The Adventure of Dai returns to Puzzle and Dragons for North America! Dates: 4/25/22-5/1/22

_Introduction

Hey folks, long time no review. Couldn’t let this collab go by unreviewed, as it has too much hype, and such amazing art. 

Normally, I skip out on talking about the cards I find useless, but most of the mid and top rarities of this machine are pretty heavily pushed in power level. Just a preface however, I am going to talk about zero of the low rarity cards in this collab, and only mention the mid rarity ones I feel are worth talking about. Just due to none of them receiving any meaningful buffs, so they are the exact same as last time or are not worth anyone’s time to care about. Also they will be reviewed in order of rarity, even though I think the most exceptional cards from this collab fall in the middle rarity: 7-star. 

I will also answer the question everyone asks me after I write one of these articles, “should I roll this collab?”. My answer is going to depend heavily on your spending habits. If you’re a monster whale then my answer doesn’t really matter because you will buy anyways, and this collab is made for you. If you are a light spender you are going to need some luck to get what you really need from this. If you are Free-to-Play, then Godspeed friend, you are going to need the best luck of your life, or have 100s of stones stocked up. 

Link to the collab is here.

Thank you Tsubaki Bot for the image card sources! Art and icons are owned by GungHo Online Entertainment, Inc.

Eight Stars – Tradeable

Dragon Knight, Dai

Kicking it off with the collab’s namesake himself, Dai. I will bow out on reviewing his original three forms, as they are basically as good or slightly better at the same things they were prior to this re-run. His new evo however, warrants some discussion. 

Dragon Knight, Dai is an all around very versatile card both as a lead and a sub for a large number of rainbow teams. Similar to Raffine , who can pair with Geed to create a smooth clear for MD4, Dai is going to do almost that same thing for you. He relies far less heavily on spinners, that’s not to say his teams can’t also use Raffine. 

His use case is very similar to something like Dark Athena’s new evo (8448) giving you your rainbow team RCV buff active, just with less utility in the earlier parts of a dungeon. The main differentiator between Dai and Raffine is that Dai is a low cool-down, non-transforming rainbow leader. Meaning that unlike Raffine who requires the use of Todo, or some insane stalling tactics in the early dungeon, he is lead swappable right from the start of a dungeon, no stalling required or Todo required.

Avan

Next up we have Avan, who has received some interesting buffs to his base form. I will say before I start talking about him, this is a card I think everyone should have 1 of in their box if only to use his equip. A Skill boost, L and 2 RCV equip with a 2 turn haste active is extremely strong. While it most likely won’t see use on all your teams, you will be extremely thankful to have it in those instances you find yourself needing it, as there are few other cards that fill this role. 

His base form on the surface looks like nothing significant in the way of a buff, however it is more interesting when you consider the recently buffed (In Japan only for a short while longer) Ryumei from Mystics & Specters. Where Avan got a slight buff to his damage and a smaller buff to his HP, those buffs meant a great deal. Ryumei who has now received the ability to use Rows rather than Ls (similar to how most folks use Royal Oak), has unlocked the ability to have a pair that can potentially lead to an unbelievably tanky lead pairing, with very consistent orb generation. Infinite orb unlocks, with very close to boards consisting of only Fire, Light and Hearts every turn. The largest shortcoming is that having teams of so many transforms leads to fairly stunted damage, but you can tank your way to clears. This is very forgiving for newer or less experienced players who may not have an easy way to use a double transform boat lead, or rainbow 7×6, and are looking for a much safer alternative. 

Baran

Baran, who I think received the most noteworthy buffs of any eight star in this collab. To briefly touch upon his equip before I move on to the base form and new evolution. His equip is good for what it was prior to this re-run, that is to say slapping it on your lead in dungeons that haste your leader skills, so you can safely survive the overcharge with the shield. As well it gives 2 SBR which is very important to dark teams that tend to need them desperately. 

As with Avan, the buffs to his base form don’t seem like they would have any impact on his use, however these new buffs are absolutely massive. His pre-transform adding another skill boost meaning he now gives a huge 4 skill boosts to any dark team is unreal. His post-transform leader skill, while it does make him more of a glass cannon than he already was, adds insane fire power to his damage, and makes him an even better pair option for the new Mystvearn evolution, or Black Bird. 

His active skill is still core to many dark team’s ability to clear content. While in the interim between the last run and this run there have been some cards that compete for this with him, he is still among the strongest options there are. Currently this active skill makes him an extremely viable option for many dark teams that are lightning fast at clearing their designated content such as Mystvearn in MD2 or almost any dark team in ASR2. 

Dragon Master General, Baran

Unlike his base form which is core as a lead for his own teams, or is a staple sub on many dark teams, this form is your new go to Dark 7×6 lead swap option. This can include Kaishu, or almost any dark lead that would need to be swapped. He also has massive viability on Daytona teams as a sub for those who don’t have multiple Halloween Cotton.

 Seven Stars – Whaling has its rewards

Dark Commander, Mystvearn

Lets start it off with truly the only reason I wanted to write this review in the first place, Mystvearn. Bare in mind again, none of these from here on are tradeable, so this is where it gets somewhat unfortunate for lower spending players. I am going to disregard his equip, and say it is identical to what it was before, so take that how you will. His old evo received only very minor buffs, but is part of a fast MD2 clearing 2–player team

Where to start with this new evolution, there is just so much good that comes from this card. For starters multiple copies of him, four to be exact, and you have yourself a swipeable clear for MD4 and MD2. That’s not even touching on the fact that he can swipe clear TA3 with 2 free slots for levels. For a card with so much utility packed into him you would think he would lack somewhere, but in reality he lacks in almost no department. His damage awakenings mean he will almost always be double capping on his main and sub attribute, meaning you vaporize dungeons at breakneck speeds. 

I stated before that he was able to clear content with just multiple copies of himself, but that isn’t to say you can’t just pair him with Black bird as a single copy lead, and just use your everyday run of the mill dark team to turn huge spawns into paper, these teams just aren’t entirely swipeable. Many end game teams can be created using just cards from this collab because of Mystvearn, which is largely unheard of. 

Killvearn

Killvearn is next, and he exists to compliment Mystvearn, Baran,  King Vearn and Black bird. He is however, arguably the least attainable card for the average player, that most players would also want. He was not in the last run of this collab like all the other strong cards on this list, and unlike King Vearn, he is not an orb skin so you can’t just buy him for 20 dollars. 

Quick discussion about his equip before we go on to his base form. This is a 3 turn delay with tons of team HP and a combo orb, that makes a bi-color board on activation. I shouldn’t need to tell anyone that this is obviously strong. 

His pre-transform offers three Skill boosts and a 3 turn haste, which makes him an effective six skill boost card at the start of the dungeon, which is a huge boon to almost any black bird team. Post transform he breaks the enemies defense by 100% for a turn, removes locks and makes you 6 dark orbs. This is hugely useful in dungeons like MD4, where all the spawns have very high defense, making a lot of teams unable to effectively punch through them. He also has triple 10c, which in my opinion is hilarious, due to him being a transform card. He will damage cap no matter what you do, but it largely goes to waste as he can’t be Double Damage Capped. He also has a SBR in pre and post transform, which as I stated before is something dark teams sorely lack. 

Dark King Vearn

Lastly for the dark cards that were added is King Vearn (GungHo sure loves playing favorites with this attribute). Fortunately for any light spender out there, this is your new orb skin. So twenty dollars puts this in your box at very least. His equip is hot garbage for the most part, so let’s skip it. 

King Vearn has leader skill scaling similar to the recent Artist cards. That is to say, they scale infinitely for as many of their conditions that you meet, in the case of King Vearn, it’s Dark and Fire rows. Paired with himself he generates a dark row and a fire row’s worth of orbs every turn, so you can hit 10 combos with absolutely no effort. This makes him extremely effective for farming some of the more recent end game content, or just general farming use, especially MD2 and MD1. He makes an effective lead for a couple of the Alt MD1s as well. 

Disciple of Love, Maam

Next up is Disciple of Love, Maam, who I will only be discussing in her new evolution form. Her new evolution is core to a swiping team that is used in both MD4 and Colo4. Her 4 turn active voids attribute absorption and spikes herself and fire attribute cards for 2 turns. This means that if we bring a system of cards that haste like Reincarnated Antares, we end up reducing that to 2 turns, so it’s an infinite loop of voids and spikes. Which means the now famous 4 Antares, Artorius team can use her to clear content where attribute absorb is their only roadblock. 

Grand Sorcerer, Matoriv

The final card I will be talking about, and also the last new card added to the machine in this collab, Grand Sorcerer, Matoriv. Her base evolution and equip require little discussion in my opinion. 

Unlike most other cards where I talk about how it has tons of utility in many scenarios, this card really only has one real use, a lead swap 7×6 lead for rainbow teams, mainly Atelie. She offers a great active, and some respectable damage for a 7×6 lead, as well as full poison resist.

Honorable Mentions

Popp, didn’t receive a new evolution that I deem exciting, however he did receive a small buff to the shield on his old form, so he is still a card most people should look to pick up. Finally we have Leona, who had 1 turn shaved off her active, which makes her an even more viable light cleric than she was before.

Also shoutouts to the absolute train-load of goofy farmables added to this run, there is a real reason to farm this content now.

See you all soon, maybe, who knows.