# Strategy Specifications
## Deck Name And Archetype
Walls Combo is a Pauper combo-ramp deck built around creature-based mana acceleration, defender count scaling, and compact payoff access from a mostly green shell. The registered list is 60 main-deck cards and 15 sideboard cards by provided counts, so Veles should treat the registration as structurally valid before any external card-legality or ban-list validation.

- Format: Pauper.
- Strategy name: Walls Combo.
- Current tags: combo, ramp.
- Registration status: Main deck 60 cards; sideboard 15 cards.
- Stock/rogue/hybrid status: hybrid-stock Walls Combo shell, because `Saruli Caretaker`, `Overgrown Battlement`, `Axebane Guardian`, `Quirion Ranger`, `Drift of Phantasms`, `Lead the Stampede`, and `Winding Way` are recognizable archetype infrastructure, while singletons such as `Freed from the Real`, `Galvanic Alchemist`, `Secret Door`, `Reaping the Graves`, `Tuktuk Rubblefort`, and `Valakut Invoker` make the exact kill package and tutor priorities deck-specific.
- Opponent info status: no matchup opponent is specified in this batch, so the guide must reason from visible state, revealed/public cards, and broad archetype inference only.

Legality policy: the agent must not assume Pauper legality, current ban status, or exact Oracle text solely from this guide. Use the rules engine, deck registry, or card database output as authority; if a legal action is absent, the line is unavailable no matter how central it is to the deck plan.

Mana identity concern: the deck is primarily green but contains important non-green requirements and conversion points. `Freed from the Real` asks for blue access, `Valakut Invoker` asks for red access and large mana, `Reaping the Graves` asks for black access, `Secret Door` asks for blue access, and `Tuktuk Rubblefort` asks for red access; `Orochi Leafcaller`, `Axebane Guardian`, and sometimes rules-engine-reported mana abilities are therefore strategic glue, not filler.

Role concern: the deck is not a normal creature-combat ramp deck in most games. The default role is to assemble enough creatures and mana conversion to produce an overwhelming turn, then win through an engine payoff, recursion, haste-enabled pressure, unblockable or dungeon-style pressure if legally available, or large-mana activated ability lines that the rules engine exposes.

Runtime discipline: Veles must choose only supplied legal `action_id` values and must never infer that `Overgrown Battlement`, `Axebane Guardian`, `Quirion Ranger`, `Freed from the Real`, `Galvanic Alchemist`, `Valakut Invoker`, or `Secret Door` can make a loop unless the current legal actions expose each required tap, untap, mana, target, or activation step. If a loop is selected, each micro-decision still belongs to Forge/Veles legal-action output.

Card text caution: exact tactical text checks are required for `Beastrider Vanguard`, `Sagu Wildling`, `Secret Door`, `Galvanic Alchemist`, `Crown of Awe`, and any modal or activated sideboard use unless the engine exposes the relevant legal action text clearly at runtime. Treat those cards conditionally when their exact printed behavior is not visible.

Deck construction concern: the list has only `12 Forest` as registered lands, so opening hands are judged by functional mana, not land count alone. Creature mana sources, land-search or landcycling actions from `Generous Ent` if exposed, and early one-mana creatures matter more than conventional land-heavy keeps.

Information concern: because this is a fragile engine deck, the pilot should respect visible removal mana, known sweepers, graveyard hate, counterspell windows, and exile effects, but it must not pretend to know hidden interaction. When deciding whether to commit `Freed from the Real`, `Galvanic Alchemist`, `Valakut Invoker`, `Reaping the Graves`, or a high-value `Lead the Stampede`, the agent should name the visible reason to commit now or wait.

## Thesis
Walls Combo assembles a defender mana engine, a color-conversion layer, and a compact payoff package that turns creature density into a decisive mana turn. The core board is `Overgrown Battlement` or `Axebane Guardian` plus multiple defenders, supported by `Saruli Caretaker`, `Quirion Ranger`, `Orochi Leafcaller`, `Tinder Wall`, `Wall of Roots`, and `Generous Ent` as functional mana infrastructure.

The default win is to create overwhelming mana, then convert it through a legal payoff action from `Valakut Invoker`, `Secret Door`, haste-enabled creature deployment with `Tuktuk Rubblefort`, recursion from `Reaping the Graves`, or an untap engine involving `Freed from the Real` or `Galvanic Alchemist`. Veles must not assume a loop is active until the rules engine exposes the required tap, untap, mana, target, and activation actions in sequence.

The deck is not trying to trade creatures fairly, curve out as beatdown, or spend cards on low-impact combat unless the engine plan is unavailable or survival requires it. Treat most creatures as mana, defender count, combo material, tutor targets, or payoff access before treating them as attackers.

The highest priority is to preserve and expand the mana engine while selecting the narrow piece that changes the next turn cycle. Keep hands and lines that produce early green mana, a defender scaler, and either velocity or payoff access; be suspicious of hands with lands but no engine, or engines but no credible first mana action.

The main tactical tension is commitment timing. `Freed from the Real`, `Galvanic Alchemist`, `Valakut Invoker`, `Reaping the Graves`, and large `Lead the Stampede` turns are high-leverage resources, so commit them when the board, mana, and visible interaction make waiting worse, not merely because they are castable.

## Role Package
- Threats: `Valakut Invoker`, `Tuktuk Rubblefort`, `Beastrider Vanguard`, `Sagu Wildling`, and creature swarms are the deck's visible pressure pieces, but most attacks are secondary to engine development. Card text check required for `Beastrider Vanguard` and `Sagu Wildling`; use them tactically only through legal action text and visible board role.

- Payoffs: `Valakut Invoker` is the clearest large-mana kill outlet when Forge exposes its activation and legal targets. `Secret Door` can be a mana sink if its legal activation appears; Card text check required, so do not assume dungeon or win sequencing beyond engine output. `Tuktuk Rubblefort` can turn newly cast creatures into immediate mana contributors if the rules engine reflects haste-relevant actions.

- Engines: `Overgrown Battlement` and `Axebane Guardian` are the defining scalable mana cards, and protecting or untapping them is usually better than exposing them to needless combat. `Freed from the Real` and `Galvanic Alchemist` are commitment pieces for repeated untap lines; Card text check required for `Galvanic Alchemist`, and every target/untap step must be chosen from legal actions.

- Velocity: `Lead the Stampede`, `Winding Way`, `Drift of Phantasms`, `Shield-Wall Sentinel`, and `Generous Ent` keep the deck from running out of material or missing specific pieces. Prioritize selection that finds a missing engine class: mana scaler first when short on mana, payoff or untap piece when mana is already large, recursion when graveyard resources matter.

- Interaction: The main deck has limited direct interaction, so interaction often means racing, blocking, forcing the opponent to answer mana, or choosing whether to commit into visible disruption. `Reaping the Graves` functions as recovery against removal-heavy games when legal actions expose usable graveyard targets.

- Protection: The main deck protects itself mostly through redundancy, sequencing, and not overcommitting fragile singletons too early. Post-board, `Tamiyo's Safekeeping` and `Crown of Awe` are explicit protection modules when legal actions support protecting the relevant permanent or creature; Card text check required for `Crown of Awe`.

- Recursion: `Reaping the Graves` is the primary main-deck rebuild card and can convert a disrupted board or high-storm turn into renewed engine density. Use it for engine creatures, payoff creatures, or mana creatures according to visible graveyard contents and immediate future mana.

- Mana: `Forest`, `Saruli Caretaker`, `Overgrown Battlement`, `Axebane Guardian`, `Orochi Leafcaller`, `Tinder Wall`, `Wall of Roots`, `Quirion Ranger`, and `Generous Ent` form the real mana base. `Orochi Leafcaller` is especially important for blue, black, or red requirements when the rules engine exposes conversion actions.

- Sideboard modules: `Masked Vandal` is artifact/enchantment pressure when legal targets exist; `Trufflesnout` and `Spore Frog` are anti-aggression stabilizers; `Crown of Awe` and `Tamiyo's Safekeeping` are protection tools; `Faerie Macabre` is graveyard interaction. Sideboard cards should enter only through explicit sideboard plans and visible matchup needs.

## Primary Win Conditions
- `Valakut Invoker` mana-sink kill is the cleanest deterministic payoff once the engine produces very large mana and the activation appears as a legal action. Set up with `Overgrown Battlement` or `Axebane Guardian` plus several defenders, use `Orochi Leafcaller` when color conversion is required, then repeatedly choose legal `Valakut Invoker` activations at the opponent or lethal targets until the rules engine shows the game is over. Prioritize this line when the opponent is pressuring life total, when combat is clogged, when removal windows are limited, or when waiting exposes `Valakut Invoker` or the mana creature to visible interaction.

- `Freed from the Real` untap engine is the highest-upside combo commitment, but it must be chosen only after legal target, mana, and untap actions are visible. Set up by making `Axebane Guardian` or `Overgrown Battlement` produce enough mana to pay for repeated untaps, with `Orochi Leafcaller` helping convert green into blue if the engine exposes that conversion. Execute by enchanting the correct mana creature, producing mana, untapping through legal actions, and converting the resulting mana into `Valakut Invoker`, `Secret Door`, more creatures, `Lead the Stampede`, or `Reaping the Graves`. Prioritize this line when the board already has defender density and waiting risks losing the scaler, but delay it when visible open interaction makes the single aura target too fragile and another development play is available.

- `Galvanic Alchemist` untap engine is a backup repeated-mana line when its pairing or untap actions are exposed by the rules engine. Card text check required for exact soulbond and untap wording, so treat it as conditional: pair or target only when the legal prompt identifies the intended mana creature and the follow-up untap sequence is available. Prioritize it when `Freed from the Real` is unavailable, when blue mana is easier than drawing another payoff, or when the opponent has already spent removal on earlier engine pieces.

- Creature-density overwhelm wins games where the combo is disrupted but the deck keeps mana. Use `Tuktuk Rubblefort` when legal haste-relevant actions let new creatures contribute immediately, chain `Lead the Stampede`, `Winding Way`, `Shield-Wall Sentinel`, and `Drift of Phantasms` to rebuild material, then cast enough defenders and large creatures that the opponent cannot keep up. `Beastrider Vanguard` and `Sagu Wildling` can become pressure or stabilizers only according to visible legal actions; Card text check required for both.

## Secondary Win Conditions
- `Secret Door` is a secondary large-mana sink if the engine exposes a relevant activation. Card text check required, so do not assume a dungeon, venture, or alternate progress line unless legal action text shows it. Use it when `Valakut Invoker` is unavailable, removed, or unsafe to commit, and when repeated mana-sink actions visibly advance toward a win or stabilize the game.

