Quote Originally Posted by ivanpei View Post
On punishing fire, I believe its very strong if you see plenty of tribal in your area. While fire is a good removal spell to draw, I'm pretty doubtful on the grove. Grove doesn't make blue which is a major pain so you should not play more than 2 at any point of time unless you decide to totally forgo basics. Question to people who are testing punishing fire, does it help turn the goblins MU into a positive one? I know it destroys folk/elves etc, but I'm just wondering if 2cc removal spells and the slow engine set up is effective against goblin's lackeys, ringleaders etc. Goblins generates CA and puts pressure on your life total + manabase at the same time. Its the ultimate nightmare.
I've done some testing back with PFires/Groves. It definitely keeps goblin in check. If you are worried that a Goblin player is going to play around PFires by going:

Accumulate enough mana, drop a Chieftain, Ringleader and get enough gobs on one turn such that your Fires engine is weak, then you would have to play around that. What I mean is, they still won't be able to play around an active Fires.

If they play Warchief and pass priority, burn it. If they play Ringleader, counter it. It's hard for them to play both warchief/Ringleader or Warchief/Warchief, Ringleader/Ringleader without a Vial (which you need to deal with btw or PFires will be a little tough to maintain checks). The main selling point of PFires is that it will always keep the game in check when its online. Gobs/Folks die to Spout but they can rebuild fast (Silvergill adept and Ringleaders). With Fires, it's hard to rebuild without overextending. If you're playing Goyfs, it makes them even more determined to put dudes out that slowly all die to PFires.

The only drawback against PFires is its inability to answer Goyf/Knights. In my previous testing (2 weeks of tournament so not too much testing), I ran 3 PFires 2 Wish (for the 4th), 3 Groves, and 3 EE. That allowed me to do well against tribal and still have outs to Goyf/Knights.