# Strategy Specifications
## Deck Name And Archetype
Mono Red Madness is a Pauper mono-red aggro-burn deck built around cheap damage spells, discard-to-cast madness lines, flashback value, and noncombat damage triggers from `Kessig Flamebreather` and `Guttersnipe`. The registered main deck contains 60 cards: 18 `Mountain`, 4 `Voldaren Epicure`, 4 `Kessig Flamebreather`, 3 `Guttersnipe`, 4 `Sneaky Snacker`, 4 `Lightning Bolt`, 4 `Fiery Temper`, 4 `Lava Dart`, 3 `Fireblast`, 4 `Grab the Prize`, 4 `Highway Robbery`, and 4 `Faithless Looting`. The registered sideboard contains 15 cards: 4 `Pyroblast`, 2 `Red Elemental Blast`, 3 `Cast into the Fire`, 3 `Relic of Progenitus`, and 3 `Searing Blaze`.

- Format validation: Treat this as Pauper only after the rules engine or deck validator confirms current card legality, ban status, and printing eligibility for every registered card. Do not assume sanctioned legality from this guide alone, because Pauper legality can change and `Guttersnipe`, `Sneaky Snacker`, `Grab the Prize`, and `Highway Robbery` should be verified against the active legality source used by Veles.

- Archetype validation: Classify the deck as hybrid stock/rogue Mono Red Madness rather than pure stock Burn, because the shell uses familiar red reach cards such as `Lightning Bolt`, `Lava Dart`, `Fireblast`, and `Fiery Temper`, but its engine density depends on `Sneaky Snacker`, `Grab the Prize`, `Highway Robbery`, and `Faithless Looting` instead of only one-mana burn and creatures.

- Tag validation: Use tags `aggro`, `burn`, `madness`, and `spells`; avoid duplicate tag expansion at runtime. The tactical identity is damage velocity first, card-flow conversion second, and combat pressure third.

- Mana validation: The deck is registered as mono-red with only `Mountain`, so color risk is low, but land-count risk is real at 18 lands. Runtime mulligan and sequencing must respect one-land hands, flashback pressure from `Faithless Looting` and `Lava Dart`, and the sacrifice cost of `Fireblast`; do not spend the second `Mountain` lightly when future spell volume or `Fireblast` timing matters.

- Role validation: The default role is aggressor, but the deck can temporarily become a removal-control deck against creature starts when `Lava Dart`, `Lightning Bolt`, `Fiery Temper`, `Searing Blaze`, or `Cast into the Fire` are legal and the visible clock threatens to outrace burn. Do not force opponent-face burn when visible creatures will deal more damage than the burn spell prevents.

- Engine validation: The deck relies on rules-engine legal actions for madness, flashback, sacrifice costs, targeting, optional sequencing, and combat. The pilot must choose only listed `action_id` values, never infer that a discard outlet automatically permits `Fiery Temper`, `Sneaky Snacker`, or any other follow-up unless Veles exposes that legal action.

- Opponent information status: No specific opponent deck is supplied for this guide batch, so matchup assumptions must stay archetype-level until Veles provides matchup metadata, revealed cards, public zones, or previous-game information. Treat hidden hand and library contents as unknown, while using public battlefield, graveyard, exile, stack, mana, life totals, and revealed cards when selecting actions.

## Thesis
Mono Red Madness assembles a fast damage engine from `Kessig Flamebreather`, `Guttersnipe`, cheap burn, and discard-draw spells that turn graveyard or madness synergies into reach. The deck wins by stacking small noncombat damage triggers with efficient spells, then closing with `Lightning Bolt`, `Fiery Temper`, `Lava Dart`, `Fireblast`, or accumulated attacks from `Voldaren Epicure` and `Sneaky Snacker` when the rules engine shows those attacks are favorable.

Prioritize spell volume over isolated card quality. A protected `Kessig Flamebreather` or `Guttersnipe` makes `Faithless Looting`, `Grab the Prize`, `Highway Robbery`, `Lava Dart`, and `Fiery Temper` function as damage multipliers, so choose lines that keep casting spells across consecutive priority windows rather than spending every burn spell immediately for face damage.

Use discard outlets as engines, not random filtering. `Faithless Looting`, `Grab the Prize`, and `Highway Robbery` should preferentially convert excess `Mountain`, recursive or graveyard-relevant cards, flashback cards, and madness cards into immediate pressure only when Veles exposes legal follow-up actions. Do not assume a `Fiery Temper` madness cast, `Sneaky Snacker` recursion, or flashback line is available unless the current legal actions list shows it.

Treat life total as a race resource, but do not ignore visible board pressure. The deck is not trying to play long attrition, hold up reactive mana indefinitely, or trade burn for low-impact creatures when the opponent is not presenting a meaningful clock. It is trying to compress the game into a small number of turns where every red spell either advances lethal, removes a blocker or attacker that changes the race, or finds more damage.

Preserve `Fireblast` for commitment points. Sacrificing two `Mountain` can end the game or create a decisive damage swing, but it can also strand `Faithless Looting` flashback, `Lava Dart` flashback, `Guttersnipe`, or multiple same-turn spells. Prefer waiting until `Fireblast` is lethal, prevents lethal by removing a critical threat if legal, or turns a nearly lethal stack into a win before the opponent untaps.

Do not treat this as pure Burn. `Kessig Flamebreather`, `Guttersnipe`, `Faithless Looting`, `Grab the Prize`, `Highway Robbery`, and `Sneaky Snacker` make sequencing and graveyard texture matter more than a simple count-to-20 plan. When the board is stable, develop a trigger creature before firing draw spells; when the opponent threatens lethal or a lock, abandon engine greed and take the legal line that preserves survival or immediate lethal pressure.

## Role Package
- Threats: `Voldaren Epicure` provides early material and chip damage when legal, while `Sneaky Snacker` is a recurring or pressure threat only under the exact card text and rules-engine triggers Veles exposes. Card text check required for `Sneaky Snacker`; treat all recursion, attack timing, and graveyard value as conditional on visible legal actions and public zones.

- Payoffs: `Kessig Flamebreather` is the preferred early payoff because it rewards every noncreature spell and survives some small damage better than a one-toughness threat. `Guttersnipe` is the higher-output payoff for instant and sorcery chains, but it costs more mana and should be committed when the next turn cycle is likely to include multiple spells or when its body is not immediately blanked by visible removal pressure.

- Engines: `Faithless Looting`, `Grab the Prize`, and `Highway Robbery` are the core card-flow package. Use them to assemble lands, payoff creatures, burn, and discard synergies; avoid discarding unique lethal pieces, the only castable payoff, or the land needed for a multi-spell turn unless the current action wins, stabilizes, or unlocks a stronger legal follow-up.

- Velocity: `Faithless Looting` is the cheapest way to dig and stock the graveyard, especially after a payoff creature is already in play. `Grab the Prize` and `Highway Robbery` should be sequenced around available red mana, discard requirements, and whether the visible legal actions include madness or other follow-up value; Card text check required for exact `Grab the Prize` and `Highway Robbery` modes before relying on damage, treasure, discard, or additional-cost assumptions.

- Interaction: `Lightning Bolt`, `Fiery Temper`, and `Lava Dart` are both removal and reach. Aim them at the opponent when they advance lethal or pressure through a stable board; aim them at creatures when the creature will deal more damage than the spell, block a critical attacker, enable the opponent's engine, or prevent your payoff creature from surviving combat.

- Protection: The main deck has no true protection spell, so protection means sequencing. Cast payoff creatures when you can either gain value immediately, force the opponent to answer under pressure, or follow with enough spells that removal still leaves damage behind. After sideboarding, `Pyroblast` and `Red Elemental Blast` can protect a plan against blue spells only when legal targets and timing are exposed.

- Recursion: `Lava Dart` flashback turns spare `Mountain` into a second spell and extra trigger event, but sacrificing a `Mountain` competes with `Fireblast`, flashback `Faithless Looting`, and multi-spell turns. `Sneaky Snacker` may also create recursion pressure, but use it only as rules-engine-confirmed value from public graveyard and trigger information.

- Mana: `Mountain` is the only land, so color is simple and quantity is the constraint. Keep enough lands to cast payoff creatures before draw spells, support `Fiery Temper` madness or normal casting when legal, and avoid sacrificing lands until the remaining mana still covers the next required spell sequence.

- Sideboard modules: `Pyroblast` and `Red Elemental Blast` are blue-matchup interaction and stack protection. `Cast into the Fire` is artifact or small-creature interaction depending on legal modes; `Relic of Progenitus` is graveyard pressure that can slow opposing recursion but may also affect public graveyards; `Searing Blaze` is creature-removal plus damage when landfall and targets are legally available.

## Primary Win Conditions
- Ping-engine spell chain: Win by keeping `Kessig Flamebreather` or `Guttersnipe` on the battlefield, then casting multiple noncreature spells across one or two turns. Setup requires at least one payoff creature, enough `Mountain` to cast follow-up spells, and a hand or graveyard containing `Faithless Looting`, `Grab the Prize`, `Highway Robbery`, `Lava Dart`, `Lightning Bolt`, `Fiery Temper`, or `Fireblast`. Execute by sequencing cheap draw/filter spells before expendable burn when they may find more spells, but switch to direct damage once visible life totals and legal actions show a lethal path.

- Burn reach: Win by pointing `Lightning Bolt`, `Fiery Temper`, `Lava Dart`, and `Fireblast` at the opponent when the opponent's life total, stack state, and available legal responses make damage to face more valuable than creature removal. Prioritize this path when a payoff creature has already generated damage, the opponent is low enough that every spell is effectively lethal pressure, or the battlefield is too stalled for attacks. Preserve `Fireblast` until it is lethal, forces through a near-lethal stack, or prevents losing immediately; sacrificing two `Mountain` too early can strand the remaining hand.

- Discard-velocity pressure: Win by turning `Faithless Looting`, `Grab the Prize`, and `Highway Robbery` into repeated spell triggers, card selection, and conditional madness or graveyard value. Card text check required for exact `Grab the Prize`, `Highway Robbery`, and `Sneaky Snacker` outcomes, so use this line only through legal actions exposed by Veles. Prioritize it when the hand contains excess `Mountain`, duplicate expensive cards, or `Fiery Temper` with a visible legal madness option, and when digging has a realistic chance to assemble lethal before the opponent stabilizes.

