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.
The Sonias are reknown as the pioneers of bicolour board changers and forming high recovery teams. Due to the nature of their active, they tend to excel on row based teams as you are almost certain to have two unique rows of your primary colour and have the potential to unleash explosive burst damage. On the other hand, Gadius and Typhon have a more utility based active that can generate heart orbs and can be comboed with other orb changers for critical damage. Unfortuantely, only Blue Sonia and Gadius see action in the current meta and the others will remain placeholders for more ideal cards.
Sonias, Gadius, & Typhon |
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| jjjjjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjj | Notes |
Red Sonia Dragon / Devil      —- All    12 turn CD |
Red Sonia (aka Ronia) was once the most popular leader in Puzzle and Dragons as she could be successfully paired with Lu Bu  to form a 1.35x HP / 9x ATK / 2.5x RCV devil team that was capable of clearing all the content PAD had to offer. Then came the rise of rainbow teams and numerous shifts in the meta to find Red Sonia outclassed by other tank leads who grant a larger health and attack multiplier. Furthermore, Red Sonia is off colour when paired with Lu Bu and this hurts your overall damage in the long run. Don’t get me wrong, Red Sonia is still powerful and capable of clearing all the early/mid game content and even has a chance at some harder dungeons, but you will eventually gain better options. She will mostly be used to help you acquire the materials needed for your various awoken evolutions. Sonia has now been buffed to 3.75x ATK (thus Lu Bu plus Sonia is now 11.25x), but this probably not enough to tackle high end content.
Team building Red Sonia is quite straight forward as you have numerous options for devils from both a farmable and REM point of view and your teams may look similar to Awoken Pandora As a sub, Red Sonia has potential on Raoh Overall, Red Sonia is a useful roll and will be an asset for those starting out as she makes the game quite easy. |
Blue Sonia Dragon / Physical    —- All  12 turn CD |
Blue Sonia (aka Blonia) has gone through various waves of popularity since her release as her main diminishing factor was a shallow sub pool. However, her ultimate evolution proved to be a splashing success as she is able to utilize physical and dragon subs along with an increasing her attack multiplier to 14.06x. You also benefit from 6.25x RCV which means you can essentially heal back to full health from minimal heart matching and combos. Furthermore, Blue Sonia has an incredible amount of base HP (5,780 at max level) and her teams will surpass 30k health with proper investment. You should also use your HP Latent Tamadras  on her as they will yield a significant amount of bonus health.
Blue Sonia teams are essentially a tank team that has the highest recovery multiplier and are somewhat immortal provided you can survive each attack. This is further amplified in coop where your naturally high health is further augmented and your sky-high recovery (my team has ~18k from a single heart orb match) allows for easy stalling. If you wish to check out some of my gameplay in coop with Blue Sonia, refer to my previous post in challenge dungeons or Mythic Plus Scarlet. Viable sub options for her team include, but not limited to I&I Blonia teams are capable of clearing almost all the content in Puzzle and Dragons and she is starting to regain popularity as players realize her potential. Looking at Blonia as a sub, she can find a home on I&I Overall, Blue Sonia is a fantastic monster to own and I hope she continues to gain popularity as a leader. Do not sell for 50k Monster Points. Sidenote, I am in love with her art as she combines the colour blue, dragons, and a pretty girl. |
Green Sonia Dragon / Balance   —- All  12 turn CD |
Green Sonia (Gronia) received the same buffs as her prettier and stronger cousin, Blue Sonia and has an amazing 899 weighted stats. Gronia now forms a 14.06x ATK / 6.25x RCV team for both Dragons and Balance types, which should increase her sub pool potential. Unfortunately, her options are less diverse than Blonia as she has less access to rows and fewer damage enhancement options aside from Delgado  who only helps balance types (and has poor stats and awakenings) and the new Jewel Princess Cameo  . Cameo is a much stronger option as she enhances 1.3x based on the number of wood and dark row enhancements. This can lead to spectacular damage and she has respectable awakenings. In addition, Gronia has a healthy access to bind clearing options as she can use Odin  and Ceres  . However, many players do not lead with Green Sonia as her team building is quite frustrating unless you have multiple Perseus  as he is your best access to wood row awakenings.
