STARTER FILE SUBMISSIONS

[Icyman2]

THERE IS TO BE ABSOLUTELY NO DISCUSSION IN THIS THREAD. ALL COMMENTS GO TO STARTER FILE CRITIQUE. ALL VIOLATORS SHALL BE TERMINATED WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE.
Link:
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=13355

FORMAT:
25 PLAYING CARDS
10 ALTERNATE CARDS
5 SOUL SKILLS
37 of 40 cards must be 1/2*s. 2 of 40 cards must be a 3* character card. 1 of 40 cards can be anything (usually a grimore).

GUIDELINES:
Make sure that the 2 copy character card is playable with 2 copies. ie. I think Kurina is not playable with 2 copies.
Starters should have an almost equal chance of winning vs each other.
DO NOT include cards that are candidates for nerfs. Cards currently applicable are **Rasam** **Bitter Destiny** **Mermaid Harpist**
DO NOT make a tribal file. For example: mercenary nation \ beltort kingdom. Exceptions due to a variety of files that can be made with them include **Solar Kingdom** (and more that I can't think of right now)
Try not to include multiple units that are in a single prebuild. Remember, a starter is a starter and not a weakened prebuild. A starter should have tons of flexibility.


I'll start off. Explanation of how to play these files will when I have the time. All suggestions below have counters to diondora meta and eternal night meta.

REFESS
Open is usually Folrart Flame Swordsman->Refugee Citizens
Refugee Citizens..............3
Folrart Guardian..............3
Folrart Heavy Knight.........3
Spiked Armadillo..............3
Folrart Beserker..............2
Knight of Frailty \ Etolie.....2
Folrart Flame Swordsman....2
Kesaran Pasaran...............1
Salamander....................1
Dryad............................1
Recovery Powder..............1
Sunbeam Cage.................1
Fairy Blessing...................1
Dispel...........................1

Priests of the Royal Guard.....3
Cassowary King..................3
Church Paladin...................1
Mage Pixy........................1
Gaia Fang........................1
Will o' the Wisp.................1

Folrart Flame Swordsman
Dark Evocator \ Domina
Sun Worshipper
Rapidshot Magic Archer
Sunlit Knight


LAWTIA
Open is usually Shade->Magic Doll -Augmented-
Magic Doll -Augmented-..........3
Moonlit Warrior....................3
Crest Greatsword..................3
Halberd Soldier.....................3
Lycanthrope -Belphagor-...........2
Darkness Mirror \ Aegis...........2
Angry Mob...........................1
Succubus.............................1
Shade................................3
Salamander..........................1
Death's Embrace.....................1
Heartbreak...........................1
Exchange of Souls...................1

Magic Doll -Melee-..................3
Magic Shade Soldier................3
Lycantrope -Scylla-.................1
Assassin.............................1
Succubus.............................1
Alraune...............................1

Boy Combat Priest
Folrart Beserker
Pixy Greatsword
Angry Mob
Wounding Sword



GOWEN
Open is usually Archer Scout->Dryad/Salamander
Against known falkow player: Open is Salamander
Dual Axe Wielder...............3
Feline Kin Knight...............3
Samurai Lady....................3
Heierrat Dual Slinger...........3
Nine Ball Assassin \ Jerry......2
Cyclops..........................1
Archer Scout...................1
Heierrat Horseman............1
Dryad............................1
Salamander.....................3
Miracle Fruit....................1
Burning Air.....................1
Ball of Flame...................1
Fire Arrow......................1

Man Eating Tiger..............3
Light Heierrat Fighter........3
Fire Arrow......................1
River of Fire....................1
Boulder Drop....................1
Assassin........................1

Dryad Soldier
Lycanthrope -Scylla-
Heierrat Field Commander
Regus Patroller
Curse on the World


FALKOW
Open is usually Mermaid Shield Soldier->Owl Sage
Mermaid Shield Soldier...........3
Mermaid Soldier..................3
Sea Hunter........................3
Rapier Fencer.....................3
Cursed Siren \ Metia.............2
Sylph Sorceress....................1
Song Sorceress.....................2
Owl Sage............................2
Sylph................................1
Return..............................2
Wrath of the Sea Lord............1
Sweeping Tidalwave...............1
Cyclone..............................1

