Adding Fuel to the Fire with Ulcanix

Fire King Courtier Ulcanix is a very powerful addition to the Fire King strategy, offering us more opportunities to extend and generate card advantage at all stages of the game.

As mentioned in her individual card discussion, she is our best starter, provided you have another FIRE monster in hand. If that monster is a Fire King, you get access to Ponix while also getting the benefit of the destroyed monster's effect, allowing you to build more board presence at a faster pace than with Ponix alone.

Furthermore, she can be used as destruction fodder for any other Fire King effect, fetching a copy of Fire King High Avatar Garunix from the deck and ensuring we stay even or gain card advantage.

In later turns, she can be revived from the GY, allowing us to dig our deck deeper for any Fire King we might need and enabling cool shenanigans like getting Fire King Avatar Rangbali on the field whenever a Spell/Trap negation is needed.

Let's see what she's all about - starting with extending our Ponix plays.

Extending the Ponix patterns

Maybe "extending" isn't the right word here, since you'll be summoning Ulcanix first; however looking at it from the perspective of what she brings to the pattern, it's usually one or more monsters on the field and the ability to trigger Fire King effects before getting to Island.

In short, Ulcanix + any other FIRE gets you the same result as Ponix + any Fire King, plus another body to use as material.

Steps

  • Normal Summon Fire King Courtier Ulcanix.
  • Activate Ulcanix's effect to destroy any FIRE in your hand, and add Legendary Fire King Ponix from Deck to hand.
    • While not necessary, it's not a bad idea to always also make Ulcanix Level 1 with this effect. This ensures you're still able to make Kikinagashi Fucho if your opponent drops a Dimension Shifter on you.
  • Activate Ponix's effect to Special Summon itself from hand.
  • Activate Ponix's effect to search Fire King Sanctuary.
  • Activate Sanctuary from hand, place Fire King Island in Field Zone.
  • Activate Island's effect to destroy Ulcanix and search Sacred Fire King Garunix.
  • A Chain forms:
    • Activate Sacred Garunix's first effect to Special Summon itself from hand.
    • Activate Ulcanix's effect to Special Summon Fire King High Avatar Garunix from Deck in Defense Position.
  • Activate Sacred Garunix's second effect to destroy any Fire King from deck.

As you can see, the Ulcanix + FIRE pattern gives you 3 total bodies on the field, whereas the Ponix + FIRE version only nets you 2 bodies. This makes Link Summoning plays much easier to do and enables stronger endboards.

This is ignoring the monster you destroy off Sacred - it could very well be a Fire King Avatar Arvata or Fire King High Avatar Kirin, giving you yet another monster off their effects.

TIP: If you don't really need the 3rd monster on the field, you can destroy Ponix with Island, ensuring it returns to your hand during the next Standby Phase while also keeping a lower summon count (for Nibiru, the Primal Being).

Keep this in mind when you have resources for the current turn, but you don't have anything to use for follow-up on the next turn.

Hyang setups with Sacred and Ulcanix

Ulcanix's second effect can enable us to set up Garunix Eternity, Hyang of the Fire Kings at any point of the game, provided we have access to Sacred Fire King Garunix. This can either happen on your turn, or the opponent's turn (although you'll also need Fire King Sanctuary on the field).

In this video we're using Circle of the Fire Kings as a demonstration tool to revive Sacred Fire King Garunix from the GY. In real duels, this can be any effect or occasion that can summon Sacred from hand or GY.

Steps

Rangbali On Demand

Another neat thing about Ulcanix is that her search effect works when she's Special Summoned too - allowing you to perform various tricks during your opponent's turn.

One such trick is summoning Fire King Avatar Rangbali in anticipation of your opponent playing an important Spell/Trap, and negating it.

As before, we are using Circle of the Fire Kings to revive Fire King Courtier Ulcanix from the GY. In real duels, this can be substituted for any effect that can summon Ulcanix from hand or GY (i.e. Arvata, Kirin, Hyang, etc.).

The important part is that you can use Ulcanix at any point to destroy a FIRE and search Rangbali, whose effect lets you Special Summon it from hand (because a FIRE was destroyed).

Steps

  • Using any effect, Special Summon Fire King Courtier Ulcanix.
  • Activate Ulcanix's effect to destroy a FIRE in your hand or field, and add Fire King Avatar Rangbali from Deck to hand.
  • Activate Rangbali's effect to Special Summon itself from hand.
  • When your opponent activates a Spell/Trap effect, use Rangbali's effect to negate that effect and destroy another FIRE.