Artifact Deck Guide:
[ Blue / Red ] Card Lock (6 Perfect Runs - Expert Gauntlet) Full Guide Below!

[ Blue / Red ] Control Card Lock

Full Guide:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW62sZXbd5M&t=8s

Selemene Storm Deck Guide:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1OFBnADR44&t=152s


*Introduction:*

First of all, I love Lock Decks. So please excuse me if I get a tad carried away gushing over the concept of this deck. What I mean by a "Lock Deck" (not necessarily the Lock Mechanic in Artifact) is when your entire deck's strategy is to shut the opponent down, prevent them from playing their cards, or in general ruin their entire game plan.

In Artifact, there is an actual Lock Mechanic, which applies to a card in the opponent's hand, Locking it from being played for an entire round. If I were to apply 2 Lock to a card, it would be locked out for 2 rounds. Fractured Timeline, Buying Time, and the big one, Lost in Time all apply Lock to the opponent's cards. I would like to mention, they all feature Faceless Void in their artwork. Could he be a future Hero with a Lock Mechanic effect? Only time will know.

I have played this deck for over 60 matches now, and can safely say that this is definitely a Tier 1 deck, or at least a counter to all other Tier 1 decks out there, and if piloted correctly it will have no rivals. If you're reading this right now I would like to thank you as I have spent an enormous amount of time writing this for you, my dear reader! Please stay until the end because this means that my efforts were not lost.


*Why These Heroes?*

Axe is a solid hero, he will help us sustain vs Aggressive decks and will lead us into the late game where our opponent will not be able to play cards due to the Lock mechanic.
Bristleback is another solid choice for a red hero, however, he is replaceable by Legionn Commander it all depends on your personal preference, but I chose to run Bristleback because his Viscous Nasal Goo has a great synergy with our defensive improvements. if the hero has -2 armor our Ignite and Conflagration will deal +2 damage.
First blue hero o the list is Luna. Luna is one of the best blue heroes, she deals piercing damage with her Eclipse which is extremely good vs armour focused decks as piercing damage completely ignores armour. She is also able to take a couple of hits from strong heroes before she goes due to the fact she has above average health.
Zeus is another strong hero that brings in a very strong signature card Thunndergod's Wraith which once again deals piercing damage.
Last but not least, Ogre Magi. Ogre is another "A" Tier blue hero which has one of the strongest Improvement in his package - Ignite. Ignite is extremely strong because it deals piercing damage AND benefits from Viscous Nasal Goo


*How To Best Play The Lock?*

Ideally, Fractured Timeline would be placed in Lane One. Because there, the card can actually trigger at the begging of every round, preventing the locked card from being played in any lane. In a perfect world, all Fractured Timeline would be played in Lane Three, into Lane One, activating at the beginning of the following round, regardless if Lane One is your high priority lane or not, although it is important to be aware if your opponent has Demagicking Maul or not. It might be in your best interest to make Lane One a High priority anyway because that's the best place to cast Thundergod's Wrath from.

Most of the time, I'd say Buying Time doesn't have to be played on curve. I personally would rather wait until I have an Ogre Magi in a lane, and then start playing Buying Time. When you are in a Lane at 3 or 4 Mana, there are much better cards to play. Also, the biggest reason you are running Lock cards are to prevent your opponent from playing the best cards in the game, things like Annihilation, Time of Triumph, Emissary of the Quorum, Thunderhide Pack, Thundergod's Wrath, and Coup de Grace. All of these cards cost 6 or more Mana. Imagine you play Buying Time on curve and hit 2 of these cards in your opponent's hand. They don't care, they don't have the Mana to play it anyway and by the time the Lock wears off, they'll be able to cast their card on curve! So in general, I think it's best to wait to play Buying Time when you have 5 Mana, on the River turn, when Ogre Magi is deployed.

And of course, Lost in Time can be played right on curve. If you can play this with Initiative in Lane One, right on 6 Mana, it's likely you can hit a lot of really good cards in your opponent's hand. By this time in the game, they've probably played many low cost 3, 4, or even 5 Mana cost cards, leaving them with only end game, powerful Spells. Ideally, you also play this in lane with Ogre Magi, because this is a very juicy spell to get a free copy of.

One more thing on the Lock mechanic, itself. Many people won't play these cards because they say things like, "Oh, it'll never hit the card I need it to!" In response to that, I say that's a ridiculous thing to say. In every game you play without Lock, the opponent gets to play their cards, they'll always be able to play their cards. Because of this, a good player will play as if the opponent has the absolute best cards in their hands. Does my opponent have Time of Triumph in hand? Probably, I best set my board up in such a way that I can prepare for it! This is always the correct play. But when playing Lock cards, it doesn't mean you should automatically assume the opponent's best cards are locked. Always assume the opponent can make the best play from their hand, regardless of how many times you have Locked them. And any time the opponent doesn't make the best play? Well, you can get further ahead!


*The Rest Of The Deck, Win Condition and Items.*

Because we have so many board clears we are able to stall the game where this deck really start to shine. You don't have to be afraid of opponent's Annihilation because it's most likely Locked, No more Time of Triumph Finishers from your enemy, instead it's going to be us who is buffing our heroes and shredding their towers to pieces!
Smash Their Defences! Is just a tech card present to remove that cheeky Cheating Death if you're facing Green Ramp, or The Oath if you're facing Black Siege deck.
Foresight Allows us to draw to more of our desired Locking cards, Ideally you would be casting this in a lane where Ogre Magi is present for that juicy Multicast!
Bronze Legionnaire and Stonehall Elite are our only minions that are present to tank on early aggression, we don't need any more because we have Time of Triumph to finish our game.

As for the items Claszureme Hourglass (Who even came up with this name?...) is an obvious choice because it further improves the general idea of the deck.
Stonehall Cloak is an obvious choice, cheap and reliable source of health.
Blink Dagger is probably one of the best items in the deck. During Action Phase you can cast Thundergod's Wrath then use Blink Dagger on a blue hero, move that hero to the next lane and cast Thundergod's Wrath again.
Demagickinng Maul Is another tech card that removes enemy improvements because it is possible to run out of Smash Their Defenses!.


That's pretty much it! If you have any questions you can comment below and I will try my best to answer all of your comments! Also, I will be releasing new decks with complete guides like this one soon! I will update this post with their links when the guide is done. Also, I am planning on creating a YouTube channel where I will be posting daily video playthrough of all my decks with guides and many many more! Feel free to add me on Steam, I am accepting anyone who has passion for the same game as I do! Thank you once again for reading and Peace Out!


Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/JanniOinkOink
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/ashimar
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ashimaar