720 lines
91 KiB
Markdown
720 lines
91 KiB
Markdown
# Strategy Specifications
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## Deck Name And Archetype
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- Identity: Living End is a Modern Temur-based cascade graveyard combo-midrange deck using `Violent Outburst` and `Shardless Agent` to cast `Living End` from the library while returning cycled creatures and clearing opposing battlefields.
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- Registration check: The supplied main deck contains exactly 60 cards, the sideboard contains exactly 15 cards, and the registered total is 75 cards.
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- Copy-limit check: No nonbasic card exceeds four registered copies across main deck and sideboard; the largest four-copy groups are `Curator of Mysteries`, `Force of Negation`, `Generous Ent`, `Street Wraith`, `Subtlety`, `Violent Outburst`, `Shardless Agent`, `Wistfulness`, `Endurance`, and sideboard `Obsidian Charmaw`.
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- Format declaration: Treat the deck as Modern for tactical and sideboarding purposes, but require the rules engine or card database to confirm final legality before tournament-grade output.
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- Legality concern: `Wistfulness` requires card database validation; Card text check required, and the agent must not assume its mana value, type, timing, or legality until Veles or the rules engine exposes legal actions involving it.
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- Cascade integrity concern: The deck’s core plan depends on `Violent Outburst` and `Shardless Agent` finding `Living End`; verify every castable nonland spell other than `Living End` has mana value three or greater, with special attention to `Wistfulness` because its card text and mana value are not confirmed here.
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- Stock status: This is a stock-archetype Living End shell with rogue or hybrid tuning choices, especially maindeck `Endurance`, maindeck `Wistfulness`, a one-copy `Sink into Stupor`, and a sideboard heavily weighted toward land and artifact pressure through `Obsidian Charmaw`, `Force of Vigor`, and `Ingot Chewer`.
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- Archetype tags: Normalize the supplied duplicate tags to `combo`, `midrange`, `cascade`, and `graveyard`; the agent should treat the deck as combo-first when a protected cascade is available and midrange-control when graveyard hate, countermagic, or battlefield pressure makes immediate combo commitment poor.
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- Color and mana identity: The main deck is primarily blue-green-red, with `Violent Outburst` requiring red-green, `Shardless Agent` requiring green-blue, and free interaction from `Force of Negation`, `Subtlety`, and `Endurance` reducing dependence on untapped lands during opposing turns.
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- Mana-base concern: The fetchland and surveil-land package includes `Misty Rainforest`, `Wooded Foothills`, `Breeding Pool`, `Steam Vents`, `Stomping Ground`, `Commercial District`, `Hedge Maze`, `Thundering Falls`, `Boseiju, Who Endures`, `Mistrise Village`, `Forest`, and `Island`; runtime choices must balance color access, life total, tapped-land timing, and the need to hold cascade or pitch-interaction windows.
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- Role package preview: The deck wins by stocking the graveyard with cyclers such as `Curator of Mysteries`, `Generous Ent`, `Street Wraith`, `Oliphaunt`, `Striped Riverwinder`, and `Colossal Skyturtle`, then resolving `Living End` through cascade while using `Force of Negation`, `Subtlety`, `Endurance`, `Boseiju, Who Endures`, and `Sink into Stupor` to contest opposing disruption or speed.
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- Required coverage inventory: Later sections must explicitly cover every two-plus-copy main-deck nonland card: `Colossal Skyturtle`, `Curator of Mysteries`, `Force of Negation`, `Living End`, `Generous Ent`, `Oliphaunt`, `Street Wraith`, `Subtlety`, `Violent Outburst`, `Shardless Agent`, `Wistfulness`, and `Endurance`.
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- Sideboard coverage inventory: Later sections must cover every sideboard card in both the Sideboard Map and matchup guidance: `Brazen Borrower`, `Brotherhood's End`, `Dismember`, `Faerie Macabre`, `Ingot Chewer`, `Mystical Dispute`, `Obsidian Charmaw`, and `Force of Vigor`.
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- Opponent information status: No specific opposing deck, matchup spread, known sideboard plan, play/draw status, or testing concern was supplied, so pregame decisions should begin from unknown Modern opponent assumptions and update only from matchup labels, revealed cards, public zones, and legal actions supplied by the rules engine.
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- Runtime discipline: This guide is advisory only; Veles must choose only legal action IDs from the current engine prompt and must not infer hidden cards, guaranteed cascade outcomes, exact combat math, or unverified `Wistfulness` text beyond visible rules-engine output.
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## Thesis
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- Core assembly: This Living End deck assembles a graveyard full of large cycling creatures, then uses `Violent Outburst` or `Shardless Agent` to cascade into `Living End`, converting the graveyard into a battlefield while removing most opposing creatures from the battlefield.
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- Primary win pattern: Prioritize early cycling and land development, protect or time the first cascade, then win by attacking with returned `Curator of Mysteries`, `Generous Ent`, `Oliphaunt`, `Striped Riverwinder`, `Colossal Skyturtle`, and other creatures that entered from the graveyard.
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- Tactical identity: Treat the deck as combo-first when cascade is available and the opponent cannot visibly stop graveyard or stack execution, and treat it as midrange-control when graveyard hate, countermagic, pressure, or awkward mana makes waiting better than firing `Living End` immediately.
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- What this deck is not: Do not play as a normal creature-curve deck, do not spend early turns hardcasting expensive creatures unless the game has shifted into a post-hate fallback plan, and do not cascade merely because the action is legal when the graveyard is too small or the opponent’s visible board makes `Living End` low-impact.
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- Priority order: Build mana for `Violent Outburst` and `Shardless Agent`, put creatures into the graveyard, preserve a cascade spell, protect the cascade turn with `Force of Negation`, `Subtlety`, `Endurance`, `Boseiju, Who Endures`, or `Sink into Stupor` when legal, and only then optimize extra value.
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- Graveyard discipline: Count both graveyards before committing, because `Living End` affects opposing graveyard creatures too; when the opponent has better creatures in graveyard than you do, delay, interact, or find a different line unless survival requires immediate reset.
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- Unknown-card discipline: `Wistfulness` requires card database validation; Card text check required, so treat it only through legal actions and visible rules-engine output until Veles confirms its timing, cost, effect, and cascade compatibility.
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## Role Package
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- Threats: `Curator of Mysteries`, `Generous Ent`, `Oliphaunt`, `Striped Riverwinder`, and `Colossal Skyturtle` are the main bodies to stock in the graveyard before `Living End`; value them by returned power, evasion or resilience shown by the engine, and whether cycling or landcycling improves the next cascade window.
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- Payoffs: `Living End` is the payoff and battlefield reset, not a normal spell to draw and cast; prioritize cascade access over drawing extra copies, and recognize that drawn `Living End` can be awkward unless a legal discard, shuffle, or other engine-supported line appears.
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- Engines: `Violent Outburst` and `Shardless Agent` are the functional engine pieces because they convert any legal cascade cast into `Living End`; protect at least one when possible, and avoid exposing a cascade spell into obvious stack interaction unless waiting is worse.
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- Velocity: `Street Wraith`, `Curator of Mysteries`, `Generous Ent`, `Oliphaunt`, `Striped Riverwinder`, and `Colossal Skyturtle` provide graveyard velocity through cycling or similar legal actions when exposed; use them to find lands, increase post-`Living End` pressure, and keep hands from stalling without committing battlefield material.
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- Interaction: `Force of Negation`, `Subtlety`, `Endurance`, `Boseiju, Who Endures`, and `Sink into Stupor` are the main ways to contest opposing speed, hate, or stack pressure before the combo turn; spend them on cards that stop cascade, invalidate the graveyard, produce lethal pressure, or create a superior opposing `Living End` outcome.
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- Protection: `Force of Negation` protects the cascade turn against noncreature disruption when legal, `Subtlety` can buy time against creature pressure or hate creatures when legal, and `Endurance` can disrupt opposing graveyard plans or manage dangerous opposing graveyards before `Living End` resolves.
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- Recursion: `Living End` is the central mass-recursion effect; `Colossal Skyturtle` may offer recursion or bounce lines only if legal actions expose them, so choose those lines when they recover a cascade spell, answer hate, or preserve a winning battlefield plan.
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- Mana: `Misty Rainforest`, `Wooded Foothills`, `Breeding Pool`, `Steam Vents`, `Stomping Ground`, `Commercial District`, `Hedge Maze`, `Thundering Falls`, `Forest`, `Island`, `Boseiju, Who Endures`, and `Mistrise Village` support Temur cascade colors; prioritize green-blue for `Shardless Agent`, red-green for `Violent Outburst`, and enough blue cards/resources for pitch interaction.
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- Sideboard modules: `Mystical Dispute` supports stack fights, `Force of Vigor`, `Ingot Chewer`, and `Brotherhood's End` pressure artifacts or hate permanents when legal, `Obsidian Charmaw` attacks greedy mana, `Dismember` answers specific creatures, `Faerie Macabre` contests graveyards without relying on the stack, and `Brazen Borrower` provides a flexible tempo or threat role when its legal modes are exposed.
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## Primary Win Conditions
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- Cascade into `Living End` is the main win path: stock the graveyard with `Curator of Mysteries`, `Generous Ent`, `Oliphaunt`, `Street Wraith`, `Striped Riverwinder`, and `Colossal Skyturtle`, then cast `Violent Outburst` or `Shardless Agent` when the resulting battlefield is likely to be better for you than for the opponent.
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- Prioritize the first cascade when it converts at least two meaningful creatures into play, removes opposing battlefield pressure, or forces the opponent to answer a lethal two-turn board; delay when the opponent's graveyard creatures, visible hate, open stack interaction, or your weak graveyard makes `Living End` a low-impact reset.
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- Execute `Violent Outburst` more aggressively than `Shardless Agent` when instant timing is legally available and the opponent has tapped low, moved to combat, or committed creatures that `Living End` will clear; execute `Shardless Agent` when sorcery-speed pressure is acceptable or when preserving `Violent Outburst` for a later instant-speed window is more valuable.
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- Protect the cascade turn with `Force of Negation` when the rules engine exposes a legal pitch or hardcast counter line against noncreature interaction that would stop cascade, counter `Living End`, remove the graveyard, or lock out the graveyard plan.
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- Use `Subtlety`, `Endurance`, `Boseiju, Who Endures`, `Sink into Stupor`, and legal `Colossal Skyturtle` modes to create the cascade window when visible permanents, creatures, graveyard contents, or stack actions would otherwise make `Living End` fail; choose these support lines before firing the payoff if waiting one turn materially improves the outcome.
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- Win after `Living End` by attacking with the returned creature mass, not by preserving resources forever; once a strong board is in play, prioritize clean attacks, lethal sequencing, and holding only interaction that protects the clock or prevents an immediate reversal.
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## Secondary Win Conditions
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- Hardcast creature pressure is the main fallback when graveyard hate, drawn `Living End`, or missing cascade makes the combo unreliable; cast `Endurance`, `Subtlety`, `Shardless Agent`, and eventually landcycled threats such as `Generous Ent`, `Oliphaunt`, `Colossal Skyturtle`, or `Striped Riverwinder` only when the engine confirms legal mana and the game has shifted toward midrange combat.
