# Strategy Specifications ## Deck Name And Archetype - Deck identity: Jeskai Control is a Standard-targeted blue-red-white control deck registered as 60 main-deck cards plus a 15-card sideboard. The strategy name and tags identify it as control and spells, with repeated control/spells tags normalized to `control, spells` for Veles slicing. - Count validation: Main deck count is valid at 60 cards, and sideboard count is valid at 15 cards. The registered 75 contains no non-basic card above four total copies across main plus sideboard; `Abrade` appears as 1 main plus 1 side, and `Petrified Hamlet` appears as 2 main plus 1 side. - Format validation status: Standard is the declared format, but current Standard legality is not asserted from this guide alone. Card legality, current set legality, and exact Oracle-style text must be confirmed by Veles card database or rules-engine import before any sanctioned-format conclusion, especially for format-sensitive names such as `Hallowed Fountain`, `Steam Vents`, `Abrade`, and `Pyroclasm`. - Card text status: Card text check required for any registered card whose rules text is not loaded by the engine at runtime. Do not let the pilot infer exact effects for `Cori Mountain Monastery`, `Mistrise Village`, `Thunder Magic`, `Traumatic Critique`, `Flashback`, `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Jeskai Revelation`, `Firebending Lesson`, `Tablet of Discovery`, `Broadside Barrage`, `Swallowed by Leviathan`, `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`, `Pyrrhic Strike`, or `Erode` unless Veles exposes authoritative card text and legal actions. - Stock/rogue/hybrid status: Treat this as a rogue-hybrid Jeskai control registration rather than a known stock Standard list. The shell signals familiar control roles through permission, sweepers, spot removal, card selection, and large finishers, but several exact card names appear custom, new, or unverified, so policy must stay tied to legal action text and visible game state. - Mana identity concern: The deck is inferred as Jeskai from `Hallowed Fountain`, `Steam Vents`, `Stormcarved Coast`, `Sundown Pass`, `Riverpyre Verge`, `Mountain`, `Island`, and the strategy name, but exact color production from `Cori Mountain Monastery`, `Mistrise Village`, `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, `Petrified Hamlet`, and `Riverpyre Verge` must be read from runtime state. Do not assume any land produces a color, enters untapped, or has an activated ability unless the engine reports that action. - Role concern: The main deck is structurally control-heavy, with a high spell density and 26 lands supporting draw, selection, permission, sweepers, and spot interaction. The pilot should expect to trade resources early, protect life total against creature pressure, convert excess mana into cards, and win through resolved late-game threats or accumulated spell advantage only when the rules engine confirms the legal line. - Sideboard identity: The sideboard covers permission and stack fights with `Disdainful Stroke`, `Spell Pierce`, `Spell Snare`, `Flashfreeze`, and `Sphinx of the Final Word`; artifact/enchantment or permanent-specific interaction with `Annul`, `Ghost Vacuum`, `Abrade`, and `Erode`; red or damage-based pressure with `Pyrrhic Strike` and `Slagstorm`; and threat or matchup-specific plans with `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island` and `Petrified Hamlet`. Exact sideboard use must wait for later matchup sections and legal swap validation. - Opponent information status: No opponent decklists, archetypes, metagame targets, or matchup labels were supplied. Veles should derive matchup posture from public information, revealed cards, visible battlefield pressure, graveyard contents, stack actions, and legal sideboard configuration rather than assuming hidden cards or naming absent opposing staples. - Runtime authority rule: Legal actions from the rules engine outrank this guide, visible board state ranks second, and deck strategy ranks third. If a suggested control line is absent from legal actions, the agent must choose among provided legal actions rather than inventing a cast, target, activation, counter, sideboard swap, or mana payment. ## Thesis - Assemble mana, time, and card volume before committing a win condition. Jeskai Control should prioritize stable land development from `Hallowed Fountain`, `Steam Vents`, `Stormcarved Coast`, `Sundown Pass`, `Riverpyre Verge`, `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, `Mistrise Village`, `Petrified Hamlet`, `Cori Mountain Monastery`, `Island`, and `Mountain`; then use draw, selection, removal, and permission to reach a game state where each future spell is stronger than the opponent's visible pressure. - Win by exhausting opposing threats and resolving a protected payoff, not by racing early damage. Treat `Swallowed by Leviathan`, `Jeskai Revelation`, `Ill-Timed Explosion`, `Broadside Barrage`, `Thunder Magic`, sideboard `Sphinx of the Final Word`, and sideboard `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island` as potential finishers or swing cards only when Veles exposes legal actions and authoritative card text confirming their role. - Protect life total before maximizing card advantage. Against visible creature pressure, prioritize legal casts of `Pyroclasm`, `Abrade`, `Sear`, `Firebending Lesson`, `Into the Flood Maw`, `Ill-Timed Explosion`, `Thunder Magic`, `Broadside Barrage`, or `Swallowed by Leviathan` when their exposed text answers the current board; use `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Tablet of Discovery`, `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, or `Jeskai Revelation` greedily only when the board and stack leave enough time. - Convert excess mana into selection and inevitability. This deck is built to make land drops, hold interaction, and spend unused mana on `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Tablet of Discovery`, `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, `Three Steps Ahead`, or `Jeskai Revelation` when those actions are legal and do not expose the pilot to a lethal or near-lethal swing. - Avoid unsupported tempo lines. Do not cast interaction at low-impact targets, tap out for speculative engines, or fire a large spell into visible open interaction unless the current legal actions, known stack state, and life-total clock make waiting worse. - Defer uncertain card-function assumptions to the engine. Card text check required for `Cori Mountain Monastery`, `Mistrise Village`, `Thunder Magic`, `Traumatic Critique`, `Flashback`, `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Jeskai Revelation`, `Firebending Lesson`, `Tablet of Discovery`, `Broadside Barrage`, `Swallowed by Leviathan`, `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`, `Pyrrhic Strike`, and `Erode`; use their legal action labels and visible effects rather than name-based guesses. ## Role Package - Threats: `Swallowed by Leviathan`, `Sphinx of the Final Word`, and `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island` are the cleanest named late-game threat candidates, but the pilot must verify legal action text before treating them as creatures, finishers, or stabilizers. `Mistrise Village` and `Petrified Hamlet` may function as threat lands or utility lands only if the engine exposes combat, animation, or activated abilities. - Payoffs: `Jeskai Revelation`, `Ill-Timed Explosion`, `Thunder Magic`, `Broadside Barrage`, and `Firebending Lesson` are high-impact spell candidates that should be saved for board swings, lethal setup, or major resource conversion when their runtime text supports that use. Do not spend a payoff merely because mana is available if cheaper interaction can answer the visible problem. - Engines: `Tablet of Discovery`, `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Stock Up`, and `Jeskai Revelation` form the expected resource engine. Sequence these after land drops and defensive obligations, and prefer the engine piece that leaves legal mana or stack interaction available against visible pressure. - Velocity: `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Three Steps Ahead`, `Traumatic Critique`, `Flashback`, and `Tablet of Discovery` are the main cards to consult for card flow or selection. Card text check required for the unverified names; choose selection modes that find land early, interaction under pressure, and finishers only after stabilization. - Interaction: `Abrade`, `Pyroclasm`, `Sear`, `Into the Flood Maw`, `Three Steps Ahead`, `Ill-Timed Explosion`, `Thunder Magic`, `Firebending Lesson`, `Broadside Barrage`, `Traumatic Critique`, and `Swallowed by Leviathan` are the main-deck interaction candidates. Use the cheapest legal answer that preserves future flexibility unless a sweeper or large spell clearly handles multiple visible threats. - Protection: `Three Steps Ahead` is the main-deck permission candidate; sideboard `Disdainful Stroke`, `Spell Pierce`, `Spell Snare`, `Flashfreeze`, `Annul`, and `Sphinx of the Final Word` increase stack protection or control mirrors. Hold protection for payoff windows, opposing haymakers, or cards that invalidate the current stabilizing plan. - Recursion: `Flashback` is the only registered main-deck card whose name signals recursion, but card text check required. Use it as recursion only when Veles exposes graveyard-related legal actions, and avoid assuming any spell can be replayed from graveyard without engine confirmation. - Mana: The deck needs consistent Jeskai access while still hitting land drops for expensive spells. Prioritize opening hands and early plays that support blue for selection/permission, red for removal/sweepers, and white for any `Jeskai Revelation` or sideboard requirements the engine confirms. - Sideboard modules: `Disdainful Stroke`, `Spell Pierce`, `Spell Snare`, `Flashfreeze`, and `Annul` are permission modules; `Abrade`, `Erode`, `Ghost Vacuum`, `Pyrrhic Strike`, and `Slagstorm` are permanent, graveyard, or creature-pressure modules; `Sphinx of the Final Word`, `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`, and `Petrified Hamlet` are late-game or configuration modules. Exact sideboard plans belong in Sideboard Map after matchup labels are known. ## Primary Win Conditions - Protected late-game payoff is the default win path. Set up by making land drops with `Hallowed Fountain`, `Steam Vents`, `Stormcarved Coast`, `Sundown Pass`, `Riverpyre Verge`, `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, `Mistrise Village`, `Petrified Hamlet`, `Cori Mountain Monastery`, `Island`, and `Mountain`; trade early with `Pyroclasm`, `Abrade`, `Sear`, `Into the Flood Maw`, `Firebending Lesson`, `Thunder Magic`, or `Broadside Barrage`; then commit `Swallowed by Leviathan`, large `Jeskai Revelation`, large `Ill-Timed Explosion`, sideboard `Sphinx of the Final Word`, or sideboard `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island` only when the legal action text confirms the payoff and the stack/board does not demand immediate defense. Card text check required for `Swallowed by Leviathan`, `Jeskai Revelation`, `Ill-Timed Explosion`, `Thunder Magic`, `Broadside Barrage`, and `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`. - Card-volume inevitability wins when the opponent runs out of relevant threats. Use `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Tablet of Discovery`, `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, `Three Steps Ahead`, `Flashback`, and `Jeskai Revelation` to convert spare mana into more cards or selection after visible pressure is contained; prioritize this path against slow decks, removal-heavy decks, and board states where a single finisher would walk into known or strongly represented interaction. Card text check required for `Consult the Star Charts`, `Tablet of Discovery`, `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, `Flashback`, and `Jeskai Revelation`. - Sweeper-into-payoff is the main creature-matchup kill plan. Preserve life with cheap one-for-one interaction until `Pyroclasm`, `Ill-Timed Explosion`, `Slagstorm`, or another exposed sweeper-mode action can answer multiple visible creatures; after the battlefield is reduced, use `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, or `Jeskai Revelation` to reload before presenting `Swallowed by Leviathan`, `Sphinx of the Final Word`, or `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`. Prioritize this line when the opponent has committed several threats and the pilot can survive the next combat after spending mana. - Burn or spell-damage conversion is a closing path only when legal text and visible totals support it. Treat `Thunder Magic`, `Sear`, `Firebending Lesson`, `Broadside Barrage`, `Ill-Timed Explosion`, `Pyrrhic Strike`, and `Slagstorm` as possible face-damage or planeswalker-pressure tools only if Veles exposes those targets; do not redirect removal away from creatures unless the resulting damage is lethal, forces a locked race, or the board is already stable. ## Secondary Win Conditions - Backup combat pressure matters when the engine exposes attackers. Use `Mistrise Village`, `Petrified Hamlet`, `Sphinx of the Final Word`, `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`, or any token/creature generated by legal card text as finishers after stabilization; commit to attacks only when visible blockers, removal windows, and life totals make the exchange safe. Card text check required for `Mistrise Village`, `Petrified Hamlet`, and `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island` before assuming animation, combat stats, or creature status. - Recursion or replay pressure is secondary and must be engine-confirmed. Use `Flashback` or any graveyard-related legal action only when Veles exposes the card, target, and timing; prefer recurring high-impact interaction, selection, or a payoff over replaying a low-impact spell while behind on board. If the graveyard is under pressure from visible hate, spend recursion before the window closes only when the action is legal and strategically relevant. - Permission lockout is a soft win path against expensive or stack-reliant opponents. Hold `Three Steps Ahead`, sideboard `Disdainful Stroke`, `Spell Pierce`, `Spell Snare`, `Flashfreeze`, `Annul`, and possibly `Sphinx of the Final Word` to protect a payoff turn or deny the opponent's first card that breaks stabilization. Prioritize this line when both players have resources, the battlefield is quiet, and the opponent's best visible route is a single large spell. - Incremental resource engines can win without a named finisher. If `Tablet of Discovery`, `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Stock Up`, and `Jeskai Revelation` keep finding lands and answers, continue answering the board instead of forcing a threat; the opponent eventually loses to repeated card-quality advantage, creature-land pressure if legal, or a later protected payoff. ## Emergency Lines - When behind on life, spend mana on survival before card volume. Use the cheapest legal `Abrade`, `Sear`, `Into the Flood Maw`, `Pyroclasm`, `Firebending Lesson`, `Thunder Magic`, `Broadside Barrage`, `Ill-Timed Explosion`, or `Swallowed by Leviathan` action that prevents lethal or reduces the next attack below a dangerous clock; draw spells are emergency plays only if no visible answer is legal or they can find an answer before damage. - When behind on board, trade down in cards to reset tempo. Accept one-for-one removal on medium threats if waiting for `Pyroclasm`, `Ill-Timed Explosion`, or `Slagstorm` risks lethal, but prefer sweepers when the opponent has multiple visible creatures and the pilot can survive to cast them. - When behind on cards, stabilize first and rebuild second. Use `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Tablet of Discovery`, `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, `Flashback`, or `Jeskai Revelation` only after the current stack and combat step are not threatening a decisive loss; choose selection that finds land if mana-short, interaction if under pressure, and payoff only after parity. - When behind on mana, prioritize land drops and cheap interaction. Keep hands and lines that access blue and red early, use `Stock Up` or `Consult the Star Charts` for land only when safe, and avoid tapping out for speculative `Tablet of Discovery` or uncertain high-cost actions while visible threats demand removal. - When engines are removed or win conditions are answered, shift to conservation. Protect remaining `Jeskai Revelation`, `Swallowed by Leviathan`, `Ill-Timed Explosion`, `Sphinx of the Final Word`, `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`, creature-land actions, and damage spells; stop spending burn on low-impact targets unless those targets are the source of lethal pressure. - When facing graveyard recursion, combo, or a stack-based kill, use narrow answers at the commitment point. Deploy sideboard `Ghost Vacuum`, `Erode`, `Annul`, `Disdainful Stroke`, `Spell Pierce`, `Spell Snare`, or `Flashfreeze` only when the legal action text matches the visible engine piece or decisive spell; do not assume hidden combo contents beyond public information. ## Resource Model - Life is a buffer for reaching the first clean exchange, not a renewable resource. Spend early life to keep mana open for `Abrade`, `Sear`, `Into the Flood Maw`, `Thunder Magic`, `Broadside Barrage`, or `Three Steps Ahead`, but stop taking damage to preserve theoretical value once visible attackers threaten a two-turn clock or force a sweeper now. - Hand size is the deck's main long-game currency. Convert quiet turns into cards with `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Tablet of Discovery`, `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, `Flashback`, and `Jeskai Revelation`; use those cards to maintain land drops first, removal density second, and finishers only after the board is stable. Card text check required for `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Tablet of Discovery`, `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, `Flashback`, and `Jeskai Revelation`. - Mana is the limiting resource for double-spell turns. Prefer lines that answer one visible threat while still representing another cheap action, especially when holding `Abrade`, `Sear`, `Into the Flood Maw`, `Thunder Magic`, `Broadside Barrage`, or `Spell Pierce` after sideboard. Avoid spending all mana on card flow if the opponent can add lethal pressure before the next untap. - Board presence is mostly defensive until a payoff is ready. Use `Pyroclasm`, `Ill-Timed Explosion`, `Swallowed by Leviathan`, `Firebending Lesson`, and spot interaction to reduce opposing material, then win through `Jeskai Revelation`, `Sphinx of the Final Word`, `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`, or legal land-creature pressure from `Mistrise Village` or `Petrified Hamlet`. Card text check required for all uncertain finishers and utility lands before assuming combat stats or animation. - Graveyard value is conditional, not a core bank. Use `Flashback` or any exposed graveyard action only when Veles shows the legal object and timing; treat opposing `Ghost Vacuum`-style pressure after sideboard as a reason to cash in a good graveyard action