# Strategy Specifications
## Deck Name And Archetype

- Identity: **Blech, Loafing Pest** is a Commander strategy registered as a black-green ramp deck with a Pest, counter, sacrifice, and lifegain-drain substructure. Treat **Blech, Loafing Pest** as the command-zone anchor when Veles exposes a legal commander-cast action, but do not force commander deployment through commander tax, hostile open mana, or a board state where the commander would not convert into material, pressure, or protection.

- Deck validation: The active validation contract passes for Commander with `Main (100)` and `Sideboard (10)`. The main deck is exactly 100 cards with singleton nonbasic and nonland names, plus repeated basics only: **Forest** appears 11 times and **Swamp** appears 9 times. The sideboard is exactly 10 cards: **Force of Vigor**, **Krosan Grip**, **Reclamation Sage**, **Veil of Summer**, **Nihil Spellbomb**, **Scavenging Ooze**, **Culling Ritual**, **Putrefy**, **Pithing Needle**, and **Return to Nature**.

- Format status: This guide assumes Commander runtime rules, including command-zone access, commander tax, singleton construction, multiplayer or duel Commander turn structure as provided by the rules engine, and any Veles match configuration that permits the 10-card policy sideboard. Do not report 60-card constructed size problems, and do not use sideboard plans unless the active Veles match explicitly supports sideboarding for this Commander test environment.

- Tags: The submitted tags are `ramp, ramp`, but runtime strategy should read the deck as ramp-first rather than ramp-only. **Sol Ring**, **Arcane Signet**, **Nature's Lore**, **Rampant Growth**, **Cultivate**, **Sakura-Tribe Elder**, **Prosperous Innkeeper**, and likely creature or Pest-based accelerants help reach expensive engines such as **Doubling Season**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Moldervine Reclamation**, and **Beledros Witherbloom**.

- Stock status: This is a rogue or hybrid Commander build, not a stock archetype list. Known Golgari engines such as **Skullclamp**, **Village Rites**, **Deadly Dispute**, **Ashnod's Altar**, **Dina, Soul Steeper**, **Hardened Scales**, **Winding Constrictor**, **Branching Evolution**, **Scute Swarm**, **Iridescent Hornbeetle**, and **Toxic Deluge** provide recognizable tactical anchors, while many Pest-specific or unfamiliar names require runtime text verification.

- Card-text caution: Card text check required for **Blech, Loafing Pest**, **Bogwater Lumaret**, **Teacher's Pest**, **Pest Mascot**, **Moseo, Vein's New Dean**, **Eumidian Terrabotanist**, **Eccentric Pestfinder**, **Twitching Doll**, **Ribtruss Roaster**, **Gorma, the Gullet**, **Pest Rescuer**, **South Wind Avatar**, **Starscape Cleric**, **Lluwen, Exchange Student**, **Enduring Tenacity**, **Essenceknit Scholar**, **Meltstrider Eulogist**, **Cauldron of Essence**, **Immoral Bargain**, **Feral Appetite**, **Comforting Counsel**, **Professor Dellian Fel**, **Springleaf Parade**, **Dina, Essence Brewer**, **Shopkeeper's Bane**, **Ozolith, the Shattered Spire**, and **Viridescent Bog** before assigning exact rules text, trigger timing, targets, or combo certainty.

- Mana concern: The deck is functionally black-green and should prioritize early green plus black access over colorless utility sequencing. **High Market**, **Swarmyard**, **Reliquary Tower**, **Radiant Fountain**, and **Bojuka Bog** can be tactically valuable but may strand early plays if they delay **Forest**, **Swamp**, **Command Tower**, **Overgrown Tomb**, **Llanowar Wastes**, **Woodland Cemetery**, **Deathcap Glade**, **Necroblossom Snarl**, **Undergrowth Stadium**, **Jungle Hollow**, **Vernal Fen**, or **Viridescent Bog** color access.

- Role concern: The default role is ramp into an engine board, then convert creatures, Pests, counters, and lifegain into pressure or attrition. The pilot should shift into defense when visible attacks threaten life total or engine survival, into attrition when sacrifice draw is active, and into closing mode when **Ohran Frostfang**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Dina, Soul Steeper**, **Scute Swarm**, **Doubling Season**, **Branching Evolution**, or **Blech, Loafing Pest** can produce a decisive clock.

- Opponent info status: No opponent decklist or matchup profile is supplied in this batch, so Veles must use legal actions, visible board state, public graveyards, public exile, revealed information, known commander identity, and logged game context before applying matchup assumptions. Opponent-specific card names should not enter policy `Cards:` fields unless registered in this deck; any later metagame examples must be prose-only or prefixed as `opponent:` where that format is required.

## Thesis

- Assemble mana first, then convert bodies into engines. **Blech, Loafing Pest** wants early green and black access, acceleration from **Sol Ring**, **Arcane Signet**, **Nature's Lore**, **Rampant Growth**, **Cultivate**, **Sakura-Tribe Elder**, **Prosperous Innkeeper**, and land drops, then a permanent-based engine that turns Pests, tokens, counters, lifegain, or sacrifice into durable advantage.

- Win by making small material matter more than the opponent's large cards. The cleanest closing patterns are counter-amplified attacks with **Hardened Scales**, **Winding Constrictor**, **Branching Evolution**, **Doubling Season**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Iridescent Hornbeetle**, **Scute Swarm**, and **Ohran Frostfang**; lifegain-drain pressure with **Dina, Soul Steeper**, **Essence Warden**, **Prosperous Innkeeper**, **Starscape Cleric**, **Blex, Vexing Pest**, and Pest death triggers when legal; or attrition loops where **Skullclamp**, **Village Rites**, **Deadly Dispute**, **Ashnod's Altar**, **High Market**, **Tend the Pests**, and **Moldervine Reclamation** turn expendable creatures into cards, mana, life, or replacement boards.

- Prioritize engine survival over cosmetic value. A board with **Scute Swarm**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Moldervine Reclamation**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Doubling Season**, or **Blech, Loafing Pest** often deserves **Heroic Intervention**, **Inspiring Call**, or patient mana use more than a marginal extra creature. If visible pressure threatens survival, shift first into blockers, lifegain, **Toxic Deluge**, **Arachnogenesis**, **Pest Infestation**, **Witherbloom Charm**, **Mortality Spear**, or **Assassin's Trophy** before advancing the engine.

- Do not play as pure ramp, pure combo, or generic sacrifice. Ramp is a bridge to Blech, counters, draw engines, and large permanents, not the final plan. Sacrifice is strongest when the creature is exposed, replaceable, dying anyway, or unlocks a decisive draw or drain sequence; it is weak when it removes the only stabilizing blocker or empties the board before a payoff is active.

- Respect uncertainty on custom or unfamiliar names. Card text check required for **Blech, Loafing Pest**, **Bogwater Lumaret**, **Teacher's Pest**, **Pest Mascot**, **Moseo, Vein's New Dean**, **Eumidian Terrabotanist**, **Eccentric Pestfinder**, **Twitching Doll**, **Ribtruss Roaster**, **Gorma, the Gullet**, **Pest Rescuer**, **South Wind Avatar**, **Lluwen, Exchange Student**, **Enduring Tenacity**, **Essenceknit Scholar**, **Meltstrider Eulogist**, **Cauldron of Essence**, **Immoral Bargain**, **Feral Appetite**, **Comforting Counsel**, **Professor Dellian Fel**, **Springleaf Parade**, **Dina, Essence Brewer**, **Shopkeeper's Bane**, **Ozolith, the Shattered Spire**, and **Viridescent Bog** before making exact target, trigger, or combo claims.

## Role Package

- Threats: **Blech, Loafing Pest**, **Beledros Witherbloom**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Scute Swarm**, **Iridescent Hornbeetle**, **Arasta of the Endless Web**, **Blex, Vexing Pest**, **Gorma, the Gullet**, **South Wind Avatar**, and a wide Pest board create the pressure axis. Commit expensive threats when they either affect combat immediately, protect an existing engine, or force the opponent to answer while the deck still has follow-up material.

- Payoffs: **Dina, Soul Steeper**, **Moldervine Reclamation**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Doubling Season**, **Branching Evolution**, **Hardened Scales**, **Winding Constrictor**, **Ozolith, the Shattered Spire**, **Blight Mound**, **Tend the Pests**, and **Pest Infestation** are the cards that make token deaths, lifegain, counters, or creature volume decisive. Sequence payoffs before cashing in creatures when the visible board and mana allow it.

- Engines: **Skullclamp**, **Ashnod's Altar**, **High Market**, **Scute Swarm**, **Moldervine Reclamation**, **Dina, Soul Steeper**, **Essence Warden**, **Prosperous Innkeeper**, **Doubling Season**, **Branching Evolution**, **Iridescent Hornbeetle**, and **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest** are the repeatable infrastructure. Protect engines that multiply future turns; spend engines only when the current exchange prevents lethal damage, removes a decisive threat, or converts into a stronger engine.

- Velocity: **Village Rites**, **Deadly Dispute**, **Skullclamp**, **Moldervine Reclamation**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Inspiring Call**, **Immoral Bargain**, **Comforting Counsel**, and **Blex, Vexing Pest** keep cards flowing. Use velocity after establishing mana or board material unless digging for an immediate land, sweeper, protection spell, or removal action is necessary.

- Interaction: **Assassin's Trophy**, **Witherbloom Charm**, **Mortality Spear**, **Toxic Deluge**, **Pest Infestation**, **Haywire Mite**, **Arachnogenesis**, **Shopkeeper's Bane**, and sideboard removal answer threats that beat the engine. Aim interaction at cards that stop attacks, shut off sacrifice or counters, threaten a sweeper race, or invalidate the lifegain-drain plan.

- Protection: **Heroic Intervention**, **Inspiring Call**, **Arachnogenesis**, **Swarmyard**, and sometimes **High Market** preserve the board through removal, combat, or exile-risk situations. Hold protection for Blech, a scaling token board, a counter-loaded team, or a draw engine unless spending it now prevents a decisive life-total collapse.

- Recursion and recovery: **Pest Rescuer**, **Cauldron of Essence**, **Moldervine Reclamation**, **Blex, Vexing Pest**, **Meltstrider Eulogist**, **Enduring Tenacity**, and **Immoral Bargain** may provide rebuild tools, but card text check required for exact timing and zones on several of these cards. After a sweeper, rebuild with mana plus one payoff rather than emptying every creature into a second public answer.

- Mana: **Forest**, **Swamp**, **Command Tower**, **Overgrown Tomb**, **Llanowar Wastes**, **Woodland Cemetery**, **Deathcap Glade**, **Necroblossom Snarl**, **Undergrowth Stadium**, **Jungle Hollow**, **Vernal Fen**, **Viridescent Bog**, **Bojuka Bog**, **Radiant Fountain**, **Reliquary Tower**, **High Market**, **Swarmyard**, **Sol Ring**, **Arcane Signet**, **Nature's Lore**, **Rampant Growth**, **Cultivate**, **Sakura-Tribe Elder**, **Virulent Emissary**, and **Prosperous Innkeeper** define the ramp shell. Prioritize colored access before utility lands unless the legal action directly uses **Bojuka Bog**, **High Market**, or **Swarmyard** for a visible tactical need.

- Sideboard modules: **Force of Vigor**, **Krosan Grip**, **Reclamation Sage**, and **Return to Nature** are artifact/enchantment pressure tools; **Nihil Spellbomb** and **Scavenging Ooze** are graveyard tools; **Culling Ritual** is a low-cost permanent reset; **Putrefy** is flexible removal; **Pithing Needle** is activated-ability suppression; **Veil of Summer** is protection against blue or black interaction. Add these role cards only when the matchup or revealed permanents make their axis relevant.