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- `Endurance` beats are a real backup plan against graveyard decks, control decks, and stalled boards; use `Endurance` both to disrupt an opposing graveyard and to start a flash-pressure clock when holding it no longer protects a more important `Living End` turn.
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- `Subtlety` tempo can become a win path when it clears or delays a key creature and leaves a body for combat; choose this line when the visible opposing threat would race or block profitably and your hand or graveyard suggests the combo is not immediately ready.
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- `Shardless Agent` plus small creature combat is acceptable chip pressure when the opponent has graveyard hate but weak board presence; do not overvalue chip damage if casting `Shardless Agent` would spend the last cascade access into a bad `Living End` line.
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- `Mistrise Village` may provide creature-land or utility pressure only if the rules engine exposes a legal activation; Card text check required, so use it as a fallback attacker, mana sink, or utility permanent only from visible legal action text.
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- `Boseiju, Who Endures` and `Sink into Stupor` support fallback pressure by answering hate or tempo obstacles before combat; spend them on permanents that block the combo, prevent attacks, or create a faster opposing clock rather than on low-impact targets.
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- `Wistfulness` may contribute selection, interaction, or another role only as shown by legal engine actions; Card text check required, so never plan a win path around unverified `Wistfulness` text.
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## Emergency Lines
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- When behind on life, prioritize survival over combo purity: use `Living End` as a sweeper even with a modest graveyard if it removes lethal or near-lethal pressure and leaves any stabilizing board.
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- When behind on board, treat `Violent Outburst` and `Shardless Agent` as reset buttons before value engines; a mediocre `Living End` is correct if passing lets the opponent attack for lethal, protect a lethal board, or invalidate your next turn.
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- When behind on cards, preserve high-impact resources rather than cycling blindly; keep cascade access, pitch-card requirements for `Force of Negation`, and interaction that answers visible hate, then cycle only when legal actions improve land drops, graveyard size, or the next decision point.
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- When behind on mana, use landcycling and fetchlands to reach cascade colors before stocking extra creatures; `Generous Ent`, `Oliphaunt`, and any other legal land-search or cycling actions should prioritize casting `Violent Outburst`, `Shardless Agent`, and interaction on time.
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- When graveyard recursion is threatened, respond to visible graveyard hate before committing more resources if legal actions allow it; otherwise shift toward hardcast `Endurance`, `Subtlety`, `Shardless Agent`, creature-land pressure, and answering the hate permanent.
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- When opposing graveyards are dangerous, use `Endurance` or delay `Living End` if the opponent would return better creatures than you; if survival requires cascading anyway, accept the risk and choose the line that leaves the most blockers or fastest counterclock.
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- When win conditions are removed, rebuild through cycling, land drops, and hardcast threats; do not concede strategic agency just because one `Living End` failed, because the deck can still win with returned later waves, pitch-elemental pressure, and sideboarded interaction in post-board games.
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## Resource Model
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- Life is a setup resource until the opponent presents a short clock: spend life on `Street Wraith`, shocklands such as `Breeding Pool`, `Steam Vents`, and `Stomping Ground`, and fetch sequencing when the payoff is a faster cascade turn, a protected `Force of Negation`, or a larger graveyard for `Living End`.
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- Hand size is both fuel and protection: cycling or landcycling `Curator of Mysteries`, `Generous Ent`, `Oliphaunt`, `Striped Riverwinder`, `Colossal Skyturtle`, and `Street Wraith` converts cards into graveyard mass and selection, but preserve blue cards for `Force of Negation` or `Subtlety` when visible stack or creature threats matter.
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- Mana converts into timing windows: three mana enables `Violent Outburst` and `Shardless Agent`, four-plus mana makes hardcast `Endurance`, `Subtlety`, `Force of Negation`, `Sink into Stupor`, or large creatures more realistic, and landcycling converts early turns into exact colors rather than random draw steps.
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- Board material before `Living End` is disposable only when it does not weaken the cascade turn: `Shardless Agent`, hardcast `Endurance`, and hardcast `Subtlety` can trade or pressure, but avoid putting valuable creatures onto the battlefield if a near-future `Living End` would exile them without returning equal or better graveyard material.
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- Graveyard count is the main combo currency: prioritize putting high-impact creatures into your graveyard while tracking opposing graveyards, because `Living End` can return opposing creatures too and is not automatically favorable just because you can cascade.
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- Exile is a real cost: cards pitched to `Force of Negation`, evoked through `Subtlety` or `Endurance`, or otherwise exiled are no longer `Living End` bodies, so spend them when the protected window, survival gain, or disruption is worth losing that future material.
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- Lands are both mana and spell-equivalents: `Boseiju, Who Endures` answers visible hate or utility permanents when legal, fetchlands fix colors and fill the graveyard, and utility lands such as `Mistrise Village` require legal-action confirmation before being treated as pressure or support. Card text check required for `Mistrise Village`.
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- Sacrifice fodder is not a core resource in this list: do not preserve creatures for sacrifice lines unless a sideboard or revealed legal action explicitly creates one, and treat any sacrifice choice as rules-engine-dependent rather than assumed deck functionality.
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- Tempo is bought with free interaction and instant cascade: `Force of Negation`, `Subtlety`, `Endurance`, `Brazen Borrower`, `Dismember`, `Faerie Macabre`, and `Violent Outburst` let the deck act while tapped low, but using them too early can leave the actual cascade turn unprotected.
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- Information is converted through cycling choices, public graveyards, revealed cards, and opponent timing: delay commitment when visible mana, graveyard hate, stack interaction, or opposing graveyard contents make the first `Living End` poor; commit when waiting gives the opponent a stronger board, hate piece, or lethal attack.
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- Sideboard bullets are narrow resources: `Force of Vigor`, `Ingot Chewer`, `Brotherhood's End`, `Obsidian Charmaw`, `Mystical Dispute`, `Dismember`, `Faerie Macabre`, and `Brazen Borrower` should answer the matchup axis they were brought for, not be spent on low-impact targets merely to use mana.
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## Mana Guide
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- Build first toward cascade mana: prioritize access to red and green for `Violent Outburst`, green and blue for `Shardless Agent`, and enough total mana to cast either on turn three when the graveyard and matchup make that plan plausible.
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- Keep hands with a credible three-mana path: a functional opener normally needs lands, fetchlands, or landcycling through `Generous Ent` or `Oliphaunt` that reaches cascade colors; mulligan or distrust hands that cycle many cards but cannot produce the colors to cast `Violent Outburst` or `Shardless Agent` on time.
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- Use fetchlands as color commitments: `Misty Rainforest` and `Wooded Foothills` should find the shockland or land type that supports the next two turns, with `Breeding Pool` often covering blue-green, `Stomping Ground` covering red-green, and `Steam Vents` covering red-blue when hand texture demands it.
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- Respect tapped-land tempo: `Commercial District`, `Hedge Maze`, and `Thundering Falls` may enter tapped depending on their land text and game state, so choose them early when the turn does not need immediate mana and avoid them when they would miss a cascade, interaction, or sideboard-bullet window.
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- Sequence basics for life and resilience: fetch `Forest` or `Island` when life total, opposing land disruption, or color needs make basics sufficient, but do not take a basic that strands `Violent Outburst`, `Shardless Agent`, `Force of Negation`, `Subtlety`, or `Endurance` without a realistic follow-up color source.
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- Landcycle before normal draw-dependent planning when mana is missing: if `Generous Ent` or `Oliphaunt` has a legal land-search action and the hand lacks cascade colors, use the landcycling line before spending other selection so future decisions know the available colors. Card text check required for exact landcycling restrictions.
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- Play lands after cycling when land choice depends on the drawn card: use `Street Wraith`, normal cycling from `Curator of Mysteries`, and legal cycling actions first if no immediate landfall, mana, or discard-to-hand-size issue requires playing a land now.
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- Play lands before cycling when mana will be used this turn: make the land drop first if it enables a legal cycling chain, `Violent Outburst`, `Shardless Agent`, `Endurance`, `Subtlety`, `Sink into Stupor`, `Boseiju, Who Endures`, or sideboard interaction before the opponent's next meaningful action.
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- Preserve blue-card density for free counters: when choosing between cycling, pitching, or holding `Curator of Mysteries`, `Colossal Skyturtle`, `Subtlety`, `Wistfulness`, or another blue card, keep enough blue material for `Force of Negation` if the current game is likely to hinge on a noncreature hate or counterspell exchange. Card text check required for `Wistfulness`.
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- Do not over-shock without a timing reason: take untapped shocklands when it enables a same-turn action, a turn-three cascade, or protective interaction; take tapped lands or basics when the extra life is likely to matter and the engine shows no urgent legal action.
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## Mulligan Guide
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- Strong keep: keep two or three mana sources plus `Violent Outburst` or `Shardless Agent`, at least two graveyard enablers such as `Street Wraith`, `Curator of Mysteries`, `Generous Ent`, `Oliphaunt`, `Striped Riverwinder`, or `Colossal Skyturtle`, and one protection spell such as `Force of Negation`, `Subtlety`, or `Endurance` when the matchup can disrupt or race.
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- Medium keep: keep a hand with no cascade spell only when it has multiple cheap cyclers, a clear three-mana path, and interaction that buys time; this hand is a setup hand, so prioritize cycling and landcycling until `Violent Outburst` or `Shardless Agent` appears.
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- Risky keep: keep one-land hands only with `Street Wraith` plus landcycling through `Generous Ent` or `Oliphaunt`, and only when the legal land-search line can find cascade colors without relying on perfect draw steps.
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- Automatic ship: mulligan hands with `Living End` as the main action and no cascade spell, no functional graveyard setup, or no route to three mana; drawing `Living End` is not a castable plan unless the engine exposes a legal action.
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- Automatic ship: mulligan hands that cannot produce or find green by turn three and cannot interact meaningfully, because both `Violent Outburst` and `Shardless Agent` require green access.
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- Matchup-dependent keep: keep interaction-heavy hands with `Force of Negation`, `Subtlety`, and `Endurance` against fast combo, graveyard, or creature pressure when the hand still has a realistic cascade path; ship them when they only trade cards and never build a graveyard.
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- Play/draw adjustment: on the play, accept slightly slower graveyard setup if the hand has turn-three cascade and protection; on the draw, prefer hands with faster cycling, `Subtlety`, `Force of Negation`, or `Endurance` because the opponent gets the first development window.
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- Trap hand: do not keep many large creatures plus lands if the creatures are not actually entering the graveyard; `Generous Ent`, `Oliphaunt`, `Curator of Mysteries`, `Striped Riverwinder`, `Colossal Skyturtle`, and `Street Wraith` matter because they become graveyard material through legal cycling, landcycling, or channel-style actions, not because they are expensive bodies in hand.
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- Trap hand: do not keep `Force of Negation` plus too few blue cards if protecting the cascade turn is the plan; preserve `Curator of Mysteries`, `Colossal Skyturtle`, `Subtlety`, `Wistfulness`, or other blue cards only when legal card text and current hand structure support that role. Card text check required for `Wistfulness`.