- `Reaping the Graves` is a recovery-to-combo payoff rather than a pure win card. Use it after removal, sweepers, sacrifices, or long exchanges to return `Axebane Guardian`, `Overgrown Battlement`, `Quirion Ranger`, `Orochi Leafcaller`, `Tuktuk Rubblefort`, `Valakut Invoker`, or other visible graveyard pieces according to the legal target list. Prioritize it when behind on cards but not dead on board, when storm count or mana makes multiple returns available, or when the opponent has traded resources to break the first engine.

- `Lead the Stampede` and `Winding Way` are material engines that become win paths when the first hand lacks the missing class of piece. Cast them to find defender density when mana is short, `Valakut Invoker` or `Tuktuk Rubblefort` when mana is abundant, and replacement creatures after interaction. Avoid spending the turn on velocity when lethal pressure requires a blocker, a combo activation, or a known payoff already exists in hand.

- `Drift of Phantasms` and `Shield-Wall Sentinel` are selection paths into the correct engine piece rather than generic value. Use legal tutor or search actions to assemble the missing class: scaler, defender count, payoff, color converter, or recursion. Do not choose a flashy target over the piece that changes the next turn cycle.

- Combat damage is a fallback, not the default plan. Attack with `Valakut Invoker`, `Tuktuk Rubblefort`, `Beastrider Vanguard`, `Sagu Wildling`, or spare creatures only when losing them will not collapse mana, blocking is not required for survival, and the damage meaningfully shortens the clock.

## Emergency Lines
- When behind on life, preserve blockers and mana creatures before chasing a slow selection spell. Deploy `Wall of Roots`, `Overgrown Battlement`, `Axebane Guardian`, `Secret Door`, `Drift of Phantasms`, `Shield-Wall Sentinel`, `Generous Ent`, or any legal large blocker that reduces incoming damage, then look for a one-turn mana explosion into `Valakut Invoker` or recovery.

- When behind on board, stabilize first and combo second. Treat most creatures as blockers unless the legal action immediately produces lethal mana or a decisive payoff. Avoid attacking with defenders, mana creatures, or rare payoff bodies if that opens a lethal crack-back.

- When behind on cards, use `Lead the Stampede`, `Winding Way`, and `Reaping the Graves` to rebuild creature count and engine redundancy. Prefer lines that return or find multiple functional pieces over a single fragile payoff unless that payoff is immediately lethal.

- When behind on mana, prioritize first green source, `Saruli Caretaker`, `Tinder Wall`, `Wall of Roots`, `Quirion Ranger`, `Orochi Leafcaller`, `Overgrown Battlement`, and `Axebane Guardian` actions that create mana next turn. Do not spend scarce mana on `Freed from the Real`, `Galvanic Alchemist`, or `Valakut Invoker` unless the rules engine shows the follow-through is available.

- When engine pieces are removed, rebuild through redundancy and graveyard access. `Reaping the Graves` should recover the highest-impact visible pieces; selection should find a new scaler before a payoff if mana is no longer large.

- When `Valakut Invoker`, `Freed from the Real`, or `Galvanic Alchemist` is removed or unavailable, pivot to creature-density advantage, `Secret Door` if legal, and repeated selection until another payoff appears. Do not concede strategic agency just because the first combo path failed; Walls Combo wins many disrupted games by rebuilding faster than fair decks can answer every mana creature.

## Resource Model
- Resource priority is board mana first, card flow second, life total third until survival is threatened. `Saruli Caretaker`, `Overgrown Battlement`, `Axebane Guardian`, `Wall of Roots`, `Tinder Wall`, `Quirion Ranger`, and `Orochi Leafcaller` convert small creature presence into explosive turns, so protect the board engine over marginal attacks or low-impact selection.

- Life is a buffer for building one decisive mana turn, not a resource to spend casually. Take damage when it preserves `Axebane Guardian`, `Overgrown Battlement`, `Quirion Ranger`, or a defender needed for lethal setup, but block aggressively when the opponent can shorten the clock below the time needed to assemble `Valakut Invoker`, `Freed from the Real`, `Galvanic Alchemist`, `Secret Door`, or a refill spell.

- Hand quality is measured by functional categories rather than raw card count. A strong hand has green mana, early acceleration, defender density, a scaler such as `Overgrown Battlement` or `Axebane Guardian`, and either selection or payoff access. Extra copies of small creatures matter because each body can increase mana, enable `Saruli Caretaker`, or turn `Lead the Stampede` and `Winding Way` into rebuild tools.

- Mana is the deck's main win condition because excess mana becomes selection, recursion, haste, and damage. Count current and next-turn mana from visible permanents before choosing a spell; one more defender can be stronger than a draw spell if it adds multiple mana through `Overgrown Battlement` or `Axebane Guardian`.

- Board material is both engine and defense, so do not trade creatures as if they are replaceable attackers. Keep defenders and support creatures untapped when they protect life or enable mana; commit `Tuktuk Rubblefort`, `Valakut Invoker`, `Freed from the Real`, or `Galvanic Alchemist` when the visible board supports immediate payoff or waiting is worse.

- Graveyard is a recovery resource through `Reaping the Graves`, especially after removal-heavy turns. Use it to recover the missing engine class from visible targets: scaler, color converter, haste piece, payoff, or blocker. Do not rely on graveyard recursion through known graveyard hate unless `Faerie Macabre`-style effects are already accounted for by visible public information.

- Exile is mostly a loss zone for this deck unless a visible legal action says otherwise. Treat exiled combo pieces as unavailable, then rebuild around remaining `Axebane Guardian`, `Overgrown Battlement`, `Valakut Invoker`, `Secret Door`, selection, or combat fallback.

- Lands are scarce and simple, with `Forest` as the registered land base and `Generous Ent` potentially affecting land access only if legal text or action prompts show that mode. Card text check required for exact `Generous Ent` land-search timing; use it conditionally when the engine presents a legal land-finding action and mana development is more important than casting it as a creature.

- Sacrifice fodder is limited, so do not assume disposable bodies. `Tinder Wall` may create burst mana if legal actions expose it; Card text check required for exact sacrifice and mana wording. Use creature sacrifice only when the resulting mana or effect creates a decisive turn, prevents death, or rebuilds through `Reaping the Graves`.

- Tempo is gained by making the opponent answer mana infrastructure before the payoff appears. Spend early turns on creatures that increase next-turn mana, then use `Lead the Stampede`, `Winding Way`, `Drift of Phantasms`, and `Shield-Wall Sentinel` when the board can survive the tempo cost.

- Information is a real resource because tutor and selection choices reveal intentions. Use public graveyards, revealed cards, legal action labels, and known matchup context to decide whether to commit an aura, hold protection after sideboarding, or force a combo turn; never act as though hidden removal or counterspells are confirmed unless revealed.

- Sideboard bullets change resource valuation after sideboarding. `Tamiyo's Safekeeping` raises the value of committing a fragile engine, `Faerie Macabre` creates graveyard interaction without spending board mana, `Crown of Awe` is conditional protection or combat technology with Card text check required, `Masked Vandal` answers artifacts/enchantments if legal, `Spore Frog` buys time, and `Trufflesnout` supports life or board stabilization with Card text check required.

## Mana Guide
- Keep hands that can produce early green and cast a mana creature or defender on schedule. A hand with no `Forest`, no visible green source, or no route to `Saruli Caretaker`, `Tinder Wall`, `Wall of Roots`, `Overgrown Battlement`, `Axebane Guardian`, `Quirion Ranger`, or `Orochi Leafcaller` should be treated as a mulligan candidate unless the rules-engine state already supplies mana.

- Sequence green development before blue combo commitments. `Freed from the Real` and `Galvanic Alchemist` require blue access or legal conversion support, but the deck normally reaches blue through `Axebane Guardian`, `Saruli Caretaker`, `Orochi Leafcaller`, or other visible mana actions rather than lands. Do not strand a blue card in hand when a green creature spell advances the engine.

- Cast scaler creatures before payoffs when mana is not yet abundant. `Overgrown Battlement` and `Axebane Guardian` should usually precede `Valakut Invoker`, `Secret Door`, `Lead the Stampede`, or expensive bodies because each added defender can multiply future mana.

- Use `Quirion Ranger` as a mana amplifier only through visible legal actions. Card text check required for exact bounce and activation limits; when legal, returning a `Forest` can reset a mana creature, protect land-light sequencing, or increase same-turn output, but do not bounce a land if it prevents required spell casting or land replay.

- Play lands before draw or selection when the current turn needs mana certainty. Hold a land until after `Lead the Stampede` or `Winding Way` only when no current legal line needs the extra mana and hidden information from the selection could change the land decision. With `Quirion Ranger`, consider whether the `Forest` must remain available for a legal bounce or replay line.

- Convert colors deliberately with `Orochi Leafcaller` and multi-color mana creatures. Prioritize green for development, blue for `Freed from the Real`, `Galvanic Alchemist`, `Drift of Phantasms` actions, or untap loops, red for `Valakut Invoker` or `Tuktuk Rubblefort` when required, and black for `Reaping the Graves` only when the legal action and timing justify the recovery turn.

- Count defender-based mana after each creature resolves. Re-evaluate `Overgrown Battlement` and `Axebane Guardian` output whenever `Drift of Phantasms`, `Shield-Wall Sentinel`, `Secret Door`, `Wall of Roots`, or another defender enters, leaves, taps, or becomes unavailable.

- Spend burst mana from `Tinder Wall` only for a clear payoff. Card text check required for exact mana ability, but tactically reserve burst resources for a combo turn, a necessary stabilizer, or a refill that immediately changes the game.

## Mulligan Guide
- Strong keep: keep `Forest`, `Saruli Caretaker` or `Tinder Wall`, `Overgrown Battlement` or `Axebane Guardian`, plus any second creature or selection spell. This hand develops mana on turn 1, scales on turn 2, and can convert turn 3 into `Lead the Stampede`, `Winding Way`, `Drift of Phantasms`, `Shield-Wall Sentinel`, or a combo setup.

- Strong keep: keep two `Forest`, `Overgrown Battlement`, `Axebane Guardian`, `Quirion Ranger`, and either `Lead the Stampede` or `Winding Way`. This hand has redundant engine pieces and a refill plan; prioritize creature sequencing before spending mana on selection unless the visible matchup demands digging for a specific card.

