They call the deck Fires for a reason…
Fires of Invention is your best card. Fires of Invention is honestly Ikoria Standard’s best card, or the best one that starts in your deck and not in your sideboard-hand-command zone. You win basically every game the card resolves.
Do you see another deck in Ikoria Standard just casting Cavalier of Flame or Kenrith, the Returned King as normal cards? No, because it’s 2020 and everything is messed up and if you pay five mana for a creature it better be a no-payment-required Baneslayer Angel Mulldrifter with hexproof.
These cards are only good when they’re free giant haste monsters. Then they are broken.
The other Fires of Invention decks just play fewer Fires. Yorion Fires plays 80 cards, which dilutes your deck to effectively have only three Fires of Invention. Gruul Fires with Kaheera, the Orphanguard doesn’t have Sphinx of Foresight.
That’s it. If you put Fires of Invention in your deck, you want to present the best Fires of Invention deck you can. That’s Keruga Jeskai Fires. Nothing too complicated about it.
Or you can put unplayable cards in your deck to fill another twenty slots. I can’t stop you from exercising free will.
“But Ari, you can Yorion exile your Fires of Invention after casting two spells, then cast a third spell, then get all the Yorion value on your end step, and then next turn…”
Or you can just pick your opponent up and place them directly in the graveyard instead of spending time feeling good and drawing cards to do nothing first.
A Decklist
This isn’t locked-in gospel. There are two uncertain singletons in the maindeck and another couple in the sideboard.
Creatures (15)
Planeswalkers (5)
Lands (24)
Spells (16)
Building Keruga Jeskai Fires
You start every single game with a 5/4 Mulldrifter in your hand. That just isn’t okay. You’d better play enough lands to hit your fifth land drop every game, and 28 might even be pushing it low. Play it safe with 29.
The real debate is whether you should play Triomes or Temples in your enters-the-battlefield-tapped slots beyond the fully on-color Raugrin Triome. I don’t have a strong opinion on the Memory Leak splash, but off-color sources give you access to the bonus abilities on Kenrith, the Returned King.
How many times have you lost the game after spending mana on Kenrith’s non-red abilities? Once? Twice? Have you ever needed that black one? I didn’t think so.
What is actually important is hitting your first five land drops, finding a three-drop, casting Fires of Invention, casting a threat, and doing it all on time. You can’t cycle a Triome in that time frame. Three mana for cycling is basically infinite and you can only use that in the post-Fires end-games where you should be a massive favorite anyway. Temples fix your draws up the curve and actually let you do your thing. Sure, they sometimes overlap with Sphinx of Foresight, but if you’re keeping that many cards with Sphinx and that worried about your curve, you’re probably set regardless.
These cards are never negotiable. If you think a planeswalker win condition might be better, it won’t. Planeswalkers give your opponents turns to do stuff and can die in combat instead of just killing them. At most, the third Kenrith is negotiable, but the lifegain ability is too important against Rakdos Sacrifice decks.
These cards are non-negotiable right now. Teferi, Time Raveler is too important against Temur Reclamation and the random Dimir Flash decks, while also being your out to a 7/7 Flourishing Fox or other nonsense. Deafening Clarion has to stay in the deck as long as people play Lurrus of the Dream-Den. Bonecrusher Giant is the only two-mana interaction there is and is an acceptable threat to lead on against the reactive decks.
That’s 27 spells, 29 lands, and even if you start fiddling you have four to six flex slots.
One card bordering on non-negotiable is Elspeth Conquers Death. It’s the best card besides Fires of Invention in the mirror. It’s insane against Yorion nonsense. It’s good against Obosh Rakdos Sacrifice. It’s good against Temur Reclamation. It’s only bad against Lurrus decks and just okay against the non-Wilderness Reclamation Flash decks.
The devil in the details is the quantity you want in the spots it’s merely good, hence just starting on two. I think the third copy isn’t out of the question, but four is excessive against opposing decks that don’t also play the card.
I’m not into splashing Thoughtseize at this rate. I would rather just play a three-drop that matters and mulligan my hands missing the pieces instead of cycling into them. There are experiments with other splashes for other effects since you have the incidental Triome and Fabled Passage potential already, and I wouldn’t be shocked if someone found an actually good card to fit in that space.
Brazen Borrower was a concession to the unknown. I wanted an extra way to answer a Flourishing Fox running out of control, or just a bit more tempo against some mix of Wilderness Reclamation and Fires of Invention. It’s absolutely a filler slot and a C- version of everything else.
Shark Typhoon is small-ball when you don’t control Fires of Invention, overkill when you do.
Narset of the Ancient Way is only in Fires as a card that costs four mana. It’s something you can use to take a relevant game action after resolving Fires of Invention on-curve that then sticks around to give you a bonus card off Keruga, the Macrosage and can clear a Mayhem Devil or other medium threat. The pieces it puts together are fine but never exciting, and it often gets sideboarded out as it sits right in the intersection of Mystical Dispute and Aether Gust.
