I've largely held back on buying Yomidra due to never rolling Eschamali, and that a 36x sparkles lead wasn't too interesting to me at the time. However, Gremory is receiving a buff to include God typing into her LS, so I told myself why not? I have lots of MP laying around anyways. Yomidra is capable of some really consistent damage, and is relatively strong with the Suvo she will be getting sometime this week. Not to mention, you don't have to limit yourself to using dark subs only, as demonstrated by Reco here.
SUBPOOL: God typing to receive the leader skills buffs. As mentioned above, it is not necessary to go on color with Yomidra to deal consistent damage, but a dark focused team is what you want to go for. Subs with both OE+ and TPA can also be useful if you have the orbs, and as long as you can guarantee an OE+ drop it will work.
POTENTIAL: 5 OE+ match is a board I don't usually play, but it is pretty simple to get used to. Yomidra isn't as difficult to play, especially since her damage is quite efficient and consistent. A higher level player will get a lot of use out of Yomidra, whether it be for speed clears of dungeons or easy dungeon spams. It may be difficult for Yomidra in A3 since she has no HP multiplier, but with the right inherits and setup it should be feasible. Otherwise, Yomidra has some really quick clears for content like A1 or similar difficulty dungeons.
EFFICIENCY: A single firework is all Yomidra needs to deal consistent damage. Combined with added combos, it shouldn't be difficult for Yomidra to always have 5 relevant orbs on the board. Her best sub Eschamali can guarantee additional skyfalls to increase efficiency, and as long as there is 1 enhanced orb on the board you can activate. Yomidra herself will supply 4 dark orbs as well if needed, so it is pretty easy to always get an activation. You should only get into a bind if you get full board changed like Beelzebub, but you could always take an active to deal with it.
STABILITY: No HP multiplier, but Yomidra supplies an all important row heart on an unbindable base. She also can provide 4/6 hearts for that row heart, so she can serve as a soft bind clear if needed. Aizen and Meri have proven that no HP leads can be viable, as long as they can deal high consistent damage. While Yomidra doesn't have the ease of use of those leads, she should still be highly competitive in endgame content.
I didn't want to over lap any of the portraits, but if they're close the difference in statistics is minimal. Sometimes the ease of use, availability of subs, and consistency do affect their position in my tiers. This IS my opinion, I have every right to be incorrect. I also do this based off of solo usage, and do not take into account for multiplayer. I may add or subtract leaders based on how often I see them, but in general just having impressive damage isn't enough for me to judge currently. There are plenty of leaders that are viable, it is just the relevant strength when compared to the tip top of post endgame.
i dont see a use in having a tier just for radra, but radra is that good to deserve his own tier.
1: Tip Top Tier: One or two faults, but can carry you through a lot of the game regardless.
2: Strong Tier: Very viable, but often has restrictions or noticeable weaknesses.
3: Fun Tier: Have the tools and capabilities for end game, but lacking in a department or two.
Just my thoughts on this Godfest.
Day 1:
Great inherits like Susano, Indra, Orochi (or Revos if it tickles your fancy) and sometimes Yomi
Power subs Parvati and Hino
Favorable boards from Dragonbounds and Nords, Bicolors from Sonias and Ilm
Day 2:
Sub-God tier farming with ALB (outclassed by collabs Meri and Yamamoto) and decent subs from 3k
India for all around great subs, leader from Krishna, farming from Ganesha, Durga for eventual Dathena
Odins and Kali
Steel Star Gods for skyfall inherits(or subs)
Demon series Gremory and Ronove for lead, Dantalion in the future, Paimon either sub or lead, and Sitri for memes
Bonus: Dragon callers and Sherias are available both days, which are pretty good for any box. (except blue sherias, hes garbo)
Day 1 has your inherits and board changes, Day 2 has your quality cards and farming things. Pick what helps your box the most; values of cards will differ from person to person. My one courtesy roll this time around got me DMeta so I am now only missing Aten and Eschamali from GFEs.
For my grading scale, I will use ABCD grades as follows:
A: This is really good, and is quite a strong addition to any box.
B: Has good applications where needed, and offers your box flexibility.
C: Primarily niche or very situational, but great where applicable.
D: Offers very little to your box, you'd have to scrape really hard to find a use.
Egypt 1 has always been a favorite pantheon of mine. Egypt 1 is full of quality leaders, and the new Revos have made them much more interesting and viable. Rainbow or combo leads start the basis of learning how to play, and I highly recommend using them as leaders to improve your playstyle and skills.
For my grading scale, I will use ABCD grades as follows:
A: This is really good, and is quite a strong addition to any box. B: Has good applications where needed, and offers your box flexibility. C: Primarily niche or very situational, but great where applicable. D: Offers very little to your box, you'd have to scrape really hard to find a use.
