Sanctuary, Arvata, Ponix

Let's look at this hand:

• Fire King Sanctuary
• Fire King Avatar Arvata
• Legendary Fire King Ponix
• Any other 2 cards

You might think Ponix go brrr here, and that's not necessarily wrong, it could get you to Promethean Princess, Bestower of Flames and Amphibious Swarmship Amblowhale just fine - see the 1.5-card Ponix combo.

But what happens if it gets negated by Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring here? If the other two cards in your hand can't deal with her, you're missing out on Ponix's search. You can continue the combo at least, since you have Sanctuary already.

Now, what if your opponent waited until you activated Island, and then Ash Blossomed it instead? You're now stuck with Ponix in Attack Position, and no follow-up. This isn't ideal - and we had the counterplay in our hand this whole time.

Let's restart the game, and play this instead:

• Normal Summon Fire King Avatar Arvata.
  • We now have a monster negate online, since we have Ponix in hand, who's a FIRE monster.
• Activate Fire King Sanctuary, and place Fire King Island in your Field Zone.
• Activate Island's effect, to-...
• Your opponent chains Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring to negate Island's effect.
• Chain Arvata's effect to negate Ash, and destroy Ponix from hand.
• Ash is negated, so you resolve Island; destroy Arvata to search Sacred Fire King Garunix.
• A Chain is created:
  • CL1: Activate Arvata's effect to Special Summon Ponix from the GY.
  • CL2: Activate Sacred Garunix's effect to Special Summon itself from hand.
• Activate Sacred Garunix's effect to destroy Fire King High Avatar Kirin from Deck.
• Activate Kirin's effect to Special Summon Arvata from the GY.
• Link Summon Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf with Arvata and Sacred.
• Link Summon Relinquished Anima with Ponix.
• Activate Sunlight Wolf's effect to add Kirin from GY to hand.
• Link Summon Promethean Princess, Bestower of Flames.
• Activate Princess' effect to Special Summon Ponix from GY.
• Activate Ponix's effect to add a Fire King Spell/Trap from Deck to hand.
• Link Summon Amphibious Swarmship Amblowhale.

As you can see, we made use of Arvata's effect to negate the opponent's Ash Blossom, ensuring Ponix can search a Spell/Trap.

With this hand you'd usually get either Fire King Sky Burn to further interrupt your opponent during their turn, or Circle of the Fire Kings to attempt an OTK during your next turn - meaning your Ponix's search wasn't essential, but it's still very nice to be able to resolve it, since it means you get to do more things later on.

Isn't Arvata neat? Look for this pattern in your games, and make use of it to thwart your opponent's handtraps.

What if I have Ulcanix instead?

The line is similar - just replace Ponix with Fire King Courtier Ulcanix. The main difference is that the chain after resolving Island will have 3 effects:

• CL1: Ulcanix's effect to Special Summon Fire King High Avatar Garunix from Deck.
• CL2: Arvata's effect to Special Summon Ulcanix from GY.
• CL3: Sacred Garunix's effect to Special Summon itself from hand.

Then after you activate Sacred to destroy Kirin from Deck, you'll revive Arvata and have 4 bodies on the field instead of 3. This means instead of Link Summoning Relinquished Anima, you can Link Summon I:P Masquerena instead using Ulcanix and High Garunix.

This trades Ponix's search for an additional interruption, as you'll Special Summon Masquerena off Amblowhale's effect, and you can use her Quick Effect to go into S:P Little Knight or Knightmare Unicorn.