Hey there Travelers of Teyvat, Genshin Impact has had another huge update with patch 3.6, and with it, a slew of new cards for the Genius Invocation Trading Card Game. For the last patch, the three cards that stood out after testing and settling into the meta would be the General’s Ancient Helm, Sangonomiya, Kokomi, and Kujou Sara in that order. The Helm has proven to be a great artifact to be added to every deck as it provides free damage mitigation on one character every turn.
Like with the last patch, I will be discussing the new cards in great detail and let you know which cards I think will make an impact.
First up, it’s the Handsome Gentleman Kamisato Ayato
A Hydro Character Card with 3 Energy for the Elemental Burst (EB). A card that I would say closely resembles the Character Card Yoimiya, where you are able to apply an Element to your normal attack with their Elemental Skill (ES). Unlike Yoimiya that only requires 1 Energy but deals no damage, Ayato requires 3 Energy and deals 2 hydro damage on cast. Hydro does have a better application than Pyro as it causes three distinct Elemental Reactions: Frozen, Vaporize, and Bloom that are already popular in the meta.
Ayato’s EB however is interesting and powerful in the right deck, in my opinion. The EB not only gives a field effect that deals 2 Hydro Damage at End of Turn (EoT) for 2 turns, it also applies an ongoing effect where all Normal Attacks deal +1 damage. This is a strong effect for Normal Attack Decks, since the EB resembles Jueyun Guoba Food card for two turns and without limits within a turn.
Overall, Ayato is a great card with a powerful EB for Normal Attack Decks and a powerful ES for decks that wants to apply reactions within one turn. A Character can use their ES to apply another Elemental and follow up with a normal attack that applies Hydro within a Turn.
Second on the list is Arataki “the Raging Bull” Itto
The great Arataki Itto is a Geo character with a very interesting ES and EB unlike any of the previous Geo Characters. Let us start with Itto’s ES which is a mouthful on its own. Itto deals 1 Geo damage and summons Ushi, Ushi mitigates damage to Itto by 1 for 1 usage and deals 1 Geo damage EoT, but the summon stays until Itto is damaged and provides Itto with the Superlative Superstrength buff. The buff gives Itto’s Charged Attack (when your dice count is even), +1 damage, and expends 1 less dice. Charged Attack is a convoluted mechanic that is rarely used but Itto does it well with his buff, as the dice count will always be even when he has the buff.
His EB is the showstopper as not only does it deals 5 Geo Damage, he also gains a buff where his Normal Attack is +2 Damage, converted to Geo, and he gains the Superlative Superstrength buff after each Normal Attack. He is a power house that can deal massive damage to single enemies when he uses his EB. What is interesting is his signature card that you would want to activate after his EB helps him deal even more damage.
Overall, Itto is a powerhouse that can go off on his own without any reactions. The deck that would fit him best would be the Delay Heal decks that uses Barbara or Diona to heal while Itto deals most of the damage. I for one am excited to use him in my Beat Stick deck along with Diluc and Eula.
The final Character card to join the fray is Tighnari, Dendro Strider
The herbalist Tighnari is the second Dendro TCG character with an ES that is similar to Collei and EB similar to Fischl, but Dendro instead of Electro. There are a lot of Normal Attack infusions in this patch and Tighnari’s ES is no different. It deals 2 Dendro Damage and infuses the character’s charged attack with Dendro Damage that summons a Clusterbloom Arrow which deals 2 EoT Damage. Unlike Itto, the Charge Attack will be hard to achieve as you have to keep the dice at even numbers without any reduction (unlike Itto’s ES) unless you play his Talent card. Which means if you don’t use his Talent Card, he can’t chain his ES into a Charged Attack next turn without an Artifact.
Even his EB is average, as the EB does only 1 piercing Damage to opposing characters on standby unlike Fischl or Keqing. Mihoyo is playing it safe with his EB since Dendro reactions are also very effective in TCG like the game’s other counterpart.
Overall, Tighnari is a welcome addition as the second Dendro character with an ES that can deal EoT Dendro damage, but requires too much setup. I believe Collei will still be the preferred Dendro Character for Dendro decks.
The non-character cards to be added is the Grand Narukami Shrine and the Favonius Sword
Last but not least are the additions of non-Character cards to this patch, the Grand Narukami Shrine and the Favonius Sword. The Grand Narukami Shrine is a great card to be added to any deck as a one-off as any card that adds dice is huge. Unlike Timmy and Paimon that adds Omni-Dice, Grand Narukami Shrine only adds a random Elemental Dice which is not ideal but helps to achieve Charged Attack easier. This might be a card that needs to be tested extensively to see how good it is but may find a place in newer decks that need that 1 extra dice to keep dice count even with Charged Attacks.
Favonius Sword is a great card for decks that want to fire off EB as soon as possible, like decks with Characters that only need 2 Energy for their EB. Character cards like Collei, Xingqiu, or even Kaeya can abuse this card by using a normal attack and quickly fire EB in the next turn. Not only that, the weapon also allows the Character to quickly fire their EB in subsequent turns with just 1 other attack. This card will be fun to test around and see what new combos can come out of it.
All and all, my ranking of excitement to try the new cards have to go in the following order: –
- Arataki Itto
- Favonius Sword
- Kamisato Ayato
- Grand Narukami Shrine
- Tighnari
I am always excited when they add new cards to their TCG even if it’s a small portion of the game, and hope to see new combos or decks from the new cards. What cards are you most excited for in Version 3.6?
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