Happy Halloween PAD fam! The PAD Halloween Egg Machine continues the 2021 trend post-DBDC of giving all the PAD originals/seasonals a plethora of assist equips (This time lollipops!).

Firstly, we’ll cover a full review of the machine thanks to Mantastic PAD that covers the 2021 run. Next we have excerpts from DarkDarkRai reviewing meta relevance for the brand new Halloween Inahime, Halloween Chakeol and Reincarnated Halloween Cotton. Finally, we have content from Randall_KTO: HDurga Last Year vs HDurga This Year!

Mantastic PAD Review

DarkDarkRai Highlights

[7956] Masquerade Vampire Princess, Inahime

The never ending crusade to push orb-skin cards power level continues here, though perhaps not to the extent of the more notable Belial. While Halloween Chakeol is no doubt the best card from this machine now, I feel I should mention Halloween Inahime first, because this will either convince you to spend 20$, or skip purchasing this bundle, without reading farther. 

Her main use as a sub is going to be for [7772] Blazearm Scarlet Conqueror, Sea Wolf, but her primary use will likely be as a sub in the long term. Though she has not been out long enough to have her best-use cases tested, she has still seen quite a large amount of use, especially for Sea Wolf. 

Delays and skill-boosts increase in use with each new absolutely game shattering double transform lead that gets released. Most of the best delays up until this point for red have been tied to an equip, such as Glavenous Helldnova, Red Shelling Ford and CROWS1 ([7421] JPN-Only). However, this is the first time that red has received a late game viable card with a delay active that is not an equip since Duval from Sacred Relic Dragon Saga. Not only is this card late game viable in its non-equip form, but it also has a dark sub-attribute which is the one color that Red teams desperately needs in NA at this current moment, due to lack of JPN-Only Magneto. 

Halloween Inahime’s main drawback is that outside of Sea Wolf (who uses 7cs to boost team damage), her damage is lackluster. 3 7C awakenings for an 8x multiplier often does not make the cut in today’s current late game meta. If you tack her extra VDP SA on to that then she reaches a 20x personal multiplier which is still only modest. She will struggle to hit damage cap with leaders other than those similar to Sea Wolf.  

Aside from her delay she does have a couple other great draws. A cross awakening (or 2 with SA) for blind skyfall mitigation since end game throws it at you left and right. 100% poison resist is also in her kit.

The cards Inahime is most likely to replace are other low cooldown cards that can hold delay active equips. Your most likely candidate for a dark attribute card, that has a low cooldown active skill, and can hold your equips? GungHo Belial. What does GungHo Belial have? A Super Poison Resist Awakening. So not only does Inahime help you cover the same attributes as the ever notorious Belial, but she effectively serves the same purpose that Belial would in the early game, while also providing better damage, and the potential for a DDC (double-damage cap) latent on Sea Wolf.

This team offers absolutely massive damage with a ton of 7c stacking for Sea Wolf’s active skill, all the cards available to be Damage Cap broken, full coverage, and amazing utility with the addition of Inahime. 

[7954] Masquerade Witch, Chakeol

Halloween Chakeol is the true queen of this collab. Is she ever a doozy: a system-able 35% shield active, strong awakenings and the ability to also be used as a leader and sub. Her optimal home is currently as a sub for Yuji/Mahito teams. Sadly, her usefulness in NA is somewhat diminished due to lacking Darth Vader, who loads up the dark takoyaki/ACE awakenings that Chakeol desperately wants as a leader. He also provides an extremely low cooldown VDP active on a dark sub, which NA does not have as of now. Her optimal pair as a lead is Baran (7697) from Dragon Quest collab which is also currently JPN-Only. 

Her base form offers an amazing suite of awakenings for dark teams, boasting the valuable double 10c awakenings without SA, Tape Resist and 2 dark takoyakis/ACEs. Not to mention the great utility offered via 100% blind resist SA, meaning you can have 2 statuses covered with one slot. One issue with her kit is the lack of VDP.

This team presents what I believe to be the most relevant use for Halloween Chakeol. If NA had Dragon Quest collab or Star Wars collab this team would look much different. Due to the lack of these cards I do not think Halloween Chakeol has much real use in Shura 3, and her use is mostly restricted to MD1 and future-proofing your monster box.

[7960] Cheerful Toy Dragon Caller, Cotton

Finally we come to what I most recommend trading for in this event, Halloween Cotton. Her new reincarnated evolution packs a powerful punch with the upcoming Godfest Exclusive, Daytona. Boasting a huge personal multiplier with 6 TPAs, and a 10c, she is almost unparalleled when it comes to damage on Daytonas TPA reliant teams. She also has the option to Super Awaken any of the 3 main resists (Poison, Blind or Jammer), giving you the ability to cover any resist you may have missed in the rest of your team building. 

She also has a strong active, giving you a tri-color board of Light, Dark and Heals, and unlocking the board at the same time. More importantly, she gives you the VDP (pierce damage void) active that Daytona desperately needs, allowing you to make optimal TPA boards capping your entire teams damage. This active is so good in fact that there are even instances where multiple Cotton on your Daytona team is very viable.

Randall_KTO’s Halloween Durga Template: 2020 vs 2021

Final feature is for Randall_KTO who has abused Halloween Durga’s passive 50% shield and systemable 35% active shield.

Original 2020 ASR1 Team post on Reddit: Durga the Immortal

Maybe catch him on stream in action: Randall_KTO on Twitch