Our new contest, Arakis' Quest, has gotten off to a running start.   

Judging by the number of entries for the first Quest, it's at least as popular as Across the Spectrum was in its heyday.  For its first outing, we wanted to keep it simple so we went with those most common of cards, the 1-star rarity set.  Next time we'll start getting into some more esoteric restrictions, but read on to see how it went down this time...

As was anticipated, this contest showed that in general, Gowen and Refess have the most versatility when it comes to their sets of 1*s. This is especially evident in Gowen, as that most popular of Gowen builds, Gowen Rush, is predominantly populated with 1* cards. Quite a few of our entries were of the Gowen Rush vein, some of which mixed in some Lawtia, or Falkow, or took on an additional angle like card file destruction.  However, there was still a good amount of variety to be found in the more successful entries.  Lawtia and Falkow made limited appearances, and Refess showed that its 1*s can kick some Iczer tail as well.

In fact, it turned out to be one of the Refess entries that won the contest.  While all our finalists did well in the NPC testing phase, it ended up being a Refess build that held its own the best against the final test file.  Our winner is...

\WINNER
Iczer: NoFish
File Name: Fortress Diet

Soul Cards

1. Boy Combat Priest
2. Soulblade Swordswoman
3. Ruby Carbuncle
4. Skeleton Warrior
5. Skeleton Warrior

Play Cards

• 1 Kesaran Pasaran
• 2 Recovery Powder
• 1 Raise Shield
• 1 Magic Bolt
• 2 Over Soul
• 3 Folrart Guardian
• 3 Elite Folrart Dual Wielder
• 3 Pegasus Knights
• 3 Elite Folrart Acolyte
• 3 Folrart Spear Knight
• 3 Magic Musician

RUNNERS-UP

1. StormWhisper
2. BurnBabyBurn
3. mghost
4. exemplar
5. Keladry

At a glance, our winner looks like it's a typical file centering around Folrart Guardian.  But it's actually a fortress file, in that it's meant to set up a field full of team buffs where ideally, nothing (or very little) dies.  If there's one star of this file, it's actually the Dual Wielder as he's the true offensive powerhouse.  Pegasus Knights can either be played to support Guardian or Dual Wielder, depending on what you're facing.  Of if things go really well, you can play two copies and put them behind each of them.  Over Soul is generally preferred to work with Dual Wielders in the cemetery, and its Refess level boost helps you get Pegasus Knights out faster and with less of an SP investment.

The opening is the typical Kesaran Pasaran->Recovery Powder.  From there either Guardian or Dual Wielder is played, depending on the opposing field.  Everything following that is dependent on how the flow of the game goes.  Some weaknesses of this file are that it's SP- intensive and it's slow-moving.  At least Assassin soul skills won't hurt it as much as they might hurt a more tank-oriented file, as most of these units can hold them own fairly well even if one or two is taken off the field.

The soul skills are designed to help you build SP, supplement the Over Soul effect of recovering lost units from the graveyard, and of course Skeleton Warrior to help you get extra mileage out of units that are about to die for good.  The one exception is the Soulblade Swordswoman, who's there to slow down the momentum of opposing rush files, as well as wipe out some low-HP support units.

Congratulations to our winner and runners up.  And thank you to every one who entered and/or submitted suggestions for future Quests.  I was quite honestly surprised by how well our players took to the idea of this new contest, and it's very encouraging for its future.  It was a blast that a player-run tournament started up based on the idea of 1* decks, but I'm looking forward to seeing how those tournies go in the future.  Starting with next time, we'll delve into the suggestions which were submitted by you, the players.  This means we'll also start rewarding that nice little bonus prize.  Be on the lookout a week from now for the second Quest!

--Arakis