Today’s discussion will not be long as Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Cardinal has its uses but is not a critical card for Fire Fists. First, 1800 attack is not going to keep it on the field very long without trap cards to protect it. Second, unlike its brethren, it can not search for Fire Formation cards so it is not great at pluses. Third, it takes both materials to get its effect, so unless you are playing cards that give it more materials (minuses) then you only get one shot. And finally, there are much better options for your 2 Fire Fist monsters to summon.

Now for the good news. There are certain situations where returning your opponent’s cards from the graveyard to the deck will cripple your opponent’s strategy. Returning cards like Treeborn Frog, Infernity monsters, Battlin’ Boxer Counterpunch, Hysteric Sign, and Eclipse Wyvern can really hurt. The second part of that effect is not bad ether. You can always use those Fire Formation cards again, especially Tenken.

Traditional: 1/5
Advanced: 2/5

Today we are looking at:Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Cardinal

"2 Level 4 "Fire Fist" monsters
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."

So right off the bat we see he is tailor made to fit in to one very specific deck: Rank-4 Fire Fist. I mean he is alright, and the ability to recycle key cards while getting rid of opposing threats is nice, but he feels like a card that would have worked 2 sets ago. Right now the meta is working so fast that you would be lucky to pull off the set up required to bring him out AND make full use of his effect. I don't know about you but I would rather use that time to run a rock solid strategy and twiddle around with him; you won't get it very often right now.

Advanced: 2/5
Traditional: 1/5

This Fire Fist monster sports a similarity to the annoying Madolche Queen Tiaramisu, in the way he puts two of your Graveyard cards back into the deck (where they can be very easily searched). Cardinal is played very much like Tiaramisu: the most appealing part of the effect is putting your cards (usually Continuous Spells) back into your deck so that you can search and re-activate them, and as a bonus you kick two of your opponent’s cards off the field and shuffled into the deck (it means your opponent will have to waste Draw Phases trying to get those cards back, and there’s no telling how long that’ll take). Cardinal is best brought out when the game is drawing to a close; that way, you’ll have more choices to choose from out of your own Graveyard and you can disrupt your opponent by returning potentially important cards (although in this economy, “near the end of a duel” is usually around turn 3 or so).

2200 DEF is pretty bulky, only a little less than Gagaga Cowboy’s and Maestroke the Symphony Djinn. Having Brother of the Fire Fist – Tiger King’s spread of 2200 ATK and 1800 DEF would be more beneficial since 1800 ATK for Cardinal is a bit on the puny side, but that’s ok since practically all of their Spells and Traps will give a little boost to that. Finally, technically Cardinal can target cards on your field and in your opponent’s Graveyard, but usually you don’t want to do that outside an emergency situation.

Trad: 1.2/5 (I really can’t see how Fire Fists can do well in this format, but if you’re using Fire Fists, you might as well use this guy)

Adv: 3.8/5 (not the most important Fire Fist monster, but he certainly is great at recycling cards and being a disruptor, and bounce is so lovely these days when you have cards such hard to destroy such as Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack and Moulinglacia the Elemental Lord)

Aesthetics: 4.5/5 The Fire Fist Xyz monsters have pretty nice art. I particularly like Cardinal’s raised sword and hard armour, as well as the white-hot flaming bird. All Fire Fist monsters are based off of the "36 Heavenly Spirits of the 108 Liangshan Heroes" in Shi Nai'an's novel Water Margin published in China around year 1300. It talks about 108 rebels that band together to combat their corrupt government and specifically focuses on 36 of them. Rhino is based off Spirit #4, Gongsun Sheng, who uses an ancient copper sword and elemental magic. Gongsun Sheng turned into one of the three leaders of Liangshan and was important in helping negate the spells of enemy sorcerers. He was nicknamed the Dragon in the Clouds (the guy that Fire Fist Dragon is based off is named Nine Tattooed Dragons). I have no idea where they got the idea to represent Gongsun Sheng with a cardinal, and I’m somewhat disappointed they didn’t incorporate some of his other physical descriptions in this card’s artwork. The symbol on his belt and on the bird (間) is a Chinese/Japanese word meaning an interval or a space in between.

Riddle: I want to go home, but there's someone in a mask holding something that makes me not want to go in. What am I doing with my life?
I’m playing baseball.
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