Introduction

The highly anticipated Yu-Gi-Oh Collab will be making a debut in North America on Friday, January 31st and alongside a healthy dose of nostalgia, it features tremendously powerful cards.

The main theme of this Collab is Transforming cards with Yugi paving the way for new and powerful cards. At this point in time, Yugi will be the strongest leader available by a significant margin and will probably signal a new era of Powercreep due to the additional step to achieve Transformation.

While having strong prizes at the top rarity is the norm, the Yu-Gi-Oh Collab also features numerous valuable options across all rarities and should encourage players to roll a modest to large amount. This is because many of these cards help facilitate Transformation and it is my belief that this will be the next era of PAD for the foreseeable future.

This article will outline the pros and cons for each card to help players make a more informed decision as to whether or not they should roll.

Video commentary

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Overview

Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters Collab – January 28, 2020
Pros	Cons
Exceptionally high weighted stats +25% Limit Break growth All cards have Weapon Assists Yugi Can roll many key subs for him here Many cards help prep for future Transformation meta Debut event Nostalgia	10 Magic Stones per pull Steeper Monster Exchange rates

Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters Collab REM
7 Star base
6 Star base
5 Star base

Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters Collab – January 28, 2020
S
A
B
C
D

Order within each tier is random and not reflective of ranking.

Icons show Base form regardless if it is their most powerful evolution

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

Limit Breaking

Limit Breaking is the process of leveling a card beyond level 99. This will unlock more weighted stats along with the potential to receive Super Awakenings. These additional awakenings can add significant power, but only function in solo mode.

Any card that can qualify for Limit Breaking will have their level displayed in blue and feeding a Super Snow Globe will push them beyond the level 99 cap.

You can read more about Super Awakenings HERE.

Monster Exchange

The Monster Exchange System has mostly eliminated the need to roll in most events as players can simply trade in for a card of their choice. This is often done during lackluster events to avoid spending Stones on poor bottom rarity cards or to snipe a specific card if luck is not on your side.

Weapon Assists

Weapon Assists are a special evolution for select cards that will be used exclusively as inherits. This form retains the same base stats as the original form, but will also transfer over all awakenings on the Weapon Assist card and this occurs if the Awoken Assist  is present.

My approach to Collab rolling

Rolling any Rare Egg Machine is a gamble and it becomes a matter of maximizing your rate of returns in an event.

This translates into rolling when the bottom rarity has high value as those will be the most common cards. Furthermore, I may utilize the Monster Exchange system to acquire the higher rarity cards if they will significantly advance my progress. As such, I tend to look most closely at the common cards to determine if it is worth rolling in.

This is just my own personal approach and everyone has different goals/motivations so take this section with a grain of salt.

7 Star base

Base Yugi – S

Active: Change all orbs to Light, Dark, and Heal orbs; Changes to [5781] for the duration of the dungeon (20 -> 20 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 9x ATK when matching 9 or more connected Light or Dark orbs [1/81/1]

Awakenings:
Super Awakenings: –
Typing: Balance
Available Killers:        
Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 706 (-)
HP 1373 (-) / ATK 2095 (-) / RCV 448 (-)
Weapon Assist:

Base Yugi is used to Transform into his all powerful Yami Yugi & Dark Magician & Dark Magician Girl who is arguably the best leader in the game. Just be aware that you must have 20 Skill Boosts from 4 subs / Friend Leader + 6 inherits in order to Transform right away. Furthermore, these subs should be Devils to take fully take advantage of his new Leader Skill.

Yami Yugi & Dark Magician & Dark Magician Girl (Transformed)

Active: Change Fire, Water, Jammer, Poison, and Mortal Poison orbs to Dark orbs; For 2 turns, increase combo count by 2; For 2 turns, bypass damage absorb shield effects (10 -> 10 turn CD)

Leader Skill: [Disable Poison & Mortal Poison orb effects] 2x all stats for Devil type; 10x ATK when matching 6 or more connected Dark orbs; 1000000 additional damage when matching 6 or more Dark orbs [4/400/4]

Awakenings:  
Super Awakenings: –
Typing: Balance / Devil
Available Killers:        
Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 1452 (-)
HP 6673 (-) / ATK 2595 (-) / RCV 798 (-)
Weapon Assist:

Pros	Cons
Auto Follow Up Damage Immunity to Poison Huge multipliers Incredible active Many key subs are found in Yu-Gi-Oh Collab Worth Monster Exchanging for Valuable in dupes Strongest leader in the game Has asymmetrical pairings Can pair with a friend	Requires 20 Skill Boosts Restricted to Devil types Cannot be Limit Broken No Super Awakenings

If you looked up Powercreep in the dictionary, you would possibly see a picture of Yugi’s Transformed evolution simply because it is just so powerful. In my previous article talking about Transforming leaders, it becomes clear that they have to be stronger compared to other available options. Otherwise, players would not go through the hassle of bringing sufficient Skill Boosts . While the first Transforming leader, Fagan Rai is powerful, Yugi is in a league of his own.

Once Transformed, Yugi is able to provide 2/20/2 along with Auto Follow Up Damage AND immunity to Poison orbs matches (Poison orbs can still appear but matching does not inflict damage). Furthermore, their active skill is ridiculously strong as it functions as an orb changer, +2 combos for 2 turns, and 2 turns of Damage Absorb Void (Fujin style) on a 10-turn cooldown.

Of course, players will have to Transform him first and this will prove to be the largest hurdle along with having Devil type cards. One thing that can possibly make this easier is the ability to pair Yugi with a wide variety of Dark leaders as his activation requirement is only 6 connected Dark orbs. This means players do not need to own Yugi to take advantage of along with having one other card who can provide Skill Boosts.

