Chinese Celestial, Sengoku, Mechanical 1, & Mechanical 2 Pantheon Analysis

Please refer to the Master List for directory to the other pantheons and their analysis.

Take a look at my Popular Leaders and their Full Sub List post for inspiration on team building ideas. If contemplating on purchasing a MP Dragon, please check out my Monster Point Dragon Purchasing Check-list Guide.

Keep in mind all of the following monsters qualify for Skill Inheritance so do not be too hasty in selling dupes.

Chinese Celestials

jjjjjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjj  Notes
 Awoken Leilan
Awoken Leilan
Physical / Attacker
Enhnaced Fire Orb
 Enhnaced Fire Orb Skill Lock Resist
Fire Row Skill Boost Fire Row
Skill Boost Time Extend
—-
All  Arrow Fire Green Light + haste
9 turn CD
Leilan has legs to die for along with being a mono red powerhouse with a healthy mixture of offensive and utility based awakenings. She can also be effectively comboed with other orb changers to create fire heavy boards. Unfortunately, the 2 top fire teams, Awoken Shiva Shiva and Shiva Dragon Shiva D seldom use  Leilan due to no two prong attack TPA awakenings or god typing. Hopefully with a release of more Fire Row based teams she will see a resurgence in popularity. Lastly, Leilan can form a system on Ilm Ilm teams.

As a leader, Leilan forms a 12.25x ATK team with 51% damage reduction from Fire, Wood, and Light enemies. Has situational uses, but is usually used as a sub.

 Awoken Karin
Awoken Karin
Dragon / Attacker
blue + orb
 Poison resist Skill Lock Resist
Water Row Water Row Skill Boost
Skill Boost Time Extend
—-
All  Arrow Water Green Dark + haste
9 turn CD
I have a borderline irrational love for Karin and probably stems from my favourite colour being blue, dragons, and a pretty girl all rolled into amazing one monster. Fanboying aside, Karin is most at home on the various mono-blue powerhouse leads such as Blue Sonia Blue Sonia and Awoken I&I I&I / Ryune Ryune . Karin’s active, while powerful, is somewhat overshadowed by other water full board changers as she does not generate hearts and most likely needs to be used in conjunction with another orb changer to ensure sufficient water rows.

As a leader, Karin forms a 12.25x ATK team with 51% damage reduction from Water, Wood, and Dark enemies. Has situational uses, but she is mostly used as a sub.

 Awoken Meimei
MeiMei
Physical / Attacker
Enhanced Wood Orb
 Enhanced Wood Orb TPA
Skill Lock Resist TPA Skill Boost
Skill Boost Time Extend
—-
All  Arrow Green Light Dark + haste
9 turn CD
Meimei was once the primary wood board changer and she still reigns strong today. Her awakenings are more powerful than Verdandi Verd and Sylvie Sylvie and only loses ground due to not manufacturing heart orbs. Meimei can be used to great success on Sylvie Sylvie / Freyja Awoken Freyja , Awoken Bastet Bastet , and Spica Spica teams. Furthermore, multiple Meimei ‘s can be used to form a “Meimei System” with Zuoh Ult Zuoh as a lead.

As a leader, Meimei forms a 12.25x ATK team with 51% damage reduction from Wood, Light, and Dark enemies. Has situational uses, but she is mostly used as a sub.

 Awoken Sakuya
Sakuya
Dragon / Healer
Bind Clear awakening
 Blind Resist Jammer Resist
Skill Lock Resist TPA Time Extend
Bind Immune Bind Immune Skill Boost
—-
20% Gravity + 3 turn bind clear
10 turn CD
Sakuya has gone through a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs over the course of her PAD career. She is still currently one of the strongest leaders (and now subs) in her awoken form as she can scale up to 100x damage at 10 combos. The main pitfalls of using Sakuya are a high skill cap, damage inconsistency/orb troll (as it is a scaling and high skill multiplier), and dependency on Light Kalis Kali or other board refreshers. It is still possible to play Sakuya effectively without board changers, but it is becoming harder in today’s meta. Lastly, without any HP/RCV multiplier, it may be challenging to recover after attacks or when stalling. All that negativity aside, Sakuya is still an amazing leader and has been my go to team for over 2 years and have used her to clear numerous Challenge 10s.

Sakuya ‘s uses as a sub are now wide and varied as she combines both a gravity and 3-turn bind clear while being bind immune. Furthermore, she essentially outclasses Light Metatron Metatron in nearly every aspect as a sub.

