Yu Yu Hakusho, or YYH for short, is a widely anticipated collab REM. *SPOILERS* The main character is extremely powerful for clearing A4 which also happens to have recently come out in North America (Good timing!).
It’s also the first time that we’ve had REM trading in NA which is a new feature called Trading Post introduced in V14. This allows you to trade 4 GFEs or other 6 stars from the collab REM for a specific 6 star from this collab. A lot of people are wondering if Yusuke is trade worthy to give up single copies. Hopefully I’ll be able to give some guidance and insight with my opinion on this collab.
Before I get into anything though, I’d like to make a blanket statement that in the long run, it can be more harmful to trade your 6 star GFEs for Yusuke as an average user. I’ll clarify that average user to me means that you don’t have more than 1-2 copies of any GFEs, so you’d be trading only copies of a 6 star for one of the collab 6 stars.
Why is it harmful? A lot of the collabs tend to get relatively ignored when it comes to buffs and new evos to bring something back to relevancy. Examples of this for “meta” leads can be found throughout PAD history. Aizen was a highly sought after card when he came out in 2016. He was great for farming Arena 1-3 but lacked the tankiness to take on newer annihilation content with ease and crosses made it difficult to fit boxes in the same board. Since his release, he’s never received a buff. We see with FF coming back every year that cards don’t necessarily receive meaningful buffs to make the old meta relevant. GFEs have been regularly worked on. That Sonia you thought was useless is now a very strong lead for AA for her shield + stat multipliers and ease of activation. Therefore, I encourage you to be extremely cautious with trading post as it’s setup mostly to be a pity system for whales that complain about getting 5 Roys and 0 Eds. If you’re trading your only copy of a GFE and you don’t really spend outside of a few dollars here and there, trading post can be harmful in the long run as you may never get that GFE back when it becomes relevant. The exception is Typhon, go ahead and trade all your copies of him away. (This is partially a joke. Typhon has never been good but you never know when something will get a good evo)

6 Stars 

Let’s get it out of the way… Yusuke

        
Active (13 turns): Reduces cooldown of other skills by 1 turn. Removes lock status on orbs. Change all orbs to Water & Light orbs.
Leader Skill (2.25/225/2.25): Light attribute cards HP x1.5, ATK x1.5, RCV x1.5. All attribute cards ATK x4 when reaching 7 combos or above. All attribute cards ATK x2.5 when reaching Light & Water combos.
So kind of like a super DAth or Sonia, Yusuke packs a very strong punch with great survivability. The unconditional RCV and a part of the multiplier being attributed to total combos helps keep the damage low as you stall. Unlike Gronia / Dath, it is not necessary to activate the two colors for Yusuke for the survivability. Another thing to consider is that DAth was something that was sought after and many people sold a lot of REM cards in order to obtain her. In the end, DAth stopped being used in a very short period (1-3 months) and so far, DAth has not received any buffs (though an evo is expected to be announced in the near future). Overall, Yusuke makes for a strong leader that has been highly valued in JP since his release and he will no doubt be valued in NA for the same reasons. Given there are no typing restrictions, Yusuke works with just any light cards with OE / 7C. Given that, as leads, you would have 2 box cards which greatly improves consistency against any enemy where a VDP is preferred or required. Remember in the intro where I mentioned A4? All the Radar Callers at the end of A4 have pretty brutal execute ranges and all of them have a void. Yusuke is such a great lead for A4 because having two leads with 2x7c and box make it much easier to kill any of the radars from above the execute threshold. Paired with a base Nene active of +2c and B/L/H board, Yusuke can be a lot more consistent to box and activate 7c with Nene being relatively common. Depending on the dungeon, I would definitely pick Yusuke over Ed or a Diablos pairing.
As a whole, Yusuke’s awakenings are very strong and he’s the second card in NA with the pixel awakening on a non-pixel card (the first being Valentines Ney who became meta for 3P Dragon Rush and A4 clears). Yusuke is balanced (just like VNey) meaning that he can take any killer, whether you want dragon for the Radar Callers or God for Beorc, he can take it. That gives him amazing dupe value. His awakenings and active skill are incredibly synergistic with his leader skill as well as other leader skills that getting more than 1 is never a bad thing. You can run dupes of himself on his own team. He works well for blue coverage on Ed where finding alternatives can be difficult (Yuna, Hex and very few others are good there).
Overall, Yusuke is a pretty complete package in terms of leader skill, active skill, typing, and awakenings. If you were to trade for any card in the REM, this would be it.