- Medium keep: keep `Forest`, `Wall of Roots`, `Overgrown Battlement`, `Drift of Phantasms`, and any creature-heavy remainder. This hand is slower but stable; it becomes better on the draw, against creature decks where blockers matter, or when `Drift of Phantasms` can later find a missing engine card through a legal tutor action.

- Medium keep: keep `Forest`, `Orochi Leafcaller`, `Quirion Ranger`, `Axebane Guardian`, and one payoff such as `Freed from the Real`, `Galvanic Alchemist`, `Valakut Invoker`, or `Secret Door` only if the hand also casts early green spells. Do not keep payoff-heavy hands that lack a credible route to multiple mana creatures.

- Risky keep: keep one-`Forest` hands only when they contain multiple one-mana accelerants or a visible land-finding line such as `Generous Ent` if the rules engine exposes it. Card text check required for `Generous Ent`; treat land access from it as conditional on legal action text, not assumed.

- Automatic ship: mulligan hands with no `Forest` or no legal early green development. A hand full of `Freed from the Real`, `Galvanic Alchemist`, `Reaping the Graves`, `Valakut Invoker`, `Tuktuk Rubblefort`, `Lead the Stampede`, and `Winding Way` is not a keep if it cannot cast an engine creature before falling behind.

- Automatic ship: mulligan hands with only payoffs and no scaler. `Valakut Invoker`, `Secret Door`, `Tuktuk Rubblefort`, `Reaping the Graves`, and expensive creatures do not replace `Overgrown Battlement`, `Axebane Guardian`, `Saruli Caretaker`, `Wall of Roots`, `Tinder Wall`, or `Quirion Ranger` in an opener.

- Matchup-dependent keep: keep slower selection hands with `Lead the Stampede`, `Winding Way`, or `Drift of Phantasms` against removal-heavy opponents when they also have early mana. Ship the same hand against fast pressure if it cannot block or ramp before turn 3.

- Play/draw rule: on the play, prefer a hand that casts `Saruli Caretaker`, `Tinder Wall`, `Wall of Roots`, or `Overgrown Battlement` immediately. On the draw, a two-land hand with `Drift of Phantasms` or `Shield-Wall Sentinel` becomes more acceptable because the extra card improves the chance of hitting the missing engine piece.

- Trap hand: do not keep a hand because it contains `Freed from the Real` or `Galvanic Alchemist` if the only creature is not a visible mana engine. The untap card is powerful after `Axebane Guardian` or a large mana creature is active; before that, it can be dead cardboard.

- Trap hand: do not keep a creature pile that lacks `Overgrown Battlement`, `Axebane Guardian`, selection, or a plan to find them. `Beastrider Vanguard` and `Sagu Wildling` need card text checks for exact role; keep them as support only when the rest of the hand already advances mana or defense.

## Turn Arc
- Turn 1: cast `Saruli Caretaker`, `Tinder Wall`, `Quirion Ranger`, or `Orochi Leafcaller` when legal and useful. Prefer the play that increases turn-2 mana or enables `Overgrown Battlement`/`Axebane Guardian`; hold `Quirion Ranger` only when exposing it gains nothing and a later untap line is more valuable.

- Turn 1 deviation: use a legal `Generous Ent` land-access action only when missing land drops would otherwise strand the hand. Card text check required; if the engine does not expose a land-search action, treat `Generous Ent` as a future creature, not guaranteed fixing.

- Turn 2: cast `Overgrown Battlement` before routine selection when possible. If `Overgrown Battlement` is absent, cast `Wall of Roots`, `Axebane Guardian` if legal, or another creature that increases defender count or mana conversion.

- Turn 2 deviation: cast `Winding Way` or `Lead the Stampede` only when the hand lacks a second engine piece and the battlefield can tolerate the tempo loss. Against pressure, a blocker or scaler usually matters more than speculative card volume.

- Turn 3: prioritize `Axebane Guardian`, a second defender, or a tutor/selection action that finds the missing class: scaler, color converter, untap piece, haste piece, or payoff. If `Drift of Phantasms` has a legal tutor action, use it when the current board clearly needs a specific card more than another blocker.

- Turn 3 combo setup: commit `Freed from the Real` or `Galvanic Alchemist` only when the enchanted or paired creature can immediately generate meaningful mana, protection is available, or waiting risks losing the window. Do not tap out for an aura onto a vulnerable low-output creature merely because the action is legal.

- Turns 4-5: convert a developed board into a decisive engine turn. Use `Lead the Stampede`, `Winding Way`, `Shield-Wall Sentinel`, and `Drift of Phantasms` to assemble redundancy, then resolve `Tuktuk Rubblefort`, `Valakut Invoker`, `Secret Door`, `Freed from the Real`, or `Galvanic Alchemist` when the visible mana supports payoff.

- Turns 4-5 deviation: rebuild instead of forcing combo after removal or sweepers. Use `Reaping the Graves` when legal and valuable to recover specific missing creatures; prioritize returning `Axebane Guardian`, `Overgrown Battlement`, `Quirion Ranger`, `Tuktuk Rubblefort`, or payoff creatures according to the visible board.

- Late game: count lethal or lock-ending mana before every priority pass. If `Valakut Invoker` has a legal damaging activation and mana is sufficient, evaluate whether it ends the game or removes a necessary blocker; if `Secret Door` offers a legal mana sink, use it only when it advances a win or prevents decking/race failure according to visible rules text.

- Late game fallback: attack only when defenders and support creatures are no longer needed for mana or survival. `Tuktuk Rubblefort`, `Beastrider Vanguard`, `Sagu Wildling`, and large creatures can matter in combat, but Card text check required for exact combat abilities on uncertain cards; preserve engine bodies unless damage changes the clock decisively.

## Card Roles
- `Saruli Caretaker`: Use `Saruli Caretaker` as the safest turn-1 acceleration piece when another creature can be tapped without losing an urgent block. It fixes colors for blue combo pieces, red payoff pieces, and black `Reaping the Graves`, but it consumes board bodies, so do not tap the only relevant blocker against immediate pressure unless the mana converts into a stronger play before combat.

- `Overgrown Battlement`: Treat `Overgrown Battlement` as the premier early scaler and a protected bridge from fair development to combo mana. Cast it before routine selection when legal, grow it with cheap defenders, and preserve it from unnecessary combat; it is often better than a speculative `Winding Way` because it makes every later `Axebane Guardian`, `Shield-Wall Sentinel`, and defender draw more explosive.

- `Axebane Guardian`: Treat `Axebane Guardian` as the core combo creature because it can turn defender count into multiple colors. Prioritize casting it once at least one defender is already present, then protect or untap it with `Freed from the Real`, `Galvanic Alchemist`, and `Quirion Ranger`; do not expose an untap aura or pairing onto `Axebane Guardian` unless the current mana output, opponent interaction, or pressure makes the commitment worthwhile.

- `Freed from the Real`: Use `Freed from the Real` as a fragile combo commitment, not as routine development. It is strongest on `Axebane Guardian` when the legal mana output includes blue and nets mana after untapping; it can also create repeated mana with other legal tap abilities only if the rules engine exposes the necessary mana loop. Do not enchant a low-output creature simply to spend mana.

- `Galvanic Alchemist`: Use `Galvanic Alchemist` as the backup untap engine after confirming the legal pairing/untap text from Forge. Card text check required for exact soulbond and activation cost; tactically, pair it with `Axebane Guardian` or another high-output mana creature only when the visible mana can pay the untap ability and still advance the combo.

- `Beastrider Vanguard`: Use `Beastrider Vanguard` as support pressure or board material only after engine priorities are handled. Card text check required for exact combat and mana relevance; do not keep or sequence hands around it as if it were an engine card unless the legal action text proves it helps mana, defense, or lethal.

- `Secret Door`: Use `Secret Door` as a defender and late mana sink, not as the primary early plan. Card text check required for exact activated ability, but if Forge exposes a dungeon/selection-style sink, use it after mana is abundant or when digging/winning through a stalled board matters more than adding another creature.

- `Reaping the Graves`: Hold `Reaping the Graves` for rebuild turns, storm-like recovery turns, or post-removal pivots rather than firing it for one mediocre creature. Card text check required for exact storm handling; prioritize recovering `Axebane Guardian`, `Overgrown Battlement`, `Quirion Ranger`, `Tuktuk Rubblefort`, `Valakut Invoker`, or missing combo bodies based on what the visible board lacks.

- `Tuktuk Rubblefort`: Treat `Tuktuk Rubblefort` as the haste enabler that turns freshly cast mana creatures or payoffs into same-turn wins. Cast it when you can immediately benefit from haste or when removal pressure makes delayed combo turns unsafe; avoid spending early colored mana on it before the board has creatures worth hasting.

- `Valakut Invoker`: Use `Valakut Invoker` as the clean mana payoff once the deck produces very large mana. Card text check required for exact activation cost and damage target, but tactically hold it until it can threaten lethal, remove a decisive threat, or force the opponent to answer it; do not run it out early into removal when it is your visible win outlet.

- `Drift of Phantasms`: Use `Drift of Phantasms` as both a durable flying defender and a tutor when its legal transmute action finds the missing class of card. Card text check required for exact transmute targets at runtime; in practice, prioritize tutoring for `Freed from the Real`, `Tuktuk Rubblefort`, `Valakut Invoker`, `Lead the Stampede`, `Axebane Guardian`, or matchup-specific sideboard cards only when the visible hand and board already explain the need.

- `Orochi Leafcaller`: Use `Orochi Leafcaller` as color conversion for green-heavy mana turns and combo execution. It is not a defender, so do not overvalue it as early board material; cast it when it unlocks blue for `Freed from the Real`/`Drift of Phantasms`, red for `Tuktuk Rubblefort`/`Valakut Invoker`, black for `Reaping the Graves`, or sideboard colors.

- `Shield-Wall Sentinel`: Use `Shield-Wall Sentinel` as a defender tutor and redundancy engine when four mana is available. Card text check required for exact search restriction, but if Forge exposes legal defender search choices, prioritize `Axebane Guardian` when mana is missing, `Tuktuk Rubblefort` when haste is missing, `Secret Door` when a sink is needed, or another defender when scaling `Overgrown Battlement` matters.

- `Lead the Stampede`: Use `Lead the Stampede` to refill creature density after early development or removal, not before establishing survival. It is strongest when the battlefield already has mana and the hand needs bodies; do not cast it over `Overgrown Battlement` or `Axebane Guardian` when those creatures are legal and the board is not yet stable.

