Duress strips Fiery Temper, Faithless Looting, or Fireblast before they can fuel the madness/burn plan, which is far more proactive than our slow card-advantage pieces here. The extra Thraben Charm gives another cheap interaction option that can kill Voldaren Epicure or Kessig Flamebreather outright since Thraben Charm deals damage equal to twice our creature count, which is usually lethal to their 1-3 toughness threats. Eviscerator's Insight and one Grim Bauble come out since this is a race we want to win quickly rather than grind card advantage, and Grim Bauble's -2/-2 is largely redundant with Thraben Charm against the same small bodies. Keep the low curve and flyers to close the game before their burn adds up.

Duress proactively strips Counterspell, Snuff Out, or a removal spell before it can stop our key threats, which matters a lot against a deck full of counterspells and efficient removal. Suffocating Fumes can wipe their 1/1s, such as Faerie Seer, Spellstutter Sprite, and the Bird tokens from Murmuring Mystic, with its -1/-1 to all opposing creatures. It won't kill sturdier bodies like Augur of Bolas (1/3) or Ninja of the Deep Hours (2/2), and its Cycling mode lets us dig if it's dead. Eviscerator's Insight and Grim Bauble come out since their card-advantage/removal roles are redundant against a deck that already out-grinds us with counterspells and card draw; we want proactive disruption instead. Keep pressuring with evasive creatures since Dimir Control struggles to interact with multiple threats per turn.

Affinity floods the board with cheap artifact creatures and artifact lands, so Dust to Dust is excellent, exiling two artifacts at once to hit lands, Blood Fountains, or key permanents while denying Dispatch metalcraft. Mukotai Ambusher is a solid body with lifelink that helps stabilize against their fast starts and can ninjutsu in for extra value. Grim Bauble stays in: its -2/-2 kills Refurbished Familiar, Glint Hawk, and Baleful Strix, and only Kor Skyfisher and Utrom Monitor survive it. Omen of the Dead and Thorn of the Black Rose are too slow against this tempo deck. Eviscerator's Insight asks you to sacrifice an artifact or creature you likely need on board, so it comes out for more proactive artifact hate. Okiba-Gang Shinobi is clunky at five mana, and Nihil Spellbomb is a low-impact card here, so both make room for the extra Ambusher slots.