veles-content/strategies/premodern/premodern_the_rock/1/guide.md

Strategy Specifications

Deck Name And Archetype

• Deck name: The Rock.
• Format: Premodern.
• Registered main deck: 60 cards confirmed: 22 lands, 22 creatures, and 16 noncreature spells.
• Registered sideboard: 15 cards confirmed.
• Current tags: midrange; discard.
• Archetype status: Stock/hybrid Premodern black-green Rock shell, built around discard, resilient creatures, sweepers, and graveyard-based attrition rather than a linear combo or pure control plan.
• Primary colors: Black-green, with black required early for Cabal Therapy, Duress, Smother, Pernicious Deed, and Recurring Nightmare, and green required early for Birds of Paradise, Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Roots, Call of the Herd, Ravenous Baloth, and Naturalize.
• Mana concern: The deck has powerful colored requirements but only 22 lands, so opening hands should be judged by actual visible sources, not by archetype confidence; Birds of Paradise and Wall of Roots improve shaky hands only when they can be cast on time and are not exposed to an obvious removal bottleneck.
• Role concern: The deck is not fast by default, so the pilot must identify whether the matchup demands early discard and removal, early blocking, or a resource engine before committing mana to slower cards such as Recurring Nightmare, Spiritmonger, Deranged Hermit, or Haunting Echoes after sideboard.
• Legality concern: The registered cards are consistent with a Premodern-era black-green Rock card pool, but final legality should still be validated against the active Veles format manifest and target Premodern banned list before treating the list as tournament-legal.
• Registered main-deck card names: Dust Bowl; Forest; Llanowar Wastes; Swamp; Treetop Village; Birds of Paradise; Deranged Hermit; Krosan Tusker; Nantuko Vigilante; Ravenous Baloth; Spiritmonger; Stampeding Wildebeests; Wall of Blossoms; Wall of Roots; Yavimaya Elder; Cabal Therapy; Call of the Herd; Duress; Naturalize; Smother; Pernicious Deed; Recurring Nightmare.
• Registered sideboard card names: Diabolic Edict; Engineered Plague; Genesis; Haunting Echoes; Naturalize; Pernicious Deed; Tormod's Crypt.
• Coverage requirement: Every main-deck nonland with two or more copies must be covered in the full guide: Birds of Paradise, Ravenous Baloth, Spiritmonger, Stampeding Wildebeests, Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Roots, Cabal Therapy, Call of the Herd, Duress, Smother, Pernicious Deed, and Recurring Nightmare.
• Sideboard coverage requirement: Every sideboard card must be covered in the Sideboard Map and matchup guidance: Diabolic Edict, Engineered Plague, Genesis, Haunting Echoes, Naturalize, Pernicious Deed, and Tormod's Crypt.
• Opponent information status: No specific opposing decklist is supplied for this guide batch, so matchup policy must reason from visible board state, public zones, known format roles, and runtime legal actions; hidden cards must not be inferred as certainties.
• Runtime principle: Veles decisions must follow legal engine actions first, visible public and player-visible information second, and this deck-specific strategy third.

Thesis

• The Rock assembles early black-green mana, discard, defensive bodies, and repeatable attrition engines until the opponent runs out of clean attacks, clean answers, or both. The deck wins by making one-for-one trades become uneven through Wall of Blossoms, Yavimaya Elder, Call of the Herd, Treetop Village, Ravenous Baloth, Spiritmonger, Deranged Hermit, and Recurring Nightmare.
• Prioritize staying alive and mana-functional before pursuing maximum value. A hand or line that produces Recurring Nightmare late but misses early black for Duress, Cabal Therapy, Smother, or Pernicious Deed can lose before the engine matters.
• Prioritize board containment against creature pressure. Smother, Ravenous Baloth, Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Roots, and Pernicious Deed are the core stabilizing tools, while Treetop Village and Call of the Herd let the pilot pressure without overcommitting into a sweeper.
• Prioritize discard when the matchup or visible hand knowledge makes timing matter. Duress is strongest before the opponent deploys a key noncreature spell, while Cabal Therapy becomes much better after Duress, public-zone information, repeated play patterns, or token/creature fodder make the flashback cost tactically acceptable.
• Prioritize attrition engines when the board is stable or when waiting gives the opponent more time than the pilot has. Recurring Nightmare is a commitment card, not a default curve play; cast or activate it when the visible board, graveyard, and creature supply make the exchange immediately useful or protective.
• The deck is not trying to combo quickly, race blindly, hard-lock the game, or hold every answer forever. It should convert stabilization into pressure with Ravenous Baloth, Spiritmonger, Treetop Village, Call of the Herd, Deranged Hermit, and recurring creatures before the opponent topdecks out of the squeeze.
• The deck should not invent certainty from archetype assumptions. At runtime, choose only from legal Veles actions, use visible board state and public zones first, and treat hidden cards as risk ranges rather than known facts.

Role Package

• Threats: Ravenous Baloth is the default stabilizing attacker because it blocks, attacks, and can buffer life totals when legal; Spiritmonger is the larger closing body when the pilot can afford a five-mana commitment; Call of the Herd supplies split pressure across turns; Treetop Village turns excess mana into resilient damage; Deranged Hermit creates a wide finish when the opponent is low on sweepers or spot removal. Stampeding Wildebeests can also become a threat, but its upkeep constraint makes it more conditional than the raw body suggests.
• Payoffs: Recurring Nightmare turns expendable creatures into the deck's highest attrition ceiling, especially with Wall of Blossoms, Yavimaya Elder, Ravenous Baloth, Deranged Hermit, Krosan Tusker, and any creature already traded off. Pernicious Deed is the reset payoff that converts board stalls or opposing overextension into a new game where this deck's flashback cards, manlands, and recursion matter.
• Engines: Recurring Nightmare plus cheap creatures is the primary recursive engine, while Stampeding Wildebeests plus Wall of Blossoms can create repeated cards if the upkeep return is legal and not tempo-disastrous. Genesis after sideboard is a graveyard engine for slow matchups where creature recursion matters and graveyard hate risk is acceptable.
• Velocity: Wall of Blossoms is the safest early velocity card because it replaces itself and buys time. Yavimaya Elder and Krosan Tusker help bridge into longer games, but their exact tactical use should follow legal actions, available mana, and whether the pilot needs board presence immediately.
• Interaction: Duress and Cabal Therapy attack the opponent's hand; Smother handles early and medium creatures; Pernicious Deed resets permanents at scalable values; Naturalize answers visible artifacts or enchantments; Nantuko Vigilante provides a creature-based answer if its relevant action is legal. Diabolic Edict, Engineered Plague, additional Naturalize, additional Pernicious Deed, Haunting Echoes, and Tormod's Crypt expand the interaction suite after sideboard.
• Protection: The deck protects itself mostly through discard, life gain, blockers, and sweepers rather than dedicated protection spells. Ravenous Baloth protects life total, Wall of Blossoms and Wall of Roots protect planes of combat, and Duress or Cabal Therapy can protect Recurring Nightmare, Spiritmonger, Deranged Hermit, or Pernicious Deed before committing them.
• Recursion: Recurring Nightmare is the main-deck recursion plan and should be treated as a high-value, timing-sensitive engine. Genesis is the sideboard recursion plan for grindy games, and Call of the Herd provides built-in repeat value without requiring another card.
• Mana: Forest, Swamp, Llanowar Wastes, Birds of Paradise, Wall of Roots, and Krosan Tusker support color access, while Dust Bowl and Treetop Village are utility lands that should not be counted as painless colored sources. Birds of Paradise accelerates fragile starts, and Wall of Roots both blocks and supports midgame double-spell turns.
• Sideboard modules: Engineered Plague is the tribal or small-creature pressure module; Tormod's Crypt and Haunting Echoes are graveyard and library-pressure modules; Naturalize is the artifact/enchantment module; Pernicious Deed is the extra sweeper module; Diabolic Edict is the untargeted creature-answer module; Genesis is the long-game recursion module.

Primary Win Conditions

• Recursive attrition kill: Prioritize Recurring Nightmare when the pilot has stable mana, at least one expendable creature, and a meaningful creature in the graveyard or about to trade. Setup is Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Roots, Birds of Paradise, Yavimaya Elder, Call of the Herd tokens, or spent creatures buying time; execution is to turn each legal Recurring Nightmare exchange into a board upgrade, card, life buffer, or lethal pressure piece. Best returns are usually Ravenous Baloth for life-stabilizing pressure, Deranged Hermit for a wide clock, Spiritmonger for a large closer, Krosan Tusker for a durable body after earlier cycling or trading if applicable, and Wall of Blossoms when the game is still about cards. Disruption to respect is graveyard removal, enchantment removal, instant creature removal in response to sacrifice or target choices when the rules engine exposes it, and being too far behind on board to spend mana without affecting combat. Prioritize this path when the board is stable, when the opponent is trading one-for-one, or when a single returned creature will swing life, board, or card count immediately.

• Baloth and Spiritmonger midrange pressure: Prioritize Ravenous Baloth and Spiritmonger as the cleanest combat win path when the opponent is not already forcing an emergency sweeper. Setup is discard first if Duress or Cabal Therapy can clear a visible or known answer, then land a large body behind Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Roots, Smother, or Pernicious Deed. Execution is disciplined attacking: attack when the block math is favorable, hold back when the body is needed to stop lethal pressure, and use Ravenous Baloth's life-related legal actions only when the life swing matters more than keeping the creature. Disruption to respect is exile-style removal, bounce, untargeted sacrifice effects, opposing sweepers, and tempo lines that punish tapping out. Prioritize this path when the pilot is ahead or even on board and needs to close before the opponent topdecks over the discard.

• Deed reset into asymmetric rebuild: Prioritize Pernicious Deed when the opponent's battlefield is wider, faster, or more synergy-dependent than the pilot's, or when a reset protects the pilot from losing before larger threats matter. Setup is to preserve hand resources, avoid unnecessary extra permanents, and keep Call of the Herd, Treetop Village, Recurring Nightmare follow-up, or large creatures ready for the post-Deed board. Execution is to choose a legal activation value that answers the dangerous visible permanents while preserving as much of the pilot's future pressure as possible. Disruption to respect is artifact/enchantment removal before activation, counterplay around the activation window, and sacrificing too much of the pilot's own board when life total is still unsafe. Prioritize this path against creature swarms, permanent-based engines, or board stalls where Ravenous Baloth and Spiritmonger cannot profitably attack.

