Uma Banners

Pull if you like the uma, rather than if they’re good. Very few umas are worth pulling solely for strength, the meta shifting often, so having the ones you like is more valuable. If you have to pity a meta uma, it’s not going to pay back those 30,000 Carats you spent. Most will only be useful on two CMs a year or so, there are very few generalist meta umas. A meta longevity of 2 years doesn’t mean the uma will be the best in every CM for 2 years, just that it takes that long for someone to usurp her in her specialty.

There are lots of ways to get umas for free later on, like Daily Legend Races and various pick tickets, so don’t feel too much pressure to pull umas early on. Of course, you can get them as off-rates from later pulls, too. This means pulling on uma banners is better the fewer umas you own, since you have a higher chance of getting new ones off-rate.

For details on the umas, check the reviews here. What will follow is a quick description of the uma so you can get an idea of what the month has in store.

(Aug. 28th) Mayano Top Gun (Wedding) - The second Stamina Debuffer. Doing Nice Nature + Mayabride in Champions Meeting is always a potent strategy on Medium Distance tracks, and she can actually win races too. Note that there are no other umas like this (Nature aside), and the gold debuff never appears on a card, making her a bit unique. Meta Longevity: 2 years, until umas get too much stamina for debuffers to affect them (in Scenario 6), at which point debuffers switch to debuffing speed in all distances

(Aug. 28th) Air Groove (Wedding) - Gets buffed later to be a strong Pace Chaser on certain tracks. At release, her unique is insanely hard to activate. It picks a random spot in the race when the race starts, and you have to be passing another uma at that spot to ult, and also be between 3rd and 50% position. Meta Longevity: Usable for a long time after her buffs, but never top of the meta.

There’s a quick overview video here for the September banners if you know people who don’t like to read.

(Sept 7th) Seiun Sky - This is the closest to "yes, pull" an uma banner will ever be (maybe second to V.Bourbon). Normally I'd say pull if you like them and not for meta, but Seiun Sky is simply too defining. If you make your own parents, you will probably want Seiun Sky. If you never make parents, you can skip her, but you’ll have to be borrowing her very frequently.

Acceleration skills are the strongest, when they work. Seiun Sky's unique is perfect acceleration on a huge amount of tracks for Front Runners, around 80%. She will be used as a parent on every Front Runner on those tracks until the end of time. Front Runners are also the meta choice for an event called League of Heroes, which eventually happens roughly every other month. Teams are quite often 3 Front Runners for that.

If a Front does not trigger Seiun Sky's unique, they will not win the race, unless something goes horribly wrong with all the other umas. (or they have other powerful acceleration of their own like Maru)

The entire meta for Fronts becomes stacking speed in the middle leg to gain and keep first place, then trigger Seiun Sky's unique and win. You simply must inherit it. It's practically the reason why Fronts are even viable in PvP.

You can borrow her, but it's kind of like the Kitasan card. If you have your own, you can borrow anything else. If you don't, you're stuck borrowing her. And the best Seiun parents will have their friend lists fill up very quickly.

You CAN get Seiun Sky for free/cheap later. You can use a pick ticket, or farm her from the daily legend races after the 1.5 anniversary. Of course, if you get her now, you can pick someone else or farm someone else. Meta Longevity: Still used on JP

(Sept 17th) Hishi Amazon - Unfortunately Amazon is the worst End Closer in the game, and she’s still in the bottom 5 on the JP server. But, if you are desperate for a Dirt uma, she can run it. Meta Longevity: Never good

(Sept 21st) El Condor Pasa (Fantasy) - Acceleration uniques can always find some use early on for gambling umas. But, there will soon be better options. Meta Longevity: Never meta

(Sept 21st) Grass Wonder (Fantasy) - A strong inheritable recovery unique for backliners can help ease stamina requirements. She has nothing beyond heals, so she’s not a strong racer. Meta Longevity: Best backliner heal for about a year, which is relevant in maybe one or two CMs, then replaced by Sakura Laurel

Fuji Kiseki should really be having her banner in September… I wonder why it wasn’t in the twitter post. It doesn’t make sense to slow down now if they want to keep to their schedule…

(estimated Sept 28th) Fuji Kiseki - Similar in strength to Oguri, but specialized into Mile. Better than Oguri in Mile, about the same outside of it. Meta Longevity: Used as a parent for her unique once acceleration becomes more common, still viable as a parent in JP