Most draft formats enable one or two cute gimmick decks that can occasionally become really powerful if the right pieces fall into place. An excellent example of this is the Dampen Thought archetype from Kamigawa block. Usually these decks can't be drafted super reliably, and they almost always interact with the game in ways that most other decks in the format do not. The first Rise of the Eldrazi gimmick deck to be discovered was the U/R Kiln Fiend deck, which rose to prominence quite early in the format and has since lost a little luster. The archetype still has its share of proponents, Matteo Orsini-Jones for example, and it certainly can work well when it comes together.

The basic premise of the deck is to kill your opponent as quickly as possibly by building around Kiln Fiend.

I think it's safe to say that this archetype more than any other in the format is dependent on one card. While Aura Gnarlid and Hartebeest decks really love their namesakes and R/B tokens wants Bloodthrone Vampire badly, the Kiln Fiend deck really doesn't function at all without Kiln Fiend.

So let's take a quick moment to analyze the card. Assuming you can activate it consistently, it has a very favorable power to mana cost ratio, often boasting four to seven power for just two mana. The obvious weakness comes at the other end in the form of a fixed toughness of two. So while he hits hard, he also trades with your opponent's junkiest creatures in combat. Thus the ability to get him through blockers using either removal, falter effects, or unblockability is of paramount importance.

Kiln Fiend decks interact with the format in an interesting way. First of all, as many of you now know this is a relatively slow format. It's not absolutely glacial, but it's definitely on the slower side. Two major reasons for this lie in the prevalence of defensive creatures (either high toughness blockers or easily available chump spawn tokens) and the availability of good removal (few sets in recent memory have removal suites that compare with what Rise have to offer). So all in all there is little place in this format for small, aggressive creatures because they are removed easily and blocked even more easily. Kiln Fiend gets around this partially by taking the blocking problem out of the equation. By avoiding blockers altogether, you are blanking your opponent's defensive creatures and speeding the game up dramatically.

And if you've ever seen a good Kiln Fiend draw, you know just how dramatic they can be, sometimes ending the game as early as turn 4. If that isn't enough to entice you, I don't know what is!

Forks:

Because this deck is trying to be aggressive and focused, relatively fewer forks fit into the strategy. That said, there are still plenty that work.

None of the Eldrazi really fit into this deck, so forget about them. Sarkhan the Mad is a little bit of a stretch because splashing in this archetype is hard, but for a card as good as Sarkhan it's probably worth it especially if you can also pick up a Vendetta or two. The rest of these cards are either synergistic with the deck or good enough that it doesn't matter that they aren't. Cards that are cheap and evasive or that remove blockers and are instants/sorceries are the most synergistic ones, whereas the boom booms like Lord of Shatterskull Pass and Halimar Wavewatch are merely good enough to include regardless. Narcolepsy is a bit worse in this deck because it isn't an instant or sorcery and doesn't remove the blocker the same turn that it is cast. Drake Umbra is a house in that it both protects your fiend and gets it past blockers. Lust for War is similarly ridiculous here because it removes a blocker (albeit a turn late) and makes it very difficult for your opponent to race you.

The limited number of forks makes this archetype a bit harder to get into, but at least you can take comfort that a number of the forks -- particularly the clear bombs and removal -- fit well into a TON of archetypes.

Cornerstones:

Just as this deck has relatively few forks, it has a relatively large number of cornerstones that vary widely in importance.

A lot of these cards are quite unique to the archetype in question. Distortion Strike isn't really playable anywhere else, but it works well here pumping your fiends and getting them through unblocked twice for the cost of only one mana. Wrap in Flames and Reality Spasm pump your fiends and gets them through several blockers at once. World at War can be a huge blowout especially if you have a lot of removal to clear the way first, and Traitorous Instinct is obviously extremely good if they only have one blocker. See Beyond gets extra value here for pumping your fiends and getting you the cards you need while shuffling away extra lands that this deck doesn't want. Echo Mage is just generally good with spells. Goblin Tunneler and Battle-Rattle Shaman team up well together, but they are both good alone too, the former getting your fiends through every time and the latter providing a credible threat each turn. Eel Umbra protects your fragile creatures from removal. Surrakar Spellblade is a bit of an odd one in that it doesn't really help your plan that much but it happens to synergize well with the same cards that work well with Kiln Fiend. If course when you are ceding card advantage by casting falter effects like Distortion Strike and Wrap in Flames, getting some cards back really helps. That's where Surreal Memoir and Mnemonic Wall also help -- if you have good spells (which you should!) then these help you recycle them. The memoir is particularly potent here as it also pumps your fiends twice. Don't get carried away with the walls though -- one or two is fine, but remember you are NOT playing the Mnemonic Wall archetype which is it's own separate deck. Deprive doesn't often pump your fiends, but it does keep your opponent in his heels at a cheap cost. Setting yourself back a land matters less for this deck than most. It's especially good though when you get to cast it in response to your opponent trying to remove your fiend during your turn.