before it disappears, but do not speculate about graveyard text that the engine has not exposed. - Exile is mostly a public-information zone and temporary permission zone. If `Consult the Star Charts`, `Stock Up`, `Jeskai Revelation`, or another legal action exposes cards in exile, use the visible identities and expiration cues from Veles; never assume exiled cards are playable unless the rules engine offers a legal action. - Lands are both development and late-game utility. Keep making land drops through the midgame because `Jeskai Revelation`, `Swallowed by Leviathan`, `Ill-Timed Explosion`, creature-land actions, and draw-plus-answer turns reward high mana counts; do not discard or deprioritize extra lands until Veles shows enough mana for the current hand plus interaction. - Sacrifice fodder is not a planned resource in this list. Do not sacrifice `Tablet of Discovery`, utility lands, or any permanent for speculative value unless the legal action text clearly names the cost and the resulting effect answers a visible problem or advances a selected win line. - Tempo is gained by trading one turn for multiple opposing cards. Hold `Pyroclasm` or `Ill-Timed Explosion` when waiting converts one answer into a larger reset and life total permits it; fire one-for-one interaction immediately when waiting risks haste damage, a protected threat, or losing the chance to double-spell next turn. - Information comes from visible actions, public zones, and revealed choices. Use known cards from Veles state to decide whether to hold `Three Steps Ahead` or sideboard counters, but do not play around unshown exact cards beyond archetype-level caution. - Sideboard bullets convert narrow mana into matchup leverage. `Annul`, `Erode`, `Ghost Vacuum`, `Disdainful Stroke`, `Flashfreeze`, `Spell Pierce`, `Spell Snare`, `Slagstorm`, `Pyrrhic Strike`, sideboard `Abrade`, `Petrified Hamlet`, `Sphinx of the Final Word`, and `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island` should be valued by whether Veles exposes matching threats, engines, colors, costs, or board states. ## Mana Guide - Keep mana only when it casts the early game. A normal keep needs at least two lands, early blue or red access, and a plausible path to the third land through natural draw, `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, or `Tablet of Discovery`; one-land hands are keeps only if Veles or the test harness explicitly supports an exceptional legal setup and the hand has cheap selection. - Prioritize blue and red before white unless the hand proves otherwise. Blue supports `Three Steps Ahead`, `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Into the Flood Maw`, `Flashback`, and `Jeskai Revelation`; red supports `Abrade`, `Sear`, `Pyroclasm`, `Thunder Magic`, `Firebending Lesson`, `Broadside Barrage`, `Ill-Timed Explosion`, and sideboard `Slagstorm` or `Pyrrhic Strike`; white matters for `Jeskai Revelation`, `Hallowed Fountain`, `Sundown Pass`, and any legal white costs Veles exposes. - Sequence lands to preserve turn-two interaction. Favor untapped blue or red sources from `Steam Vents`, `Riverpyre Verge`, `Stormcarved Coast`, `Hallowed Fountain`, `Sundown Pass`, `Island`, or `Mountain` when the opponent can present early pressure; use `Cori Mountain Monastery`, `Mistrise Village`, `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, or `Petrified Hamlet` early only when their tapped or utility constraints do not block a needed answer. Card text check required for all nonbasic timing and activation text. - Play lands before draw when mana fixing or landfall-like information is irrelevant and the spell may require immediate follow-up. If casting `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Tablet of Discovery`, or `Jeskai Revelation` with an unplayed land available, hold the land first only when the selection can reveal a better land choice, discard cleanup matters, or Veles shows a permission window where representing mana matters. - Hold utility lands when the choice changes available colors. If the hand already has enough colored sources, delay `Mistrise Village`, `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, or `Petrified Hamlet` until the deck knows whether it needs untapped interaction, a creature-land plan, or a color-specific sideboard bullet. - Spend mana on the opponent's turn when interaction is live. Leave up `Three Steps Ahead`, `Into the Flood Maw`, instant-speed removal, or sideboard permission when the opponent's next spell or attack is the likely decisive event; use end-step card flow only after Veles shows no relevant action to take. - Tap lands to protect future colors. When paying generic costs, preserve the rarest color needed by remaining legal actions, especially white for `Jeskai Revelation`, blue for permission or draw, and red for sweepers or burn; do not consume a flexible source if a basic `Island` or `Mountain` can cover the same payment without locking the hand. ## Mulligan Guide - Strong keep: keep three-land hands with early blue or red, one cheap answer, and one card-flow spell. Example packages are `Steam Vents` + `Riverpyre Verge` + `Island` with `Abrade` or `Sear`, `Pyroclasm`, `Stock Up`, and `Jeskai Revelation`; this hand develops colors, survives the first board, and has a payoff if land drops continue. - Strong keep on the draw: keep two lands when they cast interaction and at least one early selection spell can find land three. Example: `Stormcarved Coast`, `Hallowed Fountain`, `Sear`, `Into the Flood Maw`, `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Tablet of Discovery`; Card text check required for exact timing, but the hand has cheap plays and enough blue-red access to avoid falling behind. - Medium keep: keep slower three-land hands when they have a sweeper or redundant card flow but no immediate spot answer. Example: `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, `Sundown Pass`, `Mountain`, `Pyroclasm`, `Tablet of Discovery`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Jeskai Revelation`; this is acceptable against creature decks only if `Pyroclasm` is likely legal and early enough, and acceptable against slower decks if the lands cast the draw spells. - Risky keep: keep utility-land-heavy hands only when color access is already proven. Example: `Mistrise Village`, `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, `Petrified Hamlet`, `Stock Up`, `Thunder Magic`, `Broadside Barrage`, `Swallowed by Leviathan` is risky because the hand may fail to cast early red or blue actions; keep only if Veles shows the lands support the needed colors and the matchup is slow. - Automatic ship: mulligan zero-land, one-land without cheap selection, five-plus-land hands without `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Tablet of Discovery`, or `Jeskai Revelation`, and hands whose only action starts at expensive `Ill-Timed Explosion` or `Swallowed by Leviathan`. Ship hands that cannot produce blue or red by turn two unless the hand has a legal defensive exception visible from the engine. - Matchup-dependent keep: keep `Pyroclasm` plus lands aggressively against visible go-wide or low-toughness creature pressure, but reduce its value against control, combo, or single-large-threat starts. Keep `Three Steps Ahead` or `Traumatic Critique` higher against slower spell decks if the mana supports holding up interaction; Card text check required before treating either as a specific counter, draw, or disruption mode. - Play/draw adjustment: on the play, prefer hands with a turn-two answer over hands that only draw cards. On the draw, accept slightly slower `Stock Up` or `Consult the Star Charts` hands when the extra card improves land-three odds and the opener still has `Abrade`, `Sear`, `Thunder Magic`, `Into the Flood Maw`, or `Pyroclasm` for the first threat. - Trap hand: do not keep a beautiful late-game hand with no stabilizer. Example: `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, `Mistrise Village`, `Cori Mountain Monastery`, `Jeskai Revelation`, `Swallowed by Leviathan`, `Ill-Timed Explosion`, `Three Steps Ahead` can look powerful but is a mulligan if it cannot cast early actions or survive pressure. ## Turn Arc - Turn 1: play the land that preserves turn-two blue or red interaction. Prefer `Steam Vents`, `Riverpyre Verge`, `Stormcarved Coast`, `Hallowed Fountain`, `Island`, or `Mountain` when untapped access matters; play `Cori Mountain Monastery`, `Mistrise Village`, `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, or `Petrified Hamlet` only when Veles shows that doing so does not block the next legal answer. Card text check required for nonbasic land timing. - Turn 2: answer the first meaningful threat before spending mana on value. Use `Abrade`, `Sear`, `Thunder Magic`, `Into the Flood Maw`, or `Pyroclasm` when the opponent presents pressure that will compound; cast `Tablet of Discovery`, `Consult the Star Charts`, or `Stock Up` only when the board is empty, the opponent's action is low impact, or Veles shows no relevant interaction window. - Turn 3: choose between stabilizing and setting up the draw engine. Hold up `Three Steps Ahead`, `Traumatic Critique`, instant-speed removal, or a bounce/removal action when the opponent can resolve a decisive spell; otherwise use `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, or `Tablet of Discovery` to find land four and the next answer. Fire `Pyroclasm` now if waiting risks losing too much life or a key opposing creature surviving outside its range. - Turns 4-5: start double-spelling whenever possible. The preferred pattern is answer plus card flow, such as `Abrade` or `Sear` plus `Stock Up`, or `Pyroclasm` plus a cheap setup action; cast `Ill-Timed Explosion`, `Firebending Lesson`, `Broadside Barrage`, or `Swallowed by Leviathan` only when Veles exposes a legal line that stabilizes the board or creates a decisive swing. Card text check required for exact modes and damage or bounce outcomes. - Turns 4-5 deviation: tap out for `Jeskai Revelation` only when the life total, stack, and battlefield allow it. If the opponent can punish a tapped-out turn, preserve mana for `Three Steps Ahead`, `Into the Flood Maw`, `Abrade`, `Sear`, `Thunder Magic`, or `Broadside Barrage`; if the opponent is low on pressure, prioritize refilling to avoid running out of answers. - Late game: convert mana surplus into inevitability without dropping shields. Use `Jeskai Revelation`, large legal `Stock Up` or `Consult the Star Charts` lines, `Swallowed by Leviathan`, and creature-land pressure from `Mistrise Village` or `Petrified Hamlet` only when Veles confirms legal actions and enough mana remains for the opponent's likely counterplay. Close with `Sphinx of the Final Word` or `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island` after sideboard only when they are in the deck and the current board lets a finisher matter before the opponent rebuilds. - Late game deviation: do not chase card draw when a visible permanent or combat step is already lethal. Spend `Ill-Timed Explosion`, `Pyroclasm`, `Abrade`, `Sear`, `Firebending Lesson`, `Broadside Barrage`, `Into the Flood Maw`, or `Swallowed by Leviathan` on survival first, then resume card advantage after the board is stable. ## Card Roles - `Stock Up`: Treat `Stock Up` as the primary glue card because it turns early survival into enough cards to keep trading. Cast it when the stack is quiet, the battlefield is not threatening lethal next turn, and the mana base still needs land drops or specific answers; hold it when the opponent can resolve a must-answer threat during the same window. Its best synergy is with cheap interaction because drawing first and answering later is only safe after Veles shows that no immediate pressure or stack threat must be handled. Do not spend a protected turn on `Stock Up` if `Pyroclasm`, `Abrade`, `Sear`, `Thunder Magic`, `Into the Flood Maw`, or `Broadside Barrage` is required to avoid a bad combat step. - `Consult the Star Charts`: Use `Consult the Star Charts` as early selection or card flow, with exact mode and timing conditional on engine text. Card text check required. Prioritize it when the hand needs land three, a sweeper, or a specific answer; delay it when the opponent already has a visible threat that demands removal. The common mistake is treating selection as a substitute for interaction: against fast creature decks, `Consult the Star Charts` is best after the first threat is answered or when it can find the exact stabilizer before damage matters. Against slower decks, it helps sequence toward `Jeskai Revelation`, `Three Steps Ahead`, and post-sideboard finishers. - `Jeskai Revelation`: Use `Jeskai Revelation` as the deck's main late-game payoff and recovery spell. Card text check required for exact card, life, damage, or modal output, but the tactical role is clear: cast it when a large mana investment either stabilizes life/resources or buries a low-pressure opponent. Hold it when tapping out exposes you to a decisive opposing spell, lethal combat, or a planeswalker/permanent that cannot be answered afterward. Its strongest synergy is the full answer suite buying time; its biggest mistake is casting it as a flashy draw spell while a cheap answer plus smaller card-flow play would preserve more tempo. - `Tablet of Discovery`: Treat `Tablet of Discovery` as an engine or setup permanent only when Veles shows the timing is safe. Card text check required. Deploy it early against slow starts when it improves future draw quality or mana use, but do not let it displace turn-two or turn-three interaction against pressure. If the opponent is forcing combat math, `Tablet of Discovery` is a luxury until `Pyroclasm`, `Abrade`, `Sear`, `Thunder Magic`, or `Into the Flood Maw` has contained the board. In long games, pair it with repeated draw and permission windows so the deck keeps converting mana into real cards rather than passing with unused resources. - `Pyroclasm`: Use `Pyroclasm` as the main anti-wide-board reset and preserve it when the opponent can add more small creatures into the same battlefield. Card text check required only if the printed version differs, but assume the tactical role is a low-damage sweeper until verified by the engine. Fire it early when waiting risks losing too much life, letting anthem/counter effects grow creatures out of range, or forcing awkward single-target removal. Hold it when the opponent has one replaceable creature and your spot removal can bridge instead. Sideboard valuation rises against tokens, small aggro, and low-toughness creature engines, and falls against control, combo, and large-threat midrange. - `Thunder Magic`: Use `Thunder Magic` as a flexible interaction slot only according to legal text exposed by Veles. Card text check required. If it is a burn, bounce, tap, or counter-style action, choose it when its exact legal effect lines up with the current threat and preserves more specialized cards for later. Its value is highest when it handles tempo-positive early plays while leaving `Pyroclasm` for a wider board or `Abrade` for artifacts. Avoid spending `Thunder Magic` into marginal targets before knowing whether it answers a more important creature, stack object, or permanent type in the matchup. - `Sear`: Treat `Sear` as cheap creature interaction until card text is verified. Card text check required. Use it to prevent early life loss, break up snowball threats, or clear a blocker when the control deck turns the corner with creature lands or sideboard finishers. Hold it when `Pyroclasm` can answer multiple bodies and the opponent is likely to present a single larger threat later. The mistake is burning `Sear` on a creature that is already blanked by a sweeper or irrelevant to the current clock. - `Firebending Lesson`: Use `Firebending Lesson` as a midgame stabilizer or value spell only when its legal text proves the board impact. Card text check required. If Veles exposes removal, damage, selection, or lesson-like value modes, pick the line that answers the visible pressure before choosing extra cards. It pairs best with early card flow because the deck can find the right window to spend a larger sorcery-speed effect. Do not tap out for it against open mana or stack pressure unless the alternative line fails to prevent lethal, a decisive attack, or a must-answer permanent. - `Broadside Barrage`: Treat `Broadside Barrage` as a heavier interaction or swing spell whose exact target rules must come from the engine. Card text check required. Use it when one spell can remove a key permanent, punish an attack, or swing combat in a way cheap removal cannot. Hold it if smaller interaction answers the current battlefield, because `Broadside Barrage` is more valuable against medium threats, clustered boards, or late-game reach scenarios. Against control, only cast it into targets or windows where Veles confirms it does something material. - `Abrade`: Use `Abrade` as premium flexible removal because it can cover both creature pressure and artifact problems when legal modes are available. Save it for artifacts when the matchup shows artifact engines or threats; spend it on early creatures when life total or tempo requires it. The synergy is sideboard compression: with only one main-deck copy plus another sideboard copy, `Abrade` should answer the permanent type the rest of the hand cannot. Do not fire it at the first small creature if `Pyroclasm` will clean up and an artifact payoff is likely. - `Into the Flood Maw`: Use `Into the Flood Maw` as tempo interaction or emergency bounce according to engine text. Card text check required. Prioritize it when a permanent is temporarily lethal, when bouncing a target buys a crucial turn for `Jeskai Revelation`, or when a token or expensive threat loses tempo by returning to hand. Hold it when a permanent needs permanent removal and another answer can do that job. The common mistake is bouncing a low-impact creature while saving no answer for the replayed threat. - `Ill-Timed Explosion`: Treat `Ill-Timed Explosion` as a high-impact reset or swing spell, not routine card flow. Card text check required for exact damage, discard/draw, and target structure. Use it when the board has reached a point where cheaper one-for-one answers are no longer enough, especially if it can stabilize while converting excess cards or lands into value. Hold it against control unless it has a legal mode that pressures resources or resolves profitably. Avoid casting it into a board where `Pyroclasm` or spot removal already solves the problem with less mana and risk. - `Swallowed by Leviathan`: Use `Swallowed by Leviathan` as a late emergency stabilizer or finisher-support spell only after Veles confirms the legal effect. Card text check required. It should answer a battlefield state that smaller removal cannot handle, reset a critical permanent, or create enough tempo to turn the corner. Its matchup value rises against large creatures and board states resistant to `Pyroclasm`; it is clunky against permission or hyper-fast decks unless the game has slowed. Do not keep opening hands relying on this card as the first meaningful play. - `Three Steps Ahead`: Use `Three Steps Ahead` as a flexible one-copy permission or value card, with exact modes conditional on Veles. Card text check required. Hold