Garon... or Adult Tiki?

Garon is definitely a nice unit, but A!Tiki might be better in the long run due to the classic "she has higher merge potential" argument.

Adult Tiki. Merge potential.

Adult tiki with neutral IV (40hp,35atk,23spd,35def,24res)

Cringe kickass smile Garon IV
(43hp,33atk,22spd,33def,32res)

Well tiki has the IV game and refinements but Garon beats her in hp (unless refine breath), does a better get doubled game (unless tiki is -spd), and outright beats her in the res game which requires +res AND warding breath to fix up, which in turn allows Garon to use distance counter for Naga users or allow brazen skills or the new solo skills to be effective on him. Also he can serve as a anti marth family tree unit which also no one has talked about breath of fog being useless on him soooooo......

Yet there are inheritance skills he can have like lighting breath at the cost of anti dragon killer wallage, but inturn can get refine bonuses and DC. I say he's effective.

My opinion is that Garon is better, he has good mixed bulk right out of the gate, and a weapon that causes him to not take bonus damage from Falchion, Naga, etc.

But the majority will go with Adult Tiki due to the Merge Potential and IVs arguement. (Which, if you ask me, is a BS argument.)

So in short:
Short Run/Less Investment/Don't care about Arena and Merges: Garon
The exact opposite: Tiki

It honestly depends how far you plan to merge a Tiki I suppose. At zero merges Garon is better stat wise but you're only going to be able to get him to +2-3 right now. Tiki comes at 3* so she can get to +10 easily. Additionally she has weapon refine and DC in her weapon, so in the long run she's definitely better.

IMO if you don't already have a Tiki started and you just want a quick red dragon fix, Garon is not bad. If you want a good investment and staple for a dragon team, Tiki all the way.

Garon's stat distribution is a bit nicer, due to his mixed tank kind of thing, which I like over a one sided wall, but his weapon is trash, whereas A!Tiki has DC built in, though with a -1 to CD. It seems like you care a lot about your feathers, so I'd hold things off, and see what builds other people come up with.