Secondary Win Conditions

• Call of the Herd and Treetop Village pressure: Use Call of the Herd and Treetop Village to win games where both players are trading resources and the pilot wants threats that do not require overcommitting from hand. Setup is hitting land drops and keeping the board clear enough that a token or creature-land attack is meaningful. Execution is to present one threat at a time into open sweepers, activate Treetop Village only when the mana commitment does not prevent required Smother, Naturalize, Pernicious Deed, or Recurring Nightmare actions, and flash back or reuse Call of the Herd only through legal engine actions. This path is best when the opponent has exhausted spot removal or when discard has shown that a slow clock is safe.

• Deranged Hermit wide finish: Use Deranged Hermit as a closing burst when the opponent is low on sweepers, tapped low, or already constrained by discard. Setup is survival through blockers and removal, plus enough mana to cast the card without losing to a counterattack. Execution is to convert the wide board into attacks quickly, or to pair it with Recurring Nightmare if legal and tactically sound. Disruption to respect is mass removal, Engineered Plague from an opponent if visible or known, and any combat position where creating multiple bodies still does not stop lethal damage.

• Stampeding Wildebeests value pressure: Use Stampeding Wildebeests as a secondary engine only when its required creature-return pattern is legal and beneficial rather than a tempo loss. Setup is Wall of Blossoms for repeated cards, Yavimaya Elder or other green creatures when returning them does not break the board, and enough mana to redeploy. Execution is to attack or block with the large body while turning the return requirement into extra material. Avoid this plan when behind on tempo, when returning the only blocker opens lethal damage, or when Recurring Nightmare is the cleaner engine.

• Discard-backed fallback pressure: Use Duress and Cabal Therapy to make modest clocks lethal by removing the opponent's recovery window. Setup is information from Duress, public zones, repeated revealed cards, or visible hand effects; execution is to name or choose only according to legal actions and actual information. This deck has no direct burn finish, so damage must come from creatures, creature lands, tokens, and sustained attacks.

Emergency Lines

• Behind on life: Stabilize before extracting value. Favor Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Roots, Smother, Ravenous Baloth, and Pernicious Deed over slow Recurring Nightmare setup unless the engine immediately returns Ravenous Baloth or another stabilizing creature through legal actions. Do not sacrifice Ravenous Baloth or tap Treetop Village for pressure if that line exposes lethal counterattack.

• Behind on board: Reset or trade down before committing closers. Pernicious Deed is the primary catch-up card, Smother handles a single urgent creature, and Wall of Blossoms or Wall of Roots can buy the turn needed to reach Ravenous Baloth or Spiritmonger. Avoid Deranged Hermit or Recurring Nightmare if the current battlefield means the pilot dies before those cards matter.

• Behind on cards: Convert creatures into material rather than chasing a fast kill. Wall of Blossoms, Yavimaya Elder, Krosan Tusker, Call of the Herd, Stampeding Wildebeests with Wall of Blossoms, and Recurring Nightmare are the recovery tools. If the opponent is also low on cards, a single Treetop Village or Call of the Herd threat may be enough; protect hand resources from unnecessary deployment into sweepers.

• Behind on mana: Preserve colored sources and use Birds of Paradise or Wall of Roots defensively. Do not lean on Dust Bowl or Treetop Village as colored mana. If Krosan Tusker has a legal mana-fixing action, consider it when missing land drops matters more than board presence. Keep Naturalize and Smother timing realistic if Llanowar Wastes damage or color constraints affect survival.

• Engine removed or graveyard contained: Shift from Recurring Nightmare to honest combat. Ravenous Baloth, Spiritmonger, Call of the Herd, Deranged Hermit, and Treetop Village can still win without graveyard recursion. After sideboard, Genesis, Haunting Echoes, and Tormod's Crypt may change graveyard incentives, but runtime choices must follow visible zones and legal actions.

• Win conditions answered: Win with leftovers and patience. If Spiritmonger or Deranged Hermit is gone, use Call of the Herd, Ravenous Baloth, Treetop Village, and Recurring Nightmare loops. If the board is locked, use Pernicious Deed to reopen combat, then rebuild with the least exposed threat first.

Resource Model

• Life is a buffer for stabilization, not a spendable win condition: Spend life from Llanowar Wastes only when the colored mana unlocks Duress, Cabal Therapy, Smother, Pernicious Deed, Recurring Nightmare, Ravenous Baloth, or a decisive double-spell turn. Preserve life when Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Roots, Ravenous Baloth, or Pernicious Deed can convert one more turn into a stable board. Do not use Treetop Village aggression or Ravenous Baloth sacrifice lines if the visible counterattack makes the pilot die first.

• Hand is converted into staged pressure: Hold extra creatures when Pernicious Deed is likely to reset the battlefield, then rebuild with Call of the Herd, Ravenous Baloth, Spiritmonger, Deranged Hermit, or Treetop Village. Spend Duress before Cabal Therapy when the hand needs information, and use Cabal Therapy from known information rather than guesses unless the game state demands a low-probability answer. Wall of Blossoms, Yavimaya Elder, Krosan Tusker, Call of the Herd, and Recurring Nightmare are the main ways to recover after trades.

• Mana is the deck's pacing resource: Prioritize reaching stable black-green access over maximizing early damage. Birds of Paradise and Wall of Roots convert early turns into four-mana stabilization, while Forest, Swamp, and Llanowar Wastes make the deck's colored requirements reliable. Dust Bowl and Treetop Village are valuable lands, but they should not replace needed colored sources in opening hands.

• Board is converted through attrition and asymmetry: Wall of Blossoms and Wall of Roots buy time, Ravenous Baloth and Spiritmonger dominate creature combat, and Pernicious Deed changes wide or synergy-heavy boards into rebuild contests. Stampeding Wildebeests turns a stable board into repeated value only when returning a creature does not remove the necessary blocker or delay a required removal/reset action.

• Graveyard is a second hand when legal actions allow it: Recurring Nightmare, Call of the Herd, Genesis after sideboard, Haunting Echoes after sideboard, Tormod's Crypt after sideboard, and Cabal Therapy flashback-style lines all care about graveyard state. Use graveyard resources only from visible legal actions; do not assume a creature can be returned, flashed back, or exiled unless Forge presents that action.

• Exile is mostly a containment and consequence zone: Track exiled cards because Haunting Echoes and Tormod's Crypt postboard can convert graveyard interaction into long-game advantage or matchup disruption. Treat cards in exile as gone unless the rules engine exposes a legal permission to use them.

• Lands are both mana and threats: Treetop Village is a threat for low-resource games, while Dust Bowl is a utility land for long games where denying a key land is worth the tempo. Do not activate Treetop Village or Dust Bowl when that mana is needed for Smother, Naturalize, Pernicious Deed activation, Recurring Nightmare, or a stabilizing creature.

• Sacrifice fodder must be priced by current board need: Birds of Paradise, Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Roots, Yavimaya Elder, Call of the Herd tokens, and expendable creatures can fuel Cabal Therapy or Recurring Nightmare lines when legal, but losing the only mana source, blocker, or pressure piece can undo the advantage. Sacrifice Ravenous Baloth for life only when life total, removal risk, or combat math makes the life swing more important than the body.

• Sideboard bullets convert narrow text into matchup leverage: Diabolic Edict answers single-threat boards, Engineered Plague punishes creature-type concentration, Genesis strengthens long attrition, Haunting Echoes attacks graveyard-dependent or resource-heavy plans, Naturalize answers artifacts and enchantments, Pernicious Deed increases sweeper density, and Tormod's Crypt contests graveyard engines.

Mana Guide

• Opening mana must cast spells, not merely contain lands: Keep hands with reliable access to both black and green, or a clear legal path to both through Birds of Paradise, Llanowar Wastes, basic lands, or Krosan Tusker fixing if the hand can survive the delay. Mulligan pressure rises when a hand has Dust Bowl or Treetop Village as functional blanks, no early green for Birds of Paradise or Wall of Blossoms, or no black for Duress, Cabal Therapy, and Smother against a fast opponent.

• Green is required for board development: Forest, Llanowar Wastes, Birds of Paradise, and Wall of Roots support Wall of Blossoms, Call of the Herd, Ravenous Baloth, Stampeding Wildebeests, Spiritmonger, Naturalize, Nantuko Vigilante, Krosan Tusker, Yavimaya Elder, and Deranged Hermit. Lead with green when the hand needs early blockers or acceleration, especially when Birds of Paradise or Wall of Roots enables a turn-three Ravenous Baloth or Pernicious Deed posture.

• Black is required for disruption and control: Swamp, Llanowar Wastes, and Birds of Paradise support Duress, Cabal Therapy, Smother, Pernicious Deed, Recurring Nightmare, and Spiritmonger. Lead with black when the hand contains Duress against unknown interaction or combo pressure, or when Smother must be available before the opponent's next combat step.

• Llanowar Wastes is a fixing land with life risk: Use it freely when colored mana prevents falling behind, but prefer painless sources when life total is under pressure and the same spell can be cast later without damage. Count repeated Llanowar Wastes activations as real cost against aggressive decks.

• Treetop Village is a tapped threat land: Play it early when the hand has other colored sources and no urgent one-mana play; delay it when entering tapped would prevent Duress, Birds of Paradise, Cabal Therapy, Smother, or Wall of Roots on curve. Activate it only when the attack or block is worth losing access to that mana for the rest of the turn.

• Dust Bowl is a late utility land: Treat Dust Bowl as colorless until the deck already has stable black and green. Use land-denial lines only when the opponent's visible land matters more than casting or holding up the pilot's own spells, and do not sacrifice lands if doing so strands Ravenous Baloth, Spiritmonger, Pernicious Deed, or Recurring Nightmare.

• Play land before drawing when mana is already decided: Make the land drop before Wall of Blossoms-style cantrips or other draw actions when the current turn has a required spell or activation and the drawn card cannot change which land must be played. Delay the land drop until after a draw or selection action when the pilot is missing a color, deciding between Treetop Village and an untapped colored land, or preserving information for Cabal Therapy and sequencing decisions.

