Archfiend

Naming
According to the Upper Deck Entertainment website, "Archfiends are a special category of card. Most Archfiends can be easily identified by their name. Any card with "Archfiend" in the card name, is an "Archfiend."

This category was officially introduced with the release of Dark Crisis, as a way to standardize the English translation of OCG card names containing "Demon" 「デーモン」. To avoid confusion, "Demon" is often spelled "Dæmon" or "Daemon", to show that the card is an Archfiend: some non-Archfiend cards have "Demon" spelled differently, and some monsters have Japanese names with "Demon" as a possible translation.

Theme
Some of the Archfiends are chess themed including Terrorking, Infernalqueen, Desrook, Imprisoned Queen Archfiend, Darkbishop, Shadowknight and Vilepawn Archfiend, all of whom are named after Chess pieces, and feature a chessboard pattern as their background. The support card "Checkmate" is named after the Checkmate, the final winning move in Chess.

Graphically, most of the Archfiend monsters place strong emphasis on bones and demonic features, often appearing as skeletal creatures wielding weapons of bone.

Naming Changes
Since some Japanese cards with names containing "Demon" 「デーモン」 had already been released in the English TCG, they were retroactively classified as "Archfiends", although their official names were left unchanged. These include:


 * A Deal with Dark Ruler
 * Axe of Despair
 * B. Skull Dragon
 * Beast of Talwar
 * Fiend Skull Dragon
 * Lesser Fiend
 * Shadow Tamer
 * Summoned Skull
 * Toon Summoned Skull

Deck
Building a deck around the "Chess Archfiends" is tricky since they require your Life Points as payment and paying is not optional. Therefore your Life Points will be drained very quickly, especially since you must worry about further Life Point drain through battle damage from your opponent. Most "Archfiends" do not have enough attack power to hold their ground. To help scrap usefulness, "Archfiends" come with the effect of negating an opponent's effect that target them by a roll of the dice. However, this is not a reliable defense, and only two of the cards have a 50% chance of negation (though one of them, Darkbishop Archfiend, works for any of your Archfiends, including the ones that have their own protection).

It is advised that a deck built around these cards is difficult to play and does not ensure victory. "Archfiend" decks must rely on heavy support. Try to activate Pandemonium as soon as possible and add Terraforming and or Archfiend General to help an "Archfiend" deck run smoothly, it is often advisable to use Dark Necrofear or Plaguespreader Zombie to get a quick defense if you're in a tight spot. It is highly advisable to make good use of "Archfiends" that don't sap your Life Points but still offer good attack or defense, like "Archfiend Soldier" and "Archfiend of Gilfer". Another route to go is to simply stop caring about your Life Points, throw in a few more suicidal cards to help, like "Bark of Dark Ruler", and hope you kill your opponent before your deck kills you. But if you're a fan of the game chess and are going for a "Chess Archfiend" deck for novelty's sake, then you should really make it geared more towards a general fiend-themed deck, adding Goblin King and other fiend support cards. This way, when the heat is high, you can turn to a Plan B.

Take advantage of the high ATK of most archfiends, namely Shadowknight Archfiend, Archfiend Soldier and Terrorking Archfiend. Archfiends are one of the few archetypes with an abundance of high ATK non-tributers in the game; Stygian Street Patrol is an excellent card and can help avoid the Summoning problems usually related to Terrorking Archfiend. Summoned Skull and its retrained counterpart can provide late-game power, as well as receive a considerable boost when used in conjunction with Axe of Despair. If you can weather the Life Point payments, you may be able to destroy your opponent under a barrage of massive attacks. Piercing cards, such as Big Bang Shot and Fairy Meteor Crush can further the punishment, while the Archfiend's own innate immunities can provide some defense.


