If you’ve been keeping track of the new Premium Gold: Return of the Bling cards so far, you might have noticed an interesting trend: most of them either send cards to the Graveyard or want to be in the Graveyard. Absolute King Back Jack and Pero Pero Cerperus fit that trend to a “T” and add a lot of value to a Deck that we really haven’t talked about yet on the Strategy Site: Infernoids.

We’ll save a more in depth discussion about how Infernoids work for a later date, but here are the basics.

– Infernoids can’t be Normal Summoned.

– All Infernoids are Special Summoned by banishing other Infernoids from your hand or Graveyard.

– Level 4 and lower Infernoids can only be Summoned from your hand, but Level 5+ can be Special Summoned from your hand or Graveyard, similar to the Dragon Rulers. This isn’t an activated effect that starts a Chain.

– You can’t Summon Infernoids unless the total Level/Rank of all the Effect Monsters you control is 8 or lower.

-To that end, Infernoids can Tribute monsters to get them off your side of the field and banish cards in your opponent’s Graveyard as a Quick Effect.

From the first three points, it’s easy to see that you want to build Infernoids as a high-monster count Deck with cards like Reasoning and Monster Gate. Because you need lots of Infernoids to banish for other Infernoids and the high-Level ones can be Special Summoned from the Graveyard, tossing a lot of them into the Graveyard is extremely valuable. But to get Reasoning and Monster Gate to resolve properly, you need monsters that can be Normal Summoned mixed in with the ones that can’t. Card Trooper and Raiden, Hand of the Lightsworn are obvious picks, but so are Absolute King Back Jack and Pero Pero Cerperus.

In fact, Back Jack is, in particular, one of the best possible monsters to hit on Reasoning regardless of whether or not your opponent guessed it’s Level correctly. If they did, it goes to the Graveyard and triggers its ability to rearrange the top 3 cards of your Deck. Then you can use its effect during your opponent’s turn to excavate the top card, Set it if it’s a Normal Trap, and skip the one turn waiting period between Setting a Trap and activating it. If they call the Level wrong, Back Jack comes to the field where you can Tribute it with an Infernoid to banish a card from your opponent’s Graveyard, which triggers its effect to rearrange the top 3 cards of your Deck, which lands it in the Graveyard where you can use its other ability. Either way, you’re in business.

One of the best things about running Back Jack in an Infernoid Deck is that it actually just doesn’t matter whether it’s Summoned or sent straight to the Graveyard, or even if it hits a Trap Card with its ability. It’s obviously great to grab a Trap Card like Torrential Tribute, Mirror Force, or even Eye of the Void with Back Jack and spring it on your opponent when they’re least expecting it, but even if you don’t hit one, which is likely considering you probably only run 6 or 7 Traps max and they can also get sent to the Graveyard by Reasoning, you’re still getting the chance to fix your next 3 or so draws and you can even get the chance to toss an extra Infernoid in the Graveyard as well by leaving it on top of your Deck and then missing with Back Jack’s ability on purpose.

Pero Pero Cerperus on the other hand has a valuable Level for Xyz Summoning and an effect to banish itself from the Graveyard to destroy a card when you take damage. Cards like Vanity’s Emptiness and Djinn Releaser of Rituals can stop Infernoids cold in their tracks, but Pero Pero Cerperus can eliminate both of them. At Level 3, it overlaps with Card Trooper making it easier for your opponent to guess the correct Level… but if they do they have a better chance of dropping Cerperus into the Graveyard than a Card Trooper, as you can run 3 Cerperus but only 2 Trooper. If you can land both on the field at the same time, you can activate Card Trooper to drop 3 cards in the Graveyard, Xyz Summon Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss, then detach Cerperus to drop 3 more cards in the Graveyard!

Cerperus also has applications in Shaddolls as well. El Shaddoll Shekhinaga is a great Fusion Monster, but other than Mathematician and sometimes Glow-Up Bulb, Shaddoll Duelists often struggle with finding good EARTH Fusion Materials that they can squeeze extra mileage out of either before or after a Fusion Summon. Unlike Felis, Lightsworn Archer, Pero Pero Cerperus can still be Summoned if you happen to draw it and its effect will still work in the Graveyard if you draw it then use it for a Fusion Summon. Don’t be shocked if you see Pero Pero Cerperus in a Shaddoll Deck near you!

Absolute King Back Jack and Pero Pero Cerperus are just 2 of the many new Gold Secret Rare cards in Premium Gold: Return of the Bling. It launches this Friday, March 20^th, so be ready!