**All pulls will cost 10 Magic Stones**
Review of the Hunters will be done separately

Introduction

The Monster Hunter Collab is one of the most highly anticipated Collaberations to come to NA/EU as the cards push the envelope of Powercreep along with having stellar artwork.

However, Monster Hunter Collab comes with a higher price tag of 10 Magic Stones per roll along with having distressingly low rates for the top prizes. With that being said, the strongest leader from the Monster Hunter Collab is best when paired with existing Pantheon cards so you don’t technically need to roll him.

Generally speaking, you can measure the overall strength of a Collab by the value the lowest-tier prizes as they will be the most common cards you will acquire when playing as Non/light IAP. As such, you should examine the 5-star rolls as that is most likely what you will be blessed with.

Taken from Padx which was based on 1276 players and 4770 rolls. http://bit.ly/2sLUi8O

This article will review all the monsters featured in the Collab REM while the Male/Female Hunters will be covered in a separate posting.

All of the cards in the Monster Hunter Collab have exceptionally high base stats for their rarity and that is taken into consideration as they have some sort of offset to keep them balanced compared to other REM cards. Finally, all the 5-star cards will sell for 15,000 Monster Points and is tied for the most efficient Magic Stone to MP ratio alongside the Heroine and 10-stone REM.

On the bright side, Monster Hunter will put the Dragons back into Puzzle and Waifus Dragons.

Video commentary

—video coming soon—

Overview

Monster Hunter REM
7 Star base
6 Star base
5 Star base

Monster Hunter Collab Rankings – July 7, 2017
S
A
B
C
D

Order shown is not reflective of ranking and you should only look at the tiers

Regardless of card’s ranking, you should always keep it if it is your very first time acquiring them

S

The best of the best. These cards compromise a best in slot role on top tier teams. They are largely irreplaceable and tend to offer something unique that cannot be easily replicated. This mostly exists to showcase the jump in power between the rest of the cards available.

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A

All of the cards in this tier bring tremendous value to a variety of teams as either leaders, subs, or inherits that are challenging to mimic elsewhere. For example, Green Odin  remains one of the strongest bind clears and only card that can remove 5 turns of awoken skill binds (outside of Odin Dragon ). It may not be paramount to your success, but is well worth owning overall.

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B

This category indicates cards that have value, but are not as widely used/irreplaceable as the above tier(s). While they may make your life easier and still bring an additional layer of power to your team, they are far from necessary. With that being said, some of these cards could hold the key to your own teams as everyone has different tools to work with.

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C

Cards in the question mark category tend to be those that are a luxury and are often not widely used for the average player. With that being said, they may bring niche value to your monster box or provide an additional option to use. A great example of this is Red Odin  who is a premiere button farming option, but with the addition of Red Tamazo , players at least have a “farmable” poison inherit along with the future implementation of Descend inherits.

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D

This category indicates the bottom of the Puzzle and Dragons barrel. These cards tend to have almost minimal value as they simply do not fit in the current meta and are badly in need of a buff or new evolution to give them viability. With that being said, you should still keep them as they technically have the most potential for improvement.

Cards at a glance

7 Star Base

All 7-Star bases will sell for 75,000 but for the love of all that is +297 do not.

 Amatsu – S

Amatsu is one of two 7-star rolls from the Monster Hunter Collab and is simply incredible. Sporting an unbelievable 9,046 HP at max level, 1,250 weighted stats, and some of the best awakenings possible makes him one of the most desirable cards to own in the game. You would want to use Amatsu on nearly every single team as he has 2/3 of what I call the Holy Trinity ( which consists of Guard Break , 7 Combo , and Follow Up Attack ) along with bind immunity.

Amatsu boasts dual 7 Combo awakenings which enables him to deal 4x damage whenever you achieve 7 or more combos along with the rare Follow Up Attack. Follow Up Attack completely trivializes resolve mechanics as you deal 1 true damage after matching a column of heart orbs. Thus, on a 6×5 board, you will lose some space, but still have sufficient room leftover to achieve 7 combos.

