Introduction

The Monster Point currency system was designed to help alleviate the frustration of rolling duplicate cards as they could then be sold off for a varying amount of Monster Points. As a result, players could save up over time along with farming Rogue dungeons to purchase a powerful monster.

However, each purchase requires a sizable amount of Monster Points and you do not wish to have your card become outdated via Powercreep.

This article will take a look at all the current Monster Point cards along with how they fit in the meta and their potency moving forward.

Video commentary

–video coming soon–

JP server

The JP server in Puzzle and Dragons is approximately 2-3 months ahead of NA/EU in terms of released content. Thus, we are able to “see the future” by following the news stream from JP. As a result, we are able to better position ourselves in terms of future purchase decisions and evolution material farming.

With this in mind, I will be using any knowledge currently available in JP for the purpose of this article and my recommendations.

What is in the meta now

Presently speaking, the current PAD meta revolves around two distinct playstyles: combos/7×6 and bi-combo teams. Both these styles are able to achieve amazing levels of damage while being able to capitalize on the most powerful awakenings.

Combos and 7×6

Combo based leaders are viewed as a high skill cap team as you are required to match the majority of the board to deal sufficient damage. Historically, it was quite difficult to hit 8 combos on a regular basis due to a lack of time extends  and solo mode badges. However, we now have powerful cards who possess multiple time extends as well as Diablos .

Diablos is responsible for some of the fastest levels of Powercreep in Puzzle and Dragons due to creating a 7×6 board and having an 8.5x ATK multiplier and damage mitigation component. Prior to Diablos, the other 7×6 leaders had trivial amounts of damage let alone a shield.

7×6 is so powerful because it gives you an additional 12 orbs to work with which results in a much easier time hitting a higher combo count. From a 6×5 board, you are given on average 7-8 combos and if using a combo-based leader, you may struggle to hit your maximum damage on a consistent basis. As a result, the larger board offers you an added layer of consistency as you can feasibly hit 10 combos each turn which fulfills the maximum multiplier for almost every leader.

This has led to the infamous pairing of Anubis  and Diablos as you can always hit your minimum 8 combo threshold for your rapidly scaling multiplier.

Bi-combo teams

Presently speaking, Yog  and Kami  are both rapidly scaling health conditional leaders who only have to match 2 combos. These two combos results in an outrageously high multiplier and enables them to sweep through end game content with relative ease. Of course they are better suited towards shorter dungeons where you can readily use actives and stay above 80% but are still capable of longer content with careful planning.

In addition, these two teams are able to beautifully capitalize on Box  as the clump of orbs and subsequently lower combo count does not negatively impact their full multiplier. Furthermore, leaders such as Ameno  can perform in a similar manner but can have more consistency due to no health clause.

Holy Trinity of awakenings

Awakenings are another way monsters provide value to your team and is often one of the determining factors as to whether or not you wish to use them as a sub.

Presently speaking, Follow Up Attack (FUA) , Box , and 7 Combo  are the strongest to have. As a result, you will often see teams liberally using these awakenings as they can dramatically alter your playstyle and approach for a dungeon.

While this is true for the most part, cards that also have killers (         ) can be tremendously valuable, especially if they have 2 or more as they can stack.

Damage control is less important

With Fujin  style actives, Box, and FUA, the need for damage control has declined as you can now somewhat smash through the toughest of bosses by simply bringing a high multiplier leader, spike, and appropriate awakenings. This is one reason why leaders like Kushinadahime  are less popular as the perfect damage control may not be worth the loss of potential damage from skyfalls.

Finding value in MP cards

In addition to keeping all of the above points in mind, I also like to only purchase cards that can dramatically improve your clearing potential while having strong staying power moving forward. Thus, you should only be purchasing an MP card when you know you will gain significant value in helping you clear new and challenging content. Thus, a newer player will find more value in certain cards compared to a more veteran one.

I will be reviewing all of the MP cards (excluding seasonal) and then present all of that information in a simple table.

Just bear in mind that while a card may be strong overall, it has to have value for your Monster Box and teams. There is no point in purchasing a Monster Point card that you cannot utilize no matter how strong it may be perceived to be.

Original 5 MP cards     

The original 5 Monster Point Dragons were the first to be released and have already undergone a second evolution to try and keep them relevant. However, most of them lack any of the newer awakenings and their leadership potential has been on the decline for some time now.

Shiva Dragon  

Shiva Dragon was once considered an amazing speed farming leader as he possessed a once incredible 25x multiplier before his second evolution. This helped players play through content faster but when coop and Liu Bei  came out, Shiva Dragon’s speed became less potent.

Fast forward to today, we now have an evolved form of Shiva Dragon but is sadly plagued by the same constraints from before while not having a high enough multiplier to keep abreast with other options. Perhaps one could argue that Shiva Dragon can be used for certain Ranking Dungeons, but fortunately, NA seems to be skipping various sets and the shift has moved more towards bi-colours and 7×6.

