veles-content/strategies/legacy/legacy_oops_all_spells/1/guide.md

Strategy Specifications

Deck Name And Archetype

Oops All Spells is a Legacy graveyard-combo deck built to convert one resolved Balustrade Spy or equivalent search/recursion chain into a self-mill kill with Dread Return and Thassa's Oracle, while using free mana, ritual mana, and protection to compress the game into the first one to three turns. The registered strategy name is Oops All Spells, the active format is Legacy, and the current mechanic tags are combo and graveyard; the duplicated input tag combo,graveyard should be normalized as the same two-role identity rather than treated as an extra archetype.

Deck validation passes under the supplied active contract: the main deck contains exactly 60 cards and the sideboard contains exactly 15 cards. The registered main deck has no conventional land cards; it instead uses Agadeem's Awakening, Boggart Trawler, and Fell the Profane as modal resource cards when the rules engine presents legal land-mode or spell-mode actions. Veles must respect the runtime legal action text for these cards because the pilot guide cannot assume which face or mode is currently legal, affordable, or strategically safe.

This is an established Legacy archetype with a hybrid transformational configuration, not a pure rogue shell. The primary maindeck identity is all-in graveyard combo through Balustrade Spy, Narcomoeba, Bridge from Below, Poxwalkers, Cabal Therapy, Dread Return, and Thassa's Oracle. The sideboard adds a meaningful alternate-plan package with Goblin Charbelcher, plus narrow or defensive cards in Force of Vigor, Wear Down, Jack-o'-Lantern, Memory's Journey, Progenitus, Chancellor of the Annex, and extra Disciple of Freyalise copies.

The deck's role is proactive combo in almost every unknown matchup. Veles should start from the assumption that time favors the opponent unless visible information proves otherwise, because this list spends cards for speed through Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Elvish Spirit Guide, Simian Spirit Guide, Unmask, and Pact of Negation. The deck is not trying to trade resources indefinitely; it is trying to assemble a legal deterministic kill or a protected alternate threat before opposing pressure, discard, graveyard hate, or permission can lock the game.

Legality and mana concerns are central to piloting this deck. Veles must never infer that a combo line is legal merely because the named pieces are present; it must check available mana, legal exiling and imprint choices, graveyard state, stack state, priority, and current action IDs. Pact of Negation is protection only when the rules engine exposes a legal action and the consequence of the delayed trigger is acceptable or irrelevant. Unmask is disruption only when the engine shows legal costs and targets, and the visible hand context supports spending the required card.

Opponent information status is unknown by default. This guide should not assume hidden opponent cards, exact sideboard configuration, or matchup-specific hate unless revealed by the rules engine, logged public information, or the active match context. When the opponent presents visible hate, pressure, open mana, or known interaction, the pilot should adjust through legal actions rather than through format-memory guesses. When no opponent information is available, the baseline plan is to mulligan and sequence for the fastest protected win that the current hand can actually execute.

Thesis

Oops All Spells assembles a landless self-mill combo by resolving Balustrade Spy or a legal equivalent line that places the library into the graveyard, converts Narcomoeba, Bridge from Below, Poxwalkers, and Cabal Therapy into sacrifice material, flashes back Dread Return, and wins with Thassa's Oracle when the rules engine confirms the trigger and library state. The deck should prioritize hands that can produce a fast legal combo attempt plus either protection or disruption, because its cards are built to compress one decisive turn rather than accumulate incremental battlefield advantage.

The primary game plan is to spend temporary mana and cards to force one high-leverage stack sequence. Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Elvish Spirit Guide, Simian Spirit Guide, Agadeem's Awakening, Boggart Trawler, and Fell the Profane are resources only if the engine exposes legal mana, land-mode, spell-mode, exile, imprint, or payment actions. Veles should never assume a modal card is available in the needed role until the action list proves it.

The deck is not trying to win fair combat, grind with discard, or trade removal for creatures over many turns. Cabal Therapy, Unmask, and Pact of Negation should be treated as tools that clear or defend the combo turn, not as a plan to exhaust the opponent. Reanimate, Lively Dirge, and Disciple of Freyalise can create recovery or alternate development lines, but they should not distract from the central question: does this line produce a legal win, a protected next-turn win, or a necessary survival bridge?

The pilot should prioritize visible legality, then speed, then protection, then resilience. A slower protected hand can beat an unknown opponent when it includes a credible combo route, but a hand with mana and no payoff, payoff and no mana, or protection without a clock should usually be scrutinized aggressively in mulligans. Once a commitment is made, execute deterministic pieces exactly as the rules engine offers them; before commitment, reason about revealed interaction, graveyard hate, open mana, known discard, clock, and whether waiting improves or worsens the chance to win.

Role Package

• Threats: Balustrade Spy is the main decisive threat because resolving it in a landless configuration is the cleanest route to putting the deck into the graveyard. Goblin Charbelcher is the sideboard transformational threat that attacks from a different axis when graveyard hate or sideboard texture makes the main plan less reliable.

• Payoffs: Thassa's Oracle is the primary kill card after self-mill and Dread Return. Dread Return is both combo payoff and bridge because its graveyard action converts battlefield creatures into the reanimation step. Bridge from Below, Narcomoeba, and Poxwalkers are payoff infrastructure that should be preserved or used according to visible graveyard, battlefield, and sacrifice requirements.

• Engines: Balustrade Spy is the self-mill engine; Cabal Therapy is a combo-engine piece when it sacrifices creatures, generates or preserves graveyard material, and clears interaction from a revealed or named opponent hand. Lively Dirge is an engine/tutor-style card, but card text check required for exact legal modes and targets; use only the engine actions Forge exposes.

• Velocity: Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, Elvish Spirit Guide, and Simian Spirit Guide provide the burst that turns a fragile hand into a same-turn attempt. Agadeem's Awakening, Boggart Trawler, and Fell the Profane are modal resource cards whose tactical role depends entirely on legal runtime actions.

• Interaction: Cabal Therapy and Unmask are proactive interaction that should target known or likely blockers to the combo only when the engine exposes legal choices and visible information supports spending the cost. Force of Vigor, Wear Down, Jack-o'-Lantern, and Memory's Journey are sideboard interaction modules; card text check required for any exact non-obvious timing or target assumptions beyond legal action text.

• Protection: Pact of Negation protects a commitment on the stack when legal and when the delayed cost is acceptable, irrelevant because the game should end, or payable by the visible future resources. Chancellor of the Annex is a sideboard protective pressure card if included; card text check required for exact opening-hand and runtime handling.

• Recursion: Reanimate, Dread Return, Agadeem's Awakening, and Memory's Journey can recover or convert graveyard resources, but each requires current target legality and life/resource checks. Disciple of Freyalise is a main and sideboard utility body/card-flow module; card text check required before assuming the exact sacrifice, draw, land, or spell mode implications.

• Mana: Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Elvish Spirit Guide, Simian Spirit Guide, Agadeem's Awakening, Boggart Trawler, and Fell the Profane form the deck's practical mana base. Veles should value hands by whether these cards produce the exact colors and amounts for the current legal line, not by abstract total mana.

• Sideboard modules: Goblin Charbelcher changes the win axis, Force of Vigor and Wear Down answer opposing hate, Jack-o'-Lantern and Memory's Journey provide graveyard or library interaction, Progenitus changes library/graveyard behavior, Chancellor of the Annex adds pregame or early protection pressure, and extra Disciple of Freyalise copies support alternative resource or body-based plans subject to verified card text and legal actions.

Primary Win Conditions

• Primary kill: Resolve Balustrade Spy, mill the library, then use the graveyard and battlefield objects the engine actually creates to flash back Dread Return targeting Thassa's Oracle. Prioritize this path whenever the current hand can produce legal black mana and four total mana for Balustrade Spy, has enough protection or discard for the visible stack context, and does not need to pass a turn through known pressure or hate.

• Setup: Treat Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Elvish Spirit Guide, Simian Spirit Guide, and legal modal land actions from Agadeem's Awakening, Boggart Trawler, and Fell the Profane as the combo turn's fuel. Sequence mana only from engine-confirmed legal actions, and preserve black sources until the line can pay for Balustrade Spy, Cabal Therapy, Unmask, Reanimate, or Dread Return as needed.

• Execution: After Balustrade Spy mills the library, use the engine-visible Narcomoeba, Bridge from Below, Poxwalkers, Cabal Therapy, and Dread Return actions to assemble three sacrifice creatures and reanimate Thassa's Oracle. Do not assume the exact creature count or trigger result; choose the deterministic combo actions only when Forge exposes the required battlefield, graveyard, and flashback choices.

• Protection: Use Cabal Therapy, Unmask, and Pact of Negation to clear or answer interaction that stops the committed combo, especially visible counterspells, graveyard hate activations, or removal that breaks sacrifice math. Spend Pact of Negation most freely when the current sequence is expected to win before the delayed payment matters; use more caution if the game may continue.

• Disruption handling: If the opponent presents known stack interaction, prefer a line that leads with Cabal Therapy or Unmask before committing Balustrade Spy unless waiting gives the opponent a stronger clock or hate window. If the opponent presents graveyard hate, prioritize sideboard answers in post-board games or the Goblin Charbelcher plan when boarded and legal.

• Reanimation acceleration: Use Reanimate as a direct route to Balustrade Spy only when the target is legally in a graveyard and the life payment is acceptable. This line is strongest after discard, mill, or an opponent action places Balustrade Spy in a graveyard, but it must not be invented from hidden zones.

Secondary Win Conditions

• Transformational kill: After sideboarding, Goblin Charbelcher becomes the main non-graveyard win path when graveyard hate, surgical disruption, or repeated anti-graveyard pressure makes Dread Return unreliable. Prioritize it only when sideboard configuration includes Goblin Charbelcher, legal actions show it can be cast or activated, and mana sequencing can support the full line without sacrificing a stronger protected Balustrade Spy kill.

