Infernity Virus

In the beginning of Blackwing decks, their main synchro summon (Armor Master) was usually skipped for Dark Strike Fighter to end games immediately. For Infernity, Trishula (or Mist Wurm or Stardust Dragon) became the main synchro summon instead of the Infernity Death Dragon. I attempt to change that...

In an ideal handless situation where opponent allows you your first Synchro, you synchro your first 8-stars synchro of Infernity Death Dragon and call priority to use Death Dragon's effect on one of your opponent's monster. Your opponent chain a spell or trap to destroy/bounce/flip facedown/negate or does nothing, trying to save that Torrential for the rest of your synchros and you flip...

http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Eradicator_Epidemic_Virus

Tribute the Death Dragon and declare spells or traps for destruction and see all your opponent's hand and facedown cards in the spell and trap zone! Choose traps especially if opponent flips Royal Oppression or you predict a saved torrential or choose spells and you will most probably be safe from Lightning Vortex and Heavy Storm for the next 3 turns, achieving a kind of lock. The only problems are Royal Decree, Trap Stun, Solemn Judgement and Royal Oppression. Getting your Death Dragon to the grave also means there is a 3000 atk Infernity waiting to be summoned by Mirage, Necromancer or used as the 3rd Gun's summon because the field is usually cramped filled with Synchros.

Infernity Virus

Monster (18)

1 DAD

3 Infernity Archfiend

3 Infernity Necromancer

3 Infernity Beetle

2 Infernity Mirage

2 Infernity Revenger

3 Dark Grepher

1 Plaguespreader Zombie

Spells (10)

1 Allure

1 MST

1 Heavy Storm

1 One-for-one

1 Foolish Burial

1 Giant Trunade

1 ROTA

3 Infernity Gun

Traps (12)

3 Infernity Inferno

2 Raigeki Break/PWWB

2 Bottomless Traphole

1 Call of the Haunted

1 TT

1 Trap Dustshoot

2 Eradicator Epidemic Virus (EEV)

Extra Deck

2-3 Infernity Death Dragon

12-13 other synchros

Using J-Speed's ISDCS Tournament winning Infernity deck as base, I don't think 2 EEV will disrupt the deck much although it does replace Gold Sarcophagus which speeds up Infernity decks. On the other hand, this deck will be playable for Konami OCG Qualifier Tournaments and using EEV will be so much fun!

Untried and untested.

Update: Solemn and Royal Oppression negates the Death Dragon, meaning you cannot activate EEV as the monster has not reached the field for tributing yet! (No monster effect priority call too)

Let's be honest here...

I'll take a break from all those Infernity posts and share another 2 articles by Jason Grabher-Meyer, over at yugioh.tcgplayer.com. He writes a lot of good and informative articles:

"9 Out of 10 SJC Duelists Are Playing Honest Wrong"

http://yugioh.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?id=2328

Note: Be careful about using this information for Singapore's Qualifier Tournaments. They have card rulings stating that Damage Calculation step is skipped. Read the rules before attempting the above.

"Nine Thoughts On The New Format"

http://yugioh.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?id=2423

Note: No Infernity.

My Archfiends speak English!

These are European versions of Stardust Accelerator 2009 and they cost about SGD $50 each. I couldn't get the Japanese version so I have to make do with the TCG cards. Unfortunately, my Infernity deck do not qualify for usage in OCG Konami Tournaments, even though I've already planned on playing Infernity without Mist Wurms and Trishula. (Play Revenger and go for mostly 8-stars instead

A little note about the rarity, Europe versions of Archfiends are Super Rare, meaning the card is foil. Japan and US versions are Ultra Rare, meaning the card is foil and the name of the card is in gold lettering.

Another Infernity video: Bahamut84 (2008 Singapore Champion) vs Big Bear (2008 World Champion)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHD0B81vCDA

Ignoring the misplay with using Necromancer twice, there are still 2 cool moves the 2008 World Champion did in the duel:

- Infernity Inferno, putting an Archfiend for Call of the Haunted to defend a Battle phase.

- Synchros a field of monster, including Brionac, and activate a set Giant Trunade on all set spells and traps for fueling Brionac.

