Introduction

The Valentine’s REM returns to North America and offers several new cards and various buffs in the hopes of enticing players to spend their Magic Stones.

As a whole, Seasonal REMs are underwhelming affairs as their bottom rarity cards are often many years old and severely neglected to the point that they serve no purpose outside of a Box Cheerleader.

Sadly, this is the case here as I do not feel any of the 5-star cards have any meaningful value and the Gemstone alts at the 6-star rarity have dramatically declined in value over the years. As a result, this event will be a lackluster affair to roll in and if you are truly interested in any of the top rarity cards, Monster Exchanging would be a better approach compared to rolling.

Video commentary

—video coming Monday—

Overview

New Year’s REM Pros & Cons – February 2021
Pros	Cons
5 Magic Stones per roll Almost came out on Valentine’s Day	No Weapon Assists outside 9-stars Majority of rolls will be disappointing All 5-star cards serve no real purpose Comprise 55% of the rolls

Valentine’s REM
9 Star base (2% total)
8 Star base (3% total)
7 Star base (13% total)
6 Star base (27% total)
5 Star base (55% total)

Valentine’s REM – February 2021
S
A
B
C
D

Order within each tier is random and not reflective of ranking

Icons show Base form

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

Bottom rarity quick summary

The bottom rarity should be the main motivation to roll in an event and the following chart shows all the 5 and 6-star Rankings. Together, they comprise 82% of the rolling pool.

Valentine’s Bottom Rarity (5 & 6*) REM Rankings – February 2021
S
A
B
C
D

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 or in 3-player coop.

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.

Due to the rate of new cards being released, care should be taken when considering a trade as you want to ensure you gain long term value.

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/Seasonal 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 bottom rarity pool 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. If you wish to read about this more in greater detail, check out my other article HERE.

Reincarnated Evolution

A Reincarnated Evolution (Revo) grants  up to 8 Latent slots and is often times a stronger overall card. Sadly, pursuing these forms will lock the monster in this state as they cannot be reversed. As such, only commit to a Revo if you 100% know you will get significant value from them right away.

9 Star base

Beloved Dracoblader of the Flame Twist, Akine (New) – A

Pros	Cons
Fast charging, non-Transforming Void Void active Aided by 2 Skill Charge 4 SB High personal damage Big ATK   SA provides Super Resist High durability LS Sizable Effective HP Bonus combos Fixed 10s movement Powerful Rainbow sub	Fixed 10s may be challenging for newer players LS has low ATK multiplier Major disadvantage for Rainbow LS restricted to Dragons Void Void actives are less needed VDP Latent

Valentine’s Akine is a new 9-star card who features fantastic awakenings as she can gain a Super Resist ( ) via Super Awakenings along with all of her base ones having value.

She is able to provide 4 Skill Boosts which can aid Transforming cards along with her 18 turn cooldown being offset by 2 Skill Charges . In fact, her active is a reasonably low cooldown Void Damage Void active, especially for non-Transforming. In addition to this, Akine boasts high personal damage via her ATK stat and personal damage awakenings. Furthermore, her Leader Skill features tremendous bulk and bonus combos.

While all of this is meaningful, her Leader Skill suffers from a low ATK multiplier which can be challenging to work with for Rainbow teams who cannot focus their damage as efficiently. Furthermore, she can only use Dragons which means she has huge overlap with Valentine’s Ideal who uses Balance and Dragons while having a much better ATK multiplier.

As such, I feel she will be overshadowed by Valentine’s Ideal along with Void Void active being less meaningful due to the VDP Latent for hard hitting Rainbow cards.

Leader potential aside, Akine will be able to function as a tremendous Rainbow sub due to her high Skill Boosts, Super Resist, meaningful personal damage (assuming 10 combos), and fast charging active due to Skill Charge. With this in mind, I feel her greatest potential will be found as a sub instead of a leader.

Weapon Assist

Pros	Cons
2 TPA Only 2 cards have this Long cooldown Hard to overcharge	Zaerog Core provides essentially the same thing Relatively few places to use efficiently

Akine’s Weapon is able to provide 2 TPA awakenings which makes them incredibly unique as only one other card in North America can do this.

By doing so, the owning card will gain a significant increase in damage output and has synergy with cards who are already TPA oriented such as Raijin or Astalos .

Of course, this may not be applicable for all players along with Zaerog Core being reasonably accessible (especially with recent Appreciation Medal event) and providing essentially the same thing.