In regards to asymmetrical pairings, the future 7* GFE Nere is the best option but other cards include, but are not limited to: Genjuro , Tao Ren , Halloween Madoo , Ina , Halloween Bastet or basically any Devil who has a reasonably similar Leader Skill. I say this because you have to remember that Yugi brings such incredibly high multipliers. For comparison sake, Ina (the other premier Dark Auto Follow Up Damage leader) boasts 1.5/15/1.5/25% multipliers when above 80% HP.

In regards to team building, many valuable subs can be found within this Collab such as Dark Magician , Fortress Dragon , Dark Magician Girl , Bakura , and Yugi’s other evolution . Of course, players can use other Devils and just make sure you have sufficient Skill Boosts to activate. One common approach is to use two Fortress Dragons along with Dark Magician. This provides a total of 19 Effective Skill Boosts which means your 4th sub and friend’s leader only needs 1 to achieve Transformation.

While no card can be perfect, Yugi comes pretty close as his main faults are requiring 20 Effective Skill Boosts, No Limit Break/Super Awakenings, and being restricted to Devil types. With that being said, these are relatively small prices to pay for such a powerful card.

Yami Yugi & Slifer the Sky Dragon (Regular Evolution)

Active: Remove all awoken skill binds; Change the top row to Dark orbs and change the bottom row to Light orbs (10 -> 10 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 4x ATK and increase combo by 2 when matching 4 or more connected Light and Dark orbs at once; 5x ATK and 2x HP for Dark Att. [4/400/1]

Awakenings:    
Super Awakenings:  
Typing: Balance / Devil / God
Available Killers:        
Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 1402 (1753)
HP 5573 (6966) / ATK 3395 (4244) / RCV 498 (622)
Weapon Assist:

Pros	Cons
Powerful Dark sub Powerful on Yugi Transform teams Super Blind 4 Skill Boosts Valuable active Exceptionally high weighted stats Strong leader skill	Competes with Yugi’s Transform

Yugi’s other form is a regular evolution from their Base form and is a powerful card in their own right. They can provide 4 Skill Boosts along with Super Blind which makes them a powerful sub option for Transforming Yugi .

This is wonderful but the main issue facing players will be which form they wish to pursue. Transforming Yugi is the most powerful leader in the game but this form can function as a stellar sub for said team. As such, one possible strategy is to use one of Transforming Yugi’s various pairings and keep your own Yugi in this form to act as a sub.

One other interesting aspect to this card is their reasonably powerful leader skill as it provides 4x HP and 400x ATK when matching 4 or more connected Light and Dark at the same time. This is quite powerful and can potentially be used but will of course be overshadowed by the Transforming form.

Weapon Assist:
Active: Remove all awoken skill binds; Change the top row to Dark orbs and change the bottom row to Light orbs (10 -> 10 turn CD)

Pros	Cons
4 Dark Rows SBR Tape Valuable active	Not enough Yugi to go around

The fun with Yugi continues with his incredibly strong Weapon Assist as it provides sizable passive damage along with a single Skill Bind Resist and Tape Resist . This wonderful mix of offense and defense will be appreciated by most mono Dark teams but the SBR is important for Transforming leaders such as Yugi himself.

This is because many high Skill Boost cards (such as Fortress Dragon ) lack SBR which could lead to awkward situations further down the dungeon. As such, I feel Weapon Assists that feature SBR alongside other strong benefits will become more popular moving forward.

Unfortunately, there will probably not be enough Yugis to go around for the average player to make this Weapon Assist.

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Base Seto Kaiba & Blue Eyes White Dragon – A

Active: For 1 turn, no skyfall; Change the top row and the bottom row to Water orbs (13 -> 8 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 5x ATK for Water Att.; Reduce damage taken by 50% when above 80% HP; 3.5x ATK when matching 6 or more connected Water orbs; 50000 additional damage when matching 6 or more Water orbs [1/306.25/1/75%]

Awakenings:   
Super Awakenings:  
Typing: Attacker / Dragon
Available Killers:
Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 1402 (1753)
HP 6920 (8650) / ATK 3300 (4125) / RCV 150 (188)
Weapon Assist:

Pros	Cons
Active generates 12 Water orbs LS provides Auto Follow Up Damage Synergy with Minaka Provides passive damage and reasonable VDP potential Huge weighted stats	Damage Reduction only works >80% HP Low Effective Health Vulnerable to multi hits Velkhana performs better Higher damage, more Effective HP

Base Seto Kaiba grants players a strong option for Auto Follow Up Damage for mono Water teams as he is able to proc this damage connecting 6 or more Water orbs. This has wonderful synergy with Minaka who provides a larger board along with a similar activation requirement.

While this has the potential to do wondrous things, the main liability will be low Effective Health. Minaka only provides 1.5x HP and Seto Kaiba grants 50% Damage Reduction when above 80% health. As such, your health pool will be quite small and the 4x RCV from Minaka will most likely go to waste. Furthermore, any kind of multi hit will shred through your team as the Damage Reduction will most likely only take effect during the first hit.

This will be the main stopping point for Seto Kaiba x Minaka teams and makes me more inclined to either use Base Minaka or Velkhana pairings with Evolved Minaka instead. Of course, not all players have access to perfect team compositions and Seto Kaiba can most certainly clear plenty of content.

Seto Kaiba & Obelisk the Tormentor

Active: Unlock all orbs; Create 15 Water and Dark orbs over any orbs (15 -> 15 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 5x ATK for Water Att. and reduce damage taken by 35% when above 50% HP; 4x ATK when matching 6 or more connected Water orbs; Increase combo by 2 when matching 9 or more connected Water orbs at once [1/400/1/57.75%]

Awakenings:     
Super Awakenings:  
Typing: Attacker / God
Available Killers:
Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 1403 (1753)
HP 6540 (8175) / ATK 2660 (3325) / RCV 650 (812)
Weapon Assist:

Pros	Cons
Super Poison Resist Alternative to Chidori Powerful damage option Wonderful weighted stats Perfect 15-15 board Huge weighted stats	LS only works when above 50% HP Can easily go under due to low Effective HP Longer cooldown Does not create Hearts Water somewhat lacks Auto Follow Up Damage

Seto Kaiba’s Evolved form pushes him into a Damage oriented role for mono Water teams as he comes with triple 7 Combo along with VDP via Super Awakenings. In my opinion, this is the best distribution of offensive awakenings for a dedicated damage card as they will enjoy 8x personal damage with essentially any match along with  the capacity to deal wonderful VDP damage when needed.