   Awoken Haku
Haku
God / Healer
Dark Orb Enhance
 Dark Orb Enhance blue + orb
TPA Skill Lock Resist TPA
Skill Boost Time Extend
—-
All  Arrow Fire Water Dark + haste
9 turn CD
Awoken Haku was once a critical dark sub to own due to her utility and active. Thankfully, other options have opened up, but should not diminish her value. Furthermore, her exceptionally high base recovery dramatically increases your healing potential on many dark teams. Even without any Dark row awakenings, Haku can still warrant a slot on your Awoken Archdemon Lucifer team due to her utility and explosive combo potential with Akechi Akechi . Haku can also find a home on Yomi Dragon Yomi Dragon , Awoken Yomi Awoken Yomi , and Awoken Anubis Awoken Anubis teams. Lastly, her D/D evolution DD Haku has the devil typing and can be successfully used on Awoken Pandora Awoken Pandora teams.

As a leader, Haku forms a 12.25x ATK team with 51% damage reduction from Fire, Water, and Dark enemies. Has situational uses, but is usually used as a sub.

For further reading on determining which Haku evolution is right for you, please read my Haku Evolution Path Guide.

Sengoku

jjjjjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjj  Notes
 Sanada
Sanada
God / Attacker
Fire Row Skill Lock Resist Skill Boost
Fire Row
—-
Water Arrow Fire
Light Arrow Heart
Fire Arrow Enhnaced Fire Orb
8 turn CD
Sanada is a sleeping powerhouse as he has a spectacular active that combines both a double orb changer and fire orb enhance while still lacking an ultimate/awoken evolution. With his god typing, Sanada can successfully be used on Shiva Dragon Shiva D teams. Unfortunately, the enhancing component goes to waste on Awoken Shiva Shiva teams and currently, fire row Fire Row based teams lack a powerful leader outside of Raoh Raoh .However, with the release of the ultimate evolution of Gadius Gadius, Sanada gains a clearly defined role on a heart/fire row team.
 Mori Motonari
Mori Motanari
God / Physical
Water Row
 Skill Lock Resist Skill Boost
Water Row
—-
All Arrow Fire Water + 2 haste
14 turn CD
Mori Motonari has less popularity because of the abundance of full board changers who are water types. This may change in the future when he receives an ultimate evolution, but for now, Mori may be sidelined if your water sub pool is deep like the ocean. Furthermore, his skill up material is tedious to acquire and may be challenging to max skill. Noteworthy teams he can make an appearance on are Neptune Dragon Neptune Dragon , Blue Sonia Blue Sonia , and Awoken I&I I&I / Ryune Ryune . His board change does work for Awoken Hermes Awoken Hermes, but you are gambling on a bi-colour board that is skewed to water.

However, with the advent of Skill Inheritance, Mori may have more options as he can be used for both Neptune Dragon and Shiva Dragon Shiva D as a bi-colour board changer with two turns of haste. The haste allows these two dragons to feel similar to their original actives. Just a word of caution, Mori’s has a very long cooldown, and you may have to wait longer than is ideal to use his active through skill inheritance.

 Mitsunari
Ishida
God / Attacker
Wood Row
 Skill Lock Resist Skill Boost
Wood Row
—-
All Arrow Green Dark Heart + 2 haste
13 turn CD
 Mitsunari is a seldom seen wood monster as wood row teams are still developing with mainly  Sylvie Sylvie / Freyja Awoken Freyja teams being a good home for the row based Mitsunari . Mitsunari is outclassed by Verdandi Verd and Sylvie Sylvie on TPA teams. The 2 turns of haste adds too many turns to the cooldown and coupled with a challenging to acquire skill up material, may have you waiting too long. Perhaps with the release of an ultimate evolution will grant Mitsunari more feasibility.
Keiji
Keiji
God / Balance
TPA
 Time Extend Skill Boost
Skill Lock Resist
—-
All Arrow Random + haste
8 turn CD
Keiji has an interesting active as he will randomly change your board. This will remove locked orbs as well as give the chance at cascades to occur. If a cascade does trigger, all of your cooldowns will decrease by 1 and the boss will not retaliate. However, due to the randomness of the board change, you are not guaranteed 3 of each element. This creates an inherit risk when using Keiji ‘s active on rainbow teams. He is largely eclipsed by Light Kali and Dark Kali Dark Kali due to lower stats and no guaranteed spawns. Keiji will mostly be used on Sakuya Sakuya , Awoken Ra Ra , and Ra Dragon Ra Dragon teams.

With an ultimate evolution, Keiji may find more viability, but also keep him in mind for when Skill Inheritance comes to NA.