As such, the value of this Weapon will hinge on whether you use TPA cards and whether you already own Zaerog Core.

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Beloved Colorful Dragon Caller, Ideal – S

Pros	Cons
High multipliers LS Significant Effective Health 484x ATK +2 combos per leader No Skyfalls Valuable active RCV buff Awoken Bind clear Board Unlock + Rainbow board Aided by Skill Charge	No Skyfalls can cap damage I feel mono Colour is becoming stronger Enhanced Combos

Valentine’s Ideal has been a top tier leader since last year as she offers tremendous bulk, a high ATK multiplier, and ability to use Balance and Dragons subs. This has given her access to subs such as NY Reeche and Aten along with Rainbow teams receiving a significant boost due to the VDP Latent .

While this still holds true today, I feel that mono colour teams are going to once again surpass Rainbow due to the Enhanced Combo awakening which rewards numerous combos of the same colour. This is essentially free damage for doing what mono colour teams do already and it is much easier to concentrate your offensive might compared to Rainbow teams.

With that being said, Valentine’s Ideal is still a tremendously powerful leader due to her multipliers being amazingly high for a non-Transforming card. Presently speaking, being able to survive large repeated hits is essential for tackling end game content and offensive might has to be balanced against durability and ease in which Damage Reduction is triggered.

As such, Valentine’s Ideal can beautifully function as she will always enjoy 4x HP with dual leaders and 43.75% Damage Reduction with any 4 colours. Through this, players can stall through problematic encounters along with being able to deal meaningful damage.

Overall, Valentine’s Ideal is still a formidable Rainbow leader but I do feel her dominance will be lesser compared to last year.

Weapon Assist

Pros	Cons
Skill Boost Enhanced Heart Orb Useful active	High opportunity cost of not using Base form

Valentine’s Ideal’s Weapon Assist is able to provide an Enhanced Heart Orb awakening along with a Skill Boost which can aid Transforming teams with no RCV multipliers.

While this can be helpful, her leadership potential is still quite high and it would be best to use her Base form as she can still tackle essentially any dungeon in the game.

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8 Star base

Valentine’s Ney – B

Pros	Cons
Buffed active Board changer with Hearts Clears 5 turns Bind/Awoken Binds Clears 5 turns Unable to Match Many offensive awakenings Potentially 4 SB	Many offensive awakenings but little output Low ATK Many are anti-synergy May be harder to find a use as a sub LS has no Effective HP without Light + Dark

Valentine’s Ney has been buffed to now clear 5 turns of Unable to Match Orb effects along with her tri-colour board changer and 5 turn Bind and Awoken Bind clear. As a whole, I find this to be quite a strong active as at least one component will be meaningful and board changers are never bad to have.

With that being said, I feel the majority of her value stops there as most of her awakenings are for personal offense but have lower synergy with themselves along with her low ATK stat. I say this because TPA and VDP do not go together which in turn eats into her available awakenings. If she had Enhanced Combos , she could have been quite formidable as she could have boosted all other team members.

As a result, I feel Valentine’s Ney will be a possible solution for mono Light or Dark teams but will not be the first choice if more options are available.

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Beloved Red Dragon Caller, Sonia – B

Pros	Cons
Respectable VDP damage Aided by 2-3 Killers Reasonable ATK Unique board changer Potentially 6 SB	LS is outpaced by Evolved form Less personal damage compared to Evolved form

Base Valentine’s Sonia is able to potentially provide 6 Skill Boosts which can greatly aid Transforming or ensuring key actives are ready in time. With that being said, if you wanted to use Valentine’s Sonia for more offensive potential, you would be better served with her evolved form that trades away 2 Skill Boosts for another VDP and upgraded Leader Skill.

Devoted Red Dragon Caller, Sonia

Pros	Cons
High VDP damage Aided by 2-3 Killers Reasonable ATK Unique board changer High ATK LS with little effort Can be used for Farming Potentially 4 SB	LS needs 6 Fire orbs for Damage Reduction Harder to justify outside Farming LS has huge RCV but no HP multiplier Minimal personal damage without VDP

Valentine’s Soina is able to provide significant VDP damage against Devils and Machines while also being able to potentially provide up to 4 Skill Boosts . While this is meaningful I feel it will be challenging to use efficiently on a team as 9 Fire orbs for meaningful damage will not happen often.

As such, I feel her main appeal will be as a Farming leader as she provides a massive 441x ATK for Physical, Devil, and Dragons when matching 6 or more Fire orbs.

