ZERO-MAX features the clash of Zero versus High Max as told in Mega Man X6.

 

Wait, no it doesn’t.  It is more Infernity support.  It is a Normal Spell that requires you have an empty hand to play it.  That means setting it first to truly empty your hand out.  Why does this matter?  Even though you can activate it right after setting it (as I said, it is a Normal Spell, so that’s perfectly legal) I think your opponent gets priority after you set it.  So… they can pop off something like Mystical Space Typhoon or Dust Tornado to pop it.

 

The effect is pretty snazzy, except for the catch involved.  The effect lets you select an Infernity monster from your Graveyard, Special Summon it to the field, then you must nuke all monsters with a lower ATK than the Special Summoned monster.  You do look at the current attack: if something in play is raising or lowering the ATK of the monster you picked, you use that modified score.

 

That catch I mentioned?  No Battle Phase for you the turn you use it.  Unlike yesterday’s card, this shouldn’t be too restrictive.  Yes you won’t get to attack after potentially clearing several monsters off the field.  Infernity monsters often work best from the Graveyard, so nuking your own isn’t so minor a draw back I didn’t even consider it a “catch”.  There are enough decent choices that even though you lose the chance to immediately capitalize on the potentially empty field.  If you’re staring down something huge with 3000+ ATK, you can hopefully revive Infernity Doom Dragon, wipe out any tiny monsters clogging the field, then pop that fatty for at least 1500 points of damage.  After all, you already lost your Battle Phase, so there’s no draw back.  Another saving grace is that the combination of effects neuters to normal counters to this type of thing.  There is no guaranteed destruction when you activate ZERO-MAX, so Stardust Dragon can’t block it.  The destruction effect has to resolve immediately after the Special Summon so Bottomless Trap Hole misses its timing.

 

Looking at it, I’d say this is a solid card to run in an Infernity deck.  It’s mostly for when you’re not controlling the game and you have to eliminate some problem monster(s) from the field.  The downside is it might sabotage reliability: yes you’ll almost always have an Infernity monster in your Graveyard to revive.  Sometimes you will have something in play you don’t want to kill or something you can’t kill that belongs to the opponent… a much rarer occurrence with simpler removal like Lightning Vortex, Raigeki Break, and Smashing Ground.  Ultimately I believe the massive “swing” potential should get it at least into Side Decks and probably a copy or two into Main Decks.

 

Ratings (for Infernity decks)

 

Traditional: 2/5

 

Advanced: 3.25/5

 

I’d also like to add I’ll be selling quite a bit of my soon-to-be-former possessions on eBay.  You can take a look here at my second auction if you’re interested in a Nintendo GameCube with some accessories and 17 games!  Just a reminder, Pojo is in no way responsible for this and was merely kind enough to let me mention the auction here. ;)