Horus used to be a very strong rainbow leader in the early days, until more rainbow leaders appeared and Horus became less relevant. Horus though has a reasonable multiplier, and a strong array of awakenings to boot. Using a skill to increase multiplier may limit some teams, but getting an RCV boost definitely helps in recovery, though Horus team health doesn't have any boosts. However, the current meta does not favor no-tank builds so his value as a leader is greatly diminished. As a sub, Horus is a luxury damage sub, but double SBR comes in handy for some teams. His low CD makes him a very good inherit base who can pull his weight for the team.
Skill Value: D
Awakenings: A-
Leader Value: B-
Sub Value: B+
Overall Value: B-
Horus is the only Revo I don't have (because lazy) but I would probably use him on a TPA fire team to cover SBR if I wanted to also include good TPA subs like Xmas Liu Bei or Rozuel.
Isis is the definition of a great sub. Unbindable, clears binds, good awakenings, and a low CD to serve as an inherit base. The main use of Isis has been to be the B/G sub for Radra teams and to hold a relevant inherit to fill utility. Otherwise, Isis complements any team (water more dominantly) as a cleric. Isis is the weakest in the pantheon as a leader, but the strongest sub. We are still awaiting what her attribute will be on Revo, and we can all hope it does not change.
Skill Value: A
Awakenings: B+
Leader Value: D
Sub Value: A+
Overall Value: A-
B/G Isis in Revo please. Always been a strong support for teams, and benefits from Orochi assist stat increase.
One of my top 5 favorite leads, Bastet is a very strong combo leader. Before her Revo, she often contributed the least to the damage, and in Revo she pulls more weight but still does the least damage. Getting key access to power TPA subs Vishnu and Kaede make Bastet teams very strong offensively, and having the right utility or defensive actives can really round out the team.. Her buff in JP includes an RCV boost on skill use, which covers her weakness of bad recovery, but she will still rely on higher HP or shields to tackle the most difficult of content. As a sub, she has a low CD like Horus that increases movement time, but more likely you would use her as a base for your utility. Like Horus though, she doesn't tank well to fit in the meta.(but shes still bestcat)
Skill Value: C
Awakenings: B
Leader Value: B+
Sub Value: C-
Overall Value: B-
Bestcat is great to play because combos leads are fun. Having access to those TPA subs make her really strong, but not having them holds you back from her full potential.
A no heart rainbow lead, Ra used to be top tier in earlier days, but has fallen off quite since then. His new Revo allows him to do really good damage, but any leader that doesn't have an HP multiplier better have ease of use damage, and Ra isn't one of them unfortunately. Many people will want Ra as a button for farming guerillas, and this is probably his selling point. As a leader, Ra's output damage is comparatively weak without skill use, and DKali board changes are much better due to always wanting hearts to heal. The damage for matches needed is quite good though, and Ra has the ability to run heartbreakers to further focus damage. As a sub, Ra doesn't bring much to the table.
One true doge has always been the tip top of impressive damage and skill display. His JP buff makes him slightly more approachable, since many times a natural board has only 7-8 combos so his activation was quite unreliable. Aside from using Anubis to display skill, he is capable of earth shattering damage through combos, but once again has no HP multiplier. Anubis will be much more consistent when JP buff hits NA, since the starting multiplier is very strong and any extra combos will let him decimate any floor. As a sub, Anubis brings extremely niche counterattack, an orb create that also changes bad orbs, and offers an unbindable base with a row heart. If the skill isn't useful, he can be taken as a utility sub to hold an important inherit.
Skill Value: B+
Awakenings: B+
Leader Value: C
Sub Value: B-
Overall Value: B-
Use Gunma to continue getting that bonus multiplier. Active lets you cheese Zera, and lead score is only lowered for inconsistency and difficulty for newer players.
Pantheon Grade: B-
If it seems lower than I make it to be it would be because of the very separate leader only and low sub potential of the pantheon, but I see Egypt as a very good pantheon.
Questions? Advice? Want to talk to me? I can usually be found on PadRagnarok's discord server.
Poor Typhon gets pushed to the back for a cute grill to take the spotlight. Anaphon is a good mix between Gremory and Myr, with a more restrictive subpool. With the right subs, Anaphon can be a very stable leader for high end content.
SUBPOOL: The subpool for dark dragon or balanced typing is not very wide. Aside from 6* GFE Gremory and MP Purchases Xin Hua and Yomidra, there are few subs that offer double orb create, with Lead Akechi being the most useful here. The team would be more dependent on SI for orb change, or use single orb changers with orb stalling using Anaphon's good stability.
POTENTIAL: The restrictive typing makes Anaphon hard to approach as a newer player, but veteran players with well developed boxes may find the subs to run Anaphon. Ana can do very consistent damage, and it should be enough for Arena 1 to sweep the later floors. She may lack the damage for content higher than that though, due to lack of OE+ like Myr or the high row multiplier of Gremory.
