veles-content/strategies/standard/standard_jeskai_control/1/guide.md

Strategy Specifications

Deck Name And Archetype

• Deck identity: Jeskai Control is a Standard-targeted blue-red-white control deck registered as 60 main-deck cards plus a 15-card sideboard. The strategy name and tags identify it as control and spells, with repeated control/spells tags normalized to control, spells for Veles slicing.

• Count validation: Main deck count is valid at 60 cards, and sideboard count is valid at 15 cards. The registered 75 contains no non-basic card above four total copies across main plus sideboard; Abrade appears as 1 main plus 1 side, and Petrified Hamlet appears as 2 main plus 1 side.

• Format validation status: Standard is the declared format, but current Standard legality is not asserted from this guide alone. Card legality, current set legality, and exact Oracle-style text must be confirmed by Veles card database or rules-engine import before any sanctioned-format conclusion, especially for format-sensitive names such as Hallowed Fountain, Steam Vents, Abrade, and Pyroclasm.

• Card text status: Card text check required for any registered card whose rules text is not loaded by the engine at runtime. Do not let the pilot infer exact effects for Cori Mountain Monastery, Mistrise Village, Thunder Magic, Traumatic Critique, Flashback, Great Hall of the Biblioplex, Consult the Star Charts, Jeskai Revelation, Firebending Lesson, Tablet of Discovery, Broadside Barrage, Swallowed by Leviathan, The Unagi of Kyoshi Island, Pyrrhic Strike, or Erode unless Veles exposes authoritative card text and legal actions.

• Stock/rogue/hybrid status: Treat this as a rogue-hybrid Jeskai control registration rather than a known stock Standard list. The shell signals familiar control roles through permission, sweepers, spot removal, card selection, and large finishers, but several exact card names appear custom, new, or unverified, so policy must stay tied to legal action text and visible game state.

• Mana identity concern: The deck is inferred as Jeskai from Hallowed Fountain, Steam Vents, Stormcarved Coast, Sundown Pass, Riverpyre Verge, Mountain, Island, and the strategy name, but exact color production from Cori Mountain Monastery, Mistrise Village, Great Hall of the Biblioplex, Petrified Hamlet, and Riverpyre Verge must be read from runtime state. Do not assume any land produces a color, enters untapped, or has an activated ability unless the engine reports that action.

• Role concern: The main deck is structurally control-heavy, with a high spell density and 26 lands supporting draw, selection, permission, sweepers, and spot interaction. The pilot should expect to trade resources early, protect life total against creature pressure, convert excess mana into cards, and win through resolved late-game threats or accumulated spell advantage only when the rules engine confirms the legal line.

• Sideboard identity: The sideboard covers permission and stack fights with Disdainful Stroke, Spell Pierce, Spell Snare, Flashfreeze, and Sphinx of the Final Word; artifact/enchantment or permanent-specific interaction with Annul, Ghost Vacuum, Abrade, and Erode; red or damage-based pressure with Pyrrhic Strike and Slagstorm; and threat or matchup-specific plans with The Unagi of Kyoshi Island and Petrified Hamlet. Exact sideboard use must wait for later matchup sections and legal swap validation.

• Opponent information status: No opponent decklists, archetypes, metagame targets, or matchup labels were supplied. Veles should derive matchup posture from public information, revealed cards, visible battlefield pressure, graveyard contents, stack actions, and legal sideboard configuration rather than assuming hidden cards or naming absent opposing staples.

• Runtime authority rule: Legal actions from the rules engine outrank this guide, visible board state ranks second, and deck strategy ranks third. If a suggested control line is absent from legal actions, the agent must choose among provided legal actions rather than inventing a cast, target, activation, counter, sideboard swap, or mana payment.

Thesis

• Assemble mana, time, and card volume before committing a win condition. Jeskai Control should prioritize stable land development from Hallowed Fountain, Steam Vents, Stormcarved Coast, Sundown Pass, Riverpyre Verge, Great Hall of the Biblioplex, Mistrise Village, Petrified Hamlet, Cori Mountain Monastery, Island, and Mountain; then use draw, selection, removal, and permission to reach a game state where each future spell is stronger than the opponent's visible pressure.

• Win by exhausting opposing threats and resolving a protected payoff, not by racing early damage. Treat Swallowed by Leviathan, Jeskai Revelation, Ill-Timed Explosion, Broadside Barrage, Thunder Magic, sideboard Sphinx of the Final Word, and sideboard The Unagi of Kyoshi Island as potential finishers or swing cards only when Veles exposes legal actions and authoritative card text confirming their role.

• Protect life total before maximizing card advantage. Against visible creature pressure, prioritize legal casts of Pyroclasm, Abrade, Sear, Firebending Lesson, Into the Flood Maw, Ill-Timed Explosion, Thunder Magic, Broadside Barrage, or Swallowed by Leviathan when their exposed text answers the current board; use Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Tablet of Discovery, Great Hall of the Biblioplex, or Jeskai Revelation greedily only when the board and stack leave enough time.

• Convert excess mana into selection and inevitability. This deck is built to make land drops, hold interaction, and spend unused mana on Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Tablet of Discovery, Great Hall of the Biblioplex, Three Steps Ahead, or Jeskai Revelation when those actions are legal and do not expose the pilot to a lethal or near-lethal swing.

• Avoid unsupported tempo lines. Do not cast interaction at low-impact targets, tap out for speculative engines, or fire a large spell into visible open interaction unless the current legal actions, known stack state, and life-total clock make waiting worse.

• Defer uncertain card-function assumptions to the engine. Card text check required for Cori Mountain Monastery, Mistrise Village, Thunder Magic, Traumatic Critique, Flashback, Great Hall of the Biblioplex, Consult the Star Charts, Jeskai Revelation, Firebending Lesson, Tablet of Discovery, Broadside Barrage, Swallowed by Leviathan, The Unagi of Kyoshi Island, Pyrrhic Strike, and Erode; use their legal action labels and visible effects rather than name-based guesses.

Role Package

• Threats: Swallowed by Leviathan, Sphinx of the Final Word, and The Unagi of Kyoshi Island are the cleanest named late-game threat candidates, but the pilot must verify legal action text before treating them as creatures, finishers, or stabilizers. Mistrise Village and Petrified Hamlet may function as threat lands or utility lands only if the engine exposes combat, animation, or activated abilities.

• Payoffs: Jeskai Revelation, Ill-Timed Explosion, Thunder Magic, Broadside Barrage, and Firebending Lesson are high-impact spell candidates that should be saved for board swings, lethal setup, or major resource conversion when their runtime text supports that use. Do not spend a payoff merely because mana is available if cheaper interaction can answer the visible problem.

• Engines: Tablet of Discovery, Great Hall of the Biblioplex, Consult the Star Charts, Stock Up, and Jeskai Revelation form the expected resource engine. Sequence these after land drops and defensive obligations, and prefer the engine piece that leaves legal mana or stack interaction available against visible pressure.

• Velocity: Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Three Steps Ahead, Traumatic Critique, Flashback, and Tablet of Discovery are the main cards to consult for card flow or selection. Card text check required for the unverified names; choose selection modes that find land early, interaction under pressure, and finishers only after stabilization.

• Interaction: Abrade, Pyroclasm, Sear, Into the Flood Maw, Three Steps Ahead, Ill-Timed Explosion, Thunder Magic, Firebending Lesson, Broadside Barrage, Traumatic Critique, and Swallowed by Leviathan are the main-deck interaction candidates. Use the cheapest legal answer that preserves future flexibility unless a sweeper or large spell clearly handles multiple visible threats.

• Protection: Three Steps Ahead is the main-deck permission candidate; sideboard Disdainful Stroke, Spell Pierce, Spell Snare, Flashfreeze, Annul, and Sphinx of the Final Word increase stack protection or control mirrors. Hold protection for payoff windows, opposing haymakers, or cards that invalidate the current stabilizing plan.

• Recursion: Flashback is the only registered main-deck card whose name signals recursion, but card text check required. Use it as recursion only when Veles exposes graveyard-related legal actions, and avoid assuming any spell can be replayed from graveyard without engine confirmation.

• Mana: The deck needs consistent Jeskai access while still hitting land drops for expensive spells. Prioritize opening hands and early plays that support blue for selection/permission, red for removal/sweepers, and white for any Jeskai Revelation or sideboard requirements the engine confirms.

• Sideboard modules: Disdainful Stroke, Spell Pierce, Spell Snare, Flashfreeze, and Annul are permission modules; Abrade, Erode, Ghost Vacuum, Pyrrhic Strike, and Slagstorm are permanent, graveyard, or creature-pressure modules; Sphinx of the Final Word, The Unagi of Kyoshi Island, and Petrified Hamlet are late-game or configuration modules. Exact sideboard plans belong in Sideboard Map after matchup labels are known.

Primary Win Conditions

• Protected late-game payoff is the default win path. Set up by making land drops with Hallowed Fountain, Steam Vents, Stormcarved Coast, Sundown Pass, Riverpyre Verge, Great Hall of the Biblioplex, Mistrise Village, Petrified Hamlet, Cori Mountain Monastery, Island, and Mountain; trade early with Pyroclasm, Abrade, Sear, Into the Flood Maw, Firebending Lesson, Thunder Magic, or Broadside Barrage; then commit Swallowed by Leviathan, large Jeskai Revelation, large Ill-Timed Explosion, sideboard Sphinx of the Final Word, or sideboard The Unagi of Kyoshi Island only when the legal action text confirms the payoff and the stack/board does not demand immediate defense. Card text check required for Swallowed by Leviathan, Jeskai Revelation, Ill-Timed Explosion, Thunder Magic, Broadside Barrage, and The Unagi of Kyoshi Island.

• Card-volume inevitability wins when the opponent runs out of relevant threats. Use Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Tablet of Discovery, Great Hall of the Biblioplex, Three Steps Ahead, Flashback, and Jeskai Revelation to convert spare mana into more cards or selection after visible pressure is contained; prioritize this path against slow decks, removal-heavy decks, and board states where a single finisher would walk into known or strongly represented interaction. Card text check required for Consult the Star Charts, Tablet of Discovery, Great Hall of the Biblioplex, Flashback, and Jeskai Revelation.

• Sweeper-into-payoff is the main creature-matchup kill plan. Preserve life with cheap one-for-one interaction until Pyroclasm, Ill-Timed Explosion, Slagstorm, or another exposed sweeper-mode action can answer multiple visible creatures; after the battlefield is reduced, use Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, or Jeskai Revelation to reload before presenting Swallowed by Leviathan, Sphinx of the Final Word, or The Unagi of Kyoshi Island. Prioritize this line when the opponent has committed several threats and the pilot can survive the next combat after spending mana.

