Dimir Tempo combines discard, free counterspells, and efficient threats like Tamiyo and Murktide Regent, so we want to race while disrupting their disruption — Surgical Extraction lets us permanently answer a Snuff Out or protect a reanimated bomb from being exiled by Barrowgoyf triggers or graveyard hate they bring in. Chain of Smog is excellent at stripping their hand of Force of Will and Daze in one shot before we commit Reanimate or Shallow Grave. Trim Raph & Mikey and Borborygmos since they're too slow against a deck applying steady pressure with Orcish Bowmasters and Kaito. Use Thoughtseize and Unmask early to clear the way, since their own Thoughtseize and Bowmasters punish us for over-extending — try to win with a single resolved Griselbrand or Atraxa rather than multiple threats.

Ocelot Pride Midrange doesn't interact with our graveyard plan directly but races hard with wide token boards and Wasteland disrupts our nonbasic-heavy mana, so Surgical Extraction is mainly a hedge against their own Surgical Extraction and Deafening Silence hitting our reanimation targets from the sideboard. Cut a colorless land and Borborygmos since we need to be fast and can't afford clunky draws against their aggressive clock — this matchup is about resolving Griselbrand or Atraxa on turn 1-2 before they overwhelm us with Cat tokens and Swords our reanimated threat. Thoughtseize and Cabal Therapy should target Swords to Plowshares or Static Prison to protect our payoff, and Unmask is live to blow through their answers even on an empty hand. Life total matters less than usual since Griselbrand's card draw and Atraxa's lifegain stabilize quickly once resolved.

Izzet Affinity is a fast, low-interaction combo-aggro deck built around Urza's Saga and artifact synergies, so our discard suite of Thoughtseize, Cabal Therapy, and Unmask is mostly dead weight against their proactive plan — the priority is simply resolving a reanimation target as fast as possible and racing. Surgical Extraction is a useful catch-all against Tormod's Crypt or Aether Spellbomb hitting our graveyard, letting us fight back if they try to strand our Reanimate or Animate Dead. Chain of Smog can strip Force of Will pre-combo, but the real gameplan is going under them with Lotus Petal, Dark Ritual, and Shallow Grave into Griselbrand as early as possible. Trim the slower legendary threats since games are usually decided by turn 3-4 either way.