Introduction

As you may have heard, GungHo is giving every player a free medal that you can exchange for one of the Great Witches. This is some exciting stuff, as most of the witches are quite strong. (Sorry, Reeche.) However, with great power comes great responsibility, and choosing the right witch for your box will definitely be a weighty choice. For some, one witch stands out like a no-brainer, but for others, there may be several equally appealing choices that make you worry about the potential opportunity cost. What I want to do in this article is illuminate the current value of each Great Witch in today’s game with my perspective. Keep in mind that these are only my opinions, and that the decision ultimately lies with you. In the end, there is no wrong choice, so don’t agonize too much lest you forget to exchange before the deadline.

Cover Art By @Re_iria on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Re_iria/status/1279777052808232960

Witch 1 Series

Madoo

Madoo is geared towards newer players due to her base and ultimate evolution possessing simple leader skills that are very easy to work with. Unfortunately, the simplicity means her base and ultimate evolution do not possess great endgame value due to both forms’ lack of specialization towards a single niche.

Indeed, Madoo is quite strong for new players, due to her simple activation clauses and the additional move time provided in the leader skill. In my opinion, the most important aspect a new player can work on is his or her comboing, as player skill is an integral component to clearing harder and harder dungeons. Therefore, developing it early will pay dividends over the long run. Madoo, in both forms, provides three additional seconds of orb movement time, which gives new players the flexibility to finish out their combos at a comfortable pace. Furthermore, both have simple activation clauses that force a newer player to not just focus on matching a bunch of combos, but to also pay attention to the leader skill in matching the five or six linked orbs needed to fulfill the attack multiplier requirement.

Unfortunately, from an endgame perspective, both card forms of Madoo are quite terrible, as they have mediocre awakenings, a lackluster active, and leader skill multipliers that fall well short of viability in the latest and greatest series of dungeons, Illusory World of Carnage. + is a terrible combination of damage awakenings, as they cannot stack and thus do not synergize at all, while is a pitiful amount of teamwide damage when even the equip form boasts more. I suppose the base could serve as a fourth-rate stick, but even then, it is still lacking when compared to current endgame options, which not only bring the same amount of , but also bring along a whole bunch of other utility. For example, Christmas Gremory provides the same , but provides more potent teamwide damage with and more defensive utility in a fast cleric active and ; Madoo just pales in comparison.

The only redeeming value of Madoo lies in her equip, which is quite loaded in different ways. In the past, the hat was the most popular equip choice for Gileon , who was probably the face of the meta during that time due to his relative simplicity in both teambuilding and playstyle despite his profound power, because Gileon’s tricolor active could easily activate and even trigger with some consistency. Of course, this was an era before the appearance of , which would have been the obvious pick for Gileon had it existed back then due to his pure combo nature.

Nowadays, the next generation lead that can use Madoo’s equip form is Seina . While are nice for killing off the early floors of SR2/ASR2, the damage isn’t necessarily needed because Seina can already hit the damage cap by activating and . However, I will say that and are both very valuable for Seina in SR2, as protects Seina from the preemptive bind on F1, while helps the team reach the threshold of 150K HP that allows it to tank all hits except Gilles’ move when under 50% HP. Unfortunately, I think players’ preferences have shifted over to , as it synergizes much more nicely with Seina’s playstyle, which means Rider Belt: Cyclode and Leilan’s Earring have been in vogue lately.

Rows are also incredibly valuable for swipe farming as a easy way to boost damage without including randomness or orb manipulation. The latest and greatest optimized farming builds for Training Arena 2 generally revolve around Christmas Uriel , which means are quite valuable. However, Madoo’s equip form doesn’t really have a place in this scene as Uriel provides her own rows, which means a row equip may not be needed, and if it is needed, then the Wicked Key of Lust from SDKH is cheaper and situationally stronger. By no means is the hat bad, but the existence of comparatively strong alternatives naturally decreases Ohm’s value.

In the end, Madoo’s main value lies in her equip, and though the equip was once highly desired, it has fallen by the wayside in the current age. I do want to note that it can also serve as an underrated source of effective as an unbindable equip that also provides two turns of delay on a relatively quick cooldown, which can be useful for transform teams facing SR2/ASR2 that wish to avoid the preemptive bind on F1. Only three other equips can boast the same package of and delay (Legia Snowfletcher , TAMADRA Gift Box , and Rider Belt: Typhoon ).

