When the Infernoids debuted in Secrets of Eternity, they hit the scene with seven monsters ranging from Level 2 to Level 10. That’s a big lineup, but with one Infernoid at each Level, Infernoids at Level 1, Level 6, and Level 9 were all conspicuously missing. If you’re not familiar with Infernoids here’s a quick crash course:

-None of them can be Normal Summoned or Set.

-You Special Summon Infernoids from your hand by banishing Infernoids from your hand or Graveyard.

-The bigger an Infernoid is, the more cards you need to banish: banish one for an Infernoid at Level 1 to Level 4; banish two for a Level 5 to 8; or banish three for a Level 9 or 10.

-Bigger Infernoids can be Special Summoned from your Graveyard too, sort of like Dragon Rulers! This kicks in starting at Level 5.

-Each Infernoid has an ability that lets you Tribute a monster for an effect: lower Level Infernoids banish a card from your opponent’s Graveyard on your opponent’s turn; mid-size Infernoids can do it on your turn and your opponent’s turn; while the biggest of the Infernoid bosses can negate the activation of something and destroy it once per turn, during either turn.

Along with all the common abilities, each Infernoid has a unique effect: everything from Infernoid Antra’s ability to bump a face-up card back to your opponent’s hand, to Infernoid Onuncu’s ability to destroy every other monster on the field.

You need to banish Infernoids to make your Special Summons, but since none of the Infernoids can be Special Summoned in any way but banishing Infernoids, Reasoning and Monster Gate can help you load up your Graveyard with banish fodder: as you reveal cards from the top of your Deck looking for a non-Infernoid to Summon, every Infernoid you flip will be sent to the Graveyard. You’ll need to play some non-Infernoids though so that it’s legal to activate those cards at all: Lightsworn monsters and Card Trooper are especially good, because their effects help you send even more Infernoids to the graveyard.

Crossed Souls brings us three new “Infernoid” monsters to fill the missing Level gaps, plus two more support cards to fuel the Void. Here’s two of them.

Once per turn, you can use the Level 1 Infernoid Pirmais’ Ignition Effect to target a face-down card on the field – a monster Spell or Trap – and shuffle it back into your opponent’s Deck. That means if your opponent has Torrential Tribute or Compulsory Evacuation Device they’ll have to flip it early or lose it outright. Other removal cards, like Bottomless Trap Hole and Mirror Force, won’t have any chance to activate.

You can also use Pirmais to force out powerful Continuous Traps your opponent would hold for later otherwise: if they don’t activate Skill Drain immediately, they’ll never get to play it. The same goes for the new Lose 1 Turn or Vanity’s Emptiness, cards your opponent might want to hold back on to cost you more important plays later.

If you want to see your opponent’s backrow, Pirmais is great at gathering intelligence on the cheap. And since some cards can’t be played against it, Permais puts in a lot of work breaking apart defensive set-ups. As one of the smaller Infernoids, it can banish from your opponent’s graveyard on your opponent’s turn, too: awesome against Nekroz, Satellarknights, and Burning Abyss.

Infernoid Sjette clocks in at Level 6, and with 2400 ATK it’s another serious heavy-hitter for the Infernoid lineup! Not only will it attack for 2400 damage or take out a monster, but when it attacks you’ll trigger its effect: Sjette forces your opponent to banish a monster of their choice from their Extra Deck.

Decks like Shaddolls, Satellarknights, and Ritual Beasts have jam-packed Extra Decks and need all fifteen of their card slots for important monsters: Sjette whittles away their options card by card. Since you get to see what your opponent banishes, you’ll know exactly what they can and can’t do. Your opponent will usually give up off-theme tech monsters first, making certain plays safer; but they might also banish themed monsters they run in multiples, like El Shaddoll Construct and Stellarknight Triverr. Play into those cards hard enough and your opponent might run out of them.

The Infernoids also get a new boss monster plus two great new “Void” support cards from Crossed Souls! Stay tuned, because we’ll cover them soon.