Pook's Place

You Play With Fire,
You’re Gonna Get Burned!

By Pook

8.05.04  Hey all. Much to my surprise, my Spider-man article earlier in the week really grabbed your attention (although I must make a note that yes, I know Yugi has a mother, she’s just noticeably absent 98% of the time – I stretched the truth a bit). But I still decided to balance out the universe by doing a “real” article for this week as well. So I thought I’d talk about my new deck, the one I tested at the World Championships – Pook’s Fire/Burn deck, a.k.a. “You Play With Fire, You’re Gonna Get Burned!” – and yes, I have to say that to my opponent before we play. So here’s the deck:

TOTAL CARDS: 42

Monsters (22)
Tribute:
Lava Golem
Twin-Headed Fire Dragon

Non-Tribute:
Blazing Inpachi x3
Darkfire Soldier #1
Darkfire Soldier #2
Battle Footballer
Fire Princess
Cannon Soldier
Molten Zombie
The Thing in the Crater x3
UFO Turtle x2
Sangan
Witch of the Black Forest
Inferno
Solar Flare Dragon x3

Spells (12)
Messenger of Peace
Monster Reborn
Swords of Revealing Light
Scapegoat
Giant Trunade
Dark Hole
Molten Destruction
Wave-Motion Cannon
Goblin Thief
Mystical Space Typhoon
Question
Mage Power

Traps (10)
Tower of Babel
Jar of Greed
Seven Tools of the Bandit
Ring of Destruction
Magic Jammer
Just Desserts
Backfire x2
Mask of Restrict
Mirror Force

Alright, so here’s the strategy. First of all, this deck IS ban list compliant, something that is very important – this is a winning strategy and one that will hopefully catch on come October’s ban. I’ll run down the basic strategies:

Solar Flare Dragon – AST common. This is my new best friend. 1500/1000 so both Witch and Sangan-able, plus can be Special Summoned by UFO Turtle. You want to get one of these onto the field as soon as possible, because if it is out there with another Pyro-type, it cannot be attacked. What I like to do is set The Thing in the Crater (1000/1200 – When sent from field to graveyard, special summon 1 Pyro-type monster from hand – that also means no Tribute needed for Twin-Headed Fire Dragon) and bring out a Solar Flare Dragon, then on my next turn, Normal Summon another SFD, that way neither can be attacked, both can attack, and each will do 500 direct damage during my End Phase. Works even better with all three of them on the field.

Inferno – IOC common. Remove 1 Fire type in the graveyard from play to Special Summon (does not specify AT K or DEF position). When it destroys an opponent’s monster, inflict 1500 direct damage. This card BEGS to have an equip spell. The 1900 DEF is alright, but the 1100 ATK won’t stop much. I boost it with Mage Power, making it strong enough to take out an opponent’s DEF position monster, then it still gets to do the 1500 direct. This card works GREAT with Solar Flare Dragon, because it can only be Special Summoned – Normal the SFD, then Special Inferno, now SFD can’t be attacked.

Backfire – Continuous Trap, AST common. When a Fire monster on your side of the field is destroyed and sent to the graveyard, inflict 500 direct damage to opponent. The card text does NOT say “by battle”, so if you’ve got 5 Fire monsters on the field and Dark Hole, that’s 2500 direct damage, 5000 if you’ve got 2 out (but why would you do that?) The best bet is to have this active when you have The Thing in the Crater or UFO Turtle set, because both of which are cards you want destroyed. After a while, your opponent will think twice about destroying a monster, especially when all but 2 are Fire types.

Question – I LOVE this card. I got it in a trade just for it’s fun value, but I started playing it and it has worked EVERY SINGLE TIME! Here’s the catch – you need to fake out your opponent. This card is often branded as a good late-game card, but I can get it to work pretty early on. Here’s how. In this deck, I have both Darkfire Soldier #1 and Darkfire Soldier #2 – two completely different monsters. Additionally, I have Inferno, which removes a monster from play. So here’s what I do. If I get the Darkfires to the graveyard at roughly the same time, and your opponent knows it was a Darkfire, you have a 50/50 shot that he/she’ll pick the wrong number! With Inferno, remove your bottom monster from the graveyard, so even if your opponent remembers what your first monster is, they may not remember the second. Ooh, I’m so sneaky! Plus, if you get this to work with Molten Zombie, you get to draw a card (when it is Special Summoned from the Graveyard, draw 1 card).

Tower of Babel & Wave-Motion Cannon – IOC/MFC common, respectively. One’s a trap, one’s a spell, but each works so well with one another. Tower of Babel is a really hard card to use effectively, but that’s why you’ve got me here. Since it is a trap, you can chain it on your opponent’s turn immediately following the one it was set. So, you can chain it to their Monster Reborn and get that first important Spell counter on it – 4 counters destroy this card, inflicting 3000 direct damage to the person who put the counter on it. Here’s the trick – you want to play spells. Let’s say your opponent doesn’t play a spell on their turn, great. So on your next turn, activate this. Then play Wave-Motion Cannon – that’s 1. Next, play 2 more Spells, doesn’t matter what. That’s 2 and 3. Then, do whatever else you need, just don’t play a Spell. On your opponent’s next turn, they’ll be too afraid to play one. Even if they MST it, they still take the damage. Additionally, if Tower of Babel has the 3 counters on it and Wave-Motion Cannon is currently gaining more power each of your Standby Phases, your opponent will again be too scared to take 3000 direct, so no chance of MST on Wave-Motion Cannon either. Hold them off for 8 turns and you win.

Cannon Soldier & Scapegoat – simple enough. Scapegoat on opponent’s turn, summon Cannon Soldier on your own, tribute all 5 for 2500 direct. Ta da.

Lava Golem, Messenger of Peace, & Mask of Restrict – This is my Evil Trinity. Give opponent Lava Golem, chain it to Mask of Restrict – no tributes no matter what. Now they can’t sacrifice Lava Golem for Jinzo or something, plus they can’t attack with it because of Messenger of Peace (by the way, MoP is much more reliable than Gravity Bind, I don’t know why, but it is). The only way for them to get rid of Lava Golem would be to either Dark Hole or Harpie you. But, like I said, this is a ban-list compliant deck, so you’d probably be playing it in ban-tournaments – no Harpie. 1000 direct to them. And all for the mere cost of 100 LP to you.

Well, there you have it. All of my secrets. Now I’m sure I’ll start seeing anti-Pook decks (that would be cool). But I encourage everyone to try new theme decks. On top of this one, I have a Water deck (it’s got ban cards, but doesn’t have to) that pulled it’s weight at the World Tournament as well, but I wanted to share my Fire/Burn deck for one reason – this is the most fun deck I’ve ever played. It isn’t a staple deck, it isn’t a win at any cost deck, it is an outrageously fun and powerful deck. I played it for most of the day in Anaheim and didn’t get bored of it once. I also had some of the best duels of my life using it – real nail-biters that came down to the wire. So much fun! Alright, I’ll be back next week with a more traditional Pook’s Place, a.k.a. funny and insightful. Happy dueling!