Magic Greatsword Soldier.........3
Swan Cavalier.......................1
Mermaid Sorceress.................1
Undine...............................2
Emerald Carbuncle.................1
Sylph.................................1
Assassin.............................1

Crest Saboteur Knight
Regus Engineer
Regus Patroller
Rapidly Flying Apprentice
Sunlit Knight

[Peralisc9001]

Refess:
SS:
Girl Combat Priest
Brutal Mammoth
Knight of the 2nd Shrine
Folrart Lady Paladin
Folrart Paladin
main:
2x Wandering Priest / Raste
1x Key to the Holy Realm
3x Folrart Heavy Knight
3x Folrart Knight Captain
1x Woman of Purity
1x Caith Sith
3x Folrart Guardian
3x Healing Priest
3x Sunlight Knight
3x Phoenix Chick
1x Over Soul
1x Awakening
side:
1x Instant Revival
1x Sunbeam Cage
1x Emerald Carbuncle
1x Healing Powder
1x Light Magic Archer
1x Cait Sith
1x Woman of Purity
2x Star Dragon
1x Lycanthrope [Seraph]

~~~~~

Lawtia:
SS:
Lycanthrope [Scylla]
Lycanthrope [Taurus]
Lycanthrope [Taurus]
Ancient Zombie Lord
Skeleton Warrior
main:
2x Chaos Ogre / Dalos (still the best 3 star for lawtia, i don't mind XXXX tho)
1x Pure Terror
3x Moonlight Assassin
3x Crest Devil Knight
3x Hell Smoke (or Moonlight Warrior if you wanna keep the * star ratio from previous starters, ya i know he sux compared to jp version)
3x Crest Halberd Soldier
3x Crest Veteran Swordswoman
1x Shade
2x Succubus
2x Crest Ranger
1x Life Conversion
1x Word of Dalos
side:
1x Cemetery Rats
1x Lycanthrope [Fenrir]
2x Lycanthrope [Dagon]
1x Nightwing Wyvern
1x Magic Doll -Melee-
1x Augmented Sorcerer
1x Warning Knife
1x Angry Mob
1 Lycanthrope [Nue]

