Kiln Fiend

[serracollector]

Remember tho that sacrificing the creature to fling is PART of the casting cost, so it does NOT get the +3/+0 for casting the Fling IF you saccing the Kiln.

I already tried making a legacy "burn" deck using 4 Kiln, Cleave, Fireblast, Fork, Bolts, and chains, with 4 Mox Diamond, 4 Lotus petal and Shrapnel Blast.

Casting a first turn Kiln, followed with a shrapnel blast + fireblast is always fun.

Berserk + Cleave is just funny on any creature.  Tarmogoyf, Druid, or Kiln with a Cleave/Berserk is pretty close to GG.

[Thegreatgonzo]

just in case you want to get cute, and/or have many creatures in your meta :

Distortion strike
Target creature gets +1/+0 until end of turn and is unblockable this turn.
Rebound (If you cast this spell from your hand, exile it as it resolves. At the beginning of your next upkeep, you may cast this card from exile without paying its mana cost.)

 

[Delha]

just in case you want to get cute, and/or have many creatures in your meta :

Distortion strike
Target creature gets +1/+0 until end of turn and is unblockable this turn.
Rebound (If you cast this spell from your hand, exile it as it resolves. At the beginning of your next upkeep, you may cast this card from exile without paying its mana cost.)

Fiend + D.Strike is a recognized strategy unto itself in draft.

[TheShop]

If splashing a color is acceptible- my fav spell granting evasion has always been shadow rift.(I guess it works better with tog...but I always thought shadow rift was funny).

[madmanmike25]

Actually, I think an excellent spash color is black for Dark Confidant.  Duress/Seize would also be useful.  Taking away an impotant card and doing 3 more dmg seems good.  Again, I would suggest not using cards that are only useful once Fiend is in play.  This idea is fragile enough, having Fiend boosting cards in hand with no Fiend in play seems terrible to me.

Would this be a bad start for a list?

4 Kiln Fiend
4 Confidant
4 ??????  Only other b/r creatures i can think of are Knobgobbler Rats or Jagged Poppet.
4 Duress
4 Thoughtseize
4 L. Bolt
4 Chain Light
4 Edict

[Delha]

Actually, I think an excellent spash color is black for Dark Confidant.  Duress/Seize would also be useful.  Taking away an impotant card and doing 3 more dmg seems good.  Again, I would suggest not using cards that are only useful once Fiend is in play.  This idea is fragile enough, having Fiend boosting cards in hand with no Fiend in play seems terrible to me.

Would this be a bad start for a list?

4 Kiln Fiend
4 Confidant
4 ??????  Only other b/r creatures i can think of are Knobgobbler Rats or Jagged Poppet.
4 Duress
4 Thoughtseize
4 L. Bolt
4 Chain Light
4 Edict

That sounds very similar to what I had in mind when I suggested a Fish type shell with a heavy Duress package. I think it's probably the best way to not just get comboed out in the 3-4 turns it probably takes to go lethal with this sort of deck. Do you think any other filler creatures are needed to speed up the clock?

[meadbert]

Would Night's Whisper be better than Dark Confidant?

[NilsH]

Actually, I think an excellent spash color is black for Dark Confidant.  Duress/Seize would also be useful.  Taking away an impotant card and doing 3 more dmg seems good.  Again, I would suggest not using cards that are only useful once Fiend is in play.

Agreed This seems like the best option so far.

Would this be a bad start for a list?

4 Kiln Fiend
4 Confidant
4 ??????  Only other b/r creatures i can think of are Knobgobbler Rats or Jagged Poppet.
4 Duress
4 Thoughtseize
4 L. Bolt
4 Chain Light
4 Edict

Gorilla Shaman and Magus of the Moon do a good job disrupting the opponent hitting their manabase. Phyrexian Negator, Nantuko Shade or Tombstalker are some other options if you are looking for beats. Shade is probably too small though. Negator is nice in a controll and combo heavy meta, but I guess Tombstalker is best creature overall. You might take some damage from Confidant playing him.

@Meadbert: I like your list from the previous page. Did you try Sleight of Hand? It seems good; maybe in place of the AKs? Your list has very much draw, I would try playing Spell Pierce for some of them. I know counters are suboptimal with Kiln Fiend, but they still grow your Dryads.

[FlyFlySideOfFry]

Would Night's Whisper be better than Dark Confidant?

I don't think so because Dark Confidant does like 3.5 average damage per turn where as Night's Whisper does roughly 6 as a one-time deal. Also Dark Confidant would be better when you don't have Kiln Fiend out in my opinion. However, speaking of black draw spells would Skeletal Scrying serve as a bomb finisher? With Kiln Fiend out it would do insane damage by drawing you into a ton of spells. :O

[meadbert]

@Meadbert: I like your list from the previous page. Did you try Sleight of Hand? It seems good; maybe in place of the AKs? Your list has very much draw, I would try playing Spell Pierce for some of them. I know counters are suboptimal with Kiln Fiend, but they still grow your Dryads.

