Fires of Invention

[Guardman]

Fires of Invention works in an interesting way with commanders, in that as long as you have enough lands you can cast your commander for free while only having to pay the commander tax. This is great for commander's that die a lot or have a mana sink ability. But it's a card that I haven't really seen played outside of Brawl. And a quick search on EDHRec shows that it is in only 1% of decks.

It has downsides. You can only cast two spells during your turn and can't cast spells during other players' turns (both of which are less of a drawback in a two-player game like Brawl, which is why it is probably a red deck staple there). But given potential upside I am sort of surprised I don't see this card more often.

I guess I am wondering if anyone else has experience with it in commander and what are other player's thoughts on this unique card.

[Sinis]

I guess I am wondering if anyone else has experience with it in commander and what are other player's thoughts on this unique card.

I previously played it in a Radha, Heir to Keld ramp deck (a somewhat dated decklist here, but I'm sure you can see how Fires works in it with the ramp and the big stompies). I currently play it in Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded (we have @toctheyounger to thank for that).

It's pretty great in Purphoros 2.0; instant speed interaction usually takes the form of Purphoros' activated ability, and you can kind-of-sort-of circumvent the 2-spell limit the same way. There are plenty of activated abilities in my version to go around.

I think it probably has a home in other decks, like a Gavi, Nest Warden cycling deck that depends on cycling triggers for interaction, or decks with powerful activated abilities (like Kenrith, the Returned King, maybe?). It also likely skews towards high-cost generals (like, I think it would it be good in Zacama, Primal Calamity once you ramp up to 9.).

Anyway, I think it's pretty good, and is probably best in midrange stompy decks that don't mind having mana open for big stompy abilities (like Flameblast Dragon, let's say).

[Antis]

I run it in my Kykar Equipment deck (will post the decklist tomorrow). Similar to the examples Sinis gave, an Equipment-focused deck has a lot of activatied abilities to drown your mana in. Casting your Equipment for free leaves mana open for its equip cost. Similarly, casting a creature for free leaves mana for the equip costs of everything you already have on the table. Plus the deck is not very reactive, so the sorcery speed limitation isn't much of a problem.

[ISBPathfinder]

In my own opinion, some of the best places to play it are decks where the commander has an activated ability but doesn't necessarily want to play draw / go given the lack of ability to cast on opponents turns. I haven't played it yet in commander myself but I like the idea of it and would love to give it a shot assuming I come across the right commander to do this.

[darrenhabib]

I play it in my Niv-Mizzet Reborn deck and it works great in a number of ways. I can cast Niv-Mizzet..draw tons of cards and then get to cast another card out for that turn which is nice.
I have lots of cycling cards so can make use of the untapped lands. I also have specialized cards in Living End and Hypergenesis which Fires of Invention allow me to cast from hand.

[Antis]

In my own opinion, some of the best places to play it are decks where the commander has an activated ability but doesn't necessarily want to play draw / go given the lack of ability to cast on opponents turns. I haven't played it yet in commander myself but I like the idea of it and would love to give it a shot assuming I come across the right commander to do this.

Zirda, the Dawnwaker? Or some partnership with Toggo, Goblin Weaponsmith, so that you can throw all the rocks.

[Kelzam]

Oddly enough a deck inspired by darrenhabib's here is most of my experience with Fires of Invention, as well. Works great in that deck since it pretty much just wants to combo off and doesn't interact much with other decks:

I play it in my Niv-Mizzet Reborn deck and it works great in a number of ways. I can cast Niv-Mizzet..draw tons of cards and then get to cast another card out for that turn which is nice.
I have lots of cycling cards so can make use of the untapped lands. I also have specialized cards in Living End and Hypergenesis which Fires of Invention allow me to cast from hand.

Elsewhere, I recently tried it out in a Kykar, Wind's Fury Superfriends to much less success and took it out. Planeswalkers decks quickly gain eyes at the table and the inability for a deck to not interact with threats/responses turned games into hard mode. It's a pretty poor early draw if you aren't ramping out lands somehow. The turn after you cast it if you're on 5 lands you get 10 mana worth of spells, sure, but the casting limitations way overshadowed that effect in my experience.

The next best deck to put it in that I have built is Lathliss, Dragon Queen. But, again, I'm not ramping out lands much, and it'll be a dead card in hand prior to 6-8 lands on the battlefield. There are times such as after casting Mana Geyser that the casting restrictions it puts in place would stop me from potentially closing the game. It might be worth testing with in the 99 with her but I'm pretty skeptical. Hrm.

[Dunharrow]

I really want to express how strong this is with any general that has an activated ability that draws cards. It can be the best card in the deck, very easily.

[toctheyounger]

So yeah as mentioned by @Sinis its a pretty great addition to Purph 2,0. Being that you're mostly not casting things it allows you to hold up a ton of resource for use at any point, abd that puts you in a hugely powerful position.

Whats more though is how good it is being able to shave 5 off of recasting your commander and just paying tax, especially in colors that don't ramp that well.

I kind of put it in on a whim as I had it in the folder and its been game winning strong every time I've had it in play. Clearly its for a certain type of deck though; activated ability tribal more or less. I could see it doing quite well in a superfriends build too.

I think its a real sleeper card that should see more play than it does.

[RxPhantom]

I'm brewing a Ghen, Arcanum Weaver deck and I'm planning on running it. I have high hopes, but no other experience with it.

[toctheyounger]

I'm brewing a Ghen, Arcanum Weaver deck and I'm planning on running it. I have high hopes, but no other experience with it.

Honestly I don't wanna hype it too much but it does perform really well from experience. I was thinking about it after my post, worst case scenario you get maybe one or two spells free from it abd it gets zapped, at which point you're back to paying for spells again but you're also able to cast at instant speed, which can really interfere with opponents. Its the sort of permanent thats really strong, but I can imagine people really having a dilemma as to whether or not to remove it, and thats a great place to be.

In that sort of shell you're taking that a step further and having the best of both worlds, being able to turn it off and on again at your whim.