Kurama

      
Active (11 turns): Change Fire, Jammer, Poison & Mortal Poison orbs to Wood orbs. Delay 2 turns to all enemies.
Active in base form (20 turns): Delay 5 turns to all enemies.
Leader Skill (1/144/9, 43.75% shield): All attribute cards ATK x4 when HP is greater than 50%. RCV x3 when matching exactly 4 connected heart orbs. All attribute cards ATK x3, 25% all damage reduction when attacking with 6+ Wood orbs at the same time.
This is a pretty curious leader skill as we see many effects going on at the same time. The first being that there’s an HP conditional for 16x damage. Then 9x is conditional on matching 1 row of wood orbs. This is curious because at >50% HP, Kurama is the second highest (tied with Ameno, HNene is the highest) multiplier for a single row. Right behind Kurama, we have Yamamoto who we’ve seen be a driving force in the farming meta because of the accessible Sado (I say accessible because it was relatively common in the same REM as Yamamoto) who generated 2 rows of fire which made it very easy to save a row for the following floor. This allowed for longer dungeons like MHera to be swipe farmed whereas leads like Liu Bei couldn’t bring enough actives to swipe every floor. Currently, the highest multi for a single row is HNene at 256x for 1 dark row. However, there isn’t any active currently that makes 2 dark rows. Ameno, which is tied with Kurama, has access to Ryo. Unfortunately for light row farming (which has some of the deepest utility sets), all of the cards are whale as fuck. Ryo to make a double light row is a 6 star collab from King of Fighters. My friend rolled 200 times in King of Fighters and only rolled a single Ryo. Needless to say, light row farming will remain inaccessible to all but a handful of people where multiples of the very whale cards are required. That’s where Kurama comes in with Jin in the same collab. Jin is a double wood row and that gives Kurama a stronger multiplier than Yamamoto, while also being unbindable, with an accessible double row. While I have no farm builds done yet with Kurama, I have no doubt that he can become a long term investment for wood row farming (along with Jins). In terms of leading for end game dungeons, I wouldn’t bother. The requirement of 6 orbs is very heavy and having the shield tied to 6 orbs makes it very hard to shield consistently and keep your HP up. His active is close to Dagda, a normal pantheon card (trading bind clear for delay and more cooldown). Therefore, his value is mostly in having a single copy as lead potential for farming (replacing Liu Bei since he has SBR), and really nothing else even in the current meta.

Hiei

Active (16 turns): Dark attribute ATK x3 for 1 turn. Randomly spawn 9 Dark orbs from non Dark orbs.
Leader Skill (1/144/1, 43.75% shield): All attribute cards ATK x2 when reaching 2 set of Dark combos. ATK x1 for each additional combo, up to ATK x3 when reaching 3 combos. All attribute cards ATK x4, 25% all damage reduction when reaching 6 combos.
Before even really diving into it, everything about this feels wrong. It’s not the first time that we’ve seen leads with requirements of multiple mono-color combos and they tend to do very poorly (such as the recent Kyo which had a great shield, just never took off because it was too orb hungry). For that reason, as soon as I see a 3 dark combo requirement, I’m already taking a very negative stance on this leader skill. Then stack on the fact that Hiei is not unbindable (pretty much all meta leads now are unbindable) and that he stacks TPAs, his overall card is non-synergetic. The active skill gives 9 dark orbs which is enough either to activate his leader skill of 3 dark combos or make 2 TPAs. Further, spawning 9 darks basically means that you won’t activate a rainbow haste for that turn. So right off the bat I’m crossing him off my list of leads. As a sub, 4 TPAs is pretty worthless and I’d much rather have a card with 2 7cs. Hiei doesn’t bring anything to the table for sub or lead value. Where I find Hiei can shine is that he makes exactly enough orbs for a pixel box, with one of the strongest pixel cards being Valentines Ney which is primary dark. Therefore, with some black magic it might be feasible to get guaranteed 7c with box and spike using 2 actives through something like base Nohime + Hiei. Anyway, it’s to be seen if his active will really make a splash because the orbs can be (and likely will be) scattered all over the board for difficult pathing. Personally, I use Planar + a spike for my VNey, but I know not everyone has Planar. That being said, Hiei being a 6 star in this REM means that he’s quite rare as well. Probably the lowest overall value for a 6 star in this REM.

