Fire King

"Fire King" ( En'ō) is an archetype of FIRE Beast, Winged Beast, and Beast-Warrior-Type monsters that are mainly focused on self destruction. They were first released in the OCG Structure Deck: Assault of the Flame King, and in the TCG Structure Deck: Onslaught of the Fire Kings.

The "Fire Kings" seem to be based off of different creatures in different Asian mythologies, Buddhism, and Bali.

Each of the "Fire Kings" has a different surrounding flame color, possibly indicating Attribute-based relations (although ironically one of these is the color of WATER).

Playing Style
Fire King monsters have their effects triggered when they're destroyed and sent to the Graveyard. Their boss monster, "Garunix", will destroy all other monsters on the field in the Standby Phase of the turn after it was destroyed by a card effect. Since it does not need to be destroyed while on the field, even cards like "Solemn Judgement" can trigger its effects. The other Fire King monsters can be Special Summoned from your hand when a Fire King is destroyed, keeping field advantage.

"Barong" is the main searcher of the deck. Not only can it search a "Fire King" monster, but it can search any "Fire King" card, even "Circle of the Fire Kings" and "Onslaught of the Fire Kings". "Qilin" can send any FIRE monster from the Deck to the Graveyard, so they can be recycled with cards like "Circle of the Fire Kings" or "Call of the Haunted". "Yaksha" can destroy a card on your field or hand, so you can destroy a Fire King in your hand to get its effect as well. Another card that isn't a Fire King, but works in this deck as well, is "Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys", having a similar effect to "Garunix". It will destroy all Spell/Traps on the field in your Standby Phase. A final card that works well is Yubel. By having Yaksha destroy a Yubel in your hand, you can immediately special summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate, whose destruction effect will work with every Fire King monster. In addition, another card that works well is Earthbound Immortal Ccarayhua. By using Yaksha effect to destroy a Earthbound Immortal Ccarayhua in your hand, you can trigger Ccarayhua's effect to destroy all cards on the field. This combo is powerful enough to stop a OTK such as Six Samurai, Chaos Dragon, etc. "Chain Destruction" also proved to be a powerful support, since you don't need to control "Fire King Avatar Barong"/"Fire King Avatar Kirin" to trigger their effects.

Aside from "Garunix", all Fire King monsters are FIRE with 200 DEF, gaining support from cards like "Flamvell Firedog" and "Rekindling". Having two Beast-Warrior-Type monsters in the archetype also allows for support from "Flaming Dance - "Tenki"" and other "Fire Formation" cards, and even from "Enthusiastic Beast Wolfberk", recycling them for Xyz Summons or for their effects, as "Wolfberk" only negates them on the field.

Effective Combos
High Avatar Garunix destroys all other monsters on the field and Sacred Phoenix destroys all spells and traps. A very aggressive and effective combo is to send both of them to the graveyard in the same turn, then the next turn High Avatar will summon, then Sacred Phoenix, and you can dish out a massive direct 5,100 points of damage. This can be done by using Dark Hole/Torrential Tribute or similar mass destruction cards, or you could simply opt with other cards to develop your own combos to elaborate this one. If you have both a Sacred Phoenix and a Garunix on the field when you send a second set to the graveyard, you can dish out whole field destruction each turn. While highly aggressive, this combo is also risky. With all the special summoning you will be doing, it gives your opponent to kill the combo with something like bottomless trap hole or other "RFP" cards. And with the structure deck High Avatar came in, this combo is relatively easy to pull off. You can use Card/Hand Destruction to get your Sacred Phoenix/Garunix into the Graveyard (For Circle of the Fire Kings), but it will not trigger their effects.

Story
The "Fire Kings" live in a volcanic island, lying in the southern seas. Using their powers over the fire, they could reincarnate, and grow using its powers again. When the "Fire Kings" saw their temple threatened by the "Atlantean" army, they fought back in equal strenght, only enough to keep the invaders away from their island.

Weaknesses
Cards like "Macro Cosmos", "Dimensional Fissure", and "Banisher of the Radiance" can prevent "Garunix" and "Nephthys" from reviving, as well as stopping the effects of the other "Fire King" monsters. "Necrovalley" also hinders the Deck greatly. Cards that can send without destroying, such as "Number 50: Blackship of Corn", "Dark End Dragon", and "Inzektor Exa-Beetle" can eliminate the monsters without triggering their effects. "Bottomless Trap Hole", "The End of Anubis", and "Dimensional Prison" also pose hazards. Probably, the best cards to stop "Fire Kings" are "Abyss Dweller" (that can be easily summoned in any deck), and "Soul Drain" - they let you use your Graveyard for resources while stopping the effects of Fire Kings. Lastly, cards that prevent players from Special Summoning, such as "Archlord Kristya", "Evilswarm Ophion" and "Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo" can prove problematic.

"Solemn Warning" helps stops "Garunix" and "Nephthys" as you can chain it to the activation of the card effect to special summon while it is in the Graveyard, and it will not return to the field as you cannot destroy a card that is already in the Graveyard.