veles-content/strategies/alchemy/alchemy_mono_green_counters/1/guide.md

Strategy Specifications

Deck Name And Archetype

Mono Green Counters is a validated 60-card main deck with a 15-card sideboard for Alchemy. The active validation contract reports that the deck passes the current Alchemy construction check, with 60 main-deck cards, 15 sideboard cards, and the supplied role tags normalized to aggro, midrange, and counters. Veles should still defer all runtime legality, available actions, zone state, and card-function certainty to the rules engine, because this guide is strategic policy rather than a source of rules truth.

Mono Green Counters is best classified as a rogue or hybrid Alchemy creature-scaling deck rather than a stock format archetype. The list uses a mono-green mana base and creature-heavy pressure plan, but the exact package of Llanowar Elves, Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Wary Zone Guard, Icetill Explorer, Mightform Harmonizer, Fecund Greenshell, Wildgrove Summoner, Hardened Bonds, Earthbender Ascension, and Sapling Nursery signals a deck-specific counter engine rather than a generic green stompy shell. The deck should be piloted as an aggro-midrange strategy: open quickly, compound board growth, and convert counters or permanent-based scaling into attacks that force the opponent to answer multiple bodies.

The registered main deck contains 24 lands: 13 Forest, 3 Ba Sing Se, 4 Evolving Wilds, and 4 Fabled Passage. The mana concern is tempo rather than color access: the deck appears mono-green, but Evolving Wilds and Fabled Passage can cost early speed if they enter the wrong sequence or delay Llanowar Elves and other early creatures. Veles should value hands that cast early green spells on time and should treat fetchland sequencing as a tactical choice when landfall, shuffle, graveyard count, or tapped-land timing is visible from legal actions.

The registered sideboard is 4 Meltstrider's Resolve, 3 Soul-Guide Lantern, 1 Keen-Eyed Curator, 2 Origin of Metalbending, 3 Mossborn Hydra, and 2 Vivien Reid. The sideboard suggests post-board pivots into protection, graveyard interaction, artifact or enchantment-related interaction, larger threats, and planeswalker or value pressure, but card text check required for every Alchemy-specific tactical claim not exposed by the engine. Veles should never assume a sideboard card answers a permanent type, protects a board, or wins a matchup unless the legal action text and visible card details support that use.

Opponent information status is unknown and must be treated as runtime-dependent. This guide has no supplied matchup decklists, no known opponent archetype, no known play/draw assignment, and no known metagame target list. Against unknown opponents, Veles should begin from the deck's proactive counter-scaling role, then adjust only from public information: revealed cards, battlefield texture, graveyards, exile, life totals, available mana, stack objects, and legal actions. Hidden cards in the opponent's hand or library must not be inferred as exact names.

The primary legality and role risk is that many registered cards are Alchemy-specific or otherwise not universally familiar. Card text check required for Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Wary Zone Guard, Icetill Explorer, Mightform Harmonizer, Fecund Greenshell, Wildgrove Summoner, Hardened Bonds, Earthbender Ascension, Sapling Nursery, Ba Sing Se, Meltstrider's Resolve, Keen-Eyed Curator, Origin of Metalbending, Mossborn Hydra, and Vivien Reid before making deterministic assumptions beyond legal action text. Llanowar Elves, Evolving Wilds, Fabled Passage, Forest, and Soul-Guide Lantern have familiar names, but Veles should still obey the engine when available text, format implementation, or replacement effects differ from expectation.

Thesis

Mono Green Counters assembles an early green battlefield, then compounds +1/+1 counter pressure through its named counter engines and creature payoffs. The deck wants Llanowar Elves or another early creature to start the clock, then uses Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Wary Zone Guard, Icetill Explorer, Mightform Harmonizer, Fecund Greenshell, Wildgrove Summoner, Hardened Bonds, Earthbender Ascension, and Sapling Nursery as overlapping board-development pieces whose exact tactical ordering must follow legal action text and visible state. Card text check required for the Alchemy-specific cards before assuming a triggered ability, counter placement rule, protection mode, or token output.

The deck wins by turning a normal creature curve into an oversized board before the opponent can stabilize. Veles should prioritize hands and lines that cast a one- or two-mana play, preserve enough mana to double-spell in the midgame, and keep multiple bodies on the battlefield so counter-growth effects have relevant recipients. When legal actions expose a choice between adding a creature and adding a counter engine, prefer the engine only if there is already a body to scale or if the engine itself immediately affects the board.

The deck is not trying to play draw-go control, hold up interaction for many turns, or win through hidden combo certainty. It should not pass priority with unused mana merely because a later payoff might exist, should not overvalue graveyard or utility actions before pressure is established, and should not assume the opponent has no sweeper, exile effect, bounce spell, or combat trick. If the visible opponent plan is faster, the deck becomes a blocker-plus-growth deck until attacks are safe; if the opponent is slower, the deck should force answers by committing enough threats without placing every resource into one fragile permanent.

The highest priority is tempo into scalable pressure. Cast Llanowar Elves early when legal and safe, sequence Forest, Evolving Wilds, Fabled Passage, and Ba Sing Se to avoid missing green mana, and use counter payoffs before low-impact setup when the opponent is already under pressure. The second priority is board diversity: spread development across bodies when visible removal or sacrifice effects punish one large creature, but consolidate counters when the engine or combat math rewards one decisive attacker and the rules engine confirms the action is legal.

Role Package

• Threats: Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Wary Zone Guard, Icetill Explorer, Fecund Greenshell, Wildgrove Summoner, Mossborn Hydra, and Vivien Reid are the primary cards Veles should treat as ways to pressure life totals or demand answers when legal action text supports that role. Card text check required for each exact body size, counter trigger, token output, planeswalker mode, and combat keyword.

• Payoffs: Mightform Harmonizer, Fecund Greenshell, Wildgrove Summoner, Hardened Bonds, Earthbender Ascension, Sapling Nursery, and Mossborn Hydra are the main cards to associate with scaling, counters, or larger late-game conversion. Veles should favor payoff deployment when there is a visible creature base, enough mana to continue curving, or a legal action that immediately improves combat; avoid payoff-only turns that leave no blocker or attacker against a short clock.

• Engines: Hardened Bonds, Earthbender Ascension, Sapling Nursery, Fecund Greenshell, and Wildgrove Summoner are the cards most likely to create repeated advantage or board growth, but card text check required. Veles should treat repeated counter generation, repeated token creation, or repeated card/selection value as worth protecting through sequencing, especially when the opponent has already spent removal on earlier creatures.

• Velocity: Llanowar Elves is the cleanest acceleration piece and should be valued highly in opening hands. Evolving Wilds and Fabled Passage provide land access and possible shuffle or graveyard count utility, but they are tempo costs when they delay untapped green mana. Icetill Explorer and Ba Sing Se may contribute smoothing or utility only if the legal action text confirms it.

• Interaction: Soul-Guide Lantern, Keen-Eyed Curator, Origin of Metalbending, Vivien Reid, and possibly Meltstrider's Resolve are sideboard interaction modules, but card text check required except where the engine exposes exact actions. Veles should use interaction to preserve lethal pressure, stop graveyard plans, answer visible permanent engines, or survive a key turn rather than firing it at the first legal target.

• Protection: Meltstrider's Resolve is the registered protection-looking sideboard module, but card text check required. Use it only when legal action text and stack or combat context show that it protects a meaningful threat, wins combat, blanks removal, or preserves lethal pressure.

• Recursion: The main deck has no confirmed recursion package from known text. If any legal action from Sapling Nursery, Fecund Greenshell, Wildgrove Summoner, Soul-Guide Lantern, Keen-Eyed Curator, or Vivien Reid offers graveyard or return-zone choices, Veles must treat that as runtime-specific and choose based on visible zones only.

• Mana: Forest, Llanowar Elves, Ba Sing Se, Evolving Wilds, and Fabled Passage form the mana module. Prioritize untapped green sources for early development, use fetchlands when they do not strand a spell, and avoid sacrificing tempo for speculative fixing unless legal action text shows a relevant landfall, graveyard, shuffle, or color requirement.

• Sideboard modules: Meltstrider's Resolve supports protection or combat resilience; Soul-Guide Lantern and Keen-Eyed Curator support graveyard or utility pressure; Origin of Metalbending supports artifact/enchantment or board-specific interaction if text confirms; Mossborn Hydra supports larger threat density; Vivien Reid supports grind, removal, or card advantage if modes confirm. Every sideboard role is conditional on visible matchup needs and rules-engine legal actions.

Primary Win Conditions

• Curve-to-counters pressure is the default win path: use Llanowar Elves, Forest, Evolving Wilds, Fabled Passage, and Ba Sing Se to cast early creatures, then make Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Wary Zone Guard, Icetill Explorer, Mightform Harmonizer, Fecund Greenshell, and Wildgrove Summoner into a board that attacks for lethal through accumulated counters. Prioritize this line when the opening hand has early green mana, at least one cheap creature, and a follow-up counter payoff or engine.

• Hardened Bonds plus creature density is the main engine path: deploy Hardened Bonds when there is already a creature to scale or when the next turn has multiple creature/counter actions available. Execute by keeping bodies on board, choosing legal counter placements that improve attacks or survival, and avoiding all-in concentration if visible removal, bounce, sacrifice, or exile effects can punish one oversized creature. Card text check required before assuming the exact replacement, trigger, or counter quantity.

• Earthbender Ascension and Sapling Nursery are board-scaling win paths when their legal actions show repeated growth, token output, or counter conversion. Set them up after the deck has stabilized enough bodies to benefit, then execute by converting each turn cycle into more power rather than passing with unused mana. Prioritize these engines against slower opponents or board stalls; delay them when behind to a lethal clock and a creature spell would block immediately.

• Fecund Greenshell, Mightform Harmonizer, and Wildgrove Summoner are the midgame conversion package: use them to turn early Llanowar Elves starts and cheap creatures into larger attacks or broader boards. Prioritize this line when the opponent has answered the first threat but not the battlefield as a whole, or when the visible board needs one payoff to make several creatures attack profitably. Card text check required for exact growth, token, draw, or harmony-style conditions.