     Akechi
Akechi
God / Devil
Dark row
 Dark row Skill Boost
Skill Lock Resist
—-
Fire Arrow Dark
Water Arrow Heart
Dark Arrow Dark Orb Enhance
8 turn CD
Akechi has been catapulted into the ranks of one of the most desired  dark monsters in the game. This is because he combines both a double orb changer and damage enhance into a single active. Furthermore, Akechi has incredible synergy with Haku Haku as you will create a 2/3 board of dark orbs that are enhanced. You can find him on all high end dark teams including Yomi Dragon Yomi Dragon , Awoken Lucifer Awoken Archdemon Lucifer , and Awoken Pandora Awoken Pandora . Overall an amazing card to own and will only become more incredible with an ultimate evolution.

Mechanical 1

jjjjjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjj  Notes
 Antares
Antares
Machine / God
Enhnaced Fire Orb Enhnaced Fire Orb +heart
Skill Lock Resist Skill Lock Resist +heart
—-
Jammer Poison Heart Arrow Fire
 + haste
7 turn CD
Antares is a powerful fire sub due to offering 2 Skill Lock Resist awakenings. This greatly eases team building as you only require 1 additional sub (provided both leaders have Skill Lock Resist ) to achieve 100% immunity. Unfortunately, they lack a TPA or Fire Row awakening which may place constraints on damage output. However, with their god typing, Antares can successfully be used on Shiva Dragon Shiva D teams.

The main appeal of Antares ‘s active (and the entire pantheon) is the ability to remove jammer and poison orbs with their active. This alleviates the need to bring a full board changer. Only downside is you remove heart orbs and is hard to skill up.

As a leader, Antares forms a 5o1e leader with 16x damage and reducing incoming damage from all elements but fire attribute bosses.

 Alrescha
Alrescha
Machine / God
blue + orb blue + orb +heart
Skill Lock Resist Skill Lock Resist +heart
—-
Jammer Poison Heart Arrow Water + haste
7 turn CD
Alrescha is an interesting sub for water based teams as her awakenings grant large amount of utilty. Unfortunately, her active’s main benefit of alleviating the need to bring a full board changer is somewhat mute as water has perhaps the best pool of subs to draw upon such as Mori Motonari Mori Motanari , Blue Sonia Blue Sonia , Ryune Ryune , Awoken Karin Awoken Karin , and Skuld Skuld ult evo . All of these monsters have more synergetic awakenings for the top water teams of Neptune Dragon Neptune Dragon , Blue Sonia Blue Sonia , and Awoken I&I I&I / Ryune Ryune .

Perhaps with an ultimate evolution, Alrescha may have more viability or if water teams shift away form the massive Water Row stacking. As a leader, she forms a 5o1e leader with 16x damage and reducing incoming damage from all elements but water attribute bosses.

 Spica
Spica
Machine / God
Enhanced Wood Orb Enhanced Wood Orb +heart
Skill Lock Resist Skill Lock Resist +heart
—-
Jammer Poison Heart Arrow Green
 + haste
7 turn CD
Spica has the same benefits and drawbacks as the rest of her pantheon when used as a sub (poison removal has even less relevance on Bastet Bastet teams) . However, her leadership potential is significantly higher and only rivalled by Castor  Castor . This is because wood has a large and powerful pool to draw upon who are less Wood Row reliant. When playing a 5o1e lead, it can be cumbersome to form rows and may find it easier to be reliant on TPA monsters. Thankfully, wood monsters are somewhat famous for their diversity of TPA heavy monsters including Vishnu Vishnu and Liu Bei Liu Bei who both have 3. Furthermore, countless more 2 TPA wood monsters exist to help bolster your damage. On important thing to note is the skyfall mechanic from Vishnu (and to a lesser extent, Australis Australis ) has great synergy with your Enhanced Wood Orb awakenings. Just be aware that wood heavy dungeons are certain disaster as that is the only element Spica does not resist.
 Pollux
Pollux
Machine/ God
+light orb +light orb +heart
Skill Lock Resist Skill Lock Resist +heart
—-
Jammer Poison Heart Arrow Light + haste
7 turn CD
Pollux is a powerful rainbow sub for Light Kali Kali , Awoken Sakuya Sakuya , and Awoken Ra Ra  teams. This is due to the high utility offered by her awakenings with the enhanced heart orb +heart lending a significant recovery bonus as none of these leads have any RCV multiplier. Furthermore, the ability to remove poison and jammer orbs and convert them into your primary damage element can conserve precious board refreshes. Unfortunately, Pollux offers no Light Row awakenings and may be overlooked on Awoken Thor  Thor / Saria Saria teams if you lack other row enhance subs. However, once you surpass 10+, orb enhance +light orb awakenings become more meaningful and the enhanced heart orbs retain their plus status when converted to light.