• Burn or spell-damage conversion is a closing path only when legal text and visible totals support it. Treat Thunder Magic, Sear, Firebending Lesson, Broadside Barrage, Ill-Timed Explosion, Pyrrhic Strike, and Slagstorm as possible face-damage or planeswalker-pressure tools only if Veles exposes those targets; do not redirect removal away from creatures unless the resulting damage is lethal, forces a locked race, or the board is already stable.

Secondary Win Conditions

• Backup combat pressure matters when the engine exposes attackers. Use Mistrise Village, Petrified Hamlet, Sphinx of the Final Word, The Unagi of Kyoshi Island, or any token/creature generated by legal card text as finishers after stabilization; commit to attacks only when visible blockers, removal windows, and life totals make the exchange safe. Card text check required for Mistrise Village, Petrified Hamlet, and The Unagi of Kyoshi Island before assuming animation, combat stats, or creature status.

• Recursion or replay pressure is secondary and must be engine-confirmed. Use Flashback or any graveyard-related legal action only when Veles exposes the card, target, and timing; prefer recurring high-impact interaction, selection, or a payoff over replaying a low-impact spell while behind on board. If the graveyard is under pressure from visible hate, spend recursion before the window closes only when the action is legal and strategically relevant.

• Permission lockout is a soft win path against expensive or stack-reliant opponents. Hold Three Steps Ahead, sideboard Disdainful Stroke, Spell Pierce, Spell Snare, Flashfreeze, Annul, and possibly Sphinx of the Final Word to protect a payoff turn or deny the opponent's first card that breaks stabilization. Prioritize this line when both players have resources, the battlefield is quiet, and the opponent's best visible route is a single large spell.

• Incremental resource engines can win without a named finisher. If Tablet of Discovery, Great Hall of the Biblioplex, Consult the Star Charts, Stock Up, and Jeskai Revelation keep finding lands and answers, continue answering the board instead of forcing a threat; the opponent eventually loses to repeated card-quality advantage, creature-land pressure if legal, or a later protected payoff.

Emergency Lines

• When behind on life, spend mana on survival before card volume. Use the cheapest legal Abrade, Sear, Into the Flood Maw, Pyroclasm, Firebending Lesson, Thunder Magic, Broadside Barrage, Ill-Timed Explosion, or Swallowed by Leviathan action that prevents lethal or reduces the next attack below a dangerous clock; draw spells are emergency plays only if no visible answer is legal or they can find an answer before damage.

• When behind on board, trade down in cards to reset tempo. Accept one-for-one removal on medium threats if waiting for Pyroclasm, Ill-Timed Explosion, or Slagstorm risks lethal, but prefer sweepers when the opponent has multiple visible creatures and the pilot can survive to cast them.

• When behind on cards, stabilize first and rebuild second. Use Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Tablet of Discovery, Great Hall of the Biblioplex, Flashback, or Jeskai Revelation only after the current stack and combat step are not threatening a decisive loss; choose selection that finds land if mana-short, interaction if under pressure, and payoff only after parity.

• When behind on mana, prioritize land drops and cheap interaction. Keep hands and lines that access blue and red early, use Stock Up or Consult the Star Charts for land only when safe, and avoid tapping out for speculative Tablet of Discovery or uncertain high-cost actions while visible threats demand removal.

• When engines are removed or win conditions are answered, shift to conservation. Protect remaining Jeskai Revelation, Swallowed by Leviathan, Ill-Timed Explosion, Sphinx of the Final Word, The Unagi of Kyoshi Island, creature-land actions, and damage spells; stop spending burn on low-impact targets unless those targets are the source of lethal pressure.

• When facing graveyard recursion, combo, or a stack-based kill, use narrow answers at the commitment point. Deploy sideboard Ghost Vacuum, Erode, Annul, Disdainful Stroke, Spell Pierce, Spell Snare, or Flashfreeze only when the legal action text matches the visible engine piece or decisive spell; do not assume hidden combo contents beyond public information.

Resource Model

• Life is a buffer for reaching the first clean exchange, not a renewable resource. Spend early life to keep mana open for Abrade, Sear, Into the Flood Maw, Thunder Magic, Broadside Barrage, or Three Steps Ahead, but stop taking damage to preserve theoretical value once visible attackers threaten a two-turn clock or force a sweeper now.

• Hand size is the deck's main long-game currency. Convert quiet turns into cards with Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Tablet of Discovery, Great Hall of the Biblioplex, Flashback, and Jeskai Revelation; use those cards to maintain land drops first, removal density second, and finishers only after the board is stable. Card text check required for Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Tablet of Discovery, Great Hall of the Biblioplex, Flashback, and Jeskai Revelation.

• Mana is the limiting resource for double-spell turns. Prefer lines that answer one visible threat while still representing another cheap action, especially when holding Abrade, Sear, Into the Flood Maw, Thunder Magic, Broadside Barrage, or Spell Pierce after sideboard. Avoid spending all mana on card flow if the opponent can add lethal pressure before the next untap.

• Board presence is mostly defensive until a payoff is ready. Use Pyroclasm, Ill-Timed Explosion, Swallowed by Leviathan, Firebending Lesson, and spot interaction to reduce opposing material, then win through Jeskai Revelation, Sphinx of the Final Word, The Unagi of Kyoshi Island, or legal land-creature pressure from Mistrise Village or Petrified Hamlet. Card text check required for all uncertain finishers and utility lands before assuming combat stats or animation.

• Graveyard value is conditional, not a core bank. Use Flashback or any exposed graveyard action only when Veles shows the legal object and timing; treat opposing Ghost Vacuum-style pressure after sideboard as a reason to cash in a good graveyard action before it disappears, but do not speculate about graveyard text that the engine has not exposed.

• Exile is mostly a public-information zone and temporary permission zone. If Consult the Star Charts, Stock Up, Jeskai Revelation, or another legal action exposes cards in exile, use the visible identities and expiration cues from Veles; never assume exiled cards are playable unless the rules engine offers a legal action.

• Lands are both development and late-game utility. Keep making land drops through the midgame because Jeskai Revelation, Swallowed by Leviathan, Ill-Timed Explosion, creature-land actions, and draw-plus-answer turns reward high mana counts; do not discard or deprioritize extra lands until Veles shows enough mana for the current hand plus interaction.

• Sacrifice fodder is not a planned resource in this list. Do not sacrifice Tablet of Discovery, utility lands, or any permanent for speculative value unless the legal action text clearly names the cost and the resulting effect answers a visible problem or advances a selected win line.

• Tempo is gained by trading one turn for multiple opposing cards. Hold Pyroclasm or Ill-Timed Explosion when waiting converts one answer into a larger reset and life total permits it; fire one-for-one interaction immediately when waiting risks haste damage, a protected threat, or losing the chance to double-spell next turn.

• Information comes from visible actions, public zones, and revealed choices. Use known cards from Veles state to decide whether to hold Three Steps Ahead or sideboard counters, but do not play around unshown exact cards beyond archetype-level caution.

• Sideboard bullets convert narrow mana into matchup leverage. Annul, Erode, Ghost Vacuum, Disdainful Stroke, Flashfreeze, Spell Pierce, Spell Snare, Slagstorm, Pyrrhic Strike, sideboard Abrade, Petrified Hamlet, Sphinx of the Final Word, and The Unagi of Kyoshi Island should be valued by whether Veles exposes matching threats, engines, colors, costs, or board states.

Mana Guide

• Keep mana only when it casts the early game. A normal keep needs at least two lands, early blue or red access, and a plausible path to the third land through natural draw, Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, or Tablet of Discovery; one-land hands are keeps only if Veles or the test harness explicitly supports an exceptional legal setup and the hand has cheap selection.

• Prioritize blue and red before white unless the hand proves otherwise. Blue supports Three Steps Ahead, Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Into the Flood Maw, Flashback, and Jeskai Revelation; red supports Abrade, Sear, Pyroclasm, Thunder Magic, Firebending Lesson, Broadside Barrage, Ill-Timed Explosion, and sideboard Slagstorm or Pyrrhic Strike; white matters for Jeskai Revelation, Hallowed Fountain, Sundown Pass, and any legal white costs Veles exposes.

• Sequence lands to preserve turn-two interaction. Favor untapped blue or red sources from Steam Vents, Riverpyre Verge, Stormcarved Coast, Hallowed Fountain, Sundown Pass, Island, or Mountain when the opponent can present early pressure; use Cori Mountain Monastery, Mistrise Village, Great Hall of the Biblioplex, or Petrified Hamlet early only when their tapped or utility constraints do not block a needed answer. Card text check required for all nonbasic timing and activation text.

• Play lands before draw when mana fixing or landfall-like information is irrelevant and the spell may require immediate follow-up. If casting Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Tablet of Discovery, or Jeskai Revelation with an unplayed land available, hold the land first only when the selection can reveal a better land choice, discard cleanup matters, or Veles shows a permission window where representing mana matters.

• Hold utility lands when the choice changes available colors. If the hand already has enough colored sources, delay Mistrise Village, Great Hall of the Biblioplex, or Petrified Hamlet until the deck knows whether it needs untapped interaction, a creature-land plan, or a color-specific sideboard bullet.

• Spend mana on the opponent's turn when interaction is live. Leave up Three Steps Ahead, Into the Flood Maw, instant-speed removal, or sideboard permission when the opponent's next spell or attack is the likely decisive event; use end-step card flow only after Veles shows no relevant action to take.

• Tap lands to protect future colors. When paying generic costs, preserve the rarest color needed by remaining legal actions, especially white for Jeskai Revelation, blue for permission or draw, and red for sweepers or burn; do not consume a flexible source if a basic Island or Mountain can cover the same payment without locking the hand.

Mulligan Guide

• Strong keep: keep three-land hands with early blue or red, one cheap answer, and one card-flow spell. Example packages are Steam Vents + Riverpyre Verge + Island with Abrade or Sear, Pyroclasm, Stock Up, and Jeskai Revelation; this hand develops colors, survives the first board, and has a payoff if land drops continue.

• Strong keep on the draw: keep two lands when they cast interaction and at least one early selection spell can find land three. Example: Stormcarved Coast, Hallowed Fountain, Sear, Into the Flood Maw, Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Tablet of Discovery; Card text check required for exact timing, but the hand has cheap plays and enough blue-red access to avoid falling behind.

