Should You Pull? Bosses of Strength & Subtlety

If you're looking for  a solid Solo target nuker with some spammable P0 Star All Targeting Breaks and Killer support in the form of Yuugi Hoshiguma, or a tank with spammable P0 Earth Solo targeting Breaks in the form of Mamizou Futatsuiwa, this is a solid but not spectacular banner. Whilst both units can certainly pull their weight, you'll probably be more inclined to pull on this banner if you're already a fan of either character due to neither matching the heights that other characters which have come out recently and will come out in the future reach. Still, they're both good, so if you like either it's worth your while to just grab them rather than hold for the super meta espots units you don't like just because a tier list told you to do so, as you can still get plenty of use out of either.

The Story card on this list is a solid Yin ATK & DEF stat stick (which Mamizou appreciates greatly), with the added bonus of being the best Accuracy UP card for most Yin attackers for farming purposes - if you can get five copies, that is. A nice bonus, but nothing worth pulling on the banner for in and of itself, especially since Yin HARD attackers are currently extremely rare. 

+High damage on a single target with setup time
+P0 Star on a Basic Shot
+CRIT ATK UP support

-Lackluster farmer, even with December 17th update
-Requires setup time, which isn't ideal for Solo targeting attackers
-Can't hit the damage levels that better Solo targeting attackers can

+Good amount of Yin DEF buffs for herself and the party
+Focus UP emphasis to keep damage off teammates
+0P Solo-target Earth on a basic shot for spammable breaks
+Power Link is always nice to have

-No source of Yang DEF
-Lack of Barrier restoration combined with no Yang DEF UP makes Focus UP a death sentence against Yang attacks when she's out of Barriers.
-Spirit Power-hungry for her 1-1-3 spell card spreads

Yuugi Hoshiguma is what is known as an oni - a straightforward youkai who loves drinking, brawling, and parties. Once, she was even one of the Big Four of the Mountain - a group of infamous oni consisting of Yuugi, Suika Ibuki, Kasen Ibaraki (not that she’d ever admit it), and some mysterious unnamed fourth member. These days however, she simply resides in old Hell (what was once Hell before those in charge of the afterlives moved it away elsewhere), and parties all day with her fellow oni - that is, when she isn’t brawling or, these days, partying and fighting on the surface. 

She could be considered almost an exemplar of her kind - she loves to fight and drink and party, is fond of the brave and strong, and scorns the weak and cowardly. In her hands is the Hoshiguma Dish, a legendary bowl that makes any sake placed into it far tastier - and is also the subject of a infamous fandom meme “sake not even drop,” poking fun at the fact that Yuugi doesn’t spill any sake from the dish during her fight in Subterranean Animism and thus suggesting she wasn’t taking it seriously or going easy on the heroine. Her ability is to wield unexplainable phenomena - which basically just means she’s a strong youkai who punch hard and the humans are real scared of that. Like how you’re scared of the unknown in your closet or under the bed as a kid.

And punch hard she does. As a fairly simple brawler, the center of Yuugi’s kit is her Solo targeting Last Word, Miss Unchained, which features a 2-1-2 layout, 3 Solo targeting Metal and Star Breaks at 3 Spirit Power, and a high amount of CRIT. Unfortunately its high potential is let down by her complete lack of Accuracy - meaning that unless you want to restart a fight a lot to fish for a lucky streak of RNG, the oni is going to need Accuracy support, be it from her teammates or by taking a turn to set up with a Story Card. Due to its nature, it’s also somewhat unsuited to farming - it only really does as much on average as other mid-rate Solo targeting Last Words, such as Satori Komeiji’s or Aya Shameimaru’s, with inconsistency due to its heavy CRIT reliance. It is also so inaccurate for the fifth and sixth bullets that the upcoming December 17th update won’t really help this a ton, as she’ll need three whole turns to get both the Spirit Power and Accuracy UP she requires. Really slow, but hey if you really like Yuugi and don’t mind the extra time it’ll certainly get the job done at that point. 

Outside of that, the other main claim to fame she has is in her first skill, Kabukimono. Whilst it gives her a decent 2 levels of Yang ATK UP for 2 turns (itself somewhat whelming due to her mixed Last Word), it also provides her party with 2 levels of CRIT ATK UP fo 2 turns - perfect for Killer attackers, who due to their lack of inherent CRIT ATK tend to scale tremendously well with the buff. Otherwise, Vengeful Spirit Quelling provides the same Yang ATK UP alongside 2 levels of CRIT Accuracy UP for 2 turns for her party, which whilst alright tends to be somewhat more whelming due to CRIT attackers rarely needing external CRIT Accuracy. 