As a leader, Pollux forms a 5o1e leader with 16x damage and reducing incoming damage from all elements but light attribute bosses.

 Castor
Castor
Machine / God
Dark Orb Enhance Dark Orb Enhance +heart
Skill Lock Resist Skill Lock Resist +heart
—-
Jammer Poison Heart Arrow Dark + haste
7 turn CD
Castor  is part of the new mechanical Star God series and offers 2 Skill Lock Resist , Dark Orb Enhance , and +heart awakenings. This eases team building as you only require 1 additional sub with Skill Lock Resist to achieve 100% immunity. The passive damage from the enhanced orbs and augmented healing can come in handy, but a lack of Dark row or TPA lowers their damage contribution on Awoken Lucifer Awoken Archdemon Lucifer or Awoken Pandora Awoken Pandora teams. Castor ‘s active is quite powerful as it provides heart, poison, and jammer orb conversion to dark and 1 turn haste on a 7-turn cooldown and can remove the dependency on full board changers. Castor can be successfully used on both Awoken Yomi Awoken Yomi and Yomi Dragon Yomi Dragon teams as the Dark Orb Enhance awakenings have perfect synergy.

Castor is also a powerful lead who plays similarly to Awoken Yomi Awoken Yomi and Yomi Dragon Yomi Dragon except your damage is significantly lower, but you benefit from a 51% damage reduction shield against all elements except dark. Your sub pool is also not restricted like Yomi Dragon and dramatically opens up team building options. However, you can always mix and match with  Awoken Yomi and Yomi Dragon as leader pairings to augment your damage or recovery as needed.

Mechanical 2

jjjjjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjj  Notes
 Denebola
Denebola
Machine / God
TPA TPASkill Lock Resist
God Killer
—-
3 Question Orb Arrow Fire
3 Question Orb Arrow Jammer
3 turn CD
Denebola can easily fit on an Awoken Shiva Shiva due to her 2 two prong TPA awakenings along with wonderfully high recovery for a fire monster. The 3 random jammers can be managed and being able to produce 3 additional red orbs every 3 turns can prove invaluable in triggering an extra TPA combo. Furthermore, Denebola’s active will be ready to use on the first turn should your board be lacking red and you need to sweep the floor right away. One great combo potential is to use Antares Antares after Denebola to convert all the newly created jammers into fire orbs. Lastly, the God Killer awakening will allow you to deal lethal damage to god type bosses as you can stack fire two prong matches.

I would strongly suggest you do not use her as a leader until we have more access to jammer orb generation.

 Acubens
Acubens
Machine / God
blue + orb blue + orb blue + orb
blue + orb Skill Lock Resist God Killer
—-
3 Question Orb Arrow Water
3 Question Orb Arrow Jammer
3 turn CD
Acubens has an impressive 6 awakening with 4 being enhanced water orbs blue + orb . Unfortunately he lacks both a TPA and water row enhance Water Row awakening and pushes him out of a Ryune Ryune and I&I I&I teams and leaves him with either Sumire Sumire or Sarasvati Sarasvati teams. Sumire lacks damage output as he caps out at only 20.25x damage and Sarasvati has damage control / stalling issues along with being very orb hungry. I guess you can use Acubens on an Awoken Isis Isis team as he covers the rarely seen water and red elements. You can combo his jammer generation with Alrescha Alrescha or Scheat Scheat ‘s active to transform them into more water orbs.

I would strongly suggest you do not use Acubens as a leader until we have more access to jammer orb generation.

 Algedi
Algedi
Machine / God
Wood Row Wood Row Skill Lock Resist
God Killer
—-
3 Question Orb Arrow Green
3 Question Orb Arrow Jammer
3 turn CD
Algedi will feel at home on a Sylvie  Sylvie and Freyja Awoken Freyja team as you wish to stack numerous wood row enhance Wood Row awakenings. The low base recovery can be absorbed by the 2.5x recovery mechanic provided by Awoken Freyja and Algedi’s high base damage along with her God Killer awakening will result in very high burst damage versus god type bosses. The ability to produce exactly 3 green orbs can be used in conjunction with other orb changers to produce a second or third wood row to maximize your burst potential. Furthermore, she can combo her jammer generating active with Spica Spica or Australis Australis to transform the jammers into more wood orbs. Overall, Algedi will make a strong sub and will only improve when she receives an ultimate evolution.

I would strongly suggest you do not use Algedi as a leader until we have more access to jammer orb generation.

 Alcyone
Alcyone
Machine / God
+light orb +light orb Skill Boost
Skill Lock Resist Skill Lock Resist
—-
Dark Heart Poison Arrow Light + haste
9 turn CD
Alcyone will not be the best fit on Saria Saria / Thor Thor teams due to a lack of light row Light Row awakenings. However, they may have the situational niche of removing a full board of poison orbs if you are pressed for board refresh actives or if you are in desperate need for more Skill Lock Resist awakenings. If used on an Awoken Sakuya Sakuya team, Alcyone is okay, but may overflow the board with too many light orbs, has no two prong attack TPA awakenings, and does not provide additional elemental coverage. However, her active is amazingly powerful as it eclipses all the Greco-Roman pantheon actives (such as Apollo Apollo (blue) prior to awoken evolution) with an added haste and poison removal for only 1 additional turn of recharging.

As a lead, Alcyone may be exciting to play as she offers a new playstyle to light teams with 5o1e mechanic capping out at 25x ATK. Furthermore, your RCV is multiplied by 6.25x when matching 4+ heal orbs. This makes you somewhat immortal if you can survive any single hit as you will essentially heal back to full health after every match.

Hamal
Hamal
Machine / God
Dark Orb Enhance Dark Orb Enhance Skill Boost
Skill Lock Resist Skill Lock Resist
—-
Light Heart Poison Arrow Dark + haste
9 turn CD
Hamal would not be the best fit for an Awoken Yomi Awoken Yomi team because you will most likely spawn too many dark orbs and be unable to match 7 combos. However, on a Yomi Dragon Yomi Dragon team, Hamal is great as she offers 2 Skill Lock Resist awakenings that will ease teaming building options and the poison removal reduces the dependency on Haku Haku . Hamal essentially functions as a poor man’s Eschamali Eschamali , but replaces skyfalls with haste. Unfortunately, she lacks either a TPA or Dark row awakening and limits her usage on other teams.

When used as a lead, you have essentially an unconditional 25x multiplier and all you need to do is match 5 dark orbs with 1 being enhanced. In addition, you have access to arguably the best colour sub pool and have no restrictions as to what subs you choose to bring compared to Yomi Dragon. This means you can use the powerful Zaerog Infinity Z8 and benefit from his numerous Dark Orb Enhance awakenings and dark skyfall buff. However, you can also pair your Hamal with a Yomi Dragon or Castor Castor friend as they have the same damage activation requirements. Lastly, the 6.25x recovery on a 4 heart match will make stalling a breeze as it is near impossible to accidentally trigger your leader skill.

Happy Puzzling!

10 thoughts on “Chinese Celestial, Sengoku, Mechanical 1, & Mechanical 2 Pantheon Analysis”

  1. Pollux is an amazing sub for Thoria, mainly because after 10 rows(easy for Thoria teams), you have diminished returns, and orb enhances become the priority. Her awakenings actually give you x4 light orb enhance because of the synergy with her active, and also combos well with Raphael, apoc, wukong, and saria. Also, haste. Max skilled and 297ed on my Thoria team for good reason!

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  2. Is there a godfest coming soon with these pantheons or is this only informational? Wondering because I’ve been saving stones and want akechi 🙂

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  3. Great information. Just a little nitpick on Mori
    Neptune Dragon appreciates him for the double haste, that is why he is used at all. Blonia is better in most cases, though
    He is definitely not ideal for Awoken Hermes.
    A.Hermes prefers stats skewed towards RCV. Mori is a physical with high HP, so bad stat distribution. Not to mention the fact that bicolour boards can skew towards one side, so you are left unable to match even two rows sometimes, with no way to fix it.
    Awoken Hermes prefers Summer Urd (or a normal Urd inherited) as the board changer, as he can fix her board, and Gabriel for the burst combo, because he also combos into Hermes for a bicolour board + heart enhance + high RCV

    Mori can be used on an A.Hermes team if you have nothing else, but he is definitely not ideal.
    Hopefully an ultimate brings him more use on other teams!

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    1. Those are great points you made and I adjusted his section accordingly. Some of it was written a month or two ago and newer mechanics/combinations have emerged so it’s always great to receive reader feedback =)

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      1. Great! 🙂
        Looks like Ishida might finally find a use?? with the new ult Kaede. Probably not ideal, but his board change is pretty good for her. Hopefully his ult makes him a bit more useful (after getting second last place in PCGF) lol

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        1. Well he can only get better, cant really go further downhill XD

          He’s like mori but wood is just unpopular. Although dark can use as well for SI but oh well

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