~~~~~

Gowen:
SS:
Dryad Soldier
Colossal Beetle
Colossal Beetle
Colossal Beetle
Giant Ork
main:
2x Nine Ball Assassin / Jerry (or Dandan, but he sux compared to Jerry)
1x Song for a Hero
3x Heierrat Flame Magician
3x Earth Wyvern
3x Heierrat Dual Gunslinger
3x Feline Kin Knight
3x Exploder Wizard
3x Heierrat Musketeer
2x Feline Kin Fighter
1x Fire Arrow
1x Balls of Flame
side:
1x Fire Arrow
1x Miracle Fruit
1x Mage Pixy
1x Fireball Breath
1x Cyclops
2x Giant Dragonfly
1x Salamander
1x Dryad
1x Rapid Growth

~~~~~~

Falkow
SS:
Magic Scythe Soldier
Mermaid Harpist
Magic Scythe Soldier
Wizard Soldier of Regus
Wizard Soldier of Regus
main:
2x White Tiger - West / Rozari
1x Wrath of the Sea Lord
3x Mermaid Spear Fighter [Human]
3x Mirror Shield Soldier of Regus
3x Rapier Fencer of Regus
3x Sorcerer Monk of Regus (or frost bow archer if you wanna be strict about rarity)
3x Blade Wyvern
1x Undine
2x Sylph
2x Winged Scout
2x Return
side:
1x Meaning of Failure
1x Refugee
1x Owl Sage
1x Undine
1x Withdrawal Strategy
1x Return
1x Cyclone
1x Gigantic Illusion
1x Swan Cavalier
1x Witch

I could have added more mermaid-human to the file to make it stronger, but they are mostly 2 stars, so it felt unfair towards the other starters.

[Rasche]

This was a starter I was working on before the game went down. It's meant to be a Falkow file that represents the sphere rather then being a bunch of cards. Unfortunately I was never able to fully construct it, so its incomplete and untested.



What I would of liked to have done is.

SS

Slot 1: unknown
Slot 2: Rasem
Slot 3: song sorceress (can be replaced with metia)
Slot 4: Manta ray
Slot 5: unknown

File

2x rapidly flying apprentice
1x sylph
1x undine
2x enchantress
1x owl sage
3x haste soldier
2x magic archer of regus
3x rapier fencer of regus
3x sorcerer monk
2x mage knight
2x Vadore
1x deep sleep
1x meaning of failure
1x return

Side deck - never constructed.

[NitroDino]

My Falkow starter ideas:

Most units are WK units, but there isn't a skill that involves WK units like Mage Knight of Regus that specifically buffs WK units. This file represents really good one of the basic concepts of the Falkow sphere, kill before you get killed with a lot of AGI manipulation in form of Song Sorceress, Sylphs and Femiel.

2x Wind Sorceress / Femiel

3x Magic Greatsword Soldier
2x Sorcerer Monk of Regus

3x Rapier Fencer of Regus
3x Dolphin Rider
2x Sylph
2x Song Sorceress

3x Haste Soldier - FREE REVIVE
2x Wizard Archer of Regus

1x Aquamatic Bubbles
1x Withdrawal Strategy
1x Return

SS line up
1. Witch
2. Regus Engineer
3. Rapidly Flying Apprentice
4. Mermaid Spear Fighter [Human]
5. Harpy

[Logress]

While we have got starters together, I wasn't completely sold on Falkow and I have a few new ideas I want to add that might scramble things up a bit -- so it's a great idea to lay out a bunch of ideas in this thread to go back to. One "new" idea is that we'll give out ALL the starters, either at level 1 or level 10, so think of it that way. If you don't like using a file with X strategy, you can use one of the other 3.

[Icyman2]

REFESS (I'll teach how to play other starters later)

Open is usually 3 refess, 1 gowen--Folrart Flame Swordsman->Refugee Citizens
You can play recovery powder guardian or heavy knight dryad level 3 after. Pretty nice flow methinks.

PLAYING CARDS

Folrart Flame Swordsman....2
A level 1 sacrificial unit that is a cornerstone in the file. He has incredibly high stats for a level one, and makes folrart acrolyte open obsolete, having one more agi, better choice of damage distribution, and opening up 2 gowen levels. As an open, he can immediately kill cath, which is very important because you do not want to deal with 20 defense falkow units when most of your units do not have much attack and then get locked by diondora or such. His auto also makes him incredibly versitile, being able to kill owl to prevent sp gain at agi 2, kill citizens to force grimbane, kill a sac unit to trigger ss next turn and return that banked sp back to you (which is important when facing bigs with a slow start), or to trigger counters in guardian or armadillo. It is multiple options to damage like these that gives incredible perfect damage hp damage and field wipes, reminicent of the mid gowen meta.
Opening up gowen allows 2 great spirits. They are important. See their descriptions below.

Refugee Citizens..............3
Especially useful againt urgrant matchups. It's great b/c it acts as a level 1 multi turn tank (more effective than free reviving kurina at tanking b/c he takes up less sp), giving a chance for your more important units like guardian to survive that 1 hit ko attack, and grimbanes as close. Do not be afraid to not revive this unit to trigger ss. It can sometimes be beneficial.

Folrart Guardian..............3
The meat of every low rarity refess file. The weakness is high attack units which refugee mitigates and lack of damage, which etolie and flame swordsman mitigates. Gets 20 hp and attack as a start from etoile.

Folrart Heavy Knight.........3
The main defensive tank. Anti falkow. You can place a dryad on him immediately after for some nice immediate defense. He also gets a 20 hp heal the turn after if etolie is on the field.

Spiked Armadillo..............3
