. The pilot should treat visible legal actions, current mana-source availability, floating mana, and pending costs as authoritative; it must not assume a later payment is possible just because the hand contains a familiar acceleration card name.

The role concern is extreme commitment. Oops All Spells is normally the proactive combo deck and should prefer winning now over sculpting for many turns, but it must still respect visible disruption, known revealed information, stack pressure, and whether a failed `Pact of Negation` or `Summoner's Pact` line creates an unavoidable loss. The deck has limited fair-game redundancy once key pieces are countered, exiled, discarded, or trapped by graveyard hate, so go-now gates require actual state reasoning rather than autopilot.

The opponent information status is incomplete for this standalone specification. No specific opposing decklist, matchup matrix, hand contents, sideboard plan, or metagame target is supplied, so matchup guidance later in the full guide must use visible public information and archetype-level cues without inventing hidden cards. Opponent or metagame examples may be discussed in prose, but policy `Cards:` fields must contain only registered Oops All Spells main-deck or sideboard card names unless an opponent card is explicitly prefixed as `opponent:`.

## Thesis
Oops All Spells assembles a no-traditional-land library-dump combo, then converts the graveyard into a `Dread Return` line for `Thassa's Oracle`. The primary job is to resolve `Balustrade Spy` or activate `Undercity Informer` targeting the correct player, usually self, in a game state where the deck has enough mana, enough protection, and enough post-mill material to finish through visible resistance.

The deck wins by using its landless construction as an engine rather than as a drawback. When `Balustrade Spy` or `Undercity Informer` mills the pilot, `Narcomoeba`, `Bridge from Below`, `Poxwalkers`, `Cabal Therapy`, `Dread Return`, `Memory's Journey`, `Jack-o'-Lantern`, and `Thassa's Oracle` become the functional win package if the rules engine exposes the expected legal actions. The agent must still obey actual visible actions: if a combo piece is missing, exiled, countered, unavailable, or not presented as legal, do not assume the deterministic finish exists.

The deck is not trying to play a fair creature game, trade resources for many turns, or preserve cards for generic value. `Grief`, `Unmask`, `Cabal Therapy`, `Pact of Negation`, and `Mental Misstep` are primarily there to force the combo through or stop a specific opposing interruption, not to create a long attrition plan. `Agadeem's Awakening`, `Boggart Trawler`, and `Fell the Profane` should be treated according to the runtime legal actions Veles exposes; do not assume a hidden land plan, normal mana base, or midrange backup role.

The priority is commitment quality, not card quantity. Favor hands and lines that contain a library-dump card, enough mana to deploy it, and a protection or discard route for the most visible opposing stop. A turn-one or turn-two attempt with real protection is often better than waiting for a theoretically cleaner hand, but a naked attempt into known open interaction or visible graveyard hate can be worse than using `Unmask`, `Grief`, `Cabal Therapy`, `Force of Vigor`, or `Sickening Shoal` first when those actions are legal.

## Role Package
- Threats: `Balustrade Spy` and `Undercity Informer` are the deck's decisive threats because each can convert the landless library into a graveyard finish. `Grief` can be a temporary disruptive body, `Narcomoeba` and `Poxwalkers` can become sacrifice bodies, and `Wild Cantor` can matter as a creature plus mana source, but none of these replace the library-dump threats as the primary plan.

- Payoffs: `Thassa's Oracle` is the main win payoff after the library has been emptied or nearly emptied through legal engine actions. `Dread Return` is the bridge from graveyard resources to the payoff, while `Bridge from Below`, `Narcomoeba`, and `Poxwalkers` help provide bodies for flashback or sacrifice requirements when the engine presents those actions.

- Engines: `Balustrade Spy` is the enter-the-battlefield mill engine, and `Undercity Informer` is the activated mill engine. `Cabal Therapy` can serve as both disruption and a sacrifice outlet after the graveyard is loaded, but target naming and flashback use must follow visible legal prompts and known information rather than invented reads.

- Velocity: `Summoner's Pact` finds green creature resources in this registered shell when the engine exposes that search legally, most often to convert into mana or access `Wild Cantor` / `Elvish Spirit Guide` lines. `Jack-o'-Lantern` and `Memory's Journey` support graveyard/library manipulation lines when legal, but card text check required before treating any specific loop or ordering line as deterministic.

- Interaction: `Unmask`, `Grief`, `Cabal Therapy`, `Mental Misstep`, and sideboard `Sickening Shoal` are the proactive or reactive tools that answer opposing disruption, pressure, or hate when visible actions support that use. Interaction should be spent to clear the combo path, protect the current stack, or survive a lethal/near-lethal board, not to chase low-impact exchanges.

- Protection: `Pact of Negation` is the highest-commitment stack protection because winning before its delayed cost matters. Use it freely to protect a winning attempt when the line is actually lethal or decisive, but do not cast it casually if the game will continue and the next upkeep payment is not realistically supported by visible mana and legal actions.

- Recursion: `Dread Return` is the primary recursion spell and should be conserved for `Thassa's Oracle` unless the engine and board state show a different legal finish or survival need. `Agadeem's Awakening` may have recursion text in some modes, but the agent must follow Veles action text because this deck also uses modal double-faced cards in a landless construction.

- Mana: `Black Lotus`, `Lotus Petal`, `Mox Jet`, `Mox Emerald`, `Dark Ritual`, `Elvish Spirit Guide`, `Wild Cantor`, and sometimes `Summoner's Pact`-enabled creature access form the explosive mana package. Sequence mana to produce the exact colors and amounts the current legal line requires, prioritizing black for `Balustrade Spy`, `Undercity Informer`, discard, and `Dark Ritual`, and green for `Summoner's Pact`, `Wild Cantor`, `Elvish Spirit Guide`, or sideboard `Force of Vigor` lines when exposed.

- Sideboard modules: `Chancellor of the Annex` supports pregame or early protection pressure when kept in an opening hand after sideboarding. `Force of Vigor` answers visible artifacts or enchantments, especially graveyard hate, when the green-card cost or mana payment is legal. `Leyline of the Void` is for opposing graveyard decks or graveyard-dependent plans, and `Sickening Shoal` is for creature-based disruption or pressure when the alternative cost and pitch card are legally available.

## Primary Win Conditions
- Primary line: resolve `Balustrade Spy` targeting self, or activate `Undercity Informer` targeting self, to mill the library and convert graveyard material into `Dread Return` for `Thassa's Oracle`. Prioritize this line when visible mana can deploy the engine, the target-self action is legal, and protection or discard can answer the most obvious opposing interruption.

- Setup: assemble one library-dump card plus enough mana from `Black Lotus`, `Lotus Petal`, `Mox Jet`, `Mox Emerald`, `Dark Ritual`, `Elvish Spirit Guide`, `Wild Cantor`, or legal `Summoner's Pact` lines. Use `Unmask`, `Grief`, `Cabal Therapy`, `Mental Misstep`, and `Pact of Negation` to clear or protect the exact attempt rather than to trade generically.

- Execution: after the self-mill resolves, follow Veles legal actions for `Narcomoeba`, `Bridge from Below`, `Poxwalkers`, `Cabal Therapy`, and `Dread Return` rather than assuming every trigger or flashback step is available. The preferred payoff is `Dread Return` targeting `Thassa's Oracle` when the engine exposes enough sacrifice bodies and the Oracle action is legal.

- Disruption plan: spend `Pact of Negation` aggressively only when protecting a line that should win before the next upkeep or when losing the stack fight is worse than the delayed cost. Use `Unmask`, `Grief`, or `Cabal Therapy` before committing if the opponent has visible open interaction, known cards from prior reveal effects, or battlefield hate that can stop graveyard recursion.

- Prioritization: choose the fastest protected library-dump line over incremental pressure because the deck has very little long-game card flow. Prefer `Balustrade Spy` when casting it is the cleanest legal action, and prefer `Undercity Informer` when the activation is already available or when a creature sacrifice route is cleaner than waiting on another spell.

## Secondary Win Conditions
- Secondary pressure: use `Grief`, `Balustrade Spy`, `Undercity Informer`, `Narcomoeba`, `Poxwalkers`, and `Wild Cantor` as combat damage only when the combo is delayed, disrupted, or no legal engine action exists. This plan is fragile and slow, so do not trade off bodies that are visibly needed for `Dread Return` unless survival or lethal combat requires it.

- Hardcast fallback: cast `Thassa's Oracle` only when the legal action is useful as a win attempt, a blocker, or a forced line after graveyard access is denied. Do not assume `Thassa's Oracle` wins without checking current library size, visible triggers, and rules-engine output.

- Discard lock fallback: use repeated or flashback `Cabal Therapy` decisions to strip known opposing interaction after a self-mill or reveal window, especially before committing `Dread Return`. Name or choose only from information Veles exposes; do not invent hidden cards from archetype expectations.

- Graveyard repair fallback: use `Memory's Journey` and `Jack-o'-Lantern` only when their exact legal actions preserve or restore a winning route, such as recovering a removed payoff or changing library/graveyard state for `Thassa's Oracle`. Card text check required for any deterministic loop, draw, shuffle, or target claim.

- Sideboard alternate roles: after sideboarding, `Chancellor of the Annex` can function as pregame protection and later as a possible creature if the game slows, `Force of Vigor` can clear visible artifact or enchantment hate, `Leyline of the Void` can pressure opposing graveyard plans, and `Sickening Shoal` can answer creature-based stops or lethal pressure when legal.

## Emergency Lines
- Behind on life: stop preserving resources for a perfect hand if the opponent has a short visible clock. Commit to the fastest legal protected engine line, or use `Sickening Shoal`, `Grief`, `Balustrade Spy`, `Undercity Informer`, `Narcomoeba`, `Poxwalkers`, or `Wild Cantor` defensively only when Veles shows the block or removal action matters for survival.

- Behind on board: treat battlefield pressure as a timer, not a reason to become a control deck. Use interaction on cards that stop the combo or kill before the next attempt; otherwise spend mana and pitch cards toward `Balustrade Spy` or `Undercity Informer`.

