Introduction

The Christmas REM is making a festive return to Puzzle and Dragons and comes with two new cards along with some buffs to existing monsters. Unfortunately, the event as a whole is underwhelming and is not surprising due to the fact that it only costs 5 Magic Stones.

5-stone events tend to be horribly top heavy as their lower rarities are simply filler/junk which makes it challenging to justify rolling in. Furthermore, the Christmas REM is one of the older events which means there are numerous old cards sitting at the bottom who have not received buffs or reworks for several years.

This is unfortunate as Christmas is one of the most exciting times of the year along with us receiving more Magic Stones compared to before. With that being said, we will be having a Player’s Choice Super Godfest soon along with the return of Draconic Orchestra. Furthermore, the current Fujimi Fantastia Collab is quite strong and is worth rolling in. If you wish to read about Christmas Sonia, please refer to my other article HERE.

This article will summarize each of the featured card’s strengths and weakness along with how to best use them to help you make a more informed decision of whether or not you should roll.

Video commentary

—video coming soon—



Overview

Christmas REM Pros & Cons – December 12, 2019 Pros Cons Favourite characters are festively dressed

Comes on time Much faster compared to ~2 month delay

My rankings form a Christmas tree No Weapon Assists for all cards but the 9-star

for all cards but the 9-star Top-heavy event

Many cards feel lackluster

Christmas REM Rarities 9 Star base 8 Star base 7 Star base 6 Star base 5 Star base

Christmas REM Rankings – December 13, 2019 S A B C D

All icons show most evolved form

Order within each tier is random and not reflective of ranking.

Regardless of card’s ranking, you should almost always keep it if it is your very first time acquiring them.

Limit Breaking

Limit Breaking is the process of leveling a card beyond level 99. This will unlock more weighted stats along with the potential to receive Super Awakenings. These additional awakenings can add significant power, but only function in solo mode.

Any card that can qualify for Limit Breaking will have their level displayed in blue and feeding a Super Snow Globe will push them beyond the level 99 cap.

You can read more about Super Awakenings HERE.

Monster Exchange

The Monster Exchange System has mostly eliminated the need to roll in most events as players can simply trade in for a card of their choice. This is often done during lackluster events to avoid spending Stones on poor bottom rarity cards or to snipe a specific card if luck is not on your side.

Weapon Assists

Weapon Assists are a special evolution for select cards that will be used exclusively as inherits. This form retains the same base stats as the original form, but will also transfer over all awakenings on the Weapon Assist card and this occurs if the Awoken Assist is present.

My approach to Collab rolling

Rolling any Rare Egg Machine is a gamble and it becomes a matter of maximizing your rate of returns in an event.

This translates into rolling when the bottom rarity has high value as those will be the most common cards. Furthermore, I may utilize the Monster Exchange system to acquire the higher rarity cards if they will significantly advance my progress. As such, I tend to look most closely at the common cards to determine if it is worth rolling in.

This is just my own personal approach and everyone has different goals/motivations so take this section with a grain of salt.

9 Star base

Christmas Saline (New) – S

Active: Change all orbs to Fire orbs; Charge allies’ skill by 2 turns (19 -> 19 turn cooldown)

Leader Skill: 1.5x all stats for Fire Att.; 2x ATK when above 50% HP; 6x ATK when matching 6 or more connected Fire orbs; 50000 additional damage when matching 6 or more Fire orbs [2.25/324/2.25]

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings:

Typing: Devil / Balance

Available Killers:

Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 1201 (1561)

HP 4210 (5473) / ATK 2603 (3384) / RCV 778 (1011)

Weapon Assist:

Pros Cons Powerful solution for solo farming Double/triple Dungeon Bonus

Deals Follow Up Damage when matching 6 connected Fire Trivializes Resolve spawns

Rows

Active is full Fire board with 2 turns Haste Almost only offensive in nature Lacks awakening diversity

Low rolling rates

LS has an HP requirement

Dungeon Bonus is relatively niche

is relatively niche Niche compared to other 9* cards

Christmas Saline continues the trend of Great Witches being reskinned in different colours and long ago, I had envisioned Zela being the GFE released in every event due to her universal power.