EFFICIENCY: Like most heart cross leads, Anaphon has varying orb efficiency based on your team setup. Anaphon can be ran with Rows or TPAs, and the stronger your team is the less orbs you should need to deal high consistent damage. Anaphon also brings a board change, but quad color boards are not as good so you will want some way to fix the board (Akechi also turns Anaphon board into a bicolor)
STABILITY: Ana has an HP equivalent of Myr when having the heart cross, but also has an HP multiplier if a heart cross cannot be made. An addition, Anaphon is unbindable and brings a Row heart to unbind the team if needed. The team may be lacking in RCV, so you will want to take as few unshielded hits as necessary.
im only good with mspaint, no bully pls
Feel free to save and mark up at your own pleasure, sorry mobile users I don't know how to accomodate you here.
More topics means more writing topics. New article series to examine a pantheon, and examine it as a card in the box and other whatnots. Hopefully makes a good read and sways godfests.
The first pantheon, Greco-Roman, has lasted a long time and has moved up and down from use based on the meta. The Revo forms have become very useful to lots of players, and has always been a quality pantheon.
For my grading scale, I will use ABCD grades as follows:
A: This is really good, and is quite a strong addition to any box.
B: Has good applications where needed, and offers your box flexibility.
C: Primarily niche or very situational, but great where applicable.
D: Offers very little to your box, you'd have to scrape really hard to find a use.
Minerva is quite useful in her Revo ultimate, and her non-Revo skill is a true damage that lets you bypass Zeal in machine dungeons, and also a 50% defense break if necessary for other dungeons. Her main use is leading in Revo, for the damage reduction and a decent multiplier with a pretty easy multiplier. Alternate uses are in cheese teams, but I don't into cheese teams so look elsewhere. Her low CD and unbindability open up options to turn her into a cleric with a bind clear inherit, while her awakenings offer great utility with some offense.
Skill Value: B-
Awakenings: A
Leader Value: B+
Sub Value: B+
Card Value: B+
Neptune is probably one of my least favorite cards in the pantheons, due to my refusal to run water teams and that Neptune is overall, lackluster. While Neptune does have a similar awakening array and leader skill setup to Minerva, water has fewer dangerous bosses when considering his damage reduction. In addition, poison has very few uses, and is on a long CD so inheriting over Neptune is an investment. The damage boost though is quite useful, and is a decent but long inherit for a team that can fully utilize it.
Ceres has quite the strong active skill, in both her pre-awoken state, awoken state, and Ana evolution. A full bind clear on an unbindable card make her a strong cleric, with few offensive awakenings to boot. Her reincarnated form offers everything that you want as a cleric, a row heart, unbindable, and an SBR as well. When considering her for SI, you will want to use her pre-awoken or Ana evolution, and her awoken/reincarnated form as a base for a sub. While not quite as used for her damage reduction capability for cheese, it is still possible.
Venus is quite an interesting card, holding CTW in her pre-awoken form, which has diminished in value due to the increased existence of TE awakenings found on many cards. Her awoken skill is a niche mini boost, but has applications for light OE+ teams (lolwut) and serves as an excellent SI base. I personally use her revo on my Myr team which has taken me quite far, due to her good awakening array and base for SI. When paired with herself, she can easily cheese any light dungeon with 96% resist, but I like to think of her as a luxury sub for any team that can take advantage of her offerings.
Back when OSOBOS meta with gravity was a thing, Hades reigned as a key quality card. Nowadays, gravity is considered a niche skill as higher damage leads arose. Hades is quite a terrible card without the skillup investment, but becomes quite useful once you skill it up. In Awoken/Revo though, the CD and skillup investment is greatly decreased, though the 30% gravity is more useful in some places. However, I believe the revo skill is much more useful to players due to the increased time buff, and Hades himself does quite a lot of damage. Hades double pairing works like Venus, and can be used to cheese Hera Dragon descended. Reco carries
Skill Value: B-
Awakenings: B
Leader Value: B-
Sub Value: B-
Card Value: B-
Greco Roman overall is a pretty strong pantheon with many niche applications, and adds good flexibility to your box otherwise, Aside from Minerva, I would say that this pantheon largely serves as good utility subs and inherits
Many can consider Arena to be the endgame of PAD. After enough time, Arena has changed to become the standard of leader strength, worthy endgame farming content, and dank lead clears. Arena is largely a test of your skills as a whole, as well as an indicator of what strengths and weaknesses your team has. The more often you run Arena, the better you become aware of how strong your team can be, and what to look forward to when rolling for new cards or for considering inherits.
If you are looking for a leader, refer to an earlier article on how to choose your leader and what to build off of it here. Else, lets start.
