Fire Fist Decks are all about problem-solving: if there’s a monster in the way, they destroy it with Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Bear. If a Spell or Trap’s causing trouble, you can take care of it with Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Gorilla. You can even preempt cards that might cause issues with the new Fire Formation – Gyokkou! (But more on that later this week!) You’ve even got Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Tiger King to beat monsters like Spirit Reaper.

Card by card, Fire Fists can overcome almost any challenge – as long as those challenges come one at a time.

But what if you’ve got more than one problem? What if you need to beat two cards at the same time? The Fire Fist strategy is really specific: different cards answer different situations. Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy breaks that pattern, giving Fire Fist Duelists one big solution to anything your opponent might throw at you.

You can detach 2 Xyz Materials from this card, then target 2 “Fire Fist” / “Fire Formation” cards in your Graveyard and/or face-up on your side of the field, and 2 cards in your opponent’s Graveyard and/or face-up on their side of the field; shuffle those targets into the Deck. You can only use the effect of “Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Cardinal” once per turn.

If you’re facing two big monsters at once, Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Cardinal can defeat them both in one move! There’s almost nothing the Cardinal can’t beat: since its effect shuffles the targets back into your opponent’s Deck, cards like Stardust Dragon and Wind-Up Zenmaines are easy to eliminate. Is the problem a Spell or Trap Card, like Messenger of Peace? No worries, because Cardinal can kick away face-up Spells and Traps as well.

Graveyard getting you down? Inzektor Duelists rely on Inzektor Dragonfly and Inzektor Centipede to fish Inzektor Hornet out of the graveyard, using its effect again and again. Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Cardinal has no patience for dumpster diving: it can send Hornet right back to your opponent’s Deck. If your foe is building up monsters in their Graveyard to unleash an Elemental Lord or a Chaos monster, Cardinal can empty out the Graveyard to stop that, too. It can even steal away Spellbooks (or Spellcasters!) to make it tougher for a Prophecy Duelist to use the most powerful effect of Spellbook of Fate (or impossible to use Fate at all!)

You have to use two Level 4 Fire Fists to Xyz Summon Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Cardinal: it’s a little tougher to Summon than Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Tiger King, which only needs Beast-Warriors for its Xyz Materials. Still, there are lots of ways to get Cardinal into action.

If you have two Level 4 Fire Fists in hand, Fire Formation – Tensu will let you Normal Summon both of them. You might even want to send Tensu to the Graveyard along the way, taking out resistance with the effects of Bear or Gorilla. From there you can make Cardinal and clear the field entirely. Fire Formation – Tensen’s ATK boost adds up to 1000 Attack Points, so it lets you keep a Fire Fist on the table long enough to Normal Summon your second Fire Fist a turn later.

But the real star may be Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Dragon. Once a turn, Dragon lets you send two Fire Formations from the field to your Graveyard to revive any other Fire Fist. Bring back a Level 4 and you can combine it with Dragon to Xyz Summon Cardinal. That’s cool, because it means you don’t really give anything up to bring Cardinal out. Heck, you can put the Fire Formations you sent to the Graveyard back into the Deck to use Cardinal’s effect! Meanwhile your opponent loses his two most powerful cards to Cardinal’s effect.

Remember, Cardinal shuffles cards back into your Deck, too. If you’re holding Fire Formation – Tenki and you’ve already used all of your Bears, Cardinal could send one back to your Deck so you can search it out. Some Fire Fist Decks only play one Fire Formation – Tensu and one Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Gorilla, too, so sending them back can be useful. Cardinal’s requirement of shuffling back two of your “Fire Fist” or “Fire Formation” cards keeps you from using its effect too early in the Duel, but it’s incredibly helpful later on.

Most Fire Fist Decks today are built around Level 4’s, so Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Cardinal is a perfect fit. Its huge effect really ups the ante, giving you an easy way to outplay any threat. Try it in your Fire Fist Deck once Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy arrives in May!