This is easy to achieve when you are able to carefully plan out actives but at the same time, <50% tend to be the most efficient and Sonia’s active does mess this up.

Taking all of this into consideration, I feel Valentine’s Sonia can be a solution for Voids or for Farming should other options not exist.

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7 Star base

Valentine’s Ponno (Pre-Transform) (New) – S

Valentine’s Ponno (Transformed)

Pros	Cons
2 SB in Base form High HP pre-Transform Significant Passive Damage via Enhanced Combos Huge damage potential Respectable personal damage High LS multipliers 2/20/2/25%/+2c No typing restriction for LS Valuable post-Transform active 3 turn CD Creates 6 Dark orbs Sub attribute only Always hits for full damage as last hit Possible Damage Absorption Latent use	20 turn Transform Requires 2 Dark combos for Damage Reduction Greatly offset by AS No VDP Have to roll, cannot Monster Exchange

Valentine’s Ponno is a surprisingly potent 7-star card as their post-Transform abilities are quite impressive.

Firstly, they require 20 turns to Transform but is offset by 2 Skill Boosts in their Base form which means players only need 16 to Transform with dual leaders but also enjoy 2x HP and RCV pre-Transform. This means they can potentially stall a turn or two with relative safety and once they Transform, their offensive might skyrockets.

Presently speaking, Enhanced Combos are a fantastic way to layer in Passive Damage as each additional Dark combo provides bonus damage and with 6 in total between both leaders, damage should not be an issue. In fact, I feel this awakening will greatly catapult mono-colour teams ahead of Rainbow as it is just so easy to concentrate damage.

Building upon this, their Leader Skill requires 2 Dark combos and their 3 turn active can generate 6 Dark orbs. This means players will enjoy a 2/3 uptime on Ponno’s Leader Skill clause along with enough bulk to stall as needed or simply use another Ponno as a sub to close the System.

Another interesting aspect for Ponno is the fact that they are a sub attribute only card which means they will deal 100% of their damage after all main attribute attacks. This is important for Colour Absorbs but can also be abused to utilize the Damage Absorb Latent on a friend’s leader as that will be the final hit and high damage output is relatively easy to achieve.

As a whole, I feel Ponno is a powerful leader and even a sub for mono Dark teams and the largest hurdle will be rolling them as they cannot be acquired any other way.

On a side note, my friend drew the original Ponno with a colour scheme twist to match my icon as their first encounter with me was seeing Fantastic’s Ponno displayed as a leader:

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Valentine’s Pisces God, Alrescha (New) – A

Pros	Cons
Orb Skin Can be directly purchased 3 turn CD Self RCV debuff +2s movement time Spawn 3 Fire & Water orbs Viable Seina pair Also provides bonus combos More flat HP Less Damage Reduction Lower ATK Passive Damage via Enhanced Combos	Double Seina is naturally stronger Has 1 more SB More bulk & damage More personal damage 2 SB

Valentine’s Alrescha is a new Orb Skin card who can function as a viable alternative pairing for Seina . Presently speaking, Seina is arguably the best leader in the game but was unable to be acquired outside of rolling or IAP bundle. As such, there may be many players who can build a viable team but have no Seina of their own.

Thus, Alrescha can be a potential pairing as she has the same activation requirements of matching Water and Fire. Naturally, Seina is superior due to a easier time forming a System, much higher ATK multiplier, 1 more Skill Boost , and more Damage Reduction.

With that being said, Alrescha provides some utility via her active and the RCV debuff and movement time buff grants additional flexibility and can lower the need to use Gileon while also not risking a poor board changer. Furthermore, the Passive Damage via Enhanced Combos can add a significant amount of damage along with the L providing a valuable way to deal with Locked orbs.

As a whole, Alrescha can function as an alternative (and weaker) pairing for Seina but may also find merits as a sub on his team due to the low base cooldown and meaningful awakenings.

Orb Skin

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Valentine Starsea Goddess, Andromeda – B

Pros	Cons
Orb Skin Sizable Devil Killing potential Passive Damage via Enhanced Water Combos Active skill provides RCV debuff, TE buff, & Colour Absorb Void	Lacks VDP Wastes personal damage Have to rely on subs Active has heavy overlap with Norza Would probably prefer to run Norza on a team Andromeda has only 2 SB LS lacks Damage Reduction & has lower ATK multiplier

Valentine’s Andromeda features an Orb Skin which means she can be directly purchased but that would not be wise from a practicality point of view.

