Izzet Spellementals wants to chain cheap cantrips like Opt and Sleight of Hand into growing Hearth Elemental and Eddymurk Crab. Duress can strip a key piece of interaction (Get Out, Prismari Charm) or a payoff spell like Traumatic Critique before they can use it against your board. The extra copies of Requiting Hex give you more ways to answer their small early threats cheaply, since Hearth Elemental and Eddymurk Crab, while big, both cost 6 before reduction and often aren't cast early — but their Elemental tokens and any cheap creature they land fall to it. We trim Fanatical Offering and Mutagen Man since this matchup rewards proactive disruption and efficient removal over slower value engines.