## Primary Win Conditions

- Counter-swarm pressure wins when the deck converts many small bodies into lethal combat. Setup with **Blech, Loafing Pest**, Pest makers, **Scute Swarm**, **Iridescent Hornbeetle**, **Arasta of the Endless Web**, or other creature volume, then add **Hardened Scales**, **Winding Constrictor**, **Branching Evolution**, **Doubling Season**, **Ozolith, the Shattered Spire**, or **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest** before attacking. Execute by preserving the widest board, forcing trades that grow the team, and using **Inspiring Call** or **Heroic Intervention** when legal to punish sweepers or removal. Prioritize this line when the board is stable, opponents have limited blockers, or visible engines already make counters and tokens compound; delay it when committing another payoff would expose the only board to a known sweeper.

- Lifegain-drain wins when repeated creature entries, Pest deaths, or incidental life gain turn into reach. Setup with **Dina, Soul Steeper**, **Essence Warden**, **Prosperous Innkeeper**, **Radiant Fountain**, Pest tokens, and any card whose visible text gains life. Execute by sequencing token production before sacrifice outlets, using **High Market**, **Ashnod's Altar**, **Skullclamp**, **Village Rites**, **Deadly Dispute**, **Tend the Pests**, and **Moldervine Reclamation** only when the sacrificed creature is replaceable, already dying, or unlocks lethal pressure. Prioritize this line against stalled boards, fogged combat, pillow-fort effects, or opponents who can answer one large attacker but not repeated drain triggers.

- Card-advantage attrition wins when the deck outdraws removal and rebuilds after trades. Setup with **Skullclamp**, **Moldervine Reclamation**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Village Rites**, **Deadly Dispute**, **Inspiring Call**, **Immoral Bargain**, **Comforting Counsel**, or **Blex, Vexing Pest** where legal. Execute by trading expendable creatures for cards, attacking with deathtouch pressure from **Ohran Frostfang**, and rebuilding with one payoff plus one creature source instead of emptying the hand. Prioritize this line against removal-heavy opponents, visible sweepers, or games where the first swarm plan was answered.

- Big-permanent pressure wins when expensive engines stick long enough to dominate combat or resources. Setup with **Sol Ring**, **Arcane Signet**, **Nature's Lore**, **Rampant Growth**, **Cultivate**, **Sakura-Tribe Elder**, **Virulent Emissary**, and **Prosperous Innkeeper** to reach **Beledros Witherbloom**, **Doubling Season**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, or **Blech, Loafing Pest** ahead of curve. Execute by casting the permanent that immediately improves the visible board, then holding protection or interaction rather than stacking unnecessary engines. Prioritize this line when mana is ahead and the opponent cannot visibly punish a tap-out; avoid it when survival requires **Toxic Deluge**, **Arachnogenesis**, **Assassin's Trophy**, **Mortality Spear**, **Witherbloom Charm**, or **Pest Infestation** first.

## Secondary Win Conditions

- Backup combat wins through ordinary creature pressure when engines are absent. Use **Blex, Vexing Pest**, **Duskshell Crawler**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **South Wind Avatar**, **Gorma, the Gullet**, and any card whose visible text improves attacks, but mark unfamiliar names as Card text check required before assuming evasion, counters, or damage output. Attack when trades advance counters, draw cards, remove blockers, or force lethal clocks; hold back when the same bodies are needed to protect life total or sacrifice payoffs.

- Sacrifice-burst wins when one large creature can become a lethal or overwhelming Pest board. Use **Tend the Pests** on a creature that is exposed to removal, already blocked profitably, or no longer needed as the only stabilizer; follow with **Dina, Soul Steeper**, **Essence Warden**, **Moldervine Reclamation**, **Skullclamp**, **Ashnod's Altar**, or **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest** if legal. Do not cash in the only relevant blocker unless the resulting tokens, drain, mana, or cards clearly prevent death or close the game.

- Recursive or rebuild pressure wins after removal if the deck keeps mana plus one engine. **Pest Rescuer**, **Cauldron of Essence**, **Enduring Tenacity**, **Meltstrider Eulogist**, and **Immoral Bargain** require card text checks for exact zones and timing, so use only legal actions exposed by Veles. Rebuild by leading with the card that produces ongoing material, then add protection or draw before committing another expensive payoff.

- Utility-land pressure is not a primary plan, but **High Market**, **Swarmyard**, **Bojuka Bog**, **Radiant Fountain**, and **Reliquary Tower** can support a win by preserving life, protecting a relevant creature if legal, denying graveyard timing, or keeping extra cards. Do not prioritize utility-land lines over colored mana unless the visible game state makes the utility action immediately relevant.

## Emergency Lines

- When behind on life, stabilize before engine greed. Prefer blockers, lifegain bodies, **Arachnogenesis**, **Toxic Deluge**, **Pest Infestation**, **Witherbloom Charm**, **Mortality Spear**, **Assassin's Trophy**, **Radiant Fountain**, and legal **High Market** lifegain over slow setup. Spend **Heroic Intervention** or **Inspiring Call** defensively only when preserving the board prevents lethal or protects a recovery engine.

- When behind on board, answer the permanent or combat step that will decide the next turn cycle. Use **Toxic Deluge** for wide or oversized boards when the life payment is survivable, **Arachnogenesis** for attack-step survival if legal, **Pest Infestation** for artifacts/enchantments plus bodies when targets exist, and spot removal for the threat that invalidates blocking or engine rebuilding.

- When behind on cards, convert expendable material into velocity without sacrificing the last stabilizer. **Skullclamp**, **Village Rites**, **Deadly Dispute**, **Moldervine Reclamation**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Inspiring Call**, **Immoral Bargain**, and **Comforting Counsel** should dig toward lands, sweepers, protection, or a new engine; avoid draw spells that spend the whole turn while the visible board remains lethal.

- When behind on mana, prioritize colored access and cheap ramp over speculative engines. Cast **Sol Ring**, **Arcane Signet**, **Nature's Lore**, **Rampant Growth**, **Cultivate**, **Sakura-Tribe Elder**, **Virulent Emissary**, or **Prosperous Innkeeper** when it accelerates the next relevant play, but do not keep sacrificing tempo to ramp if a threat must be removed now.

- When engines or win conditions are removed, pivot to the next independent axis. A lost **Doubling Season** or **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest** means play attrition with **Skullclamp** and **Moldervine Reclamation**; a lost **Dina, Soul Steeper** means pressure through combat and counters; a lost graveyard plan means use fresh tokens and board presence rather than fighting over recursion. If **Blech, Loafing Pest** becomes too expensive through commander tax, commit only when the commander materially changes the visible turn instead of recasting by habit.

## Resource Model

- Life is a spendable buffer only when it buys a decisive board swing. Pay life for **Toxic Deluge** only when the visible attackers, combo pieces, or engine permanents matter more than the lost life, and value lifegain from **Essence Warden**, **Prosperous Innkeeper**, **Dina, Soul Steeper**, **Starscape Cleric**, **Radiant Fountain**, **High Market**, and Pest death triggers when it keeps the deck alive long enough to convert bodies into pressure. Card text check required for **Blech, Loafing Pest**, **Teacher's Pest**, **Pest Mascot**, **Bogwater Lumaret**, **Moseo, Vein's New Dean**, **Eumidian Terrabotanist**, **Ribtruss Roaster**, **Gorma, the Gullet**, **South Wind Avatar**, **Lluwen, Exchange Student**, **Meltstrider Eulogist**, **Comforting Counsel**, **Dina, Essence Brewer**, **Shopkeeper's Bane**, and **Viridescent Bog** before assuming life, Pest, or counter text.

- Cards in hand are fuel for rebuilding, not a reason to delay stabilization. Convert expendable creatures through **Skullclamp**, **Village Rites**, **Deadly Dispute**, **Moldervine Reclamation**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Inspiring Call**, **Immoral Bargain**, **Comforting Counsel**, and **Blex, Vexing Pest** when legal, but keep interaction if the opponent's visible next turn can beat a draw spell.

- Mana is the deck's first bottleneck because the strongest turns require green-black access plus surplus mana. **Sol Ring**, **Arcane Signet**, **Nature's Lore**, **Rampant Growth**, **Cultivate**, **Sakura-Tribe Elder**, **Virulent Emissary**, and **Prosperous Innkeeper** should accelerate **Blech, Loafing Pest**, **Doubling Season**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Beledros Witherbloom**, or a protected engine turn instead of merely increasing mana count with no follow-up.

- Board presence is both offense and currency. Treat Pest tokens, **Scute Swarm** bodies, **Arasta of the Endless Web** tokens, **Twitching Doll**, **Pest Summoning**, and small creatures as blockers first when under pressure, then as sacrifice, draw, counter, drain, or attack material once survival is stable.

- Sacrifice fodder becomes valuable when it is replaceable, already dying, or unlocking a larger exchange. Use **Tend the Pests**, **Ashnod's Altar**, **High Market**, **Village Rites**, **Deadly Dispute**, **Skullclamp**, **Dina, Soul Steeper**, **Moldervine Reclamation**, and **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest** on material whose loss does not expose lethal attacks unless the payoff wins or prevents death.

- Graveyard and exile are resources only through visible legal actions. Use **Bojuka Bog**, **Haywire Mite**, and configured bullets **Nihil Spellbomb**, **Scavenging Ooze**, and **Return to Nature** against known graveyard or exile-relevant plans, but do not fire graveyard hate before the opponent has committed a target worth denying.

- Information is gained from public mana, hand size, revealed cards, graveyards, and legal actions. Let Veles state and action lists override assumptions, especially for unfamiliar card names, commander tax, optional triggers, sideboard legality, and whether **Swarmyard**, **Cauldron of Essence**, **Pest Rescuer**, or **Enduring Tenacity** can legally protect or recur anything.

- Sideboard bullets convert matchup knowledge into narrow answers. Add role cards through configured sideboarding only when their axis is visible or strongly matchup-relevant: **Force of Vigor**, **Krosan Grip**, **Reclamation Sage**, and **Return to Nature** for artifacts/enchantments; **Veil of Summer** for black or blue interaction; **Putrefy** for creature/artifact removal; **Culling Ritual** for cheap-permanent boards; **Pithing Needle** for activated abilities; **Nihil Spellbomb** and **Scavenging Ooze** for graveyards.

## Mana Guide

- Keep openers with green and black access, at least two mana sources, and a castable first three turns. Prioritize hands with **Forest** or green dual plus **Nature's Lore**, **Rampant Growth**, **Sakura-Tribe Elder**, **Cultivate**, **Prosperous Innkeeper**, **Arcane Signet**, or **Sol Ring**; mulligan hands where **High Market**, **Swarmyard**, **Reliquary Tower**, **Radiant Fountain**, or **Bojuka Bog** are the only early lands unless the rest of the hand is clearly functional.

- Sequence colored sources before utility lands when casting spells matters. **Command Tower**, **Overgrown Tomb**, **Llanowar Wastes**, **Woodland Cemetery**, **Deathcap Glade**, **Necroblossom Snarl**, **Undergrowth Stadium**, **Jungle Hollow**, **Vernal Fen**, **Viridescent Bog**, **Forest**, and **Swamp** should establish green-black access before **Reliquary Tower**, **High Market**, **Swarmyard**, **Radiant Fountain**, or **Bojuka Bog** unless a utility trigger is immediately decisive.

- Play tapped or conditional lands early when the turn has no one-mana action. Use **Jungle Hollow**, **Bojuka Bog**, **Radiant Fountain**, **Necroblossom Snarl**, **Deathcap Glade**, **Woodland Cemetery**, and **Vernal Fen** according to visible untapped text and Veles output; Card text check required for **Vernal Fen** and **Viridescent Bog** before assuming timing or colors.

- Cast ramp before engines unless survival or interaction is required. A turn spent on **Nature's Lore**, **Rampant Growth**, **Cultivate**, **Sakura-Tribe Elder**, **Sol Ring**, or **Arcane Signet** is correct when it advances a next-turn **Blech, Loafing Pest**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Doubling Season**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Beledros Witherbloom**, **Moldervine Reclamation**, or protected double-spell turn.

