Should You Pull - Greil's Devoted Edition

This is a 4 unit banner, meaning that the odds start at 3% and the odds for individual units is worse than 3 or 2 units banners. There are no colorless focus units, and there are two green focus units, which vastly increases your odds of pulling a 5 star if you select a green orb.

A Slow Armor

Greil finds himself joining the likes of Surtr, Winter Chrom, and Hector in the land of slow, green armors. While his Attack and Defense stats are both extremely high, it’s nothing that really takes us by surprise, considering his competition.

Attack and Defense

In units overall, Greil is tied with Surtr for the highest combined Attack and Defense stats at 79- with Halloween Dorcas, Halloween Myrrh and Legendary Hector trailing just behind them with a combined Atk/Def stat total of 78.

Compared with the free Halloween Dorcas

Compared with the (potentially) free Brave Ephraim

Compared with the 5 star Surtr

Don’t Make Me Angry

• Perhaps the most notable thing about this banner (other than the fact that it has alts not from a 3DS game) is the fact that Greil comes with Fury 4, a skill that offers even more of a stat increase than Fury 3, but with more of a HP loss afterward.
• Interestingly enough, this skill does not synergize with Greil’s natural Wary Fighter B slot, which will no longer be active when his HP is lower than 50%.
• This means that Greil can only enter combat a maximum of three times without healing (assuming he takes no damage in any combat), before his Wary Fighter no longer works.
• Fury 3 has long since been a great A slot skill option for a Summoner on a budget- Fury 4 will undoubtedly be more of an exclusive skill.

Faithful Father

• With his Faithful Axe, Greil gains a significant stat boost when next to an ally.
• This synergizes very well with Bond skills and seals and it might be worth replacing his A slot for a skill like Atk/Def Bond if you want to make the most out of his potential.
• However, while interesting, the Faithful Axe is much like other seasonal weapons: fun to use, but ultimately not quite as useful as the tried and true Slaying Axe or Wo Gun.

More Of The Same

Despite Greil’s base kit not quite working in tandem, he’s a fantastic unit with sky-high Attack and Defense stats who will surely be a boon to any team, particularly if surrounded by other armor units who he can enable with Armor March.

That being said, he’s not exactly a unique unit, and even the new things he brings to the table- Fury 4 and the Faithful Axe- aren’t going to be massive in terms of shaking up the meta. There are plenty of green armors who can fulfill a similar role to him, and many of them have more lethal prf weapons or skills to do it with.

Should You Pull?

Here are some reasons to try your luck on green orbs:

• You like both Greil and Mist, as you could get either one
• You want to deploy Ike with his father
• You want a powerful green armor
• You want to inherit Fury 4 or Faithful Axe to another unit

Here are a few reasons you may want to stay away from green orbs:

• You don’t like using armored units
• You have Surtr, Winter Chrom, or any version of Hector who can easily fill the green armor shoes
• You’re saving for a unit or skill that will have more of an impact on the meta

Similar Stats, Similar Shortcomings

Soren’s infantry form has long-since been held back by his mediocre Speed stat of 33 and unfortunately, his cavalry form fares no better in that department. While his Attack is the highest among blue cavalry mages at 35 and he does have the highest combined Attack and Speed compared to others of his unit type and class, it pales in comparison to some of the heavy hitters we’ve seen recently- not to mention the tried-and-true Reinhardt, who still dominates the blue mage slot in most cavalry reams.

Compared with the free Ursula

Compared with the 4 star L'Arachel

Compared with the 5 star Spring Catria

Buffs For Everyone!

• Soren has many buffs in his base kit, including the valuable Rally Atk/Spd+, which improves the Attack and Speed of an ally by 6.
• This makes him an incredibly valuable partner for Bladetome users, and his extra movement means that he will be more flexible in how he can deliver these buffs.
• Res Opening is Soren’s C slot skill and a new skill in the game, which further buffs the Resistance of his ally with the highest Resistance, regardless of their positioning on the field.

We Can Do It Together

• Similar to all other units on this banner, Soren’s weapon gives him +3 in all stats when next to another unit- combined with his natural Atk/Res Bond, he can stack his offensive stats to an impressive level.
• The drawback, of course, is that he needs an ally next to him at all times to gain these benefits. With his higher cavalry movement, this could prove problematic, as he’ll easily outstrip his armored and infantry allies on the field and will often be artificially slowed by them if he wants to get their buffs.

A Mounted Strategist

Like Hostile Springs Elise before him, Soren is all about buffing his allies and himself by proxy, a trait which is relevant in every skill slot he has. Everything he does revolves around positioning and utilizing his Assist to debuff his opponent while strongly buffing his allies. When next to an ally, he gains a whopping Atk/Res +8 and Spd/Def +3, while also able to grant his allies Atk/Spd/Res+6 and debuffing an opponent with Spd-7.

All of this seems extremely useful in a support kit, but as an offensive unit himself, Soren will underperform when compared to his blue cavalry allies, despite his generally-better offensive stats. This is due to the strict positioning he requires to make his self-buffs work, which limits his cavalry mobility and his flexibility to attack during Player Phase. It’s likely that his best tactic will be to buff his allies using his Rally in Player Phase and then bait a magic-wielding opponent during Enemy Phase, when he’s sure to have an ally next to him.

If you want to use him as a more offensive unit then he’ll likely need an overhaul to his base kit so that he can perform more independently on the field, meaning that he requires some significant investment to perform up to par with his stats.

Should You Pull?

Here are some reasons to try your luck on blue orbs:

• You want a blue mage cavalry unit who can perform well with above-average stats for his class
• You want a unit who revolves around buffing your units while debuffing the opponent
• You like Soren as a character
• You want to inherit Res Opening or Rally Up Atk/Spd+ to another unit

Here are a few reasons you may want to stay away from blue orbs:

• You dislike cavalry units
• As a cavalry mage, Soren will score very low in the Arena
• Soren, while generally better than units like Ursula and L’Arachel, still pales when compared to the offensive might of Reinhardt
• Like Greil, Soren doesn’t offer many groundbreaking new skills, nor is he as good of a source of Skill Inheritance

Green Tome Power

Unlike her healer form, Mist not only has good stats, but also has a weapon type that she can use to take advantage of them. As a green cavalry mage, Mist has the second highest Attack and the second highest Speed, for the best combined Attack/Speed stats of any other unit in her weapon type and class.

Compared with the 3 star Cecilia

Compared with the 5 star Gunnthra

Compared with the 5 star WT Olwen

Equine Domination

• Like many other units on this banner, Valentine Mist doesn’t have much by means of new skills, but her skillset works well for her.
• Rally Def/Res+ is a mirror to Soren’s own Rally Atk/Spd+, and like Soren, she also utilizes it to debuff her opponents in cardinal directions. Unlike him, she debuffs by Res-7 whenever she buffs an ally.
• Swift Sparrow benefits a more flexible, Player Phase playstyle far more than a Bond skill, and helps Mist to heighten her key stats while engaging an opponent.

More Valor!

• Mist is not the only hero to have G Tome Valor (the other unit would be Summer Elise), but it’s still a very convenient skill for leveling up other green tome units.
• However, G Tome Valor is useless in an actual combat scenario and will need to be replaced for something more helpful, like a team buff.

No Competition

Unlike Soren, Mist doesn’t face stiff competition for her color slot. Her stats are generally the best-in-class for a green tome cavalry unit and she has the A slot skill to make them count. Like Soren, her native weapon, the Gronnblooms, is slightly awkward for her to use and she may want to consider swapping her weapon out for the tried-and-true Gronnblade.

Otherwise, keeping with the theme of the rest of the banner, there’s nothing particularly interesting about her skills, and though her stats are very good, it’s only marginally better than the runner-up (for comparison, a Gronnblade Mist will have 3 more Attack and 1 less Speed than WT Olwen with a -1 to her Special Cooldown- whether or not that’s worth the tradeoff is up to you).

Should You Pull?

Here are some reasons to try your luck on green orbs:

• You want a green cavalry tome with solid base stats
• You like Mist and Greil, as you could get either one
• You want to inherit Rally Def/Res+ or Res Feint 3 to another character
• You want to make it easier to skill up green tomes in the game.

Here are a few reasons you may want to stay away from green orbs:

• You don’t like using cavalry units
• Like Soren, Mist will score very poorly in the Arena
• Mist still needs some degree of stat inheritance and investment to find her true potential

Fast And Furious

Ike is incredibly fast at 38 Speed and also has a very high Attack at 37, for the highest combined Attack/Speed in the game. He’s not even lacking in the Defense department either- with 35, Ike can definitely hold his own. His only glaring weakness is his low Resistance at 19.

Compared with the free Black Knight

Compared with the 3 star Draug

Compared with the 5 star Zelgius

Terrifying Base Kit

• Between Radiant Aether, Distant Counter, and Special Fighter, Ike has a combination of terrifying base skills and a fully-fledged kit that can overcome much of his opposition.
• Ike can charge his Radiant Aether twice as fast as his Legendary version, meaning that he’s able to activate it in a single combat with no other cooldown buff.
• Because of this, he can heal off the damage he incurs in combat in his final strike, provided he doubles his opponent.

Heart’s Blade

• Ike’s sword isn’t as lethal as Ragnell, but he benefits from the stat buffs just as much as his fellow mercenaries- moreso, as it’s important that Ike doubles to maintain his Radiant Aether cycle.
• While he may benefit more from an inherited blade, he does definitely miss his 16 mt Ragnell, and Heart’s Blade has the somewhat annoying requirement of Ike being next to an ally to give him all of his bonus stats

An Armored Sword

Valentine Ike has easily the best statline for an armored sword thusfar, beating out even Zelgius- however, he suffers from his lack of a prf weapon, which cuts into both his damage potential and his utility, as he has to run Distant Counter in his A slot if he wants the same effect.

Still, he’s incredibly powerful, as one of only two units in the game capable of using Radiant Aether (the other, of course, being Legendary Ike), a 4 charge cooldown Aether instead of the normal 5. Because he’s also an armored unit, this makes Valentine Ike a formidable powerhouse, as he now has far more options for cooldown reduction which allows him to regularly activate his lethal Special.

Should You Pull?

Here are some reasons to try your luck on red orbs:

• You want a powerful armor unit with amazing base stats
• You want any copy of Ike you can get your hands on
• You want to inherit Distant Counter, Even Spd Wave, or Special Fighter to another unit

Here are a few reasons you may want to stay away from red orbs:

• You don’t like using armors
• You already have Zelgius or are merging a Black Knight