Introduction

Hey, guys. Today, we’ll be going over the top rarity cards in the Fate/Stay Night: Heaven’s Feel Collab that is returning on December 7, 2020. I hope that my perspective helps you gain some insight into the potential applications of these cards if you somehow manage to roll one of them.

I may or may not post another review of the bottom rarity; keep your eyes peeled in the next few days. (Probably not.) With that said, let’s examine these diamonds.

Shirou Emiya

Since the first two forms have been heavily powercrept, I’ll be mainly focusing on the reincarnation form and the assist. One thing I do want to note is that UEvo Shirou still boasts a hefty attack multiplier that is still on par with leads today, which is somewhat astounding to me considering the massive amounts of powercreep we’ve experienced since the first run of this collab. The awakening buffs are nice as well but having 2 Damage Void Piercer awakenings means little when your attack stat is that low.

REvo Shirou feels like a jacked-up version of his old R/L UEvo with the similar dual-attribute sub requirement in exchange for reasonable survivability and recovery plus a monstrous attack multiplier. 400x ATK back when Shirou first debuted was absolutely nuts, and the same can be said of REvo Shirou’s 576x ATK.

Unfortunately, REvo Shirou also inherited the same old weaknesses as well, with the previously mentioned dual-attribute sub requirement (for maximum synergy) along with no shield in the leader skill. However, new Shirou now requires Fire/Dark (or Dark/Fire) subs instead of Fire/Light, which has a much stronger subpool that includes the likes of Safi’jiiva , Valditarne , Polowne , RGY , Valentine’s Sonia and Story Sonia , Lina = Inverse , and many more.

The only realistically comparable leader in terms of multipliers is probably Yashamaru Kurama from Samurai Shodown Collab, who has a much larger subpool (in fact, Kurama has no typing/attribute restrictions) but forces a somewhat difficult playstyle as its main limiting factor.

On another hand, R/D Shirou boasts a box-making active of Fire Orbs that also provides two additional combos on a 13T CD. Considering that there are only six cards with a box-making active, Shirou’s active is already somewhat rare, but what makes it stand out is the inclusion of an additional combo effect while still keeping one of the lowest cooldowns for this active skill niche. The only other comparable card (Spirit Ally, Dainichi ) has essentially the same active (Light Orbs instead of Fire Orbs) but has a 17T CD. With the recent buff, R/D Shirou is a direct upgrade over Spirit Ally, Spirit of Fire in most respects (niche downside in terms of uber-optimized speed swipe farming due to additional animation, but who cares about that).

Meanwhile, the assist is still strong as an equip with four hazard resists, but the paltry addition of a TE+ and the even split distribution of 2 Blind + 2 Jammer Resists make it a bit archaic with the presence of super hazard resists and the Sengoku 3 Equips . Furthermore, comparable alternatives such as Makoto’s S.E.E.S. Armband and Suou’s Devil Lanterns now exist, substantially decreasing the value of this once-unique equip that was part of the “holy trinity” of quad-resist equips (the others being Fatalis Blade and Aerith’s Crystal ).

Gilgamesh

For being one of the strongest servants in the franchise, he is probably the weakest and worst of all the diamonds in the machine. I am truly sorry if you are a fan of this character; you have my deepest condolences.

Okay, he’s not as terrible as I make him out to be, but he definitely feels a bit lackluster compared to some (or all) of the other diamonds.

Base Gilgamesh is actually a legit big board lead that provides a reasonable multiplier and more importantly, a health multiplier, which is pretty uncommon among non-transform big board leaders. Though lacking in recovery, that can be supplemented via a dedicated recovery sub such as Eir or Amaterasu Ohkami or by pairing with another leader that has a recovery multiplier (or both). In fact, Base Gilgamesh serves as a reasonable alternative to recently popular Mega Awoken Aten who sacrifices recovery for a substantial increase in damage. Viable pairings include Mega Awoken Goddess of Power, Kali , Crimson Dracoblader of the Flame Twist, Akine , and Seraphic Dragon Hero, Dyer .

Furthermore, Base Gilgamesh is capable of outputting ridiculous amounts of unconditional personal damage in solo because he can potentially have two Super Enhanced Combos awakenings via SA, which provides a staggering personal 25x ATK when matching ten or more combos. The only other cards with two of that awakening are Furious Rajang and Goddess of Fortune, Lakshmi .

Gilgamesh’s active is unique in that it is the shortest active with an unconditional 5x ATK burst at 12T CD; however, he only buffs Gods. While the five-ping laser effect is nice and may be useful in ranking, cards like Jubei Yagyu and M. Bison provide a similar/near-identical effect, depriving Gilgamesh of a unique niche. Furthermore, GungHo buffed the Wisedragon Series to have a 5x ATK burst effect of each attribute on a 13T CD, making Gilgamesh quite expensive for such a marginal mixed upgrade.