• Sequence acceleration around removal and sweepers: Birds of Paradise is best on turn one when it unlocks three- and four-mana plays, but it is fragile and should not be treated as the only colored source in slow hands. Wall of Roots is better when blocking matters, when green mana over multiple turns matters, or when the deck needs to reach Pernicious Deed and Ravenous Baloth while absorbing early attacks.

Mulligan Guide

• Strong keep: Keep two or three lands with both black and green access plus an early action package such as Duress or Cabal Therapy with Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Roots, Birds of Paradise, Smother, or Call of the Herd. Forest, Swamp, Birds of Paradise, Duress, Wall of Blossoms, Ravenous Baloth, and Pernicious Deed is a strong generic keep because it disrupts, fixes, blocks, and stabilizes.

• Medium keep: Keep one-color land plus Birds of Paradise or Llanowar Wastes only when the hand has immediate playability and at least one fallback if Birds of Paradise dies. Forest, Birds of Paradise, Wall of Roots, Wall of Blossoms, Ravenous Baloth, Spiritmonger, and Call of the Herd is acceptable on the play against slower decks but fragile against removal-heavy or fast pressure.

• Risky keep: Keep Dust Bowl or Treetop Village hands only when colored sources already cast the first two relevant spells. Dust Bowl, Treetop Village, Forest, Birds of Paradise, Ravenous Baloth, Recurring Nightmare, and Spiritmonger is a trap unless Birds of Paradise survives and black arrives; ship it against unknown fast or discard-heavy opponents.

• Automatic ship: Mulligan zero-land, one-land without Birds of Paradise, all-colorless/tapped functional starts, and hands that cannot cast a spell before turn three. Also ship hands with only Swamp plus green-heavy spells, only Forest plus black disruption/removal, or hands relying on Recurring Nightmare without early creatures.

• Matchup-dependent keep: Prioritize Duress, Cabal Therapy, and fast black mana against combo, control, and spell-centric opponents; prioritize Smother, Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Roots, Ravenous Baloth, and Pernicious Deed against creature pressure. Naturalize is not a reason to keep game one unless a visible or known opponent plan makes artifacts or enchantments central.

• Play/draw adjustment: On the play, a turn-one Duress or Birds of Paradise hand gains value because it sets the pace before the opponent develops. On the draw, require more defensive texture against aggression, especially Smother or Wall of Roots, because the first opposing creature may attack before Ravenous Baloth matters.

• Trap-hand warning: Do not keep hands that look powerful only because they contain Spiritmonger, Recurring Nightmare, Deranged Hermit, or Ravenous Baloth if they lack early mana, early creatures, or time. This deck wins by reaching its fours and fives alive, not by admiring them in hand.

Turn Arc

• Turn 1 priority: Lead with Duress when the opponent is unknown and black is available, especially if the hand needs to clear interaction before Pernicious Deed, Recurring Nightmare, Ravenous Baloth, or Spiritmonger. Lead with Birds of Paradise when it enables a turn-two Wall of Blossoms plus disruption, turn-three Ravenous Baloth, or earlier Pernicious Deed posture. Play Treetop Village on turn one only when no one-mana spell is being sacrificed.

• Turn 1 deviation: Use Cabal Therapy blind only when matchup knowledge makes the name high-confidence or when the hand has later flashback fodder and cannot spend Duress first. Prefer Duress before Cabal Therapy when both are legal and hidden information matters.

• Turn 2 priority: Develop Wall of Blossoms or Wall of Roots when the board needs blocking, mana smoothing, or a creature for future Recurring Nightmare and Cabal Therapy lines. Hold up Smother when the opponent has a threatening creature line and the legal action can stop damage or an engine before turn three.

• Turn 2 deviation: Cast Call of the Herd when the opponent is not presenting an urgent threat and a 3/3 body pressures planes of combat better than drawing or blocking. Use Cabal Therapy after Duress or visible information when the likely hit is specific and the flashback body cost is not needed for survival.

• Turn 3 priority: Establish the stabilizing axis that the board asks for: Ravenous Baloth against damage races, Pernicious Deed against wide or permanent-heavy boards, Call of the Herd flashback or Wall of Blossoms when grinding, and Recurring Nightmare only when a legal creature exchange is immediately useful. Do not expose Recurring Nightmare as a low-impact action when no good sacrifice and return pair is visible.

• Turn 3 deviation: Cycle or use Krosan Tusker only when mana fixing or land drops matter more than board presence; Card text check required for exact available action text. Cast Naturalize only into a visible artifact or enchantment whose impact justifies spending the narrow answer now.

• Turns 4-5 priority: Convert survival into advantage with Ravenous Baloth, Spiritmonger, Stampeding Wildebeests, Recurring Nightmare, and Pernicious Deed timing. Use Pernicious Deed to reset boards where the opponent has more committed material or where waiting risks lethal pressure, but preserve it when your own Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Roots, Call of the Herd token, and Ravenous Baloth already dominate combat.

• Turns 4-5 deviation: Use Stampeding Wildebeests only when returning Wall of Blossoms, Yavimaya Elder, Nantuko Vigilante, or another green creature does not remove the required blocker or tempo. Commit Deranged Hermit when the board can protect the token plan or when a wide board is the best path through spot removal; Card text check required for exact echo and token handling.

• Late-game priority: Turn lands and graveyard resources into inevitability through Treetop Village attacks, Dust Bowl pressure, Recurring Nightmare exchanges, Call of the Herd flashback, and oversized creatures. Sacrifice Ravenous Baloth for life only when the life swing changes survival, combat math, or removal risk more than the 4/4 body does.

• Late-game deviation: Preserve mana for Pernicious Deed activation, Smother, Naturalize, Treetop Village, or Recurring Nightmare when the opponent can punish tapping out. Use Dust Bowl only when denying a visible land is worth losing your own land and does not strand Spiritmonger, Ravenous Baloth, Deranged Hermit, or activated follow-up lines.

Card Roles

• Birds of Paradise: Use Birds of Paradise as the deck's cleanest acceleration and color-fixing piece, not as a disposable body unless the sacrifice creates a decisive Recurring Nightmare or Cabal Therapy line. Prioritize Birds of Paradise on turn one when it converts a slow hand into turn-two Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Roots, Call of the Herd, Smother with mana up, or turn-three Ravenous Baloth and Pernicious Deed. Protect Birds of Paradise indirectly by sequencing discard first against removal-heavy opponents when the hand already has natural colors. Do not count Birds of Paradise as a stable blocker or long-term mana source against decks likely to remove small creatures.

• Wall of Blossoms: Treat Wall of Blossoms as the default early stabilizer because it blocks, replaces itself, feeds Cabal Therapy flashback, and becomes one of the best creatures to loop with Stampeding Wildebeests or Recurring Nightmare. Cast it early when the opponent can attack profitably or when the hand needs to find land four. Hold it only when a known sweeper, Pernicious Deed plan, or Recurring Nightmare exchange makes the timing matter. Returning Wall of Blossoms to Stampeding Wildebeests is often the cleanest low-risk value line when combat remains stable.

• Wall of Roots: Use Wall of Roots as defensive acceleration that buys time against early attackers while helping cast Ravenous Baloth, Spiritmonger, Pernicious Deed, and Recurring Nightmare. Prefer Wall of Roots over Wall of Blossoms when the hand is mana-hungry or when blocking immediately matters more than drawing a random card. Do not overuse Wall of Roots mana if its toughness is still needed for combat. Sacrifice it to Cabal Therapy or Recurring Nightmare only when the board no longer needs the body.

• Duress: Use Duress to clear the path, identify the opponent's plan, and set up more accurate Cabal Therapy names. Cast Duress early against unknown, combo, control, and removal-heavy opponents, especially before committing Recurring Nightmare, Pernicious Deed, Spiritmonger, or Deranged Hermit. In creature races, Duress is still valuable if it can take burn, removal, permission, or a key noncreature engine, but do not spend black mana on it when a visible creature must be answered by Smother or blocked this turn. Late Duress should be cast before a commitment turn, not after the opponent has already used the relevant card.

• Cabal Therapy: Use Cabal Therapy as information conversion first and blind disruption second. Prefer casting it after Duress, after a revealed hand, or after public play patterns make a specific name credible. Flashback with Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Roots, Birds of Paradise, Call of the Herd tokens, Deranged Hermit tokens, or spent Yavimaya Elder only when the sacrificed body is less important than stripping the named card. Avoid flashing back by sacrificing Ravenous Baloth, Spiritmonger, or Stampeding Wildebeests unless the hit prevents lethal, protects a game-winning permanent, or breaks a combo turn.

• Smother: Hold Smother for the creature that changes the race, enables an engine, or invalidates your blockers. Use it early when a visible attacker will push damage faster than Ravenous Baloth can stabilize. Against creature-light decks, conserve Smother until the opponent presents a legal target that matters, because dead removal can be offset by discard and pressure. Do not fire Smother just to use mana when Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Roots, Call of the Herd, or Duress improves the next turns more.

• Call of the Herd: Use Call of the Herd as resilient pressure and sacrifice fodder rather than as a pure curve filler. Cast it when a 3/3 body contests the board, pressures control, or gives Cabal Therapy and Recurring Nightmare material without risking premium creatures. Flash it back when mana would otherwise go unused or when a second body matters more than holding up Smother, Naturalize, Pernicious Deed activation, or Treetop Village. Be careful not to overcommit Call of the Herd tokens into your own Pernicious Deed unless the reset is already planned.

• Ravenous Baloth: Treat Ravenous Baloth as the main stabilizing creature and life-buffer. Cast it as soon as it blocks profitably or forces the opponent to spend removal before your larger threats. Keep it on the battlefield when the 4/4 body controls combat; sacrifice it for life only when the life swing changes survival, races, burn math, or removal blowout risk. With Recurring Nightmare, Ravenous Baloth can become both a life engine and a recursive threat, but do not sacrifice it before the returned creature meaningfully improves the board.

• Pernicious Deed: Use Pernicious Deed as the catch-up tool and board-shape threat, not as automatic removal. Deploy it when the opponent is ahead on permanents, when a visible board can become lethal, or when having activation available constrains the opponent's next turn. Delay it when your Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Roots, Call of the Herd tokens, Ravenous Baloth, and Spiritmonger already dominate combat. When choosing an activation size, preserve your best permanent only if doing so does not leave the opponent's decisive threat alive. Card text check required for exact activation and mana-value handling in unusual board states.

