Invoked: how it combos, and how to beat it

How Invoked wins

Invoked is a Fusion deck built around two monsters named Aleister. Aleister the Invoker searches Invocation when it is Normal Summoned, and Aleister the Reminiscent banishes an Invoked from the Extra Deck to search Invocation - "Sword". Those two Fusion Spells make the Invoked monsters, and each one reaches further than an ordinary Fusion:

• Invocation can use material from your hand and field, and for an Invoked it can also banish material from either player's GY. From the GY it shuffles itself back into the Deck and returns a banished Aleister the Invoker to the hand.
• Invocation - "Sword" fuses monsters you control, and for an Invoked it returns banished monsters to the GY to use as material. The Invoked that Reminiscent banished as a cost becomes Sword's second material.

The turn ends on Invoked Mechaba, which negates a card or effect, and often Invoked Baybarron, which searches Gamma Summon: a Trap that Special Summons any Invoked from the Extra Deck on your turn. The long turns go through Aleister the Invoker of Madness, a Link Monster that counts as Aleister the Invoker and, each time a monster is Fusion Summoned, discards a card to search again, and end on Invoked Elysium with a Set Sword.

The core combo: one Aleister the Invoker

From a single Aleister the Invoker, the deck makes Mechaba in four steps. Every Mechaba line starts this way.

1. Normal Summon Aleister the Invoker. It adds Invocation.
2. Link Summon Artemis, the Magistus Moon Maiden, using Aleister the Invoker.Artemis needs one Level 4 or lower Spellcaster, and it is LIGHT, which Mechaba's material needs.
3. Invocation Fusion Summons Invoked Mechaba, banishing Aleister the Invoker from the GY and Artemis from the field.Mechaba needs "Aleister the Invoker" and a LIGHT monster.
4. Invocation, now in the GY, shuffles itself back into the Deck and adds the banished Aleister the Invoker to the hand.That Aleister in hand matters on your turn: it is a Monster card Mechaba can discard to negate a monster effect.

Invoked Mechaba

HandAleister the Invoker

One Reminiscent

Aleister the Reminiscent alone makes a different board. It is Normal Summoned and banishes Invoked Mechaba from the Extra Deck to add Invocation - "Sword". Sword fuses Reminiscent with the banished Mechaba into Invoked Baybarron, and Baybarron adds Gamma Summon, which is Set.

Invoked Baybarron

Gamma Summon (Set)

The full board going first

With both Aleisters, the two combos join up: Mechaba first, then Reminiscent Special Summons itself next to it, searches Sword, and Sword makes Baybarron, which adds Gamma Summon. Sword's GY effect then returns Reminiscent to the hand. This is the board the AI's openings reach most often.

Invoked MechabaInvoked Baybarron

Gamma Summon (Set)

HandAleister the Invoker · Aleister the Reminiscent

With Aleister the Invoker and two cards it can afford to discard, the deck goes long. It makes Invoked Sorath, revives the Invoker, and Links into Aleister the Invoker of Madness. From there each Fusion Summon is another search: The Book of the Law, Invocation again, and Virakam, the Divine Spirit of Artifice, which Sets Sword. The turn ends on Invoked Elysium, Invoked Oceanus and Virakam, with Sword Set for your turn.

The cards the AI's scripted opening lines end on most often:

• Invoked Mechaba
• Gamma Summon
• Invoked Elysium
• Virakam, the Divine Spirit of Artifice
• Invocation - "Sword"
• Magical Meltdown

What its board does on your turn

• Invoked Mechaba. Once per turn, when a Spell or Trap Card or a monster effect is activated, it sends a card of the same type from its controller's hand to negate the activation, and banishes the negated card. The cost is the catch: to negate a monster effect it needs a Monster in hand, a Spell needs a Spell, and a Trap needs a Trap. This list plays one Trap.
• Gamma Summon. Banishes an Aleister or a Fusion Monster from its controller's GY to Special Summon any Invoked from the Extra Deck, ignoring its Summoning conditions. The monster is banished in the End Phase. It can bring out the Invoked that answers what you are doing.
• Invoked Elysium. It is treated as every Attribute while face-up. Once per turn, as a Quick Effect, it targets an Invoked and banishes it along with every monster you control that shares an Attribute with it. Targeting itself, that is nearly all of your face-up monsters. It doesn't target yours, so protection from targeting doesn't stop it.
• Invocation - "Sword", Set. After Elysium has gone, Sword can Fusion Summon Hyperinvoked Aeon on your turn, using banished Invoked monsters as material. Aeon banishes cards from the field and GYs when it arrives.
• Virakam, the Divine Spirit of Artifice. Once per turn, when you respond to one of its controller's Fusion Monsters' effects, it banishes itself to negate your effect and banish that card.
• Aleister the Invoker, in the hand. As a Quick Effect it can send itself to the GY to give one of its controller's Fusion Monsters 1000 ATK and DEF until the end of the turn: worth counting before a battle.

Where to stop it

Three things follow from it.

1. Stop the first search. Aleister the Invoker's Invocation and Aleister the Reminiscent's Sword are what every line needs. A hand with one starter has nothing behind it once its search is stopped.
2. Don't Ghost Ogre the Invoker. The search resolves anyway, and your Ghost Ogre in the GY is LIGHT material Invocation can banish for Mechaba.
3. Count the summons before Nibiru. The core line never reaches five; the two-card line reaches five on Baybarron.

Going second into Invoked

• The two-card board has two answers: Mechaba's negation and Gamma Summon. Nothing else on it stops you.
• Mechaba's negation costs a card of the matching type from its controller's hand. After the two-card line, the cards known to be in hand are the two Aleisters, both Monsters, so a monster effect is the likeliest to meet it, and a Trap needs the one Gamma Summon in hand.
• Gamma Summon's cost is an Aleister or a Fusion Monster in its controller's GY. Removing the GY's only candidate before Gamma is flipped removes its cost, though Gamma can be chained in response.
• Against the long board, Elysium banishes your face-up monsters once per turn without targeting them, and the Set Sword makes Aeon after it. Two face-up monsters are what Elysium waits for.

Practice against Invoked

The YGO Lab Rival plays this list. Going first, it opens with the deck's scripted lines, the same ones as above, and when you interrupt one it switches to a follow-up line. On your turn it decides when to use its interaction: 3 Ash Blossom, 3 Mulcharmy Fuwalos, 2 Mulcharmy Purulia and 2 Droll & Lock Bird, with 2 Forbidden Droplet and a Called by the Grave.

• Going second is practice at playing into Mechaba's negation and Gamma Summon, and at baiting Elysium.
• Going first is practice at your own combo through Ash, Droll and the Mulcharmies.
• To drill one interruption, record your turn in Combos, interrupt it with the card you expect, and practice that branch until you play through it.

Decklist

The list the AI plays: 40 Main Deck, 15 Extra Deck and 15 Side Deck cards.

Questions