Between her other attacks, One-Horned Lightning may be her most notable, due to the 1 All targeting Star Break it has for 0 power, which being on a Focus Shot makes it highly spammable. Oni Sign: Anomalies, Strength, Disorder, and Spirits is a rather notably strong Spell Card for Arena purposes as well, due to its heavily frontloaded nature (if somewhat inconsistently so due to its reliance on CRIT). It also possesses 2 All targeting Star and Earth Breaks for 3 Spirit Power, which is pretty solid. Lastly, Big Four Arcanum: Knock Out In Three Steps has a rather whelming 2 Solo targeting Metal and Earth Breaks for 2 Spirit Power - in practice this will often only be 2 Breaks, with the upside that it’s flexible and can often find multiple targets in a fight, especially in Arena. 

Ultimately though, Yuugi doesn't quite have the damage potential of better attackers, and reliance on setup isn’t ideal for a Solo targeting attacker (as you often prefer them to do their damage right away to take out priority targets). Still, she’s a solid attacker, good support for Killer attackers, and you’ll definitely find use out of her - just don’t let her share the oni sake with you, that stuff will knock you flat on your rump.

Note: The Focus rework mentioned in this overview is not yet live on global. There is currently no ETA for when it will be implemented.

Unlike the other youkai that live inside Gensokyo, Mamizou Futatsuiwa originally came from the Outside World, specifically Sado. Where she previously lived among humans and fellow bake-danuki (the youkai-form of tanuki), she now found herself as the leader of the bake-danuki within Gensokyo in a world where humans and youkai live separately. This doesn’t stop her from regularly visiting the Human Village by using her abilities to disguise herself as another human. She is kind-hearted toward the unfortunate and carries the look and accent of an old woman, but never be fooled. Mamizou is still a very powerful youkai, and the ability to change the appearance of herself or others is the perfect tool for deception and manipulation. While fighting by your side, her bake-danuki tricks and attacks make her a good-willed B-tier Friend.

Farming isn’t exactly Mamizou’s shining feature. All of her spell cards, including her Last Word, Belly-Drumming of Infinitely Infinite Tanuki, are “back-loaded” with a 1-1-3 spread for 1/2/3 Spirit Power spent respectively. Many of the bullets will be lost without attacking with 3 Spirit Power boosts, already hurting her damaging potential. The Hard scaling for her Last Word is also not too impressive, and she can only get 4 levels of Yin ATK UP herself upon using her Last Word (2 levels) and from her third skill, Tanuki Boss of Sado (another 2 levels). On her own, Mamizou lacks the capabilities to reliably farm as a heavy hitter. Do note though that she will benefit from the December 17th update, which will let the tanuki use her backloaded Last Word in a meaningful way.

Harder fights is where Mamizou begins to show off her utility. As a Defense-focused Friend, she can boost her Yin DEF by a total of 8 levels, summed up from 3 levels UP by her Last Word, an additional 3 levels UP given to the entire party by her second skill, Leaf Disguise, and 2 more levels to the party from Tanuki Boss of Sado. While many other Friends would have little purpose to remain in battle after using their Last Word and losing all of their spell cards, Mamizou’s Spread shot is one Earth break at 0 Spirit Power, making it an ideal choice for spamming an Earth-weak opponent. She also ensures the attacks are kept on her with 3 levels of Focus UP from her spell cards Fifth Duel: Scrolls of Frolicking Animals and Humans are Nice! along with 5 more levels from her first skill, Myriad Transformations. Due to the reworking of the Focus mechanic (currently live in JP, and to be implemented at a later date for global), more Focus will mean Mamizou will take more damage from All-targeting attacks while her teammates will take less, which helps them survive at the cost of her own health. At the very least, she can heal off the damage thrown at her with Tanuki Boss of Sado healing 30% of her HP and her first characteristic, Hungry Racoon, having a 50% chance of healing 15% of her HP at the start of each turn.

A defensive tank that keeps the attention on her while keeping the evasion up may sound impressive, but Mamizou lacks two major aspects that hurt her tanking capabilities: Yang DEF and barrier restoration. She has no abilities to defend herself from Yang attacks, making Yang-focused enemies very inconvenient for her. Not only does no barrier restoration make it a struggle to defend attacks Mamizou is weak to, she will also lack a way to get barriers back to avoid greater damage from All-targeting attacks. Still, she excels in Yin DEF and ensures the pressure remains on her and makes for a very serviceable defense unit. Leave the (Yin) defensive line to her, and she is sure to come out on top with her tanuki friends.