Should You Pull?
Very close to No. There are really two reasons you'd pull on this prayer: If you highly enjoy these Friends and want to see them with their event-themed costumes on, or for the story card accompanying them. This prayer is themed around the current event, Masked Dancer Rebellion, meaning this features the 5 main characters of the event, as well as a story card related to Hata no Kokoro, Solo Act.
The main issue with this prayer is its co-runners. E1 Flandre Scarlet, R8 Youmu Konpaku, as well as the eventual A7 Yukari Yakumo and A7 Alice Margatroid...all of these Friends will easily outperform these General Friends, both in farming and challenging content. Even special anniversary deals, such as 1st Anniversary Lucky Bag, Story Card Collection, and Festival Collection hold much more promise than the characters featured here. It's not really their fault, as these Friends can definitely get things done! Just...they don't shine at all in comparison to the current competiton.
This prayer still has a few tricks up its sleeves, though. Thanks to it co-running with the event, it will last until May 27th, giving you ample time to ensure a Friend here if you so desire. Additionlly, due to every featured Friend being a General Friend, everyone only costs 100 Exchange Points to obtain, with the 5* story card Solo Act being only 50. There is also Ascending God-Crystal Step-UP, which can assist you if you are only giving this banner a quick look.
Quick Overview
+Great healing
+Solid damage
+Great Earth breaking capabilities
-Low damage ceiling
-No offensive support
+Solid offensive support, with good levels of Yang ATK and CRIT ATK UP.
+Incredible Barrier restoration in shorter fights due to restoring 2 Barriers with a Spell Card
+P0 Solo targeting Star on a Basic Shot, with sure-hit to boot
-Barrier restoration being tied to Spell Cards means she runs out of gas in longer fights
-Average Breaking potential
-Average, backloaded damage
+0P Fire Focus shot
+Yin ATK and DEF buffs
+Minor amount of Spirit Power and Barrier restoration
-Solo-target Last Word with mediocre strength
-CRIT buffs only particularly helps Friends with high CRIT chance
-Only slight buffs compared to what other Friends currently provide
+Decent All-targeting Last Word with Fire and Wood breaks
+Buffs own Yin ATK and debuffs one enemy’s Yin DEF
+At least 5 levels of Accuracy UP to self
-Below average access to elemental breaks; only 2 Wood breaks per spell card
-Little team support outside of Yin DEF debuffs
-1/3/1 scaling on 1/2/3 Spirit Power hurts damage output when farming
+Decent teamwide ATK UP
+Blind anomaly inflictor
-Below average Breaks, mainly being expensive Wood breaks
-Low damage
[Numbers in brackets are buffs at Max Limit Break or stat sticks at Max Enhance]
- When used by Heal-type Friend, Yin ATK 2 [3] levels UP (3T)
- When used by Heal-type Friend, Evasion 2 [3] levels UP (3T)
- DMG from dwellers of the Underworld 15% [20%] DOWN (2T)
- Yang DEF +21[+81]
- Yin ATK +39 [+99]
Band Member Overview
Instead of just blandly going over everyone again, let's give a brief welcome to everyone that is a part of this prayer in groups of 2, to reflect on their chemistry with one another!
The Back-Up Dancers
It is unknown if Mai Teireida and Satono Nishida are truly related to one another, but their connection is solidificd by their pure devotion to their master, Okina Marata. Their connection can be seen through gameplay as well, as the two of them share very similar roles. Mai is all about buffing the party's Yang ATK and DEF, while Satono takes the time to buff their Yin ATK and DEF! This type of "opposites" is even seen through their stats, which have reflected ATK and DEF values based on what they excel in! Outside of the Yin/Yang support, Mai stands out by restoring 2 barriers on the team via a spell card, while Satono gets the slightly less impressive Spirit Power restoration.
Instrument-Turned Youkai
Benben Tsukumo and Yatsuhashi Tsukumo are not sisters by blood, but the way that they turned to life thanks to the Magic Mallet's power around the same time make them siblings in spirit. Rather than perform a group act, however, each one sort of does their own performance by themselves. Benben can support herself with Accuracy buffs and then buff her own Yin ATK to hit hard. Yatsuhashi sadly does not do as much, but can still slightly buff the team's Yin and Yang ATK and inflict some Blind anomalies if needed. Perhaps if they cooridnated their music together instead of trying to play over the other, they'd be better in sync...
By the way, you usually see the two of them performing with Raiko Horikawa nearby. Unfortunately, it seems like she was already booked with the Prismriver Ensemble, so she had to miss out on this concert...
The Poker-Faced Dancer
Hata no Kokoro gets her own section, both because there is no one else to support her, but the story card with her face on it is great as well! First off, Kokoro is all about the healing, doing a very good job at it thanks to spells and skills alike. She can even restore 1 of the party's barriers on a skill with only a 4-turn cooldown! It helps that her damage is pretty good as well, even if it doesn't get much higher when optimized. She is definitely the best Friend on this prayer, next to the Crazy Back-Up Dancers.
As for Solo Act, its main effects occur only when equipped by a Heal-type Friend, such as Kokoro herself! This makes the card perfect for one of her spell card slots, as it buffs her Yin ATK even more, which helps in optimizing her Last Word damage. It's stat sticks of Yang DEF and Yin ATK are pretty decent for the dancer as well.
By the way, one small fun detail in case you missed it...
Masked = Kokoro's 66 masks of emotions
Dancer = Crazy Back-Up Dancers Mai and Satono
Rebellion = Benben and Yatsuhashi's previous activities of rebelling against the balance of Gensokyo
