Hello there, and welcome back to another edition of Sena Re:PLAY for Seven Knights Re:BIRTH. October kicked off with a bang thanks to the Demon Slayer collaboration event. The first wave brought Tanjiro Kamado and Zenitsu Agatsuma into the fray, while the second wave saw Giyu Tomioka and Shinobu Kocho join the roster. Those early arrivals are already pulling heavy shifts across the PvP scene, single-handedly dragging offensive decks out of the gutter and into a glorious new golden age. You can see them tearing things up in Arena, Total War, and Guild War alike. We have broken down the relevant party adjustments and October hero formations right here in the text below.

Siege Empress 'Awakened Eileen'

Naturally, with the Demon Slayer offensive heroes crashing the party and grabbing all the best seats, a few legacy characters were inevitably pushed out of the meta. On the flip side, Awakened Eileen managed to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the collaboration newcomers. In fact, she synergyzes brilliantly with them in PvP content, putting on quite a show.

To top it all off, Eileen seems to have conquered PvE content as well. The performance in Siege is particularly hard to ignore, with the character contributing heavily to breaking high-score records across all physical-attack-vulnerable sieges. This is all thanks to the permanent passive defense-reduction stacking effect. The developer community is even dropping the old 'Immortal Empress' title in favour of 'Siege Empress'. Have a gander at the October Siege high-score composition data below for the nitty-gritty details.

Demon Slayer Driving the Offensive Deck Meta

Ever since Yongeun dropped, the boundary between magic decks and offensive decks in the Seven Knights Re:BIRTH Arena has basically dissolved. Built on the 'Advantage' effect, 'Seonran' shattered the old offensive deck framework by bringing both absurd firepower and survival chops to the table. Some players even slot in the magic-type hero Yongeun just to abuse health-swapping and various utility tools. Then Hayeon showed up to patch up any remaining holes in the composition.

Right on the heels of that came the Demon Slayer duo, Tanjiro and Zenitsu. Packing overwhelming hit counts, great survivability, and massive damage output, the pair started chewing through magic and defensive decks alike. Some players are even saying it is like having two Seonran-tier heroes dropped on us at the same time.

Naturally, offensive decks are currently enjoying a stellar winning streak. In the Upper Arena—where all the server heavyweights gather—a massive chunk of the top rankers are running offensive decks as their main choice, naturally featuring Tanjiro and Zenitsu. Having proven their ridiculous performance, they look set to rule the PvP meta roost for quite some time.

The Future of Defensive Decks: Giyu Tomioka

Truth be told, the Demon Slayer offensive deck we just looked at is basically built to hunt down the magic deck's main dealer, Yongeun. Of course, a stat-monster like Yongeun isn't going down without a fight. We aren't seeing the old days where offensive decks would just roll over and die, but offensive and defensive decks are still trading blows on pretty equal footing.

Still, one particular group got left out in the cold: defensive decks, which rely on versatile, support, and defensive heroes. Caught between the clashes of two massive whales, defensive decks have been losing ground. Fortunately, the October 15 update looks like it might finally give them a fighting chance, seeing as the second wave of the Demon Slayer collaboration brought Giyu Tomioka and Shinobu Kocho into the fold.

A lot of defensive deck adventurers are pinning their hopes on Giyu in particular. Being a versatile hero whose kit reduces enemy critical strike rates, grants allies damage nullification and damage immunity, as well as protective capabilities, the entire setup screams tailor-made for defensive decks. Just as Tanjiro and Zenitsu breathed new life into offensive decks, everyone is watching closely to see if Giyu can spark a miraculous comeback for defensive setups.