This week's deck is a new take on a classic formula that takes me back to a simpler time when Standard's ban list was as long as my arm and everyone was complaining about Oko, Thief of Crowns. Another card got a ton of attention as well: Fires of Invention, and it was equally problematic. Well, Fires of Invention is perfectly legal in Explorer and, to my knowledge, isn't seeing a significant amount of play. I aim to change that with this beauty.
The Primary Gameplan
Fires of Invention is a four-mana bomb that denies you the ability to cast on your opponent's turn while giving you the ability to free cast two spells on your own turn as long as you have at least enough mana to otherwise spend them. This sounds like it doubles your mana when, in fact, it often will triple it. While you can cast two spells, your mana is free to spend on abilities, so make sure any Fires deck you make has plenty of activated abilities. Such as:
While Kenrith, the Returned King is generally the go-to for this type of effect (and he does good work, don't get me wrong), I prefer to focus on dealing massive damage as quickly as possible. Cavalier of Flames is non-legendary and red which allows it to synergize with other cards in our deck like Fable of the Mirror Breaker and Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded while giving us a great mana sink to pump up our team.
Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded is not as generically powerful as his other version, Purphoros, God of the Forge, but it does give us an ability that behaves exactly like Sneak Attack for red and artifact creatures. As a five-drop, we can play and activate him the turn after playing our Fires of Invention, then play a second spell and even activate his ability to cheat in a huge creature. Creatures such as:
Ilharg, the Raze-Boar is a beauty alongside Purphoros because it gives us a secondary sneak attack after the initial one. This works especially well with Terror of Mount Velus because it grants your entire team, including the trampling Ilharg, double strike which can easily be the nail in the coffin. If played fairly, Terror doesn't attack itself because it doesn't have haste, but cheated in already attacking gets around that and adds 10 damage in the air.
Nearly any combination of these creatures can deliver the kill shot, but the support cards also add potential bodies to the board while clearing away blockers.
The Support Team
We're playing Explorer and we're in red, therefore, we have to play Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. While that sentence sounds flippant, it's actually kind of true. This card provides ramp, creatures, and card selection while being nearly impossible to favorably trade for. Additionally, if you can use the Reflection of Kiki-Jiki to copy a Cavalier of Flame, your opponent is going to have a very bad day. Even though that scenario doesn't happen often, it gives your opponent something to sweat in the late game and spend removal on, which is always handy.
Bonecrusher Giant is one of the best all-around red creature cards that's ever been printed, so we're going to take advantage of it. The two-mana stomp spell isn't amazing by itself, but removing chump blockers and denying damage prevention can be important depending on the matchup, and it can also add four power to the alpha strike later in the game. Having just this one card in your hand can guarantee a reasonable curve out on turns two and three even if you don't have any other playables. This thing is S+ and I'll fight anyone who disagrees.
On that same token, Brazen Borrower can curve out equally well but it is a bit less impactful on the board. It makes up for it by giving this deck play against non-creature permanents that it otherwise lacks. Pesky Pithing Needle got you down? Forget about it!
Having impactful four-mana spells that are generically useful is clutch in any Fires build because you get to cast any spell immediately for free after dropping Fires of Invention. Commit is incredible because it allows you to disrupt your opponent's gameplan while setting up your six-drop should your turn five not be as impactful as you'd hoped. The ability to hit a spell on the stack with it is nice if your Fires doesn't arrive on time, but its board disruption is the key reason for its inclusion.
Ill-Timed Explosion, on the other hand, draws cards no matter what. Years ago, I ran cards like Drawn from Dreams in this deck to ensure our hand was loaded and ready for turn five. I've found the lack of selection is easily worth the upside of a potential wrath when it's necessary. Its being optional makes this card shockingly good.
The Companion
Keruga, the Macrosage and Fires of Invention go together like spaghetti and meatballs, so of course this deck takes advantage. Given that we're putting so many huge things on the board, we will easily draw three to five cards off of Keruga and possibly have another spell and/or the Purphoros activation still to mobilize all those big monsters we just picked up. While Keruga can't be cheated in off of Purphoros, they can be dropped with an Ilharg attack. While it might be suboptimal to draw the cards after attacks have already been declared, this does return Keruga to hand if they survive combat, so it's repeatable the following turn. That is, of course, assuming your opponent survives combat.
Is it Good?
This type of deck will always hold a soft spot for me because it was one of the first creations I made after I started streaming MTG Arena back in 2020. As a nerd trying to find their voice, the ability to cheat out huge monsters off the back of two literal gods was just too much fun. This deck often goes from absolutely no board presence to lethal in no time and in Best-of-One you can farm people who have no idea what's about to happen. It's unreasonably fun to pull off and I'd recommend it heartily.
Unfortunately, the deck is pretty easy to disrupt if Fires of Invention gets countered or destroyed. A turn five Purphoros with your mana tapped is nowhere near as impactful and often just too slow, but this deck does avoid the graveyard, so hate pieces aren't as targeted and precise. Honestly, I find it very fun and I'm always surprised when I'm able to pull out wins with it. I'd recommend taking it for a spin if you have an abundance of wildcards or a bunch of old Standard staples from four years ago still in your Arena collection.
Thanks for reading, and happy brewing!