Should You Pull?
Catching the Story Card is recommended, but missing the pitcher isn’t too big of a deal. It’s a day after Valentine’s Day 2024, and in comes a new Epic Friend with an epic swimsuit and an epic love for being the pitcher in baseball games! Heading our way is C3 Sekibanki (Beach Dullahan) from the Epic Prayer “Scary Summer Strikeout”! Some people were anticipating this would be a reality based on her fellow C3 Kogasa Tatara’s surprising foreshadowing back when she released, but with the batter and the pitcher now ready to touch base, and with this Prayer coming with a new Limited 5★ Story Card looking to raise your spirits, how much are we able to pitch this rokurokubi when it comes to her performance in Touhou LostWord?
Well this Speed-Class Friend comes in with a very high combination of stats in Yang ATK and Agility at 1940 and 1740 respectively. This also helps greatly with both Slice Scaling (188% on Last Word, 88% everywhere else) and with 2 Stages of Agility II from Skill 3, she really does take advantage of that speed (not just the speed of the baseball she throws)! That Agility, as well as some Accuracy is also shared to fellow teammates, mainly via Skill 1, but where C3 Sekibanki can really thrive is her vast Spirit Power gain. Across her Skills, Passive, Spell Cards and more, it’s so easy for her to gain it!
Part of why her Spirit Power gain is so helpful is the fact that this can go hand in hand with her anomaly breaking potential on her enemies! Thanks to her Skill 2 and Spell Card 1 both inflicting 3 layers of Freeze on all enemies, C3 Sekibanki is easily able to anomaly break 6 of the enemy’s layers, either making sure enemies are fully broken or 1 Barrier away from being fully broken (if they can be inflicted with Freeze anomalies). On top of that, C3 Sekibanki is consistently able to churn out Yang DEF and CRIT DEF debuffs thanks to her Skill 2 (with a 2 Turn cooldown), Skill 3 for CRIT DEF, and her Spell Card/Last Word Pre-ATKs, which can really help make it easier for allies to deal more damage, especially on the final gauges of enemies without any Barriers to break, like a VS Divergent Spirits stage.
However, you could argue that C3 Sekibanki drops the ball when it comes to her own lack of Yang ATK and CRIT ATK buffs to boost her own damage output, barring very slight methods. Of course, her extensive debuffs as mentioned above could mitigate this assuming you don’t have to worry about losing those debuffs once full-break comes in. However, even if CRIT ATK support of any form is granted to her, that might not always help with her damage output due to her lacking range of Killers (Aquatic, Swimsuit, Summer, Beast, Beast Youkai, Kaiju, Human Village, Misty Lake and Bamboo Forest of the Lost). While there are probably about 2 or 3 Killers that are alright, with Summer/Swimsuit helping in very specific VS Divergent Spirits Stages, it might not be very easy for C3 Sekibanki to take advantage of all those CRIT DEF debuffs in many other instances
But now it’s time to head over to a Limited Story Card worth pitching, which could be an understatement! Enter Summer Monster, a card with C3 Kogasa Tatara all over it, from the art to the effects that would benefit her, being that massive 2.25 Spirit Power and if used by an Attack-Class Friend, debuffs the Yang DEF of all enemies by 4 Stages (2T)! Even when not fully broken, the effects of 1.75 Spirit Power and -2 Yang DEF is still not bad at all, and even 1 copy is definitely worth recommending on its own!
Featured Story Card "Summer Monster"!
And that takes us to the endgame! When it comes down to it, it’s possible to manage just fine without the pitcher that is being pitched to us despite her pros, since her lack of Yang ATK/CRIT ATK buffs and Killers that are hard to work with at times can be quite the drawback. If you’re looking to find someone to handle those VS Divergent Spirits stages that cause the enemies to change their Tag to Swimsuit, a case could definitely be made here with C3 Sekibanki. From the many CRIT DEF and Yang DEF debuffs, to the 55% damage boost for bullets that deal resisted damage, to of course, that specific Swimsuit Killer she has as expected of these kinds of Epic Friends.