To top it off, Seto Kaiba comes with a natural Super Poison Resist which enables him to function as an alternative to Chidori . One thing to keep in mind is the Seto Kaiba will perform better than Chidori regardless of board size when VDP is not taken into consideration as she only offers a 10 Combo which is harder to proc. Furthermore, Seto Kaiba has wonderfully high weighted stats that are well distributed among the three metrics.

As a leader, Seto Kaiba must remain above 50% HP which will prove difficult in harder content due to only enjoying 57.75% Damage Reduction and no HP multiplier. This is essentially like Edward who has declined over time for this reason alone.

Weapon Assist:
Active: Unlock all orbs; Create 15 Water and Dark orbs over any orbs (15 -> 15 turn CD)

Pros	Cons
Skill Boost  + added bulk & healing +1s orb movement time Perfect 15-15 board Long CD Less likely to charge up Huge weighted stats	Primarily for Transformation teams

Seto Kaiba’s Weapon Assist is wonderfully powerful as it provides a Skill Boost along with Team HP and Team RCV . This builds upon the Transformation meta as it provides additional bulk and healing potential while also having the valuable Skill Boost. Furthermore, it also provides one full second of orb movement time which can also come in handy as it is possible some Transformation teams lack Time Extend.

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Base Yami Marik & The Winged Dragon of Ra – S

Active: For 1 turn, 2x RCV; For 1 turn, 2x ATK for Dark Att.; Change Wood orbs to Dark orbs; Change Water orbs to Heal orbs (13 -> 8 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 6x ATK and 2x HP for God and Devil type; 3x ATK and reduce damage taken by 25% when matching 2+ Dark combos [4/324/1/43.75%]

Awakenings:    
Super Awakenings:  
Typing: Devil / God
Available Killers:
Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 1401 (1751)
HP 6505 (8131) / ATK 3420 (4275) / RCV 200 (250)
Weapon Assist:  

Pros	Cons
Super Poison Resist Only Dark card to have this Useful active Creates Dark, Hearts, & buffs RCV Huge weighted stats	LS requires 2 Dark combos Worse compared to connect 6 Requires 12 for VDP

Base Yami Marik comes with Super Poison Resist which can open up inheritance options as he effectively brings 5 Resists himself. Furthermore, his active will create Dark, Hearts and gives 2x RCV to overwrite any existing debuffs.

As a whole, Yami Marik is a reasonably strong card but aside from his Super Poison Resist, he does not provide too much overall as he does not provide sufficient damage or other kinds of utility. Furthermore, if we do start to see more powerful leaders like Yugi who have Poison Immunity, Yami Marik will go down in value.

Thankfully, his other forms are quite powerful.

Yami Marik & The Winged Dragon of Ra – Immortal Phoenix

Active: Remove all binds and awoken skill binds; For 1 turn, increase combo count by 2 (13 -> 13 turn CD)

Leader Skill: [No skyfall] 2x HP & ATK for Fire and Dark Att.; 9x ATK when 10 or more combos; increase combo by 3 when matching 5 or more colors (4+heal) [4/324/1]

Awakenings:       
Super Awakenings:  
Typing: Devil / God
Available Killers:
Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 1401 (1752)
HP 6005 (7506) / ATK 3220 (4025) / RCV 470 (588)
Weapon Assist:  

Pros	Cons
Full Bind + Awoken Bind 3 Skill Boosts High personal damage on 7×6 boards Huge weighted stats	High personal damage is wasted without VDP Requires 7×6 to truly shine

Yami Marik’s Evolved form enjoys 10x personal damage when hitting 10 or more combos which naturally fits well on 7×6 boards. Sadly, this high value become moot against Void spawns which means he becomes effectively a 3 Skill Boost card. While he can be used as a Yugi sub, I feel there are stronger options unless you crave for a Bind and Awoken Bind solution.

Weapon Assist:  
Active: Remove all binds and awoken skill binds; For 1 turn, increase combo count by 2 (13 -> 13 turn CD)

Pros	Cons
Cloud Resist 1s orb movement time SBR Full Bind + Awoken Bind clear Universally helpful Weapon Assist 6 turns soft bind clear Huge weighted stats	?

Yami Marik’s Weapon Assist is able to function as a universally powerful option as it provides an extra second of orb movement time , Cloud Resist , and SBR .

Furthermore, this card provides a full Bind and Awoken Bind clear along with +2 combos. As such, it makes Yami Marik’s Weapon Assist a universally powerful option. There are no real downsides to this Weapon Assist and gaining 6 turns of soft bind clear can enable any Bind Immune card the ability to clear 6 turns of binds for the entire team with a row of Hearts.

All in all, Yami Marik’s Weapon Assist provides so many different layers of value and will almost always be valuable when used.

6 Star base

Téa Gardner & Shining Friendship & Fire Sorcerer – B

Active: Recover all HP; For 3 turns, recover 20% of max HP; Replace all orbs (10 -> 10 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 4x ATK when matching 4 or more colors; 1.5x HP for Healer type; 4x ATK and reduce damage taken by 25% when recovering more than 50000 HP from Heal orbs [2.25/256/1/43.75%]

Awakenings:    
Super Awakenings:  
Typing: Healer / Attacker
Available Killers:   
Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 1006 (1257)
HP 2740 (3425) / ATK 2145 (2681) / RCV 908 (1135)
Weapon Assist:

Pros	Cons
High base RCV Solid healing solution via 3 Team RCV Natural Tape Resist 4 Skill Boosts Future Faska sub	Underwhelming active

Tea Gardner is the first 6-star card to be featured within the Yu-Gi-Oh Collab and is able to function as a potent healing solution due to her three Team RCV and naturally high RCV.