- Behind on cards: mulligan and discard costs mean card count matters less than functional combo density. A low-card hand with engine plus mana can be correct, while a larger hand without `Balustrade Spy`, `Undercity Informer`, or legal access to them is often nonfunctional.

- Behind on mana: sequence free mana first only when it preserves required colors and does not expose the line to avoidable disruption. Use `Summoner's Pact` for mana-enabling creature access only when the search and follow-up actions are legal and the current turn plan can use them.

- Graveyard blocked: do not start a self-mill line into visible graveyard hate unless `Force of Vigor`, discard, counterplay, or another legal answer can clear the obstacle first. If hate cannot be answered, shift temporarily to pressure and disruption while looking for a legal removal or bounce-equivalent action; do not assume one exists.

- Combo piece removed: if `Dread Return` or `Thassa's Oracle` is exiled or unavailable, check for legal `Memory's Journey`, `Jack-o'-Lantern`, hardcast `Thassa's Oracle`, or combat-pressure lines, but mark the normal deterministic finish as broken until Veles presents a real route. If both main payoff and graveyard bridge are gone, prioritize survival, opponent disruption, and any visible lethal combat rather than speculative combo narration.

## Resource Model
- Life converts into untapped mana access when `Agadeem's Awakening`, `Boggart Trawler`, or `Fell the Profane` is played as a land through Veles legal actions. Spend life freely when it enables a same-turn `Balustrade Spy` or `Undercity Informer` attempt, but preserve life when the hand cannot act this turn and the opponent has visible pressure.

- Hand cards are fuel, not inventory. `Unmask`, `Grief`, `Pact of Negation`, `Force of Vigor`, `Sickening Shoal`, `Elvish Spirit Guide`, and `Summoner's Pact` all trade cards for tempo or protection; make these trades only when they advance a current engine turn, clear a visible obstacle, or prevent a loss before the next attempt.

- Mana is the main bottleneck before the library dump. Prioritize hands that can produce black mana plus acceleration for `Balustrade Spy` or `Undercity Informer`; treat `Black Lotus`, `Lotus Petal`, `Mox Jet`, `Dark Ritual`, `Elvish Spirit Guide`, `Wild Cantor`, and legal `Summoner's Pact` lines as burst resources that should usually be spent in the commitment turn.

- Board presence is mostly sacrifice infrastructure. `Narcomoeba`, `Poxwalkers`, `Wild Cantor`, `Grief`, `Balustrade Spy`, and `Undercity Informer` can matter in combat, but their primary value is enabling or protecting `Dread Return`, producing mana, or creating a legal self-mill route.

- Graveyard access is the deck's payoff zone. A resolved self-mill should turn `Narcomoeba`, `Bridge from Below`, `Poxwalkers`, `Cabal Therapy`, `Dread Return`, and `Thassa's Oracle` into a win attempt only if Veles exposes the required triggers, sacrifice bodies, targets, and stack actions.

- Exile is both a cost zone and a failure zone. Exiling cards to `Unmask`, `Grief`, `Force of Vigor`, `Sickening Shoal`, or `Elvish Spirit Guide` is acceptable for a protected kill, but exiled `Dread Return`, `Thassa's Oracle`, `Bridge from Below`, or too many black/green pitch cards can break later lines.

- Information is worth cards before commitment. Use `Unmask`, `Grief`, and `Cabal Therapy` to convert a card into certainty when the opponent has visible mana, known interaction, or hate; do not name or choose hidden cards unless Veles has revealed them or the legal action itself supplies the choice.

- Sideboard bullets are narrow resources. `Chancellor of the Annex` buys pregame or early stack tempo, `Force of Vigor` answers visible artifact/enchantment hate, `Leyline of the Void` attacks opposing graveyard plans, and `Sickening Shoal` answers creature pressure or creature-based disruption when its pitch or mana payment is legal.

## Mana Guide
- Utility-land sequencing: explicitly track `Bridge from Below` as the deck's named nonbasic or utility-land decisions. Use these lands to satisfy the next visible color or utility requirement before taking speculative lines: play or fetch colored sources before cantrips and discard that need exact mana, keep utility lands when their activated or disruptive text is part of the current plan, and delay utility-land sacrifices until the follow-up spell or ability is already legal. When choosing between a stable colored source and a utility land, choose the source that casts the current hand under visible pressure, then use the utility land once the required colors are secure.

- Black mana is the primary color requirement because `Dark Ritual`, `Balustrade Spy`, `Undercity Informer`, `Unmask`, `Grief`, `Cabal Therapy`, `Dread Return`, `Agadeem's Awakening`, `Boggart Trawler`, `Fell the Profane`, `Jack-o'-Lantern`, and `Thassa's Oracle` lines often depend on black access or black pitch density. Prefer opening hands with immediate black or a clear legal path to black.

- Green mana mostly enables `Summoner's Pact`, `Elvish Spirit Guide`, `Wild Cantor`, `Force of Vigor`, and `Sickening Shoal` pitch patterns. Treat green as support unless the current hand specifically needs `Summoner's Pact` to find `Elvish Spirit Guide` or `Wild Cantor`, or needs `Force of Vigor` after sideboarding.

- Play modal land faces only when the hand needs a stable mana source more than it needs the spell face. `Agadeem's Awakening`, `Boggart Trawler`, and `Fell the Profane` help the deck function without real land cards in library, but playing one as a land can reduce pitch count, spell utility, or post-mill resources; use Veles legal action text for the exact face and life/tap terms.

- Sequence permanent mana before one-shot mana when it preserves options. `Mox Jet`, `Mox Emerald`, and a legal modal land action can make later `Dark Ritual`, `Lotus Petal`, `Black Lotus`, `Elvish Spirit Guide`, or `Wild Cantor` choices cleaner, but do not delay a same-turn protected kill merely to conserve expendable mana.

- Cast `Dark Ritual` only after confirming the follow-up black-mana sink is legal. It is strongest when it immediately enables `Balustrade Spy`, `Undercity Informer`, discard plus engine, or post-board removal/protection; avoid floating mana through uncertain decision chains unless Veles shows the next required action.

- Use `Black Lotus` and `Lotus Petal` as commitment-turn accelerants. Choose colors from visible requirements: black for engine and discard chains, green for `Summoner's Pact` or `Force of Vigor` support when needed, and blue only when a legal `Thassa's Oracle`, `Memory's Journey`, `Mental Misstep`, or relevant payment requires it.

- Mulligan mana rule: keep hands with engine plus a credible same-turn or near-term mana path, especially with protection. Mulligan hands that contain interaction but no `Balustrade Spy`, no `Undercity Informer`, and no legal access route unless matchup context demands a disruptive sideboard start.

- Play-land timing should follow commitment needs. Play a modal land before draw or selection only when the current line already needs that mana; hold it when a draw, reveal, or legal selection action could change whether the spell face, pitch value, or land face is more important.

## Mulligan Guide
- Strong keep: keep hands with `Balustrade Spy` or `Undercity Informer`, immediate black mana, and at least one protection or information card such as `Pact of Negation`, `Unmask`, `Grief`, `Mental Misstep`, or `Cabal Therapy`. A hand like `Balustrade Spy`, `Dark Ritual`, `Mox Jet`, `Unmask`, black card, `Pact of Negation`, and any modal land is a premium keep because it can inspect, protect, and commit before the opponent develops hate.

- Strong keep: keep hands where `Summoner's Pact` creates the missing mana creature only if the rest of the hand already has an engine and the legal mana path is visible. `Summoner's Pact` for `Elvish Spirit Guide` or `Wild Cantor` is a keepable accelerator, but do not keep it as a vague tutor when no `Balustrade Spy`, no `Undercity Informer`, and no near-term plan exists.

- Medium keep: keep slower hands with engine plus mana but no protection on the play when the opponent has not shown fast interaction or graveyard hate. These hands should normally commit early; waiting gives the opponent more draw steps to find disruption.

- Medium keep: keep disruptive hands with `Unmask` or `Grief` plus a realistic turn-two engine when the matchup is expected to have counterplay. Use the discard first when legal, then commit only if the revealed information or legal action list supports it.

- Risky keep: keep one-mana-short hands only when they contain multiple live draws or redundant accelerants such as `Black Lotus`, `Lotus Petal`, `Mox Jet`, `Dark Ritual`, `Elvish Spirit Guide`, `Summoner's Pact`, or modal land access. Ship if the hand needs two unrelated topdecks.

- Matchup-dependent keep: keep `Leyline of the Void` starts after sideboarding against graveyard opponents only if the remaining six cards still contain an engine path or enough disruption to buy time. Do not keep Leyline-only hands that cannot progress.

- Play/draw adjustment: be more willing to keep fragile protected speed on the play and more willing to mulligan for `Chancellor of the Annex`, `Unmask`, `Grief`, `Pact of Negation`, `Force of Vigor`, or `Sickening Shoal` on the draw when the opponent can deploy hate first.

- Automatic ship: ship hands with no `Balustrade Spy`, no `Undercity Informer`, no credible `Summoner's Pact` setup, and no sideboard hate plan. Also ship hands where the only mana is unusable by legal actions, or where the hand is all protection with no clock and no engine.

- Trap hand: do not keep hands that look powerful because they contain `Dread Return`, `Thassa's Oracle`, `Bridge from Below`, `Narcomoeba`, or `Memory's Journey` but lack a self-mill engine. Those cards are payoff infrastructure, not opening-hand progress.

- Trap hand: do not keep hands that require exiling the only needed payoff, only black card, or only green pitch card to cast protection unless the resulting line still wins through visible legal actions.

## Turn Arc
- Turn 1 preferred play: win immediately when Veles presents legal mana, engine, self-target, sacrifice, and payoff actions with acceptable protection. Sequence information first with `Unmask`, `Grief`, or legal `Cabal Therapy` when the opponent has unknown interaction; then deploy `Dark Ritual`, `Black Lotus`, `Lotus Petal`, `Mox Jet`, `Mox Emerald`, `Elvish Spirit Guide`, `Wild Cantor`, or modal land mana only as needed for the chosen engine.

- Turn 1 engine choice: prefer `Balustrade Spy` when the hand can cast it directly and protect the trigger. Prefer `Undercity Informer` when the hand has activation mana and a legal sacrifice body, or when casting and activating in the same turn is safer than relying on a creature to survive.

