Fire Fist Decks wound up in the same boat as Mermails: suspiciously absent after the release of Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy despite gaining a ton of new cards. Now that Judgment of the Light is here along with a few more great cards for Fire Fist Decks, we’re expecting to see a big turnout for the FIRE Beast-Warriors this weekend!

The two biggest additions to the Fire Fist strategy over the past few weeks have been Coach Soldier Wolfbark and Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Rooster. Wolfbark seems to be the more popular of the two right now with the ability to revive a Level 4 FIRE Beast-Warrior every turn. While the monster’s effect is negated, it’s still valuable free Xyz Material for Summoning Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Tiger King, or Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Cardinal (in conjunction with a second Fire Fist monster on the field). Cardinal is absolutely devastating, allowing the Fire Fist Duelist to retrieve their own Fire Fist and Fire Formation cards from the Graveyard while sending their opponent’s best cards back to the Deck. It’s hugely powerful, and it’s one of the reasons we’re seeing a lot more Level 4 Fire Fist monsters than we used to.

Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Rooster is Level 3, but has two incredible abilities. Special Summoning him, for example with the effect of Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Spirit or Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Horse Prince, lets you add any Fire Fist monster from your Deck to your hand. You can also swap out any face-up Fire Formation for a fresh one from your Deck. This helps you load up your Graveyard with Fire Formations for Cardinal, or if you’re feeling the urge to go big, Ultimate Fire Formation – Seito. With Spirit now Limited, you can just play the same combo every single turn until you win without spending some serious effort recycling Spirit with Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Lion Emperor. Right now, it looks like the combos with Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Leopard, Spirit, Horse Prince, and Rooster are playing a backup role in Decks where the main focus is on Level 4 Fire Fist monsters and Wolfbark.

The main Level 4 Fire Fist monsters being played are Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Bear, which just saw a re-release in the first wave of Collectible Tins, Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Gorilla and Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Dragon from Cosmo Blazer, and the new Level 4 Tuner Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Boar. Boar is cool because it acts like XX-Saber Emmersblade for Level 4 Fire Fists while also being a Tuner. You can only use it for FIRE Synchro Monsters, but between Crimson Blader, the new Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Kirin, and Black Rose Dragon, there are plenty of good uses for it.

Also of note is the increased dedication of Deck space towards Fire Formations! While Duelists used to try and scrap by with the bare minimum, sometimes as few as 4 Fire Formations, the new Fire Fist Decks are running about 10. Including Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Dragon makes it important to have Fire Formation Traps to use along with him. This leads Duelists to max out on Fire Formation – Tensen for its big ATK boosts, and sometimes even include a copy of Fire Formation – Tenken as an additional Forbidden Lance-like card, or Fire Formation – Kaiyo to turn fields of Tokens into easy wins.

There are also two new Fire Formation Spells seeing play – Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy’s Fire Formation – Gyokkou and Judgment of the Light’s Fire Formation – Yoko. The former can lock down a Set Spell or Trap while it’s on the field, and the latter lets you discard a Beast-Warrior and destroy any face-up card your opponent controls. Both useful effects to have!

It’s a great time to be a Fire Fist Duelist, but we’ll have to wait and see if it’s truly the Brotherhood’s time to shine!