First things first: you will want to be very consistent with your leader activation. You will want to consistently hit your strong multiplier when dealing with the later floors in arena, and not hitting your full multiplier means that some bosses can be left in a danger zone, and make the run very difficult to proceed. A lot of Arena can be OSOBOS, depending on your team, but consistency with dealing with your board can help a lot.
Second, you want to prepare your team as best as you can in order as followed: max level, fully awoken, max skill level, +297, supporting inherits, and then latents. Arena can be cleared without latents and inherits, these newer mechanics just make team building easier and content more approachable.
Third, you want to read up on the dungeon itself to know what to expect. Like any dungeon planning, knowing what is next to crucial to whether you need to stall or put yourself in an acceptable position to move on. Floors may have multiple spawns, so you want to be prepared for any spawn and have the proper means to deal with them.
Fourth, you want to have three important utilities on the team: a shield(if you have no HP multiplier or heart cross), a full board change or way to deal with poison, and a bind clear to help out against certain spawns, which I will go over later. A delay is preferable, but not entirely necessary.
Fifth, you need to know how much damage your team does. Going into endless and testing it for yourself is the best way, for you will want to know exact combos and matches you need for under 200k and under 300k, as well as how high your damage is to make sure you can one shot floors or over burst defense. Knowing your damage is good for a couple of resolve floors as well, so you can safely hit under them without taking danger zone hits.
Last, you will want to deal with Kali in some manner, whether it be shielding the first hit so the defense shield is down, or having a burst to push Kali past the 65% threshold.
WHAT SKILLS/CARDS TO CONSIDER FOR ARENA
As mentioned above, you want to bring relevant utility to deal with the potential loss mechanics. You will want a bind clear to deal with Tamadras on floor 6, which can often bar a lot of teams due to high troll chance. After this floor binds are uncommon, but can often happen on floors where you do not one shot the floor.
If your team does not have an HP multiplier or effective health equivalent, you will want to invest in a shield for safety. Floor 19 features DQ Hera, which preempts for 38910 damage, which kills most teams naturally. Shielding the first hit of Kali is also an option, and a strong enough shield can help you survive in danger zone hits. Shielding preemptively for the next floor is kind of what you want to not die instantly.
And the counters
If inheriting the shield anything should work. Just math the amount of hp you need after shielding to know you are safe.
And often an added luxury for teams, delay helps a lot to give you extra turns to stall or to bypass Kagutsuchi's resolve on floor 15 or Zaerog's absorb on floor 18. Quality delays are hard to find, so I recommend saving any cards with delay for inherits.
Cao cao is also an option for fire centric team, but these are generally the more common ones to use on a wider variety of teams.
Putting Kali to under 65% on the first turn is a must, unless you know you can tank the first hit. Aside from carrying a gravity on the team, an adequate burst usually helps a lot to getting Kali there, or even opening up a one shot option through the shield.
Big tips to remember, you want a board change in case of Beelzebub for floor 19 and your shield moving into floor 19 in case of DQ Hera. Aside from floor 19 needing a proper counter and Kali needing damage, the rest of Arena is your skills against the mechanics (except Sopdet and Parvati).
Knowing your team and its limits will affect your clear, and failing the first couple of times is normal. Running Arena with progression is often preferred, so it is better not to run Arena just to "try" it and prepare yourself instead. Refer to a guide for numbers and such, and good luck!
The great meta killer. Cross leads in general were a pretty good way to increase gameplay mechanics, but the prevalence of heart cross shields drastically changed the meta to high tank builds. Newer leaders are incorporating damage resistance into their LS as a way to be comparable to heart cross, but heart cross remains a strong way to have stability built on orb matching. After taking a long time to getting used to making heart crosses, it is pretty fresh to run leads that don't need awkward match setups.
This analysis will include the normal review I usually do, plus the comparisons between light and water Myr.
SUBPOOL: Myr can be ran with TPA or Row subs, which allows for high flexibility and variable damage control based on what subs you are bringing. Myr covers a lot of utility, such as guaranteed OE+, unbindability, four seconds of time extends, and the shielding. The subs will want to support consistency to create the heart cross while being able to support their weight on the team. Heartbreakers or board changers with no hearts are not recommended, unless you inherit over them or can fix that board.
POTENTIAL: The extra time extends and increased stability are great for lower players, and remains very strong for higher end dungeons. Although the damage multiplier slightly threw off her damage control for Sopdet and Parvati, the added boost in damage helps in the more difficult dungeons. With the proper setups and skill, Myr can power through the hardest content.
EFFICIENCY: The stronger your team is, and based on what orb match route you take, Myr varies on efficiency. While you always need a heart cross to do damage, stronger teams can often tank hits during a orb clear turn, and then recover from the next turn with a heart cross. For damage though, you will often want rows to fully increase the team's damage, or TPA and high combo for more TPA based teams.
