Izzet Spellementals is a tempo-combo deck that generates value through spell triggers on Hearth Elemental and Eddymurk Crab while using counterspells and cheap interaction to protect its threats. Your plan is to deploy threats on curve and apply pressure before they can set up their engine — Surrak, Elusive Hunter is excellent here as a resilient threat that demands an answer but is difficult to bounce or tempo out. Ouroboroid and Meltstrider's Resolve are too slow for the pace of this matchup, while Seam Rip has limited targets. Get Lost handles a resolved Colorstorm Stallion or any threat they stick, and Insidious Fungus can disrupt their spell-heavy sequencing. Keep your curve aggressive and pressure their life total to make their counterspells cost them tempo rather than gain it.

This is a green mirror where both decks are racing on the ground with similar mana acceleration and creature suites — the key differentiator is your evasion and power density. Mono-Green Landfall leans on Earthbender Ascension and landfall triggers to go wide and tall, so you want to apply early pressure with your mana elves and deny them time to set up their Ascension. Bring in Surrak, Elusive Hunter for its evasion and combat disruption, and Leatherhead, Swamp Stalker as a resilient threat that is difficult to block. Cut Meltstrider's Resolve and trim Ouroboroid and a Seam Rip since these are reactive or slow cards in a race where proactive board presence is more valuable. Your Craterhoof Behemoth is a clean game-ender if the ground stalls, so keep your ramp intact and prioritize getting to that finisher before their Ascension snowballs.

Jeskai Control aims to exhaust your resources with sweepers like Pyroclasm and Day of Judgment, then pull ahead on cards through Tablet of Discovery, Great Hall of the Biblioplex, and Jeskai Revelation. Meltstrider's Resolve and Seam Rip lose significant value when the opponent is wiping the board rather than trading one-for-one, and Nurturing Pixie is a small body that dies to Pyroclasm without enough impact to justify the slot. Surrak, Elusive Hunter and Leatherhead, Swamp Stalker come in as resilient, high-power threats that demand specific answers and are harder to sweep away cleanly — forcing the opponent to spend premium resources on individual permanents rather than leveraging mass removal efficiently. Get Lost gives you an instant-speed answer to key permanents like an early planeswalker or a resolved Wan Shi Tong off the sideboard. The primary gameplan is to deploy threats on curve, protect your board presence through Brightglass Gearhulk and Nature's Rhythm, and close the game before their card draw engines can generate enough answers.