Infernity

Infernity, a portmanteau of the words "Infernal" and "Infinity", are primarily DARK monster cards with effects activated when a player has no cards in their hand. This archetype was used by Kalin Kessler in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's. In the dub version of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, these Infernity monsters, spells and/or traps were known as Infernalty.

The first Infernity cards were released as promotional cards in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Stardust Accelerator: "Infernity Archfiend", "Infernity Dwarf", and "Infernity Guardian". Infernity Destroyer was released in the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Stardust Accelerator - World Championship 2009 Game Guide in Japan.

The first Infernity card released in a booster set was "Infernity Beast" in Ancient Prophecy. Two additional Infernity cards soon followed with the release of Stardust Overdrive: Infernity Necromancer and the first Infernity trap card Infernity Force.

Support for the Infernity archetype "handless" theme will be expanded by 15 cards in the upcoming Shining Darkness booster set.

Playing style
As the monster Effects imply, this deck is focused on having no hand. Cards such as Reckless Greed, Offerings to the Doomed, and other cards with a effect that prevents you from drawing would be an essential to this deck. Using discarding effects, such as Dark World Lightning, Fine, and The Cheerful Coffin would also give point to the Dark Worlds, such as Goldd and Sillva. This would leave you with a very small hand.

Also, since Infernity monsters specifically rely on having no cards in your hand, cards like Full Salvo would strongly help this deck. Full Salvo can make you discard all cards in your hand in order to deal 200 life points of damage to your opponent for each card you discard to the graveyard.

Beatdown monsters may also be used but are not recommended. Anothe useful card for this deck is Cybernetic Cyclopian, 1400 attack, 200 defence. When you have no cards in your hand it gains 1000 attack.

Used correctly, this deck can become very powerful on its own. However, it can be made even more powerful by adding in cards from one or two different Archetypes. The first is the "Dark World" series. Most of the support tends to involve discarding cards from the hand and Special Summoning from the graveyard, and most of the monsters benefit from this. With Infernity Necromancer and the upcoming release of the support cards in The Shining Darkness, Infernity cards seem to be heading that way as well. The "Dark World" cards are known for being very fast and good at swarming, which is just what the generally slow Infernity monsters need.

The other Archetype is the currently OCG Only, Duel Terminal-exclusive, "Fabled" series. Like the Dark World set, these cards focus primarily on discarding cards in the player's hand. The key difference, however, is that the Fabled do not actually discard cards to use their own effects, but rather to decrease the number of cards the player is holding, as their monsters can use their effects only when the player's hand is low on cards, or empty altogether. For this reason, they seem to fit in better with the Infernity cards. Notable cards are Fabled Raven (a Level 2, 1300 ATK Tuner monster which lets you discard any number of cards to increase its Level by 1, and its ATK by 400, for each card. This effectively lets you empty your hand to have a high Level, high power Tuner monster) and Fabled Soulkius (a Level 6, 2200 ATK monster which lets you discard two cards to Special Summon it from the graveyard, fitting perfectly into both the themes of the Infernity cards). On top of that, the "Fabled" are all LIGHT monsters, while the Infernity cards are all DARK monsters, so even the powerful Chaos Sorcerer can be splashed into this deck, and in Traditional Format, the great and mighty duo Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End and Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning.

Zombie-type monsters could also be mixed into an Infernity deck. Zombies tend to work off of the grave and, in turn, could be used as main discard fodder. You'll most likely summon the monsters you discarded anyway, so discarding them to kill your hand probably won't affect you much.

As of The Shining Darkness release, the Infernity archetype has become much more Graveyard based. Both Infernity Mirage and Infernity Gun can quickly and effectively summon your monsters from the grave. And because the most common way of emptying your hand is discarding, you'll have plenty of guys in your grave to summon. Infernity Revenger can also summon himself and possibly become one of the only Lv.5+ tuners. Because of this new graveyard tactics, the Infernity have become less and less reliant of topdecking, turning this rather risky deck type into a powerful tool of decimation. One of the new, upcoming cards that really boosts this archetype is Handless Fake. With this card, players won't have to rely entirely on discarding their hand. Players can instead, once they're finished using the cards in their hand during a turn, remove them from play and instantly gain all the effects of their Infernity monsters. Then, in the next turn, they can use their hand again, like nothing ever happened. As an added bonus, this will protect cards from discarding effects. To protect Handless Fake, Imperial Custom can be used. Use it to also protect Depth Amulet.

Since you are going to discard cards, you could harm your opponent by using Forced Requisition.

Another Tech Choice is Hate Buster as most of the Infernity monsters are Fiend and have reasonably low attack. Hate Buster gives the deck much needed protection against your opponent's strong Monsters.

Since Infernity decks can manipulate the number of DARK monsters in their Graveyard at ease, Dark Armed Dragon is a very smart addition to clear the field if you are unable to bring out powerful Synchros immediately. (Use with caution; There are some cards that would be in your Graveyard that you wouldn't want to get rid of.)

The Infernity deck structure is now able to effectively summon several high-level Synchro Monsters every turn, providing the right cards exist on the field or in-hand. A popular choice is to Synchro Summon Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier or Mist Wurm, and exploit their field-clearing abilities, while Infernity Gun (whether in the hand or on the field) will allow the player to summon a second Trishula or Wurm via Infernity Necromancer, Infernity Archfiend, Infernity Beetle and another copy of Infernity Gun, to clear the opponent's field, hand and graveyard of any cards blocking a direct attack.

Weaknesses
Infernities, despite their enormous potential as an Instant Synchro deck, have a number of crucial weaknesses. Of course, the foremost one is the one shared among most of today's competitive decks - Special Summon and Graveyard reliance. Cards like Royal Oppression, Macro Cosmos, Dimensional Fissure and any other that could lock down the main assets of the deck are the most dangerous threat, with Skill Drain placing just after them in terms of threat. Side-Deck Imperial Iron Wall to combat against the removal cards, and Twister to deal with Royal Oppression and Skill Drain.

Also, by themselves they are a fairly weak archetype, with the most powerful non-Synchro card, Infernity Destroyer, being only 2300 ATK and without a strong enough effect. Hindering the key cards of the deck with Prohibition and the like can also disrupt their strategy dramatically, since this will leave cards in hand, stopping the effects of Infernity monsters.

Another important weakness is the trademark of the whole Infernity archetype - most effects, including those of many vital Spells and Traps, can be activated only by having no hand. Thus, an Infernity player will be forced to drain his hand quickly or to Set cards a lot if he/she wants to make full use of said effects, relying on top-decking should things go wrong.

Also, all Infernity monsters are DARK types, leaving them open to the effects of Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror and Consecrated Light.

Most Infernity decks will have have very few monsters, since they cannot afford to have cards in their hand to stop their effect. Cards that stop or destroy summoning such as Non Aggression Area, Trap Hole and Bottomless Trap Hole will stop Infernity monsters from being summoned for one turn. Note that Infernity monsters lack high ATK stats and that King Tiger Wanghu can stop most of these monsters.

Infernity Beetle will also have trouble against Mirror of Oaths.

Morphing Jar and Fine are two cards that can possibly cripple an Infernity deck instantly.

Strengths
This according to the Konami website Infernity monsters have extremely powerful effects, but you can only use those effects while you have no cards in your hand. This might seem like a big drawback at first, but it really isn’t a drawback at all. Here are some of the best things about Infernity Decks:

Infernity Decks can search for the cards they need from their Deck, and Special Summon lots of monsters from the Graveyard. So whatever specific card you need, you can probably just go and get it, no matter where it is. Infernity Decks are really flexible, even if things aren’t going as planned. Since they’re designed to work with no hand, your Infernity cards on the field and in your Graveyard will give you more moves you can do, even if you don’t have anything good in your hand. Infernity Decks are safe for making the big plays. If you’re about to pull off your big combo, there are ways to make sure that your opponent can’t interfere with it. Infernity Decks are FAST. Really, really, really fast. With the right moves and a little luck, you can have 5 monsters on the field and win the Duel before your opponent even knows what hit them.

Monsters

 * Cybernetic Cyclopean
 * Dark Armed Dragon
 * Dark Grepher
 * Mystic Tomato
 * Necro Gardna
 * Plaguespreader Zombie
 * Snipe Hunter
 * Summoner Monk

Spells

 * Card Destruction
 * Lightning Vortex
 * Monster Reincarnation
 * Foolish Burial
 * Allure of Darkness
 * Nihilistic Purgatory
 * Tribute to the Doomed
 * One for One

Traps

 * Non Aggression Area
 * Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
 * Meteor Flare
 * The Transmigration Prophecy
 * Raigeki Break

Extra Deck

 * Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
 * Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
 * Stygian Sergeants
 * Hundred-Eyes Dragon
 * Archfiend Chaos King
 * Ally of Justice - Decisive Arms

Infernity World
This deck revolves around the not having any cards in your hand as well but use the Dark World Swarm.

Monsters

 * Beiige, Vanguard of Dark World
 * Brron, Mad King of Dark World
 * Broww, Huntsman of Dark World
 * Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World
 * Sillva, Warlord of Dark World
 * Scarr, Scout of Dark World
 * Snipe Hunter

Spells

 * Dark World Lightning
 * Dark World Dealings
 * Dark Core
 * Lightning Vortex
 * A Feather of the Phoenix
 * The Cheerful Coffin
 * Hand Destruction
 * Card Destruction
 * Tribute to the Doomed

Traps

 * Depth Amulet
 * Raigeki Break
 * Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
 * Fine
 * Rope of Life

Trivia

 * In the Japanese version of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's when Kalin says Infernity, you can mishear him saying Infinity.


 * In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's episode 54 and Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's episode 55 the word Infernity was used instead of Infernality.


 * The more recent additions of the Infernity archetype seem to have a Western Shootout theme to them.