- Delay land drops before draw or selection only when legal choices could change the best land. If casting **Village Rites**, **Deadly Dispute**, **Skullclamp**, **Immoral Bargain**, **Comforting Counsel**, **Blex, Vexing Pest**, or another visible draw action before playing a land, hold the land when not missing required mana for that spell; otherwise play the land first to unlock legal actions, commander access, and interaction windows.

- Preserve black-green mana for interaction when opponents can present a decisive threat. Keep access for **Assassin's Trophy**, **Witherbloom Charm**, **Mortality Spear**, **Heroic Intervention**, **Arachnogenesis**, **Deadly Dispute**, **Village Rites**, or **Toxic Deluge** when passing into a dangerous turn, and spend colorless from **Sol Ring**, **Ashnod's Altar**, or utility lands on generic costs where Veles exposes payment choices.

- Treat **Bojuka Bog** as timing-sensitive disruption rather than an automatic early land. Play it early only when mana development requires it or when a visible graveyard must be exiled now; otherwise preserve the graveyard trigger for a turn where it answers recursion, delve-style pressure, reanimation, flashback, or a known graveyard engine.

## Mulligan Guide

- Strong keep: Keep hands with green and black access, two or three lands, one accelerant, and one payoff or stabilizer. Examples include **Command Tower** plus **Forest** with **Sol Ring**, **Nature's Lore**, and **Blech, Loafing Pest**; **Overgrown Tomb** plus **Swamp** with **Arcane Signet**, **Sakura-Tribe Elder**, and **Moldervine Reclamation**; or **Woodland Cemetery**, **Forest**, **Rampant Growth**, **Skullclamp**, and **Scute Swarm**.

- Medium keep: Keep slower hands with three colored lands and a coherent turn-three or turn-four plan when the matchup is not visibly fast. **Forest**, **Swamp**, **Jungle Hollow**, **Cultivate**, **Dina, Soul Steeper**, and **Ohran Frostfang** is acceptable on the draw; it is weaker on the play if no turn-one or turn-two action appears.

- Risky keep: Keep utility-land hands only when colored mana is already secured. **High Market**, **Swarmyard**, **Reliquary Tower**, **Radiant Fountain**, or **Bojuka Bog** should not count as full early fixing unless Veles shows legal colored actions; a hand with **Forest**, **High Market**, **Sol Ring**, **Doubling Season**, **Beledros Witherbloom**, and no black source is risky even with acceleration.

- Automatic ship: Mulligan hands with zero or one land, hands with no green source and no **Sol Ring** or **Arcane Signet**, hands with no black access and multiple black interaction spells, or hands whose first legal play is only turn four. Ship hands overloaded with **Beledros Witherbloom**, **Doubling Season**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Toxic Deluge**, **Arachnogenesis**, and **Immoral Bargain** when they lack early mana or bodies.

- Matchup-dependent keep: Keep interaction-heavy hands against visible fast creature, artifact, enchantment, or graveyard plans. **Assassin's Trophy**, **Witherbloom Charm**, **Mortality Spear**, **Toxic Deluge**, **Haywire Mite**, and **Bojuka Bog** gain value when the opponent's commander, revealed cards, or public graveyard makes them live; do not keep them as blanks against an unknown slow table without ramp.

- Play/draw adjustment: On the play, prefer acceleration into **Blech, Loafing Pest** or an engine before holding reactive mana. On the draw, value **Essence Warden**, **Prosperous Innkeeper**, **Sakura-Tribe Elder**, **Virulent Emissary**, **Village Rites**, **Deadly Dispute**, and cheap interaction more because the opponent may define the first combat or stack fight.

- Trap hand: Do not keep a hand that looks powerful only because it has several engines but no bodies. **Hardened Scales**, **Branching Evolution**, **Doubling Season**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, and **Ashnod's Altar** need creatures, tokens, or sacrifice material; without **Blech, Loafing Pest**, **Scute Swarm**, **Pest Summoning**, **Sakura-Tribe Elder**, **Prosperous Innkeeper**, or another early body, the hand may spend turns doing nothing.

## Turn Arc

- Turn 1: Establish colored mana before utility. Preferred starts are **Command Tower**, **Overgrown Tomb**, **Forest**, **Swamp**, or a green-black dual into **Sol Ring**, **Skullclamp**, **Hardened Scales**, **Essence Warden**, or **Haywire Mite** when legal; use **Bojuka Bog** early only if the graveyard trigger matters now or no better land action exists.

- Turn 2: Prioritize ramp that fixes the next two turns. Cast **Nature's Lore**, **Rampant Growth**, **Arcane Signet**, **Sakura-Tribe Elder**, **Prosperous Innkeeper**, or **Virulent Emissary** before speculative engines unless the opponent presents a must-answer permanent for **Assassin's Trophy**, **Witherbloom Charm**, **Haywire Mite**, or **Mortality Spear**.

- Turn 3: Deploy **Blech, Loafing Pest** when the legal action list, commander tax, and visible interaction make it productive. If Blech would immediately die or not affect the board, prefer **Cultivate**, **Scute Swarm**, **Winding Constrictor**, **Dina, Soul Steeper**, **Blight Mound**, **Pest Summoning**, or draw setup with **Skullclamp**, **Village Rites**, or **Deadly Dispute** on expendable material.

- Turns 4-5: Commit the engine only when it converts existing material. **Moldervine Reclamation**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Doubling Season**, **Branching Evolution**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Ashnod's Altar**, and **Iridescent Hornbeetle** are strongest when bodies, counters, or sacrifices already exist; hold **Heroic Intervention** or **Inspiring Call** when the board is valuable and opponents have visible sweeper or removal pressure.

- Turns 4-5 deviation: Stabilize before scaling when behind on board. Use **Toxic Deluge**, **Arachnogenesis**, **Pest Infestation**, **Assassin's Trophy**, **Mortality Spear**, **Witherbloom Charm**, or disposable blockers before tapping out for **Beledros Witherbloom**, **Doubling Season**, or **Ohran Frostfang** if the opponent's visible attack can erase the engine turn.

- Late game: Convert resources into a closing line instead of only drawing more cards. Attack with deathtouch pressure from **Ohran Frostfang**, grow the board through **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Hardened Scales**, **Winding Constrictor**, **Branching Evolution**, and **Doubling Season**, drain through **Dina, Soul Steeper** and life-gain bodies, or cash expendable creatures through **Tend the Pests**, **Skullclamp**, **Ashnod's Altar**, **Village Rites**, **Deadly Dispute**, and **Moldervine Reclamation** when the exchange advances lethal, survival, or a protected rebuild.

## Card Roles

- **Blech, Loafing Pest:** Treat the commander as the default engine anchor, but Card text check required before assuming exact Pest, counter, drain, or sacrifice text. Cast Blech when the next turn can use its visible abilities or when command-zone pressure matters; avoid exposing it into obvious removal if the hand already has **Scute Swarm**, **Moldervine Reclamation**, **Dina, Soul Steeper**, or **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest** as a lower-tax engine.

- **Pest creatures and Pest makers:** Use **Bogwater Lumaret**, **Teacher's Pest**, **Pest Mascot**, **Moseo, Vein's New Dean**, **Eccentric Pestfinder**, **Pest Rescuer**, **Pest Summoning**, and **Blight Mound** as body density first and synergy cards second until text is verified. Card text check required for several of these names, so Veles should follow legal actions and visible text; preserve expendable Pest bodies for **Skullclamp**, **Village Rites**, **Deadly Dispute**, **Ashnod's Altar**, **Tend the Pests**, **Dina, Soul Steeper**, **Moldervine Reclamation**, and **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest** instead of trading them away without a conversion plan.

- **Cheap life and drain pieces:** Deploy **Essence Warden**, **Prosperous Innkeeper**, **Dina, Soul Steeper**, **Dina, Essence Brewer**, **Starscape Cleric**, and **Enduring Tenacity** to make token turns matter without relying only on combat. Card text check required for **Dina, Essence Brewer**, **Starscape Cleric**, and **Enduring Tenacity**; when Veles shows life-gain triggers or drain actions, prioritize them when they stabilize against attacks, pressure planeswalkers or life totals, or make sacrifice chains lethal.

- **Ramp creatures and early material:** Cast **Sakura-Tribe Elder**, **Virulent Emissary**, **Prosperous Innkeeper**, and **Twitching Doll** early when they improve mana or leave behind sacrifice value. Card text check required for **Virulent Emissary** and **Twitching Doll**; use these cards as bridge pieces into Blech and five-plus-mana engines, not as precious attackers unless combat math is clearly favorable.

- **Artifact ramp and sacrifice mana:** Use **Sol Ring** and **Arcane Signet** to accelerate commander and engines, then use **Ashnod's Altar** as a commitment card only when creatures can be converted into mana, lethal drain, protected rebuilding, or a decisive follow-up. Do not sacrifice necessary blockers just because **Ashnod's Altar** is legal; sacrifice when the mana immediately casts a visible payoff, pays a relevant cost, or protects against exile/theft/removal.

- **Land ramp:** Cast **Nature's Lore**, **Rampant Growth**, and **Cultivate** before speculative engines when the hand needs colors or commander-tax insulation. Prefer green sources early and black access by the turn interaction or drain matters; do not delay ramp for **Hardened Scales**, **Branching Evolution**, or **Doubling Season** unless counters are already entering this turn.

- **Card-velocity package:** Use **Skullclamp**, **Village Rites**, **Deadly Dispute**, **Moldervine Reclamation**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Inspiring Call**, **Comforting Counsel**, and **Immoral Bargain** to refill after establishing bodies. Card text check required for **Comforting Counsel** and **Immoral Bargain**; cast draw engines when the board can feed them or when a sweeper/rebuild turn is expected, and avoid spending a full turn drawing if visible combat damage requires removal or blockers now.

- **Counter scaling package:** Commit **Hardened Scales**, **Winding Constrictor**, **Branching Evolution**, **Doubling Season**, **Ozolith, the Shattered Spire**, **Duskshell Crawler**, **Iridescent Hornbeetle**, and **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest** when counters are already being placed or sacrifices are ready. **Duskshell Crawler** is a practical bridge between counters and combat pressure; **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest** turns sacrifice chains into a board-wide threat; **Doubling Season** and **Branching Evolution** are high-ceiling but poor when the battlefield is empty.

- **Token scaling package:** Use **Scute Swarm**, **Iridescent Hornbeetle**, **Arasta of the Endless Web**, **Pest Infestation**, **Tend the Pests**, **Springleaf Parade**, and **Beledros Witherbloom** to turn time and mana into bodies. Card text check required for **Springleaf Parade** and exact **Beledros Witherbloom** play patterns; protect these cards when they are the only route to rebuilding, and prefer land drops or Pest production before counter doublers when token entry is the current bottleneck.

- **Protection package:** Hold **Heroic Intervention** and **Inspiring Call** for a board that is actually worth saving or for a lethal/near-lethal counter attack. Do not fire protection into a minor one-for-one unless losing the protected permanent collapses the plan; do fire it to preserve Blech plus token engine, **Scute Swarm**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Ohran Frostfang**, or a doubled-counter board.

- **Removal and reset package:** Use **Assassin's Trophy**, **Witherbloom Charm**, **Mortality Spear**, **Pest Infestation**, **Toxic Deluge**, **Haywire Mite**, **Arachnogenesis**, and **Shopkeeper's Bane** for permanents or combat states that decide the game. Card text check required for **Shopkeeper's Bane** and exact modes on unfamiliar cards; save **Toxic Deluge** for boards you cannot race, use **Arachnogenesis** when it prevents a decisive attack or creates a swing-back, and avoid spending premium removal on medium threats while a commander, combo engine, or lethal attacker remains visible.

- **Sacrifice conversion package:** Use **Tend the Pests**, **Village Rites**, **Deadly Dispute**, **High Market**, **Ashnod's Altar**, **Skullclamp**, and **Moldervine Reclamation** on creatures that are dying anyway, replaceable, or worth converting into a bigger board. The best sacrifice turns combine one material creature, one payoff, and one immediate use for the new cards, mana, life, Pests, or counters.

