Introduction

7 new split evolutions have been released overnight that breathe significant new life into some older cards. With this article, I wish to explore how these new evolutions fit in the current meta as well as discussing which path you should pursue.

Cards to receive new evolutions:

• Rozuel 
• Ruel 
• Lumiel 
• Nephthys 
• Light Metatron 
• Dark Metatron 
• Amaterasu 

Video commentary

—video goes here—

Split evolutions

Split evolution paths tend to push cards into either a more sub or leader oriented role and are Fantastic overall as it allows you to better customize each card to your liking. Sometimes there is an obvious winner, but there may be times that where you wish to retain the older evoluton. This can occur when new split does not warrant enough benefits or they lose a particular typing/sub element.

 Rozuel

Rozuel was a potent fire sub due to her triple TPA, unbindability, recover bind, and God typing. This granted her flexibility as she could perform the role of both a bind clearer and offensive powerhouse when matching a TPA. In addition, the water typing had merits on rainbow teams and her low base cooldown enabled you to inherit an active of your choice over top.

With her new split evolution, Rozuel gains new viability as she trades her triple TPA for a 7 combo  awakening and two Skill Bind Resists . This can be seen as either a lateral shift or downgrade as the triple TPA adds more damage for combo oriented teams when connecting 4 orbs. However, depending on your team composition, the 7 combo awakening may help bring her more inline with other cards from a damage control perspective. In addition, trading Attacker for Physical typing allows you to use Rozuel on Ame no Uzume  teams.

Fortunately, this form is a dramatic upgrade from a leadership perspective as she is able to form a 2.25x HP / 56.25x ATK / 2.25x RCV team when matching fire and wood orbs. This is quite potent and can be somewhat likened to Dark Athena  in that you are a bi-colour team that has their RCV component tied to activation. Unfortunately, due to the naturally low RCV nature of Physical cards, it will be challenging to sustain yourself. With that being said, there are plenty of powerful and 7 combo oriented Physical cards to draw upon including, but not limited to Leilan , Ame no Uzume , Set , Yamato , Freyr , and Hino . Finally, the no skyfalls clause ensures perfect damage control.

 Ruel

Ruel has been an underutilized card until this new split evolution. Through this new evolution, she mirrors the new Rozuel in her awakenings, except she trades a bind recover for a TPA. This enables her to become significantly more offensive in nature as a TPA with 7c has the potential for amazing burst.

However, Ruel’s main appeal will be her new leadership potential. She is able to form a 2.25x HP / 56.25x ATK / 2.25x RCV team for Attackers when matching wood and dark orbs with a no skyfall clause. While this is very similar to Rozuel’s new leader skill, Ruel is a significant step up due to the readily available Attacker cards with 7 combo awakening and TPA.

Generally speaking, TPA and 7 combo awakenings go hand in hand as you are better able to make use of the board compared to rows. This also means you have the potential for amazing burst damage while having perfect damage control through the no skyfall clause.

Again, we can compare Ruel to Dark Athena, but the lower RCV component, no damage ramp up without wood/dark matches (Dark Athena can kill some floors with just dark  TPA), and fewer base TPA means she is a step down. However, a lesser Dark Athena is still a powerful leader and I will not be surprised to see Ruel’s popularity rising these next few weeks.

 Lumiel

Lumiel has gained popularity for her active skill on Dark Athena and other teams that can make use of her true damage plus board changer. In the past, I have been quite critical of 4-element boards, especially those that do not generate hearts as most teams were unable to generate sufficient damage due to the RNG-nature of the spawned board. However, current teams are becoming Powercreeped to the point where they can deal spectacular amounts of damage with just a single TPA and 7+ combos. This has let me to readjust my stance on these 4-element boards as top tier teams can still deal lethal damage compared to the leaders of the past.

Thus, Lumiel’s active skill has merits, especially for Dark Athena and Kushinadahime  as all four colours will contribute damage while providing a stat-transfer to dark cards. Furthermore, the 100,000 true damage is just icing on the cake as you are able to instantly execute PreDRAs .

I have always preferred poison over true damage for dealing with PreDRAs as you gain a turn to set up the board and can avoid the jammers from Parvati; however, Lumiel can often be seen as the superior choice as you still retain a board changer if it caps out and will not hinder your final floors as you still have a useful active skill.

With all that being said, the new split Lumiel is more favrouable from a stat-transfer point of view due to the +200 HP and +350 ATK. However, her leadership potential is okay despite being a 76.5x ATK / 6.25x RCV leader due to the fact that you must use Attackers and match Fire, Water, Wood, and Dark orbs. Granted the no skyfall clause is a bonus, the sheer amount of effort required for activation will be challenging to justify along with a somewhat restrictive sub pool.

 Nephthys

Nephthys has always been a cute-fan favourite who never excelled in any particular area to gain enough gameplay. This new split evolution attempts to grant her a stronger leader skill, but heavily sacrifices damage for an easy activation requirement. Being able to match any 3/6 elements will always grant you 12.25x ATK, but this is a depressingly low multiplier. Granted you have 2.25x HP/RCV to add significant bulk, you will still have to excessively try to yield sufficient damage, even with 7 combo awakenings. In addition, Nephthys’s base active skill is lackluster overall.

With that being said, the two 7 combo awakenings have the potential to add dramatic burst damage, but it is still hard to use her as a sub. A lack of SBR hinders her usage on solo Dark Athena teams and while the dual 7 combo awakenings are powerful, it can ruin damage control as she will be simply hitting too hard compared to other cards on your team.

 Light Metatron

Light Metatron will jump from zero to relative hero through her new (and pretty) split evolution. Light Metatron has been the butt-end of running jokes for several years as she struggled to find a place within the meta. It did not help that GungHo kept giving her micro, but otherwise underwhelming buffs that never actually helped her. However, this new evolution is quite Fantastic as she can fulfill several new roles.

Naturally, she is still a bind clearing card at heart, but her additional Time Extend and Guard Break awakenings provide significantly more utility. Guard Break enables a rainbow team to ignore an enemy’s defense when matching all 5 colours. This is a wonderful way to deal with PreDRAs as it does force you to bring a true damage/poison active skill provided you have full rainbow coverage.

However, Light Metatron’s new leadership potential is quite exciting as she now becomes a 506.25x ATK / 6.25x RCV leader for God types when matching light crosses. This will feel similar to Aizen  but with a few notable drawbacks. Firstly, Light Metatron’s scaling is quite orb hungry as she only has 6.25x ATK with no cross and a single cross is 56x ATK. Now, 56x may be able to sweep a modest number of floors in Arena provided you have a high combo count, but you may run the risk of insufficient damage. Furthermore, Light Metatron possesses a somewhat redundant active skill as a leader and will be reliant on Skill Inheritance.

In terms of team building, Light Metatron will have a soft spot for Apollo  due to his active, awakenings, and typing. As such, he should be used if possible and you should prioritize subs who have orb changers to ensure a steady flow of light orbs. While it is most advantageous to stack orb enhances , you do have more than enough damage with two light crosses and it is more important to have bring cards with less perfect awakenings and stronger active skills. The 6.25x RCV component with almost no damage output with 0 light crosses facilitates easy stalling and you will have to exercise patience in managing your light orbs and health.

While Light Metatron does have Guard Break, you do not have to go out of your way to create a team that can trigger it due to the fact that you have explosive damage and are able to overcome 10 million defense.

 Dark Metatron

I have always enjoyed using Dark Metatron as the health clause provided another layer of planning and resource management. However, this new split evolution should be made in almost every scenario outside of requiring the water sub attribute or badly needing the 3 Skill Boosts  as she is dropped down to 2 to make room for 7 combo awakening .

The loss of a water sub attribute is not too big of a downside as the additional 153 weighted stats, better awakenings, and amazing leader skill justify the change.

Dark Metatron is now able to form a 2.25x HP/ 81x ATK / 2.25x RCV team that requires you to be below 80% HP along with a no skyfall clause. No skyfalls means you have perfect damage control which is also key to managing your health as you can strategically plan out when you match heart orbs. Furthermore, 81x ATK is a little silly considering you only have to be below 80% to trigger and will result in explosive damage.

2.25x HP / RCV combined with the HP badge will result in an incredibly durable team that nearly hit 82k HP for myself in solo mode. I was able to tank virtually any hit presented and the 11k+ base RCV enabled I could feasibly manage my health without too much stress. However, I can foresee the lack of damage control to be an issue against certain spawns along with having a less than intuitive playstyle as you have to know when to heal and when to remain at low health when transitioning between floors.

I did one quick Arena 3 clear solo off-stream and will hopefully have a recorded run soon.

I am still on the fence about what subs to bring outside of Haku, but I will go out on a limb to say that rows are not really needed. The 7 combo awakening is incredibly powerful when paired with dual TPA cards. Furthermore, enhanced skyfall actives are amazing as you essentially guarantee yourself ample dark orbs the next turn without running the risk of overshooting a damage threshold.

Other cards I strongly considered running where Yomi Dragon  and Eschamali .

 Ameterasu

Ameterasu is the only Reincarnated evolution released today and is a direct upgrade unless you crave the wood sub-attribute. This new evolution provides a stronger leader skill as she is now able to act as a 36x ATK leader when full HP and 9x when below 99% for Healer types while providing 10x RCV heal with every match.

Health threshold leaders will always have issues playing through end game content, but unlike Dark Metatron, Ameterasu will struggle to always maintain the full health clause, especially when preemptives are involved. Granted you have large passive healing every turn along with an on-demand heal, it is still going to be problematic.

With that being said, the additional TPA and double SBR make her a viable sub on a variety of teams when combined with her bind immunity and triple typing.

Conclusion

New evolutions are always an exciting time, especially when it revitalizes older cards back into relvancy. For myself, I will probably be playing around with Dark Metatron for the foreseeable future as I have always enjoyed her playstyle and this new evolution further improves her capabilities.

Which one are you most excited for?

Happy Puzzling!

Mantastic Social Media
Facebook	Twitter	YouTube
Twitch	Discord	Patreon