When To Choose Each LoR Invoke Card: Part 3 (7-10 Mana)

Invoke Deep Dive (Part 3 of 3)

For the third and final installment of this series, we’ve added our moon boy Aphelios into our expected Targon lineups.

With his assistance let’s meet our big boys.

Above the seven mana mark, these Celestials are looking to end the game and end it fast, and they do their jobs to a truly impressive degree.

You’ll most often find them showing up out of a Star Shaping or an Aurelion Sol, but occasionally Mountain Scryer, Traveler, or Leveled Zoe can get them to come play.

Throughout the article, we’ll be discussing these Invoke-heavy decks:

• Zoe/Sol or Aphelios/Sol
• Zoe/Diana or Zoe/Aphelios

Let’s talk through what finishers to grab and when to wrap up this series, and hopefully, all of your games playing Invoke.

If you missed out on the previous iterations, revisit Part 1 (0-3 mana) and Part 2 (4-6 mana).

The Destroyer

• The Destroyer
  • 7 mana 7|7 Follower, Spell Shield, Overwhelm
  • Text: When I’m summoned, grant me +1|+0 for each Celestial card you played this game

Coming in strong at the seven mana mark is the big boy of Overwhelm, The Destroyer himself looking to wreck some faces.

Strengths

• The Can’t Touch This:
  • Spell Shield is a truly unreasonable keyword.
  • It means that trying to stop or even slow down big boy here from running over a nexus requires the investment of at least two spells and often simply can’t be done.
• The Can’t Stop This:
  • While our later entrants into this category get by on Elusive when you attack with The Destroyer you can be almost assured of some amount of damage getting through.

Weaknesses

• The Slow:
  • While it seems a bit ingenuous to call a seven-plus power Overwhelm unit slow to finish the game you have to remember that he’ll often have to count to twenty on his own or with only a little extra help.
  • The fact that your opponent will likely be able to stop at least a few points of his attack every turn is a significant drawback.
• The Trade:
  • While the other large celestials are looking to avoid direct combat and push nexus damage, here we have to go straight over the top of our opponent’s creatures.
  • That means that often two medium-sized hits will be all it takes to get The Destroyer off the board.

When you want it playing (Zoe or Aphelios)/Sol

This card is great with an active Plaza, killing whatever you want and pushing an awful lot of face damage.

That said, as your pick off of Aurelion Sol or Star Shaping it’s a bit underwhelming.

Pick it if you need a big unit and the others are AWOL, but you can usually do better.

When you want it playing Zoe/(Diana or Aphelios)

Usually, when you drop a Star Shaping you’re going to want Great Beyond or Immortal Fire, but sometimes your opponent will be an Elusive deck and you’ve got to push that damage anyway and The Destroyer’s got your back.

Also, getting this guy down on turn six off of a Mountain Scryer can be monstrous, so look for those opportunities.

Cosmic Inspiration

• Cosmic Inspiration 
  • 7 mana Slow spell
  • Text: If you Behold a Celestial card, grant allies everywhere +2|+2

Fabled for ending games long before any life total has reached zero, let’s welcome the almighty buffening, Cosmic Inspiration.

Strengths

• The Mine’s Bigger:
  • In anything that resembles a fair board state jumping your dudes above your opponent is going to hard swing a game.
• The Inevitable:
  • Hitting your whole hand and deck means that most of the time once you’ve gotten this bomb off all you need to do is survive and any non-combo opponent will succumb to your gigantic creatures.
• The Gains:
  • If you have any Life Steal in your deck or even a Golden Sisters lying around from another Invoke trigger buffing it up can make it extremely hard or even impossible for an aggressive opponent to finish you off.

Weaknesses

• The Impact:
  • If you’ve got a small board when you play this you are committing seven mana for very little change in the actual board state.
  • Careful not to die when getting this card going.
• The Requirement:
  • You need to behold a Celestial to drop this particular bomb, and to be safe you need one in hand.
  • There is no feeling sadder than this spell fizzling because your only Celestial died with it on the stack.

When you want it Playing (Zoe or Aphelios)/Sol

I hesitate to say actually never, but it’s going to be pretty close.

Occasionally you’ll take this off an Aurelion Sol to guarantee the Level Up but by then you’ve usually already won.

Mostly leave this behind and go for the big boys that help you close out the game faster.

When you want it playing Zoe/(Diana or Aphelios)

Any time you can get this, especially off of a Mountain Scryer or Traveler, it will put you on a good course to winning a game.

As a deck with a lot of small creatures that flood the board, you are perfectly positioned to take advantage of this card.

Immortal Fire

• The Immortal Fire
  • 8 mana 6|5 follower, Elusive
  • Text: When I’m summoned, grant me +1|+0 for each Celestial card you played this game. The first time I would die, fully heal me instead

When one life just isn’t enough, sometimes you’ve got to come back around and make it work again.

Immortal Fire doesn’t go down easily and it absolutely refuses to stay there.

Sounds like a pretty good win condition to me.