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## Turn Arc
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- Turn 1 priority: establish mana and graveyard velocity before exposing a plan; use `Misty Rainforest` or `Wooded Foothills` to fix toward green-red or green-blue, cycle `Street Wraith` when life loss is acceptable, and landcycle `Generous Ent` or `Oliphaunt` if cascade colors are missing. Card text check required for exact landcycling restrictions.
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- Turn 1 deviation: hold a fetchland or blue card only when the visible matchup or current legal actions make `Force of Negation`, `Subtlety`, or `Endurance` more important than immediate velocity; do not delay mana fixing if it risks missing turn-three cascade.
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- Turn 2 priority: continue filling the graveyard with `Curator of Mysteries`, `Striped Riverwinder`, `Colossal Skyturtle`, `Street Wraith`, `Generous Ent`, and `Oliphaunt`, while choosing lands that leave turn-three `Violent Outburst` or `Shardless Agent` available.
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- Turn 2 deviation: keep mana open or preserve pitch cards when the opponent can present hate, a must-answer creature, or a stack fight; use `Subtlety`, `Force of Negation`, `Endurance`, `Boseiju, Who Endures`, or `Sink into Stupor` only if the rules engine offers a legal action and the exchange protects survival or the cascade turn. Card text check required for `Sink into Stupor`.
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- Turn 3 priority: cascade only when `Living End` is favorable from visible graveyards and battlefield state; prefer `Violent Outburst` at instant speed when passing keeps interaction open or lets the opponent commit creatures, and prefer `Shardless Agent` when sorcery-speed pressure is sufficient or the body matters after resolution.
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- Turn 3 deviation: delay cascade if the opponent's graveyard returns better creatures, visible hate is active, stack interaction is likely from revealed or public information, or your graveyard has too little material; spend the turn cycling, landcycling, holding `Force of Negation`, or using legal interaction instead.
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- Turns 4-5 priority: protect the first decisive `Living End` or set up a second wave; use extra mana to hardcast `Endurance`, `Subtlety`, or large creatures only when that line improves the board without weakening a pending cascade.
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- Turns 4-5 deviation: if the first `Living End` resolved, shift into combat and protection; attack with returned creatures when the damage race is favorable, preserve `Force of Negation` for sweepers or hate, and use `Endurance` to control graveyard recursion or shrink opposing future `Living End` value.
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- Late game priority: treat every cascade as a board-reset decision, not an automatic combo button; count visible creatures in both graveyards, current battlefield pressure, life totals, and available interaction before choosing `Violent Outburst` or `Shardless Agent`.
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- Late game deviation: win by hardcast threats and interaction when graveyards are hostile or depleted; `Generous Ent`, `Oliphaunt`, `Colossal Skyturtle`, `Subtlety`, and `Endurance` can become fair-game resources if the rules engine confirms legal casts and the cascade plan is currently worse.
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## Card Roles
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- `Living End` is the payoff, not a normal three-mana spell; treat it as the cascade hit that converts graveyard setup into a battlefield reset and creature swing. Cast or suspend it only when the rules engine exposes a legal action and the visible outcome is better than waiting. Before cascading, count both graveyards because `Living End` can return opposing creatures too. Do not cascade into a board where the opponent's graveyard is stronger unless survival, tempo, or a follow-up `Endurance` line justifies it. Drawing `Living End` is awkward but not fatal; preserve other copies for `Violent Outburst` and `Shardless Agent`, and use the drawn copy only through a legal engine-offered line.
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- `Violent Outburst` is the preferred cascade spell when instant timing matters. Use it on the opponent's end step, after attackers, after blockers, or in response to pressure only when the visible stack and board make that timing better than a main-phase `Shardless Agent`. The pump text can matter after creatures already exist, but do not treat it as the primary reason to cast the card unless combat damage is immediately relevant. Hold `Violent Outburst` when passing keeps `Force of Negation`, `Subtlety`, `Endurance`, or a bluff-relevant mana window available.
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||
|
||
- `Shardless Agent` is the proactive cascade body and the cleanest main-phase way to start the combo. Cast it when sorcery-speed cascade is acceptable, when a 2/2 artifact creature adds pressure after resolution, or when waiting exposes you to a worse board. Do not run `Shardless Agent` into obvious visible hate or a graveyard disadvantage just because it is legal; the body is secondary to resolving a favorable `Living End`.
|
||
|
||
- `Street Wraith` is free velocity and graveyard material, but the life payment is a real resource. Cycle it early to find lands, cascade spells, protection, and more cyclers when life total is not under immediate pressure. Stop treating it as free against Burn-style pressure, large visible attackers, or low-life racing spots. After `Living End`, its body is a meaningful stabilizer and attacker, and swampwalk can matter only if the rules engine and visible lands make it relevant.
|
||
|
||
- `Curator of Mysteries` is a premium blue cycler, evasive payoff, and pitch card. Cycle it early when the plan needs velocity or graveyard mass; preserve it when `Force of Negation` or `Subtlety` needs a blue card and the cascade turn is near. If a `Curator of Mysteries` is already on the battlefield, use its cycling/discard-triggered selection only according to legal engine prompts and visible card identities; do not assume hidden top cards. Returned copies pressure planeswalkers and life totals through flying, so they are among the best creatures to reanimate into stalled boards.
|
||
|
||
- `Generous Ent` is mana fixing, graveyard size, and a large stabilizing body in one slot. Landcycle it when green access, a third land, or a fetchable typed land is missing; avoid holding it as a seven-mana creature unless the game has become a fair hardcast game. Its large body is important after `Living End` against creature decks, and any enter-the-battlefield value should be used only as exposed by the engine. Prioritize landcycling over speculative cycling when the hand cannot otherwise cast `Violent Outburst` or `Shardless Agent` on time.
|
||
|
||
- `Oliphaunt` fixes red through Mountain landcycling and becomes a high-pressure reanimation body. Use it to find red-green or red-blue access when `Violent Outburst` or sideboard red cards matter. After `Living End`, account for trample and any attack requirements shown by the engine; pressure is valuable, but forced attacks can reduce blocking capacity. Do not strand `Oliphaunt` in hand as a hardcast plan unless mana is abundant and graveyard conversion is blocked.
|
||
|
||
- `Colossal Skyturtle` is a flexible channel threat, late-game body, and recursion/tempo tool. Use its creature-bounce channel when a visible hate creature, lethal attacker, or key blocker must be removed temporarily and the engine exposes a legal target. Use its graveyard-recursion channel to recover `Violent Outburst`, `Shardless Agent`, `Force of Negation`, `Endurance`, or another important card only when returning that card is worth putting `Colossal Skyturtle` into the graveyard and spending mana. After `Living End`, flying plus ward makes it one of the strongest finishers; do not pitch it casually when it is your best future threat.
|
||
|
||
- `Subtlety` is tempo interaction, pitch protection, and a reanimation creature. Use evoke on creature or planeswalker spells that would stop the combo, race you before turn three, or invalidate the board after `Living End`. Pitching a blue card is costly, so compare whether `Force of Negation` needs that card more. If evoked and sacrificed, `Subtlety` can become graveyard material for `Living End`; if exiled to another pitch spell, it will not return. Hardcast it in longer games when flash, flying pressure, or defense matters more than saving it as a pitch spell.
|
||
|
||
- `Force of Negation` protects the cascade turn and stops noncreature engines, hate, and combo. Use it for visible noncreature spells that counter `Living End`, exile graveyards, lock cascade, sweep your returned board, or win before your plan resolves. Do not spend it on low-impact card selection or mana development unless the matchup and current clock make that exchange decisive. Preserve blue cards for it, especially `Curator of Mysteries`, `Subtlety`, `Colossal Skyturtle`, `Striped Riverwinder`, and any verified blue `Wistfulness` role.
|
||
|
||
- `Endurance` is graveyard control, flash defense, and a resilient fair threat. Target the opponent when their graveyard would make `Living End` bad, when a graveyard combo is developing, or when a specific public graveyard card must be removed from access. Target yourself only when legal and strategically necessary, such as protecting against mill, recovering resources, or denying an opponent's graveyard interaction; do not shuffle away your own stocked graveyard before cascade without a strong visible reason. Evoke can put `Endurance` into your graveyard for a later `Living End`, but the exiled green card is gone.
|
||
|
||
- `Wistfulness` must be treated as a verified-text dependency. Card text check required. Until verified, do not assume it cycles, pitches to blue or green pitch spells, fills the graveyard, selects cards, or affects cascade math. If the rules engine exposes a legal action from `Wistfulness`, use the action text, mana cost, card type, and visible outcome to classify it as velocity, interaction, selection, or setup in that moment. If metadata confirms it is blue, it may support `Force of Negation` and `Subtlety`; if it confirms graveyard movement, it may support `Living End` setup.
|
||
|
||
- `Striped Riverwinder` is a single-copy blue cycler that becomes a protected post-combo threat. Cycle it when looking for lands, cascade, or protection; preserve it only when a blue pitch card is more valuable than the graveyard body. Its hexproof body is excellent against removal-heavy decks after `Living End`, so do not undervalue one copy in matchups where a single protected attacker can finish the game.
|
||
|
||
- `Sink into Stupor` is a flexible interaction or mana-slot card only when the engine exposes the relevant face or action. Use it as interaction for visible spells or nonland permanents when bouncing or delaying that object protects the combo, prevents lethal pressure, or clears hate. Use it as a land when hitting mana is more important than holding a speculative answer. Do not rely on it as permanent removal; it usually buys time rather than solving the card forever.
|
||
|
||
- `Boseiju, Who Endures` is the cleanest main-deck answer to visible artifact, enchantment, or nonbasic land hate. Channel it when a permanent is stopping cascade, graveyard use, or combat math, and accept the opponent's possible land compensation only when removing the object matters more. As a land, it provides green and should not be spent casually if green mana is constrained.
|
||
|
||
- The fetchland and typed-land package is a role card, not just mana. `Misty Rainforest` and `Wooded Foothills` find the shock, surveil, and basic lands that make turn-three cascade possible while managing life total. `Breeding Pool`, `Steam Vents`, `Stomping Ground`, `Commercial District`, `Hedge Maze`, and `Thundering Falls` should be chosen by required colors and whether tapped timing is acceptable. `Forest` and `Island` reduce life loss and play through some land pressure. `Mistrise Village` should be treated as a mana source unless the engine exposes exact utility text; Card text check required for non-mana tactical use.
|
||
|
||
## Interaction Priorities
|
||
|
||
- Priority: Protect the cascade turn before fighting over marginal exchanges. Save `Force of Negation`, `Subtlety`, `Boseiju, Who Endures`, `Sink into Stupor`, `Colossal Skyturtle`, and `Endurance` for cards that stop `Living End`, exile or neutralize the graveyard, prevent cascade, counter the payoff, or create lethal pressure before the next cascade window.
