Lets go Into Infernities

Let’s go into Infernity

In the past we all focused on gaining more advantage throughout field presence, hand advantage, having more beaters than your opponent etc. This has always to be proven working just fine if you could make your deck just the way to gain the precise advantage you wanted. With Infernities it seems Konami started to turn things upside down. Why would I say such a thing;

The theme of the deck is to use cards that require you to have no hand. An Infernity deck, logically, is then a deck that is based around minusing itself. For example; Card Destruction is a card that allows for more draws, but is a -1 in essence. Say you played Card Destruction at 6 cards in hand; you would only draw 5 with its effect. This is an inherent -1, although it's compensated by the cards you draw, and in many cases, the cards you discard.

Infernity wants to play lots of cards like these, for the sole purpose of eliminating their hand. At first glance, this seems like a horrible idea. But it's not. Infernities balance out their lack of hand advantage with fantastic swarming speed, both from the Graveyard and from the Deck, in some cases. Their cards have extremely powerful effects when you have no hand, but are almost useless when you do.
First of all, Infernities don't just run any discard card. They need to be as proactive as possible, instead of passively whittling away their hand with cards like Dark World Dealings. Infernities often run cards like Raigeki Break, Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, and Lightning Vortex, all of which are just as capable of stopping enemy swarms as they are of starting your own. And they deplete your hand as well, allowing you to tap into the true potential of the Infernity monsters. Since this is a relatively poorly-known archetype, I will break down each of their monsters one by one.

Infernity Guardian:



DARK/Fiend/Level 4/ATK 1200/DEF 1700
While you have no cards in your hand, this face-up card cannot be destroyed by battle or by card effects.

This baby right here will protect you from almost everything ( only piercing damage will suck hard ). This will help you getting your moves up and running if you are facing a difficult situation. So it is a nice effect in return for being handless at that time ( preferably most of the duel). But that's only when you don't have any cards in your hand. So many cards nowadays can actually put cards into your hand that Guardian usually isn't a problem. Dark Bribe and Compulsory Evacuation Device are all too common choices in this game, while Caius the Shadow Monarch and Raiza the Storm Monarch laugh in the face of Guardian. Many top decks this format have answers to Guardian. Blackwings will simply pound on it with Blackwing Armed Wing until you lose. Gladiator Beasts decidedly have a bit more trouble, but always can execute a Book of Moon combo and tag out into a Murmillo.

Infernity Guardian also doesn't accomplish what an Infernity deck wants to do, which is OTK. They don't need a source of stall when they can easily defeat an opponent in one turn. Really, the only thing that Guardian is good for is decking-out Lightsworns, and it's pretty decent at that. In short, don't main it, and side 1-2 for the Lightsworn matchup. With what monsters do we win games you ask;


Infernity Archfiend:



Fiend/DARK/Level 4/ATK 1800/DEF 1200
When you have no cards in your hand and draw this card, you can reveal it to Special Summon it. When this card is Special Summoned, if you have no cards in your hand, you can add 1 "Infernity" card from your Deck to your hand.

While you are handless ( which is the sole purpose of the deck ) you get a free summon. Because Archfiend has decent stats the first effect is great on its own however that isn’t what makes this card so great. The second effect to add 1 Infernity CARD from your deck to your hand. This effect doesn’t stop here, his second effect will be applied hen he is special summoned by another card as well ( so not just his own effect ). This makes him the toolbox you all have been waiting for, since he searches out a CARD meaning a monster, spell or trap meaning he can search out like halve your deck.
Archfiend could be called the backbone of the deck and thus he has to be maxed out in your main deck.

Infernity Necromancer:



DARK/Fiend/Level 3/ATK 0/DEF 2000
When this card is Normal Summoned, it is changed to Defense Position. While you have no cards in your hand, this card gains the following effect: Once per turn, you can Special Summon 1 "Infernity" monster from your Graveyard, except "Infernity Necromancer".

The 2000 def points make him a reliable wall since Shura, Firedog, Stratos etc. can’t get over him ( without help ). But again this isn’t what makes this card so shinny. The fact that plusses are hard to generate makes this card so awesome due to the fact Nercomancer gives them away. And once again there is no limit in what to bring back what the grave ( so any Infernity monster will do just fine ). A great play you can make ( if you have no options at that time to go for the One Card OTK ) is: Summon Necromancer > bring back Archfiend and search for Infernity Barrier. Also this card is just a must in the deck and should be maxed out in your main deck.