Furthermore, Amatsu’s base active skill is able to generate water from dark and heal from wood orbs while simultaneously removing locked orb status on a 8-turn cooldown. While the actual orb change is somewhat problematic for the current top-tier teams, the reasonably low base cooldown will enable you to easily inherit something over top along with having the option to spawn enough heart orbs to trigger the Follow Up Attack or bind recover awakening.

While Amatsu is not a feasible leader, he will be an ideal sub on combo-based teams for his tremendous bulk, Follow Up Attack, and massive damage output. Despite the fact that he is not a healer, he is actually a highly desirable Kushinadahime  sub as the massive HP offsets that multiplier and the dual 7 Combo enables him to deal more damage than a normal Healer would.

All in all, Amatsu pushes the the power of Collab cards to new highs and if you were to Google search Powercreep, you may find a picture of Amatsu waiting. Also, GungHo really wants your Magic Stones.

 Diablos- S

Keeping the trend of amazing Collab Monsters is Diablos as he is one of the most powerful leaders available in the game. However, I want to strongly stress that he functions best when paired with a combo-based friend who possesses a higher multiplier. Thus, you don’t actually need to roll him yourself and can simply piggyback off a friendly friend.

Diablos is able to change the board to 7×6 which grants 12 additional orbs (potentially 14 combos), 8.5x ATK plus 25% damage reduction when achieving 8 combos. Due to the fact that dual 7×6 leaders do not stack and the multiplier is “low” at 72.25x, it is best to pair him with Kushinadahime and Anubis  friends.

These pairings will enable you to not only benefit from the bigger board, but have a sufficiently high multiplier to blast through all the current content along with modest damage reduction when hitting 8 combos. Furthermore, Diablos’s Guard Break and 7 Combo Awakening will help him keep pace along with providing valuable utility. Furthermore, the bind immunity and healthy mix of utility awakenings solidify his position as a top-tier leader.

Perhaps his only downside is the situational active skill. He is able to fully enhance your entire board along with providing 25% true Gravity on a 24 turn cooldown. A true Gravity will deal damage based on the boss’s maximum HP which means you will always remove 1/4 and can potentially kill a low health boss.

True Gravity is ideal for dealing with Resolve spawns as you can more easily cheese your way through (eg. bring a 30% Gravity and then use Diablos to bypass 50% thresholds).

However, I say this active is situational as it is only efficient against Resolve bosses, but with the introduction of Follow Up Attack, gravities are less fashionable along with carrying a 24 turn cooldown which inhibits Skill Inheritance over his base active. This will also make it challenging to use him as a sub despite the well distributed 1,250 weighted stats.

All in all, Diablos is an incredible leader, but you do not need to own him to enjoy all the perks and benefits.

As an afterthought, you must have all 3 players using a 7×6 leader in order to unlock the larger board size in 3-Player coop.

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6 Star base

All 6-Star base cards will sell for 50,000 Monster Points but I highly advise against it.

 Kirin – A

Despite the fact that Kirin is a 6-star base card, they boast an impressive 1,100 weighted stats (easily eclipsing the vast majority of cards available). Unfortunately, they are heavily skewed towards ATK and without any TPA or 7 combo awakenings, it will not actually deal that much damage.

Adding salt to the wound is the actual low viability of Kirin as a sub due to the fact that they only have 5 awakenings and a situational active skill. Being able to generate a row of light orbs at the top is certainly better than the bottom and the +1 combo count is meaningful, but light row teams are falling out of favour. One could argue that you could use Kirin as an inherit to break up Dios boards, but that will only yield 5 combos total without skyfalls.

Perhaps the main saving grace for Kirin is that they function like a light Meridionalis  that is bind immune. However, their active skill is significantly weaker and their multiplier for a single row (6 light orbs) is only 56.25x (vs 100x) which may make it challenging to find a balance between active skill usage and orb management. Furthermore, without the ridiculous number of row awakenings, your damage will fall flat by comparison and there is no full light board maker to use for speed farming purposes. Thankfully, Kirin will be able to achieve 126x ATK with 9 connected orbs which will be sufficient damage to clear virtually any boss.

