Should You Pull? Festival: Maid of the Scarlet Night

This banner is very ideal if you are lacking in a good amount of Fire, Metal, or Moon elemental breaks, slight Yin ATK buffs or Yin DEF and Evasion debuff support, or a general solid Solo Last Word attacker. Sakuya Izayoi (Scarlet) boasts a wide variety of helpful skills and attacks while being a solid reference to one of the more difficult bosses from the Windows Touhou Project games. This is a Festival banner, meaning that the maid surrounded by scarlet mist will not be added to the general pool of Friends, and will only return through reruns.

+Great array of Fire, Metal, and Moon breaks from spell cards
+0P Metal breaks from both spread and focus shots
+Yin ATK buffs to whole party and Yin DEF and Evasion debuffs to all opponents
-Solo-target Last Word, even if it is strong

Sakuya Izayoi is somewhat different from the current batch of scarlet visitors, even if all three of them are human. Whereas Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame entered the Scarlet Devil Mansion to resolve the Scarlet Mist Incident, Sakuya is the head maid of the same mansion and worked with the youkai behind the incident, Remilia Scarlet, to keep an eternal red mist over Gensokyo. The mist did not benefit Sakuya herself directly, but her deep devotion to her mistress was all she needed to prevent the visitors from stopping the vampire’s plans. Her time manipulation and countless knives make her a relentless opponent, and her determination is so strong that back in her debut game, she would chase the protagonists even if they managed to defeat her once! Reimu and Marisa experienced the head maid’s power firsthand, and with her addition in Touhou LostWord, her bloody devotion can be unleashed once more.

Each of Sakuya’s skills contribute toward making herself, as well as her entire time, more capable fighters. Time Difference Trick will increase her own Yin ATK by 2 levels for 2 turns while Swift Service will give every Friend 2 more levels of Yin ATK UP for 3 turns. As a primarily-Yin attacker, Sakuya makes sure to strengthen herself and can prove useful to any other Yin attackers in your party. Instant Trap plays with this boon as well by decreasing every opponent’s Yin DEF by 2 levels for 2 turns, but also grants 1.0 Spirit Power UP to the maid. This is especially helpful, as Sakuya’s Last Word, Deflation World - Carmine, has a bullet line spread of 1-3-1, meaning most of the bullets and damage will be done at 2 Spirit Power, something Sakuya can conveniently achieve by herself. Along with the Yin-related buffs and debuffs comes a special debuff of Evasion DOWN on all targets from Maid Secret Skill: Manipulating Doll, which helps the accuracy of both herself and any assisting Friends.

Although Deflation World - Carmine mimics the Last Word of the current Sakuya Izayoi in LostWord, her Scarlet variant brings a few differences. For once, the spell consists entirely of the Fire element (which is somewhat ironic for a Friend that is weak to Fire…) as well as being Yin/Slash only. This makes it very easy to optimize damage when combined with story cards such as Bonds of Blood or Mysterious Sword Master. Unfortunately, unlike the spread-out formation of the original Deflation World that was All-targeting, the Scarlet version focuses entirely on a single opponent. At the very least, it is still a strong option to farm single-target stages when the opportunity shows itself.

Her classic spell cards share a helpful feature that is also seen from her Last Word: every bullet line has an element, making Sakuya very ideal for elemental breaks. Illusion Image: Lunar Clock includes 2 breaks of Fire, Metal, and Moon and Maid Secret Skill: Manipulating Doll has 3 Fire and Moon breaks. While the latter does not have any Metal breaks, that is quickly made up when looking at her spread and focus shots. Retrievable Knives and Illusion Actress have a Metal break at 0P, and even target all opponents to spread the breaks around. That goes for both of her normal spell cards as well, making Sakuya a very solid breaker along with her supportive capabilities.

Sakuya has been bullying Reimu and Marisa’s advances on the mansion for quite some time now, and even a quick peek at her kit clearly explains why. Even if she doesn’t especially excel in one single element, her skill in offensive buffs and defensive debuffs, along with a solid grasp on any situations requiring Fire, Metal, or Moon breaks. It helps that Sakuya is not only a wonderful fighter, but she takes her maid duties very seriously. Why not try a cup of her tea after a battle?