UEvo Gilgamesh has a more “ordinary” set of awakenings, which sounds nice at first but does nothing to help differentiate him amongst a sea of options, especially with an incredibly niche active that honestly doesn’t give him much value. As a leader, he is the ultimate definition of a “glass cannon” lead, providing a big board for more combos which in turn leads to more damage as well as a crazy 25x ATK by himself. Of course, you would not want to pair with an identical copy because a second big board leader provides no additional utility since the value of the big board is already maximized from one lead. Some interesting pairings (that I personally want to test) include Base Mariel and Kali Regalia, Kaworu .

Sadly, Gilgamesh did not receive a weapon assist evolution form in this rerun. 🙁

Kirei Kotomine (Diamond Egg Version)

The only new “traditional” diamond card added during this rerun, Kirei is actually worse than Gilgamesh, which I didn’t think was possible. It makes sense, though, given how badly Gilgamesh was shafted despite being one of the coolest characters (in my opinion) in the franchise; compared to the strongest servant, Kirei is easily forgotten.

The base form reminds me strongly of a budget version of Dante , who also has triple Enhanced Combos but possesses three Devil Killers (as opposed to Kirei’s two). The main benefit to Kirei is that he does not require a transformation to unlock his true potential as a brutal tech option designed to terminate unshielded devils with extreme prejudice. (Goodbye, AA3 Yog.) Base Kirei still suffers from the same problems as Dante in that he can’t really do much against spawns with void shields without janky workarounds such as VDP Latent or a void void active. The active is quite simple as one of the fastest delays in the game (tied with Galford from Samurai Shodown, Nyarlathotep , Rangiku Matsumoto from Bleach, and Goddess Hello Kitty from Hello Kitty Collab) that also provides nice orb generation in the form of combos of both Dark and Heal Orbs.

As a leader, Base Kirei is quite pitiful with his sad 2x HP and 14x ATK multipliers. The only real benefit to Kirei is his automatic follow-up attack of one million damage, but even then, he is still terribly bad, with his optimal use case being a transitory leader for newer players to get accustomed to the relatively novel mechanic of AFUA. His best pairing is probably his own ultimate evolution form, which has the same matching requirements (Dark and Heal) while providing three additional combos upon activation.

UEvo Kirei technically has more potential devil-killing power but is much more restrictive because of how Super Enhanced Combos comprises a substantial part of the damage, which requires ten combos to activate. This then necessitates either a big board or additional combos from the leader skill. Apart from this distinction, the base and the ultimate evolution are quite similar as subs, with both being heavy devil-killing tech.

Meanwhile, as already stated, UEvo Kirei provides three additional combos upon activation as opposed to AFUA; he also provides the exact same multipliers (2x HP, 14x ATK). Again, very simple, but the ceiling is pretty low in terms of potential power/progression.

The equip form is a unique combination of SB and FUA; while the value of FUA may have diminished due to the prevalence of AFUA, it is still reasonably strong as a resolve-busting option packed in one awakening. Furthermore, the equip provides a second “pseudo skill boost” in the form of a one-turn delay, which can be quite invaluable in the age of transformation. My only qualm is that players generally prefer to use stronger, multi-turn delays instead, which may make this equip as a delay option somewhat irrelevant.

Rin Tohsaka

The inferior waifu of the diamonds, Rin is mildly interesting but nothing worth writing home about. While I will be mainly focusing on the new ultimate evolution and assist forms, the old ultimate evolution is a ridiculously fast dual-attribute orb generation active that will almost always guarantee combos of Fire and Light Orbs, which could potentially be useful for dual-attribute activation requirements in leader skills. (Base is strictly inferior to the old ultimate evolution, so no point in acknowledging its existence.)

UEvo Rin, with four Heal OE awakenings, is a recovery sub option who looks extremely similar to the popular Super Reincarnated Amaterasu Ohkami ; both have the exact same attribute combination, after all. Here is a table listing out differences that I see to be in the respective cards’ favor; the comparison should highlight Tohsaka’s value:

SREvo Amaterasu Ohkami Much cheaper to obtain as a pantheon compared to Rin, who is a top rarity collab card. (Pantheons are usually the bottom rarity of godfests.) Versatile active that provides immediate heal, regular and awoken bind reduction, and a valuable haste on a relatively reasonable cooldown. Provides more recovery on paper (and generally more recovery in practice) due to the much higher recovery stat, despite having fewer Heal OE. More minor utility in awakenings (Recover Bind, TE+). Higher health stat provides slightly more bulk for the team.