Reeche

Reeche is meant to be a high-powered solution to damage and attribute absorption shields for rainbow teams, but falls incredibly short in all other aspects, making her quite unpalatable even for the rainbow teams she is meant to be on.

The active is quite strong on paper, but its relative value is largely dictated by the need for her voiding effect in the dungeon. If there are no damage or attribute absorption shields, then the active is essentially a glorified rainbow board changer. If only damage absorption void is needed, then only half of the active is really useful. There are very few cases where both components of damage absorb void and attribute absorb void are needed simultaneously, like against the boss floor of Pixel Zeus and Hera Descended. My point here is that the active does too much, and because of this, the cooldown is subsequently long. Like really long. Too long for when you are only using half of the active most of the time. Of course, GungHo thought this was “okay” because she has , and while it does reduce the effective cooldown somewhat, is not that effective because it is difficult to activate consistently on a normal board. Even if matching all five colors is easier on a bigger board, that means you need to either figure out a big board leader pairing or some kind of leader swap strategy just to fully express Reeche’s potential, which sucks in part because all of this hassle does not address any of her weaknesses.

Reeche has a negligible amount of personal damage and a pitiful number of . Sure, the base form can have with the help of her super awakening, but completely sacrifices any sort of personal damage by locking her power behind , which makes for extremely low damage. (Strong in ranking due to ease of activation, and maybe for farming, but complete trash for endgame technical content.) The ultimate evolution does have some reasonable damage with , but loses out on , which greatly weakens a card’s value during this era of transformation. Another shortcoming lies in the question of her ideal spot; Reeche’s means that monocolor teams shun her with extreme distaste, while the rainbow teams who are more receptive to shy away from her lack of damage and lack of color coverage.

I didn’t mention her leader skills, in part because they both suck. Both are rainbow-based leader skills that are far too fragile to attempt any kind of difficult content; anything in the annihilation difficulty will shatter the back of a team led by Reeche because her survivability is almost non-existent.

What’s even sadder is that alternatives exist to Reeche’s touted active. If you are looking for budget options, Scathach , though gated behind a transform, is completely farmable, while Polowne is a relatively cheap option as a bottom rarity card from Sacred Relic Dragon Saga. Moving to the other side of the spectrum, some stronger (and more expensive) options include Thunderlord Zinogre from Monster Hunter and New Year Reeche . The bottom line is that Reeche is not only terrible, but has been completely overshadowed by other options.

Reeche’s one saving grace is her equip form, Frow, and even then, it’s not that much better. Her hat is one of the few assists that possesses , which may sound redundant until realizing that the niche has been somewhat revived due to arrival of Mikage , who lacks and is bindable pre-transform. Mikage, while difficult to play, definitely has one of the highest ceilings in the game in terms of leader potential, which in turn gives Reeche some hope. Unfortunately, better options exist, most notably Safi’s Drakshield when considering the specific context of Mikage, and cheaper options exist as well in the form of the equips of the Sengoku Ninja Series , but the relative scarcity of the number of equips as well as Frow’s advantage in having the longest cooldown means that the hat is relatively less useless compared to its other forms.

Zela

Once upon a time, Zela was so good that the JP Server voted for her in a survey that would allow players to exchange for a certain GFE selected by popular vote. (Meanwhile, NA Server chose Cotton . Yikes.) Zela was picked, in part, because of her amazing strength as a sub for the wildly popular Zela Kitty ; builds normally included two Zela, so everyone was desperate to get more to build the ideal team. Unfortunately for Wood Att., that was the last time the attribute was relevant in the meta for a year and a half, until Nadeko Sengoku finally revived the very dead attribute from the grave. With the decline of her attribute came with the decline of Zela’s value, and even though Wood Att. is back in the forefront of players’ minds, Zela is no longer the staple that she once was, mainly because the current era of transformation has placed a heavy emphasis on , of which Zela lacks.