• Tall-creature lethal is correct when one attacker can safely end the game or force impossible blocks. Put counters on the creature that the rules engine shows can attack, survive, or push damage this turn, especially if combat math creates lethal or removes the opponent's only stable blocker. Avoid the tall line when the opponent has visible instant-speed interaction, a sacrifice edict, a deathtouch blocker, or enough open mana and cards to make a single-target blowout likely.

Secondary Win Conditions

• Wide-board combat is the primary backup when one large creature is unsafe. Spread counters or development across Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Wary Zone Guard, Icetill Explorer, Fecund Greenshell, Wildgrove Summoner, and tokens only when legal actions confirm token or counter creation, then attack with multiple bodies to overload spot removal and awkward blocks.

• Llanowar Elves chip damage matters after acceleration has done its job. If the rules engine shows Llanowar Elves can attack without losing critical mana or walking into an obvious bad block, include it in pressure math, especially when Hardened Bonds, Earthbender Ascension, Sapling Nursery, or other visible counter effects have made small bodies relevant.

• Value attrition is the fallback against heavy removal. Sequence a steady stream of creatures and engines rather than holding threats indefinitely, use Fecund Greenshell, Wildgrove Summoner, Sapling Nursery, Earthbender Ascension, and Vivien Reid after sideboarding as grind tools when legal text supports that role, and force the opponent to answer every permanent instead of waiting for a perfect large attack.

• Sideboard threat upgrades become win conditions when the opponent is prepared for small creatures. Mossborn Hydra can replace or supplement main-deck pressure as a larger scalable threat, while Vivien Reid can support a slower plan if its visible modes provide card advantage, removal, or threat production. Card text check required before assuming exact loyalty abilities or Hydra scaling.

• Graveyard pressure is not a main win condition, but Soul-Guide Lantern and Keen-Eyed Curator can indirectly win by turning off an opponent engine while creatures finish the game. Use this path only when the opponent's public graveyard matters or the legal action text offers a clear graveyard interaction; do not spend tempo on graveyard utility when the visible race demands board development.

Emergency Lines

• Behind on life: stabilize first with blockers from Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Wary Zone Guard, Icetill Explorer, Fecund Greenshell, and Wildgrove Summoner before committing to a slow engine. Use counters defensively when they let a creature survive combat, block profitably, or remove a visible lethal attack on the next turn.

• Behind on board: add bodies before engines unless the engine immediately creates a blocker, counter, or removal-like effect. Do not attack with a needed blocker under a short clock unless the attack is lethal, forces a decisive trade, or the rules-engine combat options show the opponent cannot punish the tap.

• Behind on cards: preserve repeatable engines and high-impact permanents. If Fecund Greenshell, Wildgrove Summoner, Sapling Nursery, Earthbender Ascension, or Vivien Reid can create material over multiple turns, protect that permanent through sequencing and avoid trading it for minor damage unless the race requires it.

• Behind on mana: prioritize Forest access, Llanowar Elves deployment, and fetchland use from Evolving Wilds or Fabled Passage when legal and tempo-acceptable. Avoid hands or lines that rely on Ba Sing Se utility before green mana is secure; card text check required for Ba Sing Se's exact mana or utility function.

• Engines removed: pivot to honest creature combat instead of waiting for another payoff. Cast the best visible threat each turn, spread pressure across multiple creatures, and use any remaining Hardened Bonds, Earthbender Ascension, Sapling Nursery, Mightform Harmonizer, Fecund Greenshell, or Wildgrove Summoner only when they affect the current board quickly.

• Facing graveyard recursion or combo: after sideboarding, prioritize Soul-Guide Lantern and Keen-Eyed Curator when public zones show a target or the opponent's line visibly depends on the graveyard. Against non-graveyard combo, shorten the clock with the fastest legal creature-pressure line and use Origin of Metalbending, Meltstrider's Resolve, or Vivien Reid only if legal action text shows relevant interaction or protection.

• Removed win conditions: if multiple payoffs are gone, convert every remaining creature into pressure and every counter into either lethal math or survival. Do not concede strategic agency; force the opponent to prove stabilization through rules-engine outcomes.

Resource Model

• Board presence is the deck's main currency. Convert Llanowar Elves acceleration, Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Wary Zone Guard, Icetill Explorer, Fecund Greenshell, Mightform Harmonizer, Wildgrove Summoner, Sapling Nursery, Earthbender Ascension, and Hardened Bonds into visible power, counters, blockers, or repeatable pressure before valuing speculative future turns.

• Life total is a tempo buffer, not a long-game plan. Spend life by taking attacks only when the return is a faster board snowball, a lethal counterattack, or protection of a key creature; preserve life when the opponent's visible board threatens a short clock and the deck needs one more turn for counters or bodies to matter.

• Hand cards are sequencing options that should become board impact quickly. Keep enough threats to rebuild after removal, but do not hoard Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Wary Zone Guard, Icetill Explorer, or payoff permanents while mana goes unused unless visible interaction makes committing another creature clearly unsafe.

• Mana converts directly into pressure because the deck has many early creatures and midgame payoffs. Use Llanowar Elves, Forest, Evolving Wilds, Fabled Passage, and Ba Sing Se to cast threats on curve; avoid lines that leave mana idle unless passing preserves a meaningful instant-speed legal action shown by the engine.

• Lands are both access and tempo. Evolving Wilds and Fabled Passage should usually secure Forest early, while Ba Sing Se should be treated as a utility or possible tapped land until its legal action text proves the exact output; card text check required before depending on Ba Sing Se for a specific color, counter, or activation role.

• Graveyard is normally a low-value zone for this deck. Do not plan around your own graveyard unless a legal action from Soul-Guide Lantern, Keen-Eyed Curator, or another visible card explicitly uses it; treat the opponent's public graveyard as a sideboard target only when it supports a visible recursion, escape, delirium, reanimation, or spell-count plan.

• Exile is mostly a status zone to track, not a resource to spend. Respect exiled cards as unavailable unless the rules engine exposes a play-from-exile action; after sideboarding, use Soul-Guide Lantern or Keen-Eyed Curator only when the public graveyard target and tempo cost justify the action.

• Sacrifice fodder is not abundant in the baseline plan. Do not sacrifice or trade away Llanowar Elves, small creatures, or tokens casually if they are needed for mana, counters, convoke-like costs, blocking, or wide pressure; sacrifice only when a visible legal action gives a concrete exchange and the resulting board remains stable.

• Tempo is gained by forcing the opponent to answer growing creatures every turn. Favor one-spell or two-spell curves that add power immediately over slow engine setup when behind, but favor Hardened Bonds, Earthbender Ascension, Sapling Nursery, Fecund Greenshell, Mightform Harmonizer, or Wildgrove Summoner when the visible board can survive to exploit repeated scaling.

• Information is limited to public zones, revealed cards, legal actions, and visible mana. Do not assume hidden removal, sweepers, combat tricks, or graveyard payoffs by name; infer only broad archetype risk from shown lands, battlefield, graveyard, exile, hand counts, prior actions, and matchup guide context.

• Sideboard bullets are narrow resources that must earn their tempo cost. Meltstrider's Resolve, Origin of Metalbending, Mossborn Hydra, Vivien Reid, Soul-Guide Lantern, and Keen-Eyed Curator should be valued by the visible matchup problem they solve; card text check required before assuming exact protection, removal, graveyard, or threat-scaling text.

Mana Guide

• Green mana is mandatory in opening hands. Keep hands that reliably produce Forest access and cast Llanowar Elves or a two-mana creature on time; strongly question hands where Evolving Wilds, Fabled Passage, or Ba Sing Se delay green development without a clear early play.

• Llanowar Elves is the best turn-one acceleration when it is legal and safe enough. Cast it early when it enables a turn-two payoff or double-spell turn, but avoid treating it as guaranteed mana through visible removal, summoning-sickness timing, or combat damage that would remove it before the intended use.

• Fetchlands should usually find Forest before utility matters. Use Evolving Wilds and Fabled Passage early when the hand needs untapped or future green access, and delay cracking only when the rules engine shows a meaningful reason such as post-draw information, landfall-like timing, or preserving an unneeded shuffle.

• Ba Sing Se sequencing must be conservative until its legal actions are visible. Play Forest first when the hand needs immediate green; play Ba Sing Se earlier only if the engine confirms it produces needed mana on time or its utility is worth the tempo loss. Card text check required for exact Ba Sing Se function.

• Play lands before main-phase spells when mana availability changes the legal action list. If a land drop unlocks casting Hardened Bonds, Earthbender Ascension, Sapling Nursery, Fecund Greenshell, Mightform Harmonizer, Wildgrove Summoner, or multiple creatures, make the land drop before selecting the spell line unless there is a known draw or selection effect first.

• Delay the land drop when a legal draw, search, or selection action can reveal better sequencing. If Icetill Explorer, Fecund Greenshell, Vivien Reid, Sapling Nursery, or another visible action can change land choice or mana needs, use the pre-land action first only when the engine shows it is legal and the deck will not miss a critical cast by waiting. Card text check required for exact selection effects.

• Use all mana for board impact in early turns. Prioritize curves such as Llanowar Elves into two threats, Hardened Bonds plus creature, or creature plus engine when legal; avoid holding up mana with no listed instant, activation, or sideboard interaction to use.

• Preserve colored and source-specific mana for prompted costs. When the engine asks for mana payments, choose Forest and Llanowar Elves sources so the remaining mana still supports visible follow-up actions, especially counters, protection, sideboard bullets, or a second creature in the same turn.

• Mulligan mana failures aggressively. A hand with strong payoffs but no reliable early green or no second mana source should be treated as worse than a lower-card hand that casts Llanowar Elves, Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, or Wary Zone Guard on schedule.

• Sequence tapped or uncertain lands around tempo turns. If Ba Sing Se, Evolving Wilds, or Fabled Passage would delay a key creature or engine, play it on a turn where the deck still spends mana efficiently; do not lose the ability to curve into Fecund Greenshell, Mightform Harmonizer, Wildgrove Summoner, Earthbender Ascension, or Sapling Nursery without a visible payoff.

