GLC Fire Mill

When I first got into GLC many months ago, I immediately fell in love with Fire Mill. It featured my favorite Pokémon (Pignite!) and a control win condition, while managing to be quick and fun for both pilot and foe. I won my first ever GLC tournament with JeoshuaObladi’s then-current build with some minor adjustments. However, as my skills as a GLC player and deck builder grew, I felt Fire Mill was missing something. For all its calamitous power and fiery flair, it felt, to put it bluntly… like a noob list. Gloria and Sonia were not cards that top-tier decks ran. I knew something had to change, and after months of tinkering and testing, I’m overjoyed to share with you “Meltdown: Reforged”!

A Paradigm Shift

Veterans of Cardboard Warriors will be familiar with Fire Mill’s previous precepts. You ran Emboar, Delphox, Charizard. That’s simply what you did. This, in my view, was the rotten core restricting Fire Mill from excellence. The allure of milling upwards of 20 cards in a turn was a temptation nearly too great to relinquish. But despite such strength, Fire Mill’s narrow scope bred inconsistency and inflexibility. Too often you would lose the game by having a Stage 2 KOed early, or worse yet, Prized. It was time for comprehensive, fundamental change. It was time for a new paradigm.

In the old build of Fire Mill, the plan was to crush the opponent with two devastating mills with Centiskorch then Moltres. Now, we will take a modest yet consistent approach – mill sooner to apply early pressure and drain your opponent’s resources, and mill often to sustain a board presence throughout a full game. To facilitate this radical change in ethos, I have made sweeping changes to the core structure of the list. In place of Inferno Fandango, we now have Welder, Blacksmith, Raihan, Magma Basin; in place of Mystical Fire, we now have Smooth Over and Roast Reveal.  By diversifying the duties of draw and energy acceleration, we improve Fire Mill’s flexibility, reliability, and skill expression.

The Pokémon

The two millers of the deck are Centiskorch and Moltres. Since Centiskorch does not discard energy from itself, it is preferred to attack with Centiskorch when possible. Without Emboar, every manual attachment is crucial (2 more cards milled!), so it’s advised to bench Sizzlipede early and to use your manual attachments on it when possible. I would avoid benching Moltres until you are milling with Centiskorch. Once Centiskorch goes down, set up Sizzlipede again (preferably with Klara) and promote Moltres, milling for whatever you can manage. The standard flowchart is to mill for 6-12 cards with Centiskorch, Moltres, Centiskorch, Moltres, and finally Moltres again if needed. Keep in mind that when you mill with Moltres, you discard all energy, so there is no longer an active milling threat. This provides the opponent with an opportunity to target your Charizard (or other). Watch your opponent’s resources and consider using Iono on your Moltres turn to decrease the odds of a retaliatory Boss’s Orders.

But of course, you know Centiskorch and Moltres already. Magcargo and Salazzle are the rookie headliners. Together, they make a decisive and powerful draw engine that few types can boast. I tend to prioritize setting up Magcargo, but some situations will see Salazzle hit the field first. These two cards add considerable consistency and decision making to the deck and allow skillful sequencing to secure a win – even in dire situations. Later, I’ll go into more detail about this draw engine with some concrete examples. Salandit’s Call for Family is also very useful in a pinch, and I have delayed evolving my Salazzle in order to get extra uses of it on occasion.

Charizard is by far the most threatening card on your board and is the number one target for your opponent. Burn Brightly is such a vital ability that I included Rare Candy for this Pokémon alone. You will want to bench Charmander as early as you can safely manage. Charmander and Charmeleon also have useful attacks to get you out of a brick as a last resort. One aspect of Charizard that’s often overlooked is its offensive value. Charizard (and even better, Moltres) can deal enormous damage for effectively 2 Energy. If your opponent has only one attacker prepared or one important support Pokémon, it can sometimes be worth simply taking a KO.