"The State of the Metagame" articles and my comments

I came across this 2 articles by LIGHTNINGBLITZ over at the tcgplayer.com blogs and will like to share them with everyone:

Part 1: http://forum.tcgplayer.com/blog.php?b=2082

Part 2: http://forum.tcgplayer.com/blog.php?b=2097

It talks about most of the current decks and card choices in the new March 2010 banlist not, including Infernity. I agree with most of what is written (especially about the lightsworns) except the Rescue Cat decks. I don't really agree that Kitty Synchro is Tier 1 as the Rescue Cat engine is only 1 of Summon Priest and 1 of Rescue Cat. Limited cards are extremely hard to draw into now, Blackwings players will most probably notice now regarding Allure. I may try the Flamvell variant of Synchro Cat if possible to see if it is true.

Updates: I tried out Flamvell Cat in a video game. It is nice to be able to easily get out a Colossal Fighter and/or Stardust Dragon. However, drawing 2 Pot of Avarice and 2 Rekindling early game leads to bad hands and there is only one Summon Priest to dump them in early games, provided you draw him too. I think 3 Flamvell Dogs (Flamvell's Shura!) and 2 Flamvell Magicians works better than using 3 each.

Using Flamvell, it seems to be the main engine and not the Cat engine. The synergy between Flamvell and Cat will be Rykos can help to mill Flamvells to the grave and the Magicians also can be summoned by Summon Priest, escaping Bottomless, to go for Stardust. I still think GB, BW and Gadgets will be more consistent. Flamvell Magicians are DT cards so you will not be seeing this deck in OCG Konami Tournaments.

Yugioh WC 2010 Reverse of Arcadia: Perfect Duel Game Guide

I just bought this book and 1 main reason was because I found out that only 1 Hellway Patrol is required in Infernity decks.

http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Hellway_Patrol

The card art looks very cool with a character looking like the Marvel Super Hero, Ghost Rider. This book is a V-Jump publication so I guess the card cannot be used in Konami tournaments. The book content contains a short portion for the walkthrough and focuses more on the decklist of the opponents as well as all the cards featured in the game and which packs to get them.

Insanity.

This.

http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Infernity_Barrier

and this.

Monster (17)

1 DAD

1 Plaguespreader Zombie

1 Hellway Patrol

3 Dark Grepher

2 Infernity Mirage

3 Infernity Beetle

3 Infernity Necromancer

3 Infernity Archfiend

Spells (9)

1 Heavy Storm

1 MST

1 Giant Trunade

1 Reinforcement of the Army

1 Foolish Burial

1 One for One

3 Infernity Gun

Traps (14)

1 Solemn Judgment

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Trap Dustshoot

2 Raigeki Break

2 Bottomless Traphole

3 Infernity Inferno

3 Infernity Barrier

GG.

Update: Ok, after calming down and thinking through about it, Konami did leave a weakness in the card, Infernity Barrier. It requires an attack-mode Infernity monster on top of being handless. At first I thought Barrier will guarantee the OTK but looking back at the main monsters played before going into the Gun loop, Grepher and Necromancer (goes to defense mode) does not allow Barrier's activation. The rest of the main Infernity monsters will have to be in attack-mode and protected by traps, except Archfiend because 1800 attack is decent enough. It will still guarantee a victory by the next turn if you filled up your field with Synchros but somehow did not manage to win that same turn. Two things are for sure: this card is powerful and help advocate players to go handless.

Infernity VS Infernity Video! Featuring J-Speed's Infernity Deck

From the 3 games, it just seem that this matchup goes to the Infernity that pulls off the OTK first. The videos come from oyatunozikann's youtube channel featuring J-Speed's Infernity deck in the Blue 5Ds sleeve on the left. I found 2 of his decklist from shriek.twoday.net and will share out the link below the videos. It has been some time since the Blackwing/Dark Strike Fighter days where I've seen a user take such a long turn thinking and calculating for the OTK before executing. (Unlike most OTK decks where the turn is long due to drawing or milling of a lot of cards) Here are my comments and opinions of the match and I must first declare that I am neither a professional player nor used an Infernity deck before!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgRmgWRgsLk

Comments: I'm guessing this is the first game. No Necromancer available so I guessed the goal is to get out Stardust Dragon ASAP to protect. The opponent drew a bad hand was reduced to twirling his Dark Grepher to kill time as J-Speed calculated for the OTK. Even if the opponent could survive, Stardust and Solemn will protect against the impending Heavy Storm and Lightning Vortex.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIV5AKwUTBI