Green Sonia has powerful sub potential on Sylvie Overall, Green Sonia still feels lacking as her leadership potential is marred by a shallow sub pool and does not seem very exciting for a 6-star godfest exclusive. |
Gadius Dragon / Healer    —- All   + 1 turn haste 10 turn CD |
Gadius has been propelled back into the spotlight with the introduction of Xiang Mei  who is the first of the Four Gentlemen series 300k MP monsters. Xiang Mei has an incredibly restrictive sub pool as she can only use fire healers who do not remove heart orbs. As such, Gadius is an irreplaceable sub due to his powerful active and healer typing. Gadius can also make appearances on other mono fire teams including Awoken Shiva  and Yamato  due to his heart generating active and ability to combo well with numerous other monsters. However, Uriel  has the greatest potential for active pairing as you will create a 50% board of fire and 50% enhanced heart orbs. Gadius can also be utilized as a pseudo bind clearer due to his bind immunity, bind recovery awakening, and active that has a chance to spawn 6+ heart orbs. This is fantastic as you do not need to sacrifice an entire sub slot to a dedicated bind clearer and have access to more firepower. Furthermore, his devil killer awakening is a powerful means to deal 3x more damage to devil type bosses.
Moving away from a sub role, Gadius will become a powerful (and fun to play) leader when his leader skill is buffed to 42.25x ATK as he can capitalize upon numerous fire rows The main downsides to Gadius as a whole are a lack of both skill boost Overall, Gadius is mandatory if you plan on using Xiang Mei, but outside of that, he is more of a novelty/option for mono fire teams. His leadership potential is respectable, but not game breaking in today’s meta. |
Typhon Dragon / Balance   —- All + 1 turn haste 10 turn CD |
Typhon is an often forgotten 6-star godfest exclusive as he does not have a clearly defined role in today’s meta. From a leadership perspective, he is similar to Gadius as he is heart orb reliant and can scale up to 42.25x ATK. However, without a survivability component to his leader skill, he will falter in higher end content. Regardless, he can still form an competent team due to the depth of dark subs available and the synergy they bring. Fantastic subs include, but are not limited to Yomi Dragon  , Pandora  , Akechi  , and any other orb changer that does not remove heart orbs. By stacking numerous dark rows , you can unleash spectacular damage (just think of how hard Pandora hits at 25x). Furthermore, both your leaders are bind immune and this helps alleviate some constraints when team building.
Moving away from a leadership role, you would think Typhon could be a stellar sub as his active is essentially like Haku It is disappointing that 6-star godfest exclusive has limited uses as a sub simply because his typing is wrong and prevents Typhon from being used on the various top tier teams. Hopefully he will either gain a third typing or a new powerful dark leader will emerge. You can still use him as a leader as his scaling multiplier allows for easier activation. But for the most part, just be patient and admire his sculpted abs. |
, Ryune
, Andromeda 
, Typhon may gain more usage as he is a favourable board change for her dark / water requirements. Finally, some argue that with the release of Xin Hua 
Happy Puzzling!
Mantastic Puzzle and Dragons 
So I have read probably every post you have written and I cannot thank you enough for all of the effort you put into this site. I am without a doubt hitting a wall and could use some advice. I’ve mainly used Urd for the better part of 6 months and she struggles to get by most times. I would love a few team suggestions based upon my box. I am open to any and all advice. Thanks in advance
https://www.padherder.com/user/dirkdiggler/monsters/#31,0,31,8191,268435455,0,,0,0,0,eq,0,0,0,0,;boxfav,0
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I am glad you enjoy my content =D
I would strongly suggest switching to Awoken Shiva as your leader as he is essentially a stronger version of Urd. Your team could look like:
Shiva, Urd, and Cao Cao as your core. Sub in Gadius, Leilan, Chiyome, Antares, Ame no Uzume as and Echidna as needed.
If you haven’t already, check out my Shiva Team Building Guide: https://mantasticpad.com/2015/12/05/awoken-shiva-team-building-and-discussion/
In water, you have a Blonia team potentially with Andromeda, I&I, Mori, Skuld, Karin, second Andro, orochi as possible team members. I&I team can use all those plus hatsume or blodin. Lakshmi is just less consistent popular
Blonia videos: https://mantasticpad.com/2016/05/04/video-blue-sonia-vs-challenge-level-9-with-ilsix-and-30-resolve/
I&I/Ryune Guide: https://mantasticpad.com/2016/03/01/awoken-iduanniduanna-and-ryune-team-building-and-discussion-guide/
Wood is not very strong
You have a lot of strong rainbow leaders including Ra, Sakuya, Kali, Yuna, and DQXQ. Choose the one you like most and I can help you accordingly
You have fantastic Awoken Pandora or Awoken Lucifer team potential as you have Zuoh, Claire, Persephone, Akechi, Haku, Eschamali, Loki, dupe Pandora, and Yomi Dragon.