- `Tinder Wall`: Use `Tinder Wall` as early acceleration, emergency defense, and burst mana. Card text check required for exact sacrifice/damage abilities; spend it only when the mana immediately creates a stronger board, enables combo, or prevents a loss, because sacrificing a defender can reduce `Overgrown Battlement` and `Axebane Guardian` output.

- `Wall of Roots`: Use `Wall of Roots` as a resilient early mana creature that also blocks. Card text check required for exact counter timing, but generally prefer it in pressure matchups because it develops mana without tapping and can hold the ground; avoid shrinking it carelessly if toughness matters for the next combat.

- `Winding Way`: Use `Winding Way` as selection for creature density or land access only after deciding what the current hand lacks. Card text check required for exact choice modes; name or select the mode that matches the visible bottleneck, and avoid spending turn-2 on it when a mana creature would prevent falling behind.

- `Generous Ent`: Use `Generous Ent` primarily as land access or a late body only when Forge exposes the relevant legal action. Card text check required for exact landcycling/body text; in opening hands, count it as conditional fixing, not as a guaranteed `Forest`, unless the rules engine shows the land-search action and the mana can pay it.

- `Sagu Wildling`: Use `Sagu Wildling` as secondary board material after the engine plan is underway. Card text check required for exact stats and abilities; do not prioritize it over defender scaling, color conversion, selection, or combo pieces unless visible combat pressure makes an additional body the safest legal play.

- `Quirion Ranger`: Use `Quirion Ranger` as an untap and land-reuse tool for explosive turns with `Axebane Guardian`, `Overgrown Battlement`, `Saruli Caretaker`, or `Orochi Leafcaller`. Card text check required for exact activation limits, but tactically preserve its once-per-turn untap for a mana creature that changes the turn; do not return a `Forest` if it prevents casting the current or next required spell.

## Interaction Priorities
- Priority: Treat opposing removal, sweepers, edicts, graveyard hate, and counterspells as the interaction that matters most because `Walls Combo` wins by assembling fragile mana permanents. Preserve `Axebane Guardian`, `Overgrown Battlement`, `Quirion Ranger`, `Tuktuk Rubblefort`, `Freed from the Real`, and `Valakut Invoker` over interchangeable setup bodies when a legal protection, recovery, or sequencing choice exists.

- Priority: Bait single-target removal with redundant defenders before committing the true engine when time allows. A legal line that exposes `Saruli Caretaker`, `Wall of Roots`, `Tinder Wall`, `Sagu Wildling`, `Beastrider Vanguard`, `Secret Door`, or a spare `Drift of Phantasms` can be better than immediately presenting `Axebane Guardian` plus `Freed from the Real` into open mana.

- Priority: Commit `Freed from the Real` or `Galvanic Alchemist` only when the enchanted or paired mana creature can matter immediately, when the opponent is tapped low, when waiting risks lethal pressure, or when redundancy/recovery is visible. Card text check required for exact `Galvanic Alchemist` rules; do not assume the pairing is safe unless Forge exposes the legal action and the visible board supports it.

- Priority: Use `Tamiyo's Safekeeping` as protection for the engine piece whose loss breaks the current turn, not as generic value. Protect `Axebane Guardian`, `Overgrown Battlement`, `Valakut Invoker`, `Tuktuk Rubblefort`, or the creature carrying `Freed from the Real` before protecting a normal blocker, unless survival that combat depends on the blocker.

- Priority: Use `Reaping the Graves` as recovery after a meaningful exchange, not as a one-card rebuy unless the returned card immediately restores a combo line. Prefer recovering `Axebane Guardian`, `Overgrown Battlement`, `Quirion Ranger`, `Tuktuk Rubblefort`, `Valakut Invoker`, or missing defenders over low-impact bodies.

- Priority: Use `Faerie Macabre` only when the graveyard card or recursion window is visible and material. Exile combo pieces, flashback targets, reanimation targets, or graveyard payoffs before incidental creatures; ignore graveyards that are not currently enabling a legal or near-term threat.

- Priority: Use `Masked Vandal` against visible artifact/enchantment lock pieces, graveyard hate, removal engines, or blockers that stop the combo kill if Forge exposes the legal target. Card text check required for exact cost and target restrictions; do not fire it at a low-impact permanent while mana development or a win line is available.

- Priority: Use `Crown of Awe` and `Spore Frog` as survival or forced-combat tools, not as default shields. Card text check required for exact prevention/protection behavior; prioritize them when the visible attack would create lethal, remove critical blockers, or force a bad race.

- Priority: Ignore small opposing ground creatures when your defenders already absorb combat and the opponent is not presenting lethal. Spend turns adding `Overgrown Battlement`, `Axebane Guardian`, `Quirion Ranger`, selection, or payoff access instead of interacting with creatures that do not stop the combo or kill you soon.

- Archetype shift: Against removal-heavy black/red decks, slow down enough to sequence redundant defenders, hold `Lead the Stampede` or `Reaping the Graves` for rebuilds, and avoid one-threat combo exposure. Against fast creature decks, value `Wall of Roots`, `Tinder Wall`, `Trufflesnout`, `Spore Frog`, and high-toughness blockers more than speculative selection. Against blue decks, make them answer mana and tutor bodies before committing the aura/payoff.

## Combat And Trading Rules
- Blocking: Block early and often with expendable defenders when the block preserves life without losing the only active engine. `Saruli Caretaker`, `Tinder Wall`, `Wall of Roots`, `Secret Door`, `Drift of Phantasms`, `Shield-Wall Sentinel`, and spare defenders can buy the turns needed for `Axebane Guardian` or `Overgrown Battlement` to dominate mana.

- Engine preservation: Do not trade `Axebane Guardian`, `Overgrown Battlement`, `Quirion Ranger`, `Orochi Leafcaller`, `Tuktuk Rubblefort`, or `Valakut Invoker` in combat unless the alternative is losing the game or the piece is redundant and no longer needed. A defender that looks like a blocker may be worth much more as a mana multiplier.

- Life thresholds: Above a safe life cushion, take small damage to keep critical mana creatures untapped, alive, or available for a same-turn setup. At low life or under a two-turn clock, prioritize survival blocks and sideboard prevention even if they delay combo development.

- Attacking: Attack only when the damage is relevant and does not expose a needed blocker or engine piece. `Beastrider Vanguard`, `Sagu Wildling`, `Generous Ent`, and a nonessential creature may pressure planeswalkers or life totals, but the default plan is not to win by ordinary combat unless combo access is blocked.

- Trading: Trade nonessential bodies for opposing creatures that shorten the clock, carry combat tricks, or threaten evasion. Decline trades that shrink `Overgrown Battlement`/`Axebane Guardian` mana count below the next required spell or make `Lead the Stampede` recovery worse than simply keeping the board.

- Protection: Use `Tamiyo's Safekeeping`, `Crown of Awe`, or `Spore Frog` in combat only when the protected/prevented exchange changes survival, preserves a critical engine, or forces through a deterministic win. Card text check required for exact `Crown of Awe` and `Spore Frog` handling; follow Forge legal actions and visible prompts.

- Aggro matchups: Prefer blockers and life-preserving lines over slow tutor turns when facing go-wide or burn-backed pressure. `Trufflesnout` is a stabilizing sideboard body if its legal text supports life or board gain; card text check required, but tactically treat it as a bridge to the combo rather than a new win plan.

- Control matchups: Avoid unnecessary attacks that expose creatures to removal before they generate mana. Make control spend answers on redundant bodies, then use `Lead the Stampede`, `Winding Way`, `Shield-Wall Sentinel`, `Drift of Phantasms`, or `Reaping the Graves` to rebuild into a protected commitment.

- Evasion: Respect flyers and unblockable or hard-to-block threats more than stalled ground creatures. `Drift of Phantasms` can matter as an aerial blocker; do not transmute it away when visible evasive damage is the main reason you may lose.

- Combo turn: Once a legal lethal or near-lethal `Valakut Invoker`, `Secret Door`, or other payoff line is visible, combat becomes secondary. Preserve creatures needed for mana, haste, color conversion, untap loops, and payoff activation rather than seeking marginal attacks or trades.

## Selection And Tutor Rules
- Priority: Use `Lead the Stampede` as creature-density refill when the current board already has enough mana to spend a turn on selection or after removal has thinned the engine. Select legal creature cards over speculative noncreature value, and prioritize `Axebane Guardian`, `Overgrown Battlement`, `Quirion Ranger`, `Tuktuk Rubblefort`, `Valakut Invoker`, and missing defenders when Forge exposes candidates.

- Priority: Use `Winding Way` to rebuild or dig for the resource class the hand lacks, not automatically as the first main-phase play. Name or choose creatures when missing defenders, untap pieces, or payoffs; choose lands only when the visible hand cannot keep making land drops or the next turn requires raw mana more than bodies. Card text check required for exact choice and reveal handling; follow Forge candidate output.

- Priority: Use `Drift of Phantasms` as a tutor body only when the chosen legal line is stronger than keeping an aerial blocker or defender count. If Forge exposes transmute or a similar selection action, use it to find the exact missing three-mana engine or payoff piece that advances the current plan; otherwise keep `Drift of Phantasms` on board against flyers or pressure.

- Priority: Use `Shield-Wall Sentinel` to find the defender that converts the current board into mana, protection, or payoff access. Prefer `Axebane Guardian` when colors or explosive mana are missing, `Overgrown Battlement` when green mana and defender count are the bottleneck, `Secret Door` or other payoff access only when mana is already abundant, and a stabilizing defender when survival is the bottleneck.

- Priority: Use land-search or cycling actions from `Generous Ent` and `Sagu Wildling` only when a land drop, color, or next-turn mana threshold matters more than casting the body. Card text check required for exact search/cycling text; if Forge shows a land-selection prompt, choose the land that makes the next planned legal spell or activation possible rather than the land with abstract long-term value.

- Priority: Delay selection until after the land drop only when the land drop is already known and spending mana cannot change it. When `Winding Way`, `Lead the Stampede`, `Generous Ent`, or `Sagu Wildling` might reveal or find the land needed this turn, use selection before committing a weaker land play if legal and tactically safe.

- Priority: Preserve `Orochi Leafcaller`, `Quirion Ranger`, `Tinder Wall`, and `Wall of Roots` when selection has already found enough action but the combo still needs color fixing, untap access, or immediate mana. Do not turn selection into overextension if the visible board already produces a near-lethal `Valakut Invoker` or `Secret Door` line.

## Priority And Stack Rules
- Priority: Commit `Freed from the Real` only when the enchanted mana creature can generate meaningful mana immediately, when the opponent is tapped low or must answer now, or when waiting loses to visible pressure. Treat aura commitment as a high-risk stack decision because removal on the target can collapse the turn.