|
||
|
||
- Counter first: Use `Force of Negation` on visible noncreature hate, counterspells, combo engines, planeswalkers, sweepers, or prison pieces that would make `Violent Outburst` or `Shardless Agent` fail to produce a winning `Living End`. Do not spend `Force of Negation` on cantrips, mana rocks, discard after the key card is already gone, or low-impact value spells unless the opponent is clearly assembling a faster kill.
|
||
|
||
- Tempo first: Use `Subtlety` on creature or planeswalker spells that either stop the combo, present a pre-combo lethal clock, or dominate the post-`Living End` battlefield. Against fair creature decks, it is often better to let ordinary attackers resolve so `Living End` can clear them, but answer hate creatures, snowball threats, and planeswalkers that will survive or invalidate the swing.
|
||
|
||
- Exile/shuffle first: Use `Endurance` on the opponent when their graveyard makes `Living End` bad, when they are a graveyard combo deck, or when a public graveyard card is about to be reused. Avoid targeting yourself before cascade unless the visible legal context demands it, because shuffling away `Curator of Mysteries`, `Street Wraith`, `Generous Ent`, `Oliphaunt`, `Colossal Skyturtle`, `Subtlety`, `Endurance`, or `Striped Riverwinder` weakens the payoff.
|
||
|
||
- Remove or bounce first: Use `Boseiju, Who Endures`, `Sink into Stupor`, or `Colossal Skyturtle` on a visible permanent that blocks cascade, attacks the graveyard, prevents attacks, or creates immediate lethal pressure. Bounce is a tempo answer, so prefer it when the same turn contains cascade, lethal, or a clear survival need; do not bounce a replaceable creature merely to spend mana.
|
||
|
||
- Bait deliberately: Lead with the less precious cascade spell when both `Violent Outburst` and `Shardless Agent` are available and the opponent may have interaction. `Shardless Agent` can draw sorcery-speed resistance and still leaves `Violent Outburst` for an end-step or combat-window attempt; `Violent Outburst` should be preserved when instant timing is the main way to beat open mana.
|
||
|
||
- Ignore deliberately: Let small creatures, routine card selection, ordinary removal aimed at pre-combo creatures, and nonlethal damage resolve when they do not change the next cascade window. Trading pitch cards for low-impact spells is a common way to arrive at turn three with no protection and no stocked graveyard.
|
||
|
||
- Archetype shift: Against fast combo, treat `Force of Negation`, `Subtlety`, and `Endurance` as survival tools first and graveyard setup second. Against fair midrange, preserve card count and build a large graveyard. Against control, fight over timing, use end-step `Violent Outburst`, and avoid exposing the only cascade spell without protection. Against graveyard decks or mirrors, evaluate whether `Endurance` improves your `Living End` or denies theirs before committing.
|
||
|
||
## Combat And Trading Rules
|
||
|
||
- Attack after `Living End` when the returned board advances lethal or forces blocks that favor your larger creatures. `Curator of Mysteries`, `Colossal Skyturtle`, `Striped Riverwinder`, `Generous Ent`, `Oliphaunt`, `Subtlety`, and `Endurance` are your real battlefield material; do not trade them for small creatures unless the exchange protects life total, removes a key blocker, or closes the race.
|
||
|
||
- Preserve the engine before combo by avoiding unnecessary combat with hardcast or flashed creatures. A flashed `Endurance` or hardcast `Subtlety` can block when survival requires it, but losing a future reanimation body or pitch resource before the cascade turn is costly.
|
||
|
||
- Block aggressively only at danger thresholds. If life total is high enough to take a hit and cascade is imminent, taking damage is often better than losing `Endurance`, `Subtlety`, or a hardcast threat; if the next attack threatens lethal or forces bad future blocks, trade or chump with the least important body.
|
||
|
||
- Stabilize creature matchups by making `Living End` convert their battlefield into your battlefield advantage. Before cascade, avoid killing or bouncing ordinary creatures unless they are lethal or disruptive; after cascade, use large bodies to block profitably and force the opponent to rebuild into your pressure.
|
||
|
||
- Race combo and control differently. Against combo, attack with any meaningful post-combo clock while holding interaction for their kill. Against control, do not overvalue tiny damage before the combo; the important combat step is the first attack after `Living End` resolves, especially with flying or protected threats.
|
||
|
||
- Protect key attackers when pressure is already established. If a single `Colossal Skyturtle`, `Striped Riverwinder`, or large `Generous Ent` represents the cleanest clock, use interaction to stop removal, bounce, graveyard reset, or sweeper effects only when the legal action clearly protects the winning board.
|
||
|
||
- Trade down only when the clock demands it. Do not trade a large reanimated creature for a small blocker just to clear damage unless the remaining board still threatens lethal or the opponent’s card is strategically important. Preserve evasive attackers when ground combat is stalled.
|
||
|
||
- Respect forced or risky attacks from card text only as the engine exposes them. `Oliphaunt`, `Mistrise Village`, `Wistfulness`, and any unfamiliar visible ability require rules-engine confirmation; if a legal action implies mandatory attack, pump, or utility text, follow the legal choices while explaining the visible tactical consequence.
|
||
|
||
## Selection And Tutor Rules
|
||
|
||
- Selection goal: Put large creatures into the graveyard while keeping enough mana, cascade access, and protection to resolve `Living End`. Treat `Curator of Mysteries`, `Street Wraith`, `Generous Ent`, `Oliphaunt`, `Colossal Skyturtle`, and `Striped Riverwinder` as graveyard material first unless the visible game state requires hardcasting, pitching, or channeling them.
|
||
|
||
- Free cycling: Use `Street Wraith` early when life total is not under immediate pressure and the extra card meaningfully improves land drops, cascade access, or graveyard size. Delay `Street Wraith` when life is low against burn or prowess-style pressure, when preserving a black card identity matters only if the engine exposes one, or when a known top card should not be disturbed.
|
||
|
||
- Mana cycling: Use `Generous Ent` and `Oliphaunt` to fix the first three turns before spending fetchlands carelessly. Prioritize lands that enable `Violent Outburst`, `Shardless Agent`, and pitch interaction; a stocked graveyard is not useful if the third-turn cascade spell is stranded.
|
||
|
||
- Blue cycling: Use `Curator of Mysteries` and `Striped Riverwinder` to increase both hand quality and `Living End` payoff size. If `Curator of Mysteries` exposes a visible triggered selection choice while cycling another card, resolve it toward finding lands, cascade, or protection before marginal extra bodies.
|
||
|
||
- `Wistfulness` check: Card text check required. If the engine exposes `Wistfulness` as draw, filter, discard, surveil, mill, or graveyard setup, use it only when the legal text improves cascade access, graveyard density, protection, or land development without walking into a known timing penalty.
|
||
|
||
- Pseudo-tutor role: Treat landcycling from `Generous Ent` and `Oliphaunt` as the deck's main tutor package. Find colored sources that unlock the next planned legal action, not the land with the most theoretical future value.
|
||
|
||
- Fetch sequencing: Use `Misty Rainforest` and `Wooded Foothills` after deciding whether landcycling already found the required color. Fetch before draw/filter only when the deck should remove an unwanted land type from future draws; fetch after draw/filter when the current card choice could change which shock, surveil, or typed land is needed.
|
||
|
||
- Land-drop timing: Make the land drop before cascade when the land enables `Violent Outburst`, `Shardless Agent`, `Force of Negation` backup, `Subtlety` hardcast lines, or channel/interaction mana. Delay a land drop only when visible selection, cycling, or fetch information could change which land is correct and no legal action requires mana immediately.
|
||
|
||
- Recursion selection: Use `Colossal Skyturtle` channel or similar visible graveyard-return text only when the target card immediately restores a missing cascade spell, protection spell, or lethal board. Do not spend graveyard material for a slow value return when `Living End` is still the cleaner engine.
|
||
|
||
- Graveyard self-management: Avoid targeting yourself with `Endurance` before a planned `Living End` unless the legal context requires survival, prevents decking, or protects against an opposing graveyard play that is worse than losing your graveyard. A self-`Endurance` reset usually undoes the deck's selection work.
|
||
|
||
## Priority And Stack Rules
|
||
|
||
- Priority default: Pass priority when no legal instant-speed action protects the cascade plan, stops a decisive opponent action, or creates a better `Living End` window. This deck wins by choosing the right fight, not by spending every available response.
|
||
|
||
- Cascade commitment: Cast `Violent Outburst` at instant speed when the opponent is tapped low, after they commit attackers, on their end step, or when waiting gives them a better hate or counterspell window. Cast `Shardless Agent` when sorcery-speed pressure is acceptable, when baiting interaction is useful, or when the available mana cannot support the instant plan.
|
||
|
||
- Cascade stack discipline: Once `Violent Outburst` or `Shardless Agent` is on the stack, protect the cascade chain and resulting `Living End` from visible counters, graveyard hate, or stack interaction. Do not pitch `Force of Negation`, `Subtlety`, or `Endurance` to fight over irrelevant spells while the cascade payoff is pending.
|
||
|
||
- Letting spells resolve: Let ordinary creatures, removal aimed at nonessential pre-combo bodies, cantrips, and low-impact development resolve when `Living End` will answer them or outscale them. Intervene only when the spell changes the next cascade turn, presents lethal, attacks the graveyard, or blocks cascade legality.
|
||
|
||
- `Force of Negation` windows: Use `Force of Negation` on noncreature stack objects that counter `Living End`, exile or lock the graveyard, prevent cascade, combo kill first, or sweep the post-combo board. Be cautious pitching the only blue card if that card is the best cycler, threat, or future interaction in hand.
|
||
|
||
- `Subtlety` windows: Use `Subtlety` against creature or planeswalker spells that stop cascade, create immediate lethal pressure, or survive `Living End` in a way that dominates the battlefield. Let normal creatures resolve when they become liabilities after `Living End`.
|
||
|
||
- `Endurance` windows: Use `Endurance` at instant speed against opposing graveyard recursion, opposing `Living End`-style graveyard setups, delirium/escape-style payoffs, or a lethal graveyard spell. Prefer targeting the opponent unless the engine shows a concrete reason self-targeting is required.
|
||
|
||
- Bounce and channel timing: Use `Boseiju, Who Endures`, `Sink into Stupor`, and `Colossal Skyturtle` in the last safe window before cascade, lethal combat, or survival-critical damage. Temporary answers should convert immediately into a resolved `Living End`, a protected attack, or another decisive turn.
|
||
|
||
- Combat windows: After attackers are declared, consider `Violent Outburst` before blocks when instant-speed cascade turns the opponent's attack into a one-sided battlefield reset. After blocks, use interaction only if the resulting board or life total is materially better than saving resources for the next cascade or attack.
|
||
|
||
- Optional payments and triggers: Accept optional effects only when the engine's legal text advances mana, protection, graveyard size, or lethal pressure. Decline optional costs that consume the mana needed for `Force of Negation` backup, channel abilities, or the next cascade spell unless the current stack makes that cost decisive.
|
||
|
||
## Sideboard Map
|
||
|
||
- Sideboard principle: Change only the cards that improve a specific contested axis while preserving cascade density, graveyard body count, blue pitch count, and three-mana access. `Living End` still needs stocked graveyards, a legal cascade spell, and enough protection to resolve it; do not overload on reactive cards until the deck stops functioning as a combo deck.
