Should You Pull?
Depends on the player. Well well well, it’s finally happening. Our third Matriarch of the Gouyoku Alliance has finally entered the game after a while of being kept company by the leaders of the Keiga and Kiketsu families, and now we have a fitting Prayer for Saki Kurokoma, Yachie Kicchou, and now Yuuma Toutetsu, called Animal Realm Animosity! But first, let’s remind ourselves of the big bosses that came before.
First, let’s go over Saki. She made quite an impression last year as a Speed Class Friend with a large number of breaks through Star via Spell Card 1, Wood via Spread Shot and Spell Card 2, but most notably Fire by using her Last Word, with it appearing a little bit in a lot of her kit. As for Yachie, she likes her Wood and Water breaks, although the amount of Water breaks is a bit average so she is really going to be using her Wood breaks here. That said, her Last Word could be a great option when it comes to mass Wood breaking, plus it can be easily paired with certain cards that boost Wood and Energy at the same time. But what about our shiny new Matriarch on the block?
As for what could be one of our last new L1 Friends for the time being, it’s safe to say that not only does Yuuma Toutetsu far exceed her aforementioned rivals, but she gives other strong L1 units a run for their money…or oil. Her clear focus on Water and Metal breaks, her Yin ATK buffs as well as her Yin DEF or CRIT DEF debuffs on enemies can help her a lot. She likes to excessively debuff the Agility of her enemies too (probably as a result of her oil loving tendencies) but what can really make Yuuma stand out the most is her Ability to not only be immune to all 5 anomalies but she can absorb them to be converted into 0.20 Spirit Power per layer! As a nod to her powers to absorb anything, this makes Yuuma become a great option for an ally of a Friend who likes to inflict anomalies on her enemies, and we have quite a few of those now!
What all 3 Friends have in common is that they have a very strong Killer range, mainly thanks to Gensokyo appearing on all of them, with their own set of additional niche Killers. However, they all execute their best Killer in various ways. Yachie’s usage of the Gensokyo Killer isn’t optimized too well unfortunately, although it could be taken advantage of in her Last Word’s later lines. Saki’s Gensokyo Killer only appears on Focus Shot and Last Word, both on a specific enemy, but when they hit, you can expect it to do a lot of damage, especially if the enemy is weak to Fire. However, as for Yuuma, she can really take advantage of this the best of the three with absolute ease, as her All-Targeting Last Word, Solo Spell Card 2 and even her Solo Focus Shot are strengthened by it.
Unfortunately, what they also have in common is a poor handling of anomaly inflictions/breaks on enemies. Yachie’s cannot break any anomalies with her anomaly inflictions only being through Burn and Poison as a Last Word Pre-ATK, while Saki cannot inflict any anomalies whatsoever, only being able to break a single enemy’s Burn anomalies via Last Word at 3P. However, Yuuma is still better than that, despite not being perfect at it herself, as she inflicts Burn on her enemies, mainly through Skill 2, and can break those via Solo Focus Shot or All-Targeting Last Word, so it’s middle of the road potential for modern standards, but it’s there.
Now with all that out of the way, it goes without saying but Yuuma Toutetsu is the star of this Prayer here, as her kit is the strongest on top of being the brand new Friend. That said, some players could find themselves skipping this specific Prayer, because when it comes to L1 Friends, this will be far from the last chance to pick up Saki, Yachie or Yuuma. That on top of this Prayer sadly missing out on special gimmicks like Ascending Step-UP is unfortunate too. However, Yuuma as a character has a lot of supporters ever since her introduction into the Touhou franchise, making her a sought after Friend. And as mentioned earlier, she is able to give a lot of the stronger L1 Friends a run for their money, making for a fantastic addition to anyone’s Party.
With that said, best of luck to all who decide to step into the Animal Realm and reach out for at least one of the three Matriarchs!
Quick Overview
Yuuma Toutetsu is an Attack-Class Friend who devours her enemies with Water and Metal breaks, damage boosting via Yin ATK and CRIT ATK, her Gensokyo Killer and her extensive Agility debuffs.
GOAT of Anomaly Immunity
As of Yuuma’s release, there are now only 2 Friends who cannot be inflicted by any anomalies. However, Yuuma takes it a step further, and naturally as a result of being able to absorb anything, she can absorb all 5 anomalies and turn any of those layers into 0.20 Spirit Power. This makes her a well-rounded pick for teams with allies whose kits include party anomaly infliction, and it gets her Spirit Power up even more.
Killer Taotie
Just like the other 2 Matriarchs that came before, Yuuma is eating well with Gensokyo Killer to take advantage of. All the damage increasing buffs and debuffs she can bring to the table definitely helps make more use of it, and while her personal CRIT ATK buffs are a bit lacking, that’s something that team support and Story Cards can easily fix up, and once they are fixed, those frequent CRITs will be satisfying. On another note, if you somehow cannot hit your enemy with the aforementioned Gensokyo Killer, she also has Animal Realm, Soul, Treasure and Underground to fall back on.
In Her Element, But Anomalies on Enemies are Lukewarm
Yuuma’s vast amount of Water and Metal breaks are not to go unnoticed. Water breaks are found 4 times via Focus Shot, Spell Card 2 and Last Word as well as 3 times via Spell Card 1, and Metal ones can be dug up through Spread Shot 4 times, Spell Card 1 also being 3 times, and Spell Card 2 and Last Word both being 2 times. That said, while the Burn anomalies she can inflict via Skill 2 could possibly help Yuuma as a result of the enemy’s Yin stat reduction, she does struggle with breaking those anomalies outside of Spread Shot and Last Word, although if you’re just using her for damage, this probably won’t be a huge downside.
Yachie Kicchou is a Technical-Class Friend with great Wood breaks, both Hard and Slice Scaling to increase damage, and a strong Killer range.
Wide Ranged Killers
Granted the wide-ranged Gensokyo Killer alongside Animal Realm, Aquatic and Sage, Yachie is able to CRIT a large amount of enemies, especially through her later Last Word lines. She is just missing some CRIT ATK though, so with enough of that, Yachie will see results.
Poor Base Damage, Mitigated by Hard and Slice Scaling
While her initial Yin ATK at 1155 leaves a lot to be desired, at least she is able to somewhat make up for that with her mix of Hard and Slice Scaling, although that is more of the case with her Last Word. She also uses her built in Agility and Yin DEF buffs to take further advantage of it.
Cannot Break any Anomalies
Since she cannot anomaly break at all whatsoever, the only anomaly utility Yachie brings to the table is her Burn and Poison anomaly inflictions on her Last Word Pre-ATK. This is a weird one since it could either get overshadowed by the Wood breaks in her Last Word, and while you could use the Burn anomalies to take advantage of Yin Stat reduction, the Pre-ATK would have better taken better advantage of Yin DEF or even CRIT DEF reduction. Needless to say, Yachie leaves a lot to be desired in the anomaly department.
Saki Kurokoma is a Speed-Class Friend who has a decent amount of Wood, Star and most importantly, Fire breaks. She also has Slice Scaling and Gensokyo Killer on her Last Word to decimate an enemy.
Amazing Elemental Access
Saki’s Wood and Fire breaks on her Shots are very handy for what they are, but the rest of her Spell Cards’ breaks are pretty good. Her Spell Card 1 is 4 breaks of Star and her Spell Card 2 covers 4 breaks of Wood, with 2 Fire spread out for those two. Saki more than makes up for the firepower with a Fire-only Last Word, solidifying herself as a great elemental breaker.
High Damage Potential
Saki's Solo-Targeting damage potential via her Last Word is very strong, whether it’s immediate effect or with setup. Thanks to her Gensokyo-Killer and accompanying Killer bullets like Human, Beast, Soul and Animal Realm, she can easily rack up even higher numbers with CRIT ATK support that isn’t present in her kit..
Doesn’t Bring Anomaly Utility
Saki is all about going fast and dealing big damage numbers with setup. Unfortunately, the only slither of anomaly utility she can bring to the table is a Burn break on her Solo-Targeting Last Word at 3P, and even then, her Last Word’s damage potential is always going to be used over that specific anomaly break when many other Friends can make better use of anomalies in general.