Rin Tohsaka A better selection of SA, with [L] Unlock, FUA, and Jammer Resist all being useful in their own ways. Cheaper plus point cost to obtain the desired awakening. Four Heal OE means inheriting an equip with another Heal OE for even more recovery will guarantee that all Heal Orbs from natural skyfall will be enhanced. A more niche active (column generation is nice), the lower cooldown means that inherits will come up faster on Rin.

While UEvo Rin Tohsaka is an excellent card, the existence of a much cheaper alternative that outpaces Rin in multiple ways greatly diminishes her value.

As a lead, Rin has a monocolor restriction tied to survivability while requiring matches of two attributes (Fire and Light) to activate the attack multiplier and the additional combo effect. Although she has no recovery multiplier, Rin is a recovery stick, thereby fulfilling her own need for healing. Unfortunately, there are very few leads with an identical dual-attribute activation clause, with the most notable options being NY Kamimusubi and Terry Bogard from KOF, which means that Rin may have a better time pairing with more flexible monocolor leads like Base and UEvo Mariel from Draconic Orchestra and/or Seregios from Monster Hunter.

The equip is unique as the first assist to possess both tape and blind resist awakenings in one package, which can be convenient while teambuilding. Unfortunately, the equip inherited the short active from the new ultimate evolution form, which means that the card this equip is assisting has a relatively high likelihood of losing its active to the inherit without careful active skill management. Therefore, unless the active is somewhat useful, the equip is slightly lackluster as its value is mainly based on a unique combination of resist awakenings.

Sakura Matou

The highlighted waifu of the collab as the featured untradable diamond orb skin, Sakura Matou is probably the best diamond overall in the collab.

As a transform card, she presents very interesting and unique applications as a sub due to how different Sakura Matou is before and after transformation. Before transforming, Sakura looks like a competent recovery stick with a high recovery stat and multiple Heal OE; after transforming, Sakura becomes an incredibly powerful damage stick, with six of her nine awakenings directly dedicated to multiplying damage, not to mention the powerful post-transform active that packs a time buff, a spike, and orb generation on a ridiculously short cooldown.

Unfortunately, I can’t really think of a situation that would fully utilize both forms of Sakura Matou as a sub currently; either one waits until she transforms and then unleashes fire and fury upon enemies with her massive firepower and powerful active, or utilizes her mainly as a recovery option until reaching the boss floors, at which Sakura is transformed to provide additional damage (with the latter being much less realistic than the former due to the sheer strength of post-transform Sakura Matou).

When you look at Sakura Matou as a leader, though, a lot of things make much more sense. Before transforming, she relies on healing to maintain a hefty shield for survivability; the Heal OE awakenings help Sakura easily reach the recovery requirement. Once she transforms, Sakura Matou goes all-in on damage, providing a hefty attack multiplier along with additional combos to easily bypass combo shields (screw You Yu) but also to boost damage. Furthermore, her active provides a reasonably strong spike for an active on 2T CD, meaning that Sakura will provide 1.5x ATK every other turn (or every turn if running two Sakura to maintain a continuous loop), not to mention the extra move time or the orb generation also packed in this busted active.

The challenge in building for Sakura Matou is in safely stalling until she is ready to transform; since her shield is based on recovering a substantial amount of health every turn, most stalling is based on generating and matching four linked Heal Orbs every turn to trigger the Heal OE, which will comfortably exceed the recovery requirement. Unfortunately, actives that heal over time (e.g. Kuroyuri , Mariel ) do not trigger the shield, so don’t use them. Once transformed, Sakura herself helps maintain the shield with her quick orb generation active, but even her formidable active skill isn’t always guaranteed to activate, so a third orb generation active on standby would alleviate some contingencies. A popular leader pair to alleviate all these shortcomings and drawbacks is Nelle , who provides a big board that provides a higher probability of having enough Heal Orbs pre-transform and many Dark Orbs post-transform due to the increased dimensions of the board. Of course, big boards are being specifically penalized in recent endgame content nowadays with some nasty sticky blind skyfall effects, but the upside for Sakura is generally worth the downside of playing with hazards.

Although it possesses a unique combination of awakenings, most singular resist equips are overshadowed by the immensely strong quad-resist equips of the Samurai 3 Pantheon , despite the relative rarity of blind resist equips with three or more resist awakenings. The real value is in the equip, which basically does a ton of things (time buff, spike, full bind and unmatchable clear, full heal) at once on a considerably low cooldown, though the lack of an awoken bind clear stings. Unfortunately, I have no clue where I would specifically use this equip over a more specialized option; while it’s good at doing a lot of things, it’s not really great at any one thing. There are faster full heals, faster full bind clears, faster full unmatchable orb removals, faster time buffs, faster spikes. Although it is “nice” to have something that can deal with a bunch of stuff, PAD has become extremely specialized as newer dungeons have become incredibly unforgiving, which lowers the value of all-around coverage options such as this equip.