|
||
|
||
- `Mystical Dispute`: Add against blue decks where counter wars, `Teferi`-style stack pressure, or blue combo protection decide the game. Its role is protecting `Violent Outburst`, `Shardless Agent`, and `Living End` turns while also fighting opposing blue threats; it is weaker against creature-heavy nonblue decks, artifact decks without blue interaction, and matchups where one-mana counter text is rarely live.
|
||
|
||
- `Force of Vigor`: Add against artifact or enchantment hate that can stop the graveyard, cascade, or post-`Living End` attack. Prioritize it against `Rest in Peace`, `Leyline of the Void`, `Chalice of the Void`, `The One Ring`, artifact mana, and prison pieces when visible legal targets exist; reduce emphasis when the opponent’s hate is creature-based, stack-based, or mostly lands.
|
||
|
||
- `Ingot Chewer`: Add when artifact permanents are the main obstacle and a cheap answer with creature-card upside matters. Use it as an early artifact answer that can later return through `Living End` if it reaches the graveyard; it is poor against enchantment hate, creature combo without artifacts, and blue decks where a sorcery-speed artifact answer walks into counterspell pressure.
|
||
|
||
- `Brazen Borrower`: Add when a temporary bounce effect opens a cascade window through hate, large threats, tokens, planeswalkers, or a single problematic permanent. Treat it as tempo interaction first and a secondary evasive body second; it is weaker when the opponent has many redundant hate permanents or when returning the permanent to hand does not create an immediate `Living End` or lethal window.
|
||
|
||
- `Dismember`: Add against creature decks where one specific creature changes the race or blocks the combo plan before `Living End` can reset the board. Use it on hate creatures, fast threats, or creatures that survive or invalidate the expected battlefield; avoid it against decks where life payment is dangerous and normal opposing creatures are already handled by `Living End`.
|
||
|
||
- `Brotherhood's End`: Add against small-creature boards, artifact clusters, and decks that pressure before turn three with multiple low-toughness threats. Use the mode shown by the engine that actually matters for the visible board; it is weaker when your own post-combo battlefield is already established, when the opponent’s threats are too large, or when the main threat is graveyard hate that `Brotherhood's End` cannot legally answer.
|
||
|
||
- `Faerie Macabre`: Add against graveyard mirrors, reanimation, dredge-style engines, and decks where a free graveyard action is needed while holding cascade mana. Its role is interaction that does not require tapping lands; it is weaker against fair creature decks, blue control without graveyard reliance, and hate-piece matchups where the graveyard problem is a permanent rather than cards in a graveyard.
|
||
|
||
- `Obsidian Charmaw`: Add against Tron, big-mana, greedy nonbasic manabases, and control decks where destroying a key nonbasic land changes the clock or forces the opponent to act without protection. Its role changes from disruption to threat when it can be cast cheaply and pressure planeswalkers or life totals; it is poor against basic-heavy decks, fast creature decks, and games where a six-mana land-destruction body is slower than cascading.
|
||
|
||
Blue Control / Counterspell Decks
|
||
Side in: 3 Mystical Dispute, 1 Brazen Borrower
|
||
Cut: 1 Sink into Stupor, 1 Oliphaunt, 1 Wistfulness, 1 Generous Ent
|
||
|
||
Artifact Or Enchantment Hate Decks
|
||
Side in: 2 Force of Vigor, 1 Ingot Chewer, 1 Brazen Borrower
|
||
Cut: 1 Sink into Stupor, 1 Wistfulness, 1 Oliphaunt, 1 Curator of Mysteries
|
||
|
||
Small Creature Aggro
|
||
Side in: 2 Brotherhood's End, 1 Dismember, 1 Brazen Borrower
|
||
Cut: 1 Force of Negation, 1 Wistfulness, 1 Oliphaunt, 1 Colossal Skyturtle
|
||
|
||
Graveyard Mirror Or Reanimator
|
||
Side in: 1 Faerie Macabre, 3 Mystical Dispute
|
||
Cut: 1 Sink into Stupor, 1 Oliphaunt, 1 Wistfulness, 1 Generous Ent
|
||
|
||
Tron / Big Mana / Greedy Nonbasic Mana
|
||
Side in: 4 Obsidian Charmaw, 2 Force of Vigor
|
||
Cut: 1 Sink into Stupor, 2 Oliphaunt, 1 Wistfulness, 1 Generous Ent, 1 Curator of Mysteries
|
||
|
||
- Against blue control: Add role cards: `Mystical Dispute`, `Brazen Borrower`, and sometimes `Force of Vigor` if visible or known enchantment/artifact hate is central. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slower landcyclers and flexible interaction that does not fight stack battles. Protect the first serious cascade attempt, but do not throw away `Force of Negation` or `Mystical Dispute` on cantrips unless the legal stack context shows the opponent is assembling a decisive turn.
|
||
|
||
- Against artifact prison: Add role cards: `Force of Vigor`, `Ingot Chewer`, `Brazen Borrower`, and sometimes `Brotherhood's End` when small artifacts are clustered. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow graveyard-building cards that do not answer a lock. Use bounce only when the returned permanent enables an immediate cascade or attack; prefer destruction when the same hate piece can be replayed before you can win.
|
||
|
||
- Against enchantment graveyard hate: Add role cards: `Force of Vigor` and `Brazen Borrower`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: interaction that cannot touch the hate permanent. Do not cascade into an empty or locked graveyard just because the action is legal; first clear or bounce the hate if the engine exposes a legal line.
|
||
|
||
- Against fast creature decks: Add role cards: `Brotherhood's End`, `Dismember`, and `Brazen Borrower`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: painful cycling, slow channel value, and narrow stack interaction when the opponent is presenting mostly creatures. Preserve life total when deciding whether to cycle `Street Wraith`; surviving to the first `Living End` is more important than adding one extra creature if the board is already lethal.
|
||
|
||
- Against burn or prowess-style pressure: Add role cards: `Dismember` only when a specific creature must die, `Brotherhood's End` when it clears multiple visible threats, and `Mystical Dispute` only if blue stack interaction or blue threats are actually relevant. Reduce main-deck emphasis: `Street Wraith` cycling at low life and expensive value lines. Avoid spending life for `Dismember` unless the prevented damage or protected combo turn is clearly worth it.
|
||
|
||
- Against graveyard mirrors: Add role cards: `Faerie Macabre`, `Mystical Dispute`, and sometimes `Endurance` remains a core main-deck role rather than a sideboard change. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow selection that does not interact with the opponent’s graveyard or stack. Hold free graveyard interaction for the opponent’s commitment window when possible, but respect the engine’s legal timing and choose only visible graveyard targets.
|
||
|
||
- Against Tron and big mana: Add role cards: `Obsidian Charmaw`, `Force of Vigor`, and sometimes `Mystical Dispute` if their decisive spells or protection are blue. Reduce main-deck emphasis: redundant slow cyclers. Use `Obsidian Charmaw` to break the land engine when the engine exposes a legal target that delays their decisive turn; do not abandon a protected turn-three cascade merely to pursue land destruction that arrives too late.
|
||
|
||
- Against creature-combo decks: Add role cards: `Dismember`, `Brazen Borrower`, `Subtlety` remains a main-deck role, and `Mystical Dispute` only when blue spells are central. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow graveyard setup that fails to interact before the combo turn. Use `Living End` as both reset and clock, but stop the creature or stack object that wins before cascade resolves.
|
||
|
||
- Against midrange: Add role cards: `Brazen Borrower`, selective `Mystical Dispute` against blue builds, and `Force of Vigor` only for real hate. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow answers that do not line up with discard, removal, or graveyard hate. Accept that some post-board games are attrition games; keep enough cyclers and threats so a late `Living End` is still lethal.
|
||
|
||
- Sideboard legality check: Exact plans are baselines, not forced runtime choices. If the rules engine, matchup metadata, or revealed cards show a different configuration is legal and tactically superior, choose from legal sideboard actions while keeping the registered 75 intact and preserving the deck’s cascade plan.
|
||
|
||
## Matchup Guidance
|
||
|
||
- Aggro decks: Preserve life and reach a clean first `Living End` before maximizing graveyard size. Treat `Street Wraith` cycling as conditional when life is under pressure; one extra creature in the graveyard is not worth enabling lethal burn or haste damage. Add role cards: `Brotherhood's End`, `Dismember`, and `Brazen Borrower`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow value setup, excess painful cycling, and narrow stack interaction when the opponent is mostly battlefield-based. Use `Subtlety` to buy the turn that lets `Violent Outburst` or `Shardless Agent` resolve, but do not pitch a key blue card if the visible attack is already survivable.
|
||
|
||
- Burn decks: Minimize self-inflicted damage and force them to win through a fast, protected graveyard swing. Do not cycle `Street Wraith` at low life unless the legal decision is clearly necessary to find cascade, interaction, or lethal. Add role cards: `Dismember` only for a visible creature whose damage matters, `Brotherhood's End` if it clears multiple threats, and `Mystical Dispute` only against blue burn-adjacent shells. Reduce main-deck emphasis: expensive channel lines and speculative draw. `Force of Negation` should answer a decisive noncreature spell or hate piece, not a low-impact spell that does not change the race.
|
||
|
||
- Go-wide creature decks: Use `Living End` as a sweeper first and a reanimation spell second. A small graveyard is enough if it resets a lethal board and leaves any pressure. Add role cards: `Brotherhood's End`, `Dismember`, and `Brazen Borrower`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow graveyard padding and interaction that cannot affect the board. If `Brotherhood's End` is legal and clears the visible battlefield without harming a committed post-`Living End` board too much, consider it before spending the cascade turn; if cascade is already lethal or stabilizing, preserve sideboard sweepers for the next rebuild.
|
||
|
||
- Single-threat creature decks: Prioritize tempo answers that stop the one visible threat from ending the game before cascade. `Subtlety`, `Brazen Borrower`, `Dismember`, and `Colossal Skyturtle` channel lines can buy time, but use each only when the legal target is the actual clock or hate carrier. Add role cards: `Brazen Borrower` and `Dismember`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: broad sweep setup if the matchup presents one resilient threat at a time. `Living End` is strongest when it both removes the threat and returns enough creatures to close before the opponent recasts or replaces it.
|
||
|
||
- Control decks: Make them answer repeated cascade threats while protecting the commitment turn. Add role cards: `Mystical Dispute`, `Brazen Borrower`, and sometimes `Obsidian Charmaw` against greedy nonbasic mana. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow landcyclers and flexible cards that do not fight counterspells or hate. Prefer end-step `Violent Outburst` when legal because it can force action before your turn, but do not jam into open interaction if waiting preserves `Force of Negation`, `Mystical Dispute`, or another cascade spell. `Force of Negation` should protect `Living End`, answer graveyard hate, or stop a game-ending noncreature spell.