Infernity Mirage:



DARK/Fiend/Level 1/ATK 0/DEF 0
While you have no cards in your hand, you can Tribute this card to Special Summon 2 "Infernity" monsters from your Graveyard. This card cannot be Special Summoned from the Graveyard.

Mirage is another +1 card. He gains the added utility of being able to summon 2 Infernity monsters, compared to Necromancer. He can also bring back Necromancer, which is another +1 for you, and can bring back Archfiend, which is yet another +1. Furthermore Mirage’s effect isn’t limited to a certain level or ATK so you can get everything that is gettable. For example: from Beetle to Destroyer. I suggest running this card at 2 mostly due to the fact his stats are zero and gets run over by Ryko Lightsworn Hunter for example, and that isn’t good so that’s why I suggest don’t max it. I mentioned Beetle so why not give place for Beetle at the stage, direct spotlights to him.


Infernity Beetle:



DARK/Insect/Tuner/Level 2/ATK 1200/DEF 0
If you have no cards in your hand, you can Tribute this card to Special Summon up to 2 "Infernity Beetle" from your Deck.

Great swarming card. 1200 ATK isn't completely horrible; if needed you can use his effect to get two more, for 2400 damage. That's rather impressive, from a level 2 Tuner monster. Beetle's appealing aspect is its ability to synchro easily. You can use Mirage to Special Summon a Necromancer and an Archfiend. Then use Necromancer to Special Summon "Infernity Beetle". Infernity Beetle's effect Tributes itself, getting two more, allowing you to synchro twice (one level 5, one level 6). You can also synchro into a level 9 synchro monster with Necromancer, Archfiend, and Beetle. More about this later.
Although the above mentioned reason why Beetle “can” be great isn’t a reason to max him out in my opinion. I personally would only use 1 copy of him simply because that Infernities rely heavily on Graveyard setup, and have reliable ways of dumping cards from the Deck into the Graveyard. Thus meaning 3 Beetle’s would only mean consistency in drawing into Beetle more and that isn’t really desirable. Therefore in this ( made up ) build I run 1 Beetle.

Infernity Revenger:



DARK/Fiend/Tuner/Level 1/ATK 0/DEF 0
While this card is in your Graveyard and you have no cards in your hand, when a monster you control (except "Infernity Revenger") is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, you can Special Summon this card. Its Level becomes equal to that of the destroyed monster.

In my opinion not that great but bring him out at the right moment, and you have a Tuner available next turn to synchro for a level 5 synchro monster with Infernity Archfiend. So it’s a card which should be played wisely and timed. This will take a while before we all get the hang of him but he has some potential as being some sort of life saver.

Infernity Dwarf:



DARK/Warrior/Level 2/ATK 800/DEF 500
While you have no cards in your hand, during battle between an attacking monster you control and a Defense Position monster whose DEF is lower than the ATK of the attacking monster inflict the difference as Battle Damage to your opponent.

This effect is decent although since Infernities have a lot of destroying going on Dwarf’s effect won’t be needed anyway. So I suggest build a deck without this card and if you want to use this fellow in an infernity based deck go for a burn variant.

Infernity Beast:



DARK/Beast/Level 3/ATK 1600/DEF 1200
If this card attacks while you have no cards in your hand, your opponent cannot activate Spell or Trap Cards until after the Damage Step.

The first thing you should notice is "LEVEL 3 BEAST!" Rescue Cat screams out for combos here. However, that's not our best option now. Why? We don't yet have the necessary support. There's an archetype in Japan known as The Fabled (sometimes called Fiend Roar Deity Beasts). They've got something that the TCG doesn't have: level 1 and level 2 Beast Tuners. That adds a whole lot of utility to a Beast deck, or any deck using Rescue Cat. But why does this matter? Can't we make use of Airbellum?