• Recursion pressure: Reanimate, Agadeem's Awakening, Lively Dirge, and Disciple of Freyalise can support recovery or alternative board development, but card text check required for Lively Dirge and Disciple of Freyalise before relying on specific modes. Use these cards as bridges toward another combo attempt, not as a plan to win a long fair game unless the visible battlefield makes that the only legal pressure.

• Discard-led delayed combo: Cabal Therapy and Unmask can create a safer next-turn kill when the hand has interaction plus partial mana but cannot win immediately. Choose this path when a same-turn attempt is underpowered, when the opponent's known hand contains one decisive answer, or when taking a turn off is less dangerous than forcing into visible resistance.

• Creature fallback: Narcomoeba, Poxwalkers, Disciple of Freyalise, and incidental Zombie tokens from Bridge from Below can attack if the combo is interrupted after resources enter play. Treat combat as salvage pressure only; avoid trading away creatures that are still needed for a legal Dread Return flashback unless the engine shows the combo is no longer available.

• Protection-sideboard pressure: Chancellor of the Annex may support protected starts if included after sideboarding; card text check required for exact pregame and battlefield implications. Use it as a protection module, not as a replacement for assembling a deterministic win.

Emergency Lines

• Behind on life: Favor immediate Balustrade Spy or Goblin Charbelcher kills over incremental setup when the visible clock makes another turn unsafe. Avoid Reanimate life payments that put the pilot dead to visible attacks, known burn, or mandatory life-loss lines unless that action wins immediately or prevents certain loss.

• Behind on board: Ignore creature combat unless it changes survival this turn, because the deck usually cannot stabilize by blocking. Use Pact of Negation, Cabal Therapy, or Unmask to protect the shortest legal win rather than to trade resources with threats that do not stop the combo.

• Behind on cards: Mulligan and in-game decisions should still privilege coherent mana plus payoff over raw card count. A small hand that casts protected Balustrade Spy is better than a larger hand containing disconnected Spirit Guides, rituals, and no engine.

• Behind on mana: Preserve flexible resources until the exact payment route is clear, especially Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, Elvish Spirit Guide, and Simian Spirit Guide. Do not spend a temporary source for discard or cantrip-like value if doing so prevents the next legal combo attempt.

• Graveyard disrupted: If Dread Return, Thassa's Oracle, Bridge from Below, Narcomoeba, or Poxwalkers is exiled or otherwise unavailable, re-evaluate from visible zones before continuing the standard line. Post-board, shift priority toward Goblin Charbelcher, Force of Vigor, Wear Down, Memory's Journey, Jack-o'-Lantern, or Progenitus only according to the actual sideboard plan and legal actions.

• Win condition removed: If Thassa's Oracle is unavailable and no legal recovery action exists, stop treating self-mill as deterministic lethal. Look for Goblin Charbelcher, Reanimate pressure, or creature-token attacks, and choose the line that wins before the visible opponent clock ends the game.

• Combo fizzled: After a failed commitment, preserve any remaining Pact of Negation or discard only if it protects a real second attempt. If no second attempt exists, use legal attacks and recursion to create pressure while searching for any engine-confirmed route back to Balustrade Spy, Dread Return, or Goblin Charbelcher.

Resource Model

• Life: Treat life as a spendable accelerator only when it increases the chance of winning before the opponent's next meaningful turn. Reanimate life loss and modal-land life payments are acceptable for a same-turn Balustrade Spy or protected kill, but avoid them when visible attackers, known burn, or a required Pact of Negation upkeep could make the game continue.

• Hand: Convert hand size into a single coherent combo attempt, not into incremental value. Prioritize hands that combine black mana, a payoff route, and protection/disruption; extra copies of Elvish Spirit Guide, Simian Spirit Guide, Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, Dark Ritual, and Cabal Ritual matter only if they pay for a legal line.

• Mana: Mana is the deck's scarcest tactical resource because most sources are one-shot. Preserve Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, Elvish Spirit Guide, Simian Spirit Guide, Dark Ritual, and Cabal Ritual until the engine-visible action sequence can pay for Balustrade Spy, Lively Dirge, Reanimate, Cabal Therapy, Unmask, or post-board Goblin Charbelcher.

• Board: The battlefield is mostly a combo staging area, not a fair-combat resource. Narcomoeba, Poxwalkers, Bridge from Below tokens, and Disciple of Freyalise should be preserved as sacrifice fodder unless a legal attack or block changes survival or establishes the only remaining win path.

• Graveyard: The graveyard is the primary engine after Balustrade Spy resolves. Do not assume Narcomoeba, Bridge from Below, Poxwalkers, Cabal Therapy, Dread Return, or Thassa's Oracle produced the expected state; follow only Forge-visible triggers, graveyard contents, flashback actions, and target prompts.

• Exile: Exile is both fuel and danger. Exiling cards to Chrome Mox, Elvish Spirit Guide, Simian Spirit Guide, Unmask, or Pact of Negation is correct only when the lost card is not needed for the current deterministic line or a realistic backup; protect singletons Dread Return, Bridge from Below, Poxwalkers, Thassa's Oracle, and main-deck Disciple of Freyalise from casual exile.

• Lands: The registered deck has no traditional land cards, so modal land actions from Agadeem's Awakening, Boggart Trawler, and Fell the Profane are emergency or setup resources. Playing one can stabilize black mana, but it also spends a card that might be a spell-side resource; use it when the hand cannot win now or needs persistent black next turn.

• Information: Cabal Therapy and Unmask convert hand cards and tempo into certainty before committing. If the opponent's revealed hand contains one decisive answer, use discard before Balustrade Spy; if the opponent has unknown interaction and the pilot can win now only by forcing, weigh the visible clock against waiting for more protection.

• Sideboard bullets: Post-board cards change which resource matters most. Force of Vigor, Wear Down, Jack-o'-Lantern, Memory's Journey, Progenitus, Chancellor of the Annex, extra Disciple of Freyalise, and Goblin Charbelcher should be used according to the exact sideboard plan and visible hate, never as generic value cards.

Mana Guide

• Utility-land sequencing: explicitly track Bridge from Below as the deck's named nonbasic or utility-land decisions. Use these lands to satisfy the next visible color or utility requirement before taking speculative lines: play or fetch colored sources before cantrips and discard that need exact mana, keep utility lands when their activated or disruptive text is part of the current plan, and delay utility-land sacrifices until the follow-up spell or ability is already legal. When choosing between a stable colored source and a utility land, choose the source that casts the current hand under visible pressure, then use the utility land once the required colors are secure.

• Color requirements: Black mana is mandatory for most main lines, especially Balustrade Spy, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Cabal Therapy, Unmask, Reanimate, Lively Dirge, Agadeem's Awakening, Boggart Trawler, and Fell the Profane. Green and red Spirit Guide mana are primarily conversion resources through legal costs, Chrome Mox, Lotus Petal, or post-board spells; do not treat them as black unless the engine exposes a legal conversion or payment path.

• One-shot sequencing: Generate black as late as possible without losing priority or legal actions. Prefer committing Dark Ritual and Cabal Ritual after the payoff route is selected, because spending them into a countered or incomplete line leaves little recovery.

• Lotus Petal: Use Lotus Petal as flexible color fixing for the exact missing color, usually black. Avoid cracking it for discard or setup if the remaining hand then cannot cast Balustrade Spy, Reanimate, Lively Dirge, or post-board Goblin Charbelcher activation sequencing.

• Chrome Mox: Imprint only a card that the current line does not require. Avoid imprinting singleton combo pieces or the only payoff; imprint spare protection, redundant mana, or off-plan cards only when Forge shows the resulting mana enables a stronger legal line.

• Spirit Guides: Use Elvish Spirit Guide and Simian Spirit Guide as temporary tempo, not as automatic mana. Spend them when their color is part of a legal payment, when they unlock Chrome Mox or sideboard interaction, or when waiting exposes the combo to hate.

• Modal lands: Use Agadeem's Awakening, Boggart Trawler, and Fell the Profane as land plays only when a lasting black source is worth more than the front-side spell. Card text check required for exact tapped, untapped, and life-payment details on each modal land face; follow the rules engine's offered land action and cost text.

• Play-land timing: Delay the modal land play until after draw, selection, discard information, or sideboard-bullet decisions when doing so could change which card must remain a spell. Play it before rituals or all-in mana only when the land's black mana is part of the visible payment route this turn.

• Keep/mulligan mana rule: Keep mana only when it forms a route to a payoff, not because it is abundant. A hand with several Spirit Guides and no black conversion is suspect; a smaller hand with black mana plus Balustrade Spy, Lively Dirge, or Reanimate access is stronger.

• Post-board mana: Goblin Charbelcher asks for large colorless mana and later activation mana, while Force of Vigor and Wear Down ask for specific sideboard interaction timing. Do not spend permanent or one-shot mana on low-impact actions if it delays the boarded kill or prevents answering visible hate.

Mulligan Guide

• Strong keep: Keep hands that can produce black mana and cast Balustrade Spy on turn 1 or turn 2 with protection from Pact of Negation, Unmask, or Cabal Therapy. A hand like Balustrade Spy, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Lotus Petal, Elvish Spirit Guide, Pact of Negation, and any redundant black card is a premium opener if Forge exposes the full payment route.

• Strong keep: Keep hands with Lively Dirge plus enough mana to execute the tutor/reanimation line only when the rules engine shows a legal path toward Balustrade Spy or the required graveyard setup. Card text check required for exact Lively Dirge modes and costs; treat it as a payoff-access card, not as generic value.

