Invasion - "Combo is out, Beatdown is in..."

With the rotation of the Saga block, combo magic was virtually wiped out. Fires could now come in and show W/U control that it's days were numbered, and beatdown still kicked *** . About half the Fires decks were made straight G/R. The other half splashed White for the crucial card of Disenchant, and sometimes Armadillo Cloak, Armageddon, and Wrath of God. Both of these decks worked well, and neither deck was really more powerful than the other. The popular utility cards were Shock, Assault/Battery, Ghitu Fire, and Simoon. The big finisher was Two-Headed Dragon.

Planeshift - "Let's help out the number one deck..."

Counter-Rebel got Meddling Mage and.... that's about it. Other colors didn't gain nearly as much help as Fires did either. Fires grew more stable and it's lead as "King Deck" over Counter-Rebel grew larger.

Shivan Wurm provided a natural replacement for Two-Headed Dragon, especially with the introduction of Flametougne Kavu, which largely replaced Shock, Assault/Battery, and Ghitu Fire. The introduction of Hull Breach meant that splashing White for enchantment killing was no longer a necessity. Straight G/R Fires got the edge here simply because it was more stable than G/R/W Fires, which had it's "lack of White mana" problems occasionally.

7th Edition - "Enter the new decks..."

Burning Bridges, Opposition, Wildfire/Cat, and a few new decks made their appearance here. But, Fires was virtually unscathed from the 6th-7th changeover, and still was king of the hill.

Apocalypse - "Enter the overpowered enemy color cards..."

Whose enemy color decks STILL aren't as powerful as the almighty Fires. Fires is still the bully on the block right now. The one deck that you always make your sideboard with the deck in mind. The one deck that still can "just win." Of course, that doesn't stop people wanting to splash the two "broken (ha ha)" cards from every enemy W/U/B color combination into Fires.

Yet, Fires doesn't have an even balance between Green and Red. Fires has always used Green as it's primary color, and Red is the secondary color. If Blastoderm was Red, you WOULD NOT see it played in Fires. Why? Because the Fires deck doesn't always have ready access to two Red mana. In fact, with the exception of the early use of Two-Headed Dragon, the use of a single Obliterate in the Sideboard now, Fires has not widely used a SINGLE red card that requires more than one base Red mana to cast. Because the deck can't always pull it off. 99% of the time though, you WILL have access to one red mana. And if you don't, it probably has the looks of a "mulligan" hand anyway.

So, what makes people think that cards like Prophetic Bolt and Goblin Legionarre will work with Fires? As I recall, many people tried to splash Black in their decks for Terminate, and the problems with trying to make the mana work made the possible usefulness of the card moot.

Which leaves us with G/B and G/U cards.

Gaea's Skyfolk is a two CC drop. You should be casting Fires your second turn, followed by a 'Derm, then a Wurm or Burst (or alternatively, Idol, then Kavu or 'Derm). This card does not fit in the synergy of Fires (Yavimaya Barbarian wasn't ever widely used for the same reason).

Mystic Snake takes two Blue mana. Too shaky, just like Terminate. Though it does give Fires some flexibility later in the game, I'd rather be preparing to blow up the world if needed. And that can't be countered anyway.

Which brings us to Black...

Pernicious Deed. This card is questionable. It will take down all your mana critters when used, and possibly a Chimeric Idol or Fires as well. It could be useful against rebels and weenie decks though...

Then there's Mr. Popular (who isn't even in the class Morphling or Masticore are, but that’s another article)...

Spiritmonger. A five drop. Only costs one Black mana. Gets around pro-anything. But, is it that much better than Shivan Wurm or Saproling Burst, which fit much more easily in the Fires deck?

As you can see, the only REAL viable color to attempt a tri-color Fires with is Black. The question then becomes... does the replacement of Wurm or Burst with Monger and the possible inclusion of Deed as a utility card (probably sideboarded) outweigh the cons of splashing a third color? After all, it's no problem to replace four Forests with four G/B painlands. However, that's four more land that you'll be taking damage from if you need a colored mana, and you'll still have to swap a few Mountains for Swamps.

Will G/R/B Fires sit as high (or higher) as G/R/W Fires used to? I don't think so, but only time will tell...

__________________
Later,
ShadowDrifter

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Scuta runs into the same problems that Spiritmonger does. Is Scuta better than Flametongue Kavu or Blastoderm? It can't be gated by Shivan Wurm (if you're using it), it can be targeted, bounced, killed, whatever. Blastoderm can't be bounced or Terminated, but can be gated. Kavu gets to shoot something else if it's bounced, and it too can be gated. Of course, if you add Dark Ritual into the mix, things could get REALLY interesting (though you couldn't do 2nd turn Fires if you had a Ritual instead of a Bird or Elf...).

__________________
Later,
ShadowDrifter

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So I took out 3 forest in my fires and put in 3 brushland, and, along with the birds, that supports the 3 thornscape battlemage maindeck. Thornscape really do own so many things, be it meddling mage, a meddling rebel, opposing mana boyz, static orb, chimeric idol, and so many random things.

I feel that R/G/w is the most optimal build of fires right now.

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