Infernities thrive on having no hand, and will use a lot of discard cards to achieve this goal. The Fabled monsters are based around discard effects, whether it's discarding themselves, or gaining strong effects when discarded (reminiscent of Dark World). Thus using Infernity Beast in a Rescue Cat variant has a surprising amount of potential once the Fabled monsters are released.
But other than that, there's not much use for Beast. When you go for a kill, you either have cleared their field already with Mist Wurm/Heavy Storm/Trunade/your numerous destruction cards, or you've activated Trap Stun already. Infernity Beast's effect is unneeded in an Infernity deck. Until the Fabled monsters come out, I wouldn't run any copies at this time.

Infernity Reloader/Randomizer:



DARK/Warrior/Level 1/ATK 900/DEF 0
Once per turn, while you have no cards in your hand, you can draw 1 card. Reveal the card to your opponent. If that card is a monster, your opponent takes damage equal to its Level x 200. If that card isn't a monster, you take 500 points of damage

Reloader isn't horrible, since you can get a free draw out of him most of the time. The damage that you take or that you give is generally inconsequential in the course of the duel, but that one card you draw can be game-winning (as it can with all decks). Here's my problem with it though; what would you have drawn instead of Reloader? Say you choose to run Reloader over, say, an Infernity Mirage. With a draw into Reloader, you can draw an extra card. But with a draw into Mirage, you can start the famous OTK that this deck can do. The thing is, Reloader can't generate any real advantage unless it stays on the field for more than a turn, and while you can commit more to protecting it, you'll find that that protection was better spent on shielding yourself until you can pull off a combo. If you want to, run 1, but it's by no means essential to the combo.

Infernity Destroyer:



DARK/Fiend/Level 6/ATK 2300/DEF 1000
When this card destroys a monster by battle and sends it to the Graveyard while you have no cards in your hand, inflict 1600 damage to your opponent.

I find Destroyer not that much of a great card or monster, although he is a decent beater. A few downsides to him are; he can’t get over a single monarch, barely can take out a Brionac, you can't really get him out in any other way than by Special Summoning him from the Graveyard, and oftentimes, you'll have better choices. Apart from this all he still is a sweet target to special summon with Mirage or Necromancer. He can kill all level 4 beaters in the game such as Wulf Lightsworns Beast, Koa’ki Meiru Urknight etc. and on top of that some effect damage is dealed when he kills off a monster. Other than that he still is usable as synchro material fodder in order to go to a high level without having the “One Card OTK “ combo so he has its pros and cons like every other card in the game that’s why I suggest only maining 1 copy of Infernity Destroyer in a deck.

As you can see all monsters ( almost but the most usable ones ) support each other perfectly ( even better than Lightsworns and Blackwings in my opinion ). That alone is a major strength they have but also a weakness not to be taken lightly. More about this after you have seen the support cards of the Infernity archtype such as:

Infernity Gun/Launcher:



Continuous Spell Card
Once per turn, you can send 1 "Infernity" monster from your hand to the Graveyard. If there are no cards in your hand, you can send this card to the Graveyard to select up to 2 "Infernity" monster(s) in your Graveyard and Special Summon them.

Apart from some cool artwork this card is the support card needed in an Infernity based deck. This card alone speeds the deck up like nothing seen before, helps getting the OTK combo ready and special summons 2 infernity monsters from the graveyard to start the OTK or do some searching and make the preparations for the OTK real fast. The reason why this card is better than Mirage is due to the fact Mirage takes up a normal summon which could be used for a Beetle or teched monster card to speed things up ( example Dark Grepher ). And most importantly, it's searchable by Infernity Archfiend. That makes it absolute gold in our combo.

Infernity Barrier:



Counter trap
Activate only when your opponent activates a Spell Card, Trap Card, or Effect Monster's effect, if you control a face-up Attack Position "Infernity" monster and have no cards in your hand. Negate the activation and destroy that card.

What can I say about this card other than it is awesome. Well it does has its requirements but once again those aren’t really a big deal. You could say it is a semi-costless Solemn Judgment. I call it semi-costless due to the fact you don’t have to pay life points but it does has its requirements. Plus it doesn’t negate a summon but overall a great card to have and to safe your Combo from being terminated.

Infernity Inferno:



Trap
Discard up to 2 cards and send the same number of "Infernity" cards from your Deck to the Graveyard.

