Fire Fists have been one of the most successful monster themes of the year, and that success is rooted in their powerful “Fire Formation” cards. Each Fire Formation packs a useful effect when it resolves, keeps the fires burning with an ATK bonus for your Beast-Warriors, and functions as fuel to fire up your monster effects. Fire Formation – Tenki is an amazing search card; Fire Formation – Tensu helps you play around Effect Veiler and Fiendish Chain; and Fire Formation – Tensen gives a huge ATK boost. But now, Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy gives the Brotherhood a new kind of power they’ve never had before: their very own Spell and Trap suppressor.

Activate this card by targeting 1 Set Spell/Trap Card your opponent controls. Your opponent cannot activate the targeted card in response to this card’s activation. While this card is face-up on the field, that Set card cannot be activated. All Beast-Warrior-Type monsters you control gain 100 ATK.

The Fire Fist game plan is all about neutralizing your opponent’s cards one by one, while grabbing freebies with your effects to tip the balance in your favor. The two poster boys for that strategy are Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Bear destroying monsters, and Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Gorilla destroying Spells and Traps. Each lets you send a Fire Formation to the Graveyard to blow something up, and each can get you another Fire Formation if they win a battle.

But even with Gorilla’s destructive power, Fire Fist Duelists had to play more removal cards to make sure everything went to plan. Cards like Fiendish Chain and Bottomless Trap Hole were big threats, nullifying a Fire Fist once it was successfully Summoned. Those Summons are precious, because unless you’ve got Fire Formation – Tensu and another Fire Fist ready to go, it’s tough to recover when you lose your monster: it kills all your momentum. The Fire Fist Deck was often at its best when you had Forbidden Lance to surprise your opponent and outplay their Trap. Now there’s a new answer, and it borrows from three completely different cards.

Fire Formation – Gyokkou is like Mystical Space Typhoon because you play it right from your hand to stop a backrow card. It’s like Night Beam, because your opponent can’t Chain whatever you target to Gyokkou. And it’s like Xing Zhen Hu, because it doesn’t actually destroy whatever you target, but it doesn’t leave the field either.

As much as Fire Formation – Gyokkou resembles those cards, it’s also really unique. You can’t search Typhoon, Night Beam, or Xing Zhen Hu from your Deck. But Gyokkou? You can get it for free just by scoring some damage with Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Bear. You can Tribute the new Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Leopard to search it right from your Deck in a pinch, as well. It’s really easy to get to, and if you searched Gyokkou from your Deck with a free effect it doesn’t really cost you anything to play it.

Gyokkou also boosts your Beast-Warriors by 100 ATK. That makes your monsters tougher to attack, and could get them over monsters they couldn’t beat otherwise. If you’re playing against another Fire Fist Duelist and they have Fire Formation – Tenki on the field, all your monsters will be stronger if you control Tenki and Gyokkou. And their face-down Spell or Trap will be powerless to stop your superior monsters.

Finally, having more Fire Formations means more cards that you can send to the Graveyard for Bear and Gorilla’s abilities. It’s even easier to use Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Tiger King’s recovery effect, which lets you send 3 face-up Fire Formations to the Graveyard to Special Summon 2 Level 4 or lower Beast-Warrior-Types from your Deck.

We may see some new Fire Fist strategies once Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy is out, but Fire Formation – Gyokkou is going to be a must-run in all of them. As a Fire Fist Duelist you need to control your opponent’s Spells and Traps, and Gyokkou does that in a way that meshes perfectly with the theme. Try a couple yourself, and watch how quickly your Duels heat up!

Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy Sneak Peeks will be held May 11^th and 12^th.