Mulligan Guide

• Strong keeps cast a turn-one Llanowar Elves or a turn-two creature with reliable Forest access. Keep Forest plus Llanowar Elves plus any two of Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Wary Zone Guard, Hardened Bonds, or Earthbender Ascension because the hand develops mana and pressure before the opponent stabilizes.

• Medium keeps have two lands and two early creatures without Llanowar Elves. Keep Forest plus Evolving Wilds or Fabled Passage with Sazh's Chocobo and Badgermole Cub, especially on the play, but value the hand lower if the third land or Hardened Bonds payoff is missing.

• Risky keeps depend on a single mana creature or an uncertain land. A hand with Forest, Llanowar Elves, Ba Sing Se, Mightform Harmonizer, Fecund Greenshell, Wildgrove Summoner, and Sapling Nursery is keepable only when losing Llanowar Elves still leaves legal turn-two or turn-three development.

• Automatic ships fail to cast early green spells. Mulligan any seven with no Forest access, any one-land hand without Llanowar Elves plus a second-mana path, and any hand built mostly from Fecund Greenshell, Wildgrove Summoner, Sapling Nursery, Ba Sing Se, and payoff cards with no early creature.

• Matchup-dependent keeps change with speed and interaction. Against fast creature starts, keep Wary Zone Guard and Badgermole Cub hands that block or contest early; against slow decks, keep Hardened Bonds or Earthbender Ascension hands that snowball, provided the first creature arrives by turn two.

• Play/draw decisions reward different risk. On the play, prefer Llanowar Elves into Hardened Bonds, Earthbender Ascension, or two-drop pressure; on the draw, accept slightly slower two-land hands if they include multiple cheap creatures and a clear turn-three stabilizer.

• Trap hands look powerful but do nothing early. Ship hands with Hardened Bonds, Earthbender Ascension, Sapling Nursery, Mightform Harmonizer, Fecund Greenshell, and Wildgrove Summoner when they lack a cheap creature, because counters or engine text cannot matter without a board. Card text check required before keeping any hand solely because Icetill Explorer, Sapling Nursery, Fecund Greenshell, Ba Sing Se, or Earthbender Ascension claims to find mana, draw, or make bodies.

Turn Arc

• Turn 1 prioritizes reliable green development. Play Forest and cast Llanowar Elves when legal; if Llanowar Elves is absent, use Evolving Wilds or Fabled Passage for Forest unless a legal untapped land line casts Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, or Wary Zone Guard on turn two.

• Turn 1 deviations protect curve quality. Play Ba Sing Se only when the engine shows it supports the next spell on time; otherwise lead on Forest or a fetchland, because missing turn-two pressure is worse than preserving uncertain utility. Card text check required for Ba Sing Se.

• Turn 2 should put a creature or counter engine onto the battlefield. Prefer Hardened Bonds before follow-up creatures if the hand already has a legal creature sequence, but prefer Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, or Wary Zone Guard when the battlefield is empty or the opponent is pressuring life total.

• Turn 2 deviations use Llanowar Elves mana to double-spell when possible. If legal actions allow Hardened Bonds plus Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, or Wary Zone Guard, choose the line that leaves the largest resilient board; avoid spending the turn on Sapling Nursery or Earthbender Ascension if it produces no immediate board against visible pressure. Card text check required for exact engine output.

• Turn 3 is the first payoff turn. Deploy Mightform Harmonizer, Fecund Greenshell, Earthbender Ascension, Sapling Nursery, or Wildgrove Summoner when the board already contains creatures to scale; otherwise rebuild with two cheaper creatures rather than committing a payoff into an empty board.

• Turn 3 deviations respond to visible danger. If the opponent presents profitable attacks, prioritize Wary Zone Guard, Badgermole Cub, or any legal creature that blocks over a slower engine; if the opponent is tapped low and behind, commit Hardened Bonds plus another creature to force a fast race.

• Turns 4-5 convert counters into lethal pressure or board dominance. Sequence Fecund Greenshell, Mightform Harmonizer, Wildgrove Summoner, Sapling Nursery, and Earthbender Ascension around the legal action list so every spell either adds a body, grows existing creatures, or creates a continuing advantage.

• Turns 4-5 deviations preserve threats through interaction. Do not commit the last high-impact card into obvious public sweep or removal risk if existing creatures already pressure the opponent; do commit when waiting lets the opponent stabilize or when a sideboard card such as Meltstrider's Resolve, Mossborn Hydra, Origin of Metalbending, or Vivien Reid is legal and directly solves the visible problem. Card text check required for exact sideboard functions.

• Late game requires mana-efficient scaling rather than small isolated bodies. Use Wildgrove Summoner, Fecund Greenshell, Sapling Nursery, Earthbender Ascension, Mossborn Hydra, or Vivien Reid as the visible legal actions dictate, and make attacks only when blocks, crackbacks, and counters leave a winning board or force lethal damage.

Card Roles

• Llanowar Elves is the deck's best tempo opener and the card most likely to turn a fair counters hand into a fast battlefield. Cast it on turn one whenever the engine offers a reliable green source, and value hands with Llanowar Elves higher when they also contain Hardened Bonds, Earthbender Ascension, Mightform Harmonizer, Fecund Greenshell, or multiple two-drop creatures. Protecting Llanowar Elves is not the plan by itself; if the opponent has visible cheap removal or pressure, plan the next turn as though it may die and avoid keeping hands that collapse without it. In combat, do not trade Llanowar Elves early unless life total pressure or a counters trigger makes the trade clearly better than preserving acceleration.

• Sazh's Chocobo is an early body that lets the counters engine start before the opponent has stabilized. Card text check required for exact trigger and counter timing, so treat it tactically as a curve creature until the rules engine exposes its legal actions or visible counters. Cast Sazh's Chocobo before slower engines when the battlefield is empty, and cast Hardened Bonds first only when the legal sequence still puts Sazh's Chocobo or another creature onto the battlefield without losing the turn. Against fast creature decks, keep Sazh's Chocobo hands that curve into Badgermole Cub or Wary Zone Guard; against removal-heavy decks, avoid making it the only meaningful threat if another creature can be deployed first.

• Badgermole Cub is a pressure-and-board card that should usually enter before expensive scaling pieces when the deck needs a creature to carry counters. Card text check required for exact stats and abilities, so let visible board state decide whether it attacks, blocks, or waits for counters. Prioritize Badgermole Cub on turns two and three when the opponent is racing, because a cheap creature that can receive Hardened Bonds or other counter synergies is worth more than an engine with no body. Do not hold Badgermole Cub for a perfect counter turn if the opponent is using the delay to attack freely.

• Wary Zone Guard is the deck's stabilizing early creature and should be valued above pure snowball pieces when the opponent is already attacking. Card text check required for exact defensive text, but its role in this shell is to buy time for Hardened Bonds, Earthbender Ascension, Fecund Greenshell, and Wildgrove Summoner to matter. Cast Wary Zone Guard before a slower noncreature if life total, blockers, or visible attackers make the next combat dangerous. In slower matchups, Wary Zone Guard can be a counter carrier, but avoid attacking it into trades that remove the only body enabling the rest of the hand.

• Icetill Explorer is a flexible mid-curve role-player whose exact value depends on the rules-engine text shown at runtime. Card text check required for whether it finds lands, grows, explores, creates counters, or provides another resource. Cast Icetill Explorer when it fixes a visible bottleneck, adds a body before a payoff turn, or gives the deck a better follow-up than passing with unused mana. Do not keep otherwise weak opening hands solely because Icetill Explorer might provide resources; require real Forest access and early board development first.

• Mightform Harmonizer is a payoff creature or engine piece that should be strongest after the deck already has creatures or counters to leverage. Card text check required for exact counter, anthem, transformation, or combat text, so avoid assuming it creates value without a board unless the legal action text confirms it. Cast Mightform Harmonizer on curve when Llanowar Elves accelerates it and at least one creature can benefit immediately or the opponent is unlikely to punish a tap-out. Hold it briefly when the opponent represents visible removal and a cheaper creature plus Hardened Bonds creates a wider, less fragile board.

• Fecund Greenshell is a major scaling threat and should be treated as one of the main ways to turn early creatures into a dominant midgame. Card text check required for exact triggered ability and counter placement, so runtime choices should follow visible legal targets rather than assumed text. Cast Fecund Greenshell when the board has at least one creature worth growing, when the opponent is low on mana, or when the game is shifting from early trades to board dominance. Against fast decks, do not delay blocking or stabilizing just to set up Fecund Greenshell; against slow decks, preserve enough bodies so its future counters or value are not stranded.

• Wildgrove Summoner is a late-curve pressure extender that should convert mana into board presence after early resources have been traded. Card text check required for exact token, counter, or summon effect, but tactically it belongs in the turns-four-plus slot where one card can rebuild or widen the battlefield. Cast Wildgrove Summoner when the opponent has answered the first wave, when additional bodies make future Hardened Bonds or Earthbender Ascension lines stronger, or when a large board is needed to attack around blockers. Avoid casting it into a board where a cheaper spell plus another threat spends mana better and presents the same clock.

• Hardened Bonds is the deck's core counter amplifier and should be sequenced before creatures only when the turn still develops the battlefield. Card text check required for exact counter modification, but treat Hardened Bonds as a high-value engine that gets worse when cast into an empty or dying board. Cast Hardened Bonds early against slow opponents if the next legal actions include Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Wary Zone Guard, Mightform Harmonizer, Fecund Greenshell, or Wildgrove Summoner. Against pressure, play a creature first if taking the turn off would leave no blocker or let the opponent push too much damage.

• Earthbender Ascension is a snowball permanent that should be committed when the deck can use its text over multiple turns. Card text check required for exact counters, land, creature, or transformation behavior, so do not assume immediate impact unless the legal action text confirms it. Cast Earthbender Ascension when the board is stable, when Llanowar Elves acceleration lets it arrive without skipping a creature, or when the opponent is slow enough that a permanent engine matters more than one extra body. Hold it against fast starts if Wary Zone Guard, Badgermole Cub, or another creature prevents a damaging combat step.