If you cut Narset of the Ancient Way for another maindeck copy of a good sideboard card, you have reasonable odds of improving the deck. I’m just defaulting to the safe and acceptable choice.
An extra maindeck sweeper is in the flex slot options. You would kill for Anger of the Gods, but there isn’t anything that comes close to approximating it.
I would like to start some Mystical Disputes right now since it seems like Yorion and Temur Reclamation are on the high side of the metagame and Dimir or Simic Flash can’t be far behind. Two copies might be pushing it, though, since non-permanent flex slots minimize your Keruga triggers and your Cavalier knockouts.
Moving to the actual sideboard cards and focusing on the ones I don’t play, don’t mess with the graveyard hate. You beat the Lurrus and Cauldron Familiar decks in other ways.
Cards that are on the fringe to me are Narset, Parter of Veils and Mythos of Illuna. Mythos I just haven’t played with, but it seems acceptably powerful copying opposing Fires of Invention or Elspeth Conquers Death while also just being a bonus Cavalier of Flame when you go to brawl.
Narset was unimpressive against the metagame at large, but it may be best against Wilderness Reclamation decks to overload one half of their answers (Mystical Dispute) and leave the other less useful (Aether Gust on Legion Warboss). I’m not sold that her static ability does enough to stop them due to Shark Typhoon, but it’s worth more reps than I have put into the card in that role.
Opening Hands
You should mulligan basically every seven-card hand Game 1 that isn’t on the road to Fires of Invention. When there’s a very specific exception in a matchup, I’ll call it out.
The clear keeps are Fires of Invention or multiple Sphinx of Foresight, which adds up to a free mulligan. If you don’t have Fires of Invention, just bottom everything off the first Sphinx and see if you find Fires in the next cards. Past Fires, your next scry priority is locking up your land drops, then ensuring you have a three-drop to cast before Fires, then finding something to do for free the turn you cast Fires. After that Keruga is online and you just get a new hand of cards to go off with.
Single-Sphinx, no-Fires hands are keepable if they have the rest wrapped up. If you have a three-drop or two that matter, your lands, and a Sphinx of Foresight, I think that’s on the lower end of keepable hands. If you would need to keep lands or spells that aren’t Fires off the Sphinx scry, forget about it. This aggressive scry strategy also maximizes the impact of your Temples, allowing your hands mixing a single Sphinx and Temples to actually dig the way a double Sphinx hand would and approach the “free mulligan” level of selection.
Matchups
VS Jeskai Fires
Game 1, someone casts Fires of Invention first and the other player freaking dies. There are two ways to hope to invert this: save a Teferi bounce for their Fires and immediately have your own so you “had it first,” or immediately have your own but also have multiple creatures earlier plus the Cavalier fire back so their first swing isn’t lethal and your swing back is.
Triple mana is some Starcraft cheat code nonsense. Type “show me the money,” here’s your free seventeen power with haste, good luck opponent.
Out (on the play):
In (on the play):
On the play, you can beat Fires of Invention with Legion Warboss into Mystical Dispute. This plan used to be much more reliable in the Aether Gust days, but now it’s just something you stumble into while Fires of Invention is still your best line.
Out (on the draw):
In (on the draw):
On the draw, Legion Warboss is likely to land and immediately run into larger threats. You are better off with Bonecrusher Giant as an answer to their Legion Warboss, or Deputy of Detention to play from behind against their Fires of Invention. Hidden in that interaction is the fact that on the play, you hit Elspeth Conquers Death right after they cast Fires of Invention, but on the draw you need answers that don’t cost five mana.
It’s hard to do more in this matchup than make the blatantly obvious play every turn that maximizes your Fires of Invention leverage. All your cards cost an entire turn to cast since Mystical Dispute rarely targets blue cards, and if someone resolves Fires of Invention and the other doesn’t, they spiral ahead way too quickly. You used to be able to Elspeth Conquers Death all their threats sometimes, but with Keruga, the Macrosage you can now only hope to use Elspeth Conquers Death to manage their Fires of Invention while they draw more cards.
VS Lurrus Sacrifice (both Orzhov and Rakdos)
Lurrus Sacrifice has huge issues with Deafening Clarion. They can fight through the first if you’re just durdling after, but if you have the second copy and relevant bodies they will fold. On the play I would keep good hands with Deafening Clarion, another removal spell, and relevant follow-up, and on the draw any hand with two Clarions that does anything else is fine.
If you’re on the play with Sphinx of Foresight and Deafening Clarion, I would consider if you can stall the Clarion until Turn 5 where you get the lifelink back from the Sphinx attack. If they have Witch’s Oven you’re often banking on those big life swings to get you out of Cauldron Familiar range, and you only draw Kenrith, the Returned King so often.
Their best hands involve Dreadhorde Butcher. On the draw, I would be concerned about any hand without Deafening Clarion or Bonecrusher Giant if they kept a seven-card hand since Butcher rapidly spirals out of control.
