Gruul Broodscale Combo assembles Basking Broodscale plus Glaring Fleshraker with free Eldrazi spells for an explosive kill, backed by Urza's Saga and Ugin's Labyrinth mana. Consign to Memory is your best card and the reason to keep all counters in: it counters their colorless spells (Kozilek's Command, Devourer of Destiny, even a hardcast Emrakul's cast trigger) for a single blue mana, and it can also counter the Fleshraker damage triggers mid-combo. Erode answers Basking Broodscale at instant speed — kill it in response to the adapt activation before the sac loop starts, not on your own turn. Pithing Needle names Urza's Saga on the play (their Saga makes the combo redundant) or Blade of the Bloodchief if you've seen it. Their Boseiju and Nature's Claim answer your Saga and key equipment, so develop Kíli and Puresteel Paladin to spread equip ability across bodies rather than relying on one Saga. Watch for main-deck Vexing Bauble — it counters your Memnite, Ornithopter, and Mox Opal, so lead with your free artifacts before they find it or save a Rebuke for it. The one-of equipment trinkets and two Memnite make room; this is a genuine race and your Inkmoth plus Hammer kill is faster when you spend every turn deploying threats or interaction.

Izzet Prowess is a pure race: Monastery Swiftspear and Slickshot Show-Off wearing a Cori-Steel Cutter can outpace even a turn-three Hammer kill, and Lava Dart plus Mutagenic Growth make combat math treacherous. Erode kills any of their threats for one mana at instant speed — prioritize a Cutter-carrier or Slickshot Show-Off before its plink turns lethal. Surge of Salvation is your best card here since every single removal and burn spell they play is red: one mana prevents all of it for a turn, protecting the alpha strike or blanking a Lava Dart plus Bolt exchange on your key creature. Vexing Bauble comes in to counter Mutagenic Growth (cast for zero mana), which is usually the card that steals the race — just remember it also counters your own Memnite, Ornithopter, and Mox Opal, so empty your hand of free artifacts before deploying it. Keep Shadowspear in: lifelink on a hammered creature swings the race by eight or more per turn. Metallic Rebuke is too clumsy against their one-mana curve and comes out along with the slow auras.

Esper Blink grinds you out with Solitude plus Ephemerate, Phelia, Overlord of the Balemurk value, and Thoughtseize — they have more raw card quality, so your edge is speed plus resilience to one-for-one removal. Surge of Salvation is the key protection spell: for one mana your whole board gets hexproof, blanking Solitude's targeted exile, Fatal Push, and Prismatic Ending on the turn you commit a Hammer. Erode kills everything relevant — Phelia before it blinks something, Overlord, Orcish Bowmasters, a flipped Kaito — at instant speed. Teferi, Time Raveler forces their whole deck (Ephemerate blinks included) to sorcery speed, which strands Solitude evokes as pure card disadvantage and lets your equips resolve cleanly; its minus bouncing an Overlord while drawing a card is a fine rate too. Play around Orcish Bowmasters by equipping before you crack a fetch when possible, and don't walk your whole board into post-board Wrath of the Skies. Two Metallic Rebuke come out because Thoughtseize strips them and most of their threats land through them anyway; the slow one-of equipment package follows as usual.