Playing the Deck
Now that we discussed all the cards we need to know about, let's see the deck in action!
The Fire King strategy, as it's currently played by most people, focuses on going first and setting up multiple layers of interaction with which to disrupt the opponent during their turn, then pushing to win the game during the third turn.
In practice, the goal is to set up Amphibious Swarmship Amblowhale via Promethean Princess, Bestower of Flames, while also having Sacred Fire King Garunix in the GY and Fire King Sanctuary on the field. This gives you multiple opportunities to destroy your opponent's cards while building board presence, then wiping the entire board with Garunix Eternity, Hyang of the Fire Kings so your opponent is left wide open for attacks.
Going second, we attempt to disrupt the opponent with the handtraps we have available, then attempt to clear their board and push for an OTK on the 2nd turn.
This can mean turboing out Hyang for a board clear and/or using cards like Fire King Sky Burn and Circle of the Fire Kings to dismantle your opponent's board and cycle through enough monsters to deal 8000+ damage.
Keep in mind that this deck performs its best when going first because we need to be able to set up our engine, and going first means fewer interruptions to worry about. When going second we're very vulnerable to many more interruptions and we struggle against boards with multiple negates, for example.
However, we have a very strong grind game - if correctly piloted, the deck can keep reusing resources from the GY for multiple consecutive turns while also consistently destroying cards on both sides of the field. Thus, surviving past the first few turns significantly tips the scales in our favor - keep this in mind as you learn the deck, and recognize when you should go for less explosive but safer plays so you can grind your opponent out later.
Next up, we'll take a look at the combos you can perform with this deck, then we'll discuss various options for handling interruptions and common situations you might find yourself in.