I dunno, I think Whitey Bay's at least a tie with Squard. She doesn't have his stats, but she also doesn't have an HP requirement for Captain activation, and I find myself using her special more and more as of late in Japan.
She can be swapped out for Towel Nami as Captain in most cases, but I think she's much better as a sub under more powerful captains, such as Rayleigh, Trebol, both Doofys, and both Mihawks. Granted, she's just a mid-tier INT unit when up against debuff-protected raid bosses, but she can get her special off most everywhere else, especially in the latest story, fortnights (especially ones with multiple boss stages), and colosseum. She's arguably the best ride-along for GP Usopp on bosses with no debuff shield, absurd HP totals, and a sub 20% insta-kill, to crank out that extra damage during the final push. She's also one of the gateways into a triple-buff for single-stage damage ranking.
Two and three-buff burst seems to be coming back into style in Japan, especially with combo-blocking shields negating all the percent-cut specials... well, unless you use a multi-hit special like Nightmare Luffy's to chip away at them first. I get the feeling the next new Japan raid boss is going to throw everyone for a loop.
Speaking of Japan, did anyone else see the 1/2 Stamina Mihawk raid at the end of the month? Has there even been a 1/2 Stamina raid before? Not sure. Then there's 2x Special rate up the day after that. Everyone's gonna have maxed-out super Mihawks, now. And when everyone's super... no one will be.
I think she shows up in the Wapol fortnight that just released in Japan, so waiting for that is always an option.
I got one Kureha during the whole thing. She's a rare encounter like Kimono Nami, and you know how those go.
