Introduction

One of the nicest things about Puzzle and Dragons is the fact that older cards are often buffed after their release. This helps keep older cards relevant for longer periods of time and while none of these are new evolutions, the buffs can sometimes be meaningful.

As such, this article will take a look at all of the buffs received during this latest update.

Video commentary

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Upgrades

Baldin

Baldin’s non Mega Awoken form has received a significant reduction to their cooldown but the main issue is this active may be difficult to bring along as the overall effect is okay. This is the problem with so many different cards as it becomes challenging to be relevant when competing against so many other options.

Mega Awoken Baldin

Mega Baldin’s upgrade adds an extra Devil Killer along with a buff to his ATK multipliers as a leader. Another Killer for free is always enjoyable as it gives him additional coverage against potentially problematic spawns.

On the other hand, his Leader Skill is respectable as it is easy to activate and the Damage Reduction and bonus combos are only tied to matching Fire and Dark. As such, it will be much easier to activate his full multiplier on a regular basis.

With that being said, Fire lacks an ideal Auto Follow Up Leader at this point in time to pair up with and Baldin is modestly similar to Dante but Dante being much stronger.

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Dantalion

Dantalion’s buff allows him to generate an additional 2 Fire and Heart orbs and this will be a trend for several other cards in this posting.

If you plan to use these types of actives in Arena-style content, it will naturally be a buff but at the same time, it can ruin various Farming builds. This is because these types of actives are used often used after a full mono board changer which in turn results in an easy to solve VDP board: 

This is quite clean and simple to do but if you add in two more orbs of each element it becomes much messier to both solve and may result in insufficient damage due to less primary colour orbs:

This logic will apply to all other cards who received a similar buff.

Mega Awoken Dantalion

Dantalion’s newest buff provides a significant upgrade to both his Leader Skill and awakenings. While he only gained a single Skill Boost and half a second of orb movement time, these are still valuable, especially if running Transforming cards. One thing to keep in mind is that this Dantalion has more Skill Boosts along with this form being reversible whereas the above form cannot be reversed.

On the other hand, his Leader Skill is able to now reduce damage by 50% whenever you hit 7 or more combos which should always be doable, especially when you factor in the additional combo from matching Fire and Hearts. While this makes activation easier, it makes stalling problematic as you require Hearts for your ATK activation and Damage Reduction and the other ATK multiplier are tied to hitting 7 combos.

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Tsubaki / Sumire / Kaede

All three Dragon Callers have received a  buff to their active skill that allows them to generate 5 instead of 3 orbs of their primary colour and Hearts.

As mentioned above, this can make certain Farming builds harder to work with due to the extra orbs generated.

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Typhon

Typhon’s upgrade allows him to Unlock Orbs but the main issue is that he is pretty undesirable in this form as he does not offer much overall.

Mega Awoken Typhon

Mega Awoken Tyhpon has been significantly upgraded as his active will now clear RCV debuffs which gives him another layer of flexibility. Furthermore, his Leader Skill boasts solid bulk along with being reasonably easy to activate due to only requiring 4 Hearts.

With that being said, Typhon is still mostly an average card as he does not fit well as a sub on many teams and his Leader Skill is restricted to Dragons while not being that amazing to justify this smaller sub pool.

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Fujin

Fujin is now a 2 turn Damage Absorb Void. Historically speaking, 2 turn Damage Absorb Voids were incredibly rare and borderline luxurious as it did allow for the 25% chance of back-to-back Absorption spawns in AA3 to be trivialized.

Over time we have gained more and more access to multi-turn counters but at the same time, current dungeons are more set up to have multiple absorption spawns spaced out. As such, these actives have become less amazing along with 2 turns somewhat becoming the norm as many of the newer Damage Absorption actives tend to feature 2 or more turns.

Regardless, this is a nice buff for the original Damage Absorption active.

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Paimon

Like Dantalion. Paimon has gained the ability to generate 5 orbs through their active which in turn can help ensure you have sufficient orbs to activate. Furthermore, he comes with a Super Blind and Cloud Resist along with Passive Damage via Enhanced Light Orbs .

This helps make him a potential mono Light sub if you are looking for a more offensive option as he does come with two useful Resists.

Mega Awoken Paimon

I have felt that Mega Awoken Paimon was an awkward card to use well as you have to balance Crosses while also being above 50% health. With this update, Paimon does become a better leader but at the same time, he is impractical to use.

This is because he needs to hit 2 crosses to deal meaningful damage which also makes it nearly impossible to VDP let alone Follow Up Attack as well.

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Mega Awoken Gremory

Gremory has received another Skill Boost along with Balance typing. This means she can potentially be used on a Yugi  x Nelle teams as she can function as a reasonable utility option.

On the other hand, her leadership potential has been improved but the main issue is Heart Crossing for all of your Damage and Damage Reduction is inconsistent overall.

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Mega Awoken Ilm

Ilm has received several small buffs this time around but none of the truly make them an exceptional card as it is challenging to find a true usage for them outside of using their bicolour board that is coupled with an ATK buff.

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Xin Hua

I forgot she existed and this tiny buff does not change much.

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Shiva Dragon

Shiva Dragon has received a significant upgrade to their active skill as they can now fully remove all Awoken Binds. This is on top of their ability to bring 6 Effective Skill Boosts and modest orb generation which in turn helps them function on Fire Transforming teams as his active will have value later on in the dungeon.

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Neptune Dragon

Neptune Dragon’s buff is a significant upgrade as he can now be more reliably used for his 2 turns of Haste for Transforming teams. Hitting 16 Skill Boosts before may have been difficult, especially if you were relying on a Delay as well that required 14-15 turns. As such, this can help alleviate some problems for Tsukoyomi and Norza teams and is a farmable Skill Boost solution.

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Odin Dragon

Odin Dragon has received a 2 turn cooldown reduction which means you have easier access to his full Awoken Bind clear, Haste, and column of Hearts. Simple buff but useful nevertheless.

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Ra Dragon

Ra Dragon is sometimes used as a Skill Boost solution for Rainbow teams as he is able to bring 6 along with Guard Break for high DEF / low HP spawns.

As such, this buff does not truly change/alter his usage as the +1 combo is nice but probably not going to make a drastic difference to his overall usage.

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Yomi Dragon

Yomi Dragon continues to sit in an awkward place as she lacks an ideal home to bused on along with 5o1e being an underwhelming mechanic. While the cooldown buff is nice (and possible to System 4 of them), I am not sure how it will truly impact their overall usage.

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 Christmas Ilmina

Christmas Ilmina’s buff enables them to function as a potent utility option that also comes with a valuable board changer. Being able to fully clear all Unable to Match Orb effects and Awoken Bind clears is meaningful along with having another powerful effect on a short 11 turn cooldown is hard to beat. perhaps the only drawback is Christmas Ilmina being a less than ideal sub overall and she does not have a Weapon Assist to take advantage of this powerful active.

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Christmas Fagan

Christmas Fagan is a seldom used card and this upgrade does grant him more utility due to the ability to fully clear Awoken Binds but at the same time is still not achieving that much overall.

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New Year Horus

New Year Horus is now able to provide a 2x buff to ATK and RCV along with his single turn of Haste and Orb Enhance. This is a significant upgrade along with his ability to bring 4 Skill Boosts.

This may give him more merits as a sub, especially in coop where his poor Weighted Stats are brought up to more acceptable levels.

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New Year Kami

New Year Kami’s active has been significantly upgraded as she is now able to remove all Binds along with Unable to Match Orb Effects. It is nice to have more options available for Unable to Match Orbs but at the same time, New Year’s Kami is not an exceptionally special card and would benefit more as an inherit but lacks a Weapon Assist.

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New Year Artemis

New Year’s Artemis has also received a buff from 1 to 2 turns for Damage Absorption Void which does bring her on par with most other options.

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Valentine’s Sonia

Valentine’s Soina is now able to heal 50,000 HP when using her unique active skill. This feels like a strange change overall and the only thing I situation I can think of that could benefit is if using an HP-sensitive leader and you needed to heal up but also have a useful board changer at the same time.

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Reiwa

Reiwa is a farmable Descend monster and this buff grants her an additional combo when achieving her leader skill. For the most part, Reiwa is a fun to use leader that is heavily motivated to match 4 or more connected Fire, Water, Wood, and Light orbs at the same time. Being force to “blob” your combos will result in a lower combo count which is in turn offset by her Leader Skill.

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Christmas Kali

Christmas Kali has received numerous buffs over the years and her current awakenings are much better aligned with the current state of the game. While this is a dramatic improvement, she will still be hard pressed to keep abreast with other current options as she is not bringing anything truly unique to the table.

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Valentine’s Ney

Valentine’s Ney was once heralded as a strong mono Dark sub due to her strong personal damage and active skill. This lasted for some period of time but the main issue because both the need to Transform (requires many Skill Boosts) along with her Dragon/Balance typing being excluded from the stronger mono Dark teams.

While this still largely holds true, gaining a Dragon Killer greatly improves her offensive potential against these spawns but still has the same issue of no ideal place to use her on.

Conclusion

Buffs to older cards are always exciting as it gives them a chance to be utilized once again as something more than a box cheerleader. With that being said, which of these cards are you most excited to use now that these buffs are live?

Happy Puzzling!

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