The main reason for Zela’s inclusion in every team leading Zela Kitty is because of her active, which enabled the team to terminate pretty much any spawn provided that the orb distribution wasn’t horrible. Of course, Zela received multiple buffs between then and now, and now her active also provides a shield and the same powerful bicolor board on a much faster cooldown. The shield is particularly valuable in today’s game due to its relevance in SR2/ASR2 in tanking the extremely large hits from enemies such as Red Ogre , Sun Quan , and Reincarnated Gilles Legato . In addition, the full board change is also quite nice in overcoming certain annoying enemy moves such as Will-O’-Wisp ‘s full heal board or Okuninushi ‘s unavoidable full mortal poison board. While Susano no Mikoto is justifiably popular as the shield sub option for Nadeko due to his kit of a multi-turn shield, haste, , , and respectable personal damage, I believe that Zela (once buffs reach NA Server) may serve as a viable alternative because she can cover the same shield niche while also providing a full board active as well in one sub; normally, these two utilities are covered by two subs, such as Susano and Jurond . Though the lack of stings, Zela can potentially open up a sub slot, which can lead to many more possibilities.

While I’ve been rambling on about UEvo Zela’s sub potential, I do want to point out that Base Zela is now a monocolor swipe lead that adds a staggering four extra combos, which is just patently ridiculous despite the low attack multiplier. Instead of relying on dual leads that both add three combos such as Luluna from GH Collab or Christmas Scarlet to reach from swiping, now players can pair Base Zela with leads such as Yama Tsukami from Monster Hunter or Pixel Yashiro Nanakase from KOF to achieve the same swipe effect. This can be incredibly useful for farming, as the extra combos not only bolster damage but also enable swipe teams to overcome combo shields without having to resort to orb manipulation.

Lastly, Zela’s equip form, Smokk, is basically a carbon copy of Madoo’s Hat in terms of awakenings; the actives are the same as their respective bases. Much like its fire counterpart, Smokk also suffers from a lack of popularity, as teams built around Nadeko generally rely on the innate and external for teamwide damage, often skipping over as a result of selective and limited teambuilding restraints due to the context of SR2/ASR2. Furthermore, Vinesnake Sword, Penentheus serves as a direct alternative to Zela’s Hat and boasts the advantage of being farmable despite being nearly identical to Smokk.

Saline

Though she has lost her place as the queen of rank farming by Shigeshige Tokugawa from Gintama, Saline is still incredibly powerful as a farming tool due to her simple yet loaded active and an equip form that is one of the few to have .

Light row farming is populated with expensive options such as Sougo Okita from Gintama, Kamen Rider Zero-One from Kamen Rider, Zeus-Giga , Claiomh Everlasting from Fujimi Fantasia Bunko, etc. and Saline definitely contributes to the list with her status as a 7★ GFE. Her strength comes from the combination of possessing a full board active plus a two-turn haste. Full board actives have been used forever, from the times of swiping in co-op with Awoken Liu Bei and 4 Zeus-Dios to swiping with Mech Goemon and Machine Noah . Full boards are incredibly powerful because they deal the maximum amount of damage that is possible from one combo, they trigger to further increase damage, and most importantly for farming, they are brainlessly swipable. Thus, full boards are quite valuable to farming, which is why cards like Toshiro Hitsugaya from Bleach and PEMDra (3 Pulls) are great.

Saline’s active is amazing because it combines the full board effect with a two-turn haste. Though the components may seem simple, the combination is amazing because of the value of both components. A two-turn haste is incredibly valuable because it allows for leeway in requirements or it helps charge certain cards/inherits that have long and strong actives. By combining it with a full board, Saline can be used to swipe a floor and help charge actives for the rest of the dungeon. Maybe you are running a light row swipe team and you just used your Ryo Sakazaki , who generates a light row on the board on a four-turn cooldown. After the swipe, he now needs three turns to charge back up. By using Saline, you can swipe the very next floor while also utilizing the haste to completely recharge Ryo Sakazaki in the span of one turn. Keep in mind this is only one simple way to abuse Saline out of many. Saline also has a great selection of killers and the ability to take any killer latent, which can also be extremely useful in teching damage against certain spawns when building for a dungeon.

