Disclaimer

Considering the “Invoked” decktype has been super bloated with how it’s currently defined, consisting of 3 or 4 main variations, each with varying degrees of success. As such, we’ve split them up into these main variations: Elementsaber Invoked, Invoked Roids, and “Pure” Invoked (This would be for lists that have no other engines and just uses random monsters for its Attributes [like and ]).

Tier 1

TPC Comments

Drizzels

Elementsaber Invoked is clearly the best deck in the current meta. Thanks to they got a lot of OTK potential and with Elementsabers being able to change their Attribute all Invoked monsters are easy to summon. Compared to Invoked Roids this is more Control-y variant with less being played.

Negative1

Elementsaber Invoked is the best deck in the game right now with only 1 unfavorable matchup: Darklords. permits the deck to have free activations for and , which are more resource efficient versions of and . Combined with the Invoked engine, the deck is able to access whatever Attribute necessary to control the game or go for an OTK.

Tier 2

Drizzels

Blackwings were a bit overhyped but still very strong. With Darklords declining and the introduction of , Blackwings lost a bit of their strength and clearly got weaker. The perfect build has still not developed and even F2P builds were very sucessfull in the KC Cup as Vino showed with his 2nd Place Finish.

The prime time of Darklords is over! After a long time dominating the metagame they lost their Tier 1 position. The newly released in combination with and everyone playing a lot of resulted in the demotion of Darklords. Setting is most often too risky and setting it up in the grave will mean that you can only negate 1 monster effect. On top of that that Darklords are dead even tho and are still good skills to use. I think darklords will stay in the meta but slowly decline as six samurais did before.

Invoked Roids have risen out of nowhere thanks to the release of prior to the KC Cup. Invoked roids have a fast way to get every possible Invoked fusion out thanks to . Kiteroid is a crazy good card to protect you against Blackwing and Darklord OTKs. Cards like , , and have great synergy with Roids, especially with who is underestimated in my opinion and was a strong card in the KC Cup.

Erikson

Darklords are no longer the best deck in the meta. They have a hard match up vs Blackwings and the other Top Tier decks can go toe-to-toe with ‘em. being a part of every Top Tier deck forces Darklords to play more conservatively by setting up in the GY to avoid risk of it being banished away. This translates to 1 less negation which is usually needed. is another big factor to this as he protects from Darklords’ lethal pushes and leaves them overextended, leading to reverse OTKs.

Negative1

Invoked Roids have proven very effective in KC Cup; in combination with generates resources every turn and it’s the only deck capable of searching . Similarly to Elementsaber Invoked, a major strength of Roids is that they are capable of going into any Invoked monster as they are able to search different Attributes to use as material.

Snyffus

It seems like Blackwings were overhyped. They can OTK through basically every field but they can’t do it consistently enough for them to be Tier 1. On top of that we have now which can stop them and allow you to follow up with an OTK.

Invoked Roids is the new deck coming out of this KC Cup. With you’re able to search whatever Attribute you want for your Invoked fusions and thanks to a searchable you can protect yourself from OTKs and easily follow up with yourself. Also this deck generally benefits more from , allowing them to easily cheese massive damage with one hit.

wayne kenoff

With the emergence of , the premier OTK decks in Blackwings and Darklords have taken a huge hit. These decks have dominated the meta by clearing the field and OTK’ing with big attack monsters and a massive push which can all come to a crashing halt with . Although still powerful, they have fallen to Tier 2.

Since Invoked decks primarily OTK through and having your opponent overextend into it they remain largely unaffected by the emergence of , and might be the primary beneficiary of a Kiteroid meta.

Tier 3

TPC Comments:

Drizzels

The synchro build of Invoked is the weakest and slowest one. On top of that, they have problems implementing a good FIRE monster for and a set pass play might often result in receiving an otk next turn.

