Thursday 13 April 2017

Deck Profile: Invoked Draco

Your typical why-not-both situation.



Decklist




============ Main Deck : 40 ============
Master Peace, the True Dracoslaying King x3
Dynamite Knuckle, the True Dracofighter x3
Aleister the Eidolon Summoner x2
Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit x3
Vortex Trooper x3
Terraforming x3
Eidolon Summoning Magic x2
Pot of Duality x3
Cosmic Cyclone x2
True Draco Succession x3
Disciples of the True Dracophoenix x1
Dragonic Diagram x3
Reckless Magic Circle x2
Vanity's Emptiness x1
Revival of the True King x3
Apocalypse of the True Dracos x2
Eternal Nightmares x1
============ Extra Deck : 15 ============
Merkabah the Eidolon Beast x2
Magallanica the Eidolon Beast x1
Purgatorio the Eidolon Beast x1
Cocytus the Eidolon Beast x1
Raideen the Eidolon Beast x1
Number 23: Lancelot, Dark Knight of the Underworld x1
Gaia Dragon, the Thunder Charger x1
Constellar Ptolemy M7 x1
Number S39: Utopia the Lightning x1
Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon x1
Number 39: Utopia x1
Number 66: Master Key Beetle x1
Diamond Dire Wolf x1
Evilswarm Exciton Knight x1
============ Side Deck : 15 ============
Shaddoll Dragon x1
Blackwing - Zephyros the Elite x1
Armageddon Knight x2
Eradicator Epidemic Virus x3
Reinforcement of the Army x1
Swords of Concealing Light x1
Dimensional Fissure x3
Skill Drain x3


Description


True Draco is the best deck to pilot in the starting weeks of the April 2017 OCG Format. Dragonic Diagram got more popular since Zoodiac Drident died, and Master Peace, the True Dracolaying King is just like Zoodiac Drident, with its quick effect destruction.

The Invoked archetype serves to further improve the deck and make it more agressive, crippling the opponent's graveyard resources and banishing their copies of Master Peace, the True Dracolaying King, a potential game-changing play. Invoked Mechaba is also an asset on the field with its negation ability.

Unfortunately, the Invoked archetype is weak against decks with a low monster count or zero monster count, such as Demise True Draco and Paleozoics respectively. As for the latter, even with the frog engine in it, the Water Invoked monster is very unnderwhelming, making Invoked an effective engine to play against the opponent. Hence, I prepared the DARK monster engine in the Side to swap with the Invoked in Paleozoics matchups.

Summoning Armageddon Knight, you mill Blackwing - Zephyros the Elite. This allows you to reuse Dragonic Diagram and Xyz summon. My favourite monster si Number 66: master Key Beetle. Apart from the old play where you can annouce your authority over the field by keeping Vanity's Emptiness alive (a play that is currently weaker in a format dominated by True Draco, a non-special-summoning archetype), it has a nice interaction with the True Draco traps and spells as it can send them to the graveyard during the opponent's turn, destroying their cards and hopefully, disrupting them.

The core of the engine comes with Eradicator Epidemic Virus, which is meant to cripple the deck. Against MyPochi's Nekroz, it demolished his handful of Spell cards and even when he played around it by searching, the damage was too severe for him to recover. Against Demise True Draco, although I have yet to face such a matchup, I hope to destroy their field spells and Dragonic Diagram before they get to use it, putting myself miles forward in the race for card advantage.

Playing Blackwing - Zephyros the Elite is similar to how the Zoodiac engine played Raidraptor - Force Strix by using the two copies of Zoodiac Ratpier to search out Blackwing - Zephyros the Elite, destroy it from hand with Dragonic Diagram, in order to resue the field spell again.
Shaddoll Dragon is there to provide more support and S/T destruction when needed, very effective against floodgates in Game 2 and 3. I even considered Shaddoll Beast for the draw. Both monsters also have their effect triggered when destroyed by Dragonic Diagram.

Skill Drain and Dimension Fissure are floodgates that can work in True Draco decks and have a wide range of coverage, making it good Side Deck cards to have. Swords of Concealing Light is there as a backup, against unbreakable boards or when I need to ignore a full row of monsters against Kozmo matchups.


Interaction

A common play is to play Magical Meltdown, then summon Aleister the Invoker and search Invocation. Reserving your fusion summon for the next turn, you make the most out of Aleister the Invoker by destroying it with Dragonic Diagram. Otherwise, it can be used as a tribute when you perform your additional Advance Summon using the True Draco spells.

Tribute Burial is an interesting card I wanted to include. It can save your Fusion Summons from being dead in the deck after Invocation and Aleister the Invoker both lay in your graveyard, every Invoked player worst nightmare. Banish your Aleister the Invoker and you get to retrieve it again. Also, it plays around Mask of Restrict. However, so far, I have yet to found it needed as I get rid of Mask of Restrict by using Dragonic Diagram to destroy spells and Eternal Nightmares if needed.

Vortex Trooper improves your hand and the draw when it is destroyed is the icing on the cake. With the Invoked engine, it enables Invoked Raideen in the deck, contributing to the deck's playing style and main goal of board control.

Conclusion


While both archetypes don't share the same playing style nor have the best synergy, they are able to operate independently of each other and yet work as a deck.

The meta is expected to undergo a vast change with the introduction of Code of the Duelist tomorrow, bringing a fresh metagame (hopefully) to the locals over the weekends.

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