it in matchups where the opponent's next spell matters more than the current board, especially control mirrors, ramp-like strategies, and combo turns. Cast a proactive mode only when the stack is safe and the selected mode materially improves the next two turns. Because it is a singleton, do not spend it casually on a replaceable spell if cheaper removal or card flow can handle the position. - `Traumatic Critique`: Treat `Traumatic Critique` as a specialized disruption slot until the exact card text is checked. Card text check required. If it interacts with hand, stack, graveyard, or a permanent class, use it at the point where the information or answer matters most rather than on curve by default. Its likely role is stronger against slower spell decks and weaker against low-curve creature pressure unless Veles exposes a creature-relevant mode. Avoid assuming it is a counterspell, discard spell, or removal spell without the engine's legal actions. - Lands and utility permanents: Sequence `Steam Vents`, `Riverpyre Verge`, `Stormcarved Coast`, `Hallowed Fountain`, `Sundown Pass`, `Island`, and `Mountain` to protect early blue-red-white access before optimizing late utility. Use `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, `Mistrise Village`, `Petrified Hamlet`, and `Cori Mountain Monastery` only according to visible mana abilities and timing restrictions; Card text check required for each nonbasic's utility. Creature-land or value-land pressure should begin only after the hand can still answer the opponent's best visible line. The mistake is letting colorless or tapped utility sequencing strand `Pyroclasm`, `Stock Up`, `Sear`, `Abrade`, or `Jeskai Revelation` during the turn cycle where those cards matter. ### Card Hover Notes #### Cori Mountain Monastery - Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy; mana resource and late-game card-access utility land. - Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; engine piece; role glue. - Deck-specific job: Produces red for `Abrade`, `Pyroclasm`, `Thunder Magic`, `Firebending Lesson`, `Sear`, `Traumatic Critique`, `Broadside Barrage`, `Ill-Timed Explosion`, and `Jeskai Revelation`, then turns spare four-mana windows into temporary access to the top card of the library. - Timing: Prefer it after `Hallowed Fountain`, `Steam Vents`, or `Island` can make it enter untapped; play it tapped early only when the hand is not relying on a same-turn red answer. - Inputs / outputs: Enters tapped unless you control a Plains or an Island; taps for `{R}`; `{3}{R}, {T}` exiles the top card and lets you play it until end of your next turn. - Mode map: Mana mode casts red interaction now; exile mode is for quiet turns when holding mana unused is worse than seeing another card. - Partners / packages: `Hallowed Fountain`, `Steam Vents`, and `Island` enable its untapped entry; `Tablet of Discovery` and `Great Hall of the Biblioplex` share the late-game spare-mana plan. - Role peers: Closest role overlap is `Great Hall of the Biblioplex` for utility-land value and `Tablet of Discovery` for temporary card access. - Failure modes: Do not call this a creature land; Card Reference gives no animation ability. Its exile activation is shut off if `Petrified Hamlet` chose `Cori Mountain Monastery`. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Stronger in control or midrange games where red mana and delayed card access matter; weaker against aggro if tapped entry blocks `Pyroclasm` or `Abrade`. #### Mistrise Village - Deck role: Main deck, 2 copies; mana resource and anti-counter utility land. - Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; protection/evasion; role glue. - Deck-specific job: Provides blue for `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Three Steps Ahead`, `Into the Flood Maw`, `Broadside Barrage`, `Swallowed by Leviathan`, and `Jeskai Revelation`, while its `{U}, {T}` ability protects the next spell you cast this turn from being countered. - Timing: Sequence it untapped by controlling `Steam Vents` or `Mountain` when possible; save the uncounterable activation for a turn where `Jeskai Revelation`, `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Sphinx of the Final Word`, or `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island` must resolve through permission. - Inputs / outputs: Enters tapped unless you control a Mountain or Forest; taps for `{U}`; spends `{U}` and tapping itself to make the next spell you cast this turn unable to be countered. - Mode map: Mana mode supports early blue development; protection mode trades a land tap and one blue mana for a safer payoff window. - Partners / packages: `Steam Vents` and `Mountain` enable untapped entry; `Jeskai Revelation`, `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, and post-board `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island` are high-value protected casts. - Role peers: `Sphinx of the Final Word` gives broader uncounterability for your instant and sorcery spells; `Three Steps Ahead` protects by countering opposing spells instead. - Failure modes: This does not make permanents hexproof and does not protect an already-cast spell. Its protection ability is disabled if `Petrified Hamlet` chose `Mistrise Village`. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Prioritize in blue mirrors and spell-heavy games; treat as ordinary blue mana against creature decks where counter wars are not the pressure point. #### Three Steps Ahead - Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy; flexible singleton interaction and value spell. - Role type: modal utility; interaction-stack; card selection; engine piece. - Deck-specific job: Lets Jeskai choose between countering a spell on the stack, copying a controlled artifact or creature, and drawing two then discarding one, with the option to combine modes when enough mana is available. - Timing: Hold for a spell that beats the current hand unless the draw-discard mode is needed to hit land or find removal; copying is a late-game line when `Tablet of Discovery`, a Monk token from `Jeskai Revelation`, animated `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, `Sphinx of the Final Word`, or `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island` is worth duplicating. - Inputs / outputs: Base cost `{U}` plus chosen spree additional costs; counter mode costs `+ {1}{U}`, copy mode costs `+ {3}`, draw-discard mode costs `+ {2}`. - Mode map: Counter mode answers target spell; copy mode targets artifact or creature you control; draw-discard mode converts cards and fuels `Flashback` or `Swallowed by Leviathan`. - Partners / packages: `Tablet of Discovery` is the cleanest artifact copy; `Jeskai Revelation` creates Monk creature tokens; `Flashback` can reuse this from graveyard if targeted before end of turn. - Role peers: `Swallowed by Leviathan`, `Disdainful Stroke`, `Flashfreeze`, `Spell Pierce`, and `Spell Snare` overlap on stack interaction. - Failure modes: Do not copy opposing permanents or lands that are not creatures/artifacts. Do not spend the counter mode on a replaceable spell if `Jeskai Revelation` or a finisher needs protection. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Highest value against control, combo, and big-mana spell turns; lower value as pure removal against creature boards already resolved. #### Thunder Magic - Deck role: Main deck, 2 copies; scalable red creature-only removal. - Role type: modal utility; interaction-removal. - Deck-specific job: Answers creatures at three damage bands by paying the base `{R}` plus one tiered additional cost, letting Jeskai kill early attackers cheaply or reserve mana for a larger creature later. - Timing: Use Thunder for 2 damage when it stops early pressure or saves `Pyroclasm` for multiple creatures; use Thundara or Thundaga only when the target’s toughness or damage already marked justifies the extra mana. - Inputs / outputs: Consumes red mana and targets only a creature; outputs 2, 4, or 8 damage to that creature depending on the chosen tier. - Mode map: Thunder `+ {0}` deals 2 to target creature; Thundara `+ {3}` deals 4 to target creature; Thundaga `+ {5}{R}` deals 8 to target creature. - Partners / packages: `Tablet of Discovery` helps pay generic/red costs for the larger tiers; `Pyroclasm` can combine damage against creatures that survive 2. - Role peers: `Firebending Lesson` also scales from 2 to 5 creature damage; `Sear` hits creature or planeswalker for 4; `Broadside Barrage` hits creature or planeswalker for 5. - Failure modes: It cannot target players, planeswalkers, artifacts, enchantments, or spells on the stack. Do not overpay for Thundaga when `Sear` or `Broadside Barrage` already kills the target. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent against creature decks with varied toughness; weak against control unless they present creature finishers. #### Traumatic Critique - Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy; scalable damage, reach, and card-flow singleton. - Role type: interaction-removal; reach/finisher; card selection. - Deck-specific job: Converts excess mana into X damage to any target while drawing two and discarding one, giving Jeskai a way to kill a large creature, remove a planeswalker, finish a low-life opponent, or filter toward the next answer. - Timing: Save it when X must be large to matter; cast smaller only if the target is snowballing, lethal pressure is imminent, or the draw-two discard-one is needed to find a stabilizer. - Inputs / outputs: Costs `{X}{U}{R}`; consumes blue, red, and scalable generic mana; outputs X damage to any target, two cards drawn, and one card discarded. - Partners / packages: `Great Hall of the Biblioplex` can spend life for blue/red only because this is an instant or sorcery; `Tablet of Discovery` helps pay generic or red costs; `Flashback` can later target the card if it reaches the graveyard. - Role peers: `Jeskai Revelation` also combines damage and card draw; `Broadside Barrage` combines removal with draw-discard at fixed 5 damage to creature or planeswalker. - Failure modes: X must be chosen and paid on cast; underpaying leaves large creatures alive. Discarding the wrong card can strand `Jeskai Revelation` white mana or remove a needed answer. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Stronger in long games where mana piles up; against aggro, treat it as removal first and reach only after the battlefield is stable. #### Abrade - Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy, and sideboard, 1 copy; flexible creature/artifact answer. - Role type: modal utility; interaction-removal; sideboard bullet. - Deck-specific job: Gives Jeskai a cheap instant that either kills a damage-sized creature or destroys an artifact, covering pressure that `Pyroclasm` misses and artifact engines that red creature damage cannot answer. - Timing: Use creature mode early when life total or tempo demands it; save artifact mode when the opponent shows a card-advantage artifact, mana artifact, equipment-like combat artifact, or artifact creature that other removal cannot efficiently answer. - Inputs / outputs: Costs `{1}{R}`; consumes red mana; outputs either 3 damage to target creature or destroys target artifact. - Mode map: Damage mode targets a creature only; artifact mode targets an artifact, including an artifact creature or artifact enchantment if one is visible and legal. - Partners / packages: `Pyroclasm` handles multiple low-toughness creatures so `Abrade` can stay available for artifacts; `Sear`, `Thunder Magic`, and `Firebending Lesson` cover creature-only removal jobs. - Role peers: `Annul` counters artifact or enchantment spells on the stack; `Pyrrhic Strike` can destroy artifact or enchantment permanents; `Erode` kills creature or planeswalker but gives its controller a basic land option. - Failure modes: It cannot hit players, planeswalkers, nonartifact enchantments, or resolved nonartifact permanents. Do not spend the only `Abrade` on a minor creature if a visible artifact engine is the real problem. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Side in the second copy against artifact decks and creature decks with important three-toughness-or-less attackers. #### Stormcarved Coast - Deck role: Main deck, 2 copies; blue-red dual mana resource. - Role type: mana/fixing/ramp. - Deck-specific job: Supplies `{U}` or `{R}` for the deck’s early interaction and card flow without paying life once two other lands are already controlled. - Timing: It often enters tapped on turns one and two, so avoid relying on it as the first untapped source for `Thunder Magic`, `Abrade`, `Sear`, `Into the Flood Maw`, `Consult the Star Charts`, or `Spell Pierce` after boarding. - Inputs / outputs: Enters tapped unless you control two or more other lands; taps for `{U}` or `{R}`. - Partners / packages: Helps cast `Broadside Barrage`, `Traumatic Critique`, `Ill-Timed Explosion`, `Jeskai Revelation`, `Stock Up`, and `Pyroclasm`. - Role peers: `Steam Vents` and `Riverpyre Verge` are the other main blue-red sources, with `Steam Vents` adding Island/Mountain types and `Riverpyre Verge` needing an Island or Mountain for blue. - Failure modes: It has no basic land types, so it does not enable `Riverpyre Verge`, untap `Cori Mountain Monastery`, or untap `Mistrise Village`. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in midgame control turns; risky in openers that require immediate red or blue interaction. #### Pyroclasm - Deck role: Main deck, 2 copies; cheap sorcery sweeper. - Role type: interaction-sweeper. - Deck-specific job: Deals 2 damage to each creature, letting Jeskai reset low-toughness boards and preserve one-for-one removal for larger creatures or artifact permanents. - Timing: Cast before combat when it kills multiple attackers, prevents lethal, or stops one- or two-toughness creatures from growing out of range; wait only when life total can absorb the next attack and the opponent is likely to commit more creatures. - Inputs / outputs: Costs `{1}{R}` at sorcery speed; consumes red mana; outputs 2 damage to every creature, including your creatures. - Partners / packages: Combines with `Thunder Magic`, `Sear`, `Firebending Lesson`, or `Broadside Barrage` to finish a creature with damage already marked; `Jeskai Revelation` creates 1/1 Monk tokens that Pyroclasm will kill. - Role peers: `Ill-Timed Explosion` can scale to more damage through discarded mana value; sideboard `Slagstorm` deals 3 to each creature. - Failure modes: It does not damage players or planeswalkers and does not shrink toughness. It is sorcery-speed, so it cannot save you after attackers are declared unless the game offers an unusual legal window before combat. - Matchup / visibility hooks: High priority against go-wide creature starts; cut or devalue against control, combo, or decks whose threats survive 2 damage. #### Flashback - Deck role: Main deck, 2 copies; graveyard spell-reuse enabler. - Role type: recursion; mechanic enabler; role glue. - Deck-specific job: Targets an instant or sorcery card in your graveyard and gives it flashback until end of turn, letting Jeskai reuse high-impact spells instead of relying only on new draws. - Timing: Cast when you can also cast the targeted card this turn; targeting `Pyroclasm`, `Ill-Timed Explosion`, or `Stock Up` on an opponent’s turn usually fails to produce value because normal timing rules still restrict sorceries. - Inputs / outputs: Costs `{R}` and targets an instant or sorcery card in your graveyard; the flashback cost equals that card’s mana cost; if cast from the graveyard, that card is exiled afterward. - Partners / packages: Best targets include `Jeskai Revelation` for a huge stabilizer, `Broadside Barrage` or `Sear` for removal, `Swallowed by Leviathan` or `Three Steps Ahead` for stack interaction, and `Stock Up` or `Consult the Star Charts` for card access. - Role peers: No direct peer; closest role overlap is `Tablet of Discovery` putting cards into graveyard and `Traumatic Critique` or `Broadside Barrage` discarding reusable spells. - Failure modes: Flashback does not reduce costs and does not bypass color requirements. Graveyard hate such as opposing exile effects can remove the target before this resolves. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Stronger in attrition and control games; weaker against fast pressure when the graveyard lacks an immediate survival spell. #### Great Hall of the Biblioplex - Deck role: Main deck, 4 copies; utility land, spell-color source, and late creature-land threat. - Role type: mana/fixing/ramp; engine piece; threat/clock. - Deck-specific job: Provides colorless mana, pays 1 life for any color usable only on instant or sorcery spells, and becomes a 2/4 Wizard that grows in power whenever you cast an instant or sorcery that turn. - Timing: Use as a land early when colored spell access is otherwise covered; animate only after stabilization or when a 2/4 blocker/attacker plus available spells changes the clock. - Inputs / outputs: `{T}` adds `{C}`; `{T}, pay 1 life` adds one mana of any color for instant or sorcery spells only; `{5}` animates it if it is not already a creature. - Mode map: Colorless mana pays generic costs; life-paid colored mana casts `Jeskai Revelation`, `Traumatic Critique`, `Broadside Barrage`, and other instant/sorcery spells; animation turns excess mana into a Wizard threat. - Partners / packages: `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Pyroclasm`, `Sear`, `Abrade`, `Three Steps Ahead`, and `Jeskai Revelation` trigger the animated Wizard pump after it becomes a creature. - Role peers: `Cori Mountain Monastery` is the other land that spends late mana for card access; post-board `Petrified Hamlet` is colorless but disruptive rather than a threat. - Failure modes: The colored mana cannot cast `Tablet of Discovery`, `Ghost Vacuum`, `Sphinx of the Final Word`, or `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`. If `Petrified Hamlet` chose `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, the animation ability is disabled. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Valuable in control mirrors as a land-based clock; dangerous against aggro if life payments or animation expose you to lethal. #### Consult the Star Charts - Deck role: Main deck, 4 copies; instant-speed selection and card-flow spell. - Role type: card selection; modal utility; role glue. - Deck-specific job: Looks at a land-count-sized chunk of the library and takes one card, or two when kicked, to find missing lands, removal, permission, or a payoff without tapping out at sorcery speed. - Timing: Cast after playing a land when that increases X and you do not need the selection to choose the land drop; cast before land drop only when you are digging for the land to play this turn. - Inputs / outputs: Costs `{1}{U}`; kicker is `{1}{U}`; X equals the number of lands you control; puts one looked-at card into hand, or two if kicked, and puts the rest on the bottom in a random order. - Mode map: Unkicked mode is efficient instant selection; kicked mode costs `{2}{U}{U}` total and is for stable turns where taking two cards beats holding up more interaction. - Partners / packages: Finds `Pyroclasm`, `Abrade`, `Sear`, `Into the Flood Maw`, or `Broadside Barrage` under pressure; finds `Jeskai Revelation`, `Three Steps Ahead`, `Swallowed by Leviathan`, or sideboard counters in slower games. - Role peers: `Stock Up` sees five at sorcery speed and takes two; `Jeskai Revelation` draws two while stabilizing; `Tablet of Discovery` mills one and may play it this turn. - Failure modes: It does not draw and does not search the library. At low land counts, X can miss the needed card class. - Matchup / visibility hooks: End-step use is best against control; main-phase use is correct when you need land, a sweeper, or a removal spell before combat. #### Hallowed Fountain - Deck role: Main deck, 2 copies; Plains Island shock land and key white-blue source. - Role type: mana/fixing/ramp. - Deck-specific job: Supplies white for `Jeskai Revelation`, sideboard `Pyrrhic Strike`, and sideboard `Erode`, while supplying blue for `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Three Steps Ahead`, `Into the Flood Maw`, `Swallowed by Leviathan`, and sideboard counters. - Timing: Pay 2 life when untapped white or blue prevents falling behind; let it enter tapped when life total is under pressure and no immediate spell depends on it. - Inputs / outputs: As a Plains Island, taps for `{W}` or `{U}`; as it enters, you may pay 2 life or it enters tapped. - Partners / packages: Enables untapped `Cori Mountain Monastery` because it is a Plains and an Island; enables `Riverpyre Verge` blue because it is an Island. - Role peers: `Steam Vents` is the blue-red typed shock land; `Sundown Pass` supplies red-white without basic types. - Failure modes: It does not produce red, so hands relying only on `Hallowed Fountain` may fail to cast `Pyroclasm`, `Abrade`, `Sear`, or `Thunder Magic`. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Preserve life against burn and aggro; prioritize untapped entry in control when holding blue interaction matters. #### Ill-Timed Explosion - Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy; high-impact sorcery draw and optional sweeper. - Role type: interaction-sweeper; card selection; engine payoff. - Deck-specific job: Draws two, then can discard exactly two cards to deal damage to each creature equal to the greatest mana value among the discarded cards, turning excess expensive cards into a board reset. - Timing: Use when `Pyroclasm` is too small or when drawing two plus sweeping stabilizes; avoid casting for card flow alone if discarding two would damage your own Monk tokens or animated `Great Hall of the Biblioplex` without solving the opponent’s board. - Inputs / outputs: Costs `{2}{U}{R}` at sorcery speed; draws two; optional discard of two cards creates damage to each creature based on the greatest discarded mana value. - Mode map: Draw-only line keeps resources when sweeping is bad; discard-two line is the sweeper line and should use a high-mana-value card such as `Jeskai Revelation`, `Sphinx of the Final Word`, `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`, or another expensive card only when that card is expendable. - Partners / packages: `Jeskai Revelation` has mana value 7 for a large sweep if discard is acceptable; `Flashback` may reuse discarded instant or sorcery cards later. - Role peers: `Pyroclasm` is cheaper at 2 damage; sideboard `Slagstorm` is fixed 3 damage to each creature. - Failure modes: Lands have mana value 0, so discarding only lands produces no meaningful sweep. It damages your creatures too and cannot be cast at instant speed. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against larger creature boards; weak against control unless drawing two and discard selection matter. #### Jeskai Revelation - Deck role: Main deck, 4 copies; primary late-game stabilizer and payoff. - Role type: engine payoff; lifegain/stabilization; interaction-removal; threat/clock. - Deck-specific job: At instant speed, returns target spell or permanent to its owner’s hand, deals 4 damage to any target, creates two 1/1 white Monk creature tokens with prowess, draws two cards, and gains 4 life. - Timing: Cast when seven mana converts into survival or inevitability; hold if a cheaper `Abrade`, `Sear`, `Pyroclasm`, `Into the Flood Maw`, or `Broadside Barrage` solves the turn while preserving `Jeskai Revelation` for a bigger swing. - Inputs / outputs: Costs `{4}{U}{R}{W}`; consumes all Jeskai colors; outputs bounce of target spell or permanent, 4 damage to any target, two Monk tokens, two cards, and 4 life. - Partners / packages: `Mistrise Village` can make the next `Jeskai Revelation` uncounterable; `Great Hall of the Biblioplex` can help cast it because it is an instant; `Flashback` can reuse it from graveyard if seven mana and colors are available. - Role peers: No direct peer; closest overlap is `Traumatic Critique` for damage plus cards, `Into the Flood Maw` for bounce, and `Stock Up` for card volume. - Failure modes: Returning a spell to hand is not permanent removal; the opponent may recast it later. The Monk tokens die to your `Pyroclasm` and `Slagstorm`. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Game-breaking against aggro when 4 life plus removal changes lethal math; a key protected payoff in control mirrors. #### Sundown Pass - Deck role: Main deck, 2 copies; red-white dual mana resource. - Role type: mana/fixing/ramp. - Deck-specific job: Provides red for early removal and white for `Jeskai Revelation`, `Pyrrhic Strike`, and `Erode`, helping the deck cast white splash cards without giving up red interaction. - Timing: Usually avoid as the first or second land when you need immediate mana, because it enters tapped unless you control two or more other lands. - Inputs / outputs: Enters tapped unless you control two or more other lands; taps for `{R}` or `{W}`. - Partners / packages: Casts `Pyroclasm`, `Abrade`, `Sear`, `Thunder Magic`, `Firebending Lesson`, `Jeskai Revelation`, `Pyrrhic Strike`, and `Erode`. - Role peers: `Hallowed Fountain` is the white-blue source; `Steam Vents`, `Stormcarved Coast`, and `Riverpyre Verge` cover blue-red. - Failure modes: It does not make blue and has no Plains or Mountain type, so it does not enable `Riverpyre Verge`, `Cori Mountain Monastery`, or `Mistrise Village`. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Valuable once the third land is in play; risky in openers where blue `Consult the Star Charts` or red `Abrade` must be online immediately. #### Mountain - Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy; basic red mana source and land-type enabler. - Role type: mana/fixing/ramp. - Deck-specific job: Provides untapped `{R}` for `Thunder Magic`, `Abrade`, `Pyroclasm`, `Sear`, and `Firebending Lesson`, while its Mountain type turns on `Riverpyre Verge` blue and untapped `Mistrise Village`. - Timing: Prefer early when the hand has red interaction or `Riverpyre Verge` needs a real Island or Mountain type to produce blue. - Inputs / outputs: Taps for `{R}` with no life payment and no enters-tapped drawback. - Partners / packages: Enables `Riverpyre Verge` second ability and `Mistrise Village` untapped entry; pairs with `Island` to cover the deck’s early blue-red needs. - Role peers: `Steam Vents` is also a Mountain and adds blue; `Cori Mountain Monastery` taps for red but lacks the Mountain type. - Failure modes: It does not produce blue or white, so it cannot cast `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Into the Flood Maw`, or `Jeskai Revelation` without help. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against aggro because it casts red removal without life loss. #### Island - Deck role: Main deck, 2 copies; basic blue mana source and land-type enabler. - Role type: mana/fixing/ramp. - Deck-specific job: Provides untapped `{U}` for `Consult the Star Charts`, `Stock Up`, `Into the Flood Maw`, `Three Steps Ahead`, `Swallowed by Leviathan`, and sideboard counters, while its Island type enables `Riverpyre Verge` blue and untapped `Cori Mountain Monastery`. - Timing: Prioritize early when the hand needs blue selection or permission; it is often the safest first land against aggressive decks because it costs no life. - Inputs / outputs: Taps for `{U}` with no life payment and no enters-tapped drawback. - Partners / packages: Enables `Riverpyre Verge` second ability and `Cori Mountain Monastery` untapped entry; helps cast `Jeskai Revelation` with red and white support. - Role peers: `Hallowed Fountain` and `Steam Vents` are also Islands with additional colors and life/tapped choices. - Failure modes: It does not produce red or white, so hands with only `Island` can strand `Pyroclasm`, `Abrade`, `Sear`, and `Jeskai Revelation`. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Best against control and tempo when blue interaction must stay open. #### Sear - Deck role: Main deck, 2 copies; efficient creature or planeswalker removal. - Role type: interaction-removal. - Deck-specific job: Deals 4 damage to target creature or planeswalker, answering threats too large for `Abrade` or `Pyroclasm` while keeping mana costs low. - Timing: Use before combat when it prevents a major attack or removes a planeswalker before another activation; hold when `Pyroclasm` will clean up the target with other creatures. - Inputs / outputs: Costs `{1}{R}`; consumes red mana; outputs 4 damage to target creature or planeswalker. - Partners / packages: Combines with `Pyroclasm` or `Slagstorm` damage to kill larger creatures; `Flashback` can reuse `Sear` from graveyard at the same mana cost before exiling it. - Role peers: `Thunder Magic` Thundara also deals 4 to a creature but cannot hit planeswalkers; `Broadside Barrage` deals 5 to creature or planeswalker and loots. - Failure modes: It cannot target players, artifacts, enchantments, or spells on the stack. Do not aim it at a small creature if `Pyroclasm` will answer that creature and others. - Matchup / visibility hooks: High value versus midrange creatures and planeswalker pressure; lower value against spell-only control. #### Firebending Lesson - Deck role: Main deck, 2 copies; scalable instant creature removal. - Role type: interaction-removal; modal utility. - Deck-specific job: Kills one- or two-toughness creatures for one red mana or, when kicked, kills a larger creature for a five-mana total investment. - Timing: Use unkicked when 2 damage prevents early pressure or combines with marked damage; kick only when the target’s toughness makes 5 damage necessary and the extra four generic mana will not leave you dead to a follow-up. - Inputs / outputs: Costs `{R}`; kicker `{4}`; targets a creature; outputs 2 damage normally or 5 damage to that creature if kicked. - Mode map: Unkicked mode is cheap tempo; kicked mode is midgame removal for a creature too large for `Abrade`, `Sear`, or `Pyroclasm` alone. - Partners / packages: `Tablet of Discovery` helps pay the generic kicker or red cost; `Pyroclasm` can add 2 damage across the board before or after this. - Role peers: `Thunder Magic` has 2/4/8 creature-only tiers; `Sear` is 4 damage to creature or planeswalker; `Broadside Barrage` is 5 damage to creature or planeswalker plus loot. - Failure modes: It cannot target players, planeswalkers, artifacts, enchantments, or spells. Do not call the Lesson type a tutor line; no learn/search text is present. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong against creature decks with one key attacker; poor in control mirrors with few creature targets. #### Into the Flood Maw - Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy; instant tempo bounce and emergency permanent answer. - Role type: modal utility; interaction-removal; lifegain/stabilization. - Deck-specific job: Returns an opponent’s creature to hand by default, or with Gift a tapped Fish can return target nonland permanent an opponent controls instead. - Timing: Use before combat to remove the largest attacker, break an aura/equipment-style attack, or buy the turn needed for `Pyroclasm`, `Stock Up`, or `Jeskai Revelation`; save Gift for targets that are not creatures or when bouncing a noncreature permanent is worth giving a tapped 1/1 Fish. - Inputs / outputs: Costs `{U}`; consumes blue mana; outputs tempo by returning an opposing creature or, if Gift was promised, an opposing nonland permanent; the opponent gets a tapped 1/1 blue Fish before the other effects. - Mode map: No-Gift mode targets creature an opponent controls; Gift mode changes the target class to nonland permanent an opponent controls and gives the opponent a tapped Fish. - Partners / packages: `Jeskai Revelation` also returns target spell or permanent; `Pyroclasm` can later clean up the gifted Fish. - Role peers: `Swallowed by Leviathan` handles spells on the stack; `Jeskai Revelation` is the larger bounce-and-stabilize version. - Failure modes: It cannot target your permanents, opponent lands, or spells on the stack. Bounce is not permanent removal unless the target is a token that leaves the battlefield. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Best against expensive threats, tokens, and single-threat pressure; weaker against cheap creatures the opponent can recast easily. #### Stock Up - Deck role: Main deck, 4 copies; primary sorcery-speed card selection. - Role type: card selection; role glue. - Deck-specific job: Looks at the top five cards, takes two, and bottoms the rest, giving Jeskai a consistent way to find land drops, sweepers, permission, or `Jeskai Revelation`. - Timing: Cast when the battlefield and stack are quiet enough to spend three mana at sorcery speed; cast before land drop only when you need to find a land to play this turn. - Inputs / outputs: Costs `{2}{U}`; consumes blue and generic mana; outputs two selected cards into hand and places the other three on the bottom in any order. - Partners / packages: Finds `Pyroclasm`, `Abrade`, `Sear`, `Into the Flood Maw`, and `Broadside Barrage` under pressure; finds `Jeskai Revelation`, `Three Steps Ahead`, `Swallowed by Leviathan`, `Sphinx of the Final Word`, or `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island` after stabilization. - Role peers: `Consult the Star Charts` works at instant speed and scales with land count; `Jeskai Revelation` draws two while affecting board and life. - Failure modes: Sorcery timing can lose stack fights or combat windows. Do not pick a slow payoff over immediate removal when the next attack is the danger. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent against control and midrange; against aggro, only safe after early red interaction has bought time. #### Riverpyre Verge - Deck role: Main deck, 4 copies; red source and conditional blue source. - Role type: mana/fixing/ramp. - Deck-specific job: Provides guaranteed red and conditional blue, making it one of the deck’s best lands when paired with an Island or Mountain type. - Timing: Play early when red removal matters; make sure `Hallowed Fountain`, `Steam Vents`, `Island`, or `Mountain` is present if the hand needs blue from `Riverpyre Verge`. - Inputs / outputs: `{T}` adds `{R}`; `{T}` adds `{U}` only if you control an Island or a Mountain. - Partners / packages: `Hallowed Fountain`, `Steam Vents`, `Island`, and `Mountain` are the registered cards that enable the blue ability. - Role peers: `Steam Vents` and `Stormcarved Coast` also supply blue-red; `Steam Vents` is more reliable for blue because it has Island and Mountain types. - Failure modes: `Stormcarved Coast`, `Sundown Pass`, `Cori Mountain Monastery`, `Mistrise Village`, `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, and `Petrified Hamlet` do not enable its blue ability. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong when the opener includes a real Island or Mountain type; risky if blue card flow is stranded behind only red mode. #### Steam Vents - Deck role: Main deck, 4 copies; Island Mountain shock land and premier blue-red source. - Role type: mana/fixing/ramp. - Deck-specific job: Supplies both core colors while enabling `Riverpyre Verge`, untapped `Cori Mountain Monastery`, and untapped `Mistrise Village`. - Timing: Pay 2 life when untapped blue or red is needed for `Thunder Magic`, `Abrade`, `Sear`, `Into the Flood Maw`, `Consult the Star Charts`, or `Three Steps Ahead`; let it enter tapped when life matters more than current mana. - Inputs / outputs: As an Island Mountain, taps for `{U}` or `{R}`; as it enters, you may pay 2 life or it enters tapped. - Partners / packages: Enables `Riverpyre Verge` blue, `Cori Mountain Monastery` untapped entry through Island, and `Mistrise Village` untapped entry through Mountain. - Role peers: `Hallowed Fountain` is the white-blue typed shock land; `Stormcarved Coast` is a blue-red dual without land types. - Failure modes: It does not produce white, so `Jeskai Revelation`, `Pyrrhic Strike`, and `Erode` still need `Hallowed Fountain`, `Sundown Pass`, or spell-only color from `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Key keep card in most openers; manage 2-life payments carefully against burn and aggro. #### Tablet of Discovery - Deck role: Main deck, 4 copies; artifact engine, red ramp, and temporary card-access piece. - Role type: engine piece; mana/fixing/ramp; mechanic enabler. - Deck-specific job: On entry, mills the top card and lets you play it that turn, then taps for red mana or double red restricted to casting instant and sorcery spells. - Timing: Deploy when the battlefield allows a three-mana setup turn; avoid tapping out for it when `Pyroclasm`, `Abrade`, `Sear`, `Into the Flood Maw`, or `Broadside Barrage` is needed immediately. - Inputs / outputs: Costs `{2}{R}`; mills one card; may play that card this turn; taps for `{R}` unrestricted or `{R}{R}` only to cast instant and sorcery spells. - Mode map: Entry trigger is temporary access from the milled card; single-red mana supports any red payment; double-red mana accelerates `Traumatic Critique`, `Ill-Timed Explosion`, `Jeskai Revelation`, `Flashback`, `Pyroclasm`, `Slagstorm`, and other instant/sorcery casts. - Partners / packages: `Three Steps Ahead` can copy `Tablet of Discovery`; `Flashback` can use instant or sorcery cards that end up in the graveyard. - Role peers: `Great Hall of the Biblioplex` also spends resources to cast instant or sorcery spells; `Cori Mountain Monastery` also gives temporary card access. - Failure modes: The double-red ability cannot cast `Sphinx of the Final Word`, `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`, or `Ghost Vacuum`. A milled card not played that turn remains a lost immediate opportunity unless later reused. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Strong in slow games; board-impact negative against fast creature pressure. #### Broadside Barrage - Deck role: Main deck, 2 copies; high-damage removal plus loot. - Role type: interaction-removal; card selection. - Deck-specific job: Deals 5 damage to target creature or planeswalker and then draws a card and discards a card, removing mid-sized threats while improving hand texture. - Timing: Use on creatures or planeswalkers that survive cheaper removal or must die now; hold if `Sear`, `Thunder Magic`, or `Firebending Lesson` handles the same target for less mana. - Inputs / outputs: Costs `{1}{U}{R}`; consumes blue and red; outputs 5 damage to target creature or planeswalker, one card drawn, and one card discarded. - Partners / packages: Discarded instant or sorcery cards can become `Flashback` targets; the added graveyard card increases `Swallowed by Leviathan` payment pressure. - Role peers: `Sear` is cheaper 4 damage to creature or planeswalker; `Traumatic Critique` scales to any target and loots for draw two discard one; `Firebending Lesson` can hit creatures for 5 when kicked. - Failure modes: It cannot target players, artifacts, enchantments, or spells on the stack. Do not use it as reach unless the target is a planeswalker; Card Reference gives no player damage mode. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Excellent against midrange creatures and planeswalkers; less useful against control without creature or planeswalker targets. #### Swallowed by Leviathan - Deck role: Main deck, 1 copy; graveyard-scaling counterspell and selection tool. - Role type: interaction-stack; card selection. - Deck-specific job: Targets a spell on the stack, surveils 2, then counters that spell unless its controller pays `{1}` for each card in your graveyard. - Timing: Hold for a spell that matters and when your graveyard count makes the tax meaningful; casting it with an empty graveyard risks letting the opponent pay easily even after surveil. - Inputs / outputs: Costs `{2}{U}`; consumes blue mana; surveils 2 by looking at the top two cards and putting any number into graveyard; taxes the chosen spell’s controller by your graveyard count. - Partners / packages: `Tablet of Discovery`, `Broadside Barrage`, `Traumatic Critique`, `Ill-Timed Explosion`, and `Flashback` naturally put cards in graveyard or care about graveyard use. - Role peers: `Three Steps Ahead` counter mode is unconditional if paid; `Disdainful Stroke`, `Flashfreeze`, `Spell Pierce`, `Spell Snare`, and `Annul` are narrower sideboard counterspells. - Failure modes: It does not answer resolved permanents. The spell’s controller may pay the tax, and graveyard exile effects can reduce future reliability. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Stronger in attrition games after the graveyard grows; weaker early against low-cost spells or opponents with spare mana. #### Petrified Hamlet - Deck role: Main deck, 2 copies, and sideboard, 1 copy; colorless land and utility-land hate piece. - Role type: hate piece; mana/fixing/ramp; sideboard bullet. - Deck-specific job: Names a land card as it enters, disables non-mana activated abilities of sources with that name, gives lands with that name `{T}: Add {C}`, and itself taps for `{C}`. - Timing: Choose an opposing utility land name when its non-mana activated ability matters; choose one of your own names only when the benefit clearly outweighs shutting off your copies. - Inputs / outputs: Enters with a chosen land card name; outputs colorless mana; changes activated ability legality for all sources with the chosen name. - Partners / packages: Against a mirror, naming `Great Hall of the Biblioplex` stops animation, naming `Cori Mountain Monastery` stops top-card exile, and naming `Mistrise Village` stops uncounterable-spell setup. - Role peers: No direct peer; closest overlap is `Great Hall of the Biblioplex` as a colorless land, but `Petrified Hamlet` is disruptive rather than a threat. - Failure modes: It does not produce colored mana and does not stop mana abilities. Naming `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, `Cori Mountain Monastery`, or `Mistrise Village` also affects your own copies with that name. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Bring in the sideboard copy when opposing utility lands are central or when an extra land supports `Sphinx of the Final Word` and `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`. #### Disdainful Stroke - Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy; narrow counterspell for expensive spells. - Role type: interaction-stack; sideboard bullet. - Deck-specific job: Counters target spell with mana value 4 or greater, letting Jeskai fight large threats, sweepers, expensive card draw, and big-mana payoffs on the stack. - Timing: Hold for the first expensive spell that changes the game; do not spend other counters casually if `Disdainful Stroke` is the only answer to a known high-mana-value payoff. - Inputs / outputs: Costs `{1}{U}`; consumes blue mana; outputs a counter only against a spell on the stack with mana value 4 or greater. - Partners / packages: Protects a resolved plan involving `Jeskai Revelation`, `Sphinx of the Final Word`, or `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island` by stopping opposing expensive answers or payoffs. - Role peers: `Three Steps Ahead` can counter any target spell if its spree cost is paid; `Spell Pierce` handles noncreature spells early; `Flashfreeze` handles red or green spells regardless of mana value. - Failure modes: Dead against cheap spells and resolved permanents. Do not hold it for a permanent already on the battlefield. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Side in against control, ramp, big-mana, and midrange decks with visible expensive spells; avoid against low-curve aggro. #### Sphinx of the Final Word - Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy; resilient finisher and anti-counter payoff. - Role type: threat/clock; protection/evasion; sideboard bullet. - Deck-specific job: Provides an uncounterable 5/5 flying hexproof threat and makes your instant and sorcery spells unable to be countered. - Timing: Cast after stabilizing the battlefield or when the matchup is about stack control; avoid tapping seven mana while creatures on board still demand `Pyroclasm`, `Sear`, `Abrade`, or `Into the Flood Maw`. - Inputs / outputs: Costs `{5}{U}{U}`; outputs a 5/5 flyer with hexproof and ongoing protection from counters for your instant and sorcery spells. - Partners / packages: Makes `Jeskai Revelation`, `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Traumatic Critique`, `Swallowed by Leviathan`, and removal spells uncounterable after it resolves. - Role peers: `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island` is another sideboard 5/5 flash finisher; `Mistrise Village` protects only the next spell from being countered. - Failure modes: Hexproof stops opponents from targeting it, but it does not stop sweepers, sacrifice effects, or combat damage. It is expensive and requires double blue. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Bring in against control and slow midrange; avoid against fast aggro unless survival is already covered. #### Annul - Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy; one-mana artifact/enchantment stack answer. - Role type: interaction-stack; sideboard bullet. - Deck-specific job: Counters target artifact or enchantment spell before it resolves, preventing problematic engines or lock pieces from entering the battlefield. - Timing: Hold for the artifact or enchantment spell that matters; do not use on a low-impact object if `Abrade` or `Pyrrhic Strike` can answer it later and a bigger spell is likely. - Inputs / outputs: Costs `{U}`; consumes blue mana; outputs a counter only against an artifact or enchantment spell on the stack. - Partners / packages: Complements `Abrade`, which destroys resolved artifacts, and `Pyrrhic Strike`, which can destroy resolved artifacts or enchantments. - Role peers: `Spell Pierce` can counter noncreature artifact or enchantment spells unless `{2}` is paid; `Disdainful Stroke` can counter expensive artifact or enchantment spells with mana value 4 or greater. - Failure modes: It cannot target creatures unless they are artifact or enchantment spells, cannot hit resolved permanents, and cannot counter instants or sorceries. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Bring in when opponent shows artifact or enchantment spells that generate repeated advantage or invalidate removal. #### Pyrrhic Strike - Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy; white instant answer with optional blight upgrade. - Role type: modal utility; interaction-removal; sideboard bullet. - Deck-specific job: Destroys either target artifact or enchantment, or target creature with mana value 3 or greater; if you pay the blight 2 additional cost, it can choose both modes. - Timing: Cast without blight when one target class is enough; pay blight only when destroying both an artifact/enchantment and a mana-value-3-or-greater creature is worth putting two -1/-1 counters on your creature. - Inputs / outputs: Costs `{2}{W}`; optional blight 2 puts two -1/-1 counters on a creature you control; outputs one chosen destruction mode, or both if blight was paid. - Mode map: Artifact/enchantment mode answers target artifact or enchantment; creature mode answers target creature with mana value 3 or greater; blight-paid line chooses both. - Partners / packages: Monk tokens from `Jeskai Revelation`, animated `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, `Sphinx of the Final Word`, and `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island` are possible blight hosts, but shrinking them is costly. - Role peers: `Abrade` destroys artifacts or deals creature damage; `Erode` destroys creature or planeswalker and gives a basic-land option. - Failure modes: It cannot destroy cheap creatures with mana value 2 or less. Paying blight can kill your own Monk token or weaken a finisher. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Bring in against artifact/enchantment decks and creature decks where large creatures matter more than small swarms. #### Slagstorm - Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy; larger sweeper or player-damage finisher. - Role type: modal utility; interaction-sweeper; reach/finisher; sideboard bullet. - Deck-specific job: Chooses between dealing 3 damage to each creature or 3 damage to each player, giving Jeskai a bigger sweeper than `Pyroclasm` and a narrow closing line. - Timing: Use creature mode when 3 damage kills multiple attackers that `Pyroclasm` cannot; use player mode only when your life total survives and the damage meaningfully closes or wins the race. - Inputs / outputs: Costs `{1}{R}{R}` at sorcery speed; consumes double red; outputs either 3 damage to each creature or 3 damage to each player. - Mode map: Creature mode is the anti-board plan; player mode is reach and hits you too. - Partners / packages: `Tablet of Discovery`, `Steam Vents`, `Riverpyre Verge`, `Stormcarved Coast`, `Sundown Pass`, `Mountain`, and `Cori Mountain Monastery` help supply red. - Role peers: `Pyroclasm` is cheaper for 2 creature damage; `Ill-Timed Explosion` can sweep higher if you discard a high-mana-value card. - Failure modes: It does not hit planeswalkers directly and is sorcery-speed. It damages your Monk tokens and animated `Great Hall of the Biblioplex` if they are creatures. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Bring in against creature decks with three-toughness boards; avoid in control mirrors unless player damage is a real win line. #### Ghost Vacuum - Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy; graveyard hate artifact with delayed creature theft payoff. - Role type: hate piece; engine piece; sideboard bullet. - Deck-specific job: Exiles target cards from graveyards one at a time, then later can sacrifice itself at sorcery speed to put creature cards it exiled onto the battlefield under your control as 1/1 Spirits with flying counters. - Timing: Activate before the opponent casts flashback, escape, delve, recursion, or threshold-enabling plays; exiling after costs are paid usually does not undo the already-cast spell. - Inputs / outputs: Costs `{1}`; `{T}` exiles target card from a graveyard; `{6}, {T}, sacrifice` reanimates each creature card exiled with it under your control with a flying counter and Spirit type, only as a sorcery. - Mode map: Tap-exile mode is immediate graveyard disruption; six-mana sacrifice mode is a slow finisher if exiled creature cards accumulated. - Partners / packages: `Tablet of Discovery`, `Flashback`, and your own graveyard plans mean this is mostly for opposing graveyard resources, not your default engine. - Role peers: No direct peer; closest overlap is `Flashback` caring about graveyard spells, but `Ghost Vacuum` denies graveyards rather than reusing yours. - Failure modes: It is not artifact hate. It is slow, must tap, and the payoff only returns creature cards exiled with this artifact. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Bring in against graveyard recursion, escape, flashback, delve, and graveyard-count decks; leave out when the opponent wins from hand or battlefield without graveyard reliance. #### The Unagi of Kyoshi Island - Deck role: Sideboard, 2 copies; flash finisher and anti-card-draw engine. - Role type: threat/clock; engine payoff; sideboard bullet. - Deck-specific job: Presents a 5/5 flash creature with Ward—Waterbend `{4}` and rewards you with two cards whenever an opponent draws their second card each turn. - Timing: Flash it in after the opponent commits mana, at end step before your attack, or in response to a draw-heavy turn where the second-card trigger will matter; avoid casting into a board where a 5/5 does not stabilize. - Inputs / outputs: Costs `{3}{U}{U}`; outputs a 5/5 legendary Serpent with flash, ward tax that opponents can help pay by tapping artifacts and creatures, and repeat card draw from opponent second draws. - Partners / packages: `Mistrise Village` can make it uncounterable; `Sphinx of the Final Word` competes as a top-end blue finisher; `Jeskai Revelation` can clear or bounce blockers before it attacks. - Role peers: `Sphinx of the Final Word` is more counter-resistant; `Great Hall of the Biblioplex` is a land-based threat after stabilization. - Failure modes: Ward is not hexproof and can be paid, including through Waterbend by tapping artifacts and creatures. Legendary copies can strand the second copy. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Best against control, midrange, and draw-heavy opponents; poor when fast creature pressure demands cheaper interaction. #### Flashfreeze - Deck role: Sideboard, 2 copies; color-restricted counterspell. - Role type: interaction-stack; sideboard bullet. - Deck-specific job: Counters target red or green spell, giving Jeskai efficient stack coverage against red aggression, green ramp, and red/green payoff spells. - Timing: Hold for a red or green spell that pressures life, resolves into a must-answer permanent, or breaks a counter-war; do not fire it at a low-impact setup spell if a larger red or green threat is likely. - Inputs / outputs: Costs `{1}{U}`; consumes blue mana; outputs a counter only against a red or green spell on the stack. - Partners / packages: Complements `Pyroclasm`, `Abrade`, `Sear`, `Thunder Magic`, and `Slagstorm` by stopping threats before they reach the battlefield. - Role peers: `Disdainful Stroke` counters expensive spells regardless of color; `Spell Pierce` counters noncreature spells unless `{2}` is paid; `Three Steps Ahead` can counter any spell with its spree counter mode. - Failure modes: It cannot target blue, white, black, or colorless spells unless they are also red or green. It does nothing to resolved permanents. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Bring in against red or green aggro, midrange, ramp, and big-mana decks; cut against blue-white control or artifact decks without red/green spells. #### Erode - Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy; white hard removal with ramp drawback. - Role type: interaction-removal; sideboard bullet. - Deck-specific job: Destroys target creature or planeswalker at instant speed, answering threats that damage-based removal cannot kill, while giving that permanent’s controller an optional basic-land search. - Timing: Use when the target will win the game, generate repeated advantage, or dodge red damage; avoid giving the opponent a land for a replaceable creature that `Pyroclasm`, `Sear`, or `Broadside Barrage` can handle cleanly. - Inputs / outputs: Costs `{W}`; consumes white mana; destroys target creature or planeswalker; that permanent’s controller may search for a basic land, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle. - Partners / packages: `Hallowed Fountain`, `Sundown Pass`, and `Great Hall of the Biblioplex` can supply white for this instant; `Flashback` can reuse it from graveyard if white is available. - Role peers: `Sear` and `Broadside Barrage` damage creatures or planeswalkers without ramping the opponent; `Pyrrhic Strike` can destroy a creature with mana value 3 or greater. - Failure modes: It does not destroy artifacts, enchantments, players, or spells on the stack. The basic-land option can help ramp or fix the opponent. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Bring in for large creatures and planeswalkers; avoid when the opponent’s threats are cheap enough for red damage and the extra land matters. #### Spell Pierce - Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy; cheap noncreature stack interaction. - Role type: interaction-stack; sideboard bullet. - Deck-specific job: Counters target noncreature spell unless its controller pays `{2}`, protecting Jeskai’s card-draw and finisher windows while punishing early setup spells. - Timing: Best in the first several turns or during turns where the opponent taps low; use it to protect `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Jeskai Revelation`, `Sphinx of the Final Word`, or `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island` from noncreature interaction. - Inputs / outputs: Costs `{U}`; consumes blue mana; outputs a conditional counter against target noncreature spell on the stack. - Partners / packages: Works with `Mistrise Village` and `Sphinx of the Final Word` in anti-counter plans; backs up `Disdainful Stroke`, `Spell Snare`, and `Three Steps Ahead`. - Role peers: `Annul` is narrower but hard-counters artifact or enchantment spells; `Disdainful Stroke` handles expensive spells; `Flashfreeze` handles red or green spells. - Failure modes: Opponent can pay `{2}`, especially late. It cannot target creature spells or resolved permanents. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Bring in against control, combo, ramp setup, and noncreature engine decks; reduce value against creature-heavy aggro. #### Spell Snare - Deck role: Sideboard, 1 copy; one-mana counter for mana-value-2 spells. - Role type: interaction-stack; sideboard bullet. - Deck-specific job: Counters target spell with mana value 2, giving Jeskai a very efficient answer when the opponent’s important plays cluster at exactly that mana value. - Timing: Hold only when a mana-value-2 spell is likely to matter; do not keep mana idle forever if the opponent’s visible plan has moved above or below that cost band. - Inputs / outputs: Costs `{U}`; consumes blue mana; outputs a counter only against a spell on the stack with mana value 2. - Partners / packages: Pairs with `Spell Pierce` for cheap stack fights and with `Stock Up` or `Consult the Star Charts` to keep mana up while developing cards. - Role peers: `Three Steps Ahead` has broader counter coverage for more mana; `Disdainful Stroke` covers mana value 4 or greater; `Flashfreeze` covers red or green spells. - Failure modes: It cannot counter mana value 1, 3, 4+, or resolved permanents. Do not assume legality from casting cost memory if cost modifiers or alternative costs affect the displayed mana value rules prompt. - Matchup / visibility hooks: Bring in when prior games reveal decisive two-mana threats, counters, removal, or engines; leave out when the opponent’s key spells miss mana value 2. ## Interaction Priorities - Priority: Answer visible lethal pressure before preserving card advantage. Spend `Sear`, `Abrade`, `Thunder Magic`, or `Into the Flood Maw` when the opponent's next combat step threatens a life-total collapse, and prefer `Pyroclasm`, `Slagstorm`, `Ill-Timed Explosion`, or `Swallowed by Leviathan` when one action can reset multiple attackers. Card text check required for every non-obvious damage, bounce, or reset mode. - Priority: Remove engine creatures and snowball permanents before generic attackers. Kill creatures that generate mana, cards, repeated damage, sacrifice value, or combat scaling before trading removal for replaceable bodies. Ignore small creatures temporarily when `Pyroclasm` can catch several at once and the current life total can absorb one attack. - Priority: Save flexible answers for permanent classes the hand cannot otherwise beat. Use `Abrade` on an artifact engine or artifact threat when other red removal covers creatures; use it on a creature only when the creature is the actual clock or `Pyroclasm` cannot solve it. Use `Into the Flood Maw` to buy a decisive turn against an expensive, token, enchanted, or temporarily lethal permanent rather than as routine tempo. - Priority: Counter or disrupt the spell that changes the game, not the first legal spell. Hold `Three Steps Ahead`, `Traumatic Critique`, `Disdainful Stroke`, `Flashfreeze`, `Spell Pierce`, or `Spell Snare` for threats, planeswalker-like permanents, sweep-resistant finishers, opposing card-advantage engines, or stack actions that beat the current hand. Card text check required for `Traumatic Critique`, `Thunder Magic`, and `Three Steps Ahead` modes before treating them as permission. - Priority: Use sideboard interaction by target band. `Disdainful Stroke` is for expensive spells, `Spell Pierce` is for early noncreature stack fights, `Spell Snare` is for legal low-cost targets, `Annul` and `Erode` are for artifact/enchantment problems when Veles confirms legality, `Flashfreeze` is for red or green spells, `Pyrrhic Strike` is conditional removal, and `Ghost Vacuum` is graveyard interaction. Do not fire narrow answers into low-impact targets while a known archetype payoff remains likely. - Bait rule: Lead with `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Tablet of Discovery`, or a lower-impact legal spell when the opponent is representing permission and the hand contains a higher-impact `Jeskai Revelation`, `Ill-Timed Explosion`, `Swallowed by Leviathan`, or sideboard finisher. Reverse this only when the smaller spell is needed to hit land drops, find removal, or avoid dying. - Ignore rule: Decline interaction on creatures that are already blanked by a sweeper, creatures that cannot attack profitably into visible blockers or life-total buffers, and spells that only trade resources while the opponent's board is contained. Do not ignore a small creature if it enables sacrifice, convoke-like, prowess-like, or repeated trigger pressure exposed by the rules engine. - Archetype shift: Against aggro, trade early and lower the life-total preservation threshold; against midrange, preserve one-for-one efficiency until a sweeper creates a two-for-one; against control, protect card draw and finishers over spot removal; against graveyard or artifact strategies, prioritize `Ghost Vacuum`, `Abrade`, `Annul`, and `Erode` targets according to the visible engine piece. ## Combat And Trading Rules - Priority: Jeskai Control should usually win by surviving first, then turning the corner with utility lands or sideboard finishers. Do not attack with a land creature from `Mistrise Village`, `Petrified Hamlet`, `Cori Mountain Monastery`, or any other utility land unless Veles confirms it is a creature and the deck can still hold the required interaction after activation. Card text check required for these lands. - Blocking rule: Trade life for cards only while the life total remains outside burn, haste, or alpha-strike danger shown by public information. Before roughly 10 life against creature decks, prefer conserving removal for better targets when the next attack is manageable; at low life, spend removal or bounce before damage if it prevents a forced chump block or lethal follow-up. - Sweeper rule: Preserve sweepers by taking small amounts of early damage when the opponent is likely to add more creatures and the current board is not lethal. Cast `Pyroclasm` or `Slagstorm` early when one more attack puts the deck into burn range, when creatures have scaling text, or when waiting risks losing the chance to cleanly reset. - Trade rule: Do not expose utility-land attackers into open removal or profitable blocks unless the attack pressures a planeswalker-like object, shortens a stable clock, or forces the opponent to spend mana during a turn where Jeskai wants them tapped down. Damage is secondary to keeping mana available for `Jeskai Revelation`, `Stock Up`, `Three Steps Ahead`, and removal. - Protection rule: Protect `Sphinx of the Final Word` and `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island` after sideboarding by clearing blockers or holding permission before committing them. Card text check required for `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`; treat it as a finisher only when Veles shows it can pressure or stabilize. Do not tap out for a finisher while visible lethal or a must-answer stack threat remains unresolved. - Bounce-and-block rule: Use `Into the Flood Maw` before blocks when it removes the largest attacker, breaks an aura/equipment-like combat setup, or causes a token to disappear according to engine output. Use it after blocks only if Veles shows a legal line that preserves a blocker, changes damage, or protects a key permanent. - Archetype difference: Against aggro, every combat decision should ask whether the next attack plus visible reach beats `Jeskai Revelation`; against midrange, aim to trade one card for the highest-power threat and save resets for overextension; against control, combat is mostly about safe finisher pressure and avoiding utility-land exposure; against go-wide decks, decline narrow trades that reduce `Pyroclasm` value unless life total demands action. ## Selection And Tutor Rules - Selection priority: Use `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Tablet of Discovery`, and `Jeskai Revelation` to hit land drops first, then to find the missing answer class. Before the fourth land, keep hands and selection piles that produce untapped blue/red/white access and at least one interactive spell; after land drops are stable, bias toward sweepers, permission, or a finisher according to the visible board. - No true tutor rule: Treat Jeskai Control as a draw/filter deck, not a tutor deck, unless Veles exposes a legal search action from exact card text. `Consult the Star Charts`, `Stock Up`, `Tablet of Discovery`, `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, `Mistrise Village`, `Petrified Hamlet`, and `Cori Mountain Monastery` may create selection, draw, activation, or utility choices, but Card text check required before assuming any searches, scries, discounts, creature modes, or win-condition text. - Land-drop timing: Make the land drop after seeing selection when a legal pre-land `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, or `Tablet of Discovery` action can reveal the correct color source. Make the land drop first when the spell requires that mana now, when holding a land would waste mana, or when Veles shows no pre-land selection action. Prefer preserving untapped interaction colors over maximizing future utility-land value. - Color fixing priority: Keep or choose lands that cover the next two turns of legal plays rather than lands with the most long-term text. Early priorities are blue for `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Three Steps Ahead`, and `Jeskai Revelation`; red for `Abrade`, `Sear`, `Pyroclasm`, `Thunder Magic`, `Broadside Barrage`, `Firebending Lesson`, and `Ill-Timed Explosion`; white only when a visible legal action actually needs it. Card text check required for exact costs. - Bottom/filter rule: Bottom excess tapped lands, redundant late utility lands, or expensive spells when the hand lacks early interaction. Against pressure, prioritize `Pyroclasm`, `Abrade`, `Sear`, `Into the Flood Maw`, `Thunder Magic`, `Broadside Barrage`, or `Firebending Lesson` over slow card draw. Against control, prioritize `Stock Up`, `Jeskai Revelation`, `Three Steps Ahead`, `Traumatic Critique`, and resilient sideboard finishers. - Answer-finding rule: Select the narrowest answer that solves the current public problem and save flexible cards for unknowns. Take `Abrade` over generic burn when an artifact is already visible, take `Pyroclasm` or `Slagstorm` over single-target removal against multiple small attackers, and take `Three Steps Ahead`, `Disdainful Stroke`, `Flashfreeze`, `Spell Pierce`, or `Spell Snare` when the next decisive fight is likely on the stack. - Graveyard timing: Use `Ghost Vacuum` only when Veles shows a graveyard object, graveyard trigger, or graveyard-dependent line worth interrupting. Card text check required for `Ghost Vacuum` and `Flashback`; do not assume graveyard recursion, exile timing, or flashback permissions unless legal action text confirms them. ## Priority And Stack Rules - Priority rule: Pass when the stack is empty, the board is stable, and using mana would reduce the ability to answer the opponent's next meaningful spell. Act on end step with `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Jeskai Revelation`, `Tablet of Discovery`, `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, or utility-land actions only when Veles confirms legal instant-speed timing or activated timing. - Counterspell gate: Spend `Three Steps Ahead`, `Traumatic Critique`, `Disdainful Stroke`, `Flashfreeze`, `Spell Pierce`, or `Spell Snare` only on spells that materially beat the current hand, resolve into a hard-to-remove threat, generate major card advantage, or protect the opponent's winning turn. Card text check required for exact modes and restrictions, especially `Three Steps Ahead` and `Traumatic Critique`. - Removal timing: Use instant-speed removal before combat damage when it prevents lethal, removes a combat modifier, saves a future sweeper, or denies a trigger shown by the engine. Use sorcery-speed sweepers such as `Pyroclasm` or `Slagstorm` only in main-phase windows unless Veles exposes a legal instant-speed line. Card text check required for `Thunder Magic`, `Firebending Lesson`, `Broadside Barrage`, `Pyrrhic Strike`, and `Swallowed by Leviathan`. - Let-resolve rule: Let low-impact creatures, replaceable cantrips, and nonlethal damage resolve when a visible `Pyroclasm`, `Ill-Timed Explosion`, `Slagstorm`, or later `Jeskai Revelation` can recover the position. Do not let a spell resolve if it invalidates the hand's removal, makes the stack fight unwinnable, threatens immediate lethal, or creates a protected engine. - Optional payment rule: Decline optional costs, extra modes, or utility activations when they consume mana needed for a visible answer. Pay optional costs only when Veles shows the payment is legal, the remaining mana still covers the required interaction, and the effect advances survival or a decisive end-step draw line. - Bounce window: Use `Into the Flood Maw` on the stack or before combat when it breaks an all-in attack, counters a token-like line according to rules output, resets an expensive permanent for tempo, or protects a key permanent from targeted removal. Avoid bounce as generic tempo when the opponent can simply recast and Jeskai needs mana for permission or draw. - Sideboard stack tools: Use `Annul` and `Erode` on artifact/enchantment threats, `Flashfreeze` on red or green spells, `Disdainful Stroke` on expensive spells, `Spell Pierce` in early noncreature fights, and `Spell Snare` only when Veles confirms a legal target. Save `Sphinx of the Final Word` and `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island` commitment for windows where stack risk and board risk are both acceptable; Card text check required for `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`. - End-step rule: Prefer drawing or activating on the opponent's end step after they decline meaningful pressure, because this preserves stack interaction through their main phase. Main-phase card draw is correct when it is needed to hit the current land drop, find a sweeper before combat, or use mana that would otherwise be wasted under no visible threat. ## Sideboard Map Low-Curve Red Or Green Aggro Side in: 1 Abrade; 1 Pyrrhic Strike; 1 Slagstorm; 2 Flashfreeze Cut: 1 Traumatic Critique; 1 Swallowed by Leviathan; 1 Ill-Timed Explosion; 1 Tablet of Discovery; 1 Consult the Star Charts - Add role cards: `Abrade`, `Pyrrhic Strike`, and `Slagstorm` increase early board control; `Flashfreeze` becomes stack interaction against red or green threats when Veles confirms legal targets. Preserve main-deck `Pyroclasm`, `Sear`, `Thunder Magic`, `Firebending Lesson`, and `Broadside Barrage` because the post-board plan still starts by surviving the first attack waves. - Reduce main-deck emphasis: Expensive or slow card-advantage pieces lose priority when life total is under visible pressure. `Swallowed by Leviathan`, `Ill-Timed Explosion`, `Tablet of Discovery`, and some `Consult the Star Charts` lines should give way to cheaper interaction unless the opening hand already has early removal and stable mana. Blue Control Or Spell-Dense Mirrors Side in: 1 Disdainful Stroke; 1 Sphinx of the Final Word; 2 The Unagi of Kyoshi Island; 1 Spell Pierce; 1 Spell Snare Cut: 2 Pyroclasm; 1 Abrade; 2 Sear; 1 Firebending Lesson - Add role cards: `Disdainful Stroke`, `Spell Pierce`, and `Spell Snare` convert dead removal windows into stack fights. `Sphinx of the Final Word` and `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island` are finisher or threat-density upgrades, but Card text check required for exact protection, costs, and combat stats before committing either through open mana. - Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Pyroclasm`, `Sear`, `Abrade`, and `Firebending Lesson` lose value when the opponent shows few creatures or when the decisive exchanges happen over draw spells, finishers, and permission. Keep some flexible red interaction if Veles shows creature-lands, artifact threats, or small utility creatures after sideboarding. Artifact Or Enchantment-Centric Decks Side in: 1 Annul; 1 Erode; 1 Abrade; 1 Spell Pierce Cut: 2 Pyroclasm; 1 Firebending Lesson; 1 Swallowed by Leviathan - Add role cards: `Annul` and `Erode` are for visible artifact or enchantment permanents, artifact-heavy hands, or stack windows where Veles confirms a legal target. The extra `Abrade` increases artifact coverage while still functioning as creature interaction if the matchup also attacks. - Reduce main-deck emphasis: Creature sweepers lose priority when opposing pressure is permanent-based rather than creature-wide. Keep `Pyroclasm` only when the opponent also presents multiple small attackers; otherwise prioritize `Annul`, `Erode`, `Abrade`, `Spell Pierce`, and draw engines that find them. Graveyard-Dependent Opponents Side in: 1 Ghost Vacuum; 1 Spell Pierce; 1 Disdainful Stroke Cut: 1 Pyroclasm; 1 Sear; 1 Broadside Barrage - Add role cards: `Ghost Vacuum` is the dedicated graveyard card, but Card text check required before assuming timing, exile scope, or activated abilities. Use it only when Veles shows graveyard objects, graveyard triggers, escape-style permissions, recursion targets, or a graveyard count that matters to the opponent's visible legal actions. - Reduce main-deck emphasis: Point removal and sweepers become secondary when the opponent's main threat is recursion, graveyard scaling, or a noncreature graveyard payoff. Keep enough removal to avoid dying while holding `Ghost Vacuum`; do not spend all mana on graveyard policing if the board already presents lethal pressure. Big-Mana, Ramp, Or Expensive Threat Decks Side in: 1 Disdainful Stroke; 2 Flashfreeze; 1 Spell Pierce; 1 Sphinx of the Final Word Cut: 2 Pyroclasm; 1 Abrade; 1 Sear; 1 Firebending Lesson - Add role cards: `Disdainful Stroke` is for expensive threats and payoff spells when Veles confirms legality. `Flashfreeze` enters against red or green ramp, large creatures, or payoff spells; `Spell Pierce` protects early draw turns and catches setup spells; `Sphinx of the Final Word` gives Jeskai Control a closing threat when the game becomes about one large spell at a time. - Reduce main-deck emphasis: Small removal loses priority when the opponent spends early turns developing mana instead of attacking with many creatures. Maintain `Three Steps Ahead`, `Traumatic Critique`, `Jeskai Revelation`, `Stock Up`, and `Consult the Star Charts` as tools for fighting on the stack and sustaining land drops. Card-specific sideboard rules: - `Disdainful Stroke`: Add against decks whose visible and expected threats are expensive spells, sweepers, planeswalker-like engines if legal, or large finishers. It is bad against low-curve aggro, cheap recursive threats, and matchups where Veles rarely exposes legal targets. Its role changes from reactive permission to finisher shield once Jeskai has stabilized and is protecting `Sphinx of the Final Word`, `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`, or a large `Jeskai Revelation` line. - `Sphinx of the Final Word`: Add against control, slow midrange, and removal-light decks where a single resilient threat can end the game. It is bad when the opponent is already forcing survival choices before the casting window. Treat it as a commitment-gate card: wait until land drops, life total, and stack context make tapping mana acceptable; Card text check required for exact protection and restrictions. - `Annul`: Add against artifact or enchantment engines, cheap artifact threats, and enchantment-based removal or payoffs when Veles confirms legal targets. It is bad against creature-heavy decks with few noncreature permanents. Its role is narrow permission, so mulligan decisions should not rely on it unless the matchup label and visible deck behavior support the target class. - `Pyrrhic Strike`: Add against creature decks where another cheap damage or removal effect improves early survival. It is bad in stack mirrors and against mostly noncreature engines. Card text check required for exact damage, drawback, and target restrictions; do not assume it can finish players or answer large creatures unless legal action text confirms the line. - `Slagstorm`: Add against creature decks that go wider or larger than `Pyroclasm` alone can cover. It is bad when Jeskai needs to keep its own finisher on board or when the opponent has few creatures. Card text check required for exact modes and damage; choose it over `Pyroclasm` only when the visible board needs the larger or more flexible effect. - `Ghost Vacuum`: Add against graveyard recursion, graveyard scaling, and decks whose public graveyard is a resource. It