- Recursive creature damage: Win with `Sneaky Snacker` and `Voldaren Epicure` attacks when the rules engine shows attacks are legal and favorable. `Voldaren Epicure` is early pressure plus material; `Sneaky Snacker` is a recurring attacker only if its card text and public graveyard triggers are confirmed by legal actions. Prioritize this path against opponents spending resources on life gain, counterspells, or graveyard interaction that make pure burn less reliable, but do not throw away blockers when behind on board.

- Disruption awareness: Expect the main win paths to be disrupted by creature removal on `Kessig Flamebreather` or `Guttersnipe`, graveyard hate against flashback or `Sneaky Snacker`, lifegain, countermagic, and fast creature clocks. When a payoff is likely to die, cast at least one useful spell while it is active if legal; when graveyards are pressured, rely more on hand-based burn and battlefield damage.

## Secondary Win Conditions
- Clean combat fallback: Use `Voldaren Epicure`, `Kessig Flamebreather`, `Guttersnipe`, and `Sneaky Snacker` as attackers when the opponent lacks profitable blocks or when chip damage shortens the burn clock. Do not attack with a payoff creature if blocking preserves survival and the attack does not materially change lethal math.

- Removal-tempo fallback: Use `Lightning Bolt`, `Fiery Temper`, `Lava Dart`, and sideboarded `Searing Blaze` only when legal to remove blockers or attackers that swing the race more than face damage would. This is a win path when removing one creature unlocks several combat damage points or buys the exact turn needed for a burn finish.

- Flashback spell-count fallback: Use `Lava Dart` flashback and `Faithless Looting` flashback as extra spell events when mana and land count allow it. Sacrificing a `Mountain` to `Lava Dart` is strongest with `Kessig Flamebreather` or `Guttersnipe` active, but weak if it prevents `Fireblast`, `Guttersnipe`, or multiple same-turn spells.

- Sideboard pressure fallback: After sideboarding, `Pyroblast` and `Red Elemental Blast` can protect a key spell or answer a blue card only when legal targets exist; `Cast into the Fire` can clear artifacts or small threats only according to visible modes; `Relic of Progenitus` can slow graveyard engines while the burn clock continues. These cards support the main plan rather than replacing it.

## Emergency Lines
- Behind on life: Stop treating every burn spell as reach and remove the visible creature or engine that represents the most damage before the next turn cycle. Keep `Fireblast` as an emergency finisher only if it wins before the opponent's next attack; otherwise avoid sacrificing lands that are needed to stabilize.

- Behind on board: Use burn as removal when blockers, attackers, or engine creatures will deal more damage than the burn spell would. Attack only with creatures that are not needed to block unless the attack creates lethal or near-lethal pressure.

- Behind on cards: Cast `Faithless Looting`, `Grab the Prize`, or `Highway Robbery` to find action, but discard with discipline. Preserve the card that creates the next legal lethal line, the only payoff creature, or the land needed to cast two spells unless the current action immediately stabilizes.

- Behind on mana: Prioritize hitting land drops with `Mountain` and delay `Lava Dart` flashback or `Fireblast` unless the action is lethal or prevents immediate loss. A one-spell turn that preserves future two-spell turns is often better than a flashy line that empties mana sources.

- Engine removed: Shift from payoff chaining to burn-count math and creature chip damage. Rebuild with a second `Kessig Flamebreather` or `Guttersnipe` only if the game is not already in direct-lethal range.

- Graveyard disrupted: Treat `Lava Dart` flashback, `Faithless Looting` flashback, and `Sneaky Snacker` value as unavailable unless Veles shows legal actions. Use hand spells, attacks, and any remaining battlefield payoff triggers to finish.

- Opponent combo or lock pressure: Abandon slow filtering and spend damage or sideboard interaction on the visible permanent, stack object, or life-total line that gives the highest chance to win before the lock resolves. Do not assume hidden answers; choose from current legal actions and public information only.

## Resource Model
- Life: Treat your life total as a clock buffer that buys time to cast multiple red spells, not as a resource to spend casually. Race when `Kessig Flamebreather`, `Guttersnipe`, `Lightning Bolt`, `Fiery Temper`, `Lava Dart`, or `Fireblast` can end the game before the opponent's next lethal attack; pivot to removal when a visible attacker will deal more damage than a face spell would.

- Hand: Treat hand size as fuel for spell density, madness access, and land-drop control. `Faithless Looting`, `Grab the Prize`, and `Highway Robbery` convert weaker cards into action, but card text check required for exact `Grab the Prize` and `Highway Robbery` choices, so follow only legal discard, draw, damage, or madness prompts exposed by Veles.

- Mana: Treat untapped `Mountain` as the limiting resource for chaining spells and holding instant-speed burn. One red mana casts `Lightning Bolt`, `Lava Dart`, `Faithless Looting`, and `Voldaren Epicure`; two and three mana enable velocity spells and payoff creatures, so avoid lines that spend all mana before checking whether legal madness, flashback, or removal actions matter this turn.

- Board: Treat `Kessig Flamebreather` and `Guttersnipe` as damage engines first and attackers or blockers second. Preserve them when their triggered damage over the next turn cycle exceeds combat damage, but trade or block if survival requires it and no lethal spell chain is visible.

- Graveyard: Treat the graveyard as a second hand only when Veles shows legal flashback, recursion, or graveyard-trigger actions. `Faithless Looting` and `Lava Dart` can generate extra spell count from the graveyard, and `Sneaky Snacker` may matter from public graveyard zones, but card text check required for exact `Sneaky Snacker` trigger conditions.

- Exile: Treat exiled cards as unavailable unless the rules engine exposes a legal play-from-exile action. Do not plan around recovering cards exiled by `Relic of Progenitus` or opposing graveyard hate.

- Lands: Treat `Mountain` as both mana and sacrifice material. Sacrifice `Mountain` to `Lava Dart` flashback or `Fireblast` only when the immediate damage, spell trigger, removal, or lethal line is worth reducing future spell capacity.

- Sacrifice fodder: Treat expendable resources as narrow, named resources. `Mountain` is sacrifice material for `Fireblast` and `Lava Dart`; any token or artifact generated by `Voldaren Epicure` is usable only when Veles exposes a legal action and card text is confirmed by the engine.

- Tempo: Treat every spell as both its printed effect and a possible trigger for `Kessig Flamebreather` or `Guttersnipe`. A lower-damage spell can be correct before a burn spell if it digs into another legal spell, enables `Fiery Temper`, or adds one more engine trigger before the opponent stabilizes.

- Information: Use visible life totals, graveyards, exile, battlefield, stack, revealed cards, and previous public actions to decide whether to race or interact. Do not assume the opponent has no removal, countermagic, lifegain, or graveyard hate just because those cards are hidden.

- Sideboard bullets: Treat `Pyroblast`, `Red Elemental Blast`, `Cast into the Fire`, `Relic of Progenitus`, and `Searing Blaze` as targeted tempo tools, not generic replacements for the burn plan. Use them when their visible legal target changes the race, protects a key spell, breaks a graveyard line, removes an artifact, or clears a creature while preserving pressure.

## Mana Guide
- Color requirements: Build every keep and sequence around red mana because the registered mana base is only `Mountain`. There are no off-color lands, tapped lands, or utility lands in the main deck, so mana mistakes mostly come from missing land drops, sacrificing lands too early, or sequencing draw before using available red mana efficiently.

- Keep rules: Keep one-`Mountain` hands only when they contain cheap legal plays such as `Voldaren Epicure`, `Faithless Looting`, `Lightning Bolt`, or `Lava Dart` and have a realistic route to the second land. Prefer two- or three-`Mountain` hands with a payoff creature plus multiple spells; mulligan hands that cannot cast a spell before turn two or hands with only expensive payoffs and no velocity.

- Land-drop discipline: Play `Mountain` before casting spells when the extra mana could unlock `Fiery Temper`, `Grab the Prize`, `Highway Robbery`, `Guttersnipe`, multiple one-mana spells, or a post-draw legal action. Delay the land drop only when a legal draw/filter action may reveal whether an extra `Mountain` should be discarded and you can still make the land drop afterward.

- Sequencing with payoffs: Cast `Kessig Flamebreather` before noncreature spells when mana and timing allow, and cast `Guttersnipe` before instants or sorceries when the three-mana investment will survive or immediately produce value. If the opponent is representing removal, prefer casting at least one useful spell after the payoff in the same turn when legal.

- Madness and discard mana: Preserve red mana when discarding `Fiery Temper` to `Faithless Looting`, `Grab the Prize`, or `Highway Robbery` might expose a legal madness action. Do not tap out for a draw spell first if the expected legal follow-up needs mana and the current turn is the best window to use it.

- Flashback mana: Use `Faithless Looting` flashback as a late-game refuel action when lands are plentiful or the hand is weak. Use `Lava Dart` flashback when the sacrificed `Mountain` creates lethal, removes a critical one-toughness creature, or adds decisive payoff triggers; avoid it when future `Fireblast`, `Guttersnipe`, or double-spell turns matter more.

- `Fireblast` mana: Treat `Fireblast` as a mana-free spell with a real land cost. Cast it by sacrificing two `Mountain` only for lethal, forced survival, or a near-lethal turn where losing two future red sources is acceptable.

- Sideboard mana: After sideboarding, keep one red mana available for `Pyroblast` or `Red Elemental Blast` only when a visible or likely blue stack fight matters. Sequence `Searing Blaze` with land drops when Veles exposes landfall-relevant legal actions; card text check required for exact `Searing Blaze` damage conditions.

## Mulligan Guide
- Strong keep: Keep `Mountain`, `Mountain`, `Kessig Flamebreather`, `Faithless Looting`, `Fiery Temper`, `Lightning Bolt`, and `Lava Dart` because it has mana, an engine, discard velocity, madness pressure, and cheap interaction. Lead toward `Kessig Flamebreather` before chaining noncreature spells unless the board demands immediate `Lightning Bolt` or `Lava Dart`.