• Medium keep: keep slower three-land hands when they have a sweeper or redundant card flow but no immediate spot answer. Example: Great Hall of the Biblioplex, Sundown Pass, Mountain, Pyroclasm, Tablet of Discovery, Consult the Star Charts, Jeskai Revelation; this is acceptable against creature decks only if Pyroclasm is likely legal and early enough, and acceptable against slower decks if the lands cast the draw spells.

• Risky keep: keep utility-land-heavy hands only when color access is already proven. Example: Mistrise Village, Great Hall of the Biblioplex, Petrified Hamlet, Stock Up, Thunder Magic, Broadside Barrage, Swallowed by Leviathan is risky because the hand may fail to cast early red or blue actions; keep only if Veles shows the lands support the needed colors and the matchup is slow.

• Automatic ship: mulligan zero-land, one-land without cheap selection, five-plus-land hands without Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Tablet of Discovery, or Jeskai Revelation, and hands whose only action starts at expensive Ill-Timed Explosion or Swallowed by Leviathan. Ship hands that cannot produce blue or red by turn two unless the hand has a legal defensive exception visible from the engine.

• Matchup-dependent keep: keep Pyroclasm plus lands aggressively against visible go-wide or low-toughness creature pressure, but reduce its value against control, combo, or single-large-threat starts. Keep Three Steps Ahead or Traumatic Critique higher against slower spell decks if the mana supports holding up interaction; Card text check required before treating either as a specific counter, draw, or disruption mode.

• Play/draw adjustment: on the play, prefer hands with a turn-two answer over hands that only draw cards. On the draw, accept slightly slower Stock Up or Consult the Star Charts hands when the extra card improves land-three odds and the opener still has Abrade, Sear, Thunder Magic, Into the Flood Maw, or Pyroclasm for the first threat.

• Trap hand: do not keep a beautiful late-game hand with no stabilizer. Example: Great Hall of the Biblioplex, Mistrise Village, Cori Mountain Monastery, Jeskai Revelation, Swallowed by Leviathan, Ill-Timed Explosion, Three Steps Ahead can look powerful but is a mulligan if it cannot cast early actions or survive pressure.

Turn Arc

• Turn 1: play the land that preserves turn-two blue or red interaction. Prefer Steam Vents, Riverpyre Verge, Stormcarved Coast, Hallowed Fountain, Island, or Mountain when untapped access matters; play Cori Mountain Monastery, Mistrise Village, Great Hall of the Biblioplex, or Petrified Hamlet only when Veles shows that doing so does not block the next legal answer. Card text check required for nonbasic land timing.

• Turn 2: answer the first meaningful threat before spending mana on value. Use Abrade, Sear, Thunder Magic, Into the Flood Maw, or Pyroclasm when the opponent presents pressure that will compound; cast Tablet of Discovery, Consult the Star Charts, or Stock Up only when the board is empty, the opponent's action is low impact, or Veles shows no relevant interaction window.

• Turn 3: choose between stabilizing and setting up the draw engine. Hold up Three Steps Ahead, Traumatic Critique, instant-speed removal, or a bounce/removal action when the opponent can resolve a decisive spell; otherwise use Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, or Tablet of Discovery to find land four and the next answer. Fire Pyroclasm now if waiting risks losing too much life or a key opposing creature surviving outside its range.

• Turns 4-5: start double-spelling whenever possible. The preferred pattern is answer plus card flow, such as Abrade or Sear plus Stock Up, or Pyroclasm plus a cheap setup action; cast Ill-Timed Explosion, Firebending Lesson, Broadside Barrage, or Swallowed by Leviathan only when Veles exposes a legal line that stabilizes the board or creates a decisive swing. Card text check required for exact modes and damage or bounce outcomes.

• Turns 4-5 deviation: tap out for Jeskai Revelation only when the life total, stack, and battlefield allow it. If the opponent can punish a tapped-out turn, preserve mana for Three Steps Ahead, Into the Flood Maw, Abrade, Sear, Thunder Magic, or Broadside Barrage; if the opponent is low on pressure, prioritize refilling to avoid running out of answers.

• Late game: convert mana surplus into inevitability without dropping shields. Use Jeskai Revelation, large legal Stock Up or Consult the Star Charts lines, Swallowed by Leviathan, and creature-land pressure from Mistrise Village or Petrified Hamlet only when Veles confirms legal actions and enough mana remains for the opponent's likely counterplay. Close with Sphinx of the Final Word or The Unagi of Kyoshi Island after sideboard only when they are in the deck and the current board lets a finisher matter before the opponent rebuilds.

• Late game deviation: do not chase card draw when a visible permanent or combat step is already lethal. Spend Ill-Timed Explosion, Pyroclasm, Abrade, Sear, Firebending Lesson, Broadside Barrage, Into the Flood Maw, or Swallowed by Leviathan on survival first, then resume card advantage after the board is stable.

Card Roles

• Stock Up: Treat Stock Up as the primary glue card because it turns early survival into enough cards to keep trading. Cast it when the stack is quiet, the battlefield is not threatening lethal next turn, and the mana base still needs land drops or specific answers; hold it when the opponent can resolve a must-answer threat during the same window. Its best synergy is with cheap interaction because drawing first and answering later is only safe after Veles shows that no immediate pressure or stack threat must be handled. Do not spend a protected turn on Stock Up if Pyroclasm, Abrade, Sear, Thunder Magic, Into the Flood Maw, or Broadside Barrage is required to avoid a bad combat step.

• Consult the Star Charts: Use Consult the Star Charts as early selection or card flow, with exact mode and timing conditional on engine text. Card text check required. Prioritize it when the hand needs land three, a sweeper, or a specific answer; delay it when the opponent already has a visible threat that demands removal. The common mistake is treating selection as a substitute for interaction: against fast creature decks, Consult the Star Charts is best after the first threat is answered or when it can find the exact stabilizer before damage matters. Against slower decks, it helps sequence toward Jeskai Revelation, Three Steps Ahead, and post-sideboard finishers.

• Jeskai Revelation: Use Jeskai Revelation as the deck's main late-game payoff and recovery spell. Card text check required for exact card, life, damage, or modal output, but the tactical role is clear: cast it when a large mana investment either stabilizes life/resources or buries a low-pressure opponent. Hold it when tapping out exposes you to a decisive opposing spell, lethal combat, or a planeswalker/permanent that cannot be answered afterward. Its strongest synergy is the full answer suite buying time; its biggest mistake is casting it as a flashy draw spell while a cheap answer plus smaller card-flow play would preserve more tempo.

• Tablet of Discovery: Treat Tablet of Discovery as an engine or setup permanent only when Veles shows the timing is safe. Card text check required. Deploy it early against slow starts when it improves future draw quality or mana use, but do not let it displace turn-two or turn-three interaction against pressure. If the opponent is forcing combat math, Tablet of Discovery is a luxury until Pyroclasm, Abrade, Sear, Thunder Magic, or Into the Flood Maw has contained the board. In long games, pair it with repeated draw and permission windows so the deck keeps converting mana into real cards rather than passing with unused resources.

• Pyroclasm: Use Pyroclasm as the main anti-wide-board reset and preserve it when the opponent can add more small creatures into the same battlefield. Card text check required only if the printed version differs, but assume the tactical role is a low-damage sweeper until verified by the engine. Fire it early when waiting risks losing too much life, letting anthem/counter effects grow creatures out of range, or forcing awkward single-target removal. Hold it when the opponent has one replaceable creature and your spot removal can bridge instead. Sideboard valuation rises against tokens, small aggro, and low-toughness creature engines, and falls against control, combo, and large-threat midrange.

• Thunder Magic: Use Thunder Magic as a flexible interaction slot only according to legal text exposed by Veles. Card text check required. If it is a burn, bounce, tap, or counter-style action, choose it when its exact legal effect lines up with the current threat and preserves more specialized cards for later. Its value is highest when it handles tempo-positive early plays while leaving Pyroclasm for a wider board or Abrade for artifacts. Avoid spending Thunder Magic into marginal targets before knowing whether it answers a more important creature, stack object, or permanent type in the matchup.

• Sear: Treat Sear as cheap creature interaction until card text is verified. Card text check required. Use it to prevent early life loss, break up snowball threats, or clear a blocker when the control deck turns the corner with creature lands or sideboard finishers. Hold it when Pyroclasm can answer multiple bodies and the opponent is likely to present a single larger threat later. The mistake is burning Sear on a creature that is already blanked by a sweeper or irrelevant to the current clock.

• Firebending Lesson: Use Firebending Lesson as a midgame stabilizer or value spell only when its legal text proves the board impact. Card text check required. If Veles exposes removal, damage, selection, or lesson-like value modes, pick the line that answers the visible pressure before choosing extra cards. It pairs best with early card flow because the deck can find the right window to spend a larger sorcery-speed effect. Do not tap out for it against open mana or stack pressure unless the alternative line fails to prevent lethal, a decisive attack, or a must-answer permanent.

• Broadside Barrage: Treat Broadside Barrage as a heavier interaction or swing spell whose exact target rules must come from the engine. Card text check required. Use it when one spell can remove a key permanent, punish an attack, or swing combat in a way cheap removal cannot. Hold it if smaller interaction answers the current battlefield, because Broadside Barrage is more valuable against medium threats, clustered boards, or late-game reach scenarios. Against control, only cast it into targets or windows where Veles confirms it does something material.

• Abrade: Use Abrade as premium flexible removal because it can cover both creature pressure and artifact problems when legal modes are available. Save it for artifacts when the matchup shows artifact engines or threats; spend it on early creatures when life total or tempo requires it. The synergy is sideboard compression: with only one main-deck copy plus another sideboard copy, Abrade should answer the permanent type the rest of the hand cannot. Do not fire it at the first small creature if Pyroclasm will clean up and an artifact payoff is likely.

• Into the Flood Maw: Use Into the Flood Maw as tempo interaction or emergency bounce according to engine text. Card text check required. Prioritize it when a permanent is temporarily lethal, when bouncing a target buys a crucial turn for Jeskai Revelation, or when a token or expensive threat loses tempo by returning to hand. Hold it when a permanent needs permanent removal and another answer can do that job. The common mistake is bouncing a low-impact creature while saving no answer for the replayed threat.