Saline’s equip form, Khoza, is also incredibly potent in a couple of different ways for farming and endgame. Farming-wise, the main appeal of the equip is , which has been shown to be unbelievably valuable as an irreplaceable component in making int button builds viable compared to co-op mythical button/swipe builds. I don’t want to ramble on about the finer details of , but understand that it is extremely effective, more so than even I had anticipated. Khoza also has quite a long cooldown as well, which is convenient in that there is low risk in overwriting the base active that you are working with (such as the button actives of Super Reincarnated Ra or Super Reincarnated Vritra ).

In terms of endgame, I think that Saline’s Hat can be quite useful in SR2/ASR2 because of which protects from the preemptive bind on Floor 1 and the killer selection being quite helpful in killing off the early floors, especially the pesky Dragon Seed on Floor 2. Though it can be argued that TAMADRA Gift Box is simply a superior option, it can also be stated that Khoza is a partially viable alternative to the extremely expensive nine-star seasonal equip.

Veroah

Veroah is completely geared towards solo farming as she is the best option for leads that increase the egg drop rate when farming dungeons. Though she doesn’t do anything else, the immense value she provides within her one niche is almost unrivaled.

There are only two leaders that boost the egg drop rate in NA Server; Base Veroah and Base Knight Kisaragi from GH Collab. I believe Veroah is superior because of her innate , but Kisaragi comes with a strong button active and more importantly, can be obtained via the Monster Exchange. Keep in mind that both leader skills only operate in solo play; the drop rate multiplier is negated in co-op, which is partially why the two different approaches of solo int button and co-op mythical button/swipe exist for token farming.

Recent discoveries by researchers in the data server have shown that are relatively more impactful than what they were assumed to be, which slightly decreases Veroah’s value. One thing in particular is that leading cards with such as Christmas Saline and Rhamamoa from SDKH is superior to leading 2 Veroah when the base drop rate is below 11.6%. While this threshold may sound very low, keep in mind that the drop rates for the int difficulty are also generally low, which means that knowing the threshold percentage is quite important in determining the optimal strategy. Of course, most people won’t own multiple Christmas Salines to construct the best builds, but it is still a valuable idea for those interested in int buttoning and farming efficiency in general.

(In case you were wondering about UEvo Veroah, here is my take; it sucks. Pretend it doesn’t exist as you bask in the power of boosted drop rates from the base form.)

Veroah’s equip form, Shaz, is another equip with , which is awesome because this type of equip is extremely scarce. To put that into context, there are only four equips with in the game, which come from the equip forms of Saline and Veroah and their respective seasonal variants, Christmas Saline and Beach Veroah . Unfortunately, Saline’s Hat is mostly superior to Veroah’s Hat because of the longer cooldown on the inherit; however, it is worth noting that Shaz can be strong for a dark row swipe build. In general, dungeon boost equips are incredibly important in raising int button drop rates to reach or even surpass the efficiency of co-op mythical button/swipe, so the importance plus the scarcity means Shaz will always be valuable for its niche.

Witch 2 Series

Remu

When Remu released, my first impression was that she was a fire version of Yugi , with the same twenty-turn transform cooldown, the same set of , the same blob playstyle, and near-identical multipliers. Indeed, Remu was incredibly popular on debut as the number one option for ASR1 before the rather late arrival of the Key Heroes, with builds revolving around the Remu and Dante pairing flying every which way the eye could see, along with some Remu and Valentine’s Sonia pairs mixed in. I even remember the stock standard build; it was Remu, Grandis , Polowne , Reincarnated Inahime , Super Reincarnated Amaterasu Ohkami , Dante. Either way, there is no denying her popularity was extremely high during those days.

And like all leads, Remu went out of fashion extremely quickly as the hype moved on to the Key Heroes, which simplified ASR1 with their powerful combinations of active and leader skills, most notably that of Gileon and Ferule . Though she still has a strong spinner overwrite active (the first ever spinner generator active), Remu has fallen off considerably as the blob playstyle has given way to more efficient combo-based leaders like Gileon and eventually Seina from Mystics and Spectres and Nadeko from Monogatari. I will admit that Remu did make her mark in the history books, but unfortunately, her time is past. Viable alternatives such as Kamen Rider Saber from Kamen Rider, GH Urd from GH Collab, and Safi’jiiva from Monster Hunter relatively decreased Remu’s value even further as a strong blob follow-up attack lead.

(I do want to mention that Remu’s post-transform active is on a three-turn cooldown, which gives her great meme potential to system with three copies of her.)