• Recurring Nightmare: Use Recurring Nightmare only when the visible sacrifice and return pair is worth spending the turn and exposing the enchantment line. Strong pairs include sacrificing Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Roots, Birds of Paradise, Call of the Herd tokens, Deranged Hermit tokens, or Yavimaya Elder to return Ravenous Baloth, Spiritmonger, Deranged Hermit, Krosan Tusker, Nantuko Vigilante, or another high-impact creature. Avoid casting it into an empty graveyard, no expendable creature, or a board where sacrificing the only blocker loses the race. Treat it as a commitment gate against open interaction.

• Spiritmonger: Use Spiritmonger as the primary hard-to-answer finisher when the board is stable or when a large body immediately changes combat. Cast it after discard when possible against decks with removal or permission. Do not jam Spiritmonger ahead of Ravenous Baloth when life total is the urgent resource. In races, attack only when the crack-back is survivable or when Treetop Village, Ravenous Baloth, Wall of Roots, or removal can cover the return attack. Card text check required for exact regeneration, counter, and color-change action text before relying on those abilities.

• Stampeding Wildebeests: Use Stampeding Wildebeests as a repeatable value engine only when returning a green creature is not tempo suicide. The best returns are Wall of Blossoms for cards, Yavimaya Elder for resource loops, Nantuko Vigilante for repeated artifact/enchantment pressure when legal, and sometimes Ravenous Baloth when recasting the body and life access matters. Do not cast Stampeding Wildebeests into a board where returning your only blocker exposes lethal or where you cannot recast a useful creature. Card text check required for exact upkeep trigger handling.

• Deranged Hermit: Use Deranged Hermit as a wide-board payoff when tokens will stabilize, pressure control, or provide multiple bodies for Cabal Therapy and Recurring Nightmare. Cast it when the opponent is light on sweepers or when forcing a sweeper preserves your larger follow-up threats. Do not run it into a visible Pernicious Deed plan unless the tokens are needed immediately. Card text check required for exact echo, token creation, and pump handling.

• Krosan Tusker: Use Krosan Tusker as mana smoothing early and as a large creature late. When land drops or colors are uncertain, favor its cycling or search mode if the legal action text supports it; when mana is abundant and the graveyard engine is online, casting or recurring the body can matter. Card text check required for exact cycling/search trigger text and available basic-land selection.

• Nantuko Vigilante: Use Nantuko Vigilante as the main-deck flexible answer to visible artifacts or enchantments while still being a creature for Recurring Nightmare and Stampeding Wildebeests. Hold it when the opponent has not shown a target and the body is not needed. Deploy it when the target materially blocks your plan, threatens lethal, or invalidates combat. Card text check required for exact morph and trigger text.

• Yavimaya Elder: Use Yavimaya Elder as a resource bridge that blocks, finds lands, and supplies sacrifice value. It is excellent with Cabal Therapy and Recurring Nightmare when the legal sacrifice still produces material advantage. Do not spend it too early if the body is required to absorb damage this turn. Card text check required for exact death/search and activated draw text.

• Naturalize: Use Naturalize only on visible artifacts or enchantments that matter enough to spend a narrow answer. Hold it against unknown boards unless the opponent's public permanent threatens your board, invalidates Recurring Nightmare, races your creatures, or enables a combo. Do not treat Naturalize as generic interaction when no legal target is strategically important.

• Treetop Village: Use Treetop Village as late pressure and post-sweeper reach, not as a reason to keep slow openers. Play it early when tapped mana does not block Duress, Birds of Paradise, or Wall of Blossoms. Activate it when attacking does not prevent necessary Smother, Naturalize, Pernicious Deed, Recurring Nightmare, or Ravenous Baloth lines.

• Dust Bowl: Use Dust Bowl as late-game mana denial only after colored mana and spell deployment are secure. Target lands when denying a visible utility, color, or large-mana plan is worth sacrificing your own land. Do not activate Dust Bowl if it strands Spiritmonger, Ravenous Baloth, Pernicious Deed activation, or Recurring Nightmare sequencing.

• Forest, Swamp, and Llanowar Wastes: Treat Forest and Swamp as the deck's stability base and Llanowar Wastes as the flexible glue that makes early discard, green blockers, and double-spell turns work. Sequence basics when life total is pressured or when colored requirements are already met. Use Llanowar Wastes damage only when the spell changes the board, preserves tempo, or prevents greater damage later.

Interaction Priorities

• Discard priority: Use Duress and Cabal Therapy to remove the opponent's highest-impact noncreature plan before it becomes public board pressure. Against control, take permission, sweepers, or card-advantage engines before spot removal unless Spiritmonger or Recurring Nightmare is already the committed line. Against combo, take the enabling spell or payoff named by visible context and prior public information; do not invent hidden cards for Cabal Therapy when no clue exists.

• Cabal Therapy timing: Cast Cabal Therapy early when a known or strongly inferred card can be named, but save flashback sacrifice for a meaningful exchange. Wall of Blossoms, Birds of Paradise, Call of the Herd tokens, Deranged Hermit tokens, Wall of Roots, and Yavimaya Elder are the preferred sacrifice bodies when the board can absorb the loss. Do not sacrifice the only blocker under pressure unless the named card prevents lethal or unlocks a decisive Recurring Nightmare turn.

• Removal priority: Spend Smother on creatures that create a fast clock, enable combo, carry important equipment or aura pressure, invalidate blocking, or force Ravenous Baloth to be used defensively too early. Ignore small creatures that are already blanked by Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Roots, Call of the Herd tokens, Ravenous Baloth, or Treetop Village unless they multiply damage or make combat unmanageable.

• Pernicious Deed priority: Use Pernicious Deed to reset boards that Smother cannot cleanly answer or to punish opponents who commit many cheap permanents into your slower threats. Choose an activation size from visible permanents, not from hope; preserving Wall of Blossoms or Call of the Herd tokens is secondary to removing the permanent that is actually winning the game. Delay Pernicious Deed when your board already dominates and the opponent has not added enough pressure to justify spending your own material.

• Naturalize priority: Use Naturalize and Nantuko Vigilante only on artifacts or enchantments that change the game state materially. Priority targets are permanents that stop Recurring Nightmare, make combat impossible, create a fast noncreature clock, lock mana, or protect an opposing engine. Ignore low-impact artifacts and enchantments while developing Ravenous Baloth, Spiritmonger, Recurring Nightmare, or Pernicious Deed unless the legal action window will disappear.

• Exile priority: Post-board, use Tormod's Crypt and Haunting Echoes only when the opponent's graveyard is a resource, not as cosmetic cleanup. Fire Tormod's Crypt before the opponent can convert visible graveyard cards into damage, mana, recursion, or combo progress. Use Haunting Echoes as a commitment play after discard, removal, or combat has bought enough time; do not tap out for it while a visible board kills you.

• Bait and protection: Lead with Wall of Blossoms, Call of the Herd, Ravenous Baloth, or discard before exposing Recurring Nightmare or Spiritmonger to open interaction. Against removal-heavy decks, make them answer bodies that already replaced themselves or gained life before committing the engine. Against permission, use Duress and Cabal Therapy to clear the way, then force must-answer threats one at a time.

Combat And Trading Rules

• Default combat role: Trade early life total for board position only when Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Roots, Ravenous Baloth, or Pernicious Deed will stabilize before burn or evasion finishes the game. Preserve life more aggressively once below 10, and treat 6 or less as emergency territory where Ravenous Baloth life, chump blocks, and Deed activations outrank long-term value.

• Blocking priority: Block with Wall of Blossoms and Wall of Roots before exposing Birds of Paradise or key attackers, unless mana is no longer relevant. Use Yavimaya Elder as a blocker when its death or sacrifice value supports future land drops. Chump with Call of the Herd or Deranged Hermit tokens when the prevented damage changes a two-turn clock into a three-turn clock or protects a Recurring Nightmare setup.

• Trading priority: Trade expendable bodies for creatures that keep attacking through your walls, threaten lethal, or prevent you from safely tapping mana on your turn. Do not trade Ravenous Baloth or Spiritmonger for a creature that Pernicious Deed, Smother, or a token block can handle unless the exchange prevents immediate death or clears the way for lethal pressure.

• Attack discipline: Attack with Ravenous Baloth, Spiritmonger, Treetop Village, Deranged Hermit tokens, and Call of the Herd tokens when the crack-back is covered by blockers, removal, or life gain. Hold attackers back against creature decks when your life total is the bottleneck or when a single unblocked swing from the opponent would force a bad Pernicious Deed. Against control, pressure earlier with Treetop Village and tokens after discard has reduced the chance of a blowout.

• Engine preservation: Preserve at least one expendable creature when Recurring Nightmare is active or likely to be cast soon. Do not attack or trade away the only legal sacrifice body unless the attack creates lethal pressure or the trade removes a decisive threat. Stampeding Wildebeests also needs a green creature to return, so avoid combat lines that strand it or force it to return the only stabilizing blocker.

• Ravenous Baloth rule: Keep Ravenous Baloth on the battlefield when its body blocks the opponent's best attacker, but sacrifice it when life gain changes lethal math, blanks burn range, or converts a doomed creature into survival. Do not sacrifice it merely because the action is available if doing so opens a lethal combat step.

• Archetype shifts: Against aggro, block early, trade down if it preserves life, and use Pernicious Deed as a survival reset. Against control, attack patiently, force answers with recursive and flashback threats, and avoid overextending into sweepers. Against combo, combat matters only after discard and pressure are aligned; choose attacks that shorten the clock without sacrificing Cabal Therapy flashback or needed interaction.

Selection And Tutor Rules

• No true tutor rule: Treat this deck as an attrition deck with pseudo-selection, not a deck that can find any card on demand. Krosan Tusker and Yavimaya Elder find basic lands, Wall of Blossoms replaces itself, discard reveals or constrains the opponent, and Recurring Nightmare selects from creatures already in the graveyard.

• Krosan Tusker timing: Cycle Krosan Tusker when the hand needs a land drop, a specific basic color, or another draw step more than it needs a seven-mana creature. Prefer cycling before committing the turn's land drop when the legal action can reveal whether Forest or Swamp fixes the next turn. Keep Krosan Tusker as a creature only when mana is already abundant and a large body is more valuable than smoothing.