Raizen

        
Active (6 turns): Change left-most column into Heart orbs. Inflict Light damage equal to ATK x200 to 1 enemy in exchange for reducing HP to 1. Affected by enemy element and defense.
Leader Skill (1/324/1): Light attribute cards ATK x3. All attribute cards ATK x2 when HP is less than 50%. ATK x3 when simultaneously clearing 5 connected Light orbs.
Right off the bat, I want to say that his active reminds me a lot of Lucifer but for light. And that’s useful because that synergizes with his leaderskill and awakenings. It also helps to know where the hearts will land since, for farming, it can be used in conjunction with other actives to setup specific combo layouts. For example, using Noah + Raizen + Jin in that order will create a four combo board with a big blue blob. The resulting board would also be very easy to make a blue pixel. Here’s what it could look like. Alternatively, the active means that a FUA will be in place without having to move orbs.
But let’s step away from just the active at the moment. From my initial impressions, I could see Raizen being a potential farm leader for light farming. However, as I mentioned as part of Kurama’s analysis, light farming is really whale. One of the reasons I was interested in Raizen was because the unconditional light multiplier of 9x means you can use something like Dios where the light sub-attribute gives him access to 9x, and then use a Dios active and swipe to clear out light attribute absorbs. Leader skills that have potential to save actives for farming (like Echidna which has the automatic FUA) can prove very valuable for specific and niche applications. Ignoring the HP condition of <50%, Raizen is an 81x lead for light and matching 5 or more lights. You can use something like LScheat to make a FUA + activate the leader skill at the same time. And having the L Shaped awakening + the <50% HP awakening synergizes perfectly with his leaderskill. However, he really doesn’t synergize whatsoever with any other leader.
Overall I’d be happy to roll one, specifically for niche applications. The average user probably won’t find any use out of Raizen.

Sensui

        
Active: No skyfall combos for 2 turns. Randomly spawn 6 Dark orbs from non Dark orbs.
Leader Skill (2.25/324/2.25): No skyfall matches. Attacker type cards All Stats x1.5. ATK x2 at 5 combos. ATK x2 for each additional combo, up to ATK x12 at 10 combos.
Whew, attacker type restriction. That’s not a common typing restriction. Outside of Blujin last year, I don’t think any teams came out where you absolutely needed an all attacker team. Unlike Blujin, Sensui pretty much wants 7×6 pairing and the best match will be none other than Diablos (despite Diablos not being attacker himself). This will give you consistent 10c for the full 18x multiplier. It also means that your damage is somewhat controllable with the no-skyfall clause. The sub pool is actually quite deep with all forms of Fujin (that means Blujin too), Nel, Odindra, Yuna, and a ton more with 7c. The 4 turn cooldown of Sensui’s active skill means that he’s a prime slot to inherit over, or for a spammable dark orb generator if you make a mono-dark attacker team. Cards like Pixel Iori, Leona, Toguro (farmable from this collab), and Haku are all potential subs for a mono-dark Sensui team.
He can make a great sub for a lot of teams given his 4 turn cooldown and double 7c awakenings. Guard break and double 7c are featured only on two cards, Dark Kali split evo, and Sensui. If I had to choose to run one of the two on a team (assuming no typing restrictions on Sensui), I’d choose Sensui over DKali.

This concludes the 6 star cards from the YYH Collab. The 5 stars of collabs tend to be pretty bad outside of niche active uses so the analysis of the 5 stars will probably be shorter.