The last card in the list, Valakut Fireboar deserves a little bit more space. Basically, this card is a replacement for Kiln Fiend that is a little slower but also hits harder on a more consistent basis. Much like the fiend, however, you have to put some work into getting him through and keeping him alive. He also doubles as a solid blocker though, which is sometimes exactly what you will need on turn 5. The fireboar is particularly powerful with cards like Goblin Tunneler which can get him through multiple times and Drake Umbra which makes him an absolute monster. You don't want to load your deck up with boars at the expense of fiends, but having one or two can be very good.

Matchups:

The U/R Kiln Fiend is actually a lot like the G/x ramp deck. Both need to draw different components in the right proportions to excel. Too much ramp and too little fattie and you fall flat. The same goes here -- too many creatures and not enough spells or vice versa and your game plan doesn't work. Where the two archetypes really differ is that Kiln Fiend trades off resilience for speed while the ramp deck does the opposite. Ramp takes a while to build up but when it starts playing threats those threats are typically VERY hard to answer. The Kiln Fiend deck on the other hand threatens right away but its threats are relatively easy to answer. There are a million ways to remove Kiln Fiend and they mostly leave you cold if they resolve. So Kiln Fiend is better against opponents who have a strong proactive game but a weak reactive game while Ramp is better against opponents who have a strong reactive game but a weak proactive game. A proactive opponent might kill a Ramp deck before the Ramp player gets off the ground, but probably won't be able to outrace Kiln Fiend. A reactive opponent is going to have a hard time answering all of the Ramp player's threats, but will have an easy time cleaning up a few (Kiln Fiends).

Your nightmare matchup is the Mnemonic Wall deck which packs a ton of removal and doesn't plan on blocking anyway, so it blanks a bunch of your cards effectively. Just when you think you might have finally run them out of removal they cast another wall or Surreal Memoir and suddenly you are completely at their mercy. Because you spend so many slots on cards like Distortion Strike and Wrap in Flames, you will probably be out of luck when they start playing finishers. Your best matchup, on the other hand, is a deck like U/W Levelers which will try to race you or stop your fiend by blocking, which won't likely work. You still have to watch out for Narcolepsy and Guard Duty though, and beware of walking into Puncturing Light with your fireboars. Regress is especially nice in this matchup.

I think I ultimately come down somewhere in the middle when it comes to this archetype. I don't love it but I don't hate it either. It can win games that no other archetype could win, but it also loses games that no other archetype could lose. For this reason, I think it's a reasonable choice for a weaker drafter. First of all, it will force you to be focused in your drafting. You can't really hybridize this deck at all, so you will learn to draft in a very focused manner. Secondly, it's not very difficult to play and has a relatively high variance in its results. As such you will probably win a few drafts that you might not have otherwise been able to win with another archetype because of deficits in playskill.

B/R Kiln Fiend

We've talked about the more common U/R archetype, but lets consider something else for a moment. Early on in the format I heard some rumblings about a B/R Kiln Fiend deck. At first I was skeptical but I think the theory is sound. You lose some key Blue spells like Distortion Strike and Regress but you gain more removal from Black. The key card that seemed to glue things together for me is Cadaver Imp, which allows you to get your dead fiends back. Because it's more difficult to make your fiends unblockable they will be more likely to trade, thus the imps help out by making sure you can afford to do so. They also help you out against decks that have a lot of removal.

That said, I can't see this deck being as explosive as the U/R version. That isn't necessarily a fatal flaw, however, as trading off some speed for resilience is a viable strategy I think.

The more important question is why you would even want to try drafting this deck. If you have the removal suite that it would take to make this deck work, then why not just go for the U/R/B Mnemonic Wall build or possibly a R/B token deck? That's what I'm less sure about. I think those archetypes are generally stronger, so unless you are really cut off of the key cards (unlikely if you are getting all that on color removal) then I don't see why you would settle for B/R Kiln Fiend unless you want to try something really gimmicky.

Despite the talk that I heard early on in the format, I've never actually seen this deck drafted and I'm guessing the above-mentioned reasons explain why. So it's not so much that the deck isn't viable as it is that the deck is outclassed by other decks that share the same key forks but have different cornerstones.

If you are feeling adventurous by all means try out the B/R Kiln Fiend deck -- it'd certainly be fun for a change!

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