Monster Analysis, Monster Points

To Buy or Not to Buy: Christmas Sonia

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Introduction

The Christmas REM is in full swing and alongside the disappointing REM, Christmas Sonia 2512 makes her triumphant return to the MP store for 300,000 MP and may be many players first chance at acquiring a bicolour board changer with 2 turns of Haste.

At one point in time, she was the premier Ranking Dungeon solution for Tournaments that enabled 7×6 leaders along with greatly boosted Style Points. This led to players creating a bicolour System with 5 Christmas Sonias (or equivalents) which enabled them to always solve a bicolour board while tapping into the highest level of Style Points via Rows or L’s.

As a result, these Ranking Dungeons were heavily skewed towards players who had these teams as they could score infinitely higher compared to everyone else. This occurred for at least 2 Ranking Tournaments and many players are wondering whether or not it is worthwhile to invest in these teams.

This article will explore the power of Christmas Sonia along with the current MP store situation.

Video commentary

–video coming soon–

Bicolour Haste Systems

The goal of Ranking Tournaments is to score as high as possible under various conditions where certain aspects are more heavily favoured. For the most part, it is easier to solve bicolour boards as they are only 2 elements along with being able to rearrange them into specific patterns for Style Points. Furthermore, the 2 turns of Haste when used across 5 Christmas Sonias (or other bicolour 2 Haste card) enables you to always solve a 2 elemental board. Full list of other options can be found HERE.

What this looks like can be seen in the two following videos:

I had a significantly easier time securing a Crown from both of these Tournaments simply because I had the correct team to abuse the Style Points offered and just completing the dungeon would yield a much higher score.

Between these two, events, the most recent one occurred in March 2019 and since then, GungHo has stopped releasing Tournaments that can be abused in this way. As such, my Christmas Sonias have mostly sat in my Monster Box waiting for another time to be used again.

Current Ranking Dungeon landscape

Ranking Dungeons are continuously changing for non-Fixed Teams and I feel GungHo will not be pushing Tournaments that can be abused in this manner. Furthermore, we seem to be in an era of bonus points to Time Remaining which heavily pushes minimal combos with fast solves, even on shorter dungeons where combos count for more points.

As such, what I feel becoming more important moving forward will be instantaneous board changers that create a perfect 15-15 board with Magic Lin leading the charge. Magic Lin’s board changer will produce a perfect 10 combo board with no additional animation which is ideal for Ranking Tournaments.

With that being said, it is impossible to know what will happen in the future as GungHo can always change things without warning. On the bright side, there is one recent Ranking in JP that did feature this System abuse so there is a strong likelihood we will get it as well.

Current MP store offerings

At this point in time, many players have excessive amounts of Monster Points and no viable place to spend them. Furthermore, there are only a handful of truly viable cards one can purchase which has also led to this build up.

Presently speaking, Amen is the most universally beneficial purchase due to his prowess as a Farming leader and ability to be converted into a Skill Boost Skill Boost Weapon Assist . While he does cost 750,000 MP, it is not unusual to have players owning both forms of Amen.

After Amen, Kuroyuri Loop (2*750k), Odin Dragon 3264, Mut , and Ragnarok Dragon will be the next most valuable cards to own with each one having varying value depending on your individual Monster Box.

With this in mind, you need to determine if owning any of these cards is more important compared to the possibility of owning a Christmas Soina System who may or may not actually pay off.

Conclusion

Christmas Sonia has the potential to form an abusive bicolour Haste System that has enabled two easier Crowns from previous Ranking Tournaments. In that same breath, GungHo has stopped releasing Ranking Tournaments that could allow this form of abuse from occurring which appears to be the trend moving forward.

As such, it makes it much harder to say with absolute authority players should build a bicolour Haste System through Christmas Sonia due to the fact that it may never be utilized. While the Monster Point shop has not included anything new and viable for a while, that could easily change tomorrow.

If you are someone who has never owned a Christmas Sonia System, what do you think about purchasing her at this point in time and whether or not you think we can ever abuse the System in a Ranking Dungeon again.