|
||
|
||
- Tempo decks: Respect both clock and stack pressure; the winning line is often a smaller `Living End` that resolves before their soft permission and pressure compound. Add role cards: `Mystical Dispute`, `Brazen Borrower`, and selective `Dismember` for a visible threat that shortens the clock. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow setup and life-cost cycling when racing. Use `Endurance` and `Subtlety` as interactive bodies when the graveyard plan is delayed, but do not convert into fair beatdown unless the visible stack and board make cascade unreliable for the next turn cycle.
|
||
|
||
- Midrange decks: Expect discard, removal, graveyard hate, and attrition, then keep enough redundant cascade and cyclers to rebuild. Add role cards: `Brazen Borrower`, `Force of Vigor` for visible artifact or enchantment hate, and `Mystical Dispute` against blue midrange. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow cards that only answer one axis they are not showing. `Living End` can punish their creature development even through removal, but avoid overcommitting all cyclers if public information suggests graveyard exile is likely or already present. `Endurance` can be a threat, graveyard reset, or protection against opposing recursion depending on legal timing.
|
||
|
||
- Removal-heavy decks: Treat creature removal as less important than graveyard hate, discard, and counterplay. Their spot removal is poor before `Living End`, but strong after a small cascade, so build a graveyard that creates multiple bodies when time allows. Add role cards: `Brazen Borrower` for hate or tempo and `Mystical Dispute` against blue interaction. Reduce main-deck emphasis: fragile single-threat fair plans. Do not pitch too many creatures to `Force of Negation` or `Subtlety` if the post-combo battlefield would become too small to survive removal.
|
||
|
||
- Combo decks: Identify whether their decisive turn beats your cascade turn, then choose disruption over extra cycling when necessary. Add role cards: `Mystical Dispute` against blue stack combo, `Dismember` or `Brazen Borrower` against creature-based combo, `Faerie Macabre` against graveyard combo, and `Force of Vigor` against artifact or enchantment engines. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow value cards and speculative graveyard size. `Force of Negation`, `Subtlety`, and `Endurance` are not generic resources here; save them for visible or strongly signaled commitment windows when the legal action can stop the combo.
|
||
|
||
- Graveyard decks: Fight over timing, not just volume. `Endurance` and `Faerie Macabre` are strongest when the opponent has committed resources to the graveyard and before their payoff resolves, but choose only legal visible targets. Add role cards: `Faerie Macabre` and `Mystical Dispute` if stack fights matter. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow selection that does not interact. In mirrors, avoid casting `Living End` into an opponent graveyard that returns a better battlefield unless your own attack, interaction, or graveyard reset makes the exchange favorable from visible information.
|
||
|
||
- Big mana decks: Race their mana engine while disrupting the land or artifact that unlocks the decisive turn. Add role cards: `Obsidian Charmaw`, `Force of Vigor`, and sometimes `Mystical Dispute` if their payoffs or protection are blue. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow redundant cycling and low-impact flexible cards. Use `Obsidian Charmaw` when the legal target delays their next major play enough to matter; do not choose land destruction over a protected cascade that already creates lethal or near-lethal pressure.
|
||
|
||
- Artifact decks: Separate hate pieces from normal artifacts and answer the permanent that blocks the combo or creates lethal speed. Add role cards: `Force of Vigor`, `Ingot Chewer`, `Brotherhood's End`, and `Brazen Borrower`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: interaction that cannot touch artifacts. Use `Force of Vigor` carefully because pitching a green card can shrink the graveyard or remove protection; choose it when the visible artifacts prevent `Living End`, create an immediate lethal line, or make the opponent’s engine faster than your cascade.
|
||
|
||
- Enchantment decks: Prioritize removing graveyard hate, prison pieces, or protection shields before committing cascade. Add role cards: `Force of Vigor` and `Brazen Borrower`. Reduce main-deck emphasis: creature-only interaction and slow cycling that ignores the lock. If `Brazen Borrower` only bounces a hate enchantment temporarily, prefer a cascade or lethal attack in the same window; if no immediate payoff exists, destruction through `Force of Vigor` is usually the cleaner role when legal and affordable.
|
||
|
||
- Unknown decks: Keep the main deck’s default identity intact until public information says otherwise: cycle creatures, develop mana, hold free interaction, and threaten `Violent Outburst` or `Shardless Agent` into `Living End`. Add role cards only after visible cards or matchup metadata identify the axis. Reduce main-deck emphasis only when the opponent proves a faster clock, stack fight, graveyard fight, or permanent-based hate plan. Card text check required for `Wistfulness`; use it only according to the legal action text and visible tactical role supplied at runtime.
|
||
|
||
## Specific Matchup Notes
|
||
|
||
- Unknown opponent note: These notes are general/archetype-only because exact opposing decklists are absent; revealed cards, legal actions, and public board state override every archetype assumption. Preserve the core `Living End` plan until the opponent proves a faster clock, hard graveyard hate, stack pressure, or a permanent type that demands sideboard interaction.
|
||
|
||
- Blue control and tempo: Prioritize forcing a protected cascade window over maximizing graveyard size. Likely sideboarding uses `Mystical Dispute`, `Brazen Borrower`, and sometimes `Obsidian Charmaw` if their mana is nonbasic-dependent. Priority targets are counterspells, hate permanents, and threats that make waiting impossible. Use `Violent Outburst` on the opponent's end step when legal and tactically supported; use `Shardless Agent` when sorcery-speed pressure is better than passing into their mana.
|
||
|
||
- Fast creature decks: Prioritize survival and a timely `Living End` reset over extra cycling. Likely sideboarding uses `Brotherhood's End`, `Dismember`, `Brazen Borrower`, and sometimes `Force of Vigor` against artifact or enchantment pressure. Priority targets are the permanents that represent lethal next turn, hate pieces that stop the cascade turn, and creatures that survive or punish the reset.
|
||
|
||
- Big mana and land-engine decks: Prioritize clock plus mana disruption, not a slow perfect graveyard. Likely sideboarding uses `Obsidian Charmaw`, `Force of Vigor` for artifact engines, and `Mystical Dispute` only when blue stack interaction or blue payoffs are visible. Priority targets are lands or artifacts that unlock the next decisive spell. Do not spend the turn on `Obsidian Charmaw` if a protected cascade creates lethal or prevents their payoff first.
|
||
|
||
- Artifact and enchantment decks: Prioritize removing the permanent that blocks `Living End` or creates an immediate kill. Likely sideboarding uses `Force of Vigor`, `Ingot Chewer`, `Brotherhood's End`, and `Brazen Borrower`. Priority targets are graveyard hate, prison effects, artifact mana that accelerates a kill, and permanents whose removal opens a same-turn cascade. Avoid pitching the only green card to `Force of Vigor` if that removes necessary protection or shrinks the post-`Living End` battlefield below survival.
|
||
|
||
- Graveyard mirrors and graveyard combo: Prioritize timing `Endurance` or `Faerie Macabre` after the opponent commits resources and before their payoff resolves, choosing only visible legal targets. Likely sideboarding uses `Faerie Macabre`, `Mystical Dispute` if the stack matters, and selective `Brazen Borrower` for hate. In mirrors, do not cast `Living End` when the opponent's graveyard visibly returns the stronger battlefield unless `Endurance`, `Subtlety`, `Force of Negation`, or combat math changes the exchange.
|
||
|
||
- Midrange and discard decks: Prioritize redundant cascade access and rebuild capacity. Likely sideboarding uses `Brazen Borrower`, `Force of Vigor` for shown hate, `Mystical Dispute` against blue builds, and `Dismember` for must-answer creatures. Priority targets are graveyard hate, discard engines, and threats that force an early small cascade. Do not overprotect a single `Living End` line if cycling into another cascade threat is the better visible route.
|
||
|
||
- Combo decks: Prioritize disrupting their commitment turn over growing a large graveyard. Likely sideboarding uses `Mystical Dispute`, `Force of Vigor`, `Faerie Macabre`, `Dismember`, or `Brazen Borrower` according to the visible combo axis. Hold `Force of Negation`, `Subtlety`, and `Endurance` for legal windows that stop the opponent's payoff, not for low-impact setup spells.
|
||
|
||
## Risk Summary
|
||
|
||
- Mana risk: The deck needs specific cascade timing and colored access, so fetch-shock-surveil sequencing with `Misty Rainforest`, `Wooded Foothills`, `Breeding Pool`, `Steam Vents`, `Stomping Ground`, `Commercial District`, `Hedge Maze`, and `Thundering Falls` must preserve both immediate interaction and future cascade turns. Do not cycle landcyclers so aggressively that the hand loses access to the colors required for `Violent Outburst`, `Shardless Agent`, `Force of Negation`, `Subtlety`, or `Endurance`.
|
||
|
||
- Matchup risk: The deck can lose when the opponent attacks a different axis than expected, so sideboard and interaction choices must follow revealed cards rather than archetype labels. Overvaluing `Obsidian Charmaw` into a creature rush or overvaluing `Brotherhood's End` into stack control wastes the small number of post-board slots.
|
||
|
||
- Draw risk: Hands with cyclers but no cascade, or cascade with too little graveyard pressure, can fail both halves of the deck. Mulligan and early turns should value at least one credible path to `Living End`, enough creatures such as `Street Wraith`, `Curator of Mysteries`, `Generous Ent`, `Oliphaunt`, `Colossal Skyturtle`, or `Striped Riverwinder`, and interaction when the opponent is faster.
|
||
|
||
- Over-sideboarding risk: Cutting too many cyclers, cascade spells, or pitch resources makes `Living End` smaller and less consistent. Sideboard cards must answer a proven problem; do not dilute `Violent Outburst`, `Shardless Agent`, graveyard density, or blue/green pitch coverage just to add narrow tools.
|
||
|
||
- Graveyard risk: Opposing graveyard hate can turn a winning cascade into a blank or a liability. Use `Brazen Borrower`, `Force of Vigor`, `Ingot Chewer`, `Endurance`, or `Faerie Macabre` only when the legal action and visible target actually protect the `Living End` turn or stop the opposing graveyard plan.
|
||
|
||
- Sweeper and removal risk: Spot removal is weak before `Living End` but strong after a small cascade, while sweepers can punish an overextended reset. Build enough returned material to survive one answer when time allows, and use `Force of Negation`, `Subtlety`, or pressure sequencing to prevent the opponent from freely untapping into a sweeper.
|
||
|
||
- Closer risk: A resolved `Living End` does not automatically win if the returned board lacks power, evasion, or a follow-up plan. Count visible damage, blockers, and possible crack-back before committing; use `Colossal Skyturtle`, `Curator of Mysteries`, `Generous Ent`, `Oliphaunt`, and `Striped Riverwinder` as the actual closing body package, not just cycling text.
|
||
|
||
- Interaction risk: Free interaction costs cards and can shrink the combo battlefield. Pitch to `Force of Negation`, `Subtlety`, `Endurance`, or `Force of Vigor` only when stopping the visible spell or permanent matters more than the lost creature, color card, or backup plan.
|
||
|
||
- Sequencing risk: Cascading before cycling, fetching, or answering hate can waste the deck's strongest turn. Card text check required for `Wistfulness` and `Sink into Stupor`; use those cards only according to legal engine text and visible tactical role, especially when the choice affects whether the next cascade is protected or lethal.