Out:
In:
Same deal, only you have more sweepers for the double-up knockout. Teferi, Time Raveler never bounces things of substance against the one-drop theme deck. Don’t walk your Deputy of Detention into your own Deafening Clarion. Their major countermeasure is Act of Treason, and your goal if you are concerned about it is just not to let them do enough damage up front for it to be lethal.
VS Obosh Rakdos Sacrifice
Obosh Rakdos Sacrifice is an entirely different animal. The first Deafening Clarion is good here, but the second isn’t the slam dunk it is against Lurrus of the Dream-Den as the recovery plan. Your goal is to not die to the first wave before you can slam Fires of Invention and bury them in the midrange battle that ensues. If you get into non-Fires five-drop fights they can actually compete thanks to the looming threat of Obosh, the Preypiercer. I wouldn’t be shocked if you were a bit behind in the normal Magic head-to-head.
Stick to the default mulligan plan. On the play, Fires of Invention on Turn 4 is usually fast enough. On the draw, you keep the Fires hands without earlier interaction and just hope it works out.
Out:
In:
With Elspeth Conquers Death actually being good in the matchup, the next worst card falls to Teferi. Three mana to cantrip bounce a creature is okay, but it only sticks around for more when they cast a three-drop with no action behind it and you should win most of those games. Sideboarding out Teferi is awkwardly one reason you aren’t super-excited to have the fourth Elspeth Conquers Death on the play.
The reason this is so awkward is their Drill Bits or Duresses are a pain. Discard from the Lurrus decks just slows them down and forces them to play midrange pace with one-drop power levels, while Obosh discard bridges into midrange parity instead of Fires of Invention games. You need heavy hitters to draw to, and Elspeth Conquers Death would be that if the third trigger were reliably worth something.
Wanting that thing to recur for some value is why I’ve biased towards Bonecrusher Giant over the last Flame Sweep, since there’s only so much room for small reactive answers. If you have to play the attrition games due to discard, you also can’t be stuck with only sweepers in the face of Woe Strider, Cauldron Familiar, and Gutterbones.
I would be willing to consider sideboard plans on the play that lean a bit more on Teferi plus a sweeper than Bonecrusher Giant, but on the draw the planeswalker isn’t an option.
VS Yorion Midrange or Fires
Just do your powerful thing. They pay mana for their spells, or when they Fires of Invention they don’t immediately kill you. Killing their Charming Prince is important since their repeated free value loop from it might keep pace. Smaller chip shots clearing pre-Yorion planeswalkers can also minimize the impact of their one good card.
Out:
In:
Mystical Dispute punishes their only plays that can outclass Fires of Invention and Elspeth Conquers Death cleans up their threats that might make for huge Yorion plays. Legion Warboss slightly outperforms Bonecrusher Giant on damage when you’re just going for raw lethal.
You are still a massively more powerful deck than them, their sideboard is minimized by 80-cards, and if your hands are good you should just crush them.
VS Temur Reclamation
There are two types of Game 1s you win. In one type, you resolve Teferi and then cast anything that attacks. I err on the side of just ramping Teferi up out of a single Shark attack or Scorching Dragonfire until there’s a key turn where recasting Wilderness Reclamation would also cut them out of interacting with anything you have, which is often one turn before they die.
In the other, you just push on them and hope they don’t have Wilderness Reclamation plus land plus an X-spell in time. Honestly, that’s a lot of raw cardboard they need and you’re often within margins on this, especially if you forced them to counter Teferi.
Your mulligan strategy shifts significantly. Teferi is the whammy and Fires of Invention hands without it are only great on the play with Bonecrusher Giant lead off and probably some other piece like a Sphinx that promises the hope of a Teferi or a really fast clock.
Out:
In:
Mystical Dispute adds a layer of your Turn 4 being threat with backup. You want to shove a lethal three-drop threat at them on Turn 3, and then shove the next one at them Turn 4 and force the action. I’m also not opposed to Mystical Dispute on Growth Spiral to force them to play at your pace and maybe catch them pre-Reclamation without a counterspell.
If you are at the point where you are sequencing threats to maximize a clock and have the option of something they can Aether Gust versus something they can’t, the default choice is not the thing they can spend two mana to undo. The exception is if they can’t Aether Gust it on the stack and your Kergua or Cavalier trigger yields enough new cards you feel like you are getting closer to something that hammers the game home regardless.
I might be undervaluing a third Elspeth Conquers Death here as a way to pressure Wilderness Reclamation and threaten a Teferi, Time Raveler recursion. I would stare at the third copy on the play for a while. They aren’t loaded on targets to the extent you want four, but if you can immediately go for their Reclamation on your Turn 5…
As always when I write a guide about a great deck, I’m underselling all of these matchups by describing how you lose or win hard games, because how you win the easy ones is boring.
What percent of games do you think you just cast Fires of Invention on Turn 4 and win effortlessly? Why not play the deck that does that the most and the best?