Izzet Spellementals wants to chain cheap cantrips and protect its Hearth Elemental / Eddymurk Crab engine, so proactive disruption is much better than reactive removal that they can play around. Duress strips key interaction like Spell Snare or Get Out before they can protect their threats, while Intimidation Tactics can exile Hearth Elemental or Eddymurk Crab straight from their hand. Requiting Hex is dead against their 4/5 and 5/5 bodies (mana value too high), and Erode is a low-impact swap since it helps them hit land drops in a deck that's already flooding on cantrips. Keep our clock fast since their early turns are spent filtering rather than deploying board presence.

UR Aggro is a fast cantrip-tempo deck with Slickshot Show-Off and Drake Hatcher growing quickly, so this is primarily a race where our removal is often too slow or gets outpaced by their evasive threats. Duress and Intimidation Tactics let us strip their Burst Lightning or a key threat before it can develop, buying tempo in a matchup decided by who applies pressure first. Requiting Hex and Erode are cuttable since our own aggressive curve and discard synergies (Cool but Rude, Marauding Mako) are better suited to winning the race than trading resources. Prioritize protecting our own clock over grinding through their interaction.

Dimir Midrange is full of countermagic and card advantage engines like Enduring Curiosity, Kaito, and Spyglass Siren, so proactive hand disruption is more valuable than reactive removal they can simply counter or play around. Duress can strip We Say Thee Nay! or a key removal spell before we commit our threats, while Intimidation Tactics exiles a problematic creature like Enduring Curiosity or Cecil, Dark Knight straight from hand. Erode and Requiting Hex are both easily played around or countered by their dense interaction suite, and Requiting Hex cannot hit their threats with mana value 3 or greater. Our aggressive curve wants to punish their slower turns before their card advantage engines take over.