Finally, we have Oricorio and Chimchar. Oricorio is an important sacrificial piece. You can disrupt your opponent’s setup by bringing up a high-retreat support Pokémon, or even an attacker to confuse it and potentially buy extra turns. Chimchar is the best free retreater available (Castform would conflict with Green’s Exploration) and can allow extra uses of Magma Basin or simply be cannon fodder. These Pokémon are less important than your evolution lines, but worth grabbing if you have the resources, and make excellent leads.

The Trainers

I kept many of the same Items seen in my old version of Meltdown, but the Supporter list has been significantly altered to attune to the Magcargo and Salazzle engine. I will try to give a general sense of my design philosophy and go through some interesting lines rather than explain every card individually.

First, let’s discuss setup. The newly minted Buddy-Buddy Poffin, in tandem with the smaller evolution lines, allows Fire Mill blazingly fast setups. In particular, I have included Arven and Green’s Exploration to facilitate the powerful Buddy + TM Evolution play, though you can also use Green’s for Buddy + Nest Ball. Ball Guy is another great setup tool, allowing you to grab Basics, Evolutions, or a mix of the two, at the cost of depleting your Pokémon-searching Items. I will often use Ball Guy for 2 Basics, then save a Ball for the next turn to grab Magcargo (or other Pokémon). Ball Guy allows you to access your Prizes through Hisuian Heavy Ball, extremely relevant when you’re never taking Prizes. Of course, the deck features Iono, Cynthia, and Colress for standard draw and consistency.

I mentioned prioritizing evolving Magcargo early. Magcargo’s ability Smooth Over greatly enhances setup, either preparing next turn’s draw or granting you a key Trainer card immediately through Trainers’ Mail, Pokégear 3.0, Welder, or Iono. Standard players will know how powerful Pidgeot ex is, so it should come as no surprise that once Salazzle hits the field alongside Magcargo, the deck ramps into overdrive. That being said, the best route to set up will wholly depend on the cards in your hand. Get creative! Ideally, you want to begin hitting mill attacks on turn 3, but turn 4 can be acceptable if aided by Oricorio. Don’t forget to attach Float Stone to Magcargo early! Float Stone makes excellent bait for Field Blower, allowing Wishful Baton to safely stick to Centiskorch.\

Lt. Surge’s Strategy is Absurd

I firmly believe that all good decks should “cheat”, and Lt. Surge’s Strategy is one of the most egregious “cheater” cards ever printed. With Pal Pad (and Lusamine and VS Seeker) it’s genuinely feasible to pull off two Lt. Surge turns per game. You will typically lose a Prize card before you’re ready to mill, and there’s no better time to return fire than on your first mill turn. There are innumerable ludicrous lines that this card opens up. I’d like to give a few example plays to demonstrate what I mean.

In the following position, I have lost a Prize card and I’m ready for our first mill. But how should I best sequence this turn? I can use Smooth Over and Roast Reveal to draw Lt. Surge’s Strategy and two more cards. Then, Colress will draw a massive new hand, making our odds of finding Charizard or a third supporter such as Welder, Raihan, or Arven (for Evo Incense + Wishful Baton) very likely. In my case, I drew Charizard and Pal Pad off of Roast Reveal. After Colress, I found and played Blacksmith, Magma Basin, a Basic Fire, and Counter Catcher, allowing me to gust up a non-attacking Pokémon while milling for 8 and preparing Moltres for the following turn.

Below is another position where I am behind on Prizes and want to pull off the best Lt. Surge turn possible. First, I will use Fire Crystal to regain 3 Fire Energy. I will discard one using Roast Reveal and Smooth Over to draw Raihan and two more cards. This also prepares Raihan’s requirement of a discarded Energy. Then, I play Lt. Surge, Raihan to search for Welder, and finally Welder itself. During this turn, I have attached 3 energies from supporters, drawn 4 bonus cards, milled 10, and ended the turn with a significantly more powerful hand. I can even use Pal Pad to shuffle Lt. Surge’s Strategy and Raihan into the deck for a second volley! These insane turns are incredibly common, even with just Magcargo or Salazzle on the field, and allow the deck to shine in a novel way compared to old Fire Mill.

