Should You Pull: Rulers of the Laguz 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. As there is one unit of every color, any color orb can be a banner focus.

This banner contains our first ever beast units, from the Tellius games, and so this section will deal with a quick overview of this new unit type.

Beast units possess the ability to shapeshift into other forms

• Beast units will transform into beasts at the beginning of the Player turn if they are next to other beasts, dragons, or by themselves. If next to non-beast and non-dragon units then they will remain in human form.
• Beast units stay transformed and retain their beast abilities as long as they are not placed next to a non-beast or non-dragon ally.
• For many maps, running a single beast unit with no dragon on your team means that your beast will likely start your first turn in human form.
• For something like an Aether Raids defense, you may want to separate your beast unit from the rest of your troops to ensure that they will always be transformed
• If using a Heron such as Reyson or Leanne on Arena Defense, try to account for their 2 space movement in human form on the first turn and 3 space movement in heron form on the second. This makes them excellent defensive allies for cavalry-based teams.

When transformed, beasts enjoy a variety of buffs, seemingly linked to movement type

• Herons, Hawks, and Ravens (fliers) get an additional space of movement.
• Wolves (infantry) have a built-in Wo-Dao effect.
• They also all get a universal Attack +2 when transformed on the field.

Beasts remain transformed or in human form until the end of the Enemy Phase. Their next opportunity to transform or revert to human form is at the beginning of the next Player Phase, where they will remain transformed or untransformed if the conditions are met. You always want to be careful of positioning beasts. It is optimal to end your turn with them next to dragons, other beasts, or no units at all.

Beasts are restricted in their choice of teammates

Obviously, beast units are best in teams with other beast units or dragons, as it becomes easier to position them when you don't have to worry about accidentally reverting them to their human form.

• For flying beasts, the preexisting units Myrrh, Young Summer Tiki, or Legendary Robin are ideal partners as they can all carry flier buffs, rather than worrying about beast or dragon specific buffs.
• Another option for flying beasts would be to pair them with units like Legendary Tiki, Halloween Myrrh, or Winter Fae and inherit Guidance to your beasts for extra movement to your armored dragons.
• Infantry beasts have far more options for easy starter team compositions, such as Adult Tiki, Corrin F, Kana M, Nowi, or Fae.

As a note, beasts will always transform for combat, regardless of whether or not they are considered “transformed” on the field (likely due to animation recycling). Don't be fooled into thinking a beast will get its buff during combat if they start out in human form!

High Attack

With 38 Attack, Tibarn is tied New Year Hríd for the highest Attack among red fliers. Unlike Hríd however, Tibarn also has a serviceable Speed stat at the expense of his Resistance and a few extra points off of his Defense.

Dueling Stats

With high Attack, good Defense, and workable Speed, Tibarn is a fantastic duelist and is capable of trading blows with other physical-based heroes. His weakness is his Resistance and his Speed- while the latter can be improved through Assets and buffs, he will never be a speed demon and can easily be doubled by faster units during Enemy Phase.

Stats Comparison

There are no stats comparisons because the beast class is entirely new.

The Hawk King

Tibarn is the first of the beast units to be teased to Fire Emblem players and he did not disappoint. With the combination of Hawk King Claw and his natural beast abilities, he proves to be an extremely powerful Player Phase unit with potentially 3 tile movement and base 57 Attack in his beast form.

• Hawk King Claw, Tibarn’s prf, is a Red Beast weapon which grants him a guaranteed followup attack if his opponent is at 100% HP at the start of combat.
• This makes his middling Speed a drastically less of a problem for him and reduces the need to make Speed a focus, particularly when combined with his Sturdy Impact.
• His ability to fly 3 spaces when transformed is obscenely powerful, as he won’t even be stopped by forest or water tiles, unlike cavaliers. This gives transformed Tibarn (and the other flying beasts) the best movement potential in the game- befitting for such a powerful Player Phase nuker

That A Skill

Aside from, well, beast units, the biggest talking point on this banner is Sturdy Impact, Tibarn’s A slot skill that grants an attacker Attack +6 and Defense +10 while preventing foe’s follow-up attack. This is an incredibly flexible skill and can go on many archetypes of units, but is only inheritable to fliers and infantry.

• On heroes like Tibarn with middling Speed, this gives them a Wary Fighter-esque ability to force one attack per hero when initiating on an opponent faster than they are, while still allowing them to double attack an opponent when they have 5 more Speed.
• On faster, frailer units this is essentially a free nullification to Quick Riposte, Vengeful Fighter while still stacking on impressive stat buffs that allows them to initiate onto tankier Enemy Phase oriented heroes more safely.
• This is a fantastic anti-Enemy Phase skill that puts Player Phase oriented infantry and fliers back on the map and worth inheriting to most Player Phase units.
• Worth noting, however, is that units do not benefit from it at all during the Enemy Phase, making it difficult to utilize for slower units who would be vulnerable when moving into the enemy range.

Player Phase Destruction

Tibarn’s base kit and beast class alone make him a powerhouse worth pulling for, as his base kit offers him conditionally 70 Attack and 44 Defense with guaranteed follow-ups and negation of opponent follow-ups. He will easily be able to handle most, if not all green units in the game, as well as the vast majority of red units. He even has nothing to fear from meta staples like Ayra and Karla, as he can simply prevent them from doubling him during his turn.

This all comes at varying conditions, however: Tibarn will be far weaker during Enemy Phase, where myrmidon units can easily double him with his poor Speed stat and he lacks the massive Defense of his A slot skill. In addition, he is a bad choice for dealing the finishing blows on an opponent, as he doesn’t get his guaranteed doubles against opponents with less than 100% HP- this also makes him a poor choice to run on any team that relies on AoE chip damage, such as Savage Blow or Pain.

