It is based on the onion (Allium cepa), a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium, specifically the red onion; and a planet with rings, for example, Saturn.
Its name is a literal pun on "onion rings", a snack that consists of cross-sectional "rings" of onion covered in batter which are then deep-fried. However, Onion Rings has raw sliced onion rings orbiting around it instead.
Its description is a reference to how onions in real life cause eye irritation and uncontrollable tears when cut normally due to a chemical irritant known as syn-propanethial-S-oxide.
Statistics[]
Class: Mega-Grow
Tribe: Root Plant
Traits: None
Ability: When played: Each plant in your hand becomes 4/4.
Set - Rarity: Galactic - Legendary
Card description[]
So powerful it makes you cry.
Update history[]
Update 1.16.10[]
Added to the game.
Strategies[]
With[]
Onion Rings itself is a loss of field control with a poor statline of 4/4 for 5, but its ability can potentially cause a large tempo swing if it boosts enough plants. Thus, getting as many cards as possible to gain maximum value can be done with reactive play by running a control deck or drawing additional cards with ones like Flourish.
As Onion Rings turns all your plants' stats into 4/4, this naturally comes with the deckbuilding restriction of limiting the power of cards with high stats such as The Great Zucchini and Kernel Corn, making them cards you should avoid.
To make the best use of the ability, cards that cost little and/or have useful abilities should be prioritized in an Onion Rings deck. Putting a lot of cheap plants in your deck causes them to become absurdly powerful when you can easily swarm, if not cripple your opponent.
The Mega-Grow class has a few cards that work decently with its ability such as Bonk Choy, Sweet Pea, Grow-Shroom, and Clique Peas due to the naturally low stats of the class. However, each other class has their share of plants that also go well with the boost:
Chompzilla has Lil' Buddy which becomes a free 4/4 plant with Team-Up and a useful ability, letting you take the game back by force on the same turn as you play Onion Rings. Ketchup Mechanic also represents a great card for controlling normally and becomes huge with the boost that stacks with her ability. Cosmic Flower can either become a threat herself thanks to her Strikethrough trait or you can press your luck and boost the card she Conjures, most of which range from great to decent with the Onion Rings boost. Magnifying Grass and Elderberry are both great heavy hitters that become more threatening with the boost and can be used with Plant Food or Sun Strike to do extra damage to your opponent.
Grass Knuckles can even run an extremely more aggressive Onion Rings deck with access to many great early-game Guardian cards that double as good fighters such as Galacta-Cactus and Jugger-Nut. Pear Cub becomes a threat on its own and combined with its second layer of threat (Grizzly Pear), it becomes a hard-to-remove plant that can guard for at least two turns (unless it faces a Frenzy zombie), preferably on the aquatic lane, while Hot Date trades blocking capability for a higher damage output (up to 7 damage upon destruction) and a zombie-moving ability, allowing him, too, to deal with Amphibious threats. Access to Spikeweed Sector helps prevent your opponent from using weak zombies and glass cannons to block your attacks, counters zombie environments and serves as extra field control. Because of its root tribe, it can serve as a fighter in his root decks with Starch-Lord.
Green Shadow has access to many beans, most of which are cheap but have low stats. With Onion Rings' ability, your swarm of beans will be able to survive effective field-clearers like The Chickening and Fireworks Zombie. Meanwhile, the Admiral Navy Bean + Planet of the Grapes combo helps prevent you from depleting your cards easily. (The only exception would be a Magic Beanstalk deck, as they already have 4/4.) Aside from bean decks, Green Shadow also has cards that strike on multiple lanes like Splash Damage plants (although Splash Damage is unaffected by the ability boost), Tricorn, Threepeater and the most powerful of them all: Shooting Starfruit. These plants are very effective at field control and can do lots of damage to your opponent. She can also Fuse this with Lily Pad, which will not only make the Conjured leafy card a 4/4 fighter, but also a dangerous Amphibious fighter to her opponent.
Captain Combustible can control the early game with cards such as Banana Bomb and Berry Blast, and has access to numerous swarm cards which are likewise fragile, but become amazing with a 4/4 statline, such as Shroom for Two, Banana Launcher (who doubles as a removal card due to his ability), Puff-Shroom (who costs 0 to play and has Team-Up), Veloci-Radish Hunter, and Mushroom Ringleader in a similar way of Magnifying Grass. Beware that plant made by Shroom for Two and Veloci-Radish Hunter are unaffected by Onion Rings.
But in the end, a good Onion Rings deck needs to balance cards that are great with the Onion Rings boost while still doing acceptably without it, with tradeoffs between weakness to aggressive strategies or having less value in the deck overall.
Against[]
Onion Rings relies on a deck being built around its ability to be effective and the cards that gain value from that are often poor for establishing control early-game. Going on the offensive will force your opponent to choose between losing boost value and taking a lot of damage. Also, keep in mind that any cards affected by Onion Rings will keep their new stats even after being Bounced, so do not attempt to do that to reset their stats.
Cards such as Regifting Zombie can potentially speed up their gameplan of gaining cards to boost, but it is often more important to fuel your aggression than to fear their later value. It will be nearly impossible to actually outvalue or even remove the buffed up swarm that Onion Rings produces, so the best course of action is to try and defeat your opponent as soon as possible.