Nowadays, the only redeeming value of Remu lies in her equip form, Lurik. With a full set of that guarantees that all Fire Orbs that come from skyfall are enhanced and a powerful multi-turn attribute absorption void active, Remu’s Wand was quite the strong equip for the old Remu and Dante builds that seamlessly carried its value over to the later builds revolving around Gileon. Unfortunately, Lurik is no longer as valuable because the reigning meta lead, Seina, dislikes the massive orb generation that often overwrites not only existing Water Orbs, but also potential orbs that can be converted to Water Orbs, which Seina requires to activate her shield that is all-important for her survivability. Furthermore, a viable alternative was just released in the form of Suncore , which not only generates fewer orbs but also has the same multi-turn attribute absorb void and strong teamwide damage. Lurik just got kicked to the curb, which means it’s only real value lies in having the most of any equip. Other alternatives based on awakenings alone include Altheos Altrusta , Kut-Ku Pair , and Rathalos Flamesword , which are all coincidentally from Monster Hunter. Some other options include Rider Belt: Cyclode from Kamen Rider and Horus’ Necklace .

Once great, Remu fell victim to the ever-hungry beast that is powercreep. Maybe one day, she’ll receive some love once more…

Norza

Unlike Remu, Norza is still quite a strong card as sub or lead due to her tremendously powerful post-transform active and incredible set of damage awakenings. The quick time and recovery buff effects are absolutely amazing for endgame dungeons such as AA4 that constantly apply time and recovery debuffs as you progress through the various floors, while her damage is quite outstanding with . Unfortunately, Norza is held back not by her own shortcomings, but by the disadvantages of her attribute in the current endgame.

Fire, Water, and Wood have a circular relationship of strengths and weaknesses; Fire is strong against Wood and weak versus Water, Wood is strong against Water and weak against Fire, and Water is strong against Fire and weak versus Wood. The problem for Water is that its weakness versus Wood makes it heavily disadvantaged in endgame due to the prevalence of strong Wood Att. enemies such as the Menoas in SR1/ASR1 becoming twice as hard to kill and the Dragon Seed in SR2/ASR2 being completely untouchable without a follow-up attack. This is also why Fire Att. is incredibly popular in the current endgame, with a constant cycle of leads such as Remu, Dante, Gileon, and Seina dominating my friend list for more than half a year now.

Despite the attribute disadvantage, Norza is still an incredibly strong option due to her unbelievably powerful post-transform active. Lately, dungeons have not only featured immensely tanky spawns, but also a wide variety of constant enemy debuffs. Norza is truly effective in countering these debuffs due to her extremely short cooldown, but what’s really amazing is that the active also generates orbs, so in the case that you don’t need Norza’s buffs, you can still abuse it to generate more favorable orbs on the board.

As a leader, Norza provides a ridiculous recovery multiplier, but requires the use of a skill every turn to maintain her full attack multiplier. Of course, with a two-turn cooldown, all she needs is another two-turn cooldown card to alternate for constant skill usage, such as another Norza, Kamen Rider Blades , or even Yuri . The bigger knock on Norza nowadays is her lack of survivability, as she only brings along a damage reduction shield without any health multiplier. This becomes problematic because the enemy attacks in SR2/ASR2 consistently hit for over 200K, with some massive hits from spawns like Red Ogre (600K), Sun Quan (550K), and Gilles (650K). While pairing with super tanky leads such as Velkhana and GH Yomi greatly aid in increasing bulk, Norza’s innate lack of health still make it very difficult for teams taking on SR2/ASR2, often creating a reliance on to reach the threshold needed to survive just the normal hits. Another little quirk that often irks me while teambuilding with Norza is that her only appears after transforming, which becomes annoying because there is the possibility of a preemptive cloud from the Red Carbuncle on F1.

Norza’s equip form, Mezray, provides a full set of , guaranteeing that all Water Orbs from skyfall are enhanced. Ironically, the active is a bit lackluster (especially when you compare it to her main active), but a bicolor board with hearts is never bad for monocolor teams and the cooldown is reasonably long enough that it would be difficult to charge up to the inherit. Unfortunately, Mezray has a lot of competition, including the cheaper Spirit Ally, Kororo from Shaman King and the Egg of Envy from SDKH each with 4 , as well as Isis’ Necklace , Shadow Shark’s Seal from Mystics and Spectres, and the farmable Caliburne all having 3 .

