Guide to Invoked/Eidolon

Yu-Gi-Oh Strategy
1

Guide to Invoked/Eid** **olon

Introduction

Invoked, or Eidolon as they were debuted in the OCG, is a Fusion Summon based archetype that is amazing due to being based off off of Final Fantasy characters as they are well-balanced in many of the aspects that are necessary to make a truly successful and powerful deck.

The archetype is rather easy to use and the number of varieties of this deck is extraordinary due to how splashable it is. However, due to their splashability, the deck is paradoxically complex.

The purpose of this guide is to get the reader (you) familiar with how to use Invoked in general while also giving a few ideas of variants you can run that are successful.

Main Deck

In this section, I will discuss the cards in the archetype that are used in the Main Deck. I will start each card profile by giving the recommended number of copies, the card text, and finally an explanation of the card itself. Cards are color coded based off of what type of card it is (monster, spell, and trap).

**Aleister the Invoker

  1. **Recommended # of Copies: 2-3
  2. **Stats: 1000 ATK / 1800 DEF
  3. **Card Text: During either player’s turn: You can send this card from your hand to the Graveyard, then target 1 Fusion Monster you control; it gains 1000 ATK and DEF until the end of this turn. If this card is Normal Summoned or flipped face-up: You can add 1 “Invocation” from your Deck to your hand.
  4. **Explanation: Aleister is the only monster in the archetype that can be placed in the Main Deck, but it is understandable why as this card is amazing in what it can do. First off, it is a key card in summoning the “Invoked” Fusion Monsters as it is one of the materials needed to summon most of them (the exception being Invoked Elysium). Being able to search for the fusion spell of the archetype is always a good thing, and the fact that you can dump this card at any time to boost the stats of ANY Fusion Monster by 1000 for both ATK/DEF is fantastic. Furthermore, this monster is level 4, meaning you can use it for summoning any rank 4 xyz monster (which there are a ton of). There is absolutely no question that this must be run at 3 as the goal is to get out the necessary “Invoked” Fusion Monster as early in the game as possible. and as consistently as possible. Furthermore, even if you used up 2 and you have a third in hand you can recycle one for negating monster effects by the effect of Mechaba and the other to give 1000 ATK/DEF to one of your Fusion Monsters.
    **Invocation
  5. **Recommended # of Copies: 1-2
  6. **Card Text: Fusion Summon 1 Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, using monsters from your hand as Fusion Materials. If Summoning an “Invoked” Fusion Monster this way, you can also banish monsters from your field and/or either player’s Graveyard as Fusion Materials. If this card is in your Graveyard: You can target 1 of your banished “Aleister the Invoker”; shuffle this card into the Deck, and if you do, add that card to your hand. You can only use this effect of “Invocation” once per turn.
  7. **Explanation: Invocation is probably one of the best fusion spells ever made in the game that is, and probably will always stay, TCG and OCG legal in the Advanced format. The ability to recycle itself and an Aleister if an Aleister is banished while this card is in the grave is insane. Furthermore, it’s not simply recycling by putting both back in the deck, but putting Aleister into your hand! This means you can Normal Summon Aleister and get Invocation back in your hand from your deck! This loop is an amazingly powerful tool that makes Invoked a truly exceptional archetype. Furthermore, you can Fusion Summon using monsters in your opponent’s graveyard if you are going to Fusion Summon a “Invoked” Fusion Monster. That gives the card extra utility as you can banish your opponent’s monsters in the grave that they may have tried to recycle or revive otherwise. While this is all amazing, I still only recommend only 1 or 2 since Aleister is able to search for a copy of it, meaning that running 3 will just clog your deck. You really only need 1 for a Invoked deck to function, and 2 is useful to have if you want to have the potential to set up more powerful fields early game.
    **Magical Meltdown
  8. **Recommended # of Copies: 1-3
  9. **Card Text: When this card is activated: You can add 1 “Aleister the Invoker” from your Deck to your hand. The activation of your cards and effects that include an effect that Fusion Summons a Fusion Monster cannot be negated, also your opponent’s cards and effects cannot activate when a monster is Fusion Summoned this way. You can only activate 1 “Magical Meltdown” per turn.
  10. **Explanation: If you thought Aleister and Invocation weren’t crazy enough, you should see Magical Meltdown. This fantastic field spell searches for Aleister, meaning that it essentially sets up your Aleister-Invocation loop for you! Furthermore, it makes all Fusion Summons immune to negation. This means cards like Solemn Warning are useless! This immense edge makes Fusion Summon based decks much more powerful and meta relevant as the meta is essentially summarized by the word negation. The number of copies you run depends on the deck. If the other archetype you run with Invoked is heavily reliant on their field spell to generate power plays, then run at most 2.
    **The Book of the Law
  11. **Recommended # of Copies: 0-1
  12. **Card Text: Tribute 1 “Invoked” monster; Special Summon 1 “Invoked” monster from your Extra Deck with a different original Attribute from that monster’s. (This Special Summon is treated as a Fusion Summon.) You can only activate 1 “The Book of the Law” per turn.
  13. **Explanation: This card is essentially a Ninjitsu Art of Transformation for Invokers, except it uses the Extra Deck. This card is cool since you get to tribute a “Invoked” Fusion Monster on your field and “Fusion Summon” another one with a different name in its place. Furthermore, this is a quick-play spell which makes it a card that could potentially be used to disrupt your opponent’s plays. The card is most useful when used with Raidjin and Mechaba as you can use Raidjin to flip a monster face down, and if it is targeted to get destroyed then use The Book of Law to tribute it and get Mechaba out in response. Furthermore, this essentially sets up your field and grave to summon Elysium. However, this card isn’t well recommended as there are a lot of S/T removal cards which bad when coupled with the fact that the card is a bit situational and dependent on the structure of your Extra Deck.
    **Omega Summon
  14. **Recommended # of Copies: 0-1
  15. **Card Text: Target any number of your banished “Invoked” monsters with different names; Special Summon them in Defense Position.
  16. **Explanation: This trap card is the recovery mechanism for the deck as you can revive all your banished “Invoked” monsters in DEF position. However, this card is not recommended for a few reasons. First off, it is highly situational as it is only useful when you have used Elysium’s effect or if you used two Invoked Fusion Monsters that have different names for the Fusion Summon of Elysium. Second, the fact that the revived monsters have to have different names makes this card even more situational. Realistically speaking, you probably will revive only 1 or at best 2 monsters using this card in a duel. If you use this card at all, then use at most 1 as you really don’t want to be drawing this card early game.