 * A small help is Life Absorbing Machine which gains you half of the life points paid in the last turn. Having multiple copies may be excess, but having two copies will result in no loss after the initial payment. Three copies, while zone clogging will actually gain life points. However, once Pandemonium is on the field, all three would become dead weight, unless you still choose to pay life points, and your machines wil grant you the LP.
 * Solemn Wishes gives a steady stream of life points.
 * Solomon's Lawbook skips the standby phase, and avoids the maintenance cost.
 * Supremacy Berry can give a quick boost to your life if you're running low.
 * Cyber Archfiend is a great addition to an Archfiend deck because, in addition to having a high DEF and potential for increased Drawing, when Pandemoniumis active on the field Cyber Archfiend's self-destruction ability allows you to search your deck for a level 3 or lower Archfiend monster.

Megamorph can be a useful, and sometimes game winning, card. You will most likely have less life points due to the maintenance costs, this will give the Archfiends much needed power. Used with Summoned Skull or his younger brother alone will have 5000 ATK points, enough to match the infamous Five-Headed Dragon, and with Infernalqueen Archfiend, Imprisoned Queen Archfiend, and/or Axe of Despair can overpower it.

"Pandemonium" is a must in an Archfiend Deck: as well as negating any costs to your Life Points to keep Archfiends in play, when a Level 4 Archfiend monster is destroyed you can add a Level 3 or lower Archfiend to your hand. You can search and protect "Pandemonium" with Archfiend General and Pandemonium Watchbear respectively, as well as Field Barrier. Since Pandemonium is so important in an Archfiend deck, increasing your drawing potential could be useful. Draw Increasing cards like Card Destruction and Magical Mallet may be worth considering in an Archfiend deck. "Falling Down" is another staple: if you control an Archfiend, you can clear the field and attack directly. In the same vein, "Earthbound Immortal Ccapac Apu" can benefit from Pandemonium to help heavily weather down the opposition. Other cards to help stifle or downright negate the Archfiends' weaknesses are "My Body as a Shield" to protect the Archfiends from their weakness to cards that affect multiple monsters, or "Dark Ruler Ha Des" to negate opponent monsters' effects. Dice Re-Roll is also a staple, as it increases the protection for every Archfiend you have. It is also perfectly possible to heavily increase the threat level of even the low-level Archfiends by using Solidarity, as most Archfiend decks do not require monsters of any other Types.

"Thought Ruler Archfiend" and "Red Dragon Archfiend" are good Synchro Monsters: "Thought Ruler" can pay Life Points to negate the effect of Spells and Trap that target it and replenish your Life Points when it destroys a monster in battle, while "Dragon" can destroy all defense position monsters your opponent controls.
 * One potential strategy is to use Foolish Burials and Armageddon Knights to put at least 2 Imprisoned Queen Archfiends in the Graveyard to give Terrorking Archfiend 4000 ATK, then remove an Evil Hero Infernal Gainer from play so Terrorking Archfiend can attack twice, then play Checkmate allowing to attack directly twice for 8000 damage and game.

Archfiends are Beatdown decks that don't rely on special summoning, so cards like Vanity's Fiend and Barrier Statue of the Abyss are great compliments to fend-off Synchros and higher-level monsters.

Monsters

 * Desrook Archfiend
 * Infernalqueen Archfiend
 * Imprisoned Queen Archfiend
 * Terrorking Archfiend
 * Archfiend General
 * Skull Archfiend of Lightning
 * Darkbishop Archfiend
 * Vilepawn Archfiend
 * Shadowknight Archfiend
 * Cyber Archfiend
 * Any level 4 Tuner Monsters
 * Mist Archfiend
 * Summoned Skull
 * Mad Archfiend
 * Evil Hero Infernal Gainer

Spells

 * Pandemonium
 * Foolish Burial
 * Field Barrier
 * Axe of Despair
 * Checkmate
 * Megamorph
 * Supremacy Berry
 * Magical Mallet
 * Card Destruction

Traps

 * Hate Buster
 * Archfiend's Roar
 * Altar for Tribute
 * Dice Re-Roll
 * Destruct Potion

Extra Deck

 * Red Dragon Archfiend
 * Thought Ruler Archfiend
 * Chaos King Archfiend