• Yavimaya Elder timing: Use Yavimaya Elder as a blocker or sacrifice resource when its death will secure future land drops. Activate its sacrifice draw only when spending the mana will not prevent Smother, Naturalize, Pernicious Deed activation, or a decisive Recurring Nightmare line. Fetch basic lands by visible needs: Swamp for Cabal Therapy, Duress, Smother, Recurring Nightmare, and Pernicious Deed; Forest for Ravenous Baloth, Stampeding Wildebeests, Call of the Herd, and Deranged Hermit.

• Wall of Blossoms sequencing: Cast Wall of Blossoms early when it blocks and draws, especially before discard flashback or Recurring Nightmare setup. With Stampeding Wildebeests, returning Wall of Blossoms is a strong default if the board still has enough blockers and the replayed card will keep land drops and interaction flowing.

• Recurring Nightmare selection: Choose Recurring Nightmare targets from visible graveyard value, board needs, and mana available this turn. Return Ravenous Baloth when life and blocking matter, Spiritmonger when a resilient finisher matters, Deranged Hermit when multiple bodies matter, Yavimaya Elder when land flow matters, and Wall of Blossoms when the engine needs cards more than size. Do not sacrifice the only stabilizing creature unless the returned creature immediately stabilizes or wins.

• Discard as selection: Use Duress and Cabal Therapy to shape future choices before committing fragile engines. When Cabal Therapy has no known name from visible information, prioritize casting Duress first if legal and tactically acceptable, then use revealed cards to make Cabal Therapy precise.

• Land-drop timing: Delay playing the turn's land only when Krosan Tusker or Yavimaya Elder can inform the color choice and there is no immediate spell that requires the land first. Play Treetop Village early when tapped mana will not cost a critical one-mana discard or Smother window; hold Dust Bowl until colored mana is stable or the opponent's land is a clear strategic target.

Priority And Stack Rules

• Default priority rule: Pass priority when no visible spell, ability, combat step, or graveyard action changes the tactical state. This deck wins by spending mana efficiently on its own turn, but it must preserve open mana for Smother, Naturalize, Pernicious Deed, Ravenous Baloth sacrifice, Treetop Village activation, and Yavimaya Elder sacrifice when those actions affect survival or a key exchange.

• Smother windows: Cast Smother before combat damage when removing an attacker or blocker changes damage, saves a key creature, or prevents a triggered or activated combat outcome. Let low-impact creatures resolve or attack into walls when Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Roots, Ravenous Baloth, or Call of the Herd tokens already contain them.

• Naturalize windows: Use Naturalize at the last safe moment against artifacts or enchantments unless the permanent already prevents your plan. Respond immediately when the target threatens to remove Recurring Nightmare, stop combat stabilization, create lethal pressure, or generate value before your next main phase. Post-board, extra Naturalize copies follow the same rule; do not spend them on cosmetic targets.

• Pernicious Deed activation: Activate Pernicious Deed only after checking visible mana value breakpoints and your own board. Use it in response to lethal combat, before an opponent can untap with a dominating board, or at end step when clearing permanents creates a safe turn. Do not activate for small value if waiting one turn likely captures the permanent that is actually winning.

• Ravenous Baloth sacrifice: Sacrifice Ravenous Baloth in response to removal, lethal damage, or burn-range pressure when four life changes the outcome. Keep it on board when its body is the better prevention tool. If multiple Beasts are visible, account for Spiritmonger not being a Beast and do not assume it can be sacrificed to Ravenous Baloth.

• Cabal Therapy flashback: Flash back Cabal Therapy only when the sacrifice and named card are worth the permanent loss. Prefer expendable bodies such as Wall of Blossoms, Call of the Herd tokens, Deranged Hermit tokens, Birds of Paradise after mana is stable, or Yavimaya Elder when its death value matters. Do not flash back blindly under pressure unless the opponent's known card will otherwise beat you.

• Recurring Nightmare stack discipline: Activate Recurring Nightmare when the sacrifice target, graveyard target, and battlefield result are all legal and visible. Because Recurring Nightmare returns to hand as part of the activation cost, expect the board to change before recasting it; do not expose the line if a simpler creature cast stabilizes.

• Combat-step priority: Hold priority decisions for moments that change combat math: before attackers, after attackers, after blockers, and before damage when Smother, Pernicious Deed, Ravenous Baloth, Treetop Village, or Naturalize can matter. Ignore fancy timing when the legal action list shows only no-impact choices.

• Graveyard timing: Use Tormod's Crypt before the opponent can convert visible graveyard cards into an effect, not after the payoff resolves. Cast Haunting Echoes only when the stack is clear or discard has reduced interaction risk, and only when tapping out will not lose to the visible battlefield.

Sideboard Map

• Sideboard posture: Sideboard by tightening the answer package around the opponent's visible axis while preserving The Rock's creature count, mana development, and Recurring Nightmare fuel. Avoid transforming into a pure control deck unless the opponent is slower than Ravenous Baloth, Spiritmonger, Genesis, and Haunting Echoes can punish.

• Diabolic Edict role: Add Diabolic Edict against single large threats, untargetable creatures, protected creatures, or creature-light decks where Smother may miss the actual threat. Diabolic Edict is weaker against token decks, mana creature decks, and boards where the opponent can sacrifice a low-value creature; in those matchups Engineered Plague, Pernicious Deed, or Smother usually carry more weight.

• Engineered Plague role: Add Engineered Plague against tribal or one-toughness creature clusters where naming one creature type will shrink multiple visible or expected threats. It is strongest against Goblins, Elves, Rebels, Clerics, Soldiers, and token plans with shared types. It is poor against mixed creature decks, large-creature midrange, control decks with few creatures, and artifact-heavy boards where the enchantment does not answer the real permanent.

• Genesis role: Add Genesis for attrition mirrors, control matchups, removal-heavy creature decks, and slow games where recurring Ravenous Baloth, Spiritmonger, Wall of Blossoms, Yavimaya Elder, Nantuko Vigilante, or Deranged Hermit creates inevitability. Genesis is bad when the opponent is racing quickly, attacking the graveyard, ignoring creatures, or winning before repeated upkeep recursion matters.

• Haunting Echoes role: Add Haunting Echoes against graveyard-reliant decks, control decks with repeated card names in graveyard, Psychatog-style strategies, recursion shells, and slow combo decks where discard plus removal can stock the opponent's graveyard before a decisive exile. It is bad when the opponent has little graveyard density, when tapping five mana loses to the board, or when Tormod's Crypt already handles the relevant graveyard at lower tempo cost.

• Naturalize role: Add Naturalize against artifact mana, enchantment engines, prison pieces, opposing Pernicious Deed, Survival-style permanents, Dreadnought-style artifacts, and equipment or utility permanents that change combat or lock Recurring Nightmare. It is bad against creature-only decks and should not displace too much creature density unless the opponent's noncreature permanent is a primary route to victory.

• Pernicious Deed role: Add extra Pernicious Deed against creature swarms, artifact boards, enchantment boards, token pressure, and opponents that commit multiple low-cost permanents. It is weaker against single large creatures, spell-heavy control, and boards where your own Wall of Blossoms, Birds of Paradise, Wall of Roots, Call of the Herd tokens, and Recurring Nightmare are more important than the permanents being cleared.

• Tormod's Crypt role: Add Tormod's Crypt against graveyard combo, Reanimator-style threats, threshold or Psychatog graveyard scaling, flashback-heavy plans, Genesis mirrors, and recursion decks. It is bad against decks that only incidentally use the graveyard; do not add it merely because cards enter graveyards through normal trades.

Aggro tribal creature swarm Side in: 4 Engineered Plague; 2 Pernicious Deed; 1 Diabolic Edict Cut: 3 Duress; 1 Naturalize; 1 Krosan Tusker; 1 Deranged Hermit; 1 Recurring Nightmare

• Creature swarm rule: Add role cards: Engineered Plague, Pernicious Deed, and Diabolic Edict when the opponent's plan depends on many creatures entering combat. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Duress, Naturalize, expensive top-end, and slow engine pieces when life total and board presence are the only urgent resources.

• Engineered Plague naming: Name the creature type that covers the largest visible pressure or the type that makes future attacks fail. If the battlefield is empty but the matchup is known tribal, use the matchup's core type only when public deck identity justifies it; otherwise wait for visible information if the legal timing permits.

Graveyard recursion or Psychatog-style pressure Side in: 2 Tormod's Crypt; 2 Haunting Echoes; 1 Genesis Cut: 1 Naturalize; 1 Nantuko Vigilante; 1 Deranged Hermit; 1 Call of the Herd; 1 Smother

• Graveyard rule: Add role cards: Tormod's Crypt for low-tempo interruption, Haunting Echoes for a decisive midgame graveyard conversion, and Genesis when the game becomes attritional rather than purely explosive. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow artifact/enchantment answers and expensive board cards when the opponent's graveyard is the real battlefield.

• Haunting Echoes timing: Cast Haunting Echoes after Cabal Therapy, Duress, Smother, Pernicious Deed, or combat has placed meaningful cards in the opponent's graveyard. Do not fire it just because it is legal if the opponent can win on board or if the graveyard contains only low-impact cards.

Artifact or enchantment engine Side in: 3 Naturalize; 2 Pernicious Deed Cut: 3 Smother; 1 Call of the Herd; 1 Krosan Tusker

• Permanent-engine rule: Add role cards: Naturalize and Pernicious Deed when the opponent's artifacts or enchantments create mana, lock combat, enable combo, or invalidate Recurring Nightmare. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Smother and slow threats when the opponent's creatures are secondary or absent.

• Naturalize discipline: Aim Naturalize at the permanent that changes the game plan, not the first legal artifact or enchantment. Preserve one answer when the opponent has a known higher-impact permanent unless the current target is already preventing mana, attacks, Recurring Nightmare, or survival.

Control or attrition mirror Side in: 1 Genesis; 2 Haunting Echoes; 3 Naturalize Cut: 3 Smother; 2 Wall of Roots; 1 Call of the Herd

• Control rule: Add role cards: Genesis for inevitability, Haunting Echoes for graveyard and library pressure after discard, and Naturalize for opposing engines or lock pieces. Reduce main-deck emphasis: creature removal and pure acceleration when the opponent is unlikely to pressure life total early.

• Role change: Become the resilient threat deck after sideboarding against control. Protect Recurring Nightmare lines with discard when possible, but do not rely on one enchantment; Genesis, Spiritmonger, Ravenous Baloth, Treetop Village, Deranged Hermit, and repeated Wall of Blossoms can all carry long games.