Luxdar

Players have been looking for different ways to spin or reinvent the deck such as focusing on to jump-start with , and/or cutting altogether for speed considerations, but the expectation of a meta dominated by Invoked is what has nonetheless led us to the decision to drop Ritual Beast to Tier 3. With Elementsaber Inboked at Tier 1, Invoked Roids at Tier 2, and ‘Pure’ Inboked at Tier 3, Ritual Beast is going to be confronted by in many duels, a monster which they struggle against because of its ability to pierce every body they put out. and other backrow options are what Ritual Beast has to rely on to push the game back in their favor, but the struggle on top of that is Invoked is typically running multiple s to set off . It’s also worth noting it’s possible to survive an OTK attempt through with (and in some cases Invoked players are dropping Current altogether), to revenge on the next turn. But the odds are still stacked against Ritual Beast when taking into consideration not only the number of Invoked players expected, but the card advantage Invoked players will have due to both the recursive nature of the deck and the consistency and provide.

Negative1

Pure Invoked suffers from being much slower than other forms of Invoked. A major drawback is that the deck does not have easy access to its entire extra deck but instead has to hard draw the correct Attributes in order to make plays.

Snyffus

Ritual Beasts sadly can’t keep up with Invoked. is just such a game ender for them. On top of that, Blackwings, one of their more favorable match-ups is less popular now. It’s still a good deck, just not quite as strong as it used to be.

wayne kenoff

Ritual Beasts struggle from a Invoked dominated meta. With no in-archetype out to and the primary “dodge” of the fusions tagging out being cancelled out by , Ritual Beasts fall to Tier 3.

Removed

TPC Comments:

Drizzels

Amano Stun, which was a counter deck for Clan Wars great in the Bo1 KC Cup format is getting destroyed with the changes. In my opinion, this was not really necessary since Amano wasn’t super oppressive in general.

With the release of , Crystron’s OTK potential is reduced and leaves them with an open field for the next turn Purgatrio. Additionally most of their cards are Water/Earth attributes and can be easily used for the opponent . I expect Crystrons to do better in Tournaments than in the KC Cup and to return to the Tier List soon since bad matchups like Darklords and Amano have less impact in the meta.

Erikson

The recent Skill rebalancing has absolutely killed the strategy as you wont be able to Normal Summon in your 1st turn, meaning you can’t take advantage of the skill anymore. Although I expect the stun aspect of the deck be somewhat viable with , and the Counter Trap package, the deck definitely won’t be Top Tier.

Luxdar

The nerf to preventing Turn 1 Normal Summons finally addresses ’s ability to exploit the Skill. There’s not much to say since this completely kills off the deck by stopping its namesake, but if players want to experiment with the Monstermorph Skills to try to make some other variety of Amano Stun work, now there’s all the more encouragement.

Just when Darklords’ presence was dwindling due to the advent of Blackwings, which Crystron welcomed, Elementsaber Invoked added another concern – . The ability to disrupt Synchro plays by flipping materials down on attempt or flipping down a Crystron Tuner during the opponent’s End Phase is devastating for the deck. While Crystrons could still potentially prevail in small victories here and there, the only way down from its KCC Tier 3 amid the rise of another tremendous threat is unfortunately again off the Tier List.

Snyffus

Amano had problems in a Best-of-3 format anyway, however the nerf just kills the deck entirely.

VodkaForFree

Amano lost its only playable Skill. With the nerf the deck became unplayable because you can’t summon Turn 1 anymore and if you summon it after Turn 1 it returns to the hand.

Ritual Beasts struggle hard vs Invoked decks which currently dominate the meta, just kills every Ritual Beast that will get summoned. Also, the deck is not as fast as the other meta decks.

Something to note is that we are in a meta where decks like Ritual Beasts, Blackwings and Invoked struggle a little bit more than usual.

wayne kenoff

Crystrons are the best Synchro deck of the format but risk getting OTKd by after their lethal pushes are stopped by . The Invoked meta punishes for overextending, along with the flip face-down effect of and backrow such as and always looming you may find yourself in difficult situations. Although Crystrons face certain difficulties in the meta I believe the deck is very powerful. With targeting-effect negation and special summon of , the survivability of and and blow out OTK Synchro cards like and make this deck an extremely formidable opponent and will likely make its way back to the Tier List eventually.

Find out more by joining the Duel Links Meta Discord.

Be sure to check out Guides and Reviews and King of Games Decklists.

Learn more about the Top Player Council members.