Should You Pull?

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

• You’re excited about an extremely powerful new class of unit.
• You like Tibarn as a character (I mean, who doesn’t?)
• You need a good flier for the Player Phase to offset your Myrrh or F Grima
• You want a powerful red flier who can shine with any team
• You want to inherit Sturdy Impact, Chill Atk, or Even Atk Wave to another unit

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

• You don’t like using flier units
• You don’t like dealing with ‘gimmicky’ effects, such as juggling positioning in order to get transformation buffs
• You don’t need another Player Phase unit
• Tibarn loses most of his effectiveness during Enemy Phase.

High Speed and Resistance

Like many dancers before her, Leanne shows the typical High Speed/High Resistance combo, though she takes it a bit further with 37 Speed and 34 Resistance. She compensates for this by having a poor Attack of 27 and a pitiful Defense of 16.

Heron Speed

Leanne ties Eir for the fastest colorless flier and is the fastest refresher in the game, with Silvia hot on her tail with 36. She also ties Dancer Micaiah for the highest Resistance among refreshers.

Stats Comparison

There are no stats comparisons because the beast class is entirely new.

Move Over, Horses

Being a heron comes with its advantages in both field buffs and movement abilities.

• Leanne can move up to 3 spaces when she transforms, making her and Reyson now the furthest-moving dancers available in the game and more or less invalidating any potential cavalry dancer before they’re even in the game.
• Her Heron Wing grants her even more Speed and also gives her additional Attack when she is transformed.
• Ironically, this makes her default B slot, Flier Formation less useful to her because she would be able to move into the spaces granted by the skill anyway, simply due to having 3 tile movement.

Beast Buffs Already!

Unlike dragons who had to wait almost a year for their buffs, beasts have no such limitations

• Leanne comes with Hone Beasts, proving that the devs are already anticipating all-beast teams.
• It’s highly encouraged to run beast teams due to the restrictions on their transformations anyway, therefore Hone Beasts is suitable for Leanne and enables her to support her far-reaching allies (such as Tibarn or Naesala) with both refreshed turns and additional stats.
• The Heron Wing also grants Leanne the ability to heal all of her allies at the beginning of her turn, regardless if she is transformed or not, which certainly fixes the issue of lacking beast type healers.

Dancing Queen, Young and Sweet

Leanne is one of two dancers on this banner and arguably the better of the two, with min-maxed Speed and Resistance, arguably the better of the beast buffs, and no inherent color weakness for opponents to take advantage of. Her low Attack is fixed somewhat between her beast transformation and her native Mirror Stance (note that it’s useful to give refreshers Enemy Phase skills since they will likely be spending their own turn refreshing their allies), and though her B slot will generally need replacing if you intend for her to be in her heron form, her overall kit is solid.

Should You Pull?

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

• You want a new refresher who can also automatically heal
• You want a flying refresher who can move 3 spaces to keep up with a cavalry team
• You want a colorless dancer with no obvious triangle weakness
• You want the fastest dancer in the game

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

• You dislike fliers
• You’re tired of the same high Speed/high Resistance refresher archetype
• You would rather use Reyson, another heron refresher
• Refreshers naturally have a lower base stat total and will score less in the Arena

Savage Duelist

While her Speed is the only stat that stands out at 37, Nailah sports a very attractive set of Attack and Defense at 31 and 32 respectively, making her ideal for dueling and allowing her to go toe to toe with the meta red units without being doubled.

No Glaring Weaknesses

Though her Resistance is somewhat low at 23, it’s enough for her to withstand a neutral blow of up to 63 damage from any mage and they’d be hard pressed to double her with that impressive Speed stat. Enemy units will have a hard time exploiting any weaknesses in Nailah’s statline.

Stats Comparison

There are no stats comparisons because the beast class is entirely new.

The Wolf Queen

As our first and only infantry beast thus far, Nailah sets quite the precedent.

• Wolf Queen Fang, her prf weapon, combines the powerful effect of the Nameless Blade (Cooldown -1 and +10 damage when Special triggers) along with the typical +2 Attack from a transformation and a stat booster of up to +6 Attack and Speed if she has allies nearby.
• This makes Nailah the obvious choice for the centerpiece of a team composition, able to act as an anchor for her allies while defending them from both ranged and melee enemies.

That Kit Though

Nailah brings with her two new incredible skills and one of the most coveted skills in the game’s history- and they’re all inheritable.

• Distant Counter needs no introduction, as one of the best A slots since the beginning of the game.
• Null C-Disrupt is a bit more niche but allows Nailah to counter annoying enemy units like Brave Veronica and other healers- extremely useful for Aether Raids or lower Arena tiers. This skill is only inheritable to infantry and is a bit niche to run in such an important skill slot, generally only recommended keeping or inheriting if you intend on using it often in Aether Raid attack.
• Finally, there is Glare, an uninheritable 300 SP C slot which casts Gravity in a 1 space AoE after she attacks in any combat. This pairs very well with Distant Counter and the rest of her base kit.

A Fierce Fighter

True to her original appearance, Nailah is a fierce warrior and good queen. Her Heroes iteration is immensely powerful, with both amazing skill inherits and fantastic combat utility.

Should You Pull?

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

• You want a blue ‘anchor’ unit to play a team around.
• You want a massively powerful Enemy Phase oriented blue unit
• You want a non-healer unit who can cast Gravity after attacking
• You want to inherit either of her amazing inheritable skills

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

• Nailah must be only next to dragons or beast units in order to transform and as the only infantry beast, she may have trouble staying in her beast form
• Unlike any of the other flier beasts, she does not benefit from additional movement