Izzet Spellementals wins by chaining cheap spells to reduce the cost of Hearth Elemental and Eddymurk Crab, so Negate is excellent at stopping their key payoffs like Prismari Charm or Traumatic Critique before they snowball. Shoot the Sheriff cleanly answers Hearth Elemental and Eddymurk Crab, neither of which is an outlaw creature type. Cruelclaw's Heist and Intimidation Tactics are too slow and only interact with one card at a time against a deck that floods the board with cheap spells and creatures. Keep your discard and hard removal package like Deceit and Bitter Triumph to stay ahead of their tempo plan.

Mono Green wants to flood the board and use landfall payoffs like Earthbender Ascension and Mightform Harmonizer to overwhelm you, so cheap unconditional removal like Shoot the Sheriff and The End is much better than card selection. Soul-Guide Lantern slows down their Fabled Passage/Escape Tunnel graveyard recursion synergies like Icetill Explorer and Mole Man while cracking for a card late. Bitter Triumph, Requiting Hex, and Day of Black Sun stay in as your core removal suite against their creature-heavy plan. Cut Stock Up and Intimidation Tactics since they're too slow against an aggressive curve, and Archenemy's Charm is clunky triple black against a deck that isn't heavily planeswalker-based.

This is a mirror-adjacent grindy matchup where Negate protects your key spells and answers their Kaito, Bane of Nightmares or Enduring Curiosity, while Qarsi Revenant is a resilient flying, deathtouch, lifelink threat that both blocks and races well. Emeritus of Ideation is a fine card advantage engine but is slow and vulnerable to their removal-heavy list, so trim some copies for more proactive, efficient threats. Intimidation Tactics is weak here since they can rebuild with countermagic and card draw even after losing a card. Keep Deceit, Day of Black Sun, and Deadly Cover-Up as they line up well against their creature suite.