is bad against decks that win from hand, battlefield, or stack without using the graveyard. Preserve mana for removal if the graveyard action does not stop the next visible threat. - `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`: Add against slow decks where extra finishers or hard-to-answer threats matter. It is bad against fast pressure if the hand cannot survive to its casting window. Card text check required; treat it as a finisher commitment rather than a routine curve play. - Sideboard `Abrade`: Add against artifacts and creature decks where flexible cheap interaction is valuable. It is bad only when neither artifacts nor damage-sized creatures are relevant. Its role changes from generic removal against aggro to artifact answer against permanent engines. - `Flashfreeze`: Add against red or green decks, especially ramp, creature pressure, and large payoff spells. It is bad against blue-white control, black-heavy attrition, artifacts without red or green spells, and any matchup where Veles shows no legal targets. Do not keep hands that rely on `Flashfreeze` unless the opponent colors make it live. - Sideboard `Petrified Hamlet`: Add when the matchup rewards an extra land, when post-board curves rise with `Sphinx of the Final Word` or `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`, or when color stability is more important than spell density. It is bad when flooding is the main risk or the matchup demands maximum cheap interaction. Card text check required for utility text. - `Erode`: Add against artifact or enchantment strategies and permanent engines where a resolved object must be answered. It is bad in pure creature combat or permission mirrors without targets. Card text check required for exact target classes and speed. - `Spell Pierce`: Add against control, combo, ramp setup, and noncreature engine decks. It is bad in long games if the opponent can pay easily, so prioritize early stack windows, protecting draw spells, and stopping setup spells before mana is abundant. - `Spell Snare`: Add when the opponent's important plays cluster at the legal target cost Veles exposes. It is bad when visible spells miss that window. Card text check required for exact restriction; never assume a target is legal from mana value memory alone. ## Matchup Guidance - Aggro: Prioritize survival over card volume until the opponent's board stops threatening immediate lethal or near-lethal damage. Keep hands with early colored mana, `Sear`, `Abrade`, `Pyroclasm`, `Thunder Magic`, or `Into the Flood Maw`; treat `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, and `Jeskai Revelation` as stabilizing tools only after removal has bought time. Add role cards: `Pyrrhic Strike`, `Slagstorm`, sideboard `Abrade`, and sometimes `Flashfreeze` against red or green pressure. Reduce main-deck emphasis: expensive or slow commitment cards such as `Swallowed by Leviathan`, `Three Steps Ahead`, and the highest-cost draw line when the opening hand cannot interact before turn three. Card text check required for `Thunder Magic`, `Pyrrhic Strike`, and `Slagstorm`; use them only according to legal targets and visible damage mode. - Go-wide decks: Preserve sweepers until they remove multiple relevant creatures or prevent a lethal attack, unless waiting makes the next combat unsalvageable. `Pyroclasm` is the default reset when small creatures fill the board, while `Ill-Timed Explosion` and `Slagstorm` are higher-commitment answers when Veles shows they legally affect the current board. Add role cards: `Slagstorm`, `Pyrrhic Strike`, and sideboard `Abrade`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: single-card permission that does not answer existing creatures, especially when the opponent has already emptied much of their hand. Do not fire `Broadside Barrage` or `Firebending Lesson` into a minor target if a sweeper can convert the same mana into a board reset. - Burn decks: Protect life total as a resource, not as a cushion for slow draw turns. Keep hands that cast early interaction through `Riverpyre Verge`, `Steam Vents`, `Hallowed Fountain`, `Stormcarved Coast`, or `Sundown Pass` without unnecessary self-damage if Veles exposes land-choice costs. Add role cards: `Flashfreeze` against red spells, `Spell Pierce` for early noncreature burn or setup, `Spell Snare` only when legal target restrictions line up, and `Pyrrhic Strike` only if it trades without worsening life pressure. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow finishers and draw spells that tap out before the burn player is low on resources. Use `Jeskai Revelation` as a recovery line only when the legal action text and mana context make its life or card impact clear. - Tempo decks: Fight over mana efficiency first and raw card count second. Sequence untapped blue or red sources to represent `Three Steps Ahead`, `Traumatic Critique`, `Sear`, `Abrade`, `Into the Flood Maw`, or `Broadside Barrage` when legal actions appear. Add role cards: `Spell Pierce`, `Spell Snare`, `Flashfreeze` if colors match, and sideboard `Abrade` when threats are artifact or damage-sized. Reduce main-deck emphasis: expensive sorcery-speed stabilization that walks into a protected threat unless the opponent is tapped low. Prefer answering a threat during the window where the opponent cannot both redeploy and protect it; do not spend permission on low-impact setup if a single protected attacker is already dictating the race. - Midrange decks: Trade one-for-one early, then pull ahead with `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Jeskai Revelation`, `Tablet of Discovery`, and resilient late threats. Keep flexible hands with removal plus card flow rather than all counters or all sweepers. Add role cards: `Sphinx of the Final Word`, `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`, `Disdainful Stroke` for expensive threats, `Flashfreeze` against red or green builds, and sideboard `Petrified Hamlet` when extra land improves late-game reliability. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Pyroclasm` if the opponent presents single larger threats instead of small boards. Do not tap out for a finisher if the visible board still requires `Sear`, `Abrade`, `Swallowed by Leviathan`, or `Into the Flood Maw` to prevent a decisive attack. - Removal-heavy decks: Make their removal inefficient by delaying creature-like finishers until you can protect them, replace them, or punish a tap-out window. Lean on `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Tablet of Discovery`, and `Jeskai Revelation` to win the resource exchange before committing `Sphinx of the Final Word`, `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`, or `Swallowed by Leviathan`. Add role cards: `Sphinx of the Final Word`, `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`, `Spell Pierce`, and `Disdainful Stroke` when the opponent's late spells matter. Reduce main-deck emphasis: small creature removal once their battlefield threats are sparse. Card text check required for each finisher; commit only when Veles confirms legal casting and the visible stack is acceptable. - Control decks: Treat the matchup as a land-drop and stack-window fight. Prioritize `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, `Mistrise Village`, `Cori Mountain Monastery`, `Petrified Hamlet`, and clean access to blue mana so `Three Steps Ahead`, `Traumatic Critique`, `Spell Pierce`, `Spell Snare`, and `Disdainful Stroke` can contest key turns. Add role cards: `Sphinx of the Final Word`, `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`, `Disdainful Stroke`, `Spell Pierce`, `Spell Snare`, and sometimes sideboard `Petrified Hamlet`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Pyroclasm`, `Sear`, `Abrade`, and other creature-only interaction when there are few targets. Do not cast `Stock Up` or `Consult the Star Charts` into obvious permission unless the alternative is wasting mana and falling behind on land or cards. - Combo decks: Identify the turn they can win and spend interaction on enablers only when stopping the enabler matters more than stopping the payoff. Keep hands with `Three Steps Ahead`, `Traumatic Critique`, `Spell Pierce`, `Disdainful Stroke`, `Spell Snare` when legal, or pressure from `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island` if the combo is slow. Add role cards: `Spell Pierce`, `Disdainful Stroke`, `Spell Snare`, `Annul` for artifact or enchantment engines, `Erode` for resolved artifact or enchantment engines, and `Ghost Vacuum` for graveyard combo. Reduce main-deck emphasis: creature sweepers and narrow removal unless the combo uses creatures that Veles shows as legal targets. Never assume the opponent has the missing combo piece; act from visible actions, known reveals, graveyard contents, and public battlefield engines. - Big mana decks: Counter or punish the payoff, not every setup spell, unless the setup spell creates an immediate irreversible mana advantage. Keep land-heavy hands with card draw and at least one relevant answer. Add role cards: `Disdainful Stroke`, `Flashfreeze` against red or green ramp and payoffs, `Spell Pierce` for early setup, `Sphinx of the Final Word`, `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`, and sideboard `Petrified Hamlet`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Pyroclasm`, `Sear`, and `Abrade` when the board is not pressuring life total. Use `Jeskai Revelation` and `Stock Up` to maintain answer density, but avoid tapping out before the opponent's largest visible or expected payoff turn. - Graveyard decks: Treat the public graveyard as an active zone and preserve graveyard interaction for the card or threshold that actually enables the opponent's next legal action. Add role cards: `Ghost Vacuum`, `Spell Pierce` against setup, `Disdainful Stroke` for expensive recursion payoffs, and removal that keeps sacrifice or self-mill creatures from converting into pressure. Reduce main-deck emphasis: excess sweepers or small removal if the graveyard, not the battlefield, is the primary resource. Card text check required for `Ghost Vacuum`; do not assume it can exile all cards, target any graveyard, or act at instant speed unless Veles exposes that legal action. - Artifact/enchantment decks: Prioritize the permanent that generates repeated material, locks Jeskai out of casting, or turns future removal dead. Add role cards: `Annul`, `Erode`, sideboard `Abrade`, `Spell Pierce`, and `Disdainful Stroke` when high-cost engines or payoffs are present. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Pyroclasm` and damage-only removal if the opponent's key objects are noncreature permanents. Use main-deck `Abrade` cautiously: answer an artifact engine when that artifact matters more than a creature, and save it for combat only if the current battlefield clock demands it. Card text check required for `Erode` and `Annul` target classes. - Single-threat decks: Hold the cleanest answer for the one threat that matters unless the current threat will end the game before that answer is needed. `Into the Flood Maw`, `Swallowed by Leviathan`, `Broadside Barrage`, `Sear`, `Abrade`, `Three Steps Ahead`, and `Traumatic Critique` should be sequenced around the threat's size, protection, and timing as exposed by legal actions. Add role cards: `Disdainful Stroke`, `Spell Pierce`, `Spell Snare` when legal, `Flashfreeze` if colors match, and `Sphinx of the Final Word` for the counter-pressure plan. Reduce main-deck emphasis: sweepers that do not answer the single threat. Do not spend bounce or removal on a decoy if the opponent's public mana and matchup role imply a larger follow-up and life total allows waiting. ## Specific Matchup Notes - General/archetype-only note: exact opponents are absent, so revealed cards, public zones, legal actions, and Veles engine prompts override every matchup assumption here. Use these notes to bias mulligans, priority spending, and sideboard selection, not to invent hidden cards or force illegal lines. - Aggro and go-wide creature decks: Prioritize survival over card volume until the board is stable. Likely sideboarding emphasizes `Slagstorm`, sideboard `Abrade`, `Pyrrhic Strike`, and possibly `Flashfreeze` against red or green threats; priority targets are haste creatures, pump enablers, anthem-style permanents, and attackers that survive `Pyroclasm`. Use `Sear`, `Abrade`, `Thunder Magic`, `Broadside Barrage`, `Firebending Lesson`, and `Ill-Timed Explosion` according to legal target text and visible damage requirements. Do not hold `Pyroclasm` for perfection if the current attack step threatens a life-total collapse. - Midrange creature decks: Trade early, then win with superior draw and late threats. Likely sideboarding emphasizes `Disdainful Stroke`, `Flashfreeze` against red or green decks, `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`, `Sphinx of the Final Word`, and sideboard `Petrified Hamlet`; priority targets are recursive threats, planeswalker-like engines if present, and creatures too large for sweepers. Keep `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Jeskai Revelation`, and `Tablet of Discovery` flowing when life total is not under immediate pressure. - Control mirrors: Fight over mana, card advantage, and finisher windows. Likely sideboarding emphasizes `Sphinx of the Final Word`, `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`, `Disdainful Stroke`, `Spell Pierce`, `Spell Snare`, and sideboard `Petrified Hamlet`; reduce reliance on `Pyroclasm`, `Sear`, and creature-only removal when Veles shows few legal targets. Priority targets are opposing draw bursts, uncounterable or resilient closers, and any permanent that converts mana into repeated cards. Do not tap out for `Jeskai Revelation`, `Stock Up`, or `Consult the Star Charts` if the visible stack or opponent mana suggests the next unresolved threat matters more. - Combo and spell-engine decks: Identify the payoff turn and hold interaction for the spell or permanent that actually wins or locks the game. Likely sideboarding emphasizes `Spell Pierce`, `Disdainful Stroke`, `Spell Snare`, `Annul`, `Erode`, `Ghost Vacuum`, and sometimes `Flashfreeze` by color; priority targets are graveyard engines, artifact or enchantment engines, cost reducers, and payoff spells. Card text check required for `Ghost Vacuum`, `Annul`, and `Erode`; use them only when Veles exposes legal targets and timing. - Big mana decks: Save counters for high-impact payoffs unless the visible setup spell creates immediate decisive mana. Likely sideboarding emphasizes `Disdainful Stroke`, `Flashfreeze`, `Spell Pierce`, `Sphinx of the Final Word`, `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`, and sideboard `Petrified Hamlet`; priority targets are ramp engines that snowball and expensive finishers that invalidate removal. `Pyroclasm`, `Sear`, and `Abrade` lose value when the battlefield is not the pressure axis. - Artifact or enchantment decks: Answer repeatable engines before incidental creatures when life total allows. Likely sideboarding emphasizes `Annul`, `Erode`, sideboard `Abrade`, `Spell Pierce`, and `Disdainful Stroke`; priority targets are mana engines, lock pieces, combat engines, and card-advantage permanents. Keep main-deck `Abrade` flexible until Veles shows whether the artifact or creature mode is legal and strategically urgent. ## Risk Summary - Mana risk: This deck needs timely blue, red, and white access while many lands may have timing or tapped constraints. Prioritize hands with `Riverpyre Verge`, `Steam Vents`, `Hallowed Fountain`, `Stormcarved Coast`, `Sundown Pass`, `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, or `Mistrise Village` that cast early interaction and later `Jeskai Revelation`; do not keep a hand that only casts card draw after already falling behind. - Matchup risk: The deck can draw the wrong half against polarized opponents. `Pyroclasm` and small removal are weak into control or big mana, while slow draw spells are risky into fast pressure; sideboard by visible role, not by deck label alone. - Draw risk: `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Tablet of Discovery`, and `Jeskai Revelation` can tempt the pilot to spend turns drawing while dying. Use draw spells when the battlefield, stack, and life total allow the next opponent turn to be survived. - Over-sideboarding risk: Removing too much early interaction makes aggro matchups unstable, while adding too many narrow counters can strand cards against creature pressure. Keep a functional mix of removal, card flow, mana, and closers after every plan. - Graveyard risk: `Ghost Vacuum` is narrow unless the opponent publicly uses the graveyard. Card text check required; do not bring it in or fire it early unless graveyard contents or legal actions show a real payoff. - Sweeper and removal risk: `Pyroclasm`, `Slagstorm`, `Ill-Timed Explosion`, `Broadside Barrage`, `Sear`, `Abrade`, and `Thunder Magic` may have target, damage, or timing limits. Respect Veles legal actions and avoid assuming a sweeper kills larger creatures or protected creatures. - Closer risk: `Sphinx of the Final Word`, `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`, `Swallowed by Leviathan`, `Mistrise Village`, and `Cori Mountain Monastery` should not be committed into a losing board without a stabilization plan. Card text check required for unfamiliar closers; use visible legality and stack context before treating them as protected or decisive. - Interaction risk: `Three Steps Ahead`, `Traumatic Critique`, `Disdainful Stroke`, `Spell Pierce`, `Spell Snare`, `Flashfreeze`, and `Annul` are matchup- and target-sensitive. Hold the correct counter for the relevant mana value, color, or card type only when Veles confirms legal use. - Sequencing risk: Tapping out for `Tablet of Discovery`, `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, or `Jeskai Revelation` before using removal can create lethal windows. Sequence land drops, interaction, and card flow so the opponent's next visible attack or payoff is still answered. ## Test Feedback Checklist - Deciding factor: Identify the single turn or exchange that most changed the game, then classify it as mana development, battlefield stabilization, stack interaction, card-advantage conversion, sideboard mismatch, or failed closing. Note whether the deciding action involved `Three Steps Ahead`, `Traumatic Critique`, `Jeskai Revelation`, `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Pyroclasm`, `Ill-Timed Explosion`, `Swallowed by Leviathan`, `Mistrise Village`, or `Cori Mountain Monastery`. - Mulligans: Record whether the opener had early colored mana, at least one relevant interaction spell, and a path to card flow. Flag keeps that had `Tablet of Discovery`, `Stock Up`, or `Consult the Star Charts` but no early answer, and flag mulligans that lost because the remaining hand could not cast `Sear`, `Abrade`, `Pyroclasm`, `Thunder Magic`, or `Broadside Barrage` on time. - Mana: Check whether `Riverpyre Verge`, `Steam Vents`, `Hallowed Fountain`, `Stormcarved Coast`, `Sundown Pass`, `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, `Mistrise Village`, `Petrified Hamlet`, `Mountain`, and `Island` produced the colors and timing the game required. Note any turns where a tapped land, missing white source, missing red