This is because Andromeda does not provide enough value to justify a purchase in my mind as she is an average card overall. While she does boast strong offensive potential against Devils and Passive Damage via Enhanced Water Combos, her value somewhat diminishes there.

This is because she only provides 2 Skill Boosts which will be an issue for Transforming teams along with her active having overlap with Norza . I say this because both provide RCV and Movement Time buffs but Norza has a 2 turn Cooldown once Transformed.

Furthermore, Norza (with various pairings) is currently the strongest Water team and having a sub who has too much overlap is not needed. While the Colour Absorb Void is helpful, players can find that solution elsewhere.

Orb Skin

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Valentine’s Astaroth – B

Pros	Cons
Potential for modest personal damage Or Super Blind Resist Some Passive Damage L LS has high Damage Reduction	LS requires both Light and Wood Less Damage Reduction otherwise Effective Health becomes quite low Personal damage reliant on hitting 10 combos

Valentine’s Astaroth is able to provide either higher personal damage or Super Blind Resist via Super Awakenings and the decision will come down to your individual team composition but be mindful that she will have to hit 10 combos to be relevant.

Moving beyond this, Astaroth provides some Passive Damage and an L awakening along with an active that converts Fire and Hazards to Wood along with a board Enhance and RCV buff.

While this is nice, I do not feel she will surpass other options as we need to be mindful that Wood actually has strong leaders such as NY Artemis and now confirmed Nadeko and space on teams is quite limited. As such, I do not feel Astaroth will have enough zest to outpace other options as she is not specialized enough in any area to be the superior choice.

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Valentine’s Kushinadahime – C

Pros	Cons
Modest Healing Solution Higher RCV 3 Enhanced Heart Orbs 4 SB Potentially 2 more via active Nice LS multipliers	LS lacks Damage Reduction Vulnerable to Gravities LS needs 10 combos for full effect Very low with 7-8 combos

Valentine’s Kushinadahime can function as a modest Healing Solution that also provides 4 Skill Boosts and potentially 2 more via 75% Damage Reduction for 2 turns.

As such, she can aid high HP, low RCV teams who need to Transform but I feel that is her main appeal and lacks the additional utility of someone like Amaterasu . With that being said, Kushinadahime can still function but I feel she is more front-loaded to aid in Transforming and her value decline afterwards.

As a leader, she features high multipliers but lacks Damage Reduction and her ATK multiplier will realistically be much lower due to most boards having 7-8 combos.

Pixel Valentine’s Kushinadahime

Pros	Cons
Active spawns 2 columns of orbs Modest VDP damage	Personal damage only occurs with VDP LS needs Pixel cards LS needs Healing Solution LS lacks Damage Reduction

Pixel Valentine’s Kushinadahime feels underwhelming as her Leader Skill requires Pixel cards, a Healing Solution, along with lacking Damage Reduction.

This combination makes it challenging to justify using her as a leader as much stronger options exist along with her personal damage being non-existent without 9 Light orbs for a VDP .

As a result, I feel she would be better off in her Base form as she can function as a reasonable Healing Solution.

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Valentine’s Venus – B

Pros	Cons
Orb Skin High personal damage multipliers Unique active ATK, TE, and scaling Damage Reduction Potential for high Damage Reduction	Terribly low ATK Greatly offsets offensive might Have to hit 10 combos for meaningful damage Damage Reduction may not be significant 10% per awakening Lasts 1 turn Mostly just provides modest conditional damage

Valentine’s Venus is the final 7-star card and comes with large personal damage multipliers that are sadly offset by her terribly low ATK stat.

While this is most certainly a drawback,  having 20x personal damage against all spawns with 10 combos is meaningful and goes up even more if matching TPA .

As such, she may be able to function as a situational sub as she can also provide 3x ATK, TE, and scaling Damage Reduction through her unique active.

The Movement Time and ATK will always be 3x but the Damage Reduction grants 10% per TPA awakening. As such, it has the potential to reach a significant number but that also means heavily populating your team with TPA cards which may not always be feasible.

Taking this into consideration, the value of Valentine’s Venus hinges on being able to reliably hit 10 combos along with enough TPA on the team should Damage Reduction be needed.

With that being said, I do not feel she will make a significant splash as she will be difficult to use on Transforming teams due to only 2 Skill Boosts along with primarily providing damage while still being outclassed by other options who don’t have to hit 10 combos.

Orb Skin

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6 Star base

All of the 6-star cards feature a Gemstone-style active which means their ATK buff scales based on the number of a particular awakening on the team when the active is used.

Sadly, these types of actives are outdated as they do not feature a secondary effect such as an orb changer, Absorb counter, etc. along with no Weapon Assist which drastically lowers the chances of them being used.

Valentine’s Facet – D

Pros	Cons
Potential for reasonable ATK buff	TPA is still relatively niche Better ATK buff options exist Challenging to justify as a sub

Facet has always scaled with TPA awakenings and while TPAs are in a better place compared to before, they are still relatively rare on end game teams and those will not have any desire to actually use Facet as a sub.

As such, it may end up being a lackluster inherit should better choices be unavailable.

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Valentine’s Carat – C

Pros	Cons
Scales off SB Easily found Relatively universal awakening	No Weapon Assist Challenging to justify as a sub Weaker inherit

Carat was once upon a time the most highly desired non-top rarity card due to their Burst active being unrivaled. Sadly, this happened years ago and the game has dramatically evolved since then.

While Skill Boosts are still a universally common awakening, the need for this type of Burst has lowered along with the fact that there is no secondary effect. Furthermore, Transforming cards lose their Skill Boosts

With that being said, it may still be an efficient way to add a Burst to a team if lacking other options.

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Valentine’s Sheen – D

Pros	Cons
Modest potential for Burst	Highly situational active More reliable Bursts exist No Secondary effect

Sheen is the final Gemstone-style active to be featured in the Valentine’s REM and her active skill scales off of Time Extends. While these are reasonably common, she still runs into the same issue of having no secondary effect nor Weapon Assist which makes it challenging to justify using outside highly specific scenarios.

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5 Star base

None of the 5-stars serve any meaningful purpose and will become box cheerleaders who are not animated. This is due to terrible stats, underwhelming active, and insufficient awakenings to keep abreast with other options.

With that being said, due to their 5-star rarity, you may find a niche use for these cards for 5-star challenges but this is not justification enough to roll here.

Valentine’s Karin – D

Pros	Cons
It’s Karin	GungHo stopped Karin about Karin long ago

Blue is my favourite colour.

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Valentine’s Leilan – D

Pros	Cons
Cute	Serves no meaningful purpose

New Year Leilan was a bit better.

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Valentine’s Meimei – D

Pros	Cons
?	Insufficient ATK to even function as a damage solution

Meimei is my least favourite Chinese Celestial.

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Valentine’s Sakuya – D

Pros	Cons
4 SB ?	Has no value outside Skill Boosts Many cards have more

Sakuya was my favourite card from the early days of PAD and here is an ancient screenshot of my old top-tier team.

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Valentine’s Haku – D

Pros	Cons
Some personal damage Has a little more ATK compared the other 5-stars	Outclassed by modern options Maybe a possible damage solution for 5-star challenges

While Valentine’s Haku does feature better ATK compared to the other 5-stars here, it is not enough to allow her to keep abreast with modern options.

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Do I plan to roll? & Dream rolls

I do not plan on rolling within the Valentine’s event due to the abysmal value at the bottom rarity along with the Gemstone alts not providing the same zest as before.

For my dream 9-star card, I would love to have Valentine’s Ideal as she will grant me a potent Rainbow leader who is still relevant today. While Akine is newer, I do not feel I will be able to extract as much value as I already have a double TPA Weapon and many solutions for Damage Void.

For 8-stars, I would like to have Sonia as I already own Ney but at the same time, I do not have a dedicated place in mind for using her.

Ponno is the runaway winner for the 7-star pool and even having a dupe would not be a bad thing as it can close their own System if used as a sub. Ponno is also the cutest which has to count for something.

6-stars will serve no purpose in my box as I already own a Carat or two but I guess having more is not a bad thing?

Finally, Karin is the coolest of the 5 and Blue is my favourite colour.

My Dream Rolls
9*	8*	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.

Conclusion

The Valentine’s event is a lackluster affair when it comes to rolling due to the outrageously outdated bottom rarity who comprise 55% of the pool for 5-stars or 82% if you lump in the underperforming 6-stars. You don’t have to be a math wizard to know this is a bad deal from a rolling point of view.

For myself, I simply plan on doing my free rolls and never looking back but I would still like to know what you ladies and gentlemen have planned for this event in the comments below.

Happy Puzzling!

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