• Medium keep: Keep slower hands with one modal black land from Agadeem's Awakening, Boggart Trawler, or Fell the Profane, plus Dark Ritual or Cabal Ritual, plus Balustrade Spy, Reanimate, or Lively Dirge. These hands accept a turn-2 or turn-3 attempt, but only if the opponent is not already showing graveyard hate, discard pressure, or a lethal clock.

• Risky keep: Keep one-shot-heavy hands such as Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, Elvish Spirit Guide, Simian Spirit Guide, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, and Balustrade Spy only when the mana colors and imprint card are legal and exact. Do not keep abundant mana that cannot make black or that requires exiling Dread Return, Thassa's Oracle, Bridge from Below, or the only payoff.

• Automatic ship: Mulligan hands with no payoff access, no black mana route, or only Spirit Guide mana with no legal conversion. Ship hands that depend on drawing one specific card unless the hand already has discard/protection and a persistent black land plan.

• Automatic ship: Mulligan hands that contain stranded singleton engine pieces but no enabler, such as Dread Return, Bridge from Below, Poxwalkers, Thassa's Oracle, and multiple protection cards without Balustrade Spy, Lively Dirge, or Reanimate access. These cards are usually graveyard-line components, not normal castable threats.

• Matchup-dependent keep: Against visible or expected graveyard hate, prefer hands with Unmask, Cabal Therapy, Force of Vigor post-board, or a post-board Goblin Charbelcher plan over a faster unprotected graveyard-only hand. Against fast combo, prefer the fastest protected kill over slow discard setup.

• Play/draw adjustment: On the play, keep slightly more explosive hands because the first decisive action matters more than card quantity. On the draw, value Unmask, Cabal Therapy, Pact of Negation, and sideboard interaction more because the opponent may deploy discard, counters, or hate before the combo turn.

• Trap hand: Do not keep Pact of Negation as protection if the line is unlikely to win that turn or if the game may continue into the Pact upkeep. Do not keep Chrome Mox hands that require imprinting the only payoff, the only black card, or a singleton needed for the deterministic graveyard kill.

Turn Arc

• Turn 1 preferred play: Win immediately when Forge shows a complete legal line to cast Balustrade Spy, mill the library, resolve visible Narcomoeba and other graveyard triggers, flash back or cast the required sacrifice pieces, and resolve Dread Return for Thassa's Oracle. Use Unmask or Cabal Therapy before committing when a known answer can stop the attempt and the mana still supports the kill.

• Turn 1 deviation: If the hand cannot win now, play a modal black land from Agadeem's Awakening, Boggart Trawler, or Fell the Profane only when persistent black mana enables a stronger turn-2 line. Preserve Lotus Petal, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Elvish Spirit Guide, and Simian Spirit Guide rather than spending them on incomplete pressure.

• Turn 2 preferred play: Convert setup into a protected combo attempt. Lead with discard when legal and tactically useful, then commit rituals and one-shot mana only after the target route is clear; if Reanimate or Lively Dirge exposes a legal Balustrade Spy route, choose it over partial graveyard setup.

• Turn 2 deviation: Against visible hate, answer or pivot before committing. Post-board, Force of Vigor, Wear Down, Jack-o'-Lantern, Memory's Journey, Progenitus, Chancellor of the Annex, extra Disciple of Freyalise, and Goblin Charbelcher matter only if the sideboard plan brought them in and Forge shows the relevant legal action.

• Turn 3 preferred play: Treat turn 3 as the last normal setup window against many Legacy decks. Use persistent black mana, remaining rituals, Chrome Mox, and protection to force a decisive Balustrade Spy or Lively Dirge line; waiting is justified only when the opponent has no clock and the current line is visibly exposed to interaction.

• Turn 3 deviation: If the graveyard line is blocked, evaluate post-board Goblin Charbelcher as a separate kill plan. Preserve mana for casting and activating it rather than spending resources on discard that no longer changes the relevant battlefield or stack problem.

• Turns 4-5 preferred play: Stop playing like an explosive deck and start counting exact resources. Rebuild toward one coherent attempt with modal lands, Chrome Mox, Lotus Petal, rituals, and any remaining protection; do not fire Reanimate, Cabal Therapy, or front-side modal spells unless they directly enable the next decisive turn.

• Turns 4-5 deviation: Use Disciple of Freyalise, Narcomoeba, Poxwalkers, or Bridge from Below bodies defensively only when survival changes the number of draw steps or protects a sacrifice requirement. Combat damage is secondary unless the primary combo is no longer realistic.

• Late game preferred play: Choose the line that wins through the visible obstacle, not the line that looks most canonical. If the graveyard is accessible, assemble Balustrade Spy into Dread Return and Thassa's Oracle; if graveyard access is shut off post-board, prioritize Goblin Charbelcher with exact mana and activation sequencing.

• Late game deviation: Do not assume hidden recovery. Use public zones, revealed information, legal actions, and current life totals to decide whether to force through Pact of Negation, spend a last Unmask, or wait one more turn for mana; if the game may continue, account for Pact upkeep and visible attackers before protecting a nonlethal spell.

Card Roles

• Balustrade Spy: Treat Balustrade Spy as the primary engine card and the cleanest graveyard commitment. Cast it only when Forge shows exact black mana and a legal spell action, then expect the no-land library structure to mill the deck if the spell resolves; do not spend protection or rituals toward Balustrade Spy unless the resulting line can immediately convert the milled library into a win or a very high-certainty setup. Against open blue mana, known discard, or visible hate, use Unmask, Cabal Therapy, or Pact of Negation before or during the commitment when legal.

• Thassa's Oracle: Treat Thassa's Oracle as the deterministic payoff, not a normal hand cast. The preferred line is to put it onto the battlefield after the library is empty or effectively empty, commonly through Dread Return; do not cast it from hand as value unless the rules engine shows a winning trigger or the game is otherwise unwinnable. Preserve Thassa's Oracle in hand when possible because losing it to imprint, discard-for-cost, or careless exile can break the canonical kill.

• Dread Return: Treat Dread Return as the bridge between the milled library and Thassa's Oracle. Its flashback sacrifice requirement makes creature count the critical bottleneck after Balustrade Spy; avoid sacrificing or spending Narcomoeba, Poxwalkers, or token bodies before checking whether they are needed to flash back Dread Return. If Dread Return is stranded in hand, do not cast it as a fair reanimation spell unless Forge shows a concrete winning or survival line.

• Narcomoeba: Treat Narcomoeba as combo material first and battlefield material second. Its job is to appear from the library during the Balustrade Spy mill and provide sacrifice bodies for Dread Return, Cabal Therapy, or related graveyard sequencing; do not attack or block with it when that risks losing a necessary sacrifice count before the combo turn. If naturally drawn, it is usually weaker because it reduces automatic bodies from the mill.

• Bridge from Below: Treat Bridge from Below as a graveyard-only body generator for sacrifice math. Card text check required for exact trigger handling in the current rules engine, but tactically it should be preserved as a combo component and not evaluated as a castable card. Avoid lines that let opposing creatures die at the wrong time if Forge exposes that this will exile or disable Bridge from Below.

• Poxwalkers: Treat Poxwalkers as an auxiliary graveyard body for the Dread Return plan. Card text check required for the exact return condition, so only rely on it when Forge has already produced a legal trigger or visible body. Do not keep hands because of Poxwalkers; it supports the combo after self-mill rather than starting it.

• Dark Ritual: Use Dark Ritual as the most important black acceleration spell. Prioritize it for casting Balustrade Spy, Lively Dirge, discard plus payoff in the same turn, or post-board Goblin Charbelcher lines that need black sequencing; avoid spending it on incomplete setup unless a persistent modal black land makes the next turn much stronger. Dark Ritual should usually be cast after protection decisions when the opponent may respond to the payoff but cannot profitably counter a ritual.

• Cabal Ritual: Use Cabal Ritual as black acceleration that becomes stronger after graveyard density is established. Before threshold, it is still part of fast Balustrade Spy math; after self-mill or early exchanges, it may enable larger recovery or post-board artifact lines. Do not assume threshold unless Forge-visible graveyard count confirms it.

• Lotus Petal: Use Lotus Petal as exact color fixing and burst mana, not as casual acceleration. Hold it until the decisive turn when possible because it can make black for Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Balustrade Spy, Reanimate, Unmask follow-up lines, or sideboard interaction. Sacrificing Lotus Petal early is correct only when it creates a protected immediate attempt or prevents losing to a visible hate permanent.

• Chrome Mox: Use Chrome Mox as persistent mana only when the imprint cost does not remove a unique combo component. Imprinting redundant black cards can make turn-1 or turn-2 kills possible, but avoid exiling the only Balustrade Spy, Lively Dirge, Dread Return, Thassa's Oracle, Bridge from Below, or the only black card that makes the rest of the hand function. Check legal imprint choices exactly; a hand with Chrome Mox is not a black-mana hand until Forge shows the imprint and mana actions.

• Elvish Spirit Guide: Use Elvish Spirit Guide as green burst mana mainly for sideboard plans or color conversion through artifacts and exact legal costs. In the main deck, green mana often fails to cast the black engine directly, so do not overvalue hands with multiple Elvish Spirit Guide and no black source. Post-board, it becomes more important with Force of Vigor, Wear Down, and Goblin Charbelcher plans.

• Simian Spirit Guide: Use Simian Spirit Guide as red burst mana for artifact or sideboard execution, especially post-board Goblin Charbelcher. In game 1, it may help pay generic costs but does not replace black mana for Balustrade Spy; keep it when the rest of the hand already has black access, not as the only acceleration.

• Agadeem's Awakening: Treat Agadeem's Awakening primarily as a modal black land in this deck. Its front side is a possible recovery spell only if Forge shows a legal and meaningful reanimation mode, but the default use is enabling black mana while maintaining the landless library for Balustrade Spy. Do not hold it for speculative spell value when playing it as a black source unlocks the combo.

