Update
There was an update recently with lots of monster changes and secret skills added. Also, the anniversary has added a lot more monsters into the game so it’s about time I do another update here. This is A LOT to take in, mainly because of all the secret skill additions!
Notes:
Freezecobra got a change of poison siphon → poison drain. Ultimately this doesn’t affect much, even though it’s a little nerf it does not knock it out of any tier.
Tricranium got a slight buff to the secret skill where it now purifies. This makes the shielding far better, but does not change the monster significantly enough to change which tier it’s in.
Malwing got a cost increase from 15 → 16. However, it’s insanely powerful so still worth the cost and this doesn’t affect the tiers.
Ankoudragon got its true potential unlocked with higher speed now making the SS worth it and a cost reduction from 15 → 14. However, due to the very particular setup required this doesn’t boost its tier position in general and in PvP I feel A still reflects its strength well.
Captain Canine got a change to the repent skill which barely affects him. His tier is not changing.
Doomengine got a secret skill which allows for single-target bombing. Great for general usability but ultimately doesn’t affect where it can be used or make it much stronger. It’s simply a good thing to switch on when you have spare team cost and it will be annoying when we face it in PvE.
Revenarchion got a brilliant buff with the secret skill that made it even more effective for PvE but it’s already S+. Sadly the secret skill doesn’t affect PvP much because the issue is the first Reven can’t always do a lot and after being killed it’s a bit slow coming back as well as messing up your line-up. It simply doesn’t work so well in modern day PvP where things often happen a lot faster and anything slower or messing your line-up is bringing down your team.
Solariel got a secret skill which sadly doesn’t add much, has link condition and adds 3 to the cost. It’s very unlikely you will use it and hence does not affect the tiers.
Aegisdragon got an incredible secret skill that is very powerful. However, it is already S tier for both and is susceptible to counters which pretty much stops it from going into S+ as well as its slow speed meaning you can’t rely on it getting a turn without proper setup. The secret skill is a great option when you’re using the right team for it.
Lavaronix got a secret skill of instant overwatch. This is a great addition and makes it technically better than Mechaviathan. However, it does not affect the tiers because it’s already so high and the vast majority of its strength comes from the team turn.
Mechaviathan got a secret skill of instant shield self. This is a nice addition to the moveset but not worth the cost increase of 3. In most cases you won’t use it so it does not affect the tiers.
Additions:
Aeraider goes in at A+ for general and S+ for PvP, creating huge annoyance with an Aluminoid (shield entrance, auto-protect) and a 100TU give turn move this monster can support a team beautifully. It is one of the few monsters that is strangely better in its second form, because it has all the good moves and only gains a 200TU purifying mist in final form. It plays perfectly in an aggressive meta where you are constantly trading monsters and can keep using the fast give turn. Pull back is often one of the best support moves, especially when you have an auto-protect monster you’re pulling in. However, it has a notable weakness to stun and does not perform well if you’re looking to control the field for an extended period without losing any monsters.
Fluffydra goes in at C+ for general and B+ for PvP, with long TU forgive and repent moves there is unfortunately not a lot this monster has to offer. Unless great combos open up, forgive is pretty much a weaker repulse and repent is very situational. The passive is also very situational, just slightly annoying for opponents to face sometimes. Ultimate sacrifice is the only serious part of the moveset and it can play into reincarnation strategies. High defence helps with that but the speed is slow. Overall a very mediocre monster.
Reapolantern goes in a D for general and D for PvP, tied for worst SE in the game with Ogremaster this guy has nothing going for him. Low speed, no passives and the only unique and useful bit of the moveset being a 200TU move. This halloween kid dressed up to be scary is just fan service, bringing lifeflip enemy to the game after it being suggested many times. It needs a serious overhaul like 130TU lifeflip enemy, 50-60% speed and solo bloodcrave rather than thirst.
Spectrefox goes in at S for general and S for PvP, with a ridiculous combination of moves and passives this monster has loads to offer. It’s an efficient sweeper with purify all for support and passives which create a huge deterrent from killing it. This SE is probably the no. 1 addition to any sleep team as long as it doesn’t have shadow monsters. Unfortunately it relies on heavily on your other monsters to sleep enemies, especially if it’s come back with 10% health. Because of its slightly niche use I’m hesitant to put it above S tier but it may go above once it’s been tried out in combos. High speed (90%) stealthbane can also be incredibly useful for dealing with camouflage monsters in the FL (goodbye Heavenswyrm).
Gaiarymid goes in at C+ for general and B for PvP, with such a niche moveset this thing is very awkward to use. You need both rockoids and other mortar monsters to use it properly. It doesn’t help set up any other mortar monsters, only functions as a weaker sweeper than all the mortar legendaries. Unfortunately that makes it very undesirable and it probably won’t be used much but it does have some nice passives (stun immunity and hold ground). I think C+ and B are very fair tiers for it to be in, respecting it’s potential in the right team.
Zephyrin goes in at B+ for general and B+ for PvP, with shocking entrance being incredibly powerful you’d assume this is higher but the lack of entrance control means you can’t use this like the standard shockers at all. One of the big parts of them is setting up your team and giving a second stun at a later time. Baby summon gives a lot of stun but it all comes at the same time and so Zephyrin is very weak to stun protection at that time and without entrance control on other monsters you won’t actually get the baby in when you want it. Getting kills is hard with the low attack and raw bloodthirst so it’s quite a poor sweeper. Ultimately this monster can do lots if it comes at the right time and you’ve built around it but it’s not as easy to use as the other shockers. Strangely it’s almost best to keep in its first form where it is only 5 cost but has stunning entrance and stun burst. It even comes with max speed when you play in PvP (all monsters automatically have their speed pushed to max in PvP).
Novadrake goes in at A for general and A for PvP, while incredibly niche and requiring assisted shadow this monster is a power house. I’m hesitantly putting it as A for both, it may change once properly tested and it will highly depend on other shadow monsters going into the future because it really requires 4/4 shadow. With shield entrance and 72% speed it’s very hard to stop the 150s stun and it then chains into some very nice moves that can devastate the enemy line-up. Unfortunately this mostly revolves around assisted dusk because it can be immensely powerful with 4 shadow monsters and only being 60TU. That makes it hard to play with strategically, but it can pay off very well with the devastation. Having the ability to choose whether or not to stun is also very important when we have so many monsters with stun passives, timing it right can potentially help you a lot more than a shocking entrance monster.
Nulltron goes in at S for general and S+ for PvP, boasting one of the most supportive movesets and sweeping potential on top makes this incredible for controlling the field. It plays into a particular type of team building, the “no protectors + stun converters” style aka raw, so will not fit every team but for the teams it does it will very quickly put you into a good position and help you sweep through their team. This is currently the fastest monster (81%) with repulse, opening up some great potential, as well as the unique execute move being very effective. This may change tier once we know better, but I am quite adamant about its strength.
Maggatsuoh goes in at A+ for general and A+ for PvP, with two immunities and fast sweeping moves this monster is a great sweeper. There is some very interesting combo potential with toxic conversion and Maggatoids which may push this up to S in general but we’ll see what’s possible with time. The only thing truly holding the monster back is the speed, which makes it slightly less impactful in PvP but far more balanced than it would be with higher speed!
Pumpking goes in at B for general and A for PvP, with a fast poison eater, sleep immunity and 58% speed this monster is a surprisingly good sweeper. It’s also one of the few poison monsters that can be effective in PvE, but suffers because it is a little awkward to set up and kills itself with bloodcrave if you don’t keep poisoning the enemies. It fits best into PvP where poison strategies work well and it can be one of the fastest poison monsters that can sweep quickly and consistently.
Movements:
(first 10 gained buffs in a recent update see here)
Bahamuzar moves from C → C+ in general and C+ → B+ in PvP, a huge buff to the secret skill has made this monster have a massive impact on its first turn and with tanky stats + shield it’s harder to stop than you’d think. This affects PvP most where throw strategies are more viable.
Regalion moves from B+ → A in PvP, a huge overhaul to the active skills has made this monster much easier to use effectively. It’s true strength still comes from the passives but it’s now far harder to kill, a huge weakness before. In hindsight I should’ve rated this lower before but the teams which used it were very well made so that messed with my perspective.
Tezcatlipoca moves from C+ → B in general and C → B in PvP, with a huge speed buff this is now actually possible to use. Still not great, but there is reasonable potential. It’s not reliable so I would personally not recommend it.
Abyssraider moves from A → B+ in general and S → A in PvP, with the Nereida combo nerfed Abyss’ one claim to fame is gone. It can still be performed in PvE by skipping and in PvP you can use Freezecobra’s auto-poison all to get a quick detox blast off but the combo potential for Abyss has been hit harshly.
Magmarinus moves from S+ → S in general, with a nerf to repent Magma is no longer giving you everything in one package. It’s still S+ for PvP but on the lower end now and definitely not one you want for every team because of the random targeting.
Oniblade moves from C → A+ in general and C+ → A+ in PvP, a second OoO was exactly what this needed to jump straight back into the game at a high level. It’s susceptible to counters but there are a large number of combos that work brutally with it. It would be a little higher for PvE if it didn’t require specific monsters for the combos.
Motordragon moves from D → C in general and C+ → B in PvP, after being nerfed to extinction Motor has made a slight comeback with the SS. Unfortunately shells aren’t the best thing in the world so it’s still outclassed by a lot of other monsters.
Serapheon moves from C → B in general and C → C+ in PvP, an incredibly useful secret skill which only adds one cost has helped boost this up a little. It’s still trumped by many of the better support options available.
Soulstealer moves from S → S+ in general, with a perfect secret skill that only adds +1 cost this monster got a huge buff. However, it’s reasonably tricky to use in PvP because of all the stronger and faster monsters around these days so I’m hesitant to improve its tier without proper evidence.
Drakozord Z moves from B+ → A in general, an incredible 1TU link stun flash makes this monster have a huge impact very early because of its high speed. I haven’t increased it in PvP because it is already A+ tier and stun isn’t quite so reliable in PvP. However, it definitely moved more to the top end of A+ tier and may perform perfectly in link storm teams.
Jaguardian moves from A+ → S in PvP, now tried and tested… the stun immunity, good speed and double retribution proves a very powerful combination plus a fast sweeping move easily gets this among the top tier of sweepers.
Dolpheonix moves from S → A+ in general and A+ → A in PvP, with more and more monsters having protection from stun this isn’t quite as effective as it has the potential for. Additionally, it has no defensive passives. Its high speed means it remains very good.
The Penguinator moves from S → A+ in general and S+ → S in PvP, too easily countered and not always giving you the sweeping damage you want is making this monster slowly comparatively worse compared to other monsters, especially when you consider the combos they can be a part of.