• Ill-Timed Explosion: Treat Ill-Timed Explosion as a high-impact reset or swing spell, not routine card flow. Card text check required for exact damage, discard/draw, and target structure. Use it when the board has reached a point where cheaper one-for-one answers are no longer enough, especially if it can stabilize while converting excess cards or lands into value. Hold it against control unless it has a legal mode that pressures resources or resolves profitably. Avoid casting it into a board where Pyroclasm or spot removal already solves the problem with less mana and risk.

• Swallowed by Leviathan: Use Swallowed by Leviathan as a late emergency stabilizer or finisher-support spell only after Veles confirms the legal effect. Card text check required. It should answer a battlefield state that smaller removal cannot handle, reset a critical permanent, or create enough tempo to turn the corner. Its matchup value rises against large creatures and board states resistant to Pyroclasm; it is clunky against permission or hyper-fast decks unless the game has slowed. Do not keep opening hands relying on this card as the first meaningful play.

• Three Steps Ahead: Use Three Steps Ahead as a flexible one-copy permission or value card, with exact modes conditional on Veles. Card text check required. Hold it in matchups where the opponent's next spell matters more than the current board, especially control mirrors, ramp-like strategies, and combo turns. Cast a proactive mode only when the stack is safe and the selected mode materially improves the next two turns. Because it is a singleton, do not spend it casually on a replaceable spell if cheaper removal or card flow can handle the position.

• Traumatic Critique: Treat Traumatic Critique as a specialized disruption slot until the exact card text is checked. Card text check required. If it interacts with hand, stack, graveyard, or a permanent class, use it at the point where the information or answer matters most rather than on curve by default. Its likely role is stronger against slower spell decks and weaker against low-curve creature pressure unless Veles exposes a creature-relevant mode. Avoid assuming it is a counterspell, discard spell, or removal spell without the engine's legal actions.

• Lands and utility permanents: Sequence Steam Vents, Riverpyre Verge, Stormcarved Coast, Hallowed Fountain, Sundown Pass, Island, and Mountain to protect early blue-red-white access before optimizing late utility. Use Great Hall of the Biblioplex, Mistrise Village, Petrified Hamlet, and Cori Mountain Monastery only according to visible mana abilities and timing restrictions; Card text check required for each nonbasic's utility. Creature-land or value-land pressure should begin only after the hand can still answer the opponent's best visible line. The mistake is letting colorless or tapped utility sequencing strand Pyroclasm, Stock Up, Sear, Abrade, or Jeskai Revelation during the turn cycle where those cards matter.

Interaction Priorities

• Priority: Answer visible lethal pressure before preserving card advantage. Spend Sear, Abrade, Thunder Magic, or Into the Flood Maw when the opponent's next combat step threatens a life-total collapse, and prefer Pyroclasm, Slagstorm, Ill-Timed Explosion, or Swallowed by Leviathan when one action can reset multiple attackers. Card text check required for every non-obvious damage, bounce, or reset mode.

• Priority: Remove engine creatures and snowball permanents before generic attackers. Kill creatures that generate mana, cards, repeated damage, sacrifice value, or combat scaling before trading removal for replaceable bodies. Ignore small creatures temporarily when Pyroclasm can catch several at once and the current life total can absorb one attack.

• Priority: Save flexible answers for permanent classes the hand cannot otherwise beat. Use Abrade on an artifact engine or artifact threat when other red removal covers creatures; use it on a creature only when the creature is the actual clock or Pyroclasm cannot solve it. Use Into the Flood Maw to buy a decisive turn against an expensive, token, enchanted, or temporarily lethal permanent rather than as routine tempo.

• Priority: Counter or disrupt the spell that changes the game, not the first legal spell. Hold Three Steps Ahead, Traumatic Critique, Disdainful Stroke, Flashfreeze, Spell Pierce, or Spell Snare for threats, planeswalker-like permanents, sweep-resistant finishers, opposing card-advantage engines, or stack actions that beat the current hand. Card text check required for Traumatic Critique, Thunder Magic, and Three Steps Ahead modes before treating them as permission.

• Priority: Use sideboard interaction by target band. Disdainful Stroke is for expensive spells, Spell Pierce is for early noncreature stack fights, Spell Snare is for legal low-cost targets, Annul and Erode are for artifact/enchantment problems when Veles confirms legality, Flashfreeze is for red or green spells, Pyrrhic Strike is conditional removal, and Ghost Vacuum is graveyard interaction. Do not fire narrow answers into low-impact targets while a known archetype payoff remains likely.

• Bait rule: Lead with Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Tablet of Discovery, or a lower-impact legal spell when the opponent is representing permission and the hand contains a higher-impact Jeskai Revelation, Ill-Timed Explosion, Swallowed by Leviathan, or sideboard finisher. Reverse this only when the smaller spell is needed to hit land drops, find removal, or avoid dying.

• Ignore rule: Decline interaction on creatures that are already blanked by a sweeper, creatures that cannot attack profitably into visible blockers or life-total buffers, and spells that only trade resources while the opponent's board is contained. Do not ignore a small creature if it enables sacrifice, convoke-like, prowess-like, or repeated trigger pressure exposed by the rules engine.

• Archetype shift: Against aggro, trade early and lower the life-total preservation threshold; against midrange, preserve one-for-one efficiency until a sweeper creates a two-for-one; against control, protect card draw and finishers over spot removal; against graveyard or artifact strategies, prioritize Ghost Vacuum, Abrade, Annul, and Erode targets according to the visible engine piece.

Combat And Trading Rules

• Priority: Jeskai Control should usually win by surviving first, then turning the corner with utility lands or sideboard finishers. Do not attack with a land creature from Mistrise Village, Petrified Hamlet, Cori Mountain Monastery, or any other utility land unless Veles confirms it is a creature and the deck can still hold the required interaction after activation. Card text check required for these lands.

• Blocking rule: Trade life for cards only while the life total remains outside burn, haste, or alpha-strike danger shown by public information. Before roughly 10 life against creature decks, prefer conserving removal for better targets when the next attack is manageable; at low life, spend removal or bounce before damage if it prevents a forced chump block or lethal follow-up.

• Sweeper rule: Preserve sweepers by taking small amounts of early damage when the opponent is likely to add more creatures and the current board is not lethal. Cast Pyroclasm or Slagstorm early when one more attack puts the deck into burn range, when creatures have scaling text, or when waiting risks losing the chance to cleanly reset.

• Trade rule: Do not expose utility-land attackers into open removal or profitable blocks unless the attack pressures a planeswalker-like object, shortens a stable clock, or forces the opponent to spend mana during a turn where Jeskai wants them tapped down. Damage is secondary to keeping mana available for Jeskai Revelation, Stock Up, Three Steps Ahead, and removal.

• Protection rule: Protect Sphinx of the Final Word and The Unagi of Kyoshi Island after sideboarding by clearing blockers or holding permission before committing them. Card text check required for The Unagi of Kyoshi Island; treat it as a finisher only when Veles shows it can pressure or stabilize. Do not tap out for a finisher while visible lethal or a must-answer stack threat remains unresolved.

• Bounce-and-block rule: Use Into the Flood Maw before blocks when it removes the largest attacker, breaks an aura/equipment-like combat setup, or causes a token to disappear according to engine output. Use it after blocks only if Veles shows a legal line that preserves a blocker, changes damage, or protects a key permanent.

• Archetype difference: Against aggro, every combat decision should ask whether the next attack plus visible reach beats Jeskai Revelation; against midrange, aim to trade one card for the highest-power threat and save resets for overextension; against control, combat is mostly about safe finisher pressure and avoiding utility-land exposure; against go-wide decks, decline narrow trades that reduce Pyroclasm value unless life total demands action.

Selection And Tutor Rules

• Selection priority: Use Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Tablet of Discovery, and Jeskai Revelation to hit land drops first, then to find the missing answer class. Before the fourth land, keep hands and selection piles that produce untapped blue/red/white access and at least one interactive spell; after land drops are stable, bias toward sweepers, permission, or a finisher according to the visible board.

• No true tutor rule: Treat Jeskai Control as a draw/filter deck, not a tutor deck, unless Veles exposes a legal search action from exact card text. Consult the Star Charts, Stock Up, Tablet of Discovery, Great Hall of the Biblioplex, Mistrise Village, Petrified Hamlet, and Cori Mountain Monastery may create selection, draw, activation, or utility choices, but Card text check required before assuming any searches, scries, discounts, creature modes, or win-condition text.

• Land-drop timing: Make the land drop after seeing selection when a legal pre-land Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, or Tablet of Discovery action can reveal the correct color source. Make the land drop first when the spell requires that mana now, when holding a land would waste mana, or when Veles shows no pre-land selection action. Prefer preserving untapped interaction colors over maximizing future utility-land value.

• Color fixing priority: Keep or choose lands that cover the next two turns of legal plays rather than lands with the most long-term text. Early priorities are blue for Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Three Steps Ahead, and Jeskai Revelation; red for Abrade, Sear, Pyroclasm, Thunder Magic, Broadside Barrage, Firebending Lesson, and Ill-Timed Explosion; white only when a visible legal action actually needs it. Card text check required for exact costs.

• Bottom/filter rule: Bottom excess tapped lands, redundant late utility lands, or expensive spells when the hand lacks early interaction. Against pressure, prioritize Pyroclasm, Abrade, Sear, Into the Flood Maw, Thunder Magic, Broadside Barrage, or Firebending Lesson over slow card draw. Against control, prioritize Stock Up, Jeskai Revelation, Three Steps Ahead, Traumatic Critique, and resilient sideboard finishers.

• Answer-finding rule: Select the narrowest answer that solves the current public problem and save flexible cards for unknowns. Take Abrade over generic burn when an artifact is already visible, take Pyroclasm or Slagstorm over single-target removal against multiple small attackers, and take Three Steps Ahead, Disdainful Stroke, Flashfreeze, Spell Pierce, or Spell Snare when the next decisive fight is likely on the stack.

• Graveyard timing: Use Ghost Vacuum only when Veles shows a graveyard object, graveyard trigger, or graveyard-dependent line worth interrupting. Card text check required for Ghost Vacuum and Flashback; do not assume graveyard recursion, exile timing, or flashback permissions unless legal action text confirms them.

Priority And Stack Rules

• Priority rule: Pass when the stack is empty, the board is stable, and using mana would reduce the ability to answer the opponent's next meaningful spell. Act on end step with Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Jeskai Revelation, Tablet of Discovery, Great Hall of the Biblioplex, or utility-land actions only when Veles confirms legal instant-speed timing or activated timing.

