Originally posted on February 13, 2023
These five decks will ensure you destroy your opponents in Genshin Impact’s new Trading Card Game mode!
In the 3.3 update, HoYoverse introduced the Genius Invokation TCG gamemode to Genshin Impact, a Trading Card Game that is easy to learn and difficult to master. It has a really great depth of skill and strategy, and is one of our favorite new additions to the game.
If you want to learn how to play Genius Invokation, head to Mondstadt’s alchemy bench to meet Sucrose and Timaeus, this will start the quest that unlocks the game. You’ll go through several tutorials teaching you the basics, and then get some practice against NPCs.
Vaporize
Players familiar with Genshin’s mechanics will know that Vaporize means big damage. This is equally true in Genius Invokation TCG, where players can combo Hydro and Pyro to defeat their opponent’s team. These decks make use of strong and fast Hydro applicators like Xingqiu and Mona to combo into strong Pyro attacks from Diluc or Yoimiya and deal huge damage.
Vaporize decks often opt to have their third character as Bennett, who alongside providing some basic Pyro application has access to his Elemental Burst, Fantastic Voyage. This creates an Inspiration Field which, upon using a skill, will give +2 damage to characters above 6 HP, and heal characters below 6 HP for 2 points. This summon lasts for 2 rounds. Bennett’s Talent card, Grand Expectation, removes the health restriction, and means that Inspiration Field always provides a +2 damage bonus.
Here’s an example decklist:
Elradoman
Collei Hyperbloom
A little different from our other entries on this list, Collei Hyperbloom is a deck focusing on Dendro reactions. Built around its titular character Collei, this deck puts out consistent damage with Bloom and Quicken reactions, usually featuring Fischl and Mona. This deck makes great use of Collei’s incredibly strong Talent card, Floral Sidewinder, which activates her Elemental Skill and increases any further damage from Dendro reactions by 1 for the rest of the round. The deck aims to get Fischl’s Oz out early, spreading Electro application to create easy Quicken reactions and snowball your damage.
Bloom reactions allow this deck to really shine, however - combining Dendro and Hydro (which is easy between Collei’s skills and Mona’s summon skill) creates a Dendro Core, which increases the damage of the next Pyro or Electro hit by 2. This means that you’ll be able to rack up big damage after just a few reactions, between Collei and Mona creating Blooms and Fischl or Oz dealing Electro damage. This makes this one of the very few decks that fully utilize a combination of three Elements together!
Here’s an example decklist:
Saffron
Ayaka Yoimiya Melt
Genius Invokation’s most successful meta deck so far has to be the combination of Ayaka and Yoimiya. This deck once again makes use of Ayaka’s amazing passive ability and its quick Cryo infusion to combo with Yoimiya and do huge Melt combo damage. This allows the deck to play incredibly fast in an ‘OTK’ (One Turn Kill) style, using Action cards that reduce the cost of your attacks in order to quickly defeat the opponents’ team.
An interesting part of this deck is that while Ayaka and Yoimiya are crucial to the deck’s success, the supporting third character card slot is pretty flexible. Some successful decks run Chongyun, some run Fatui Pyro Agent, and some make use of Xingqiu. The reasoning behind the double-up on Cryo and Pyro is simple: the Elemental Resonance cards are incredibly strong. These cards require you to have two characters of the same Element in your deck, in exchange for powerful effects. Chongyun and Fatui Pyro Agent also contribute to Melt combos on their own, albeit not as efficiently as Ayaka or Yoimiya.
The Xingqiu variant, however, adds some flexibility to the deck’s options - now it is not only capable of dealing huge Melt damage, but also has another option for burst damage in Vaporize and can slow the pace of the game with Freeze.
Here’s an example decklist:
RobotWizard
Freeze
This is the second of two decks in this list to make use of Ayaka, who is one of the single strongest character cards in the game right now. Ayaka’s passive ability, Kamisato Art: Senho, infuses her Normal Attacks with Cryo when she becomes the active character, meaning she can very easily combo with Hydro users such as Xingqiu to Freeze opponents. Freezing an opposing character makes that character unable to use Skills until the end of the round, creating a playstyle similar to those of Control decks in other TCGs.
The Hydro part of this deck comes from Xingqiu, who happens to be king of Hydro application in the main game, too. Xingqiu’s Skills create summons that deal Hydro damage, making it very easy to Freeze opponents in combination with Ayaka’s easy Cryo application. Chongyun is often the third character card in this deck, acting as a replacement for Ayaka if she is defeated. It also allows for the deck to make use of Cryo Elemental Resonance cards. By keeping opponents frozen, you are sure to achieve a commanding victory with this deck.
Here’s an example decklist:
Tinn
Superconduct
This unique archetype revolves around the Elemental Reaction between Cryo and Electro, Superconduct. In the TCG, this combination deals one extra damage to the target, as well as 1 bonus damage to the opponent’s other characters. This combines really well with Ganyu, whose attacks deal damage to all opposing characters and apply Cryo to them.
These decks combo Ganyu with Electro characters such as Fischl and/or Keqing, or will sometimes include another Cryo character such as Diona for access to Elemental Resonance cards. This deck aims to spread a lot of damage on the board quite quickly between Superconduct and Ganyu, intending to end the game quickly. Some decks also use Ganyu’s Talent card Undivided Heart to power up Frostflake Arrow, although this can be quite dice-intensive.
Here’s an example decklist:
Nish
We love Genius Invokation TCG and can’t wait to see it grow and develop as the game gets updated! We hope you’ll give it a shot and let us know what you think! You can find more Genius Invokation TCG decks, including tournament results, on the subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/GeniusInvokationTCG/