While Enhanced Heal Orbs are often the go-to option for recovering health, Tea can function as a solid alternative but her main appeal will be for the future Transforming Faska due to Tea’s 4 Skill Boosts and correct typing. Furthermore, the natural Tape Resist can be valuable depending on your team composition and pairing.

Unfortunately, Tea has an underwhelming active that does not provide much value and has a modestly long cooldown of 10 turns.

One thing to keep in mind with high Skill Boost cards with other valuable traits is that they can help future Transforming cards perform better.

Weapon Assist:
Active: Recover all HP; For 3 turns, recover 20% of max HP; Replace all orbs (10 -> 10 turn CD)

Pros	Cons
Weaker Yami Marik Weapon Cloud Resist SBR	Active is weak 10 turn CD may be too short and accidentally charge up

Tea’s Weapon Assist looks quite similar to Yami Marik’s Weapon as both provide Cloud Resist and SBR . As such, the amount of value it brings to a given team comes down to how much you can benefit from these two awakenings as the active itself is underwhelming along with the 10 turns running the risk of accidentally charging up.

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Joey Wheeler & Red Eyes B. Dragon – C

Active: Deal 150x Fire damage to all enemies; Change the top row to Fire orbs and change the bottom row to Dark orbs (15 -> 10 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 3x ATK and reduce damage taken by 50% when matching 5 Fire orbs in an L shape; 6x ATK and increase combo by 1 when matching 4 or more colors [1/324/1/75%]

Awakenings:  
Super Awakenings:
Typing: Balance / Dragon
Available Killers:         
Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 1005 (1257)
HP 3835 (4794) / ATK 2595 (3244) / RCV 308 (385)
Weapon Assist:

Pros	Cons
Double row maker 150x ATK Button	Too many L’s Eats into other awakenings

Joey Wheeler is able to generate a row of Dark and Fire orbs along with 150x ATK to all enemies. This Button plus orb generation can save active skill when trying to efficiently farm content as you can potentially solve 3 floors with one active.

Moving beyond that, I feel Joey Wheeler’s base form lacks sufficient value as he has far too many L awakenings which eats into his overall potential. Don’t get me wrong, I want to have at least 1 L on every team, but this is excessive combined with the fact that he does not provide much else. Thankfully, his Weapon Assist is quite valuable.

Weapon Assist:
Active: Deal 150x Fire damage to all enemies; Change the top row to Fire orbs and change the bottom row to Dark orbs (15 -> 10 turn CD)

Pros	Cons
Bind Immunity L Only card that provides both Active generates 6 Fire & 6 Dark	Most cards are bind immune

At this point in time, there are only 15 cards that provide an L awakening via Weapon Assist but Joey’s is the only one that also provides Full Bind Immunity . How much value will this bring to your team depends on cards being vulnerable to binds which is relatively rare.

With that being said, the active tied to this card has value for mono Dark and Fire teams and would still be reasonable to have in most content.

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Mai Valentine & Cyber Harpie Lady – C

Active: Delay enemies’ next attack by 2 turns; Unlock all orbs; Create 6 Heal orbs over non Fire and Wood orbs (15 -> 10 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 4x ATK when 5 or more combos up to 9x at 10 combos; 2x ATK and reduce damage taken by 25% when matching 2+ Heal combos [1/324/2/43.75%]

Awakenings:  
Super Awakenings:  
Typing: Attacker / Physical
Available Killers:   
Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 1006 (1257)
HP 6254 (6254) / ATK 2528 (3160) / RCV 0 (0)
Weapon Assist:  

Pros	Cons
3 Physical Killers Can use Physical Killer latents Natural Cloud Resist	Only strong vs Physical spawns

Mai Valentine is the only card in the game that has 3 Physical Killers and is able to also wield Physical Killer latents. This grants her the highest personal damage against these spawns and may prove to be a popular solution for Ranking Dungeon or Farming set ups.

With that being said, that is essentially the extent of their value in this form and it may be somewhat redundant if you already own other triple Physical Killers.

Weapon Assist:  
Active: Delay enemies’ next attack by 2 turns; Unlock all orbs; Create 6 Heal orbs over non Fire and Wood orbs (15 -> 10 turn CD)

Pros	Cons
FUA	FUA is less needed

Mai Valentine’s Weapon Assist is the second card in the game to provide a FUA which is kind of cool but underwhelming in practice. This is because we are entering an age with Auto Follow Up Attack leaders along with many popular/powerful cards already coming with this awakening.

Perhaps if this came out 2 years ago it would have been game changing but at this point in time, it does not provide much value.

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Yami Bakura & Dark Necrofear – A

Active: Poison all enemies (30x ATK); Change all orbs to Dark, Heal, and Poison orbs (10 -> 5 turn CD)

Leader Skill: [Disable Poison & Mortal Poison orb effects] Reduce damage taken by 35% when above 50% HP; 15x ATK when matching 4 or more connected Poison or Mortal Poison orbs [1/225/1/57.75%]

Awakenings:  
Super Awakenings:  
Typing: Attacker / Devil
Available Killers:  
Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 1005 (1257)
HP 4285 (5356) / ATK 2668 (3335) / RCV 130 (162)
Weapon Assist:  

Pros	Cons
Exceptionally high personal damage under the right circumstances Synergy with their own Weapon Assist Super Blind 5 turn cooldown Exceptionally fast for 3 element board 3 Skill Boosts	Reliant on Poison Orbs to deal damage Not ideal under most circumstances Ideally have immunity to Poison damage Requires numerous duplicates of himself Semi reliant on 7×6 Really requires his own Weapon Assist to truly shine No SBR

Bakura is a truly interesting card that seems counter intuitive at first glance. This is because they come with three Poison Orb Blessings which increases the chance of Poison orbs appearing along with 2x personal damage when matching Poison. As such, they can enjoy 8x personal damage with no combo/HP requirement but that also means they must have Poison Orbs present to function.