This card is a big part of the engine in my opinion, not only does it thin your hand ( or make your hand zero ) it also thins the deck by 2 cards of your choice. This is just awesome, plus this card is chainable to cards like Heavy Storm, Giant Trunade, Mystical Space Typhoon Raiza the Storm Monarch etc. This is quite good because if you are aiming to go handless real fast you can’t have effects that bounce it back to your hand slow you down. By dumping cards from your hand and deck to your graveyard the ”One Card OTK Combo” is realized faster than you would expect.

Infernity Break:



Trap
Activate only if you have no cards in your hand. Select 1 "Infernity" card in your Graveyard and remove it from play. Select 1 card your opponent controls and destroy it.

You could say it’s a small Icarus Attack but I rate this card to be better to be fully honest with you. The reason why I find it better is because the monster you use for it is already in the grave and with the support cards and the speed you can dump infernity monsters in your graveyard like no other deck. On top of that you can choose what to dump and therefore make better targets for Infernity Break than for Icarus Attack.

These are the card I consider most useful for an Infernity based deck although you could also use Reflector or Force but I rather control the actions I make other than just jump straight into the handless theme of the deck while not knowing what your opponent can throw at you.
I have said that some cards don’t really contribute to the theme of the deck or rather the idea I have while thinking of Infernities this is because I want to focus on the handless one card OTK combo rather than a different idea or theme for the deck.

Now what exactly is this combo that I've been speaking so much about? Surely you've been so pent up with frustration that I haven't actually covered it yet that you've stabbed someone with the wrong end of a rake already!
First, you'll need Infernity Archfiend, Infernity Necromancer, Infernity Beetle, and Infernity Revenger in your field, along with Infernity Mirage in your hand. This seems highly situational, but you'll see later on that it's actually not! The following combo assumes you start with only Infernity Mirage in your hand, and is as follows:

• • Normal summon Mirage
  • Tribute Infernity Mirage, Special Summoning Infernity Archfiend and Infernity Necromancer from your Graveyard.
  • Infernity Archfiend's effect activates. Search Infernity Gun from your Deck.
  • Play your Infernity Gun. It does nothing right now
  • Use Infernity Necromancer's effect to Special Summon either Infernity Beetle or Infernity Revenger from your Graveyard, depending on what level you want to Synchro for.
  • Synchro Summon a level 8 or level 9 monster, depending on the Tuner you picked. Stardust Dragon, Infernity Death Dragon, Trishula and Mist Wurm are all great choices.
  • Activate your Infernity Gun's effect to Special Summon your Infernity Archfiend and Infernity Necromancer from the Graveyard.
  • Repeat the previous steps again and again; Archfiend searches another Gun, Necromancer revives something, synchro 8 or 9. Play your next gun, and do it again.
  • By the time you've gotten to your third Gun, you'll have 3 Synchro Monsters on the field, all either level 8 or level 9. At that time, use Gun to bring back Archfiend and an Infernity Tuner. Search something with Infernity Archfiend (Infernity Barrier is recommended) and synchro either a level 5 or a level 6. Attack for game and win with your ridiculous field.

What makes it consistent is that it only needs the draw of one card, Infernity Mirage, to start the combo. The rest is fueled completely by the +1s that Necromancer and Archfiend give. This is why the combo is known as the "one card OTK".
The real strength of the "one card OTK" is that you can choose whatever synchro monsters you want to! Afraid of enemy destruction? Bring back Revenger and synchro 1+3+4 for Stardust Dragon. Want to clear the most cards? Bring back Beetle and synchro 2+3+4 for Mist Wurm. Want to attack without fear of Gorz? Bust out a Trishula.

But some of you may have noticed a flaw in this combo; you need Archfiend, Necromancer, Revenger, and Beetle in the Graveyard to start the combo. But if you see the deck, you'll realize that this isn't too much of a problem to begin with.

Total deck count: 40

Monsters: 14

3x Infernity Archfiend
3x Infernity Necromancer
2x Infernity Mirage
1x Infernity Beetle
1x Infernity Revenger
2x Dark Grepher
1x Snipe Hunter
1x Plaguespreader Zombie

Spells: 11

3x Infernity Gun
1x Allure of Darkness
1x Veil of Darkness
1x Foolish Burial
1x Heavy Storm
1x Giant Trunade
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Lightning Vortex
1x One for One

Traps: 15

2x Infernity Barrier
2x Infernity Break
2x Infernity Inferno
2x Bottomless Trap Hole
1x Damage Gate
1x Solemn Judgment
1x Raigeki Break/ Karma Cut
1x Dust Tornado
1x Mirror Force
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Starlight road

This is a build like I would do it personally ( but then again me myself and I haven’t got any experience playing Infernities so it might not be the best way to go with them).

