Saki Kurokoma

Saki Kurokoma was released on March 8th, 2022 in Festival: Pegasus Dullahan?!.

Saki Kurokoma is the matriarch of the Keiga Family, and leader of the wolf spirits in the Animal Realm of Hell. In the events of Touhou 17: Wily Beast and Weakest Creature, she teamed up with Yachie Kicchou, leader of the otter spirits, and Yuuma Toutetsu, leader of the eagle spirits, to overthrow Keiki Haniyasushin, effective leader of the human spirits, to take over Hell in its entirety through using the wolf, eagle and otter spirits together to control Reimu, Marisa and Youmu. Saki's ability, "unmatched leg strength", makes her more physically powerful and faster than most characters, lending to her horse-like features. Saki acts and talks very casually, enjoys battle, and respects those who can go toe-to-toe with her in a fair fight. In Lost Word, Saki has a full suite of elemental bullets on all 3 spell cards and P0 elements on both shots, as well as above average damage, making her an S+ tier friend.

For farming, Saki uses her single-targeting Last Word, Oharida Palace Stomp, to clear any enemy that she fights. With a myriad of Killer bullets and a -2 Yin and Yang DEF on her Last Word, hardly any enemy can survive her power. She pushes this further with skills that provide her the tools she needs to hit hard, granting boosts to Agility, Yin ATK, Accuracy, and 1.5 P on her 1st turn. This allows her to reach 2 boosts on her 1st turn. As such, it enables her to reach 5 bullet lines with a 2-2-1 spread. However, Saki does suffer from having no potential to farm story cards on her lonesome. 

Challenging content is where Saki truly shines. While her only real team utility comes in her 2nd Spell Card, Deeds of Devilish Beasts, providing 3 levels of EVA down to all enemies, and Last Word providing 2 levels of Yin and Yang DEF DOWN to one enemy, they are ultimately not what makes Saki such a fearsome character. What Saki provides are numerous barrier breaks that only the very best of the bunch could hope to match. With all of her spell cards having amazing access to elements, it’s no wonder why she is the matriarch of the Keiga Family.

Boasting P0 Wood and Fire on her spread shot, Flight Over Mount Fuji, and her focus shot, Ultimate Prince Shoutoku Road, she covers multiple weaknesses with her basic shots alone. Not only that, her 2nd Spell Card, Agile Skill: Black Pegasus Meteor Shot contains a wide spread of 4 Star breaks and 2 Fire breaks. Her 1st Spell Card, on the other hand, provides 4 Wood breaks and 2 Fire breaks. Finally, her Last Word Has a full spread of Fire totaling up to 6 breaks. In practice, her 1st Spell Card may be a decision between setup damage and barrier breaks due to the backloaded nature of it. Her 2nd Spell Card, on the other hand, provides insane value in terms of 1P Wood breaks. Ultimately, Saki is one of the best at her role in terms of potential and can only be mitigated by a possibly weaker performance when performing Star breaks.

Saki’s skills are ultimately there to augment both her barrier breaking and damage potential. Her 1st skill, Fine Ancient Steed, provides her with 2 stages of Agility for the party and additionally 2 stages of Evasion up for herself with 0 downtime. Her 2nd skill, Imperial Derby, on the other hand, further serves to augment her with 3 stages of Agility and provide her with a total of 1.5 P. Her 3rd skill, Wolf Spirit Assist, gives her 2 stages of Accuracy for 3 turns and 3 stages of Yin ATK for 2 turns. These two factors further improve her barrier breaks to be accurate and improve her damage as well. While these skills are selfish, the Spirit Power that she provides herself is there to unlock her barrier breaking potential and unleash it against her foes. Not to mention, the Agility that she provides herself can also be extended to 10 stages indefinitely with a well timed skill or spread shot. One thing to note as well is the cool down on her 2nd skill may make you want to use it as soon as possible to help get more power from it in the future.

Ultimately, Saki is very much a character who provides a large amount of barrier breaks whilst also having horsepower befitting Prince Shoutoku’s steed. While her team utility may leave much to be desired compared to her compatriots, Saki does the other roles phenomenally.

The secondary effects and Slice scaling for Saki is as follows:
Spread Shot:
Chance for Agility UP (2 Turns): 50%/0%/100%/0%/0%/0%

Focus Shot:
Slice: 30%/30%/0%/0%/0%/0%

1st Spell Card:
Slice: 30%/0%/0%/50%/0%/50%

2nd Spell Card:
Slice: 60%/0%/70%/70%/80%/0%
Enemy Agility DOWN (2 Turns): 0%/0%/50%/50%/0%/0%

Last Word:
Slice: 20%/60%/0%/100%/100%/0%