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 resembles much of the wild west, with cards such as "Infernity Archfiend", "Infernity Necromancer", and "Infernity Mirage" alluding to the native Americans while cards like "Infernity Avenger", "Infernity Randomizer", and "Infernity Launcher" (whose original Japanese name was Infernity Gun) relate to the cowboys. This archetype was used by Kalin Kessler in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's. In episodes 33, 34, and 35 in the English 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.

Playing style
As the monster Effects imply, this deck is focused on having no hand. Using discarding effects, such as Raigeki Break and Phoenix Wing Wind Blast is the fastest way to empty your hand while setting up your graveyard for cards like Infernity Archfiend and Infernity Avenger.

Used correctly, this deck can become very powerful on its own. However, you can add a twist 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.

The other Archetype is the "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.

As of The Shining Darkness release, the Infernity archetype has become much more Graveyard based. Both Infernity Mirage and Infernity Launcher 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 Infernities in your grave to summon. Infernity Avenger can also summon himself and possibly become one of the only Lv.5+ tuners. Because of new graveyard tactics, the Infernity have become less and less reliant of top decking, turning this rather risky deck type into a powerful tool of decimation.

Even though Infernity decks can manipulate the number of DARK monsters in their Graveyard at ease, Dark Armed Dragon is not a recommended card, due to the possibility of it getting stuck in your hand, hindering the entire deck, and you don't want your Infernities Removed from Play.

It's usually not recommended to use cards such as "Full Salvo", "Fine" and "Rope of Life", since, while they empty your hand, they also give small benefits and most times the loss outweighs the gain.

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 Launcher (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 Launcher, to clear the opponent's field, hand and graveyard of any cards blocking a direct attack. Another good Synchro Monster is Hundred-Eyes Dragon due to the fact that it can copy most of the ability's used by a Infernity deck. However, you want your Infernity monsters in the Graveyard, so it can be a double-edged sword.

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. Cards like Royal Oppression, Macro Cosmos, Dimensional Fissure, Crevice Into the Different Dimension 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. Cards like Effect Veiler and Battle Fader that can be activated in hand can give major surprise and/or lockdown to Infernity combo. Cards like Threatening Roar and Waboku can slow Infernity for a turn, allowing you to get a bit of timing to counter.

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.

Infernity monsters are also severely affected by Consecrated Light. This monster prevents the Summoning of DARK monsters; therefore disabling Synchro-Summoning. Be careful, Dark monsters can be Flip-Summoned. Consecrated Light will only stall for a turn or two.

And if you're looking for cards to side against Infernities, D.D. Crow, Crevice Into the Different Dimension and likes shuts down any Infernity OTK move.

The fact that this deck depends on having no cards in your hand can be a weakness itself. If you play a large number of cards and then your opponent plays a field-clearing card like Judgment Dragon or Black Rose Dragon, you may find yourself painted into a corner. To keep this from happening, Infernity Guardian is a great defense since it can't be destroyed by effects. Another weakness of an Infernity deck is that it can be completely shut down by Ambitious Gofer due to the fact that it takes advantage of an empty hand.

Strengths
Currently, the most noticeable strength of an Infernity deck is its ability to Instant Synchro with ease, thanks to cards like Infernity Launcher and Infernity Necromancer, which allow for very fast Special Summoning from the Graveyard. Similarly to Launcher, Infernity Mirage can Special Summon two more Infernity monsters simply by being Tributed, and it's rather easy to keep a hand empty thanks to many cards like Raigeki Break, Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, Into the Void and so on. Also, the Infernity archetype has its own specific Counter-Trap in the form of Infernity Barrier, a card that can jam almost anything by itself.

If properly used, the deck can guarantee an OTK situation with its main combo, which allows for the Synchro Summon of three Lv. 9 Synchro Monsters (Mist Wurm in the TCG, Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier in the OCG), plus another Synchro Monster and an Infernity Archfiend, or two Archfiends. Otherwise, it can simply use the many ways it has to Special Summon from the Graveyard to provide material for other Synchro Summons, not necessarily having to rely on big plays.

Post-September 2010 Strategy
After the September 2010 Forbidden list, the Infernity strategy became less OTK oriented and more control oriented. The place of primary tuner, once take by Infernity Beetle, now belongs to Infernity Avenger. In addition, the loop is now about summoning level eight synchro monsters, not level nines. Hundred-Eyes Dragon has become a much more important card. It is being used to remove Infernity Mirage, summon Infernity Archfiend and Infernity Necromancer. This is to obtain an extra search with Infernity Archfiend, usually for Infernity Barrier or Infernity Break. Another major level eight synchro is Infernity Doom Dragon which not only gives you a 3000 attacker with a burn and destruction effect but also a name for Infernity Barrier. Infernity Necromancer is then used to retrieve Infernity Avenger, which is used to Synchro Summon for another level eight. Stygian Street Patrol is now being used to special summon Infernity Archfiend while it is the last card in hand, and thus generates a search. It is also used to Special Summon searched Infernity Mirages to continue the combo, or search Infernity Necromancers and Infernity Avengers to obtain missing pieces of it. Armageddon Knight has replaced one Dark Grepher, as one does not always want to discard Infernity Archfiend now. If one starts the loop while one's opponent has a monster with 1900 attack or more, one can OTK by summoning Colossal Fighter and Armory Arm. Simply perform the loop as normal, but leave Infernity Archfiend out of the last synchro summon. Equip their monster with Armory Arm, and attack it with Colossal Fighter until they lose.

Monsters

 * Infernity Archfiend
 * Infernity Necromancer
 * Infernity Mirage
 * Infernity Avenger
 * Stygian Street Patrol
 * Plaguespreader Zombie
 * Armageddon Knight
 * Dark Grepher

Spells

 * Reinforcement of the Army
 * Foolish Burial
 * One for One
 * Infernity Launcher
 * Allure of Darkness

Traps

 * Infernity Inferno
 * Dust Tornado
 * Infernity Barrier
 * Infernity Break
 * Trap Stun

Extra Deck

 * Mist Wurm
 * Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
 * Hundred-Eyes Dragon
 * Infernity Doom Dragon
 * Stardust Dragon
 * Goyo Guardian
 * Ally of Justice Catastor
 * Stygian Sergeants
 * Colossal Fighter
 * Sea Dragon Lord Gishilnodon
 * Stygian Sergeants

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
 * Lightning Vortex
 * A Feather of the Phoenix
 * The Cheerful Coffin
 * Card Destruction

Traps

 * Depth Amulet
 * Raigeki Break
 * Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
 * Infernity Inferno
 * Rope of Life (helps bring monsters back and fulfills the no-hand requirement)

Trivia

 * In the Japanese version of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's when Kalin says Infernity, you can hear him mispronouncing it 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 (ep. 33-35). For example, when Kalin played his Infernality Fiend in episode 33, he then later called it by its TCG name when dueled Yusei again (ep. 54-55).


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


 * The handless effect of the Infernity archetype is identical to the "Hellbent" effect of the "Rakdos" related cards from Magic: The Gathering.