For the most part, this is not an ideal situation for the vast majority of teams and in theory functions best on 7×6 where the larger board helps ensure Poison Orbs will be present while not taking away too many of your key colours. With that being said, matching Poison Orbs will deal damage to you but this is where Yugi comes in.

Yugi is immune to Poison damage and is hungry for Skill Boosts to Transform. As such, Bakura can be a potential damage solution due to their correct typing and 3 Skill Boosts and Super Blind . Of course this will require a certain degree of setting up and ideally a larger 7×6 board and Bakura’s Weapon Assist to further push their damage output. Amusingly, Bakura’s active has synergy with this play style as it will generate Poison, Dark, and Heal orbs.

I am not sure how I feel about this new method for dealing damage but if I am fortunate enough to roll well in the Yu-Gi-Oh Collab, I will experiment with this.

On the other hand, if you are able to clear AA3, acquiring Gaslowe may result in an interesting team composition and give rise to a potentially powerful Poison team.

Edit

Bakura can be a truly outrageous card if you are able to roll numerous duplicates of himself in order to use his Base plus Weapon form numerous times. This can create a team with a steady flow of Poison orbs to deal spectacular damage and this only becomes easier with his 5-turn cooldown.

With that being said, I feel that this will not be applicable to the vast majority of players as it requires so many copies to work. This is the main reason why I rank him lower due to the impracticality of forming this set up and possible chance of misleading players if they only have a single copy. Furthermore, it hinges on not dying to Poison matches which is also quite restrictive.

Weapon Assist:  
Active: Poison all enemies (30x ATK); Change all orbs to Dark, Heal, and Poison orbs (10 -> 5 turn CD)

Pros	Cons
Synergy with himself Adds 2x personal damage and higher chance for Poison orbs Bind Immunity	Reliant on owning 2 Bakura Not helpful for the vast majority of situations without dupes

Bakura’s Weapon Assist enables him to perform his unique approach to high damage output by granting him Bind Immunity another 2x personal damage via Poison Orb Blessing .

As such, it will grant him 16x personal damage whenever Poison orbs are matched which will result in comically high damage output which is then further supplemented via two VDP .

This is a truly unique set up that can work under the right circumstances but at the same time, may be difficult to work around for the vast majority of teams. Furthermore, this set up relies on owning two Bakuras which may or may not be possible for most players.

---

Dark Magician – S

Active: Delay enemies’ next attack by 3 turns; Unlock all orbs; Change Jammer, Poison, Mortal Poison, and Bomb orbs to Dark orbs (17 -> 12 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 2x HP & ATK for Dark Att.; 7x ATK on the turn a skill is used; Increase combo by 1 when matching 9 or more connected Dark orbs at once [4/196/1]

Awakenings:  
Super Awakenings:  
Typing: Devil / Balance
Available Killers:        
Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 1020 (1275)
HP 4070 (5088) / ATK 2500 (3125) / RCV 340 (425)
Weapon Assist:

Pros	Cons
7 Effective Skill Boosts Key enabler for Transform teams Amazing sub for Yugi SBR Many SB cards lack this Strong personal damage Rolling 2 is good	Can only benefit from 1 DM active Delays do not stack (Haste will) Less efficient for Ranking/Farming

Dark Magician sets the tone for future Skill Boost options as he is able to provide a walloping 7 Effective Skill Boosts when using his Delay active. This works due to his natural 4 and by delaying a spawn by 3 turns, players can match 1 combo three times to net 7 turns of charging up. This is valuable because Dark Magician comes with useful awakenings including a SBR which is often absent from many Skill Boost options.

With this in mind, it is well worth trying to roll one (ideally two for Assist) Dark Magicians in order to take advantage of his Skill Boost potential but players must be aware that only one can be used efficiently on a given team. This is because Delays do not stack which means you cannot use two in quick succession as the second will not further delay the spawn. This means players would have to take a single hit from said spawn which will often prove fatal for pre-Transform teams.

Furthermore, this is not as efficient as 7 natural Skill Boosts if time is an issue in Farming or Ranking Dungeons. Regardless, this is a card you will want to own moving forward for either his Base form or Weapon Assist. One thing to keep in mind is that subs/inherits tend to be Powercrept slower compared to leaders and assuming the Transform meta will be here for a while, Dark Magician should have strong staying power.

Weapon Assist:
Active: Delay enemies’ next attack by 3 turns; Unlock all orbs; Change Jammer, Poison, Mortal Poison, and Bomb orbs to Dark orbs (17 -> 12 turn CD)

Pros	Cons
4 Effective Skill Boosts Relatively low CD of 12 Easier to inherit	Primarily for Transform teams Must have a card with a low CD to inherit on

Dark Magician’s Weapon Assist retains the same 3 turn delay while also providing a single Skill Boost . This means it can be inherited for 4 Effective Skill Boosts assuming the base card can be used right away (or receives sufficient Haste).

This is valuable because it can transform a card with a relatively low cooldown into a powerful Skill Boost option as Dark Magician cannot be used as a sub all the time.

For example, if you decided to use Ina as your Yugi pairing, inheriting Dark Magician’s Weapon would grant her an Effective 5 Skill Boosts assuming you have 15 to being with. Of course you may be better suited in directly using Dark Magician as a sub for this team but I just wanted to illustrate how it would work.

While there are two other cards that can provide at least 3 turns of Delay and a Skill boost (Ilmina link) both of these have a 15 turn cooldown which may make it harder to successfully inherit.