Happy Puzzling!

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37 thoughts on “To Buy or Not to Buy: Christmas Sonia”

  1. Pingback: Christmas REM Review and Analysis – December 2019 | Mantastic Puzzle and Dragons

      1. It has been fantastic since now with the red/green bicolors amen does more dmg compared to what i had before (green/dark bicolors). Same team i posted up above in the video except avalon drake instead of lajoa.

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  5. Can I ask what Ragnarok Dragon is good for?

    I’ve already purchased Odin Dragon and RagDra is usually seen as the next thing to buy, but his awakenings don’t seem that special and neither does his active skill.

    I also don’t have anywhere to put him on my one green team (NY Artemis x ZKitty), nor do I have Machine or Dragon-type teams.

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    1. Ragdra used to be impressive with its potential 30x damage against gods. Frankly I think it’s pretty obsolete these days, since it has a terrible active, no VDP, no damage against anything but gods (well, some against dragons), and with the existence of so many monsters these days that are better against gods and also everything else.

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      1. Thanks, that’s how I’ve been feeling too, but I’m also a newer player who doesn’t know much about why a lot of older cards were meta.

        That frees up a lot of MP for me then!

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    2. He is a double God Killer who can use GK latents which means he is stronger than a triple GK card from a raw multiplier POV

      I agree he is no where near as special as before but not all players have a card that can fulfill this role (main idea is having a diverse box with numerous options)

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      1. Ah, that makes sense. I do own a lot of God Killer cards (No. 6, Ciel, Sherias Roots, Pralinae) but none can take God Killer latents like RagDra.

        Would it be accurate to say that cards whose sole offensive awakenings are Killers are becoming less favourable or more niche these days with the popularity of 7c awakenings? That and I feel like Devil Killers are slowly becoming more valued than God Killers due to A5 and AA3?

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        1. Cards solely with Killers tend to be Farming or Ranking Dungeon solutions and by being “farmable” gives players an option. He is not superior but at the same time, MP does not have as much value and he is cheaper at 300k

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  7. How many are normally needed when building a ranking dungeon system? Is 4 sufficient with the +2 haste plus 1 from the turn you’re taking while utilizing the orbs ?

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    1. 14 turn CD for these actives

      So 13 turns remain after using the first and solving the board and then -3 per subsequent active + solve

      Use first + solve 13 -> 10 -> 7 -> 4 -> 1 -> ready

      There is some “waste” but the system always works with 5 but you have another card who may have a useful active etc

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      1. Mantastic,

        Last question 🙂 What about the usefulness in farming training arena? Would Christmas Sonia subs under Amen leads allow TA1/TA2 farming making easier solves with bicolor boards?

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  8. would christmas sonias be worth it if i already have 3 mori motonaris? if the jp pantheon medal exchange happens in the future, id probably be trading for another mori motonari anyway, but do you think there would be any instances where the christmas sonia is much more preferred than mori motonari?

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    1. Wait, has there been any pantheon-for-rainbow-medal exchanges in JP? I’ve only known of 2 events where you exchanged pantheons for rainbow medals, which is the opposite.

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          1. Edit: Sorry, I meant I thought those were the events where you traded pantheons for rainbow medals, not the other way around.

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    2. If anything, different colours are advantageous for time remaining as there are fewer pings if you mix and match your System cards. This is ofc assuming you have sufficient damage to do so

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  9. I bought 6 in case I needed a full team of her for rankings and still ended up with 2.2M MP, even after owning 2x Kuro and Odin dragon. This is with 1.5 years of playing.

    MP isn’t hard to come by so I highly recommend getting them if you have a well developed box.

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  10. Anyone have thoughts how to skill them up? they arent in the guarnteed dungeon and dont drop from the christmas dungeon anymore because of wreaths. just rng for in dungeon skillups?

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  11. Pingback: Christmas REM Evaluate and Evaluation – December 2019 - Best Games 2020

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