- Priority: Commit `Galvanic Alchemist` only when Forge exposes a legal pairing or equivalent action and the paired creature can matter right away. Card text check required for exact pairing and untap rules; do not assume the stack or pair survives open interaction without visible reason.

- Priority: Activate `Valakut Invoker` as soon as a legal activation advances lethal, removes a game-ending threat, or converts temporary mana before it disappears. Do not pass priority with excess mana and a visible legal payoff activation unless preserving mana for protection, tax payments, or another known stack decision is better.

- Priority: Use `Secret Door` activations only when the legal action advances a real win line, digs through a stalled board, or converts surplus mana that cannot be used on `Valakut Invoker`. Card text check required for exact venture/dungeon or payoff behavior; never assume a specific dungeon outcome unless Forge shows it.

- Priority: Use `Quirion Ranger` timing to untap the mana creature that changes this turn, usually `Axebane Guardian`, `Overgrown Battlement`, or a creature carrying `Freed from the Real`. Card text check required for exact activation limits and land-return requirement; if the legal action returns a land, ensure the current or next land drop still supports the turn plan.

- Priority: Use `Tinder Wall` and `Wall of Roots` mana abilities before passing only when the mana has a legal use in the current window or is required for a visible tax, protection, or combo step. Card text check required for exact activation restrictions; avoid sacrificing or shrinking resources for floating mana that will empty unused.

- Priority: Let opposing spells resolve when they do not change the clock, stop the combo, remove a critical engine piece, or create a graveyard/stack threat that `Faerie Macabre`, `Tamiyo's Safekeeping`, `Crown of Awe`, or another legal response can meaningfully answer. Passing must explain the specific response declined.

- Priority: Use `Tamiyo's Safekeeping` only in response to visible removal, damage, or combat outcomes that would kill the current engine, payoff, or survival blocker. Card text check required for exact protection and life behavior; do not spend it into an uncertain stack unless Forge shows the target and effect clearly enough.

- Priority: Cast `Reaping the Graves` after relevant spells and exchanges have made the graveyard worth recovering, especially after removal, combat, or a disrupted combo turn. Card text check required for exact storm or timing behavior; if Forge exposes multiple return targets, prioritize engine pieces and payoff access over low-impact bodies.

- Priority: Use `Faerie Macabre` at the last safe visible graveyard window before the opponent can use the target card. Exile reanimation targets, flashback cards, graveyard combo pieces, or recursion anchors; do not fire it at incidental graveyard cards when the opponent has no visible graveyard payoff.

- Priority: In combat priority windows, spend protection, prevention, or instant-speed utility only when the exchange changes survival or preserves the combo. `Spore Frog` and `Crown of Awe` require card text checks; use them conditionally from Forge legal actions rather than assuming exact prevention or protection outcomes.

## Sideboard Map
- Sideboard rule: sideboard only for a problem the visible matchup actually presents, because Walls Combo loses more games by diluting its defender-mana density than by lacking narrow answers. Preserve the core of `Saruli Caretaker`, `Overgrown Battlement`, `Axebane Guardian`, `Quirion Ranger`, `Drift of Phantasms`, and enough draw/search to assemble mana plus payoff.

- Sideboard rule: keep exact plans balanced and legal, then adapt only when the opponent's revealed cards prove a different pressure point. If a sideboard card is added for a narrow role, the reduced main-deck card should be a slower redundant body, a fragile single-copy payoff, or a selection spell whose speed is poor in that matchup.

Artifact/enchantment pressure plan
Side in: 3 Masked Vandal, 2 Tamiyo's Safekeeping
Cut: 2 Beastrider Vanguard, 1 Sagu Wildling, 1 Winding Way, 1 Lead the Stampede

Graveyard combo/recursion plan
Side in: 2 Faerie Macabre, 1 Spore Frog, 2 Tamiyo's Safekeeping
Cut: 2 Beastrider Vanguard, 1 Sagu Wildling, 1 Winding Way, 1 Lead the Stampede

Creature-race survival plan
Side in: 3 Trufflesnout, 1 Spore Frog, 2 Tamiyo's Safekeeping
Cut: 2 Beastrider Vanguard, 1 Sagu Wildling, 1 Winding Way, 1 Lead the Stampede, 1 Reaping the Graves

Protection-heavy combat/removal plan
Side in: 4 Crown of Awe, 2 Tamiyo's Safekeeping
Cut: 2 Beastrider Vanguard, 2 Sagu Wildling, 1 Winding Way, 1 Lead the Stampede

- Masked Vandal role: add `Masked Vandal` against artifact decks, enchantment-based engines, hate permanents, and Affinity-style boards where removing one permanent buys a combo turn. Card text check required for exact graveyard payment and target restriction; choose it only when Forge shows a legal target or the matchup reliably exposes artifacts/enchantments.

- Masked Vandal timing: use `Masked Vandal` as interaction first and creature count second. Because it is not a defender, avoid adding all three merely as bodies; its job is to answer a permanent that blocks combo progress, shrinks lethal pressure, or breaks an opposing engine.

- Masked Vandal bad case: keep `Masked Vandal` low priority when the opponent shows few artifacts/enchantments, when your graveyard cannot support the required cost, or when speed matters more than a one-for-one permanent answer. Against creature-only aggro, `Trufflesnout`, `Spore Frog`, and `Tamiyo's Safekeeping` usually address the actual failure mode more directly.

- Trufflesnout role: add `Trufflesnout` against fast creature decks, burn-pressure decks, and races where life padding or board material changes the next turn cycle. Card text check required for exact mode, counter, Food, or life details; treat the legal Forge options as survival tools rather than combo pieces.

- Trufflesnout role change: after adding `Trufflesnout`, the deck plays slightly more like a stabilizing ramp deck for the first three turns. It can buy time for `Overgrown Battlement`, `Axebane Guardian`, and `Shield-Wall Sentinel`, but it should not displace the need to assemble a real mana engine.

- Trufflesnout bad case: reduce emphasis on `Trufflesnout` against noncombat combo, slow control with sweepers, and graveyard decks where a small stabilizer does not interact with the decisive axis. If the opponent is not attacking life total, prefer `Faerie Macabre`, `Masked Vandal`, `Crown of Awe`, or protection according to the visible threat.

- Spore Frog role: add `Spore Frog` when one combat step is likely to decide the game, especially against wide creature decks, large single attackers, or pump-heavy turns. Card text check required for exact prevention timing; use it as a bridge to a combo turn, not as a long-term plan.

- Spore Frog timing: preserve `Spore Frog` until the prevention window changes lethal math, protects the mana engine indirectly, or forces the opponent to spend a turn without meaningful damage. Do not cash it in for a small life cushion unless the rules engine shows the next attack is otherwise game-ending.

- Spore Frog bad case: avoid relying on `Spore Frog` against removal-heavy control, graveyard combo, or spell-based wins where combat prevention does not answer the decisive threat. In those games its main value is creature count for selection, which is usually too low-impact for a sideboard slot.

- Crown of Awe role: add `Crown of Awe` when protection from a color, combat protection, or removal insulation is likely to matter. Card text check required for exact protection, flashback, target, and color behavior; only use it when Forge legal actions identify the target and the protection choice clearly.

- Crown of Awe role change: after adding `Crown of Awe`, value critical permanents more highly because a protected `Axebane Guardian`, `Overgrown Battlement`, `Valakut Invoker`, or combo-enchanted creature may be the whole game. It also changes combat math if legal protection can blank a key attacker or blocker.

- Crown of Awe bad case: keep `Crown of Awe` low priority when the opponent's threats are colorless, edict-based, sacrifice-based, graveyard-based, or non-targeting sweep effects. Protection that does not line up with the actual visible action should not displace mana, draw, or tutor density.

- Tamiyo's Safekeeping role: add `Tamiyo's Safekeeping` against removal, burn, targeted disruption, and combat spots where preserving one permanent unlocks the combo. Card text check required for exact hexproof, indestructible, life gain, and target rules; use it mainly to protect `Axebane Guardian`, `Overgrown Battlement`, `Valakut Invoker`, or a creature carrying `Freed from the Real`.

- Tamiyo's Safekeeping timing: hold `Tamiyo's Safekeeping` for visible stack or combat decisions that would otherwise kill the engine or stop a committed combo turn. Do not spend it on a replaceable creature when the hand still needs protection for a future `Freed from the Real` or `Galvanic Alchemist` setup.

- Tamiyo's Safekeeping bad case: avoid adding it heavily against decks whose interaction is discard, exile-from-graveyard, sacrifice, counterspells, or lock pieces that do not target your permanents. In those matchups, protection may still save a blocker, but it should not become the primary plan.

- Faerie Macabre role: add `Faerie Macabre` against graveyard recursion, reanimation, flashback engines, graveyard combo, and decks that rely on specific graveyard cards for inevitability. Card text check required for exact discard/exile and target count; use it at the last safe window before the opponent can use the graveyard card.

- Faerie Macabre role change: with `Faerie Macabre`, keep more hands that already have mana plus pressure toward combo because the graveyard interaction can be held while developing. Do not spend mana or tempo on it unless Forge makes the action require it; its value is surprise timing and targeted disruption.

- Faerie Macabre bad case: keep `Faerie Macabre` low priority when the opponent's graveyard is incidental, when exile targets are replaceable, or when the matchup is decided by battlefield speed. It is not a generic creature plan and should not reduce the deck's ability to create defender mana.

- Archetype rule: against Affinity, artifact lands, enchantment hate, or permanent-based lock pieces, add role cards: `Masked Vandal` and `Tamiyo's Safekeeping`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slower attackers and one copy of a draw spell when the matchup demands immediate interaction.

- Archetype rule: against Burn, Kuldotha-style aggression, Stompy, and other fast combat decks, add role cards: `Trufflesnout`, `Spore Frog`, and `Tamiyo's Safekeeping`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow recursive value and redundant nondefender bodies while keeping enough selection to find the engine.

- Archetype rule: against black removal, red removal, and decks with many targeted answers, add role cards: `Tamiyo's Safekeeping` and sometimes `Crown of Awe`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: expensive backup bodies, while keeping `Reaping the Graves` if the game is likely to trade resources.

- Archetype rule: against Bogles, Heroic, protection-based combat decks, or aura strategies, add role cards: `Masked Vandal`, `Crown of Awe`, and `Spore Frog` according to Forge-visible threats. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow draw that does not affect the battlefield before the opponent's next attack.