5 Stars 

Karasu

    
Active (7 turns): Change all orbs to Fire, Dark & Jammer orbs.
Leader Skill (1/64/1, 43.75% shield): All attribute cards ATK x2.5 when reaching 1 set of Jammer combo. ATK x1.5 for each additional combo, up to ATK x4 when reaching 2 combos. All attribute cards ATK x2, 25% all damage reduction when reaching 5 combos.
On the surface, this is a great dark farm card given the double machine killers whereas other darks are limited to one. A lot of annihilation dungeons contain either machines or dragons, so such options are welcome. However, farming tends to require quite a few skill boosts to get necessary actives up in time (including long actives like gemstone spikes). So the lack of any and all SB is pretty painful. That doesn’t mean that this card will never see use. Though, the active skill is pretty useless unless you’re a Fenrir fanatic and the leader skill being jammer based means that I discount it instantly (it’s far weaker than the 6 stars anyway). To be determined if this card will ever be used, but keep a couple if you get them.

Jin

     
Active (13 turns): Change top-most row & bottom-most row into Wood orbs.
Leader Skill (4/9/4): Wood attribute cards HP x2, RCV x2. ATK x3 when simultaneously clearing 6 connected Wood orbs.
Let’s not kid ourselves of anything here. Jin exists purely for the double row active, and an accessible one at that, which could prove a very strong assist for Kurama. Jin is also the first to have a non-SA cloud resist which is fun, though I wouldn’t bring Jin as a sub for cloud resist in A4. Keep at least 5. Double row actives have always been very valuable in PAD history for farming. Double mono-color rows even more so.

Chu

    
Active (20 turns): Recover 50% of max HP. Inflict Light nuke damage equal to team Water & Wood ATK x40 to all enemies.
Leader Skill (4/9/4): Wood attribute cards ATK x3. Water attribute cards RCV x2. All attribute cards ATK x2 on the turn a skill is used.
Basically a Light Damage Nergi Hunter that uses Wood + Water instead of Wood + Dark for the nuke value. The big difference with Chu is the health recovery and lack of board change over Nergi. Chu could be used for alternative purposes like buttoning dungeons with strong dark monsters (since his nuke comes out as light damage) as well as in cases where you don’t want to change the board (Use Noah to clear a floor with the nuke damage, use Chu the next floor to heal + kill the floor without touching the Noah board). We’ll likely see Chu incorporated into some optimized farm teams. Though, keep in mind for most purposes, Nergi does more damage and has access to Amen and MoYe equips for more SB and more damage than inheriting Chu on various button bases. I’d recommend keeping 5.

Kaname Hagiri

    
Active (11 turns): Removes lock status on orbs. Reduce enemies’ defense to 0 for 1 turn.
Leader Skill (2.25/549.32/1): Attacker type cards HP x1.5, ATK x1.5. ATK x2.5 for clearing each Fire or Dark orbs in a cross formation.
Don’t get caught up on the large 549x damage, this comes from making 3 crosses in 6×5 which is not something people will generally be able to do. Furthermore, Dandelion and Kenshin are better for 6×5 crossing. The active skill itself is incredibly long and I can’t think of a single use off the top of my head. Maybe as a niche, kind of waste of an assist in A4 in case you get locked hazards and want to defense break the 30M def jewel. Overall this is a really awkward, long active to assist over with very little purpose. At the very least, you can finally sell all your Shivas if you roll Hagiri.

Botan

    
Active (15 turns): +2 combo count for 1 turn. Avoid all Dark damage for 1 turn.
Leader Skill (4/1/9): Light attribute cards HP x2, ATK x1. Increases time limit of orb movement by 5 seconds. RCV x3 when matching exactly 4 connected heart orbs.
The active skill is so ridiculously niche that I honestly don’t even know if I’m going to keep a spare Botan since I don’t see myself using the first one. Cthuga, any of the Samurai 2 base actives, and NY Khepri would do a better job any time you want +2c.