- Turn 1 deviation: use `Force of Vigor` after sideboarding only when a visible artifact or enchantment stops the combo or will stop it before the next action window. Use `Sickening Shoal` only when a visible creature threatens the combo turn or lethal pressure before the next attempt.

- Turn 2 preferred play: convert a medium keep into a protected attempt. Use the first turn's modal land, Mox, or disruption to make turn two mana exact; do not spend `Pact of Negation` on low-impact spells if the engine turn still needs protection.

- Turn 2 deviation: if the opponent has exposed a hate permanent or held-up interaction, lead with discard or removal before committing. If Veles shows no answer to a visible graveyard blocker, wait only when another draw step can produce `Force of Vigor`, discard, or a different legal route.

- Turn 3 preferred play: stop preserving resources and assemble the best legal attempt unless visible information says the opponent is locked out or the combo is currently impossible. By turn three, extra cards in hand are usually less valuable than denying the opponent more draw steps.

- Turn 3 deviation: hard-pressure with `Grief`, `Balustrade Spy`, `Undercity Informer`, `Narcomoeba`, or `Poxwalkers` only when the graveyard finish is broken or delayed. Combat is a fallback clock, not the primary plan.

- Turns 4-5 preferred play: rebuild from disruption by counting remaining engine pieces, payoff cards, mana, and pitch resources in public zones. If `Dread Return` or `Thassa's Oracle` is unavailable, look for legal `Memory's Journey`, `Jack-o'-Lantern`, or hardcast `Thassa's Oracle` lines before claiming a combo finish.

- Turns 4-5 deviation: prioritize survival actions when visible pressure can kill before the next engine attempt. `Sickening Shoal`, blocking, or removal-like legal actions can be correct if they buy the exact turn needed to assemble mana plus engine.

- Late game plan: treat every draw as either engine, mana, protection, or dead payoff until Veles proves otherwise. Commit when the legal action list shows a complete route; if the opponent controls visible graveyard hate and no answer is legal, shift to discard, pressure, and survival rather than speculative combo execution.

## Card Roles
- `Balustrade Spy` is the cleanest primary engine because its enters-the-battlefield trigger can target self and mill the library when no true land cards remain. Cast it only when the visible mana line and protection line are already selected; do not expose it as a fair creature unless the combo is broken and combat is the only live pressure plan.

- `Undercity Informer` is the second primary engine and asks for one extra activation step, so prefer same-turn cast-and-activate lines when Veles shows the mana and sacrifice action. Sacrificing `Undercity Informer` to its own ability is often the deterministic route; do not pass with it in play if the opponent can remove it before priority returns.

- `Dark Ritual` is the main black burst that turns one black source into engine mana. Hold it until the commitment turn unless casting discard first requires it, because floating black mana before choosing the protected line can leak flexibility and expose the hand to stack interaction.

- `Black Lotus`, `Lotus Petal`, `Mox Jet`, and `Mox Emerald` are acceleration pieces, not value permanents. Use `Mox Jet` for black engine and discard lines, `Mox Emerald` for green conversion or sideboard `Force of Vigor` support, and `Black Lotus` or `Lotus Petal` for exact color needs such as engine mana, `Wild Cantor`, or emergency `Thassa's Oracle` lines.

- `Elvish Spirit Guide` is both mana and a green card. Exile it for green when it completes `Wild Cantor`, `Summoner's Pact`, or `Force of Vigor` sequencing; hold it when the current hand already has mana and needs a green pitch card after sideboarding.

- `Summoner's Pact` is a zero-mana setup card that should normally find `Elvish Spirit Guide` or `Wild Cantor` only when that creature completes a visible same-turn route. Treat the upkeep trigger as lethal unless the combo is expected to finish before it matters or the legal action list proves payment is possible.

- `Wild Cantor` is the tutorable color bridge, especially for turning green from `Elvish Spirit Guide` or `Mox Emerald` into black or blue. Do not spend it casually as a creature if it is the only color converter needed to cast `Balustrade Spy`, activate `Undercity Informer`, or hardcast `Thassa's Oracle` in an emergency.

- `Agadeem's Awakening` is primarily a black modal land and black pitch card in opening hands. Use the land face when the hand needs durable black mana; consider the spell face only in late rebuild states where Veles shows legal targets and exact mana, because the primary combo normally wants the card as mana or pitch support.

- `Fell the Profane` is primarily a black modal land and black pitch card, with its spell face reserved for visible creature or planeswalker problems when Veles presents a legal target. Card text check required for exact removal constraints; do not assume it answers noncreature graveyard hate or stack interaction.

- `Boggart Trawler` is primarily a black modal land and black pitch card, with its spell face used only when the legal action text shows a relevant cast or target. Card text check required for exact front-face effect; do not treat it as generic graveyard hate, removal, or a combo piece unless Veles exposes that legal action.

- `Grief` is proactive protection and information, usually by alternate-cost casting with an expendable black card. Lead with `Grief` before the engine when the opponent's unknown hand can contain counterplay, but do not exile `Dread Return`, `Thassa's Oracle` support, or the only black mana substitute unless the remaining line still wins.

- `Unmask` is the highest-flexibility discard spell because it can clear the opponent or, in rare visible-hand states, target self to put stranded payoff cards into the graveyard. Use opponent-targeted `Unmask` before committing into unknown interaction; use self-targeted `Unmask` only when Veles shows that a drawn `Dread Return` or `Thassa's Oracle` must move to the graveyard for the current line.

- `Cabal Therapy` is both disruption and post-mill infrastructure. Before combo, name from revealed information, public game context, or a narrow matchup read rather than inventing a hidden card; after self-mill, flashback can sacrifice a creature, trigger graveyard synergies, and convert `Bridge from Below`, `Narcomoeba`, and `Poxwalkers` into enough bodies for `Dread Return`.

- `Pact of Negation` protects the exact combo turn and should be spent on spells that stop the engine, payoff, or required graveyard action. Avoid using it on low-impact spells, because the delayed payment is usually unacceptable unless the combo has already won or Veles proves a payable next upkeep.

- `Mental Misstep` is narrow protection for one-mana interaction and hate. Use it when Veles shows a legal target that would stop discard, mana, the engine, or the graveyard payoff; do not fire it at irrelevant cantrips or low-pressure setup unless the current plan depends on denying that exact spell.

- `Narcomoeba` is a payoff-body card, not a keep reason. Its best role is entering from the library during self-mill so it can be sacrificed to `Cabal Therapy` or `Dread Return`; hardcasting or attacking with it is a fallback when the graveyard finish is disrupted.

- `Poxwalkers` is graveyard body redundancy for post-mill casting lines. Let it do its work from the graveyard after spells are cast from non-hand zones; do not keep hands because they contain `Poxwalkers`, and avoid using it as fair pressure unless the primary line is unavailable.

- `Bridge from Below` is token infrastructure after self-mill and sacrifice actions. Preserve lines that sacrifice your creatures while it remains active, and be alert to visible opposing creature deaths that can change whether Bridge still supports the `Dread Return` body count.

- `Dread Return` is the graveyard payoff bridge and is normally valuable only from the graveyard with three sacrifice bodies. Protect it from exile effects when possible; do not pitch it to `Unmask` or `Grief` unless Veles shows another legal win route or the current game cannot use the normal flashback line.

- `Thassa's Oracle` is the deterministic payoff target for `Dread Return` after the library is empty or nearly empty. Do not treat an opening-hand `Thassa's Oracle` as progress unless the hand also has a legal discard, mana, or hardcast route; if it is stranded, prioritize legal self-discard or emergency casting only when visible actions support it.

- `Memory's Journey` is recovery and library-management insurance after self-mill or disruption. Card text check required for exact target count and flashback constraints; use it only when Veles shows a legal shuffle or graveyard-target action that protects a payoff, prevents decking, or rebuilds a failed combo line.

- `Jack-o'-Lantern` is a small utility card for color fixing, graveyard interaction, or emergency draw only when those legal actions appear. Card text check required for exact activation timing; do not spend it before the combo turn if its graveyard mana ability or target-exile action is the visible route through disruption.

- `Chancellor of the Annex` is a sideboard protection card whose opening-hand reveal can buy a critical turn or tax the opponent's first answer. After the reveal window, treat it mostly as a disruption body only if Veles presents a realistic cast line; its main job is pregame protection, not normal battlefield pressure.

- `Force of Vigor` is the sideboard answer to visible artifact or enchantment hate. Use it before committing when a permanent blocks self-mill, graveyard access, mana, or the payoff; preserve enough green cards, especially `Elvish Spirit Guide` or unused green modal resources, to cast it for its alternate cost.

- `Leyline of the Void` is sideboard graveyard pressure for opposing graveyard decks and should matter from the opening hand. Do not keep a Leyline-only hand that lacks an engine path, because this deck still wins by assembling `Balustrade Spy` or `Undercity Informer` rather than by locking the opponent indefinitely.

- `Sickening Shoal` is sideboard creature interaction for hate creatures or lethal pressure. Use it when the target's visible role threatens the combo turn or survival; avoid spending essential black pitch cards if the resulting hand no longer contains engine, mana, and payoff access.

## Interaction Priorities

- Priority: use `Grief`, `Unmask`, and `Cabal Therapy` to clear the exact card that stops the current engine line, not the card that is merely powerful. Highest discard targets are visible counterspells for `Balustrade Spy`, `Undercity Informer`, `Dread Return`, or `Thassa's Oracle`; visible graveyard hate; visible exile effects aimed at `Bridge from Below`, `Dread Return`, or `Thassa's Oracle`; and visible artifact/enchantment hate pieces that make self-mill or graveyard casting fail.

- Priority: spend `Pact of Negation` only on stack actions that stop the win this turn or force the deck to lose before paying for Pact matters. Counter a spell that counters the engine, removes the engine before resolution, exiles the graveyard after self-mill, stops `Dread Return`, or prevents `Thassa's Oracle`; ignore cantrips, mana, tutors, and threats unless Veles shows they immediately produce lethal, hate, or a forced failure.

