veles-content/strategies/modern/modern_mill/1/guide.md

Strategy Specifications

Deck Name And Archetype

• Identity: Mill is a Modern blue-black library-pressure control deck built to end the game by emptying the opponent's library instead of by combat damage. The registered main deck is 60 cards and the registered sideboard is 15 cards, so the deck passes the basic deck-size validation gate for Veles import and sideboard-plan construction.

• Registered format: Modern. The strategy guide should treat Modern speed, fetchland density, graveyard recursion, cheap interaction, combo pressure, and fast creature clocks as expected opponent texture, but it must not assume a specific opposing list unless runtime matchup metadata or visible public information supplies it.

• Tags: control, mill. The duplicated source tag control,mill resolves to the same tactical identity: a control deck whose interaction and sequencing are organized around library depletion, not battlefield dominance.

• Stock status: Hybrid. The core package of Hedron Crab, Ruin Crab, Archive Trap, Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Visions of Beyond, Thought Scour, fetchlands, Watery Grave, and Oboro, Palace in the Clouds resembles established Modern Mill shells, while Exhibition Tidecaller and Requiting Hex require card-text validation before the guide treats them as known stock technology.

• Count validation: Main deck nonland packages are 4 Hedron Crab, 4 Ruin Crab, 4 Scheming Symmetry, 4 Fractured Sanity, 4 Archive Trap, 4 Exhibition Tidecaller, 4 Thought Scour, 4 Extirpate, 3 Visions of Beyond, and 4 Tasha's Hideous Laughter. Land package is 1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds, 6 Island, 4 Flooded Strand, 2 Watery Grave, 4 Misty Rainforest, and 4 Polluted Delta. Sideboard is 4 Nihil Spellbomb, 4 Requiting Hex, 1 Ensnaring Bridge, 2 Soul-Guide Lantern, 2 Collective Brutality, and 2 Echoing Truth.

• Legality caution: Veles should verify Modern legality and exact Oracle text through the card database before high-stakes playtesting, especially for Exhibition Tidecaller and Requiting Hex. Card text check required for Exhibition Tidecaller. Card text check required for Requiting Hex.

• Mana identity: The mana base is primarily blue with black access from Watery Grave, Polluted Delta, Misty Rainforest, and Flooded Strand search lines. The guide should prioritize untapped blue for Hedron Crab, Ruin Crab, Thought Scour, Visions of Beyond, Fractured Sanity, Archive Trap follow-up lines, and Tasha's Hideous Laughter while preserving black access for Extirpate, Collective Brutality, Nihil Spellbomb activation where relevant, and any verified black sideboard text.

• Role concern: Mill must decide whether each game is a speed race, a disruption game, or a bridge-control game from visible pressure and legal actions. Hedron Crab and Ruin Crab reward early land sequencing, Archive Trap punishes opponent search actions, Scheming Symmetry can enable specific library pressure only when the symmetrical risk is acceptable, and Extirpate turns milled or discarded key cards into permanent resource denial when a legal graveyard target exists.

• Opponent info status: No opponent decklist is supplied for this strategy specification. Matchup guidance must therefore be archetype-bucketed and conditional on public information such as revealed cards, lands, companion status, graveyard contents, battlefield pressure, search actions, life totals, and visible sideboard-card effects.

Thesis

• Assemble repeatable landfall milling plus burst library depletion before the opponent converts battlefield pressure or combo velocity into a win. Hedron Crab and Ruin Crab turn every land drop, fetchland, and Oboro, Palace in the Clouds loop into primary damage against the library, while Archive Trap, Fractured Sanity, and Tasha's Hideous Laughter provide the large single-action chunks that make the clock credible.

• Win by forcing the opponent to draw from an empty library, not by preserving life total indefinitely or winning combat. The deck should measure progress by cards remaining in the opponent library, live mill density in hand, number of landfall triggers available this turn and next turn, and whether Extirpate can remove a card type or engine piece that changes the race.

• Prioritize blue mana, landfall sequencing, and legal opponent-search punishments over generic control posture. A hand with a Crab, fetchland access, and a burst mill spell is often more functional than a hand full of reactive-looking cards that does not accelerate the library clock.

• Treat Scheming Symmetry as a high-risk selection tool, not as a routine tutor. Because it gives both players a top-card setup, use it when the immediate follow-up is legal and strong, when the opponent's next draw can be disrupted by milling, or when the game is otherwise slipping and the deck needs a specific action now.

• Use Extirpate as surgical pressure once the graveyard exposes a meaningful target. Do not fire it merely because it is legal if the visible graveyard target is low impact and the current race requires more direct library depletion, unless removing that card materially cuts off a public line.

• Avoid pretending to be a creature-control deck. Hedron Crab, Ruin Crab, and any verified Exhibition Tidecaller text are not primarily combat resources; preserve them for engine function unless blocking is required for survival or the rules engine presents no better survival line.

• Respect runtime legality above all strategy shortcuts. Archive Trap is powerful only when its legal cost or normal cost is actually available, landfall only happens through real land entries, and no guide instruction should assume hidden opponent cards, unverified triggers, or a search event the engine did not report.

Role Package

• Threats: Hedron Crab and Ruin Crab are the deck's true threats because they convert lands into recurring library pressure. Protect their early presence through sequencing where possible, and prefer land drops that produce immediate triggers when a Crab is already on the battlefield.

• Payoffs: Archive Trap, Fractured Sanity, and Tasha's Hideous Laughter are the main burst-mill payoffs. Use Archive Trap to punish opponent search actions when the rules engine exposes a legal reduced-cost action, use Fractured Sanity as reliable chunk pressure or a cycling line only when card flow is more important than immediate mill, and use Tasha's Hideous Laughter when exiling by mana value is likely to advance the clock more than waiting.

• Engines: Fetchlands plus Hedron Crab or Ruin Crab are the primary engine, and Oboro, Palace in the Clouds is the specialized land that can repeatedly create landfall when mana and timing permit. Flooded Strand, Misty Rainforest, and Polluted Delta should be sequenced as mill resources, not only as color fixing, when a Crab is active or expected.

• Velocity: Thought Scour, Visions of Beyond, Fractured Sanity cycling, and Scheming Symmetry provide card flow or selection. Thought Scour can target the opponent to advance the mill plan or target self only when a specific runtime reason exists, while Visions of Beyond becomes much stronger once the opponent has twenty or more cards in graveyard.

• Interaction: Extirpate is main-deck disruption that turns public graveyard information into denial. Collective Brutality, Echoing Truth, Ensnaring Bridge, Nihil Spellbomb, Soul-Guide Lantern, and Requiting Hex form the sideboard interaction spread, with exact use conditional on matchup and verified card text.

• Protection: Protection is indirect and tempo-based, not shield-based. Ensnaring Bridge can protect against creature combat when sideboarded, Echoing Truth can reset a threatening permanent or token cluster if legal, Collective Brutality can buy time against burn or small threats if its text and modes apply, and Extirpate can protect the plan by removing a known recurring or combo card from the opponent's graveyard.

• Recursion: The registered deck has no dedicated recursion module. Do not make decisions that rely on rebuying spent Archive Trap, Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Extirpate, or creatures unless the rules engine exposes a legal action from a visible card effect.

• Mana: Island, Watery Grave, Flooded Strand, Misty Rainforest, Polluted Delta, and Oboro, Palace in the Clouds support a mostly blue plan with black access. Prioritize untapped blue early for Crab and mill spells, preserve black access for Extirpate and sideboard cards, and treat fetchlands as both color sources and future landfall triggers.

• Sideboard modules: Nihil Spellbomb and Soul-Guide Lantern attack graveyard decks while preserving the mill clock's need for enough action density. Collective Brutality covers discard, life-buffer, or removal roles if its legal modes match the game. Echoing Truth handles problematic permanents or clustered objects. Ensnaring Bridge supports low-hand-size survival plans. Requiting Hex requires card text validation before tactical assumptions; Card text check required.

Primary Win Conditions

• Crab landfall pressure is the default win path. Deploy Hedron Crab or Ruin Crab early, then sequence Flooded Strand, Misty Rainforest, Polluted Delta, Island, Watery Grave, and Oboro, Palace in the Clouds to maximize legal landfall triggers before the opponent's battlefield clock closes. Prioritize this line when an opening hand has a Crab plus fetchland access, when the opponent is not immediately threatening the Crab, or when multiple land drops/fetch activations can reduce the opponent library enough that one burst spell ends the game.

• Fetchland burst turns are the cleanest execution layer for Hedron Crab and Ruin Crab. When a Crab is active, prefer playing an uncracked fetchland only if holding the crack creates an additional landfall trigger at a tactically better time; otherwise use the fetchland now if the mana and mill trigger are needed this turn. Do not delay landfall merely to be clever if visible pressure means the deck must shorten the clock.

• Archive Trap is the highest-ceiling burst win path when the opponent searches. Cast Archive Trap at reduced cost only when the rules engine exposes a legal action, and prioritize it when the opponent library is still large enough that a thirteen-card mill materially changes the race. If normal casting is the only legal mode, treat Archive Trap as expensive reach and compare it against Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Crab triggers, and holding interaction.

• Fractured Sanity is the reliable main-phase chunk plan. Cast it when immediate library depletion advances toward a two-action or one-action kill, when the opponent has no visible way to punish tapping mana, or when cycling would be too slow for the current clock. Use cycling only when digging for a specific class of action is more important than the three-mana mill effect.

• Tasha's Hideous Laughter is the exile-based burst plan. Prioritize it when the opponent library is meaningfully stocked with low mana value cards by public archetype evidence or revealed cards, but do not assume exact deck composition from hidden information. If the opponent has shown a high-mana-value strategy, compare Tasha's Hideous Laughter against Fractured Sanity or Crab/fetch sequencing before committing.

• Scheming Symmetry wins only when the follow-up is controlled. Use Scheming Symmetry to find Archive Trap, Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, a Crab, Extirpate, or a needed land only when the chosen card can be used before the opponent's tutored card matters, when a mill effect can disrupt the opponent's top card, or when waiting is worse than accepting the symmetry risk.

Secondary Win Conditions

• Thought Scour provides low-cost reach and tactical disruption. Target the opponent when the plan needs incremental mill, a graveyard card for Extirpate, or a way to clear a Scheming Symmetry top card; target self only when the rules-visible context gives a concrete reason, because this deck does not rely on self-mill recursion.