Lucifer team can be: Yomi Dragon, Akechi, Eschamali, Loki and that team can clear arena. Guide: https://mantasticpad.com/2016/03/22/awoken-lucifer-team-building-and-discussion-guide/
Pandora: Zuoh, Akechi, Claire, Pandora/Awoken Persephone and can also clear arena. Guide: https://mantasticpad.com/2016/03/24/awoken-pandora-team-building-and-discussion-guide/
Overall, you have an incredible box to work with (much better dark box than me) and I would put focus into your pandora or lucifer team as they are by far the strongest options
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First off thank you for the nice response, it was very helpful. You mentioned the rainbow leader option and I am game for switching up playing styles. IYO what is the absolute best rainbow team I can make regardless of how hard the leader is to use/activate, and second what is the easiest/laziest rainbow team I could make?
Thanks again.
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I would say Light Kali in both cases. She comes with a built in board refresher and can achieve 56x ATK at only 6 combos with 4 specific colours. She has the best value at the moment
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Hi there. I’ve mostly been following Setsu’s blogthe past years but, decided to migrate over here due to the less cynical atmosphere.
Anyway, I just wanted to point out that Cameo(http://puzzledragonx.com/en/monster.asp?n=2670) is another(and IMO better) enhance option for Gronia.
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Hopefully you are here to stay and enjoy my content =)
That is a very good point! They haven’t been released in NA yet (but very soon) and I overlooked her as I usually scroll through my list of premade icons and haven’t added her yet. Thanks for the heads up and link! Will edit accordingly
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I am sitting on 4 copies of Gadius right now. I’m certainly not a top teir player. but would it be insane to invest in xiang mei? do you consider his active worth inheritance?
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Well Gadius is problematic as his awakenings are missing both SBR and skill boost. This can make it challenging to work around (especially in solo mode). You really need 1-2 Uriel to have Xiang Mei work as Gadius’s active is random.
Skill Inheritance wise, Saria is the superior choice as she creates a tri-colour board and much more likely to have fire orbs (also combos with Uriel for 2/3 fire). You can probably safely sell 1. I am going through SI analysis and other things, but 4 is a bit excessive
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If Typhon was God type or a self loathing devil, he’d probably be the best dark sub ever. You’d be able to use him offensively like A.Haku (even works with all the board fixers) or defensively like Yomidra, and his stats/awakenings place him comfortably on pretty much every team. Even without the proper typing he’s still an OK fit on A.Luci or A.Panda for binds (most dark bind clearers are pretty bad) since they boost dark damage in addition to type stats.
Since GFEs don’t seem to get more than 1 uevo though, I think he’s stuck being mediocre instead of great. Unfortunate, ’cause those abs mmmmm mmmmmm
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I don’t understand GH’s logic, they could have made another monster as popular and sought after (and rare) as Dkali or Eschamali, but instead they don’t want our money.
Being an okay fit is just okay and won’t help you clear the hardest content as you need all the help you can get. Ughhhh I really want to use those abs on Fantastic zzz
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You already have to redo the Red sonia part. Patch op.
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Aiya
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you might have to wait a momnent, Gung-ho is working on their typos
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Everything is fixed now =D
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I think Typhon would have great potential as a sub for the upcoming Awoken Persephone with 2.25x/14x/2.25x when activating Dark/Water combo. Plus his full board change + haste synergizes the whole team and even his awakenings (specifically unbindable and bind clear) makes ups for what A. Persephone lacks. Just thought it was something worth mentioning
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Oh that is a very good point! Her release is hopefully just around the corner too and will update his section accordingly =)
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You could mention Typhon fitting on a Cecil team fairly comfortably. He adds an option for bind clearing, a sbr, and has a TPA to fit with the theme of Cecil teams. His active also makes use of Cecil’s insane healing/general dark orb generation as well as hasting the rest of the team.
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Hi, I am confused on something.
Can Ronia still be used with Lu Bu? Because Marvelous dragon caller sonia’s Leader skill “Dragon & Devil type cards ATK x2.5, RCV x2.5. All attribute cards ATK x1.5 when reaching 6 combos or above.”
Lu Bu is God and Devil. Does that mean Ronia cannot be paired with Lu Bu because her LS only applies to Dragon AND Devil?
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It’s badly worded, her benefit applies to both dragon OR devil so lu bu still receives the full multiplier (dragon and devil types do not get any additional bonus)
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Thanks for the clarification! 🙂
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You are very welcome =)
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I have a dilemma from what you wrote it sounds like gronia would be better as 50k mp than actually building her. I have a. Ra, a. Sakuya, a. Orochi, a. Isis and I was also curious if yomi is worth evo to a. Yomi and if Lucifer or Sherias are worth keeping?
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Gronia teams are nearly non-existent. It is just not as feasible as Blonia due to the type restrictions and less diverse sub pool.
Archangel or Archdemon Lucifer?
Sherias is worth keeping due to the powerful active
Awoken Yomi is a powerful leader who can deal amazing damage. Main downsides are low RCV and bad damage control
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