- Priority: use `Mental Misstep` as narrow protection for one-mana interaction that matters to the present line. Counter a legal one-mana spell if it attacks `Dark Ritual`, `Black Lotus`, `Lotus Petal`, `Mox Jet`, `Mox Emerald`, `Cabal Therapy`, `Unmask`, `Grief`, the engine spell, or graveyard payoff; let low-impact one-mana filtering resolve when the combo is already protected or the opponent is not interacting with the decisive turn.

- Priority: remove or exile permanents before committing when a visible artifact, enchantment, creature, or planeswalker prevents self-mill, graveyard use, sacrifice bodies, or `Thassa's Oracle` resolution. Use `Force of Vigor` after sideboarding against artifact/enchantment hate; use `Sickening Shoal` against hate creatures or lethal attackers; use `Fell the Profane` only when Veles exposes a legal target matching the spell face. Card text check required for `Boggart Trawler` and `Fell the Profane`, so do not assume either answers a hate permanent unless the rules engine offers that action.

- Priority: bait with redundant engine cards and expendable mana, not with unique payoff pieces. If the hand has both `Balustrade Spy` and `Undercity Informer`, the first engine can draw a counter only when the second engine, mana, and graveyard finish remain intact; do not bait with `Dread Return`, `Thassa's Oracle`, the only sacrifice route, or the only black mana source.

- Priority: discard from revealed information before guessing with `Cabal Therapy`. If `Grief` or `Unmask` reveals multiple interaction pieces, take the one that stops the earliest required step: engine resolution first, graveyard access second, `Dread Return` third, `Thassa's Oracle` fourth, then fast pressure.

- Priority: use `Force of Vigor` before self-mill when the opponent has visible artifact or enchantment hate, because waiting can leave the deck without a legal graveyard line. Preserve green pitch material such as `Elvish Spirit Guide` when the matchup is likely to present permanent hate; do not strand Force by spending all green cards on marginal acceleration.

- Archetype shift: against blue decks, lead with discard and protect the engine with `Pact of Negation` or `Mental Misstep`; against prison or artifact/enchantment decks, prioritize `Force of Vigor`; against creature-hate decks, prioritize `Sickening Shoal` and `Fell the Profane`; against graveyard mirrors, opening `Leyline of the Void` matters, but still mulligan for an engine path.

- Ignore: do not fight ordinary creatures, planeswalkers, or value spells unless they create a short clock, present hate, disrupt the combo, or force a loss before the next engine attempt. This deck wins by resolving one protected engine, so interaction spent on fair-resource exchanges is usually a mistake.

## Combat And Trading Rules

- Priority: treat combat as time management until the combo is unavailable. Life total is a resource to buy one more draw step or one more protected engine attempt; do not trade away `Narcomoeba`, `Poxwalkers`, or tokens if those bodies are needed for `Cabal Therapy` flashback or `Dread Return`.

- Priority: preserve sacrifice bodies over chip damage after self-mill. `Narcomoeba`, `Poxwalkers`, and `Bridge from Below` tokens should normally stay available for `Dread Return`; attack only when Veles shows the graveyard finish is unavailable, body count is redundant, or combat damage creates an immediate win line.

- Priority: block when the visible attack would put the deck below a practical next-turn survival threshold or force loss before another engine attempt. Against fast creature decks, trade expendable bodies only after confirming the `Dread Return` body count remains sufficient or the graveyard plan has already failed.

- Priority: avoid killing opposing creatures while `Bridge from Below` is important unless Veles shows Bridge is already irrelevant or the kill is required for survival. Opposing creature deaths can change graveyard-token infrastructure, so let Forge output and visible replacement results guide whether removal or combat trades are safe.

- Protection: use `Sickening Shoal` on attackers or hate creatures when the target either threatens lethal soon or prevents the combo from functioning. Do not pitch a black card that is the only remaining way to cast `Grief`, `Unmask`, `Dark Ritual`, `Balustrade Spy`, `Undercity Informer`, or the currently selected line unless the alternative is losing.

- Protection: use `Pact of Negation` in combat only for a spell that stops the combo or creates immediate lethal. Do not counter a combat trick or removal spell for normal battlefield value if the deck can still execute the engine on the next priority cycle.

- Archetype shift: against aggro, value life points more highly and accept blocks that preserve one more engine turn; against control, avoid exposing bodies to removal unless they are part of the immediate `Dread Return` turn; against prison, combat is secondary to clearing hate; against graveyard mirrors, `Leyline of the Void` may slow the opponent but does not make fair attacks the primary plan.

- Emergency pressure: hardcast creatures or attack with leftover bodies only when the primary graveyard route is visibly broken and Veles shows no immediate rebuild. `Balustrade Spy`, `Undercity Informer`, `Grief`, `Narcomoeba`, and `Poxwalkers` can become fair cards in failed-combo states, but never prioritize fair damage over a live engine commitment.

## Selection And Tutor Rules

- Priority: treat `Summoner's Pact` as a mana-conversion tutor, not a payoff tutor. Use it to find `Elvish Spirit Guide` when the selected line needs green exile mana, or `Wild Cantor` when Veles shows the line needs a castable creature or color conversion; do not expect it to find `Balustrade Spy`, `Undercity Informer`, `Dread Return`, or `Thassa's Oracle`.

- Priority: delay `Summoner's Pact` until the turn you are committing unless the hand cannot otherwise make a legal plan. The Pact trigger is a real future cost, so a pass-the-turn line after casting it is acceptable only when Veles shows no safer route and the selected green card materially improves survival or a next-turn win.

- Priority: use discard selection before blind commitment. `Grief`, `Unmask`, and revealed-information `Cabal Therapy` should identify the interaction that stops the current engine path: counterspell or engine removal first, graveyard exile second, `Dread Return` disruption third, `Thassa's Oracle` disruption fourth.

- Priority: name with `Cabal Therapy` only from public or recently revealed information when possible. If Veles offers a blind-name decision and no card has been revealed, choose only from matchup-guided likely interaction categories; do not invent exact hidden cards as certainty.

- Priority: keep `Memory's Journey` for graveyard repair or anti-decking pivots after self-mill. Use it only when Forge offers target cards that preserve the win, rebuild from disruption, or prevent losing to an empty library; do not shuffle away `Dread Return`, `Thassa's Oracle`, `Narcomoeba`, `Poxwalkers`, or `Bridge from Below` unless the current visible line requires that exact repair.

- Priority: use `Jack-o'-Lantern` as a conditional smoothing and graveyard utility piece only when the legal action text confirms the mode. If Forge offers a draw/filter action, prefer it before a noncommittal pass; if it offers graveyard mana, use it to complete `Dread Return`, `Thassa's Oracle`, or protection sequencing only when the target graveyard card is expendable.

- Priority: treat `Agadeem's Awakening`, `Boggart Trawler`, and `Fell the Profane` as modal or land-like resources only through rules-engine actions. Card text check required for `Boggart Trawler` and `Fell the Profane`; choose land-entry or spell-face actions from visible text, and do not assume a spell face answers a permanent unless Veles exposes the target and effect.

- Priority: make land-drop timing serve the chosen combo turn. Preserve untapped black mana sources for `Dark Ritual`, `Grief`, `Unmask`, `Balustrade Spy`, and `Undercity Informer`; play a modal land early only when the hand cannot otherwise cast the engine or when waiting risks wasting the turn.

- Selection baseline: this deck has little true card selection, so mulligan and tutor choices matter more than cantrip sequencing. A keep should already contain engine plus mana, engine plus tutor-to-mana, or protected disruption into a near-term engine; do not keep slow hands expecting to sculpt with draws.

## Priority And Stack Rules

- Priority: pass quickly through harmless priority windows until the combo turn, but stop for any window where a legal action protects, starts, or repairs the engine. Veles should reason when the stack contains interaction, hate, a discard spell, `Dread Return`, `Thassa's Oracle`, or an activated `Undercity Informer` ability.

- Priority: commit to `Balustrade Spy` or `Undercity Informer` only when the visible plan can complete after resolution or waiting is worse. Check available mana, sacrifice body requirements, graveyard access, protection, and known opposing interaction before putting the engine spell or ability on the stack.

- Priority: once `Balustrade Spy` or `Undercity Informer` is selected as the engine, let the self-mill action resolve unless a response is needed to protect it. Do not interrupt your own deterministic mill sequence with unrelated `Jack-o'-Lantern`, discard, or fair-board actions.

- Priority: cast `Pact of Negation` only on a spell or ability that stops the current win, prevents survival to the Pact trigger, or forces a failed engine state. Counter engine counters, graveyard exile, direct disruption of `Dread Return`, direct disruption of `Thassa's Oracle`, or lethal stack actions; let ordinary card draw, mana, and threats resolve unless Veles shows they immediately change the combo outcome.

- Priority: use `Mental Misstep` for one-mana interaction that affects the current line. Counter a legal one-mana action that attacks mana, discard, the engine, graveyard access, or the payoff; do not spend it on low-impact filtering when the decisive stack is already protected.

- Priority: resolve discard before committing mana if the opponent can interact and the hand has time. `Grief`, `Unmask`, and `Cabal Therapy` should clear the way before `Dark Ritual`, `Black Lotus`, `Lotus Petal`, `Balustrade Spy`, or `Undercity Informer` when the same turn still produces enough mana.

- Priority: keep optional payments and alternate costs subordinate to the win. Pay or pitch for `Grief`, `Unmask`, `Force of Vigor`, or `Sickening Shoal` only when the resulting stack action protects the combo, removes hate, stops lethal, or creates the required opening; preserve unique mana, engine, and payoff cards over marginal interaction.

- Priority: after self-mill, sequence graveyard actions around body count and visible stack pressure. Flash back `Cabal Therapy` when it removes known disruption and leaves enough creatures for `Dread Return`; cast `Dread Return` only when sacrifice requirements, target choice, and follow-up `Thassa's Oracle` resolution are all legal from Veles output.

- Priority: target `Thassa's Oracle` with `Dread Return` only when the rules engine exposes that legal target and the graveyard finish is the selected plan. If `Thassa's Oracle` is unavailable, disrupted, or not a legal target, pause for repair lines involving `Memory's Journey`, remaining bodies, or a second engine attempt rather than assuming the combo works.

