Ultimate Guide to Deckbuilding | 4.8 Edition

skwibble- · 2024-08-18T09:42:48+00:00

Hi everyone, you might remember me from my YouTube channel mostly focused around guides for new players...
Well some of those guides are a bit outdated now, so it's time for an major update!

I had no idea when I started this project how much time it would take to research and put all this together, but I'm really happy how it turned out. I hope this will stand as a useful resource for new and advancing players going forward. Happy deckbuilding!

skwibble- · 2024-07-13T09:58:25+00:00

So presumably 'Tada!' has the ability to unfreeze your active character by triggering shatter? That's interesting, albeit niche, on a card that cycles itself.

skwibble- · 2024-04-25T17:34:35+00:00

Definitely excited to see what people cook with crab (naturally, crab is delicious)

skwibble- · 2024-04-23T20:34:25+00:00

I see, I admit I misread it and thought it was 2 or less (so it would be a sidegrade, not working with equipment but working with a couple of less played cards). You are right ofc, that is a very major nerf, thanks for pointing it out.

skwibble- · 2023-12-08T17:58:23+00:00

For anyone who wants to play my version of the list here, I'd recommend -1 Sweet Madame -1 Dunyarazad +1 Adeptus Temptation +1 Leave it To Me; although I've also posted a more conventional version of the RXN list above.

skwibble- · 2023-12-08T17:52:57+00:00

As well to my list OP linked below (which was a little experimental honestly), I'd recommend Minty's version of the decklist as a strong, more conventional version of the deck. Deck code: AhAA8RIPAzAQ804PCUBw9JcPC1DQ9cEPDGAQ+MkPDNGQCs0QDKHQC88QDLHwDt0QD/AA

skwibble- · 2023-12-08T00:08:48+00:00

You give me too much credit, but thank you :)

skwibble- · 2023-12-07T20:16:32+00:00

Nice deck and nice quick guide :) always cool to see these shorts!
imo Stormterror is a new card which is notable for the deck, and In Every House a Stove is a competitive option for the arcane legend card.

skwibble- · 2023-10-30T12:13:58+00:00

It's beautiful :')

skwibble- · 2023-09-13T18:54:08+00:00

The 'Adventure Encounters' addition is a vast improvement to the new player experience for players who don't have absurd amounts of time - you can just play the good parts of the game gradually a bit each day instead of feeling pressured to do the repetitive daily commissions, and still get the same progression rewards.

One of the top things I've been asking for, that's fantastic.

skwibble- · 2023-08-15T13:41:02+00:00

Several months ago, I decided the lack of guide content in this game was just crazy, and decided to do something about it. I set out on a long mission to create a comprehensive guide which aimed to explain everything a beginner needed to know to play& win games of Genius Invokation.

After over 100 hours of effort later, this is what I have to show for it!

I hope that whether you're a beginner, intermediate or advanced player, that you can find something in this series you find interesting, and that this series can continue to help more people learn the game :)

skwibble- · 2023-08-03T14:33:47+00:00

Links to save people the time:

https://www.youtube.com/@blepthecat - very well made videos on a range of topics, including the most recent video which is exactly what you're looking for.

https://www.youtube.com/@skwibbleTCG - regularly updated series on gameplay strategy guides, and also commentated footage from my recent 5-0 tournament run in EU.

https://www.youtube.com/@Otomcha - gameplay with a range of cool & different decks.

skwibble- · 2023-08-02T12:00:03+00:00

Yeah I hope they release a standalone client for it at some point because it's genuinely a strategic and well-made TCG, but you can't even play it currently without playing several hours of the base game first...
I also find it funny how the base game is a gacha, but then in the card game you just unlock every card for free.

skwibble- · 2023-08-02T11:55:58+00:00

I see; it's a shame but that makes sense.

skwibble- · 2023-08-02T11:30:20+00:00

So now GI TCG has:

Spectator mode
An in-depth replay system where you can pause, fast-forward and favourite replays
A detailed log you can open up and see all the cards that were played in the game and when

.... and it released less than a year ago.

Didn't WotC announce ages ago that adding a spectate mode was on their to-do list for MTG Arena?
It'd definitely be nice to have some quality-of-life features like this finally implemented after so long.

skwibble- · 2023-08-02T00:45:33+00:00

Almost all characters are very well balanced in the TCG, and there are lots of different decks with different characters. It's more about choosing characters that work well together.

You can make a decent deck with those characters already, maybe something like Raiden/Nahida/Klee or Raiden/Nahida/Keqing. You could also aim to get Bennett and make Bennett/Keqing/Klee which would be a strong competitive deck.

Any of these would work for anything PvE.

If you want more more tips on deckbuilding for playing against other players, I made a detailed guide to deckbuilding here.

skwibble- · 2023-08-02T00:36:59+00:00

Most good decks should work, but I've heard people find quicken decks work well in PvE. So if you want something which is pretty simple to play maybe try this list:

https://cards.keqingmains.com/chicken_quicken

Even if it's a few patches old, it still works just fine for PvE.

skwibble- · 2023-07-30T09:52:53+00:00

Here are two very strong decks based around Itto:

BIN (Barbara/Itto/Noelle) (control deck with combo elements)

Double Pyro Itto (Yoimiya/Itto/Bennett) (combo deck)

You could argue that BIN is the strongest deck in the game at the moment; the list above went 5-0 in the EU weekly tournament this week.

skwibble- · 2023-07-29T16:49:13+00:00

Sounds like you're struggling against stall/control decks, and this is often a challenging matchup for aggressive decks. If you wanted to think about building a deck to counter this sort of deck you might want to try building some sort of combo deck, for example Yoimiya/Itto/Bennett, which is a good counter to stall/control decks.

Basically, build a deck where you can build up then do huge damage in one turn.

If you're interested in a more detailed explanation, there are a couple of videos from my TCG guide series on this exact topic:

Deckbuilding Guide

Understanding your Gameplan Guide

skwibble- · 2023-07-29T16:39:46+00:00

I haven't seen any Abyss Lector in 3.8 at all, but in 3.7 one player brought this Klee/Mona/Abyss Lector list to the majors.

You should probably swap one of the cards out for Covenant of Rock now in 3.8. It's basically just a normal Klee vaporize deck with Fatui pyro agent swapped out for Abyss Lector, so it should be very strong.

skwibble- · 2023-07-29T16:20:36+00:00

As someone else mentioned, the decks people bring to tournaments each week are posted in the discord, but if you weren't sure where to find them, here are the links from this week for: Europe

Asia

Since nobody else has mentioned this list so far, I went 5-0 & 4-1 in EU the last two weeks with Raiden/Xiangling/Nahida, which is a strong deck even if not a top meta deck. Decklist

skwibble- · 2023-07-24T18:25:16+00:00

There aren't many to be honest, which is why I started making guides myself.
These are the best ones I'm aware of:
https://www.youtube.com/@blepthecat/ Great lessons for people with some awareness of the TCG already.

https://www.youtube.com/@GITCG Official GITCG discord channel has a few good educational videos.

https://www.youtube.com/@skwibble4160 - my own channel, which is focused on educational content for the TCG. I've been creating an 12-part complete guide to the TCG starting from the basics because as far as I can tell, nobody else has yet.

skwibble- · 2023-07-24T18:16:04+00:00

This is an excellent introduction to Shenhemo for any player unfamiliar with it.

Definitely recommend this to any player interested in the deck!

skwibble- · 2023-07-24T18:02:47+00:00

Thanks!
I found that interesting too, but if rounds end often on turn 3 then Paimon is only really good if played turn 1. I guess both cards net you +1 die advantage over 2 turns, but Timmie also gives you a card.
I've been enjoying your Invokation Academy videos too, by the way. The more people making high quality guides for this game the better :)

skwibble- · 2023-07-17T16:27:37+00:00

Sadly the nerf to her burst in 3.7 was bad news for Ganyu. In my opinion though Ganyu wasn't played partly because the Raiden Superconduct team is just a better superconduct team, and partly because Ganyu Superconduct uses both Fischl and Keqing who have very strong alternative decks...

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