• Visions of Beyond is the main card-volume payoff. Use it as a normal cantrip when mana would otherwise be unused and the hand needs action, but value it most after the opponent has twenty or more cards in graveyard if the rules engine confirms that threshold. Drawing into multiple mill pieces can become the secondary win path when the first wave of Crabs or burst spells is answered.

• Extirpate can become a virtual win condition by removing a public dependency. Prioritize Extirpate when the opponent graveyard contains a combo piece, recursion card, key threat, or duplicate engine card whose removal changes the race; avoid using it on a low-impact card if the game is mainly about emptying the library quickly.

• Exhibition Tidecaller is a conditional win-path card until text is verified. Card text check required. If the rules engine shows that Exhibition Tidecaller creates mill, card flow, tempo, or a relevant body, use that legal output according to visible board needs; do not assume any trigger, cost reduction, protection, or combat role not exposed by the engine.

• Creature combat is a fallback, not a plan. Hedron Crab, Ruin Crab, and Exhibition Tidecaller should attack only when the attack is legal and does not sacrifice needed engine value, or when the opponent is so low on life that combat shortens an otherwise losing race. Do not trade a Crab in combat unless survival or lethal timing requires it.

• Sideboard lock or tempo lines can buy enough turns for mill to finish. Ensnaring Bridge may serve as a creature-combat lock when sideboarded and legal, Echoing Truth may reset a threatening permanent or token group, Collective Brutality may buffer life or interact if its legal modes apply, and graveyard cards such as Nihil Spellbomb or Soul-Guide Lantern support the clock by stopping recursion rather than directly milling.

Emergency Lines

• When behind on life, convert every decision into turn-count math. Choose the line that empties the opponent library before their visible attackers, burn, or combo kill you, and block with Hedron Crab, Ruin Crab, or Exhibition Tidecaller only when preserving the creature cannot plausibly produce enough future mill.

• When behind on board, prioritize survival pieces without abandoning the clock. Use Echoing Truth, Collective Brutality, Ensnaring Bridge, or blockers only if sideboarded and legal; otherwise race with Crab landfall, Archive Trap, Fractured Sanity, and Tasha's Hideous Laughter instead of spending turns on low-impact setup.

• When behind on cards, make Visions of Beyond, Thought Scour, Fractured Sanity cycling, and Scheming Symmetry decisions around immediate recovery. Prefer drawing or tutoring for a live mill spell, landfall enabler, or necessary answer over holding narrow interaction that does not address the visible loss condition.

• When behind on mana, keep the plan blue-first and landfall-aware. Fetch Watery Grave only when black is needed for Extirpate or sideboard actions; otherwise preserve enough untapped blue to cast Hedron Crab, Ruin Crab, Thought Scour, Fractured Sanity, Visions of Beyond, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, or Archive Trap as the legal sequence requires.

• When the opponent has graveyard recursion or graveyard combo pressure, use Extirpate, Nihil Spellbomb, or Soul-Guide Lantern only on visible legal targets. Do not assume hidden graveyard payoffs, but do act decisively when public cards show that graveyard access will erase the mill clock or win before library depletion.

• When primary mill pieces are removed, shift to density and topdeck math. A lost Hedron Crab or Ruin Crab makes Archive Trap, Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Thought Scour, Visions of Beyond, and Scheming Symmetry more important; stop preserving fetchlands for nonexistent landfall if no Crab is active or likely to arrive soon.

Resource Model

• Life is a race buffer, not a protected end state. Spend life on Watery Grave or fetch sequencing only when the untapped mana changes the current turn's legal line, such as casting Hedron Crab, Ruin Crab, Thought Scour, Visions of Beyond, Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Extirpate, Collective Brutality, Echoing Truth, or a sideboard bullet before the opponent's next attack or combo window.

• Hand size converts into mill density and timing flexibility. Keep hands that combine a landfall engine, a burst spell, or card flow with enough lands to act; treat hands full of Archive Trap without opponent-search pressure, Scheming Symmetry without follow-up, or black cards without black access as speculative unless the visible matchup and mulligan context make waiting acceptable.

• Mana converts into immediate library pressure. Prioritize spending mana on Hedron Crab, Ruin Crab, Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, and Visions of Beyond when those plays shorten the library clock; hold mana for Extirpate, Archive Trap, Echoing Truth, Collective Brutality, Nihil Spellbomb, or Soul-Guide Lantern only when the visible board, graveyard, stack, or matchup role makes interaction more valuable than raw mill.

• Board presence is mostly engine material. Hedron Crab and Ruin Crab are not normal attackers; protect their future landfall value until blocking is required to survive, until Ensnaring Bridge makes combat irrelevant, or until the only winning line is a damage race. Exhibition Tidecaller has Card text check required; use only the rules-engine-exposed legal role, whether that is body, tempo, card flow, or mill support.

• Graveyard information is both target fuel and risk. Use Thought Scour, Fractured Sanity, Crab triggers, Archive Trap, and Tasha's Hideous Laughter to expose public cards, then use Extirpate only when a visible graveyard card is worth removing from all zones. After sideboard, Nihil Spellbomb and Soul-Guide Lantern trade some clock for graveyard control; deploy them when public graveyard access would undo the mill plan or create a faster opposing kill.

• Exile is a pressure zone for Tasha's Hideous Laughter and sideboard graveyard control. Do not treat exiled cards as future Extirpate targets, and do not assume Tasha's Hideous Laughter will hit a fixed amount unless the engine output or revealed cards make the opponent's mana-value profile clear.

• Lands are spell fuel and Hedron Crab or Ruin Crab triggers. Fetchlands are not interchangeable with Island once a Crab is active; preserve land drops and fetch activations when they can create immediate landfall, but do not delay a required land drop if the current turn needs mana for a legal spell.

• Sacrifice fodder is minimal. This list has no main-deck sacrifice engine; only use creatures as blockers or costs when the rules engine exposes a legal action and survival, Ensnaring Bridge setup, or Collective Brutality escalation outweighs future landfall value.

• Tempo is measured in opponent draw steps. Each action should either remove a large library chunk, preserve a Crab for another landfall turn, stop a visible graveyard or combat kill, or draw into the next mill piece.

• Information is a tactical resource after Scheming Symmetry, Thought Scour, Visions of Beyond, and visible graveyard/exile changes. Respect public information only; do not infer hidden cards with certainty, and use Scheming Symmetry only when the follow-up can exploit or erase the opponent's tutored top card before it matters.

Mana Guide

• Exact land roles: Island is the default blue source and life-preserving fetch target, Watery Grave is the blue-black shock for Extirpate and post-board black actions, and Oboro, Palace in the Clouds is a repeatable landfall tool rather than a generic land. Flooded Strand, Misty Rainforest, and Polluted Delta should be treated as spell-like resources with Hedron Crab or Ruin Crab: play the Crab before using a fetch when possible, then crack the fetch only when the extra trigger, color access, or shuffle matters now.

• Keep decisions should start from blue access. Two-land hands with Island, Watery Grave, Oboro, Palace in the Clouds, or a fetchland plus a real mill spell are baseline keeps. One-land hands need a fetchland or untapped blue source plus Hedron Crab, Ruin Crab, Thought Scour, Visions of Beyond, or another cheap legal action; one-land Oboro, Palace in the Clouds hands are risky without another land or Crab payoff because Oboro utility costs tempo. Hands that only make black without blue are not functional even if Extirpate is present.

• Land-before-draw rule: play or crack a fetch before drawing when Hedron Crab or Ruin Crab triggers are the current turn's best mill, when mana is needed for Archive Trap, Thought Scour, Extirpate, or sideboard interaction, or when a fetch trigger can remove the opponent's tutored top card after Scheming Symmetry. Draw-before-land is better when Thought Scour, Visions of Beyond, or Fractured Sanity cycling may reveal whether the land drop should be Island, Watery Grave, Oboro, Palace in the Clouds, or an uncracked fetchland held for a later Crab turn.

• Blue is the primary color requirement. Keep mana bases that cast Hedron Crab, Ruin Crab, Thought Scour, Visions of Beyond, Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, and hard-cast Archive Trap on curve; mulligan hands that cannot produce early blue unless the hand has a legal, matchup-specific reason to wait.

• Black is a splash for Extirpate and sideboard actions. Fetch Watery Grave when Extirpate is live against a visible graveyard card, when Collective Brutality or Nihil Spellbomb activation timing requires black, or when the hand already has enough blue to execute the mill plan. Avoid taking unnecessary Watery Grave damage when Island or Oboro, Palace in the Clouds supports the same current-turn blue line.

• Fetchlands are both fixing and landfall bursts. With Hedron Crab or Ruin Crab on the battlefield, prefer land sequences that create the most immediate legal landfall triggers before casting nonland mill spells, especially when a fetchland can represent two landfall events across timing windows. Without a Crab, fetch primarily for untapped color access and life-total discipline.

• Oboro, Palace in the Clouds is a utility land, not a generic Island. Card text check required for exact activation details, but if the rules engine exposes a legal land-return or replay line with Hedron Crab or Ruin Crab, evaluate it as repeatable landfall only when it does not prevent casting the current turn's important spell.

• Play lands before draw spells when landfall or mana is the point. If Hedron Crab or Ruin Crab is active, make the land drop before Thought Scour, Visions of Beyond, or Fractured Sanity cycling when the trigger matters now; if no Crab is active and the hand is searching for a land, draw first when legal so the land choice can use new information.

• Play lands after Scheming Symmetry only when the top-card plan matters. If Scheming Symmetry finds a card that must be drawn by Thought Scour or Visions of Beyond, preserve sequencing that draws that card; if a Crab trigger can mill away the opponent's tutored card, use the landfall line when legal and tactically selected.

• Keep opening hands with two lands and action as the baseline. One-land hands need Hedron Crab or Ruin Crab plus cheap card flow or fetchland support; four-plus-land hands need a Crab, Visions of Beyond, or multiple burst spells to avoid flooding. Hands with only black-producing pressure and no blue spell access are not functional.

• Sideboard mana must be planned before the game starts. Nihil Spellbomb, Soul-Guide Lantern, Echoing Truth, Collective Brutality, Ensnaring Bridge, and Requiting Hex change color and curve pressure; Requiting Hex has Card text check required, so treat its mana needs as conditional until the engine exposes exact legal costs.

Mulligan Guide

• Strong keep: keep two or three lands with Hedron Crab or Ruin Crab plus a fetchland and any second mill spell. A hand such as Hedron Crab, Flooded Strand, Polluted Delta, Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Island, Extirpate has early engine pressure, spell density, and black access if a visible graveyard target appears.

• Strong keep: keep hands with no Crab when they curve multiple burst spells and have blue mana. A hand with Island, Misty Rainforest, Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Visions of Beyond, Thought Scour, Archive Trap is functional because it pressures library without needing a creature to live.

• Medium keep: keep one-land Crab hands only with a fetchland, cheap blue action, and a clear draw path. Hedron Crab, Flooded Strand, Thought Scour, Archive Trap, Fractured Sanity, Visions of Beyond, Extirpate is keepable on the draw more often than on the play because the extra card can find land two.

• Medium keep: keep Scheming Symmetry hands only when the hand already has a way to draw, mill, or immediately use the chosen card. Scheming Symmetry plus Thought Scour or Visions of Beyond is much better than Scheming Symmetry plus slow cards because the opponent also receives top-card selection.

• Risky keep: keep Archive Trap-heavy hands only against visible or strongly expected search behavior, or when the hand can hard-cast spells without the trap discount. Multiple Archive Trap with no Crab, no Fractured Sanity, no Tasha's Hideous Laughter, and no early blue pressure is a trap hand despite high ceiling.

• Risky keep: keep black-heavy hands only if blue is already available. Extirpate is powerful after a relevant card reaches the graveyard, but hands with Extirpate, Watery Grave, and no early blue mill spell can fail to start the clock.

• Automatic ship: ship zero-land hands, one-land hands without a fetchland or draw spell, hands with no blue-producing land, and hands whose only action is Extirpate or sideboard graveyard pieces. Ship hands that cannot cast Hedron Crab, Ruin Crab, Thought Scour, Fractured Sanity, or Tasha's Hideous Laughter in the first two turns.

• Matchup-dependent keep: post-board keep Nihil Spellbomb or Soul-Guide Lantern when the opponent visibly depends on graveyard resources or when the matchup guide says graveyard access is a primary loss path. Do not keep a slow hand merely because it contains graveyard hate if it has no mill clock.

• Matchup-dependent keep: keep Echoing Truth or Ensnaring Bridge hands against visible permanent pressure only when the mana and curve still support the mill plan. Requiting Hex has Card text check required, so do not assign it a keep role unless legal actions or matchup notes establish its function.

• Play/draw adjustment: on the play, prefer Crab plus fetchland or two-mana mill because every missed early trigger costs an opponent draw step. On the draw, accept more Visions of Beyond, Thought Scour, and Scheming Symmetry hands because the extra card and information improve land and sequencing decisions.

Turn Arc

• Turn 1: prioritize Hedron Crab or Ruin Crab before other proactive plays when a landfall follow-up is available. If no Crab is available, use Thought Scour only when it fixes the next turn, enables Visions of Beyond, or exposes an Extirpate target; otherwise preserve it for Scheming Symmetry or threshold timing.

• Turn 1 deviation: cast Scheming Symmetry only when the next action can immediately draw the chosen card, mill the opponent's chosen card, or create a decisive next-turn burst. Avoid giving the opponent an uncontested top card when the hand cannot convert the symmetry first.

• Turn 2: make landfall before spending mana if Hedron Crab or Ruin Crab is active, especially with Flooded Strand, Misty Rainforest, or Polluted Delta. After triggers, prefer Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter when legal, or Visions of Beyond if the graveyard count makes it meaningfully stronger.

• Turn 2 deviation: hold Extirpate only for a visible graveyard card that matters more than adding mill this turn. Do not pass with Extirpate up against an empty or low-value graveyard unless the opponent's public plan makes that timing essential.

• Turn 3: choose the highest-pressure legal line that preserves necessary interaction. Common lines are Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Fractured Sanity plus one-mana action, hard-cast Archive Trap when legal and efficient, or Scheming Symmetry into immediate draw or mill conversion.

• Turn 3 deviation: use Exhibition Tidecaller only according to rules-engine text and legal actions because Card text check required. If it is merely a body in the current engine prompt, do not prioritize it above a live mill spell unless survival or blocking changes the game.

• Turns 4-5: count opponent library, visible graveyard, exile, and next draw steps before choosing between burst mill and interaction. If a single Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Archive Trap, or Crab landfall chain threatens to end the game, prefer that line over speculative setup.

• Turns 4-5 deviation: use Visions of Beyond when it finds lethal mill, landfall fuel, or interaction for the next opposing turn. Use Extirpate after mill exposes a high-impact card, but do not spend the turn removing a marginal card when raw mill would put the opponent near decking.

• Late game: treat every draw step as a clock event and sequence to remove the remaining library, not to maximize abstract value. Preserve fetchlands for Hedron Crab or Ruin Crab triggers if mana is already sufficient; otherwise make the land drop that casts the current lethal or survival spell.

• Late game deviation: post-board, deploy Nihil Spellbomb, Soul-Guide Lantern, Echoing Truth, Collective Brutality, or Ensnaring Bridge only when the visible board, stack, graveyard, or life total shows that surviving one more turn beats immediate mill. When both lines are legal, favor the line that prevents the opponent's next known win while still advancing the library clock.

Card Roles

• Hedron Crab is the highest-priority turn-one engine when a fetchland or Oboro, Palace in the Clouds line can follow. Cast Hedron Crab before spending mana on Thought Scour or Scheming Symmetry unless survival or a forced sequencing issue prevents it, because each Flooded Strand, Misty Rainforest, Polluted Delta, and recurring Oboro, Palace in the Clouds can convert land drops into repeated mill. Target the opponent with Hedron Crab unless a legal action explicitly makes self-mill strategically necessary; this deck is not built to profit from self-milling by default. Do not expose Hedron Crab to combat as an attacker unless damage is irrelevant and no block risk exists, because its value is landfall, not creature pressure.

• Ruin Crab is redundant Hedron Crab pressure with cleaner opponent-facing output. Cast Ruin Crab early, protect fetchland sequencing around it, and prioritize land drops that create immediate triggers before casting sorcery-speed burst mill. Ruin Crab is especially strong in games where the opponent can remove the first Crab, because the second Crab effect preserves the deck's fastest non-Archive Trap starts. Do not hold Ruin Crab for theoretical extra value if it can begin triggering this turn or next turn; the deck wins by compressing draw steps.

• Scheming Symmetry is a dangerous precision tool, not a generic tutor. Cast Scheming Symmetry only when the hand can immediately exploit the top-card placement with Thought Scour, Visions of Beyond, a Crab landfall mill, or a same-turn/next-turn lethal setup before the opponent converts their chosen card. Use it to find the card that closes the current visible game: Archive Trap when the opponent has searched or is likely forced to search, Fractured Sanity or Tasha's Hideous Laughter when raw library count is the bottleneck, Extirpate when a graveyard card is the known problem, or a land when casting spells matters more than selection. Avoid Scheming Symmetry into pass against fast pressure or open opponent mana unless the retrieved card is necessary for survival.

• Fractured Sanity is reliable bulk mill and the baseline three-mana closer. Cast Fractured Sanity when it advances the opponent toward decking faster than setup, especially after Crab triggers or Archive Trap have already lowered the library. Cycle Fractured Sanity when mana is constrained, when an instant-speed draw/mill action is tactically better than tapping out, or when the smaller mill plus replacement card is enough to find a lethal follow-up. Do not cycle automatically in slow games; hard-casting is usually the higher-pressure line when three blue mana is available and the opponent cannot punish the tap-out.

• Archive Trap is the deck's largest tempo swing and should be treated as both a payoff and a threat held in hand. Cast Archive Trap for its alternate cost whenever a legal action confirms the opponent searched their library and targeting the opponent is available. Hold Archive Trap when the opponent may search soon and the rest of the hand already has plays; hard-cast it only when five mana is realistic, the opponent is not presenting a near-term kill, or it is the direct path to decking. Do not keep hands that rely only on discounted Archive Trap unless the matchup or visible game action gives a concrete search expectation.

• Exhibition Tidecaller has Card text check required, so follow Veles legal action text before assigning it a tactical role. Treat Exhibition Tidecaller as a conditional main-deck spell whose exact value depends on the engine prompt: if it presents mill, selection, protection, tempo, or a body-based action, compare that visible effect against immediate Crab triggers, Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, and Archive Trap. Do not prioritize Exhibition Tidecaller over confirmed mill spells merely because it is in the main deck. If Veles shows it as only a creature with no relevant immediate effect, use it mainly when blocking, pressure absorption, or mana curve considerations matter.

• Thought Scour is cheap glue that turns timing and top-card manipulation into action. Use Thought Scour on the opponent when the default plan is adding two cards to their graveyard and drawing deeper; use it after Scheming Symmetry when milling the opponent's chosen top card or drawing your chosen card is the point of the line. Hold Thought Scour when Visions of Beyond threshold, Extirpate target exposure, or instant-speed information could matter more than immediate cantrip value. Do not spend Thought Scour on yourself unless legal action text or a specific visible reason makes self-mill better than advancing the opponent's library clock.

• Extirpate is precision disruption after a card reaches a graveyard, not a proactive mill spell. Use Extirpate on a visible graveyard card that represents the opponent's key engine, payoff, recursive threat, combo piece, or most dangerous answer to your plan. Prefer Extirpate after Thought Scour, Crab triggers, Fractured Sanity, or Archive Trap reveal a high-impact target, and remember that split second can matter when the opponent might otherwise respond. Do not spend Extirpate on a random low-impact card just because it is legal; every black mana spent should either remove a known route to victory or clear a card that would undo your library pressure.

• Visions of Beyond is a one-mana refuel spell whose value changes sharply with graveyard size. Cast Visions of Beyond as a draw-three when any graveyard has twenty or more cards and the hand needs more mill, landfall fuel, or interaction. Cast it as a single-card instant only when digging now is necessary to hit land, find a lethal spell, or use mana that would otherwise disappear without cost. Do not fire Visions of Beyond early for low value if Thought Scour, Crab triggers, or normal sequencing can turn it into a much stronger draw spell soon.

• Tasha's Hideous Laughter is the cleanest main-deck exile-based mill payoff and is strongest against low mana-value libraries. Cast Tasha's Hideous Laughter when the opponent's remaining library and visible deck texture make exile pressure likely to outperform graveyard mill, or when graveyard-based opponent resources make exiling cards strategically cleaner than filling the graveyard. Use it before Extirpate only if raw pressure matters more than extracting a known graveyard card. Do not assume it mills a fixed number; count only the rules-engine output and visible remaining library after resolution.

• Oboro, Palace in the Clouds is a landfall engine piece first and a blue source second. Preserve Oboro, Palace in the Clouds when Hedron Crab or Ruin Crab is active and mana allows repeated return-and-replay lines. Use its bounce ability only when the legal action and mana math still allow the important spell for the turn, because spending mana on extra landfall can be worse than casting Fractured Sanity or Tasha's Hideous Laughter. Avoid exposing the deck to tempo loss by bouncing Oboro, Palace in the Clouds when missing land drops or holding multiple fetchlands already supplies triggers.

• Flooded Strand, Misty Rainforest, and Polluted Delta are spell-like resources with Hedron Crab and Ruin Crab. Sequence fetchlands after Crab whenever possible, and crack them when the extra landfall trigger, color fixing, or deck thinning matters immediately. Fetch Watery Grave when Extirpate or sideboard black actions are relevant; fetch Island when life total, untapped blue, or preserving black access is less urgent. Do not crack fetchlands casually before deploying a Crab unless mana requirements force it.

• Island and Watery Grave define castability. Prioritize blue mana because almost every proactive spell requires it, and use Watery Grave to unlock Extirpate and later sideboard cards without sacrificing early blue development. Treat life paid for Watery Grave as a real cost against aggressive boards; taking damage is correct only when black access or untapped blue changes the current or next turn.

Interaction Priorities

• Priority: Treat Extirpate as the main precision interaction, not as incidental graveyard hate. Use Extirpate first on a visible graveyard card that is a combo piece, recursive threat, graveyard engine, key payoff, or the opponent's cleanest way to race the library clock. If the opponent's graveyard contains only low-impact cards, hold Extirpate for cards exposed by Hedron Crab, Ruin Crab, Thought Scour, Fractured Sanity, Archive Trap, or Tasha's Hideous Laughter.

• Priority: Use mill spells to create Extirpate targets when disruption matters more than raw speed. Thought Scour is the cleanest setup because it is cheap and instant-speed; Crab triggers and Archive Trap can expose multiple names at once but should not be delayed if they are already threatening lethal library pressure. Do not spend Extirpate merely because a card has multiple copies unless the visible or matchup context makes that name important.

• Priority: Treat Archive Trap as a punish card and a bait card. If the opponent has already searched and Archive Trap is legal for zero mana, cast it before tapping out for slower mill unless holding it creates a stronger same-turn stack or Extirpate line. If the opponent has not searched, pressure with Hedron Crab, Ruin Crab, Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, and Scheming Symmetry rather than waiting indefinitely.

• Priority: Use Tasha's Hideous Laughter when exile pressure is better than filling the graveyard. Against graveyard-synergy opponents, exile-based library pressure can avoid enabling their graveyard while still advancing the win. Against decks with many high mana-value cards, check the rules-engine result after resolution rather than assuming a large mill count.

• Priority: Use Echoing Truth after sideboarding as a tempo reset for permanents that stop attacks from being irrelevant, prevent milling, or create lethal pressure before the library plan resolves. Bounce the permanent that changes the next turn cycle most, especially a hate permanent, clustered token threat, or lock piece. Do not use Echoing Truth on a replaceable creature if life total is safe and the same mana can produce lethal mill.

• Priority: Use Collective Brutality after sideboarding as flexible disruption only when its visible modes matter. Discard a card to escalate only when the discarded card is lower value than the selected modes and the game is about survival, stripping interaction, or buying a turn. Do not discard Archive Trap, Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, or Visions of Beyond lightly unless the selected modes immediately prevent a loss or unlock a win.

• Priority: Use Nihil Spellbomb and Soul-Guide Lantern when graveyard resources are part of the opponent's route to victory. Prefer waiting until the opponent commits a graveyard action or exposes a key graveyard state, unless immediate activation denies a known lethal or combo turn. If holding graveyard hate conflicts with casting core mill, choose the line that best changes the opponent's actual clock from visible information.

• Priority: Treat Requiting Hex as Card text check required. If Veles exposes it as damage prevention, removal, life swing, discard, or another interactive effect, choose modes and targets only from visible legal action text and matchup need. Do not assume its role before the rules engine shows what it can legally do.

• Ignore: Ignore creatures and permanents that do not change the clock, protect the library, recur resources, or stop key spells. This deck wins by emptying the opponent's library, so interaction should answer pressure, hate, combo pieces, and recursion before cosmetic board development.

Combat And Trading Rules

• Priority: Preserve Hedron Crab and Ruin Crab when they will produce multiple future landfall triggers. Do not attack with a Crab unless the rules engine shows a safe attack or the damage is irrelevant and no block risk exists. A Crab plus Flooded Strand, Misty Rainforest, Polluted Delta, or Oboro, Palace in the Clouds often represents more damage to the opponent's library than any creature combat line.

• Priority: Block with Hedron Crab or Ruin Crab only when life total or survival requires it. Chump-block if the opponent's next attack would create lethal or near-lethal pressure before the deck can cast Fractured Sanity, Archive Trap, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, or a threshold Visions of Beyond. Avoid trading a Crab for a small attacker when fetchland triggers are still available and life total is not under immediate threat.

• Priority: Treat Exhibition Tidecaller as Card text check required before assigning combat value. If Veles shows it as a creature that can block profitably or preserve life without sacrificing a stronger engine, use it defensively against aggressive boards. If it has a tactical spell-like ability in the legal action text, evaluate that effect before using it as a simple attacker or blocker.

• Priority: Use life total as a turn counter, not a resource to spend casually. Against aggressive archetypes, fetch Watery Grave untapped only when Extirpate, Collective Brutality, Nihil Spellbomb activation timing, or a blue spell changes the immediate game. Against slower archetypes, life can be spent more freely to preserve tempo and maximize Crab-trigger sequencing.

• Priority: Ensnaring Bridge after sideboarding changes combat from trading to hand-size management. If Ensnaring Bridge is active or about to be cast, prioritize emptying the hand with cheap legal spells when doing so reduces incoming attacks. Do not hold extra lands or low-impact spells merely for theoretical value if shrinking hand size prevents lethal combat damage.

• Priority: Race creature decks by counting whether mill kills before combat damage kills. If the opponent's visible board presents a short clock, favor immediate Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Archive Trap, Collective Brutality, Echoing Truth, or Ensnaring Bridge lines over slow setup. If the clock is slow, preserve Crabs and fetchlands for a larger two-turn library collapse.

• Priority: Race control and combo by ignoring most combat unless a creature threatens a fast kill or carries disruptive text. Do not waste Echoing Truth or Collective Brutality on minor attackers if the opponent's library is the vulnerable resource. Use Extirpate and graveyard hate on the engine pieces that make their noncombat plan faster than your mill plan.

• Priority: Protect engine permanents over incidental damage. This deck should almost never trade a Crab for combat damage, and it should not attack to reduce life totals unless the attack has no realistic downside. The meaningful damage is library loss from landfall, bulk mill, and exile-mill effects.

Selection And Tutor Rules

• Scheming Symmetry is a commitment spell, not a routine cantrip. Cast it when the chosen top card will be drawn, cast, or converted into immediate pressure before the opponent can safely use their own top card. The strongest visible patterns are finding Archive Trap after the opponent search trigger is created, finding a lethal or near-lethal Fractured Sanity or Tasha's Hideous Laughter, or setting up Visions of Beyond when the opponent's graveyard already supports the draw-three mode.

• Use Scheming Symmetry with a same-turn deny plan whenever possible. If the opponent also places a card on top, prefer a line that mills that card before their draw step with Archive Trap, Hedron Crab, Ruin Crab, Thought Scour, or a fetchland landfall trigger. Do not cast Scheming Symmetry and pass when the opponent's next draw is likely to be more dangerous than your chosen card.

• Choose Scheming Symmetry targets from the current bottleneck. Find Archive Trap when the opponent has searched this turn or the Symmetry search will turn on the zero-mana cast and the stack window is available. Find Tasha's Hideous Laughter when exile pressure is the cleanest route, especially against graveyard-reliant opponents. Find Fractured Sanity when immediate graveyard mill is lethal, enables Visions of Beyond, or sets up Extirpate. Find Visions of Beyond when cards in hand matter more than one more mill spell and the draw-three condition is already visible or very likely after the current spell resolves.

• Treat Thought Scour as a precision tool, not just a draw spell. Target opponent after Scheming Symmetry to remove their tutored top card, after they reveal or arrange a key top card, or when two more milled cards meaningfully enable Visions of Beyond or Extirpate. Target self only when the rules-engine context shows a reason, such as digging for land under pressure, and do not self-mill reflexively in a deck whose win condition targets the opponent's library.

• Sequence Visions of Beyond around graveyard count. If the opponent has fewer than twenty cards in graveyard, cast Visions of Beyond only when finding land or interaction is urgent. If the opponent has twenty or more cards in graveyard, protect the draw-three mode from avoidable sequencing mistakes by resolving mill first, then casting Visions of Beyond while mana and priority still support follow-up actions.

• Time fetchlands as both mana and mill resources. With Hedron Crab or Ruin Crab on battlefield, prefer playing or cracking Flooded Strand, Misty Rainforest, or Polluted Delta when the landfall trigger will resolve before the opponent can stabilize or before your own turn needs the mana. Hold an uncracked fetchland when waiting creates multiple Crab triggers or protects against drawing too many lands, but crack immediately when mana is needed for Extirpate, Thought Scour, Archive Trap after a search, or a lethal bulk mill turn.

• Use Oboro, Palace in the Clouds as repeatable landfall only when the mana loop is legal and tempo-positive. If a Crab is present and the rules engine offers Oboro, Palace in the Clouds return/replay sequencing, value it as recurring mill. Do not spend mana bouncing Oboro, Palace in the Clouds if that prevents casting Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Archive Trap, Extirpate, or needed sideboard interaction in the same turn cycle.

Priority And Stack Rules

• Cast Archive Trap during the first safe priority window after the opponent searches if the zero-mana action is legal and waiting risks losing the window. Use it before tapping out for sorcery-speed mill unless a visible stack interaction, lethal setup, or Extirpate line makes another spell first. Do not assume Archive Trap is free unless the rules engine lists that legal action.

• Respond to graveyard movement with Extirpate when the named card matters. The cleanest windows are after Fractured Sanity, Hedron Crab, Ruin Crab, Thought Scour, Archive Trap, or a fetchland trigger puts a key card into the opponent's graveyard. Choose Extirpate for combo pieces, recursive threats, protective interaction, or cards that are already constraining the current game; do not spend it on a random milled card while higher-impact names remain likely.

• Let opposing spells resolve when they do not change the library race. This deck cannot answer everything, so preserve Extirpate, Echoing Truth, Collective Brutality, Nihil Spellbomb, Soul-Guide Lantern, and Requiting Hex for visible threats, graveyard engines, hate permanents, lethal pressure, or interaction that stops the mill kill. Passing priority is correct when the stack item is low impact and your next spell shortens the game more.

• Use Thought Scour at instant speed when information or timing matters. Fire it in response to a known top-card setup, before the opponent draws a tutored card, before an Extirpate window would disappear, or on the opponent's end step when holding mana has represented Archive Trap or interaction. Avoid main-phase Thought Scour if waiting keeps open a meaningful response without costing a land drop or lethal spell.

• Activate Nihil Spellbomb or Soul-Guide Lantern only when the graveyard state is worth spending. Prefer response windows where the opponent targets, counts, or commits to graveyard resources. If the rules engine shows a draw option for Nihil Spellbomb, use black mana only when drawing a card is worth the mana and does not block Extirpate or another necessary action.

• Use Echoing Truth on the stack or end step when timing changes combat or hate-permanent math. Bounce a permanent before it prevents mill, before attackers become lethal, or at end step to open a sorcery-speed kill. Do not bounce a harmless permanent just because mana is available.

• Treat Exhibition Tidecaller and Requiting Hex as Card text check required. When Veles exposes legal instant-speed, trigger, or payment choices for either card, choose only from visible legal text and the current tactical need. Do not assume protection, removal, damage, or draw unless the rules engine confirms it.

Sideboard Map

• Sideboard by role first, not by card quantity. Mill wins by shortening the opponent's library while buying enough turns for Hedron Crab, Ruin Crab, Archive Trap, Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Thought Scour, and Visions of Beyond to matter. Add sideboard cards only when their visible role protects that clock, breaks a hate permanent, attacks graveyard dependence, or prevents creature damage that would end the game first.

• Nihil Spellbomb is graveyard compression and recursion denial. Bring it against decks that visibly use graveyard cards as resources, count graveyard size, recur threats, escape, dredge, flashback, reanimate, or turn milled cards into pressure. It is strongest when the opponent's own graveyard would make normal mill dangerous and when black mana from Watery Grave or Polluted Delta can make the draw mode available. It is weaker against low-graveyard decks where a one-shot exile effect does not buy a turn or increase the mill clock.

• Soul-Guide Lantern is selective graveyard pressure and backup graveyard exile. Bring it when a single card entering the opponent's graveyard matters, when a full graveyard reset must be held for a response window, or when Nihil Spellbomb copies are not enough. It is weaker when the opponent's graveyard is irrelevant and the game is decided by battlefield pressure before Lantern timing matters.

• Ensnaring Bridge is the emergency creature-pressure stabilizer. Bring it against creature decks that win through combat and have difficulty removing artifacts once your hand is small. It changes the role of Visions of Beyond and fetchland sequencing: draw cards only when the extra cards are needed more than Bridge's attack restriction. It is poor against spell combo, noncombat kills, artifact removal-heavy positions, or games where keeping a full hand is necessary to assemble lethal mill.

• Collective Brutality is life-buffer, discard pressure, and small-threat interaction when the rules engine confirms the relevant modes. Bring it against fast creature or burn-style pressure where life total and early interaction matter, and against spell decks where discard has visible value. It is weaker when the opponent's hand is nearly empty, battlefield threats are too large for the mode offered, or discarding your own mill spells would slow the kill too much.

• Echoing Truth is the flexible answer to hate permanents, token clusters, and temporary battlefield obstacles. Bring it when visible permanents stop mill, create a lethal combat turn, or compress multiple same-name threats into one bounce action. It is weaker when the opponent presents few permanents and the game is a pure library race.

• Requiting Hex is Card text check required. Bring it only when Veles and Forge expose legal text that clearly advances a matchup role, such as interacting with creatures, punishing damage, answering a permanent class, or buying a turn. Treat every Requiting Hex decision as conditional on the legal action label; do not assume removal, prevention, drain, curse behavior, or damage output from the name alone.

Graveyard Combo Or Heavy Recursion Side in: 4 Nihil Spellbomb; 2 Soul-Guide Lantern Cut: 4 Scheming Symmetry; 2 Exhibition Tidecaller

• Plan rule: Use this plan when the opponent benefits from being milled unless graveyard resources are exiled on schedule. Keep Extirpate because mill plus targeted extraction can remove a key card after it reaches the graveyard. Reduce Scheming Symmetry because giving a graveyard deck a selected draw is dangerous unless you can mill the top card immediately. Reduce Exhibition Tidecaller first because its text needs confirmation and the graveyard hate has a clearer job.

Fast Combat Aggro Side in: 1 Ensnaring Bridge; 2 Collective Brutality; 2 Echoing Truth Cut: 4 Scheming Symmetry; 1 Exhibition Tidecaller

• Plan rule: Use this plan when the opponent's visible route is early combat damage and your normal mill clock needs one or two more turns. Ensnaring Bridge buys time only if hand size can be managed, so avoid unnecessary Visions of Beyond draw-three lines after Bridge resolves unless the cards create lethal mill or required interaction. Collective Brutality should be valued for modes the engine actually presents. Echoing Truth should answer the permanent or same-name group that changes the damage clock.

Permanent Hate Or Token Battlefield Side in: 2 Echoing Truth; 1 Ensnaring Bridge Cut: 2 Exhibition Tidecaller; 1 Thought Scour

• Plan rule: Use this plan when visible permanents interfere with the mill plan or token pressure threatens to end the game before bulk mill resolves. Echoing Truth is the main reason for the configuration, so hold it for the hate piece, token cluster, or lethal combat turn instead of using it as a tempo bounce on a low-impact permanent. Ensnaring Bridge supports the same plan when the battlefield is wider than your life total can absorb.

Burn Or Low-To-Ground Damage Side in: 2 Collective Brutality; 1 Ensnaring Bridge Cut: 2 Exhibition Tidecaller; 1 Scheming Symmetry

• Plan rule: Use this plan when life total is the limiting resource and the opponent's deck can end the game from hand or with small attackers. Collective Brutality should be prioritized when its legal modes trade for a card, gain life, or reduce immediate damage. Ensnaring Bridge is secondary because burn can ignore combat, but it can still blank creature damage while mill spells finish the library.

Unknown Opponent Game 2 Conservative Plan Side in: 2 Echoing Truth; 2 Collective Brutality Cut: 2 Exhibition Tidecaller; 2 Scheming Symmetry

• Plan rule: Use this balanced plan when Game 1 revealed mixed pressure but not enough to justify dedicated graveyard hate or Ensnaring Bridge. Echoing Truth covers unexpected permanents and tempo emergencies. Collective Brutality covers early damage and hand interaction when legal modes support it. Keep the core mill density high enough that Hedron Crab, Ruin Crab, Archive Trap, Fractured Sanity, and Tasha's Hideous Laughter remain the primary plan.

• Add role cards: Against graveyard engines, prioritize Nihil Spellbomb and Soul-Guide Lantern while preserving Extirpate. The aim is not to stop milling; the aim is to choose exile windows that prevent the opponent from turning milled cards into a second hand.

• Add role cards: Against combat decks, prioritize Ensnaring Bridge, Collective Brutality, and Echoing Truth according to visible pressure. Bridge asks for hand-size discipline, Brutality asks for confirmed legal modes, and Echoing Truth asks for a target that changes the next combat or opens a kill turn.

• Add role cards: Against hate permanents, prioritize Echoing Truth and keep a lethal follow-up in mind. Bounce is temporary, so use the window for Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Archive Trap, Hedron Crab landfall, Ruin Crab landfall, or Scheming Symmetry into immediate top-card denial.

• Reduce main-deck emphasis: Scheming Symmetry loses value when the opponent's top card is more dangerous than your selected card and you cannot mill it before their draw. It remains acceptable when Archive Trap is legal from the search or when Thought Scour, a Crab trigger, or another mill action can deny the opponent's chosen top card.

• Reduce main-deck emphasis: Exhibition Tidecaller is the first flexible main-deck card whenever its legal role is unclear. Treat it as Card text check required until the rules engine exposes exact actions and outcomes. Do not preserve it over confirmed graveyard hate, confirmed bounce, confirmed life-buffer interaction, or confirmed Bridge stabilization in matchups where those roles matter.

• Reduce main-deck emphasis: Thought Scour is less central when sideboard cards must answer permanents or combat, but keep enough instant-speed mill to punish Scheming Symmetry, enable Visions of Beyond, and create Extirpate windows.

• Role-change rule: Visions of Beyond becomes a resource-risk card after Ensnaring Bridge. If Bridge is protecting you, draw-three mode is still strong only when the extra cards immediately find lethal mill, interaction, or necessary land; otherwise, hand size can reopen attacks.

• Role-change rule: Archive Trap remains a core kill card after sideboarding. Do not reduce Archive Trap for reactive cards unless the opponent never searches and the matchup is decided entirely before a search trigger or hard-cast window is realistic.

• Role-change rule: Tasha's Hideous Laughter is especially valuable when graveyard hate is in the deck because it pressures the library without stocking the graveyard. Against graveyard decks, pair exile-based library pressure with Nihil Spellbomb, Soul-Guide Lantern, and Extirpate so the opponent has fewer ways to convert mill into resources.

Matchup Guidance

• Aggro: Treat aggro as a race where each point of life buys one more landfall trigger, bulk mill spell, or Archive Trap window. Keep Hedron Crab and Ruin Crab when they arrive early with fetch lands because Flooded Strand, Misty Rainforest, and Polluted Delta can produce repeated mill while still developing mana. Prioritize Fractured Sanity and Tasha's Hideous Laughter when the opponent's pressure is already on board and you need large library chunks rather than incremental Thought Scour lines. Add role cards: Ensnaring Bridge, Collective Brutality, Echoing Truth, and Requiting Hex when legal text confirms they reduce the damage clock or remove pressure. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Scheming Symmetry when you cannot mill the opponent's chosen top card before their draw step, and Exhibition Tidecaller when its exact legal role is unclear. Card text check required for Requiting Hex and Exhibition Tidecaller.

• Control: Force control to answer multiple different mill vectors instead of overcommitting into one exchange. Lead with Hedron Crab or Ruin Crab when you can get immediate landfall value, then use fetch lands to threaten future triggers without needing every spell to resolve. Preserve Archive Trap when the opponent has searched or is likely to search through visible legal actions; do not spend it into uncertainty if another spell advances the clock and leaves Trap as punishment. Use Extirpate after Thought Scour, Crab triggers, Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, or combat-free milling puts a key card into the graveyard, but do not assume hidden copies unless the graveyard and public information justify the extraction. Add role cards: Collective Brutality only when its exposed modes are relevant, Echoing Truth for resolved permanents that stop mill, and Requiting Hex only after card text is verified.

• Combo: Identify whether the combo uses the graveyard, the hand, the battlefield, or a single library card before choosing pressure versus disruption. Race with Archive Trap, Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Hedron Crab, and Ruin Crab when the opponent is not visibly insulated and their life total is irrelevant. Use Extirpate on the combo card that is already in a graveyard when public information shows it is central, especially after Thought Scour or a Crab trigger creates the window. Add role cards: Nihil Spellbomb and Soul-Guide Lantern against graveyard combo, Echoing Truth against visible permanent-based combo pieces, Collective Brutality when legal modes can take or answer a relevant card, and Requiting Hex only conditionally after rules text is exposed. Reduce main-deck emphasis: slow or unclear Exhibition Tidecaller actions when every turn matters.

• Tempo: Protect the mill clock from one-for-one disruption by valuing cheap actions and landfall triggers over expensive setup. Hedron Crab and Ruin Crab are strong when they trigger before removal can fully undo their value, but do not keep a hand that needs an unanswered Crab to function unless it also has Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Archive Trap, or Visions of Beyond support. Thought Scour is useful because it can act at instant speed, enable Visions of Beyond, and create Extirpate targets without tapping out at sorcery speed. Add role cards: Echoing Truth for tempo permanents or bounced blockers/attackers, Collective Brutality when it trades for a pressure card or protects life total, and Ensnaring Bridge when the visible battlefield makes combat the primary threat.

• Midrange: Grind midrange by making removal awkward and turning graveyard information into extraction decisions. Accept that Hedron Crab and Ruin Crab may die, but sequence fetch lands so each Crab gets value before exposing another if legal actions allow. Use Visions of Beyond as a refuel spell once enough cards are in a graveyard; before that threshold, treat it as lower-impact unless digging for land, Archive Trap, Fractured Sanity, or Tasha's Hideous Laughter is necessary. Use Extirpate to remove the best public card after it reaches the graveyard, prioritizing threats that shorten the clock, disruption that blocks the mill plan, or recursive cards. Add role cards: Collective Brutality and Echoing Truth according to visible threats, with Requiting Hex only after confirmed text.

• Big mana: Punish searching and slow setup by preserving Archive Trap and keeping high-volume mill hands. Crab plus fetch land starts are excellent because big mana usually gives you time to convert Flooded Strand, Misty Rainforest, Polluted Delta, and Oboro, Palace in the Clouds into repeated triggers. Scheming Symmetry is more acceptable when you can immediately mill the opponent's chosen card with Thought Scour, Hedron Crab, Ruin Crab, Fractured Sanity, or Tasha's Hideous Laughter, but avoid giving a big-mana opponent a free draw into a payoff. Add role cards: Echoing Truth for visible hate permanents or lock pieces, and Requiting Hex only if verified as relevant interaction. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Collective Brutality unless its visible modes matter.

• Graveyard: Mill graveyard decks only with an exile plan in mind. Tasha's Hideous Laughter is preferred when it pressures the library without filling the graveyard, while Hedron Crab, Ruin Crab, Thought Scour, Fractured Sanity, and Archive Trap should be paired with Nihil Spellbomb, Soul-Guide Lantern, or Extirpate when the opponent can use milled cards. Use Extirpate after the relevant card is publicly in the graveyard; do not fire it at a low-impact card just because it is legal. Add role cards: Nihil Spellbomb and Soul-Guide Lantern as primary tools, with Echoing Truth for visible graveyard enablers that are permanents. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Scheming Symmetry because the opponent's chosen top card may be more dangerous than your selected card if you cannot mill it immediately.

• Artifact/enchantment: Treat artifact or enchantment matchups as permanent-management races because the maindeck is mostly library pressure. Echoing Truth is the clearest sideboard tool for a resolved permanent that stops milling, creates lethal pressure, or invalidates Ensnaring Bridge. Do not spend Echoing Truth on a low-impact object if a hate permanent, token group, or lethal combat step is likely to appear before the next mill burst. Add role cards: Echoing Truth first, Ensnaring Bridge against artifact creature pressure, and Requiting Hex only if card text confirms it interacts profitably with the permanent or damage plan. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Exhibition Tidecaller and a small amount of Thought Scour when you need room for temporary answers.

• Go-wide: Stop the damage step long enough for bulk mill to finish the game. Ensnaring Bridge is the most important sideboard role card when hand size can be controlled; after Bridge resolves, avoid Visions of Beyond draw-three choices that reopen attacks unless the extra cards create lethal mill or required interaction. Echoing Truth is strong against same-name token clusters or a permanent enabling the swarm, but it is temporary and should be followed by Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Archive Trap, or multiple Crab landfall triggers. Add role cards: Ensnaring Bridge, Echoing Truth, Collective Brutality, and verified Requiting Hex. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Scheming Symmetry and unclear Exhibition Tidecaller.

• Single-threat: Use the extra time from one opposing threat to maximize library pressure while holding the answer that actually changes the clock. Echoing Truth can buy a turn against the visible threat, Ensnaring Bridge can blank attacks if hand size is low enough, and Collective Brutality or Requiting Hex may matter only when legal modes or card text confirm interaction. Extirpate can be decisive if the threat reaches the graveyard and the opponent relies on additional copies, but do not assume that removing copies is better than continuing to mill unless the visible game state says the threat will kill you first. Keep Fractured Sanity and Tasha's Hideous Laughter as primary closers.

• Burn: Treat life total as the limiting resource and avoid self-inflicted delays that do not change the kill turn. Collective Brutality is the preferred sideboard role card when the engine presents modes that remove a burn spell, gain life, or interact with a creature. Ensnaring Bridge helps only against creature damage, so do not overvalue it when the opponent's visible plan is mostly noncombat damage. Scheming Symmetry is dangerous unless you can immediately mill the opponent's chosen top card. Visions of Beyond should draw cards only when the cards are needed for lethal mill, land, or interaction before burn ends the game.

• Removal-heavy: Make removal inefficient by extracting value from Hedron Crab and Ruin Crab before passing priority where possible. A Crab that mills once or twice has done real work, so do not hold every Crab waiting for perfect protection this deck does not have. Use fetch lands after a Crab resolves when legal sequencing permits immediate triggers, and diversify into Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Archive Trap, and Visions of Beyond so the opponent cannot win by killing creatures alone. Add role cards: Collective Brutality for hand/resource exchanges, Echoing Truth for resolved hate, and Nihil Spellbomb or Soul-Guide Lantern only if removal-heavy also uses the graveyard. Reduce main-deck emphasis: Ensnaring Bridge unless creatures, not removal, are the clock.

Specific Matchup Notes

• General/archetype-only note: Revealed cards override archetype assumptions, and Veles should follow legal actions, visible threats, public graveyards, and engine prompts before applying these notes. Use Hedron Crab, Ruin Crab, Flooded Strand, Misty Rainforest, Polluted Delta, and Oboro, Palace in the Clouds to build repeatable mill pressure; use Archive Trap, Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Thought Scour, and Visions of Beyond to close before the opponent's clock matters.

• Aggro and go-wide: Prioritize survival turns over marginal library pressure when the visible board can kill before the next bulk mill spell. Likely sideboarding is Ensnaring Bridge, Echoing Truth, Collective Brutality, and possibly Requiting Hex after card text is confirmed; priority targets are swarm enablers, same-name token groups for Echoing Truth, direct-damage creatures, and any permanent that keeps Ensnaring Bridge from stabilizing. Avoid Scheming Symmetry unless the opponent's chosen top card can be milled immediately.

• Burn and low-curve pressure: Treat life total as the bottleneck and favor Collective Brutality when legal modes interact with burn, creatures, or life total. Likely sideboarding is Collective Brutality first, Echoing Truth for visible permanent pressure, and Ensnaring Bridge only when combat damage is a large share of the clock. Priority targets are cards or permanents that represent immediate damage, not slow value cards.

• Big mana and search-heavy decks: Preserve Archive Trap when the opponent is likely to search, but do not pass a lethal or near-lethal mill line only to chase a future zero-mana trap. Likely sideboarding is Echoing Truth for hate permanents or lock pieces and Requiting Hex only after card text confirms relevance. Priority targets for Extirpate are public graveyard cards that enable the opponent's fastest payoff, repeated land/search engines, or a win condition already exposed.

• Graveyard decks: Prefer exile-backed milling and Tasha's Hideous Laughter lines that do not feed the graveyard in the same way as large graveyard dumps. Likely sideboarding is Nihil Spellbomb and Soul-Guide Lantern, with Echoing Truth for visible graveyard permanents and Extirpate as a main-deck extraction tool after a key card is public. Priority targets are recursive threats, flashback-style resources, graveyard combo pieces, or payoffs that convert milled cards into damage or board presence.

• Control and removal-heavy decks: Make creature removal trade down by getting at least one landfall trigger from Hedron Crab or Ruin Crab before exposing additional Crabs when sequencing allows. Likely sideboarding is Collective Brutality for hand/resource pressure, Echoing Truth for resolved hate, and graveyard exile only if the revealed deck uses the graveyard. Priority targets for Extirpate are counterspells, win conditions, or hate cards once they are in the graveyard; do not extract a low-impact card while Fractured Sanity or Tasha's Hideous Laughter can materially shorten the clock.

• Artifact, enchantment, or prison permanents: Hold Echoing Truth for the permanent that actually blocks milling, enables lethal pressure, or prevents the next winning sequence. Likely sideboarding is Echoing Truth, Ensnaring Bridge against creature pressure, and Requiting Hex only with confirmed text. Priority targets are anti-mill permanents, attack-enabling lock pieces, graveyard hate that blanks your own Nihil Spellbomb or Soul-Guide Lantern timing, and duplicate permanents vulnerable to one Echoing Truth.

Risk Summary

• Mana risk: The deck is blue-heavy and fetch-heavy, so missing early blue mana can strand Hedron Crab, Ruin Crab, Thought Scour, Visions of Beyond, Fractured Sanity, and Tasha's Hideous Laughter. Fetch shock decisions with Watery Grave should respect life-total pressure; do not pay life for black mana unless Extirpate, Collective Brutality, Nihil Spellbomb activation context, or another legal black requirement matters.

• Sequencing risk: Scheming Symmetry can lose games if it gives the opponent a top-decked answer or threat without an immediate mill follow-up. Use it mainly when Thought Scour, a Crab landfall trigger, Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, or Archive Trap timing can prevent the opponent from drawing the selected card.

• Draw risk: Visions of Beyond is powerful when graveyard size supports it, but drawing extra cards can raise hand size under Ensnaring Bridge or spend mana needed for interaction. Treat it as a closer or stabilizer, not automatic card flow.

• Graveyard risk: Hedron Crab, Ruin Crab, Thought Scour, Fractured Sanity, and Archive Trap can fuel graveyard opponents. Pair mill with Extirpate, Nihil Spellbomb, or Soul-Guide Lantern when public cards show graveyard use.

• Interaction risk: Extirpate is precise but narrow, and firing it at the first legal graveyard card can waste the deck's best disruption. Wait for a public card that changes the opponent's clock, resilience, or ability to stop the mill plan unless survival requires immediate action.

• Closer risk: The deck can run out of time if early Crabs die and bulk mill spells are delayed. Count visible library pressure from Archive Trap, Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Crab landfall, and Thought Scour before choosing defensive lines that do not advance the kill.

• Sideboarding risk: Over-sideboarding dilutes the mill density that wins games. Bring in Nihil Spellbomb, Soul-Guide Lantern, Ensnaring Bridge, Collective Brutality, Echoing Truth, and verified Requiting Hex only for visible roles; do not cut too many core mill pieces for answers that merely look serviceable.

• Card-text risk: Exhibition Tidecaller and Requiting Hex require card text confirmation before the pilot assumes exact tactical function. Until verified, use them only according to legal action text and visible engine prompts.

Test Feedback Checklist

• Deciding factor: Record whether the game was decided by early Crab pressure, bulk mill velocity, opponent pressure, a resolved hate permanent, graveyard conversion, or mana failure. Name the visible cards that mattered, especially Hedron Crab, Ruin Crab, Archive Trap, Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Extirpate, Ensnaring Bridge, Echoing Truth, Nihil Spellbomb, and Soul-Guide Lantern.
• Mulligans: Check whether opening hands had blue mana, a first threat or velocity spell, and enough lands or fetchlands to make Hedron Crab or Ruin Crab meaningful. Flag keeps where Scheming Symmetry, Extirpate, or Visions of Beyond replaced an actual plan.
• Mana: Track whether Watery Grave was fetched only when black mana mattered for Extirpate, Collective Brutality, Nihil Spellbomb context, or sideboard play. Note games where life paid for Watery Grave changed the opponent's clock.
• Velocity: Count how often Flooded Strand, Misty Rainforest, Polluted Delta, and Oboro, Palace in the Clouds generated meaningful landfall turns. Check whether Thought Scour, Fractured Sanity, Archive Trap, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, and Visions of Beyond were sequenced toward a clear library-count threshold.
• Engine pressure: Review whether Hedron Crab and Ruin Crab entered before fetchlands when legal, and whether extra Crabs were held or deployed correctly against visible removal. If Exhibition Tidecaller was involved, mark Card text check required unless the rules engine exposed exact legal action text.
• Interaction: Review every Extirpate for target quality. Good targets should be public graveyard cards that affect the opponent's clock, recursion, disruption, or hate; weak targets should be flagged when a mill spell would have advanced the kill more.
• Removal and bounce: Check whether Echoing Truth answered a permanent that actually blocked the mill plan or lethal survival, rather than a generic nuisance. Check whether Collective Brutality affected life total, hand pressure, or a creature in a way that changed the race.
• Graveyard sideboard: In games with Nihil Spellbomb or Soul-Guide Lantern, record whether activation timing denied a visible graveyard payoff or merely cycled resources. Avoid crediting graveyard exile when no public graveyard dependency existed.
• Bridge games: For Ensnaring Bridge games, record hand size, visible attackers, and whether Visions of Beyond or extra spells conflicted with the defensive lock. Mark whether the deck still closed through milling after stabilizing.
• Closing: Identify the exact final pressure source: Archive Trap, Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Crab landfall, Thought Scour, or draw into another spell. Flag games where the pilot survived but failed to convert time into library pressure.
• Role: Note whether the pilot correctly stayed mill-control, shifted into survival mode, or over-defended. The correct role should follow visible clock, current hand, legal actions, and public board state, not generic matchup assumptions.
• Mistakes: Log any Scheming Symmetry use that let the opponent draw or keep a dangerous card on top without immediate milling. Log any pass where legal mill, survival, or interaction actions were available and materially better by visible state.
• Stranded cards: Track cards stuck in hand by cause: missing blue, missing black, insufficient graveyard size for Visions of Beyond payoff, no good Extirpate target, no useful Echoing Truth target, or sideboard card without matchup relevance.
• Over/underperformers: Name the cards that changed win probability, not merely cards that were cast. Separate high-impact Hedron Crab, Ruin Crab, Archive Trap, Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Extirpate, Nihil Spellbomb, Soul-Guide Lantern, Collective Brutality, Echoing Truth, Ensnaring Bridge, Requiting Hex, and Exhibition Tidecaller from low-impact appearances.

First Tuning Questions

• Card quantities: If early creature engines died too often, should the deck keep all 4 Hedron Crab and 4 Ruin Crab while improving protection through sideboard roles, or should more noncreature velocity be favored? Do not reduce Crab density based on games where fetchland sequencing was poor.
• Mana base: Did 6 Island, 2 Watery Grave, 4 Flooded Strand, 4 Misty Rainforest, 4 Polluted Delta, and 1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds reliably cast blue spells on time while enabling black interaction? If black cards stranded often, ask whether the issue was source count, fetch priority, or overvaluing black sideboard plans.
• Aggro plan: Did Ensnaring Bridge, Collective Brutality, Echoing Truth, and possibly Requiting Hex after Card text check required buy enough turns without diluting mill density? If creature pressure won before turn stabilization, ask whether sideboard slots need more survival cards or whether mulligan standards were too loose.
• Control plan: Did Scheming Symmetry create wins with immediate mill follow-up, or did it hand control opponents too many answers? If it underperformed, ask whether timing discipline fixes it before changing quantities.
• Graveyard plan: Did main-deck Extirpate plus sideboard Nihil Spellbomb and Soul-Guide Lantern stop graveyard conversion, or did milling fuel the opponent faster than exile could contain? If exile cards were drawn against non-graveyard decks, ask whether sideboard mapping was too broad.
• Closer density: Did Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Fractured Sanity, Archive Trap, Thought Scour, and Visions of Beyond close after early Crab damage, or were too many turns spent on setup? If library totals stayed high, ask whether Archive Trap was held too greedily for opponent searches.
• Role conflicts: Did Visions of Beyond conflict with Ensnaring Bridge hand-size management or help find the closing spell? If both happened, tune decision rules before card counts.
• Sideboard slots: Did Requiting Hex have a verified, recurring role after card text was confirmed? If not, treat those slots as unproven before changing core mill cards.
• Card verification: Did Exhibition Tidecaller produce a clear legal-action role in games, and was that role better than another mill, interaction, or survival slot? Until verified, keep all conclusions conditional on engine-exposed card text and observed decisions.

Veles Tactical Policy

Policy: Mulligan For A Real Mill Start

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: mulligan
• Cards: Hedron Crab; Ruin Crab; Fractured Sanity; Archive Trap; Tasha's Hideous Laughter; Thought Scour; Visions of Beyond
• Phase windows: pregame opening hand and London mulligan decisions.
• Runtime cues: opening hand, land count, blue source count, fetchland count, first playable mill spell.
• Use when: choosing keep, mulligan, or bottom cards.
• Avoid when: the hand has no blue source, no first mill threat, or only Scheming Symmetry and Extirpate as action.
• Instructions: Keep hands with blue mana plus Hedron Crab or Ruin Crab and landfall fuel, or blue mana plus multiple direct mill spells. Treat Archive Trap as bonus pressure, not the only plan, unless opponent search is already forced by public action.
• Pilot skill floor: light-model.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: First Crab Before Fetchland

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: mana; priority
• Cards: Hedron Crab; Ruin Crab; Flooded Strand; Misty Rainforest; Polluted Delta; Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
• Phase windows: own main phases before land drop and before fetchland activation.
• Runtime cues: legal cast Hedron Crab, legal cast Ruin Crab, unplayed land, fetchland in hand.
• Use when: a Crab can be cast before making a land drop that turn.
• Avoid when: visible pressure requires immediate survival action, or known interaction makes committing a creature worse than casting direct mill.
• Instructions: Cast the first Crab before playing or cracking a fetchland so landfall is captured. Hold Oboro, Palace in the Clouds sequencing for repeated landfall only when blue mana remains functional.
• Pilot skill floor: light-model.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Deterministic Landfall Fetch Crack

• Priority: Low
• Decision families: mana; priority
• Cards: Hedron Crab; Ruin Crab; Flooded Strand; Misty Rainforest; Polluted Delta
• Phase windows: own main phase with Crab landfall available.
• Runtime cues: action:activate Flooded Strand; action:activate Misty Rainforest; action:activate Polluted Delta
• Use when: Hedron Crab or Ruin Crab is on your battlefield, a listed fetchland is untapped and activatable, and the action text shows the fetchland activation.
• Avoid when: life payment or color search choice is pending and survival depends on life total.
• Instructions: Activate the fetchland to create the landfall trigger after a Crab is already present. Let the engine enumerate the legal land search result.
• Pilot skill floor: no-api.
• No-API allowed: yes
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Blue First, Black When It Has Text

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: mana
• Cards: Island; Watery Grave; Extirpate; Collective Brutality; Nihil Spellbomb
• Phase windows: land selection, fetch resolution, spell-casting payment.
• Runtime cues: legal land search, legal black spell, available blue mill spell.
• Use when: fetching or choosing mana colors.
• Avoid when: Watery Grave life loss changes a visible lethal clock and no black action is needed.
• Instructions: Prioritize blue access for Crab, Fractured Sanity, Thought Scour, Visions of Beyond, and Tasha's Hideous Laughter. Fetch Watery Grave when Extirpate, Collective Brutality, Nihil Spellbomb activation context, or sideboard black use is visible and relevant.
• Pilot skill floor: light-model.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Archive Trap Commitment Gate

• Priority: High
• Decision families: priority; interaction
• Cards: Archive Trap
• Phase windows: opponent search resolution windows, priority windows after public library search.
• Runtime cues: legal Archive Trap action, public opponent search event, opponent library count.
• Use when: Archive Trap is legal and the opponent has searched this turn or the engine exposes a costed legal action.
• Avoid when: holding priority for a more urgent survival action is necessary by visible state.
• Instructions: Cast Archive Trap when legal after an opponent search unless the visible stack or board requires immediate defensive interaction. Do not wait for perfect sequencing if the opponent library count is already within closing range.
• Pilot skill floor: light-model.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Direct Mill Closing Gate

• Priority: High
• Decision families: priority; selection
• Cards: Fractured Sanity; Tasha's Hideous Laughter; Thought Scour; Archive Trap
• Phase windows: own main phases, opponent end step, legal instant windows.
• Runtime cues: legal cast action for listed mill spell, opponent library count, mana available.
• Use when: a legal mill spell can materially reduce or empty the opponent library before their next draw step.
• Avoid when: visible lethal pressure requires Ensnaring Bridge, Collective Brutality, Echoing Truth, or another survival action first.
• Instructions: Convert mana into library pressure when the opponent library is low, when the hand has redundant mill, or when waiting gives the opponent a draw step to find disruption. Prefer larger mill actions before cantrips when mana will be fully used.
• Pilot skill floor: light-model.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Thought Scour Target Opponent

• Priority: Low
• Decision families: selection; priority
• Cards: Thought Scour
• Phase windows: any legal instant-speed target prompt.
• Runtime cues: action:target opponent Thought Scour
• Use when: the legal action text offers Thought Scour targeting the opponent.
• Avoid when: the legal action text targets self or a named player other than opponent.
• Instructions: Choose the opponent as Thought Scour target to advance the deck's mill plan, then accept the engine's draw resolution.
• Pilot skill floor: no-api.
• No-API allowed: yes
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Scheming Symmetry Requires Immediate Conversion

• Priority: High
• Decision families: priority; selection
• Cards: Scheming Symmetry; Thought Scour; Fractured Sanity; Archive Trap; Tasha's Hideous Laughter; Hedron Crab; Ruin Crab
• Phase windows: own main phase before draw effects or mill effects.
• Runtime cues: legal cast Scheming Symmetry, legal follow-up mill action, opponent top-card risk.
• Use when: Scheming Symmetry can be followed immediately by milling the opponent or by a line that prevents the opponent from using the tutored card.
• Avoid when: the opponent will untap or draw the selected card before you can disturb the top of their library.
• Instructions: Treat Scheming Symmetry as a commitment gate, not routine setup. Use it to find a closing mill spell or missing engine piece only when the visible sequence can deny the opponent's top-card benefit.
• Pilot skill floor: light-model.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Extirpate Public Graveyard Target

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: interaction; selection
• Cards: Extirpate
• Phase windows: legal instant windows after a card is in an opponent graveyard.
• Runtime cues: legal Extirpate target list, opponent graveyard, visible card names.
• Use when: a public graveyard card represents recursion, combo, disruption, graveyard payoff, or a high-density threat by visible game context.
• Avoid when: the only targets are low-impact cards and a mill spell advances the kill more.
• Instructions: Use Extirpate to remove the opponent's most consequential public graveyard card, especially after mill exposes a key engine card. Do not spend it just because black mana is available.
• Pilot skill floor: light-model.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Visions Of Beyond Threshold Gate

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: priority; selection
• Cards: Visions of Beyond
• Phase windows: opponent end step, own main phase, emergency draw windows.
• Runtime cues: legal cast Visions of Beyond, graveyard counts, hand size, Ensnaring Bridge state.
• Use when: graveyard count makes the draw mode strong, or the deck needs a specific answer and mana remains for it.
• Avoid when: extra cards break Ensnaring Bridge survival and no immediate spell chain is available.
• Instructions: Use Visions of Beyond as reload after graveyards are stocked, not as blind early air. In Bridge games, check hand size before drawing.
• Pilot skill floor: light-model.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Ensnaring Bridge Survival Gate

• Priority: High
• Decision families: priority; combat; sideboard
• Cards: Ensnaring Bridge; Visions of Beyond; Fractured Sanity; Tasha's Hideous Laughter; Thought Scour
• Phase windows: own main phase before combat, opponent combat pressure turns.
• Runtime cues: legal cast Ensnaring Bridge, visible opposing attackers, current hand size.
• Use when: visible attackers threaten lethal or a short clock and Ensnaring Bridge can constrain attacks by current or reducible hand size.
• Avoid when: the opponent is not attacking on board and direct mill can close faster.
• Instructions: Cast Ensnaring Bridge before taking a lethal combat step, then lower hand size through legal cheap spells. Avoid unnecessary Visions of Beyond if drawn cards reopen attacks.
• Pilot skill floor: light-model.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Combat Default Preserve Life

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: combat
• Cards: Hedron Crab; Ruin Crab; Exhibition Tidecaller
• Phase windows: declare blockers, combat damage, precombat priority.
• Runtime cues: legal block actions, visible attacker power, Crab battlefield role.
• Use when: combat decisions involve your creatures or visible lethal pressure.
• Avoid when: no legal block changes damage or survival.
• Instructions: Preserve Hedron Crab and Ruin Crab when they will produce future landfall pressure, but block if the visible clock makes survival the limiting resource. Exhibition Tidecaller requires Card text check required; follow engine legal action text and visible stats only.
• Pilot skill floor: light-model.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Sideboard Graveyard Exile Timing

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: interaction; sideboard
• Cards: Nihil Spellbomb; Soul-Guide Lantern; Extirpate
• Phase windows: opponent graveyard payoff windows, own main phase, opponent end step.
• Runtime cues: legal activate Nihil Spellbomb, legal activate Soul-Guide Lantern, opponent graveyard contents.
• Use when: public graveyard cards enable recursion, escape, reanimation, delirium, death triggers, or a visible graveyard payoff.
• Avoid when: graveyard exile only removes irrelevant cards and spending mana delays a closing mill spell.
• Instructions: Time graveyard exile to deny a visible payoff or protect the next turn cycle. Pair Extirpate with mill when a specific graveyard card matters more than total graveyard size.
• Pilot skill floor: light-model.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Bounce And Brutality Survival Check

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: interaction; sideboard
• Cards: Echoing Truth; Collective Brutality
• Phase windows: own main phase, opponent combat setup, stack windows when legal.
• Runtime cues: legal cast Echoing Truth, legal cast Collective Brutality, visible permanent or creature pressure.
• Use when: a visible permanent, creature, or life-total pressure is preventing the mill plan from reaching the next draw step.
• Avoid when: the target is merely annoying and a direct mill spell presents a faster clock.
• Instructions: Use Echoing Truth for permanents that stop milling or threaten lethal. Use Collective Brutality when its engine-exposed modes affect survival, opponent resources, or the race; do not invent mode text beyond legal prompts.
• Pilot skill floor: light-model.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Requiting Hex Verification Gate

• Priority: Low
• Decision families: sideboard; interaction
• Cards: Requiting Hex
• Phase windows: sideboarded games and any legal cast or target prompt.
• Runtime cues: legal Requiting Hex action, engine-exposed prompt text.
• Use when: Requiting Hex is in the post-board configuration and the rules engine exposes exact legal action text.
• Avoid when: card text is not verified or the legal action text does not identify a relevant target or effect.
• Instructions: Card text check required. Treat Requiting Hex as conditional sideboard technology until engine prompts prove its tactical role; do not prioritize it over known mill or survival actions without visible support.
• Pilot skill floor: light-model.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Sideboard Plan Selection

• Priority: High
• Decision families: sideboard
• Cards: Nihil Spellbomb; Requiting Hex; Ensnaring Bridge; Soul-Guide Lantern; Collective Brutality; Echoing Truth; Hedron Crab; Ruin Crab; Scheming Symmetry; Extirpate; Visions of Beyond
• Phase windows: after Game 1 and after Game 2 sideboarding.
• Runtime cues: sideboard request, matchup label, prior game public logs, opponent archetype.
• Use when: choosing a legal sideboard configuration.
• Avoid when: requested swaps violate registered 75 or reduce main-deck mill density without a visible matchup reason.
• Instructions: Add graveyard exile against graveyard-dependent opponents, Ensnaring Bridge and Collective Brutality against fast creature pressure, Echoing Truth against hate permanents or token clusters, and Requiting Hex only after Card text check required. Reduce main-deck emphasis on slow or conditional cards rather than cutting all core mill pressure.
• Pilot skill floor: light-model.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes

Policy: Pass Priority Only With No Productive Line

• Priority: Medium
• Decision families: priority
• Cards: Hedron Crab; Ruin Crab; Fractured Sanity; Archive Trap; Thought Scour; Extirpate; Visions of Beyond; Tasha's Hideous Laughter; Echoing Truth; Collective Brutality
• Phase windows: all priority prompts.
• Runtime cues: action:pass, legal non-pass actions, opponent library count, visible lethal pressure.
• Use when: evaluating pass against legal mill, interaction, draw, or survival actions.
• Avoid when: a legal action closes the game, prevents lethal, or uses mana before it becomes stranded.
• Instructions: Pass only when casting now loses tactical value, no visible threat needs answering, and holding instant-speed action improves timing. Under short clocks, prefer legal mill or survival actions over idle priority.
• Pilot skill floor: light-model.
• No-API allowed: no
• Light-model allowed: yes