Introduction

Ever since its release, the Trading Post has been viewed as a very positive addition to the game. On paper, it sounds like an amazing idea. You can avoid rolling in a low-value collab or seasonal event, and pick up whatever top rarity roll you want by trading away unneeded duplicates of various cards that you do own.

I originally held this belief too! As upon its original release a little over a year ago, I traded 4 duplicates of godfest exclusives I had rarely used for Yusuke Urameshi . I proceeded to use Yusuke to farm both Arena 4 and Alt. Arena 1 throughout most of 2018, which were two dungeons that I could never have dreamed of consistently farming with any of my leaders I had been using before that point.

Fast forward to today, however, and it’s been nearly half a year since my last time I made any monster exchanges. It actually took me a while to pinpoint exactly why I stopped feeling the desire to exchange for new cards, but I think I finally have the answer, and it’s not quite as simple as you may expect. So let’s break this down into a few different parts, starting with Yusuke’s initial release. 

What Made Yusuke So Valuable Upon Release?

Stat	Lv.99 (+297)	Lv.110 (+297)
HP	4035 (5025)	5044 (6034)
ATK	1820 (2315)	2275 (2770)
RCV	410 (707)	513 (810)

[4302]Spirit Detective, Yusuke Urameshi 霊界探偵・浦飯幽助 BalancedAvailable Killers: All

Active Skill: Charge allies’ skill by 1 turn; Unlock all orbs; Change all orbs to Water, and Light orbs
(18 ➧ 13)

Leader Skill: 1.5x all stats for Light Att.; 4x ATK when 7 or more combos; 2.5x ATK when matching Light+Water
[2.25/225/2.25]

The primary reason why Yusuke was so invaluable upon his initial release, was because he came at a time where the only available VDP awakenings previously available came from pixel cards . Upon their initial debut, pixel cards almost always had to rely on just a single VDP awakening (which is only a 2.5x boost to that single card) to deal up to 800 million damage to an enemy spawn. Yusuke, on the other hand, had VDP and 7c awakenings, combined with balanced typing, allowing him to take any latent killer in the game to optimize damage on specific spawns. On release, this gave him especially strong applications in Arena 4: The Three Hands of Fate, where his strong VDP allowed him to easily deal with the Dragon Callers who were debatably the most dangerous spawns in the dungeon.

Yusuke would go on to lose some of his value as more time passed, and many more similarly strong VDP options would be rolled out to us in the following months. Due to the possibilities he opened on his initial release, however, I still believe he was the single best value monster exchange we’ve had. This doesn’t just have to do with Yusuke’s value however, but it also had to do with the relatively low value that several GFE themselves had at that point in time, as the idea of Mega Awoken GFE was brand new to us back then. People felt more comfortable parting with their GFE’s that hadn’t been seeing use elsewhere.

Why Do I Feel Trades Have Lost Their Value?

There are several reasons as to why I believe that most modern trades have begun to lose their value. The largest reason is that power creep has begun to slow down quite a bit over the past year. Nearly all of the previous “meta” leaders that were released during this period still have the potential of clearing endgame content. As an example, let’s look back to the release of the first Mega Awoken GFE, Blue and Green Sonia .

Stat	Lv.99 (+297)	Lv.110 (+297)
HP	7080 (8070)	8496 (9486)
ATK	1959 (2454)	2351 (2846)
RCV	0 (297)	0 (297)

[4283]Mega Awoken Blue Dragon Caller, Sonia Clea 極醒の青龍喚士・ソニア＝クレア DragonAvailable Killers: Machine / Healer

Active Skill: Reduce binds by 3 turns; Unlock all orbs; Change all orbs to Water, and Dark orbs
(19 ➧ 15)

Leader Skill: 1.5x all stats for Dragon type; Increase orb movement time by 2 seconds; 5x ATK and reduce damage taken by 25% when matching Water+Dark
[2.25/56.25/2.25, 43.75%]

Stat	Lv.99 (+297)	Lv.110 (+297)
HP	5038 (6028)	6046 (7036)
ATK	2070 (2565)	2484 (2979)
RCV	545 (842)	654 (951)

[4284]Mega Awoken Green Dragon Caller, Sonia Fio 極醒の緑龍喚士・ソニア＝フィオ DragonAvailable Killers: Machine / Healer

Active Skill: Reduce binds by 3 turns; Unlock all orbs; Change all orbs to Wood, and Dark orbs
(19 ➧ 15)

Leader Skill: 1.5x all stats for Dragon type; Increase orb movement time by 2 seconds; 5x ATK and reduce damage taken by 25% when matching Wood+Dark
[2.25/56.25/2.25, 43.75%]

Upon their initial release in April, the Mega Awoken Sonia’s had a nearly unprecedented amount of bulk for a leader at the time, as they boasted 2.25x to all stats, while also having a built-in shield. Now, of course, the big trade-off for this was that they didn’t have particularly great damage, with only a 56.25x multiplier, which many people look at today and think is completely laughable, right?.

