Quick evaluation of coming NY banner

I'm going to keep it short because I don't see there being much to say at the moment.

Parts:
I. Overview
II. Effects on arena score
III. Analyzing units per se
IV. Analyzing fodder potential
V. Statistics and orb value

I. Intro
I think it's a very skippable banner unless you're an arena enthusiast. It's quite clearly aimed at casual players who will probably really enjoy the art and people who are crazy enough to spend orbs just for points in an absurd mode.

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II. Effects on arena scoring
Units without prfs can now score as well as units with prfs. Assist, special, and A-skill always scored the same on both. Before hone atk 4 and joint hone spd, if you have a prf, you can use 3 x 240SP in B, C, and S + 400SP weapon for 1120 SP, whereas not having a prf meant you were stuck at 1070SP. Now, if you have a prf, you're stuck at 1180SP, but units without prfs can go up to 1130SP. But this might be temporary if 300SP B-skills are coming. For the time being, it seems that IS has embarrassed people who pulled for duel skills, because people who merged Gwendolyn or Sheena with +spd IVs can now score as well as people who forked over the orbs for duel skills.

This change fits right in with a lot of the weapons introduced on this banner, which are obviously meant for the bonus unit absurdity in arena. If you're glued to your prf for scoring reasons, these 300SP C-skills will now enable you to use some weapon with a chill effect or a hagoita or kadomatsu (which are returning assuming a rerun of last year's new year banner)

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III. Unit analysis

Fjorm; arguably a worse S.Takumi for the same reason H.Jakob is arguably better than H.Niles. Fjorm and Niles don't need to worry about breakers, but they have weapon triangle disadvantage against one colour. But if you want to build her, typical stuff - firesweep, brave bow (brave bow can be especially good because goads will pump a lot of power into it for more damage per strike and quads)

Gunnthra: similar to Palla, but more independent and with potentially worse damage output except against blues. Her stats are 34/37(+3)/27/26 with 38HP with a virtual +4 against the enemy she debuffs; Palla has 31/31/28/26 with 42HP but Whitewing Sword bumps her up to 34/34/31/29. Palla can fairly easily quad with double goad flier support; Gunnthra will never quad without switching out her weapon.
Really, the big sell on her is that she's able to debuff people for your bonus unit, but Surtr can do that while also inflicting stupid amounts of chip damage and he's also a heck of a lot harder to kill, and he has 180 BST, and he comes with steady stance 4.

Hrid: seems like a bad unit to me. His statline doesn't make sense for a flier team that stacks goads, so do you put him on a mixed team? But then lots of other swords can do the job without hogging your Iote's shield, and when you're stuck to enemy phase (especially locked out of special spiral) how much does flier mobility help?

Laevatein: I haven't been able to find her skillset. But she's going to get wrecked by manaketes if null dazzle is inheritable.

Laegjarn: a Selena/Subaki statline with significantly better atk. The lack of access to spd boon is going to be uncomfortable though. 38 spd with a refined lance isn't quite enough in my opinion. With hone cavalry it's looking a bit better. The main difference between Laegjarn and most lance cavalry is the def. Finn actually has a very similar statline, but this one I think is even better, very narrowly. Both of them can build to tank counterattacks (ex: using brazen atk/def) and skip desperation.

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IV. Fodder analysis

Fjorm: Kabura ya is the new one. Atk/spd bond and atk/spd link are already in the game. Both of them are interesting, but I'm going to skip them here. Kabura ya is actually quite good. It can go on a support unit with low res (possibly some watersweep NY Corrin designed to deal chip damage? or any dedicated buffbot that can't ploy, or who's using atk and def ploys already); it's also pretty legit on B.Lyn for doubling that one unit on the opposite team that has 47 spd. It can also be good for Niles so that he doesn't have to work as hard on his spd (ex: some QR build on +atk -HP, because his atk does need work).

Gunnthra: joint hone spd could have a short commentary all to itself. 8 months after wave skills first appeared, they're getting eclipsed. Joint hones are going to make dedicated buffbots like Titania less and less necessary because everybody will just buff themselves. Dedicated buffbots can still have their place because units might want to use smokes, for example, but they will not be as prominent as before.
I do think this skill is potentially aesthetically bad for encouraging too much of the same play style on one team, just the whole team is fast, but I think there's a place for teams like that.
I haven't looked thoroughly at all of the possibilities, but it's a pretty powerful skill and I find it upsetting that it grants +5 whereas hone spd 3 only grants +4. If anything, this buff should be weaker for buffing the unit that carries it as well. This goes in the category of stupid powercreep, just extra stats for no reason.

Hrid: Geishun is...not easy to like. It's not generally what I want from a dancer's weapon, because dance is a player phase skill. If it's a tank we're dealing with, safeguard and barrier blade are probably better. But chill atk can be pretty useful on defense setups for disrupting people's strategies, so I think it can be a decent choice for Olivia. Most sword units in the game have prfs that are significantly better than geishun.
Hone atk 4 is interesting because it challenges emblem buffs. Reinhardt would prefer receiving hone atk 4 to hone cavalry; in most cases so would Ophelia and Lilina. It's especially relevant because the OHKO/faux OHKO meta has been on the rise starting with Ares and the subsequent introduction of special spiral as a B-skill, and of course, infantry would love to have this skill because they don't have emblem buffs in the first place (except infantry rush/flash/pulse) and now they can buff units like Ophelia and Lilina even harder than cavalry and fliers can buff their own types.

Laevatein: insufficient information available to me.

Laegjarn: Chill res and def tactic we already know about. Wagasa is an excellent option for original Azura. If you don't already have her, you can now look forward to getting her as an off-focus; she will actually become one of your better dancers. Lances who are doing the fighting will probably prefer slaying lances, harmonic lances, reprisal lances, prfs, in some cases maybe even casa blanca.

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V. Statistics and orb cost:
Four focus units, of which two are red. Both red units have 300SP C-skills, so the average cost to pull one is in the neighbourhood of 95-105 orbs (that's not an exact number; don't hold me to it). Other than that, for what the units offer and 3% being split between four units, the only value to be had from this banner is the art.