UPDATE: My calculations below are wrong as it needs to take in account mana earned and not mana required. Then it really cannot go to 5 tiles without casting an additional spell.*
Mate,the base should be 6.5, not 5:
6.5 x [ (100-12-15) / 100 ] = 6.5 x 0.73 = 4.745
5 tiles > 4.745 required
Hi Kerridoc:
I have a silly question: why does it matter to get him down to 5 tiles? How often do you do a 5 match? It happens but it is quite rare, an order of magnitude less than doing two three matches or a combo 6 match. Yes, someone could throw a mana slower like Alasie on him, but since he is very fast it won’t happen that much in the initial wave, and if you want to counter that you can put on a mana troop higher than level 11.
What would really be nice is if he got a class upgrade to 6 tiles with a 9% mana boost. I know, it won’t happen but if you could use a crit troop on him and charge him with 6 tiles that would be even better.
P.S. If you have both Kage and Victor, I think taking Kage to 80 and Victor to 70 will be a very nice combo. I wonder if that one or both at 80 would be a viable two purple counter for Guin.
You don’t necessarily have to shoot for a 5 match - I often find I can get 2 additional colors [purples] with a dragon tile.
You can also get to 5 tiles if you drop a horizontal match-3 on a foe, with one tile hitting and the other two ghosting. Or from a match-5.
OK I do get dragons but not often a five match, but let’s give you guys that one. How often will you fire Khagan or Lancelot just timed right then happen to get a 5 match, and how often will that make a difference? I suspect it would be quite low, whereas the 7 to 6 transition is huge.
Kageburado + Victor and two mana troops lvl 11.
Guinev…who???
How does kage works with victor? Kage left no life for victor to steal unless you are targeting flank
You’d want to fire Kageburado then Victor, to make sure Kageburado’s bonus attack level hits. Victor’s DoT will still be ffective. Kageburado will have stripped away any heal-over-time effects, but Victor will still limit healing from immediate healers (e.g. Delilah) or new HoT effects. Not a bad one-two-combo.
A 5 match is a diamond, just saying. Not as rare as you might think
Victor is great, but Kage is insane. Best sniper in the game, IMO. Hits ever so slightly lighter than Lianna, but after only 6 tiles which is huge, and dispels any buffs first. It’s not even close.
Joon is yellow,
Marjana is red.
Burado is purple
and will shot you dead.
Kage must be hitting pretty comparably to joon but very fast mana… I didn’t get him but I did get Victor and Zimkitha. So im not to upset about the synergy with the 2 of them on my new defence team.
Vic and Kage are the way SG fights Guin ^^ and it’s working tbh.
Problem is the whole upper Diamond has Guin and 1/2 Graves and Kage is rarer than Gloves. 
Honestly, I spent a crap-ton of money on the Calendar offers to get the 4* mats. That left with me with a pile of gems. I didn’t buy any gems outright for summons this month.
So please correct me if I am wrong @Kerridoc – You need 9% bonus to get to 6 tiles, lvl 11 mana troop gives this…sooooo…if you have the 2% boost from kage/kage, kage/inari, or kage/mitsuko then you only need 7% which mana troop lvl 5 gives you, correct?
Sadly Kage/Kage does not, the family boosts are only for unique members of the family in your team not for duplicates.
ah, good to know on that point
Right, except for the doubles-Kage configuration. It also gets Inari and Mitsuko down to 9 tiles with only a level 17 mana troop, which is another huge savings.
I was disappointed to have my 3* event team dreams crushed.
Was looking forward to teams of deadly little Namahages / Melias / Mnesseuses / Gatos, but it isn’t going to happen the way I dreamed (the teams will still be there but not quite as “gee-whiz” as hoped).
Kageburado looks like an amazing hero. I never have much trouble with Victor bc his DOT can be easily dispelled.