Introduction

Due to the popularity of my previous Japan Stream review, I thought I should continue this trend and pen down my thoughts on up and coming content. I enjoy writing these types of posts as it gives me a chance to condense my thoughts along with not being overly time consuming.

There was other content released (such as a modest buff to Ryune) along with small quality of life changes, but this article will focus on the new evolutions.

JP has always received content in a timely manner while NA has historically had inconsistent release dates. Thus, I cannot predict when these will be released, but a good guideline is 1-2 months. You can view this in a positive manner as we are able to prep/observe how the new changes will impact the meta.

You can read more about the JP Stream through puzzledragonx.

Video commentary

–video goes here–

New evolutions

Split Ultimate Odin Dragon

Odin Dragon has historically been somewhat of a joke in the PAD community upon his initial release due to how underwhelming he was. Granted he does make for essentially the strongest bind clear for wood teams, the 300,000 Monster Point price tag was hard to swallow and now with Reincarnated evolutions catching up in base stats, there was no real need to purchase him.

As such, “Offensive” Odin Dragon was born. Offensive may refer to his hideous artwork, but is better used to describe his now attack-oriented leader skill.

In addition to removing the excessive number of auto heal awakenings (which now heal 800 HP per turn), Offensive Odin Dragon has gained a colour cross leader skill.

His new leader skill is 3.5x ATK for each wood or light cross along with healing 10x his own RCV after matching orbs. This translates into an outrageous 1,838x ATK for dual Odin Dragon leaders when matching 3 crosses (which is the maximum in a 6×5 board). Furthermore, you will also be benefiting from 20,940 auto healing with every orb match from dual +297 leaders. While 3 crosses is challenging to form, you can still benefit from 150x ATK with 2.

This kind of spike damage is enough to easily pierce through the 10 million defense PreDRAs  along with having the sustain to survive in challenging content along with having bind immune leaders. As such, the major downside to Odin Dragon will be a lack of HP and will be heavily reliant on shields/damage mitigation to survive along with having a lackluster active skill.

Looking at Odin Dragon’s awakenings, it somewhat baffles my mind that a 7-combo  awakening is stuck on him. It is already challenging to hit 7 combos with a single cross, and nearly impossible (or is impossible?) with two. As such, I feel that this is a waste for the most part as he actually did not not need additional damage. Perhaps this was done to improve his viability as a sub?

Overall, I foresee Offensive Odin Dragon becoming a powerful leader and he does bring a new twist on the colour cross meta through his bind immunity and passive autohealing. However, I feel that Aizen  will still be superior due to the unconditional 36x and stronger base active skill.

Egyptian 2 evolutions

The Egyptian 2 pantheon is in desperate need for buffs as they are somewhat at the bottom of the meta presently speaking. These new evolutions attempt to remedy this by providing a stronger leader skill along with the 7 combo  awakening which allows them to deal 2x damage when achieving 7 combos or more.

Overall, I feel that while this is largely an upgrade for the most part, we need more cards with 7 combo  awakening to truly benefit/capitalize on this new mechanic.

None of these evolutions change their current active skill as this is not an awoken evolution.

Nut

Nut  was occasionally used as a niche sub on mono water teams for her four orb enhances , dual TPA , and 4-turn cooldown that allowed for easy inheritance. She was never exceptionally popular and her new ultimate is attempting to breathe life back into her.

Her leader skill has been buffed to 2.25x HP / 25x ATK / 2.25x RCV for water cards when reaching 7+ combos. This is be no means an overpowering multiplier and would only be situationally used.

As such, I feel B/G Nut would be use as a sub in a manner similar to her alternate evolution. However, with the inclusion of the 7 combo  awakening, Nut has the potential to deal 2x damage on a whim. This can lead to wonderful burst damage on a higher multiplier team when combined with her TPA awakenings.

Lastly, I want to point out Nut has the highly desirable Water/Wood attributes. This could make her a budget Isis  sub on Ra Dragon  as she also shares a low base cooldown and you can simply avoid the 7 combo awakening if concerned about damage control. While Nut does have more offensive awakenings than Isis, her lack of bind immunity could become problematic, thus the word budget.

Osiris

Like Nut, Osiris was a used as a situational sub on mono wood teams, but this was mostly because Vishnu  eclipsed him in nearly every regard. In addition to gaining the 7 combo awakening, Osiris has also upgraded to a dark Medjedra.

However, what is most exciting about G/D Osris is his revamped leader skill. Osiris is now able to form a 2.25x HP / 42.25x ATK / 2.25x RCV team. There is a caveat of the number of combos required as it only says 6+ for now with a scaling component.

This kind of multiplier is similar to Krishna , but with a less restrictive activation component (from at least a wood/fire orb perspective). As such, I feel that this shifts Osiris more towards a tankier Shiva  playstyle. In addition, wood has a wonderful array of TPA oriented cards and will be able to form a powerful team.

Osiris may not be able to clear as much content as other end game leaders due to a vulnerability to binds and “low” damage multiplier, but he will certainly be able to come very close provided his scaling is not at 9 combos.

Hathor

Hathor was released a time when the rainbow meta was completely overhauled by Awoken Ra  and Ra Dragon  and was never able to actually take off. This is a shame because she had so much potential, but her timing was wrong and she just wasn’t quite powerful enough to make a splash.

Her new evolution revamps her leader skill into 2.25x HP / 36x ATK / 2.25x RCV for light cards and still feels flat, even if it was released 1 year ago. Perhaps her saving grace is the dual 7 combo awakenings which will provide her with 4x ATK when achieving 7 or more combos. This will automatically propel her damage 144x (putting her on par with Ra Dragon), but the rest of her team will be hitting like a limp piece of tissue by comparison.

One could argue that the 7 combo awakening is a way to help control damage, but you badly need other cards with the same awakening in order to have sufficient output for end game content. As such, I feel she may be positioned somewhat well if future cards/evolutions begin to feature the 7 combo awakening.

However, with her potential to deal 4x ATK against any boss with 7 combos, she may gain more value as a sub. Presently speaking, this has the most applications on a New Year’s Yomi , but that could change in the future along with having the potential to utilize her 25% gravity to bypass resolves.

Reincarnated Indian 1

Indra and Vritra already have existing Awoken evolutions and these reincarnated forms augment their leadership potential along with improving their base stats.

Both Indra and Vritra gained a Time Extend  awakening. It is also worth noting that Vritra’s God Killer was placed at the end in order to give you the option of not using it while still gaining the Time Extend.

Indra & Vritra

Indra has been widely regarded as the strongest shielding option in his non-awoken forms as he provides 75% damage reduction for 3 turns. This acts as a key inherit when progressing through end game content and many players are loathe to make the switch.

As such, GungHo is trying to make his awoken/reincarnated form more appealing by providing a revamped leader skill and amazing art. In addition, Indra regains his God typing and would allow him to once again be used as a Ra Dragon  sub.

Reincarnated Indra is now able to form a 7x ATK / 2x RCV on his own for Dragon and Physical types when matching Light and Dark combos. I want to stress that those numbers are by himself as you may find value in pairing with the new Vritra to form a 2x HP / 49x ATK / 2x RCV Dragon team when matching dark and light combos.

Now this team has some limitations, most notably the split nature of your damage in that one card will always be the “wrong” colour. It may feel like a small nitpick, but when trying to choose which leader/team to invest in, you want to maximize your potential in every way possible.

Using either Indra or Vritra with a duplicate leader will lead to a more awkward team as you will either have too much HP or RCV along with a base active skill that is not needed twice.

However, Vritra may still be a viable pairing with Nobunaga  as the improved leader skill helps provide a much higher damage base and Nobunaga provides the needed recovery.

Conclusion

The Offensive Odin Dragon is an exciting addition to Puzzle and Dragons as he provides a new twist on colour cross teams through his passive autoheal.

However, the other new evolutions only feel alright. They are not gamebreaking by any means and the inclusion of the 7 combo awakening is most likely paving the way for the next progression in damage augmentation. In order for it to become successful/more popular, we need more cards in order to fully capitalize on the potential for higher, controllable damage.

Which new evolutions are you most excited about?

Happy Puzzling!