Extra Deck

In this section, I will discuss the cards in the archetype that are used in the Main Deck. I will start each card profile by giving the recommended number of copies, list the materials needed for the Fusion Summon, the ATK/DEF stats, the card text, an explanation of the card itself, and finally I will list some Invoked variants which may use the card (I apologize in advance if I miss some variants). Note that the recommended number of copies is with respect to the variants mentioned in the possible deck variants section.

**Invoked Caligula

  1. **Recommended # of Copies: 1
  2. **Materials: “Aleister the Invoker” + 1 DARK monster
  3. **Stats: 1000 ATK / 1800 DEF
  4. **Card Text: If a player’s monster effect attempts to activate, none of that player’s monsters can activate their effects for the rest of this turn while this card is face-up on the field. Each player can attack with only 1 monster during each Battle Phase.
  5. **Explanation: This card is useful in the sense that you can Instant Fusion it for a rank 4 xyz monster. It also can act as something to slow down the game a little so you can get your resources as necessary if played well. However, you really need only 1 copy of this card.
  6. **Possible Deck Variants: Shaddolls, Zombies, Dark Magician, Dark Magician Girl, Buster Blader.
    **Invoked Raidjin
  7. **Recommended # of Copies: 1-2
  8. **Materials: “Aleister the Invoker” + 1 WIND monster
  9. **Stats: 2200 ATK / 2400 DEF
  10. **Card Text: Once per turn, during either player’s turn: You can target 1 face-up monster on the field; change it to face-down Defense Position.
  11. **Explanation: It’s very difficult to understand why this card is unlimited right now. Does Konami not understand the power of flipping things face down? Well regardless, this card is essentially a walking Book of Moon which can be splashed into some really powerful decks such as Invoked WindWitch Artifact which is notorious for being able to consistently open with fields such as Crystal Wing and 1 Raidjin. I recommend running 2 as it’s pointless to run 3 unless you need to fill the Extra Deck space.
  12. **Possible Deck Variants: WindWitch, Yosenju, Shinobird, Barrier Statue, Speedroids, Kaiju
    **Invoked Cocytus
  13. **Recommended # of Copies: 1
  14. Materials: “Aleister the Invoker” + 1 WATER monster **Stats: 1800 ATK / 2900 DEF
  15. Card Text: Cannot be destroyed by your oppone **nt’s card effects. Your opponent cannot target this card with card effects. This card can attack while in face-up Defense Position. If it does, apply its ATK for damage calculation.
  16. **Explanation: This is a cool card to have as you cannot destroy it by card effect and it also can attack in DEF position with a solid 2900 DEF stat. However, this card really shouldn’t be run at more than 1 as it’s usually used as a counter to the currently dominant PaleoFrogs.
  17. **Possible Deck Variants: Barrier Statue, Kaiju, Paleozoic
    **Invoked Purgatrio
  18. **Recommended # of Copies: 1-2
  19. **Materials: “Aleister the Invoker” + 1 FIRE monster
  20. **Stats: 2300 ATK / 2000 DEF
  21. **Card Text: This card gains 200 ATK for each card your opponent controls. This card can attack all monsters your opponent controls, once each. If this card attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage to your opponent.