|
||
|
||
## Test Feedback Checklist
|
||
|
||
- Deciding factor: Record whether each win or loss was decided by resolving `Living End`, failing to find cascade, losing to hate, losing before turn three or four, losing a stack fight, or failing to close after a resolved reset.
|
||
|
||
- Mulligans: Record whether opening hands had a cascade spell (`Violent Outburst` or `Shardless Agent`), enough cyclers, enough lands, and at least one relevant interaction piece such as `Force of Negation`, `Subtlety`, or `Endurance` when the matchup demanded it.
|
||
|
||
- Mana: Record whether `Misty Rainforest`, `Wooded Foothills`, shock lands, surveil lands, `Boseiju, Who Endures`, `Mistrise Village`, and landcyclers produced the colors needed on the decisive turn without excessive life loss or tapped-land delay.
|
||
|
||
- Velocity: Record whether `Street Wraith`, `Curator of Mysteries`, `Generous Ent`, `Oliphaunt`, `Colossal Skyturtle`, and `Striped Riverwinder` put enough bodies into the graveyard before the first cascade, and note games where cycling for volume conflicted with holding pitch cards.
|
||
|
||
- Engine execution: Record whether `Violent Outburst` timing was materially better than `Shardless Agent` timing, especially around instant-speed end-step cascades, combat windows, and keeping mana open for interaction.
|
||
|
||
- Interaction: Record whether `Force of Negation`, `Subtlety`, `Endurance`, `Boseiju, Who Endures`, `Sink into Stupor`, and sideboard answers were used on threats that mattered, or spent too early on cards that did not stop the opponent's winning line.
|
||
|
||
- Graveyard pressure: Record the visible graveyard size and returned power at every `Living End`; flag cascades that returned too little pressure, returned a stronger opposing board, or failed because hate was still active.
|
||
|
||
- Closing: Record whether post-`Living End` boards with `Curator of Mysteries`, `Generous Ent`, `Oliphaunt`, `Colossal Skyturtle`, and `Striped Riverwinder` killed quickly enough, or whether the opponent stabilized with removal, blockers, sweepers, or a faster combo.
|
||
|
||
- Sideboard: Record whether each brought-in card solved a visible problem: `Force of Vigor` and `Ingot Chewer` for artifacts/enchantments, `Brotherhood's End` and `Dismember` for creature pressure, `Mystical Dispute` for blue stack fights, `Faerie Macabre` for graveyards, `Brazen Borrower` for bounce tempo, and `Obsidian Charmaw` for land-engine pressure.
|
||
|
||
- Role: Record whether the pilot correctly identified combo, midrange-control, tempo, or survival mode. Flag games where the deck waited too long against combo, cascaded too early against interaction, or tried to grind when lethal setup was available.
|
||
|
||
- Mistakes: Record legal alternatives the agent rejected at key turns, especially passing with cascade available, pitching the wrong card, fetching the wrong land, attacking into a bad race, or failing to answer a visible hate permanent.
|
||
|
||
- Stranded cards: Record cards stuck in hand at game end, especially `Living End`, extra cascade spells, pitch interaction without pitch cards, sideboard bullets without targets, or landcyclers held too long.
|
||
|
||
- Overperformers and underperformers: Track which exact cards changed outcomes, including main-deck cards with 2+ copies and every sideboard card. Card text check required for `Wistfulness`; evaluate it only from confirmed legal actions and observed game impact.
|
||
|
||
## First Tuning Questions
|
||
|
||
- Cascade count: If losses often come from not finding `Violent Outburst` or `Shardless Agent`, should the deck preserve all eight cascade enablers after sideboarding more aggressively, even when matchup-specific cards look attractive?
|
||
|
||
- Graveyard density: If resolved `Living End` boards are too small, are too many cyclers or pitchable creatures being reduced post-board, especially `Curator of Mysteries`, `Generous Ent`, `Oliphaunt`, `Street Wraith`, `Colossal Skyturtle`, or `Striped Riverwinder`?
|
||
|
||
- Interaction quantity: If combo and control losses happen before `Living End` matters, does the main deck need the current mix of `Force of Negation`, `Subtlety`, and `Endurance`, or should sideboard `Mystical Dispute` enter more often against blue decks?
|
||
|
||
- Mana stability: If hands lose to tapped lands, shock damage, or missing colors, should the fetchable land mix around `Breeding Pool`, `Steam Vents`, `Stomping Ground`, `Commercial District`, `Hedge Maze`, and `Thundering Falls` change before altering spell slots?
|
||
|
||
- Anti-hate plan: If graveyard hate repeatedly wins post-board games, are `Force of Vigor`, `Ingot Chewer`, `Brazen Borrower`, `Boseiju, Who Endures`, and `Sink into Stupor` enough, or is the deck sideboarding answers without preserving enough cascade pressure?
|
||
|
||
- Aggro plan: If creature decks kill before the reset, should `Brotherhood's End` or `Dismember` be increased, or are mulligan and fetch-shock decisions creating avoidable life-total pressure?
|
||
|
||
- Big-mana plan: If Tron or land-engine decks win through slow cascades, does `Obsidian Charmaw` deserve all four slots, or are those slots too narrow when the same matchup can demand `Force of Negation` or faster graveyard pressure?
|
||
|
||
- Graveyard mirror plan: If opposing graveyard decks benefit from our `Living End`, should `Faerie Macabre` or `Endurance` usage become more conservative and timed around their commitment, rather than fired at the first legal target?
|
||
|
||
- Closer package: If post-reset boards stabilize instead of winning, are `Colossal Skyturtle`, `Curator of Mysteries`, `Generous Ent`, `Oliphaunt`, and `Striped Riverwinder` the right body mix, or is the deck overvaluing interaction at the cost of lethal pressure?
|
||
|
||
- Role conflict: If sideboard games show hands split between midrange answers and combo execution, which matchups require staying pure combo, and which justify becoming a slower interactive deck?
|
||
|
||
- Card verification: Card text check required for `Wistfulness` and any uncertain mode on `Sink into Stupor`; do not tune around those cards until logs show their confirmed legal choices and actual contribution.
|
||
|
||
## Veles Tactical Policy
|
||
|
||
### Policy: Opening Hand Gate
|
||
- Priority: High
|
||
- Decision families: mulligan
|
||
- Cards: Violent Outburst; Shardless Agent; Street Wraith; Curator of Mysteries; Generous Ent; Force of Negation; Subtlety; Endurance
|
||
- Phase windows: pregame mulligan decisions.
|
||
- Runtime cues: prompt:mulligan; hand contains cascade spell count, lands, cyclers, and pitch interaction.
|
||
- Use when: deciding whether the hand can execute or defend a turn-three or turn-four `Living End` plan.
|
||
- Avoid when: judging hidden opponent cards as certain; use only matchup, revealed information, and visible hand contents.
|
||
- Instructions: Keep hands with mana plus `Violent Outburst` or `Shardless Agent` plus cycler volume unless the matchup visibly requires specific interaction. Mulligan hands with no cascade and no strong selection path unless they contain matchup-critical interaction and a realistic draw window.
|
||
- Pilot skill floor: light-model.
|
||
- No-API allowed: no
|
||
- Light-model allowed: yes
|
||
|
||
### Policy: Early Graveyard Setup
|
||
- Priority: Medium
|
||
- Decision families: selection, mana, priority
|
||
- Cards: Street Wraith; Curator of Mysteries; Generous Ent; Oliphaunt; Colossal Skyturtle; Striped Riverwinder
|
||
- Phase windows: turns one through three, opponent end step, pre-cascade setup.
|
||
- Runtime cues: action:cycle; visible graveyard creature count; available cascade spell.
|
||
- Use when: deciding whether to cycle, landcycle, or preserve a card for pitch interaction or later hard-cast pressure.
|
||
- Avoid when: life payment, mana color, or pitch-card needs make cycling strategically contested.
|
||
- Instructions: Put enough creatures into the graveyard before the first cascade, but preserve `Force of Negation`, `Subtlety`, or `Endurance` pitch material when the opponent can win or stop the combo before the next turn cycle.
|
||
- Pilot skill floor: light-model.
|
||
- No-API allowed: no
|
||
- Light-model allowed: yes
|
||
|
||
### Policy: Landcycling For Required Colors
|
||
- Priority: Medium
|
||
- Decision families: mana, selection
|
||
- Cards: Generous Ent; Oliphaunt; Misty Rainforest; Wooded Foothills; Breeding Pool; Steam Vents; Stomping Ground; Commercial District; Hedge Maze; Thundering Falls
|
||
- Phase windows: early turns, upkeep, main phase, opponent end step.
|
||
- Runtime cues: action:search; action:cycle; visible lands and known hand costs.
|
||
- Use when: choosing a landcycling target or fetch target needed to cast `Violent Outburst`, `Shardless Agent`, or interaction.
|
||
- Avoid when: the legal search list does not expose exact target names; do not infer unavailable lands.
|
||
- Instructions: Prioritize green-blue-red access for cascade, then preserve untapped interaction windows. Fetch or landcycle tapped lands only when the lost tempo does not delay the next required cascade or answer.
|
||
- Pilot skill floor: light-model.
|
||
- No-API allowed: no
|
||
- Light-model allowed: yes
|
||
|
||
### Policy: Cascade Commitment Gate
|
||
- Priority: High
|
||
- Decision families: priority, interaction
|
||
- Cards: Violent Outburst; Shardless Agent; Living End; Force of Negation; Mystical Dispute; Endurance
|
||
- Phase windows: main phase, opponent end step, combat before blockers, combat after blockers, stack fights.
|
||
- Runtime cues: action:cast Violent Outburst; action:cast Shardless Agent; graveyards and hate permanents visible.
|
||
- Use when: deciding whether to start the `Living End` cascade line now.
|
||
- Avoid when: graveyard hate, opposing graveyard advantage, lethal opposing stack threat, or insufficient returned pressure makes waiting materially better.
|
||
- Instructions: Cast `Violent Outburst` at instant speed when it denies sorcery-speed answers or creates lethal combat pressure. Cast `Shardless Agent` when sorcery-speed commitment is acceptable and board reset plus returned creatures advances the game.
|
||
- Pilot skill floor: light-model.
|
||
- No-API allowed: no
|
||
- Light-model allowed: yes
|
||
|
||
### Policy: Deterministic Cascade Payoff
|
||
- Priority: Medium
|
||
- Decision families: selection, priority
|
||
- Cards: Living End; Violent Outburst; Shardless Agent
|
||
- Phase windows: cascade resolution.
|
||
- Runtime cues: action:cast Living End
|
||
- Use when: a legal action explicitly offers casting `Living End` from a resolving cascade trigger and no other exact spell name is offered in the same action text.
|
||
- Avoid when: multiple legal action texts contain `Living End` with different costs, modes, or decline/cast choices that change the game state.
|
||
- Instructions: Select the legal action that casts `Living End` from cascade after the cascade spell has already been chosen.
|
||
- Pilot skill floor: no-api.