Finally, I’d like to show off a less flashy yet integral aspect of this new list – resilience. The position below is a replica of a recent tournament match. I have no useful cards in the deck and most of my resources are expended. Nonetheless, I play Lusamine for Magma Basin and Klara, enabling me to mill 4 this turn with Moltres, who is then Knocked Out. On the following turn (second image), I recover Moltres and 2 Fire Energy with Klara, accelerate an Energy with Magma Basin, and mill 4 again for the win.\

Other Options

Now that you’ve seen Meltdown as I’ve designed it, I’d like to briefly present a couple cards that didn’t make my cut but are worth your consideration.

The hardest cut I decided on was Guzma. Guzma adds a lot of utility, both as a switching effect and as a Boss. A well-timed Oricorio or Counter Catcher can swing the momentum of the game wildly, and missing out on a repeatable gusting option definitely hurts. However, with most energy acceleration being supporter-based, I felt I could not afford to spend my supporter on Guzma rather than Welder, for example. Another supporter worth consideration is Marnie over Cynthia, which provides less draw but synergizes with Magcargo, since you do not shuffle before drawing cards.

Chimchar could be replaced with Lillie’s Poké Doll, and is currently the change I am considering the most. Training Court was another difficult cut, but using Lusamine to recover Magma Basin made Training Court feel obsolete. Timer Ball would be a helpful inclusion for Ball Guy, but I valued the stability of Ultra Ball and Evolution Incense more. Rotom Dex is a bit unorthodox. When more than one Evolution Pokémon or other important card gets Prized, it can save the game, but I can understand removing it. Luxurious Cape is a powerful option for Centiskorch, but I felt it conflicted with Wishful Baton and ultimately sided with the latter.

Finally, I settled on a count of 8 Fire Energy. Any less and you risk being unable to regularly attach and use Salazzle/Welder. Any more and you must cut Trainer cards, reducing your options and consistency. Reversal Energy was a consideration to avoid total reliance on Charizard, but I think the flexibility of Basic Energy is simply too valuable.

Closing Thoughts

I sometimes hesitate to regard this list as a successor or improvement, as I consider this rendition of Fire Mill to be at its core a distinct archetype. This core restructuring of Fire Mill has transmuted it from just “the best mill we have” to a genuine, if unorthodox, tournament contender. Nonetheless, the deck has some weaknesses. It is usually not favored into turbo decks, such as Turbo Dark and Amazing Raikou – especially if they can take out your Pokemon before they evolve. Like many decks, it can be susceptible to Parallel City, Hex Maniac, and Lost City. Charizard can be an Achilles’ Heel; those able to Boss and OHKO Charizard will find Centiskorch much less threatening. And of course, some decks simply discard fewer cards than others. Engines such as Skwovet/Oranguru and Inteleon/Octillery do not thin the deck as much as Kirlia or Zebstrika. However, I believe these concerns have been, in some measure, ameliorated by the changes to Fire Mill presented today.

Fire Mill offers unique advantages too. As the fastest deck-out list in the format, Fire Mill is one of the most viable control-style decks for tournament play. It has good matchups into many spread and/or setup-based decks such as Lost Zone and Rillasaur, and can auto-win against many tank and control decks such as Ursaluna and Shock Lock. If you’ve never tried a mill or control deck before, I highly encourage you to explore and try out Fire Mill yourself! It’s not too difficult to pick up and it’s immensely rewarding to master.

I would like to acknowledge the users JeoshuaObladi, StrawBerry, and many others in the Cardboard Warriors community for their Fire Mill decklists and very useful discussions. I would also like to thank my friends Jaboingus, Count Sligo, Devon Buskirk, and many more in my scene for being fantastic sources of inspiration, discourse, and playtesting. And of course, thank you for reading until the end! 🔥