Resource Hierarchy

1. Timing windows

This is the deck’s most valuable resource, and it is not close. The difference between casting Goryo’s Vengeance in the opponent’s second main phase and casting it after their end step has begun decides whether the creature survives long enough to attack. The difference between discarding to Psychic Frog and passing priority, versus explicitly retaining it, decides whether Surgical Extraction gets a clean window.

2. Coloured mana

The deck asks for black for Goryo and Thoughtseize, blue-white for Faithful Mending, white plus a white card for Solitude, blue plus a blue card for Force, white for Ephemerate after Goryo resolves, double white for Wrath of the Skies, blue for Consign or Mystical Dispute, four distinct colours for a maximal Prismatic Ending, and green specifically for a hard-cast Atraxa, Grand Unifier.

Overgrown Tomb is the only green source in the registered list. That is not incidental. It exists for hard-cast Atraxa, Grand Unifier and for the fourth colour on Prismatic Ending, and nothing else.

3. Cards in hand

Cards get spent in competing ways: Psychic Frog discard, Force pitch, Solitude pitch, Faithful Mending discard, Griselbrand converting life into cards, holding Ephemerate or interaction, and simply keeping a blue or white card in reserve so a free spell stays free.

Atraxa, Grand Unifier refills the hand, but getting to Atraxa often costs several cards first.

4. Life total

Life is not a buffer here. It is a currency.

• It is what pays for Griselbrand activations.
• It is what Thoughtseize costs.
• It is what fetch-and-shock sequencing costs, several times a game.
• It decides whether Faithful Mending’s two life is relevant or decorative.
• It decides whether you can afford to draw seven before attacking.
• It decides whether Solitude’s lifelink body has to stay on the battlefield.
• It decides whether an Atraxa, Grand Unifier attack actually reverses the game.

5. Graveyard quality

The graveyard is not a binary. What matters is which legendary creature is available, whether Ephemerate is in hand, whether Superior Spider-Man has anything worth copying, whether Surgical Extraction could collapse your remaining target density, whether Endurance or a graveyard artifact is represented, and whether their graveyard is a better Spider-Man target than yours.

6. Fair battlefield presence

Psychic Frog, Fallaji Archaeologist, Solitude, Quantum Riddler and Superior Spider-Man are what stop the opponent spending every resource on your graveyard. Do not give that up cheaply by treating every creature as a discard outlet, a pitch card or a blink target.