source, or missing blue source changed the legal action set. - Velocity: Measure whether `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Jeskai Revelation`, and `Tablet of Discovery` found interaction before the opponent’s pressure became lethal. Record games where drawing cards was correct but too slow, and games where passing with interaction would have been better than advancing card volume. - Engines: Track whether `Tablet of Discovery`, `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, `Mistrise Village`, or `Cori Mountain Monastery` generated meaningful repeated value or sat idle. Mark whether activation costs, land timing, or pressure prevented these cards from mattering. - Removal: Review every `Sear`, `Abrade`, `Pyroclasm`, `Thunder Magic`, `Firebending Lesson`, `Broadside Barrage`, `Ill-Timed Explosion`, and `Swallowed by Leviathan` decision for target quality and timing. Separate failures caused by wrong target choice from failures caused by visible legal actions not offering a clean answer. - Sideboard: After each match, record which sideboard cards were drawn, cast, stranded, or decisive. Pay special attention to `Disdainful Stroke`, `Spell Pierce`, `Spell Snare`, `Flashfreeze`, `Annul`, `Erode`, `Ghost Vacuum`, `Slagstorm`, `Pyrrhic Strike`, sideboard `Abrade`, `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`, sideboard `Petrified Hamlet`, and `Sphinx of the Final Word`. - Closing: Ask whether the deck stabilized but failed to end the game. Identify whether `Jeskai Revelation`, `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`, `Sphinx of the Final Word`, `Swallowed by Leviathan`, `Mistrise Village`, or `Cori Mountain Monastery` was available, legally castable, and worth committing. - Role: Label each game as defender, tap-out control, permission control, or forced race. Flag any turn where the pilot acted like a pure draw-go deck while behind on board, or acted like a tap-out deck while the opponent’s visible mana and stack threat demanded restraint. - Mistakes: Record illegal assumptions separately from poor choices. Examples include assuming `Pyroclasm` kills all attackers, assuming `Three Steps Ahead` or `Traumatic Critique` can answer any spell, or assuming a sideboard card has text not confirmed by Veles. - Stranded cards: List cards that remained in hand for three or more relevant turns because of mana, timing, target restrictions, or matchup mismatch. Prioritize repeated stranding of `Jeskai Revelation`, `Ill-Timed Explosion`, `Swallowed by Leviathan`, `Three Steps Ahead`, `Traumatic Critique`, `Disdainful Stroke`, `Flashfreeze`, `Annul`, `Erode`, and `Ghost Vacuum`. - Overperformers and underperformers: Name cards that won games, bought decisive turns, or repeatedly failed to affect the matchup. Compare main-deck `Abrade` versus sideboard `Abrade`, `Pyroclasm` versus `Slagstorm`, and `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island` versus `Sphinx of the Final Word` when the role was closing. ## First Tuning Questions - Card quantity: Is one `Three Steps Ahead` and one `Traumatic Critique` enough permission for control, combo, and big-mana opponents, or did the deck need more stack interaction before sideboarding? Use stranded-removal data before increasing counters. - Removal mix: Did `Pyroclasm` underperform against larger creatures often enough to justify more `Slagstorm`, `Pyrrhic Strike`, `Broadside Barrage`, `Ill-Timed Explosion`, or `Swallowed by Leviathan` style effects? Use visible battlefield outcomes, not opponent archetype labels alone. - Cheap interaction: Did two `Sear`, one main-deck `Abrade`, two `Thunder Magic`, and two `Firebending Lesson` cover the first three turns against fast decks? If early losses happened before `Stock Up` or `Consult the Star Charts` mattered, increase cheap stabilizers or reduce slow card-flow emphasis. - Mana base: Did the land suite cast early red interaction, blue card flow, and white `Jeskai Revelation` on schedule? If `Great Hall of the Biblioplex`, `Mistrise Village`, `Petrified Hamlet`, or `Cori Mountain Monastery` caused timing failures, reduce utility-land pressure or adjust color counts. - Card-flow density: Did four `Stock Up`, four `Consult the Star Charts`, four `Tablet of Discovery`, and four `Jeskai Revelation` create too many non-board turns against pressure? If yes, test fewer slow engines or more sideboard-ready removal. - Closer package: Did the deck win promptly after stabilizing, or did it give opponents too many draw steps? If closing was slow, compare more reliable access to `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`, `Sphinx of the Final Word`, `Swallowed by Leviathan`, `Mistrise Village`, or `Cori Mountain Monastery` against the cost of weakening early survival. - Sideboard slots: Did `Ghost Vacuum`, `Annul`, `Erode`, `Spell Snare`, `Spell Pierce`, `Disdainful Stroke`, and `Flashfreeze` each answer enough real legal actions to earn their slots? Remove narrow slots only after confirming they were not needed in the matchups they target. - Aggro plan: Did post-board games still lose before card advantage mattered? If yes, prioritize more `Slagstorm`, `Pyrrhic Strike`, sideboard `Abrade`, or other early stabilizers over additional late-game cards. - Control plan: Did post-board control mirrors hinge on resolving one protected threat or on having enough cheap stack fights? Compare `Sphinx of the Final Word`, `The Unagi of Kyoshi Island`, `Disdainful Stroke`, `Spell Pierce`, and `Spell Snare` by actual decision logs. - Role conflict: Did the pilot repeatedly face hands split between tap-out engines and reactive spells with no clear turn plan? If yes, tune toward a clearer default: either more early interaction supporting late `Jeskai Revelation`, or more proactive engines backed by cheaper protection. ## Veles Tactical Policy ### Policy: Opening Hand Role Gate - Priority: High - Decision families: mulligan - Cards: Stock Up; Consult the Star Charts; Tablet of Discovery; Sear; Abrade; Pyroclasm; Jeskai Revelation - Phase windows: pregame, mulligan decisions. - Runtime cues: prompt:mulligan; visible opening hand; play/draw status. - Use when: deciding keep versus mulligan before any hidden information is revealed. - Avoid when: Veles already reports a forced keep/take-mulligan action from tournament structure. - Instructions: Keep hands with functional mana plus either early interaction or early card flow; reject hands that cannot cast visible cheap spells before the opponent can pressure life total. Treat slow double-engine hands as unsafe unless lands and interaction are already present. - Pilot skill floor: medium. - No-API allowed: no - Light-model allowed: yes ### Policy: Early Mana Development - Priority: Medium - Decision families: mana - Cards: Steam Vents; Hallowed Fountain; Stormcarved Coast; Sundown Pass; Riverpyre Verge; Great Hall of the Biblioplex; Mistrise Village; Petrified Hamlet; Cori Mountain Monastery; Island; Mountain - Phase windows: turns 1-4 main phases, land-play prompts. - Runtime cues: action:play; visible lands in hand; legal spells this turn and next turn. - Use when: choosing a land drop or tapped/untapped source sequence. - Avoid when: a survival spell is already on stack or Veles exposes only one legal land action. - Instructions: Prioritize blue and red access for `Stock Up`, `Consult the Star Charts`, `Sear`, `Abrade`, `Thunder Magic`, and `Pyroclasm`; preserve white access for `Jeskai Revelation` once survival is covered. Delay utility lands when they block immediate colored interaction. - Pilot skill floor: medium. - No-API allowed: no - Light-model allowed: yes ### Policy: First Engine Setup - Priority: Medium - Decision families: priority; selection - Cards: Tablet of Discovery; Great Hall of the Biblioplex; Mistrise Village; Cori Mountain Monastery; Stock Up; Consult the Star Charts - Phase windows: early main phases when shields are not required. - Runtime cues: action:cast Tablet of Discovery; action:activate Great Hall of the Biblioplex; action:cast Stock Up; action:cast Consult the Star Charts - Use when: the deck must establish card flow before stabilizing or after trading early removal. - Avoid when: visible attackers, stack threats, or opponent mana make passing with interaction materially safer. - Instructions: Commit one engine or card-flow action at a time; do not stack multiple slow value actions into the same turn while the battlefield is unresolved. Card text check required for each engine activation before assuming card draw, selection, or token output. - Pilot skill floor: medium. - No-API allowed: no - Light-model allowed: yes ### Policy: Tap-Out Commitment Gate - Priority: High - Decision families: priority; mana - Cards: Jeskai Revelation; Ill-Timed Explosion; Swallowed by Leviathan; Sphinx of the Final Word; The Unagi of Kyoshi Island - Phase windows: main phases, end steps, large-spell prompts. - Runtime cues: action:cast Jeskai Revelation; action:cast Ill-Timed Explosion; action:cast Swallowed by Leviathan; action:cast Sphinx of the Final Word; action:cast The Unagi of Kyoshi Island - Use when: a high-cost stabilizer, finisher, or swing spell would consume most available mana. - Avoid when: the legal action is deterministic after a previous selected line and no other legal alternatives exist. - Instructions: Tap out only when the visible board requires it, the spell clearly advances stabilization or closing, or waiting risks losing the same resource window. Account for open opposing mana, stack pressure, known revealed cards, and whether cheaper interaction can cover the turn. - Pilot skill floor: high. - No-API allowed: no - Light-model allowed: yes ### Policy: Spend Permission Gate - Priority: High - Decision families: interaction; priority - Cards: Three Steps Ahead; Traumatic Critique; Disdainful Stroke; Spell Pierce; Spell Snare; Flashfreeze - Phase windows: opponent casting windows, stack-response prompts. - Runtime cues: action:cast Three Steps Ahead; action:cast Traumatic Critique; action:cast Disdainful Stroke; action:cast Spell Pierce; action:cast Spell Snare; action:cast Flashfreeze - Use when: a counterspell-like legal action is available against a visible stack object. - Avoid when: Veles action text does not expose the stack object or card text check is required for eligibility. - Instructions: Spend permission on threats that beat the current removal suite, protect a closing turn, stop card advantage engines, or prevent lethal pressure. Do not counter low-impact spells just because mana is open. - Pilot skill floor: high. - No-API allowed: no - Light-model allowed: yes ### Policy: Cheap Removal Target Gate - Priority: Medium - Decision families: interaction - Cards: Sear; Abrade; Thunder Magic; Firebending Lesson; Broadside Barrage; Pyrrhic Strike - Phase windows: main phases, combat steps, end steps, stack-response prompts. - Runtime cues: action:cast Sear; action:cast Abrade; action:cast Thunder Magic; action:cast Firebending Lesson; action:cast Broadside Barrage; action:cast Pyrrhic Strike - Use when: Veles exposes a removal or damage action with one or more visible targets. - Avoid when: target legality, damage amount, or card text is not confirmed by action text. - Instructions: Kill creatures that represent lethal, snowballing damage, or engine pressure before spending removal on smaller replaceable bodies. Hold instant-speed removal through combat when it can change attacks or blocks. - Pilot skill floor: medium. - No-API allowed: no - Light-model allowed: yes ### Policy: Sweeper Commitment Gate - Priority: High - Decision families: interaction; priority - Cards: Pyroclasm; Slagstorm; Ill-Timed Explosion; Swallowed by Leviathan - Phase windows: main phases before combat, emergency post-combat windows. - Runtime cues: action:cast Pyroclasm; action:cast Slagstorm; action:cast Ill-Timed Explosion; action:cast Swallowed by Leviathan - Use when: a sweeper or mass-effect legal action can change multiple visible permanents. - Avoid when: Card text check required and Veles does not expose affected objects. - Instructions: Fire sweepers when they buy at least a full turn cycle, prevent lethal, or reset a board that spot removal cannot contain. Preserve sweepers when one cheap answer plus card flow keeps life total safe. - Pilot skill floor: high. - No-API allowed: no - Light-model allowed: yes ### Policy: Deterministic Single Target Opponent - Priority: Low - Decision families: interaction - Cards: none - Phase windows: target prompts after a line has already been selected. - Runtime cues: action:target opponent - Use when: exactly one legal action contains `target opponent` and no legal action contains another opponent/player target choice. - Avoid when: any permanent, spell, graveyard card, or self-target option is also legal. - Instructions: Submit the unique visible `target opponent` action without additional strategic reasoning. - Pilot skill floor: low. - No-API allowed: yes - Light-model allowed: yes ### Policy: Deterministic Single Visible Target - Priority: Low - Decision families: interaction; selection - Cards: Sear; Abrade; Thunder Magic; Firebending Lesson; Broadside Barrage; Pyrrhic Strike; Erode; Annul; Ghost Vacuum - Phase windows: target prompts after casting or activating a selected spell. - Runtime cues: action:target - Use when: exactly one legal action in the current list starts with or contains `target ` and no other non-pass target action exists. - Avoid when: two or more target actions are legal, or a target can be self, opponent, spell, permanent, or graveyard card. - Instructions: Submit the unique visible target action; the strategic choice was already made by the prior spell or ability decision. - Pilot skill floor: low. - No-API allowed: yes - Light-model allowed: yes ### Policy: Card Selection Discipline - Priority: Medium - Decision families: selection - Cards: Stock Up; Consult the Star Charts; Jeskai Revelation; Tablet of Discovery; Great Hall of the Biblioplex - Phase windows: selection prompts, draw/filter resolution, main phases. - Runtime cues: prompt:choose card; action:choose; action:put; action:keep - Use when: Veles exposes card-choice, ordering, keep, put, or draw-selection actions. - Avoid when: the prompt is a known target prompt for removal or permission. - Instructions: Select immediate survival first, missing land/color second, permission or sweeper third, and closing power only after stabilization. Card text check required before assuming hidden library ordering or extra-card access. - Pilot skill floor: medium. - No-API allowed: no - Light-model allowed: yes ### Policy: Priority Pass With No Nonpass Action - Priority: Low - Decision families: priority - Cards: none - Phase windows: any priority window. - Runtime cues: action:pass priority - Use when: the legal action list contains `pass priority` and contains no cast, activate, attack, block, target, choose, pay, or play action. - Avoid when: any non-pass action is legal. - Instructions: Submit the visible pass action because no other executable action is offered by Veles. - Pilot skill floor: low. - No-API allowed: yes - Light-model allowed: yes ### Policy: Combat Survival Gate - Priority: High - Decision families: combat; interaction - Cards: Sear; Abrade; Pyroclasm; Thunder Magic; Firebending Lesson; Broadside Barrage; Ill-Timed Explosion; Swallowed by Leviathan; Slagstorm; Pyrrhic Strike - Phase windows: declare attackers, declare blockers, before damage, end of combat. - Runtime cues: action:block; action:cast; visible attackers; visible blockers; life total. - Use when: combat choices or instant-speed interaction can change damage, trades, or lethal math. - Avoid when: Veles offers exactly one no-block/no-action prompt and no interaction is legal. - Instructions: Preserve life total over marginal card advantage when the opponent’s visible attack threatens a short clock. Use removal before damage when it prevents lethal or saves a critical blocker. - Pilot skill floor: high. - No-API allowed: no - Light-model allowed: yes ### Policy: Finisher Closing Gate - Priority: Medium - Decision families: priority; combat - Cards: Sphinx of the Final Word; The Unagi of Kyoshi Island; Mistrise Village; Cori Mountain Monastery; Jeskai Revelation; Swallowed by Leviathan - Phase windows: post-stabilization main phases, attack steps, end steps. - Runtime cues: action:cast Sphinx of the Final Word; action:cast The Unagi of Kyoshi Island; action:activate Mistrise Village; action:activate Cori Mountain Monastery; action:attack - Use when: the battlefield is stable enough to convert resources into a win condition. - Avoid when: the opponent’s visible board still demands removal, sweeper mana, or permission. - Instructions: Start closing once the deck has spare mana and the opponent is no longer forcing immediate defensive trades. Do not expose a finisher into visible interaction without a reason to end the game quickly. - Pilot skill floor: medium. - No-API allowed: no - Light-model allowed: yes ### Policy: Artifact Or Enchantment Answer Gate - Priority: Medium - Decision families: interaction - Cards: Abrade; Annul; Erode; Ghost Vacuum - Phase windows: stack windows, main phases, graveyard or permanent interaction prompts. - Runtime cues: action:cast Abrade; action:cast Annul; action:cast Erode; action:activate Ghost Vacuum - Use when: Veles exposes a legal answer to a visible artifact, enchantment, spell, or graveyard object. - Avoid when: the target is only a low-impact permanent and the hand lacks answers to creature pressure. - Instructions: Use narrow answers on cards that invalidate removal, generate repeated advantage, enable recursion, or threaten lethal. Card text check required for `Erode` and `Ghost Vacuum` before assuming target class. - Pilot skill floor: medium. - No-API allowed: no - Light-model allowed: yes ### Policy: Sideboard Plan Selection - Priority: High - Decision families: sideboard - Cards: Disdainful Stroke; Sphinx of the Final Word; Annul; Pyrrhic Strike; Slagstorm; Ghost Vacuum; The Unagi of Kyoshi Island; Abrade; Flashfreeze; Petrified Hamlet; Erode; Spell Pierce; Spell Snare - Phase windows: between games, sideboard lock prompts. - Runtime cues: prompt:sideboard; match score; opponent archetype label; prior game log. - Use when: choosing the legal post-board configuration. - Avoid when: Veles has already locked a validated sideboard plan. - Instructions: Add stack interaction versus control, combo, and big spells; add `Slagstorm`, `Pyrrhic Strike`, and extra `Abrade` versus creature pressure; add `Annul`, `Erode`, or `Ghost Vacuum` only when their target classes appeared or matchup guidance says they are live. Respect registered 75 validation. - Pilot skill floor: high. - No-API allowed: no - Light-model allowed: yes ### Policy: Sideboard Legal Confirmation - Priority: Low - Decision families: sideboard - Cards: none - Phase windows: sideboard submit prompts. - Runtime cues: action:submit sideboard plan - Use when: exactly one legal action submits a Veles-validated sideboard plan and no edit action is legal. - Avoid when: any legal action can revise, reject, or choose among multiple plans. - Instructions: Submit the unique visible validated plan action. - Pilot skill floor: low. - No-API allowed: yes - Light-model allowed: yes