Large-creature or untargetable-threat decks Side in: 1 Diabolic Edict; 2 Pernicious Deed; 1 Genesis Cut: 1 Naturalize; 2 Wall of Roots; 1 Call of the Herd

• Big-threat rule: Add role cards: Diabolic Edict for threats Smother cannot answer cleanly, Pernicious Deed for support permanents and reset turns, and Genesis for grinding through removal. Reduce main-deck emphasis: acceleration and low-impact token pressure when the opponent's threat quality is higher than yours.

• Edict discipline: Use Diabolic Edict when the opponent has one creature or when Deed, combat, or Smother can clear expendable creatures first. Do not spend Diabolic Edict into a board where the opponent can choose a token or mana creature unless survival requires it.

Fast burn or red creature pressure Side in: 2 Pernicious Deed; 1 Diabolic Edict Cut: 1 Krosan Tusker; 1 Deranged Hermit; 1 Recurring Nightmare

• Burn-pressure rule: Add role cards: Pernicious Deed and Diabolic Edict when the opponent mixes fast creatures with reach. Reduce main-deck emphasis: expensive cards and slow recursion when Ravenous Baloth, Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Roots, Smother, and Call of the Herd are enough to stabilize.

• Life-total role change: Ravenous Baloth becomes both blocker and life buffer, so avoid sacrificing it casually for Recurring Nightmare unless the returned creature prevents more damage or wins quickly. Sideboard cards should buy time for Baloth, Spiritmonger, and Treetop Village to end the game before burn topdecks matter.

Matchup Guidance

• Aggro: Stabilize first with Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Roots, Smother, Ravenous Baloth, Call of the Herd, and Pernicious Deed before spending turns on slow attrition. Keep Birds of Paradise when it accelerates a turn-two blocker or turn-three Ravenous Baloth, but do not rely on Birds of Paradise as a blocker unless the visible attack step makes that legal and necessary. Add role cards: Pernicious Deed, Diabolic Edict, and Engineered Plague when the opponent's pressure is creature-dense. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Duress, Krosan Tusker, Deranged Hermit, and slow Recurring Nightmare lines when life total is under immediate pressure.

• Go-wide creature decks: Prioritize Pernicious Deed and Engineered Plague over one-for-one trades when the opponent's board contains multiple small attackers or repeated token production. Use Smother to protect life total before the sweep if one creature is carrying the race, but prefer setting Pernicious Deed to a value that removes the largest relevant cluster of opposing permanents. Keep Ravenous Baloth alive when its body blocks profitably; sacrifice it only when the life gain changes survival math or when Recurring Nightmare is already turning that sacrifice into a stronger board.

• Burn: Treat Ravenous Baloth as a life-total resource and a clock, not just a creature to trade. Wall of Blossoms and Wall of Roots should absorb attacks when legal, while Smother should remove repeat damage sources before damage accumulates. Add role cards: Pernicious Deed and Diabolic Edict only when the opponent uses creatures alongside burn; they are not answers to spell-only reach. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Krosan Tusker, Deranged Hermit, and excess Recurring Nightmare when the game is decided before slow engines matter.

• Tempo: Make land drops and cheap interaction matter more than raw card advantage when the opponent is combining pressure with disruption. Birds of Paradise and Wall of Roots are important if they let Ravenous Baloth or Spiritmonger resolve before the clock becomes lethal, but fragile mana should not be exposed to a visible removal-heavy line if a land-based sequence is available. Use Duress and Cabal Therapy to clear the way for Pernicious Deed, Recurring Nightmare, or a key blocker when public information suggests the opponent can punish a tap-out turn.

• Control: Become the threat-dense attrition deck and avoid overcommitting into visible sweepers or permission windows. Duress and Cabal Therapy should protect Recurring Nightmare, Spiritmonger, Ravenous Baloth, Deranged Hermit, or Haunting Echoes rather than chase low-impact cards. Add role cards: Genesis, Haunting Echoes, and Naturalize when the opponent relies on engines, graveyards, or noncreature permanents. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Smother and some pure acceleration when the opponent has few early creatures. Treetop Village is a valuable post-sweeper threat, so activate it only when the legal board state and available mana leave acceptable exposure.

• Removal-heavy decks: Do not commit every premium creature into known or visible removal when Call of the Herd, Treetop Village, Wall of Blossoms, and Recurring Nightmare can stretch threats across multiple turns. Recurring Nightmare is strongest when a creature is already expendable and the graveyard contains a meaningful return target; do not cast or activate it just because it is legal if the opponent can answer the enchantment before value is gained. Genesis becomes important after sideboarding when the game is about repeated creature exchange.

• Midrange mirrors: Win by making each exchange leave behind more material through Wall of Blossoms, Yavimaya Elder, Call of the Herd, Ravenous Baloth, Spiritmonger, Recurring Nightmare, Genesis, and Treetop Village. Cabal Therapy improves after Duress or visible hand information; use it to strip the card that breaks parity, not the card that merely trades. Pernicious Deed should be held for boards where it resets the opponent harder than you, especially when your own Recurring Nightmare, Birds of Paradise, Wall of Blossoms, and Call of the Herd tokens would be lost.

• Big mana: Pressure the opponent while using Duress and Cabal Therapy to attack payoff cards or stabilizing engines before they dominate the late game. Dust Bowl becomes important only when its activation meaningfully constrains the opponent's mana and does not strand your own Ravenous Baloth, Spiritmonger, or Pernicious Deed turns. Add role cards: Naturalize for noncreature mana or lock permanents, Haunting Echoes after discard and trades have filled the opponent's graveyard, and Genesis when the matchup slows into attrition. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Smother when the opponent presents few legal targets.

• Combo: Use Duress and Cabal Therapy as the primary plan, then apply the fastest credible clock with Call of the Herd, Ravenous Baloth, Spiritmonger, Treetop Village, and Deranged Hermit. Cabal Therapy should name from public information, prior Duress, known matchup role, or visible game actions; do not invent hidden cards. Add role cards: Tormod's Crypt against graveyard-based combo, Naturalize against artifact or enchantment engines, and Haunting Echoes when the graveyard contains enough relevant cards to reduce future combo density. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Smother and slow creature loops when they do not interact with the combo turn.

• Graveyard decks: Deploy Tormod's Crypt early when the opponent's graveyard is central, but activate it only when the visible graveyard, stack, or declared action makes the exile timing meaningful. Haunting Echoes is a midgame conversion tool after Cabal Therapy, Duress, Smother, Pernicious Deed, or combat has put relevant cards in the opponent's graveyard. Genesis is for attrition mirrors and recursion fights, not for racing explosive graveyard starts. Nantuko Vigilante and Naturalize matter only when the graveyard deck also uses visible artifacts or enchantments.

• Artifact/enchantment decks: Aim Naturalize and Nantuko Vigilante at the permanent that enables the opponent's plan, locks your board, disrupts Recurring Nightmare, or changes combat math. Pernicious Deed can answer clusters of cheap artifacts, enchantments, and creatures, but plan around losing your own Birds of Paradise, Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Roots, Call of the Herd tokens, and Recurring Nightmare. Add role cards: Naturalize and Pernicious Deed. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Smother when creatures are secondary.

• Single-threat decks: Preserve Diabolic Edict, Smother, Pernicious Deed, and combat blocks for the threat that actually ends the game. Diabolic Edict is strongest when the opponent controls exactly one creature or after other actions clear expendable creatures; do not spend it into visible tokens or mana creatures unless survival requires any legal answer. Spiritmonger and Ravenous Baloth can stabilize combat against many single attackers, but do not assume they can block through evasion, protection, tapping, or removal unless the rules engine exposes that block as legal.

• Role reassessment: Re-evaluate the matchup after every public reveal, sideboard card, and first meaningful spell. If the opponent shows creature density, move toward Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Roots, Smother, Ravenous Baloth, Pernicious Deed, and Engineered Plague. If the opponent shows few creatures and many engines, move toward Duress, Cabal Therapy, Naturalize, Haunting Echoes, Genesis, Recurring Nightmare, Spiritmonger, and Treetop Village.

Specific Matchup Notes

• General/archetype-only: Exact opponents are absent, so treat these notes as pregame assumptions only; revealed cards, legal actions, and public zones override every matchup label. Use Duress and Cabal Therapy to convert assumptions into known information before committing Recurring Nightmare, Pernicious Deed, Spiritmonger, or a slow graveyard plan.

• Creature swarm: Prioritize survival, then a board reset or lifegain pivot. Likely add role cards: Engineered Plague, Pernicious Deed, and Diabolic Edict when the opponent relies on many small creatures or one protected attacker. Priority targets are lords, sacrifice payoffs, evasive clocks, and creatures that make Engineered Plague naming less effective if left alive. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Krosan Tusker, Deranged Hermit, and excess Recurring Nightmare when the early turns decide the game.

• Red or burn-heavy aggro: Stabilize life total before maximizing card advantage. Ravenous Baloth is both blocker and life buffer, so avoid sacrificing it until damage prevention by life gain is actually needed or combat exchange makes the body expendable. Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Roots, Smother, and Call of the Herd buy time; Spiritmonger closes once the board stops leaking damage. Likely add role cards: Diabolic Edict and Pernicious Deed when creatures are central. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow recursion pieces when the opponent can finish through an empty board.

• Control and removal-heavy midrange: Become threat-dense and protect engines with discard. Priority targets for Duress and Cabal Therapy are sweepers, permission, graveyard hate, and hard answers to Recurring Nightmare or Spiritmonger. Likely add role cards: Genesis, Haunting Echoes, and Naturalize if the opponent shows graveyard recursion, artifacts, enchantments, or a slow inevitability engine. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Smother when creature targets are scarce.

• Graveyard or recursion decks: Treat Tormod's Crypt as a timing card, not a decoration. Deploy it when mana is spare, but activate only in response to a visible graveyard action, a lethal recursion setup, or a graveyard that already contains the opponent's central resources. Haunting Echoes is strongest after discard, combat, Smother, or Pernicious Deed has stocked the opponent's graveyard. Likely add role cards: Tormod's Crypt, Haunting Echoes, Genesis, and Naturalize if their engine includes artifacts or enchantments.