- **Large finishers and pressure cards:** Treat **Beledros Witherbloom**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Gorma, the Gullet**, **South Wind Avatar**, **Blex, Vexing Pest**, **Meltstrider Eulogist**, **Professor Dellian Fel**, **Lluwen, Exchange Student**, **Essenceknit Scholar**, **Ribtruss Roaster**, **Eumidian Terrabotanist**, and **Cauldron of Essence** as role-conditional threats until text is verified. Card text check required for all unfamiliar names in this group; commit them when legal text shows immediate board impact, protection is available, or waiting risks falling behind.

- **Utility lands:** Use **High Market** as sacrifice protection, **Bojuka Bog** as graveyard timing pressure, **Swarmyard** only when visible creature types and legal actions make regeneration relevant, **Reliquary Tower** when hand size matters after draw bursts, and **Radiant Fountain** as incidental life rather than a keep enabler. Do not let colorless utility lands strand black-green early plays.

- **Color lands and basics:** Sequence **Command Tower**, **Overgrown Tomb**, **Llanowar Wastes**, **Woodland Cemetery**, **Deathcap Glade**, **Necroblossom Snarl**, **Undergrowth Stadium**, **Jungle Hollow**, **Viridescent Bog**, **Vernal Fen**, **Forest**, and **Swamp** to produce green early and black by interaction turns. Card text check required for **Viridescent Bog** and **Vernal Fen**; choose untapped colored sources over cute utility when the hand contains **Nature's Lore**, **Rampant Growth**, **Assassin's Trophy**, **Dina, Soul Steeper**, or **Toxic Deluge**.

## Interaction Priorities

- **Remove game-ending engines before medium threats:** Spend **Assassin's Trophy**, **Mortality Spear**, **Pest Infestation**, **Haywire Mite**, **Toxic Deluge**, or sideboard answers on visible permanents that will kill this deck, shut off creature/token engines, exile graveyards at the decisive moment, prevent lifegain, or make combat impossible. Do not spend premium removal on a medium attacker when a visible combo permanent, commander, draw engine, or lethal equipment/aura line is still unanswered.

- **Prioritize anti-token and anti-sacrifice hate:** Answer effects that punish creature deaths, stop lifegain, prevent tokens entering, or invalidate graveyard recursion before building deeper into **Blech, Loafing Pest**, **Dina, Soul Steeper**, **Moldervine Reclamation**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, or **Scute Swarm**. If the opponent has a public sweeper pattern or a visible repeatable exile effect, hold **Heroic Intervention**, **Inspiring Call**, **Village Rites**, **Deadly Dispute**, **High Market**, or **Ashnod's Altar** to convert exposed material rather than add more bodies.

- **Use artifact/enchantment removal on lock pieces and mana-positive engines first:** Aim **Pest Infestation**, **Haywire Mite**, and post-board **Force of Vigor**, **Krosan Grip**, **Reclamation Sage**, **Return to Nature**, or **Culling Ritual** at permanents that stop attacks, stop activated abilities, accelerate opponents beyond recovery, or disable sacrifice/lifegain/counter engines. Ignore low-impact utility artifacts and enchantments until they create a visible clock, card advantage loop, or lock.

- **Use graveyard exile at the commitment point:** Fire **Bojuka Bog**, post-board **Nihil Spellbomb**, **Scavenging Ooze**, or **Return to Nature** when the opponent’s graveyard is visibly about to become mana, cards, creatures, or lethal recursion. Do not use **Bojuka Bog** early just for incidental cards unless the hand has enough colored mana and the opponent’s graveyard plan is already public.

- **Use sweepers only when they change the race:** Cast **Toxic Deluge** or **Culling Ritual** when the visible board cannot be stabilized by blocks, **Arachnogenesis**, single-target removal, or sacrifice value. Preserve your own engine if the opponent’s pressure is manageable; accept losing Pests and small creatures when the reset unlocks **Moldervine Reclamation**, **Dina, Soul Steeper**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Skullclamp**, or a rebuild from commander access.

- **Treat discard, counter, and bounce as unavailable unless legal actions expose them:** This registered deck does not appear to contain reliable maindeck discard, counterspells, or bounce by known card names. If unfamiliar cards such as **Bogwater Lumaret**, **Moseo, Vein's New Dean**, **Shopkeeper's Bane**, or **Cauldron of Essence** expose those modes through the rules engine, choose targets by the same hierarchy: lethal combo piece, board lock, sweeper/protection fight, then card-advantage engine.

- **Bait interaction with replaceable pieces before fragile payoffs:** Lead with ramp, small Pest bodies, **Hardened Scales**, **Winding Constrictor**, or expendable token makers before committing **Doubling Season**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Beledros Witherbloom**, or **Scute Swarm** into open mana. If the opponent uses removal on a small engine, pivot into the larger payoff; if they wait, build enough material that protection or sacrifice conversion makes removal inefficient.

## Combat And Trading Rules

- **Attack when bodies convert into cards, counters, drain, or lethal pressure:** Push combat with **Ohran Frostfang**, **Duskshell Crawler**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Blex, Vexing Pest**, **Dina, Soul Steeper**, and Pest/token density when attacks either draw cards, grow the team, drain life through lifegain/death triggers, or force blocks that improve sacrifice turns. Card text check required for exact combat roles on **Blech, Loafing Pest**, **Blex, Vexing Pest**, **Gorma, the Gullet**, **South Wind Avatar**, and unfamiliar Pest cards.

- **Block before racing when life is under real pressure:** Preserve life against commander damage, evasive attackers, or two-turn clocks even if a Pest or utility creature dies. Trade expendable bodies freely when **Moldervine Reclamation**, **Skullclamp**, **Dina, Soul Steeper**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **High Market**, **Village Rites**, **Deadly Dispute**, or **Tend the Pests** can convert the death into cards, counters, mana, life, or replacement bodies.

- **Do not sacrifice necessary blockers without an immediate payoff:** Use **Ashnod's Altar**, **High Market**, **Village Rites**, **Deadly Dispute**, **Skullclamp**, and **Tend the Pests** on creatures already dying, creatures blanked by combat, or creatures that unlock a decisive spell this turn. Keep blockers when the opponent can kill on the backswing and the sacrifice produces only speculative value.

- **Protect boards that represent a clock or engine, not every creature:** Use **Heroic Intervention** or **Inspiring Call** to save **Blech, Loafing Pest** plus material, **Scute Swarm**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Doubling Season** boards, or counter-expanded teams. Let isolated low-impact creatures die if protection is needed later for a lethal attack, sweeper stop, or engine turn.

- **Use **Arachnogenesis** as a survival and swing-back card:** Cast **Arachnogenesis** when an attack would deal decisive damage, remove needed planes of defense, or let the opponent win before your next turn. If the attack is small and your board can block profitably, preserve **Arachnogenesis** for a larger attack or for a turn where the created bodies matter.

- **Trade differently by archetype:** Against creature swarms, trade early and set up **Toxic Deluge**, **Culling Ritual**, **Pest Infestation**, or **Arachnogenesis**. Against control, avoid overcommitting into public sweepers and pressure with resilient, replaceable bodies. Against combo or graveyard decks, attack to shorten the clock while holding **Assassin's Trophy**, **Mortality Spear**, **Bojuka Bog**, **Nihil Spellbomb**, or **Scavenging Ooze** for the visible commitment turn.

- **Close after stabilizing:** Once life is safe and engines are online, stop taking purely defensive lines. Convert Pests, Insects, counters, and lifegain into attacks, **Dina, Soul Steeper** drains, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest** growth, **Ohran Frostfang** card pressure, or commander pressure before opponents rebuild.

## Selection And Tutor Rules

- **Use land search to fix colors before value selection:** Prioritize **Nature's Lore**, **Rampant Growth**, **Cultivate**, **Sakura-Tribe Elder**, and **Virulent Emissary** lines that produce both green and black access for **Blech, Loafing Pest**, **Dina, Soul Steeper**, **Mortality Spear**, **Moldervine Reclamation**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Toxic Deluge**, and **Beledros Witherbloom**. If the opener already has both colors, search for the land line that preserves untapped mana or future landfall with **Scute Swarm**; do not fetch around hidden threats unless the engine has revealed relevant information.

- **Sequence draw after expendable material exists:** Use **Skullclamp**, **Village Rites**, **Deadly Dispute**, **Moldervine Reclamation**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Inspiring Call**, and **Immoral Bargain** to convert creatures, counters, attacks, or protected boards into action. Avoid spending a turn on card flow when the visible board requires removal, blocking, or commander deployment first. Card text check required for exact **Immoral Bargain** and **Comforting Counsel** selection modes.

- **Cash in creatures that are already exposed:** Prefer sacrificing or clamping Pests, tokens, spent ramp bodies, or creatures already targeted by removal before sacrificing **Dina, Soul Steeper**, **Winding Constrictor**, **Scute Swarm**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, or **Blech, Loafing Pest**. If **Moldervine Reclamation**, **Dina, Soul Steeper**, **Ashnod's Altar**, or **High Market** changes the payoff, choose the line that preserves blockers unless the current turn creates a decisive mana, card, or lethal drain swing.

- **Treat unfamiliar selection text as rules-engine led:** For **Bogwater Lumaret**, **Teacher's Pest**, **Pest Mascot**, **Moseo, Vein's New Dean**, **Eumidian Terrabotanist**, **Eccentric Pestfinder**, **Twitching Doll**, **Ribtruss Roaster**, **Gorma, the Gullet**, **Pest Rescuer**, **South Wind Avatar**, **Lluwen, Exchange Student**, **Enduring Tenacity**, **Essenceknit Scholar**, **Meltstrider Eulogist**, **Cauldron of Essence**, **Feral Appetite**, **Comforting Counsel**, **Professor Dellian Fel**, **Springleaf Parade**, **Dina, Essence Brewer**, and **Shopkeeper's Bane**, card text check required. When Veles exposes finite choices, select by visible need: mana access, survival, engine protection, removal for decisive permanents, then board growth.

- **Find lands before committing landfall payoffs when possible:** If **Scute Swarm** is legal and the turn can still make or create land entries, decide whether casting it before **Cultivate**, **Rampant Growth**, **Nature's Lore**, or the normal land drop is legal and safe. If the opponent has open removal and no protection, weigh waiting or baiting first; do not assume a landfall trigger will happen unless the rules engine exposes the sequence.

- **Bottom or decline low-impact cards under pressure:** When a scry, reveal, surveil, look-at-top, or similar choice appears, keep lands only when missing land drops or color access, keep removal only for visible threats or known matchup axes, and keep expensive engines only when the next turns can cast and protect them. Bottom redundant ramp when mana is already sufficient and the game needs **Toxic Deluge**, **Arachnogenesis**, **Assassin's Trophy**, **Heroic Intervention**, **Skullclamp**, **Moldervine Reclamation**, or a closing threat.

## Priority And Stack Rules

- **Pass priority when no legal action changes the current exchange:** The deck should not spend removal, sacrifice, or protection simply because priority appears. If the stack contains a low-impact spell and no creature is threatened, no lethal line is present, and no mana will be wasted by waiting, let the spell resolve and preserve **Assassin's Trophy**, **Witherbloom Charm**, **Mortality Spear**, **Heroic Intervention**, **Inspiring Call**, **Village Rites**, **Deadly Dispute**, **High Market**, and **Ashnod's Altar**.

- **Respond to removal by saving or converting the target:** Use **Heroic Intervention** or **Inspiring Call** when the threatened permanent is **Blech, Loafing Pest**, **Scute Swarm**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Doubling Season**, a counter-expanded team, or a board that wins soon. If protection is not legal or not worth spending, use **Village Rites**, **Deadly Dispute**, **Skullclamp**, **High Market**, **Ashnod's Altar**, or **Tend the Pests** on the threatened creature only when the engine confirms the action and cost are legal.

- **Use instant removal at commitment windows:** Aim **Assassin's Trophy**, **Witherbloom Charm**, **Mortality Spear**, **Pest Infestation**, **Haywire Mite**, or post-board interaction at a visible combo piece, lethal attacker, lock permanent, graveyard enabler, or engine that will generate immediate advantage if it resolves or untaps. Let medium-value permanents resolve when answering them would leave no defense against a stronger public threat.

- **Hold sacrifice outlets through combat when survival matters:** Keep **High Market**, **Ashnod's Altar**, **Village Rites**, **Deadly Dispute**, and **Skullclamp** available until blockers are declared or damage is imminent if sacrificing early would remove needed blockers. After blocks, convert creatures that are already dying, blocked profitably, or no longer needed for lethal prevention.

- **Cast **Arachnogenesis** only on meaningful attacks:** Use it before combat damage when the incoming attack would create lethal damage, commander-damage danger, a collapse of blockers, or a swing-back board. Do not fire it into a small attack that ordinary blocks handle unless the created bodies directly unlock a decisive **Dina, Soul Steeper**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Skullclamp**, or **Moldervine Reclamation** turn.

- **Treat optional payments and triggers as board-state decisions:** Pay or accept optional effects from **Dina, Soul Steeper**, **Prosperous Innkeeper**, **Moldervine Reclamation**, **Blech, Loafing Pest**, **Cauldron of Essence**, **Starscape Cleric**, or other exposed cards only when the legal prompt confirms the cost and outcome. Decline optional payments that consume mana needed for interaction, commander recast, protection, or a decisive post-combat play.

- **Respect graveyard timing:** Use **Bojuka Bog** or post-board graveyard tools at the last safe visible moment before recursion, delve-like payment, flashback-like casting, death trigger exploitation, or reanimation resolves. Do not use graveyard exile early for marginal value if the opponent has not shown a graveyard payoff and the land or card would disrupt your own color sequencing.

- **Use stack discipline with sweepers and protection:** Cast **Toxic Deluge** only when the chosen life payment and board result are legal and improve survival or tempo. If an opponent casts a sweeper, protect the board only when the saved permanents represent a real engine or clock; otherwise let expendable creatures die and rebuild through commander access, draw engines, or sacrifice payoffs.

## Sideboard Map

- **Use sideboarding only when the Veles match configuration permits the 10-card policy sideboard:** Commander tables often have no sideboard, so treat these cards as a test-harness module unless the rules engine or event profile exposes legal sideboard actions. When sideboarding is legal, choose role cards for the opponent's visible axis rather than broad fear of unknown cards.

- **Keep the maindeck engine intact unless the matchup demands specific answers:** The default shell needs mana, Pest density, sacrifice conversion, and counter scaling to function. Reduce main-deck emphasis on expensive or text-uncertain cards before reducing **Sol Ring**, **Arcane Signet**, **Nature's Lore**, **Rampant Growth**, **Cultivate**, **Sakura-Tribe Elder**, **Skullclamp**, **Dina, Soul Steeper**, **Moldervine Reclamation**, **Scute Swarm**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Toxic Deluge**, **Heroic Intervention**, or **Assassin's Trophy** unless a visible matchup makes that role weak.

Artifact or enchantment engine opponent
Side in: Force of Vigor; Krosan Grip; Reclamation Sage; Return to Nature
Cut: Comforting Counsel; Immoral Bargain; Feral Appetite; South Wind Avatar

Graveyard recursion opponent
Side in: Nihil Spellbomb; Scavenging Ooze; Return to Nature
Cut: Comforting Counsel; Feral Appetite; South Wind Avatar

Blue or black stack-interaction opponent
Side in: Veil of Summer; Krosan Grip; Putrefy
Cut: Comforting Counsel; Immoral Bargain; Feral Appetite

Low-curve artifact or token swarm opponent
Side in: Culling Ritual; Putrefy; Reclamation Sage
Cut: Comforting Counsel; Immoral Bargain; South Wind Avatar

Activated-ability or commander-engine opponent
Side in: Pithing Needle; Krosan Grip; Putrefy
Cut: Comforting Counsel; Feral Appetite; South Wind Avatar

- **Force of Vigor is for urgent artifact and enchantment pressure:** Add role cards: **Force of Vigor** against fast mana rocks, prison pieces, artifact combo engines, enchantment draw engines, or pillowfort permanents that stop attacks or sacrifice loops. Use it when tempo matters more than card count, especially if the deck must protect a developing **Blech, Loafing Pest**, **Scute Swarm**, **Moldervine Reclamation**, or **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest** turn from a visible lock. It is bad when the opponent has few artifacts or enchantments, when pitching a green card would strand the hand, or when **Haywire Mite**, **Assassin's Trophy**, **Witherbloom Charm**, **Mortality Spear**, or **Pest Infestation** already covers the visible threat. Role change: after adding it, prioritize leaving green-card density and life total intact rather than spending every card on engine setup.

- **Krosan Grip is for protected permanent fights and stack-resilient answers:** Add role cards: **Krosan Grip** against artifacts or enchantments whose activated or triggered responses make normal removal risky. Use it for combo artifacts, graveyard engines, sacrifice engines, stax pieces, or enchantment value permanents when the opponent's open mana suggests they can protect or exploit the target. It is bad against creature-only pressure, planeswalker-style threats if not legally targetable, or decks where waiting for a three-mana answer loses the board. Role change: with **Krosan Grip** added, hold it for the permanent that actually blocks the deck's Pest, counter, or sacrifice plan rather than spending it on the first medium-value target.

- **Reclamation Sage is for answer-plus-body matchups:** Add role cards: **Reclamation Sage** when destroying one artifact or enchantment while adding a creature matters for **Skullclamp**, **Dina, Soul Steeper**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Moldervine Reclamation**, **Tend the Pests**, or **Ashnod's Altar**. It is strongest against decks with many targets but a creature-combat game where bodies still trade. It is bad when the opponent has instant-speed combo pieces that must be answered before a sorcery-speed creature can resolve, or when no legal target is visible and the body alone is below rate. Role change: after adding it, value creature recursion and sacrifice conversion more highly because the answer remains useful after entering.

- **Veil of Summer is for blue-black disruption and decisive protection turns:** Add role cards: **Veil of Summer** when the opponent shows counterspells, black removal, discard, or stack fights that threaten **Blech, Loafing Pest**, **Doubling Season**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Beledros Witherbloom**, or a lethal sacrifice/drain sequence. It is bad against non-blue, non-black creature swarms, artifact decks without targeted disruption, or games where holding green mana prevents necessary board development. Role change: with **Veil of Summer** added, delay fragile engine commitments until the card can legally protect the exchange or force through the payoff.

- **Nihil Spellbomb is for low-cost graveyard control without losing early tempo:** Add role cards: **Nihil Spellbomb** against reanimation, flashback-like play, recursion commanders, sacrifice loops, graveyard combo, or self-mill engines. Use it at the last safe visible moment before the opponent spends the graveyard, unless waiting risks losing the exile window. It is bad when graveyards are incidental and the deck needs board material, or when exiling all graveyards would conflict with a visible friendly recursion line if the engine exposes one. Role change: after adding it, prioritize black mana availability if the draw clause is legal and relevant, but do not delay graveyard exile just to draw if the opponent is about to win.

- **Scavenging Ooze is for repeatable graveyard pressure plus life and body scaling:** Add role cards: **Scavenging Ooze** against graveyard decks that use many individual cards over several turns. It also helps creature matchups where life gain and counters stabilize combat, especially beside **Hardened Scales**, **Winding Constrictor**, **Branching Evolution**, **Doubling Season**, or **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**. It is bad when green mana is constrained, graveyard cards must be exiled immediately before **Scavenging Ooze** can activate, or opposing removal makes a slow creature answer unreliable. Role change: after adding it, treat green mana as interaction mana and avoid tapping all green sources before the opponent's graveyard window.

- **Culling Ritual is for low-mana permanent clusters and reset-to-ramp turns:** Add role cards: **Culling Ritual** against token boards, treasure or clue piles, low-cost artifact engines, enchantment clusters, and creature decks that commit many small permanents. It is bad when the deck's own **Sol Ring**, **Arcane Signet**, **Skullclamp**, **Hardened Scales**, **Winding Constrictor**, **Essence Warden**, **Prosperous Innkeeper**, Pests, or tokens are more important than the opposing permanents being cleared. Role change: with **Culling Ritual** added, sequence expendable permanents before the ritual only when the resulting mana or clear board creates an immediate stabilizing or closing play.

- **Putrefy is for flexible creature or artifact removal when threat identity is broad:** Add role cards: **Putrefy** against creature commanders, artifact creatures, equipment-like pressure, or midrange boards where one clean answer buys a turn. It is bad against enchantment engines, graveyard combo without creature targets, or go-wide boards where **Toxic Deluge**, **Arachnogenesis**, or **Culling Ritual** is the higher-impact card. Role change: after adding it, preserve **Assassin's Trophy** for noncreature permanents when possible and use **Putrefy** on creatures or artifacts that immediately change combat or combo math.

- **Pithing Needle is for named activated-ability engines that are already known:** Add role cards: **Pithing Needle** when the opponent's commander, artifact, planeswalker-style permanent, land, or combo piece has a visible or known activated ability that must be stopped. Card text check required at runtime before naming if Veles exposes a free-name or candidate-name prompt. It is bad when the opponent's threats are mostly triggered abilities, static abilities, spells, or unknown hidden cards. Role change: after adding it, mulligan and selection decisions should value early deployment only when the threatening name is known from commander identity, public decklist, or visible battlefield.

- **Return to Nature is for overlap matchups:** Add role cards: **Return to Nature** when the opponent combines artifacts, enchantments, and graveyard reliance, or when the deck wants one sideboard card that can answer several visible axes. It is bad when only creatures matter, when graveyard exile must be repeatable, or when a split-second answer from **Krosan Grip** is required. Role change: with **Return to Nature** added, hold it until the highest-leverage mode is visible; do not spend it on a small graveyard if a decisive artifact or enchantment is already pressuring the board.

## Matchup Guidance

- **Aggro decks:** Stabilize first, then convert life and bodies into inevitability. Keep hands with black-green access, an early blocker or ramp play, and a visible path to **Blech, Loafing Pest**, **Pest Summoning**, **Prosperous Innkeeper**, **Sakura-Tribe Elder**, **Essence Warden**, **Toxic Deluge**, **Arachnogenesis**, or **Pest Infestation**. Prioritize preserving life total over speculative engines when the opponent starts fast; **Skullclamp**, **Moldervine Reclamation**, **Doubling Season**, and **Beledros Witherbloom** are excellent only if the board is not collapsing. Use **Toxic Deluge** based on actual lethal math, not maximum value, and avoid paying life so low that burn or a single attacker finishes the game. Add role cards: **Culling Ritual**, **Putrefy**, **Scavenging Ooze**, and **Reclamation Sage** only when their visible targets or bodies matter. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow top-end, unclear-text cards, and engines that do not affect combat immediately.

- **Control decks:** Commit threats in layers instead of exposing every engine to one sweeper or stack fight. Lead with ramp and sticky resource pieces, then force control to answer **Blech, Loafing Pest**, **Scute Swarm**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Moldervine Reclamation**, or **Beledros Witherbloom** one at a time. Hold **Heroic Intervention** and **Inspiring Call** for a board that is already winning or for the exact engine that makes the next turn decisive. Add role cards: **Veil of Summer**, **Krosan Grip**, **Force of Vigor**, **Return to Nature**, and **Pithing Needle** when public information shows counterspells, black removal, artifact or enchantment locks, or a commander activated ability. Reduce main-deck emphasis: creature removal with no target, narrow sacrifice lines into exile sweepers, and low-impact Pest bodies when they cannot pressure planeswalker-style or life-total resources.

- **Combo decks:** Become interaction-first until the combo axis is known from commander identity, public permanents, graveyard contents, or revealed cards. Do not tap out for **Doubling Season**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Immoral Bargain**, or **Beledros Witherbloom** if the opponent can present a faster deterministic line and Veles shows legal interaction. Use **Assassin's Trophy**, **Witherbloom Charm**, **Mortality Spear**, **Pest Infestation**, **Haywire Mite**, and sideboard answers on the piece that actually enables the win, not the most expensive permanent. Add role cards: **Pithing Needle**, **Nihil Spellbomb**, **Return to Nature**, **Krosan Grip**, **Force of Vigor**, **Veil of Summer**, and **Putrefy** according to the revealed axis. Reduce main-deck emphasis: combat-only cards and slow counter-multipliers unless they create a same-turn clock or protection-backed kill.

- **Tempo decks:** Make land drops and force the opponent to spend mana on low-cost threats before committing fragile engines. Hands with **Sol Ring**, **Arcane Signet**, **Nature's Lore**, **Rampant Growth**, **Cultivate**, or **Sakura-Tribe Elder** are strong only if they also cast spells through pressure and do not fold to one bounce or removal action. Prefer **Blech, Loafing Pest** plus a small board over a single expensive payoff when commander tax is manageable. Preserve **Veil of Summer** if added for the turn that beats a counterspell or black interaction. Use **Skullclamp**, **Village Rites**, and **Deadly Dispute** to punish removal only when legal sacrifice targets are expendable. Reduce main-deck emphasis: tap-out five-mana engines before stabilizing and hands stranded by colorless or tapped utility lands.

- **Midrange decks:** Trade resources, then win the reload battle. **Moldervine Reclamation**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Skullclamp**, **Deadly Dispute**, **Village Rites**, **Tend the Pests**, and **Dina, Soul Steeper** are premium because they make creature exchanges asymmetrical. Build toward boards where **Hardened Scales**, **Winding Constrictor**, **Branching Evolution**, **Ozolith, the Shattered Spire**, **Doubling Season**, or **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest** turns ordinary Pests and tokens into real pressure. Use **Assassin's Trophy** and **Mortality Spear** on permanents that invalidate combat, stop sacrifice value, or threaten a larger engine. Add role cards: **Putrefy**, **Reclamation Sage**, **Scavenging Ooze**, and **Return to Nature** for broad target coverage. Reduce main-deck emphasis: all-in sacrifice bursts unless they replace themselves or immediately change the board.

- **Big mana decks:** Pressure before the opponent's mana advantage turns into inevitability. Keep ramp hands only when they produce an engine or clock, because simply matching mana with **Cultivate**, **Nature's Lore**, **Rampant Growth**, **Arcane Signet**, and **Sol Ring** may still lose to bigger top-end. Commit **Blech, Loafing Pest**, **Scute Swarm**, **Iridescent Hornbeetle**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Ohran Frostfang**, or **Dina, Soul Steeper** lines that compound damage or drain over multiple turns. Use **Pithing Needle** on known activated mana or payoff engines only when the name and ability are clear. Add role cards: **Krosan Grip**, **Force of Vigor**, **Return to Nature**, **Reclamation Sage**, and **Putrefy** when they answer ramp artifacts, enchantments, or single giant creatures. Reduce main-deck emphasis: pure attrition cards that do not shorten the clock.

- **Graveyard decks:** Treat graveyards as active resources, not discard piles. Hold **Bojuka Bog** until the opponent has committed enough graveyard value or is about to use it, unless waiting risks losing the exile window. Add role cards: **Nihil Spellbomb**, **Scavenging Ooze**, **Return to Nature**, and sometimes **Pithing Needle** if a known activated graveyard engine is the real problem. Preserve green mana for **Scavenging Ooze** activations when the opponent can act at instant speed or over several turns. Do not exile early just to reduce card count if the opponent has no visible graveyard action and the deck needs development. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow engines that let the graveyard deck untap into a deterministic line.

- **Artifact/enchantment decks:** Identify whether the danger is one lock piece, many cheap permanents, or a protected engine. Use **Haywire Mite**, **Witherbloom Charm**, **Pest Infestation**, **Assassin's Trophy**, and **Mortality Spear** on permanents that stop attacks, stop sacrifice, generate overwhelming mana, or enable a win. Add role cards: **Force of Vigor** for multiple urgent targets, **Krosan Grip** for a protected single target, **Reclamation Sage** when a body matters, **Return to Nature** for flexible overlap, **Culling Ritual** for low-mana clusters, and **Pithing Needle** for known activated abilities. Reduce main-deck emphasis: creature-only removal and expensive engines when the opponent's permanent is already locking combat or mana.

- **Go-wide decks:** Count attackers, blockers, life, and Pest death triggers before choosing a sweeper or fog line. **Arachnogenesis** can buy a decisive turn only if Veles exposes the legal prevention/combat action and the resulting board state matters. **Toxic Deluge** is the clean reset when life payment is survivable; **Culling Ritual** is the sideboard reset when many small permanents are visible. **Pest Infestation** can be removal plus token material if legal targets exist. Build toward **Essence Warden**, **Prosperous Innkeeper**, **Dina, Soul Steeper**, and **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest** to turn mass bodies into life, drains, or counters. Reduce main-deck emphasis: one-for-one removal unless a single lord, payoff, or enabler is making the swarm lethal.

- **Single-threat decks:** Answer the actual threat or make blocking impossible to punish. **Assassin's Trophy**, **Mortality Spear**, **Putrefy**, **Pest Infestation**, and **Toxic Deluge** are for commanders or large permanents that dominate combat or end the game quickly. **Swarmyard** and **High Market** are useful only if their legal actions preserve or convert relevant creatures; do not rely on them without visible eligible targets. Use **Pithing Needle** when the single threat is mostly an activated ability and the name is known. Build chump-plus-drain lines with Pests, **Dina, Soul Steeper**, and sacrifice outlets when removal is absent. Reduce main-deck emphasis: engines that need several turns before answering the battlefield.

- **Burn decks:** Protect life total as a resource and do not spend it casually. **Toxic Deluge**, shock-style land choices from **Overgrown Tomb**, and greedy attack decisions must be weighed against visible damage output. **Essence Warden**, **Prosperous Innkeeper**, **Radiant Fountain**, **Dina, Soul Steeper**, **Pest Summoning**, **Tend the Pests**, **Scavenging Ooze**, and Pest death or life-gain lines are priority stabilizers when legal. Use **Heroic Intervention** only if it preserves enough life-gain or blockers to matter; it does not answer direct damage unless the rules engine exposes relevant prevention or protection. Add role cards: **Scavenging Ooze**, **Putrefy**, and **Veil of Summer** only when their targets or protection modes are matchup-relevant. Reduce main-deck emphasis: high life-payment lines and slow nondefensive engines.

- **Removal-heavy decks:** Make every removal spell inefficient by pairing sacrifice, draw, and replacement bodies. Keep **Village Rites**, **Deadly Dispute**, **Skullclamp**, **High Market**, **Ashnod's Altar**, **Tend the Pests**, and **Moldervine Reclamation** live when the opponent holds open removal mana. Do not cast **Doubling Season**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Ohran Frostfang**, or **Beledros Witherbloom** into obvious interaction unless the follow-up value, protection, or lack of alternatives makes waiting worse. Add role cards: **Veil of Summer** against blue or black interaction and **Scavenging Ooze** if removal fills graveyards with useful creature cards. Reduce main-deck emphasis: unsupported single-creature commitment and sacrifice outlets with no expendable material.

- **Unknown decks:** Start with mana, commander access, and low-risk material until the opponent reveals a role. Favor openers with two colors, at least one early play, and a route to **Blech, Loafing Pest** or a draw/ramp engine. Do not assume unfamiliar cards such as **Bogwater Lumaret**, **Moseo, Vein's New Dean**, **Eumidian Terrabotanist**, **Ribtruss Roaster**, **Gorma, the Gullet**, **South Wind Avatar**, **Lluwen, Exchange Student**, **Meltstrider Eulogist**, **Cauldron of Essence**, **Immoral Bargain**, **Feral Appetite**, **Comforting Counsel**, **Professor Dellian Fel**, **Springleaf Parade**, **Dina, Essence Brewer**, or **Shopkeeper's Bane** have specific text until Veles exposes legal actions. Card text check required for each before using them as a deterministic matchup answer.

## Specific Matchup Notes

- **General/archetype-only note:** Exact opponents are absent, so these notes classify likely Commander roles by revealed play pattern. Revealed cards, legal actions, commander identity, graveyard contents, and public mana override every archetype assumption in this section.

- **Fast creature pressure:** Stabilize before engine greed. Prioritize **Essence Warden**, **Prosperous Innkeeper**, **Pest Summoning**, **Tend the Pests**, **Arachnogenesis**, **Toxic Deluge**, and expendable Pest blockers over tapping out for **Doubling Season** or **Beledros Witherbloom**. Add role cards: **Culling Ritual**, **Putrefy**, **Scavenging Ooze** when bodies, life, or graveyards are relevant. Priority targets are anthem effects, haste enablers, and creatures that make blocking fail.

- **Control or removal-heavy decks:** Sequence replaceable material first and force interaction before committing the fragile engine. Keep **Village Rites**, **Deadly Dispute**, **Skullclamp**, **High Market**, **Ashnod's Altar**, and **Heroic Intervention** live around removal windows. Add role cards: **Veil of Summer**, **Krosan Grip**, **Force of Vigor**, **Pithing Needle** only when visible blue/black interaction, lock permanents, or activated engines justify them. Priority targets are sweepers-in-waiting, card-advantage engines, and permanents that stop sacrifice or combat.

- **Graveyard decks:** Delay **Bojuka Bog** until it interrupts a real graveyard action or a stocked graveyard, unless waiting risks losing the window. Add role cards: **Nihil Spellbomb**, **Scavenging Ooze**, **Return to Nature**, and sometimes **Pithing Needle** for a known activated graveyard engine. Priority targets are recursive payoff creatures, graveyard mana engines, and cards the opponent is visibly preparing to reuse.

- **Artifact or enchantment engines:** Answer the permanent that changes the game, not the first legal target. Use **Haywire Mite**, **Witherbloom Charm**, **Pest Infestation**, **Assassin's Trophy**, and **Mortality Spear** on visible lock pieces, mana multipliers, sacrifice hate, or win engines. Add role cards: **Force of Vigor**, **Krosan Grip**, **Reclamation Sage**, **Return to Nature**, **Culling Ritual**, and **Pithing Needle** according to whether the problem is multiple small permanents, one protected permanent, or one named activated ability.

- **Big mana or battlecruiser decks:** Race by converting ramp into scaling pressure, not by durdling with unsupported draw. Favor **Blech, Loafing Pest**, **Scute Swarm**, **Iridescent Hornbeetle**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Ohran Frostfang**, and **Dina, Soul Steeper** lines that turn bodies into damage, counters, cards, or drain. Add role cards: **Putrefy**, **Krosan Grip**, **Force of Vigor**, **Reclamation Sage**, and **Pithing Needle** for visible mana engines or large decisive permanents.

- **Unknown or custom-card tables:** Treat unfamiliar names as conditional resources until Veles exposes text or legal actions. Card text check required for **Bogwater Lumaret**, **Moseo, Vein's New Dean**, **Eumidian Terrabotanist**, **Ribtruss Roaster**, **Gorma, the Gullet**, **South Wind Avatar**, **Lluwen, Exchange Student**, **Meltstrider Eulogist**, **Cauldron of Essence**, **Immoral Bargain**, **Feral Appetite**, **Comforting Counsel**, **Professor Dellian Fel**, **Springleaf Parade**, **Dina, Essence Brewer**, and **Shopkeeper's Bane** before treating any as a deterministic answer or payoff.

## Risk Summary

- **Mana risk:** Keep hands can fail when **High Market**, **Swarmyard**, **Reliquary Tower**, **Radiant Fountain**, or **Bojuka Bog** supply utility but not the needed colored sequence. Flag any opener without green and black access, a castable early play, and a route toward **Blech, Loafing Pest**, **Cultivate**, **Nature's Lore**, **Rampant Growth**, **Sakura-Tribe Elder**, **Sol Ring**, or **Arcane Signet**.