While this is no Zela equivalent, it is nice to see more variety but a little saddened Christmas Saline has so much overlap with Raoh . Both leaders feature the same high ATK multiplier when matching 6 connected Fire orbs along with 50,000 Follow Up Damage which negates Resolve spawns. With that being said, the main difference is Raoh provides 4x HP for Dark cards whereas Saline has 2.25x HP/RCV for all Fire cards.

This subtle difference can become meaningful during HP-checks but at the same time, not all players can field a full team of Fire/Dark cards. Unfortunately, Saline will lose a significant amount of damage if below 50% while also not having self healing built into her active.

Furthermore, Raoh has much better awakening diversity as Christmas Saline is mostly a giant Row stick that lacks VDP or SBR . In addition, the Dungeon Bonus will go to waste in content such as Arena and is more suited to Event Medal farming.

Event Medal farming is playing the Collab’s dungeon over and over for the Token drops and Monster Exchanging them for a specific event card. This process is tedious and not all spawns will yield a drop. As such, having a slightly higher (it is only +2% per awakening) chance to drop, can be meaningful. Remember, it only increases the chance for a drop to occur, not the quality/rarity of the drop and only works in solo mode.

With that being said, Christmas Saline can still be used in non-farming content, just be aware of her less diverse kit and requiring her to be above 50% HP.

Weapon Assist:

Active: Change all orbs to Fire orbs; Charge allies’ skill by 2 turns (19 -> 19 turn CD)

Pros Cons Dungeon Bonus

Full Fire board with no downside 19 turn CD prevents accidental charging 2 turns Haste

Two Rows

2 SBR Stronger passive damage options exist

Dungeon Bonus & SBR may be wasted

Christmas Saline’s Weapon Assist is somewhat made for herself as it further augments her damage output along with providing the missing SBR . Furthermore, the inclusion of Dungeon Bonus helps seal the deal. In addition, his full board changer has no downside and the 2 turns of Haste can help cycle up other actives.

Sadly, this Weapon Assist is primarily geared to solo farming with her as the Dungeon Bonus has no value in coop/Arenas along with stronger passive damage options existing.

What I mean by this is I can use something like Rathalos Weapon Assist to enjoy 4 Orb Enhances and Team HP which provides more passive damage and additional health, things all teams will benefit from.

8 Star base

Ilmina – B

Active: Deal 100000 damage to all enemies. Ignore enemy element and defense. Change all orbs to Fire, Light & Heart orbs (16 -> 11 turn cooldown)

Leader Skill: [Board becomes 7×6] 4x ATK for Light Att.; 3x ATK and reduce damage taken by 35% when matching 5 Heal orbs in a cross formation [1/144/1/57.75%]

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings:

Typing: Devil / Healer

Available Killers:

Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 1218 (1461)

HP 4885 (5862) / ATK 1605 (1926) / RCV 1224 (1469)

Pros Cons Ultimate floof

Multi-purpose active 100,000 True Damage Tri-elemental board

High weighted stats Huge amounts of HP (with awakenings)

3 Team HP Requires SA for Bind Immunity

Competes with many other powerful Light subs

Ilmina is better for Ranking/Farming

The Fluffy Ilmina makes her return to the Christmas REM with a few minor buffs and helps solidify herself as a potent HP solution for Light teams.

This is because her own base HP is reasonable but the inclusion of three Team HP can help ensure you pass more HP-checks. Furthermore, she comes with a tri elemental board and 100,000 True Damage Button. This Button will have negligible value in content such as Arena but has some applications for Farming and maybe Ranking Dungeons. Unfortunately, Heroine Ilmina is better suited to Ranking Dungeons as she does not require a Heart Cross, has 2 more Skill Boosts , 200,000 more True Damage, and a bi instead of a tri-elemental board.