A nice unit with tons of hp and potential for snowballing attack. I picked him mostly because he combos so well with etoile and can do very well with a little defense from dryad. Also a counter unit for flame swordsman. He also combos with sun worshipper ss, which I included in this file.

Folrart Beserker..............2
Low level endgame unit. If you did your job and whittled away your opponent's file, your opponent should have very few units left on the field, in which case, you can own with this unit. There is little point in having 3 copies since he either works or doesn't work. If your opponent can overwhelm him twice, chances are he can do it a third time. Low agi endgame units (unlike dalos and such) usually should not have as many units. It is usually better to pack a great spirit that can change the course of the game early. Having too many copies of him left might interfere with his skill activation too. You can always fm lotto him and put another one in I guess.

Knight of Frailty \ Etolie.....2
She heals and attack buffs all the units that have more than one copy (including citizens... you'll be surprised to find a 40 attack citizens or wisp on your field). Especially in a counter file, you don't want too much defense on some of your units b/c then you wouldn't be able to trigger your counters. Healing is also better than def buffing b/c you have an incentive for your units to attack than rest (you'll be healed at start anyways). This isn't to say you shouldn't rest a unit, especially if an ss can snipe that unit next turn (though it might be good not to rest if it snipes both etoile and that unit, healing him and potentially triggering a counter if she is placed in a lower slot number for strategic reasons). Since refess needs that offensive power or they'll run into a lot of locking problems when opponent sets up field, this is great for newbies to learn how to attack rather than rest.
She also has more hp and attack than hk lap, making her unable to be sniped by 40 damage ss. More stability on a refess field is good.
Most importantly, she has an incredible close skill, punishing some of the big users of big damage, enemies to refess: rhino, dilate+ignition (place her in row 1), fernir and cem rats, zu, potentially not only saving but healing an unit, and then sp gening at the same time. Counters lawtia starter greatsword tactic so they would need to fight fairly to get field from the start rather than relying on that tactic.
So the lesson you should lean from this is that:
1. she is versitile
2. it might be better to place her in slot 1 in some cases/files

Kesaran Pasaran...............1
You have a great chance of sp gening once at agi 3 if it's not gowen and you bring it out the turn before one of your sac units die. It is mostly used to draw emana and falkow to kill it quickly so you can trigger another ss. An alternate for sun worshiper ss in case of spiked armadillo return/death by ss/open.

Salamander....................1
Salamander here is mostly to kill owl sage so you don't get locked if flame swordsman is not on the field, won't be alive, or is busy doing something else. He can also snipe a few 10 hp units (a salamander and 2 etoile takes care of afel, who can really lock refess even if the lawtia player played terribly the whole game). Or he can hit guardian/armadillo and trigger a counter, then have etoile heal on start or something. When he enters the field, he gives offensive power to a file that otherwise starts off very slowly offensive wise.

Dryad............................1
You can use him to have a 20 defense 65 hp unit the turn he enters the field or to get an 80 countering unit. A little bit of defense on high hp files goes a long way. There are more clever ways to use him, like a certain ex (why ex only?) returning ss, or def buffing opponent's sac units to make sure they won't get killed, but those are rare/irrelavant to this starter situations so I won't go into them.

Recovery Powder..............1
Sp gen. Mostly used to improve the flow of the file, give more options on how you want to proceed. Late game, it can be used to dodge damage ss/grims, potentially triggering a counter if opponent decided to perfect damage fire arrow or bof or something.

Sunbeam Cage.................1
It nullifies offensive power in a non refess file for one turn. Compare and contrast to key to the holy realm:
Pros
It fully nullifies cudgel or chiruru.
It nullifies diondora (range 0).
Cons
It doesn't nullify damage ss.
It doesn't get a roll for grim open damage/nullify unit open damage.
It doesn't buff 10 def on some (very few) units.
It doesn't nullify serpent
Which brings me to my next point.

Fairy Blessing...................1
So I figure a lot of refess weakness comes as much from assassins as engages. Assassins might be avoided if your opponent is dumb and you go and trigger that sun worshipper and iczer (after triggering domina for a fierte trigger of course). However, it doesn't matter if you iczer into rasam, and you'll have a hard time doing it with tankier files that use them; you'll get engaged the following turn anyways. Then you get pwned by:
diondora
serpent
cmd dolls
Anything that takes a while to set up
As a bonus, you get to dodge the almighty shelby song sorc combo (my favorite ss). Pretty sweet deal.

Dispel...........................1
For those times when you're about to get steamrolled. It counters patroller ss from gowen/falkow starters.

EXTRA CARDS

Priests of the Royal Guard.....3
Cassowary King..................3