• Boggart Trawler: Treat Boggart Trawler primarily as a modal black land and secondarily as a conditional spell. Card text check required for exact front-side tactical use; use the land mode when it gives stable black mana for a later protected attempt. Do not count it as a graveyard-hate or disruption spell unless the legal action text confirms that role.

• Fell the Profane: Treat Fell the Profane primarily as a modal black land with a situational removal or interaction front side. Card text check required for exact target and cost details. The land mode is normally stronger before comboing; the spell mode matters only when a visible creature or permanent problem must be answered before the combo can resolve.

• Lively Dirge: Treat Lively Dirge as payoff access or recovery, not generic value. Card text check required for exact modes and costs; if Forge exposes a legal mode that finds or returns Balustrade Spy, use it as a slower engine starter when direct Balustrade Spy is absent. Do not cast it into open disruption without checking whether the mana left over still supports the actual kill.

• Reanimate: Use Reanimate to convert a graveyarded Balustrade Spy or other decisive creature into an engine action. It is strongest after discard, mill, or a countered payoff creates a target; it is weakest as a speculative play that costs life without winning. Count life total carefully because Reanimate can turn a winning line into a loss against visible pressure.

• Cabal Therapy: Use Cabal Therapy as both proactive protection and a sacrifice outlet. Name only cards justified by revealed information, public archetype context, or prior game knowledge; do not invent hidden information. Flashback is valuable when Narcomoeba, Poxwalkers, or tokens are expendable, but do not sacrifice bodies needed for Dread Return unless the discard clears the decisive obstacle.

• Unmask: Use Unmask as the fastest protection against countermagic, hate, or opposing combo. The exile cost is dangerous, so choose redundant black cards and avoid exiling unique engine pieces unless the line wins immediately. On the play, Unmask can clear the way before committing; on the draw, it can also check whether a graveyard line is still safe.

• Pact of Negation: Use Pact of Negation only to protect a turn that wins or creates an overwhelmingly decisive result. Do not counter low-impact interaction if the game will continue and the upkeep cost cannot be paid. It is a liability in slow hands and a premium card in all-in hands that already have exact mana and payoff access.

• Disciple of Freyalise: Treat Disciple of Freyalise as a flexible main-deck support card whose exact use needs card text verification. Card text check required for current front/back functionality; if it is available as mana or card-flow through legal actions, use it only when it improves the next decisive combo turn or survival math. Do not prioritize it over Balustrade Spy, Lively Dirge, or protected graveyard execution.

Interaction Priorities

• Priority: protect the decisive self-mill spell before spending acceleration. Use Unmask first when the opponent may have countermagic, discard, opponent:Force of Will, opponent:Daze, opponent:Flusterstorm, graveyard hate, or a faster combo; use Pact of Negation only for a stack fight on the turn that should win, because an unpaid Pact upkeep is not a backup plan.

• Priority: discard effects should name or take the card that stops the current legal line, not the scariest card in the abstract. If the hand is Balustrade Spy plus mana, clear countermagic or instant-speed graveyard interaction first; if the line needs Dread Return, clear graveyard exile first; if the opponent is also comboing, clear the fastest kill piece only when your own protected attempt is not already available.

• Priority: use Cabal Therapy with revealed or strongly indicated information. When no hidden card is known, prefer names based on public archetype context and previous-game evidence, and do not sacrifice Narcomoeba, Poxwalkers, or Bridge from Below token material if that body is required for Dread Return unless the flashback clears the only visible obstacle.

• Priority: preserve Pact of Negation for interaction that stops Balustrade Spy, Dread Return, Thassa's Oracle, or the post-board Goblin Charbelcher kill. Ignore low-impact cantrips, creature removal pointed at irrelevant bodies, and nonlethal pressure if the current turn can win; countering a spell that does not stop the win is usually worse than saving Pact for the actual choke point.

• Priority: answer permanent hate only when it blocks the selected route. Post-board, Force of Vigor, Wear Down, Jack-o'-Lantern, Memory's Journey, Progenitus, and Chancellor of the Annex create alternate interaction patterns, but main-deck game 1 normally cannot remove resolved hate except through exact legal Fell the Profane or Boggart Trawler text if Forge exposes it. Card text check required for those front-side roles.

• Bait: use redundant acceleration, Chrome Mox, or a slower Lively Dirge line to draw soft counters only when the hand still has a real payoff afterward. Do not bait with the only Balustrade Spy, only Lively Dirge, only black source, only graveyard payoff, or only protection spell unless waiting is worse and the legal line is otherwise dead.

• Exile discipline: choose redundant black cards for Unmask and Chrome Mox, not unique combo pieces. Exiling Thassa's Oracle, Dread Return, Bridge from Below, the only Balustrade Spy, or the only functional black card requires an immediate deterministic win or a post-board plan where that card is no longer part of the chosen route.

• Archetype shift: against blue tempo and control, prioritize protection sequencing over maximum speed unless the opponent is tapped out or shields are forced down. Against prison and hate-bear decks, prioritize speed before lock pieces resolve and use sideboard artifact/enchantment answers only for hate that actually blocks the selected route. Against creature aggro, ignore most combat damage until Reanimate life loss or a visible lethal clock makes the current turn mandatory. Against faster combo, discard their kill only if your own protected kill is not immediately legal.

Combat And Trading Rules

• Rule: combat is almost never the primary plan, so do not attack or block in ways that consume combo resources. Narcomoeba, Poxwalkers, and any Bridge from Below tokens are usually material for Cabal Therapy flashback and Dread Return; preserve the exact creature count needed for the current graveyard line unless blocking prevents immediate lethal.

• Rule: protect life total only to the threshold needed for Reanimate, modal land payments, and one more turn. A low life total matters because Reanimate, Agadeem's Awakening, Boggart Trawler, Fell the Profane, and Disciple of Freyalise land modes may involve life or tempo costs depending on legal text; block only when the visible attack changes whether the next combo attempt can legally happen.

• Rule: do not trade engine creatures for ordinary attackers. Balustrade Spy is a combo engine, not a defensive flier, unless the self-mill trigger has already resolved and the body is no longer needed. Thassa's Oracle is a payoff, not a blocker, unless the Oracle trigger plan is unavailable and blocking prevents immediate loss.

• Rule: attack only when combat is free or the game has shifted to an emergency damage plan. A lone Narcomoeba, Poxwalkers, Balustrade Spy, or token can chip in when no sacrifice or reanimation use is pending, but never expose a required creature to a profitable block just to deal small damage.

• Rule: against creature aggro, treat blocking as a survival valve, not a value contest. Preserve combo bodies while above the danger threshold; once the opponent presents lethal or forces Reanimate math below safety, block with the least strategically important creature first and keep the bodies needed for Dread Return if any legal winning line remains.

• Rule: against control, combat pressure is secondary to hidden-resource management. Do not attack into removal or blockers with creatures needed for flashback costs, and do not let a small damage plan distract from assembling protected Balustrade Spy, Lively Dirge, Dread Return, or Goblin Charbelcher execution.

• Rule: against graveyard hate or prison after sideboarding, combat remains a fallback only if the selected plan is no longer graveyard-based. If Goblin Charbelcher is the plan, creatures mainly buy time or absorb attacks; if the graveyard plan is active, preserve sacrifice bodies and prioritize removing or bypassing the hate over trading in combat.

Selection And Tutor Rules

• Rule: treat selection as commitment management, not card-quality smoothing. This list has no normal cantrip package, so the important choices are mulligan selection, modal land timing, Chrome Mox imprint, Unmask exile, Cabal Therapy naming, Lively Dirge mode/target selection, and whether to commit the graveyard route or post-board Goblin Charbelcher route.

• Rule: use Lively Dirge as a combo selector only when Forge exposes the legal mode sequence that actually advances the kill. If a legal mode searches a card into the graveyard, the default find is Balustrade Spy when reanimation or a legal return mode is available; find Thassa's Oracle only when the library-empty Dread Return line already has bodies and the missing piece is the payoff; find Dread Return only when Balustrade Spy is already resolving or already in the graveyard and creature material is available. Card text check required for exact Lively Dirge mode costs and target limits; obey Forge legal actions over this guide.

• Rule: choose modal land deployment by the current turn's mana bottleneck. Play Agadeem's Awakening, Boggart Trawler, Fell the Profane, or Disciple of Freyalise as a land only when that land drop creates the black mana, color fixing, or post-board Goblin Charbelcher activation path needed more than the spell face. Do not spend the only flexible black card as a land if it is required for Chrome Mox, Unmask, or a near-term black spell.

• Rule: preserve unique combo cards during pseudo-selection costs. Do not imprint or exile Balustrade Spy, Dread Return, Bridge from Below, Thassa's Oracle, the only Lively Dirge, or the only black mana source unless the current legal line wins immediately or the selected post-board plan no longer depends on that card.

• Rule: use Cabal Therapy names from public information first. If the opponent's hand is revealed, name the exact card that stops the current line; if no card is revealed, name based on archetype, previous-game evidence, and stack context, with countermagic or instant graveyard interaction taking priority over generic value cards.

• Rule: after self-mill resolves, let trigger-created selection become deterministic where possible. Resolve Narcomoeba, Bridge from Below, and Poxwalkers-related legal triggers as Forge offers them, then choose sacrifice and flashback lines that preserve enough creatures for Dread Return before using extra bodies for Cabal Therapy.

Priority And Stack Rules

• Priority: cast discard and protection before the all-in spell when the opponent can interact. Use Unmask or Cabal Therapy before Balustrade Spy, Lively Dirge, Reanimate, or Dread Return if the delay does not break the mana line; once the kill spell is on the stack, use Pact of Negation only on spells that counter, exile, tax beyond payment, or otherwise stop that line.