  22. **Explanation: This is a card that essentially acts almost like a big middle finger to your opponent who spammed the field with monsters and have a bunch of backrow that couldn’t negate the summoning of this monster. With a full backrow and all of your opponent’s monster zones filled, this card can get up to an impressive 4300 ATK which can jump to 5300 ATK with a boost by Aleister making it go over most monsters, not to mention that it deals piercing damage. However, you really shouldn’t run more than 1-2 as it’s not that useful outside of early-mid game.
  23. **Possible Deck Variants: Shiranui, Kaiju
    **Invoked Magellanica
  24. **Recommended # of Copies: 1
  25. **Materials: “Aleister the Invoker” + 1 EARTH monster
  26. **Stats: 3000 ATK / 3300 DEF
  27. **Card Text: -
  28. **Explanation: This is a Fusion Monster with no effect, but there is justice to this. First off, it’s a 3K beater and wall which means that stat-wise it’s considerably solid. Second is that it’s level 8, meaning that you can use it for the powerful rank 8 xyz monsters. Third is that the reason you have this in the deck is to counter Zoodiacs by banishing a Ratpier most of the time or use it to make the Gem-Knight in the grave you used for Brilliant Fusion be more useful. Overall, it’s a pretty decent card, but don’t run more than 1 as there are better things you can use for your Extra Deck space.
  29. **Possible Deck Variants: Brilliant Blue-Eyes, Gem-Knights
    **Invoked Mechaba
  30. **Recommended # of Copies: 2-3
  31. **Materials: “Aleister the Invoker” + 1 LIGHT monster
  32. **Stats: 2500 ATK / 2100 DEF
  33. **Card Text: Once per turn, during either player’s turn, when a Spell/Trap Card, or monster effect, is activated: You can send the same type of card (Monster, Spell, or Trap) from your hand to the Graveyard; negate the activation, and if you do, banish that card.
  34. **Explanation: This is outright the best Invoked Fusion monster and is the most meta relevant. Being able to negate and banish an activated effect is insane. The only downside is that you have to discard the same type of card as the one being negated. Of course, this downside can be a plus for decks which appreciate these kinds of things like Blue-Eyes where you can discard a White Stone of Legend or a White Stone of Ancients. Nonetheless, this is a great card but you should only run 2 as you really won’t find yourself summoning more than 2 in a duel.
  35. **Possible Deck Variants: Blue-Eyes, Lightsworn,
    **Invoked Elysium
  36. **Recommended # of Copies: 1
  37. **Materials: 1 “Invoked” monster + 1 monster that was Special Summoned from the Extra Deck
  38. **Stats: 3200 ATK / 4000 DEF
  39. **Card Text: Must first be Fusion Summoned with the above Fusion Materials. While face-up on the field, this card is also DARK, EARTH, WATER, FIRE, and WIND-Attribute. Once per turn, during either player’s turn: You can target 1 “Invoked” monster you control or in your Graveyard; banish it and all monsters your opponent controls with the same Attribute as that monster.
  40. **Explanation: This monster is the boss monster of the Invoked Fusion Monsters and is useful when you need to clear a board almost permanently. However, there is a fundamental issue with this monster that makes it lackluster compared to other boss monsters of other archetypes which is that this monster has no protection, does not float, etc. Removal by banishing is amazing as this card essentially is a Raigeki 2.0, but it simply can’t hold up against the number of negations that the current meta has. If you run this monster, then only run 1.
  41. **Possible Deck Variants: All