The first thing that pops out is an extremely low monster count (14), this makes sense because Infernities only need a few monsters to execute the combo to begin with. You'll also notice 2 copies of Dark Grepher, who's incredibly useful in this deck. Not only can he discard Infernities from the hand, to be of use in the Graveyard, he can also dump them from the Deck. That's what gives the deck consistency. I said before that some think it difficult to get those targets into the Graveyard, but it's easier than getting the Lightsworns there for Judgment Dragon. Grepher is one of the reasons why; you get to pick the cards you want to dump.

Another old favorite is here; Snipe Hunter. Snipe Hunter empties the hand for you, as well as being able to destroy things 2 times out of 3. It's also priceless because it can actually destroy Stardust Dragon. Snipe Hunter can be a life-saver at times. At worst, he's a 1500 beater that can destroy something next turn. At best, he can win you the game by getting rid of that Colossal Fighter, Stardust Dragon, or Blackwing Armor Master that you just couldn't kill.

Another rather important card in the main build is Veil of Darkness, yes you read it correctly my friends Veil of Darkness. Not only does Veil of Darkness contribute a lot to the theme by dumping our monster into the grave ( where they like to be ) but also gets us our spells and traps a bit faster. This promises us a lot plays while setting everything up for the big move called “One Card OTK”. I personally prefer Veil of Darkness over Reflector due to its more suitable plus also gets us the spell and traps as I mentioned before. But still you could also play reflector.

One important misconception to clear up: Infernities are in no way bound to performing the same one-card OTK over and over again for game. While it is a dominant part of their strategy (much like the Brionac loop was for Zombies), they don't need to do it to win. One loop you'll be abusing a lot is the Gun+Archfiend loop. A combo can be as easy as a Dark Grepher summon into an Infernity Gun, bringing back the Beetle and Archfiend you dumped. Archfiend can search another Gun, Beetle can get 2 Beetles, and you can synchro twice for level 6s. Then play Gun, bring back Archfiend and Beetle, synchro again. Archfiend searches another Gun, etc, etc. With that strategy, you can swarm your side of the field with smaller synchros. In the aforementioned combo, the only thing that is different is Necromancer adding a lot more field presence, levels, and attack power to the combo.

Now you have seen all the pros of the deck Infernities but of course there are some weaknesses which should not be taken lightly. The largest weakness of all is that it relies heavily on their graveyard so cards like; Soul Release, Macro Cosmos, Dimensional Fissure, Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer, DD Crow etc will all be a real bother if you haven’t prepared yourself for cards like I mentioned above. However this weakness can be easily overcome if you have Imperial Iron Wall in your side deck. Imperial Iron Wall will stop all cards that have the effect to remove cards from play. This also means it will backfire onto your Infernity Break but you could switch them with each other no problem. Although Imperial Iron Wall doesn’t really fit in the theme of the deck but will protect you a lot.

The second largest weakness of the deck is that almost everything is based onto special summoning meaning cards like: Royal Oppression, Thunder King Raioh, Black Horn of Heaven etc will be a real bother. But with cards like Barrier, Heavy Storm, Giant Trunade and Mystical Space Typhoon Royal Oppression and Black Horn of Heaven won’t be such a big deal, but Thunder King Raioh has 1900 attack points and is hard to get over without special summoning with Infernities.

Other possibilities like making it a hybrid with the Dark World theme or the Fabled theme are very likely to become feared hybrids in the future although the Lightsworn engine ( milling mostly ) can also be applied for the Infernity theme to make it even faster. Although I personally don’t like the Lightsworn engine that much due to its “inconsistency” in milling.
It also wouldn’t even surprise me if people start to try out Magical Merchant in Infernity builds due to its milling capacity and keeping your spells and traps alive, but this has yet to be seen for me.

I hope I gave all of you guys some important and helpful information about the archtype Infernity and their potential to rain supreme like Lightsworns, Tele-DAD, Glads, Blackwings, Zombies etc did before. Hope you enjoyed it.