• Sapling Nursery is a slower engine or value permanent that belongs in games where repeated bodies, counters, or resource growth will matter. Card text check required for exact activation and timing, so use the engine output shown by Veles before choosing targets or activations. Cast Sapling Nursery when the hand already has early creatures and enough mana to continue deploying threats, or when a stalled board rewards incremental advantage. Do not spend an early turn on Sapling Nursery over a creature if the opponent has visible attackers and the deck needs blockers immediately.

• Forest is the default land and the most important mana source because every proactive plan needs reliable green. Lead on Forest when it casts Llanowar Elves, enables a turn-two creature, or avoids uncertainty from Ba Sing Se, Evolving Wilds, or Fabled Passage. Preserve fetchlands only when the current hand already has the mana it needs and the visible legal actions do not require immediate fixing. In mulligans, a hand with Forest plus early creatures is normally stronger than a hand with several utility lands and no clean first spell.

• Ba Sing Se is a registered utility land that should be played only when its runtime text and tapped status preserve the curve. Card text check required for exact mana and ability text. Play Ba Sing Se early if the engine shows it casts the next green spell on time or supplies a relevant counters/resource action; otherwise prioritize Forest, Evolving Wilds, or Fabled Passage lines that guarantee green. Do not let Ba Sing Se delay Llanowar Elves, Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, or Wary Zone Guard unless the legal action text reveals an immediate payoff.

• Evolving Wilds is a fixing and land-sequencing tool that should secure Forest access before the deck misses an early play. Use Evolving Wilds on turn one when the hand lacks a clean Forest path, and crack it before decisions where the extra Forest changes legal actions. Avoid holding Evolving Wilds for marginal thinning if doing so prevents a turn-two creature or a turn-three payoff. In longer games, sequence Evolving Wilds so future turns can double-spell with creatures plus Hardened Bonds, Earthbender Ascension, or Sapling Nursery.

• Fabled Passage is another fixing land whose tactical job is to make green development consistent while preserving tempo when possible. Use Fabled Passage for Forest early unless the rules engine shows a better legal mana line. If the deck already has enough Forests, hold or play Fabled Passage according to tapped-status, landfall-like runtime cues, and whether future turns need untapped green for multiple spells. Do not keep a hand relying on Fabled Passage plus Ba Sing Se unless the engine confirms the first two turns still cast meaningful spells.

Interaction Priorities

• Priority: Use interaction only when Veles exposes a legal action; Mono Green Counters is mainly proactive and should not pass turns searching for nonexistent removal, counter, discard, or bounce lines. If no registered card currently creates an interaction action, develop Llanowar Elves, Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Wary Zone Guard, Hardened Bonds, Earthbender Ascension, Sapling Nursery, Mightform Harmonizer, Fecund Greenshell, or Wildgrove Summoner instead of holding mana without a visible purpose.

• Remove first: When Vivien Reid or another visible legal removal action is available, target the opposing permanent that stops attacks or invalidates counters before targeting low-pressure utility. Prioritize flying or evasive lethal attackers, creatures that can profitably block a large countered threat, engines that generate repeated removal, and permanents that threaten Hardened Bonds or Earthbender Ascension. Card text check required for Vivien Reid exact loyalty modes and legal target classes.

• Exile first: Use Soul-Guide Lantern against graveyard decks when the opponent has a visible graveyard card, threshold, escape, reanimation, flashback, or recursion action that matters this turn or next turn. Exile a single card if that breaks the visible line; preserve the larger graveyard-exile action if the opponent is building toward multiple cards. Do not spend Soul-Guide Lantern just to cycle while a graveyard deck has public resources that can become lethal or engine-enabling.

• Counter/discard/bounce policy: The registered deck has no confirmed main-deck counterspell, discard spell, or bounce spell, so choose those actions only if the rules engine presents them from a resolved card, copied effect, or sideboard card. Counter or discard the opponent's sweeper, removal spell that kills the only scaled threat, or combo payoff before a generic creature. Bounce the blocker or permanent only when the action preserves lethal pressure, resets a larger opposing threat, or protects a countered creature from a worse exchange.

• Protection: Use Meltstrider's Resolve only when the legal action clearly protects a creature, wins combat, or prevents a removal exchange that would collapse the board. Protect Mightform Harmonizer, Fecund Greenshell, Wildgrove Summoner, or the largest countered creature before protecting Llanowar Elves unless losing Llanowar Elves prevents the next crucial spell. Card text check required for exact protection, counter, or pump text.

• Bait cards: Lead with expendable pressure before key engines when the opponent is representing removal or counters. Badgermole Cub, Wary Zone Guard, or Sazh's Chocobo can draw early answers before committing Mightform Harmonizer, Fecund Greenshell, Earthbender Ascension, or Sapling Nursery. Against open control mana, Hardened Bonds is a bait only if the hand still has enough creatures to punish a counter or removal exchange afterward.

• Ignore: Do not use scarce interaction on creatures that cannot block profitably, nonlethal chip attackers, or value permanents that are slower than the current counter clock. Against combo or graveyard decks, ignore small blockers if Soul-Guide Lantern or pressure can disrupt the actual public engine. Against aggro, ignore long-term engines if visible attackers put life total under immediate pressure.

Combat And Trading Rules

• Attack first when counters make blocks bad for the opponent; Mono Green Counters wins by forcing early creatures to scale past normal combat. Send Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Wary Zone Guard, and later Mightform Harmonizer or Fecund Greenshell boards when visible blockers either die, trade down, or allow enough damage to keep the opponent on a short clock.

• Preserve engines when the body matters more than damage. Do not attack Llanowar Elves into a trade unless the mana is no longer needed or the attack enables lethal pressure. Avoid risking Mightform Harmonizer, Fecund Greenshell, Wildgrove Summoner, Hardened Bonds-enabled threats, or a key Sapling Nursery board piece into obvious profitable blocks unless the damage race demands it.

• Trade early against faster creature decks when the trade protects life total and leaves a scaling card behind. Wary Zone Guard and Badgermole Cub should block or trade when the opponent's next attack would force chump blocks or make Hardened Bonds too slow. Keep one creature back if the opponent can punish an all-out attack with visible crack-back damage.

• Decline small trades against control and midrange when a counter engine is active. If Hardened Bonds, Earthbender Ascension, Sapling Nursery, Mightform Harmonizer, or Fecund Greenshell can grow the board over the next turn cycle, preserve bodies unless the trade removes a blocker that unlocks major damage. Force the opponent to spend removal instead of giving them clean combat exchanges.

• Life thresholds: Above 14 life, prioritize board growth and pressure unless the opponent has visible burst damage. From 8 to 13 life, keep enough blockers to survive the next attack plus one visible combat trick. At 7 or less, block first and use Meltstrider's Resolve or legal pump/protection actions defensively when they prevent lethal or preserve the only stabilizing creature.

• Counter discipline: Put or preserve counters on creatures that can attack through the current board or block the largest opposing attacker. Do not stack all growth onto one creature when the opponent has visible exile, bounce, destroy, or tap-down effects unless that creature creates lethal pressure immediately. Spread counters when racing, but concentrate counters when one oversized attacker breaks a stalled board.

• Archetype changes: Against aggro, become the larger-creature stabilizer and trade Llanowar Elves only after it has produced the needed mana. Against midrange, protect the first creature that grows beyond their blockers and avoid attacks that let them reset parity. Against control, attack with multiple threats, bait with lesser creatures, and avoid overcommitting engines into obvious sweepers unless waiting gives the opponent more time than attacking does. Against graveyard decks, keep pressure high while using Soul-Guide Lantern windows to stop public recursion rather than blocking passively.

Selection And Tutor Rules

• Treat the deck as pseudo-selection, not true tutoring. Mono Green Counters has no confirmed main-deck card that searches for any card by name, so do not hold turns waiting for a perfect tutor line; use visible legal actions from Evolving Wilds, Fabled Passage, Icetill Explorer, Sapling Nursery, Earthbender Ascension, and similar engine prompts only when the rules engine explicitly offers them.

• Use Evolving Wilds and Fabled Passage to secure Forest access before evaluating slower keeps or colorless utility. Crack a fetchland before casting Llanowar Elves only when the hand cannot otherwise cast the first green spell, when the engine indicates the land enters tapped and no same-turn mana is needed, or when library-thinning/landfall/counter text is visibly relevant. Card text check required for any nonbasic-search restrictions and for whether Ba Sing Se changes land sequencing.

• Preserve fetchlands when a visible landfall, counter, explore, or library-manipulation payoff is already on board or clearly coming next turn. If Badgermole Cub, Icetill Explorer, Earthbender Ascension, Sapling Nursery, Fecund Greenshell, or Wildgrove Summoner creates value from land entry, counter placement, or permanent growth, delay Evolving Wilds or Fabled Passage only when the current mana still casts the planned creature or engine.

• Select lands from fetch effects by functional need, not by habit. Find Forest when green mana is required for Llanowar Elves, Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Wary Zone Guard, Hardened Bonds, Mightform Harmonizer, Fecund Greenshell, Sapling Nursery, or Wildgrove Summoner. Choose Ba Sing Se only if the engine presents it as a legal fetch target and its visible text or current battlefield role is better than another Forest. Card text check required for Ba Sing Se.

• Bottom or decline low-impact selection choices when the current hand already has enough lands and pressure. If a scry, reveal, discover, seek, mill, or choose-card prompt appears from Icetill Explorer, Earthbender Ascension, Sapling Nursery, Fecund Greenshell, or another resolved effect, prioritize the missing piece: first green source, then one-mana accelerator, then Hardened Bonds or Earthbender Ascension, then a curve creature, then a payoff creature. Card text check required for exact selection prompts.

• Keep extra lands only when they unlock multiple spells, activate visible abilities, or feed a known board engine. After the fourth mana source, prefer action cards over Forest, Evolving Wilds, Fabled Passage, or Ba Sing Se unless Wildgrove Summoner, Vivien Reid, Mossborn Hydra, Sapling Nursery, or an activated ability needs the mana. Do not bottom lands if missing the next land drop prevents a double-spell turn.

