Should You Pull?
Recommended. First it was the Perfect Shrine Maidens, then the Perfect Magicians, now the Perfect and Elegant Maids are here (and this isn’t the only Sakuya-themed Prayer available right now)! Just like the previous A7A and A7B variants of Reimu and Marisa, these 2 variants of Sakuya Izayoi definitely more than hold their own as our latest pair of Festival Friends. They are both wrapped up warm as a result of the abnormal weather (including their scarves), but to tell them apart, A7A Sakuya Izayoi (Cherry Blossom: Illusion is the one who has brought a mop to clean house with her foes, and is the Speed-Class Friend with many tricks like allowing her team to go first, 100% Stun on her Focus Shot, low cooldowns on her Skills, and can even be a powerhouse with enough setup, favoring Metal bullets mostly! Meanwhile, A7B Sakuya Izayoi (Cherry Blossom: Time) does not have a mop with her, but she has lots of magic tricks, and more importantly, her trusty pocket watch. She is a Technical-Class Friend that can reach out for all kinds of tricks, while maintaining a self-sustainable balance in what she brings across the board, keeping her Yang ATK, CRIT ATK and Spirit Power up and running by various means. Truly a jack of all trades! Unlike her counterpart though, her main element is Moon instead of Metal.
Like the previous A7A/A7B Reimu and Marisa Prayers, we have yet another Ascending Step-UP! Starting from 60 God Crystals and finishing at 460 God Crystals (+100 every step) in addition to the 20 Fortune Dust per God Crystal Pull, this Prayer becomes even more appealing!
Many Sakuya enthusiasts have been very excited for these two to finally arrive in the game, and for great reason. Their wholesome expressions, but at the same time, their great kits make such a strong, strong case here. If you have the resources to reach the 150 Exchange Points goal (not 450 thankfully), definitely consider these two Friends if either of them has what you’re looking for!
And with that said, for once, we won’t be ending off with “best of luck”, but rather, something else special…
To all the followers of the Sakuya-Verse, may you have the most perfect and elegant luck possible when trying to pick up one/both of these immaculate maids!
Quick Overview
A7A Sakuya Izayoi is a Speed-Class Friend who perfectly provides priority for the team, grants swift Agility, Yang ATK and Accuracy for the team, keeps her Spirit Power up and enjoys her Metal breaks.
Sakuya’s Spirit
Like some Sakuya variants that came before, A7A Sakuya knows how to keep her Spirit Power up, and this is demonstrated by using her Skill 3 and all her Spell Cards. Her Last Word takes it a step further, also providing 1.00 Spirit Power to the team after it is done. This might be the only way to naturally support via Spirit Power, but her ways of aiding her allies don’t end there.
Maid to Thrive
Whether her team benefits from her buffs or not, A7A Sakuya is also able to do what it takes to make sure her attacks connect. Across her Skills, her team buffs include Yang ATK, Agility, Accuracy and she has a Spell Card that will decrease the Yang DEF of all enemies despite being a Spell Card. for herself though, she can further buff her Yang ATK extensively when Boosting, with her aforementioned Spirit Power helping a lot. Anyone weak to Metal elements will especially feel the pain A7A Sakuya can potentially inflict upon them.
Conjurer of Many Tricks
A7A Sakuya doesn’t just deal damage, as her Skills are actually interesting. Their combination of fairly low cooldowns (3 Turns for Skills 1 and 2, 4 Turns for Skill 3), and being able to use Skill 3 to allow her whole team to go first in their priority bracket. This can also be fun to mess around with, even for whatever allies would also be granted this, but for A7A Sakuya specifically, she can also guarantee a Stun on an enemy via Focus Shot, making for a stunning display of gimmicks to work with, to say the least.
CRIT ATK Hasn’t Maid an Appearance
The main thing holding A7A Sakuya back is her nonexistent CRIT ATK buffs, which as a unit with a great Killer range (most notably Youkai), this is an unfortunate flaw in her kit. It’s not something external support can’t fix, but natural CRIT ATK would have helped A7A Sakuya a lot if it was there.
Let Sakuya Have a Break…
Another thing Sakuya falls short on is her breaking in general. For elements, her Metal breaks are not bad by any means, however, the Moon and Water breaks scattered in her kit are very hard to take advantage of. As for anomalies, her Freeze and Paralyze anomaly utility allows her to benefit from Agility, Accuracy and Evasion buffs, but the way A7A goes about inflicting and breaking anomalies onto enemies falls a little short. Being able to inflict Freeze anomalies on Skill 2, only to be able to break them with her Last Word at 3P, compared to her Spell Card 2 both inflicting and breaking Paralyze anomalies on all enemies could clash with those aforementioned Freeze anomalies, and this isn’t mentioning the slight RNG with the Paralyze inflictions too, potentially posing a problem. All in all, there is definitely a sense of awkwardness in her breaking, but it’s not a be-all or end-all case.
A7B Sakuya Izayoi is a Technical-Class Friend that can demonstrate her self-sustainability with Yang ATK, CRIT ATK, Spirit Power and great damage potential.
Self-Sustainable, yet Strong Servant
A7B Sakuya is great at making sure she can provide the important buffs for herself in order to bring out the high numbers against a good chunk of her enemies. With her Yang ATK, CRIT ATK, Spirit Power, CRIT DEF debuffing on enemies and a strong range of Killers to work with, you just can’t go wrong with A7B Sakuya’s kit! It’s also worth noting a few other things, such as Skill 3’s Yang ATK and CRIT ATK buffs are also served to her fellow allies as well as her Ability making those Yang ATK and CRIT ATK buffs even stronger thanks to Freeze and Paralyze anomalies inflicted on her boosting her own offensive stats.
Stunning Anomaly Inflictions on Foes, Maid to be Broken
A7B Sakuya’s anomaly breaking is decent, all things considered. With the Freeze anomalies inflicted on her Skill 2 and her Spell Card 2, she can potentially break a lot of Freeze anomalies (slight RNG on Spell Card 2 is worth keeping in mind). You could also theoretically use her Last Word to break both Paralyze and Freeze anomalies at 3P, meaning that the collective inflictions of both on her foes could result in a Full-Breaking Last Word (or you could just use it for damage, that won’t disappoint you). On another note, she can also Stun an enemy via Spell Card 1 at 3P, a card that also has 4 Moon breaks.
Elemental Breaks are a Little Flawed
This has been an issue with both A7A and A7B Sakuya, but it is what it is. A7B Sakuya’s main element is Moon, which appears frequently, but also has Wood and Metal appear, but not very often, thus not being able to take much advantage of them, so in other words, A7B Sakuya will mainly be focusing on her Moon breaks.