As a result, Christmas Ilmina will be mostly coveted for her team HP and may be passed over for other options as she has lower damage output and only becomes Bind Immune with Super Awakenings. What this essentially translates into is that Christmas Ilmina does double dip into offensive prowess and defensive utility, but does neither of them that well.

Generally speaking, you want your offensive cards to deal more damage as teams often only run 2-3 hard hitting cards and then relies on the rest to fill in utility as needed (eg. Bradamante & Diaochan are on the extreme ends of their respective roles).

This is not to say she is a bad card, she has just not aged well and falls into this awkward mid-ground of viability.

Christmas Yog – B

Active: Change all orbs to Fire & Heart orbs. Recover 40% of max HP. Bind recovery for 4 turns. (18 -> 13 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 6x ATK when above 80% HP; 3x ATK & RCV when below 79% HP; 3x ATK and reduce damage taken by 25% when matching 2+ Fire combos [1/324/9/43.75%]

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings:

Typing: Devil / Dragon

Available Killers:

Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 1207 (1449)

HP 6668 (8002) / ATK 2315 (2778) / RCV 233 (280)

Pros Cons Superior stats/awakening to REM Yog Like Beach Yog

Reasonable Leader Skill Easy 18x ATK + Damage Reduction Enhanced healing when <79%

Multi purpose active Board changer Heal Bind clear

HP clause can be challenging to manage

Primary for Farming/Ranking

Thumbnail art looks ugly

Cannot have triple 7c + VDP

Yog is one of the older 6-star GFE and has had several colour reskins due to his original popularity. As such, The Seasonal Yogs are often a bit stronger but their overall kit has not aged well.

This is because we have a lower need for Hearts due to Auto Follow Up Damage leaders along with cards such as Zela bringing more to the team while also having the same bicolour board changer.

Christmas Yog can still be used for Farming or Ranking Dungeons, but many more options now exist and the two Fire requirement cannot be swiped via a Row or full board along with the HP check being a possible issues.

With that being said, having a Yog-style active can be helpful to own as it does provide a 40% heal, 4 turns Bind clear, and a Fire/Heart board and has no direct replication.

Christmas Romia – A

Active: Change all orbs to Fire, Wood & Dark & Heart orbs. Increase skyfall chance of Wood orbs by 15% for 4 turns. (14 -> 8 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 4.5x ATK when 6 or more combos; 4x ATK and reduce damage taken by 50% when matching Fire, Wood, Dark at once; Increase orb movement time by 3 seconds [1/324/1/75%]

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings:

Typing: Devil / Physical

Available Killers:

Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 1102 (1433)

HP 5874 (7636) / ATK 2136 (2777) / RCV 263 (342)

Pros Cons Cute

Unique active Board change Skyfall buff 8 turn CD

Reasonable personal damage

2 Super Skill Boosts

Strong LS multipliers Damage Reduction is conditional 4x effective HP when

matching 3 Fire, Wood, & Dark Lower consistency

Cannot have triple 7c + VDP

Christmas Romia has received a new and powerful evolution that grants her impressive Weighted Stats along with stronger awakenings.

Firstly, Christmas Romia is able to provide 4 Skill Boosts along with owning a powerful/unique active along with strong personal damage and a Follow Up Attack . These are strong aspects but one notable downside is that she cannot gain triple 7 combo while also having VDP as both are tired to Super Awakenings.

This does put a damper on her viability as I believe offensive cards should be as stacked as possible and use supportive subs to provide the other utility as needed. With that being said, Christmas Romia can still function well and her active is quite powerful for mono Wood teams.

Christmas Romia’s active is able to provide a 4 elemental board that includes Hearts along with 4 turns of +15% Wood Skyfalls. The board changer itself is okay since 4 elements may mean an insufficient are present for VDP. As such, it can be viewed as a pre-boss solution that can be liberally used due to the low cooldown. This inevitably provides a reasonably high up time for the Skyfall buff.

As a leader, Christmas Romia is able to tap into a high 324x ATK multiplier along with 75% Damage Reduction when matching Fire, Wood, and Dark. This three elemental clause will be difficult to achieve every turn along with a lower range of viable board/orb changers who can be used. This will inevitably place stresses against Void and Resolve spawns and all of her Damage Reduction is tied to matching those 3 colours.