• Use Soul-Guide Lantern selection conservatively after sideboard. If the legal action chooses a single graveyard card, select the public card that enables the opponent's next recursion, escape, reanimation, flashback, threshold, or graveyard-scaling action. If no such card is visible, preserve the broader exile or draw option until the graveyard matters.

Priority And Stack Rules

• Pass priority quickly when the stack is empty and no legal action advances mana, counters, pressure, protection, or survival. This deck is mostly proactive, so avoid spending priority on low-impact activated abilities unless the action uses otherwise wasted mana or triggers Hardened Bonds, Earthbender Ascension, Sapling Nursery, Mightform Harmonizer, Fecund Greenshell, or Wildgrove Summoner.

• Act before damage only when the legal action changes combat math or protects an important creature. Use Meltstrider's Resolve, visible pump, protection, counter-placement, or activated abilities before blockers or before combat damage only if the action saves a key threat, creates lethal damage, prevents a losing trade, or keeps the board from collapsing. Card text check required for Meltstrider's Resolve exact timing and effect.

• Let opposing spells resolve when they do not affect the current clock, board engine, or survival threshold. The registered main deck has no confirmed counterspell, so respond only with engine activations, protection, graveyard interaction, or legal instant-speed abilities that the rules engine exposes. Do not take speculative actions into an unknown stack unless the visible board explains the gain.

• Protect the card that preserves the plan, not the card with the largest current number. If removal targets a creature, prioritize saving Mightform Harmonizer, Fecund Greenshell, Wildgrove Summoner, a large countered attacker, or the only blocker preventing lethal. Save Llanowar Elves only when the next spell or double-spell turn depends on that mana.

• Use optional triggers and optional payments when they convert into lasting counters, board presence, or lethal pressure. Decline optional costs that consume mana needed for a better same-turn spell, protection action, Soul-Guide Lantern activation, or combat trick. Card text check required for optional triggers on Hardened Bonds, Earthbender Ascension, Sapling Nursery, Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Wary Zone Guard, Icetill Explorer, Mightform Harmonizer, Fecund Greenshell, and Wildgrove Summoner.

• Crack Soul-Guide Lantern in response to a graveyard spell or ability before that object resolves. If the opponent targets, casts, returns, or counts a public graveyard card, use the narrowest legal Lantern action that stops the line. Do not exile graveyards after the relevant spell has already resolved unless the remaining public graveyard still threatens the next turn.

• Activate Vivien Reid or Origin of Metalbending only when the stack is empty unless the legal text says the action can answer the current stack object. Use Vivien Reid as removal or selection according to visible mode text, and use Origin of Metalbending when it improves the current combat, board size, or counter engine. Card text check required for exact modes, timing, and target restrictions.

• Sequence stack commitments around sweepers and open interaction. Against control or midrange with visible untapped mana, cast lesser creatures before Hardened Bonds, Earthbender Ascension, Sapling Nursery, Mightform Harmonizer, Fecund Greenshell, or Wildgrove Summoner when baiting is possible. Once an engine resolves, spend priority to convert it into counters or pressure before giving the opponent extra turns to answer it.

Sideboard Map

• Role cards are added only for visible matchup pressures, not because the sideboard card is generically powerful. Keep the main deck's counter-pressure core intact unless the opponent forces a different axis: Llanowar Elves, Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Wary Zone Guard, Hardened Bonds, Earthbender Ascension, Mightform Harmonizer, Fecund Greenshell, Sapling Nursery, and Wildgrove Summoner remain the default plan unless a matchup punishes early creatures, ignores combat, or demands graveyard/artifact/enchantment interaction. Card text check required for all Alchemy-only sideboard card details.

• Meltstrider's Resolve is the protection or combat-swing sideboard card when removal, damage-based interaction, or decisive combat steps decide the game. Add it against black/red removal, tempo decks that try to break up a single large countered attacker, and creature mirrors where saving Mightform Harmonizer, Fecund Greenshell, Wildgrove Summoner, or the largest counter stack changes the race. Low priority when the opponent mostly uses exile sweepers, sacrifice effects, bounce, non-targeted prison effects, or combo lines that do not care about creature combat. Card text check required for exact speed, target restrictions, and whether it grants counters, indestructible, hexproof, ward, or a fight/pump mode.

• Soul-Guide Lantern is the graveyard-tempo sideboard card when the opponent shows recursion, reanimation, flashback, escape, delirium, threshold, graveyard cost reduction, death-trigger loops, or cards that count graveyards. Add it aggressively when public game actions reveal graveyard dependency; keep it low-impact against clean creature aggro, planeswalker control without graveyard recursion, and decks where spending a card on graveyard interaction slows the counter curve without disrupting a real engine. Its role changes from hate to cycle/flood insurance only after the opponent's graveyard plan is absent or already contained.

• Keen-Eyed Curator is the flexible one-copy role player when the opponent presents graveyard value, artifacts, enchantments, or a board pattern where a small interactive body matters. Add it in matchups where Soul-Guide Lantern is wanted but creature density must stay high, or where the opponent has public artifacts/enchantments that must be answered without lowering pressure too much. Low priority when the opponent has no visible graveyard/permanent axis, when a one-for-one body is too slow, or when the matchup demands either full graveyard hate from Soul-Guide Lantern or a bigger threat from Mossborn Hydra. Card text check required for exact activated abilities, timing, and target limits.

• Origin of Metalbending is the engine or board-shaping sideboard card for slower creature mirrors, artifact-heavy boards, or matchups where a resolved noncreature permanent can keep generating material. Add it when the opponent's interaction is mostly creature removal and a noncreature source of pressure, counters, tokens, or permanent conversion is likely to survive. Low priority against fast aggro where it does not affect the first blocking turn, against combo where mana must stay attached to clock and disruption, and against control if its visible text is slow into sweepers. Card text check required for exact card type, activated modes, token creation, and whether it needs artifacts or counters already present.

• Mossborn Hydra is the large-threat sideboard card for removal-heavy midrange, control, and board stalls where the opponent can answer small creatures but struggles with scalable pressure. Add it when games go long, when Llanowar Elves acceleration reliably reaches larger mana, or when topdecking a threat matters more than early curve density. Low priority against very fast aggro, graveyard combo, tempo bounce, or matchups where tapping out for one creature is punished before it attacks. Its role changes from finisher to stabilizer only if the engine shows it can block profitably or scale immediately. Card text check required for exact mana value, counter scaling, ward/trample, and cast triggers.

• Vivien Reid is the slow-game selection and answer package when the opponent relies on flyers, artifacts, enchantments, or attrition. Add it against control, midrange, evasive creature decks, and decks whose visible permanents make a planeswalker removal mode valuable. Low priority against low-curve aggro that can attack it down immediately, against combo where a five-mana permanent is too slow, and against decks with clean planeswalker pressure already on board. Card text check required for the exact Alchemy legality/version and mode text at runtime.

Graveyard engine or recursion plan Side in: 3 Soul-Guide Lantern; 1 Keen-Eyed Curator Cut: 2 Sapling Nursery; 2 Wary Zone Guard

• Add role cards: Soul-Guide Lantern, Keen-Eyed Curator, and sometimes Vivien Reid if the opponent's graveyard deck also uses artifacts, enchantments, or flyers. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slower engine permanents and the least decisive combat-only bodies when the matchup is about stopping a graveyard payoff before it resolves. Keep enough creatures to pressure life totals; graveyard hate without a clock gives recursion decks time to rebuild.

Removal-heavy control or attrition plan Side in: 3 Mossborn Hydra; 2 Vivien Reid; 2 Meltstrider's Resolve Cut: 4 Llanowar Elves; 2 Sapling Nursery; 1 Icetill Explorer

• Add role cards: Mossborn Hydra, Vivien Reid, and Meltstrider's Resolve when games are decided by surviving removal, presenting must-answer threats, and rebuilding after sweepers. Reduce main-deck emphasis: fragile acceleration and slow setup that dies before producing value. Keep Hardened Bonds and Earthbender Ascension when the opponent gives time to convert counters into a fast clock; reduce only the pieces that do not affect the board before a sweeper window.

Fast creature aggro or combat mirror plan Side in: 4 Meltstrider's Resolve; 2 Origin of Metalbending Cut: 2 Sapling Nursery; 2 Wildgrove Summoner; 2 Icetill Explorer

• Add role cards: Meltstrider's Resolve and Origin of Metalbending when early blocks, protected attackers, and immediate board impact matter. Reduce main-deck emphasis: late expensive threats and slow selection if they do not change combat before turn four. Preserve Wary Zone Guard, Badgermole Cub, Sazh's Chocobo, and Hardened Bonds when they create the fastest stabilizing board.

Artifacts, enchantments, flyers, or permanent-based midrange plan Side in: 1 Keen-Eyed Curator; 2 Origin of Metalbending; 2 Vivien Reid Cut: 2 Sapling Nursery; 1 Icetill Explorer; 2 Wary Zone Guard

• Add role cards: Keen-Eyed Curator, Origin of Metalbending, and Vivien Reid when the opponent's public permanents require answers or when board stalls reward repeatable advantage. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow combat bodies and slow engines that do not answer the permanent type shown. Keep Mossborn Hydra available for later games if the opponent answers every small threat and the matchup becomes about topdeck power.

Combo or noncombat linear plan Side in: 3 Mossborn Hydra; 3 Soul-Guide Lantern Cut: 2 Sapling Nursery; 2 Wary Zone Guard; 2 Icetill Explorer

• Add role cards: Soul-Guide Lantern only if the combo uses the graveyard, and Mossborn Hydra when the deck needs the shortest large-creature clock. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow value permanents and defensive creatures that do not race or disrupt. Do not add Meltstrider's Resolve unless the opponent's combo interacts through targeted removal or combat; protection that does not change the clock is usually worse than pressure.

• Preserve sideboard legality exactly at runtime. A plan is executable only when the named cards are present in the correct registered zones and the engine accepts the resulting 60-card main deck and 15-card sideboard. If a prior game already changed configuration, validate the proposed list against the current registered 75 before locking it.

