Combining Duelist Nexus with Age of Overlord support, Infernoble has consistently become a top finisher in YCS! A new win condition under the form of Emperor Charles the Great, consistency boosters comparable to Isolde being Angelica - Princess of Noble Arms, busted S/T negation with Angelic Ring (negates stuff like Dark Ruler and Super Poly), and extra starters with the Sinful Spoils package! This increase of power and consistency comes with the ability to stuff the deck with a ton of staples while still being playable - enabling a fearsome combo deck with power to rival the historical figure Charles the Great!
It seems that Infernoble has gained a new powerful identify when compared to it's hand-looping, generic boss monster turboing predecessor back with its release with Rise of the Duelist at 2020. The recent support for this deck has once again reached critical mass for competitive play, enabling Infernoble to play as a top meta contender. The boards this deck generates are unique, interesting and ridiculously powerful!
The decklist in this guide inspired by Pak's top YCS Richmond and YCS Bologna finish with Infernoble. He explains everything in-depth, his theorycrafting and combos with his Youtube video much better than I can with this written article. Be sure to check it out!
Want to see the deck in action? Scroll to the very bottom for the Youtube video!
ARCHETYPES AND DECKBUILDING
The structure of the standard INFERNOBLE deck changes dramatically after Age of Overlord. The Infernoble core is very compact since every combo piece is highly searchable (via Isolde, Museum and Sinful Spoils), allowing the maindeck knights to be 1-ofs. The Noble Knight starters are 3-ofs with Arms Museum also searchable with Terraforming. 3 Heritage of the Chalice searches for any Noble Knight monster or Noble Arms. Finally, 1 ROTA gets any warrior monster.
Age of Overlord also brings the SINFUL SPOILS engine to Infernoble, allowing for another layer of consistency. The Sinful Spoils package is primarily used for WANTED: Seeker to search for Diabellstar, so she can set Original Sinful Spoils - Snake-Eye from deck. Snake-Eye summons from deck a level 1 Fire monster, that being either Infernoble Knight Renaud or Fire Flint Lady. All of this does not use up your valuable normal summon allowing for an easier way to get to Isolde! Finally, WANTED: Seeker recycles Original Sinful Spoils for a 1 card draw.
There are 6 EQUIP spells in this deck, and they are mostly garnets to be sent to the GY via Isolde. During the End Phase, these equips (usually Angelic Ring) is equipped to Infernoble Knight Emperor Charles. You may not want to draw into these garnets, but Infernoble Arms - Durendal is fine to draw into (hence it's a 2-of) since it searches for a level 5 or lower Fire Warrior from deck.
Finally, there are 12 STAPLE slots in this deck. These staples can be exchanged with the Side Deck!
COMBOS AND GAMEPLAN
Infernoble's gameplan is to create a unbreakable board that your opponent simply cannot hope to play through. It generally ends on 2-3 spell/trap negates, 1 quick effect pop, and 1 monster negate/destroy. If there are extenders, the board can also have Baronne, S:P Little Knight and Apollousa.
There are multiple pathways to respectable Infernoble boards that all vary in power depending on how many times you've been interrupted and whatever cards you have in your hand. However, they all centre around resolving both of Isolde's effects. If Isolde is interrupted, the backup plan is to summon S:P Little Knight.
The 12 handtraps maindecked should hopefully be enough to simplify the gamestate so that S:P can control your opponent until you can full combo with Isolde.
Here is the Infernoble 1-card combo:
Neo-Space Connector = Emperor Charles the Great (Pop 1 card, spell/trap negate destroy) + Angelica's Angel Ring (Spell speed 4 mandatory spell negate) + Phoenix Gearfried (monster negate destroy) + S:P Little Knight (target monster banish) + Angelica (If targeted, GY set-up and banishes herself until end phase) + potential hand rip and hand knowledge (Aqua Dolphin's optional effect) + draw 1
- Normal summon Connector. Activate Connector's on-summon effect to summon Aqua Dolphin from deck.
- Activate Aqua Dolphin's effect to look at your opponent's hand and hand-rip a card from it (if applicable, and sniping their droll/ash is optimal).
- Link summon Isolde using Connector + Aqua Dolphin.
- Activate Isolde's on-summon effect to search for Fire Flint Lady.
- Activate Isolde's effect sending Phoenix Blade, Angelica's Angelic Ring, D.D.R. - Different Dimension Reincarnation and Infernoble Arms - Durendal to summon Infernoble Knight Ogier from deck.
- Activate Ogier's on-summon effect to send Infernoble Knight Turpin from deck to GY.
- Activate Phoenix Blade's effect in the GY to add to your hand by banishing Connector and Aqua Dolphin.