• Artifact/enchantment engines: Preserve Naturalize and Nantuko Vigilante for the permanent that changes the game plan, not the first legal target. Priority targets are mana engines, lock pieces, creature-combat engines, graveyard hate that stops Recurring Nightmare or Genesis, and permanents that make Pernicious Deed too late. Likely add role cards: Naturalize and Pernicious Deed. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Smother when creatures are secondary.

• Combo or big mana: Apply discard first, then clock with Call of the Herd, Ravenous Baloth, Spiritmonger, Treetop Village, and Deranged Hermit. Cabal Therapy names should come from Duress, public game actions, revealed cards, or matchup role, never invented hidden cards. Dust Bowl is valuable only when it constrains visible mana without stranding your own key turns. Likely add role cards: Naturalize, Haunting Echoes, and Tormod's Crypt when the revealed engine uses the relevant zone or permanent type.

Risk Summary

• Mana risk: The deck has powerful four- and five-mana plays but only Birds of Paradise and Wall of Roots as acceleration, so do not keep speculative hands that need both a missing color and an unanswered mana creature. Llanowar Wastes damage matters against fast decks, and Dust Bowl or Treetop Village can delay double-spell turns.

• Matchup risk: The Rock can mis-role itself by playing too slowly against combo or too aggressively into creature swarms. Reassess after every Duress, Cabal Therapy, visible sideboard card, and first meaningful threat.

• Draw risk: Hands with only discard and no pressure can lose to topdecks, while hands with only creatures can lose to engines. Prefer openers that pair disruption, mana development, and a credible stabilizer or clock.

• Over-sideboarding risk: Adding too many narrow role cards can dilute Wall of Blossoms, Ravenous Baloth, Spiritmonger, Call of the Herd, and Recurring Nightmare pressure. Reduce main-deck emphasis only where the opponent's revealed plan makes those cards low impact.

• Graveyard risk: Recurring Nightmare and Genesis can be excellent, but graveyard hate or exile effects can collapse a plan that depends on one return target. Keep ordinary creature pressure available when public information suggests graveyard interaction.

• Sweeper/removal risk: Pernicious Deed destroys many of your own permanents, including Birds of Paradise, Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Roots, Call of the Herd tokens, and Recurring Nightmare. Plan the activation before casting extra permanents into it.

• Closer risk: Spiritmonger, Deranged Hermit, Treetop Village, and Recurring Nightmare can end games, but each asks for mana at awkward times. Do not tap out for a closer when visible legal interaction or lethal pressure makes survival action mandatory.

• Interaction risk: Smother and Diabolic Edict are target- or board-shape dependent, while Naturalize can be dead without artifacts or enchantments. Let visible permanents and legal targets determine whether interaction should be preserved or converted into tempo.

• Sequencing risk: Cabal Therapy is much stronger after Duress, Wall of Blossoms information from the game flow, or visible opponent actions. Blind Therapy should be reserved for high-urgency combo, known archetype pressure, or when the cost of waiting is worse.

Test Feedback Checklist

• Deciding factor: Identify whether the game was decided by early discard, board stabilization, Recurring Nightmare recursion, Pernicious Deed timing, Ravenous Baloth lifegain, Spiritmonger pressure, Treetop Village damage, or an opposing engine that was not answered in time.

• Mulligans: Record whether the opener had both colors, a castable early play, and either disruption or board presence. Flag keeps that relied on Birds of Paradise or Wall of Roots surviving to cast four- and five-mana spells.

• Mana: Check whether Llanowar Wastes damage mattered, Dust Bowl delayed key turns, Treetop Village entered at an awkward time, or Forest/Swamp balance prevented casting Cabal Therapy, Duress, Smother, Wall of Blossoms, Pernicious Deed, or Ravenous Baloth on curve.

• Velocity: Note whether Wall of Blossoms, Yavimaya Elder, Krosan Tusker, and Call of the Herd provided enough material before the opponent’s decisive turn. Flag games where cycling Krosan Tusker was too slow or where Call of the Herd flashback was unavailable because the deck had to hold removal or Deed mana.

• Engines: Track whether Recurring Nightmare generated repeatable value with Wall of Blossoms, Yavimaya Elder, Deranged Hermit, Ravenous Baloth, or Spiritmonger. Flag every game where Recurring Nightmare was stranded by missing creatures, graveyard pressure, mana constraints, or an artifact/enchantment hate card.

• Removal: Review every Smother, Naturalize, Pernicious Deed, and sideboard Diabolic Edict decision for target quality and timing. Mark whether Pernicious Deed killed too many friendly permanents or whether waiting let the opponent extract extra damage or engine value.

• Sideboard: Verify that Engineered Plague, Genesis, Haunting Echoes, Naturalize, Pernicious Deed, Tormod's Crypt, and Diabolic Edict entered only for visible or strongly inferred roles. Flag over-sideboarding that reduced pressure, blockers, or recursion density.

• Closing: Record whether the deck closed quickly after stabilizing with Spiritmonger, Deranged Hermit, Ravenous Baloth, Call of the Herd, Stampeding Wildebeests, or Treetop Village. Flag games where repeated defensive choices gave the opponent too many draw steps.

• Role: Ask whether The Rock correctly shifted between control, attrition, and beatdown after Duress, Cabal Therapy, and public board information. Mark role mistakes such as holding discard too long against combo or attacking into a race where Ravenous Baloth lifegain was the stabilizing line.

• Mistakes: Log likely pilot errors involving blind Cabal Therapy names, premature Ravenous Baloth sacrifice, unsafe Recurring Nightmare commitment, wasteful Naturalize targets, Dust Bowl activations that stranded colored spells, and Pernicious Deed activations for the wrong value.

• Stranded cards: Count games where Nantuko Vigilante, Naturalize, Smother, Recurring Nightmare, Deranged Hermit, Stampeding Wildebeests, Krosan Tusker, or sideboard cards had no useful legal action before the game was effectively decided.

• Overperformers and underperformers: List the cards that most directly contributed to wins and losses, separating engine cards from stabilizers. Compare Ravenous Baloth, Wall of Blossoms, Spiritmonger, Pernicious Deed, Recurring Nightmare, Duress, Cabal Therapy, and Treetop Village by matchup role rather than raw mention count.

First Tuning Questions

• Discard quantity: If combo or control losses occur after weak early disruption, ask whether 3 Duress plus 3 Cabal Therapy is enough or whether the deck needs more reliable Game 1 hand pressure. If creature decks punish discard-heavy draws, ask whether discard should remain concentrated in matchups where information matters most.

• Creature curve: If the deck loses before Ravenous Baloth stabilizes, ask whether more early bodies or removal are needed over slower cards like Krosan Tusker, Deranged Hermit, or a second Recurring Nightmare. If attrition mirrors go long, ask whether the current top end is too light without Genesis in the main deck.

• Mana base: If color screw or pain damage repeats, review the balance of Forest, Swamp, Llanowar Wastes, Dust Bowl, and Treetop Village. If Dust Bowl wins long games but costs early tempo, decide whether it is a matchup tool rather than a universal keep reason.

• Aggro plan: If fast creature decks remain difficult after sideboarding, question whether 2 Pernicious Deed main plus 2 Pernicious Deed sideboard and 1 Diabolic Edict are enough. If Engineered Plague is narrow or naming choices underperform, evaluate whether those four sideboard slots are earning their weight.

• Control plan: If removal-heavy opponents beat Recurring Nightmare and Spiritmonger, ask whether Genesis, Haunting Echoes, and extra Naturalize are sufficient post-board. If threats are answered one-for-one, consider whether more resilient closers or recursive pressure are needed.

• Closer package: If stabilized games still slip away, evaluate whether Spiritmonger, Deranged Hermit, Call of the Herd, Ravenous Baloth, and Treetop Village close quickly enough. If Stampeding Wildebeests creates value but too much tempo loss, question its copy count and required support.

• Sideboard slots: If graveyard decks are common, test whether 2 Tormod's Crypt plus 2 Haunting Echoes is enough or excessive. If artifacts and enchantments decide many games, ask whether 3 sideboard Naturalize plus main-deck Naturalize and Nantuko Vigilante cover the role without crowding out pressure.

• Role conflicts: If games show hands split between slow recursion, discard, and defensive removal, ask which matchups need a clearer sideboard identity. The key tuning question is whether The Rock should lean harder into proactive discard-plus-threat pressure or deeper board-control recursion in the expected field.

Veles Tactical Policy

Policy: Pregame Role Selection

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: pregame; mulligan
• Cards: Duress; Cabal Therapy; Smother; Pernicious Deed; Ravenous Baloth; Recurring Nightmare
• Phase windows: opening hand; first turn planning
• Runtime cues: opening_hand; known matchup label; play_draw_choice
• Use when: choose whether to act as disruptor, board-control deck, or attrition engine before the first keep decision.
• Avoid when: runtime matchup data is absent; rely on visible hand quality instead.
• Instructions: Against combo or control, value early discard plus a clock; against creature pressure, value castable blockers, Smother, Pernicious Deed, and Ravenous Baloth.
• Pilot skill floor: medium
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Mulligan Keep Gate

• Priority: High
• Decision families: mulligan; mana
• Cards: Birds of Paradise; Wall of Blossoms; Wall of Roots; Duress; Cabal Therapy; Smother; Ravenous Baloth
• Phase windows: mulligan decisions
• Runtime cues: opening_hand; action:keep; action:mulligan
• Use when: opener must decide keep or mulligan.
• Avoid when: hand lacks both black and green access and has no castable early play.
• Instructions: Keep hands with stable colors, two to four lands or land plus Birds of Paradise, and either disruption or board presence. Mulligan slow hands that only function after drawing a missing color.
• Pilot skill floor: high
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: London Bottoming

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: mulligan; selection
• Cards: Deranged Hermit; Krosan Tusker; Recurring Nightmare; Naturalize; Pernicious Deed; Spiritmonger
• Phase windows: mulligan bottom selection
• Runtime cues: action:bottom; mulligan_count
• Use when: a kept hand must put cards on the bottom.
• Avoid when: the card is the only source of a required color or the only early interaction.
• Instructions: Bottom stranded top end, narrow Naturalize, duplicate expensive spells, or Recurring Nightmare without creatures before cutting lands from low-land hands.
• Pilot skill floor: medium
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Early Green Setup