- Strong keep: Keep `Mountain`, `Mountain`, `Voldaren Epicure`, `Kessig Flamebreather`, `Grab the Prize`, `Fiery Temper`, and `Fireblast` when the hand can curve creature into engine into discard/burn pressure. Card text check required for `Grab the Prize`, so use the hand for legal discard or draw prompts only when Veles exposes them.

- Medium keep: Keep one-`Mountain` hands with `Faithless Looting`, `Voldaren Epicure`, `Lightning Bolt`, `Lava Dart`, and at least one payoff or madness card if on the draw or if the matchup is slow. Ship more often on the play when missing the second `Mountain` strands `Kessig Flamebreather`, `Guttersnipe`, `Grab the Prize`, or `Highway Robbery`.

- Risky keep: Keep `Mountain`, `Mountain`, `Guttersnipe`, `Highway Robbery`, `Grab the Prize`, `Fiery Temper`, and `Fireblast` only against slower decks or on the draw when a single resolved payoff can dominate. This hand is weak to early pressure because it may not affect the board before turn three; card text check required for exact `Highway Robbery` and `Grab the Prize` modes.

- Automatic ship: Mulligan any hand with zero `Mountain`, any hand with only `Fireblast` as functional damage and no early spell, and any hand whose first legal play is turn three without `Lightning Bolt` or `Lava Dart`. Ship hands that require sacrificing `Mountain` early just to function.

- Trap hand: Do not keep `Mountain`, `Mountain`, `Fireblast`, `Fireblast`, `Guttersnipe`, `Sneaky Snacker`, and `Highway Robbery` just because the ceiling is high. It has too many conditional or delayed cards and too few cheap spells to enable the deck’s pressure plan.

- Matchup-dependent keep: Keep removal-heavy hands such as `Mountain`, `Mountain`, `Lightning Bolt`, `Lava Dart`, `Fiery Temper`, `Kessig Flamebreather`, and `Faithless Looting` against creature pressure. Against control or combo, prefer a faster engine hand with `Kessig Flamebreather`, `Guttersnipe`, and discard velocity over a hand full of creature-only interaction.

- Play/draw adjustment: On the play, value `Voldaren Epicure`, `Kessig Flamebreather`, and two `Mountain` because tempo matters before the opponent stabilizes. On the draw, accept slightly slower hands with `Faithless Looting` or `Grab the Prize` because the extra card reduces land-risk and improves discard selection.

- Sideboard mulligan shift: After sideboarding, keep `Pyroblast` or `Red Elemental Blast` only when blue interaction or blue threats are expected and the rest of the hand still advances damage. Keep `Relic of Progenitus`, `Cast into the Fire`, or `Searing Blaze` only when the matchup makes the card live; do not keep a low-pressure hand because one sideboard card might matter later.

## Turn Arc
- Turn 1 priority: Play `Mountain` and cast `Voldaren Epicure`, `Faithless Looting`, `Lightning Bolt`, or `Lava Dart` only when the legal action advances damage, selection, or survival. Prefer `Voldaren Epicure` for early board presence, prefer `Faithless Looting` when the hand needs land or has `Fiery Temper`/graveyard cards, and hold burn if the opponent’s first creature is likely to be the better target.

- Turn 1 deviation: Pass with untapped `Mountain` when `Lightning Bolt` or `Lava Dart` must answer a visible or likely early threat and no proactive one-drop is available. Do not cast `Faithless Looting` before deciding whether a land drop or madness mana matters if Veles gives a more precise legal sequencing option.

- Turn 2 priority: Cast `Kessig Flamebreather` before noncreature spells when it is legal and likely to generate triggers this turn or next. If no payoff is available, use `Faithless Looting`, `Grab the Prize`, or cheap burn to keep pressure moving, with card text check required for exact `Grab the Prize` choices.

- Turn 2 deviation: Use `Lightning Bolt`, `Lava Dart`, or `Fiery Temper` on a creature when that creature changes the race more than face damage does. Cast `Sneaky Snacker` only when Veles exposes a legal cast or trigger line and the body advances pressure or blocking; card text check required for exact recursion conditions.

- Turn 3 priority: Cast `Guttersnipe` when it can be followed soon by instants or sorceries and the opponent cannot easily punish the tempo loss. If `Kessig Flamebreather` is already in play, prefer sequencing two cheap spells over tapping out for `Guttersnipe` when the immediate triggers create a faster clock.

- Turn 3 deviation: Hold up instant-speed burn against decks representing key creatures, countermagic, or combat tricks if passing preserves a better response window. Use `Grab the Prize` or `Highway Robbery` when the hand needs refuel or a legal discard prompt can convert `Fiery Temper` into pressure.

- Turns 4-5 priority: Convert engines into lethal math by chaining `Faithless Looting`, `Grab the Prize`, `Highway Robbery`, `Lightning Bolt`, `Fiery Temper`, and `Lava Dart` around `Kessig Flamebreather` or `Guttersnipe`. Count visible life, engine triggers, flashback actions, and `Fireblast` before spending burn on creatures.

- Turns 4-5 deviation: Switch from racing to removal when the opponent’s next attack or combo turn beats your visible burn total. Sacrifice `Mountain` to `Fireblast` or `Lava Dart` only for lethal, survival, or a decisive engine-trigger turn.

- Late-game priority: Treat every draw/filter spell as a route to multiple damage events, not just a card replacement. Flash back `Faithless Looting` when legal to find burn, preserve enough `Mountain` for multi-spell turns, and use `Fireblast` as the closing spell after other damage has forced the opponent low.

- Late-game deviation: Preserve resources when the opponent can gain life, counter the key spell, exile graveyards, or force a longer game from visible information. If lethal is not present, favor lines that leave a castable spell, a legal graveyard action, or an engine creature rather than emptying the hand into uncertain interaction.

## Card Roles
- `Guttersnipe`: Use `Guttersnipe` as the high-ceiling burn engine when the hand can cast multiple instants or sorceries over the next turn cycle. Cast it before `Faithless Looting`, `Grab the Prize`, `Highway Robbery`, `Lightning Bolt`, `Fiery Temper`, `Lava Dart`, or `Fireblast` when the extra triggers are likely to matter more than immediate tempo. Hold it against visible removal-heavy or counterspell positions if a lower-curve `Kessig Flamebreather` line already pressures life totals. Do not tap out for `Guttersnipe` into a board that kills you before the triggers matter. In slower matchups, protect its first trigger turn by waiting until you can cast it and immediately follow with a cheap spell if legal.

- `Kessig Flamebreather`: Treat `Kessig Flamebreather` as the default early engine because it rewards every noncreature spell, not only burn spells. Deploy it early when possible, then sequence `Faithless Looting`, `Grab the Prize`, `Highway Robbery`, `Lightning Bolt`, `Fiery Temper`, `Lava Dart`, `Fireblast`, and sideboard noncreature spells after it enters. Preserve it in combat unless blocking prevents a larger life-total swing than its future triggers create. Do not spend early noncreature spells before casting `Kessig Flamebreather` unless removal, mana smoothing, or madness timing makes waiting worse. Against blue decks, it is often better as an early must-answer threat than as a late engine into open mana.

- `Sneaky Snacker`: Use `Sneaky Snacker` as graveyard-based pressure or material only when Veles exposes legal cast, trigger, or return actions. Card text check required for exact draw-count, timing, and return conditions, so do not assume it can be cast or returned unless the rules engine offers the action. Put it into the graveyard with `Faithless Looting`, `Grab the Prize`, `Highway Robbery`, or Blood-token discard lines when the legal discard choice advances a future recursion plan more than discarding excess land or redundant burn. Do not keep hands that rely on `Sneaky Snacker` alone to function. Against graveyard hate, value it lower and force the opponent to spend hate on it only when the rest of the hand still has burn pressure.

- `Voldaren Epicure`: Use `Voldaren Epicure` as the best one-mana setup creature because it supplies early damage, a body, and a Blood-token discard outlet. Cast it on turn one in most openers unless holding `Lightning Bolt` or `Lava Dart` is needed for an urgent visible creature. The Blood token is a tactical bridge: use it to discard `Fiery Temper` when Veles offers the legal madness line, to place `Sneaky Snacker` in the graveyard when recursion is relevant, or to turn excess `Mountain` into new action. Do not cash in Blood too early when it is the only discard outlet for `Fiery Temper`. Trade the 1/1 body only when blocking preserves the race or buys enough time for burn.

- `Lightning Bolt`: Use `Lightning Bolt` as flexible reach first and creature removal second, with target choice driven by race math. Send it at the opponent when visible life totals plus engine triggers create a fast clock or lethal setup. Aim it at creatures when the creature’s next attack, engine role, or combo role is worth more than three face damage. Hold `Lightning Bolt` against decks with key small threats, pump windows, or blue shields if passing keeps a better response window. Do not burn low-impact creatures just to spend mana when `Kessig Flamebreather` or `Guttersnipe` could convert that spell into extra damage later.

- `Fiery Temper`: Use `Fiery Temper` as premium burn when a legal discard or madness action is available. Pair it with `Faithless Looting`, `Grab the Prize`, `Highway Robbery`, and Blood-token activations from `Voldaren Epicure` when the engine exposes a clear cast-through-discard line. Cast it normally only when mana is available and waiting risks losing the target, missing lethal, or wasting the turn. Do not discard `Fiery Temper` into a zone where no legal madness cast is offered unless graveyard placement is still correct from visible context. Against creature decks, its three damage can protect your life total; against control, it is often a stored spell that punishes discard outlets resolving.

- `Lava Dart`: Use `Lava Dart` as a cheap trigger spell and precision damage tool before treating it as full removal. One point matters for finishing creatures after combat, enabling multiple `Kessig Flamebreather` or `Guttersnipe` triggers, and creating lethal stacks with very little mana. Flashback by sacrificing `Mountain` only when the extra point, spell trigger, or target removal is worth the lost mana. Do not sacrifice `Mountain` early if it strands `Guttersnipe`, `Highway Robbery`, `Grab the Prize`, `Faithless Looting` flashback, or future multi-spell turns. Against one-toughness creature decks, hold `Lava Dart` more often; against slow decks, use it as a low-cost trigger and reach spell.

- `Fireblast`: Use `Fireblast` as the closing spell, emergency removal, or decisive engine-trigger burst, not as routine early damage. Count whether sacrificing two `Mountain` still leaves enough mana for any remaining legal spells before choosing an alternate-cost action. Fire it at the opponent when it creates lethal now or forces the opponent into a very short clock with little recovery time. Use it on a creature only when that creature otherwise wins the game, blocks lethal pressure, or shuts off your burn plan. Do not expose `Fireblast` into visible counterplay unless waiting is worse; once the Mountains are sacrificed, the tempo loss is real even if the spell fails.

- `Grab the Prize`: Use `Grab the Prize` as a velocity and discard-conversion spell when the hand needs more spells or wants to enable `Fiery Temper` and `Sneaky Snacker`. Card text check required for exact cost, draw, discard, and damage instructions, so follow only the prompts Veles exposes. Cast it after `Kessig Flamebreather` or `Guttersnipe` when legal if the trigger value matters and the turn can support the mana. Prefer discarding `Fiery Temper` when madness is legal, `Sneaky Snacker` when recursion is legal or likely, and excess `Mountain` when mana is already sufficient. Do not cast it just to churn cards if doing so discards the only burn spell needed for lethal.

- `Highway Robbery`: Use `Highway Robbery` as refuel that can turn spare resources into more burn. Card text check required for exact additional costs, modes, plot timing, and discard or land-sacrifice choices, so treat every action as conditional on the rules engine output. Use it when the current hand is low on action, when a discard prompt can enable `Fiery Temper`, or when drawing into lethal matters more than preserving the resource spent. Be cautious about sacrificing `Mountain` because the deck needs mana for multi-spell engine turns and `Faithless Looting` flashback. Against control, delayed or staged draw may be valuable; against aggro, do not spend a turn refueling if visible pressure demands removal.

- `Faithless Looting`: Use `Faithless Looting` as the primary selection spell and the cleanest way to turn conditional cards into pressure. Cast it early when the hand lacks land, lacks an engine, has `Fiery Temper`, has `Sneaky Snacker`, or needs to find cheap burn. After `Kessig Flamebreather` or `Guttersnipe`, it becomes both selection and damage, so sequence engines first when the delay is safe. Discard excess `Mountain`, duplicate expensive engines, `Fiery Temper` with legal madness, or `Sneaky Snacker` when its graveyard role is active. Do not flash it back into graveyard hate or into an empty plan unless the new cards can plausibly win or stabilize.

- `Mountain`: Treat `Mountain` as both mana and a spendable resource, but spend it only when the legal payoff is clear. The deck’s 18-land count means two to three lands are precious for casting engines, draw spells, madness lines, and multiple burn spells in one turn. Sacrifice `Mountain` to `Lava Dart` or `Fireblast` for lethal, survival, or a decisive trigger chain; avoid sacrificing when it locks future `Guttersnipe`, `Grab the Prize`, `Highway Robbery`, or `Faithless Looting` flashback out of reach. Keep extra `Mountain` when discard outlets are absent, because it may become Blood, `Faithless Looting`, `Grab the Prize`, or `Highway Robbery` fuel later.

## Interaction Priorities

- Priority: Point `Lightning Bolt`, `Fiery Temper`, `Lava Dart`, `Fireblast`, and post-board `Searing Blaze` at the opponent when the visible damage count creates lethal this turn or a forced lethal next turn. Count `Kessig Flamebreather` and `Guttersnipe` triggers before choosing targets, because casting a spell for one visible effect may add two or more damage from permanents already on board.

- Remove first: Kill creatures that shorten the race, invalidate attacks, enable combo, or tax future burn before killing incidental attackers. Use `Lava Dart` on one-toughness creatures, finish damaged creatures after combat, or split a spell-trigger turn into multiple cheap damage events. Use `Lightning Bolt` or `Fiery Temper` on larger threats only when their next attack or engine role is worth more than three damage to the opponent.

- Ignore first: Do not spend burn on low-impact blockers, small life-gain bodies after their life-gain has already resolved, or creatures that are not changing the next two turns. This deck can win through stalled boards with `Kessig Flamebreather`, `Guttersnipe`, `Sneaky Snacker`, `Faithless Looting`, `Grab the Prize`, `Highway Robbery`, `Lava Dart`, and `Fireblast`, so removal must either preserve life or unlock lethal.

- Bait protection: Lead with lower-value spells when the opponent visibly represents blue interaction and the hand contains `Fireblast`, `Fiery Temper`, or a lethal `Lightning Bolt`. Post-board, use `Pyroblast` and `Red Elemental Blast` on blue spells or blue permanents only when the rules engine exposes legal targets and the exchange protects lethal, stops a card-advantage spell, removes a blocker, or prevents your engine from being answered.

- Exile and graveyard hate: Use `Relic of Progenitus` against graveyard decks when the visible graveyard is enabling recursion, delve, flashback, reanimation, threshold-style pressure, or a pending combo. Do not fire `Relic of Progenitus` merely because it is legal if your own `Faithless Looting`, `Lava Dart`, or graveyard `Sneaky Snacker` value matters and the opponent’s graveyard is not yet threatening.

- Artifact pressure: Use `Cast into the Fire` against artifacts when a legal mode removes a mana engine, affinity enabler, equipment-like combat piece, or artifact creature that changes the race. Card text check required for exact modes and targets; follow Veles prompts and prefer the mode that either cuts off the opponent’s engine or removes multiple one-toughness creatures when that is exposed.

- Archetype adjustment: Against fast creature decks, spend burn defensively until your life total is safe enough to resume face damage. Against control and combo, preserve face burn and engine permanents, answer only the creatures or permanents that disrupt your clock, and use `Pyroblast`, `Red Elemental Blast`, `Relic of Progenitus`, or `Cast into the Fire` only for visible high-impact windows.

## Combat And Trading Rules

- Attack by default: Send `Voldaren Epicure` and recursive `Sneaky Snacker` when the opponent cannot profitably punish the attack or when damage advances a burn-lethal clock. The deck is not trying to win creature combat on size; every point matters because `Lightning Bolt`, `Fiery Temper`, `Lava Dart`, `Fireblast`, `Kessig Flamebreather`, and `Guttersnipe` can finish from low life totals.

- Preserve engines: Do not trade `Kessig Flamebreather` or `Guttersnipe` in combat unless blocking prevents lethal, buys a full extra turn, or the engine is no longer needed because lethal burn is already available. Their bodies are less important than their triggered damage, so expose them to combat only when the life-total exchange is decisive.

- Trade small bodies: Trade `Voldaren Epicure` when it blocks enough damage to preserve the race or when the Blood token already supplied its discard role. Trade `Sneaky Snacker` more freely when recurrence is realistically supported by visible legal actions, but do not assume recursion unless the rules engine or visible card text path confirms it.

- Block under pressure: Block earlier against Stompy-style, Red aggro, Bogles-like, or token-wide starts when visible attacks will put you into burn range or make `Fireblast` sacrifices too risky. Accept losing small creatures if the block turns a two-turn opposing clock into a three-turn clock and leaves enough spells to win.

- Race slow decks: Avoid defensive blocks against control, combo, and slow big-mana decks unless a creature is presenting a unique threat or lethal clock. In those matchups, your creatures are recurring damage sources and spell-trigger amplifiers; trading them for low-pressure creatures often helps the opponent reach stabilizing turns.

- Use combat to set burn: Attack before spending removal when blockers may reveal whether burn should go face or clear a path. After blocks, use `Lava Dart`, `Lightning Bolt`, or `Fiery Temper` to finish a creature only if saving your attacker, reducing return damage, or preserving lethal math is better than sending that spell at the opponent.

- Protect life thresholds: Treat life below six as fragile against red decks, pump decks, and any board with multiple attackers; defensive burn and blocks gain priority. Treat opponent life at ten or less as a closing window, especially with `Fireblast`, flashback `Lava Dart`, or any active `Kessig Flamebreather` or `Guttersnipe`, but still respect visible lethal on the crack-back.

- Avoid empty attacks: Do not attack `Kessig Flamebreather` or `Guttersnipe` into clear profitable blocks just to add combat damage. Do not attack a needed blocker under a short clock unless the attack creates lethal now, forces lethal next turn, or the blocker cannot meaningfully change survival.

## Selection And Tutor Rules

- Pseudo-selection: Treat this deck as having no true tutors; `Faithless Looting`, `Grab the Prize`, `Highway Robbery`, `Voldaren Epicure`, and Blood token activations are card-flow tools that convert excess cards into spell density, madness windows, graveyard resources, and reach. Do not search for hidden-library cards or assume future draws; choose from visible hand, graveyard, battlefield, and legal prompts only.

- Looting priority: Use `Faithless Looting` early when the hand needs lands, a discard outlet, or enough spell velocity to turn on `Kessig Flamebreather`, `Guttersnipe`, `Fiery Temper`, `Lava Dart`, and `Sneaky Snacker`. Delay `Faithless Looting` when the current hand already curves out and the graveyard flashback mode or a later third-card turn could matter more.

- Discard priority: Discard extra `Mountain` first when current and next-turn mana are already covered, then redundant expensive or slow cards, then graveyard-usable cards such as `Lava Dart`, `Faithless Looting`, or `Sneaky Snacker` when the visible rules-engine path supports later use. Prefer discarding `Fiery Temper` only when the engine exposes a legal madness cast or when the hand’s alternative is materially worse.

- Madness discipline: Choose a `Fiery Temper` madness action when it is legal and the target advances lethal, removes a high-impact creature, or preserves the race. Do not discard `Fiery Temper` into the graveyard as generic fuel if no legal madness action is exposed and a normal cast is likely to be useful soon.

- Draw count awareness: Sequence `Faithless Looting`, `Grab the Prize`, `Highway Robbery`, and Blood token activations with visible draw counts in mind when `Sneaky Snacker` is in the graveyard or on the battlefield with a relevant trigger path. Card text check required for exact `Sneaky Snacker` trigger conditions; only rely on recurrence when the rules engine exposes the trigger or legal resulting action.

- Land-drop timing: Usually make the land drop before casting selection if the hand needs two or more spells this turn, but hold an extra `Mountain` before a discard outlet when all current mana is already available and that land is the cleanest discard. Do not hold the only land that enables `Kessig Flamebreather`, `Guttersnipe`, `Grab the Prize`, `Highway Robbery`, hard-cast `Fiery Temper`, or flashback `Faithless Looting` unless the visible line is already lethal.

- Fireblast planning: Preserve enough `Mountain` count for `Fireblast` only when sacrificing lands is legal and the damage meaningfully closes the game. Do not over-discard or sacrifice lands if doing so strands flashback `Faithless Looting`, future `Highway Robbery`, or multiple cheap spells needed to trigger `Kessig Flamebreather` and `Guttersnipe`.

- Selection under pressure: Against fast creature boards, use selection to find cheap interaction and playable spells rather than maximize future value. Against slow control or combo, use selection to assemble engine permanent plus burn density, and avoid discarding redundant reach unless it cannot be cast in time.

## Priority And Stack Rules

- Lethal priority: At every priority window, count visible damage from `Lightning Bolt`, `Fiery Temper`, `Lava Dart`, `Fireblast`, flashback `Lava Dart`, `Kessig Flamebreather`, `Guttersnipe`, and combat before passing. If a legal sequence creates lethal through known public resources, take it before giving the opponent another draw step or untap.

- Trigger math: Let `Kessig Flamebreather` and `Guttersnipe` triggers resolve in the order supplied by Forge unless a visible target choice matters. Count spell-cast triggers separately from spell resolution, because a spell being countered may not remove already-created legal triggers if the rules engine has placed them on the stack.

- Response discipline: Cast instant-speed burn in response only when the timing changes the outcome: lethal before life gain, killing a creature before a pump/equip/combat-damage window, using mana before it disappears, triggering `Kessig Flamebreather` or `Guttersnipe` for lethal, or forcing action through visible stack interaction. Otherwise, prefer main-phase sequencing that preserves information and lets sorcery-speed draw/filter happen first.

- Lava Dart timing: Use `Lava Dart` as a flexible one-damage spell for lethal math, one-toughness creatures, and extra spell triggers. Flash it back only when sacrificing a `Mountain` does not cut off a better current or next-turn line, or when the immediate damage/trigger is worth the mana loss.

- Fireblast timing: Hold `Fireblast` until it is lethal, protects against discard by using a closing window, or removes a threat whose survival would almost certainly lose the race. Do not fire `Fireblast` casually into open interaction if a lower-value spell can test the opponent first and the extra lands still matter.

- Madness stack windows: When a discard effect offers `Fiery Temper` madness, choose the legal madness cast before passing if the spell has a meaningful target. Verify target legality from the action list; do not assume face targeting, creature targeting, or cost reduction beyond what Forge exposes.

- Blood activation windows: Activate Blood tokens when the hand contains discard-favorable cards, the deck needs a new card now, or a draw-count/`Sneaky Snacker` line is visible. Avoid spending Blood at end step merely because it is legal when the current hand already has lethal setup or the discarded card is needed.

- Graveyard timing: Use `Relic of Progenitus` post-board at the last safe window before the opponent uses visible graveyard resources, while accounting for your own `Faithless Looting`, `Lava Dart`, and `Sneaky Snacker`. Card text check required for exact `Relic of Progenitus` modes; follow the legal mode and target prompts.

- Blue interaction timing: Post-board, use `Pyroblast` and `Red Elemental Blast` only when Forge exposes a legal blue spell or blue permanent target and the exchange protects lethal, stops a decisive card, or clears a key blocker/engine. Do not spend them into low-impact blue objects while your own burn can still close.

- Pass explanation: Passing priority is correct when no legal spell changes lethal math, survival, or resource quality before the next decision. When passing with burn in hand, state whether the burn is being held for lethal, a better target, a madness outlet, or protection from a visible opposing line.

## Sideboard Map

- Sideboard principle: keep the deck's spell density, cheap damage, and discard velocity intact unless the opposing archetype makes a specific sideboard card materially better than a slower burn-draw piece. `Kessig Flamebreather`, `Guttersnipe`, `Sneaky Snacker`, `Lightning Bolt`, `Fiery Temper`, and `Lava Dart` are the core pressure/reach package; sideboarding should rarely reduce all copies of a single core function.

- Balanced anti-blue plan: use this against blue tempo, blue control, or blue combo where legal `Pyroblast` and `Red Elemental Blast` targets are expected from public deck knowledge or Game 1 information.
Side in: 4 Pyroblast, 2 Red Elemental Blast
Cut: 2 Highway Robbery, 1 Grab the Prize, 1 Fireblast, 2 Lava Dart

- Anti-blue role: `Pyroblast` and `Red Elemental Blast` protect a lethal stack, stop a decisive blue spell, answer a blue permanent when Forge exposes a legal target, or clear permission before committing `Guttersnipe` or multiple burn spells. Prefer using them on cards that stop your closing turn or generate a large advantage, not on low-impact blue cantrips when your hand already has a fast damage line.

- Anti-blue when bad: `Pyroblast` and `Red Elemental Blast` lose value against nonblue decks, mostly red mirrors, creature piles with few blue objects, and artifact or graveyard decks whose key cards are not blue. Do not add them merely because the opponent has islands or blue-adjacent mana unless the match history, revealed cards, or supplied matchup context supports meaningful legal targets.

- Anti-artifact plan: use this against Affinity, artifact combo, artifact lands plus payoff decks, or any opponent where public information shows important artifacts and `Cast into the Fire` has legal targets often enough to matter.
Side in: 3 Cast into the Fire
Cut: 1 Highway Robbery, 1 Fireblast, 1 Guttersnipe

- Anti-artifact role: `Cast into the Fire` is a flexible answer to artifact engines and small creature boards when Forge exposes the relevant mode and targets. Treat artifact exile as the default role against Affinity-style decks if the visible artifact is central to mana, pressure, or payoff; treat the damage mode as a tempo role only when it removes real blockers, attackers, or utility creatures.

- Anti-artifact when bad: `Cast into the Fire` is weaker against decks with few artifacts, large creatures outside its damage range, or board states where spending mana on removal delays a clear burn lethal. Avoid boarding too many reactive cards when the opponent's artifact permanents are incidental and racing with `Kessig Flamebreather`, `Fiery Temper`, and `Fireblast` is the cleaner plan.

- Graveyard plan: use this against graveyard combo, graveyard recursion, flashback-heavy control, Terror-style delve decks, or any deck whose public game actions reveal graveyard dependence.
Side in: 3 Relic of Progenitus
Cut: 1 Highway Robbery, 1 Grab the Prize, 1 Fireblast

- Graveyard role: `Relic of Progenitus` is disruption first and card flow second; use it to shrink opposing graveyard resources before they become mana, threats, recursion, or combo fuel. Account for your own `Faithless Looting`, `Lava Dart`, and `Sneaky Snacker` before activating graveyard-clearing modes, because this deck also converts the graveyard into damage and velocity.

- Graveyard when bad: `Relic of Progenitus` is poor against low-graveyard creature decks, red mirrors without graveyard payoffs, and control decks where the graveyard is not central to their stabilizing plan. Do not weaken the deck's pressure package for `Relic of Progenitus` unless the opponent's visible or known plan actually uses the graveyard as a resource.

- Creature-aggro plan: use this against small-creature aggro, Faeries-style boards, tokens, red creature mirrors, or decks where killing a creature while damaging the opponent helps preserve the race.
Side in: 3 Searing Blaze
Cut: 2 Highway Robbery, 1 Guttersnipe

- Creature-aggro role: `Searing Blaze` is a race-swinging removal spell when the rules engine exposes a legal creature and opponent target. Prioritize creatures that increase the opponent's clock, block your damage profitably, or enable synergy; treat landfall or enhanced damage only as real when Forge exposes the resulting legal action or effect.

- Creature-aggro when bad: `Searing Blaze` is weaker against creature-light control, combo, artifact decks with few legal creature targets, and board states where no target creature exists. Do not load up on `Searing Blaze` if the opponent's main plan is stack interaction, graveyard combo, or large threats that survive the damage shown by the rules engine.

- Heavy blue-control role change: Add role cards: `Pyroblast`, `Red Elemental Blast`, and sometimes `Relic of Progenitus` if their graveyard matters. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slower self-damage or sorcery-speed draw when it does not immediately enable `Sneaky Snacker` or madness, and excess one-damage removal when there are few creatures. Preserve enough cheap spells to trigger `Kessig Flamebreather` and pressure through counterspells.

- Blue tempo role change: Add role cards: `Pyroblast`, `Red Elemental Blast`, and `Searing Blaze` if their threats are small creatures. Reduce main-deck emphasis: the slowest draw spells and one copy of a fragile three-mana permanent on the draw if tempo pressure makes tapping for `Guttersnipe` unsafe. Keep `Lava Dart` when it answers one-toughness creatures or supplies lethal spell triggers.

- Affinity and artifact-board role change: Add role cards: `Cast into the Fire`, with `Pyroblast` or `Red Elemental Blast` only if the opposing threats or protection are actually blue. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow draw and some top-end reach when artifact exile is needed before racing. Continue to count burn lethal every turn, because artifact hate should create time for the same core damage plan rather than turn the deck into control.

- Graveyard-combo role change: Add role cards: `Relic of Progenitus`, and add blue blasts only when the combo's protection or payoff is blue. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow draw spells and expendable top-end before reducing core burn density. Use `Relic of Progenitus` at the last safe window before the opponent converts graveyard cards into a win, unless waiting risks losing access to the legal activation.

- Red mirror role change: Add role cards: `Searing Blaze` when the opponent presents creatures, and consider no other sideboard cards unless public information shows artifacts or graveyard dependence. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slower `Guttersnipe` or `Highway Robbery` lines when life total pressure makes spending mana without immediate board or damage impact dangerous. Treat `Fireblast` as a finisher, not a midgame removal spell, unless survival demands it.

- Big-mana or creature-light control role change: Add role cards: `Pyroblast` and `Red Elemental Blast` only against blue versions, `Relic of Progenitus` only against graveyard versions, and `Cast into the Fire` only against artifact-heavy versions. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow creature removal and low-impact `Lava Dart` copies when the opponent has few one-toughness targets. Keep enough card velocity to find a fast engine and enough reach to punish slow starts.

- Sideboarding discipline: never remove too many discard outlets when keeping `Fiery Temper`, `Sneaky Snacker`, and graveyard-usable cards. If reducing `Faithless Looting`, `Grab the Prize`, `Highway Robbery`, or Blood-token value, confirm that the post-board list still has enough ways to turn excess `Mountain` into spells and enough cheap casts to trigger `Kessig Flamebreather` and `Guttersnipe`.

- Post-board mulligan adjustment: mulligan hands that contain sideboard cards with no expected targets and no core damage plan. Keep hands with a sideboard card plus pressure when the sideboard card interacts with the known matchup, but do not keep a slow hand only because it has `Pyroblast`, `Red Elemental Blast`, `Cast into the Fire`, `Relic of Progenitus`, or `Searing Blaze`.

## Matchup Guidance

- Aggro: race from a damage-count mindset and spend removal only when it changes the clock. Keep hands that present early `Voldaren Epicure`, `Kessig Flamebreather`, or cheap burn plus enough `Mountain`; hands full of `Highway Robbery`, `Grab the Prize`, and `Guttersnipe` without early pressure are too slow on the draw. Add role cards: `Searing Blaze` against creature pressure, and `Cast into the Fire` only when the aggro deck uses artifacts that matter. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slower three-mana setup and excess draw when life total pressure makes taking a turn off unsafe.

- Control: force them to answer recurring pressure and protect the final burn window instead of dumping every spell into open interaction. `Kessig Flamebreather` is a strong early threat because every later noncreature spell turns into pressure; `Guttersnipe` is higher impact but must pass a tap-out commitment gate if the opponent can punish the three-mana play. Add role cards: `Pyroblast` and `Red Elemental Blast` against blue control, and `Relic of Progenitus` only if graveyard recursion, flashback, or delve is part of their public plan. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow creature removal and low-impact `Lava Dart` copies when there are few legal targets, while preserving enough cheap spells for trigger density.

- Combo: become the fastest honest clock while holding sideboard disruption for a visible conversion point. Prioritize hands with one-mana pressure, `Fiery Temper` enabled by `Faithless Looting`, `Grab the Prize`, `Highway Robbery`, or Blood tokens, and enough reach from `Lightning Bolt` or `Fireblast`; slow hands that only draw cards give combo too much time. Add role cards: `Relic of Progenitus` against graveyard combo, `Pyroblast` or `Red Elemental Blast` against blue combo or blue protection, and `Cast into the Fire` only when artifacts are real combo pieces. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow value draw before cutting core burn.

- Tempo: preserve mana efficiency and avoid letting one threat plus disruption decide the game. Use `Lightning Bolt`, `Lava Dart`, `Fiery Temper`, or `Searing Blaze` on threats that compress your clock or block engine creatures, but do not spend burn on creatures that are irrelevant to a near-term lethal count. Add role cards: `Pyroblast` and `Red Elemental Blast` against blue tempo, plus `Searing Blaze` for small-creature tempo. Reduce main-deck emphasis: the clunkiest `Guttersnipe` and slow draw on the draw when tapping out loses too much initiative.

- Midrange: treat every card as either damage, velocity, or a way to keep their board from turning the corner. `Sneaky Snacker` is valuable when the visible legal sequence lets draw/discard effects generate material without sacrificing burn tempo; do not overvalue it if graveyard hate or exile effects are already public. `Faithless Looting`, `Grab the Prize`, and `Highway Robbery` should turn extra `Mountain` into pressure, not become a loop of drawing without affecting life totals. Add role cards: `Searing Blaze` for creature midrange, `Relic of Progenitus` for graveyard midrange, and blasts for blue midrange.

- Big mana: shorten the game before their expensive stabilizers matter. Keep explosive hands with early permanent pressure and multiple burn spells; use `Fireblast` as a closing resource after counting whether sacrificing `Mountain` still leaves future legal actions. Add role cards: `Pyroblast` and `Red Elemental Blast` only against blue big-mana interaction or payoffs, `Cast into the Fire` against artifact ramp, and `Relic of Progenitus` only if graveyard resources are part of their ramp or threat plan. Reduce main-deck emphasis: creature-only removal and low-impact pings that do not support a fast lethal clock.

- Graveyard decks: use `Relic of Progenitus` as disruption first and a redraw second. Activate graveyard pressure at the last safe visible window before the opponent converts graveyard cards into mana, threats, recursion, or a combo result; if waiting risks losing the activation, act earlier. Account for your own `Faithless Looting`, `Lava Dart`, and `Sneaky Snacker` before clearing graveyards, because this deck also uses graveyard access for damage and material. Add role cards: `Relic of Progenitus`; add blasts only if blue cards are part of the graveyard deck's protection or payoff.

- Artifact/enchantment decks: punish artifact infrastructure with `Cast into the Fire` while keeping the burn plan central. Use artifact exile on visible mana artifacts, affinity-enabling artifacts, equipment-style pressure, or artifact payoffs when removing them changes the opponent's next turn; avoid spending it on incidental artifacts if direct damage is already close to lethal. Enchantment-heavy opponents require care because this sideboard has no broad enchantment answer; race them unless Forge exposes a legal burn, blast, or combat line that matters. Add role cards: `Cast into the Fire` for artifacts, `Pyroblast` or `Red Elemental Blast` only for blue cards.

- Go-wide decks: stop the damage snowball and keep pingers alive when possible. `Lava Dart` is at its best when one-damage actions remove relevant one-toughness creatures, break up combat math, or add spell triggers for `Kessig Flamebreather` and `Guttersnipe`; do not sacrifice `Mountain` casually if future `Fireblast`, madness costs, or double-spell turns need mana. Add role cards: `Searing Blaze` against creature swarms and `Cast into the Fire` if artifacts create the wide board. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow draw that does not immediately find removal or lethal.

- Single-threat decks: identify whether the threat must die or whether racing is cleaner. Spend `Lightning Bolt`, `Fiery Temper`, `Lava Dart`, or `Searing Blaze` only if the visible legal target is central to their clock, protection, or blocker plan; otherwise point burn at the opponent and make them answer your damage engine. Add role cards: blasts for blue single-threat shells, `Searing Blaze` for creature targets, and `Relic of Progenitus` if the threat depends on graveyard size. Reduce main-deck emphasis: extra removal that cannot target the actual threat shown by Forge.

- Burn mirrors: protect life total while counting lethal every priority window. `Fireblast` is usually a finisher rather than a midgame spell, because sacrificing `Mountain` can strand `Grab the Prize`, `Highway Robbery`, or multiple burn spells; use it defensively only when survival or an immediate winning race requires it. `Voldaren Epicure` and `Sneaky Snacker` matter as damage sources and blockers when they preserve the race. Add role cards: `Searing Blaze` if the opponent has enough creatures; avoid `Relic of Progenitus`, `Pyroblast`, `Red Elemental Blast`, or `Cast into the Fire` unless public information gives them targets.

- Removal-heavy decks: diversify pressure and avoid overcommitting creatures into obvious answers. Lead with low-cost threats when they force action, then use `Faithless Looting`, `Grab the Prize`, and `Highway Robbery` to rebuild while maintaining burn reach. `Kessig Flamebreather` often pressures through removal if it gets even one trigger cycle; `Guttersnipe` needs a stronger commitment gate because losing it before any spell trigger can waste a full turn. Add role cards: blasts against blue removal-heavy decks and `Relic of Progenitus` only if their removal plan recurs from graveyard. Reduce main-deck emphasis: creature combat reliance, not core burn density.

## Specific Matchup Notes

- General/archetype-only: revealed cards override these assumptions, and Veles must choose only legal actions from the rules engine. Treat sideboarding and target priority as conditional on visible permanents, graveyards, mana, stack objects, and previously revealed cards rather than archetype labels alone.

- Blue tempo/control: make `Kessig Flamebreather`, `Sneaky Snacker`, and cheap burn pressure them before permission dominates the stack. Add role cards: `Pyroblast` and `Red Elemental Blast` for visible blue spells or blue permanents; prioritize opposing card advantage, blockers, and counter-windows that stop lethal. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slower `Guttersnipe` lines when the opponent can answer it before triggers matter.

- Creature aggro: preserve life total until burn reach takes over. Add role cards: `Searing Blaze` for landfall-enabled creature removal plus damage, and `Cast into the Fire` only when artifacts materially support their pressure. Priority targets are creatures that shorten the clock, block `Sneaky Snacker`, or force bad races; `Lava Dart` is premium against one-toughness creatures.

- Go-wide tokens or small creatures: use `Lava Dart`, `Lightning Bolt`, and `Fiery Temper` to break the highest-damage combat turn rather than the first legal target. `Kessig Flamebreather` can win without attacking, so protect it when blocking with it would not prevent decisive damage. Add role cards: `Searing Blaze`; consider `Cast into the Fire` only for artifact token infrastructure.

- Graveyard decks: use `Relic of Progenitus` when the opponent is about to convert graveyard cards into threats, recursion, mana, or lethal setup. Account for your own `Faithless Looting`, `Lava Dart`, and `Sneaky Snacker` before exiling graveyards, because clearing too early can reduce your damage and material. Add role cards: `Relic of Progenitus`; add `Pyroblast` or `Red Elemental Blast` only if blue protection or payoff cards are public.

- Artifact decks: use `Cast into the Fire` on artifacts that change the opponent's next turn or unlock affinity-style pressure. Do not spend artifact interaction on low-impact targets if direct damage from `Lightning Bolt`, `Fiery Temper`, `Fireblast`, `Kessig Flamebreather`, or `Guttersnipe` is close to lethal. Add role cards: `Cast into the Fire`; add blasts only against blue artifact shells.

- Big mana and ramp: shorten the game and count `Fireblast` carefully. Permanent damage from `Voldaren Epicure`, `Kessig Flamebreather`, `Guttersnipe`, and recurring `Sneaky Snacker` matters more than long filtering loops. Add role cards: `Cast into the Fire` for artifact ramp, `Pyroblast` or `Red Elemental Blast` for blue stabilizers, and `Relic of Progenitus` only when graveyards are part of the ramp or payoff plan.

- Burn mirrors: treat your life total as a race resource and recalculate lethal every priority window. `Fireblast` is mainly a closer because sacrificing `Mountain` can strand `Grab the Prize`, `Highway Robbery`, madness costs, or double-spell turns. Add role cards: `Searing Blaze` when they show enough creatures; avoid narrow non-damage cards unless public targets justify them.

## Risk Summary

- Mana risk: eighteen `Mountain` means one-land hands can function only with cheap action and draw, while two- or three-land hands are strongest when they include pressure. Avoid sacrificing `Mountain` to `Lava Dart` or `Fireblast` before confirming the remaining mana still supports legal `Fiery Temper`, `Grab the Prize`, `Highway Robbery`, flashback, or multiple-spell turns.

- Matchup risk: creature swarms can race before pinger triggers add up, and large lifegain or stabilization can invalidate chip damage. Prioritize early board control when the opponent's visible clock beats your burn count.

- Draw risk: `Faithless Looting`, `Grab the Prize`, and `Highway Robbery` can become tempo-negative if they only find more filtering. Use draw/discard to convert extra `Mountain`, enable `Fiery Temper`, recur `Sneaky Snacker`, or find lethal, not as automatic value.

- Over-sideboarding risk: too many narrow cards dilute the deck's core damage density. `Pyroblast`, `Red Elemental Blast`, `Cast into the Fire`, `Relic of Progenitus`, and `Searing Blaze` need visible or highly likely targets; otherwise preserve burn, madness, and spell-trigger volume.

- Graveyard risk: `Relic of Progenitus` can disrupt your own `Faithless Looting`, `Lava Dart`, and `Sneaky Snacker` plans. Activate only when the opponent's graveyard payoff matters more than your own pending graveyard value.

- Sweeper/removal risk: `Guttersnipe` and `Kessig Flamebreather` are high-output but fragile. Commit `Guttersnipe` when you can plausibly get spell triggers soon, and diversify with burn-to-face lines if the opponent is representing removal.

- Closer risk: `Fireblast` creates surprise reach but can collapse future turns. Use it when it wins, prevents losing the race, or leaves enough mana for remaining legal burn; avoid early nonlethal casts unless the board state demands it.

- Interaction risk: blasts and `Cast into the Fire` are powerful only against matching public targets. Do not hold damage forever for speculative interaction if the current legal line advances lethal.

- Sequencing risk: cast discard/draw spells with madness windows, pinger triggers, and `Sneaky Snacker` recursion in mind. When Forge offers a madness, flashback, or trigger choice, verify the visible action text before assuming the intended card will resolve.

## Test Feedback Checklist

- Deciding factor: identify whether the game was won or lost by early creature pressure, direct burn reach, `Kessig Flamebreather` or `Guttersnipe` triggers, repeated `Sneaky Snacker`, sideboard interaction, mana stumble, or failure to close after stabilizing.

- Mulligans: record whether the opener had a legal early plan with `Mountain`, one-mana action, and either pressure or velocity. Note whether kept hands without `Voldaren Epicure`, `Kessig Flamebreather`, `Faithless Looting`, `Grab the Prize`, or `Highway Robbery` actually produced enough damage.

- Mana: check whether eighteen `Mountain` supported two-spell turns, madness payments for `Fiery Temper`, flashback decisions for `Lava Dart` or `Faithless Looting`, and closing turns with `Fireblast`. Flag every game where sacrificing `Mountain` stranded a legal follow-up.

- Velocity: evaluate whether `Faithless Looting`, `Grab the Prize`, and `Highway Robbery` converted excess lands or redundant cards into damage, or whether they spent turns without changing the clock. Track whether discard choices enabled `Fiery Temper` or `Sneaky Snacker` instead of losing useful burn.

- Engine pressure: count how many triggers `Kessig Flamebreather` and `Guttersnipe` generated before removal or game end. Record whether playing `Guttersnipe` was worth the tempo compared with casting immediate burn.

- Creature package: review whether `Voldaren Epicure` provided meaningful early damage and artifact presence, whether `Sneaky Snacker` recurred at useful times, and whether creature attacks mattered or exposed needed blockers.

- Removal and target discipline: check whether `Lightning Bolt`, `Fiery Temper`, `Lava Dart`, and `Searing Blaze` were aimed at threats that changed the race, blockers that stopped damage, or the opponent when lethal math justified it. Flag burn spent on low-impact creatures when opponent life later remained within reach.

- Sideboard performance: record whether `Pyroblast`, `Red Elemental Blast`, `Cast into the Fire`, `Relic of Progenitus`, and `Searing Blaze` had visible targets and changed a turn cycle. Flag games where narrow cards sat stranded or reduced core damage density.

- Closing: review every turn where opponent life was within `Lightning Bolt`, `Fiery Temper`, `Fireblast`, pinger triggers, or flashback `Lava Dart` range. Note missed lethal, premature nonlethal `Fireblast`, and passes that failed to preserve a winning burn sequence.

- Role accuracy: decide whether the pilot correctly shifted between racing, controlling small creatures, preserving pinger engines, and holding interaction. Identify turns where the deck played like slow control while the legal board state required damage.

- Mistakes and stranded cards: list legal actions declined that later looked important, including missed madness, flashback, sideboard activations, or attack decisions. Track cards repeatedly stranded by mana, timing, target absence, or role conflict.

- Overperformers and underperformers: name exact cards that exceeded or failed expectations in the match. Separate card-quality issues from pilot sequencing, matchup pressure, and rules-engine action availability.

## First Tuning Questions

- Quantity question: if `Guttersnipe` often dies before triggering or clogs hands, should its count decrease for more immediate damage or cheaper velocity? If it regularly generates multiple triggers, should the deck preserve or increase commitment to the pinger plan.

- Quantity question: if `Kessig Flamebreather` is the best early engine, does the list need more ways to protect tempo around it, or is the current creature density already enough for removal-heavy fields.

- Quantity question: if `Sneaky Snacker` recursion is inconsistent, are discard outlets from `Faithless Looting`, `Grab the Prize`, and `Highway Robbery` sufficient, or does the deck need a different balance between enablers and raw burn.

- Mana question: if two-spell turns or madness payments are repeatedly missed, should the `Mountain` count change from eighteen. Separate games lost to low mana from games lost after flooding despite velocity spells.

- Aggro-plan question: if creature decks win races, does the main deck need more early removal emphasis, or are sideboard `Searing Blaze` and `Lava Dart` decisions enough when piloted tightly.

- Control-plan question: if blue decks stabilize, are six blasts across `Pyroblast` and `Red Elemental Blast` enough, excessive, or poorly aligned with the threats that actually matter.

- Closer question: if `Fireblast` wins many games, should the deck protect its closing role by avoiding early land sacrifice; if it strands hands, should the count or sequencing policy change.

- Sideboard-slot question: if artifacts are common and `Cast into the Fire` changes games, should artifact hate remain at three copies; if targets are sparse, should those slots become broader damage or interaction.

- Graveyard-slot question: if `Relic of Progenitus` disrupts opponents more than it disrupts `Faithless Looting`, `Lava Dart`, and `Sneaky Snacker`, keep the graveyard plan; if self-disruption is frequent, reconsider quantity or matchup use.

- Role-conflict question: if `Grab the Prize` and `Highway Robbery` create slow turns under pressure, should the deck reduce expensive velocity, or are those cards essential to finding lethal and enabling madness.

- Burn-density question: if sideboarded games lose with narrow cards in hand, should sideboard plans reduce main-deck emphasis less aggressively and preserve more `Lightning Bolt`, `Fiery Temper`, `Lava Dart`, and `Fireblast` reach.

- Pilot-policy question: if losses come from missed lethal, bad discard, or premature passes rather than card weakness, tune decision guidance before changing card quantities.

## Veles Tactical Policy

### Policy: Opening Keep Gate
- Priority: High
- Decision families: mulligan
- Cards: Mountain, Voldaren Epicure, Kessig Flamebreather, Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Lava Dart
- Phase windows: pregame mulligan decisions.
- Runtime cues: prompt:mulligan; action:keep; action:mulligan
- Use when: decide whether the opener has `Mountain` plus a legal early action and either pressure, velocity, or multiple burn spells.
- Avoid when: the hand cannot cast its spells, has no early damage plan, or relies on unknown draw steps to become functional.
- Instructions: Keep hands that can start dealing damage by turn one or two and can convert cards into more damage. Mulligan hands with only expensive velocity, no `Mountain`, or no way to affect the first two turns unless the mulligan risk is worse.
- Pilot skill floor: light-model.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: First Permanent Setup
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: priority, mana
- Cards: Voldaren Epicure, Kessig Flamebreather, Guttersnipe, Mountain
- Phase windows: main phases before combat or before casting burn that can trigger engines.
- Runtime cues: action:cast Voldaren Epicure; action:cast Kessig Flamebreather; action:cast Guttersnipe
- Use when: choose the first creature or engine permanent from visible legal cast actions.
- Avoid when: immediate removal, lethal burn, or survival interaction matters more than developing an engine.
- Instructions: Prefer `Voldaren Epicure` on turn one when legal. Prefer `Kessig Flamebreather` before noncreature spells when it can immediately convert future spells into damage. Commit `Guttersnipe` when the game is likely to last long enough for instant or sorcery triggers or when a post-combat burn chain is available.
- Pilot skill floor: light-model.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Land Sequencing And Land Count
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: mana
- Cards: Mountain, Fireblast, Faithless Looting, Lava Dart, Fiery Temper
- Phase windows: main phases, flashback windows, closing turns.
- Runtime cues: action:play Mountain; action:cast Fireblast; action:flashback Lava Dart; action:flashback Faithless Looting
- Use when: decide whether to play a land, hold a land for discard, or sacrifice land for alternate costs.
- Avoid when: visible legal actions show a same-turn lethal line that needs a different mana use.
- Instructions: Play early `Mountain` until two or three mana supports engine plus spell turns. Hold excess `Mountain` when `Faithless Looting`, `Grab the Prize`, or `Highway Robbery` needs discard fuel. Treat `Fireblast` and flashback `Lava Dart` as land-resource decisions, not free damage.
- Pilot skill floor: light-model.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Deterministic Mountain Play
- Priority: Low
- Decision families: mana
- Cards: Mountain
- Phase windows: main phases before casting spells.
- Runtime cues: action:play Mountain
- Use when: exactly one legal `action:play Mountain` is available, no land has been played this turn, and hand contains legal spells needing additional red mana this turn or next turn.
- Avoid when: a discard outlet is the current prompt or hand contains no visible need for another land.
- Instructions: Select the visible `play Mountain` action.
- Pilot skill floor: no-api.
- No-API allowed: yes
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Burn Lethal Gate
- Priority: High
- Decision families: priority, interaction
- Cards: Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Lava Dart, Fireblast, Guttersnipe, Kessig Flamebreather
- Phase windows: any priority window with burn legal, especially opponent end step and own main phase.
- Runtime cues: action:cast Lightning Bolt; action:cast Fiery Temper; action:cast Lava Dart; action:cast Fireblast; action:flashback Lava Dart
- Use when: visible opponent life, known triggers, available mana, and legal burn actions may combine for lethal this turn.
- Avoid when: lethal depends on hidden cards, unverified card text, or sacrificing `Mountain` prevents required follow-up mana.
- Instructions: Count current damage from spell text only when legal action text confirms it, then add visible `Kessig Flamebreather` or `Guttersnipe` triggers only if the rules engine exposes them through the action or state. Prefer guaranteed lethal over preserving resources.
- Pilot skill floor: light-model.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Opponent Face Target Execution
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: interaction
- Cards: Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Lava Dart, Fireblast
- Phase windows: target prompts after a burn spell has already been selected.
- Runtime cues: action:target opponent Lightning Bolt; action:target opponent Fiery Temper; action:target opponent Lava Dart; action:target opponent Fireblast
- Use when: the current prompt is a target choice for the named burn spell and the legal action text contains `target opponent` for that spell.
- Avoid when: any legal target text names a creature or permanent and the prior selected line did not explicitly choose opponent damage.
- Instructions: Select the visible target-opponent action for the spell already on the stack.
- Pilot skill floor: no-api.
- No-API allowed: yes
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Creature Removal Gate
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: interaction, priority
- Cards: Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Lava Dart, Searing Blaze, Cast into the Fire
- Phase windows: combat, opponent main phase, own main phase when clearing blockers matters.
- Runtime cues: action:cast Lightning Bolt; action:cast Fiery Temper; action:cast Lava Dart; action:cast Searing Blaze; action:cast Cast into the Fire
- Use when: visible opposing creatures change the race, block key attackers, threaten lethal, or must die for sideboard interaction to matter.
- Avoid when: removal on a minor creature leaves opponent within burn range but spends the only lethal piece.
- Instructions: Use `Lava Dart` on one-toughness creatures when that preserves larger burn. Use `Lightning Bolt` or `Fiery Temper` on creatures only when the board impact beats sending damage to the opponent. Use `Searing Blaze` when landfall and legal targets are visible; Card text check required for exact damage and landfall handling.
- Pilot skill floor: light-model.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Madness And Discard Outlet Gate
- Priority: High
- Decision families: selection, priority
- Cards: Fiery Temper, Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, Highway Robbery, Sneaky Snacker, Mountain
- Phase windows: main phases and prompted discard choices.
- Runtime cues: action:cast Faithless Looting; action:cast Grab the Prize; action:cast Highway Robbery; prompt:discard; action:cast Fiery Temper
- Use when: a loot, discard, or madness prompt offers choices involving `Fiery Temper`, `Sneaky Snacker`, excess `Mountain`, or redundant spells.
- Avoid when: discarding a necessary land or burn spell prevents a visible lethal or survival line.
- Instructions: Discard `Fiery Temper` when the rules engine offers a legal madness cast and mana supports it. Discard `Sneaky Snacker` when graveyard recursion is relevant; Card text check required for exact recursion trigger. Discard excess `Mountain` before live burn unless land count is still constraining `Fireblast`, flashback, or two-spell turns.
- Pilot skill floor: light-model.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Flashback Commitment
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: priority, mana
- Cards: Faithless Looting, Lava Dart, Mountain
- Phase windows: graveyard-cast windows and late-game priority.
- Runtime cues: action:flashback Faithless Looting; action:flashback Lava Dart
- Use when: a graveyard spell is legal and the current resources can pay its visible cost.
- Avoid when: flashback sacrifices or spends mana needed for lethal, sideboard interaction, or a pending tax.
- Instructions: Use flashback `Faithless Looting` to find lethal or reload when mana is spare and hand quality is poor. Use flashback `Lava Dart` for lethal, to kill a critical one-toughness creature, or to add engine triggers when land sacrifice will not strand follow-up spells.
- Pilot skill floor: light-model.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Fireblast Commitment
- Priority: High
- Decision families: priority, mana
- Cards: Fireblast, Mountain, Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Lava Dart
- Phase windows: closing turns, response windows, own main phase with lethal math.
- Runtime cues: action:cast Fireblast
- Use when: `Fireblast` is legal and sacrificing `Mountain` may close the game or prevent immediate loss.
- Avoid when: nonlethal `Fireblast` removes the mana needed for visible follow-up spells or leaves the opponent with a stable board.
- Instructions: Treat `Fireblast` as a finisher first. Cast it early only when survival or race math requires it and the lost lands do not collapse the next turn cycle.
- Pilot skill floor: light-model.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Attack Decision Gate
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: combat
- Cards: Voldaren Epicure, Sneaky Snacker, Kessig Flamebreather, Guttersnipe
- Phase windows: declare attackers.
- Runtime cues: prompt:declare attackers; action:attack
- Use when: the rules engine offers attack choices with visible creatures.
- Avoid when: attacking exposes a needed blocker or engine creature while damage is not decisive.
- Instructions: Attack with expendable creatures when damage advances the burn clock or trades are acceptable. Preserve `Kessig Flamebreather` and `Guttersnipe` when their future triggers are worth more than combat damage. Use `Sneaky Snacker` pressure aggressively when recurrence or evasion is visible; Card text check required for exact combat stats if not shown.
- Pilot skill floor: light-model.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Single Forced Attack Execution
- Priority: Low
- Decision families: combat
- Cards: none
- Phase windows: declare attackers.
- Runtime cues: action:attack with
- Use when: exactly one legal attack action is shown and no alternative pass or different attacker set is legal.
- Avoid when: more than one attack action or a legal no-attack action is visible.
- Instructions: Select the only legal attack action shown by the engine.
- Pilot skill floor: no-api.
- No-API allowed: yes
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Blocking Survival Gate
- Priority: High
- Decision families: combat
- Cards: Voldaren Epicure, Sneaky Snacker, Kessig Flamebreather, Guttersnipe
- Phase windows: declare blockers and combat damage prevention windows.
- Runtime cues: prompt:declare blockers; action:block
- Use when: visible attackers threaten lethal, a short clock, or an unfavorable race.
- Avoid when: blocking sacrifices an engine creature and the life total can safely absorb damage while burn closes.
- Instructions: Block to survive first. Trade `Voldaren Epicure` or recurring `Sneaky Snacker` more readily than `Kessig Flamebreather` or `Guttersnipe`. Do not preserve a pinger if the visible attack makes survival impossible.
- Pilot skill floor: light-model.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Blue Interaction Hold-Up
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: interaction, priority
- Cards: Pyroblast, Red Elemental Blast
- Phase windows: opponent spell windows, stack interaction windows, sideboarded games.
- Runtime cues: action:cast Pyroblast; action:cast Red Elemental Blast
- Use when: the opponent presents a visible blue spell, blue permanent, or blue-based stack interaction and the blast is legal.
- Avoid when: the target is low impact and spending the blast opens the way for a more important visible threat or counter later.
- Instructions: Use blasts to force through lethal, protect key burn or engines from visible blue interaction, or answer a high-impact blue card. Card text check required for exact target modes and legality if action labels are ambiguous.
- Pilot skill floor: light-model.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Artifact And Graveyard Hate Gate
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: interaction, priority
- Cards: Cast into the Fire, Relic of Progenitus
- Phase windows: main phases, opponent graveyard setup windows, artifact threat windows.
- Runtime cues: action:cast Cast into the Fire; action:cast Relic of Progenitus; action:activate Relic of Progenitus
- Use when: visible artifacts or graveyards are central to the opponent's next turn cycle.
- Avoid when: graveyard hate would mainly disrupt `Faithless Looting`, `Lava Dart`, or `Sneaky Snacker` while the opponent graveyard is low impact.
- Instructions: Deploy `Relic of Progenitus` early against graveyard decks when it does not block your immediate madness or flashback plan. Use `Cast into the Fire` on artifacts or other legal modes only when the visible target matters; Card text check required for exact modes.
- Pilot skill floor: light-model.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Sideboard Plan Selection
- Priority: High
- Decision families: sideboard
- Cards: Pyroblast, Red Elemental Blast, Cast into the Fire, Relic of Progenitus, Searing Blaze, Guttersnipe, Highway Robbery, Grab the Prize, Lava Dart, Fireblast
- Phase windows: between games.
- Runtime cues: prompt:sideboard; action:submit sideboard
- Use when: choosing a legal sideboard configuration after seeing opponent archetype, colors, graveyard reliance, artifacts, and creature density.
- Avoid when: a narrow card lacks visible matchup justification or reduces burn density without answering the opponent's plan.
- Instructions: Add blasts for blue stack or permanent fights, `Cast into the Fire` for artifacts or small legal targets, `Relic of Progenitus` for graveyard engines, and `Searing Blaze` for creature races. Reduce slower velocity or fragile engines before cutting core lethal burn unless matchup evidence says otherwise.
- Pilot skill floor: light-model.
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Routine Priority Pass
- Priority: Low
- Decision families: priority
- Cards: none
- Phase windows: any priority window with no meaningful legal action.
- Runtime cues: action:pass
- Use when: the only legal action text is `pass`, or all other legal actions are mana abilities with no spell or ability to spend the mana on.
- Avoid when: any legal burn, sideboard interaction, flashback, madness, attack, block, or target choice is visible.
- Instructions: Pass the priority window and preserve resources.
- Pilot skill floor: no-api.
- No-API allowed: yes
- Light-model allowed: yes