- Archetype rule: against graveyard combo, Tortured Existence-style recursion, flashback-heavy control, or reanimation, add role cards: `Faerie Macabre` and protection if they also attack the engine. Reduce main-deck emphasis: creature-race tools unless the opponent is also presenting lethal combat pressure.

- Archetype rule: against slow control, keep the combo compact and add only protection or graveyard interaction that answers revealed cards. Over-sideboarding into narrow creatures makes `Lead the Stampede` and `Winding Way` worse at finding the exact engine turn.

## Matchup Guidance

- Aggro: prioritize early defender density over speculative combo pieces because the first job is surviving to an `Axebane Guardian` or `Overgrown Battlement` turn. Keep hands with `Saruli Caretaker`, `Overgrown Battlement`, `Axebane Guardian`, `Wall of Roots`, `Tinder Wall`, or `Quirion Ranger` plus lands before hands that only contain `Lead the Stampede` and expensive bodies. Add role cards: `Trufflesnout`, `Spore Frog`, and `Tamiyo's Safekeeping`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow backup attackers such as `Sagu Wildling` and slower recursive value when the opponent is forcing immediate blocks.

- Burn: treat life total as a combo resource but not an infinite one; a hand that combos one turn later may be worse than a hand that adds blockers and preserves life immediately. `Trufflesnout` is a stabilizer when its legal mode affects life or board presence, but card text check required for exact mode text. `Tamiyo's Safekeeping` can matter when a visible burn spell or removal spell targets the creature that unlocks mana; card text check required for exact protection and life-gain behavior. Add role cards: `Trufflesnout`, `Tamiyo's Safekeeping`, and sometimes `Crown of Awe` if Forge-visible colors and targets make protection relevant. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Reaping the Graves` when the game is unlikely to last long enough for graveyard value.

- Go-wide creature decks: preserve blockers until the combo is ready because small damage races rarely favor Walls Combo before `Valakut Invoker` or infinite mana is assembled. `Spore Frog` is strongest when one combat step decides the game; card text check required for exact prevention timing. `Tuktuk Rubblefort` can shift from haste enabler to blocker only when the visible combat math says survival matters more than enabling a same-turn combo. Add role cards: `Spore Frog`, `Trufflesnout`, and `Crown of Awe` when color-based combat protection is legally relevant. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow nondefender threats that do not improve the next combat step.

- Single-threat decks: identify whether the threat is racing, evasive, protected, or removable by sideboard roles before spending a tutor or selection spell. `Crown of Awe` can protect a key blocker or blank a color-dependent combat exchange only if Forge exposes a legal target and protection choice; card text check required. `Masked Vandal` matters when the single threat is an artifact, enchantment, Aura, or equipment-like permanent; card text check required for exact exile and cost conditions. Add role cards: `Crown of Awe`, `Spore Frog`, or `Masked Vandal` according to the visible threat type. Reduce main-deck emphasis: excess draw that does not find a timely answer or combo kill.

- Tempo: value mana redundancy over fragile acceleration because the opponent's best games disrupt one key permanent while applying a clock. Lead with low-cost defenders and avoid exposing `Freed from the Real` into open interaction unless the same turn can produce a decisive mana loop or waiting is worse. `Quirion Ranger` is important for land-light development and untap lines, but do not assume an untap target is safe if removal is visible on the stack. Add role cards: `Tamiyo's Safekeeping` and sometimes `Crown of Awe`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slower backup bodies when the opponent punishes tapped-out turns.

- Control: force the opponent to answer repeated mana engines rather than one all-in enchantment whenever the clock is low. Develop `Overgrown Battlement`, `Axebane Guardian`, and `Shield-Wall Sentinel` before committing `Freed from the Real` or `Galvanic Alchemist` unless the legal actions show a protected or immediately decisive turn. `Reaping the Graves` becomes more valuable after trades and removal because it can reload creature density; card text check required only if exact storm/timing matters in a decision. Add role cards: `Tamiyo's Safekeeping`, `Crown of Awe`, and `Faerie Macabre` only when graveyard control cards or flashback are visible. Reduce main-deck emphasis: anti-combat cards unless the control deck wins through creatures.

- Removal-heavy decks: assume `Axebane Guardian`, `Overgrown Battlement`, and any creature carrying `Freed from the Real` are priority targets, but do not play as if hidden removal is certain. Sequence redundant defenders first, hold `Tamiyo's Safekeeping` for a stack event that would break the engine, and use `Reaping the Graves` to recover only when the legal timing and graveyard contents make it meaningful. `Crown of Awe` is useful only when its protection mode matches a visible color or target pattern; card text check required. Add role cards: `Tamiyo's Safekeeping` and `Crown of Awe`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: expensive creatures that do not replace the lost engine piece.

- Midrange: build mana faster than their attrition plan while refusing unnecessary trades with core defenders. `Lead the Stampede` and `Winding Way` are important because midrange games often become about rebuilding after removal and blockers. Use `Drift of Phantasms` as a tutor only when the missing piece is clear from visible state, such as finding `Freed from the Real`, `Axebane Guardian`, `Tuktuk Rubblefort`, `Valakut Invoker`, or another relevant converted-cost target if Forge offers it. Add role cards: `Tamiyo's Safekeeping`, `Trufflesnout`, or `Masked Vandal` depending on whether the opponent pressures life, removal, or permanents. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow speed pieces when attrition is the main axis.

- Big mana: race their payoff rather than trying to trade small resources indefinitely. Keep hands that can assemble `Overgrown Battlement` or `Axebane Guardian` plus selection, and consider `Drift of Phantasms` lines that find the missing combo piece before their larger threats dominate. `Valakut Invoker` is often the cleanest payoff once mana is abundant, but card text check required if exact activation cost or target wording is not visible. Add role cards: `Masked Vandal` if big mana depends on artifacts or enchantments, and `Faerie Macabre` if graveyard recursion is part of the payoff. Reduce main-deck emphasis: anti-aggro bodies with no pressure or combo contribution.

- Combo: identify whether we are faster, whether we have relevant disruption, and whether a partial combo exposes us to losing on the next turn. Against faster combo, mulligan more aggressively for `Overgrown Battlement`, `Axebane Guardian`, `Quirion Ranger`, `Tinder Wall`, and selection. `Faerie Macabre` is the main sideboard card when the opposing combo uses graveyard cards; card text check required for exact exile targeting. `Masked Vandal` matters only against artifact or enchantment engines. Add role cards: `Faerie Macabre`, `Masked Vandal`, or `Tamiyo's Safekeeping` if protecting our combo is the interaction. Reduce main-deck emphasis: combat-only stabilizers.

- Graveyard decks: hold `Faerie Macabre` until the last safe visible window before the opponent can use the graveyard card that matters. Do not spend it on the first legal target if the graveyard contains a more decisive recursion, reanimation, flashback, or combo piece. `Reaping the Graves` is still part of our recovery plan, but be aware that opposing graveyard hate or graveyard races can change its value. Add role cards: `Faerie Macabre` and sometimes `Tamiyo's Safekeeping` if they also target our engine. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow combat cards unless the graveyard deck is also attacking quickly.

- Artifact/enchantment decks: use `Masked Vandal` for visible permanents that stop the combo, accelerate the opponent, or create a lethal clock; card text check required for exact exile cost and eligible targets. Do not use artifact/enchantment interaction on a low-impact permanent if a lock piece, Aura threat, affinity engine, or mana engine is visible or likely from public information. `Generous Ent`, `Shield-Wall Sentinel`, `Lead the Stampede`, and `Winding Way` should continue supporting the creature engine rather than becoming a slow fair plan. Add role cards: `Masked Vandal` and `Tamiyo's Safekeeping`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow attackers or one draw effect when immediate permanent interaction is required.

- Mirror or defender-ramp decks: prioritize the first decisive mana loop or `Valakut Invoker` activation over small attacks. `Secret Door`, `Beastrider Vanguard`, `Sagu Wildling`, and incidental bodies matter mainly as combo support, blockers, or alternate pressure when both players stall. Use `Drift of Phantasms` and `Shield-Wall Sentinel` to find missing structure rather than overfilling the battlefield with redundant defenders if a payoff is already needed. Add role cards: `Masked Vandal` only for visible artifacts/enchantments, and `Tamiyo's Safekeeping` if removal or protection fights are present. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow anti-aggro cards.

## Specific Matchup Notes

- General/archetype-only: revealed cards, legal actions, and Forge-visible text override every matchup assumption here. Treat these notes as priority targets and role-card cues, not proof of hidden cards or guaranteed card text.

- Fast red or go-wide aggro: prioritize survival until `Overgrown Battlement`, `Axebane Guardian`, or multiple defenders let the deck jump past combat. Keep `Saruli Caretaker`, `Tinder Wall`, `Wall of Roots`, `Secret Door`, and `Quirion Ranger` when they create early mana or blocks. Add role cards: `Trufflesnout`, `Spore Frog`, `Crown of Awe`, and sometimes `Tamiyo's Safekeeping`. Priority targets: haste threats, pump windows, burn pointed at the enchanted combo creature, and attacks that make `Valakut Invoker` too slow.

- Blue control or removal-heavy tempo: develop redundant mana creatures before committing `Freed from the Real` or `Galvanic Alchemist` unless a same-turn loop is visible and legal. `Lead the Stampede`, `Winding Way`, `Drift of Phantasms`, and `Shield-Wall Sentinel` are key for forcing repeated must-answer permanents. Add role cards: `Tamiyo's Safekeeping` and `Crown of Awe`. Priority targets: counterspell windows, removal on `Axebane Guardian`, removal on `Overgrown Battlement`, and stack events that would break a committed combo line.

- Graveyard combo or recursion: hold `Faerie Macabre` for the last visible safe window before the graveyard card matters. Do not spend it on low-impact cards when a reanimation, flashback, or recursion payoff is present. `Reaping the Graves` remains a reload tool after creature trades or removal, but opposing graveyard pressure can make timing fragile. Add role cards: `Faerie Macabre` and sometimes `Tamiyo's Safekeeping`. Priority targets: graveyard payoff cards, sacrifice loops, flashback spells, and graveyard-based mana or kill pieces.

- Artifact/enchantment engines: use `Masked Vandal` on visible permanents that accelerate the opponent, block the combo, or create a lethal clock; card text check required for exact cost and eligible targets. Continue building the creature engine with `Generous Ent`, `Sagu Wildling`, `Beastrider Vanguard`, and defenders rather than becoming a slow fair deck. Add role cards: `Masked Vandal` and `Tamiyo's Safekeeping`. Priority targets: lock pieces, Aura threats, artifact mana, affinity engines, and permanents that disable activated abilities.