- Timing: use `Force of Vigor` before engine commitment against visible artifact or enchantment hate, and use `Sickening Shoal` before commitment against hate creatures or lethal attackers. Do not wait until after the library is milled if the visible permanent can prevent graveyard use, sacrifice, targeting, or payoff resolution.

- Let resolve: allow opponent spells to resolve when they do not affect the current turn's engine, graveyard, mana, or survival. This deck cannot win a long stack fight over every resource, so stack interaction should protect the decisive sequence rather than trade for ordinary value.

## Sideboard Map

- Sideboard rule: preserve the fast `Balustrade Spy` / `Undercity Informer` kill unless the opposing archetype presents a specific visible or strongly expected stop. This deck should not become a fair deck after sideboarding; every sideboard card must either protect the combo turn, remove a blocker to the combo, or attack an opposing graveyard plan faster than racing can.

- `Chancellor of the Annex`: bring it for stack-heavy blue decks, fast combo mirrors, and opponents likely to interact before the first main phase. Its best role is pregame taxation from the opening hand, buying the first combo attempt a safer window; its hard-cast body is a remote backup, not a plan. It is bad when the matchup is decided by permanents already on board, creature hate that must be killed, or artifact/enchantment lock pieces, because drawing it after the opener is usually low tempo.

- `Force of Vigor`: bring it against artifact or enchantment hate, prison permanents, and visible graveyard shutdown pieces. Its role is to clear the path before `Balustrade Spy`, `Undercity Informer`, `Dread Return`, or `Thassa's Oracle` must resolve; use it proactively when Veles shows a permanent that blocks graveyard use, sacrifice, casting, targeting, or spell volume. It is bad against creature-only disruption, pure stack interaction, and decks with few meaningful artifacts or enchantments, because pitching a green card can cost `Elvish Spirit Guide`, `Summoner's Pact`, or the mana bridge needed for the same-turn kill.

- `Leyline of the Void`: bring it against graveyard combo, recursive engines, dredge-style graveyard plans, and opponents whose fastest route depends on cards entering or staying in graveyards. Its role is pregame disruption that does not spend mana on the combo turn; it should be valued highly only when it appears in the opening hand or when the matchup is truly graveyard-centered. It is bad against fair blue control, prison without graveyard reliance, creature-tax decks, and artifact/enchantment hate, because drawing it later does not advance `Balustrade Spy`, `Undercity Informer`, `Dread Return`, or `Thassa's Oracle`.

- `Sickening Shoal`: bring it against hate-creature decks, fast creature pressure, and matchups where a single creature can stop targeting, graveyard use, spell casting, or same-turn survival. Its role is free or low-mana removal that keeps black mana available for `Dark Ritual`, `Grief`, `Unmask`, `Balustrade Spy`, and `Undercity Informer`; prefer using it before engine commitment when the visible creature can invalidate the line. It is bad against creature-light combo, artifact/enchantment hate, and hard permission, because pitching black cards can weaken discard density or remove an engine/payoff card from hand.

Balanced anti-blue stack plan
Role cards: 3 Chancellor of the Annex
Trim roles: 1 Jack-o'-Lantern; 1 Memory's Journey; 1 Fell the Profane

- Anti-blue guidance: `Chancellor of the Annex` improves opening-hand protection without consuming black mana or graveyard bodies. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow repair and marginal smoothing pieces when the matchup is about resolving one protected engine, not grinding after a failed graveyard state. Keep `Pact of Negation`, `Grief`, `Unmask`, `Cabal Therapy`, and `Mental Misstep` as the main active protection package.

Balanced anti-permanent-hate plan
Role cards: 4 Force of Vigor
Trim roles: 1 Jack-o'-Lantern; 1 Memory's Journey; 1 Mental Misstep; 1 Fell the Profane

- Anti-permanent guidance: `Force of Vigor` is the primary answer when visible or expected hate is an artifact or enchantment. Add role cards: `Force of Vigor` when the opponent can deploy a permanent that makes self-mill, graveyard recursion, targeting, or multiple-spell sequencing fail. Reduce main-deck emphasis: single-card smoothing and narrow stack interaction when the problem is already on the battlefield.

Balanced anti-graveyard-combo plan
Role cards: 4 Leyline of the Void
Trim roles: 1 Jack-o'-Lantern; 1 Memory's Journey; 1 Mental Misstep; 1 Fell the Profane

- Graveyard-mirror guidance: `Leyline of the Void` is strongest when it starts on the battlefield before either player spends mana. Add role cards: `Leyline of the Void` against opponents whose primary engine uses graveyards faster than discard can reliably stop them. Reduce main-deck emphasis: reactive one-mana interaction and slow graveyard repair when a pregame effect creates the highest-impact disruption.

Balanced anti-hate-creature plan
Role cards: 4 Sickening Shoal
Trim roles: 1 Jack-o'-Lantern; 1 Memory's Journey; 1 Mental Misstep; 1 Fell the Profane

- Anti-creature guidance: `Sickening Shoal` should answer the creature that directly blocks the combo or creates lethal pressure before the combo turn. Add role cards: `Sickening Shoal` when the opposing archetype relies on hate creatures, taxing creatures, or fast attackers that force a same-turn answer. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow utility and narrow stack interaction when the visible battlefield demands creature removal.

- Against prison and artifact-heavy opponents: prioritize `Force of Vigor` over `Chancellor of the Annex` when the opposing deck is likely to present lock permanents rather than a stack fight. Keep green pitch count in mind before keeping hands that require both `Force of Vigor` and `Elvish Spirit Guide`; if the same card is needed as removal fuel and mana, Veles should reason before committing.

- Against fast combo: prioritize `Chancellor of the Annex` and `Leyline of the Void` according to the opposing engine. Use `Chancellor of the Annex` when the opponent must cast spells to win through the first turn; use `Leyline of the Void` when their graveyard is central. Do not overload on non-mana sideboard cards if doing so leaves too few hands capable of casting `Balustrade Spy` or activating `Undercity Informer` quickly.

- Against fair creature disruption: prioritize `Sickening Shoal` when the hate is creature-based and keep discard for the stack or hand. If Veles shows both a hate creature and a protected combo line, remove the creature before self-mill when its text could prevent `Dread Return`, stop `Thassa's Oracle`, or constrain sacrifice and targeting.

- Against unknown opponents on the play: favor minimal sideboarding unless Game 1 revealed a specific axis. `Chancellor of the Annex` is the least mana-invasive protection package, but it still lowers engine density when drawn later. A blind plan should keep the highest count of `Dark Ritual`, `Black Lotus`, `Lotus Petal`, `Mox Jet`, `Mox Emerald`, `Elvish Spirit Guide`, `Summoner's Pact`, `Balustrade Spy`, and `Undercity Informer` available.

- Against unknown opponents on the draw: favor cards that operate before or without mana only when the expected disruption is clear. `Force of Vigor`, `Sickening Shoal`, and `Leyline of the Void` are powerful because they can matter before a normal main-phase setup, but each one increases mulligan pressure if the opening seven lacks engine plus mana.

- Role-change rule: after sideboarding, `Grief`, `Unmask`, and `Cabal Therapy` become confirmation tools as much as disruption. Use them to verify whether `Force of Vigor`, `Sickening Shoal`, `Leyline of the Void`, or `Chancellor of the Annex` is addressing the correct axis before spending the engine turn.

- Mulligan interaction rule: keep sideboard cards only when they pair with a credible combo plan or decisively stop the opponent's faster plan. A hand with `Leyline of the Void` but no engine, a hand with `Force of Vigor` but no green pitch or engine, or a hand with `Sickening Shoal` but no black pitch and no mana should be judged as incomplete rather than protected.

- Density rule: avoid adding multiple sideboard packages unless the opponent attacks on multiple confirmed axes. `Force of Vigor` plus `Sickening Shoal` can be correct against mixed permanent and creature hate, but Veles should check whether the remaining main deck still contains enough mana, engine cards, and sacrifice bodies to finish after self-mill.

Explicit Sideboard Repair Plans

These balanced plans are legal Veles candidates built from the registered sideboard and main deck. Use them as baseline sideboarding options only when the matchup role fits; keep the role guidance above as the strategic source of truth.

Legal repair plan 1
Side in: 3 Chancellor of the Annex; Force of Vigor
Cut: 4 Agadeem's Awakening

Legal repair plan 2
Side in: 2 Chancellor of the Annex; 2 Force of Vigor
Cut: 3 Agadeem's Awakening; Balustrade Spy

Legal repair plan 3
Side in: Chancellor of the Annex; 3 Force of Vigor
Cut: 2 Agadeem's Awakening; 2 Balustrade Spy

Legal repair plan 4
Side in: 4 Force of Vigor
Cut: Agadeem's Awakening; 3 Balustrade Spy

## Matchup Guidance

- Aggro decks: prioritize hands that win before combat damage matters, because this deck is poorly built to trade turns against repeated attackers. Keep `Dark Ritual`, `Black Lotus`, `Lotus Petal`, `Mox Jet`, `Elvish Spirit Guide`, `Summoner's Pact`, `Balustrade Spy`, and `Undercity Informer` hands that present a near-term engine with protection; reject hands that only contain discard and no engine unless the opponent is demonstrably slower. Add role cards: `Sickening Shoal` when creature pressure or creature-based hate forces an answer before the combo turn. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow repair pieces such as `Memory's Journey` and narrow interaction when the matchup is decided by the first two turns.

- Control decks: treat the matchup as a protected one-spell commitment, not a resource game. Use `Unmask`, `Grief`, `Cabal Therapy`, `Pact of Negation`, and `Mental Misstep` to clear or cover the exact engine action, then commit `Balustrade Spy` or `Undercity Informer` only when the visible hand, stack, and available mana make waiting worse or protection is sufficient. Add role cards: `Chancellor of the Annex` against stack-heavy opponents. Preserve black cards for `Unmask`, `Grief`, and `Sickening Shoal` only when those roles matter; do not pitch `Dread Return`, `Thassa's Oracle`, or the only engine piece unless the runtime line remains complete.

- Combo decks: race first, disrupt only when disruption changes the race. Use `Unmask`, `Grief`, `Cabal Therapy`, `Mental Misstep`, `Pact of Negation`, and `Chancellor of the Annex` to buy the single turn needed to self-mill, but avoid hands that interact without a credible `Balustrade Spy` or `Undercity Informer` path. Add role cards: `Leyline of the Void` against graveyard-centered combo and `Chancellor of the Annex` against spell-chain combo. If both players can win immediately, prefer the line that wins now with known legal actions over a line that asks the opponent to fail.

- Tempo decks: respect mixed pressure plus permission by sequencing discard before engine commitment whenever possible. `Grief` and `Unmask` are strongest when they both remove disruption and reveal whether `Pact of Negation` must be held for the stack; `Cabal Therapy` is strongest after confirmed information or after self-mill creates expendable bodies. Add role cards: `Chancellor of the Annex` against permission-heavy tempo and `Sickening Shoal` when a cheap creature or hate creature changes the clock. Avoid spending `Elvish Spirit Guide` casually if it is also needed for `Force of Vigor` after sideboarding.

- Midrange decks: punish slow hands by committing early, but verify that their disruption axis is not permanent-based before self-mill. `Unmask`, `Grief`, and `Cabal Therapy` should take discard, graveyard hate, sacrifice disruption, or removal only when those cards affect the actual line shown by Veles. Add role cards: `Force of Vigor` for artifact or enchantment hate and `Sickening Shoal` for creature hate. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow stack tools when the opponent is using battlefield hate, but keep enough engine density that sideboard cards do not turn the deck into a slow interaction pile.

- Big mana decks: assume the opponent's early turns are less interactive until visible evidence says otherwise, then race aggressively. Keep explosive hands with `Black Lotus`, `Dark Ritual`, `Lotus Petal`, `Mox Jet`, `Mox Emerald`, `Elvish Spirit Guide`, `Summoner's Pact`, `Balustrade Spy`, or `Undercity Informer`; do not overvalue slow discard if it delays a deterministic self-mill turn. Add role cards: `Force of Vigor` only when the opposing plan uses artifact or enchantment permanents that can block the combo. `Pact of Negation` should be saved for a decisive answer on the combo turn because paying for it later is usually unrealistic.

- Graveyard decks: decide whether `Leyline of the Void` is faster than discard before mulliganing. Add role cards: `Leyline of the Void` when the opponent's primary engine depends on graveyard cards, and keep it only with either a credible combo plan or a very strong reason that the opponent cannot win through it. Your own win depends on `Bridge from Below`, `Narcomoeba`, `Poxwalkers`, `Dread Return`, and `Thassa's Oracle`, so do not bring graveyard hate logic into your own execution choices; Veles must follow the legal self-mill and trigger outputs rather than assuming any graveyard state works.

- Artifact/enchantment decks: identify whether the dangerous card is already visible or merely expected. Add role cards: `Force of Vigor` when artifact or enchantment permanents can prevent self-mill, graveyard recursion, targeting, sacrifice, or same-turn spell resolution. Hold a green card for `Force of Vigor` when that answer is required, but reason carefully if the same `Elvish Spirit Guide` is also the mana source that makes `Balustrade Spy` or `Undercity Informer` legal. Use discard first when the permanent is still in hand; use `Force of Vigor` when the battlefield object is already constraining the line.

- Go-wide decks: ignore creature quantity when the combo is immediately available, but respect go-wide pressure when it shortens the decision window to one turn. `Sickening Shoal` should not be spent on a random attacker unless that attacker is a hate creature, creates lethal pressure before the combo turn, or unlocks a legal sacrifice/engine sequence. `Bridge from Below`, `Narcomoeba`, and `Poxwalkers` are combo infrastructure, not a fair blocking plan. If Veles offers combat actions before comboing, default toward survival only when no engine line is available.

- Single-threat decks: remove or discard the one threat only when it changes the clock or blocks the combo. `Sickening Shoal` is high value against a single visible creature that creates lethal pressure or carries hate text; `Unmask`, `Grief`, and `Cabal Therapy` are better against a single hidden answer that could stop `Balustrade Spy`, `Undercity Informer`, `Dread Return`, or `Thassa's Oracle`. Do not spend `Pact of Negation` on a threat unless the game will end before the upkeep cost matters or the threat directly stops the combo.

- Burn decks: race with the lowest-life-risk line and do not assume extra turns are available. `Agadeem's Awakening`, `Boggart Trawler`, and `Fell the Profane` may involve life-payment or modal-land decisions depending on visible legal actions; Card text check required for exact runtime costs, so use Veles life totals and legal prompts before selecting them. Add role cards: `Chancellor of the Annex` if the opponent relies on spell velocity, and `Sickening Shoal` only for creatures that materially affect the clock. Avoid unnecessary `Mental Misstep` or pitch decisions if the life/resource exchange does not protect the combo turn.

- Removal-heavy decks: remember that creature removal matters mainly when it breaks the sacrifice body, `Undercity Informer`, or `Dread Return` setup. Prefer `Balustrade Spy` lines when they immediately self-mill on resolution and require fewer battlefield creatures before the library enters the graveyard. Use `Pact of Negation` to protect the engine or payoff action, not a replaceable body, unless losing that body makes `Dread Return` impossible. `Cabal Therapy` can convert post-mill creatures into protection only when the rules engine shows legal sacrifice bodies.

- Unknown Game 1 opponents: mulligan toward speed plus one protection element rather than speculative answers. A hand with engine, mana, and either `Unmask`, `Grief`, `Cabal Therapy`, `Pact of Negation`, `Mental Misstep`, or `Chancellor of the Annex` after sideboarding is usually more coherent than a hand with multiple disruptive cards and no self-mill. Do not keep `Memory's Journey`, `Jack-o'-Lantern`, `Bridge from Below`, `Dread Return`, or `Thassa's Oracle` as the primary reason for the hand unless the rest of the line is already functional.

- Post-board adaptation: add only the role package that answers the axis actually shown. `Chancellor of the Annex` fights stack speed, `Force of Vigor` fights artifact/enchantment permanents, `Leyline of the Void` fights graveyard engines, and `Sickening Shoal` fights creatures. When the opponent attacks on multiple axes, Veles should check whether the remaining hand still contains mana, engine access, protection, and payoff integrity before accepting a slower protected hand.

## Specific Matchup Notes
- General/archetype-only note: exact opponent decklists are absent, so revealed cards, public battlefield objects, and Veles legal actions override these assumptions. Treat these notes as routing cues for mulligans, protection, and sideboard role selection, not as permission to infer hidden cards or force illegal lines.

- Blue stack-interaction opponents: prioritize a protected same-turn combo over slow sculpting. Keep hands that combine `Balustrade Spy` or `Undercity Informer` with fast mana and at least one of `Unmask`, `Grief`, `Cabal Therapy`, `Pact of Negation`, `Mental Misstep`, or post-board `Chancellor of the Annex`. Priority targets are opposing cards that counter the engine, counter `Dread Return`, counter `Thassa's Oracle`, or stop activated abilities before self-mill resolves. Add role cards: `Chancellor of the Annex` when the opponent relies on early spell exchanges. Reduce main-deck emphasis: redundant fragile pieces only if the hand still has engine density.

- Permanent-hate opponents: answer visible artifact or enchantment hate before committing self-mill. Add role cards: `Force of Vigor` when a public permanent can stop graveyard use, sacrifice, targeting, activated abilities, or same-turn spell resolution. Priority targets for `Unmask`, `Grief`, and `Cabal Therapy` are hate permanents still in hand; priority battlefield targets for `Force of Vigor` are permanents already preventing the combo line. Preserve a green card for `Force of Vigor` only when the answer is required, because `Elvish Spirit Guide` may also be the mana that makes the engine legal.

- Graveyard-combo opponents: decide whether racing or `Leyline of the Void` produces the faster credible win. Add role cards: `Leyline of the Void` when the opponent's primary route uses the graveyard, but do not keep a hand that only disrupts them while lacking mana plus `Balustrade Spy`, `Undercity Informer`, or `Summoner's Pact` access. Priority targets are opposing graveyard enablers, graveyard payoffs, and cards that remove `Bridge from Below`, `Narcomoeba`, `Poxwalkers`, `Dread Return`, or `Thassa's Oracle` from the relevant zones.

- Creature-pressure opponents: race unless a creature either stops the combo or creates lethal pressure before the next combo window. Add role cards: `Sickening Shoal` for hate creatures and clock-compressing threats; do not spend it on a low-impact attacker while an engine line is available. `Bridge from Below`, `Narcomoeba`, and `Poxwalkers` are combo material first, not a plan to play fair combat.

- Discard-heavy opponents: value redundant engine access and immediate mana over slow protected hands. `Agadeem's Awakening`, `Boggart Trawler`, and `Fell the Profane` may provide modal-resource flexibility, but card text check required for exact runtime life and mode choices. Priority targets are opposing discard effects that break the only engine or payoff, then cards that stop the graveyard after the hand is stripped.

## Risk Summary
- Mana risk: the deck can produce explosive starts with `Black Lotus`, `Dark Ritual`, `Lotus Petal`, `Mox Jet`, `Mox Emerald`, `Elvish Spirit Guide`, and `Wild Cantor`, but many hands fail if one pitch or ritual decision is wrong. Do not spend `Elvish Spirit Guide` or green cards casually post-board when `Force of Vigor` is needed.

- Matchup risk: unknown opponents punish wrong-axis preparation. `Chancellor of the Annex`, `Force of Vigor`, `Leyline of the Void`, and `Sickening Shoal` solve different problems, so broad sideboard role additions must not dilute engine, mana, protection, and payoff density.

- Draw risk: hands containing `Bridge from Below`, `Dread Return`, `Memory's Journey`, `Jack-o'-Lantern`, `Thassa's Oracle`, or multiple `Narcomoeba`/`Poxwalkers` can be functional only when the self-mill engine and mana are already present. These cards are usually payoff infrastructure, not independent keep reasons.

- Over-sideboarding risk: adding too many reactive cards turns the deck into a slower hand with fewer deterministic wins. Keep the core count of `Balustrade Spy`, `Undercity Informer`, `Summoner's Pact`, fast mana, and protection high enough that sideboard cards buy a combo turn rather than replacing it.

- Graveyard risk: the main win depends on graveyard movement and post-mill resolution involving `Bridge from Below`, `Narcomoeba`, `Poxwalkers`, `Dread Return`, and `Thassa's Oracle`. If Veles shows graveyard hate, replacement effects, exile effects, or missing legal recursion actions, do not assume the normal line works.

- Sweeper/removal risk: creature removal matters when it removes `Undercity Informer`, sacrifice bodies, or post-mill creatures before `Dread Return`. Prefer immediate `Balustrade Spy` resolution when it is legal and protected, because it requires fewer exposed battlefield pieces before milling.

- Closer risk: `Thassa's Oracle` is the deterministic closer only when Veles confirms the legal path and the required zone state. Do not infer that an empty or near-empty library is enough without the rules-engine action sequence.

- Interaction risk: `Pact of Negation` is strongest on the decisive combo turn and weakest when the game will continue into an unpaid upkeep. Use `Unmask`, `Grief`, `Cabal Therapy`, `Mental Misstep`, and `Pact of Negation` on cards that affect the actual visible line, not on generic disruption.

- Sequencing risk: self-mill before checking protection, mana, sacrifice bodies, and payoff legality can strand the deck. Commit only when the visible hand, battlefield, stack, and legal action list support either immediate resolution or a protected follow-up through `Dread Return` and `Thassa's Oracle`.

## Test Feedback Checklist
- Deciding factor: Record whether the game was won or lost by engine access, mana production, protection, graveyard access, sideboard hate, or payoff resolution. Name the exact card that mattered most, such as `Balustrade Spy`, `Undercity Informer`, `Summoner's Pact`, `Dark Ritual`, `Unmask`, `Pact of Negation`, `Dread Return`, or `Thassa's Oracle`.

- Mulligan quality: Check whether the opening hand had a complete route to a same-turn or next-turn engine. Track hands kept for mana only, protection only, payoff-only cards like `Bridge from Below`, `Dread Return`, `Memory's Journey`, `Jack-o'-Lantern`, `Thassa's Oracle`, `Narcomoeba`, or `Poxwalkers`, and whether those keeps actually produced legal progress.

- Mana execution: Review whether `Black Lotus`, `Lotus Petal`, `Mox Jet`, `Mox Emerald`, `Dark Ritual`, `Elvish Spirit Guide`, and `Wild Cantor` were spent on the decisive line or consumed before the rules engine exposed the required action. Flag any game where `Force of Vigor` needed a green pitch but `Elvish Spirit Guide` or another green card had already been spent.

- Velocity: Count turns from opening hand to first legal `Balustrade Spy`, `Undercity Informer`, or `Summoner's Pact` engine access. A slower game should identify whether delay came from missing mana, missing engine, waiting for protection, answering hate, or Veles not recognizing a legal commitment window.

- Protection use: Audit every `Unmask`, `Grief`, `Cabal Therapy`, `Mental Misstep`, `Pact of Negation`, and post-board `Chancellor of the Annex` decision. Mark whether the chosen action protected the actual combo line, fought a visible stop sign, or spent disruption on a card that did not matter before the game ended.

- Engine resolution: Confirm whether self-mill produced the expected legal follow-up involving `Bridge from Below`, `Narcomoeba`, `Poxwalkers`, `Dread Return`, and `Thassa's Oracle`. If a link failed, record the exact visible zone state and legal action list rather than assuming the combo should have worked.

- Removal and hate answers: Record whether `Force of Vigor` and `Sickening Shoal` answered a permanent or creature that actually blocked the combo or changed the lethal clock. Do not score them highly for removing low-impact objects while an engine action was already legal.

- Sideboard performance: Compare each post-board game to the selected plan and ask whether `Chancellor of the Annex`, `Force of Vigor`, `Leyline of the Void`, or `Sickening Shoal` bought the needed turn without reducing engine density too much. Track games where sideboard cards were stranded or where the unboarded core would likely have been faster.

- Closing reliability: Check whether `Thassa's Oracle` ended the game only after Veles showed the legal path. Flag games where `Dread Return`, `Thassa's Oracle`, `Memory's Journey`, or `Jack-o'-Lantern` was drawn, discarded, exiled, or stranded in a way that changed the required line.

- Role accuracy: Ask whether the deck correctly stayed all-in combo, became protected combo against stack interaction, became answer-first combo against hate, or accidentally played a slow reactive role. Record any mismatch between matchup guidance and visible opponent pressure.

- Mistake review: Identify one pilot decision and one opponent decision that most changed the result. Focus on mulligans, mana timing, discard target choice, `Pact of Negation` timing, `Summoner's Pact` search timing, sideboard selection, and commitment into visible disruption.

- Overperformers and underperformers: Name cards that materially improved win probability and cards that repeatedly sat unusable. Separate true underperformance from cards that were stranded because Veles chose the wrong line or because the rules engine did not expose an expected legal action.

## First Tuning Questions
- Engine density question: Does the 61-card configuration still find `Balustrade Spy`, `Undercity Informer`, or `Summoner's Pact` often enough, or is the extra card reducing the number of turn-one and turn-two legal engine starts?

- Payoff quantity question: Are `Bridge from Below`, `Dread Return`, `Narcomoeba`, `Poxwalkers`, `Memory's Journey`, `Jack-o'-Lantern`, and `Thassa's Oracle` appearing in hand often enough to damage the combo route, or are they necessary insurance against disruption and failed zone states?

- Protection mix question: Is the main-deck balance of `Unmask`, `Grief`, `Cabal Therapy`, `Pact of Negation`, and `Mental Misstep` protecting decisive lines, or are too many games lost because the protection is mismatched to the opponent's visible interaction?

- Mana mix question: Are `Dark Ritual`, `Black Lotus`, `Lotus Petal`, `Mox Jet`, `Mox Emerald`, `Elvish Spirit Guide`, and `Wild Cantor` enough to support both engine casting and post-board answers, or do games show repeated one-mana gaps after using pitch resources?

- Modal-card question: Do `Agadeem's Awakening`, `Boggart Trawler`, and `Fell the Profane` create real resource flexibility, or do card text check required moments and life/payment sequencing make them frequent sources of uncertainty for the agent?

- Anti-control question: Should `Chancellor of the Annex` remain the primary sideboard role card against blue interaction, or do logs show that `Unmask`, `Grief`, `Cabal Therapy`, and `Pact of Negation` already cover that role while another sideboard slot would solve more losses?

- Anti-hate question: Is `Force of Vigor` drawn and cast in the games where graveyard or permanent hate matters, or are losses caused by inability to preserve a green card while also assembling `Balustrade Spy` or `Undercity Informer`?

- Anti-creature question: Does `Sickening Shoal` answer hate creatures and lethal pressure often enough, or are creature matchups still decided mostly by racing with the engine before removal matters?

- Graveyard-mirror question: Does `Leyline of the Void` improve matchups without creating too many non-engine openers, or does it conflict with the deck's need for mana, engine access, and protection in the first hand?

- Role-conflict question: Are post-board hands losing because they contain sideboard cards plus payoff pieces but no engine, or because they contain engine plus answers but no protection for the decisive spell or ability?

- Closer question: Are failed wins caused by `Thassa's Oracle` access, `Dread Return` legality, missing creatures, graveyard disruption, or Veles choosing the wrong commitment point? Tune only after the logs identify which link failed most often.