• Counterspell gate: Spend Three Steps Ahead, Traumatic Critique, Disdainful Stroke, Flashfreeze, Spell Pierce, or Spell Snare only on spells that materially beat the current hand, resolve into a hard-to-remove threat, generate major card advantage, or protect the opponent's winning turn. Card text check required for exact modes and restrictions, especially Three Steps Ahead and Traumatic Critique.

• Removal timing: Use instant-speed removal before combat damage when it prevents lethal, removes a combat modifier, saves a future sweeper, or denies a trigger shown by the engine. Use sorcery-speed sweepers such as Pyroclasm or Slagstorm only in main-phase windows unless Veles exposes a legal instant-speed line. Card text check required for Thunder Magic, Firebending Lesson, Broadside Barrage, Pyrrhic Strike, and Swallowed by Leviathan.

• Let-resolve rule: Let low-impact creatures, replaceable cantrips, and nonlethal damage resolve when a visible Pyroclasm, Ill-Timed Explosion, Slagstorm, or later Jeskai Revelation can recover the position. Do not let a spell resolve if it invalidates the hand's removal, makes the stack fight unwinnable, threatens immediate lethal, or creates a protected engine.

• Optional payment rule: Decline optional costs, extra modes, or utility activations when they consume mana needed for a visible answer. Pay optional costs only when Veles shows the payment is legal, the remaining mana still covers the required interaction, and the effect advances survival or a decisive end-step draw line.

• Bounce window: Use Into the Flood Maw on the stack or before combat when it breaks an all-in attack, counters a token-like line according to rules output, resets an expensive permanent for tempo, or protects a key permanent from targeted removal. Avoid bounce as generic tempo when the opponent can simply recast and Jeskai needs mana for permission or draw.

• Sideboard stack tools: Use Annul and Erode on artifact/enchantment threats, Flashfreeze on red or green spells, Disdainful Stroke on expensive spells, Spell Pierce in early noncreature fights, and Spell Snare only when Veles confirms a legal target. Save Sphinx of the Final Word and The Unagi of Kyoshi Island commitment for windows where stack risk and board risk are both acceptable; Card text check required for The Unagi of Kyoshi Island.

• End-step rule: Prefer drawing or activating on the opponent's end step after they decline meaningful pressure, because this preserves stack interaction through their main phase. Main-phase card draw is correct when it is needed to hit the current land drop, find a sweeper before combat, or use mana that would otherwise be wasted under no visible threat.

Sideboard Map

Low-Curve Red Or Green Aggro Side in: 1 Abrade; 1 Pyrrhic Strike; 1 Slagstorm; 2 Flashfreeze Cut: 1 Traumatic Critique; 1 Swallowed by Leviathan; 1 Ill-Timed Explosion; 1 Tablet of Discovery; 1 Consult the Star Charts

• Add role cards: Abrade, Pyrrhic Strike, and Slagstorm increase early board control; Flashfreeze becomes stack interaction against red or green threats when Veles confirms legal targets. Preserve main-deck Pyroclasm, Sear, Thunder Magic, Firebending Lesson, and Broadside Barrage because the post-board plan still starts by surviving the first attack waves.

• Reduce main-deck emphasis: Expensive or slow card-advantage pieces lose priority when life total is under visible pressure. Swallowed by Leviathan, Ill-Timed Explosion, Tablet of Discovery, and some Consult the Star Charts lines should give way to cheaper interaction unless the opening hand already has early removal and stable mana.

Blue Control Or Spell-Dense Mirrors Side in: 1 Disdainful Stroke; 1 Sphinx of the Final Word; 2 The Unagi of Kyoshi Island; 1 Spell Pierce; 1 Spell Snare Cut: 2 Pyroclasm; 1 Abrade; 2 Sear; 1 Firebending Lesson

• Add role cards: Disdainful Stroke, Spell Pierce, and Spell Snare convert dead removal windows into stack fights. Sphinx of the Final Word and The Unagi of Kyoshi Island are finisher or threat-density upgrades, but Card text check required for exact protection, costs, and combat stats before committing either through open mana.

• Reduce main-deck emphasis: Pyroclasm, Sear, Abrade, and Firebending Lesson lose value when the opponent shows few creatures or when the decisive exchanges happen over draw spells, finishers, and permission. Keep some flexible red interaction if Veles shows creature-lands, artifact threats, or small utility creatures after sideboarding.

Artifact Or Enchantment-Centric Decks Side in: 1 Annul; 1 Erode; 1 Abrade; 1 Spell Pierce Cut: 2 Pyroclasm; 1 Firebending Lesson; 1 Swallowed by Leviathan

• Add role cards: Annul and Erode are for visible artifact or enchantment permanents, artifact-heavy hands, or stack windows where Veles confirms a legal target. The extra Abrade increases artifact coverage while still functioning as creature interaction if the matchup also attacks.

• Reduce main-deck emphasis: Creature sweepers lose priority when opposing pressure is permanent-based rather than creature-wide. Keep Pyroclasm only when the opponent also presents multiple small attackers; otherwise prioritize Annul, Erode, Abrade, Spell Pierce, and draw engines that find them.

Graveyard-Dependent Opponents Side in: 1 Ghost Vacuum; 1 Spell Pierce; 1 Disdainful Stroke Cut: 1 Pyroclasm; 1 Sear; 1 Broadside Barrage

• Add role cards: Ghost Vacuum is the dedicated graveyard card, but Card text check required before assuming timing, exile scope, or activated abilities. Use it only when Veles shows graveyard objects, graveyard triggers, escape-style permissions, recursion targets, or a graveyard count that matters to the opponent's visible legal actions.

• Reduce main-deck emphasis: Point removal and sweepers become secondary when the opponent's main threat is recursion, graveyard scaling, or a noncreature graveyard payoff. Keep enough removal to avoid dying while holding Ghost Vacuum; do not spend all mana on graveyard policing if the board already presents lethal pressure.

Big-Mana, Ramp, Or Expensive Threat Decks Side in: 1 Disdainful Stroke; 2 Flashfreeze; 1 Spell Pierce; 1 Sphinx of the Final Word Cut: 2 Pyroclasm; 1 Abrade; 1 Sear; 1 Firebending Lesson

• Add role cards: Disdainful Stroke is for expensive threats and payoff spells when Veles confirms legality. Flashfreeze enters against red or green ramp, large creatures, or payoff spells; Spell Pierce protects early draw turns and catches setup spells; Sphinx of the Final Word gives Jeskai Control a closing threat when the game becomes about one large spell at a time.

• Reduce main-deck emphasis: Small removal loses priority when the opponent spends early turns developing mana instead of attacking with many creatures. Maintain Three Steps Ahead, Traumatic Critique, Jeskai Revelation, Stock Up, and Consult the Star Charts as tools for fighting on the stack and sustaining land drops.

Card-specific sideboard rules:

• Disdainful Stroke: Add against decks whose visible and expected threats are expensive spells, sweepers, planeswalker-like engines if legal, or large finishers. It is bad against low-curve aggro, cheap recursive threats, and matchups where Veles rarely exposes legal targets. Its role changes from reactive permission to finisher shield once Jeskai has stabilized and is protecting Sphinx of the Final Word, The Unagi of Kyoshi Island, or a large Jeskai Revelation line.

• Sphinx of the Final Word: Add against control, slow midrange, and removal-light decks where a single resilient threat can end the game. It is bad when the opponent is already forcing survival choices before the casting window. Treat it as a commitment-gate card: wait until land drops, life total, and stack context make tapping mana acceptable; Card text check required for exact protection and restrictions.

• Annul: Add against artifact or enchantment engines, cheap artifact threats, and enchantment-based removal or payoffs when Veles confirms legal targets. It is bad against creature-heavy decks with few noncreature permanents. Its role is narrow permission, so mulligan decisions should not rely on it unless the matchup label and visible deck behavior support the target class.

• Pyrrhic Strike: Add against creature decks where another cheap damage or removal effect improves early survival. It is bad in stack mirrors and against mostly noncreature engines. Card text check required for exact damage, drawback, and target restrictions; do not assume it can finish players or answer large creatures unless legal action text confirms the line.

• Slagstorm: Add against creature decks that go wider or larger than Pyroclasm alone can cover. It is bad when Jeskai needs to keep its own finisher on board or when the opponent has few creatures. Card text check required for exact modes and damage; choose it over Pyroclasm only when the visible board needs the larger or more flexible effect.

• Ghost Vacuum: Add against graveyard recursion, graveyard scaling, and decks whose public graveyard is a resource. It is bad against decks that win from hand, battlefield, or stack without using the graveyard. Preserve mana for removal if the graveyard action does not stop the next visible threat.

• The Unagi of Kyoshi Island: Add against slow decks where extra finishers or hard-to-answer threats matter. It is bad against fast pressure if the hand cannot survive to its casting window. Card text check required; treat it as a finisher commitment rather than a routine curve play.

• Sideboard Abrade: Add against artifacts and creature decks where flexible cheap interaction is valuable. It is bad only when neither artifacts nor damage-sized creatures are relevant. Its role changes from generic removal against aggro to artifact answer against permanent engines.

• Flashfreeze: Add against red or green decks, especially ramp, creature pressure, and large payoff spells. It is bad against blue-white control, black-heavy attrition, artifacts without red or green spells, and any matchup where Veles shows no legal targets. Do not keep hands that rely on Flashfreeze unless the opponent colors make it live.

• Sideboard Petrified Hamlet: Add when the matchup rewards an extra land, when post-board curves rise with Sphinx of the Final Word or The Unagi of Kyoshi Island, or when color stability is more important than spell density. It is bad when flooding is the main risk or the matchup demands maximum cheap interaction. Card text check required for utility text.

• Erode: Add against artifact or enchantment strategies and permanent engines where a resolved object must be answered. It is bad in pure creature combat or permission mirrors without targets. Card text check required for exact target classes and speed.

• Spell Pierce: Add against control, combo, ramp setup, and noncreature engine decks. It is bad in long games if the opponent can pay easily, so prioritize early stack windows, protecting draw spells, and stopping setup spells before mana is abundant.

• Spell Snare: Add when the opponent's important plays cluster at the legal target cost Veles exposes. It is bad when visible spells miss that window. Card text check required for exact restriction; never assume a target is legal from mana value memory alone.