STABILITY: Heart cross allows Myr to tank the most ridiculous of hits. While you need to match that cross to get that stability, it is well worth the damage reduction. Taking less damage and then requiring less RCV is very nice, while the unbindability of Myr means you can always heart cross provided you have the orbs.
COMPARISON
It has probably been known that light > water due to no element weakness, but both have its strengths.
The list of subs goes on from single orb changers, bind clears and such. Obviously you can cover a lot of skills through inheritance, but this is just a taste of base subs available. In general, light has the better bicolors and double orb subs, but water has the better utility and luxury bases. Your mileage will vary depending on what your box offers, but the larger selling point is that light Myr is farmable. Summyr is "farmable" in a sense and is only available during a collab.
My choice is light Myr simply because it is more readily available to other players and does not involve a collab exclusive leader, but Summyr has those nice utilities to tap into. Gungho is looking into methods to dethrone heart cross, so the outlook of Myr dominating the tiers may be just over the horizon, but in no way does this mean that Myr becomes weaker. This only means that more leaders can be post endgame reliable and Myr can retain her strength.
Conflicted over how Suvo Radra continues to be delayed in NA, I will write a different kind of review, one based on the current Radra, and a comparison on the buffs it receives with the Suvo. Radra is one of the strongest cards in the meta, trumping time loli Myr and being the basis on how to make a strong leader. The strength in Radra comes from how stable and flexible the Suvo is, and how the buffs have rounded out the Uvo and covered weaknesses.
Starting with the Uvo:
SUBPOOL: (YOU DONT HAVE THE SUBS) Radra's sub pool is large according to the wide encompassing of God typing, but the good subs that you can use for Radra that do not break the board are very small. The current subs that do not come from GFE are small, and the core of Radra teams come from 6* GFE DKali, a B/G sub that is unbindable like Isis, and a double SBR sub to prevent skill binding.
POTENTIAL: A lot of the content has changed since Radra's release, and the hard difference in damage control from 9x to 64x barred Radra from higher content. Bad orbs and mechanics also make fully activating Radra more difficult, and absorbs and nulls severely limit how strong you can match. In addition, the meta shift has caused a lot of content to be more difficult for Radra to easily clear, and other leaders are better chosen for those dungeons. Newer players should stay away from Radra, both as an MP purchase and as a leader until they have the box to support Radra and the matching skill to fully activate Radra consistently.
EFFICIENCY: Needing all orb types to fully activate and only matching five out of six types for a weaker multiplier isn't the greatest. Stalling and clearing extra orbs to hope for a proper board works, but lack of an HP multiplier makes it risky in some cases, or dependent on having a shield on the team to survive such hits. Having a full board change ready helps in moving faster, but that will require you having the skill on the team. (Having the proper subs is important to do so)
STABILITY: A RCV multiplier and being unbindable is great, but in today's meta, having more HP bulk is important for surviving the larger hits in higher content. The proper team is fully unbindable, and you cannot get color locked, which is an absolute bonus for any rainbow team.
Suvo:
SUBPOOL: Same as above. The difference being the Suvo has an SBR so a double SBR sub isn't necessary anymore.
POTENTIAL: Easier match requirements similar to Roots makes Radra more approachable, and continues to reward higher skilled players with consistent full activation. Radra can clear endgame content much more simply due to this, and makes earlier game content a lot easier.
EFFICIENCY: Not needing all orbs makes Radra sweep a lot of floors more easily. The difficulty of 9x being too weak and always needing 64x is gone, as the 25x multiplier with prongs is still strong enough for easier floors, and thus helps with speed and not needing a board change for safety.
STABILITY: Suvo Radra received the all important HP multiplier, bringing the effective HP to slightly less than a 35% heart cross shield. The difference here is not needing the heart cross, so matching is more baseline. Continuing to not need bind clear and bringing a shield to safely tank the more dangerous attacks in solo make Suvo Radra so much more stable.
In short, the Suvo covered the main weaknesses of Uvo Radra, and makes Suvo comfortably define fit into the current meta. We have yet to see what Revo Isis colors will be, but until then we can always count on sub Balboa to also cover those colors, except with killers and a higher base CD to slightly tweak the playstyle. Also, Suvo Radra looks super cool.
The new Odin splits make some players question which ultimate to go for, and while both ultimates have their merit, I just want to throw out my opinions and my choice.