|
||
- No-API allowed: yes
|
||
- Light-model allowed: yes
|
||
|
||
### Policy: Do Not Cast Living End From Hand Assumption
|
||
- Priority: Low
|
||
- Decision families: priority
|
||
- Cards: Living End
|
||
- Phase windows: any main phase or stack prompt.
|
||
- Runtime cues: action:cast Living End; action:suspend Living End; hand contains Living End.
|
||
- Use when: `Living End` appears in hand or as a legal action outside a cascade-resolution context.
|
||
- Avoid when: the rules engine explicitly offers a legal line and visible context makes it necessary for survival or lethal setup.
|
||
- Instructions: Treat hand copies as normally stranded combo pieces unless the engine offers a legal special action; do not assume alternate casting permission.
|
||
- Pilot skill floor: light-model.
|
||
- No-API allowed: no
|
||
- Light-model allowed: yes
|
||
|
||
### Policy: Force Protection Gate
|
||
- Priority: High
|
||
- Decision families: interaction, priority
|
||
- Cards: Force of Negation; Violent Outburst; Shardless Agent; Living End; Mystical Dispute
|
||
- Phase windows: opponent turn, combo turn stack fight, response to hate or payoff.
|
||
- Runtime cues: action:cast Force of Negation; action:cast Mystical Dispute; visible stack spell.
|
||
- Use when: deciding whether to spend permission to protect cascade, stop graveyard hate, stop a combo payoff, or stop lethal interaction.
|
||
- Avoid when: the spell does not stop the opponent's current win, does not stop hate, and does not materially protect `Living End`.
|
||
- Instructions: Preserve pitch counters for the decisive stack exchange unless the visible spell will end the game, lock the graveyard, or remove the only path to a meaningful cascade.
|
||
- Pilot skill floor: light-model.
|
||
- No-API allowed: no
|
||
- Light-model allowed: yes
|
||
|
||
### Policy: Subtlety Survival Or Tempo Gate
|
||
- Priority: Medium
|
||
- Decision families: interaction, priority, combat
|
||
- Cards: Subtlety
|
||
- Phase windows: opponent creature or planeswalker cast, combat setup, lethal-pressure turns.
|
||
- Runtime cues: action:cast Subtlety; visible stack permanent spell.
|
||
- Use when: a visible creature or planeswalker spell threatens lethal, graveyard hate, combo speed, or a blocker that invalidates post-`Living End` pressure.
|
||
- Avoid when: spending a blue card prevents `Force of Negation` protection and the stack spell is not decisive.
|
||
- Instructions: Use `Subtlety` as a tempo counter to survive until cascade or force through post-reset attacks; keep it when the matchup is about a later stack fight.
|
||
- Pilot skill floor: light-model.
|
||
- No-API allowed: no
|
||
- Light-model allowed: yes
|
||
|
||
### Policy: Endurance Graveyard Timing
|
||
- Priority: Medium
|
||
- Decision families: interaction, priority, selection
|
||
- Cards: Endurance; Faerie Macabre; Living End
|
||
- Phase windows: opponent graveyard commitment, response to opposing reanimation, pre-cascade mirror spots, end step.
|
||
- Runtime cues: action:cast Endurance; action:activate Faerie Macabre; target graveyard prompt.
|
||
- Use when: a visible graveyard enables the opponent more than it enables your next `Living End`, or when recycling your own deck matters.
|
||
- Avoid when: removing the opponent's graveyard also makes your imminent `Living End` too small or leaves a stronger opposing battlefield untouched.
|
||
- Instructions: Time graveyard interaction around the opponent's commitment or your cascade turn; do not fire it merely because a graveyard has cards.
|
||
- Pilot skill floor: light-model.
|
||
- No-API allowed: no
|
||
- Light-model allowed: yes
|
||
|
||
### Policy: Hate-Permanent Answer Gate
|
||
- Priority: High
|
||
- Decision families: interaction, priority, mana
|
||
- Cards: Force of Vigor; Ingot Chewer; Boseiju, Who Endures; Sink into Stupor; Brazen Borrower
|
||
- Phase windows: before cascade, response to hate, opponent end step, main phase setup.
|
||
- Runtime cues: action:destroy; action:bounce; action:channel; visible artifact or enchantment hate.
|
||
- Use when: a visible permanent prevents graveyard use, cascade resolution, attacking for lethal, or normal spell execution.
|
||
- Avoid when: the permanent is not affecting the current plan and spending the answer exposes the combo to a stronger known threat.
|
||
- Instructions: Remove graveyard hate before committing cascade when the hate would change `Living End` output. Prefer answers that preserve the fastest protected cascade line.
|
||
- Pilot skill floor: light-model.
|
||
- No-API allowed: no
|
||
- Light-model allowed: yes
|
||
|
||
### Policy: Brotherhoods End And Dismember Survival
|
||
- Priority: Medium
|
||
- Decision families: interaction, combat, priority
|
||
- Cards: Brotherhood's End; Dismember
|
||
- Phase windows: main phase, combat before damage, opponent threat development.
|
||
- Runtime cues: action:cast Brotherhood's End; action:cast Dismember; visible attackers or hate creature.
|
||
- Use when: visible creatures threaten lethal, prevent combo execution, or force a cascade before the graveyard is ready.
|
||
- Avoid when: removal would shrink the opponent's battlefield in a way that makes their graveyard stronger than yours after `Living End`.
|
||
- Instructions: Use sideboard removal to buy the turn needed for a protected reset, not to trade down while the combo remains unassembled.
|
||
- Pilot skill floor: light-model.
|
||
- No-API allowed: no
|
||
- Light-model allowed: yes
|
||
|
||
### Policy: Wistfulness Verification
|
||
- Priority: Low
|
||
- Decision families: selection, priority
|
||
- Cards: Wistfulness
|
||
- Phase windows: any legal prompt involving `Wistfulness`.
|
||
- Runtime cues: action:cast Wistfulness; action:cycle Wistfulness; action:target Wistfulness
|
||
- Use when: the rules engine exposes a legal `Wistfulness` action with visible costs, modes, and targets.
|
||
- Avoid when: relying on unverified card text or assuming a mode not shown in legal actions.
|
||
- Instructions: Card text check required. Treat `Wistfulness` only by confirmed legal action text and current visible result expectations; do not build the combo plan around unverified text.
|
||
- Pilot skill floor: light-model.
|
||
- No-API allowed: no
|
||
- Light-model allowed: yes
|
||
|
||
### Policy: Post-Living End Combat Conversion
|
||
- Priority: Medium
|
||
- Decision families: combat, priority
|
||
- Cards: Curator of Mysteries; Generous Ent; Oliphaunt; Colossal Skyturtle; Striped Riverwinder; Street Wraith
|
||
- Phase windows: combat after a resolved `Living End`, following turns, lethal attack checks.
|
||
- Runtime cues: action:attack; visible returned creatures; visible blockers and life totals.
|
||
- Use when: deciding attacks after the reset or whether to hold creatures back against a counterattack.
|
||
- Avoid when: broad attack text is the only cue and multiple legal attacks differ by creature set.
|
||
- Instructions: Convert the reset into a short clock, but preserve enough blockers when the opponent's returned board or hasty pressure can race back.
|
||
- Pilot skill floor: light-model.
|
||
- No-API allowed: no
|
||
- Light-model allowed: yes
|
||
|
||
### Policy: Mistrise Village Utility Gate
|
||
- Priority: Low
|
||
- Decision families: mana, combat, selection
|
||
- Cards: Mistrise Village
|
||
- Phase windows: mana development, late combat, post-reset pressure.
|
||
- Runtime cues: action:activate Mistrise Village; visible available mana and attackers.
|
||
- Use when: the engine offers a legal `Mistrise Village` action and its text is visible in the legal action or state output.
|
||
- Avoid when: activating it would consume mana needed for cascade, permission, hate removal, or survival interaction.
|
||
- Instructions: Use `Mistrise Village` only after verifying the visible legal action text; prioritize core combo and interaction mana over utility activation.
|
||
- Pilot skill floor: light-model.
|
||
- No-API allowed: no
|
||
- Light-model allowed: yes
|
||
|
||
### Policy: Sideboard Role Selection
|
||
- Priority: Medium
|
||
- Decision families: sideboard
|
||
- Cards: Brazen Borrower; Brotherhood's End; Dismember; Faerie Macabre; Ingot Chewer; Mystical Dispute; Obsidian Charmaw; Force of Vigor; Force of Negation; Subtlety; Endurance; Street Wraith; Curator of Mysteries; Generous Ent; Oliphaunt; Colossal Skyturtle; Wistfulness
|
||
- Phase windows: sideboarding after game one or game two.
|
||
- Runtime cues: prompt:sideboard; matchup label; revealed opposing cards; previous game log.
|
||
- Use when: choosing a legal sideboard plan or generated swaps from the registered 75.
|
||
- Avoid when: adding answers cuts too many cascade spells, cyclers, or pitch cards to execute the deck's main plan.
|
||
- Instructions: Add `Force of Vigor` or `Ingot Chewer` for artifacts and enchantments, `Mystical Dispute` for blue stack fights, `Brotherhood's End` or `Dismember` for creature pressure, `Faerie Macabre` for graveyards, `Obsidian Charmaw` for land engines, and `Brazen Borrower` for bounce tempo.
|
||
- Pilot skill floor: light-model.
|
||
- No-API allowed: no
|
||
- Light-model allowed: yes
|
||
|
||
### Policy: Exact Sideboard Lock Execution
|
||
- Priority: Low
|
||
- Decision families: sideboard
|
||
- Cards: Brazen Borrower; Brotherhood's End; Dismember; Faerie Macabre; Ingot Chewer; Mystical Dispute; Obsidian Charmaw; Force of Vigor
|
||
- Phase windows: sideboard submission prompt.
|
||
- Runtime cues: action:submit sideboard plan
|
||
- Use when: a previously selected legal plan is displayed as one exact submit action and all listed sideboard changes match the registered 75.
|
||
- Avoid when: multiple submit actions differ, validation warnings are visible, or the plan includes a card count mismatch.
|
||
- Instructions: Submit the exact already-selected sideboard action; do not alter card counts during no-API execution.
|
||
- Pilot skill floor: no-api.
|
||
- No-API allowed: yes
|
||
- Light-model allowed: yes
|
||
|
||
### Policy: Obsidian Charmaw Commitment
|
||
- Priority: Medium
|
||
- Decision families: interaction, mana, priority
|
||
- Cards: Obsidian Charmaw
|
||
- Phase windows: sideboard games, main phase, opponent land-engine setup.
|
||
- Runtime cues: action:cast Obsidian Charmaw; visible opposing nonbasic lands.
|
||
- Use when: deciding whether land pressure advances the clock or disrupts the opponent more than holding cascade or interaction mana.
|
||
- Avoid when: tapping out lets the opponent win, deploy hate, or stop a pending `Living End` line.
|
||
- Instructions: Use `Obsidian Charmaw` to punish land-engine decks when the tempo swing matters; keep the combo protected when the reset is already decisive.
|
||
- Pilot skill floor: light-model.
|
||
- No-API allowed: no
|
||
- Light-model allowed: yes
|