Not at all actually, as the Sonias were able to make up for their lacking multiplier by having extremely solid personal damage on both leaders, which was actually buffed to be even better through later updates the cards received as more time went by. This allowed for the Sonia’s to still deal extremely high damage, even in spite of their low multiplier on the surface, especially if you use a synergistic burst awakening.

My main point that I’m trying to make, is that even though the Sonia’s are far past their initial prime now, they are both still more than capable of clearing whatever content they were used for before. The same is true of many other leaders to have released in the past year too. These leaders can all still easily run and clear dungeons like Arena 3, Arena 4, and Alt. Arena 1, and they can likely even be pushed to clearing Arena 5 and Alt. Arena 2 with enough effort. This is because the content itself never changes. Any lead that was capable of clearing/farming specific dungeons, is still more than able to clear said dungeons in today’s age as well (and yes, this even includes something super dated like Kushinadahime or Dark Athena Arena 3 clears). 

This leads me into my next point, which is that in my opinion, for a trade to be valuable for someone in today’s day and age, several criteria should ideally be met to maximize the value of said trade.

Answering Common Questions About Trading

What should I trade for X? I have a ton of spare fodder lying around that I never use, and want to get rid of them.

You should NEVER trade for a card just because you want to “get rid of fodder”. This is nothing but a mistake, as you only want to make a trade in the first place if you know for absolute certain that the card in question will provide value to you that will surpass what the 4-5 GFE you are trading for them will. Not only that, but what if a stronger card comes along later that does speak to you, but you’re unable to trade for it this time because you wanted to “get rid of your fodder”?

As a small spoiler, in around 90% of cases, unless you’re a whale who owns every GFE in the game anyway, and with multiple spare copies of them lying around, there is more often value lost when trading than what is gained. 

Should I trade for X? They look like a really powerful leader and seem fun to use.

No, because the simple answer to all specific trade-related questions can be boiled down to If you feel the need to ask, then it’s not worth it.

This is because when making a trade, you need to be able to decide for yourself, and know EXACTLY what you want to use the card in question for. Trading away 4-5 GFE for a single card is a huge commitment, and because of that, you need to make sure that that commitment will last you for an extremely long time. 

Should I trade for X? I have a good team for them, and I want to use them to farm X with greater efficiency, but I’d have to give up my only copy of X? Should I still go for it?

You should never trade your only copy of a card away, even if it doesn’t hold any current value for you, you never know what may change in the future. This is because given that PAD is a gacha game, you never have any guarantees on being able to roll the same unit again, and since GFE are almost always being buffed, trading away your only copy of something will often lead to regret later down the line. As an example, I traded away my only copy of Blue Sonia several months ago when I didn’t expect her to ever get another buff. This was because her Mega Awoken form had already received super awakenings, which is usually the last buff a card gets before a new evolution is released for them later.

Of course, as many people now know, both Blue and Green Sonia got a third 7 combo awakening added to their awakening set, which greatly improved their value. Thankfully, I was recently able to roll a replacement Blue Sonia, so this story does have a happy ending. However, this is still a prime example of why you can never make assumptions on the cards you are trading away (I’ve still been unable to reroll copies of Dantalion and Blue Odin that I previously traded).

Conclusion

Monster Exchange is a feature of PAD that I feel is taken far too lightly for the risks it can hold for a players box. Giving up 4-5 rare cards to only get one in return is a really big decision, and it pains me to think of people who may have bought into the false hype surrounding a trade, only to come to regret it now that more time has passed and they’ve lost potentially valuable cards (trust me, it always happens).

I’m not trying to write this article to tell everyone here to never trade for anything ever, but more as a reminder to always carefully consider the pros and cons behind each trade you want to make, and how that choice may affect you in the long run.