- Equip Ogier with Phoenix Blade.
- Activate Turpin's effect from the GY to summon itself since you control a monster equipped with a card.
- XYZ summon Battlin' Boxer King Dempsey using Ogier + Turpin. Activate Dempsey's on-summon effect to search for Infernoble Knight Renaud from deck.
- Special summon Renaud. Activate Renaud's on-summon effect to recover Different Dimension Reincarnation from GY to hand.
- Activate Different Dimension Reincarnation discarding Fire Flint Lady to summon from banished pile Connector.
- Synchro summon Anglica, Princess of Noble Arms using Renaud + Connector. Activate Angelica's on-summon effect to search for Noble Arms Museum.
- Activate Noble Arms Museum. Activate Museum's effect paying 1200 LP to search for Infernoble Arms - Almace.
- Activate Phoenix Blade's effect in the GY to add to your hand by banishing Connector and Fire Flint Lady.
- CL2 equip Anglica with Phoenix Blade and CL2 activate Angelica's effect to send Pheonix Gearfried to the to GY, banish herself and summon from Extra Deck Infernoble Knight Roland.
- Activate Dempsey's effect by detaching Turpin.
- Activate Turpin's effect, equiping him to Infernoble Knight Roland.
- Activate Noble Arms Museum's effect to special summon Turpin from the backrow.
- Synchro Summon Infernoble Knight Emperor Charles using Turpin + Roland.
- Equip Almace to Emperor Charles.
- Link summon Emperor Charles the Great using Infernoble Knight Emperor Charles.
- CL1 Emperor Charles the Great's effect to target equip Infernoble Knight Emperor Charles in the GY, CL2 Almace's effect to target and add back to hand Phoenix Gearfried from GY.
- Link summon S:P Little Knight using Isolde + Dempsey.
- Special summon Phoenix Gearfried by banishing Infernoble Arms - Durendal from GY.
- Activate Ogier's effect in the GY to equip itself to Emperor Charles the Great.
- During the endphase, Angelica summons herself back to the field.
- During the endphase, Emperor Charles the Great activates his effect (these effects were obtained from the equipped Infernoble Knight Emperor Charles) to equip Angelica's Angelic Ring from the GY and Infernoble Knight Maugis.
- Emperor Charles the Great's trigger effect activates, destroying Maugis.
- Maugis' trigger effect activates, shuffling back to deck from banished pile Infernoble Arms - Durendal, Infernoble Arms - Almace and Fire Flint Lady to draw 1 card.
- During your opponent's main phase, you can equip Infernoble Knight Roland to Emperor Charles the Great to trigger his destruction effect.
From merely 1 card, the Infernoble player has summoned an army of monsters with more interactions than the opponent has cards in their hand (especially if you hand-ripped earlier)! This uninterrupted 1 card combo is currently unparallelled in this age of modern Yugioh - it's so ridiculously strong, which is befitting a deck based on Charles the Great. But hold on, this gets better with the Sinful Spoils engine!
Diabellestarr + Any fire warrior + 1 discard = Emperor Charles the Great (Pop 1 card, spell/trap negate destroy) + Angelica's Angel Ring (Spell speed 4 mandatory spell negate) + Phoenix Gearfried (monster negate destroy) + 3 material Apollousa (3 monster negates) + Angelica (If targeted, GY set-up and banishes herself until end phase) + potential hand rip and hand knowledge (Aqua Dolphin's optional effect) + draw 1
- Normal summon fire warrior.
- Special summon Diabellestar by discarding 1 card. Activate Diabellestar's on-summon effect setting from deck Original Sinful Spoils - Snake-Eye.
Activate Original Sinful Spoils by sending Diabellestar to the GY to summon from deck Infernoble Knight Ricciardetto.
Link summon Isolde using fire warrior + Ricciardetto.
- Activate Isolde's on-summon effect to search for Connector.
- Activate Isolde's effect sending Phoenix Blade, Angelica's Angelic Ring, D.D.R. - Different Dimension Reincarnation and Infernoble Arms - Durendal to summon Infernoble Knight Ogier from deck.
Activate Phoenix Blade's effect in the GY to add to your hand by banishing Ricciardetto and fire warrior.
- Equip Ogier with Phoenix Blade.
- Activate Turpin's effect from the GY to summon itself since you control a monster equipped with a card.
- XYZ summon Battlin' Boxer King Dempsey using Ogier + Turpin. Activate Dempsey's on-summon effect to search for Infernoble Knight Renaud from deck.
- Special summon Renaud. Activate Renaud's on-summon effect to recover Different Dimension Reincarnation from GY to hand.
- Link summon a 2400ATK Apollousa using Isolde + Renaud + Dempsey.