Christmas Kali – C

Active: Change all orbs to Fire, Water & Wood & Light & Dark & Heart orbs (12 -> 7 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 2.5x ATK and 1.5x HP & RCV for Dragon, God type; 6x ATK and reduce damage taken by 25% when matching Fire, Water, Wood, Dark, Heal at once [2.25/225/2.25/43.75%]

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings:

Typing: God / Dragon

Available Killers:

Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 1002 (1303)

HP 4025 (5232) / ATK 2324 (3021) / RCV 405 (526)

Pros Cons Modest Leadership potential GungHo stopped loving Kali Did not receive meaningful buffs

Stronger Rainbow leaders exist They also require more luxurious actives to counter Void spawns

Awakenings do a a bit of everything Does nothing well



Christmas Kali is one of the original Christmas cards and has once again not received meaningful buffs. Kali was the original reskinned GFE due to the popularity of Ra Dragon back in the day.

Amusingly, Ra Dragon is almost an ancient relic and Rainbow teams have struggled to remain relevant in this day and age. This is because they have a harder time concentrating their damage, fewer acceptable orb/board changers, and difficulty in overcoming Void spawns. As such, they have become somewhat reliant on Void Damage Void actives which cancels this mechanic, but is tied to high rarity, newer cards.

Either way, Christmas Kali has languished for a prolong period of time as she does not bring anything spicy to the table for Rainbow teams along with having only an average Leader Skill. As mentioned before, Rainbow teams often have a tougher time concentrating damage and most tend to come with higher ATK multipliers to compensate.

Christmas Kali provides 2.25x HP / 225x ATK / 2.25x RCV which is okay, but far from ideal in this day and age as she requires 5/6 specific elements to function. Furthermore, her awakenings are a bit of a mess as they provide a bit of everything, but nothing truly meaningful. If anything, she will act as a temporary transitional leader.

Christmas Gremory – A

Active: Create 3 Fire, Heal orbs; Reduce unable to match orbs effect by 5 turns; Reduce binds by 5 turns. (11 -> 6 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 3.5x ATK for Balanced, God, Devil type on the turn a skill is used; 6x ATK and reduce damage taken by 50% when matching 5 Heal orbs in a cross formation [1/441/1/75%]

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings:

Typing: God / Devil / Balance

Available Killers:

Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 1220 (1464)

HP 6102 (7322) / ATK 1801 (2161) / RCV 750 (900)

Pros Cons Reduce unable to match orb effects

Tape Resist

Valuable sub for Raoh LS is impractical

Christmas Gremory is another older card but has received a sizable buff to her active along with her awakenings now having synergy with a top tier leader: Raoh . Raoh teams focus on matching a row of Fire to activate and Christmas Gremory will meaningfully contribute along with Tape Resist as a Super Awakening.

While this is nice, what gives her an edge is her revamped active skill that provides 5 turns of reducing unable to match orb effects. While this is a relatively niche mechanic, it is still somewhat hard to find on cards and being able to use it seamlessly alongside a useful orb changer is meaningful.

With that being said, one potential drawback of Christmas Gremory is that she does not contribute to Raoh’s System. A System consists of four actives that have a 7 turn cooldown with a single turn of Haste. This allows an active to be used every turn to ensure Fire orbs are always present. As such, a System team can have 2 cards not contributing to this and for the most part, they are tied to a Kuroyuri and a Fujin style active.

With this in mind, Christmas Gremory can still be used assuming she carries the Fujin inherit which will allow her to be used again towards the bosses in Arena. One nice aspect of her active is the ability to always generate 3 Fire orbs, This should be used after other orb changers to ensure you hit your specific threshold.

7 star base

Christmas Uriel (New) – A

Active: For 1 turn, no skyfall; Change bottom row to Fire orbs (9 -> 4 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 1.5x all stats for Fire Att.; 2x ATK when above 50% HP; 6x ATK and increase combo by 1 when matching 6 or more connected Fire orbs at once [2.25/324/2.25]

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings:

Typing: God / Attacker

Available Killers:

Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 933 (1213)

HP 4222 (5489) / ATK 2519 (3275) / RCV 20 (26)

Pros Cons 7 (8) Rows

4 turn CD Can System with himself x4

Active generates a row of Fire

Synergistic leader skill

Strong farming sub

Pretty Orb Skin No SBR

Requires himself for System Need dupes of himself

No awakening diversity

Uriel is the second new card to be released during the Christmas Rare Egg Machine and will also come with a pretty Orb Skin.

For the most part, Uriel has synergy/overlap with the new Christmas Saline as both are almost exclusively Row based cards who can provide spectacular amounts of damage at the cost of providing little else. Easy to access damage is wonderful, but you may have to rely on creative solutions for countering various mechanics.

Another reason for a lack of diversity is that Christmas Uriel can form his own System with four of himself. This will allow players to always match a Row while having No Skyfalls which hastens clear times and has synergy with Uriel’s own Leader Skill.

Like Saline , Uriel must be above 50% HP while also connected 6 Fire orbs. As such, the two can make for a fine pairing as you will at least have a single unused sub slot assuming you had 4 Uriels to System yourself. Conversely, using dual Uriel saves sub slots if you have no need for the Follow Up Damage from Saline.

Of course, this is truly luxurious but possible with enough luck/money and is worth mentioning simply because there will be people who can.

While this will be less effective in certain content due to the 50% HP clause, players can still sweep their way through plenty of dungeons with relative ease.

On the topic of using Uriel as a Raoh sub, it can work, but all he provides is raw damage and the active does not contribute to the System. On the other hand, farming teams such as Omega can greatly benefit from a single Uriel as he will provide massive passive damage and a fast charging active.

Orb Skin

Christmas Liu Bei – D

Active: Change Dark & Heart orbs to Fire orbs. Recover 30% of max HP (15 -> 10 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 1.35x all stats for Attacker type; 3x ATK when matching 2 Fire combos, up to 6x at 3 Fire combos [1.82/65.61/1.82]

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings:

Typing: Dragon / Attacker

Available Killers:

Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 821 (1067)

HP 3225 (4192) / ATK 1905 (2476) / RCV 353 (459)

Pros Cons Double Fire orb changer

Can be called Liu Bait Your hopes got raised when you saw the Diamond egg

Horribly outdated card

LS is restrictive and low multiplier

Christmas Liu Bei suffers from the fact that he is an old card who has not received meaningful buffs or improvements despite a little love this year. This results in him being a disappointing 7-star card as he is unable to effectively work in the vast majority of scenarios.

As a leader, he is far too orb hungry along with having low multipliers overall and his awakenings prevent him from being used as a sub on most teams. Furthermore, his active is essnetially a double orb changer with a 30% heal. This can be nice, but it is hard to justify using him over so many other options.

Perhaps you can call him Liu Bait as you thought you got something good due to the Diamond Egg popping out.

Christmas Sakuya – C

Active: Reduce 20% of all enemies’ HP. Ignore enemy element and defense (15 -> 9 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 1.5x all stats for Healer type; 5x ATK when matching Fire, Water, Wood, Light at once [2.25/56.25/2.25]

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings:

Typing: God / Healer

Available Killers:

Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 855 (1111)

HP 3248 (4456) / ATK 1470 (1911) / RCV 654 (850)

Pros Cons Artwork features a huge Tamadra

Tape Resist

Blind & Jammer Resist Outdated card

LS is too low multiplier

Active has little value

Christmas Sakuya continues the Holiday tradition of outdated Seasonal cards which is a shame because I have a certain soft spot for her. This is because Sakuya was my second real REM card (not counting Healer Girls/Golems) and she propelled me to new heights but those days are long gone.

In her Christmas form, Sakuya can only be thought of as a poverty/transitional sub due to the inclusion of Tape , Blind , and Jammer Resist. These three awakenings do provide some value but she will be quickly replaced as cards are just so much stronger nowadays.

On the bright side, Christmas Sakuya features a cute and large Tamdra in her artwork.

Christmas Grida – C

Active: Change all enemies to Light Att.; Change Light, Jammer, Poison, Mortal Poison orbs to Dark orbs (23 -> 18 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 4x ATK and 1.5x HP for Devil type; 3x ATK and reduce damage taken by 25% when matching 2+ Dark combos [2.25/144/1 Resist 43.75%]

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings:

Typing: Devil

Available Killers:

Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 856 (1113)

HP 3826 (4974) / ATK 1718 (2233) / RCV 389 (506)

Pros Cons Dungeon Bonus

Only card that changes enemy to Light

Large assets Attribute change is niche

TPA is a less desired awakening

is a less desired awakening Feels outdated

Christmas Grida is still the only card in the game that is able to change an opposing spawn to Light. This is often used for Cheesing as players can stack passive Light Damage Reduction and essentially take no damage. With that being said, cheesing is not something most players pursue and Kiri is often the card of choice due to her relatively high rolling rate. On the other hand, it can be a way for Dark teams to deal more damage as the attribute advantage results in 2x damage.

With that being said, it is a niche Christmas Grida fulfills but is sadly not a truly relevant one.

Christmas Fagan – D

Active: Change all orbs to Fire, Water, Wood, Light, and Heal orbs; Reduce enemies’ HP by 20%; Remove all binds (25 -> 20 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 4x ATK for Dragon, God type when above 80% HP; 4x ATK and 2x RCV when matching Fire, Water, Wood, Light at once [1/256/4]

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings:

Typing: God / Dragon

Available Killers:

Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 857 (1114)

HP 4255 (5532) / ATK 1812 (2356) / RCV 206 (268)

Pros Cons Modest leadership potential

Multi-purpose active Board change Gravity Bind clear

20 turn CD is hard to manage Skill Charge helps Not that powerful overall

Leader Skill is rainbow and HP-sensitive

Outdated overall

Christmas Fagan is the final 7-star card in the Christmas REM and has little capabilities as he is an older card. Despite a smattering of buffs, Fagan refuses to be relevant as he does not fulfill any relevant niche at this point in time.

His active is a weak board changer tied to a Gravity which has no real applications at this point in time along with having a substantial cooldown. Furthermore, his sub potential not really existing as he only brings movement time.

While his leader skill has reasonable multipliers, players must be above 80% HP, use Gods or Dragons, and match 4 specific colours while also having no Effective HP.

As such, he is another disappointing 7-star card within the Christmas REM.

6 star base

Christmas Solais – B

Active: Change Water orbs to Fire orbs; Change Dark orbs to Heal orbs; Change own Att. to Fire for 2 turns. (12 -> 7 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 5x ATK for Fire Att.; 1.5x HP for Wood Att.; 1.5x ATK when matching 2 Fire combos, up to 2x at 3 Fire combos [2.25/100/1]

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings:

Typing: Attacker

Available Killers:

Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 758 (985)

HP 2914 (3788) / ATK 1860 (2418) / RCV 283 (368)

Pros Cons Double Coop Boost High ATK stat in coop Acts as a Button base

7 turn cooldown Easier to inherit over

The Reindeer look hillarious Almost exclusively used for

Button farming in coop

Button farming in coop More double Coop Boost cards exist Less unique Higher ATK cards exist



Christmas Solais was one of the original double Coop Boost awakening cards which grants her 2.25x stats in coop mode. This is primarily used to bolster her ATK to enable her to function as a stronger Button Base.

A Button Base is a card that inherits an active that deals damage based on the ATK of the base card. This enables them to deal large amounts of damage through the push of a Button and is the most efficient way to kill a floor. As such, Coop Boost cards often make for the best bases as they will have inflated stats.

With this in mind, Christmas Solais is still relevant as she has quite high ATK which is the only stat that matters. Furthermore, she comes with a 7 turn cooldown which can lessen Skill Boost requirements for inheriting certain actives.

While this is potentially useful, not many players are interested in this type of game play and results in Christmas Solais being underwhelming if not utilized as a Button base.

Haku – D

Active: Change all orbs to Fire, Water & Dark orbs. (8 turn CD)

Leader Skill: All attribute cards ATK x3.5 when attacking with 3 of following orb types: Fire, Water, Dark & Heart. Matched attribute ATK x2 when matching exactly 5 connected orbs with at least 1 enhanced orb.

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings:

Typing: God / Dragon

Available Killers:

Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 750 (976)

HP 3493 (4541) / ATK 1491 (1938) / RCV 309 (402)

Pros Cons Lots of orb enhance

Can colour swap

Low cooldown board changer Hard to justify using over the majority of other options

Christmas Haku was once a reasonable card but time has not been kind to her as she is a lower rarity card. This is often the case with older Seasonal cards as many of them languish at the bottom of barrel in terms of usability.

While Christmas Haku does provide numerous Orb Enhances, her pitiful weighted stats and below average board changer will prevent her from being used over other options. This is because we can now gain numerous Orb Enhances via Weapon Assists which will not jeopardize our team compositions as we can use cards with stronger stats, actives, and awakenings.

As such, Christmas Haku will act as a festive box cheerleader.

Christmas Genie – C

Active: Avoid all Dark damage for 3 turns. Enhance Light orbs. +6% per orb, up to +180% for full board (20 -> 10 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 1.5x HP & ATK for Balanced, God type; 3x ATK when 5 or more combos up to 5x at 9 combos [2.25/56.25/1]

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings:

Typing: God / Balance

Available Killers:

Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 747 (971)

HP 3061 (3979) / ATK 1407 (1829) / RCV 478 (621)

Pros Cons 100% damage shield vs Dark Situational inherit

Only works against Dark spawns

Christmas Genie is another older card that has one highly specific niche: being able to block all Dark Damage for 3 turns. This has technically become more rare with the long ago REM Renewal which removed her REM-equivalent from rotation. This makes her active skill more unique but at the same time, incredibly niche overall.

At this point in time, we are often able to kill things before they can kill us and the best defense is killing them before they hit you. With that being said, having full damage reduction may be helpful for HP-sensitive teams such as Zeus Verse .

5 star base

Christmas Hatsume – C

Active: Change Wood orbs to Fire orbs. (10 -> 5 turn CD)

Leader Skill: Healer type cards HP x1.5, ATK x2, RCV x1.5. [2.25/4/2.25]

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings:

Typing: Healer / Devil

Available Killers:

Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 749 (974)

HP 2389 (3106) / ATK 1205 (1566) / RCV 808 (1050)

Pros Cons Double Attacker Killer Can use Attacker Killer latents

Low CD active

2 SB

Tape or L SA Only effective against Attackers

Christmas Hatsume is a bottom rarity card has actually been improved this time around due to the two new Attacker Killer awakenings along with the ability to use Attacker Killer latents.

This enables them to deal meaningful amounts of damage while also having a low cooldown and 2 Skill Boosts . As such, I feel they can potentially be a Ranking Dungeon solution. In that same breath, there are 15 different cards who have 2 Attacker Killers and can use Attacker latents (list HERE).

As such, the true viability for Christmas Hatsume hinges on whether or not you own any of those above listed cards.

Christmas Freyja – B

Active: For 3 turns, 1.5x ATK for Wood Att.; Charge allies’ skill by 1 turn. (17 -> 9 turn CD)

Leader Skill: Wood attribute cards HP x1.35, ATK x3. [1.82/9/1]

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings:

Typing: God / Balance

Available Killers:

Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 763 (992)

HP 3035 (3946) / ATK 1365 (1774) / RCV 560 (728)

Pros Cons Double Balance Killer

>80%

Can use Balance Killer latents Only effective against Balance types

Christmas Freyja has also become improved due her ability to eliminate Balance type spawns through her Killers, ability to use any Latent, and >80% awakening.

While she is not the strongest Balance Killer available (Melissa Mao gains a third and can use Latents), she is still one of the better options and will deal even more damage if it overlaps with a Devil.

With that being said, Christmas Freyja is a niche card who is only truly effective against Balance spawns and brings little else for the team.

Christmas Castor & Pollux – C

Active: Change far left column to Light orbs and change far right column to Dark orbs; Charge allies’ skill by 1 turn (13 -> 7 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 1.3x ATK & RCV for God, Machine type; 5x ATK for matched Att. when matching 5 Orbs with 1+ enhanced [1/42.25/1.69]

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings:

Typing: God / Machine

Available Killers:

Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 747 (971)

HP 3023 (3930) / ATK 1785 (2320) / RCV 263 (342)

Pros Cons Double Column + Haste Some farming builds can utilize this

Niche value overall

Christmas Castor & Pollux is an old card that still has some relevance in certain Farming set ups as the guaranteed spawning of two columns can greatly hasten clear times. This is because there are leaders who can fully activate from 5 connected orbs and being able to use 1 active to solve 2 floors is invaluable.

Aside from this, Christmas Castor & Pollux will be a niche card who has little value in most other areas.

Christmas Venus – C

Active: Enhance all Light orbs; Unlock all orbs; For 1 turn, increase orb move time by 2 seconds. (9 -> 3 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 5x ATK for matched Att. when matching 5 Orbs with 1+ enhanced; Reduce damage taken from fire, light, dark att. by 50% [1/25/1/75%]

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings:

Typing: God / Balance

Available Killers:

Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 753 (979)

HP 3175 (4128) / ATK 1436 (1867) / RCV 445 (578)

Pros Cons 3 turn CD

5 Enhanced Light orbs

orbs Cloud Resist Low weighted stats Requires high EXP to reach 110



Christmas Venus is the final card in the Christmas REM and has modest potential overall as a supportive Light sub. At this point in time, it is not unusual for teams to only feature 2-3 strong offensive cards and populate the rest with supportive options. As such, the passive damage from Christmas Venus is sizable along with her active being reasonably useful.

With that being said, the main drawback is that Christmas Venus is competing against cards like Diaochan and Fenrir Viz who also share low cooldowns but have stronger effects and better weighted stats.

This will be her main stopping point as she offers some value, but not as much compared to stronger options.

Do I plan to roll?

I do not plan on rolling in the Christmas REM due to the low value it offers overall along with being terribly top heavy. This goes against my main rationale for rolling in events as I know I will be blessed with numerous bottom rarity cards and I want them to actually provide value.

On the other hand, it is still fun to dream about what can be potentially rolled and I enjoy writing this section of my reviews the most.

For my dream 9* card, Saline is the default winner and is a powerful card overall. On the other hand, my choice for 8* was much closer I would like to own Romia or Gremory . Both cards provide value in their own unique ways but I feel that Gremory is stronger moving forward due to the current meta favouring Rows along with owning the relatively rare ability to cancel unable to match orb effects.

For 7* it was almost a no contest as Uriel is the only one who is truly useful and the same can be said for Solais at the 6* rarity. Finally, Christmas Freyja is the strongest of the 5* cards and while I do own Melisa Mao , Freyja is a different colour and prettier.

My Dream Rolls 9*

8*

7*

6*

5*



The above chart are the cards I would love to acquire from each rarity if I could choose one for my Mantastic account. This is my own personal opinion based on my Monster Box, goals and whether or not I have dupes.

Conclusion

The Christmas REM is a top-heavy 5 Magic Stone event with relatively low value at the bottom rarities. Furthermore, this event is incredibly old and many of the higher rarity cards are languishing due to Powercreep which lowers the overall motivation to roll.

With that being said, there are some strong cards in this event and all characters are festively dressed for the occasion.

My words of advice is to do the free roll and only continue if the artwork interests you.

Let me know what you think about the Christmas REM in the comments below and whether or not you plan on rolling.

Happy Puzzling!

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