• Reassess after each game using public proof, not guesses. If Soul-Guide Lantern had no relevant graveyard target, favor creature pressure in the next game. If Meltstrider's Resolve protected a key countered creature or forced lethal, keep it for the same removal/combat pattern. If Vivien Reid or Mossborn Hydra was stranded while dying to early attacks, move back toward lower curve pressure and blockers.

Matchup Guidance

• Aggro: Prioritize board presence before engine ambition, because Mono Green Counters wins early creature mirrors by making the first stable blocker larger than the opponent's attack step. Keep hands that curve Llanowar Elves into Badgermole Cub, Sazh's Chocobo, Wary Zone Guard, or Hardened Bonds plus another creature. Treat Fecund Greenshell and Wildgrove Summoner as stabilizing follow-ups only after the battlefield can survive the next combat. Add role cards: Meltstrider's Resolve and Origin of Metalbending when combat tricks, protection, or board-shaping permanents matter. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Sapling Nursery and the slowest expensive threats when they do not affect combat before the opponent's third or fourth attack. Card text check required for exact combat/protection modes on Meltstrider's Resolve and Origin of Metalbending.

• Control: Force the opponent to answer staggered threats instead of committing every counter payoff into one sweeper window. Lead with Llanowar Elves only when acceleration matters more than exposing a fragile mana source; otherwise prefer a threat that keeps pressure through removal. Hardened Bonds and Earthbender Ascension are strong when they turn every creature into a must-answer clock, but do not spend a whole turn on a setup permanent if visible mana and prior play patterns suggest immediate removal plus tempo loss. Add role cards: Mossborn Hydra, Vivien Reid, and Meltstrider's Resolve. Reduce main-deck emphasis: fragile acceleration and slow cards that produce no pressure before removal resolves. Card text check required for Mossborn Hydra scaling, Vivien Reid modes, and Meltstrider's Resolve protection timing.

• Combo: Present the fastest legal clock and avoid spending turns on value engines unless they also increase damage quickly. Mulligan slow hands with Sapling Nursery, multiple utility lands, or expensive threats without early pressure. Hardened Bonds is worth prioritizing when it immediately amplifies Badgermole Cub, Sazh's Chocobo, Wary Zone Guard, Mightform Harmonizer, or Fecund Greenshell into a shorter clock. Add role cards: Soul-Guide Lantern only against graveyard-based combo, and Mossborn Hydra when the matchup is about ending the game before the opponent assembles. Reduce main-deck emphasis: defensive bodies and slow selection when they do not race or disrupt. Do not assume the opponent is on a graveyard plan without visible graveyard use or known public deck information.

• Tempo: Build around mana efficiency and threat redundancy, because bounce or cheap interaction punishes single huge creatures. Prefer multiple medium-sized bodies over one all-in counter stack unless Meltstrider's Resolve or another visible legal protection action can cover the key turn. Sequence Evolving Wilds and Fabled Passage so land entry timing does not block double-spell turns. Wary Zone Guard and Sazh's Chocobo are important if they let the deck attack while keeping a blocker back. Add role cards: Meltstrider's Resolve when visible play patterns show targeted removal, bounce, or combat tricks. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Wildgrove Summoner and other slower plays when tempo pressure makes spending a full turn on one card risky.

• Midrange: Preserve engines and use counters to make every draw threaten a better battlefield than the opponent's one-for-one plan. Hardened Bonds, Earthbender Ascension, Mightform Harmonizer, and Fecund Greenshell are priority permanents when the opponent is not killing on speed. Do not trade early creatures automatically if a creature is needed to receive counters, pressure a planeswalker, or turn on later payoffs. Add role cards: Mossborn Hydra, Vivien Reid, Origin of Metalbending, and Keen-Eyed Curator when public permanents or longer games reward durable threats and answer coverage. Reduce main-deck emphasis: the least relevant small combat bodies when the opponent's creatures outclass them and the game is about late material.

• Big mana: Attack before the opponent's top-end invalidates normal combat, and convert early counters into damage instead of saving them for perfect value. Llanowar Elves acceleration is excellent if it enables a turn-two engine or large body. Badgermole Cub, Sazh's Chocobo, Wary Zone Guard, and Hardened Bonds should be sequenced to shorten the clock, not to maximize long-run counters. Add role cards: Mossborn Hydra when it creates a faster or larger clock than slow engines, and Vivien Reid only if public permanents, flyers, artifacts, or enchantments make its modes relevant. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Sapling Nursery and purely defensive lines that let big mana reach its payoff turn safely.

• Graveyard: Apply pressure while holding graveyard interaction for the first visible card or trigger that matters. Soul-Guide Lantern is not a substitute for a clock; pair it with creatures that end the game before the opponent rebuilds. Keen-Eyed Curator can supplement graveyard coverage when its visible legal text interacts with the graveyard or relevant permanent types. Keep attacking unless the engine shows a graveyard activation or flashback-style line that must be answered immediately. Add role cards: Soul-Guide Lantern and Keen-Eyed Curator, with Vivien Reid only when the graveyard deck also presents artifacts, enchantments, flyers, or attrition permanents. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow setup that does not affect life total or graveyard timing.

• Artifact/enchantment decks: Use public permanent types to decide whether answer cards matter, not assumptions from archetype labels. Keen-Eyed Curator and Vivien Reid are priority role cards when the opponent has artifacts or enchantments that materially affect combat, mana, recursion, or card advantage. Origin of Metalbending is worth adding when the matchup is permanent-based and games stall around board development. Keep Hardened Bonds and Earthbender Ascension if counter scaling lets creatures attack through artifact creatures or enchantment-backed blockers. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow combat-only creatures when the matchup is about answering a specific permanent class. Card text check required for exact destruction, exile, or interaction modes.

• Go-wide: Stabilize with size and selective attacks, because racing many small creatures fails if every attack opens a lethal crack-back. Prioritize Wary Zone Guard, Badgermole Cub, Sazh's Chocobo, Hardened Bonds, and Fecund Greenshell when they create blockers that survive combat. Do not attack with the only creature that can block profitably under a short clock. Add role cards: Meltstrider's Resolve and Origin of Metalbending if they improve combat math, protect a key blocker, or create/modify board presence. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Wildgrove Summoner and Sapling Nursery when they are slower than the opponent's board expansion.

• Single-threat decks: Race only when the threat cannot be profitably blocked; otherwise grow one or two creatures large enough to force the opponent into bad attacks. Hardened Bonds and Earthbender Ascension are high value if they make a single blocker exceed the opponent's threat. Vivien Reid becomes important if the threat is a flyer, artifact, or enchantment creature and its legal modes answer that permanent. Meltstrider's Resolve is valuable when the opponent relies on removal to clear the one decisive blocker or attacker. Reduce main-deck emphasis: small creatures that cannot block, pressure, or receive counters meaningfully.

• Burn: Protect life total first, then turn the corner with the fastest counter-enhanced clock. Llanowar Elves is acceptable when it accelerates a larger blocker before burn can race, but weak if it merely exposes the hand to a one-damage answer and does not improve the next turn. Prioritize Wary Zone Guard, Badgermole Cub, Sazh's Chocobo, and Hardened Bonds if they create large blockers or quick attacks. Add role cards: Meltstrider's Resolve if it prevents damage, protects from burn-based removal, or wins a combat exchange. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow engines and painful tempo losses from unnecessary tapped land sequencing.

• Removal-heavy decks: Diversify threats and avoid making one creature carry the entire plan unless a visible legal protection action covers the exchange. Hardened Bonds is strongest when it turns replacement creatures into threats after removal; Earthbender Ascension and Fecund Greenshell matter when they generate pressure across multiple turns. Add role cards: Mossborn Hydra, Vivien Reid, and Meltstrider's Resolve. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Llanowar Elves when the matchup kills small creatures and the game goes long, plus Sapling Nursery if it is too slow under pressure. Do not hold threats forever; make the opponent spend mana answering while the next card keeps the board advancing.

Specific Matchup Notes

• General/archetype-only: Treat every matchup label as provisional until the opponent reveals cards, because public card names, visible permanents, graveyard contents, and legal actions override archetype assumptions. Use Llanowar Elves and untapped green sources to race slow decks, but do not keep a slow hand merely because the label says control or midrange.

• Fast creature decks: Prioritize board size before engine perfection, because early damage matters more than saving Hardened Bonds or Earthbender Ascension for maximum value. Wary Zone Guard, Badgermole Cub, Sazh's Chocobo, and Fecund Greenshell are priority bodies when they block or grow beyond opposing attackers. Add role cards: Meltstrider's Resolve and Origin of Metalbending when visible combat math, removal, or board stalls make them relevant. Priority targets: opposing creatures that force bad blocks, attackers that shorten the clock, and permanents that make small attackers scale.

• Removal-heavy control or midrange: Diversify threats before overcommitting counters to one creature, unless a legal Meltstrider's Resolve action clearly protects the exchange. Hardened Bonds and Earthbender Ascension are valuable if they make every follow-up creature threatening after removal. Add role cards: Mossborn Hydra, Vivien Reid, and Meltstrider's Resolve. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow or low-impact setup when the opponent spends mana answering rather than racing. Priority targets: visible planeswalkers, enchantments, artifacts, flyers, or engines that generate repeated material; Card text check required for exact Vivien Reid and Meltstrider's Resolve modes.

• Graveyard decks: Apply pressure first, then spend Soul-Guide Lantern only when the engine exposes a meaningful graveyard card, trigger, or activation. Do not sacrifice tempo to deploy graveyard hate if the opponent has not shown a graveyard dependency and the hand can curve out. Add role cards: Soul-Guide Lantern and Keen-Eyed Curator. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow setup that does not pressure life total or answer the revealed graveyard line. Priority targets: visible graveyard cards tied to recursion, escape, flashback-style permission, reanimation, or death-trigger loops; Card text check required for Keen-Eyed Curator details.

• Big mana and slow ramp: Convert early Llanowar Elves acceleration into damage and force the opponent to answer threats before their top-end matters. Badgermole Cub, Sazh's Chocobo, Hardened Bonds, and Earthbender Ascension should make the clock shorter, not prettier. Add role cards: Mossborn Hydra when it is a faster closer, and Vivien Reid only if public permanents make its legal modes relevant. Priority targets: mana permanents, sweepers when visible on stack, and blockers that buy multiple turns.