Aljae

Aljae was actually the first of the leads with a playstyle built around matching strong enough to take on SR2/ASR2, but has since evolved to become quite an interesting void void sub option.

Though much of the hype is rightfully focused on Ryumei for his gargantuan multipliers, Aljae could be considered the progenitor of the playstyle as she was one of the off-brand leads paired with Base Menoa or even Anna Kyoyama that could clear AA4 (back when that was the latest and greatest endgame dungeon). Since then, she got a simple health multiplier buff that gives her the requisite survivability needed to take on SR2/ASR2, and though I haven’t seen anyone actually clear with Aljae, I’m sure it’s definitely possible, which is a better prospect than for most leads. Of course, Ryumei’s buffs stole the headlines for the leads, with Fatalis garnering some interest as well in light of his recent buffs.

Recently, I have been quite interested in Aljae’s post-transform active due to its quick void void effect on top of a rainbow full board generator. As you may have heard, Nadeko Sengoku is currently dominating the metagame due to her unbelievably strong active, high-powered awakenings, and consistent leader skill. Unfortunately, Nadeko notably lacks a , which means she cannot leverage her high damage output against enemies with damage void shields without manual damage reduction from the player side. This becomes quite annoying when you want maximum damage output versus a boss spawn like Gilles Legato. However, if you use Aljae (or any void void active), all damage will pierce through the damage void shield, which means Nadeko can go full force for the duration of the void void effect. The limitation of blasting through void shields once every five turns is a little rough from my experience, so a combination of and a void void active may be the key in enabling teams built around Nadeko to quickly kill Sherias /Sherias Roots and Gilles Legato (or any set of void shield spawns). In addition, the full board effect gives the active some value when the void void effect is not needed, as enemies with damage void shields usually are few in numbers and are clumped near the end. For SR2/ASR2, the full board is quite nice for dealing with Will-O’-Wisp’s potential full heal board and Okuninushi’s guaranteed full mortal poison board.

Aljae’s equip form, Ghum, provides a full set of , guaranteeing that all Wood Orbs from skyfall are enhanced. Though the inherited active is quite long and will likely never be used, Ghum’s active does provide a ridiculous three-turn void void effect and a full board, which should be mostly desirable in the rare event it does come up. If anything, the long cooldown is a blessing because it ensures that the base active has almost no chance of being overridden by the inherit. Some alternative equips include the farmable Achilles’ Shield , Tengu’s Seal from Mystics and Spectres, and Bastet’s Necklace .

Fasca

Fasca is an amazingly versatile card due to her flexibility as a big board leader and her complete coverage of all negative statuses as a supremely effective cleric that has become quite relevant for the latest set of endgame dungeons, SR2 and ASR2.

On her debut, Fasca was somewhat forgotten amidst the raging hype for Nelle as a strong pairing for the completely dominant Yugi at the time. Indeed, Yugi and Nelle greatly simplified Colosseum 2, the latest endgame dungeon at the time, and was undeniably powerful despite the awkward double typing restriction of Devil and Balanced. As time passed and the hype died down somewhat, Fasca began to garner more attention as a wonderfully flexible big board lead that could work with many various leads; I remember seeing Quan clearing Colosseum 2 with Leilan and Fasca, while I personally cleared the dungeon with Meimei , Base Lina Inverse , and Sousuke Sagara & Laevatein (all paired with Fasca). All of these leads would be exponentially more difficult to clear with had I not used Fasca, which speaks to her flexibility.

Today, Fasca’s most popular pairing is probably with Mega Awoken Raijin , which can reasonably clear all content up to ASR1 (given the right subs) and has even cleared SR2. Nowadays, though, Fasca has transitioned from being a strong lead to becoming a prime cleric option for teams looking to clear SR2 and ASR2. Part of this transition is due to the heavy penalties enforced in AA4 and ASR1 on big board leaders, as they were unbelievably prevalent before the arrival of A6, which led to a sharp decline in the popularity of all big board leads.