## Veles Tactical Policy

### Policy: Opening Hand Commit Gate
- Priority: High
- Decision families: mulligan; pregame
- Cards: Balustrade Spy; Undercity Informer; Summoner's Pact; Dark Ritual; Black Lotus; Lotus Petal; Mox Jet; Elvish Spirit Guide; Wild Cantor; Unmask; Grief; Pact of Negation
- Phase windows: opening hand; mulligan decisions; pregame reveal windows
- Runtime cues: prompt:mulligan; zone:opening hand
- Use when: Decide whether the hand can produce a fast self-mill engine with enough mana and protection for the visible matchup context.
- Avoid when: Keeping a hand that only contains payoff pieces such as Bridge from Below, Dread Return, Narcomoeba, Poxwalkers, Memory's Journey, Jack-o'-Lantern, or Thassa's Oracle without engine access.
- Instructions: Keep hands with legal engine access, black mana, and protection more aggressively than hands with multiple answers but no way to start. Treat Summoner's Pact as engine access only if legal text exposes a route to a needed creature and the mana line can pay for the follow-up.
- Pilot skill floor: medium
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Early Engine Setup
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: mana; priority; selection
- Cards: Balustrade Spy; Undercity Informer; Summoner's Pact; Dark Ritual; Black Lotus; Lotus Petal; Mox Jet; Mox Emerald; Elvish Spirit Guide; Wild Cantor; Agadeem's Awakening; Boggart Trawler; Fell the Profane
- Phase windows: precombat main; postcombat main; priority with empty stack
- Runtime cues: action:cast Balustrade Spy; action:cast Undercity Informer; action:cast Summoner's Pact; action:play
- Use when: Build the first legal engine start from visible mana sources, legal spell actions, and available pitch resources.
- Avoid when: The action spends the only protection against a visible stop sign and waiting one decision window keeps a protected deterministic line available.
- Instructions: Prefer a line that starts Balustrade Spy or Undercity Informer this turn over speculative setup. Treat Agadeem's Awakening, Boggart Trawler, and Fell the Profane as modal-card text requiring rules-engine confirmation before assuming mana or spell function.
- Pilot skill floor: medium
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Start Combo Commitment
- Priority: High
- Decision families: priority; mana; interaction
- Cards: Balustrade Spy; Undercity Informer; Summoner's Pact; Unmask; Grief; Cabal Therapy; Pact of Negation; Mental Misstep
- Phase windows: any main phase priority; opponent interaction windows before engine resolution
- Runtime cues: action:cast Balustrade Spy; action:activate Undercity Informer; action:cast Summoner's Pact
- Use when: Decide whether to begin the self-mill line now using visible protection, known opponent resources, clock pressure, and whether passing loses the window.
- Avoid when: A known opposing answer is visible and a legal protection action can remove or counter it first.
- Instructions: Commit when the legal engine line is present and delay mainly gives the opponent more draw steps. Wait or protect first when revealed information shows disruption that stops the current engine action.
- Pilot skill floor: high
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Target Self With Balustrade Spy
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: selection
- Cards: Balustrade Spy
- Phase windows: Balustrade Spy triggered-ability target prompt
- Runtime cues: action:target self Balustrade Spy
- Use when: A legal action text targets self for Balustrade Spy and the committed combo line is already underway.
- Avoid when: The legal action text does not identify self or does not mention Balustrade Spy.
- Instructions: Choose the self-targeting action for Balustrade Spy because this deck's deterministic engine mills its own library.
- Pilot skill floor: low
- No-API allowed: yes
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Target Self With Undercity Informer
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: selection
- Cards: Undercity Informer
- Phase windows: Undercity Informer ability target prompt
- Runtime cues: action:target self Undercity Informer
- Use when: A legal action text targets self for Undercity Informer and the committed combo line is already underway.
- Avoid when: The legal action text does not identify self or does not mention Undercity Informer.
- Instructions: Choose the self-targeting action for Undercity Informer because this deck's deterministic engine mills its own library.
- Pilot skill floor: low
- No-API allowed: yes
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Dread Return Payoff Target
- Priority: High
- Decision families: selection
- Cards: Dread Return; Thassa's Oracle
- Phase windows: Dread Return target prompt after self-mill
- Runtime cues: action:target Thassa's Oracle Dread Return
- Use when: A legal action text targets Thassa's Oracle with Dread Return.
- Avoid when: The legal action text does not name both Thassa's Oracle and Dread Return.
- Instructions: Choose Thassa's Oracle as the Dread Return target when the engine has already selected the graveyard payoff route.
- Pilot skill floor: low
- No-API allowed: yes
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Mana Burst Execution
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: mana
- Cards: Dark Ritual; Black Lotus; Lotus Petal; Mox Jet; Mox Emerald; Elvish Spirit Guide; Wild Cantor
- Phase windows: main phase; cost-payment prompts; mana ability prompts
- Runtime cues: prompt:pay mana; action:activate mana; action:cast Dark Ritual
- Use when: Pay for the selected engine, protection, or sideboard answer using visible legal mana actions.
- Avoid when: Spending Elvish Spirit Guide or Wild Cantor removes the only green card or color source needed for a visible Force of Vigor or Summoner's Pact line.
- Instructions: Spend temporary mana only after the legal follow-up action is visible or already committed. Use Black Lotus and Dark Ritual for black-heavy engine lines before consuming narrower resources.
- Pilot skill floor: medium
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Protection Before Engine
- Priority: High
- Decision families: interaction; priority; selection
- Cards: Unmask; Grief; Cabal Therapy; Mental Misstep; Pact of Negation
- Phase windows: pre-engine main phase; stack interaction windows; revealed-hand choice prompts
- Runtime cues: action:cast Unmask; action:cast Grief; action:cast Cabal Therapy; action:cast Mental Misstep; action:cast Pact of Negation
- Use when: Choose whether to clear or answer visible disruption before the engine action resolves.
- Avoid when: Protection consumes the only card or mana that makes the current engine action legal and no replacement line remains visible.
- Instructions: Use Unmask, Grief, and Cabal Therapy to remove cards that stop the current combo path. Use Pact of Negation and Mental Misstep only for stack objects that materially stop the selected line or prevent immediate loss.
- Pilot skill floor: high
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Hand-Attack Target Choice
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: selection; interaction
- Cards: Unmask; Grief; Cabal Therapy
- Phase windows: discard resolution prompts; named-card prompts; revealed opponent hand windows
- Runtime cues: prompt:choose card; action:choose name; source:Unmask; source:Grief; source:Cabal Therapy
- Use when: A legal discard or name-selection prompt appears for one of these cards.
- Avoid when: The prompt lacks visible opponent hand information and the name choice is not forced by prior public information.
- Instructions: Prioritize cards that counter, exile graveyards, stop activated abilities, remove Thassa's Oracle, or create a faster lethal clock before taking generic card selection. For blind Cabal Therapy, use matchup guidance and public actions only.
- Pilot skill floor: high
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Post-Mill Trigger And Graveyard Order
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: selection; priority
- Cards: Bridge from Below; Narcomoeba; Poxwalkers; Dread Return; Memory's Journey; Jack-o'-Lantern; Thassa's Oracle
- Phase windows: after self-mill; triggered-ability ordering; graveyard selection prompts
- Runtime cues: prompt:trigger order; action:return; action:flashback; zone:graveyard
- Use when: Resolve the visible post-mill chain needed to create bodies, flash back Dread Return, and reach Thassa's Oracle.
- Avoid when: Assuming Bridge from Below, Narcomoeba, Poxwalkers, Memory's Journey, or Jack-o'-Lantern text without a legal action exposed by the rules engine.
- Instructions: Follow legal triggers that advance toward Dread Return and Thassa's Oracle. Card text check required for any unusual Memory's Journey or Jack-o'-Lantern recovery line before using it as combo repair.
- Pilot skill floor: medium
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Summoner's Pact Search
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: selection; mana
- Cards: Summoner's Pact; Elvish Spirit Guide; Wild Cantor; Balustrade Spy; Undercity Informer
- Phase windows: Summoner's Pact resolution; library search prompts
- Runtime cues: action:choose; source:Summoner's Pact; prompt:search
- Use when: A legal Summoner's Pact search prompt appears and the next visible line needs a specific creature or mana enabler.
- Avoid when: The target choice requires unsupported card text assumptions or cannot be cast or used from the visible resources.
- Instructions: Choose the searched card that completes the current legal engine or mana route, not a speculative backup. Respect the Pact payment risk only if the game is expected to continue to the next upkeep.
- Pilot skill floor: high
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Pact Of Negation Commitment
- Priority: High
- Decision families: interaction; priority
- Cards: Pact of Negation
- Phase windows: opponent stack interaction; own combo stack protection; upkeep payment prompts
- Runtime cues: action:cast Pact of Negation; prompt:pay Pact of Negation
- Use when: Decide whether countering a visible stack object is necessary to resolve the selected combo or avoid immediate loss.
- Avoid when: The stack object does not stop the current win line and casting Pact of Negation creates an avoidable upkeep loss.
- Instructions: Spend Pact of Negation freely to force a same-turn win. Treat upkeep payment as survival-only if the game did not end.
- Pilot skill floor: high
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Combat Minimalism
- Priority: Low
- Decision families: combat
- Cards: Balustrade Spy; Undercity Informer; Grief; Narcomoeba; Poxwalkers; Wild Cantor
- Phase windows: declare attackers; declare blockers; combat trick windows
- Runtime cues: prompt:declare attackers; prompt:declare blockers
- Use when: Combat decisions appear before the combo has ended the game.
- Avoid when: Attacking or blocking sacrifices a creature needed for a visible Dread Return cost or removes a mana/conversion piece needed this turn.
- Instructions: Treat combat as secondary unless blocking prevents immediate loss or attacking is the only visible path to lethal. Preserve bodies for Dread Return and engine costs over chip damage.
- Pilot skill floor: medium
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Force Of Vigor Hate Answer
- Priority: High
- Decision families: interaction; priority; sideboard
- Cards: Force of Vigor; Elvish Spirit Guide; Mox Emerald; Wild Cantor
- Phase windows: opponent hate deployment; pre-engine main phase; upkeep or end step with legal instant action
- Runtime cues: action:cast Force of Vigor; prompt:choose target; permanent:hate
- Use when: A visible artifact or enchantment prevents graveyard use, spell casting, targeting, or the current combo from resolving.
- Avoid when: Casting Force of Vigor consumes the only green resource and the visible permanent does not affect the selected line before the game ends.
- Instructions: Answer the permanent that blocks the combo, not the permanent that is merely inconvenient. Preserve a green pitch card until Force of Vigor is either cast or no longer needed.
- Pilot skill floor: high
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Sideboard Role Selection
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: sideboard; pregame
- Cards: Chancellor of the Annex; Force of Vigor; Leyline of the Void; Sickening Shoal; Balustrade Spy; Undercity Informer; Summoner's Pact; Pact of Negation; Unmask; Grief
- Phase windows: between games; pregame sideboard submission
- Runtime cues: prompt:sideboard; match_stage:postboard
- Use when: Choose a legal post-board plan from the registered sideboard and matchup guidance.
- Avoid when: A plan cuts too much engine access or mana for reactive cards that do not address the opponent's demonstrated hate.
- Instructions: Add Chancellor of the Annex against stack interaction, Force of Vigor against artifact or enchantment hate, Leyline of the Void against graveyard mirrors, and Sickening Shoal against hate creatures or lethal creature pressure. Keep enough engine density to remain a combo deck.
- Pilot skill floor: high
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Leyline Pregame Choice
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: pregame; sideboard
- Cards: Leyline of the Void
- Phase windows: opening hand pregame actions
- Runtime cues: action:begin the game with Leyline of the Void; action:put Leyline of the Void onto the battlefield
- Use when: A legal action text puts Leyline of the Void onto the battlefield from the opening hand before the game begins.
- Avoid when: The legal action text does not name Leyline of the Void.
- Instructions: Choose the pregame Leyline of the Void action when it is legally offered.
- Pilot skill floor: low
- No-API allowed: yes
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Sickening Shoal Emergency Removal
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: interaction; priority; sideboard
- Cards: Sickening Shoal; Balustrade Spy; Undercity Informer; Grief; Boggart Trawler; Fell the Profane; Agadeem's Awakening
- Phase windows: opponent creature deployment; combat; pre-engine main phase
- Runtime cues: action:cast Sickening Shoal; prompt:choose target creature
- Use when: A visible creature stops the combo, creates immediate lethal pressure, or must be removed before the engine turn.
- Avoid when: Exiling a card to Sickening Shoal removes the only visible engine, mana, or payoff route.
- Instructions: Use Sickening Shoal as a bridge to the combo, not as general creature control. Card text check required for pitch-value assumptions from modal cards before relying on exact size.
- Pilot skill floor: medium
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes
