Ultimately, the final synthetic design was guided by plastic models of potential precursors suggesting that glycosylation prior to cyclization would render the system conformationally poised to furnish the desired skeletal ring. Further, the electronrich arene opened the possibility of installing the requisite benzylic ether at a late stage via stereoselective oxidative cyclization. The challenging C-4' oxidation state was envisaged to arrive either through a late-stage C-H oxidation or through decarboxylative functionalization. As both strategies relied on similar intermediates they were pursued in parallel.