Invoked Variants (MR3/Pre-Links)

In this last section, I will talk about some decks which appreciate Invoked and how meta-relevant they may be due to the support from Invoked before Link Summoning comes in. In order to objectify this as much as possible, I will be giving each deck a rating from 1-10 with 8.5-10 being meta, 6.5-8 being rogue, and anything below being casual. I will also be giving an explanation of how the Invoked archetype helps this deck.

**Brilliant Blue-Eyes (with or without Chaos MAX)

  1. **Rating: 8.0
  2. **Explanation: Blue-Eyes was already well recognized as a deck which was powerful as you saw it topping pretty much every tournament it was in including the World Championship until ABC came in. The main problem that Blue-Eyes had was their lack of protection outside of cards like Azure-Eyes Silver Dragon or Return of the Dragon Lords. Now that Blue-Eyes received Chaos MAX and can get faster access to rank 8 plays due to the Brilliant Fusion engine coupled with Invoked to get out Magellanica, along with the ability to negate things for the sake of protection by using Mechaba, you have yourself a renovated and powerful BEWD deck which could topple over some meta decks if played well.
    **WindWitch variants (Artifact, Speedroid)
  3. **Rating: 8.0
  4. **Explanation: This deck already found its spot in the metagame for OCG during the reign of Zoodiacs, but then lost their sheen afterwards. However, the deck is still powerful as an opening field such as a Snow Bell boosted Crystal Wing and 1 or 2 Raidjin is no joke. Plus, running the Artifact variant grants you locks that will just take your opponent down. As a control deck, this deck is fantastic.
    **Kaijus
  5. **Rating: 7.0
  6. **Explanation: Invoked Kaijus is interesting in that you have some of the essential elements to completely roll over your opponent, but at the same time you may have issues with consistency which is why the rating is at 7.0 and not higher. Invoked supports this deck by giving you some additional options at controlling what will be on the field and what won’t.
    **Brilliant Lightsworn Shiranui Zombies
  7. **Rating: 7.0
  8. **Explanation: This is a deck variant that I found a while ago where splashing in Invoked made the deck feel so complete. Shiranui is an archetype that really really enjoys banishing things and so it is truly lovely to have Invoked come in to trigger effects of the likes of Spiritmaster which will pop a face-up card on your opponent’s field. I give this deck a 6.5 rating as I feel that it’s fast enough that you can consider it rogue, plus I’ve defeated quite a lot of of Metalfoe (and its variants) and some higher-end rogue decks with it.
    **Buster Blader (with small Blue-Eyes engine)
  9. **Rating: 7.5
  10. **Explanation: This is the variant that I run nowadays and I absolutely love it. Invoked serves the deck well by acting as an alternative strat to help you stall until you get resources needed for getting out the Buster Blader lock if you don’t have the cards needed in the early game. I have found a LOT of success with my Invoked Blue Blader deck as I’ve been able to establish some really hard locks in a matter of 2 turns with the only solution being Kaijus. I still put this at 7.5 as there is a little bit of a consistency issue as the opening hand is very crucial to the success of the deck.

Conclusion

Overall, Invoked/Eidolon is a fantastic archetype which one can do so much with. Experiment with it and I hope you come to love this archetype as much as I do.** **If you have any questions, comment in the thread below or send me a message!