I used to use Arise as my first word followed by chunk. Now I only play infrequently and just have a punt at anything.
I used to use BEAST as my opener, but changed to BLAST as I like to eliminate as many consonants as possible. Imagine my disappointment when BEAST came up as the opening word!
I got it in one on my Silver Wedding Anniversary earlier this year. The word was “BLEAK” I’m blaming the weather in Porto at the time for the inspiration.
Never heard of the word, but did it in 3. got starting letter on first go, then 2 green and 1 orange on second go, so guessed it on 3rd