Strengths

• The Can’t Block This:
  • In a much more traditionally Elusive manner, Immortal Fire is ready to take sometimes double digits chunks out of your opponents nexus with each attack token.
• The Budget Tryndamere:
  • While the angry man will always be the king of coming back as he manages to come back stronger, have a second life makes this card extremely difficult to efficiently answer.

Weaknesses

•  The Hush:
  • Unlike the other giant Celestials, phoenix buddy over here has no Spell Shield to call its own.
  • That means that a single Silence can often spell doom.
• The Smol:
  • As ridiculous as this sounds for something that can grow so huge, you are missing attack points by choosing this unit over Destroyer or Great Beyond, and those few damages can be a big deal.

When you want it Playing (Zoe or Aphelios)/Sol

This is the premier way to finish a game against Shadow Isles Control decks.

While they can freeze it nothing short of two tremendously inefficient hard removal spells will actually get it off the board.

Take this anytime you want an opponent dead and they don’t play Targon.

When you want it playing Zoe/(Diana or Aphelios)

You’ll more often want great beyond, simply because it has a higher stat line.

But if the big dragon is missing in action or bird brain here is going to be enough to finish the game against a non-Targon opponent then Immortal Fire is going to be your best option.

Cosmic Rays

• Cosmic Rays
  • 8 mana Slow spell
  • Text: If you Behold a Celestial card, Obliterate enemies with 3 or less power

Oft overlooked to the detriment of the Invoke player and the opponent alike, let’s welcome the only mass removal spell on the Celestial lineup, Cosmic Rays.

Strengths

• The Boom There it Is:
  • Sometimes you just need a board full of nonsense wiped clean, and while Cosmic Rays won’t do much against bigger threats, nonsense is what it excels at cleansing.
• The Bird Killer:
  • Obliterate isn’t usually that much different from destroying, but when your opponent drops multiple Anivias on to the table, or Harrowings them all back, having this in your back pocket can be pretty sweet.

Weaknesses

1. The Miss:
   • Whether it’s something that started big naturally or just got buffed up that way, oft times the biggest threats against you will not be answered by this card.
2. The Requirement:
   • You need to behold a Celestial to drop this particular bomb, and to be safe you need one in hand.
   • There is no feeling sadder than this spell fizzling because your only Celestial died with it on the stack.

When you want it Playing (Zoe or Aphelios)/Sol

This is a card that you will basically only ever take in extremely niche circumstances.

It can be very good against Anivia, and it can be very good against boards of value creatures you are having a hard time dealing with, specifically those of Teemo/Ezreal and their mountain of freezing protection.

Otherwise, I’d suggest mostly passing this one by.

When you want it playing Zoe/(Diana or Aphelios)

I really don’t want to say never, but with the rare exception of fighting an Anivia deck where you wouldn’t rather just try to kill them with a large unit, or a Tahm Kench/Soraka Match where your Meteors are missing, this just isn’t the right play.

The Great Beyond

• The Great Beyond
  • 9 mana 8|8 follower, Elusive, Fury, SpellShield
  • Text: When I’m summoned, grant me +1|+0 for each Celestial card you played this game. I am a Dragon.

You know, there are all sorts of clever puns or greetings I could make here, but one stands head and wings above the rest. I-Am-A-Dragon.

Strengths

• The Can’t Block This:
  • Just like it’s little buddy Immortal Fire, Great Beyond skates by most board states to have a close and personal conversation with your enemy’s nexus about this whole “being alive,” nonsense.
• The Can’t Touch This:
  • The other of the large celestial bodies with a Spell Shield.
  • When you add Elusive and an eight-point behind to that particular keyword, removing The Great Beyond might not be impossible, but it’s going to take a very particular set of answers.
• The Clock:
  • While nine mana is a lot, you get what you pay for.
  • Great beyond will almost always finish a game in two hits if not one.

Weaknesses

1. The Commitment:
   • You don’t get much of a harder commit than dropping nine mana on a single card.
   • If you don’t end the game with this, you can be assured your opponent will be attempting to end you.

When you want it Playing (Zoe or Aphelios)/Sol

Great Beyond is what you are looking for in Targon mirrors to break them wide open.

While it can occasionally get chumped, short of a Hush backed up by an additional large removal spell this is not a body that can just be ignored.

When you want it playing Zoe/(Diana or Aphelios)

Any time you can get away with taking this card go for it.

If your curve and board state are looking ok and you think you can survive long enough to cast it then even take this off of Traveler or Mountain Scryer.

This is your go-to win condition in almost every match up so think hard before passing it by.

Supernova

• Supernova
  • 9 mana Slow spell
  • Text: If you Behold a Celestial card, Obliterate 2 enemy units of landmarks.

Meteor’s big brother heard there were not one but two units picking on you and is here to give them what for.

Strengths

• The Get Off My Lawn:
  • There are few board states out there that Supernova will not completely wreck.
  • Whether it’s a pesky Star Spring, an Anivia or two, or, with some help, even an opposing Aurelion Sol and his buddy Eclipse Dragon, Supernova sends those kids packing.

Weaknesses

• The Ruination:
  • Tapping nine mana for this card can leave you extremely vulnerable to your opponent’s redevelopment.
  • Be careful not to get overeager and die to a secondary board state hiding in your opponent’s hand.
• The Requirement:
  • You need to behold a Celestial to drop this particular bomb, and to be safe you need one in hand.
  • There is no feeling sadder than this spell fizzling because your only Celestial died with it on the stack.
• The Deny:
  • Against many of the scariest threats in the game Bastion or Deny will be lurking to stop your Supernova from doing its job.
  • By taking this spell you turn those cards on in a big way.

When you want it Playing (Zoe or Aphelios)/Sol

This is a good take if you can’t get Cosmic Rays and you need to blow up an Anivia.

It’s also great into Feel The Rush and ok in the mirror.

Usually, though you’d rather just close a game than answer your opponent’s threats, so only take this if you need it to survive.

When you want it playing Zoe/(Diana or Aphelios)

Again, these giant spells are very rarely what you want.

They are not proactively attempting to close the game.

Turn nine to ten is your sweet spot, past that you start to lose some steam yourself.

Take this if you need it against Feel The Rush or in true desperation/when you’ve baited their counters against Lee Sin, but mostly leave it alone.

The Scourge

• The Scourge 
  • 10 mana 10|10 follower, Challenger
  • Text: When I’m summoned, grant me +1|+0 for each Celestial card you played this game. Attack: Give other allies +2|+2 and Overwhelm this round.

What has way too many heads and likes to push records for how much damage we can do in a competitive game? Let’s welcome the scourge to the celestial party.

Strengths

• The Overkill:
  • Sometimes you don’t know how much your opponent can Heal, or Stun, or remove your smaller creatures and you just really need them to be dead no matter what.
  • When Scourge gets his swing games will pretty much just end.
• The Challenge:
  • More rarely, but sometimes you actually just desperately need a removal spell, and a ten power Challenger is going to chow down on most units your opponents can create.

Weaknesses

• The Overcommit:
  • You thought nine mana was a lot? Well hold on to your britches because ten mana is so much more.
  • Trying to play this an another meaningful spell in the same turn is almost impossible so if this gets answered you are in for a world of hurt.
• The Where’s My Shield:
  • While ten health might seem like a pretty nice buffer in a world of Silences, Stuns, Meteors, and even Concerted Strikes, Scourge is remarkably fragile.

When you want it Playing (Zoe or Aphelios)/Sol

Take Scourge with this deck when you can survive your opponent’s big swing turn just fine and are looking to put the lock on the game before they can draw out of it.

Be careful with this one because it commits you hard to winning when you drop it, but it will often do that job just fine.

When you want it playing Zoe/(Diana or Aphelios)

This is much more of a desperation pick here.

You don’t present many big threats so you kind of have to expect your opponent to have an answer to mister no shield here.

But if they don’t you have a large enough board that failure to answer his question will usually result in a quick death.

Living Legends

• Living Legends
  • 10 mana Burst spell
  • Text: Fill your hand with random Fleeting Celestial cards. Refill your mana to full

Finally, when one card just isn’t enough, let’s refill our hand and take a spin on the old roulette wheel of Living Legends.

Strengths

• The I’m Everything:
  • Want a Meteor, a Great Beyond, a board full of snakes to chow down on your opponent? Living Legends can do that for you, and more.
• The Pump:
  • If you need to kill an opponent in one turn and the big Celestial just isn’t going to be big enough, you can try to re-hit it off Living Legends and have it be a bit larger.
• The Aurelion Sol:
  • While a Leveled Sol will usually spell the end of any game, dropping this card will almost always be followed by a Shen emote from our opponent, if not an outright concession.

Weaknesses

• The Miss:
  • When you play this card there’s usually something you’re looking for, and the odds will often not be in your favor.
• The Hand Size:
  • Unless you can get a small hand Living Legends is more and more likely to be underwhelming.
• The No Spell Mana:
  • This nerf was a while back but it’s a big deal.
  • Makes playing Meteors off of this card much harder to justify.

When you want it Playing (Zoe or Aphelios)/Sol

This is going to be your go-to pick up off Aurelion Sol unless something else jumps out at you as being necessary.

It will be hard to end the game if he Levels and can find you the big boys you need to get that Level if you’re having a hard time. Take this card unless something amazing jumps out at you.

When you want it playing Zoe/(Diana or Aphelios)

This deck can have some serious issues emptying its hand.

While playing this card with one or even two mountain scryers in play can be an absolute dream, getting the hand space for it to be useful can be difficult.

Take this card only if you have no other good options or are down under five cards in hand.

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, feel free to ask WhatAmI during his streams (around 10AM PST basically every day).

WhatAmI streams at twitch.tv/xxwhatamixx around 10AM PST every day