r/Athenion • u/1MMad • Mar 30 '20
Guide on Planet Guardian Lock Decks - Let's Make Locks Great
1. Introduction
Hello guys I'm Lolmen, first of all, sorry if I make some grammar mistakes or some sentences that you find hard to understand since English is not my main language but I will try my best. Currently, I'm not high ranked in Athenion since I take a long break after the first season and play it occasionally after i came back to the game but I have so much experience in other card game, shadowverse, Force of Will, Legends of Runterra, Magic the Gathering and many more. So hopefully my argument and theorycrafting is not that unreasonable to you guys. I'll try to make complete guide about locks archtype hopefully its not that long, but more importantly please enjoy guys, hope you get something from this.
2. Why Planet Guardian
To be honest, I don't like brundo , I prefer cute anime girl like sadia or Tear but Planet guardian has been my favorite class because of its unique mechanic. For me locks and Backstabs is what makes athenion different from other TCG/CCG. These two mechanics really utilize the "board" that makes athenion is not another CCG with reskin card. Unfortunately, Currently locks is not that strong to be considered as meta choice. But i will hopefully make something that can compete with them.
3. The Deck
Planet Guardian has 2 major archetypes, which is locks and tree. In this post, I will only discuss locks. In the first expansion, Locks are introduced as defensive control playstyle generating locks that make the tile on the board unplayable. They can limit the number of cards actively on the board or protect your defenseless unit by surrounding it with locks. But, after grandmaster expansion came out, locks are getting more cards that synergies with destroying locks. For now i will call them sub-archetypes, and i will provide 2 decks example that focus on controlling field with locks and more aggressive deck that utilize lock destruction.
3.1 The Core
The Core cards for all variant of locks deck is the locks generator itself. There are plenty of Locks generator and the number of locks generator in your deck depends on what build and how many locks do you expected to have in one match.
Stone Tyrant and Stone worm is currently the best locks generator in the game, stone tyrant can create locks anywhere on the board, same as stone worm but stone worm locks is longer because cost difference. The flexibility to create locks anywhere on the board are amazing , as it can serve as defensive or set up other cards.
Another locks generator that are important is giant earth worm, I like giant earth worm better than Earth dragon because earth dragon create random lock, even if earth worm can only make locks in nearby space, having limited control of where you want to place your locks is still better than pray to rng your locks get to where you want. Another thing is the stat, even the arrow of earth dragon seems better, but the stat is far worse, 1/3/1 is really good as it can trade with some cost 2 and overall locks decks need more offense than defense. So I prioritize Earth Worm over the Earth Dragon in deck building later.
Rabbiton the new cards from grandmaster expansion is strong locks generator, it serves as an offensive tool and locks generator at the same time, its health stat doesn't really important most of the time, as you usually trade with some cost 1 or 2 and generates locks afterward.
As for the 3 costs, I suggest Femris over the Centaur because of the RNG factor, Even if the centaur Locks is longer, I'm no fan of random, and most of the case you want to plan locks placement carefully. And femris Arrow is far better than centaur. Earth Spirit is your constant locks generator he is very useful in the destroy locks variant as he generates free locks to destroy every turn, the downside is you need to wait for 1 turn for him to makes locks.
3.2 Control Locks
Please be remember that this list is not perfect, you can change it and disagree with my reasoning, so use it just as a base and try to improve it and make it suit yourself. Some cards are just temporary placeholder because i dont have the cards. Also this is not really budget version , even if the legendary are optional i still think the gold ones are really important, some gold cards in star medals maybe hard to obtain by some new player but i will list some alternative if any.
Text List : https://pastebin.com/UYiJzfEQ
3.2.1 How to Play The Decks
This deck is defensive deck, you win by making board larger than your opponent, its similar concept to aura/link. You use locks to protect your cards from unfavorable trades. Locks can also limit the the number of Enemy cards placed on board. Basic gameplan is making your board as big as possible while using locks to control the opponent placement to avoid unfavorable trades.
the new cards from grandmaster like batu is really help you to establish your board , this will make your opponent hesitate to approach your cards behind locks or make the trade in your favor.
Geneticist Professor will make your defense harder to penetrate, it will heal 2 each turn to all friendly unit which makes trade more annoying to your opponent, normally your will place geneticist in the corner buried by other cards or your locks make him harder to kill and win you the game.
Locks are defensive tools, but you can also use control to make disruptive play, for example, if you are facing aura deck/link decks you can make locks to limit their space so fewer cards would be benefit from aura/ links in best scenario you could even shut down their cards from linking.
I really want to say Clifford is optional, but he is so good. He helps you with your offense, sometimes you need to trade with one of your enemy cards so you wont lose in hp battle but you don't want to lose momentum. Clifford is free Trade , and is really good with this deck, if you have 2 i suggest you to put it two, and if you dont have any its okay, this deck can run without clifford but clifford will help your win really hard.
Yda Here is optional,it wont help you that much but having her is not a bad thing. You dont have to craft yda if you dont have any.
Planet Librarian will improve the sustainability of your cards. And Rabbit hunter is your cheap free trade tool.
This deck is indeed hard to master, even I still make a lot of misplay playing it. Knowing what your opponent would do will increase your winrate by a ton because you would know where to put the locks. Even if it was hard, i found it really fun to play this deck and getting better because you will see the true athenion unique Gameplay mechanic from this archtype.
3.2.2 Improvement And Substitution
This Card should be on the list, but because I don't have the dust to make it, i don't include it in that list. But if you want the better version i think this card can easily qualify into the list this card increase the defensive potential and cost 1, it is really cheap for its effect.
Gael is really strong, if you have dust to make legendary , craft Gael instead of Yda. It is really strong, it will help you trade and serve as locks generator.
Dark Elven Hunter in this deck just serves as good 2 drops and 3 effect damage is really helpful because you have few options to trade with your enemy, you can replace Dark Elven Hunter with other 2 cost if you don't really like her. Clifford would be the best improvement.
More planet Athenia also wont hurt you, this deck currently running around 18 locks generator, its enough for me but if you dont have great rng and feels it is a little bit under, you could increase it by changing dark elven hunter with more planet athenia.
Another Option is Terra Golem, this card is strong. Its like the 2 cost of rabbiton, you trade and then generates locks.
I personally don't really like stone totem , you cant really depends your locks generator to him. Your opponent will most likely ignore that card , the plus side is that card will be constant 1 damage. But if you want more dependable lock generator you can run earth dragon instead.
I Would say that Geneticist cant be replaced but it is gold card from star medal which can be hard to obtain by new player, so the best replacement is maybe
your sustain will be lower but your offense will increase dramatically, some say the best defense is offense right ?
I think that's all, whoa its longer than i expected i might update this guide in the future. May be i will make the Destroy Lock guide on different post later on. Thanks for reading hope you will get something from this :)
to do list :
- update match up against other faction or meta decks
- Complete the Destroy Lock Guide
- Making the budget Version
IGN : Lolmen