• Artifact or enchantment strategies: Sideboard by visible permanent types, not by label. Add role cards: Keen-Eyed Curator, Vivien Reid, and Origin of Metalbending when the opponent shows artifacts, enchantments, or permanent-based engines that change combat or resource flow. Reduce main-deck emphasis: small attackers that cannot pressure through the public board. Priority targets: permanents that create repeated cards, mana, combat scaling, graveyard access, or blockers too large for counter growth to beat quickly.

• Burn or direct-damage decks: Preserve life total and turn the corner with the first creature large enough to end the race. Llanowar Elves is strong only when it accelerates a stabilizing play; it is weak when it dies cheaply and leaves no pressure. Add role cards: Meltstrider's Resolve if visible legal text protects a creature, prevents damage, or wins combat. Priority targets: damage sources that repeat, creatures that make burn lethal, and removal aimed at the only stabilizing blocker.

Risk Summary

• Mana risk: The deck is mostly green but still loses games to tapped-land sequencing from Evolving Wilds, Fabled Passage, and Ba Sing Se. Use fetch lands early when the hand already has Llanowar Elves or needs untapped Forest on the next turn; avoid delaying the first creature for a land optimization that does not affect legal plays.

• Draw risk: Hands with counters payoffs but no creature, or creatures but no scaling, can underperform against both aggro and control. Mulligan or sequence toward a visible battlefield first; Hardened Bonds and Earthbender Ascension need creatures and time to matter.

• Over-sideboarding risk: Adding Soul-Guide Lantern, Keen-Eyed Curator, Vivien Reid, Origin of Metalbending, Mossborn Hydra, and Meltstrider's Resolve all at once can dilute the proactive counter plan. Add role cards only for revealed pressure points, and keep enough early creatures for Hardened Bonds, Earthbender Ascension, Mightform Harmonizer, and Fecund Greenshell to convert board presence into damage.

• Graveyard risk: Soul-Guide Lantern is powerful only when it intersects the opponent's actual graveyard plan. Do not spend mana or a card slot on it against opponents whose revealed cards win from battlefield, hand, or stack instead.

• Sweeper/removal risk: A single huge creature can lose to one removal spell, bounce spell, exile effect, or sweeper. Spread counters and threats when the opponent is representing interaction, unless the legal action wins now or Meltstrider's Resolve visibly covers the risk.

• Closer risk: Wildgrove Summoner, Mossborn Hydra, Vivien Reid, and large counter engines can be too slow if played after the opponent has already stabilized. Commit a closer when it changes the clock immediately or answers a public permanent, not merely because it is the largest spell available.

• Interaction risk: This deck has limited stack interaction, so priority passes must respect visible threats on board and legal activated abilities more than speculative hidden cards. Use combat, counters, and sideboard permanents to preempt problems before they resolve.

• Sequencing risk: Playing Sapling Nursery, Earthbender Ascension, or Hardened Bonds before developing a creature can waste the early turn cycle. Lead with Llanowar Elves or a meaningful creature when the hand lacks an existing counter recipient, then add scaling once the board can use it.

Test Feedback Checklist

• Deciding factor: After each game, record whether Mono Green Counters won or lost because it curved out, assembled Hardened Bonds or Earthbender Ascension early, stuck a large creature, stalled on mana, flooded, or failed to close after developing the board.
• Mulligans: Record every keep with zero Llanowar Elves, one land, five or more lands, no early creature, no scaling piece, or only slow cards such as Wildgrove Summoner, Sapling Nursery, and Fecund Greenshell, then judge whether the visible game rewarded or punished that keep.
• Mana: Track whether Forest, Evolving Wilds, Fabled Passage, and Ba Sing Se sequencing enabled timely green mana, delayed a two-drop, stranded double-spell turns, or forced the pilot to choose between board development and holding up a visible sideboard action.
• Velocity: Note whether Llanowar Elves converted into an actual tempo lead, whether tapped lands erased that lead, and whether the deck spent turns improving future counters while the opponent advanced a faster clock.
• Engine quality: Evaluate whether Hardened Bonds, Earthbender Ascension, Mightform Harmonizer, Sapling Nursery, and Fecund Greenshell produced immediate pressure or sat behind an empty battlefield with no good counter recipient.
• Creature curve: Track which early bodies mattered most: Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Wary Zone Guard, and Icetill Explorer should be judged by damage dealt, blocks forced, counters carried, and survival through visible interaction.
• Removal and disruption pressure: Record whether opponent removal punished one oversized creature, whether spreading counters would have been stronger, and whether Meltstrider's Resolve changed any visible exchange; Card text check required for exact Meltstrider's Resolve mode evaluation.
• Sideboard impact: For each sideboarded game, identify whether Soul-Guide Lantern, Keen-Eyed Curator, Origin of Metalbending, Mossborn Hydra, Meltstrider's Resolve, or Vivien Reid affected a public game object, a combat step, a graveyard line, or a closing clock.
• Closing: Mark games where the deck built a large board but gave the opponent extra draw steps, then identify whether Wildgrove Summoner, Mossborn Hydra, Vivien Reid, Fecund Greenshell, or a wider counter spread would have ended the game sooner.
• Role accuracy: Ask whether the pilot correctly played aggro against slow opponents, stabilizing midrange against creature decks, and resilient threat deployment against removal-heavy decks.
• Mistakes: Flag missed land sequencing, delayed Llanowar Elves, premature priority passes, attacks that lost needed blockers, blocks that sacrificed the only counter engine, and sideboard cards deployed without a visible target.
• Stranded cards: List cards stuck in hand for mana, board-state, timing, or legality reasons, especially Wildgrove Summoner, Sapling Nursery, Earthbender Ascension, Vivien Reid, Mossborn Hydra, and sideboard cards with narrow visible uses.
• Overperformers and underperformers: Record which exact cards repeatedly won games, stabilized races, or failed to matter, separating main-deck performance from sideboard performance.

First Tuning Questions

• Quantity: If hands often lack early creatures, should the deck reduce slow setup such as Sapling Nursery, Wildgrove Summoner, or some number of Earthbender Ascension for more cheap bodies or lower-curve pressure?
• Quantity: If Hardened Bonds is excellent only with an existing creature but poor from behind, should three or four copies remain central, or should the deck rebalance toward standalone threats such as Mossborn Hydra after sideboarding?
• Mana: If Evolving Wilds, Fabled Passage, and Ba Sing Se repeatedly delay turn-one Llanowar Elves or turn-two pressure, should the land mix increase untapped Forest count or reduce tapped/fetch sequencing costs?
• Mana: If flood is common, should Wildgrove Summoner, Mossborn Hydra, Vivien Reid, or other mana sinks carry more closing responsibility, or is the issue insufficient card velocity from Mightform Harmonizer and Fecund Greenshell?
• Aggro plan: If fast creature decks race through the counter engine, should Meltstrider's Resolve and Origin of Metalbending occupy more sideboard weight, or should main-deck Wary Zone Guard and Badgermole Cub sequencing be prioritized differently?
• Control plan: If removal-heavy opponents beat single large threats, should sideboarding lean harder into Mossborn Hydra, Vivien Reid, and Meltstrider's Resolve, or should the main plan distribute counters more conservatively before tuning card counts?
• Closers: If games stall after early damage, is Wildgrove Summoner too few, too slow, or incorrectly sequenced, and does Mossborn Hydra deserve main-deck consideration after repeated post-board success?
• Sideboard slots: If Soul-Guide Lantern has low impact outside graveyard matchups, should three copies remain, or should one slot become a broader card such as Meltstrider's Resolve, Origin of Metalbending, Mossborn Hydra, Keen-Eyed Curator, or Vivien Reid depending on observed losses?
• Role conflict: If Sapling Nursery, Earthbender Ascension, and Hardened Bonds compete with creature deployment, should the deck become more proactive aggro or more engine-midrange rather than splitting early turns between both plans?
• Card validation: Card text check required for unfamiliar Alchemy cards before final tuning; do not change quantities based only on assumed text for Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Wary Zone Guard, Icetill Explorer, Mightform Harmonizer, Fecund Greenshell, Wildgrove Summoner, Hardened Bonds, Earthbender Ascension, Sapling Nursery, Ba Sing Se, Meltstrider's Resolve, Origin of Metalbending, Mossborn Hydra, or Vivien Reid.

Veles Tactical Policy

Policy: Opening Hand Gate

• Priority: High
• Decision families: mulligan
• Cards: Llanowar Elves; Sazh's Chocobo; Badgermole Cub; Wary Zone Guard; Hardened Bonds; Earthbender Ascension; Forest; Evolving Wilds; Fabled Passage; Ba Sing Se
• Phase windows: pregame mulligan decisions.
• Runtime cues: prompt:mulligan; visible opening hand.
• Use when: keep only hands with castable green mana, at least one early creature or Llanowar Elves, and a turn-two or turn-three development path.
• Avoid when: the hand has one land without Llanowar Elves, five or more lands without a payoff, no creature, or only slow setup pieces.
• Instructions: Prioritize functional curves over raw card count; this deck loses when its first counter recipient arrives late.
• Pilot skill floor: medium.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: First Green Source

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: mana
• Cards: Forest; Evolving Wilds; Fabled Passage; Ba Sing Se; Llanowar Elves
• Phase windows: first main phase, turn one and turn two.
• Runtime cues: action:play Forest
• Use when: Forest is a legal land play, no land has been played this turn, and Llanowar Elves or another green one-mana/two-mana play is legal after Forest.
• Avoid when: another visible legal land is required to unlock an already selected action this turn.
• Instructions: Use untapped green mana before fetch or specialty lands when the current turn can produce board presence.
• Pilot skill floor: low.
• No-API allowed: yes
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Early Creature Before Engine