Saber

Not much to talk about here, as it’s pretty obvious that the base form is the best waifu in all of Puzzle & Dragons.

Unfortunately, the strongest servant isn’t all that strong in terms of gameplay. At first glance, she looks like a reasonable piercing damage sub option, with two natural VDP and the ability to gain a third (or other damage awakenings) via super awakening. What is interesting to me is her skill charge; if activated consistently, the skill charge effectively reduces the cooldown down to six turns, which would technically be the fastest full heal active in the game. Of course, it’s difficult to guarantee full rainbow activation every turn, but it is possible.

Furthermore, the leader skill is based around rainbow activation as well, throwing this form into a conundrum; is it really a rainbow card with two Damage Void Piercer awakenings, or is it a monocolor piercing option with a skill charge and that leader skill? I suppose you could look at it as a hybrid of sorts that can fulfill different roles on different teams. Of course, when Saber was released, this form was intended to be a pierce option for rainbow teams, considering the active could get enough orbs to form a box without converting other attributes. Unfortunately, that role is completely obsolete now due to the release of the VDP Latent .

As a leader, Saber reminds me of a jacked-up rainbow variant of Edward Elric from FMA, with a thick shield when above half health and an easily activatable damage multiplier. A large benefit is that Base Saber does not have any typing or attribute requirements. In fact, not only is 256x ATK (assuming identical leader/helper) for matching three attributes somewhat ridiculous, but the multiplier also scales up for every additional attacking attribute, from 400x ATK at four attributes to a maximum 576x ATK at all five attributes. Granted, since rainbow team damage is pretty diversified and inconsistent, the attack multiplier should be high. In fact, it may be best to just play a combo-based monocolor style without any contradicting orb-changers while including all attributes somewhere on the team.

It should also be noted that Base Saber is extremely fragile below 50% HP, which means that a high recovery solution is imperative to her success in any lengthy dungeon (such as arena-style content that comprises the majority of the endgame). While her active should be immensely helpful, the cooldown is somewhat long even with skill charge, so a recovery sub option with Heal OE should be immensely useful.

Meanwhile, Saber Alter is the absolute worst card in the game and should not exist at all.

Okay, bias aside, Saber Alter has more value than I anticipated. She is currently tied for the fastest single target button with a minimum 200x ATK multiplier, with the other being Raizen from Yu Yu Hakusho; this may be useful in solo button farming when inheriting buttons. Furthermore, she also has a fast quadcolor board change of Fire + Water + Wood + Dark, which can be useful for a niche subset of leaders that activate off these specific colors such as Kali Regalia, Kaworu from Eva, Uruka from Heroine, and Durga from the Indian 2 Pantheon. Of course, the health halve effect is the “drawback”, but can be utilized in other ways (like activating <50% HP awakenings, triggering leader skills, etc.).

As a lead, I feel that Saber Alter is too risky and inconsistent in several ways, which limits her in teambuilding and in longer dungeons. Though she has a rainbow activation clause, she also imposes a passive monocolor multiplier, which greatly restricts sub choice during teambuilding. Furthermore, Saber Alter promotes a low health playstyle due to her <80% HP clause and her <50% HP awakenings; thus, she relies on a hefty shield for survivability. However, that shield is tied to a rainbow activation clause of four or more attributes, which is not always guaranteed. What this means is that playing Saber Alter will require restrictive teambuilding and heavy health/board management, which might be fun but honestly sounds like a total nuisance.

While the visor was once revered as one of the rare <50% HP equips, nowadays there are far more options (though it is still relatively rare), with bottom rarity pulls such as Tae Shimura from Gintama and Egg of Gluttony from Sin Dragons & Key Heroes along with even a farmable in Metatron AvaTAMA that can suffice as reasonable (though not perfect) replacements. The differentiating value then lies in the supplemental awakenings and the active, and while the TE+ is nice, it doesn’t provide much value in many of the farming builds that would use a <50% HP equip. Moreover, the active itself is incredibly short, which means that it would only really be desirable as a button assist/fast inheritable health cut.

Conclusion

Honestly, as much as I enjoy the franchise and despite the number of stones I’ll be rolling in this machine (too many), Fate is a pretty lackluster collab that is basically dead on arrival. However, the bottom rarity does have some useful cards (Rider , Zouken , Lancer ), so I do recommend a couple rolls if you haven’t rolled the first time it came around. Hopefully, Fate returns with more meaningful buffs next time!

Good luck to you all fighting in this new holy grail war!