In episode twelve of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, which will air in a few weeks on Cartoon Network, Chazz Princeton finds himself in a tough situation. The smart-mouthed top prospect of Obelisk Blue finds his credibility questioned, and in order to redeem himself, he’s pitted against Bastion Misawa. Without spoiling the episode, I’ll say that the duel has dire consequences for both duelists, and Chazz is given a strong impetus to succeed by a certain dastardly professor.

In the climactic duel that results, Bastion strikes a massive blow against Chazz’s well-established field, wiping away multiple monsters in a single turn. But in a surprising turn of events, Chazz recovers by summoning today’s preview card—Infernal Incinerator!

A level 6 Fire attribute Fiend-type monster, Infernal Incinerator has 2800 ATK and 1800 DEF. It can only be normal summoned or set by discarding all the cards in your hand, and it requires that you tribute a monster with an ATK of 2000 or higher. Once it’s on the field, the Incinerator gains 200 ATK for each monster your opponent controls, but loses 500 ATK for each monster on your side of the field except for itself.

The first thing you’ll probably notice is this monster’s difficult summoning requirement. Not only do you have to give up your entire hand, but you also need to control a monster with 2000 ATK. While such a sight is far more common in the current Advanced format, giving up a powerful monster is no laughing matter. Summoning Infernal Incinerator requires a huge commitment, and it takes some skill to use it effectively.

What do you get in return for that commitment? In short, the largest single-tribute monster in the game. Previously, 2500 was the highest ATK value possible for a monster that required a single tribute, but Infernal Incinerator beats that by 300 ATK—and its effect can widen the gap even more. With five monsters on the opponent’s side of the table, Infernal Incinerator can be a 3800 ATK goliath.

While that might not have counted for much in the past, remember that we’re living in an era that’s dominated by attack position monsters. Spirit Reaper, Mystic Swordsman LV2, Marauding Captain, Mystic Tomato, and several other relatively low-ATK combatants are frequently seen, and it’s accepted that they will be attacked. The idea is that when monsters are exchanged, you’ll come out on top, regardless of the trivial amounts of life points that are being nicked off of both duelist’s totals.

Sadly, that philosophy doesn’t take into account a monster with 3000 ATK or more. It’s a good time to be playing with unexpectedly massive monsters . . . and in fact, most players already are. The Cyber Dragon era has caused Goblin Attack Force, Goblin Elite Attack Force, Zombyra the Dark, and Giant Orc to see enormous spikes in play. A duelist needs to have answers to Cyber Dragon in order to do well in this new format, and big beaters have been the solution du jour since the inception of the latest Advanced list.

Realistically, access to the high-ATK monsters that are needed in order to include Infernal Incinerator in a deck has been increased, because running huge battle-oriented monsters is no longer the handicap that it once was. In addition, just because you’re using some monsters with 2000+ ATK, it won’t immediately telegraph that you’re running Infernal Incinerator. You’ll look like any other duelist who’s just trying to stay one step ahead of Cyber Dragon. This illusion is made even easier by the amount of play that Infernal Incinerator will likely see. Since it’s a specialized card that can appear daunting at first glance, it won’t be on the minds of many players when they try to guess what your next move will be.

When discussing this card, we must definitely consider its interaction with . Ojamas are surprisingly viable in this format, and no one seems to have realized their full potential yet. In a deck running Ojama Trio, Infernal Incinerator has an easy way of placing three extra monsters on the opponent’s side of the field from which to draw ATK bonuses. It also gets some convenient targets for attacking if it happens to be toting around Big Bang Shot or Fairy Meteor Crush. Piercing strikes against a pair of Ojama tokens will easily end a game, and if your opponent had already summoned two monsters, you’ll be able to lock down his or her field as well.

On the other hand, Infernal Incinerator has a love/hate relationship with the Trio. When those three spandex-clad scallywags pop up next to it, the situation isn’t nearly so bright. Infernal Incinerator will quickly lose 1500 ATK, due to the Ojamas’ presence and its own effect. Ironically, both using Infernal Incinerator and teching against Infernal Incinerator foreshadow some serious table-time for Ojama Trio.

On the positive side, this leads us to the first place where Infernal Incinerator can be used at a competitive level, and that’s in Beast decks. If you’re already running Ojama Trio and Gyaku-Gire Panda, with the intent of punching through Ojama tokens for the win, you’ve already got the infrastructure needed to support a single copy of Incinerator. While you may not want to commit card slots to Big Bang Shot or Fairy Meteor Crush to give the Incinerator the ability to deal piercing damage through defense position adversaries (Exarion Universe and Gyaku-Gire Panda are already doing that), it does let you drop a massive beatstick that can end the game by attacking into an attack position monster. The odds are good that the deck is already running Berserk Gorilla, so there will be plenty of tribute fodder to fulfill Infernal Incinerator’s summoning condition.

It’s also very good in Fire decks. The reason? Spiritual Fire Art – Kurenai can dish out a quick 2800 damage to the opponent when you tribute Infernal Incinerator for its effect. You can attack with the Incinerator to dish out a whopping amount of damage, and then you can activate Spiritual Fire Art to blast the opponent for even more. Again, this deck also has tribute fodder available, this time in the form of Raging Flame Sprite. Two turns worth of hot Sprite action will leave you with a monster that’s big enough to tribute for Infernal Incinerator, and while it won’t be able to maneuver as deftly as the Sprite, the game will likely draw to a close if you’re packing Kurenai. This mitigates the fact that Kurenai draws its damage from the original ATK value of the monster that was tributed, and thus has poor synergy with Raging Flame Sprite.

Incinerator is also really nice Scapegoat tech. While this isn’t nearly as big of an issue as it once was, Scapegoat still sees tons of play, and it can always be valuable to punish duelists who are using it. In a deck that can give Infernal Incinerator the ability to dish out pierce damage, you’ll often want to leave the opponent Sheep-locked, sticking him or her with four tokens and little offensive ability.

As a kicker, because Infernal Incinerator is a Fiend-type monster, it can be removed from the graveyard to feed Dark Necrofear, and it can gain the effect of Dark Ruler Ha Des. Fiend decks generally use Giant Orc, so again, there’s plenty of tribute material to feed the big walking furnace.

Infernal Incinerator is a tricky card that can be deceptively innocuous at first glance. Expect it to see little serious play upon its release, but don’t underestimate its potential in an Ojama Panda deck. If that strategy starts seeing the play that it deserves, you can expect one copy of Infernal Incinerator to be a common sight amongst the ranks of Beasts.