• Priority: protect the choke point, not every object. Counter effects aimed at Balustrade Spy, Lively Dirge, Dread Return, Thassa's Oracle, or post-board Goblin Charbelcher when they prevent the win; let removal, pressure, or card draw resolve if it does not change the current legal kill or immediate survival.

• Priority: respect Pact of Negation as a same-turn shield. Do not cast it in a nonwinning exchange unless losing the stack fight immediately loses the game, because the next upkeep payment is not a plan this deck should assume it can satisfy.

• Priority: let self-mill and creature triggers resolve before spending sacrifice bodies. After Balustrade Spy mills the deck, do not flash back Cabal Therapy or Dread Return until Forge has offered and resolved relevant Narcomoeba, Bridge from Below, and Poxwalkers triggers that may create the creature count required for Dread Return.

• Priority: use Dread Return on Thassa's Oracle when the library-empty line is available. If the graveyard line has milled the library and three sacrifice bodies are legal, target Thassa's Oracle; protect Dread Return from countermagic or graveyard exile if Pact of Negation can legally answer the stopping spell.

• Priority: do not waste stack actions on irrelevant Oracle removal. If Thassa's Oracle has already triggered with an empty library, ordinary creature removal may not stop the trigger; prioritize effects that counter the spell, counter the triggered ability, exile the graveyard before Dread Return, or otherwise change the library/trigger condition. Card text and rules-engine output control the final decision.

• Priority: activate post-board Goblin Charbelcher only after the commitment gate is passed. Once the legal activation is selected, spend mana and protect the activation from stopping spells when possible; do not fire it into visible interaction if a protected graveyard line or a safer activation window is available.

• Priority: sideboard graveyard tools are timing-sensitive. Use Jack-o'-Lantern, Memory's Journey, Progenitus, Force of Vigor, Wear Down, and Chancellor of the Annex according to their Forge-exposed legal actions only when they protect the selected route, answer a blocking hate permanent, or preserve the library/graveyard state needed for the chosen win. Card text check required for exact optional triggers, replacement effects, flashback timing, and activation costs.

Sideboard Map

• Rule: sideboarding changes the commitment route, not the deck's identity. Keep the default graveyard kill when the opponent is light on permanent hate, add narrow answers when a visible or likely permanent stops Balustrade Spy, Dread Return, Reanimate, or Thassa's Oracle, and move toward Goblin Charbelcher only when graveyard access is likely to be contested by multiple angles.

• Rule: Goblin Charbelcher is the transformational kill against heavy graveyard hate, repeated graveyard exile, or opponents that over-focus on stopping Dread Return. Add it when the opponent is expected to present Leyline-style hate, fast repeatable graveyard exile, or many effects that make a one-shot graveyard line unreliable. It is bad when the opponent is faster, when mana denial is the main pressure, or when the hand cannot realistically assemble seven mana plus protection before dying. Its role changes the deck from graveyard all-in to artifact finisher: preserve Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Elvish Spirit Guide, and Simian Spirit Guide; value modal lands more highly as mana; and do not spend all resources on a graveyard line unless it wins now.

• Rule: Force of Vigor is the main answer to hate permanents. Add it against artifact or enchantment graveyard hate, lock pieces, artifact mana engines that race, and prison decks where a permanent prevents the combo from functioning. It is bad against mostly spell-based disruption, creature-only pressure, and combo mirrors where pitching a green card delays the kill more than the target matters. Its role is protection before commitment: keep enough green cards when possible, but do not keep a weak hand only because it contains Force of Vigor unless the matchup is defined by hate permanents.

• Rule: Wear Down is a slower flexible permanent-answer card when the opponent's hate is likely to sit in play and the game may last past the first turn. Add it against prison, artifact/enchantment hate, and fair decks that lean on permanent disruption rather than stack interaction. It is bad in pure speed races, against countermagic-only decks, and in hands that cannot produce the required mana in time. Card text check required for exact mode, cost, and target limits; use it only through legal Forge actions.

• Rule: Jack-o'-Lantern is graveyard micro-interaction and a low-cost utility piece. Add it when a single graveyard card from either player matters, when the opponent can interact through graveyard recursion, or when a cheap artifact supports a post-board plan while preserving mana. It is bad when the opponent does not use the graveyard and when every card must be mana, protection, or a kill piece. Card text check required for exact activation, draw, and exile timing.

• Rule: Memory's Journey is anti-extraction and library/graveyard repair for games where the graveyard line may be disrupted after self-mill. Add it against effects that exile named cards, target Dread Return, target Thassa's Oracle, or punish an empty library before the kill resolves. It is bad against battlefield-only hate and speed races where a reactive graveyard card does not advance the first kill attempt. Card text check required for flashback, target count, and ownership restrictions; choose targets only from visible legal options.

• Rule: Progenitus is a graveyard-replacement safety valve rather than a normal threat. Add it only when its replacement text is strategically needed against library-empty failure modes, graveyard exile chains, or metagame effects that make milling the entire deck unsafe. It is bad when the clean Thassa's Oracle graveyard kill is the active plan, because shuffling can conflict with empty-library execution. Card text check required; never assume its replacement effect helps unless Forge exposes the resulting state.

• Rule: Chancellor of the Annex is pregame protection for the most all-in games. Add it against fast combo, free interaction, discard-heavy openers, and opponents where taxing the first spell buys the one turn needed to commit. It is bad in longer games where drawing an expensive creature reduces functional mana density. Its role is opening-hand shielding, not midgame value; mulligan decisions should value it only when the rest of the hand can actually execute.

• Rule: extra Disciple of Freyalise changes resource texture, not the primary kill. Add Disciple of Freyalise when the matchup is slower, when life total matters, or when the modal land/body/fodder profile supports resilience after discard. It is bad in the fastest races and against stack-heavy opponents where every nonessential card must be a kill piece, mana, or protection. Card text check required for exact spell-face choices; if it is used as a land, treat it as mana infrastructure for the selected plan.

Graveyard-hate fair decks, balanced answer plan Side in: 4 Force of Vigor; 1 Wear Down; 1 Memory's Journey Cut: 2 Unmask; 1 Bridge from Below; 1 Poxwalkers; 1 Disciple of Freyalise; 1 Reanimate

• Add role cards: Force of Vigor, Wear Down, and Memory's Journey when the opponent is likely to present permanent hate plus targeted graveyard interaction. Reduce main-deck emphasis: fragile redundancy that is poor after the first graveyard attempt, especially single-copy support cards that do not start the line. Keep Balustrade Spy, Lively Dirge, Dread Return, Thassa's Oracle, rituals, petals, and spirit guides because the deck still needs to win before fair pressure stabilizes.

Heavy graveyard hate, transformational artifact plan Side in: 4 Goblin Charbelcher; 4 Force of Vigor; 1 Chancellor of the Annex Cut: 3 Reanimate; 2 Narcomoeba; 1 Bridge from Below; 1 Poxwalkers; 1 Dread Return; 1 Thassa's Oracle

• Add role cards: Goblin Charbelcher, Force of Vigor, and Chancellor of the Annex when the opponent is expected to overload on graveyard hate. Reduce main-deck emphasis: graveyard-only payoffs and reanimation pieces that become weak into permanent hate. This plan keeps Balustrade Spy as a threat where legal, but the agent should treat Goblin Charbelcher as the cleanest route when the graveyard is visibly locked.

Fast combo or stack-light race plan Side in: 1 Chancellor of the Annex; 2 Disciple of Freyalise Cut: 1 Bridge from Below; 1 Poxwalkers; 1 Disciple of Freyalise

• Add role cards: Chancellor of the Annex for pregame tax pressure and extra Disciple of Freyalise for modal-resource density when the game is mostly about executing first. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow graveyard support bodies that do not independently create the kill. Do not dilute the deck with Force of Vigor, Wear Down, Jack-o'-Lantern, Memory's Journey, or Progenitus unless the opponent has shown relevant permanents or graveyard-specific interaction.

Graveyard mirror or recursive graveyard opponent plan Side in: 1 Jack-o'-Lantern; 1 Memory's Journey; 1 Progenitus Cut: 1 Bridge from Below; 1 Poxwalkers; 1 Disciple of Freyalise

• Add role cards: Jack-o'-Lantern, Memory's Journey, and Progenitus when graveyard contents, self-mill safety, or targeted graveyard disruption are central. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow auxiliary graveyard material that does not increase the speed of Balustrade Spy or protect Dread Return. Keep this plan narrow; if the opponent is simply racing, prioritize speed and protection instead.

Artifact/enchantment prison plan Side in: 4 Force of Vigor; 1 Wear Down; 4 Goblin Charbelcher Cut: 3 Reanimate; 2 Unmask; 1 Bridge from Below; 1 Poxwalkers; 1 Narcomoeba; 1 Disciple of Freyalise

• Add role cards: Force of Vigor, Wear Down, and Goblin Charbelcher when artifacts or enchantments can stop the graveyard route, tax spells, or slow the first combo attempt. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow discard and graveyard recursion that become poor after a prison permanent is already visible. Preserve mana explosiveness; this plan wins by answering the lock and firing one decisive kill, not by playing a long attrition game.

Matchup Guidance

• Aggro: Race first and interact only when a visible permanent or lethal clock changes the combo turn. Keep hands that assemble Balustrade Spy or a Lively Dirge route with enough mana from Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, Elvish Spirit Guide, and Simian Spirit Guide; do not keep slow protection-heavy hands that cannot attempt the kill before combat damage matters. Use Pact of Negation to force the winning turn, not to win a fair stack fight. Add role cards: extra Disciple of Freyalise when life and modal resource texture matter, and Chancellor of the Annex when a one-spell tax can buy the decisive turn. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow auxiliary graveyard pieces such as Bridge from Below and Poxwalkers when the matchup is a pure race.

