Summer PAD Academy REM Analysis and Review

Introduction & Overview

School’s out and summer is in full swing. Does that mean beaches, sunshine, and lazy afternoons? Maybe for most people, but we have Puzzle and Dragons to play! Furthermore, GungHo is spoiling us with some of our favourite characters dressed up in fancy school girl/boy uniforms. The Summer PAD Academy REM features a diverse array of cards that are not only pleasing to the eye, but powerful as well.

Summer PAD Academy REM
 8 Star base Summer Kali Summer Sakuya
 7 Star base Summer Athena Summer Lucifer Summer Isis
 5 Star base Summer Sasuke Summer Theurgia
 4 Star base 2816 Summer Snowwhite Summer Thumbelina Summer Cinderella Summer Sleeping Beauty

8 Star Rolls

jjjjjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjj  Notes
 Kali
Summer Kali
God / Healer
Skill Boost Skill Lock Resist Time Extend
Wood Row Skill Boost Time Extend
Bind Immune Bind Immune Wood Row
8 star base
—-
All Arrow Fire Water Green Light Dark Heart
7 turn CD
—-
4x ATK when 4 colour attack. 4.5x with 5. 2-2.5x ATK clearing 5+ wood orbs
126.56x ATK
Kali is one of the most popular monsters in Puzzle and Dragons and it comes as no surprise that she is top roll from the PAD Academy Rare Egg Machine. What sets this studious Kali apart from her GFE cousins are her wood typing and potential to reach 126.56x ATK when matching all 5 colours and a wood row. Granted this can be a challenging task to achieve, but her output is somewhat unrivalled and will feel similar to Lightning Lightning in play style. One key factor that sets Librarian Kali apart from Lightning is the significantly more powerful and diverse awakenings. With bind immunity and ample time extends, you should be able to trigger your leader skill while not having to prioritise a bind clear for preemptive leader binds.

When team building, you have to keep in mind that the only kind of orb changers you can bring are heart breakers (if you want full activation) and you will require careful planning and orb management to ensure you can trigger a row and 4+ colours.

Outside of a leadership role, Librarian Kali is a fantastic sub on rainbow teams and is capable of covering what is normally two awkward colours for light based teams. Unfortunately, she does not cover the awkward fire element for Ra Dragon Ra Dragon and would require you to have a least one Dark Kali Dark Kali present. Lastly, you are able to utilise her for Skill Inheritance as everyone loves a Dark Kali style board refresh.

Overall, book-loving Kali is a fantastic, albeit rare roll from the Pad Academy REM. She is equally potent as a lead, sub, or assistant through Skill Inheritance.

Sakuya
Summer Sakuya
Dragon / Balance / Machine
Bind Clear awakening Jammer Resist Blind Resist
Skill Lock Resist Poison resist Skill Boost
TPA TPA Time Extend
8 star base
—-
20% Gravity
10 turn CD

5x ATK match R/B/G/L. 1.2x ATK at 6 combos, scales up to 2x at 10
100x ATK
With the introduction of Sakuya’s n^x form, we now have a chance to utilise a 100x rainbow water leader. Unfortunately, most of the top rainbow subs are light based (such as Light Kali Kali) and finding water based cards that bring utility may be challenging. Therefore, you may be forced to dilute your damage output by bringing a true rainbow team that is a melange of all the different colours. Team building constraints aside, Guitar-wielding Sakuya is capable of achieving 100x ATK when triggering your 4 colours and 10 combos. 10 combos is quite unrealistic and you are most likely going to achieve 7-8 on a good day (49x-64x). Yes, it is a potential 64x ATK, but your team is most likely a wide array of colours and you may still feel you do not hit hard enough.

Comparing the musically-inclined Sakuya to her Awoken sister Sakuya, it becomes apparent that the Awoken form is superior. Not only is the Pad Academy Sakuya susceptible to binds, you do not have the bind clearing component of the active. Granted you do have double TPA TPA, but you cannot deal damage if you are bound. Thus, you will need to carefully plan around dungeons with binds.

Branching away from a leadership role, Music Club Sakuya does provide utility for mono water teams via her gravity. Gravity can be used to help bypass resolve mechanics or push bosses into more favourable health thresholds. Situational usage, but something worth considering.

Overall, Music Club Sakuya is an okay card from the Pad Academy REM provided you do not own her Awoken form. She may be more of a collectors item or for those who have a love for all things Sakuya. Lastly, what should her music band be named? Chinese Five Spice? Rice Girls? You decide.

7 Star Rolls

jjjjjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjj  Notes
Athena
Summer Athena
God / Healer / Attacker
TPA TPA TPA
Skill Boost Skill Lock Resist Wood Row
Wood Row Bind Immune Bind Immune
7 star base
—-
Enhance light and wood orbs
5 turn CD
—-
1.5x HP / 3x ATK Wood Attribute. 1.5x RCV when skill is used
2.25x HP / 9x ATK / 2.25x RCV
Class Monitor Athena is ready to dish out some discipline…to the dungeon bosses! Sporting an astounding 3 TPA TPA awakenings and 2,005 base attack, you are able to hit incredible damage values and easily pierce through the the most formidable defences. To further enhance the deal, you are able to choose whether she is wearing glasses or not with her ultimate evolution (I prefer the glasses). Furthermore, her wood typing grants her access to the numerous wood TPA cards as either a sub or lead.

If used as a lead, Schoolgirl Athena is capable of forming a modest 2.25x HP / 9x ATK / 2.25x RCV team. Even with unbindable leaders, a 9x damage team may struggle unless you prioritise row Wood Rowenhances and could play like a pseudo Sylvie Sylvie Freyja Awoken Freyja team. Unfortunately, you must use an active skill to trigger the RCV component which is counter intuitive for tank/grind style teams. However, if you feel you can work around this problem, you are able to deal reasonably high damage when stacking orb change actives and enhances. And speaking of enhances, you will most likely not need dual Athena actives and she makes a great candidate as a base for Skill Inheritance. With only a 5 turn cooldown, you can safely inherit an active of your choice to help combat the various dungeon mechanics.

When using glasses or non-glasses Athena as a sub, you are able to capitalise on her bind immunity as a base for bind clearing via skill inheritance. Compared to other bind clearing options or bind immune cards, Athena has amazing offensive awakenings and nearly 900 weighted stats. This will help alleviate some of the reduced damage that comes with a bind clearer and allows Athena to be used on virtually every mono wood team.

Overall, Sincere Class Monitor Athena is a phenomenal card to own. Her incredible offensive potential combined with her bind immunity allows her to be used on nearly every wood team.

Lucifer
Summer Lucifer
God / Attacker / Devil
TPA Skill Boost Skill Lock Resist
Auto heal TPA Skill Boost
Auto heal Auto heal TPA
7 star base
—-
200x Dark ATK on 1 enemy. Reset HP to 1.
Question Orb Arrow Heart
7 turn CD

2x HP & RCV, 1.35x ATK for light attribute. 1.5x ATK light attribute when skill used
4x HP / 4.1x ATK / 4x RCV
Student Council President has clearly won over enough hearts to get himself elected. Maybe it has something to do with his heart generating active, but nevertheless, we now have access to a light-based Lucifer who is on-par with his regular REM cousin Lucifer. I largely dismissed the REM Lucifer in my previous analysis as his active is quite underwhelming and TPA awakenings are less ideal on dark teams compared to rows Dark row. However, with the introduction of Skill Inheritance, you may be able to make more use of either Lucifer provided they are max skilled.

President Lucifer is capable of forming a 4x to all stat tank team which is nearly un-killable as you will most likely have around 100k HP and amazing base recovery. Granted it will be a very slow process, but you can bring gravities and various orb changers and enhancers to hasten the process. Unfortunately, Lucifer can be bound which is his main weakness as you will lose all your durability and most likely die on the next turn unless you can quickly clear the binds. What will most likely limit you from using President Lucifer as a lead will be a combination of finding friends and the patience required to use as dungeons will be very slow to clear.

Outside of a leadership role, Lucifer will be an alright sub that desperately needs to inherit an active to have more viability. This is because he shares the same active as the REM version and has the potential to override light orbs. To make matter worse, most light teams are row Light Row based and President Lucifer will be providing very little benefit through his awakenings.

Overall, Student Council President Lucifer is a lacklustre roll from the PAD Academy REM. He could have had more potential if he had received an ultimate evolution like Athena did, but most likely the only leader role this president will play is a cheer leader from your monster box role. At least he has dreamy hair.

Isis
Summer Isis
Healer / Attacker
blue + orb TPA Skill Boost
Bind Immune Bind Immune blue + orb
Time ExtendSkill Lock Resist
6 star base
—-
5x RCV heal. 2 turn bind clear
3 turn CD
3x ATK 

3x ATK match 3 colours. 4x when 5 colours. 1.5x HP & ATK for healers & attackers
2.25x HP / 36x ATK
Beautiful and Intelligent Scholarship Student Isis is a mouthful to say and she is probably less modest than the most bombastic person you know. The artist who designed her card was quite GungHo about creating a memorable monster with fantastic detail as she has a little plus egg on her laptop where the Apple logo should be. Looks aside, Isis is an interesting monster who shares the same active as her non-Awoken REM form. At max level, she will restore around 3,365 health which will feel paltry compared to other healing actives, but at least it is on a 3-turn cooldown.

Scholarship Isis forms a modest 2.25x HP / 36x ATK (1.69x HP / 27.04x ATK / 1.69x RCV in other form) rainbow team when utilizing healer or attacker subs. 36x damage for a rainbow team is okay, but the HP multiplier along with naturally high recovery of healers should help compensate and form a durable team. Sadly, you will probably not see many players leading with her outside of early-mid game accounts as you will gain access to stronger leads later on. However, her main purpose is to act as a bind immune, bind clearer for both rainbow and mono water teams. Unfortunately, the lack of god typing makes her less ideal than Awoken Isis Isis and covering dark is less needed for rainbow teams than wood.

Despite all these negative drawbacks, intellectually-inclined Isis makes a great candidate as a base for skill inheritance. With only a 3 turn cooldown, you are able to easily inherit an active to counter various dungeon mechanics while retaining the option of bind removal.

Overall, school-savvy Isis is a reasonable roll from the PAD Academy REM. She will be a fantastic early game roll and can transition into a wonderful base for Skill Inheritance late game.

5 Star Rolls

jjjjjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjj  Notes
Sasuke
Summer Sasuke
Attacker / Devil
TPA Water Row Skill Boost
Skill Boost Dragon Killer Skill Lock Resist
5 star base
—-
Light Arrow Water
5 turn CD
—-
Newspaper Club’s Reporter Sarutobi Sasuke is a golden roll from the PAD Academy REM and their defining feature is a unique orb changer. Unfortunately, they cannot be combo-ed with any water based card and you would have to dig deep into skill inheritance to produce a 2/3 water board. To the best of my knowledge, only Superman 2824‘s active can be used in conjunction and this is quite impractical due to his rarity. As such, you would probably be using the other ninja equivalent in Hatsume Hatsume as their orb changer can be used with numerous water board changers.

It is disappointing that Sasuke cannot abuse their unique orb changer as their awakenings are reasonably powerful for a 5-star Collab roll. However, you can utilise their wood typing on Skuld Skuld ult evo teams and attacker component for You Yu You Yu.

Overall, Sasuke is a lackluster roll from the Pad Academy REM and someone should deliver the news to GungHo that Sasuke needs an update.

Theurgia
Summer Theurgia
Attacker / Devil
Enhnaced Fire Orb Enhnaced Fire Orb Enhanced Wood Orb
Enhanced Wood Orb Enhnaced Fire Orb Enhnaced Fire Orb
Enhnaced Fire Orb Skill Boost Skill Lock Resist
5 star base
—-
Question Orb Arrow Fire
Fire Arrow Enhnaced Fire Orb
4 turn CD
It is a shame that a monster who has such hot awakenings is regulated to a 5-star base. This puts a damper on their base stats and the selection of using a descend boss’s active is interesting. Regardless, Theurgia is a surprisingly powerful golden egg to come out of the PAD Academy REM. The 5 fire orb enhances Enhnaced Fire Orb allow Therugia to rival Eschamali Eschamali, but with a less powerful active. Even without rows or TPA, Therugia can make an appearance on most mono fire teams as the additional damage gained through enhanced orbs justifies their sub slot. In addition, their Attacker / Devil typing allows them to be used on Raoh Raoh teams.

Looking at Theurgia’s active, it can be used as a quick damage source as well as helping correct other orb changer actives to hit a specific number of fire orbs for an additional row or TPA match. The main drawback is no enhanced skyfall component to better take advantage of the enhanced fire orbs.However, with only a 4 turn cooldown, you can use them as a base for a more synergistic active as a means to take advantage of their numerous fire orb enhances.

Overall, Theurgia is a strong roll from the PAD Academy REM, but their main downsides are a lack of top tier fire teams and not being a pretty girl.

4 Star Rolls

The five remaining cards in the PAD Academy REM consist of pretty schoolgirl outfits for the fairy tale girls: Red Riding Hood2816, Snow White Summer Snowwhite, Thumbelina Summer Thumbelina, Cinderella Summer Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty Summer Sleeping Beauty. Unfortunately, they are all stuck in their 4 star form and cannot be utilised for Skill Inheritance as an assistant. Their actives have also been adjusted to reflect their Collab status and now clear two turns of binds and deal 99 true damage to a single enemy. This can be quite valuable when dealing with 10 million defence PreDRAs Fire PreDRA, but you have to keep in mind that you are only able to execute one of them. However, you are able to use these five lovely ladies as a bind clearing sub on their respective mono-colour teams and inherit a different active onto them so you have an option for more utility. However, there are two standout candidates: Red Riding Hood for Xiang Mei Xiang Mei and Sleeping Beauty for Awoken Pandora Awoken Pandora teams.

Conclusion

The PAD Academy Collab REM will hopefully get you in the mood for summer and revive a love for school uniforms. The rolls are varied and are more heavily skewed towards the looks department than overall practicality. Nevertheless, nearly all of them are pretty girls and fits wonderfully well with the Puzzle and Waifus theme. What do you hope to roll and how many stones have you saved?

Happy Puzzling!

15 thoughts on “Summer PAD Academy REM Analysis and Review”

  1. Already pulled Isis and Athena last year. Setting my sights low and rolling for Sasuke and Snow White this time around. I do wish they had just straight up flipped Sasuke active from Water>Wood to Wood>Water instead of giving him this random Light orb-change. Let’s just hope I have better luck here than FF where it took me 23 rolls to pick up Y’shtola.

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      1. I can’t remember exactly how many but, I would estimate somewhere in the 30-40 range. Isis came out early, pull number three if I remember correctly. Athena, who had been my goal that time around, forced me into buying two 85 stone packs. Suffice to say, I’m rather glad she got such good buffs this year.

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        1. Yeah Athena is quite powerful card now considering she can abuse SI and her bind immunity for some fun combinations. Sasuke and Snow White should be popping out relatively easily and hopefully does not take too many rolls =)

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  2. Yeah, Athena’s unbindability and relatively short cooldown makes her a pretty good candidate for SI. I’m considering putting Awoken Ceres’ skill on her to make her a bind clearer with more offensive awakenings. But I could also try Earth Dragon Knight’s active. Same CD plus it makes wood orbs. However heartbreaking is probably not ideal for a stall team as I will be using her on my Freyja team.

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    1. You should mix and match as needed. You may need the additional wood orbs after the bind clear or you could benefit from the large max% HP heal. I would cater to the dungeon needs. Regardless, either choice is great and Athena is a wonderful base

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  3. 3 packs later and I got everyone except for my waifu D.Kali…T_T… I’m pretty stoked for Athena (glasses all the way) but the rest are just pretty cards.

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