A · Fundamentals · §1
A two-colour aggro deck whose entire defence is the speed of its clock, playing an engine that rebuilds faster than removal removes it.
Izzet Prowess is an aggro-tempo deck built on cheap threats that grow when you cast spells, and on one piece of equipment that turns the second spell of every turn into a hasty attacker. It is not a burn deck, though it plays burn, and it is not a control deck, though it plays counterspells after boarding.
Twelve creatures, eight of which cost one mana. Eight spells that cost nothing at all. Everything is designed so that a turn contains at least two spells, because the second one is what triggers and what grows and .
The Cutter is what separates this from a fair aggro deck. It does not run out. Every subsequent turn where you cast two spells produces another Monk with prowess, and the Equipment attaches to it for free, so the Monk arrives with trample and haste. A sweeper that answers the board answers only the board that is currently there.
It is not protecting anything. This is the part most lists get read wrong, including by their pilots: the deck plays four and two , which look like protection and are not. They are free or cheap prowess triggers that happen to also win a combat. Against the removal this format actually maindecks, they do nothing at all, and §12 sets out the numbers.