12.13.04  Well today I'm looking at a Mono-Fire deck in need of some help. I haven't ran Mono-Fire in a while. I gotta admit that I consider Mono-Fire to be a tad obsolete. But in the right meta it can still win you tourneys.

Synon writes:

Hey, Synon here and this is my mono-fire deck. I'm still working out my deck but the strategy right now is pretty much just rushing my opponent and clearing out his/her field, then dropping down fatties later in the game.
What I'm wondering about my deck is if I should add more volcanic arrows and searing waves and/or take out some of the high cost cards or the many low cost cards in my deck. I would also like to know if I should look for any specific cards that would help my deck. Thanks a lot for the help!

1 Flametropus
1 Metalwing Skyterror
4 Tornado Flame
4 Mini Titan Gett
2 Magma Gazer
4 Crimson Hammer
2 Volcanic Arrows
2 Bolshack Dragon (more of these? less?)
4 Baby Zoppe
2 Searing Wave
3 Brawler Zyler
2 Rumble Gate
4 Deadly Fighter Braid Claw
4 Immortal Baron, Vorg
2 Rothus, the Traveler
1 Onslaughter Triceps
1 Blaze Cannon
1 Gatling Skyterror
1 Explosive Fighter Ucarn

Total: 45

Well let's start off by taking out the cards that I know are bad to use, or that just don't fit Mono-Fire's theme. They are... Metalwing Skyterror, Bolshack Dragon, Gatling Skyterror, Ucarn, and Blaze Cannon.

Now the deck should look like this...

1 Flametropus
4 Tornado Flame
4 Mini Titan Gett
2 Magma Gazer
4 Crimson Hammer
2 Volcanic Arrows
4 Baby Zoppe
2 Searing Wave
3 Brawler Zyler
2 Rumble Gate
4 Deadly Fighter Braid Claw
4 Immortal Baron, Vorg
2 Rothus, the Traveler
1 Onslaughter Triceps

Now I've got it down to a thirty nine card version. Rushing is what Mono-Fire does best. In order to rush you need to draw a creature almost every turn of the game. With that in mind I think I'll limit your removal options to just eight cards. That way you've got thirty-two creatures in a forty card deck. Now I know you must be asking yourself, "How am I going to get past my opponent's blockers with only eight removal spells?". Well I am limiting you to eight removal spells, but with just one of those eight removal spells you can potentially clear your opponent's field. Using one spell to zap three or four creatures ain't too bad huh?

So it's goodbye Tornado Flames, Magma Gazer, Crimson Hammer, Volcanic Arrows, and Rothus. And incase you haven't guessed already I'm adding in two more Searing Waves, and two more Rumble Gates.

So it should look like this now...

1 Flametropus
4 Mini Titan Gett
4 Baby Zoppe
4 Searing Wave
3 Brawler Zyler
4 Rumble Gate
4 Deadly Fighter Braid Claw
4 Immortal Baron, Vorg
1 Onslaughter Triceps

Ok now it's down to a 26 card deck. Wow I really took out a lot of stuff. Well I guess I had better add things in. Otherwise you'll be disqualified for running a deck that is under the min deck limit. I think I'll max out cards that are still in there. Then I'll add in Snip Striker Bullraizers. Snipe Striker makes a pretty good card, because it's 3000 power for only two mana. You shouldn't have a problem keeping more creatures than your opponent. After all your a rush deck.

So now it's...

4 Flametropus
4 Mini Titan Gett
4 Baby Zoppe
4 Searing Wave
4 Brawler Zyler
4 Rumble Gate
4 Deadly Fighter Braid Claw
4 Immortal Baron, Vorg
4 Onslaughter Triceps
4 Snip Striker Bullraizer

Now I'm gonna go see how this works out in a real duel.

Well the deck didn't perform very well. At times it could overwhelm the opponent within a few turns. But most of the time the opponent was able to just barley hang on with one or two shields, and then lock me out of taking any more shields. I can easily say that part of the problem was that once my opponent's dropped a big creature I was pretty much threw. With that in mind I'm going to say add in either Magma Gazers or Rothus (Your Choice). If you choose to add in Gazer then don't take out Onslaughter or Zoppe. You need those cards in order to suicide with any 8000-9000 powered creatures that you run into. If you choose to add Rothus, then I suggest dropping a human for it. Once again it's your choice.

4 Flametropus
4 Mini Titan Gett
4 Baby Zoppe
4 Searing Wave
4 Brawler Zyler
4 Rumble Gate
4 Deadly Fighter Braid Claw
4 Rothus/Magma Gazer (You could run two of each if you wanted.)
4 Onslaughter Triceps
4 Snip Striker Bullraizer

Now before anybody e-mails me saying ",WHERE"S THE VALDIOS!!111!!!11!!SHIFTPLUSONE!1?" I have to say that this deck was built on a budget. If Synon has any Valdios then I strongly recommend he add them into his deck.

When playing this deck you are going to want to attack with three creatures at once. This will take out the first three shields. Next you should attack one more time with your three creatures. This will finish the opponent off.
If your opponent plays some blockers then you want to cast Searing Wave, or Rumble Gate in order to kill them off. If D.F.B.C. happens to take two shields in the beginning of the game, then you can attack your opponent in groups of two creatures at a time. The point of this deck is to not give your opponent time to use his shields. If you attack with just one creature at a time, then your opponent will have plenty of time to use his hand full of former shields to kill you with. If you happen to run Rothus then try to keep your opponent from having anything over one creature in play. This way when your opponent puts down a big creature you can play your Rothus. Now since your opponent only has his big creature in play he is forced to choose to kill his big creature from Rothus' effect. Never play over five mana.
This deck has no way to draw extra cards. The best way to correct this is not playing over five mana. That way you have more things in your hand. All of the cards in this deck cost five mana or less, so five mana is all that you really need, in order to cast what you want.

This deck might not do so good against veteran players, but in the right tournament it can truly shine. Synon be sure to e-mail me, and let me know how this deck does against your local competition. Others should feel free to let me know how this deck does where they live. Anyway that's it for today. I hope you do really good with this deck Synon.