Koenma

    
Active (14 turns): Bind recovery for 4 turns. Awoken Bind recovery for 4 turns. 50% damage reduction for 3 turns.
Leader Skill (4/1/1): 7×6 board. Water attribute cards HP x2.
Another very niche active that I don’t see much purpose to. One of the unfortunate things about 4 turn bind / awakening bind clear is that a lot of awoken binds hit as 5 or more turns. That being said, I can see him being a niche double-utility active for A4. This gives you access to a shield or awakening bind clear on-demand at a 14 turn cooldown assisted over some other card. That’s not terrible. Even if the bind is 5-7 turns, you can still stall out with the shield available. Keep a dupe or two.

Genkai

     
Active (12 turns): Water & Light attribute cards ATK x2.5 for 1 turn. Change left-most column into Water orbs and the right-most column into Light orbs.

Leader Skill (1/56.25/1): Water & Light attribute cards ATK x2.5. Increases time limit of orb movement by 2 seconds. ATK x3 when simultaneously clearing 5 or more connected Water or Light orbs.
The active is niche (like all of them) except for the fact that it works very well for Yusuke in the same collab. Guarantees the Water + Light activation and gives a 2.5x buff to the team. This could be an interesting card to assist on somewhere else. The unfortunate part is that I tend to prefer full board changes (hazards can be a nuisance) like Nene and 2.5x spike pales in comparison to large gemstone spikes. Nonetheless, it’s not a bad alternative and covers two utilities at the same time.
As for leader potential, it’s hard to say if this will ever be relevant but I might experiment with farm teams leading Genkai in the future. As I mentioned for Raizen, the unconditional and ability to switch to different colors to kill stuff is a strong plus. It also opens up the slightly more accessible Kaoru as a double row potential for farming versus other options. The downside? Genkai has a very low multi, only 1 SB and isn’t unbindable.

Kazuma Kuwabara

The last of this REM review but certainly not the least.

     
Active (8 turns): Deal 100000 damage to 1 enemy. Ignore enemy element and defense. Change 2nd column from the right into Light orbs.
Leader Skill (2.25/56.25/1): Light attribute cards HP x1.5, ATK x2.5. ATK x3 when simultaneously clearing 5 connected Light orbs.
If nothing else, I’d keep a copy of this just as a pseudo lead pairing if you don’t get Raizen and Ameno to farm with. The active skill is highly synergistic with both of those leads for farming. Button a single enemy for 100k and then have a column premade. It’s also one of the only column actives that aren’t generated on the outer edges, making it even more interesting. Keep a few of these if you get them.

This concludes the 5 star cards from the YYH Collab. There are only 2 farmable cards to talk about so I’ll go ahead and do that in this review.

Farmables
Spirit Birb Puu

   
Active (12 turns): 75% damage reduction for 1 turn. Increases time limit of orb movement by 200% for 1 turn.
Overall, a great farmable active for some dungeons. Is basically designed to take care of Hexa dungeon. There are a lot of time debuffs in Hexa and the Augites, which all have ludicrious amounts of HP, are all considered evo mats. Puu is the only assistable evo-mat killer and one of two evo-mat killers in NA (other being Auron…) so there’s a lot of value in having 2-3 (I always make 5 of the farmable assists, you never know).

Toguro

       
Active (20 turns): Dark attribute ATK x2 for 3 turns. Avoid all Light damage for 3 turns.
Leader Skill (1/64/1, 57.75% shield): Devil type cards ATK x4. All attribute cards ATK x2, 35% all damage reduction when HP is greater than 50%.
Another very strong farmable from a collab. The biggest downside to Toguro is honestly the 1SB and his 20 turn active which doesn’t really provide any utility for a farm team, or as a sub, doesn’t really bring anything for a clear team. However, the 64x unconditional to devils could be interesting for farming, however, I don’t see it being used personally. A farmable Esch with killers is basically what Toguro is. I’ll be making a few.

Conclusion

Overall, this collab REM does not present a lot of value for the average player. Given a 2% roll per top rarity card, the chances of getting Yusuke or at least Sensui is extremely slim. The 5 stars will not provide much utility for a new to mid game player trying to clear out the arenas.
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