This is a race against a deck assembling an Eldrazi ramp/combo shell, so speed and removal for their early blockers matter most. Unholy Heat kills Basking Broodscale, Glaring Fleshraker, and other small Eldrazi bodies cleanly, and reaches delirium fast in this deck to threaten bigger things. Meltdown answers their artifacts and Urza's Saga tokens if they go that route, though its main value here is hitting cheap artifacts that get in the way. Combat tricks are less relevant since this matchup is decided by who deploys threats and removes blockers first, not combat math.

This is a mirror-style race where efficient removal and disruption matter more than pure aggression. Unholy Heat cleanly answers their Dragon's Rage Channeler and Monastery Swiftspear, and easily hits 6 damage off delirium to kill Slickshot Show-Off. Meltdown blows up their Cori-Steel Cutter, Mishra's Bauble, and Mox-style artifacts (well, they have none, but it hits Cutter and Bauble) while Spell Pierce protects your key spells or stops theirs. Mutagenic Growth and Violent Urge are too narrow when both sides are trading removal; cut some combat tricks for interaction that actually removes their threats.

Unholy Heat is excellent here, easily reaching delirium to snipe Orcish Bowmasters, Phelia, or Solitude before they can flicker or block, and even a 2-damage mode picks off small blockers. Spell Pierce can stop a crucial Thoughtseize, Ephemerate, or removal spell on the stack when they're tapped out from fetches. Surgical Extraction is useful to strip a redundant Thoughtseize or removal spell copy, or to answer a card in their graveyard supporting Overlord of the Balemurk recursion. Combat tricks are weak against a deck full of cheap removal and flash blockers, so they come out for real interaction.