Comments: This video is incoherent but you can make out the details. (Did J-Speed make all his card and card sleeves bend to hide the foils cause the whole deck looks bend?) In the end, J-Speed took a long time to think about stopping the opponent's OTK and he was already down to 4000 LP as he solemn-ed to protect his Raigeki Break. I think the Raigeki Break couldn't help much as his opponent has summoned a Trishula and had an Infernity Gun backup ready to be used. Judging by the Dust Tornado used, this should be game 2 or 3 and he must not have drawn any of his D.D. Crows to save him. I think D.D. Crowing the Archfiend might make a difference to the outcome but I guess the Heavy Storm more or less sealed the match. Otherwise, Solemn-ing the Mirage might have stop the OTK too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x59-duuMabI

Comments: Another game 2 or 3 match as Dust Tornado and D.D. Crows are seen in J-Speed's deck. The turning point of the match is easier to tell if you are watching by the side or if you watch the match play out: The opponent should have saved the D.D. Crow for something other than the Plaguespreader, like the Archfiends to stand a better chance of surviving. Without the Archfiend to search for Gun, J-Speed will most probably end up with 2-3 Synchros on the field. However, J-Speed could also choose to send 2 Archfiends instead of 1. He probably sent 1 thinking he was safe from another D.D. Crow? This is already a sided match and look how fast it ended with 4 monsters and only 2 synchros.

The clips take so long because the players were either calculating OTK or calculating how to prevent OTK. In conclusion, I think Archfiend is the key card and is usually summoned from the grave which means they are D.D. Crows' and Solemn's primary target. Bottomless does not prevent the Infernity card search off Archfiend, I think. A lot of the tournament OCG decks are packing in D.D. Crows (especially Blackwings) and Thunderking Raiou in the main deck to stop Infernity. Dimensional Fissure (Found in both GB and at least one Blackwings too) and Royal Oppression (already mained in standard Blackwings) are useful against them making Blackwings one of the best deck against Infernity.

Let's take a look at J-Speed explosive deck and I think the main reason is due to 3 Dark Grephers and 3 Infernity Inferno! His deck also run a high monster count compared to what is normally advocated in the Infernity Pojo Discussion Threads. He packs in 1 Plaguespreader Zombie (helps lower hand count and is a tuner), 1 Hellway Patrol (can he be used in Konami Tournaments? Game Guide not considered Software product?), 1 Dark Armed Dragon (must be playable unlike what was discussed in Pojo?) and 1 Gorz (Required?) :

1st place: http://shriek.twoday.net/stories/6249922/

5th place: http://shriek.twoday.net/stories/6250974/ (but watch out for Knife's build at 2nd place with the same 3 Grephers and 3 Inferno!)

The main difference between the 1st place and the 5th place is the 2 Gold Sarcophagus and 1 Allure of Darkness in the 1st place deck, which adds even more speed. 5th place deck uses Trap Dustshoot which is also a useful card in Infernity OTK builds to check opponent's hand for any disruption and mainly to send D.D. Crows away, back to the deck.

J-Speed's 5th place deck also uses 2 Royal Decree which I seem to recall seeing in another Infernity Build before. I think it is to help protect your OTK like Trap Stun but also more to "shut up shop" with your field full of Synchros. The most interesting and innovative card choice of J-Speed is the Sea Dragon Lord Gishilnodon: easily summoned through Necromancer and Beetle and just as easily get its 3000 attack upgrade in Infernity. Another great 5-star Synchro choice for Infernity other than Stygian Sergeants that can gain 3000 but please note that Infernity Revenger is required to synchro the latter. All the OTK in the videos makes me want to forget about my alternative playstyle of simplifying the gamestate with Infernity!

Additional comments: A little early(September 2010 Banlist Prediction for Infernity) but even with

Trishula to 1

Infernity Archfiend to 1 (Judging by the videos, 1 Archfiend is all that is needed as Grepher, Foolish and Inferno searches and dumps it)

Infernity Gun to 2

The deck can still OTK with those changes but will be extremely susceptible to a D.D. Crow to the Archfiend. I really wonder how Konami will stop this madness come September!