- **Draw risk:** The deck can spend mana drawing cards while losing the board. **Skullclamp**, **Village Rites**, **Deadly Dispute**, **Moldervine Reclamation**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Inspiring Call**, and **Immoral Bargain** should convert expendable or protected material into action, not sacrifice necessary blockers or delay urgent interaction.

- **Over-sideboarding risk:** Do not dilute the Pest, counter, and sacrifice core for narrow answers. Add role cards only for visible or strongly matchup-relevant axes, and avoid loading **Force of Vigor**, **Krosan Grip**, **Reclamation Sage**, **Return to Nature**, **Nihil Spellbomb**, **Scavenging Ooze**, **Pithing Needle**, **Putrefy**, **Culling Ritual**, and **Veil of Summer** when the opponent has not shown the matching pressure.

- **Graveyard timing risk:** Premature **Bojuka Bog**, **Nihil Spellbomb**, or **Scavenging Ooze** activations can waste the only graveyard check. Hold them for a visible recursion window, lethal graveyard payoff, or known resource threshold when possible.

- **Sweeper and removal risk:** **Toxic Deluge**, **Pest Infestation**, **Arachnogenesis**, **Mortality Spear**, **Assassin's Trophy**, and **Witherbloom Charm** must answer decisive threats or survival math. Do not spend premium interaction on medium permanents when commander damage, evasive pressure, a lock piece, or a combo engine is the actual risk.

- **Closer risk:** Stabilizing is not winning. After life and board are safe, convert material through **Dina, Soul Steeper**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Scute Swarm**, **Iridescent Hornbeetle**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Doubling Season**, **Branching Evolution**, or commander pressure before opponents rebuild.

- **Sequencing risk:** Overcommitting into public sweepers, exposing **Blech, Loafing Pest** to commander tax without follow-up, sacrificing needed blockers, or passing with relevant interaction available are pilot errors unless Veles legal actions and visible state show a stronger reason.

## Test Feedback Checklist

- Deciding factor: Identify whether the game turned on early mana, Pest density, counter scaling, sacrifice velocity, lifegain drain, a sweeper, graveyard timing, or failure to close after stabilizing. Name one primary cause and one secondary cause for every loss, and name the exact card or package that most contributed to every win.

- Mulligans: Record whether the opener had green access, black access, a castable early play, and a clear first three turns. Flag keeps stranded by **High Market**, **Swarmyard**, **Reliquary Tower**, **Radiant Fountain**, **Bojuka Bog**, or tapped dual sequencing when those lands delayed **Blech, Loafing Pest**, **Nature's Lore**, **Rampant Growth**, **Cultivate**, **Sakura-Tribe Elder**, **Sol Ring**, or **Arcane Signet**.

- Mana: Check whether acceleration actually advanced the deck's pressure or engine turn. Track whether **Sol Ring**, **Arcane Signet**, **Nature's Lore**, **Rampant Growth**, **Cultivate**, **Sakura-Tribe Elder**, **Prosperous Innkeeper**, or normal land drops accelerated **Blech, Loafing Pest**, **Doubling Season**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, or **Beledros Witherbloom**.

- Velocity: Record whether draw and sacrifice converted material into useful action or only spent mana while the board worsened. Review **Skullclamp**, **Village Rites**, **Deadly Dispute**, **Moldervine Reclamation**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Inspiring Call**, and **Immoral Bargain** for timing, target quality, and whether blockers or engine pieces were sacrificed too early.

- Engine setup: Note whether counter and token pieces appeared in an order that created pressure. Track **Hardened Scales**, **Winding Constrictor**, **Branching Evolution**, **Doubling Season**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Scute Swarm**, **Iridescent Hornbeetle**, Pest production, and **Blech, Loafing Pest** for whether they made bodies, counters, cards, drains, or attacks matter before opponents stabilized.

- Sacrifice use: Verify that sacrifice outlets cashed in exposed, replaceable, or strategically necessary material. Review **Tend the Pests**, **Ashnod's Altar**, **High Market**, **Village Rites**, **Deadly Dispute**, **Skullclamp**, **Dina, Soul Steeper**, and **Moldervine Reclamation** for missed value, unnecessary blocker loss, and commander-tax exposure.

- Removal and protection: Check whether answers hit decisive permanents or merely convenient targets. Review **Assassin's Trophy**, **Witherbloom Charm**, **Mortality Spear**, **Toxic Deluge**, **Pest Infestation**, **Haywire Mite**, **Arachnogenesis**, **Heroic Intervention**, and **Inspiring Call** for survival math, stack timing, and whether protection preserved a winning board.

- Sideboard impact: Confirm that sideboard cards entered only for visible or strongly matchup-relevant axes. Record the impact of **Force of Vigor**, **Krosan Grip**, **Reclamation Sage**, **Veil of Summer**, **Nihil Spellbomb**, **Scavenging Ooze**, **Culling Ritual**, **Putrefy**, **Pithing Needle**, and **Return to Nature**, including stranded cards with no target.

- Closing and role: Record whether the pilot correctly chose ramp-engine, attrition, defensive stabilization, or pressure based on visible clock, hand size, graveyards, and opponent mana. Flag failure to convert advantage through **Dina, Soul Steeper**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Scute Swarm**, **Iridescent Hornbeetle**, **Doubling Season**, or commander pressure.

- Mistakes and stranded cards: Flag missed land drops, premature **Bojuka Bog**, overcommitment into public sweepers, sacrificing needed blockers, attacking when defense was required, or passing with relevant interaction. List cards stranded by color, cost, targets, role conflict, or Card text check required uncertainty, especially **Beledros Witherbloom**, **Doubling Season**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Toxic Deluge**, **Immoral Bargain**, **Arachnogenesis**, and unfamiliar custom-leaning names.

## First Tuning Questions

- Mana tuning: If losses start with slow or color-skewed openers, does the deck need fewer colorless utility lands or more reliable green-black early access? Review whether **High Market**, **Swarmyard**, **Reliquary Tower**, **Radiant Fountain**, and **Bojuka Bog** cost more games than their activated or utility roles won.

- Acceleration tuning: If expensive engines sit stranded, does the deck need more early ramp effects rather than more top-end payoffs? Measure how often **Beledros Witherbloom**, **Doubling Season**, **Ohran Frostfang**, and **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest** were cast on time after **Sol Ring**, **Arcane Signet**, **Nature's Lore**, **Rampant Growth**, **Cultivate**, **Sakura-Tribe Elder**, and **Prosperous Innkeeper**.

- Engine-density tuning: If the deck stabilizes without snowballing, does it need more Pest production, counter payoffs, or sacrifice payoffs instead of isolated value cards? Compare outcomes involving **Scute Swarm**, **Iridescent Hornbeetle**, **Blech, Loafing Pest**, **Hardened Scales**, **Winding Constrictor**, **Branching Evolution**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Dina, Soul Steeper**, and **Moldervine Reclamation**.

- Aggro-plan tuning: If fast creature decks win before engines matter, should the sideboard or main deck emphasize cheaper stabilization? Review performance of **Essence Warden**, **Prosperous Innkeeper**, **Pest Summoning**, **Tend the Pests**, **Arachnogenesis**, **Toxic Deluge**, **Culling Ritual**, **Putrefy**, and **Scavenging Ooze**.

- Control-plan tuning: If removal-heavy opponents keep breaking the board, should the pilot hold engines longer or add more protection and resilient value? Review **Heroic Intervention**, **Inspiring Call**, **Veil of Summer**, **Skullclamp**, **Village Rites**, **Deadly Dispute**, **High Market**, and **Ashnod's Altar** for whether they answered interaction windows.

- Closing-power tuning: If games are lost after stabilizing, does the deck need more decisive finishers or stricter attack/drain policies? Track whether **Dina, Soul Steeper**, **Blech, Loafing Pest**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Scute Swarm**, **Iridescent Hornbeetle**, and **Beledros Witherbloom** actually ended games.

- Sideboard-slot tuning: If sideboard cards are often stranded, which axis is overrepresented: artifact/enchantment hate, graveyard hate, creature removal, or stack protection? Reassess **Force of Vigor**, **Krosan Grip**, **Reclamation Sage**, **Return to Nature**, **Nihil Spellbomb**, **Scavenging Ooze**, **Pithing Needle**, **Putrefy**, **Culling Ritual**, and **Veil of Summer** by matchup impact.

- Role-conflict tuning: If the pilot alternates between ramp, attrition, defense, and pressure without closing, which package should be trimmed or better constrained by policy? Classify failures as card quantity problem, card selection problem, mana problem, tempo problem, matchup problem, sideboard problem, pilot sequencing problem, or closing-power problem.

