MMM - Mandated Magazine, Mirrored Measureless Master of Macrocosmos Makes Meeting (Taisui Xingjun)

Taisui is one of those Servants whose background you read and just think: “Damn, forget authors, our own history has some pretty out-there ideas, especially when it comes to deities and worship.” Creating a series of deities based on a series of stars and considering them a reflection of Jupiter is pretty whack, and Nasuverse makes it even more whack.

As the third 4* Alter Ego in the game, and second Welfare of the class, Taisui equally has little to compare their bases to and a lot of competition to live to. Fortunately, it also makes it easy to figure out where he places himself. With the lowest Attack and highest HP of his class and rarity, Taisui is certainly built more defensively, but it’s best to bear in mind Alter Ego stats are high in general - there are countless Servants in other classes with less HP and Attack than Taisui, by quite a big margin.

In any case, the increased bulk isn’t as handy to have as better offense, but he is comparing himself to two Alter Egos with particularly offensive statlines. It was inevitable that his own Attack wouldn’t compare. Still more than workable, however.

So far as passives go, Taisui has a neat handful, but none of particular significance. His A-rank Magic Resistance means he’s hardy against enemy debuffs, and Item Construction provides a minor consistency boost to debuffs of his own, but the only offensive passive he has, Divinity, only provides a minor flat boost to all his card damage, while bringing the Divine tag with all its benefits and flaws.

While he could definitely appreciate having higher Attack, Taisui’s base stats are hardly flawed, there’s just little spice to them.

With a BAAQQ card set, Taisui is more or less already set to have balanced NP gain. However, with his base NP gain of 0.47% and 3-hit Arts cards, his base Arts gain comes out at 1.41, notably below average. Not apocalyptically bad, but noticeably sub-par. As a knock-on effect of his mediocre base NP gain, his Quicks only produce mediocre NP gauge, while his Extra is also…about as bad as the Trung Sisters for NP gain, albeit with even less hits.

So yep, this event is 2/2 on Servants with poor regular card NP gain. While Taisui’s Arts cards will still functionally provide NP gauge with Arts support, it hampers his usability, if only slightly.

Things are better on the side of stargen. Taisui’s Quicks produce a good amount of stars, even if his Extra isn’t the greatest for stargen. His Brave chains will produce a respectable sum of stars for some criticals on the following turn, but it’s nothing to be wowed by.

So how good is Taisui as our newest welfare? On one hand, he’s more than a star, he’s a collection of them:

However, he also may just shine too brightly, just to crash and burn:

While Taisui’s kit is far from basic, his benefits and flaws can more or less be narrowed down to how he contributes to the farming scene, since realistically that’s what his focus is. Being able to farm a handful of classes effectively is a strong perk of his, even if some existing welfares give him a run for his money.

The bottom line is, Taisui is an effective farmer for both his class and in general, and has tools to provide interesting niches for difficult content, should the time come. Even looking across the welfares out there in the game, few would give as many benefits as Taisui does in a single Servant. Naturally, things may become a little more difficult if you don’t have the Arts support core to back him up, but that doesn’t change that he’s an excellent and investment-efficient welfare option for anybody to pick up and use.

Rath™ Seal of Approval, with a recommendation.