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Blue-Eyes White Dragon – B

Active: For 1 turn, increase combo count by 2; Change the far left column and the 2nd column from the left to Water orbs and change the 2nd column from the right and the far right column to Light orbs (20 -> 15 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 5x ATK and 1.5x HP for Dragon type; 3x ATK and increase combo by 1 when matching Water and Light at once [2.25/225/1]

Awakenings:  
Super Awakenings:
Typing: Dragon / Attacker
Available Killers:   
Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 1006 (1257)
HP 4058 (5072) / ATK 3000 (3750 ) / RCV 0 (0)
Weapon Assist:

Pros	Cons
Strong VDP potential Active generates 10 Light & Water orbs on 6×5 +2 combos Orb Skin Can directly purchase	Damage is tied to VDP Contributes low damage with out 3×3 Box

Blue Eyes White Dragon can function as a powerful VDP solution for mono Water teams due to their three awakenings plus >80% . While this can give them tremendous damage output when forming a 3×3 Box, it leaves them lacking for all other forms of matching.

For myself, I personally prefer my damage-oriented cards to feature triple 7 Combo or <50% along with a VDP. This set up grants strong personal damage from all given matches and will represent the majority of floors you will be playing through. Of course, if you are playing something like Beach Veroah you will be regularly forming 3×3 Boxes and the main hurdle will be working around the lengthy 15 turn cooldown.

Weapon Assist:
Active: For 1 turn, increase combo count by 2; Change the far left column and the 2nd column from the left to Water orbs and change the 2nd column from the right and the far right column to Light orbs (20 -> 15 turn CD)

Pros	Cons
>80% awakening 1.5x personal damage	Combo Orb is currently underwhelming >80% has small window for success

Blue-Eyes White Dragon’s Weapon Assist is able to provide >80% along with a Combo Orb . For the most part, >80% tends to be the least reliable offensive awakening due to the small window for success along with only providing 1.5x personal damage.

As such, it is best to have this awakening featured alongside other useful aspect and sadly, Combo Orbs are currently underwhelming. This is because they require 10-12 orbs for success and this is impractical overall unless you have a System for continuous orb generation. As such, I feel this Weapon Assist will not be as highly prized at this point in time.

Orb Skin

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Dark Magician Girl – B

Active: Unlock all orbs; Create 5 Light and Dark orbs (11 -> 6 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 3.5x ATK and 1.5x HP for Light and Dark Att.; 4x ATK and reduce damage taken by 25% when recovering more than 50000 HP from Heal orbs [2.25/196/1/43.75%]

Awakenings:  
Super Awakenings:   
Typing: Devil / Balance
Available Killers:         
Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 1007 (1259)
HP 4558 (5698) / ATK 2105 (2631) / RCV 390 (488)
Weapon Assist:  

Pros	Cons
4 Skill Boosts 6 turn base CD Functions as a potent Yugi sub Fortress Dragon Transforms into DMG	No SBR Fortress Dragon provides more Effective SB Two Row colours dilute awakenings

Dark Magician Girl (DMG) is the final 6-star card within the Yu-Gi-Oh Collab and continues the trend of facilitating Transforming leaders. This is because she boasts a useful 6 turn cooldown (can inherit something like Dark Magician ) along with 4 Skill Boosts . Furthermore, she provides passive damage for both mono Light and Dark teams and is actually the the Transformation result of using Fortress Dragon’s active.

This is a pretty wild concept as a completely different Collab card can Transform into another. With that being said, the main difference between owning Dark Magician Girl or Fortress Dragon is which Weapon Assist you could potentially make along with whether Limit Break/Super Awakenings are included.

Fortress Dragon is unable to be Limit Broken and that carries over once Transformed into Dark Magician Girl. This represents a -25% in Weighted Stats but Fortress Dragon does provide 6 Effective Skill Boosts. As such, it is more effective to run Dark Magician Girl directly for stats if you can afford the loss of 2 Skill Boosts.

Regardless of how you ended up with Dark Magician Girl, neither her nor Fortress Dragon owns SBR which may pose some issues if not properly addressed.

Weapon Assist:  
Active: Unlock all orbs; Create 5 Light and Dark orbs (11 -> 6 turn CD)

Pros	Cons
Two Dark and Light Rows SBR	Cannot fully take advantage of both colour Rows Short CD may accidentally charge up

Dark Magician Girl’s Weapon Assist is able to provide two Dark and Light Rows along with a single SBR . While the SBR can help Transforming teams achieve 100% protection, the second set of Rows will often go to waste.

As such, this Weapon should be viewed as a way to add some passive damage along with Skill Bind protection. Finally, another thing to keep in mind is that this Weapon has a 11 -> 6 cooldown which means it may accidentally charge up at the wrong time.

5 Star base

Gandora the Dragon of Destruction – C

Active: For 1 turn, increase ATK by 30% for each Enhanced Team HP awakening skill on the team; Reduce HP by 50% (15 -> 10 turn CD)

Leader Skill: [No skyfall] 2x HP; 6x ATK when there are 10 or fewer orbs remaining up to 11x ATK when 0 orbs left; 2x ATK when matching 2+ Dark combos [4/484/1]

Awakenings:  
Super Awakenings:
Typing: Dragon
Available Killers:   
Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 906 (1133)
HP 2080 (2600) / ATK 2080 (2600 ) / RCV 0 (0)
Weapon Assist:

Pros	Cons
Three Team HP High personal damage when <50% HP	Lacks VDP Personal damage can go to waste Active is lackluster

Gandora is the first 5-star card within the Yu-Gi-Oh Collab and comes with the ability to grant +15% Team HP due to his three awakenings. This can add significant bulk and his own personal damage reaches 8x when below half health.

This has applications for speed farming or teams who enjoy being low health. With that being said, a lack of VDP means his personal damage will often go to waste. Depending on the type of team he is used on, this may or may not be a deal breaker as Zaerog Core is almost always featured on <50% HP teams and his own personal damage can somewhat carry the team on his own.

On the other hand, Gandora does not bring too much else to the team outside additional bulk and his active functions like a Gemstone Princess in that it scales off awakenings to provide additional damage. Sadly, this burst only lasts for a single turn and scales from Team HP which is almost always going to be less common compared to Skill Boosts as Carat tends to be the most universally useful burst.

Weapon Assist:
Active: For 1 turn, increase ATK by 30% for each Enhanced Team HP awakening skill on the team; Reduce HP by 50% (15 -> 10 turn CD)

Pros	Cons
Two Team HP Rare for Weapon Assists	Does not provide much overall

Gandora’s Weapon Assist is able to provide 2 Team HP which is relatively unique as only a total of 5 Weapon Assists have this. Sadly, that is essentially all he does provide and the active skill itself will often prove underwhelming.

With that being said, it is a way to add sizable bulk to a given team but will most likely be passed over for assists that provide more.

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Gaia the Fierce Knight – C

Active: Deal 100000 fixed damage to all enemies; Change the far left column and the 2nd column from the left to Wood orbs and change the 2nd column from the right and the far right column to Dark orbs (20 -> 15 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 2x HP for Attacker type; 3x ATK when matching Wood and Dark; 3x ATK when matching 5 or more connected Wood or Dark orbs [4/81/1]

Awakenings:
Super Awakenings:
Typing: Attacker
Available Killers:
Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 907 (1133)
HP 3600 (4500) / ATK 2453 (3066) / RCV 168 (210)
Weapon Assist:  

Pros	Cons
Three Devil Killers Can use Devil Killer latents Super Blind Double column generator 100,000 True Damage to all enemies	Only effective against Devils Super Blind will often go to waste

Gaia the Fierce Knight comes with three natural Devil Killers along with the ability to utilize Devil Killer latents. This grants him impressive personal damage against Devil spawns but at the same time, that is all he is effective against.

Despite the inclusion of a Super Blind , it will often go to waste as it will be nearly impossible to justify his usage on teams tackling Arena-style content.

On the other hand, Farming builds and possible Ranking Dungeon set ups can benefit from the massive unconditional damage and the ability to generate two columns of orbs can help with having sufficient orbs present along with the 100,000 True Damage component.

Weapon Assist:  
Active: Deal 100000 fixed damage to all enemies; Change the far left column and the 2nd column from the left to Wood orbs and change the 2nd column from the right and the far right column to Dark orbs (20 -> 15 turn CD)

Pros	Cons
Two Wood Orb Enhances Provides some passive damage Combo Orb may become useful in the future	Combo Orb is currently underwhelming

Gaia’s Weapon Assist is able to provide two Enhanced Wood Orb which can provide a modest amount of Passive Damage for the entire team along with a single Combo Orb .

At this point in time, Combo Orbs tend to be underwhelming due to the 10-12 orb requirement and while it can have merits on System-based teams (able to use orb changers every turn), it tends to fall flat in most other cases. While Combo Orbs have been buffed since their release, they are still struggling to find universal value due to the orb hungry nature of its activation.

---

Mystical Elf – B

Active: Recover 50% of max HP; Reduce unable to match orbs effect by 9999 turns; Change the far left column to Heal orbs (15 -> 10 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 7x ATK and reduce damage taken by 50% when matching 2+ Heal combos; 10x RCV additional heal when matching orbs [1/49/1/75%]

Awakenings:    
Super Awakenings:   
Typing: Healer
Available Killers:
Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 907 (1134)
HP 4008 (5010) / ATK 1220 (1525) / RCV 788 (985)
Weapon Assist:

Pros	Cons
Powerful, universal active Becomes a valuable Weapon Assist Easy to roll	Make Weapon Assist

Mystical Elf owns a wonderfully strong active that has value for essentially any team that needs to overcome Unable to Match Orb Effects. While this type of mechanic can sometimes be stalled and is rare, it would not surprise me if it became more common as we move forward due to the number of different cards owning their respective counter.

With that being said, it is best to pursue their Weapon Assist form as it provides awakenings as Mystic Elf will almost always be inherited. Furthermore, this will probably be the first type of active many players may acquire due to the relative ease it should be in acquiring a bottom rarity card.

Weapon Assist:
Active: Recover 50% of max HP; Reduce unable to match orbs effect by 9999 turns; Change the far left column to Heal orbs (15 -> 10 turn CD)

Pros	Cons
60% Jammer Resist Fully clears Unable to Match Orb Effects Generates a column of Hearts on far left	Auto Heal looks out of place

Mystic Elf’s Weapon Assist is able to provide 60% protection against Jammers along with a powerful active skill. I have often bashed Jammer Resist for being underwhelming compared to Poison or Blind, but it still has its merits, especially when it comes alongside a valuable active.

Mystic Elf’s active is able to fully clear Unable to Match Orb Effects and while it is still a relatively new mechanic, being able to completely counter it can be invaluable, as GungHo likes to introduce a new/problematic mechanic and subsequently provide players with a direct counter via an active skill. While this is not the most enjoyable way to play the game, it is important to have in your Monster Box for when the situation arises.

Furthermore, it is possible many players lack this type of active skill and having it available at the bottom rarity can be invaluable and gives further motivation to roll in this event.

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Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress #1 – A

Active: Charge all allies’ skills by 3 turns; Changes to [5802] for the duration of the dungeon (14 -> 14 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 2x ATK when 4 or more combos up to 3x at 6 combos; 3x ATK and reduce damage taken by 35% when above 50% HP [1/81/1/57.75%]

Awakenings:   
Super Awakenings: –
Typing: Dragon
Available Killers:  
Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 907 (-)
HP 5064 (-) / ATK 1895 (-) / RCV 65 (-)
Weapon Assist:

Pros	Cons
Triple Healer Killer 3 natural Skill Boosts 3 turns Haste + self Transform Net 6 Skill Boosts Transforms into Dark Magician Girl Better awakenings/stats High value sub for Yugi Bottom rarity card	No SBR in either form

At first glance, Fortress Dragon seems like an odd card to be so highly prized but their true power lies within their effective 6 Skill Boosts due to awakenings and Haste. We are starting to entire an era where Transformation will reign supreme and in order for this to be successful, we must have high Effective Skill Boost cards.

As such, the three Skill Boosts from Fortress Dragon combined with the three turns of haste can quickly charge up your Transforming cards.

Furthermore, Fortress Dragon will also Transform into Dark Magician Girl who boasts stronger awakenings and a better base active skill post-Transform.

As a result of this Transformation, players will now have Dark Magician Girl on their team instead which in turn has synergy with various team, most notably, Yugi due to her Devil typing and now more useful active. This can be a step above other high Skill Boost cards as the entire kit of Fortress Dragon changes.

When planning inherits for your Fortress Dragon, keep in mind that if you want on-colour bonuses, the Weapon Assist should be Light along with ideally having a useful active to take advantage of Dark Magician Girl’s fast 6 turn active.

While all of is powerful, players should be mindful that Fortress Dragon and Dark Magician Girl both lack Skill Bind Resist which may become an issue if not paid close attention to.

Weapon Assist:
Active: Change Heal, Jammer, Poison, and Mortal Poison orbs to Fire orbs; For 1 turn, reduce damage taken by 75% (10 -> 10 turn CD)

Pros	Cons
Two Team RCV >80%	Mediocre Weapon Assist Base form is far stronger

Fortress Dragon’s Weapon Assist is underwhelming compared to their Base form as the main appeal is a single >80% awakening. This will grant the owning card 1.5x damage if above 80% health but we have numerous other ways to achieve this along with stronger secondary effects.

As such, it is best to leave them in their Base form for their 6 Effective Skill Boosts.

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Kuriboh – B

Active: For 5 turns, increase combo count by 1; For 5 turns, reduce damage taken by 30% (18 -> 13 turn CD)

Leader Skill: [Board becomes 7×6] 1.5x HP & RCV for Wood Att.; 2x ATK when 4 or more combos up to 10x at 12 combos  [2.25/100/2.25]

Awakenings:  
Super Awakenings:   
Typing: Devil
Available Killers:
Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 906 (1132)
HP 4565 (5706) / ATK 1705 (2131) / RCV 325 (406)
Weapon Assist:  

Pros	Cons
Potent 7×6 leader for Wood Can be effectively leader swapped 20% to three Resists   Can ease team building/assists Tape or Cloud SA	No ideal team to fully take advantage of 7×6 Active is okay

Kuriboh is the final card of the Yu-Gi-Oh Collab and comes with a potent 7×6 leader skill. We are starting to once again see a rise in 7×6 usage due to higher combo shields along with teams being more orb hungry (requiring 6 of a single colour) and with 12 additional orbs, everything becomes easier.

Due to the modest multipliers found on 7×6 leaders, it is often preferable to utilize a Leader Swap. With that being said, I do not feel there are any ideal Wood leaders at this time to truly take advantage of the larger board as most of them just want to hit 7 combos.

Weapon Assist:  
Active: For 5 turns, increase combo count by 1; For 5 turns, reduce damage taken by 30% (18 -> 13 turn CD)

Pros	Cons
L Two SBR Has value on some Transform teams	Most teams have enough SBR

Kuriboh’s Weapon Assist is able to provide both an L awakening along with two Skill Bind Resists . For most teams, this is underwhelming as the vast majority of monsters already come with a single SBR which would result in 120% coverage for a given team.

With that being said, it may become more common in the future for Transform teams to be potentially lacking in SBR coverage. Take for example Fortress Dragon (transforms into Dark Magician Girl ) who provides 6 Effective Skill Boosts but neither of their forms provides any SBR. As such, if players were to utilize two of them, they could run into situations where they sit at 80% SBR.

Thus, Kuriboh’s Weapon Assist can come in handy along with the single L which may or may not be possible to achieve for Skill Boost oriented teams.

Do I plan to roll?

I do plan on rolling reasonably hard in the Yu-Gi-Oh Collab on a special Friday  Twitch Stream at around 6pm PST due to the power offered at all rarity levels. Furthermore, this Collab is the best way to acquire high Effective Skill Boost cards for current and future Transforming monsters. With this in mind, I feel it would be beneficial for the vast majority of players to roll here as even the bottom rarity cards will help position them well moving forward.

For my dream 7-star card, Yugi is the obvious choice and in an ideal world I would somehow own at least 2 due to the power he offers in all of his forms. Yugi is the next big thing in Powercreep and being able to acquire him at his release will help easily clear all content currently available.

For 6-star cards, I am most interested in Dark Magician as both of his forms will greatly facilitate Transforming as he offers 7 Effective Skill Boosts as a sub or 4 via Weapon Assist. It would be ideal if I owned two as I could have one in Base and Weapon form. Further copies will have less value as players can only utilize one Delay on floor 1.

Finally, Fortress Dragon is my dream 5-star card due to his 6 Effective Skill Boosts and how he can transform into Dark Magician Girl who can provide value for both mono Dark and Light teams.

My Dream Rolls
7*	6*	5*

The above chart are the cards I would love to acquire from each rarity if I could choose one for my Mantastic account. This is my own personal opinion based on my Monster Box, goals and whether or not I have dupes. Icons show Base form regardless if it is their strongest iteration.

Conclusion

The Yu-Gi-Oh Collab is a high value event that has powerful cards across all rarity level. Furthermore, the main theme is Transform which I believe will be the next meta shift for Puzzle and Dragons as they must be stronger compared to current options in order to justify the Skill Boost requirements.

As such, I would encourage players to roll in this event as it will help position them well moving forward as numerous high Effective Skill Boost cards exist.

Regardless, let me know what you think about the Yu-Gi-Oh Collab in the comments below along with your own personal approach to this event.

Happy Puzzling!

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