Outside of that though, then it comes to the grand scheme of things, she might not be worth 2000 Seal Crystals assuming worst possible luck, and as we found out from the last Dev Letter, another variant of Kasen Ibaraki (PHANTOM PAIN) is armed and ready for her arrival on February 22nd, but is stored away until then. However, it is still recommended to just spend 50 Pulls on this Prayer, mainly for the Story Card alone. As for just C3 Sekibanki, it’s ultimately very optional, and unless you are a Sekibanki fan and/or have enough Seal Crystals to secure her, it could be worth spending the next week preparing for the PHANTOM PAIN if you’re interested in that!
So to those who are ready to throw down your resources, best of luck in the baseball field of the Scary Summer Striker Prayer, and hopefully your Prayers will be answered with a home run of an Epic Friend!
Quick Overview
C3 Sekibanki is a Speed-Class Friend who throws down with lots of Spirit Power, multiple means of Yang DEF/CRIT DEF debuffing, Freeze anomaly inflict/break potential and great Slice Scaling with the help of a high 1740 Agility and a Agility II buff.
Speedy Spirit Power Pitcher
C3 Sekibanki has great access to Spirit Power via multiple means, from 2.00 Spirit Power from Skill 1 (with a 4T cooldown), a Passive that gives her 0.40 every turn, her ability that gives her 0.20 Spirit Power when inflicted with a Paralyze anomaly, and both Spell Card Post-ATKs giving 1.40 Spirit Power to herself. While these buffs aren’t for the team, that’s where her Agility and Accuracy buffs in her kit come in. However, her great access to Spirit Power can also benefit the following icebreaker…
Cool Anomaly Breaker
When it comes to inflicting and breaking Freeze anomalies, C3 Sekibanki goes about it with a cool head, inflicting 3 Freeze anomalies on all enemies on her Skill 2 (which has a 2 Turn Cooldown) as well as another 3 Freeze anomalies with Spell Card 1’s Pre-ATK. Thanks to the same Spell Card’s Freeze break at 2P as well as the aforementioned great Spirit Power gain. With the potential to break 6 Freeze anomalies right away, you can count on C3 Sekibanki to have a ball throwing down with Freeze anomalies!
Having a Ball with Debuffs
C3 Sekibanki is able to consistently churn out Yang DEF and CRIT DEF debuffs, such as with Skill 2, which has a 2T Cooldown Skill. However, despite those debuffs also lasting 2 turns, Skill 3 can keep those CRIT DEF debuffs lasting longer and her Spell Cards double down further on these debuffs. These will mainly help a lot against enemies without Barriers to break on their last gauge.
Strikeout of Three Elements
On top of the anomaly breaks above, C3 Sekibanki has a good amount of Fire breaks, such as her Spell Card 2 having 6 lines of it, potentially hitting hard on a specific enemy, especially with a Fire weakness or enemies susceptible to certain Killers. She also has some Metal and Sun elements to work with, but with how her Sun elements are distributed, it could potentially hinder her other elements such as Fire or Metal, but it might not be a huge worry in most cases.
Needs a Banki’s Worth of Yang ATK and CRIT ATK Buffs
While C3 Sekibanki’s debuff potential is impressive and in some cases a potential band-aid for the lack of the following, it doesn’t change the fact that it is unfortunate to see C3 Sekibanki heavily lack Yang ATK buffs to get her damage up as well as CRIT ATK buffs, assuming those CRITs land…
Poor Pitch of Power
Speaking of CRIT damage, C3 Sekibanki also has to worry about her average range of Killers and surprisingly, a somewhat underwhelming overall damage output in the grand scheme of things. Her Killer range is mostly carried by Beast and Beast Youkai, as well as Summer and Swimsuit against other C3 enemies so it’s going to be very difficult for her to land guaranteed critical strikes, resulting in a lackluster damage output if those Killers don’t land, although the 55% boost on any resisted elemental damage is fairly helpful
