I don't remeber where you can get the fire brand but I can tell you
a good starting team would be Felix,Isaac,Jenna,and Mia. Also I would recommend putting the sol blade w/ Isaac and giving Felix something like Excaliber...this is just my opinion but it helped me beat him on almost every diff. lv of the game (haven't gotten to him on the last lv. yet)
I'm a girl... just so there's no confusion...