Fasca’s post-transform active fully clears all binds, awoken binds, and unmatchable orb statuses and even includes a time buff effect on a ridiculously short five-turn cooldown. Though it is gated behind transformation, this type of active has become incredibly valuable for SR2/ASR2, as enemies will preemptively bind, awoken bind, and inflict unmatchable orb statuses reasonably often. Thus, most teams include a “cleric”, or a card that has an active which clears these negative statuses. For example, Christmas Gremory, Christmas TAMADRA , Usui from Mystics and Spectres, Yashamaru Kurama from Samurai Shodown, and Chakeolfrom Heroine, among many, have become quite popular as cleric options for various teams built around Seina, Velkhana , Mikage, and Nadeko. While Fasca arguably has the best cleric active out of all the clerics, her active is gated behind transformation, which means that Fasca cannot be used on F1. Furthermore, she provides zero , which imposes a greater burden on the remaining subs and assists to scrounge enough effective to help transform herself and potentially other cards (like the leads).

Fasca’s equip form, Dezan, provides a full set of , guaranteeing that all Light Orbs from skyfall are enhanced. The equip active, much her post-transform active, also fully clears binds, awoken binds, and unmatchable orb statuses, but also buffs time for a longer duration as well as recovery. To me, this sounds quite strong as a one-off to take care of the ogre floor or the first floor. Some alternatives in terms of just are Zvolta Annihilator , Electrolagia Gunlance , and Naar Thunderlance from Monster Hunter, Ra’s Necklace , and even the farmable Swords of Revealing Light Spell Card from YGO.

Nelle

While Nelle was once a queen of the meta (reigning alongside her partner-in-crime, Yugi), the big board dungeon penalties that came along quickly dampened her popularity. Fortunately, GungHo decided to give Nelle some ridiculous buffs that made her into quite a strong sub for both endgame and farming.

Nelle now has a post-transform active that generates a swipable follow-up attack along with Dark Orbs to activate leader skills and kill enemies. In addition, it also voids damage absorption shields (commonly known as a “fujin”, which pays homage to the active effect’s progenitor) all on an absurd four-turn cooldown. While one may think that because there are no damage absorb shields in SR2/ASR2, the value of damage absorb void actives have declined, but in reality, there is no change to its value because when you need the effect, you need the active effect most of the time, as the latent is somewhat gimmicky and follow-up attack won’t be able to kill every damage absorb shield spawn. Though I don’t think there is any real need for such a fast active in endgame, the short cooldown is very convenient for farming builds that can either naturally charge the active over the course of killing floors or utilize hastes to get the active up in time for when it’s needed. Furthermore, you can always use the active just for the orb generation as well.

Though Nelle is quite a nice monocolor blob lead with a big board effect, the blob playstyle itself has waned as combo-based leads took over the meta by storm, which means that Nelle is somewhat obsolete as a lead; I do want to say, though, that she will improve the consistency of any other dark blob lead by virtue of her larger board. One thing I do want to point out is that she provides quite a large amount of bulk for a big board leader, which is interesting because most leads do not include large health multipliers and/or damage reduction shields as a way to “balance” out the power of the big board effect. Only a couple of leads provide 2x HP (Nakoruru from Samurai Shodown, Volkan & Dortin from Fujimi Fantasia Bunko, Zordon from Power Rangers, etc.) and of those leads, none have a damage reduction shield. While the typing restriction of Balanced is a little ‘restrictive’, the multipliers are truly unparalleled for a big board lead, even to this day.

Nelle’s equip form, Billios, provides a full set of , guaranteeing that all Dark Orbs from skyfall are enhanced. The wand originally only voided damage absorption shields for two turns, but the massive buffs for Nelle gave the wand two turns of attribute absorption void as well, making it quite a ridiculously strong equip for Dark Att. teams as attribute absorption shields can softlock or kill teams in SR2/ASR2. One notable alternative is Anubis’ Necklace , which carries a longer attribute absorb void but only three . Other alternatives in terms of awakenings alone include Safi’s Drakshield and Nergal Crusher from Monster Hunter, Persona 5: Phantom Thieves Calling Card from Persona, the farmable Gilles Legato’s Earring , and Rhea, Rebellious Witch Card from GH Collab.

Ranking Witches From Best To Worst

While I don’t want to delve too deeply into the merits and faults of rankings, I do want to show how I rank all the witches so that I can make the best decision with this extremely valuable medal. Remember, if you aren’t sure about what to pick, just hold on to the medal; you have two months to make your decision.

Lumon’s Personal Ranking

For me, I don’t really care too much about the initial value of having any one witch, as I own at least four copies of every Great Witch. (Sue me and my luck.) What I truly care about is whether yet another dupe would be useful to me, which means the entire Witch 2 Series automatically goes in the bottom of my ranking. As for Reeche, I have absolutely no use for her because I own multiple NY Reeche (who is basically a superior version of Reeche), so she also goes in the bottom of the ranking. I also don’t care about Madoo or Zela because I have enough copies to make multiple hats, but I don’t have enough to equip a full team, so I suppose they are higher ranked. This leaves me with just Saline and Veroah. While I do think Saline is extremely dupe-friendly, I have less Veroah, which slightly tilts it in Veroah’s favor. So, here is the list:

1. Veroah
2. Saline
3. Madoo and Zela
4. Reeche and Witch 2 (Remu, Norza, Aljae, Fasca, Nelle)

Now, the logic behind the formulation of my personal ranking may not make any sense to you. And that’s okay. Every box is different, so everyone should have different rankings personalized to their own boxes. Just make sure to take the time and effort to thoroughly evaluate your choices, so that you don’t make a decision you will regret down the line.

“Objective” Ranking?

There is no such thing. Go read those essays I wrote above for my perspective and make your own personal ranking.

The problem is that it’s impossible to put out a completely objective ranking because of personal bias and the infeasibility of understanding the needs and wants of every player on the NA Server. For example, I think Veroah is amazing, but that’s because I heavily rely on her as someone who exclusively farms solo int with button teams. Other players may think that Veroah is useless, because they exclusively farm in co-op.

However, if I were to attempt one, this is what I think an “objective” ranking of the witches would be.

1. 
   
2. 
   
3. 
   
4. 
   
5. 
   
6. 
   
7. 
   
8. 
   
9. 
   
10. 
    

My main criteria for this ranking is replaceability. The more difficult it is to replace in its respective niche, the more highly I value it, and thus the higher I rank it. As for why I put Saline and Veroah so high, it’s because they are simply much more difficult to replace than the other choices below them. Yes, Fasca is extremely versatile, but ultimately, she’s much more replaceable than Saline or Veroah.

In fact, I don’t think I’ve used Fasca for the better part of a year, and as I said before, I have all the Great Witches rotting away in my box.

(I personally had a really hard time picking between Veroah and Saline for the top spot, but what pushed Saline above my beloved Veroah was her versatility. Saline, although inferior, is still one of the only two rank farming leaders that provide the highest experience multiplier, with the other option locked behind a collab. She is also amazing for swipe farming and arguably has the superior equip. As a dedicated int button farmer, my heart lies with Veroah, but my head tells me that this time, it should be Saline.)

This is why I stress the importance of making your own personal ranking; I am certain that many players will immediately disagree with me when they see this and argue this or that witch to be better or more deserving, and that’s perfectly fine, as everyone values the witches differently with different criteria. In the end, I am simply giving my opinion on what I think the objective ranking should be, which means it is no longer objective; instead, it’s a subjective ranking.

Concluding Thoughts

Finally, I’m done writing, and you’re done reading! Just bear with me a bit longer as I end it with some last things to remember.

While ranking the witches may lead to contentious arguments over which is better, one thing that I think most people would agree on is that you should probably value the witches you do not possess higher than the ones you do possess, since each card is generally unique and thus will provide that unique value if you own at least one copy.

In the end, there is no wrong choice. Pick whomever you like, as every box has different needs; it’s your medal to trade in, so it should be your choice. All the ideas I talked about in this article are simply to help you, the player, gain a deeper understanding of all the options you can trade for, so that you can make a better educated decision which will hopefully reduce the likelihood of regretting your choice months later. After all, this is a rare opportunity to obtain the witch that you want as opposed to rolling in Super Godfests and praying that you get what you wanted, so it’d be best not to screw this up.

Remember that you have about two months until the trade deadline on June 7th. If you plan to put off the exchange for later while you ruminate over what to pick, try not to forget to trade before then, or you will be even sadder than if you had traded for the wrong thing. Good luck and have fun, everyone!