Akraft17 partnered with Basira to take the crown for the AWOL Season 2 Invitational May 24 on Board Game Arena. AJT’s ELWiwi teamed up with Fen for second place in the 114-player event, and HAT’s PhantomBeta (Teija) and ItsRinku (Kojo) split third and fourth place.

The event, the culmination of the full TBF season for the AWOL team, ran eight rounds of Swiss with a cut to Top 8. It was livestreamed with commentary from each of the hosts throughout the season in a truly heroic effort from Simon, Blue, Cohlrabi, TheKelonGuy, PaandyAndy, Runefolk, Taum, TheRealGio and Chilly.

According to 39cards.com, Fen was the most popular hero in the invitational with 23 decklists, followed by Afanas at 21, Sigismar at 20 and Teija at 19. Kojo picked up 11, Lindiwe found six and the winning deck was one of four Basira players. No other Muna or Ordis hero attended. Auraq, Atsadi and Akesha were also missing from the event. A total of 75% of the cards played were from BTG, with 25% coming from TBF, holding consistent with the rest of the season.

Akraft’s Basira deck leans into what she excels at reliably: Using boost triggers to build stacks of boosts, turning smaller characters into stronger threats. The deck contains a number of boost fuses, from full counts of common Fire Rabbit, Issun-boshi and Chiron, with two rare Helping Hand and three rare Havens. Those Havens and the three rare Tiny Jinns in this list have been in the top three played rares for Bravos for the entire season. Also among the rares is a full set of the most-feared cards for Basira in the TBF set: Akhlut, which takes multiple bites out of the opponent’s reserve while it stacks boosts. The boosting strategy was also carried through the deck’s uniques, which included an Axiom Salvager (2/3) a Haven Warrior (2/3) that resupply cards to send through Haven for extra value, and a Bravos Vanguard (3/3) that also does the work of a rare Chiron.

The win marks Basira’s very first victory for the entire TBF season, though she’s been the sixth most-common hero to land somewhere in the Top 8 cut throughout. She also broke all the predictions made by the AWOL team in their recent Q&A leading up to the event.