Rodin:
Pros:
Unbindable
Active can button, poison also great for some dungeons
HP multiplier
Higher RCV
Cons:
Other leaders do what Rodin does better
Weak to gravity
Pros:
Rows for days
Higher hp and attack
RCV multiplier for lead
Button does more damage as a result of higher attack
Cons:
Bindable
No HP multiplier
No sub attribute
My thoughts: I never run Rodin as a leader, and dungeons where I would use him, I don't care that he may be bindable. They both have 3 SB for button teams, but I prefer having the extra rows to further cement Rodin as a luxury sub. The Physical typing also makes the final floor board sweep in Star Den slightly easier, but I already had no trouble with it. (sorry i only run the slower setup)
Choice: R. "Rowsfordays" Odin
Grodin:
Pros:
Auto heals
Strong leader multiplier
Higher RCV
Cons:
No offensive awakenings
Only used in cheese setups as a lead
Pros:
TPA to be slightly more offensive
More HP and Attack, so active heals more
1 more SB
Row Heart to unbind without using skill
RCV multiplier to support cheese healing
Cons:
No sub attribute
Weaker leader multiplier
Only 1 Autoheal
My thoughts: I don't use Grodin as a leader anymore, and while the extra RCV is great for inheriting on teams, I rarely need extra RCV anyways. The offensive ult is much more appealing to me, with the Row Heart and extra SB for teams, as well as having better stats for inheriting.
Choice: Ab-less Odin
Blodin:
Pros:
Triple TPA
Much higher RCV
More damage from boards you can get TPAs and Rows
Dark sub attribute
HP lead multiplier
Cons:
Bindable
Low attack for inherit base on row teams
Weak to gravity
Pros:
4 SB
Unbindable
Higher base HP and RCV for an inherit base
RCV on lead multiplier and higher attack
Cons:
No more TPAs for TPA teams
No Physical typing for some teams, or dark sub attribute for some teams
lower RCV
My thoughts: This one is a little more dependent on what teams you run, as both ults are pretty nice. I like using split Blodin as a base inherit though, because he has better preferred stats and is also unbindable. I don't run water teams, but Meri makes me consider running one, and Blodin is a luxury and key inherit base sub. 4 SB is also a plus, essentially making him a blue Tengu with a slightly higher base CD.
Choice: Browdin
All Odins share the weakness of not bringing an SBR to teams, and are usually luxury subs or luxury inherits or bases for a lot of teams. As long as you can cover the lack of SBRs, Odins can add good utility and strength to your team and are quite useful for farming teams.
Since Meri's release in JP, she quickly dethroned ALB as a primo farming leader in terms of damage and speed, with the exception of a slightly more difficult to obtain subs. Aside from farming, Meri has a very strong row multiplier comparable to Sarasvati without the orb hunger, and a strong RCV multiplier to support her stability.
SUBPOOL: Since Meri does not have an SBR, a double SBR sub like Andromeda is necessary. However, water has a lot of water row subs. TPA subs are less strong due to Meri needing a hero row, but higher water boards may be able to fit TPAs in addition to the hero row. The new split Blodin serves as a luxury sub and inherit base, but the SBRs are still an issue when not in coop.
POTENTIAL: Meri has very good damage, control, and no skyfalls is a blessing in many cases. Aside from combo shields being slightly difficult, Meri's active covers that weakness and damage absorbs can be worked around and planned through no skyfalls. Players with higher skill can orb save well for bigger burst, while earlier players can be taught how to combo better.
EFFICIENCY: Hero boards are quite expensive when it comes to orbs, but Meri does plenty of damage with a row of six. You can clear quite a lot of things with just that row, and very little can stand against the full multiplier of Meri. However, being unable to activate with under 6 orbs is a problem, but stalling with her great RCV is a great option.
STABILITY: No HP multiplier and bindable is a large issue, but Meri has a great stall game as long as there are hearts. You will want to find bind clear to help with bindability, and a lot of high HP subs to tank hits. A heartmaker will also be useful to stall since no skyfall means strict board work.
Blue skill delays, and red full binds the team for one turn. Shouldn't be hard to sweep, they have 1m hp.
Floor 3: Dark Fairy
Preempt blind board. Spawns poisons and gravs the team 99%, will turn three poison orbs to mortal poisons ondefeat.
Floor 4: Xuanzang
Light: Don't leave any jammers on the board, else tank a hit.
Dark: Keep hp above 30k if hitting to under 30%, otherwise doesn't hurt too much.
Floor 5 Variant:
Path 1: Minerva - 6c and one shot before the combo shield is gone, turns the middle row to fires when the shield is up and hurts after the shield is down.
Path 2: Ceres - Throws binds and hurts quite a bit on chance. Heals to full if taken below 50%, else every 6 turns will do a 58k attack,
Path 3: Neptune - spawns hearts and poisons on the board, with increasing damage every turn.
**Prepare for a light 12k preempt before moving forward.
Floor 6: Nyadra
Nyadra don't hit too hard, just handle their preempts. Red is the worst, followed by green. Control your damage for resolves and deal with the bad orbs on the board if necessary, and it is high recommended to one shot the green one.
Floor 7: Tamas
Don't get bound and skill delayed. Sweep quickly or feel the pain, YomiTama skips turn to one shot you the next time.
Floor 8: Sopdet
Control damage, kill before the timer is done.
**10 preempt next floor
Floor 9: Satan
Shield > Bind > Kill
Floor 10: Grimoires
Path 1: Wood
Path 2: Water
Path 3: Fire
All lightly hit when above 50%, and then skyfall buff the first turn they are under 50%, then do 43k attacks and change an orb to a color, so beware of this point if you don't tank.
Floor 11: Liberty Geist
Moderately annoying if you don't one shot. Path 1 can safely delay if you have it, and you need to 6c. Path 2 and 3 should consider saving delay for Linthia/Volsung.
Floor 12: SoniaTamas
Green will one shot you the first attack it does, Red needs 6c. They all announce a kill move when under 40%, so prepare.
Floor 13: Meimei
Does Meimei board change, and has quite a high defense. Hits quite hard, so prepare to take hits if you don't one shot.
Floor 14: Lucifer
Do combos. Hit it for 18 damage over 2 turns.
Floor 15 Variant:
Path 1: Sevenzard - Clear poison from the board, hit it hard through the shield. Don't under damage and get it below 44%, so know your team's damage accordingly.
Path 2: Folklore - Keep health above 25k for the blind attack every 3 turns, to stall out the awoken bind. Kill when you are healthy, and heal after taking gravity.
Path 3: Shuten Doji - Knock under resolve slowly or quickly, then one shot. Alternates an absorb and a status, and one shots you when under 20%.
Floor 16: Khepri
Clear jammers if you can, control damage while the absorb is up. One shots you on the 10th turn. Doesn't hurt too much, but try to remain stable with the orb changes and column lock.
**Have a board change ready for Beelzebub next floor.
Floor 17: Beelzebub
Board change the poison, hits very hard. Try not to step into the floor with Awoken bind still up, and highly recommend one shot.
Floor 18: Hera-Is
Preempts skill bind, so beware if still Awoken bound from Khepri. Does moderate hits, so it is possible to stall here if you have good RCV. Binds the team when under 75% and 50%, and does a 100% gravity under 30%.
Floor 19: Preboss Pattern Variant
1: Gainaut - Preempts a fire row 2nd to bottom. Does some medium attacks with a side effect, with a fatal strike when under 50%, and another under 20% if you survived the first one.
2: Linthia - Preempts wood skyfall . Puts up a 400k immune damage shield on first turn. Recommend one shotting on the first turn, but you can stall with her massive hits If you can’t and have to whittle her down with the immune shield up. Puts up a combo shield when under 50%, then moves onto fatal hits.
3: Volsung - Do 5c. Does some massive hits and makes water orbs. If you can tank massive hits, feel free to go slow but otherwise move on from the floor quick.
Floor 20: Boss Variant
1: Gainaut - Massive hits and makes jammers on your board. Does fatal hits when under 50% and locks jammers, kill it before then with a hard burst.
2: Linthia - Awoken binds for 5 turns. Grodin is useful here, if you carried him throughout the dungeon. Delay with a good boost or a strong burst without needing awokens can work here as well. Hits fatal strikes every turn, and will kill you under 20%.
3: Volsung - 54% resolve. Does fatal hits all the time, and 99% grav and skill bind when taken under resolve. Have a delay or poisons to avoid this floor, or get killed. Kills you if taken to 0 above resolve.
Shiva is part of one of the earliest pantheons in the game, and has come quite a long way since. His defense void skill was very useful a long time ago, and though nowadays it is less powerful, his reincarnation has given him some new life. Combo leads are always fun to play.
SUBPOOL: Fire subs with TPAs are the best subs here. Shiva already supplies a couple of OE+ so you will want a sub to cover the last one, and then fill out from there. Row subs are less optimal, but as long as the skill is good it will work. In this age of inherits though, it is better to just inherit that skill on top.
POTENTIAL: Combo leaders are great for learning to play, and high end players should be able to fully activate Shiva all the time. Shiva does very good mid range damage, and fire TPAs with OE+ can do a lot of work. Stacking more fire TPAs help a lot with higher end dungeons, and a good active will certainly let you always activate.
EFFICIENCY: Like Bastet, you can use just a fire TPA and combos to maximize board use and get good damage. The better your board clear, the better orb efficiency and consistency get. Hitting max combos will usually let you sweep most floors for content that Shiva is good in.
STABILITY: RCV will help a lot in recovery, but being bindable and no HP multiplier makes the post endgame dungeons more difficult. Standard utility for this kind of team applies, such as bind clear, a heartmaker for safety, and a shield for some of the larger hits.
Very late to write an article on, but I felt like I should cover it anyways.
In a meta where heart crosses and tank teams dominate, Aizen has blindsided the meta and proved that glass cannon leads are quite viable, provided they have the ease of use and stability that Aizen has. Aizen is so strong that many would consider him to be broken, and I hope that Gungho learns from this to balance their new cards first before giving them unreasonable buffs.
SUBPOOL: Dark subs only. Water with dark sub attribute can work as well, but you can also skip the water sub attribute on dark cards since the RCV is already really good. It is hard to find a dark card that does not work on Aizen, save for playing Rowzen and giving people the memes.
POTENTIAL: Tons of damage, and can even do very well without skills. Aizen is already an unconditional 36x before matching a cross, sweeps most floors with one cross, and always sweeps on two crosses. Aizen also fairs very well in higher tiered content, provided you can support his no HP multiplier. Players low and high can find lots of use in Aizen from speed clearing to content clears.
EFFICIENCY: Unconditional 36x is hard to pass up, and can also lead to great damage control. You can use water matches to lower damage, match darks or TPA darks and combos to increase efficiency, and a cross is often enough for most content. Double crosses are seldom used, but you should know when you need them.
STABILITY: No hp multiplier, but a good RCV multiplier, being unbindable, and can unbind the team is a great plus. Most things come down to "do I have enough HP to tank", and otherwise it is pretty hard to stop Aizen. Since he is so efficient, it is highly recommended to take utility instead of orb creation to cover some of the harder floors of A3, but for most content your HP pool should suffice, granted you aren't attempting content out of your progression.
Dark rows have always been my preferred team and playstyle, and it makes writing this very hard to be unbiased. Still, a high damage multiplier combined with rows is formidable, and I don't regret going for this harder pull. Even as she slowly slides down the tier lists, she is still a very strong and capable leader.
SUBPOOL: Though balanced typing is an odd choice for dark rows, the inclusion of devil subs (and soon gods) makes it really easy to find a suitable sub. You will want prime dark/heart double orb changes like Pandora or Akechi, but single orb changes are good as long as they do not break hearts. The strongest subs to make Gremory shine are gated by REM though, and include MP purchases Xin Hua or Yomi Dragon(after buff) as good sub choices.
POTENTIAL: The typing restriction is a little difficult for newer players, but more developed boxes can fully take advantage of Gremory's potential. 144x with rows is a very strong multiplier, and can often sweep most floors with ease. However, strict combos and dark matches are necessary on resolve or damage absorb floors, and getting skyfalls can be quite problematic. Players will need to know where they can stall comfortably to keep actives ready, and plan them ahead to consistently activate her leader skill.
EFFICIENCY: For more developed teams, you can often get away with multiple dark matches instead of rows if you use a skill. However, when not using a skill, the board requires more manipulation or many favorable orbs to sweep. Haste actives with orb creation can alleviate some of these issues, but often you will find yourself in need of an active to deal reliable high damage in most cases. Rows are often the best match, but TPAs with the right subs can help in efficiency.
STABILITY: Gremory relies on heart cross to stay healthy, and has no RCV multiplier, but a steady flow of hearts helps with that. Her skill however, is one of the best in the game, and often keeps the team healthy in most cases. Her JP buff includes a row heart, but using both a row heart and a heart cross is very heart intensive. In addition, her 35% shield is not strong enough to take on radars without maximizing her hp, and utility for dark rows is rare outside from inherits.
Awoken Kush was a pretty cool lead for a couple of weeks. As strong as she is though, she did not fit very well into the current meta and was pushed back pretty quickly. Still, she is one of the more reliable leaders that you can comfortably take killers on, as well as having no skyfall clause to really help control the board.
SUBPOOL: Literally anything will work, though the best subs are TPA wood subs, or subs with bicolor or tricolor boards. Ragnarok Dragon is even a great sub, especially for the killers. It is pretty difficult to find subs that won't fit comfortably on Kushi, except those that change the board unfavorably. Just don't make bad choices in your sub selection.
POTENTIAL: No skyfalls means you need to be able to manipulate the board well, or have good combo skill. A natural board always has around 7-8 combos, and a TPA with the right subs and 8 combo is very strong. A higher skilled player will more likely find better use out of Kushi, as opposed to a newer player with less time extends and power subs. Her frame and lack of recovery do make higher end solo content more like OSOBOS(one shot or be one shot).
EFFICIENCY: Just match as many combos as possible. One wood three match does average damage, so it is highly recommended to match TPAs with max combos to further increase the damage for speed purposes. Otherwise, just go for max combos to get as high a multiplier as possible.
STABILITY: Kushi is for the highly calculating player. She does not take hits and has pretty average recovery, so planning where to use Kushi for her damage reduction skill is important. Although she has a row heart bind clear, it does reduce your amount of combos and so you will want to know if getting that row heart is safe. For higher skilled play, it is possible to cascade your combos after your row heart to continue to do damage with subs as to not get slowed down too much. Kushi's one turn shield is enough for some higher tiered content, but is lacking on longer dungeons with her weaker stall.
