I've never put too much faith in tier lists - they change all of the time.
If I did I would have run RaDra, but I really don't like the style of play (maybe I'm just not good enough with A.Ra)
I've always played the teams I like to play and get frustrated that the end game isn't designed to be enjoyed with any type of play.
its a minor gripe though because that represents only like 5% of the time I play anyway.
My first team used a Loki lead - I was never able to roll a great lead in the beginning so I just stuck with it. I lasted just over a year before I IAP'd - my first pack was to this day one of my luckiest - haku followed by lubu became my leads until Blonia.
I was playing row with Blonia for over a year before messing around with dqxq (but still using LuBu for KOtG exp farming)
then A.Shiva was my main and second hyper (after blonia) - While runing A.Shiva I think I got 20+ best friends - it was a very popular lead for about ten minutes - My first MP dragon was ShivaD - this basically replaced A.Shiva for good.
Blonia had a bit of a resurgence with her uvo until I pulled a Ryune. Ryune, Blonia and Shiva D lasted for many months.
I tried to like Apanda and Aluci but I didn't really like the playstyle and didn't have key dark subs.
recently rolling those key subs didn't really matter - because of orchid which has now dominated how I play after a small learning curve.
I have the MP for a second orchid, but probably wont buy it because of how strong the team is already - likely just save mp for the next big thing or more likely - a novel way to play thats fun.
TLDR - a brief history of time, not written by a smart man in a wheelchair.
My path started out similar. Starting roll was dqxq, played her until I rolled Urd and some other nice fire subs. That team was able to farm KoG easily and took me through many of the easier descends. Made my first awoken, Shiva, and was able to beat even more descends. When I rolled my third Ares, I sold a chunk of my box and bought Shiva Dragon and he took me through most of the rest of the game.
When I rolled Escha after already having Haku, Akechi, and many other nice dark cards, I bought Yomi Dragon. Him and Luci have helped getting me through some stuff Shiva Dragon couldn't.
I don't iap a lot, but I did roll a pack and a half chasing Rukia, who I love on my JP account. I knew it was a bad idea and I got nothing good, rage sold all of the pulls. My luck I suppose since on JP I got her with a yolo roll. Which is one of the reasons I have enough for another mp card, and I will be buying You Yu.
I have a Yomi Dragon and Luci on my alt, that used to be my son's account, that I can pair with in co-op. I sell anything that doesn't help a current team on that account or benefit my main account. So I almost have enough mp on that account for You Yu as well. I could sell one of the Rodins I have and get there (never can pull one on my main...). But that is my plan for future co-op, You Yu is really strong in co-op and can probably help me get that machine Zeus for the accounts at some point.
Edit: As far as Ra Dragon, don't have the subs and don't enjoy rainbow leads. Xiang Mei, no subs and as safe as she is to play, she doesn't look that fun to me. I didn't like Gadius when I tried him out for a bit.