Help a nub with strat stuff! (in Contests)

I have 7 mil burning a hole in pocket, and on my first day I was told "wait to move on to a real strat (something other than SFBM or nov's imba starter strat) until you have at least 5 mil saved up"
I don't want to take something from the wiki on my own, since the wiki seems terribly outdated/not too reliable.
So, bounce ideas around here and I'll pick/combine a few.
100k to the person I feel contributed the most, 50k to 2nd, 25k to 3rd.

I'm still of the opinion that single minion ToA archer is the best "easy" way to grow...

/me sports the ToA Archer strat.
Woot woot!
Wait.. no don't follow me, I am a bad example. >_>

I would modify novice's suggest to single minion HF.

Much cheaper as no money is needed for weapons.

All one needs is BG, corn, AoJ, EB, and the spells DM and AS.

AoJ seems hard to get T_T
btw I have a hal, but it's nowhere near MTL...will that cripple the strat?

maybe junctioned FF with DM and AS

Opinions on single archer with equips junctioned to a hal?

It's what I'd suggest after being thumped upside the head...

Be nice novice, he is asking for help, not sarcasm =O!

/me looks confused

I was talking about Ranger pointing out how silly I was. I'm actively suggesting someone use that strat right now in chat...

I'm not ALWAYS mean!

I take it that's a "no, that sucks"?
Okay, so single ToA archer then. Now, gear?
MsK or ELB?
I would assume HoC and BGs... what else?

Wow, I didn't realize it'd get misread.

No that was a hearty endorsement... I swear. No /sarcasm at all!

ELB, BG's, HoC, BoM, AoM, MoD, (optional), DB's to get around the heavy tanks.
Is what I was told.

BoM= buckler of mandos?
and what's a MoD?
100k to nov, 50k to meso, 25k to ranger.

Also, what pieces of gear should be bought/upgraded first?

for most acronyms, if you click "Help!" and search for it, the item's entry in the wiki will frequently be one of the first results.

You really want to power up that Halidon. Thus, I'd say your first priority IS an AoJ, even if they're pretty hard to come by. Consider entering the AoJ contest currently running ...

You can always reink considering you've got money. You can still always insta up your tattoo to something above your max tat.

or you could invest the 7m in a REALLY nice portrait, and it could be so awesome the minions would be stunned and take no action against you :)

Isn't an AoJ useless without other gear?

Yes, get the corn first because that helps the enchantments, everything else is for the HF. So probably Corn -> AoJ -> Tank gears.

Corn? I was going Archer+Hal... you think E:hal is better?

The AoJ would already transfer the effects of the HGs and the HoC, which is well worth it.

Right but those are both rented >_>

Renting is nothing to be ashamed of. The bigger the hit, the higher the opponents you can deal with, and the higher the challenge bonus. That in turn means more money ...

You've also got to consider whether you want to save money. You could do E:Hal really well, but if you're still planning to buy CBD every once again I don't see why you wouldn't do T:Hal. I run a fairly successful tank team, 3rd highest morg? So don't be disheartened by not spending USD for it.

Bottomline: E:hal will make you rich, T:hal would probably be more successful.

Also, I guess you'd go with pure archer gear without being an E. So BG/HoE/EB/AoJ/BoM.