As a result, it is hard to justify purchasing Shiva Dragon at this point in time as their sub potential is almost non-existent due to their base active being a vanilla 2 turns of haste.

Neptune Dragon  

Neputne Dragon never truly had a place in the meta due to his horribly orb hungry nature which was then followed by the decline of row-based teams along with Meridionalis  being the better alternative. As a result, few players actually purchased Neptune Dragon and those who did may not have used him that much. Fast forward to today and we still find it challenging to actually find a use for Neptune Dragon as they have been completely outclassed as a leader and have minimal sub potential.

Odin Dragon   

Odin Dragon was originally obtained meme-level of usefulness upon his debut due to his borderline uselessness. However, with his newest evolution, he is now the most desirable MP card from the original 5 and possibly the entire series due to his base active, awakenings, and high weighted stats.

The current Odin Dragon boasts bind immunity, 7 Combo , and the strongest bind/awoken bind clearing actives in the game. This enables him to fit beautifully on any combo-based team or really any team that does not rely heavily on orb changers.

As a result, I would highly recommend Odin Dragon as a purchase if you are in the market for a wonderful defensive and offensive sub.

Ra Dragon  

Ra Dragon was once the best leader in the game upon his debut as he was able to form a wonderfully offensive and defensive team. Then new toys came out and he took a step down but was revitalized once again through his current evolution. Unfortunately, 144x for a rainbow team is lackluster despite the fact that he gained a health multiplier and easier scaling damage.

As a result, Ra Dragon is still able to clear plenty of end game content but may struggle with the newest dungeons along with having trivial value as a sub. Thus, Ra Dragon can still be a meaningful purchase for players who are just entering Arena 1 level content provided they have double Dark Kalis .

If buying Ra Dragon early on in your PAD life would enable you to clear significantly more content, it would be a worthwhile investment.

Yomi Dragon  

Yomi Dragon is still a proficient farming leader as she offers 81x damage with a single 5o1e. This has led to amazingly fast Arena 1 runs as you are able to bring a colourful variety of subs to ensure you can activate every turn. Furthermore, you are able to captialize on Killer awakenings to augment your damage.

Unfortunately, 5o1e leaders are poor end game performers. Not only do you have to have 5 orbs on the board, but your overall combo count will be lowered along with praying one of your orbs comes enhanced. The enhancement issue is one reason why they struggle in 3 player content as you will almost never have an enhanced orb on your turn (even if running multiple coloured subs while also having diluted damage). In addition, you are vulnerable to poison/jammer attacks as they will erase the enhanced status.

However, Yomi Dragon is still a reasonable sub but their proficiency is generally outclassed by other options, most notably Odin Dragon so Yomi Dragon’s value is mediocre at best.

Ragnarok Dragon

Ragnarok Dragon was the 6th Monster Point card to be released and has gained significant value over time.

Ragnarok Dragon  

Ragnarok Dragon has a variant of Dark Kali  active in that he can produce a board of fire, water, wood, light, dark, and heal orbs. This is vital to the success of rainbow teams and some players used Ragnarok Dragon on old Ra Dragon  teams. This sacrificed the RCV component to have another board changer and having the damage offset by the Killer awakenings.

However, as Ra Dragon evolved and gained an HP multiplier, so went the usage of Ragnarok Dragon as a sub as he was not providing enough value overall. Thus, Ragnarok Dragon took a bit of a back seat while waiting for a viable home.

Fast forward to his new evolution, Ragnarok Dragon is stronger than ever. This is because Killer awakenings have found greater value as the need for damage control went down along with having a powerful, albeit restrictive leader skill. Ragnarok Dragon is able almost mirror Ra Dragon’s multipliers, but can offset the lower damage in favour of Killers.

However, Ragnarok Dragon’s true calling is as a sub on various teams. Naturally, Sherias Roots  favours Ragnarok Dragon for both his typing, awakenings, and potentially helpful active. By extension, any rainbow team can make use of Ragnarok Dragon along with combo-based teams. Ragnarok Dragon will give you a high combo count board along with being bind immune and ability to pump out large amounts of damage against common spawns.

All of this makes Ragnarok Dragon one of the more favourable MP cards to purchase

4 Gentlemen 

The 4 Gentlemen are the second set of MP cards to be released and enjoyed a brief time in the meta spot light but were sadly outclassed when the heart cross meta came out. As a result, they fell out of favour quite quickly for Myr  but this was somewhat the case for almost every other leader. However, even Myr has been pushed out of end game relevance as the meta has changed/shifted quite quickly this past year.

In JP, all of the 4 Gentlemen have received new and improved ultimate evolutions that try to remedy their shortcomings through augmented weighted stats, a revamped leader skills along with a wider pool of cards to draw upon. Just be aware that they all lack sub-attributes.

Xiang Mei  

Upon her release, Xiang Mei was the arguably the strongest leader available in Puzzle and Dragons. This is because she combined an amazingly high damage multiplier, natural tankiness, and ability to form a system due to her haste. However, Xiang Mei was precariously placed at being just strong enough for the current content, but severely lacking when new dungeons were released.

This is because she has a very orb hungry leader skill that forces you to either use her base active ro stall/wait for sufficient heart orbs. However, you have to use heart orbs for stalling and dealing damage so that could be problematic, but the main issue was the lower viability of system teams.

A system team is able to use one active every single turn to due chaining via haste. In the case of Xiang Mei, she is able to utilize 2 dupes of herself as subs to allow you to use one Xiang Mei every turn. This would then leave you with 2 subs who can efficiently charge up their actives due to the haste. Unfortunately, harder dungeons punish system teams through either skill delays or too many mechanics that you can no longer rely on 2 non-system actives to succeed.

As a result, Xiang Mei quickly fell out of popularity along with being out of reach for the average player due to a restrictive leader skill that could only use healers and the pressing need for duplicates of herself.

Fast forward to today and Xiang Mei has an improved damage ceiling while only requiring 2 heart combos for full activation. This can help her keep abreast with other leaders but a 144x ATK row team is nothing special in this day and age.

Other mono colour teams are able to achieve higher levels of damage with no typing restriction and no reliance on heart orbs. Furthermore, Xiang mei is vulnerable to binds and while a 2.25x health multiplier is an asset, damage reduction tends to be stronger due to larger attacks and gravity-based abilities.

Perhaps one could argue that her Super Follow Up Attack  grants her more flexibility as you can easily counter resolve spawns, but this is largely a given on most teams today.

You Yu  

You Yu had a tough time on his debut due to the release of Ultimate Sarasvati . Both these leaders have similar activation requirements, but Sarasvati tended to outpace him in terms of damage once you were able to utilize rows . As a result, You Yu was rarely purchased as you could have a Pantheon monster achieve similar levels of class cannon prowess.

As a result, GungHo has granted You Yu double 7 Combo  awakenings in his new evolution along with a revamped leader skill.

Dual 7 Combo is becoming more common but is still a wonderful asset to have, especially when Blue Hunter is one of the most desirable coop leaders. However, is it worth spending 300,000 MP just for a couple 7 Combos? I would say no simply because as more cards are released/evolutions planned, we will have greater access to this awakening.

Looking at You Yu as a leader, he simply falls into mediocrity as he is a 5o1e leader that has to match one additional water combo to deal his full multiplier. While this is a dramatic improvement compared to his previous form, it has no real place for clearing end game content unless you want an average glass cannon.

Xiu Min  

Xiu Min came a litte late to the row-party along with being horribly orb hungry. However, he was partially offset by Tifa ‘s 7×6 board and similar leader skill, but it was still not enough to be relevant.

With his new evolution, Xiu Min gains a higher multiplier and a damage mitigation component. Sadly, neither of these is enough to grant them true viability along with his Tifa pairing only becoming worse over time due to Powercreep.

Xin Hua  

Xin Hua had creepy hands in her new evolution which were thankfully removed in her new form. Amusingly enough, this current evolution features all key aspects in making a pretty character: face, boobs, butt, and legs. The fact that her back is probably broken is completely irrelevant. Regardless, Xin Hua’s new evolution makes her prettier but not viable.

The old Xin Hua suffered from relying on a system along with a restrictive sub pool that heavily favoured using duplicates of herself. Sadly, these same pitfalls plague the new Xin Hua and it makes it hard to recommend purchasing outside of the artwork.

750,000 MP cards

All of the above options cost 300,000 Monster Points which is a feasible number to reach. Not only have we been receiving copious amounts of Monster Points these past several months, but with the change to variuos Special Dungeons awarding 3,000 MP PreDRAs as a reward, MP is more common than ever.

With that being said, cards that cost 750,000 are still very expensive and you must be certain you will be gaining effectively 2.5x more value compared to the above cards.

Dark Athena  

Dark Athena was the first monster to be released that sold for 750,000 MP and had a massive hype alongside her release. Dark Athena paved the way for “lower combo skill” leaders in that you could activate your full multiplier with only 2 combos. This was also combined with an unconditional health multiplier and massive 4x RCV when clearing Water and Dark orbs. However, players quickly learned that 49x with TPA was not always sufficient to sweep challenging content and you actually had to try your best to max combo the board to capitalize on 7 Combo  awakenings while working with minimal Time Extend .

In all honesty, these 2-combo style leaders are quite challenging to play you still need to max-combo a given board along with Dark Athena actually having low-ish damage output overall.

In Arena 3-style content, Dark Athena is still one of the faster teams as you have the right amount of damage for almost every spawn and problems only tend to arise when you are forced to face repeated bosses with over 12 million health. In addition, Dark Athena is somewhat orb hungry when it comes to stalling as you will be dealing damage in order to trigger the 4x RCV.

While all of this may sound like negative points, Dark Athena is still a terrifyingly powerful leader and surprisingly valuable inherit. if you are in possession of dark TPA cards with 7 Combo such as multiple Hakus , Dark Athena may be the MP card for you. For a full Dark Athena write up, please refer to my older post HERE.

Dark Athena will dramatically improve your clearing potential provided you are not already clearing all content available.

Red Myr  

Red Myr attempts to revitalize the Heart Cross meta by providing a passive RCV component along with a 144x ATK multiplier when hitting 7 combos. This damage output is further amplified through her personal 7 Combo awakening; however, forming a heart cross and 7+ combos is challenging on a 7×6 board.

As a result, many players are pairing their Red Myr with Diablos  for his 8.5x ATK and additional damage mitigation shield. Together, you are able to have activation consistency, 3x RCV, significant damage mitigation, and a reasonably high multiplier than can be further augmented via 7 Combos .

While this sounds all fine and dandy, is Red Myr really worth the 750,000 MP if she can just be paired with Diablos?

Diablos pairing have enabled countless leaders to shine as the larger board helps combat orb troll and lower combo count. Diablos has granted Anubis  amazing consistency as you can deal significant damage without an active skill and are able to spike incredibly high with one. As a result, much of the game is now revolving around Anublos. Thus, does Red Myr offer a significant step up from this pairing or even against Kushinadahime , Bastet , or any other combo-based leader?

Unfortunately, I feel that the answer is no and you would not be accelerating your own growth as this is more of a side-grade compared to currently available options. Unlike Dark Athena, Red Myr mostly falls into the Diablos hype whereas Dark Athena is a standalone leader that can perform different functions.

Light Hera Dragon  

Light Hera Dragon is the final 750,000 MP card and is the worst of the three. Light Hera Dragon is a 5o1e leader which already makes them a poor choice while also somewhat mirroring the cheaper Yomi Dragon  but having a slightly higher multiplier, access to Devil types, and swaps RCV for HP. Sadly, a double Light Hera Dragon pairing is not that amazing and will often be paired with a different colour cross leader such as Light Metatron .

Light Metatron grants an RCV component and produces damage based on the number of colour crosses formed. Colour cross leaders are able achieve massive amounts of damage, but struggle with low combo count on 6×5 board while also being orb hungry. On the bright side, Light Hera Dragon and Light Metatron provide 2x HP/RCV so you can stall out dangerous mechanics, but it can still be a frustrating team to play.

As a result, Light Hera Dragon has the lowest clearing potential of the 750,000 MP options while also somewhat succeeding by pairing with a 5* GFE. Thus, if you really wanted to experience Light Hera Dragon, it may be best if you just found a friend and used your own Light Metatron.

Below is a sample video of Light Metatron/Light Hera Dragon clearing a One Shot Challenge.

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Monster Point Card summary

Below is a chart summarizing the above information to help you make an informed decision at a glance. Full explanation can be found above.

Monster Point Card Summary
Card	Value	Comments
Shiva Dragon		Outdated speed farming leader May not be used in Ranking now
Neptune Dragon		Low value row leader Meridionalis is better
Odin Dragon		Best value MP card right now Wonderful sub on most teams Powerful active
Ra Dragon		Modest leader Can still clear most content Restrictive team building
Yomi Dragon		5o1e leaders are in a bad place No offensive awakenings Poor-average sub
Ragnarok Dragon		Double Killer awakenings Powerful sub Value on many different teams
Xiang Mei		Leader skill is still underwhelming System teams are in a poor place Restrictive team building
You Yu		Double 7 Combo  Low value compared to other 7c Average glass cannon
Xiu Min		Mediocre leader Row teams are not popular
Xin Hua		Wonderfully pretty Only her art is good Mostly just a collectors item
Dark Athena		Can still clear most content Easy to play Common leader Helps those starting Arena
Red Myr		Can pair with Diablos  Strongest heart cross leader Does not offer much overall compared to other options
Light Hera Dragon		Can pair with Light Metatron  You do not have to purchase them 5o1e leaders are weak

Conclusion

Monster Point cards do follow a somewhat cyclical nature in that they become strongest after a new evolution and then decline over time. As such, it is best to purchase an MP card when it can benefit you the most in order to capitalize on their strengths as long as possible.

The above recommendations are geared towards the average player and your own personal experience/Monster Box can significantly alter their value to you. Thus, you should use the above material as a starting point for deciding if each MP card is right for you.

Let me know who you have purchased thus far, who you feel is great value as well as those you regret buying.

Happy Puzzling!

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