Overall, Kirin feels flat when compared to Meridionalis as you will struggle to generate as much damage from a single row, but the bind immunity is a major selling point along with the no skyfall clause.

 Rathalos – B

Rathalos also features 1,100 weighted stats but may be challenging to use efficiently due to the measly 5 awakenings. Rathalos is capable of spawning 6 fire orbs at random along with enhancing them, but mono fire teams generally want to have a higher impact active skill.

An average board will have 5 of each element, but single fire orb changers tend to have either a secondary function or are used in conjunction with a board changer. Thus, it will be challenging to use Rathalos’s active skill efficiently despite the orb enhancing component as Sanada  exists and is far more accessible.

As a leader, Rathalos will provide 43.75% damage reduction and 6.25x ATK, but you have to match 3 fire combos which is far too orb hungry for a defensive (and tiny offensive) multiplier. Furthermore, you require a 5o1e for maximum 156.25x ATK. Thus, you require 11 fire orbs to achieve his full potential which is not feasible overall.

However, Rathalos’s saving grace is 5 relevant awakenings and a modestly low base cooldown so he may still see some sub usage.

 Glavenus – B

Glavenus has an outstanding 1,180 weighted stats that is heavily skewed towards HP and ATK along with favourable awakenings. Any card that features the Follow Up Attack  has significant value at this point in time due to its scarcity and ease in which is deals with Resolve bosses. Furthermore, the generous Time Extends help ensure you make sufficient combos.

His active skill is geared towards forming Fire crosses as it spawns a column of fire orbs in the 2nd column from the right. This is fantastic for himself as a leader, but makes him a lackluster orb changing sub/inherit. Furthermore, the 2x ATK for Dragon & Attackers is not synergistic for his own team as you should be dealing spectacular damage already and simply adds excessive turns to the cooldown.

As a leader, Glavenus utilizes a colour cross playstyle for fire and dark orbs along with a flat RCV and ATK multiplier for Dragons and Attackers. Unfortunately, colour crosses may boast massive damage output, but are modestly orb hungry along difficulty in overcoming combo shields with even just 2 crosses. 2 crosses will yield 324x ATK for Dragons and Attackers which will be sufficient to sweep the vast majority of content. However, the leader skill is still restrictive overall and lacks an ideal 7×6 leader to facilitate easier crosses.

All in all, Galvenus is just a bit too awkward to really utilize well and his main shining feature is his Follow Up Attack.

 Mizutsune – C

Boasts the typical 1,100 weighted stats for the Monster Hunter Collab, but places an amazing emphasis on RCV that is further compounded by their coop boost  awakening that adds an additional 50% more stats in multiplayer.

Unfortunately, Mizutsune does not fit well in this current meta as water teams tend to be on the higher RCV side (through leader skills) and while their active is unique, does not present enough value to be used in the majority of situations. Mizutsune is able to improve your team’s RCV by 3x for 6 turns along with 6 turns of heal orb skyfalls. This in theory makes you somewhat immortal provided hearts exist and you can survive the incoming attack. Sadly, this style of surviving tends to be less efficient compared to a delay or shield.

In addition, the leadership potential of Mizutsune is one of the most underwhelming as the multiplier is too low and the typing restriction further diminish their potential.

 Valphalk – B

Valphalk will feel akin to a Light Kali  that has a true damage component. Sadly, Light Kali style actives are one of the worst in this current meta due to the exclusion of heart orbs. Even if a rainbow team does not require heart orbs (which most do) to activate, being unable to heal while dealing damage is a major setback. As such, Valphalk may be condemned to a true damage role which is easily replaceable, albeit Valphalk provides the most stat transfer.

As a leader, Valphalk is interesting as they can achieve 4x HP / 400x ATK for Dragon types when matching Fire, Water, Wood, Light, and Dark orbs. However, you given a fixed 4 seconds to match orbs which could prove to be problematic. While you don’t always need to pursue a full dragon team (400x should be enough on a few cards), the lack of RCV coupled with no movement time may be off-putting.

As such, Valphalk may succeed in shorter dungeons that do not have long/drawn out encounters as stalling will be a challenge. Just make sure you plan and execute your matches each turn.

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5 star bases

All 5-star rolls can be sold for 15,000 Monster Points while also having over 1,000 weighted stats.

 Rathian – B

Rathian comes ready to use with 1,069 weighted stats and a very powerful active skill. He is able to provide poison damage along with two turns of delay on a 12-turn cooldown. This will enable you deal with resolve encounters that do not have a status void (through both the poison and delay), high defense spawns like PreDRAs and dangerous encounters that can be delayed. Furthermore, the massive weighted stats will be welcomed on your mono-wood cards.

However, Rathian does not have much usage outside of a situational inherit as his leader skill is far too orb hungry to be efficient

 Tigrex – B

Like all the other cards featured in the Monster Hunter Collab, Tigrex also has exceptionally high weighted stats for their rarity and ferocious artwork. However, Tigrex’s active skill is questionable at best due to the fact that they produce a board of fire, wood, and jammer orbs. While I have never been a fan of the Jammer meta, it does technically exist and teams such as Fenrir Viz  do have the potential to clear end game content, albeit with more effort compared to “normal” teams. Sadly, Tigrex’s active does not benefit Fenrir Viz’s team due to the exclusion of light orbs (and no devil typing on himself). However, Tigrex will have tremendous application on the future split evo Denebola teams.

Outside of the Jammer meta, if you possess a jammer to fire/wood orb changer you can abuse Tigrex’s exceptionally low base cooldown. Full board changers that produce 3 elements (let’s count jammers as an element) never come with a 7 turn cooldown and in theory lines up with Antares  and Spica’s  active skill. This combo can produce a 2/3 optimal board for their respective colour every 7 turns which may have applications in certain scenarios. Furthermore, Tigrex’s awakenings are meaningful on mono fire teams if you are lacking enhanced orb awakenings.

 Nargacuga – C

Nargacuga is able to provide a single turn of haste along with a the ability to spawn a column of dark orbs on a 7 turn cooldown. This alone is reasonably strong value for an active skill; however, the dark orbs are spawned in the second from the left column which greatly diminishes their value as you will be hard pressed to make sufficient combos due to the spacing. This type of positional spawning is ideal for cross teams as it is much easier to form your required pattern, but will take additional time to optimally match for traditional teams.

As such, it will be challenging to fully utilize Nargacuga on teams outside of Aizen . On Aizen teams, Nargacuga will provide ample stats along with the vital RCV component due to the water sub typing.

Despite owning Guard Break , Nargacuga may be hard pressed to find ideal coloured teammates to activate as he does not provide a unique colour.

 Gammoth – C

Gammoth is heavily skewed towards HP which is fantastic for helping you reach specific health thresholds. Unfortunately, their active skill leaves much to be desired as randomly spawning water, wood, and dark orbs has little merit in this current meta. Perhaps utilizing Karin  as a leader pairing could work, but that is scraping the bottom pretty hard.

However, the single turn of delay may have value in some scenarios, and the generated orbs may be useful if you can combo with another orb changer.

 Astalos – B

Astalos has an amazing 2,699 ATK combined with three TPA awakenings. This will lead to spectacular burst damage along with having a meaningful active skill. Astalos is able to provide 2 turns of delay along with 2 turns of enhanced light skyfalls. All of this synergies beautifully with mono-light teams. Unfortunately, mono light teams are in short supply and Astalos would have been amazing on Myr  teams if released 8 months ago when she was at her peak.

Regardless, having two meaningful components to an active skill along with amazingly high burst damage potential cannot be overlooked.

Conclusion

The Monster Hunter Collab puts the Dragons back into Puzzle and Dragons at the cost of 10 Magic Stone per pull. Despite the fact that that both 7-star cards are unbelievably powerful, there is low value throughout the rest of the Collab.

Most of the active skills are mediocre and the lack of awakenings may regulate certain cards to stat-heavy inherits. Furthermore, you do not actually need to own Diablos  to take advantage of his amazing leadership potential and can simply piggyback off a friend instead.

However, all of their art is Fantastic and that may be justification enough to roll along with the allure of Amatsu 

Happy Puzzling!

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