- Big mana and creature midrange: race their payoff while preserving enough blockers to survive the next turn cycle. `Drift of Phantasms` should find the missing structural card when legal tutor options show `Freed from the Real`, `Axebane Guardian`, `Tuktuk Rubblefort`, or `Valakut Invoker`. Add role cards: `Trufflesnout`, `Tamiyo's Safekeeping`, or `Masked Vandal` according to visible threats. Priority targets: sweepers, edicts, large tramplers, and any permanent that beats a stalled defender board.

## Risk Summary

- Mana risk: the deck can produce explosive mana but also has hands where `Forest`, `Generous Ent`, `Quirion Ranger`, and one-mana creatures do not become real acceleration. Avoid keeping hands with only selection and no early creature mana unless the legal mulligan context makes a lower-card hand worse.

- Combo risk: `Freed from the Real` and `Galvanic Alchemist` are fragile commitment cards when the enchanted or paired mana creature can be removed. Commit only when the visible board, stack, mana, and known interaction make going now better than waiting.

- Draw risk: `Lead the Stampede` and `Winding Way` can miss the exact missing piece or fill the graveyard in ways that do not immediately stabilize. Choose them when the current role is rebuild, find defenders, or dig toward combo, not when a visible lethal threat requires a concrete blocker or payoff now.

- Over-sideboarding risk: adding too many `Masked Vandal`, `Trufflesnout`, `Spore Frog`, `Crown of Awe`, `Tamiyo's Safekeeping`, or `Faerie Macabre` can reduce defender density and make `Overgrown Battlement` or `Axebane Guardian` weaker. Preserve the mana engine unless the opposing axis clearly demands role cards.

- Graveyard risk: `Reaping the Graves` can be powerful after removal, but graveyard hate or timing restrictions can make it unreliable; card text check required if exact storm or timing details decide the play.

- Sweeper/removal risk: board-wide removal and repeated spot removal punish flooding the battlefield with only mana creatures and no payoff. Stagger threats when possible and value `Tamiyo's Safekeeping` most when it protects a decisive engine piece from a visible stack event.

- Closer risk: abundant mana does not win by itself. Track whether the actual closer is `Valakut Invoker`, haste via `Tuktuk Rubblefort`, combat through `Beastrider Vanguard` or `Sagu Wildling`, or a tutor chain, and stop spending actions on redundant setup once a legal kill path exists.

- Sequencing risk: tapping `Saruli Caretaker`, `Overgrown Battlement`, `Axebane Guardian`, `Orochi Leafcaller`, `Tinder Wall`, `Wall of Roots`, or `Quirion Ranger` in the wrong order can lose mana, colors, or untap options. Follow Forge legal actions exactly and prefer lines that preserve green mana, untapped defenders, and the required combo creature until the payoff is chosen.

## Test Feedback Checklist

- Deciding factor: identify whether the game turned on engine assembly, survival, protection, selection quality, sideboard cards, opponent disruption, or failure to find a closer. Record the first turn where `Overgrown Battlement`, `Axebane Guardian`, `Freed from the Real`, `Galvanic Alchemist`, `Tuktuk Rubblefort`, or `Valakut Invoker` could have changed the outcome.

- Mulligans: record whether each kept hand had a legal early plan involving `Forest`, `Saruli Caretaker`, `Tinder Wall`, `Wall of Roots`, `Quirion Ranger`, `Overgrown Battlement`, or `Axebane Guardian`. Flag keeps that had selection but no early creature mana, and flag mulligans that shipped functional defender-plus-selection hands.

- Mana: check whether the pilot sequenced `Saruli Caretaker`, `Overgrown Battlement`, `Axebane Guardian`, `Orochi Leafcaller`, `Tinder Wall`, `Wall of Roots`, and `Quirion Ranger` to preserve green mana, color conversion, untap potential, and defender count. Note any turn where a different legal tap order would have enabled `Lead the Stampede`, `Winding Way`, `Drift of Phantasms`, `Shield-Wall Sentinel`, or a combo commitment.

- Velocity: evaluate whether `Lead the Stampede`, `Winding Way`, `Drift of Phantasms`, `Shield-Wall Sentinel`, `Generous Ent`, and `Sagu Wildling` found the missing resource quickly enough. Separate misses caused by deck construction from misses caused by choosing selection when a blocker, payoff, or protection action was required.

- Engine commitment: review every `Freed from the Real` or `Galvanic Alchemist` line for timing. Mark whether the pilot waited too long, walked into visible interaction, lacked enough mana to continue after the legal action resolved, or had a same-turn payoff line available through `Valakut Invoker`, `Tuktuk Rubblefort`, `Beastrider Vanguard`, or combat.

- Removal and protection: record whether `Tamiyo's Safekeeping`, `Crown of Awe`, `Masked Vandal`, `Faerie Macabre`, `Spore Frog`, and `Trufflesnout` were used at decisive windows or spent on low-impact exchanges. Use card text check required whenever exact protection, prevention, exile, or creature-type text affected the conclusion.

- Sideboarding: confirm whether role cards improved the matchup without reducing defender density too far. Track games where `Masked Vandal`, `Trufflesnout`, `Spore Frog`, `Crown of Awe`, `Tamiyo's Safekeeping`, or `Faerie Macabre` were stranded, irrelevant, or drawn instead of engine pieces.

- Closing: record whether abundant mana converted into an actual win. Flag games where `Valakut Invoker` was missing, `Tuktuk Rubblefort` haste was unavailable, `Beastrider Vanguard` or `Sagu Wildling` combat was too slow, or selection kept finding setup after the deck needed a payoff.

- Role and mistakes: state whether the pilot's correct role was race, stabilize, rebuild, protect combo, or force through interaction. Identify passes under pressure, attacks that lost needed blockers, blocks that exposed engine creatures, and selection choices that ignored visible lethal or survival constraints.

- Overperformers and underperformers: list which exact cards won material turns and which exact cards were stranded. Pay special attention to `Secret Door`, `Reaping the Graves`, `Valakut Invoker`, `Beastrider Vanguard`, `Sagu Wildling`, `Generous Ent`, and the one-copy combo pieces.

## First Tuning Questions

- Engine density: does the deck lose because it cannot find `Overgrown Battlement` or `Axebane Guardian` often enough, or because it finds them but cannot protect or convert them? If the failure is discovery, consider whether `Drift of Phantasms`, `Shield-Wall Sentinel`, `Lead the Stampede`, `Winding Way`, `Generous Ent`, or `Sagu Wildling` quantities need adjustment.

- Combo access: is one `Freed from the Real` plus one `Galvanic Alchemist` enough, or do games repeatedly stall with mana creatures and no untap payoff? If the pilot frequently has large mana but no deterministic win, test whether the combo-piece count or tutor structure is too thin.

- Closer package: is `Valakut Invoker` available and fast enough when the deck makes huge mana, or are wins depending too often on fragile combat through `Tuktuk Rubblefort`, `Beastrider Vanguard`, and `Sagu Wildling`? If closing is slow, test whether the payoff slot distribution is the bottleneck.

- Early mana: do hands with `Saruli Caretaker`, `Tinder Wall`, `Wall of Roots`, and `Quirion Ranger` produce consistent setup, or are they creating awkward partial acceleration without enough defenders? If early turns stumble, reassess the split between one-mana support, two-mana defenders, and high-cost creatures.

- Selection mix: does `Winding Way` fill the graveyard without solving the current problem, or does `Lead the Stampede` miss too often under pressure? If velocity cards underperform, separate card-type composition problems from pilot timing mistakes.

- Aggro plan: are `Trufflesnout`, `Spore Frog`, and `Crown of Awe` enough to survive fast red, go-wide combat, and pump windows without over-sideboarding? If aggro losses come from tempo rather than card access, test whether sideboard slots should become cheaper stabilization or protection.

- Control plan: does `Tamiyo's Safekeeping` sufficiently protect `Overgrown Battlement`, `Axebane Guardian`, `Freed from the Real`, and `Galvanic Alchemist` against removal-heavy decks? If control wins by answering the first engine piece and ignoring the rest, reassess protection count versus reload count.

- Hate slots: does `Masked Vandal` answer the artifact/enchantment matchups that matter, and does `Faerie Macabre` arrive at the correct graveyard windows? If either card is frequently boarded but unused, confirm the metagame need and perform card text check required before changing slot counts.

- Role conflict: do sideboard plans pull the deck toward fair creature defense while reducing combo consistency too much? If post-board games contain more `Crown of Awe`, `Trufflesnout`, `Masked Vandal`, or `Faerie Macabre` than mana engine, tune plans to preserve `Overgrown Battlement`, `Axebane Guardian`, and selection density.

- One-copy utility: are `Secret Door`, `Reaping the Graves`, `Tuktuk Rubblefort`, and `Valakut Invoker` producing distinct wins or clogging decisions? If a singleton is repeatedly stranded, determine whether the issue is card role, tutor access, or pilot failure to recognize the right window.

## Veles Tactical Policy

### Policy: Mulligan For Engine Access
- Priority: High
- Decision families: mulligan, pregame
- Cards: Forest, Saruli Caretaker, Tinder Wall, Wall of Roots, Overgrown Battlement, Axebane Guardian, Quirion Ranger, Lead the Stampede, Winding Way, Drift of Phantasms
- Phase windows: opening hand, mulligan, London bottom
- Runtime cues: opening hand contains lands, early mana, defenders, selection, or no functional green source
- Use when: deciding whether the hand can cast an early mana creature and progress toward Overgrown Battlement or Axebane Guardian by turn three.
- Avoid when: hand has no green source, no early creature mana, and no selection that can be cast on time.
- Instructions: Keep hands with Forest plus early creature mana and at least one engine or selection route; ship hands that only contain expensive creatures, one-copy payoffs, or off-plan protection without acceleration. Bottom redundant late cards before bottoming the first engine piece.
- Pilot skill floor: medium
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: First Permanent Setup
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: mana, priority
- Cards: Forest, Saruli Caretaker, Tinder Wall, Wall of Roots, Quirion Ranger, Overgrown Battlement, Axebane Guardian
- Phase windows: main phase turns one to three
- Runtime cues: legal cast actions for Saruli Caretaker, Tinder Wall, Wall of Roots, Quirion Ranger, Overgrown Battlement, or Axebane Guardian
- Use when: selecting the first creature or defender that enables future mana.
- Avoid when: visible lethal pressure or a required protection/action window changes the turn objective.
- Instructions: Prioritize a castable mana creature before card selection; establish defender count for Overgrown Battlement and Axebane Guardian before spending mana on slower setup. Use Quirion Ranger as acceleration only when returning Forest does not strand required green mana.
- Pilot skill floor: medium
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Cast Exact First Forest Source
- Priority: Low
- Decision families: mana
- Cards: Forest
- Phase windows: precombat main, postcombat main
- Runtime cues: action:play Forest
- Use when: no land has been played this turn and Forest is the only legal land-play action visible.
- Avoid when: no Forest play action is legal.
- Instructions: Play Forest to unlock green creature deployment and Quirion Ranger return lines.
- Pilot skill floor: low
- No-API allowed: yes
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Defender Mana Ordering
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: mana, priority
- Cards: Saruli Caretaker, Overgrown Battlement, Axebane Guardian, Orochi Leafcaller, Tinder Wall, Wall of Roots, Quirion Ranger, Forest
- Phase windows: main phase, priority before casting spells or abilities
- Runtime cues: legal mana-source choices, tap choices, untap choices, color-conversion actions
- Use when: multiple legal mana payments or source taps can cast the same spell.
- Avoid when: rules engine offers only one payment or hidden restrictions are not visible.
- Instructions: Preserve Overgrown Battlement and Axebane Guardian untapped until their larger mana output matters; use Forest, Wall of Roots, Tinder Wall, or Saruli Caretaker first when that still leaves the highest-output defender available. Convert with Orochi Leafcaller only for actual off-color costs, not cosmetic floating mana.
- Pilot skill floor: high
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Combo Commitment Gate
- Priority: High
- Decision families: priority, mana, interaction
- Cards: Freed from the Real, Galvanic Alchemist, Overgrown Battlement, Axebane Guardian, Orochi Leafcaller, Valakut Invoker, Tuktuk Rubblefort, Tamiyo's Safekeeping
- Phase windows: own main phase, protected priority windows
- Runtime cues: legal cast or activate actions for Freed from the Real or Galvanic Alchemist with engine creatures visible
- Use when: deciding whether to attach or pair an untap engine and start converting mana this turn.
- Avoid when: open visible interaction, insufficient blue or conversion, no payoff path, or waiting preserves a stronger protected line.
- Instructions: Commit when the engine can produce repeated net mana or immediate decisive progress after resolution; count defender output, color conversion, remaining mana, and whether Valakut Invoker, haste, combat, or selection can convert the mana. Do not expose the only engine creature merely to spend mana.
- Pilot skill floor: high
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Deterministic Freed Target
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: selection, mana
- Cards: Freed from the Real, Overgrown Battlement, Axebane Guardian
- Phase windows: own main phase
- Runtime cues: action:target Overgrown Battlement Freed from the Real; action:target Axebane Guardian Freed from the Real
- Use when: a Freed from the Real target action is legal for an untapped Overgrown Battlement or Axebane Guardian that is already the selected combo creature.
- Avoid when: multiple target actions are legal and the selected combo creature has not been established by a prior decision.
- Instructions: Target the chosen mana engine creature with Freed from the Real; prefer the visible target already selected by the commitment gate.
- Pilot skill floor: medium
- No-API allowed: yes
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Galvanic Alchemist Pair Gate
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: selection, mana
- Cards: Galvanic Alchemist, Overgrown Battlement, Axebane Guardian, Orochi Leafcaller
- Phase windows: own main phase, soulbond or pairing prompt
- Runtime cues: legal pair or target choices involving Galvanic Alchemist
- Use when: choosing whether and how to pair Galvanic Alchemist for an untap engine.
- Avoid when: pairing does not create net mana, lacks blue access, or consumes the only creature needed for another legal line.
- Instructions: Pair with the highest-output mana defender only if visible mana and color conversion can pay the untap cost repeatedly. Card text check required for exact Galvanic Alchemist prompt wording and pair legality.
- Pilot skill floor: high
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Payoff Conversion Gate
- Priority: High
- Decision families: priority, mana, combat
- Cards: Valakut Invoker, Tuktuk Rubblefort, Beastrider Vanguard, Sagu Wildling, Secret Door
- Phase windows: own main phase, combat, endgame priority windows
- Runtime cues: abundant mana, legal payoff activation, legal haste/combat line, legal Secret Door activation
- Use when: deciding how to convert large or infinite-adjacent mana into a win or locked advantage.
- Avoid when: payoff text is uncertain or the action does not affect lethal, survival, or the opponent's next turn.
- Instructions: Prefer deterministic lethal or near-lethal Valakut Invoker lines when legal; use Tuktuk Rubblefort only when haste changes combat this turn. Card text check required for Beastrider Vanguard, Sagu Wildling, and Secret Door before treating them as deterministic payoffs.
- Pilot skill floor: high
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Activate Valakut Invoker At Opponent
- Priority: High
- Decision families: priority, interaction
- Cards: Valakut Invoker
- Phase windows: main phase, end step, priority with sufficient mana
- Runtime cues: action:target opponent Valakut Invoker
- Use when: a legal Valakut Invoker action targets the opponent and visible damage from that action is at least the opponent's life total.
- Avoid when: damage amount, prevention, target legality, or opponent life total is not visible in the action/state text.
- Instructions: Choose the opponent-targeting Valakut Invoker action that presents lethal from visible legal text.
- Pilot skill floor: medium
- No-API allowed: yes
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Selection Spell Timing
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: selection, priority
- Cards: Lead the Stampede, Winding Way, Drift of Phantasms, Shield-Wall Sentinel, Generous Ent, Sagu Wildling
- Phase windows: own main phase, tutor/search prompts
- Runtime cues: legal cast, transmute, search, landcycling, or reveal-selection actions
- Use when: the deck is missing engine, land, protection, or payoff and has time to spend mana on selection.
- Avoid when: immediate board survival, combo commitment, or lethal conversion is available and selection would pass the window.
- Instructions: Use Lead the Stampede and Winding Way to rebuild creature density; use Drift of Phantasms and Shield-Wall Sentinel to find the exact missing engine or utility creature only after identifying the missing role. Card text check required for Generous Ent and Sagu Wildling search modes before deterministic selection.
- Pilot skill floor: high
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Search Target Judgment
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: selection
- Cards: Drift of Phantasms, Shield-Wall Sentinel, Generous Ent, Sagu Wildling, Overgrown Battlement, Axebane Guardian, Tuktuk Rubblefort, Valakut Invoker, Secret Door
- Phase windows: search, tutor, transmute, landcycling prompts
- Runtime cues: visible candidate list from a search or selection prompt
- Use when: choosing a card from a public or private search candidate set.
- Avoid when: the action text names only one legal candidate and no strategic choice remains.
- Instructions: Find Overgrown Battlement or Axebane Guardian when mana engine is missing; find Tuktuk Rubblefort or Valakut Invoker when mana is already abundant and closing is missing; find land only when mana failure blocks the next turn cycle.
- Pilot skill floor: high
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Reaping Recovery Gate
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: priority, selection
- Cards: Reaping the Graves, Overgrown Battlement, Axebane Guardian, Valakut Invoker, Tuktuk Rubblefort, Saruli Caretaker, Quirion Ranger
- Phase windows: own main phase, end step, post-removal recovery windows
- Runtime cues: legal cast Reaping the Graves; graveyard contains creatures
- Use when: graveyard creatures can rebuild engine or recover a payoff after disruption.
- Avoid when: graveyard targets are low-impact, mana should be spent on a live combo/payoff, or card text/storm count is unclear.
- Instructions: Return engine creatures before fair bodies; prioritize Axebane Guardian, Overgrown Battlement, Valakut Invoker, and Tuktuk Rubblefort over redundant small setup unless survival requires blockers. Card text check required for exact storm and target rules.
- Pilot skill floor: high
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Combat With Engine Creatures
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: combat
- Cards: Saruli Caretaker, Overgrown Battlement, Axebane Guardian, Wall of Roots, Quirion Ranger, Tuktuk Rubblefort, Beastrider Vanguard, Sagu Wildling, Trufflesnout, Spore Frog
- Phase windows: declare attackers, declare blockers, combat trick windows
- Runtime cues: legal attack or block sets with engine creatures and defenders visible
- Use when: deciding whether to attack, block, or preserve creatures.
- Avoid when: exactly one legal no-damage block is forced by survival and rules text is explicit.
- Instructions: Preserve Overgrown Battlement and Axebane Guardian unless blocking prevents lethal or buys the turn needed to combo. Attack only with nonessential creatures when damage matters and losing them will not reduce defender mana below the next planned threshold.
- Pilot skill floor: high
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Protection Commitment
- Priority: High
- Decision families: interaction, priority
- Cards: Tamiyo's Safekeeping, Crown of Awe, Spore Frog
- Phase windows: opponent interaction windows, combat, removal on stack
- Runtime cues: legal protection, prevention, or sacrifice action while engine or lethal combat is threatened
- Use when: a protected engine creature, combo aura, payoff, or survival turn determines whether the deck can win next cycle.
- Avoid when: the threatened permanent is redundant, the spell does not stop the visible effect, or card text check is required and unclear.
- Instructions: Protect Axebane Guardian, Overgrown Battlement, Freed from the Real, Galvanic Alchemist, or lethal payoff before protecting replaceable setup. Card text check required for exact Crown of Awe, Tamiyo's Safekeeping, and Spore Frog effects.
- Pilot skill floor: high
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes

### Policy: Sideboard Role Selection
- Priority: Medium
- Decision families: sideboard, pregame
- Cards: Masked Vandal, Trufflesnout, Spore Frog, Crown of Awe, Tamiyo's Safekeeping, Faerie Macabre, Lead the Stampede, Winding Way, Secret Door, Reaping the Graves, Beastrider Vanguard, Sagu Wildling
- Phase windows: sideboarding after game one or game two
- Runtime cues: sideboard decision prompt with matchup label and previous-game information
- Use when: choosing a legal sideboard plan or generated swaps.
- Avoid when: plan reduces engine density below functional levels without solving a matchup-specific problem.
- Instructions: Add Masked Vandal against artifacts/enchantments, Faerie Macabre against graveyard engines, Tamiyo's Safekeeping against removal, and Trufflesnout, Spore Frog, or Crown of Awe against combat pressure. Reduce slow singleton or redundant selection emphasis before cutting core defenders.
- Pilot skill floor: high
- No-API allowed: no
- Light-model allowed: yes