## Veles Tactical Policy

### Policy: Commander Keep Gate
- Priority: High
- Decision families: mulligan
- Cards: Blech, Loafing Pest; Forest; Swamp; Command Tower; Overgrown Tomb; Llanowar Wastes; Woodland Cemetery; Deathcap Glade; Jungle Hollow; Sol Ring; Arcane Signet; Nature's Lore; Rampant Growth; Sakura-Tribe Elder; Cultivate; Prosperous Innkeeper
- Phase windows: opening hand, mulligan decisions
- Runtime cues: opening-hand; legal-action:mulligan; legal-action:keep
- Use when: choosing whether the opener can produce green and black access, a castable early play, and a visible first three-turn plan toward commander or engine deployment.
- Avoid when: Veles reports insufficient visible hand data or card text check required blocks the opener's first legal play.
- Instructions: Keep hands with two to four lands or one land plus **Sol Ring**/**Arcane Signet** only when color access and early action are visible. Mulligan hands that depend on **High Market**, **Swarmyard**, **Reliquary Tower**, **Radiant Fountain**, or **Bojuka Bog** as sole early color fixing.
- Pilot skill floor: medium
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Early Acceleration Execution
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: mana; priority
- Cards: Sol Ring; Arcane Signet; Nature's Lore; Rampant Growth; Sakura-Tribe Elder; Cultivate; Prosperous Innkeeper
- Phase windows: precombat main, early turns
- Runtime cues: action:cast Sol Ring; action:cast Arcane Signet; action:cast Nature's Lore; action:cast Rampant Growth; action:cast Sakura-Tribe Elder; action:cast Cultivate; action:cast Prosperous Innkeeper
- Use when: the legal action text names one listed ramp card, required mana is already available, the stack is empty, and no lethal or survival interaction prompt is pending.
- Avoid when: casting the ramp card would consume mana needed for a currently legal protection, removal, or commander recast action that Veles marks as immediately relevant.
- Instructions: Execute visible acceleration before discretionary draw, sacrifice, or expensive engine actions so later turns can cast **Blech, Loafing Pest**, **Doubling Season**, **Ohran Frostfang**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, or **Beledros Witherbloom**.
- Pilot skill floor: low
- No-API allowed: yes
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: First Engine Body Setup
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: priority; mana
- Cards: Blech, Loafing Pest; Essence Warden; Prosperous Innkeeper; Scute Swarm; Iridescent Hornbeetle; Blight Mound; Pest Summoning; Teacher's Pest; Pest Mascot; Bogwater Lumaret
- Phase windows: early main phases
- Runtime cues: legal-action:cast; legal-action:play
- Use when: choosing the first creature, Pest maker, life-gain piece, or token engine after mana is stable.
- Avoid when: opponent pressure requires immediate removal or sweep timing instead of setup.
- Instructions: Prefer an early permanent that converts later creatures or tokens into life, bodies, counters, or cards. Treat unfamiliar Pest-specific cards as Card text check required and follow exact Veles text rather than name-based assumptions.
- Pilot skill floor: medium
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Commander Commitment Gate
- Priority: High
- Decision families: priority; mana
- Cards: Blech, Loafing Pest; Heroic Intervention; Inspiring Call; Village Rites; Deadly Dispute; High Market; Ashnod's Altar
- Phase windows: main phases, commander recast windows
- Runtime cues: action:cast Blech, Loafing Pest; command-zone-action
- Use when: deciding whether to spend the turn casting or recasting **Blech, Loafing Pest**.
- Avoid when: visible opponent mana, public stack pressure, or known removal makes commander-tax exposure likely and a lower-risk engine play is legal.
- Instructions: Cast the commander when it immediately enables Pest density, drain, counters, or pressure, or when waiting gives opponents more time than protection gives you safety. Delay when the same mana can stabilize with removal, blockers, or draw without increasing tax risk.
- Pilot skill floor: high
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Counter Engine Commitment Gate
- Priority: High
- Decision families: priority; mana
- Cards: Hardened Scales; Winding Constrictor; Branching Evolution; Doubling Season; Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest; Ozolith, the Shattered Spire; Iridescent Hornbeetle; Scute Swarm
- Phase windows: main phases before committing tokens or sacrifice chains
- Runtime cues: legal-action:cast; visible-counters; visible-token-makers
- Use when: deciding whether to tap out for a counter multiplier, token multiplier, or sacrifice-growth payoff.
- Avoid when: the battlefield has no bodies, no counter production, no token production, and visible opponent pressure demands interaction.
- Instructions: Commit fragile multipliers when they convert existing or next-action material into a board that matters this turn cycle. Do not spend an entire turn on a multiplier that only improves a future hand with no visible bridge.
- Pilot skill floor: high
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Sacrifice Conversion Gate
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: priority; selection
- Cards: Skullclamp; Village Rites; Deadly Dispute; Tend the Pests; Ashnod's Altar; High Market; Moldervine Reclamation; Dina, Soul Steeper; Pest Rescuer
- Phase windows: main phases, removal response windows, combat damage-adjacent priority
- Runtime cues: action:sacrifice; action:target; pending-removal; visible-dying-creature
- Use when: choosing whether to cash in a creature or token for cards, mana, life, drains, or Pest material.
- Avoid when: the candidate permanent is the only blocker against a visible lethal attack or the only active engine needed for the current plan.
- Instructions: Sacrifice material that is exposed to removal, replaceable, already dying, or converts into a larger board. Preserve **Blech, Loafing Pest**, **Scute Swarm**, and **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest** unless the legal conversion prevents a worse loss.
- Pilot skill floor: medium
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Deterministic Draw Sacrifice Target
- Priority: Low
- Decision families: selection
- Cards: Village Rites; Deadly Dispute; Skullclamp
- Phase windows: target or cost-selection prompts
- Runtime cues: action:sacrifice Pest; action:attach Skullclamp to Pest; action:target Pest
- Use when: a prior policy has selected sacrifice conversion, the legal action text names a Pest token, and no other candidate in the action text is **Blech, Loafing Pest**, **Scute Swarm**, **Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest**, **Ohran Frostfang**, or **Beledros Witherbloom**.
- Avoid when: multiple legal Pest-token actions differ by tapped/untapped blocking status or by attached counters that Veles exposes.
- Instructions: Choose the visible Pest-token sacrifice or **Skullclamp** target when the action text uniquely identifies that token class and no protected engine name appears.
- Pilot skill floor: low
- No-API allowed: yes
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Removal Commitment Gate
- Priority: High
- Decision families: interaction; priority
- Cards: Assassin's Trophy; Witherbloom Charm; Mortality Spear; Toxic Deluge; Pest Infestation; Haywire Mite; Putrefy; Culling Ritual; Return to Nature; Reclamation Sage; Krosan Grip; Force of Vigor
- Phase windows: priority windows, main phases, combat trick windows, stack response windows
- Runtime cues: legal-action:cast; legal-action:activate; opponent:threat; visible-lethal; visible-engine
- Use when: selecting whether to spend removal or sweeper resources on a visible permanent, stack context, or survival problem.
- Avoid when: the target is merely inconvenient while a visible higher-impact permanent or lethal combat line remains unresolved.
- Instructions: Spend removal on cards that decide the game, stop the engine, prevent lethal, or block a winning attack. Use **Toxic Deluge** and **Culling Ritual** only after checking your own engine loss against survival and rebuild capacity.
- Pilot skill floor: high
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Protection Commitment Gate
- Priority: High
- Decision families: interaction; priority
- Cards: Heroic Intervention; Inspiring Call; Veil of Summer; Arachnogenesis
- Phase windows: stack response windows, combat before damage, sweeper response windows
- Runtime cues: action:cast Heroic Intervention; action:cast Inspiring Call; action:cast Veil of Summer; action:cast Arachnogenesis; pending-removal; pending-combat-damage
- Use when: a visible spell, ability, or combat step threatens a board that is necessary for survival or closing.
- Avoid when: protection preserves only low-impact material and spending the card leaves a decisive later threat unanswered.
- Instructions: Protect boards containing commander, counter engines, token engines, or lethal crack-back pressure. Use **Arachnogenesis** for survival or combat reversal, not routine chip-damage prevention.
- Pilot skill floor: high
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Ohran Frostfang Attack Gate
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: combat
- Cards: Ohran Frostfang; Scute Swarm; Iridescent Hornbeetle; Blech, Loafing Pest; Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest
- Phase windows: declare attackers, precombat main
- Runtime cues: legal-action:attack; visible-blockers; visible-combat-keywords
- Use when: deciding whether to attack with tokens, Pests, commander, or counter-grown creatures while **Ohran Frostfang** or a pressure payoff is visible.
- Avoid when: attacking removes required blockers against a visible lethal or near-lethal return attack.
- Instructions: Attack when deathtouch/card-draw pressure, counters, drains, or commander damage advance closing more than the blockers prevent. Keep enough bodies back against known crack-back power.
- Pilot skill floor: medium
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Emergency Blocking Gate
- Priority: High
- Decision families: combat
- Cards: Arachnogenesis; Heroic Intervention; Inspiring Call; Essence Warden; Prosperous Innkeeper
- Phase windows: declare blockers, combat damage prevention windows
- Runtime cues: legal-action:block; visible-lethal; visible-attackers
- Use when: Veles exposes attackers and blockers and life total or commander damage risk makes survival the immediate decision.
- Avoid when: the attack is nonlethal and preserving a board creates a visible winning next turn.
- Instructions: Block to survive first, preserve key engines second, and trade tokens before engines. Consider **Arachnogenesis**, **Heroic Intervention**, or **Inspiring Call** before sacrificing board material if those actions are legal.
- Pilot skill floor: high
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Graveyard Timing
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: interaction; priority
- Cards: Bojuka Bog; Nihil Spellbomb; Scavenging Ooze; Return to Nature
- Phase windows: land play, priority windows, opponent recursion windows
- Runtime cues: action:play Bojuka Bog; action:activate Nihil Spellbomb; action:activate Scavenging Ooze; action:cast Return to Nature; visible-graveyard
- Use when: opponent graveyard contents are visible and a graveyard action could stop recursion, combo progress, or a resource engine.
- Avoid when: graveyards contain no visible high-impact card or when **Bojuka Bog** would be the only land play but color sequencing needs untapped green-black access.
- Instructions: Time graveyard hate for visible recursion windows or decisive graveyard density. Do not fire **Bojuka Bog** only because it is legal unless mana development and graveyard impact both justify it.
- Pilot skill floor: medium
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Exact Graveyard Hate Activation
- Priority: Low
- Decision families: interaction
- Cards: Nihil Spellbomb; Scavenging Ooze
- Phase windows: activated-ability prompts
- Runtime cues: action:activate Nihil Spellbomb; action:exile target card with Scavenging Ooze
- Use when: a prior policy has selected graveyard hate, the legal action text contains exactly one graveyard-hate activation, and Veles shows the named target card in a public graveyard.
- Avoid when: multiple target cards are legal or activating would consume mana assigned to a pending tax or protection prompt.
- Instructions: Submit the exact visible activation selected by the prior policy.
- Pilot skill floor: low
- No-API allowed: yes
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Mana Source Discipline
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: mana
- Cards: Forest; Swamp; Command Tower; Overgrown Tomb; Llanowar Wastes; Woodland Cemetery; Deathcap Glade; Necroblossom Snarl; Undergrowth Stadium; Jungle Hollow; High Market; Swarmyard; Reliquary Tower; Radiant Fountain; Bojuka Bog; Vernal Fen; Viridescent Bog
- Phase windows: land play, mana payment prompts
- Runtime cues: legal-action:play land; legal-action:pay mana; available-mana
- Use when: choosing land sequencing or exact payment among visible sources.
- Avoid when: Veles exposes a mandatory payment with only one legal source set.
- Instructions: Prioritize untapped green-black access over utility lands early. Preserve **High Market** and **Swarmyard** activations only when their legal text is relevant to an exposed creature, protection, or sacrifice line.
- Pilot skill floor: medium
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Exact Single Payment
- Priority: Low
- Decision families: mana
- Cards: Sol Ring; Arcane Signet; Forest; Swamp; Command Tower
- Phase windows: mana payment prompts
- Runtime cues: action:pay; action:tap Sol Ring; action:tap Arcane Signet; action:tap Forest; action:tap Swamp; action:tap Command Tower
- Use when: Veles exposes exactly one legal payment action for the selected spell or ability and no alternate payment branch is present.
- Avoid when: multiple payment actions differ by colored source, utility activation, life payment, sacrifice, or floating mana retention.
- Instructions: Submit the single legal payment action and let the rules engine advance.
- Pilot skill floor: low
- No-API allowed: yes
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Sideboard Axis Selection
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: sideboard; pregame
- Cards: Force of Vigor; Krosan Grip; Reclamation Sage; Veil of Summer; Nihil Spellbomb; Scavenging Ooze; Culling Ritual; Putrefy; Pithing Needle; Return to Nature
- Phase windows: pregame sideboard, between games
- Runtime cues: sideboard-options; opponent-archetype; public-game-history
- Use when: selecting a legal Veles sideboard plan after game one or game two.
- Avoid when: the match configuration does not allow the 10-card Veles sideboard.
- Instructions: Add artifact/enchantment hate only for visible or strongly matchup-relevant permanent engines, graveyard hate for recursion or graveyard combo, **Veil of Summer** for black or blue interaction pressure, **Putrefy** for creature/artifact threats, **Culling Ritual** for low-cost permanent swarms, and **Pithing Needle** for activated abilities Veles can name legally.
- Pilot skill floor: medium
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Stack Pass With Interaction
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: priority; interaction
- Cards: Assassin's Trophy; Witherbloom Charm; Mortality Spear; Heroic Intervention; Inspiring Call; Arachnogenesis; Veil of Summer; Krosan Grip; Force of Vigor; Putrefy; Return to Nature
- Phase windows: opponent main phases, combat trick windows, end steps, stack response windows
- Runtime cues: legal-action:pass priority; legal-action:cast; stack-nonempty; open-mana
- Use when: deciding whether to pass priority while holding visible legal interaction.
- Avoid when: Veles exposes a stack object or combat state that threatens lethal, a decisive engine, or the commander.
- Instructions: Pass with interaction only after comparing the visible threat to the card's intended role. Fire interaction before resolution when waiting would remove the opportunity or make protection irrelevant.
- Pilot skill floor: high
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Closing Conversion Gate
- Priority: High
- Decision families: priority; combat
- Cards: Dina, Soul Steeper; Dina, Essence Brewer; Blech, Loafing Pest; Ohran Frostfang; Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest; Scute Swarm; Iridescent Hornbeetle; Beledros Witherbloom; South Wind Avatar
- Phase windows: main phases, combat, endgame priority
- Runtime cues: visible-life-total; legal-action:attack; legal-action:activate; legal-action:cast
- Use when: the deck has stabilized and must choose between more setup, attacks, drain pressure, or a finisher.
- Avoid when: opponent has visible lethal on the backswing and no protection or blocker plan exists.
- Instructions: Convert advantage into lethal pressure before opponents recover. Prefer actions that create immediate life-total pressure, draw-backed attacks, counter growth, or repeated token scaling over extra setup that does not change the clock.
- Pilot skill floor: high
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes
