Backlog – Dragonbounds & Dragon Callers 2nd Run Review
This review was written for the last return of Dragonbounds & Dragon Callers few months ago, edited to note any new buffs.
See here for reviews on newer cards.
See here for more information about this machine.
5 Stars
(SA: 
)Shazel’s typing, attribute, and 3 devil killers
brings Mito
to mind. Shazel’s main advantage is two skill boosts and ability to use other latent killer types to further boost damage. He also has a use as a 7×6 swap option for Rushana
due to having 3x RCV to pair with Rushana’s 2x HP. His active is a simple but practical 7cd orb change that doesn’t kill hearts, removes hazards, and hastes by 1.His super awakes don’t really change his role, though team hp
and cloud resist are both nice to have.
Rathios lost some value with the release of Kirin Equip
for light rows and Pocket Watch
for TE, but the active is still a decent combination of small shield + double column. Base form Rathios is one of the stronger leads among 5 stars in this REM, but difficult for new players due to fixed 4s.
NEW: Rathios now adds 500 HP.
(SA: 
)
No.6 is an amazingly strong killer sub, able to demolish just about any god type with his 3 god killers and high attack. His active is both good to inherit over due to low cool-down and also a really good for farming, as it guarantees 7 red orbs on a 5 turn cool-down which can be easily hasted back up with MGoemon
, among other things. Double SBR is useful for fulfilling skillbind checks and making up for SBR loss when a team mate is bound, but his lack of skill boosts is something to keep in mind.
His super awakes do not really change his role in anyway, though scroll resist is nice to have and the other options add more damage in different ways.
(SA: 
)Kiri is also a very strong killer sub
, though slightly hindered by her long cool-down in standard teams. Dragon is a very common typing for tough spawns in late game dungeons, such that Kiri can be an irreplaceable sub for leaders with low multipliers. On the flip side many strong dragons have damage void, and Kiri will easily hit too much. The combination of her killers and weak but usable leader skill makes her a great pairing with Meridonalis
in certain builds, especially in rogue descends.
Aside from dragon slaying Kiri is also able to lead a resist cheese team by abusing her enemy attribute to red active and her 93.75% red damage reduction. Her super awake choices are pretty niche, but an additional red resist makes cheesing even easier.
(SA: 
)Kulia started out as the trash roll of DBDC, and returned to being trash now that double 7c
is common. Her active can be used in farming for clearing 2 floors but double columns of the same color are better and column makers are not as good as double row makers for breaking a full board into combos. The TE aspect is helpful, but there are stronger options like Paolumu
.
(SA: )An odd sub with two god and two devil killers
, but unable to stack latent killers of either type. She isn’t as specialized as Mito/Shazel
for devils orFenrir Viz/No6
for gods, but she can condense sub slots in dungeons with spawns of both types. Her active is a useful light and heart making orb changer similar to Sun Wukong
, and the secondary effect of RCV buff can clear enemy RCV debuffs.
NEW: Praline can now get a 3rd god or devil killer through super awakening, putting her roughly on par with the other triple killer cards in solo mode.
6 Stars
(SA: 
)Triple 7c
is more common now and Enra lacks utility awakes
offered by other other red triple 7c options
. Enra still has advantages like covering an uncommon color combination, not relying on super awakenings, and a nice HP stat. While her active flouds the board with red and isn’t the best for combo teams, it does convert hazards into hearts.
Her super awakenings are decent but not especially notable, though cloud resist is nice to have and the other options add more damage in different ways.
Weld’s TPA
granting assist evo isn’t as unique as he was on release, but his good delay + board change active still make him a very practical assist for any blue or red team. TPA focused teams have been pretty dead so base form weld won’t see much use, though the leader skill is decent.
NEW: Weld now adds 100 ATK. Also, there’s been a number of good red+blue match leaders
released since the last event.
(SA: )Her amazing HP and nice 50% heal + orb change active makes Nees a good sub for green+dark leaders. Through super awakes she can obtain a second 7c
for more damage, or Team HP for even more HP.
Nees is a cross leader that is able to use 3 colors. She does not scale very fast or very high, but a shield from matching green + dark plus her own massive HP grants her decent survivability.
(SA: 
)
Tardis received VDP as a super awakening, but he has a pretty lacking latent killer selection. That said, it’s nice for Anubis teams as they can now use the mandatory active use sub as a VDP sub as well.
He’s an easy 100x green leader that only needs active use to reach full multiplier, and his 1cd active lends him well to leader swaping.
(SA: 
)Rii is still exclusively an inherit, for her leader swap utility. While Macha
is available from Godfests now, Rii have higher rates here even factoring in the additional cost. 3x dragon type burst can be situationally better than 75% shield, but the cooldown is 1 turn longer as a result.
Her long cooldown active and strange leader skill should you use her active means she’ll be an inherit most of the time, and none of her super awakes changed that.
(SA: )
Distel has only two L-Unlock for damage awakenings and lacks sbr, but skill boosts are nice.
He has an interesting active that combines base Indra and 3 turn 2x dragon/devil burst, but 20cd means using it more than once in a dungeon is unlikely.
NEW: Distel got some super awakenings that make him somewhat better as a sub, but not significantly so.
7 Stars
Note: 
gives characters voiced lines when their skill is used. It has no gameplay effects.
Ideal
Ideal is still pretty great, more as a sub in her light form than as a lead in the dark form. Her delay + board active isn’t flashy but very practical. LIdeal functions well in any combo/rainbow team.
(SA: )LIdeal’s stats and awakenings are honestly ridiculous, especially the RCV. Her triple 7c
and ability to take latent dragon killers allows her to snipe dragon spawns. She may have an average HP, her team HP awakenings adds a significant amount of HP to the team.
NEW: Her leader skill scales to 196x now.
(SA: )DIdeal’s main appeal as a leader is the built in +3s and flexible combo based, but the lack of any defensive multiplier means you’ll need to make up for that through subs and actives. Her damage isn’t very impressive either, though the damage scaling is excellent and allows any number of combo lead pairings.
Her extremely high attack allows her to be used as a button base for various ranking dungeons, where multiboost
button bases are useless.
NEW: Her leader skill scales to 256x now.
Lajoa
Lajoa has a dark version of Yog-Sothoth’s
active and it is useful in the same ways. With Awoken Castor
, one can create a fully enhanced dark board in just 2 actives. Base Lajoa is better for inheriting, due to higher HP.
NEW: Lajoa got super awakenings including VDP and skillboost+
. Also, both Lajoa evos have great HP at lv110, especially base Lajoa at 8.7k base HP.
(SA: )Rows
and FUA is a pretty odd combination, seeing as you cannot use them together. Good stats and active means Lajoa is usable as a dark FUA, but there are definitely better options.
His leader skill gives 900x for swiping full 30 dark orbs, higher than any other blob lead, but he can’t deal much damage from just a row of 6, and generally loses multiplier whenever he can’t swipe a full board. Most full board swipe builds utilize Amen
amd Kaede
type leads for both high damage and flexibility.
(SA: )Rows
and VDP isn’t anything we haven’t seen before, but Lajoa does have better stats than most dark VDP. He can get a second VDP through super awakenings for more damage when doing a box.
NEW: His leader skill got a damage buff and now scales to 225x at 8 orbs while retaining the decent 100x at 6. He can use Kuroyuri System
, Mel
or the off type Eir
to fix RCV and generally work as a tanky though orb hungry leader.