- Activate Phoenix Blade's effect in the GY to add to your hand by banishing Isolde and Dempsey.
Activate Different Dimension Reincarnation discarding Phoenix Blade to summon from banished pile Ricciardetto.
Activate Ricciardetto's on-summon effect to summon from GY Turpin.
Synchro summon Anglica, Princess of Noble Arms using Ricciardetto + Turpin. Activate Angelica's on-summon effect to search for Noble Arms Museum.
- Activate Noble Arms Museum. Activate Museum's effect paying 1200 LP to search for Infernoble Arms - Almace.
Activate Phoenix Blade's effect in the GY to add to your hand by banishing Ricciardetto and Renaud.
- CL2 equip Anglica with Phoenix Blade and CL2 activate Angelica's effect to send Pheonix Gearfried to the to GY, banish herself and summon from Extra Deck Infernoble Knight Roland.
- Equip Roland with Infernoble Arms - Almace.
- Activate Turpin's effect, equiping him to Infernoble Knight Roland.
- Activate Noble Arms Museum's effect to special summon Turpin from the backrow.
- Synchro Summon Infernoble Knight Emperor Charles using Turpin + Roland.
Activate Almace's effect to target and add back to hand Phoenix Gearfried from GY.
Activate Roland's effect in the GY to equip himself to Infernoble Knight Emperor Charles.
- Link summon Emperor Charles the Great using Infernoble Knight Emperor Charles.
Activate Emperor Charles the Great's on-summon effect to target equip Infernoble Knight Emperor Charles in the GY.
- Activate Ogier's effect in the GY to equip itself to Emperor Charles the Great.
- Special summon Phoenix Gearfried by banishing Infernoble Arms - Durendal from GY.
- During the endphase, Angelica summons herself back to the field.
- During the endphase, Emperor Charles the Great activates his effect (these effects were obtained from the equipped Infernoble Knight Emperor Charles) to equip Angelica's Angelic Ring from the GY and Infernoble Knight Maugis.
- Emperor Charles the Great's trigger effect activates, destroying Maugis.
- Maugis' trigger effect activates, shuffling back to deck from banished pile Infernoble Arms - Durendal, Infernoble Arms - Almace and fire warrior to draw 1 card.
- During your opponent's main phase, you can equip Infernoble Knight Roland to Emperor Charles the Great to trigger his destruction effect.
GENERAL TIPS
- Being a combo deck, Infernoble functions like Mannadium, Dragonlink and Cyberse Mathmech. They can all create scary boards, but kind of suck going 2nd. The 12 handtraps coupled with the amount of gas Infernoble has theoretically should enable this deck to simplify the gamestate, play through interruption and full combo, but if you know for sure you can't make it through what your opponent has, just go to next game. It's better that you take the loss and not give your opponent any information so they don't side the right cards against this strategy.
- The backup for this strategy if you can't resolve Isolde is S:P Little Knight! You can even link away S:P Little Knight to make Isolde the following turn when it's safer to do so. That's why there are two S:Ps in the Extra Deck (ouch that's expensive for IRL decks lol).
- You can make Baronne before Isolde with Diabellestarr + Ash Blossom. Baronne can also be made with Infernoble Knight Charles + a level 1 tuner like Ricardetto or Renaud.
- Noble Arms Musuem is a soft once per turn. Multiple Museums means you can summon up to two Emperor Charles the Great! Be sure to not link off Isolde for S:P until you have both Charles on field, since you need Isolde's link zones to summon two of them.
- If you have a garnet you wanted to search in your opening hand, try to get the card in the GY somehow (either by using it, discarding it for Neo Aqua Dolphin or Different Dimension Reincarnation's effect). Then you get Infernoble Knight Maugis in the GY to shuffle it back so you can properly search the garnet later in your combo.
- In games 2 and 3, side in Called By the Grave with Crossout Designator since your opponent is also siding in handtraps (like the fearsome Droll) to hardcounter your strategy.
- Want to see the deck in action? Scroll to the very bottom for the Youtube video!
CONCLUDING REMARKS
As a history nerd, the chance to field Charles the Great is like a dream come true! And he really does live up to his "The Great" title, since this boss monster (coupled with his bestie S:P Little Knight) is enough to boost this strategy to meta relevance once again! The consistency that the Diabellestarr engine and the new Infernoble cards of Museum and Angelica really push the deck to the next level of power since it allows so much staple cards to be used with the deck like the 12 handtraps. Perhaps now Charles the Great can be revered and respected as much as his historical counterpart in our favourite children's card game Yugioh. As this deck's pilot, can you live up to the greatness of his name?
GLHF Duelists!
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