• Control: Treat the matchup as a commitment-gate puzzle, not a goldfish. Prefer hands with a kill route plus disruption from Unmask, Cabal Therapy, or Pact of Negation; a fast unprotected Balustrade Spy is strong only when waiting gives the opponent more draw steps than protection. Fire Unmask before committing if the hand can still pay for the kill afterward, and use Cabal Therapy only on visible or strongly inferred information without inventing hidden cards. Add role cards: Chancellor of the Annex for opening protection and Goblin Charbelcher when the opponent is likely to overprepare for the graveyard. Reduce main-deck emphasis: graveyard-only redundancy when visible hate makes Dread Return into Thassa's Oracle unreliable.

• Combo: Prioritize speed unless visible stack interaction or faster lethal pressure demands protection. Keep hands that can kill immediately or on the next turn with Balustrade Spy, Lively Dirge, or Reanimate on the correct visible target; mulligan medium hands that need several draw steps. Use Pact of Negation offensively on the combo turn, and use Unmask only if it does not break the mana math. Add role cards: Chancellor of the Annex against faster spell-based combo and Memory's Journey only when graveyard/library repair is relevant to visible or known disruption. Reduce main-deck emphasis: reactive permanent answers such as Force of Vigor and Wear Down unless the opponent has shown artifacts or enchantments that stop the kill.

• Tempo: Respect soft permission and early pressure together. Choose hands with redundant mana, because Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Lotus Petal, and spirit guides are the difference between paying through friction and passing into a lethal clock. Do not spend Pact of Negation on a nonwinning exchange unless the rules engine shows survival is otherwise impossible. Add role cards: Chancellor of the Annex to tax the first interactive spell and Goblin Charbelcher when graveyard hate is expected. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slower recursion such as extra reliance on Reanimate when graveyard timing is exposed to both pressure and permission.

• Midrange: Assume discard, permanent hate, and a slower clock unless visible information says otherwise. Value hands with redundancy across Balustrade Spy, Lively Dirge, Reanimate, and mana rather than hands that fold to one discard spell. Use Cabal Therapy to clear known disruption or convert creature resources only when Forge presents legal sacrifice lines and the graveyard plan remains intact. Add role cards: Force of Vigor, Wear Down, Memory's Journey, and Goblin Charbelcher when the opponent shifts toward hate permanents and extraction effects. Reduce main-deck emphasis: single-copy graveyard support cards that do not increase speed after disruption.

• Big mana: Race the opponent's payoff turn and avoid overboarding into answers that do not matter. Keep explosive mana hands, because Agadeem's Awakening, Boggart Trawler, and Fell the Profane are functionally part of the spell/land texture while rituals and free mana create the winning burst. Use Unmask if it removes a visible or plausibly decisive payoff and the combo still functions. Add role cards: Goblin Charbelcher when graveyard hate is likely from sideboard configuration, and Force of Vigor only for visible or expected artifact/enchantment blockers. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Jack-o'-Lantern, Memory's Journey, and Progenitus unless graveyard interaction is actually part of the opposing plan.

• Graveyard decks: Decide whether the game is a race, a hate fight, or a self-mill safety problem. If the opponent is also racing through the graveyard, prioritize the fastest Balustrade Spy or Lively Dirge line and do not dilute with narrow tools. If the opponent can disrupt graveyards, preserve Dread Return, Thassa's Oracle, and enough creature material from Narcomoeba, Bridge from Below, and Poxwalkers only when Forge shows those lines remain legal. Add role cards: Jack-o'-Lantern, Memory's Journey, and Progenitus for graveyard-card control, repair, and replacement safety. Card text check required for exact Jack-o'-Lantern, Memory's Journey, and Progenitus timing.

• Artifact/enchantment decks: Treat hate permanents as the main axis once they are visible or highly likely. Do not jam a graveyard-only line into a visible lock unless Forge shows the action can still win. Use Force of Vigor and Wear Down as role cards to clear blockers, then commit in the same turn when possible so the opponent gets fewer rebuild windows. Add role cards: Goblin Charbelcher as the clean alternate kill when graveyard access is unreliable. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Reanimate, Narcomoeba, Bridge from Below, Poxwalkers, Dread Return, and Thassa's Oracle only to the extent the chosen post-board plan no longer depends on them.

• Go-wide decks: Race before board size becomes lethal, and ignore combat unless a block or life action is explicitly survival-relevant. Narcomoeba, Poxwalkers, and token material should be treated as combo resources first, not a fair battlefield plan. Use Disciple of Freyalise only through legal actions and only when its visible mode helps bridge a turn or supports the selected line; Card text check required for exact face and mode text. Add role cards: extra Disciple of Freyalise if life total or body texture matters, and Force of Vigor only when go-wide pressure is paired with hate permanents. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow discard if the opponent empties their hand quickly.

• Single-threat decks: Use the opponent's slower clock to sculpt one protected attempt. Unmask and Cabal Therapy are better when they remove the specific interactive card that beats the combo than when they chase pressure. Do not spend resources answering the threat unless a legal action clearly preserves a winning next turn. Add role cards: Chancellor of the Annex against stack interaction and Goblin Charbelcher against graveyard hate. Reduce main-deck emphasis: creature-combat assumptions; this deck wins by executing, not by trading with one large attacker.

• Burn: Treat life total as a turn counter and avoid unnecessary payment or delay. Prefer immediate kills and hands with low exposure to passing; Pact of Negation is dangerous if the game continues to upkeep, so use it mainly when the same turn wins. Reanimate life payment must be checked against visible life total and lethal burn risk; do not choose it when Forge-visible state implies death before payoff. Add role cards: Chancellor of the Annex to tax the first spell and extra Disciple of Freyalise when life/resource mode is relevant. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow discard and graveyard repair that does not change the kill turn.

• Removal-heavy decks: Remember that ordinary creature removal is weaker than graveyard exile, discard, and stack interaction, but removal can matter if it breaks Dread Return sacrifice material or a Reanimate line. Sequence Balustrade Spy lines to win immediately rather than pass with a vulnerable creature. Use Cabal Therapy sacrifices only when the creature count and graveyard payoff remain sufficient. Add role cards: Memory's Journey against targeted graveyard disruption, Goblin Charbelcher against graveyard-heavy hate, and Force of Vigor or Wear Down against permanent hate. Reduce main-deck emphasis: fragile support pieces that do not survive the opponent's interaction pattern.

Specific Matchup Notes

• General/archetype-only: Treat these notes as assumptions until the opponent reveals cards; revealed cards, legal actions, and Forge-visible state override archetype labels. The default plan is still to assemble Balustrade Spy or a supported Lively Dirge/Reanimate line quickly, protect the attempt with Pact of Negation, Unmask, or Cabal Therapy, then win through Dread Return and Thassa's Oracle only when the engine confirms every step is legal.

• Blue permission: Prioritize a protected single turn over partial development. Keep hands with enough mana to combo and interact, value Pact of Negation highly when the same turn can win, and use Unmask or Cabal Therapy on visible or strongly implied counterplay only if the combo shell remains intact. Add role cards: Chancellor of the Annex and Goblin Charbelcher when stack interaction or graveyard hate is expected.

• Discard and midrange: Prioritize redundancy over one perfect seven. A hand with multiple access pieces across Balustrade Spy, Lively Dirge, Reanimate, and mana is better than a fragile hand that loses to one discard spell. Use Cabal Therapy more cautiously after disruption, because sacrificing Narcomoeba, Poxwalkers, or token material can break the Dread Return route.

• Permanent-hate decks: Prioritize answering visible hate before committing the graveyard line. Add role cards: Force of Vigor, Wear Down, and Goblin Charbelcher; use removal for artifact/enchantment blockers only when the next legal sequence can immediately advance toward a win. Card text check required for exact Wear Down mode timing.

• Fast creature and burn decks: Prioritize speed and life preservation. Avoid passing with a setup hand when Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Lotus Petal, Elvish Spirit Guide, or Simian Spirit Guide can create a same-turn attempt. Treat Reanimate life loss and Pact of Negation upkeep exposure as lethal-risk decisions, not free resources.

• Graveyard mirrors or graveyard hate fights: Prioritize the cleanest kill unless the opponent has shown graveyard interaction. Add role cards: Jack-o'-Lantern, Memory's Journey, and Progenitus only when graveyard-card control, protection, or self-mill replacement safety matters. Card text check required for exact Jack-o'-Lantern, Memory's Journey, and Progenitus timing.

• Alternate-plan games: Prioritize Goblin Charbelcher only after sideboarding or when graveyard access is unreliable. The deck can pivot, but it should not dilute a fast graveyard kill without a visible reason. Disciple of Freyalise may support survival or conversion lines only through legal actions; Card text check required for exact face and mode text.

Risk Summary

• Mana risk: The deck has no conventional land plan, so hands must be judged by immediate usable mana from Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, Elvish Spirit Guide, Simian Spirit Guide, and modal land/spell cards such as Agadeem's Awakening, Boggart Trawler, and Fell the Profane. Do not assume future draw steps fix mana.

• Draw risk: Mulligan decisions are high leverage because many hands contain mana without action or action without enough burst. A hand that cannot produce a plausible Balustrade Spy, Lively Dirge, or Reanimate route before pressure or disruption matters should be treated skeptically.

• Graveyard risk: The primary kill depends on graveyard access, creature material, Dread Return, and Thassa's Oracle. Visible graveyard exile, replacement effects, or rules-engine warnings should pause commitment unless Goblin Charbelcher or a repaired line is available.

• Interaction risk: Pact of Negation protects winning turns but can lose delayed games. Use it as combo protection, not as a generic answer, unless survival and a next-turn win are both visible.

• Over-sideboarding risk: Adding too many role cards weakens the density of mana, mill, recursion, and payoff. Force of Vigor, Wear Down, Jack-o'-Lantern, Memory's Journey, Progenitus, Chancellor of the Annex, extra Disciple of Freyalise, and Goblin Charbelcher should answer a known axis, not every possible axis at once.

