Izzet Spellementals is entirely red and blue, making Flashfreeze a clean answer to Hearth Elemental, Prismari Charm, or Traumatic Critique. Spell Snare cleanly catches their two-mana cantrips and interaction like Prismari Charm or Get Out, while Disdainful Stroke stops their bigger payoffs like Sunderflock or Traumatic Critique. Shoot the Sheriff is weak here since Eddymurk Crab and Hearth Elemental aren't must-answer bodies compared to countering them directly, and Duress is less impactful against a deck full of cheap instants/sorceries we can't always see coming. Keep our own card draw engines to out-grind their incremental value.

Mono-Green Landfall wants to chain Earthbender Ascension and Mightform Harmonizer triggers uninterrupted, so Duress lets us strip a key enchantment before it snowballs. Ancient Vendetta can exile all copies of Earthbender Ascension or Mightform Harmonizer from hand, graveyard, and library, denying the resets they'd get from casting extras. Shoot the Sheriff struggles since many of their bodies (Bristly Bill, Mole Man) aren't huge threats worth a card, and Consult the Star Charts is too slow against their proactive curve. Keep Deadly Cover-Up and Inevitable Defeat as our primary sweeper/removal package against their wide board.

Dimir Midrange leans on planeswalkers like Kaito and countermagic like We Say Thee Nay!, so Duress proactively strips these key threats and spells before they resolve. Strategic Betrayal exiles a creature and their whole graveyard, which is excellent against Enduring Curiosity's recursive death trigger and denies Elektra or Cecil any graveyard value. Shoot the Sheriff can't touch outlaw creatures like Spyglass Siren, and it doesn't line up well against the rest of their nonoutlaw creature suite either, so it's an unreliable answer here. Consult the Star Charts is too slow in a grindy matchup where we need proactive disruption instead of card selection. Our removal (Deadly Cover-Up, Inevitable Defeat) remains crucial against their creature suite.