TSHD Part 2: Look mom! No Hands!

Despite Blackwings being a popular Deck, and some sort of black-winged monster being the cover Card of the set, everybody knows that bird is the word, and that The Shining Darkness has a huge total of 15 Cards around the Infernity theme. Today we'll look at the monsters added to the theme.

The first monster is Infernity Mirage:

This card cannot be Special Summoned from the Graveyard. If you have no cards in your hand, you can Tribute this card to select 2 "Infernity" monsters in your Graveyard. Special Summon those monsters.

Mirage's first sentence is a Condition that stops you from Summoning it from the Graveyard. Even if Dark Ruler Ha Des destroys it in battle, you cannot Summon it from there. Note that this restriction only applies to the Graveyard, but you can still Special Summon Mirage from the Hand, Deck, or Removed from Play Zone. The second sentence on Mirage's text is an Ignition Effect. Tributing Mirage is a cost, and it targets 2 Infernity monsters. Having no Cards in Hand is merely an activation requirement, and unlike many of its friends, Mirage will still resolve properly even if you have 1 or more Cards in your Hand at the time of its resolution. And as an additional note, it will also resolve properly if one of its targets is no longer in the Graveyard.

The next monster is Infernity Randomizer:

Once per turn, while you have no cards in your hand, you can draw  1 card and reveal it. For a Monster Card drawn with this effect, inflict damage  to your opponent equal to the Level of that monster x 200. For a Spell or Trap Card, you take 500 damage.

Randomizer has an Ignition Effect. Drawing a Card is part of the effect. You then reveal it, and inflict damage according to the type of Card you drew. It may sound obvious, but you DO get to keep the Card you draw, regardless of its type. If you have Cards in your Hand before resolving Randomizer's effect, it will resolve without effect. Drawing a Card is not considered to be a simultaneous action to inflicting damage, so your opponent cannot activate a Card like Drastic Drop Off after Randomizer resolves. Finally, if the drawn monster has its Level modified by a Card like Cost Down or similar, then you refer to its modified Level.

Moving on, we have Infernity Beetle:

While you have no cards in your hand, you can Tribute this card to Special Summon up to 2 "Infernity Beetle" from your Deck.

This Tuner monster only has an Ignition Effect. Tributing Beetle is a cost. Much like Randomizer, it will resolve without effect if you have Cards in your Hand when its effect starts resolving. You only need 1 Beetle in your Deck in order to activate the effect, and as you can probably tell, you can choose to Summon 1 or 2 Beetles once the effect starts resolving.

Another Infernity Monster is Infernity Avenger:

When a monster you control, except "Infernity Avenger", is destroyed by battle with an opponent's monster and sent to the Graveyard, while you have no cards in your hand, you can Special Summon this card from your Graveyard. In that case, the Level of this card is equal to the Level of your destroyed  monster.

Avenger has an Optional Trigger Effect which is activated at the End of the Damage Step. Once again, having Cards in your Hand before the effect resolves will cause it to resolve without effect. Note that Avenger doesn't target itself, and that you can Special Summon multiple copies of it. Finally, Avenger's Level becomes the same as the destroyed monster once the monster is in the Graveyard, so even if you use an effect like Tragoedia's or Level Eater's, Avenger will look at its original Level.

We received one OCG Promo Card as an exclusive, and like you can guess, it's an Infernity Monster. It's Infernity Destroyer:

While you have no cards in your hand, when this card destroys  an opponent's monster by battle and sends it to the Graveyard, inflict 1600 damage to your opponent.

Destroyer is quite simple. It has a mandatory Trigger Effect, which activates at the End of the Damage Step. Predictably, it will resolve without effect if you have Cards in your Hand at its resolution. It is also important that Destroyer won't activate if it is no longer face-up before the End of the Damage Step.

The last monster for today is a Synchro Monster devoted to the theme: Infernity Doom Dragon:

1 DARK Tuner + 1 ore more non-Tuner monsters
Once per turn, if you have no cards in your hand, you can select 1 monster your opponent controls. Destroy that monster and inflict damage to your opponent equal to half its ATK. This card cannot attack during the same turn you activate this effect.

Doom Dragon has an Ignition Effect. It targets one of your opponent's monsters. And one more time, it will resolve without effect if you have Cards in your Hand. You will also inflict damage equal to half of the monster's current ATK (with all the existing ATK modifiers). The destruction and the damage is simultaneous, much like Ring of Destruction, so an effect like Machina Peacekeeper won't miss the timing. If you target a face-down monster, no damage is inflicted, and if you target a monster that you fail to destroy (for example, if protected by an Union Monster), then you won't inflict any damage either. Finally, as usual, you cannot reverse the restriction by attacking and then activating the effect, but you can activate this effect during Main Phase 2 if Doom Dragon did not declare an attack.

That's all for Infernity monsters so far. We'll keep looking as Infernities in the next part, so stay tuned! If you have any questions, feel free to drop me an e-mail at ness00[at]gmail[dot]com.