Finally our "Infernoid" week is coming to a close, a week during which I tried to handle every card of the deck in some form, while making obcure South Park references... In my reviews of the past days I mentioned Monster Gate and Reasoning, unusual monster tech like Mechanical Hound, and all ten of the "Infernoid" members - it means there are two possible ways to go on our final day: look at future support for the deck, or handle the less popular "Void" support the deck received (no, "Lightsworn" is not an engine we want to discuss, that'd be silly). As you will probably have guessed by the title, we picked the second approach; I may mention some cards that have not seen an official worldwide release anyway, but I'll provide the Japanese name with the unofficial "fanslation" when I do, so it shouldn't be hard to look them up. So actually, we'll do both.

But let's look at Void Vanishment shall we? "Infernoid" seemed like a special theme on release: no monsters that could be normal summoned, and even more shocking, no monster that could search out any other member from the deck - every modern deck has at least a "searcher" (no worries, we'll have a monster that functions like one in a little under two months)! Well, the "Infernoid" theme is different, as our "searcher" searches our themed spell/trap cards. For the small cost of a discard even, not something the theme minds at all; are there any decent targets?

Well, before we move on to those, allow me to explain Void Vanishment's second effect: after damage calculation, Void Vanishment's controller can send it to the graveyard to banish the battling "Infernoid', as well as the monster it was battling. While monster removal that neither destroys nor targets (just like Infernoid Seitsemas actually), and is activated at a timing when few cards can be activated, even at a high price like this, is nice to have, Void Vanishment's real boon if you ask me, is its ability to remove our own "Infernoid" monsters that are no longer necessary from the field. While this is rarely relevant as things are now, Clash of Rebellions will bring us Infernoid Tierra (インフェルノイド・ティエラ), which sets up our graveyard for a game ending sweep just by being summoned, if it was brought out by Void Dream (煉獄の虚夢) under the right conditions/with enough materials. Except... Infernoid Tierra is level 11, meaning that oftentimes the graveyard setup we established is of no immediate help. Worse even, as Infernoid Tierra has no on-field effect, and "Infernoid" decks can play very few traps effectively, leaving her on the field after she is summoned, is asking for the opponent to one-turn kill us before we can make use of our newly filled graveyard.

That is where Void Vanishment comes in! No, I'm not talking about how "Infernoid" is getting a copy of Shaddoll Fusion that is easily searched - that's a topic for another time; Void Vanishment allows us to banish Infernoid Tierra from our field after it attacked an opponent's monster, to remove the levels on the field to make place for the summon of Infernoid Devyaty/Infernoid Onuncu, which may actually deprive the opponent of their setup, and grant a means of responding to the plays the opponent makes during their turn.

Ah yes, but which targets do we have a this point in time? Void Launch and Void Purification manage our "Infernoid" banish fodder, but Void Launch is very slow in its application, and Void Purification's effect cannot be considered game changing in many instances... Did I mention that these cards blow themselves up if a monster that is not an "Infernoid" is on the controller's field (or a face-down monster)? I still think both of these traps are very decent cards, and Void Purification I can even see as a viable main deck choice once Infernoid Dekatron (インフェルノイド・デカトロン) sees a release worldwide: on summon (yes, it can be normal summoned) it sends any "Infernoid" from the deck to the graveyard, then copies its level - oh, it's a tuner by the way - and effect, and Void Purification will recycle it every turn as long as Infernoid Dekatron is tributed before the opponent's standby phase ends - sounds quite okay to me!

Another search target is a card that most "Infernoid" decks already use, namely Void Seer, a themed Forbidden Lance with some extras. While it's a good card without doubt, one cannot deny that Void Seer accomplishes very little by itself, and with Void Vanishment to search it, we can afford to play a minimal number of copies without worrying about the card's accessibility.

Then there's one more search target I want to mention, a card that may be less obvious to consider: Into the Void, a spell card that allows its user to draw a card, but requires them to discard their hand during the end of the turn. Not only do "Infernoid" decks rarely mind the card's drawback ("Infernoid" monsters serve as fodder both in the hand and in the graveyard, and spells/traps that cannot be played immediately, can be set without that much issue, as the deck is rarely susceptible to Evilswarm Exciton Knight, not to mention our boss monsters' negation effects), the card can even help maintaining Mechanical Hound's effect - I cannot stress enough how strong a field of Infernoid Devyaty and Mechanical Hound is, and the deck can be built to make this field with decent consistency!

Now on to Into the Void's positives: remember how I called Monster Gate and Reasoning the most important cards in the deck? Obviously we want to see these cards as often as possible, but since the cards are unsearchable in any credible way, the only thing we can do to accomplish this is opt to improve our chances of drawing them. I know I'm not allowed to say that a deck sporting three copies each of Into the Void, Upstart Goblin, and Void Vanishment nets a 31-card deck, but it surely feels like one in practice.

As a final note I want to point out that most of the cards mentioned above do not merge very well with the (as of now) obligatory "Lightsworn" engine the deck uses; as you can see the deck will be granted some incredible actions in the near future - "Infernoid" as it is now has seen its fair share of tops, and I expect the deck will only manage to perform better when Clash of Rebellions releases.

Playability: 4/5. "you cannot Normal or Special Summon monsters for the rest of this turn, except "Infernoid" monsters." What this means is that even if you draw Monster Gate/Reasoning through a searched Into the Void, you cannot special summon a non-"Infernoid" monster that can be normal summoned, you revealed - a minor inconvenience, like all of this card's shortcomings honestly; they do make it so that I can't give it the full score however.

Art: "I'm gonna need to borrow your soul real quick, kid. Is that all right?"/5

Void Vanishment closes the week (appropriate perhaps as we vanish for the weekend?) and this is a Continuous Magic card, which also happens to have a LOT of text on it.  So you can discard a card to add a "Void" card to your Hand, save this, and Null and Void.  I assume cause even though it kinda fits with the theme, it wasn't released with.  You're not allowed to Normal or Special Summon except Infernoid Monsters, which whether you're playing the Deck or not, you should know isn't a problem.  If an Infernoid you control Battles a Monster, after Damage calculation, you can send this card to the Graveyard to remove both Monsters from play.  So, here's the thing...removing from play is a big deal to this Deck, both offensively and defensively.  Technically, if you get to the point you're using this effect, Void Vanishment becomes a -2.  Playing it initially is a -1, and then a -1 using this effect.  Honestly, I'm just not seeing that much of a point at least in the latter effect.  I'm not sure the initial -1 is enough for the card to be played for the first effect either.
 
Rating:  2.75/5
Art:  4/5