Matchup Guidance

• Aggro: Prioritize survival over card volume until the opponent's board stops threatening immediate lethal or near-lethal damage. Keep hands with early colored mana, Sear, Abrade, Pyroclasm, Thunder Magic, or Into the Flood Maw; treat Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, and Jeskai Revelation as stabilizing tools only after removal has bought time. Add role cards: Pyrrhic Strike, Slagstorm, sideboard Abrade, and sometimes Flashfreeze against red or green pressure. Reduce main-deck emphasis: expensive or slow commitment cards such as Swallowed by Leviathan, Three Steps Ahead, and the highest-cost draw line when the opening hand cannot interact before turn three. Card text check required for Thunder Magic, Pyrrhic Strike, and Slagstorm; use them only according to legal targets and visible damage mode.

• Go-wide decks: Preserve sweepers until they remove multiple relevant creatures or prevent a lethal attack, unless waiting makes the next combat unsalvageable. Pyroclasm is the default reset when small creatures fill the board, while Ill-Timed Explosion and Slagstorm are higher-commitment answers when Veles shows they legally affect the current board. Add role cards: Slagstorm, Pyrrhic Strike, and sideboard Abrade. Reduce main-deck emphasis: single-card permission that does not answer existing creatures, especially when the opponent has already emptied much of their hand. Do not fire Broadside Barrage or Firebending Lesson into a minor target if a sweeper can convert the same mana into a board reset.

• Burn decks: Protect life total as a resource, not as a cushion for slow draw turns. Keep hands that cast early interaction through Riverpyre Verge, Steam Vents, Hallowed Fountain, Stormcarved Coast, or Sundown Pass without unnecessary self-damage if Veles exposes land-choice costs. Add role cards: Flashfreeze against red spells, Spell Pierce for early noncreature burn or setup, Spell Snare only when legal target restrictions line up, and Pyrrhic Strike only if it trades without worsening life pressure. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow finishers and draw spells that tap out before the burn player is low on resources. Use Jeskai Revelation as a recovery line only when the legal action text and mana context make its life or card impact clear.

• Tempo decks: Fight over mana efficiency first and raw card count second. Sequence untapped blue or red sources to represent Three Steps Ahead, Traumatic Critique, Sear, Abrade, Into the Flood Maw, or Broadside Barrage when legal actions appear. Add role cards: Spell Pierce, Spell Snare, Flashfreeze if colors match, and sideboard Abrade when threats are artifact or damage-sized. Reduce main-deck emphasis: expensive sorcery-speed stabilization that walks into a protected threat unless the opponent is tapped low. Prefer answering a threat during the window where the opponent cannot both redeploy and protect it; do not spend permission on low-impact setup if a single protected attacker is already dictating the race.

• Midrange decks: Trade one-for-one early, then pull ahead with Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Jeskai Revelation, Tablet of Discovery, and resilient late threats. Keep flexible hands with removal plus card flow rather than all counters or all sweepers. Add role cards: Sphinx of the Final Word, The Unagi of Kyoshi Island, Disdainful Stroke for expensive threats, Flashfreeze against red or green builds, and sideboard Petrified Hamlet when extra land improves late-game reliability. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Pyroclasm if the opponent presents single larger threats instead of small boards. Do not tap out for a finisher if the visible board still requires Sear, Abrade, Swallowed by Leviathan, or Into the Flood Maw to prevent a decisive attack.

• Removal-heavy decks: Make their removal inefficient by delaying creature-like finishers until you can protect them, replace them, or punish a tap-out window. Lean on Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Tablet of Discovery, and Jeskai Revelation to win the resource exchange before committing Sphinx of the Final Word, The Unagi of Kyoshi Island, or Swallowed by Leviathan. Add role cards: Sphinx of the Final Word, The Unagi of Kyoshi Island, Spell Pierce, and Disdainful Stroke when the opponent's late spells matter. Reduce main-deck emphasis: small creature removal once their battlefield threats are sparse. Card text check required for each finisher; commit only when Veles confirms legal casting and the visible stack is acceptable.

• Control decks: Treat the matchup as a land-drop and stack-window fight. Prioritize Great Hall of the Biblioplex, Mistrise Village, Cori Mountain Monastery, Petrified Hamlet, and clean access to blue mana so Three Steps Ahead, Traumatic Critique, Spell Pierce, Spell Snare, and Disdainful Stroke can contest key turns. Add role cards: Sphinx of the Final Word, The Unagi of Kyoshi Island, Disdainful Stroke, Spell Pierce, Spell Snare, and sometimes sideboard Petrified Hamlet. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Pyroclasm, Sear, Abrade, and other creature-only interaction when there are few targets. Do not cast Stock Up or Consult the Star Charts into obvious permission unless the alternative is wasting mana and falling behind on land or cards.

• Combo decks: Identify the turn they can win and spend interaction on enablers only when stopping the enabler matters more than stopping the payoff. Keep hands with Three Steps Ahead, Traumatic Critique, Spell Pierce, Disdainful Stroke, Spell Snare when legal, or pressure from The Unagi of Kyoshi Island if the combo is slow. Add role cards: Spell Pierce, Disdainful Stroke, Spell Snare, Annul for artifact or enchantment engines, Erode for resolved artifact or enchantment engines, and Ghost Vacuum for graveyard combo. Reduce main-deck emphasis: creature sweepers and narrow removal unless the combo uses creatures that Veles shows as legal targets. Never assume the opponent has the missing combo piece; act from visible actions, known reveals, graveyard contents, and public battlefield engines.

• Big mana decks: Counter or punish the payoff, not every setup spell, unless the setup spell creates an immediate irreversible mana advantage. Keep land-heavy hands with card draw and at least one relevant answer. Add role cards: Disdainful Stroke, Flashfreeze against red or green ramp and payoffs, Spell Pierce for early setup, Sphinx of the Final Word, The Unagi of Kyoshi Island, and sideboard Petrified Hamlet. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Pyroclasm, Sear, and Abrade when the board is not pressuring life total. Use Jeskai Revelation and Stock Up to maintain answer density, but avoid tapping out before the opponent's largest visible or expected payoff turn.

• Graveyard decks: Treat the public graveyard as an active zone and preserve graveyard interaction for the card or threshold that actually enables the opponent's next legal action. Add role cards: Ghost Vacuum, Spell Pierce against setup, Disdainful Stroke for expensive recursion payoffs, and removal that keeps sacrifice or self-mill creatures from converting into pressure. Reduce main-deck emphasis: excess sweepers or small removal if the graveyard, not the battlefield, is the primary resource. Card text check required for Ghost Vacuum; do not assume it can exile all cards, target any graveyard, or act at instant speed unless Veles exposes that legal action.

• Artifact/enchantment decks: Prioritize the permanent that generates repeated material, locks Jeskai out of casting, or turns future removal dead. Add role cards: Annul, Erode, sideboard Abrade, Spell Pierce, and Disdainful Stroke when high-cost engines or payoffs are present. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Pyroclasm and damage-only removal if the opponent's key objects are noncreature permanents. Use main-deck Abrade cautiously: answer an artifact engine when that artifact matters more than a creature, and save it for combat only if the current battlefield clock demands it. Card text check required for Erode and Annul target classes.

• Single-threat decks: Hold the cleanest answer for the one threat that matters unless the current threat will end the game before that answer is needed. Into the Flood Maw, Swallowed by Leviathan, Broadside Barrage, Sear, Abrade, Three Steps Ahead, and Traumatic Critique should be sequenced around the threat's size, protection, and timing as exposed by legal actions. Add role cards: Disdainful Stroke, Spell Pierce, Spell Snare when legal, Flashfreeze if colors match, and Sphinx of the Final Word for the counter-pressure plan. Reduce main-deck emphasis: sweepers that do not answer the single threat. Do not spend bounce or removal on a decoy if the opponent's public mana and matchup role imply a larger follow-up and life total allows waiting.

Specific Matchup Notes

• General/archetype-only note: exact opponents are absent, so revealed cards, public zones, legal actions, and Veles engine prompts override every matchup assumption here. Use these notes to bias mulligans, priority spending, and sideboard selection, not to invent hidden cards or force illegal lines.

• Aggro and go-wide creature decks: Prioritize survival over card volume until the board is stable. Likely sideboarding emphasizes Slagstorm, sideboard Abrade, Pyrrhic Strike, and possibly Flashfreeze against red or green threats; priority targets are haste creatures, pump enablers, anthem-style permanents, and attackers that survive Pyroclasm. Use Sear, Abrade, Thunder Magic, Broadside Barrage, Firebending Lesson, and Ill-Timed Explosion according to legal target text and visible damage requirements. Do not hold Pyroclasm for perfection if the current attack step threatens a life-total collapse.

• Midrange creature decks: Trade early, then win with superior draw and late threats. Likely sideboarding emphasizes Disdainful Stroke, Flashfreeze against red or green decks, The Unagi of Kyoshi Island, Sphinx of the Final Word, and sideboard Petrified Hamlet; priority targets are recursive threats, planeswalker-like engines if present, and creatures too large for sweepers. Keep Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Jeskai Revelation, and Tablet of Discovery flowing when life total is not under immediate pressure.

• Control mirrors: Fight over mana, card advantage, and finisher windows. Likely sideboarding emphasizes Sphinx of the Final Word, The Unagi of Kyoshi Island, Disdainful Stroke, Spell Pierce, Spell Snare, and sideboard Petrified Hamlet; reduce reliance on Pyroclasm, Sear, and creature-only removal when Veles shows few legal targets. Priority targets are opposing draw bursts, uncounterable or resilient closers, and any permanent that converts mana into repeated cards. Do not tap out for Jeskai Revelation, Stock Up, or Consult the Star Charts if the visible stack or opponent mana suggests the next unresolved threat matters more.

• Combo and spell-engine decks: Identify the payoff turn and hold interaction for the spell or permanent that actually wins or locks the game. Likely sideboarding emphasizes Spell Pierce, Disdainful Stroke, Spell Snare, Annul, Erode, Ghost Vacuum, and sometimes Flashfreeze by color; priority targets are graveyard engines, artifact or enchantment engines, cost reducers, and payoff spells. Card text check required for Ghost Vacuum, Annul, and Erode; use them only when Veles exposes legal targets and timing.

• Big mana decks: Save counters for high-impact payoffs unless the visible setup spell creates immediate decisive mana. Likely sideboarding emphasizes Disdainful Stroke, Flashfreeze, Spell Pierce, Sphinx of the Final Word, The Unagi of Kyoshi Island, and sideboard Petrified Hamlet; priority targets are ramp engines that snowball and expensive finishers that invalidate removal. Pyroclasm, Sear, and Abrade lose value when the battlefield is not the pressure axis.

• Artifact or enchantment decks: Answer repeatable engines before incidental creatures when life total allows. Likely sideboarding emphasizes Annul, Erode, sideboard Abrade, Spell Pierce, and Disdainful Stroke; priority targets are mana engines, lock pieces, combat engines, and card-advantage permanents. Keep main-deck Abrade flexible until Veles shows whether the artifact or creature mode is legal and strategically urgent.

Risk Summary

• Mana risk: This deck needs timely blue, red, and white access while many lands may have timing or tapped constraints. Prioritize hands with Riverpyre Verge, Steam Vents, Hallowed Fountain, Stormcarved Coast, Sundown Pass, Great Hall of the Biblioplex, or Mistrise Village that cast early interaction and later Jeskai Revelation; do not keep a hand that only casts card draw after already falling behind.

• Matchup risk: The deck can draw the wrong half against polarized opponents. Pyroclasm and small removal are weak into control or big mana, while slow draw spells are risky into fast pressure; sideboard by visible role, not by deck label alone.

• Draw risk: Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Tablet of Discovery, and Jeskai Revelation can tempt the pilot to spend turns drawing while dying. Use draw spells when the battlefield, stack, and life total allow the next opponent turn to be survived.

• Over-sideboarding risk: Removing too much early interaction makes aggro matchups unstable, while adding too many narrow counters can strand cards against creature pressure. Keep a functional mix of removal, card flow, mana, and closers after every plan.

• Graveyard risk: Ghost Vacuum is narrow unless the opponent publicly uses the graveyard. Card text check required; do not bring it in or fire it early unless graveyard contents or legal actions show a real payoff.

• Sweeper and removal risk: Pyroclasm, Slagstorm, Ill-Timed Explosion, Broadside Barrage, Sear, Abrade, and Thunder Magic may have target, damage, or timing limits. Respect Veles legal actions and avoid assuming a sweeper kills larger creatures or protected creatures.

• Closer risk: Sphinx of the Final Word, The Unagi of Kyoshi Island, Swallowed by Leviathan, Mistrise Village, and Cori Mountain Monastery should not be committed into a losing board without a stabilization plan. Card text check required for unfamiliar closers; use visible legality and stack context before treating them as protected or decisive.

• Interaction risk: Three Steps Ahead, Traumatic Critique, Disdainful Stroke, Spell Pierce, Spell Snare, Flashfreeze, and Annul are matchup- and target-sensitive. Hold the correct counter for the relevant mana value, color, or card type only when Veles confirms legal use.

• Sequencing risk: Tapping out for Tablet of Discovery, Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, or Jeskai Revelation before using removal can create lethal windows. Sequence land drops, interaction, and card flow so the opponent's next visible attack or payoff is still answered.

Test Feedback Checklist

• Deciding factor: Identify the single turn or exchange that most changed the game, then classify it as mana development, battlefield stabilization, stack interaction, card-advantage conversion, sideboard mismatch, or failed closing. Note whether the deciding action involved Three Steps Ahead, Traumatic Critique, Jeskai Revelation, Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Pyroclasm, Ill-Timed Explosion, Swallowed by Leviathan, Mistrise Village, or Cori Mountain Monastery.

• Mulligans: Record whether the opener had early colored mana, at least one relevant interaction spell, and a path to card flow. Flag keeps that had Tablet of Discovery, Stock Up, or Consult the Star Charts but no early answer, and flag mulligans that lost because the remaining hand could not cast Sear, Abrade, Pyroclasm, Thunder Magic, or Broadside Barrage on time.

• Mana: Check whether Riverpyre Verge, Steam Vents, Hallowed Fountain, Stormcarved Coast, Sundown Pass, Great Hall of the Biblioplex, Mistrise Village, Petrified Hamlet, Mountain, and Island produced the colors and timing the game required. Note any turns where a tapped land, missing white source, missing red source, or missing blue source changed the legal action set.

• Velocity: Measure whether Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Jeskai Revelation, and Tablet of Discovery found interaction before the opponent’s pressure became lethal. Record games where drawing cards was correct but too slow, and games where passing with interaction would have been better than advancing card volume.

• Engines: Track whether Tablet of Discovery, Great Hall of the Biblioplex, Mistrise Village, or Cori Mountain Monastery generated meaningful repeated value or sat idle. Mark whether activation costs, land timing, or pressure prevented these cards from mattering.

• Removal: Review every Sear, Abrade, Pyroclasm, Thunder Magic, Firebending Lesson, Broadside Barrage, Ill-Timed Explosion, and Swallowed by Leviathan decision for target quality and timing. Separate failures caused by wrong target choice from failures caused by visible legal actions not offering a clean answer.

• Sideboard: After each match, record which sideboard cards were drawn, cast, stranded, or decisive. Pay special attention to Disdainful Stroke, Spell Pierce, Spell Snare, Flashfreeze, Annul, Erode, Ghost Vacuum, Slagstorm, Pyrrhic Strike, sideboard Abrade, The Unagi of Kyoshi Island, sideboard Petrified Hamlet, and Sphinx of the Final Word.

• Closing: Ask whether the deck stabilized but failed to end the game. Identify whether Jeskai Revelation, The Unagi of Kyoshi Island, Sphinx of the Final Word, Swallowed by Leviathan, Mistrise Village, or Cori Mountain Monastery was available, legally castable, and worth committing.

• Role: Label each game as defender, tap-out control, permission control, or forced race. Flag any turn where the pilot acted like a pure draw-go deck while behind on board, or acted like a tap-out deck while the opponent’s visible mana and stack threat demanded restraint.

• Mistakes: Record illegal assumptions separately from poor choices. Examples include assuming Pyroclasm kills all attackers, assuming Three Steps Ahead or Traumatic Critique can answer any spell, or assuming a sideboard card has text not confirmed by Veles.

• Stranded cards: List cards that remained in hand for three or more relevant turns because of mana, timing, target restrictions, or matchup mismatch. Prioritize repeated stranding of Jeskai Revelation, Ill-Timed Explosion, Swallowed by Leviathan, Three Steps Ahead, Traumatic Critique, Disdainful Stroke, Flashfreeze, Annul, Erode, and Ghost Vacuum.

• Overperformers and underperformers: Name cards that won games, bought decisive turns, or repeatedly failed to affect the matchup. Compare main-deck Abrade versus sideboard Abrade, Pyroclasm versus Slagstorm, and The Unagi of Kyoshi Island versus Sphinx of the Final Word when the role was closing.

First Tuning Questions

• Card quantity: Is one Three Steps Ahead and one Traumatic Critique enough permission for control, combo, and big-mana opponents, or did the deck need more stack interaction before sideboarding? Use stranded-removal data before increasing counters.

• Removal mix: Did Pyroclasm underperform against larger creatures often enough to justify more Slagstorm, Pyrrhic Strike, Broadside Barrage, Ill-Timed Explosion, or Swallowed by Leviathan style effects? Use visible battlefield outcomes, not opponent archetype labels alone.

• Cheap interaction: Did two Sear, one main-deck Abrade, two Thunder Magic, and two Firebending Lesson cover the first three turns against fast decks? If early losses happened before Stock Up or Consult the Star Charts mattered, increase cheap stabilizers or reduce slow card-flow emphasis.

• Mana base: Did the land suite cast early red interaction, blue card flow, and white Jeskai Revelation on schedule? If Great Hall of the Biblioplex, Mistrise Village, Petrified Hamlet, or Cori Mountain Monastery caused timing failures, reduce utility-land pressure or adjust color counts.

• Card-flow density: Did four Stock Up, four Consult the Star Charts, four Tablet of Discovery, and four Jeskai Revelation create too many non-board turns against pressure? If yes, test fewer slow engines or more sideboard-ready removal.

• Closer package: Did the deck win promptly after stabilizing, or did it give opponents too many draw steps? If closing was slow, compare more reliable access to The Unagi of Kyoshi Island, Sphinx of the Final Word, Swallowed by Leviathan, Mistrise Village, or Cori Mountain Monastery against the cost of weakening early survival.

• Sideboard slots: Did Ghost Vacuum, Annul, Erode, Spell Snare, Spell Pierce, Disdainful Stroke, and Flashfreeze each answer enough real legal actions to earn their slots? Remove narrow slots only after confirming they were not needed in the matchups they target.

• Aggro plan: Did post-board games still lose before card advantage mattered? If yes, prioritize more Slagstorm, Pyrrhic Strike, sideboard Abrade, or other early stabilizers over additional late-game cards.

• Control plan: Did post-board control mirrors hinge on resolving one protected threat or on having enough cheap stack fights? Compare Sphinx of the Final Word, The Unagi of Kyoshi Island, Disdainful Stroke, Spell Pierce, and Spell Snare by actual decision logs.

• Role conflict: Did the pilot repeatedly face hands split between tap-out engines and reactive spells with no clear turn plan? If yes, tune toward a clearer default: either more early interaction supporting late Jeskai Revelation, or more proactive engines backed by cheaper protection.

Veles Tactical Policy

Policy: Opening Hand Role Gate

• Priority: High
• Decision families: mulligan
• Cards: Stock Up; Consult the Star Charts; Tablet of Discovery; Sear; Abrade; Pyroclasm; Jeskai Revelation
• Phase windows: pregame, mulligan decisions.
• Runtime cues: prompt:mulligan; visible opening hand; play/draw status.
• Use when: deciding keep versus mulligan before any hidden information is revealed.
• Avoid when: Veles already reports a forced keep/take-mulligan action from tournament structure.
• Instructions: Keep hands with functional mana plus either early interaction or early card flow; reject hands that cannot cast visible cheap spells before the opponent can pressure life total. Treat slow double-engine hands as unsafe unless lands and interaction are already present.
• Pilot skill floor: medium.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Early Mana Development

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: mana
• Cards: Steam Vents; Hallowed Fountain; Stormcarved Coast; Sundown Pass; Riverpyre Verge; Great Hall of the Biblioplex; Mistrise Village; Petrified Hamlet; Cori Mountain Monastery; Island; Mountain
• Phase windows: turns 1-4 main phases, land-play prompts.
• Runtime cues: action:play; visible lands in hand; legal spells this turn and next turn.
• Use when: choosing a land drop or tapped/untapped source sequence.
• Avoid when: a survival spell is already on stack or Veles exposes only one legal land action.
• Instructions: Prioritize blue and red access for Stock Up, Consult the Star Charts, Sear, Abrade, Thunder Magic, and Pyroclasm; preserve white access for Jeskai Revelation once survival is covered. Delay utility lands when they block immediate colored interaction.
• Pilot skill floor: medium.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: First Engine Setup

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: priority; selection
• Cards: Tablet of Discovery; Great Hall of the Biblioplex; Mistrise Village; Cori Mountain Monastery; Stock Up; Consult the Star Charts
• Phase windows: early main phases when shields are not required.
• Runtime cues: action:cast Tablet of Discovery; action:activate Great Hall of the Biblioplex; action:cast Stock Up; action:cast Consult the Star Charts
• Use when: the deck must establish card flow before stabilizing or after trading early removal.
• Avoid when: visible attackers, stack threats, or opponent mana make passing with interaction materially safer.
• Instructions: Commit one engine or card-flow action at a time; do not stack multiple slow value actions into the same turn while the battlefield is unresolved. Card text check required for each engine activation before assuming card draw, selection, or token output.
• Pilot skill floor: medium.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Tap-Out Commitment Gate

• Priority: High
• Decision families: priority; mana
• Cards: Jeskai Revelation; Ill-Timed Explosion; Swallowed by Leviathan; Sphinx of the Final Word; The Unagi of Kyoshi Island
• Phase windows: main phases, end steps, large-spell prompts.
• Runtime cues: action:cast Jeskai Revelation; action:cast Ill-Timed Explosion; action:cast Swallowed by Leviathan; action:cast Sphinx of the Final Word; action:cast The Unagi of Kyoshi Island
• Use when: a high-cost stabilizer, finisher, or swing spell would consume most available mana.
• Avoid when: the legal action is deterministic after a previous selected line and no other legal alternatives exist.
• Instructions: Tap out only when the visible board requires it, the spell clearly advances stabilization or closing, or waiting risks losing the same resource window. Account for open opposing mana, stack pressure, known revealed cards, and whether cheaper interaction can cover the turn.
• Pilot skill floor: high.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Spend Permission Gate

• Priority: High
• Decision families: interaction; priority
• Cards: Three Steps Ahead; Traumatic Critique; Disdainful Stroke; Spell Pierce; Spell Snare; Flashfreeze
• Phase windows: opponent casting windows, stack-response prompts.
• Runtime cues: action:cast Three Steps Ahead; action:cast Traumatic Critique; action:cast Disdainful Stroke; action:cast Spell Pierce; action:cast Spell Snare; action:cast Flashfreeze
• Use when: a counterspell-like legal action is available against a visible stack object.
• Avoid when: Veles action text does not expose the stack object or card text check is required for eligibility.
• Instructions: Spend permission on threats that beat the current removal suite, protect a closing turn, stop card advantage engines, or prevent lethal pressure. Do not counter low-impact spells just because mana is open.
• Pilot skill floor: high.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Cheap Removal Target Gate

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: interaction
• Cards: Sear; Abrade; Thunder Magic; Firebending Lesson; Broadside Barrage; Pyrrhic Strike
• Phase windows: main phases, combat steps, end steps, stack-response prompts.
• Runtime cues: action:cast Sear; action:cast Abrade; action:cast Thunder Magic; action:cast Firebending Lesson; action:cast Broadside Barrage; action:cast Pyrrhic Strike
• Use when: Veles exposes a removal or damage action with one or more visible targets.
• Avoid when: target legality, damage amount, or card text is not confirmed by action text.
• Instructions: Kill creatures that represent lethal, snowballing damage, or engine pressure before spending removal on smaller replaceable bodies. Hold instant-speed removal through combat when it can change attacks or blocks.
• Pilot skill floor: medium.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Sweeper Commitment Gate

• Priority: High
• Decision families: interaction; priority
• Cards: Pyroclasm; Slagstorm; Ill-Timed Explosion; Swallowed by Leviathan
• Phase windows: main phases before combat, emergency post-combat windows.
• Runtime cues: action:cast Pyroclasm; action:cast Slagstorm; action:cast Ill-Timed Explosion; action:cast Swallowed by Leviathan
• Use when: a sweeper or mass-effect legal action can change multiple visible permanents.
• Avoid when: Card text check required and Veles does not expose affected objects.
• Instructions: Fire sweepers when they buy at least a full turn cycle, prevent lethal, or reset a board that spot removal cannot contain. Preserve sweepers when one cheap answer plus card flow keeps life total safe.
• Pilot skill floor: high.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Deterministic Single Target Opponent

• Priority: Low
• Decision families: interaction
• Cards: none
• Phase windows: target prompts after a line has already been selected.
• Runtime cues: action:target opponent
• Use when: exactly one legal action contains target opponent and no legal action contains another opponent/player target choice.
• Avoid when: any permanent, spell, graveyard card, or self-target option is also legal.
• Instructions: Submit the unique visible target opponent action without additional strategic reasoning.
• Pilot skill floor: low.
• No-API allowed: yes
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Deterministic Single Visible Target

• Priority: Low
• Decision families: interaction; selection
• Cards: Sear; Abrade; Thunder Magic; Firebending Lesson; Broadside Barrage; Pyrrhic Strike; Erode; Annul; Ghost Vacuum
• Phase windows: target prompts after casting or activating a selected spell.
• Runtime cues: action:target
• Use when: exactly one legal action in the current list starts with or contains target and no other non-pass target action exists.
• Avoid when: two or more target actions are legal, or a target can be self, opponent, spell, permanent, or graveyard card.
• Instructions: Submit the unique visible target action; the strategic choice was already made by the prior spell or ability decision.
• Pilot skill floor: low.
• No-API allowed: yes
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Card Selection Discipline

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: selection
• Cards: Stock Up; Consult the Star Charts; Jeskai Revelation; Tablet of Discovery; Great Hall of the Biblioplex
• Phase windows: selection prompts, draw/filter resolution, main phases.
• Runtime cues: prompt:choose card; action:choose; action:put; action:keep
• Use when: Veles exposes card-choice, ordering, keep, put, or draw-selection actions.
• Avoid when: the prompt is a known target prompt for removal or permission.
• Instructions: Select immediate survival first, missing land/color second, permission or sweeper third, and closing power only after stabilization. Card text check required before assuming hidden library ordering or extra-card access.
• Pilot skill floor: medium.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Priority Pass With No Nonpass Action

• Priority: Low
• Decision families: priority
• Cards: none
• Phase windows: any priority window.
• Runtime cues: action:pass priority
• Use when: the legal action list contains pass priority and contains no cast, activate, attack, block, target, choose, pay, or play action.
• Avoid when: any non-pass action is legal.
• Instructions: Submit the visible pass action because no other executable action is offered by Veles.
• Pilot skill floor: low.
• No-API allowed: yes
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Combat Survival Gate

• Priority: High
• Decision families: combat; interaction
• Cards: Sear; Abrade; Pyroclasm; Thunder Magic; Firebending Lesson; Broadside Barrage; Ill-Timed Explosion; Swallowed by Leviathan; Slagstorm; Pyrrhic Strike
• Phase windows: declare attackers, declare blockers, before damage, end of combat.
• Runtime cues: action:block; action:cast; visible attackers; visible blockers; life total.
• Use when: combat choices or instant-speed interaction can change damage, trades, or lethal math.
• Avoid when: Veles offers exactly one no-block/no-action prompt and no interaction is legal.
• Instructions: Preserve life total over marginal card advantage when the opponent’s visible attack threatens a short clock. Use removal before damage when it prevents lethal or saves a critical blocker.
• Pilot skill floor: high.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Finisher Closing Gate

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: priority; combat
• Cards: Sphinx of the Final Word; The Unagi of Kyoshi Island; Mistrise Village; Cori Mountain Monastery; Jeskai Revelation; Swallowed by Leviathan
• Phase windows: post-stabilization main phases, attack steps, end steps.
• Runtime cues: action:cast Sphinx of the Final Word; action:cast The Unagi of Kyoshi Island; action:activate Mistrise Village; action:activate Cori Mountain Monastery; action:attack
• Use when: the battlefield is stable enough to convert resources into a win condition.
• Avoid when: the opponent’s visible board still demands removal, sweeper mana, or permission.
• Instructions: Start closing once the deck has spare mana and the opponent is no longer forcing immediate defensive trades. Do not expose a finisher into visible interaction without a reason to end the game quickly.
• Pilot skill floor: medium.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Artifact Or Enchantment Answer Gate

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: interaction
• Cards: Abrade; Annul; Erode; Ghost Vacuum
• Phase windows: stack windows, main phases, graveyard or permanent interaction prompts.
• Runtime cues: action:cast Abrade; action:cast Annul; action:cast Erode; action:activate Ghost Vacuum
• Use when: Veles exposes a legal answer to a visible artifact, enchantment, spell, or graveyard object.
• Avoid when: the target is only a low-impact permanent and the hand lacks answers to creature pressure.
• Instructions: Use narrow answers on cards that invalidate removal, generate repeated advantage, enable recursion, or threaten lethal. Card text check required for Erode and Ghost Vacuum before assuming target class.
• Pilot skill floor: medium.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Sideboard Plan Selection

• Priority: High
• Decision families: sideboard
• Cards: Disdainful Stroke; Sphinx of the Final Word; Annul; Pyrrhic Strike; Slagstorm; Ghost Vacuum; The Unagi of Kyoshi Island; Abrade; Flashfreeze; Petrified Hamlet; Erode; Spell Pierce; Spell Snare
• Phase windows: between games, sideboard lock prompts.
• Runtime cues: prompt:sideboard; match score; opponent archetype label; prior game log.
• Use when: choosing the legal post-board configuration.
• Avoid when: Veles has already locked a validated sideboard plan.
• Instructions: Add stack interaction versus control, combo, and big spells; add Slagstorm, Pyrrhic Strike, and extra Abrade versus creature pressure; add Annul, Erode, or Ghost Vacuum only when their target classes appeared or matchup guidance says they are live. Respect registered 75 validation.
• Pilot skill floor: high.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Sideboard Legal Confirmation

• Priority: Low
• Decision families: sideboard
• Cards: none
• Phase windows: sideboard submit prompts.
• Runtime cues: action:submit sideboard plan
• Use when: exactly one legal action submits a Veles-validated sideboard plan and no edit action is legal.
• Avoid when: any legal action can revise, reject, or choose among multiple plans.
• Instructions: Submit the unique visible validated plan action.
• Pilot skill floor: low.
• No-API allowed: yes
• Light-model allowed: yes