• Sweeper/removal risk: Creature removal can matter when it removes Balustrade Spy before value, disrupts Reanimate, or reduces sacrifice material for Dread Return. Do not pass with fragile battlefield resources unless the engine state shows no immediate winning line.

• Closer risk: Thassa's Oracle is the deterministic payoff only when the library/graveyard state and legal triggers support it. If the Oracle route is blocked, pivot only to visible legal alternatives such as Goblin Charbelcher; do not assume hidden inevitability.

• Sequencing risk: The most common failure is spending mana, pitch cards, or sacrifice resources in the wrong order. Preserve black mana for core actions, preserve enough creature material for Dread Return, and let Forge legal-action output determine each target, cost, and priority step.

Test Feedback Checklist

• Result driver: Did the game end because Balustrade Spy, Lively Dirge, or Reanimate assembled a legal kill, or because mana, graveyard access, protection, or payoff sequencing failed before the deck could commit?
• Mulligan quality: Did kept hands contain a complete route of action plus mana plus payoff access, or were hands kept because they had only fast mana such as Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, Elvish Spirit Guide, or Simian Spirit Guide?
• Mana execution: Did the pilot preserve black mana for Balustrade Spy, Lively Dirge, Reanimate, Cabal Therapy, and Dread Return, or did early Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, Spirit Guide, or ritual choices strand the actual engine card?
• Velocity check: Did the deck attempt the kill on the first turn where Forge showed a legal protected route, or did it pass with a fragile hand while the opponent developed discard, pressure, graveyard hate, or permission?
• Engine integrity: Did Narcomoeba, Bridge from Below, Poxwalkers, Dread Return, and Thassa's Oracle appear in a legal sequence, or did sacrifice material, graveyard state, or trigger timing fail at runtime?
• Protection timing: Did Pact of Negation, Unmask, and Cabal Therapy protect a winning turn, or were they spent in a way that reduced combo density without clearing the relevant opposing interaction?
• Information use: Did Unmask or Cabal Therapy decisions use visible hand information, public game history, and legal target output, or did the pilot guess through hidden information?
• Graveyard disruption: Did visible graveyard hate force a pivot to Goblin Charbelcher, Force of Vigor, Wear Down, Jack-o'-Lantern, Memory's Journey, or Progenitus, and did that pivot happen before committing the graveyard line?
• Removal and permanent hate: Did Force of Vigor or Wear Down answer the permanent that actually blocked the win, or were sideboard answers held or spent without a same-turn plan? Card text check required for exact Wear Down timing.
• Closing check: Did Thassa's Oracle win only when the engine confirmed the library/graveyard state and trigger legality, or did the pilot assume an Oracle win before Forge exposed the necessary legal actions?
• Sideboard role check: Did sideboarded games keep enough core density among Balustrade Spy, Lively Dirge, rituals, pitch mana, Dread Return, and Thassa's Oracle, or did role cards dilute the primary plan too heavily?
• Alternate-plan check: Did Goblin Charbelcher win or meaningfully pressure opponents who attacked the graveyard, and did the pilot have enough mana density to activate the plan when chosen?
• Stranded-card review: Which cards sat unusable in hand most often: Agadeem's Awakening, Boggart Trawler, Fell the Profane, extra Pact of Negation, Reanimate, Cabal Therapy, or sideboard cards?
• Overperformer review: Which cards most often converted a marginal hand into a win: Lively Dirge, Balustrade Spy, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Lotus Petal, Unmask, Pact of Negation, or Goblin Charbelcher?
• Underperformer review: Which cards most often failed because of timing, mana, matchup texture, or rules-engine legality: Disciple of Freyalise, Poxwalkers, Bridge from Below, Cabal Therapy, Reanimate, Memory's Journey, or Jack-o'-Lantern?
• Mistake audit: Did losses involve wrong mulligans, wrong mana source order, premature protection, illegal hidden-information assumptions, missed same-turn kill windows, or sideboard role conflict?

First Tuning Questions

• Main engine quantity: Is four Balustrade Spy plus four Lively Dirge enough action density, or do losses show too many hands with mana and no legal engine access?
• Recursion balance: Are three Reanimate correct when life loss, target availability, and graveyard hate are considered, or does the deck need a different balance between reanimation access and protected natural Balustrade Spy attempts?
• Protection mix: Are four Pact of Negation, two Unmask, and two Cabal Therapy enough against blue permission and discard, or does the deck lose more often to interaction than to self-inflicted card economy?
• Mana mix: Do Chrome Mox, Lotus Petal, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Elvish Spirit Guide, and Simian Spirit Guide produce the right colors at the right time, or do logs show too many hands with unusable red/green-only acceleration?
• Modal card pressure: Do Agadeem's Awakening, Boggart Trawler, and Fell the Profane improve keepable hands enough, or are they frequently stranded by life, timing, or color constraints? Card text check required before tuning exact modal roles.
• Sacrifice package: Do Narcomoeba, Bridge from Below, and Poxwalkers reliably support Dread Return, or do failed lines show that the deck needs more creature material, different sequencing rules, or fewer assumptions about graveyard triggers?
• Payoff fragility: Is one Thassa's Oracle acceptable in post-sideboard games with graveyard interaction, or do logs show enough exile, discard, or self-mill complications to justify a stronger alternate closer plan?
• Charbelcher plan: Does four Goblin Charbelcher after sideboarding actually beat graveyard hate, or does it create hands that lack activation mana, protection, or enough time against fast opponents?
• Permanent-hate slots: Are four Force of Vigor plus one Wear Down the right answer package, or do games show missed answers to artifacts/enchantments, awkward pitch costs, or too many low-impact sideboard draws?
• Graveyard-fight slots: Do Jack-o'-Lantern, Memory's Journey, and Progenitus solve real problems, or do they appear only in games where a faster kill or Goblin Charbelcher pivot would be better?
• Aggro plan: Does the deck race fast creature and burn opponents often enough, or should tuning emphasize fewer slow interactive cards and more consistent turn-one or turn-two commitment?
• Control plan: Does the deck beat permission by combining Pact of Negation, Unmask, Cabal Therapy, and Chancellor of the Annex, or are protected attempts still too rare?
• Role conflict: Do sideboarded configurations try to be both graveyard combo and artifact-combo at once, and do those mixed hands lose because neither plan has enough density?
• Life-total pressure: Do Reanimate, modal spell life costs, and opponent pressure combine into avoidable losses, and should Disciple of Freyalise or other role cards matter only in matchups where Forge shows the time and legality to use them?
• Decision-policy gap: Which recurring mistakes should become Veles tactical policies: mulligan thresholds, exact mana ordering, protected combo commitment, Cabal Therapy sacrifice discipline, Goblin Charbelcher pivot timing, or permanent-hate timing?

Veles Tactical Policy

Policy: Mulligan To Engine Plus Mana

Priority: High Decision families: mulligan Cards: Balustrade Spy; Lively Dirge; Dark Ritual; Cabal Ritual; Lotus Petal; Chrome Mox; Elvish Spirit Guide; Simian Spirit Guide Phase windows: opening hand, mulligan decisions Runtime cues: prompt:mulligan; hand contains combo access and mana sources Use when: choosing keep or mulligan from visible opening hand only. Avoid when: hand lacks a legal route to Balustrade Spy, Lively Dirge, or a sideboard pivot and cannot interact first. Instructions: Keep hands that can plausibly produce a fast engine attempt with protected mana; mulligan hands that are only pitch cards, protection, or modal lands without action. Treat Lively Dirge as engine access only when Forge exposes legal text supporting that role; Card text check required. Pilot skill floor: medium No-API allowed: no Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Bottom Least Critical Redundancy

Priority: Medium Decision families: mulligan, selection Cards: Narcomoeba; Bridge from Below; Poxwalkers; Dread Return; Thassa's Oracle; Pact of Negation; Unmask; Cabal Therapy Phase windows: London mulligan bottoming Runtime cues: prompt:bottom; visible hand after mulligan Use when: selecting cards to put on bottom after a keep. Avoid when: bottoming would remove the only payoff, the only engine access, or the only required mana color. Instructions: Preserve one executable engine path first, then protection, then excess mana. Bottom redundant payoff pieces before losing the only Balustrade Spy access, but do not bottom Thassa's Oracle, Dread Return, or the only creature-support piece if the visible plan requires them in library or graveyard. Pilot skill floor: medium No-API allowed: no Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: First Engine Commitment Gate

Priority: High Decision families: priority, interaction, mana Cards: Balustrade Spy; Lively Dirge; Pact of Negation; Unmask; Cabal Therapy Phase windows: main phase, priority before casting engine spell Runtime cues: legal action includes casting or enabling Balustrade Spy or Lively Dirge Use when: deciding whether to start the graveyard combo this turn. Avoid when: visible hate, known permission, insufficient black mana, or missing payoff support makes the engine attempt incomplete. Instructions: Commit when waiting gives the opponent more draw steps than protection can cover, or when visible interaction has been cleared. Delay only if a legal discard/protection action can materially improve the same-turn attempt. Pilot skill floor: high No-API allowed: no Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Deterministic Target Self Balustrade Spy

Priority: Medium Decision families: selection Cards: Balustrade Spy Phase windows: spell resolution, target prompt Runtime cues: action:target self Balustrade Spy Use when: a legal action text explicitly targets self for Balustrade Spy and the committed line is resolving Balustrade Spy on the pilot. Avoid when: there is no explicit self-target legal action or the engine has not committed to the graveyard line. Instructions: Select the self-target action exactly; this deck mills itself, not the opponent, for its primary combo. Pilot skill floor: low No-API allowed: yes Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Payoff Target Thassa's Oracle With Dread Return

