Mainboard (60)
Creatures (22)
Instants (4)
Sorceries (1)
Artifacts (7)
Enchantments (4)
Izzet Lessons is a spell-based value engine deck that uses Artist's Talent and Firebending Lesson to generate card advantage while Combustion Technique and Gran-Gran provide removal and tempo. Duress is your most important sideboard card, stripping Three Steps Ahead, Accumulate Wisdom, or key Lessons before they can snowball. Intimidation Tactics pressures their hand and disrupts their curve, while Glacial Dragonhunt deals with Agna Qel'a or other relevant threats. Trim the situational Requiting Hex and Winternight Stories since their graveyard and enchantment synergies are less relevant here, and shave Bitter Triumph to lower your average mana cost and maximize early disruption against their spell-light early turns.
Jeskai Control aims to answer your threats one-for-one with Lightning Helix, Get Lost, and No More Lies while building toward sweepers like Day of Judgment and card advantage engines like Consult the Star Charts and Stock Up. Duress is your most important sideboard card here — use it early to strip counterspells and sweepers before committing your threats. Intimidation Tactics provides additional hand disruption to help push damage through their reactive suite. Bloodghast is trimmed because it provides slow, easily-managed value against a deck that gains life readily with Lightning Helix and Beza, and Winternight Stories and one Requiting Hex come out as the slowest cards in your configuration. Your primary game plan is to deploy threats on curve and use discard to clear the way before they can stabilize.
UR Aggro is a tempo deck built around Slickshot Show-Off and Stormchaser's Talent, looking to develop a wide threat base and push damage through cheap interaction. Pyroclasm is your best answer to their early creatures, potentially sweeping Elusive Otter and other small threats before they snowball. Molten Collapse gives you flexible removal that can answer both permanents and spells, which is valuable against their enchantment-based payoffs. Bloodghast is too slow and passive against their proactive game plan, and Winternight Stories and one Monument to Endurance are trimmed as high-cost or conditional cards that don't pull their weight in a race. Keep your aggressive and disruptive elements intact to trade efficiently and close the game before their draw-spell engine takes over.