Church Paladin...................1
These 3 are part of a combo that I decided against, mostly b/c cassowary king sucks, eskatia/verlaat is a 3 star with 40 hp and mediocre start, not to mention another multisphere (1 gowen is def needed for salamander) AND a really subpar mini proxy (0 attack useless ****). There are no other low rarity royalty refess units other than that, so that's scraped.
Originally, I was thinking royal guard has a nice open, and church paladin can superbuff the field which can wipe diondora or something that you don't want setting up for one turn. Then the turn after you can use fairy blessing and wipe weakened field.

Mage Pixy........................1
Sacrificial unit. Lock those **** characters. Totally unexpected for a refess file too.

Gaia Fang........................1
Trigger those counters and kill some other units. I personally think it should be changed to do 20 dmg to all range 1 units, but whatever. Too underpowered to use in the main file, but it's a nice combo that ppl can have fun with.

Will o' the Wisp.................1
Extra great spirit for more variety. More useful than dryad in some situations, but not enough to justify using over dryad in this file.

SOUL SKILLS

Folrart Flame Swordsman
sp and 10 def on a unit. If swordsman gets killed t2, you can play heavy knight and then salamander (save dryad for the second/third copies). Or you can buff guardian or armadillo or whatever. Flame swordsman gets killed by a few opens (ex wizard soldier, wandering bard), and then your 10 def will go to... refugee citizens. It's not that big of a problem b/c you'll get 1 sp and have a chance to kill owl, but if you know your opponent is opening ex wizard soldier, put 2 in refess and 1 in gowen and open folrart flame swordsman->folrart heavy knight or something.

Dark Evocator \ Domina
A lot of files refess has a problem with has action skills or close skills that uses sp. Urgrant, diondora, eternal night, whatever. This takes care of that problem, and does some offensive damage to a TARGET unit, which is a big deal. Beautiful ss for refess.

Sun Worshipper
Great combination with spiked armadillo. 3x40 damage and then trigger ss; if you've revived spiked armadillo the turn before, which is probable since usually when units close, more than one unit close in a turn, then you get hit with a 20 hp heal and 10 attack buff by etoile that turn too, giving it full hp and a 20 attack start.

Rapidshot Magic Archer
Most people put an engage ss here for refess, but remember that this file is about offensive power. By this point, you're either set up field and owning or not owning. If the case that you're not owning, a 1 turn engage is not going to get you anywhere especially if you can't kill it. It especially sucks if opponent only has one copy of whatever unit that's causing you pain and you can't get rid of it. This is for that one unit endgame. It also kills a copy of jerry, the gowen starter endgame, who can be especially painful for field heavy files like this one.

Sunlit Knight
Heals 20 hp for everyone. He can be replaced I guess. He can also backfire, though pretty unlikely. I can't really think of anything else to put here. Def=0 will kill your units. At+10 might kill your units since your units has low agi. Mammoth brigade can kill you if opponent is using zug endgame. I figure that hp+20 might save you against gowen grimspam endgame or fast opponents without much attack. Anyways, feel free to offer suggestions on the last ss.


CLOSING THOUGHTS

So all in all, there are a lot of timing here but this file can be quite good in the current meta. If played perfectly and with some luck, it might even make top rp (who knows?). One thing I will say here though. There is not a lot of room for refess to make errors. You always got to plan ahead. Don't send your citizens to the cemetary to trigger domina, which should be a perfect trigger, and then kill some of falkow's tanks (which you need to do to keep the pressure on), then next turn, opponent triggers a ss (which since it should be rasam, you'll play fairy blessing right?), revives diondora, and you have nothing more to give, only guardian row 1 without citizens and range 3 diondora having sp to return. Keep the pressure on every turn. Think of the whole game, not this turn, not the turn after, even if you can get a perfect trigger of domina or such.

[Icyman2]

I tried to make a mid lawtia file based on yours peralisic, but I couldn't really do anything much I'm afraid. I don't have enough experience playing mid lawtia to know the problem matchups and the counters to it.

Lawtia:
SS:
Magic Doll -Support-
Lycanthrope [Taurus]
Lycanthrope [Taurus]
Pirate King / Dub Rido
Skeleton Warrior
main:
2x Chaos Ogre / Dalos
3x Moonlight Assassin
3x Crest Devil Knight
3x Crest Veteran Swordswoman
3x Death Knight
2x Dragon of the Mercurial Night
1x Night Wing Wyvern
1x Shade
2x Succubus
1x Crest Orderly
1x Soul Pact
1x Word of Dalos

I put in dub rido and md support in the ss.
In the file
3x hell smoke -> 3x death knight
3x crest halberd -> 1x night wing wyvern, 2x dragon of the mercurial night
2x crest ranger -> 1x crest orderly, 1x soul pact (solve sp problems)
1x life conversion -> 1x dark confederation (to protect death knight)
1x pure terror-> 1x order to sortie (to prevent early sins--late sins can use word of dalos)

By the way, could you clean up the thread logress?