Priority: Medium Decision families: selection Cards: Dread Return; Thassa's Oracle Phase windows: graveyard-cast target prompt Runtime cues: action:target Thassa's Oracle Dread Return Use when: a legal action text explicitly targets Thassa's Oracle with Dread Return from the graveyard after the combo line has milled the library. Avoid when: Thassa's Oracle is not a visible legal target or Forge has not exposed a legal Dread Return action. Instructions: Choose Thassa's Oracle as the payoff target for the deterministic graveyard kill. Pilot skill floor: low No-API allowed: yes Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Dread Return Sacrifice Material Gate

Priority: High Decision families: selection, priority Cards: Dread Return; Narcomoeba; Bridge from Below; Poxwalkers; Thassa's Oracle Phase windows: graveyard combo resolution, flashback cost choice Runtime cues: prompt:sacrifice; legal action includes Dread Return Use when: deciding whether and how to pay Dread Return flashback costs. Avoid when: fewer than the required legal creature sacrifices are visible or sacrificing removes the only legal route to the payoff. Instructions: Use Narcomoeba, token material from Bridge from Below, and Poxwalkers only as Forge exposes them. Do not assume triggers, tokens, or recursion exist until visible state and legal actions confirm them. Pilot skill floor: high No-API allowed: no Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Mana Source Ordering For Combo Turn

Priority: Medium Decision families: mana Cards: Dark Ritual; Cabal Ritual; Lotus Petal; Chrome Mox; Elvish Spirit Guide; Simian Spirit Guide; Agadeem's Awakening; Boggart Trawler; Fell the Profane Phase windows: main phase, mana payment prompts Runtime cues: prompt:pay mana; legal mana-source choices visible Use when: paying for engine spells, protection, or sideboard pivots. Avoid when: Forge exposes a restricted payment that requires exact source matching beyond visible summary. Instructions: Spend temporary black mana on black engine requirements before using flexible artifacts; preserve Lotus Petal and imprint choices when they are needed for the last black pip. Treat modal cards as mana only when Forge exposes land or payment legality. Pilot skill floor: medium No-API allowed: no Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Mandatory Exact Payment After Selected Line

Priority: Low Decision families: mana Cards: Dark Ritual; Cabal Ritual; Lotus Petal; Chrome Mox Phase windows: mana payment prompt Runtime cues: action:pay selected mana Use when: exactly one legal payment action is shown for the already selected spell or ability. Avoid when: multiple legal source combinations are visible. Instructions: Submit the sole legal payment action and continue resolving the committed line. Pilot skill floor: low No-API allowed: yes Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Protection Before Combo

Priority: High Decision families: interaction, priority, selection Cards: Pact of Negation; Unmask; Cabal Therapy Phase windows: pre-combo main phase, opponent interaction windows, stack response Runtime cues: legal actions include discard or counter-protection Use when: deciding whether to clear or answer known interaction before committing. Avoid when: spending protection leaves no engine, no mana, or no same-turn route. Instructions: Use Unmask or Cabal Therapy to remove visible permission, graveyard hate, or discard when the same-turn combo remains intact. Hold Pact of Negation for stack interaction that stops the win, and respect upkeep-loss risk if the game continues. Pilot skill floor: high No-API allowed: no Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Cabal Therapy Known-Name Discipline

Priority: Medium Decision families: selection, interaction Cards: Cabal Therapy; Unmask Phase windows: spell resolution, name choice, flashback choice Runtime cues: prompt:choose card name; revealed opponent hand available Use when: Unmask, earlier reveal effects, or public information gives a concrete card name to choose. Avoid when: no revealed hand, no public certainty, or the legal prompt requires guessing hidden information. Instructions: Name a card only from visible or previously logged public information. If no legal known-name policy applies, route through light-model and state uncertainty rather than inventing the opponent's hand. Pilot skill floor: medium No-API allowed: no Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Reanimate Engine Access

Priority: Medium Decision families: priority, selection Cards: Reanimate; Balustrade Spy Phase windows: main phase, graveyard target prompt Runtime cues: legal action includes Reanimate; graveyard contains Balustrade Spy Use when: deciding whether to reanimate a visible Balustrade Spy as the engine route. Avoid when: life total, opposing interaction, graveyard hate, or missing payoff state makes the line fail after resolution. Instructions: Use Reanimate as a combo enabler only when Forge shows the target and the post-resolution self-mill plan is still legal. Account for life loss from visible engine output; do not assume survival through opponent pressure. Pilot skill floor: medium No-API allowed: no Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Deterministic Reanimate Target Balustrade Spy

Priority: Low Decision families: selection Cards: Reanimate; Balustrade Spy Phase windows: target prompt Runtime cues: action:target Balustrade Spy Reanimate Use when: a legal action text explicitly targets Balustrade Spy with Reanimate after the reanimation line is selected. Avoid when: multiple distinct Balustrade Spy objects or non-Spy targets require strategic comparison. Instructions: Select the visible Balustrade Spy target named in the legal action. Pilot skill floor: low No-API allowed: yes Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Opponent Graveyard Hate Pivot Gate

Priority: High Decision families: sideboard, priority, interaction Cards: Goblin Charbelcher; Force of Vigor; Wear Down; Jack-o'-Lantern; Memory's Journey; Progenitus Phase windows: sideboarding, opening hand, pre-combo main phase Runtime cues: visible graveyard hate, sideboarded game, legal hate-answer action Use when: deciding whether to answer hate, pivot to Goblin Charbelcher, or wait. Avoid when: hate is not visible or the current graveyard line wins before the hate matters by engine output. Instructions: Prefer a plan that wins through the visible blocker: remove artifacts/enchantments with Force of Vigor or Wear Down only when Forge confirms legality, or pivot to Goblin Charbelcher when graveyard execution is blocked. Card text check required for exact Wear Down, Jack-o'-Lantern, and Memory's Journey timing. Pilot skill floor: high No-API allowed: no Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Goblin Charbelcher Commitment Gate

Priority: High Decision families: sideboard, mana, priority Cards: Goblin Charbelcher; Lotus Petal; Chrome Mox; Elvish Spirit Guide; Simian Spirit Guide; Dark Ritual; Cabal Ritual Phase windows: post-sideboard main phase, activation windows Runtime cues: legal action includes Goblin Charbelcher Use when: deciding whether to cast or activate the sideboard alternate win condition. Avoid when: visible artifact hate, insufficient activation mana, or a faster protected graveyard line is already legal. Instructions: Use Goblin Charbelcher to bypass graveyard hate, not as a diluted backup when the primary combo is open. Preserve mana for activation when the legal sequence can cast and threaten or execute the kill. Pilot skill floor: high No-API allowed: no Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Deterministic Target Opponent Charbelcher

Priority: Medium Decision families: selection Cards: Goblin Charbelcher Phase windows: ability target prompt Runtime cues: action:target opponent Goblin Charbelcher Use when: a legal action text explicitly targets the opponent with Goblin Charbelcher after the activation line is selected. Avoid when: no opponent-target legal action is shown. Instructions: Select the opponent-target action for the activated win condition. Pilot skill floor: low No-API allowed: yes Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Combat Is Procedural Only

Priority: Low Decision families: combat, priority Cards: Narcomoeba; Poxwalkers; Disciple of Freyalise; Chancellor of the Annex Phase windows: combat phase, declare attackers, declare blockers Runtime cues: combat prompt; legal attack or block actions visible Use when: the game reaches combat with creatures visible. Avoid when: attacking or blocking would remove required sacrifice material or expose a combo piece before the win. Instructions: Do not treat combat damage as the plan unless the combo is unavailable and board state forces survival blocks. Preserve creatures needed for Dread Return; block only to survive a known clock or protect a later deterministic combo. Pilot skill floor: medium No-API allowed: no Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Sideboard Configuration Gate

Priority: High Decision families: sideboard Cards: Goblin Charbelcher; Force of Vigor; Wear Down; Jack-o'-Lantern; Memory's Journey; Progenitus; Chancellor of the Annex; Disciple of Freyalise; Balustrade Spy; Lively Dirge; Dread Return; Thassa's Oracle Phase windows: between games Runtime cues: prompt:sideboard; opponent archetype and game number visible Use when: choosing a legal sideboard plan after Game 1 or Game 2. Avoid when: a proposed plan cuts too much engine density or names cards outside registered zones. Instructions: Add hate answers or Goblin Charbelcher only for matchups where the opponent's visible or expected plan attacks the graveyard or stack. Keep enough Balustrade Spy, Lively Dirge, mana, Dread Return, and Thassa's Oracle density for a coherent kill. Pilot skill floor: high No-API allowed: no Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Chancellor Pregame Reveal

Priority: Medium Decision families: pregame, sideboard Cards: Chancellor of the Annex Phase windows: opening hand pregame reveal Runtime cues: action:reveal Chancellor of the Annex Use when: Chancellor of the Annex is in opening hand and Forge exposes a legal pregame reveal action. Avoid when: no legal reveal action is shown. Instructions: Reveal Chancellor of the Annex when the legal action is available, because the card was sideboarded for early disruption and the action does not consume combo mana. Pilot skill floor: low No-API allowed: yes Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Pass Only When No Material Action

Priority: Medium Decision families: priority, interaction Cards: Pact of Negation; Force of Vigor; Wear Down; Goblin Charbelcher Phase windows: all priority windows Runtime cues: action:pass priority; legal interaction actions visible or absent Use when: deciding whether to pass priority. Avoid when: a visible opposing spell, permanent, or activated ability stops the current win and a legal answer is available. Instructions: Pass through irrelevant windows to preserve speed, but stop for stack interaction, graveyard hate, artifact/enchantment hate, or activation opportunities tied to the selected line. Treat pass-under-pressure as a light-model decision unless it is the only legal action. Pilot skill floor: medium No-API allowed: no Light-model allowed: yes