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: mana; priority
• Cards: Forest; Llanowar Wastes; Birds of Paradise; Wall of Blossoms; Wall of Roots
• Phase windows: turns 1-3 main phases
• Runtime cues: action:cast Birds of Paradise; action:cast Wall of Blossoms; action:cast Wall of Roots
• Use when: legal early plays include mana creature, cantrip wall, or mana wall.
• Avoid when: black discard or removal must be cast immediately to stop a visible or matchup-critical threat.
• Instructions: Establish green mana and early bodies before committing four-drops. Prefer Wall of Blossoms for material, Wall of Roots for acceleration, and Birds of Paradise when it fixes a missing color.
• Pilot skill floor: medium
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Black Disruption Sequencing

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: priority; interaction
• Cards: Duress; Cabal Therapy
• Phase windows: precombat main phases; early turns
• Runtime cues: action:cast Duress; action:cast Cabal Therapy
• Use when: discard is legal and opponent hand information matters before threat deployment.
• Avoid when: board pressure requires Smother, Pernicious Deed, or a blocker this turn.
• Instructions: Lead with Duress when legal to reveal information before Cabal Therapy. Use blind Cabal Therapy only when matchup context gives a high-impact name and waiting loses too much tempo.
• Pilot skill floor: high
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Cabal Therapy Flashback Commitment

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: interaction; selection
• Cards: Cabal Therapy; Wall of Blossoms; Yavimaya Elder; Birds of Paradise; Deranged Hermit
• Phase windows: main phases; graveyard-cast windows
• Runtime cues: action:flashback Cabal Therapy; action:sacrifice
• Use when: Cabal Therapy can be flashed back by sacrificing a creature.
• Avoid when: sacrificing the creature removes the only blocker, only mana source, or necessary Recurring Nightmare material.
• Instructions: Flash back after Duress or public information identifies a live card. Prefer expendable creatures whose immediate role is complete.
• Pilot skill floor: high
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Pain-Free Mana Discipline

• Priority: Low
• Decision families: mana
• Cards: Llanowar Wastes; Forest; Swamp; Dust Bowl; Treetop Village
• Phase windows: land play; mana payment prompts
• Runtime cues: action:tap Llanowar Wastes; action:play Dust Bowl; action:play Treetop Village
• Use when: multiple legal mana sources produce the required colors.
• Avoid when: using pain-free mana prevents casting a required spell this turn or next turn.
• Instructions: Preserve life against aggressive boards by using Forest and Swamp when colors allow. Delay Dust Bowl and tapped Treetop Village if they block early colored spells.
• Pilot skill floor: medium
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Krosan Tusker Cycling

• Priority: Low
• Decision families: selection; mana
• Cards: Krosan Tusker
• Phase windows: instant-speed priority; opponent end step; main phase if land needed
• Runtime cues: action:cycle Krosan Tusker
• Use when: Krosan Tusker is in hand, cycling is legal, and the hand needs a land or fresh card more than a future creature.
• Avoid when: a large body is needed soon and mana is already stable.
• Instructions: Cycle to hit land drops, fix colors, or dig for interaction. Casting Krosan Tusker is a late-game body plan, not the default.
• Pilot skill floor: medium
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Smother Target Gate

• Priority: High
• Decision families: interaction; priority
• Cards: Smother
• Phase windows: combat; opponent main phase; end step
• Runtime cues: action:cast Smother; action:target
• Use when: a visible creature must be answered before damage, activation, or snowballing advantage.
• Avoid when: Pernicious Deed will cleanly answer multiple permanents and life total can absorb the delay.
• Instructions: Spend Smother on threats that beat walls, enable combo, or force bad blocks. Do not use it on low-impact creatures when the board is stable.
• Pilot skill floor: high
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Pernicious Deed Commitment

• Priority: High
• Decision families: interaction; priority
• Cards: Pernicious Deed
• Phase windows: main phases; combat; end step; activation priority
• Runtime cues: action:cast Pernicious Deed; action:activate Pernicious Deed
• Use when: the board demands a sweeper or a threatened activation changes opponent sequencing.
• Avoid when: activation destroys more critical friendly permanents than opposing pressure and no immediate danger exists.
• Instructions: Set Pernicious Deed when it will stabilize or force restraint. Activate for the lowest X that handles the real threats while preserving Ravenous Baloth, Spiritmonger, lands, or Recurring Nightmare when possible.
• Pilot skill floor: high
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Naturalize And Vigilante Targets

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: interaction; selection
• Cards: Naturalize; Nantuko Vigilante
• Phase windows: main phases; instant-speed priority; morph/trigger windows if exposed
• Runtime cues: action:cast Naturalize; action:target Nantuko Vigilante; action:turn Nantuko Vigilante face up
• Use when: a visible artifact or enchantment is materially constraining The Rock or enabling the opponent.
• Avoid when: target is low-impact and pressure, discard, or board development is more urgent.
• Instructions: Save Naturalize effects for engines, lock pieces, graveyard hate against Recurring Nightmare, or combat-relevant permanents.
• Pilot skill floor: medium
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Recurring Nightmare Engine Commitment

• Priority: High
• Decision families: priority; selection
• Cards: Recurring Nightmare; Wall of Blossoms; Yavimaya Elder; Ravenous Baloth; Deranged Hermit; Spiritmonger; Stampeding Wildebeests
• Phase windows: main phases with priority
• Runtime cues: action:cast Recurring Nightmare; action:activate Recurring Nightmare
• Use when: graveyard, battlefield, and mana support a repeatable exchange or immediate swing.
• Avoid when: opponent can visibly punish the enchantment, graveyard is empty, or sacrificing the creature collapses defense.
• Instructions: Treat Recurring Nightmare as a commitment gate. Start only when the first activation is meaningful or waiting risks losing the window.
• Pilot skill floor: high
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Recurring Nightmare Target Pair

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: selection
• Cards: Recurring Nightmare; Wall of Blossoms; Yavimaya Elder; Ravenous Baloth; Deranged Hermit; Spiritmonger
• Phase windows: Recurring Nightmare activation prompts
• Runtime cues: action:target Recurring Nightmare; action:sacrifice
• Use when: Forge asks for the creature to sacrifice or the creature card to return.
• Avoid when: the proposed sacrifice is the only blocker, only mana source, or only pressure.
• Instructions: Route target-pair choice through reasoning. Favor loops that draw cards, gain life, rebuild boards, or return a finisher according to visible pressure.
• Pilot skill floor: high
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Ravenous Baloth Life Gate

• Priority: High
• Decision families: interaction; combat; priority
• Cards: Ravenous Baloth
• Phase windows: combat damage setup; removal response; end step; lethal checks
• Runtime cues: action:sacrifice Ravenous Baloth
• Use when: life gain prevents lethal damage, blanks removal, or wins a race that the body cannot safely continue.
• Avoid when: the 4/4 body is required to block, attack, or support Recurring Nightmare and life total is not under immediate pressure.
• Instructions: Sacrifice Ravenous Baloth for survival first, then for race math. Do not cash it in merely because mana is unused.
• Pilot skill floor: high
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Stampeding Wildebeests Upkeep Choice

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: selection; priority
• Cards: Stampeding Wildebeests; Wall of Blossoms; Yavimaya Elder; Ravenous Baloth; Deranged Hermit
• Phase windows: upkeep triggered ability
• Runtime cues: action:return; action:target Stampeding Wildebeests
• Use when: a green creature must be returned or the trigger offers a choice.
• Avoid when: returning the creature destroys essential defense or mana.
• Instructions: Prefer returning Wall of Blossoms for cards, Yavimaya Elder for material, or token-support creatures only when replay timing is acceptable. Protect board stability over cute loops.
• Pilot skill floor: medium
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Combat Stabilization

• Priority: High
• Decision families: combat
• Cards: Wall of Blossoms; Wall of Roots; Ravenous Baloth; Spiritmonger; Deranged Hermit; Call of the Herd; Treetop Village
• Phase windows: declare attackers; declare blockers; combat tricks
• Runtime cues: action:attack; action:block
• Use when: combat choices decide survival, a race, or whether to turn the corner.
• Avoid when: legal action is a single mandatory no-attack or no-block choice.
• Instructions: Block to preserve life until Ravenous Baloth, Pernicious Deed, or Recurring Nightmare takes over. Attack only when pressure does not expose the deck to a losing crack-back.
• Pilot skill floor: high
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Finisher Deployment

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: priority; combat
• Cards: Spiritmonger; Deranged Hermit; Call of the Herd; Treetop Village
• Phase windows: main phases; post-stabilization combat
• Runtime cues: action:cast Spiritmonger; action:cast Deranged Hermit; action:flashback Call of the Herd; action:activate Treetop Village
• Use when: board is stable enough to begin closing.
• Avoid when: tapping out prevents needed interaction or walks into visible sweeper pressure.
• Instructions: Deploy resilient pressure after stabilizing. Use Treetop Village to pressure control while keeping spells in hand, but respect tapped-land tempo and removal windows.
• Pilot skill floor: medium
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Exact No-API Treetop Attack

• Priority: Low
• Decision families: combat
• Cards: Treetop Village
• Phase windows: declare attackers
• Runtime cues: action:attack with Treetop Village
• Use when: exactly one legal attack action exists, the action text names Treetop Village, opponent controls no visible blockers, and no mana is needed for another legal instant-speed action before combat damage.
• Avoid when: any blocker, removal prompt, or alternative attacker choice is visible.
• Instructions: Choose the legal Treetop Village attack action matching the runtime text.
• Pilot skill floor: low
• No-API allowed: yes
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Sideboard Plan Selection

• Priority: High
• Decision families: sideboard
• Cards: Diabolic Edict; Engineered Plague; Genesis; Haunting Echoes; Naturalize; Pernicious Deed; Tormod's Crypt
• Phase windows: between games
• Runtime cues: sideboard_candidates; matchup_label; game_number
• Use when: choosing a legal sideboard plan or generated swap plan.
• Avoid when: proposed swaps violate registered 75, reduce mana below functional levels, or remove all early interaction.
• Instructions: Add Engineered Plague for tribal or one-toughness swarms, Tormod's Crypt and Haunting Echoes for graveyards, Naturalize for artifacts/enchantments, Pernicious Deed for creature boards, Diabolic Edict for untargetable or singular threats, and Genesis for attrition.
• Pilot skill floor: high
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes