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

Strategy Specifications

Deck Name And Archetype

• Identity: Selesnya Landfall is registered as a Standard Selesnya aggro-midrange counters deck with a land-triggered pressure plan. The deck should be treated as green-primary with a white splash until runtime state shows actual white requirements, because the maindeck mana base contains 7 Forest, 2 Plains, 1 Temple Garden, 4 Hushwood Verge, 4 Fabled Passage, 4 Escape Tunnel, and 3 Ba Sing Se.

• Count validation: the registered main deck is 60 cards and the registered sideboard is 15 cards. Main-deck counts total correctly across 4 Erode, 2 Surrak, Elusive Hunter, 1 Lumbering Worldwagon, 2 Bushwhack, 4 Earthbender Ascension, 4 Sazh's Chocobo, 2 Icetill Explorer, 1 Keen-Eyed Curator, 4 Llanowar Elves, 4 Badgermole Cub, 2 Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam, 4 Mightform Harmonizer, 1 Mossborn Hydra, and 23 lands. Sideboard counts total correctly across 2 Surrak, Elusive Hunter, 3 Sheltered by Ghosts, 1 Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar, 1 Ba Sing Se, 2 Mossborn Hydra, 3 Rest in Peace, 2 Snakeskin Veil, and 1 Voice of Victory.

• Archetype status: classify this as rogue or custom-hybrid rather than stock. The list has recognizable aggro, midrange, counters, and landfall incentives, but the exact registered package is not a default known metagame shell from this guide alone, so Veles should avoid importing assumptions from other Selesnya decks unless those assumptions are supported by visible legal actions or later matchup data.

• Role status: the default role is proactive board development into snowball pressure. Llanowar Elves, Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Earthbender Ascension, Mightform Harmonizer, and repeated land deployment imply that early turns should prioritize mana, battlefield presence, and counter/landfall scaling before spending interaction. Surrak, Elusive Hunter, Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam, Mossborn Hydra, and Lumbering Worldwagon are larger commitment cards that should be evaluated against board texture, removal exposure, and whether waiting improves the line.

• Mana concern: green is the operational base, and white should not be over-fetched or over-prioritized without a visible reason. Fabled Passage and Escape Tunnel likely carry setup importance for landfall sequencing, fixing, or combat utility, but Card text check required before assuming any non-mana functionality. Ba Sing Se and Hushwood Verge also require card-text verification before the pilot treats them as fixing, utility, or trigger enablers beyond what the rules engine exposes.

• Legality concern: the declared format is Standard, but this guide does not independently certify current sanctioned legality for every exact card name. Before official testing, Veles should run its deck import, card database recognition, and format-legality checks; if the engine accepts the registered list, the pilot should still obey only engine-enumerated legal actions during play.

• Card-text caution: do not infer exact abilities for Erode, Earthbender Ascension, Sazh's Chocobo, Icetill Explorer, Badgermole Cub, Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam, Mightform Harmonizer, Ba Sing Se, or any other card from name alone. Card text check required whenever a decision depends on exact trigger timing, targeting rules, counter placement, mana restrictions, combat permissions, or replacement effects.

• Opponent information status: no opponent decklists, expected metagame, play/draw rules, or matchup-specific scouting notes were supplied. The pilot should use this specification as a deck-internal plan and then adjust at runtime from visible public information, revealed cards, legal actions, life totals, battlefield pressure, graveyards, exile, known sideboard cards, and Veles matchup guidance when later sections provide it.

Thesis

• Assemble early green mana, repeated land entries, and counter-scaling threats before the opponent can force a long resource exchange. Llanowar Elves, Fabled Passage, Escape Tunnel, Hushwood Verge, Forest, and Ba Sing Se are the setup layer; Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Earthbender Ascension, Mightform Harmonizer, Mossborn Hydra, Surrak, Elusive Hunter, Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam, and Lumbering Worldwagon are the pressure and payoff layer once legal actions confirm their current battlefield roles.

• Win by turning land sequencing into board size and combat inevitability, not by holding cards for a perfect late-game engine. Prioritize hands that produce early mana, a creature or permanent that benefits from development, and enough land flow to make Fabled Passage or Escape Tunnel matter; deprioritize hands that only contain expensive threats, reactive cards, or white splash cards without green development.

• Treat this deck as proactive aggro-midrange with counters, not as pure control, pure ramp, or a combo deck. Erode and Bushwhack should protect tempo or clear specific blockers when legal action text supports that role, but the default plan is to present threats and make the opponent answer them under pressure.

• Prioritize visible legal action text over archetype assumptions whenever card text is uncertain. Card text check required for Earthbender Ascension, Sazh's Chocobo, Icetill Explorer, Badgermole Cub, Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam, Mightform Harmonizer, Lumbering Worldwagon, Ba Sing Se, and sideboard cards whose exact Standard printing text is not confirmed by the engine state.

• Preserve white access when it unlocks visible legal actions, but do not damage the green curve to chase white mana without a current need. Temple Garden, Plains, Hushwood Verge, Fabled Passage, and possibly Ba Sing Se are the white-access package; Forest and Llanowar Elves are the operational base for the deck's first turns.

Role Package

• Threats: Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Mightform Harmonizer, Surrak, Elusive Hunter, Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam, Mossborn Hydra, Lumbering Worldwagon, and sideboard Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar are the cards most likely to convert setup into damage or board dominance. Commit cheaper threats first when the hand can continue making land drops, then use larger threats when the opponent is pressured, tapped low, or forced to answer multiple bodies.

• Payoffs: Earthbender Ascension, Mightform Harmonizer, Badgermole Cub, Sazh's Chocobo, Mossborn Hydra, and Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam are the main counters/landfall payoff candidates. Card text check required before choosing exact counter placement, trigger ordering, or target selection; when legal actions show a deterministic counter-growth or land-trigger line, prefer the line that increases immediate board pressure without sacrificing a future landfall turn.

• Engines: Earthbender Ascension, Mightform Harmonizer, Icetill Explorer, Keen-Eyed Curator, and Lumbering Worldwagon are the likely ongoing-value module. Use them when the battlefield is stable enough for a permanent to matter across turns; avoid tapping out for a slow engine when a visible opposing attack, removal window, or lethal race requires immediate blockers or interaction.

• Velocity: Llanowar Elves, Bushwhack, Fabled Passage, Escape Tunnel, Icetill Explorer, and Ba Sing Se are the practical smoothing package. Bushwhack may be land access or interaction depending on visible mode text; Fabled Passage and Escape Tunnel should be sequenced to maximize confirmed landfall/counter triggers instead of being spent casually when no payoff is present.

• Interaction: Erode and Bushwhack are the main-deck interaction candidates, with Sheltered by Ghosts, Rest in Peace, Voice of Victory, and possibly Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar expanding the sideboard interaction profile. Use interaction to keep attacks favorable, remove must-answer blockers or engines, or stop a graveyard/stack pattern that is visible; do not spend it merely because mana is available.

• Protection: The maindeck has no obvious dedicated protection card from names alone, so protect threats through sequencing, redundancy, and mana discipline. Sideboard Snakeskin Veil and Sheltered by Ghosts are the named protection/resilience candidates; Card text check required before assuming hexproof, counters, exile, lifegain, or aura behavior.

• Recursion: The registered maindeck does not present a clear recursion package from exact card names. Keen-Eyed Curator, Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam, and sideboard Rest in Peace may care about graveyards or permanents, but Card text check required before treating any line as recursion, graveyard denial, or graveyard value.

• Mana: Forest, Plains, Temple Garden, Hushwood Verge, Fabled Passage, Escape Tunnel, Ba Sing Se, and Llanowar Elves form a green-first mana base with conditional white access. Keep hands that cast Llanowar Elves or early green threats; use Fabled Passage and other flexible lands to unlock white only when current or near-term legal actions require it.

• Sideboard modules: Surrak, Elusive Hunter and Mossborn Hydra add heavier threat density; Sheltered by Ghosts and Snakeskin Veil add protection or interaction; Rest in Peace attacks graveyard plans; Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar and Voice of Victory are specialized creature-based tools; the extra Ba Sing Se adjusts mana or utility. Exact roles depend on engine-recognized text and matchup pressure.

Primary Win Conditions

• Land-entry pressure is the main win path: develop Llanowar Elves or early green mana, deploy Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Earthbender Ascension, or Mightform Harmonizer, then sequence Fabled Passage, Escape Tunnel, Hushwood Verge, Ba Sing Se, Forest, Plains, or Temple Garden to turn land drops into visible combat growth. Execute this plan when legal actions show landfall, counter, creature-growth, or permanent-growth triggers; disrupt blockers or tempo threats with Erode or Bushwhack only when the cleared path produces damage, protects a key engine, or prevents a losing attack back. Card text check required for exact trigger timing and counter placement.

• Counter-scaling creature combat is the default kill once a payoff sticks: prioritize Badgermole Cub, Mightform Harmonizer, Sazh's Chocobo, Mossborn Hydra, Surrak, Elusive Hunter, and Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam as the bodies most likely to convert counters into lethal pressure. Set up by playing the cheapest threat that benefits from immediate land development, then execute by attacking when visible blocks do not trade down the primary payoff unless the race requires damage now. Prioritize this path against opponents spending early turns on setup, taplands, card selection, or one-for-one removal that cannot answer multiple growing threats.

• Earthbender Ascension is the primary permanent-engine path when it has legal payoff text in the current game. Set up by ensuring a follow-up land or creature sequence before committing it; execute by choosing visible actions that advance its counters, transformation, or payoff condition without skipping lethal attacks. Prioritize Earthbender Ascension when the opponent lacks immediate battlefield pressure or when the hand contains Fabled Passage, Escape Tunnel, Llanowar Elves, and multiple cheap threats; delay it when tapping out would leave no blocker, no interaction, or no pressure against an already threatening board. Card text check required before assuming exact ascension requirements.

• Mossborn Hydra and Surrak, Elusive Hunter are the heavy-threat finishers when the game is about board size instead of speed. Set up with Llanowar Elves, stable green mana, and at least one earlier threat to draw interaction; execute by committing the finisher when the opponent is tapped low, shields are visibly constrained, or waiting risks falling behind. Prioritize this path after early payoffs are answered, against removal-light creature boards, or when a single large threat forces unfavorable blocks. Card text check required before treating either card as trample, protection, card advantage, or a deterministic lethal source.

Secondary Win Conditions

• Redundant creature pressure wins many games without a perfect engine: Llanowar Elves, Icetill Explorer, Keen-Eyed Curator, Badgermole Cub, Sazh's Chocobo, Mightform Harmonizer, and Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam can become a layered attack plan if the opponent trades one-for-one. Execute by using every mana turn efficiently, adding a second threat before overcommitting a single large creature, and attacking with expendable bodies when the visible race favors forcing blocks. Card text check required for Icetill Explorer, Keen-Eyed Curator, and Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam before relying on specific value text.

• Escape Tunnel can be a fallback damage route only when legal action text confirms an evasion or utility ability. Preserve Escape Tunnel for a turn where it pushes a grown Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Mightform Harmonizer, Llanowar Elves, or another eligible creature through a stalled board; spend it earlier only if mana development or landfall triggers are more important than future evasion. Do not assume exact eligibility, activation cost, or timing without engine output.

• Lumbering Worldwagon is a secondary board-breaker if the rules engine exposes crew, attack, mana, or land-related actions. Use it when the board has spare creatures that are not needed for blocking and when adding a large attacker changes combat math; avoid it when crewing would tap the only relevant blocker or when visible removal makes a vehicle-style commitment poor. Card text check required before treating it as ramp, Vehicle pressure, or land synergy.

• Erode and Bushwhack create tempo-win lines by converting a stalled board into one decisive attack. Use Bushwhack's mode only as shown by legal actions: if it finds land, it supports the main land-entry plan; if it fights or removes, it should clear the blocker or creature that most changes combat this turn or next turn. Use Erode to answer a visible permanent, blocker, engine, or tempo obstacle only when the resulting board state advances pressure; do not fire it at low-impact targets just to spend mana.

Emergency Lines

• When behind on life, choose survival over engine perfection: make blockers, hold back Llanowar Elves or smaller creatures if they prevent lethal, and spend Erode or Bushwhack on the visible attacker or blocker that changes the next combat step. Race only when the legal attack plus next-turn landfall or counter sequence creates a faster clock than blocking can preserve.

• When behind on board, rebuild with the cheapest legal threat plus the highest-impact stabilizer instead of committing every card into a sweeper or bad attack. Badgermole Cub, Sazh's Chocobo, Mightform Harmonizer, and Mossborn Hydra are recovery threats if they immediately affect combat size; Earthbender Ascension is too slow unless legal text shows immediate stabilization or the opponent cannot punish a setup turn.

• When behind on cards, extract value from land sequencing and modal choices rather than trading resources automatically. Preserve Fabled Passage or Escape Tunnel for visible triggers, use Bushwhack as land access when missing development matters more than fighting, and favor threats that demand answers over small trades that leave no follow-up.

• When behind on mana, prioritize Forest, green access, Llanowar Elves, Bushwhack land-search mode if legal, and untapped development before white splash actions. Keep Temple Garden, Plains, Hushwood Verge, Fabled Passage, and Ba Sing Se decisions tied to current legal costs; do not strand green threats by chasing a speculative white line.

• When win conditions are removed, shift from single-threat reliance to repeated medium threats and combat discipline. Force the opponent to answer Badgermole Cub, Sazh's Chocobo, Mightform Harmonizer, Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam, Surrak, Elusive Hunter, Mossborn Hydra, or Lumbering Worldwagon one at a time, and use interaction to preserve whichever threat is currently closest to ending the game.

Resource Model

• Life is a spendable buffer only while the deck is ahead on board or converting land drops into pressure. Accept early damage to keep Llanowar Elves, Badgermole Cub, Sazh's Chocobo, Mightform Harmonizer, or Earthbender Ascension developing, but switch to blocking when the visible counterattack threatens to erase the next landfall turn or forces a bad race.

• Hand size converts into threat layering and land sequencing, not long-game permission. Keep at least one follow-up creature or payoff when possible so removal on the first Badgermole Cub, Sazh's Chocobo, Mightform Harmonizer, Surrak, Elusive Hunter, Mossborn Hydra, or Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam does not end the pressure plan. Do not spend Bushwhack or Erode merely to use mana when holding them creates a stronger future combat or land-development turn.

• Mana is the deck's main tempo resource because most wins require threat plus land development in the same early window. Prioritize green access, then enough total mana to cast multiple cheap spells, then white access for Temple Garden, Plains, Hushwood Verge, and sideboard cards when legal costs require it. Treat Llanowar Elves as both acceleration and fragile board material; expose it to combat only when the mana is no longer needed or the block prevents a critical damage swing.

• Board presence is the primary stored advantage. A single large creature can win, but the better default is two or more bodies that make land drops, counters, and combat tricks difficult for the opponent to answer with one removal spell. Preserve the creature closest to lethal, but avoid protecting a large creature by making attacks that lose the rest of the battlefield for no immediate clock gain.

• Lands are spells in this shell when they trigger, fix, or enable utility. Fabled Passage and Escape Tunnel are not automatic early plays if another land lets the turn function; preserve them when visible legal text rewards an extra land entry, shuffle, search, evasion, or utility activation. Ba Sing Se and Hushwood Verge should be sequenced around current costs and tapped/conditional behavior shown by the rules engine. Card text check required for Ba Sing Se and Hushwood Verge before assuming exact mana or utility behavior.

• Graveyard and exile are mostly public-information resources until specific legal actions say otherwise. Keen-Eyed Curator, Rest in Peace, and any visible graveyard-related text should be evaluated from actual engine prompts; do not assume recursion, delirium, escape, or graveyard scaling unless the action list exposes it. Exile is normally a cost/result zone, with Rest in Peace as the explicit sideboard graveyard bullet.

• Sacrifice fodder is limited and should not be invented. Fabled Passage may sacrifice itself if the legal action text confirms that mode; do not treat creatures as disposable sacrifice material unless a current prompt names that cost. Llanowar Elves can be expendable in combat after mana is secured, but it is not sacrifice fodder by default.

• Tempo is gained by forcing the opponent to answer growing threats while spending every early turn on mana, land entries, or combat-relevant interaction. Use Erode and Bushwhack to remove the blocker, engine, or permanent that changes the next attack, not the target that is merely available. Tempo is lost when Fabled Passage, Escape Tunnel, Earthbender Ascension, or a tapped land choice delays the only threat without a compensating trigger or setup payoff.

• Information is a runtime constraint, not a license to infer hidden hands. Use public zones, known revealed cards, visible mana, current stack objects, and legal action text to decide whether to commit Surrak, Elusive Hunter, Mossborn Hydra, Earthbender Ascension, or Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam. Treat unknown removal and sweepers as risk factors, but do not name or play around specific hidden cards unless revealed or matchup guidance identifies them as opponent examples.

• Sideboard bullets convert narrow matchups into role shifts. Rest in Peace is graveyard pressure, Sheltered by Ghosts is conditional interaction or protection only as legal text confirms, Snakeskin Veil is protection when the engine exposes a legal response, Voice of Victory and Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar are anti-interaction or combat-value cards only with card text checked at runtime, and extra Surrak, Elusive Hunter, Mossborn Hydra, and Ba Sing Se increase threat density or mana configuration when the matchup slows down.

Mana Guide

• Green mana is mandatory in opening hands because Llanowar Elves, Badgermole Cub, Sazh's Chocobo, Mightform Harmonizer, Bushwhack, Earthbender Ascension, Surrak, Elusive Hunter, Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam, Mossborn Hydra, and likely most development turns depend on it. Prefer hands with Forest, Temple Garden, Hushwood Verge, Fabled Passage that can find green if legal, or Ba Sing Se/Escape Tunnel only if the rules engine shows green access. Card text check required before keeping a hand that relies on Ba Sing Se, Hushwood Verge, or Escape Tunnel for colored mana.

• White mana is secondary but must be planned before sideboard games. Temple Garden, Plains, Hushwood Verge, Fabled Passage, and Ba Sing Se may enable white actions for Sheltered by Ghosts, Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar, Voice of Victory, or mixed-color costs; sequence white access early when one of those cards is already in hand and castable soon, but do not delay turn-one Llanowar Elves or a green payoff for speculative white mana.

• Keep mana hands that cast a turn-one or turn-two play and have a believable second land or mana source. A strong keep usually has green access plus Llanowar Elves or a two-mana threat, or two lands plus Bushwhack if legal text can find a land and the rest of the hand uses that mana. Mulligan hands with no green source, all utility lands with unknown color output, one land without Llanowar Elves or Bushwhack support, or expensive threats that cannot be cast before the opponent develops pressure.

• Sequence untapped green before utility unless a land-entry trigger is immediately more valuable. Forest into Llanowar Elves is the cleanest acceleration line; Fabled Passage should be held for a payoff turn when possible, but played early when missing the second or third land would strand the hand. Escape Tunnel should be held for utility or evasion when the mana curve already functions, and played as mana when failing to do so prevents casting Badgermole Cub, Sazh's Chocobo, Mightform Harmonizer, or Earthbender Ascension.

• Play lands before draw or selection when landfall, counters, or mana are needed immediately; wait when Bushwhack or another legal selection action can inform which land is best. If the hand has Fabled Passage and a payoff already on board, prefer the sequencing that produces the most legal land-entry triggers this turn. If the turn includes Bushwhack land-search mode, cast it before committing a nonessential land only when the current legal mode and mana allow the found land to matter this turn.

• Manage Llanowar Elves as a temporary land that can attack only after it stops changing spell sequencing. If Llanowar Elves enables Surrak, Elusive Hunter, Mossborn Hydra, Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam, or double-spell turns, keep it untapped and out of unfavorable combat. If the board is stalled and mana is abundant, it may become an attacker, blocker, or carrier for counters only when visible combat math supports that role.

• Use Fabled Passage deliberately around land-entry payoffs and color needs. If green is missing, search for Forest when legal; if white is required for a current or next-turn sideboard card, search for Plains or Temple Garden only if the legal action text permits that choice. Do not assume Fabled Passage can find Temple Garden unless the rules engine presents that option.

Mulligan Guide

• Strong keep: Keep two or three lands with reliable green access plus Llanowar Elves and at least one early payoff such as Badgermole Cub, Sazh's Chocobo, Mightform Harmonizer, or Earthbender Ascension. This hand advances mana and pressure without needing hidden assumptions.

• Strong keep: Keep Forest or another confirmed green source, Fabled Passage, Llanowar Elves, and a curve into Surrak, Elusive Hunter, Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam, or Mossborn Hydra when the hand also has an early creature. Fabled Passage is strongest when it can either fix mana or create a visible land-entry payoff turn.

• Medium keep: Keep two lands plus Bushwhack when the rules engine exposes a land-search mode and the rest of the hand has castable green plays. This hand is weaker on the draw against pressure if Bushwhack must spend turn one fixing instead of developing Llanowar Elves.

• Medium keep: Keep three lands, Badgermole Cub or Sazh's Chocobo, and interaction such as Erode or Bushwhack if the current matchup rewards answering an early blocker or engine permanent. Card text check required before treating Erode or Bushwhack as removal in a specific prompt.

• Risky keep: Keep one land only with Llanowar Elves plus multiple cheap plays, and only when that land is a confirmed untapped green source. Ship one-land hands that rely on Fabled Passage delay, Escape Tunnel color uncertainty, Ba Sing Se color uncertainty, or Hushwood Verge color uncertainty unless the rules engine confirms the needed mana.

• Automatic ship: Mulligan any hand with no confirmed green source. Also ship hands made only of expensive cards such as Surrak, Elusive Hunter, Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam, Mossborn Hydra, and Lumbering Worldwagon without turn-one or turn-two development.

• Matchup-dependent keep: Keep slower hands with Earthbender Ascension, Fabled Passage, Mightform Harmonizer, and a stable mana base against visible or expected midrange boards where counters and repeated land entries matter. Against fast aggro, require Llanowar Elves, a two-drop creature, or legal interaction before keeping.

• Play/draw rule: On the play, prioritize Llanowar Elves and clean two-drop pressure over speculative card quality. On the draw, tolerate a slightly slower hand if it has extra land stability and Erode or Bushwhack as a legal answer to the first meaningful opposing permanent.

• Trap hand: Do not keep four lands, Surrak, Elusive Hunter, Mossborn Hydra, and Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam just because the top end is powerful. The deck needs early board presence before its larger threats matter.

• Trap hand: Do not keep Fabled Passage, Escape Tunnel, Ba Sing Se, Hushwood Verge, and green spells unless the engine confirms those lands cast the hand on time. Utility lands are resources only after colored mana is solved.

Turn Arc

• Turn 1: Prefer confirmed untapped green source into Llanowar Elves whenever legal. If Llanowar Elves is absent, use Bushwhack for land only when the legal action text confirms the search and the hand otherwise risks missing land two; otherwise play Forest or another confirmed green source and preserve Fabled Passage for a payoff turn.

• Turn 1 deviation: Play Fabled Passage immediately when missing green, missing land count, or needing a basic land to unlock the hand. Hold Escape Tunnel when the curve already functions and its later utility could matter; card text check required before assuming its evasion or mana mode.

• Turn 2: Prefer deploying Badgermole Cub, Sazh's Chocobo, Mightform Harmonizer, or Earthbender Ascension according to current legal mana and board pressure. Choose the play that turns future land drops into damage, counters, selection, or board size rather than the play that merely spends mana.

• Turn 2 deviation: Use Erode or Bushwhack as interaction only when the target changes the next combat, blocks the main threat profitably, or enables an opposing engine. Do not spend interaction into low-impact permanents while your hand still lacks a battlefield.

• Turn 3: Prefer a payoff turn that combines a land entry with a threat or counters action. Fabled Passage is especially valuable here if Badgermole Cub, Sazh's Chocobo, Mightform Harmonizer, Earthbender Ascension, or Mossborn Hydra has visible text rewarding land entries or counters.

• Turn 3 deviation: Cast Surrak, Elusive Hunter, Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam, Lumbering Worldwagon, or Mossborn Hydra only when mana is confirmed and the board will not collapse from skipping interaction. If the opponent presents a must-answer blocker or engine permanent, answer first when legal.

• Turns 4-5: Convert setup into pressure by double-spelling, cracking Fabled Passage on payoff turns, and using Escape Tunnel utility only when the legal action text makes an attack meaningfully better. Protect Llanowar Elves as mana if it still enables double-spell turns; trade it only when mana is abundant or survival requires a block.

• Turns 4-5 deviation: Commit Surrak, Elusive Hunter or Mossborn Hydra into open interaction only when waiting loses more damage, tempo, or board position than removal would cost. Respect visible mana, stack objects, revealed cards, and public graveyards; do not infer exact hidden answers.

• Late game: Prioritize the largest visible battlefield swing from Mossborn Hydra, Surrak, Elusive Hunter, Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam, or repeated land-entry payoffs. Use Erode and Bushwhack to clear lethal blockers or stop the permanent most likely to reverse combat.

• Late-game deviation: When flooded, value Fabled Passage, Escape Tunnel, Ba Sing Se, and Hushwood Verge for their visible utility rather than as blank lands. Card text check required before choosing a utility activation, and legal actions always override strategic assumptions.

Card Roles

• Llanowar Elves: Treat Llanowar Elves as the deck's cleanest acceleration and the highest-priority turn-one permanent when green mana is available. Keep it alive when it enables turn-two Earthbender Ascension, Mightform Harmonizer, Badgermole Cub plus another action, Surrak, Elusive Hunter ahead of curve, or a larger Mossborn Hydra; trade it only when mana is already stable or the block prevents a dangerous damage race.

• Badgermole Cub: Use Badgermole Cub as an early board engine whose value depends on being deployed before repeated land entries or counter synergies. Card text check required, but its four-copy count means it is a core two-drop; prefer casting it before cracking Fabled Passage when the visible text rewards landfall, counters, or growth, and avoid exposing it to combat trades when the next land drop would make it a superior attacker or blocker.

• Sazh's Chocobo: Use Sazh's Chocobo as a central landfall payoff and early pressure piece. Card text check required, but the deck's land density, Fabled Passage, Hushwood Verge, Escape Tunnel, and Ba Sing Se all suggest Sazh's Chocobo should usually enter before land-trigger turns; do not spend Fabled Passage early for marginal fixing if holding it creates a visible Sazh's Chocobo payoff next turn.

• Mightform Harmonizer: Use Mightform Harmonizer as the bridge between counters, creature sizing, and midgame pressure. Card text check required, but the deck wants this card online before Earthbender Ascension, Mossborn Hydra, Surrak, Elusive Hunter, or landfall counters start stacking; cast it before a payoff sequence when doing so does not concede tempo to an opposing board. In removal-heavy matchups, avoid making Mightform Harmonizer the only meaningful threat if another creature can force the first answer.

• Earthbender Ascension: Treat Earthbender Ascension as the main noncreature engine card, not a generic enchantment to cast whenever mana is idle. Card text check required, but four copies mean the deck expects it to convert land entries, counters, or creature development into a durable advantage; cast it early against midrange and control boards, but against fast pressure prioritize a creature or interaction first unless Earthbender Ascension immediately changes combat math.

• Erode: Use Erode as the main four-copy interaction slot and conserve it for permanents or board states that change combat, tempo, or the opponent's engine. Card text check required before assuming exact target types, cost, or destruction/exile behavior; choose Erode over creature deployment only when the legal target is blocking your main damage plan, threatening a race you cannot win, or enabling a snowball that your creature curve cannot overpower.

• Bushwhack: Use Bushwhack as flexible glue: land access when the hand cannot function, and interaction only when the legal mode and target are clearly presented. Card text check required at runtime, but do not spend Bushwhack as a fight/removal effect unless your creature survives or the exchange is necessary; do not spend it as a land-search effect when a natural land drop already supports the next two turns and saving it could answer a blocker.

• Surrak, Elusive Hunter: Treat Surrak, Elusive Hunter as a high-impact threat and stabilizer that should be cast when the deck can protect tempo or immediately pressure. Card text check required, but the main deck has two copies and the sideboard adds more, so Surrak, Elusive Hunter is likely important in grindy and creature-combat games; avoid tapping out for it into visible lethal pressure unless it blocks or races effectively by rules-engine output.

• Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam: Use Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam as a midgame payoff that rewards an established board more than an empty battlefield. Card text check required, but the two-copy count marks it as a powerful non-opening-plan card; prefer it after Llanowar Elves acceleration or when at least one creature, counter engine, or landfall piece is already present. Do not keep slow hands purely because Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam is in them.

• Icetill Explorer: Use Icetill Explorer as a supporting two-copy role player whose tactical value must be checked from visible rules text. Card text check required; if it provides selection, land access, counters, or board utility, prioritize it when the hand needs that axis rather than raw pressure. If it is merely a body in the current legal-action context, prefer Badgermole Cub, Sazh's Chocobo, Mightform Harmonizer, or Earthbender Ascension first.

• Mossborn Hydra: Use Mossborn Hydra as a scalable finisher rather than an early filler creature. Card text check required, but with one main copy and two sideboard copies, it is likely strongest when mana is high, counters matter, or landfall/engine permanents are already active; cast it small only when the board demands a blocker or when waiting risks losing the chance to deploy it at all.

• Lumbering Worldwagon: Treat Lumbering Worldwagon as a singleton utility threat or engine piece that requires runtime text verification before commitment. Card text check required; cast it when its visible text immediately supports mana, counters, landfall, or combat pressure, and do not prioritize it over developing a known payoff unless the legal board state shows it solves a specific problem.

• Keen-Eyed Curator: Treat Keen-Eyed Curator as a singleton utility card whose matchup value depends heavily on exact text. Card text check required; if it interacts with graveyards, artifacts, enchantments, counters, or selection, use it when the relevant public permanent or graveyard object is visible. Do not spend it as a generic creature ahead of the deck's four-copy engines unless curve pressure or blocking is required.

• Fabled Passage: Use Fabled Passage as both fixing and a land-entry multiplier. Play or sacrifice it early when mana is missing; hold it when green and white are already available and a later Badgermole Cub, Sazh's Chocobo, Mightform Harmonizer, Earthbender Ascension, or Mossborn Hydra turn will visibly reward the extra land entry. Search only for legal lands exposed by the engine.

• Escape Tunnel: Use Escape Tunnel as a utility land after colored mana is solved. Card text check required; if the legal action offers evasion or targeting a small creature, consider it for Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Llanowar Elves, or another attacker only when the resulting attack is clearly legal and improves damage or combat safety. Do not keep color-risky hands because Escape Tunnel is present.

• Hushwood Verge: Use Hushwood Verge as mana infrastructure first and utility only when the legal action text confirms the relevant choice. Card text check required; value it higher in hands that already have Forest or another green source, and lower in hands that need untapped green on turn one.

• Ba Sing Se: Use Ba Sing Se as a powerful land slot only after confirming what its legal actions produce. Card text check required; the main deck has three copies and the sideboard has one, so it likely supports the deck's longer games, but it should not replace early Forest access in opening-hand evaluation.

• Forest, Plains, and Temple Garden: Use Forest as the baseline because the deck's early plays are green-heavy. Use Plains and Temple Garden to unlock white requirements only when the hand or legal actions require white; do not over-prioritize white fixing at the cost of turn-one Llanowar Elves or early green payoffs.

Interaction Priorities

• Removal priority: Use Erode on the permanent that most directly stops landfall pressure, changes combat math, or enables an opposing engine you cannot race. Card text check required for exact target types and destruction/exile behavior; if multiple legal Erode targets exist, prefer the target that either blocks a large Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Mossborn Hydra, or Surrak, Elusive Hunter, or threatens to remove Mightform Harmonizer or Earthbender Ascension before they convert lands into damage.

• Fight priority: Use Bushwhack as interaction only when the legal mode and target text confirm the exchange and your creature survives or the trade prevents a losing attack. Do not spend Bushwhack to remove a low-impact creature if the same card is needed to find a land for Earthbender Ascension, Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, or Mossborn Hydra sequencing.

• Exile priority: Use Sheltered by Ghosts after sideboard on creatures or permanents that are too large to attack through, too resilient for combat, or likely to dominate repeated turns. Card text check required, but if the legal action exposes attachment, ward, or target restrictions, respect the rules-engine output and avoid selecting a target that leaves the enchanted creature vulnerable to an obvious two-for-one.

• Graveyard priority: Use Rest in Peace only when graveyard resources are publicly relevant or the matchup is known to rely on them. Do not bring or cast Rest in Peace as generic insurance when the visible game is about battlefield tempo and your hand needs another threat, unless matchup guidance already identifies graveyard pressure as a central axis.

• Protection priority: Use Snakeskin Veil to preserve a high-leverage creature, not the first creature offered as a target. Prefer protecting Mossborn Hydra, Surrak, Elusive Hunter, Mightform Harmonizer, or a counter-stacked Sazh's Chocobo or Badgermole Cub; allow Llanowar Elves or Icetill Explorer to die if saving them prevents deploying a stronger threat.

• Bait priority: Lead with redundant pressure before committing singleton or limited-copy payoff cards into open interaction. Llanowar Elves, Badgermole Cub, Sazh's Chocobo, and spare Earthbender Ascension copies can draw removal; preserve Mossborn Hydra, Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam, Lumbering Worldwagon, and Surrak, Elusive Hunter for turns where they immediately affect combat or force the opponent to answer multiple threats.

• Ignore priority: Ignore small blockers or utility creatures when land drops, Escape Tunnel, counters, or larger bodies let attacks continue profitably. Spend Erode, Bushwhack, or Sheltered by Ghosts on low-impact targets only when they enable lethal against you, shut off your only attacker, or protect a more important opposing engine.

• Archetype shift: Against aggro, interaction is tempo and survival; remove the attacker that creates the shortest clock, then build a stabilizing body. Against midrange, interaction should break board stalls or protect engines. Against control, force them to answer sequential threats and avoid using Erode or Bushwhack on targets that do not increase damage or preserve a must-answer board.

Combat And Trading Rules

• Attack rule: Attack when the rules-engine output shows damage, counters, or postcombat positioning improves your clock without losing the creature that carries the game. Landfall and counter scaling mean a creature that looks small now may be worth more after Fabled Passage, Earthbender Ascension, Mightform Harmonizer, Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, or Mossborn Hydra triggers.

• Block rule: Block early when life total is becoming the limiting resource, but preserve the creature that turns future land drops into pressure. Trade Llanowar Elves, Icetill Explorer, or a nonessential small creature before trading a scaled Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Mossborn Hydra, or Surrak, Elusive Hunter unless the larger creature must block to avoid lethal.

• Trade rule: Accept trades that convert a temporary mana creature or redundant threat into time for Earthbender Ascension or larger landfall turns. Decline trades that remove your only payoff before a held Fabled Passage or land-heavy hand can make it dominate combat.

• Protection rule: Hold Snakeskin Veil for removal, combat blowouts, or lethal-race turns involving a key attacker. Do not spend it to win a minor combat if a future Mossborn Hydra, Surrak, Elusive Hunter, Mightform Harmonizer, or heavily countered creature will become the opponent's likely removal target.

• Evasion rule: Use Escape Tunnel only after its legal action text confirms the target and result. Prioritize making a counter-stacked Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Llanowar Elves, or other small legal attacker unblockable when that damage meaningfully changes the race or closes the game; do not use it just because mana is idle.

• Life thresholds: Above a stable life total, favor attacks and landfall development over defensive trades. At a two-turn opposing clock, prioritize blocks, Erode, Sheltered by Ghosts, or Bushwhack lines that reduce incoming damage. At one-turn lethal exposure, survival beats engine preservation unless the legal attack is also lethal first.

• Engine preservation: Protect Mightform Harmonizer and Earthbender Ascension when they will produce multiple future combat advantages, but do not chump-block with real attackers solely to keep an engine card relevant. If the battlefield already contains a lethal or near-lethal creature, preserve the creature over a slower engine.

• Archetype differences: Against aggro, block more often and value Surrak, Elusive Hunter or Mossborn Hydra as stabilizers. Against midrange, avoid poor trades and build the larger counter board. Against control, attack with enough threats to pressure life totals while keeping a follow-up creature or engine in hand when possible.

Selection And Tutor Rules

• Land search priority: Use Bushwhack's land-search mode when the hand has pressure but lacks the land drop needed to deploy or trigger the deck's engines. Prefer finding the basic that fixes the next two turns: Forest when Llanowar Elves, Badgermole Cub, Sazh's Chocobo, Mightform Harmonizer, Mossborn Hydra, or Earthbender Ascension pressure is constrained by green; Plains only when a visible white spell, sideboard card, or activated/legal action requires white.

• Fight-mode discipline: Treat Bushwhack as a split selection spell, not just removal. If the rules engine offers both land-search and fight lines, choose fight only when removing that target changes combat, protects a key engine, or prevents a shorter opposing clock than the extra land would create.

• Fabled Passage timing: Hold Fabled Passage until a landfall or counter payoff is on the battlefield unless the current turn needs fixing or mana immediately. When Earthbender Ascension, Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, or Mossborn Hydra is already active, crack Fabled Passage in the window that creates the most relevant trigger before attacks, before blocks, or before damage if the rules-engine output exposes that timing.

• Land-drop sequencing: Play normal lands before Fabled Passage when the extra shuffle trigger is not needed yet, and save Fabled Passage for the turn where multiple land entries matter. Do not spend the deck's only fetch effect before casting a payoff if waiting one turn creates a larger board and does not miss a required spell.

• Pseudo-selection rule: The deck has limited card filtering, so most selection is choosing whether lands become mana now or triggers later. If a hand already has enough mana, prioritize sequencing lands to maximize Earthbender Ascension, Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Mossborn Hydra, and Mightform Harmonizer impact over thinning or fixing for no immediate gain.

• Escape Tunnel selection: Use Escape Tunnel's creature-targeting ability only when the legal action text confirms the target and effect. Prefer a small creature that already carries counters or converts unblockable damage into lethal, planeswalker pressure, or a race swing; do not target a creature merely to spend mana.

• Library-search safety: When resolving Bushwhack or Fabled Passage, select only cards the rules engine presents as legal. If the desired basic or land is absent from the legal candidate list, accept the closest legal fixing need rather than assuming library contents or card availability.

• Bottom/scry policy: If any visible Scry, surveil, discover, or similar selection prompt appears from a card in this deck, perform a card text check before treating it as strategic filtering. In the absence of reliable text, keep lands when landfall payoffs are present or mana is missing, and bottom low-impact extras when the board needs action and land count is already sufficient.

Priority And Stack Rules

• Commitment priority: Cast Earthbender Ascension, Mightform Harmonizer, Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Mossborn Hydra, or Surrak, Elusive Hunter before making the land drop that would immediately grow them or turn on combat pressure. If the rules engine offers a land action first, verify whether playing it now wastes a trigger that could occur after the payoff resolves.

• Main-phase discipline: Use sorcery-speed development before combat when counters, landfall, or haste-equivalent pressure changes attacks. Delay nonurgent Erode, Bushwhack, Sheltered by Ghosts, Rest in Peace, or creature deployment until after combat only when attacking first preserves hidden information, protects against interaction, or the spell cannot improve the current attack.

• Response windows: Pass priority when no legal instant-speed action changes the current stack, combat, or lethal math. Take a response window only for a concrete purpose: protect a key creature with Snakeskin Veil, use Escape Tunnel before blockers if legal and relevant, crack Fabled Passage for a visible trigger, or remove/prevent a threat with a legal interactive action.

• Protection timing: Use Snakeskin Veil in response to removal or a combat line aimed at a high-value creature, not proactively into open mana. Prefer protecting Mossborn Hydra, Surrak, Elusive Hunter, Mightform Harmonizer, or a counter-stacked Sazh's Chocobo or Badgermole Cub; let expendable Llanowar Elves or Icetill Explorer die unless mana or survival depends on them.

• Removal timing: Fire Erode or Sheltered by Ghosts before combat when the target blocks your best attack or presents lethal pressure on the backswing. Let opposing setup spells resolve when they do not affect the current race and your mana is better spent adding threats or preserving landfall sequencing. Card text check required for exact Erode and Sheltered by Ghosts target limits.

• Graveyard timing: Cast Rest in Peace after sideboard before the opponent can use visible graveyard resources, but avoid tapping out for it when the stack or battlefield demands protection, removal, or lethal pressure. If graveyards are empty and the matchup is not graveyard-centered, prioritize board development.

• Optional triggers and payments: Accept optional counters, landfall benefits, protection, or pressure triggers when they advance combat or resource conversion. Decline optional payments or activated abilities that consume mana needed for Surrak, Elusive Hunter, Mossborn Hydra, Erode, Snakeskin Veil, Sheltered by Ghosts, or a required postcombat play unless the current action is lethal or prevents lethal.

• Stack patience: Let your own landfall and counter triggers resolve before choosing attacks, blocks, or Escape Tunnel targets whenever the resulting stats affect legality or combat math. Recheck legal actions after each trigger because Veles must follow the current rules-engine output rather than a preplanned line.

Sideboard Map

• Sideboard purpose: Convert the main deck between low-curve landfall pressure, protected counter threats, anti-graveyard pressure, and longer midrange threat density without abandoning the creature-plus-land-entry core. Keep enough creatures for Earthbender Ascension, Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Mightform Harmonizer, and Mossborn Hydra to matter; do not sideboard into a low-threat control deck.

• Surrak, Elusive Hunter: Add extra copies against removal-heavy midrange, planeswalker decks, and slower creature decks where a single large threat can dominate combat. It is bad against very fast go-wide starts when four-mana pressure is too slow, and it changes the role from pure curve pressure toward resilient top-end. Card text check required for exact protection, evasion, and counter interactions.

• Sheltered by Ghosts: Add against creature decks, large single threats, and aggressive matchups where removing one blocker or attacker creates a race swing. It is weaker against decks with few creatures, sacrifice-heavy boards, or high enchantment interaction. Treat it as tempo interaction first, not a generic value spell; use it when the target affects combat or survival. Card text check required for exact target limits and attachment risk.

• Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar: Add against interactive decks where combat damage, counters, or protected attack steps matter. It is bad when the opponent is faster on board or when its text does not line up with visible legal actions. Use it as a role card for forcing threat-based pressure through response-heavy turns. Card text check required for exact ability timing and what it restricts.

• Ba Sing Se: Add the extra land when the matchup rewards longer games, repeated land drops, white access for sideboard cards, or a higher mana ceiling for Mossborn Hydra and Surrak, Elusive Hunter. It is weaker against fast decks when tapped or slower mana would reduce early pressure. Use it as a structural mana role card, not as a spell-density upgrade.

• Mossborn Hydra: Add extra copies against slower removal, midrange mirrors, and decks that struggle with a single scaling threat. It is weaker against exile-heavy removal, bounce tempo, or opponents that ignore the ground while racing. Preserve Fabled Passage and land sequencing to amplify it when the rules engine shows landfall or counter payoffs.

• Rest in Peace: Add against graveyard engines, recursive creatures, reanimation, flashback-style play, graveyard-size payoffs, and decks whose visible cards use the graveyard as a resource. It is bad when graveyards are incidental and the opponent races on battlefield. Do not add it merely because the opponent has some graveyard cards; add it when graveyard access is a plan or a repeated source of advantage.

• Snakeskin Veil: Add against spot removal, damage-based interaction, targeted bounce, and combat tricks where protecting one threat preserves the clock. It is bad against sweepers, sacrifice effects, edicts, and decks that do not target your creatures. Role change: keep more mana available after deploying Mossborn Hydra, Surrak, Elusive Hunter, Mightform Harmonizer, or a counter-stacked Sazh's Chocobo.

• Voice of Victory: Add against permission, instant-speed removal, and decks that try to win by acting during your turn. It is weaker against tap-out creature decks and sweepers if its text does not interfere with the relevant action. Card text check required for exact restriction and trigger behavior.

Aggro with many small creatures Side in: 3 Sheltered by Ghosts; 1 Ba Sing Se Cut: 2 Icetill Explorer; 1 Lumbering Worldwagon; 1 Keen-Eyed Curator

• Aggro rule: Add role cards that change combat immediately and preserve life total. Sheltered by Ghosts is the main tool if the legal target is a key attacker or blocker; Ba Sing Se enters only when the mana curve still supports early plays and white interaction.

• Aggro emphasis: Reduce main-deck emphasis on slower top-end and low-impact singletons before reducing Llanowar Elves, Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, or Mightform Harmonizer. Keep enough early creatures to block, attack back, and make counter engines active.

Removal-heavy midrange Side in: 2 Mossborn Hydra; 2 Snakeskin Veil; 1 Voice of Victory; 1 Ba Sing Se Cut: 4 Erode; 2 Icetill Explorer

• Midrange rule: Add role cards that make individual threats matter through removal and stalls. Snakeskin Veil protects the threat that is already winning; Mossborn Hydra and Surrak, Elusive Hunter raise the threat ceiling when the first wave trades.

• Midrange emphasis: Reduce main-deck emphasis on narrow interaction when opposing targets are not the bottleneck. Keep Bushwhack if land-search mode fixes development or fight mode can remove a decisive creature from visible board state.

Graveyard engine or recursion Side in: 3 Rest in Peace; 2 Snakeskin Veil Cut: 2 Icetill Explorer; 1 Lumbering Worldwagon; 1 Keen-Eyed Curator; 1 Bushwhack

• Graveyard rule: Add Rest in Peace when the opponent's visible cards or known archetype need graveyard access to function. Cast it early when it disrupts a live resource, but do not spend the turn on it if the opponent is killing through battlefield pressure and removal or blockers are required.

• Graveyard emphasis: Reduce main-deck emphasis on slower or redundant support cards before lowering the density of primary landfall and counter threats. If Rest in Peace affects Keen-Eyed Curator or another friendly graveyard-dependent line, treat that anti-synergy as a cost and choose the plan only when opponent graveyard denial is more important.

Control or permission Side in: 2 Mossborn Hydra; 2 Snakeskin Veil; 1 Voice of Victory; 1 Ba Sing Se Cut: 4 Erode; 2 Bushwhack

• Control rule: Add resilient threats and protection, then pressure in spaced waves. Do not overcommit all high-value threats into a visible sweeper risk unless the clock or hand texture makes waiting worse.

• Control emphasis: Reduce main-deck emphasis on creature-only interaction when the opponent presents few targets. Keep land sequencing disciplined because Fabled Passage and normal land drops should be paired with Earthbender Ascension, Mossborn Hydra, Badgermole Cub, or Sazh's Chocobo rather than spent for no pressure.

Large-creature ramp or green midrange Side in: 3 Sheltered by Ghosts; 2 Mossborn Hydra; 2 Snakeskin Veil Cut: 2 Icetill Explorer; 1 Keen-Eyed Curator; 1 Lumbering Worldwagon; 1 Erode; 2 Llanowar Elves

• Large-creature rule: Add cards that either answer a single oversized blocker or win a counter-scaling fight. Sheltered by Ghosts is best when it clears the one permanent stopping attacks; Mossborn Hydra and Surrak, Elusive Hunter are best when the game becomes about the largest battlefield object.

• Large-creature emphasis: Reduce main-deck emphasis on fragile acceleration on the draw when opposing pressure makes late Llanowar Elves poor. Preserve enough green sources and early bodies to keep Earthbender Ascension and Mightform Harmonizer functional.

Go-wide tokens or creature swarm Side in: 3 Sheltered by Ghosts; 2 Snakeskin Veil Cut: 1 Mossborn Hydra; 1 Lumbering Worldwagon; 2 Icetill Explorer; 1 Keen-Eyed Curator

• Swarm rule: Add interaction only when it creates favorable attacks or prevents lethal pressure. Do not assume single-target removal solves a wide board; prioritize early creatures, counter growth, and combat math.

• Swarm emphasis: Reduce main-deck emphasis on slow expensive threats before touching the one- and two-mana pressure base. If Voice of Victory or Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar does not affect the visible combat or response pattern, prefer staying lower to the ground.

Low-creature combo or spell engine Side in: 1 Voice of Victory; 2 Snakeskin Veil; 2 Mossborn Hydra; 1 Ba Sing Se Cut: 4 Erode; 2 Bushwhack

• Spell-engine rule: Add cards that protect a fast clock or limit interaction, then race. Rest in Peace joins this plan only when the engine explicitly uses graveyard resources; otherwise keep pressure density higher.

• Spell-engine emphasis: Reduce main-deck emphasis on removal and fight effects when there are few legal creature targets. Keep hands that present early Llanowar Elves into multiple threats or landfall pressure, and mulligan slower hands that only interact with creatures the opponent may not present.

• Unknown matchup default: Add no sideboard card unless its role matches visible cards, known archetype, or game-one evidence. When uncertain, keep the proactive main-deck shell intact and make only small changes: Sheltered by Ghosts for creature pressure, Snakeskin Veil for targeted removal, Rest in Peace for confirmed graveyard reliance, Mossborn Hydra and Surrak, Elusive Hunter for longer games, and Voice of Victory or Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar for response-heavy opponents.

Matchup Guidance

• Aggro: Stabilize first, then turn landfall and counters into larger attackers. Keep hands with early green mana, Llanowar Elves, Badgermole Cub, Sazh's Chocobo, or Mightform Harmonizer; mulligan hands that wait until turn three without affecting combat. Add role cards: Sheltered by Ghosts for a visible key attacker or blocker, Ba Sing Se when the extra land still supports early plays, and Mossborn Hydra only when the matchup slows after the first exchange. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow singletons, excess Surrak, Elusive Hunter, Lumbering Worldwagon, Icetill Explorer, or Keen-Eyed Curator before reducing the core early creature count. Use Erode and Bushwhack only when the rules engine shows a legal target that changes the race or protects a growing threat.

• Burn: Treat life total as the resource most likely to run out before card advantage matters. Keep proactive hands that make a fast clock without requiring repeated shockland-style pain or slow tap-land sequencing; use Fabled Passage and Escape Tunnel timing to trigger Earthbender Ascension, Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Mossborn Hydra, or Mightform Harmonizer without falling behind on blockers. Add role cards: Snakeskin Veil if burn is mostly targeted removal for creatures, Sheltered by Ghosts if it removes a damage source, Voice of Victory if its exact text interferes with instant-speed burn during your turn. Card text check required for Voice of Victory. Reduce main-deck emphasis: expensive or slow value pieces that do not gain tempo.

• Go-wide creature decks: Build a board before racing because one large creature can still lose to many attackers. Prioritize Llanowar Elves into multiple creatures, Earthbender Ascension plus repeated land drops, and Mightform Harmonizer when counters make blocks favorable. Add role cards: Sheltered by Ghosts for the single anthem, evasive attacker, or largest blocker that changes combat; Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar if its text rewards successful creature combat; Voice of Victory if it punishes combat tricks or instant interaction. Card text check required for Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar and Voice of Victory. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Surrak, Elusive Hunter and other slower top-end before cutting early pressure.

• Tempo: Do not walk the only threat into open mana when a cheaper threat or landfall setup can pressure through interaction. Favor hands with redundant threats over one large payoff, sequence Llanowar Elves and Badgermole Cub before Mossborn Hydra or Surrak, Elusive Hunter when the opponent has visible untapped interaction, and use Snakeskin Veil only on a threat that already matters. Add role cards: Snakeskin Veil, Voice of Victory, Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar, and extra Surrak, Elusive Hunter when games hinge on protecting a board. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Erode or Bushwhack if the opponent has few creatures, but keep removal when visible flyers or blockers are controlling combat.

• Control: Win with staggered threats, not one overcommitted board. Keep hands that deploy early pressure and still use later lands as landfall or counter fuel; do not hold Fabled Passage forever if cracking it now creates lethal pressure or forces an answer. Add role cards: Surrak, Elusive Hunter, Mossborn Hydra, Snakeskin Veil, Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar, and Voice of Victory. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Erode, Bushwhack, and other creature-only interaction when the opponent presents few legal targets. Card text check required for Earthbender Ascension, Surrak, Elusive Hunter, and Mightform Harmonizer interactions with sweepers; treat them as pressure engines only when visible legality supports the line.

• Removal-heavy midrange: Make every threat either cheap enough to trade up or large enough to demand a premium answer. Lead with resilient pressure and avoid spending Snakeskin Veil on a low-impact creature unless that creature is carrying counters or preserving lethal. Add role cards: Snakeskin Veil, Mossborn Hydra, Surrak, Elusive Hunter, and Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar if combat-based card advantage or protection is text-confirmed. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Erode when it lacks decisive targets, Icetill Explorer if it is too slow, and Lumbering Worldwagon if removal makes vehicle-style pressure unreliable. Keep Bushwhack when land search fixes a missing land drop or fight mode removes a visible must-answer creature.

• Single-threat decks: Preserve clean answers for the permanent that actually matters. Do not fire Sheltered by Ghosts, Erode, or Bushwhack at a medium creature if the opponent's plan depends on one larger threat, one protected flyer, or one engine creature. Add role cards: Sheltered by Ghosts, Mossborn Hydra, and Surrak, Elusive Hunter. Reduce main-deck emphasis: low-impact support pieces when the matchup is about answering or outgrowing one object. If the opponent's single threat is noncreature, do not assume Erode or Bushwhack can answer it; follow the legal action list.

• Big mana: Race before the opponent's payoff invalidates normal combat. Keep hands with early Llanowar Elves plus pressure, or landfall engines that convert Fabled Passage, Escape Tunnel, Ba Sing Se, Hushwood Verge, Forest, Plains, or Temple Garden into fast damage. Add role cards: Mossborn Hydra and Surrak, Elusive Hunter for larger battlefield scaling; Sheltered by Ghosts only when it has a legal target that blocks or wins the race. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow selection or small interaction when it does not attack the payoff. Do not keep hands that only plan to answer creatures after the opponent has already reached a larger mana stage.

• Combo: Identify whether the opponent wins through graveyard, battlefield creature, artifact/enchantment, or spell-chain resources before sideboarding. Add role cards: Rest in Peace only for confirmed graveyard reliance, Snakeskin Veil only to protect the clock from interaction, Voice of Victory or Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar only if exact text disrupts the opponent's timing, and Surrak, Elusive Hunter or Mossborn Hydra when a faster clock is needed. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Erode and Bushwhack when there are few relevant creature targets. Never invent a hate role for a sideboard card; if the rules engine does not show a legal disruptive action, attack.

• Graveyard decks: Play Rest in Peace early when visible cards, revealed cards, or known archetype evidence make the graveyard a live resource. Add role cards: Rest in Peace, Snakeskin Veil for protecting pressure, and Mossborn Hydra if the opponent can grind after hate resolves. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Keen-Eyed Curator or other graveyard-dependent friendly lines if Rest in Peace is active, plus slower cards that do not affect the race. Do not spend a key turn on Rest in Peace when the opponent is already winning through battlefield damage and a blocker or removal action is required.

• Artifact/enchantment decks: Use interaction only when the legal target is central to the opponent's current plan. Add role cards: Sheltered by Ghosts if it can remove the relevant permanent or creature by exact card text; extra pressure from Surrak, Elusive Hunter and Mossborn Hydra if the matchup is about racing engines. Reduce main-deck emphasis: narrow creature interaction if their important permanents are not creatures. Card text check required for Erode and Sheltered by Ghosts target ranges; do not assume either can answer artifacts or enchantments unless the action text says so.

• Opposing midrange: Take the beatdown role when your early creature plus landfall curve is ahead, and shift to counter-scaling inevitability when boards stall. Favor sequencing that turns every land into pressure through Earthbender Ascension, Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Mossborn Hydra, or Mightform Harmonizer. Add role cards: Surrak, Elusive Hunter, Mossborn Hydra, Snakeskin Veil, and Sheltered by Ghosts when it cleanly answers the best blocker. Reduce main-deck emphasis: low-ceiling cards that neither attack well nor answer the visible board. In stalled games, use Escape Tunnel only when the legal action creates meaningful damage or enables a protected attacker; do not sacrifice board development for minor chip damage.

Specific Matchup Notes

• General/archetype-only note: Exact opponents are not supplied, so treat these notes as matchup heuristics until revealed cards, public zones, legal actions, and rules-engine prompts identify the real plan. Revealed cards override archetype assumptions, and Veles should not assume a sideboard card has a disruptive target unless the action list exposes one.

• Aggro: Stabilize first, then turn landfall into the bigger battlefield. Priority targets are evasive attackers, pumped creatures, and creatures that make blocking impossible; use Erode, Bushwhack, or Sheltered by Ghosts only when the legal target changes combat math this turn or next turn. Add role cards: Sheltered by Ghosts, Mossborn Hydra, Surrak, Elusive Hunter, and sometimes Ba Sing Se when longer games need land density. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slower selection or fragile top-end if the opening turns are about not falling behind.

• Tempo: Protect the first threat that can keep attacking through disruption. Priority targets are bounce-like tempo pieces, cheap flyers, and blockers that let the opponent race while holding interaction; do not spend Snakeskin Veil on a creature that is not central to the current clock. Add role cards: Snakeskin Veil, Voice of Victory, Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar, and extra Surrak, Elusive Hunter. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Erode or Bushwhack only if visible creatures are too few or too small to justify removal density.

• Control: Stagger threats and force answers across multiple turns. Priority targets are planeswalker-like engines, creature finishers, and any permanent the legal action text says can be answered by Sheltered by Ghosts or Erode; Card text check required for exact interaction ranges. Add role cards: Surrak, Elusive Hunter, Mossborn Hydra, Snakeskin Veil, Voice of Victory, and Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar. Reduce main-deck emphasis: creature-only interaction when the opponent presents few creature targets.

• Removal-heavy midrange: Make every land drop threaten a rebuild. Priority targets are blockers that brick Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Mightform Harmonizer, or Mossborn Hydra, plus creatures that attack through your board. Add role cards: Snakeskin Veil, Sheltered by Ghosts, Mossborn Hydra, Surrak, Elusive Hunter, and Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Lumbering Worldwagon or Icetill Explorer if they are too slow under repeated removal.

• Graveyard decks: Deploy Rest in Peace only when the graveyard is visibly important or the known matchup identity makes it the pressure point. Priority targets are graveyard enablers and payoffs exposed in public zones; do not spend a turn on Rest in Peace if lethal pressure or survival requires a blocker, removal, or landfall attack. Add role cards: Rest in Peace, Snakeskin Veil, and Mossborn Hydra. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Keen-Eyed Curator or other friendly graveyard lines while Rest in Peace is active.

• Big mana and combo: Race before the opponent's payoff turn, and avoid slow hands without Llanowar Elves, landfall pressure, or a scaling threat. Priority targets are visible engine creatures, mana creatures, and combo permanents that legal interaction can answer. Add role cards: Mossborn Hydra, Surrak, Elusive Hunter, Voice of Victory if text-confirmed against timing interaction, and Rest in Peace only for confirmed graveyard dependency. Reduce main-deck emphasis: removal that lacks relevant targets.

Risk Summary

• Mana risk: The deck can stumble when Llanowar Elves dies, when Fabled Passage or Escape Tunnel timing delays colored mana, or when Ba Sing Se, Hushwood Verge, Temple Garden, Forest, and Plains sequencing fails to support both early green and later white actions. Prioritize keep decisions that cast Llanowar Elves, Badgermole Cub, Sazh's Chocobo, Bushwhack, or Erode on time.

• Draw risk: Hands with landfall payoffs but too few lands can strand Earthbender Ascension, Mightform Harmonizer, Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, or Mossborn Hydra below their pressure ceiling. Hands with many lands but no payoff must rely on Bushwhack, Icetill Explorer, or runtime selection to become functional.

• Matchup risk: The deck can misrole as pure aggro when the opponent is better at racing, or as midrange when the opponent has inevitability. Reassess role after every visible removal spell, blocker, sweeper signal, graveyard engine, or stalled board.

• Over-sideboarding risk: Adding too many Surrak, Elusive Hunter, Mossborn Hydra, Sheltered by Ghosts, Rest in Peace, Snakeskin Veil, Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar, Voice of Victory, or Ba Sing Se can dilute the landfall creature curve. Preserve enough early creatures and landfall enablers to make sideboard cards matter.

• Graveyard risk: Rest in Peace may disable or reduce friendly graveyard-related value if Keen-Eyed Curator or other visible card text depends on graveyards. Card text check required before treating graveyard hate as free.

• Sweeper/removal risk: One large Mossborn Hydra, Surrak, Elusive Hunter, or counter-stacked creature can invite a single clean answer. Diversify pressure unless the legal line threatens lethal or forces a specific answer now.

• Closer risk: The deck may fail to finish if Escape Tunnel, Fabled Passage, and landfall triggers are spent for setup instead of damage. Convert lands into attacks once the opponent is inside a two-turn clock.

• Interaction risk: Erode, Bushwhack, and Sheltered by Ghosts are only as good as their legal targets. Do not assume they answer noncreature engines, protected threats, or artifacts/enchantments unless the rules engine exposes the action.

• Sequencing risk: Cracking Fabled Passage, using Escape Tunnel, casting Bushwhack, and committing Earthbender Ascension before or after attackers can materially change combat. Choose the sequence that maximizes visible legal pressure without giving up required blockers or protection mana.

Test Feedback Checklist

• Deciding factor: Record whether the game was won or lost by early pressure, landfall velocity, large counters, removal timing, mana failure, stalled combat, or sideboard card impact. Tie the answer to visible actions involving Llanowar Elves, Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Mightform Harmonizer, Earthbender Ascension, Mossborn Hydra, or Surrak, Elusive Hunter.

• Mulligans: Identify whether the opening hand had castable green development, enough lands for landfall, and at least one pressure or selection piece. Flag keeps that lacked Llanowar Elves, Badgermole Cub, Sazh's Chocobo, Mightform Harmonizer, Bushwhack, or a clear land sequence from Forest, Hushwood Verge, Temple Garden, Plains, Fabled Passage, Escape Tunnel, or Ba Sing Se.

• Mana: Check whether Fabled Passage, Escape Tunnel, Hushwood Verge, Ba Sing Se, Temple Garden, Forest, and Plains produced the colors and timing the hand required. Note every turn where a land entered or was used in a way that delayed Erode, Bushwhack, Earthbender Ascension, Icetill Explorer, Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam, Mossborn Hydra, or sideboard white spells.

• Velocity: Count whether landfall-style turns converted lands into meaningful pressure rather than only setup. Review whether Fabled Passage or Escape Tunnel was saved for a larger Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Mightform Harmonizer, Earthbender Ascension, or Mossborn Hydra turn when saving it was legally and tactically justified.

• Engines: Track whether Earthbender Ascension and Mightform Harmonizer changed the board before the opponent stabilized. Record if they were cast too early into visible pressure, too late after the combat window closed, or stranded because the deck lacked creatures or land drops.

• Removal: Review every Erode, Bushwhack, and Sheltered by Ghosts use for target quality. The key question is whether the chosen target protected a clock, enabled an attack, stopped lethal pressure, or answered a visible engine that mattered more than the next creature deployment.

• Combat: Check whether attacks with Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Llanowar Elves, Mightform Harmonizer, Mossborn Hydra, Surrak, Elusive Hunter, and Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam respected the visible crackback. Mark mistakes where damage was pushed while a needed blocker was given up, or where a favorable attack was missed after landfall or counters changed combat math.

• Sideboard: Record whether Sheltered by Ghosts, Rest in Peace, Snakeskin Veil, Voice of Victory, Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar, extra Surrak, Elusive Hunter, extra Mossborn Hydra, or extra Ba Sing Se affected the game. Also record when a sideboard card was drawn without a relevant visible target, matchup role, or mana window.

• Closing: Identify the turn when the opponent entered a two-turn clock and whether the pilot converted land drops, counters, Escape Tunnel, Fabled Passage, or removal into lethal pressure. Flag games where the deck built a large board but failed to force damage through blockers.

• Role: State whether Selesnya Landfall correctly played aggro, stabilizing midrange, or threat-protection midrange. A role error is likely when the pilot raced a faster board, held back against a slower deck with no visible sweeper pressure, or spent interaction on low-impact targets.

• Mistakes and stranded cards: List any cards stranded by mana, timing, target restrictions, or board state. Pay special attention to Erode, Bushwhack, Earthbender Ascension, Icetill Explorer, Lumbering Worldwagon, Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam, Mossborn Hydra, Rest in Peace, Snakeskin Veil, and Sheltered by Ghosts.

• Overperformers and underperformers: Name exact cards that repeatedly changed outcomes or failed to matter. Separate card strength from pilot error, matchup context, and uncertain card text.

First Tuning Questions

• Quantity question: Does the deck need more copies of Mossborn Hydra or Surrak, Elusive Hunter in the main deck when games are lost after early pressure stalls? Compare those losses against games where Lumbering Worldwagon, Icetill Explorer, Keen-Eyed Curator, or Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam was too slow or stranded.

• Mana question: Are 7 Forest, 2 Plains, 1 Temple Garden, 4 Hushwood Verge, 4 Fabled Passage, 4 Escape Tunnel, and 3 Ba Sing Se supporting both early green and white interaction reliably? If Erode, Sheltered by Ghosts, or sideboard cards are often delayed, test whether the land mix or Ba Sing Se count is causing the bottleneck.

• Aggro-plan question: Are 4 Llanowar Elves, 4 Sazh's Chocobo, 4 Badgermole Cub, and 4 Mightform Harmonizer enough early pressure against fast decks? If the deck keeps stabilizing too late, evaluate whether slower engines or top-end slots should yield more early board presence.

• Control-plan question: Does the deck have enough resilient threats after sideboarding with Snakeskin Veil, Voice of Victory, Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar, Surrak, Elusive Hunter, and Mossborn Hydra? If removal-heavy opponents answer one large creature too cleanly, prioritize threat diversity over stacking all resources on one permanent.

• Interaction question: Are 4 Erode and 2 Bushwhack correct when some opponents present few legal creature targets? If removal is stranded, ask whether those slots should become more proactive threats, protection, or selection in future builds.

• Engine-conflict question: Are Earthbender Ascension and Mightform Harmonizer both necessary at four copies, or do they compete for turns where the deck should add creatures or hold protection? Use logs to compare games where engines snowballed against games where they did not affect combat before removal or lethal pressure arrived.

• Graveyard-hate question: Are 3 Rest in Peace enough, too many, or too narrow for the expected field? Track whether Rest in Peace wins games against graveyard plans, sits dead against fair decks, or conflicts with Keen-Eyed Curator or other friendly graveyard text after card-text verification.

• Protection question: Should Snakeskin Veil move toward more copies if Surrak, Elusive Hunter, Mossborn Hydra, or counter-stacked creatures keep dying to cheap removal? Only increase protection if the deck reliably has a threat worth protecting and mana available at the relevant priority window.

• Closer question: Does Escape Tunnel actually help finish games, or does it too often slow colored mana and early development? Review whether its activated or land-use decisions created lethal attacks, enabled key landfall turns, or caused missed casts.

• Sideboard-slot question: Are Sheltered by Ghosts, Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar, Voice of Victory, extra Ba Sing Se, extra Surrak, Elusive Hunter, extra Mossborn Hydra, Rest in Peace, and Snakeskin Veil covering distinct problems? Remove overlap only after logs show which matchup failures each card did or did not solve.

• Role-conflict question: Is the list split too far between fast landfall pressure and slower midrange scaling? If losses come from drawing engines without pressure or pressure without enough closing power, tune toward the role that wins more post-board games.

Veles Tactical Policy

Policy: Opening Keep Gate

Priority: High Decision families: mulligan Cards: Llanowar Elves; Sazh's Chocobo; Badgermole Cub; Mightform Harmonizer; Earthbender Ascension; Fabled Passage; Forest; Plains; Temple Garden; Hushwood Verge Phase windows: pregame Runtime cues: opening hand; mulligan choice; visible hand only Use when: Keep hands that can cast an early green play and either present pressure or a scaling engine by turn two or three. Avoid when: Mulligan hands with no green source, no early play, or only slow lands and top-end unless the rules engine shows a forced keep. Instructions: Favor green mana plus Llanowar Elves, Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, Mightform Harmonizer, or Earthbender Ascension. Treat white access as secondary unless Erode or sideboard white cards are already needed. Pilot skill floor: medium No-API allowed: no Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: First Creature Setup

Priority: Medium Decision families: mana; priority Cards: Llanowar Elves; Sazh's Chocobo; Badgermole Cub; Mightform Harmonizer Phase windows: main phase one; main phase two Runtime cues: legal cast actions for early creatures Use when: The deck has no battlefield pressure and legal actions include casting an early creature. Avoid when: A visible opposing threat requires immediate legal interaction or when casting into known public removal is worse than holding protection. Instructions: Establish the first creature before slower engines when the hand needs landfall or counter payoffs to matter. Card text check required for Sazh's Chocobo, Badgermole Cub, and Mightform Harmonizer; follow engine-visible legal action text. Pilot skill floor: low No-API allowed: no Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Landfall Resource Timing

Priority: Medium Decision families: mana; priority Cards: Fabled Passage; Escape Tunnel; Sazh's Chocobo; Badgermole Cub; Earthbender Ascension; Mightform Harmonizer; Mossborn Hydra Phase windows: precombat main; combat setup; postcombat main Runtime cues: legal land play; legal land activation; landfall-style trigger text visible Use when: A land drop or land activation can change current-turn combat, counters, mana, or lethal math. Avoid when: The land is needed for future color access and current visible board does not use the trigger. Instructions: Sequence ordinary colored mana first when required, but save Fabled Passage or Escape Tunnel for a larger trigger turn when the engine exposes immediate payoff text. Pilot skill floor: medium No-API allowed: no Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Deterministic Fabled Passage Activation

Priority: Low Decision families: mana Cards: Fabled Passage; Forest; Plains Phase windows: main phase; end step Runtime cues: action:activate Fabled Passage Use when: A legal Fabled Passage action is the only visible way to find a missing basic Forest or Plains required by another already selected legal action this turn. Avoid when: Multiple fetched colors remain tactically live or landfall timing changes combat. Instructions: Choose the basic land named by the mana requirement shown in the selected line. Use Forest for green costs and Plains for white costs when that exact requirement is visible. Pilot skill floor: low No-API allowed: yes Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Engine Commitment Gate

Priority: High Decision families: priority; mana Cards: Earthbender Ascension; Mightform Harmonizer; Lumbering Worldwagon; Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam Phase windows: main phase one; main phase two Runtime cues: legal cast actions for engine permanents Use when: Committing an engine can create a board advantage before the opponent's visible clock or interaction punishes the tempo loss. Avoid when: The opponent has lethal pressure, a must-answer permanent, or visible mana and public information that make tapping out unsafe. Instructions: Treat Earthbender Ascension and Mightform Harmonizer as defining engines; cast them when the board can use them soon. Card text check required for Lumbering Worldwagon and Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam. Pilot skill floor: high No-API allowed: no Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Removal And Fight Gate

Priority: High Decision families: interaction; priority Cards: Erode; Bushwhack; Sheltered by Ghosts Phase windows: precombat main; combat; opponent combat; end step Runtime cues: legal target actions for Erode, Bushwhack, or Sheltered by Ghosts Use when: Interaction removes a blocker for lethal or stops a visible threat, engine, attacker, or combo piece that changes the next turn cycle. Avoid when: The target is low-impact and deploying pressure creates a faster clock. Instructions: Use Erode, Bushwhack, and Sheltered by Ghosts on targets that affect combat, survival, or engine snowballing. Card text check required for Erode. Pilot skill floor: high No-API allowed: no Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Exact Sheltered By Ghosts Target

Priority: Medium Decision families: interaction Cards: Sheltered by Ghosts Phase windows: main phase; combat if legal Runtime cues: action:target Sheltered by Ghosts Use when: The legal action text contains exactly one opposing nonland permanent target and Sheltered by Ghosts is already the selected line. Avoid when: More than one target exists or target type restrictions are unclear. Instructions: Submit the sole visible target named by the rules engine. Do not infer legality or protection beyond the target list. Pilot skill floor: low No-API allowed: yes Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Protection Window Gate

Priority: High Decision families: interaction; priority Cards: Snakeskin Veil; Mossborn Hydra; Surrak, Elusive Hunter; Sazh's Chocobo; Badgermole Cub; Mightform Harmonizer Phase windows: any priority window; combat; opponent turn Runtime cues: legal cast Snakeskin Veil; target prompt; opposing spell or ability on stack Use when: A visible opposing spell or ability threatens a key creature or a protected creature creates lethal or preserves the only stabilizer. Avoid when: The threatened creature is replaceable and mana is needed for a higher-impact legal action. Instructions: Protect counter-stacked threats, Mossborn Hydra, Surrak, Elusive Hunter, or the only blocker before protecting small redundant creatures. Pilot skill floor: high No-API allowed: no Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Exact Snakeskin Veil Target

Priority: Medium Decision families: interaction Cards: Snakeskin Veil Phase windows: any priority window Runtime cues: action:target Snakeskin Veil Use when: Snakeskin Veil is already selected and the target prompt lists exactly one friendly creature. Avoid when: Multiple friendly creatures can be targeted. Instructions: Submit the sole friendly creature target shown by the legal action text. Pilot skill floor: low No-API allowed: yes Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Combat Pressure Gate

Priority: High Decision families: combat Cards: Sazh's Chocobo; Badgermole Cub; Llanowar Elves; Mightform Harmonizer; Mossborn Hydra; Surrak, Elusive Hunter; Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam Phase windows: declare attackers; declare blockers; combat damage setup Runtime cues: legal attack or block declarations; visible power and toughness Use when: Attacking or blocking changes lethal race math, preserves a necessary blocker, or converts landfall and counters into damage. Avoid when: The attack exposes lethal crackback or trades the only engine creature without enough payoff. Instructions: Push damage when the opponent cannot punish the crackback; hold creatures back when survival depends on blocking. Card text check required for Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam. Pilot skill floor: high No-API allowed: no Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Single Forced Combat Declaration

Priority: Low Decision families: combat Cards: none Phase windows: declare attackers; declare blockers Runtime cues: action:attack; action:block Use when: The rules engine presents exactly one legal attack or block declaration and no alternative pass or different declaration is legal. Avoid when: More than one combat declaration or pass action exists. Instructions: Submit the only combat declaration shown by the rules engine. Pilot skill floor: low No-API allowed: yes Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Finisher Commitment Gate

Priority: High Decision families: mana; priority; combat Cards: Mossborn Hydra; Surrak, Elusive Hunter; Lumbering Worldwagon; Escape Tunnel Phase windows: precombat main; combat setup; postcombat main Runtime cues: legal cast or activate actions for finisher cards Use when: A large threat, evasive line, or top-end permanent creates a two-turn clock, lethal attack, or stabilizing body. Avoid when: Opponent public information suggests immediate answer and a wider board line is available. Instructions: Commit Mossborn Hydra or Surrak, Elusive Hunter when waiting is worse than forcing action. Card text check required for Lumbering Worldwagon and Escape Tunnel activated use. Pilot skill floor: high No-API allowed: no Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Selection And Search Gate

Priority: Medium Decision families: selection; mana Cards: Bushwhack; Icetill Explorer; Keen-Eyed Curator; Ba Sing Se Phase windows: main phase; selection prompt Runtime cues: choose card; search; reveal; select mode; legal Bushwhack actions Use when: Selection can fix mana, find pressure, answer a visible board, or convert excess land into a relevant spell. Avoid when: The selection effect costs tempo and the current board needs a castable creature or removal now. Instructions: Route all nontrivial choices through the light model. Card text check required for Icetill Explorer, Keen-Eyed Curator, and Ba Sing Se. Pilot skill floor: medium No-API allowed: no Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Exact Bushwhack Mode Or Target

Priority: Low Decision families: selection; interaction Cards: Bushwhack Phase windows: main phase Runtime cues: action:Bushwhack Use when: The legal action text exposes exactly one Bushwhack mode or exactly one legal Bushwhack target after Bushwhack is already selected. Avoid when: Both mana-development and fight/removal modes are legal, or multiple targets exist. Instructions: Submit the only legal Bushwhack option shown by the rules engine. Pilot skill floor: low No-API allowed: yes Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Graveyard Hate Commitment

Priority: Medium Decision families: sideboard; priority; interaction Cards: Rest in Peace; Keen-Eyed Curator Phase windows: main phase; early turns; before graveyard payoff resolves if legal Runtime cues: legal cast Rest in Peace; visible graveyards; opponent graveyard cards Use when: Opponent graveyard resources are visible and Rest in Peace is likely to deny their plan more than advancing board pressure would. Avoid when: The matchup is fair combat and Rest in Peace does not affect visible resources. Instructions: Cast Rest in Peace early against graveyard reliance; consider friendly graveyard implications only from visible rules text. Card text check required for Keen-Eyed Curator interaction. Pilot skill floor: medium No-API allowed: no Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Anti-Control Sideboard Role

Priority: Medium Decision families: sideboard; pregame Cards: Snakeskin Veil; Voice of Victory; Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar; Surrak, Elusive Hunter; Mossborn Hydra; Erode; Bushwhack Phase windows: sideboarding; pregame Runtime cues: sideboard request; opponent archetype notes; prior game public actions Use when: Opponent relies on removal, sweepers, counters, or slower card advantage. Avoid when: Opponent is faster creature aggro and removal or blockers are required. Instructions: Add protection and resilient threats; reduce main-deck emphasis on narrow removal only through exact Sideboard Map plans. Card text check required for Voice of Victory and Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar. Pilot skill floor: medium No-API allowed: no Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Anti-Creature Sideboard Role

Priority: Medium Decision families: sideboard; pregame Cards: Sheltered by Ghosts; Surrak, Elusive Hunter; Mossborn Hydra; Erode; Bushwhack; Lumbering Worldwagon; Icetill Explorer Phase windows: sideboarding; pregame Runtime cues: sideboard request; opponent creature density from public games Use when: Opponent wins through battlefield creatures, combat tempo, or must-answer permanents. Avoid when: Opponent is spell-combo, control, or graveyard-centric with few legal targets. Instructions: Add Sheltered by Ghosts and larger stabilizers through exact Sideboard Map plans; reduce slower or uncertain text cards only when the plan names legal cuts. Pilot skill floor: medium No-API allowed: no Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Pass Priority Discipline

Priority: Medium Decision families: priority; interaction Cards: Erode; Bushwhack; Snakeskin Veil; Sheltered by Ghosts; Rest in Peace Phase windows: all priority windows Runtime cues: legal pass action; legal instant or activated actions; visible stack Use when: Passing preserves mana without missing a relevant visible interaction window. Avoid when: The stack, combat, or visible board contains a threat that available interaction can answer profitably this turn cycle. Instructions: Before passing, compare legal interaction against visible lethal, key engine, removal-on-stack, and combat math. Do not invent hidden threats. Pilot skill floor: high No-API allowed: no Light-model allowed: yes