I actually have been testing Misdirection in place of Spell Pierce or AKs.  Countermagic is fine for protecting your own bombs.  Basically it is common to play turn 1 Fiend.  Then whether or not Fiend resolves you really want to resolve Quiet Speculation on turn 2.  Usually you will have 1 on color mana source after Speculation which can be used to flash back Ancient Grudge.  Anyway, if they counter Speculation and you use you on color source for Pierce then you cannot use Grudge and are vulnerable to Vault/Key.  If you use Misdirection then you still have mana to flashback Grudge which is what is most important.

So typically I would get something like 1 Grudge and 2xDA after I play Speculation.  The loss of AKs has not been bad since Intuition can just get flashback cards anyway.

[zimagic]

Thought I'd share this with you: I've been working on an extended version of R/B using Kiln Fiend and the RBU Pacts.

With 4x Bushwhacker the Red Pact can drop a 5/4 and a 2/1 haste in addition to boosting the Fiend for +3/+0, essentially 8 damage for RR. The Slaughter Pact clears the way and the Pact of Negation counters any removal. They are free off Dark Confident and you can easily target your Fiend with a Slaughter and counter it with a Negation that sort of stuff for free boosts if you're going for the kill. The rest is just fetches, chrome moxes and 1cc burn. If you're countering anything that will stop your damage going through, you generally don't care about losing during your upkeep as you're ending the game before that happens.

It's a bit risky sure, but ridiculously fast. It's not impossible to go for 20+ on turn 2 with a good hand.

[Delha]

That sounds really interesting, would you mind posting your current list? I hadn't considered a shell like that.

[swawagon]

If you are going a high risk / high reward angle, Final Fortune provides a +3 now, and another draw and another attack the next (final) turn.

[Diakonov]

I noticed that no one has mentioned Manaplasm, but it's likely not as good as Dryad.  I saw some discussion of Misdirections and Deep Analyses, which would give it +4 and +5 respectively.  Just wanted to throw it out there as a reminder.

[TopSecret]

Thought I'd share this with you: I've been working on an extended version of R/B using Kiln Fiend and the RBU Pacts.

With 4x Bushwhacker the Red Pact can drop a 5/4 and a 2/1 haste in addition to boosting the Fiend for +3/+0, essentially 8 damage for RR. The Slaughter Pact clears the way and the Pact of Negation counters any removal. They are free off Dark Confident and you can easily target your Fiend with a Slaughter and counter it with a Negation that sort of stuff for free boosts if you're going for the kill. The rest is just fetches, chrome moxes and 1cc burn. If you're countering anything that will stop your damage going through, you generally don't care about losing during your upkeep as you're ending the game before that happens.

It's a bit risky sure, but ridiculously fast. It's not impossible to go for 20+ on turn 2 with a good hand.

This sounds like a good idea, except what do you do if you don't draw Kiln Fiend within the first two turns?

[LotusHead]

Chandra's Firespitter*
2r
Creature - Elemental    Uncommon
Flying
Whenever an opponent is dealt noncombat damage, Chandra's Firespitter* gets +3/+0 until end of turn.
#129/249   1/3

New from M11

A present from WOTC to you.

[xouman]

This card is worse than fiend. Ok, it flies, but it is worse than wee dragonauts for me. Same cost (albeit 1 for U), +2/+0 instead of +3/+0 but any instants pumps it.

Only nice in an pure burn deck

[Delha]

This card is worse than fiend. Ok, it flies, but it is worse than wee dragonauts for me. Same cost (albeit 1 for U), +2/+0 instead of +3/+0 but any instants pumps it.

Only nice in an pure burn deck

I'd think this should be run as Fiend 5-8, not as a replacement.

Not forcing you into blue is significant, IMO. Same thoughts for +3 instead of +2.

[Tonmehr]

RDW STAPLE...use it.

[waffles]

using the storm shell would propel this easily to win

[Delha]

using the storm shell would propel this easily to win

Much more frail and slow than TPS or ANT though.

[waffles]

using the storm shell would propel this easily to win

Much more frail and slow than TPS or ANT though.

hrmm, it is missing dark ritual to make it the same speed, but you might be right. the a red/green shell for the city of solitude effects, or a red/blue for burn and card draw could work but i wouldn't truly know untill i sit down and tinker with it a bit.

[Spacebalzz]

I used to play a Wee Dragonauts as sort of a Tog-deck back when Brainstorm and Gush were still unrestricted.  In this deck, the coolest card was, by far, Psychotic Fury.  Giving the Dragonauts Double Strike and cantripping was super sweet.  Unfortunately, it only targets multi-colored dudes, so for Kiln Fiend, I would maybe throw a Double Cleave in as a one or two of.  Still an instant, so it can be played after blockers have been declared, and it helps you still deal damage to your opponent if they declare a blocker.  Basically it has a similar effect to Berserk if unblocked while not killing your creature if you don't deal lethal damage.  Lastly, combining Berserk and Double Cleave in a single turn is nuts --> 25 damage if unblocked.

If going an R/G route, it seems Invigorate might be cool as it generates a net damage of +4 for free.  In combination with Berserk, the net damage increases to +11.  I was also looking at Prey's Vengence with Rebound, gives you +5/+2 for two turns.  Also, if running Green, you can throw Goyfs in as creatures 4-8.  Don't forget that Invigorate + Double Cleave/Berserk is generally just as good with Goyf.

Lots of options here.  Plus its a fun deck to toy around with.