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: priority; mana
• Cards: Llanowar Elves; Sazh's Chocobo; Badgermole Cub; Wary Zone Guard; Icetill Explorer; Hardened Bonds; Earthbender Ascension; Sapling Nursery
• Phase windows: early main phases before combat.
• Runtime cues: prompt:priority; legal creature cast; legal noncreature setup cast.
• Use when: the battlefield has no friendly creature or only Llanowar Elves and the hand offers both a creature and a setup permanent.
• Avoid when: the legal setup action is required for a known lethal or survival line this turn.
• Instructions: Establish a body first so Hardened Bonds, Earthbender Ascension, and Sapling Nursery have a visible recipient or immediate board purpose.
• Pilot skill floor: low.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Llanowar Elves Acceleration

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: mana; priority
• Cards: Llanowar Elves; Fecund Greenshell; Wildgrove Summoner; Mightform Harmonizer; Hardened Bonds
• Phase windows: early main phases; post-combat main when mana remains.
• Runtime cues: action:cast Llanowar Elves
• Use when: casting Llanowar Elves is legal, it is turn one or turn two, and no higher-priority lethal or survival action is pending.
• Avoid when: visible opponent pressure requires an immediately legal blocker or interaction action instead.
• Instructions: Treat Llanowar Elves as tempo only if the next turn has a visible mana use; avoid wasting accelerated turns on pass-heavy lines.
• Pilot skill floor: low.
• No-API allowed: yes
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Counter Engine Commitment

• Priority: High
• Decision families: priority; mana
• Cards: Hardened Bonds; Earthbender Ascension; Sapling Nursery; Mightform Harmonizer; Fecund Greenshell
• Phase windows: main phases before attacks or after combat.
• Runtime cues: prompt:priority; legal counter-engine spell or ability.
• Use when: a counter engine can convert existing or imminent creatures into a faster clock or durable board.
• Avoid when: tapping out exposes the only threat to visible interaction, prevents a needed block, or delays lethal pressure already available on board.
• Instructions: Commit engine pieces when they improve the next combat or protect against attrition; do not spend the turn on abstract scaling while behind on board.
• Pilot skill floor: medium.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Threat Scaling Distribution

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: selection; priority
• Cards: Sazh's Chocobo; Badgermole Cub; Wary Zone Guard; Icetill Explorer; Mightform Harmonizer; Fecund Greenshell; Hardened Bonds; Earthbender Ascension; Sapling Nursery
• Phase windows: main phases; trigger or selection prompts involving counters.
• Runtime cues: prompt:choose; action:add counter; action:put counter
• Use when: a legal counter or selection prompt asks which friendly permanent receives a counter.
• Avoid when: a prompt has only one legal friendly recipient.
• Instructions: Prefer counters on creatures that attack safely, survive visible combat, or keep defense intact; spread counters against removal-heavy visible patterns and consolidate when closing quickly matters.
• Pilot skill floor: medium.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Single Visible Counter Recipient

• Priority: Low
• Decision families: selection
• Cards: Hardened Bonds; Earthbender Ascension; Sapling Nursery; Sazh's Chocobo; Badgermole Cub; Wary Zone Guard; Icetill Explorer
• Phase windows: counter placement prompts.
• Runtime cues: action:target self
• Use when: the legal action text names exactly one friendly creature as the only visible target for the counter placement prompt.
• Avoid when: two or more friendly permanents are legal targets.
• Instructions: Choose the only visible friendly legal recipient and continue to the next engine prompt.
• Pilot skill floor: low.
• No-API allowed: yes
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Midgame Card-Velocity Commitment

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: priority; mana
• Cards: Mightform Harmonizer; Fecund Greenshell; Icetill Explorer; Wildgrove Summoner
• Phase windows: midgame main phases after early board is established.
• Runtime cues: prompt:priority; legal cast or activate action.
• Use when: the board has at least one meaningful creature and the hand needs more threats, counters, or closing power.
• Avoid when: the opponent has lethal pressure visible and mana must produce a blocker, combat action, or sideboard interaction.
• Instructions: Use velocity cards to keep pressure flowing, not to durdle; Card text check required for exact selection or trigger timing.
• Pilot skill floor: medium.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Wildgrove Summoner Closing Gate

• Priority: High
• Decision families: priority; mana; combat
• Cards: Wildgrove Summoner; Fecund Greenshell; Mossborn Hydra; Vivien Reid
• Phase windows: midgame and late-game main phases.
• Runtime cues: prompt:priority; legal expensive threat action.
• Use when: the deck has enough mana to commit a closer and the current board does not already force a short lethal clock.
• Avoid when: committing the closer prevents a necessary defensive play or walks into visible stack interaction with no backup pressure.
• Instructions: Use Wildgrove Summoner and post-board closers to end stalls; make the light model compare waiting, wider development, and immediate pressure.
• Pilot skill floor: medium.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Attack Discipline

• Priority: High
• Decision families: combat
• Cards: Sazh's Chocobo; Badgermole Cub; Wary Zone Guard; Icetill Explorer; Mightform Harmonizer; Fecund Greenshell; Wildgrove Summoner; Mossborn Hydra
• Phase windows: declare attackers.
• Runtime cues: prompt:declare attackers; legal attack sets.
• Use when: attacks are legal and the board contains possible attackers and blockers.
• Avoid when: exactly one legal no-attack action exists.
• Instructions: Attack when damage advances a visible clock without losing the only engine piece or required blocker; preserve Wary Zone Guard-style defensive bodies when the opponent’s next attack threatens lethal or a race loss.
• Pilot skill floor: medium.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Deterministic No Attack

• Priority: Low
• Decision families: combat
• Cards: none
• Phase windows: declare attackers.
• Runtime cues: action:declare no attackers
• Use when: declare no attackers is the only legal attack declaration action.
• Avoid when: any legal action declares one or more attackers.
• Instructions: Submit the only legal no-attack action and preserve priority for later windows.
• Pilot skill floor: low.
• No-API allowed: yes
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Block To Survive Or Preserve Engine

• Priority: High
• Decision families: combat
• Cards: Sazh's Chocobo; Badgermole Cub; Wary Zone Guard; Icetill Explorer; Llanowar Elves; Fecund Greenshell; Mossborn Hydra
• Phase windows: declare blockers; combat damage assignment.
• Runtime cues: prompt:declare blockers; prompt:assign combat damage.
• Use when: opponent attacks and visible life total, blockers, and attacker sizes determine survival or next-turn race math.
• Avoid when: the engine exposes only one legal block or no legal block.
• Instructions: Block lethal first, protect the counter engine second, and trade small creatures for tempo only when the remaining board can still pressure back.
• Pilot skill floor: medium.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Priority Pass With No Board Use

• Priority: Low
• Decision families: priority
• Cards: none
• Phase windows: opponent end step; empty-stack priority windows.
• Runtime cues: action:pass priority
• Use when: pass priority is legal, the stack is empty, no legal action spends mana or changes a public object, and no attack/block prompt is pending.
• Avoid when: any legal action casts, activates, targets, blocks, attacks, or chooses a visible card.
• Instructions: Pass procedural windows without spending reasoning budget.
• Pilot skill floor: low.
• No-API allowed: yes
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Visible Interaction And Protection

• Priority: High
• Decision families: interaction; priority; combat
• Cards: Meltstrider's Resolve; Origin of Metalbending; Vivien Reid; Soul-Guide Lantern; Keen-Eyed Curator
• Phase windows: stack windows; combat trick windows; graveyard interaction windows; planeswalker or removal windows.
• Runtime cues: prompt:priority; legal sideboard interaction action.
• Use when: a visible opponent spell, graveyard object, attacker, blocker, or permanent creates a concrete exchange involving these cards.
• Avoid when: the sideboard card has no visible target or its card text is uncertain for the current object.
• Instructions: Card text check required; route through light-model so the agent weighs timing, target legality, and whether spending the card changes the current combat or board.
• Pilot skill floor: high.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Graveyard Hate Timing

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: interaction; priority
• Cards: Soul-Guide Lantern; Keen-Eyed Curator
• Phase windows: opponent graveyard setup windows; response windows before graveyard payoffs resolve.
• Runtime cues: prompt:priority; visible graveyard cards; legal graveyard interaction action.
• Use when: the opponent has public graveyard cards and a legal action can affect those cards before a visible graveyard payoff or recursion action resolves.
• Avoid when: graveyards are empty or the legal action does not name a public graveyard object.
• Instructions: Do not fire graveyard hate for no board effect; preserve it until the public graveyard matters unless mana or timing will be lost.
• Pilot skill floor: medium.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Sideboard Plan Selection

• Priority: High
• Decision families: sideboard
• Cards: Meltstrider's Resolve; Soul-Guide Lantern; Keen-Eyed Curator; Origin of Metalbending; Mossborn Hydra; Vivien Reid; Llanowar Elves; Sazh's Chocobo; Badgermole Cub; Wary Zone Guard; Icetill Explorer; Mightform Harmonizer; Fecund Greenshell; Wildgrove Summoner; Hardened Bonds; Earthbender Ascension; Sapling Nursery
• Phase windows: between games after Game 1 or Game 2.
• Runtime cues: prompt:sideboard; match context; previous public game log.
• Use when: sideboarding is legal and Veles exposes candidate plans or generated swap choices.
• Avoid when: the plan violates registered 60/15 preservation or names cards outside the registered zones.
• Instructions: Add Meltstrider's Resolve and Origin of Metalbending for creature exchanges, Soul-Guide Lantern and Keen-Eyed Curator for graveyard reliance, and Mossborn Hydra or Vivien Reid for attrition; reduce slow or low-impact main-deck emphasis by matchup evidence.
• Pilot skill floor: high.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Post-Board Threat Shift

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: priority; mana; combat
• Cards: Mossborn Hydra; Vivien Reid; Meltstrider's Resolve; Origin of Metalbending; Wildgrove Summoner; Hardened Bonds
• Phase windows: post-board main phases and combat windows.
• Runtime cues: prompt:priority; post-board game; legal sideboard threat or interaction action.
• Use when: sideboard cards are in hand and the visible matchup has shifted toward removal, attrition, graveyard play, or creature racing.
• Avoid when: the main-deck curve already presents lethal pressure and the sideboard card would delay attacks.
• Instructions: Let post-board cards solve the problem they were brought for; do not abandon the counters pressure plan unless the public game state demands stabilization.
• Pilot skill floor: medium.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes