Final Fantasy Trading Cards Games
Card of the week 2020-09-17 15:13:00

Opus XII Card of the Week - Locke


COTW OPUS XII/Locke/lock banner web

Hey everyone, it is Tim again! Finally, it’s my turn to show you a Multi-Color Legend for this Card of the Week Article.

Today we are looking at a new version of the famous Treasure Hunter from Final Fantasy VI, Locke! He appeared 4 times in FFTCG already, with the Opus 4 Version being a staple in many Ice and Ice/Fire Decks. But this time, he will go a new route and move into Ice/Wind. Let’s take a look at the Card. 

Locke [12-116L] is an 8 CP Ice/Wind Forward with the Job Treasure Hunter, Category DFF & VI and 9000 Power. He reads “The cost required to cast Locke is reduced by 2 for each card you have cast this turn (it cannot become 1 or less).” He also has an Auto Ability that reads: “When Locke enters the field, select up to 2 of the 4 following actions. “Your opponent discards 1 card from their hand.” “Choose up to 2 Characters. Dull them and freeze them.” “Choose 1 Forward of cost 6 or more. Break it.” “Choose 1 Monster. Break it.”

Just at first glance, I already love this card. It brings a great combination of typical Ice and Wind effects with a great variety for situational usage.

If you can manage to cast Locke as your 4th card in your turn, he will only cost 2 CP (One Ice and one Wind) and this should not be too hard to achieve since Ice has great cheap cards and Wind has great Tools to Activate your backups and use them again. Cards like Diabolos [5-062L] and Pandemonium [11-055R] instantly come to mind, or Valefor [1-198S], if you can slot in a Yuna [7-127L] or [11-061L], to Activate your backups and reduce Locke’s cost. Another way would be utilizing Miounne [5-067R] to replay a cheap character and reduce Locke’s cost twice. Using Kuja [6-027L]’s ability to bring him back from your Break Zone can also make room for some cheap Ice Backups. Cid (II) [6-045H] could help you find some 1 CP Evokers [1-068C] or Summoners [1-040C] to set-up your Locke turn. Additionally, he can search for Princess Sarah [11-128H] to help you color fix and push Locke to 10000 Power, whether you choose Ice or Wind for her element.

Also, since Ice and Wind have a couple of nice low-cost Summons, you can combine it in a deck with Unei [10-023H] and use your Summons to reduce Locke’s cost or to trigger Unei’s effect and replay Locke. Because of his strong effect when Locke enters the field, Time Mage [3-043C] and Rinoa [6-041L] will also work very well with him in the same way as Unei [10-023H]. Letting your opponent discard 2 Cards and dull and freeze up to 4 of his characters sounds pretty good to me, especially since you also have the possibility to deal with your opponent’s big Forwards (cost 6 or more) or their Monsters directly.
Locke is the first Ice Card that can deal with Monsters by instantly breaking them (the only other one is Orphan [11-025H] with his Doom Counters), but that is probably his Wind side.

Last but not least, he is from FF VI and therefore is searchable by Setzer [4-036H] and Gestahlian Empire Cid [4-026H].

I think my first build around Locke will be primarily a Mono Ice Deck using Yuke [11-041C] to find Locke. Class Ninth Moogle [9-033C] or Chaos [1-184H] can pay for his Wind CP. I can also set up multiple Flan [4-043C] in one turn to reduce Locke’s cost,  and focus on threatening my opponent’s cards in hand for Cid Aulstyne [3-036H].

What are your ideas for this card? Which decks would run it and what would you like to try out? Let us know at facebook.com/FinalFantasyTCG or facebook.com/FFTCGEurope or join our Discord-Servers to discuss about this and upcoming cards.

> Europe: https://discord.gg/PKvtGcb
> SEA & AUS: https://discord.gg/zswgRf3
> NA: https://discord.gg/eWZEErJ

Next Week, Kageyama-san will bring you a card that would match another card shown in Card of the Week already very well. And the Artwork is amazing as well, so stay tuned for next week!

~Tim