The Modern Magus Magazine
With all these Aztec-themed Gods and Servants released, I have to ask…
Ahh, dear little Ocelotl…Where have you gone? Are you hiding from me? Come out, come out, don't be afraid. You were born a child of jaguars, what could you possibly fear? Now, now, show yourself, Ocelotl. My dear, little Ocelotl… OCELOTLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!
But in all seriousness, we had two shots at it and still don’t have a (real, sorry Taiga) Jaguar Warrior to call a Servant. They’re just cool, okay?
I suppose Tezcatlipoca is about as close as we can get. And in the theme of Aztec names, these are some hard-ass names to spell. Thankfully with Quetzalcoatl, Camazotz, and Tezcatlipoca, I have had some experience from their appearances in…other kinds of games.
If Paradox Part 3 doesn’t come out soon I might need an Intervention Device to change the timeline…
Tezcatlipoca
This is the last time I’m gonna spell Tezcatlipoca in full on this MMM, so enjoy it. Tez has got a pretty sick look in his first Ascension, but well…let’s just keep him that way, okay? His sense of fashion has clearly only improved in modern times.
1990’s MTG creature lookin-ass dude.
Base Atk | 1,697 | Base HP | 2,131 |
---|---|---|---|
Max Atk | 10,982 | Max HP | 14,535 |
Grail Atk | 12,021 | Grail HP | 15,924 |
Increase your Debuff Resist by 20%.
Increase your Arts Card effectiveness by 10%.
Apply Damage Plus for yourself (Total Card Damage +150).
Increase own Buster Card effectiveness by 10%.
Increase Mystic Code Skill effect by 10% while on the field.
DO NOT DELETE OR EDIT! This contains formatting CSS.
As an SSR Assassin, Tez isn’t exactly working with the best class in terms of base stats on the whole, but he frankly isn’t too bad when compared to his fellows. With the 2nd lowest base Attack and highest base HP of his class and rarity, Tez isn’t great offensively, but compensates with a very big HP pool, sitting a solid 700 points above his nearest competitor in Osakabeihime.
While his role as an offensive Servant means that HP stat is a little more bitter to swallow, it’s a perk to at least get a payoff out of your lesser offenses.
And who’s to say Tez doesn’t compensate for it in his passives? With a total of 5, there’s a fair few to get through. Magic Resistance, Territory Creation, and Divinity are all classics we know and love, providing him with some passive Debuff Resistance, slightly increased damage and NP gain on his Arts cards, and a minor boost to his damage output overall.
His two unique passives are slightly more interesting. Almighty Wisdom provides the same boost as his Territory Creation to Buster cards, his secondary card type, while Titlacauan provides a never-before-seen buff that improves the effectiveness of some of your Mystic Code’s skills while he is on the field.
The way this passive works so far as I understand is it’s a 10% increase to the original value of any numerical buff on a Mystic Code (a 20% gauge charger becomes 22%, a 40% NP Strength buff becomes 44%, ect.)
While that doesn’t provide a big increase to damage numbers on the surface, and I doubt the small boost to gauge chargers will matter, when you’re making a high-damage NP, even a few % of damage buff translates to several thousands of damage, so it’s well worth bearing in mind.
So while Tez doesn’t have the best statline to support himself offensively, he is fairly bulky, and his passives provide a wealth of offensive boosts to compensate for it.
So how is Tez overall? Well on one hand, we are all slaves to his overwhelming might:
However, he’s also an enemy of both sides, so don’t get too attached:
I’ll be frank, for a long time I’ve considered the Assassin class something of the black horse of the original 7 classes. Compared to other classes, who have boasted spectacular farmers, superb supports, or just all-around powerhouses in difficult content, the Assassin class didn’t get a truly incredible Servant in its lineup (on par with the likes of Melusine, Morgan, Castoria, Reines, ect.) until Kama, and even then only Koyanskaya since has truly been on a similar power level.
And despite all that, the Assassin class still lacked a definitive, powerful farming Servant. Some of the welfares are capable of it, don’t get me wrong, but nobody really stood above the pack and produced the numbers to make themselves count, or even compete with the better universal farmers out there.
Until now. Tez is pretty much everything you could ask for out of a farmer, with extremely good tools for high-difficulty content on top of that. The greatest weakness he really has is simply the fact he is an Assassin, meaning his Attack stat is inherently lesser compared to other classes. If a Berserker or Avenger had Tez’s own kit, they would easily blow the current farming metagame out of the water.
Regardless, Tez is incredibly good, not just as an Assassin farmer, but a universal one, and easily claims a spot as one of the most desirable SSR’s in the game at the moment with all his perks taken into account. Rath™ Seal of Approval, with a recommendation.
Tlaloc
Here I stand beneath the warm and soothing rain, the droplets falling gently down on the ter-rain. Wash away the sorrow, all the stains of time, there is no memory, it’s only dry ins-iiide.
Base Atk | 1,453 | Base HP | 1,975 |
---|---|---|---|
Max Atk | 8,721 | Max HP | 12,344 |
Grail Atk | 10,559 | Grail HP | 14,967 |
Increase your Arts Card effectiveness by 12%.
Apply Damage Plus for yourself (Total Card Damage +210).
Increase own Critical Strength by 20% when battlefield is [near water].
Increase Arts Card effectiveness by 8% for all allies except self while on the field.
Well, the Pretender pool is actually getting a bit sizable now. As an SR Pretender, Tlaloc has 2 other Servants to be compared to, and the immediate impression I get is that all our Pretenders have been incredibly offensively-oriented until now.
With the highest HP stat and lowest Attack stat of her rarity by a long shot, Tlaloc isn’t exactly an offensive house, and likewise, her HP stat isn’t exactly the greatest for how much her Attack suffers. It’s not like her total is significantly worse than the other Pretenders, so I’m pretty sure it’s just the class as a whole doesn’t have the best stats to work with.
It’s a shame, but Tlaloc does get compensated for it with some solid passives. Territory Creation and Divinity provide offensive boosts to Tlaloc, even if minor, simply because Divinity isn’t very strong and Tlaloc is a Quick-focused Servant, not Arts. She also has two unique passives - Waterside Work and Alliance of City States. These passives provide her with a notable critical damage boost when on Near Water terrain maps, and her allies with a small Arts card boost when she’s on field, excluding herself.
While those unique passives seem minor, Tlaloc is (spoilers) capable of changing the terrain to Near Water, so she does essentially get a free +20% Critical Damage when she needs it, which certainly helps her middling offense.
So how’s Tlaloc overall? Well, on the one hand, she’s certainly got me wet. Soaked, even.
However, I also, regretfully, have to rain on your parade:
Tlaloc represents a pretty important milestone for the Pretender class, as they now have a Servant of each NP card type, and Tlaloc quite spectacularly sets the standard for a Quick farmer in the class.
While most of the time, in the most convenient setups, Tlaloc will be relegated to hitting her class advantage to farm, for a Pretender that’s still a huge swathe of the classes in the game, and where she might be outclassed for farming purposes, she more than compensates for it in high difficult content. Her critical damage game is very strong, both providing her a damage outlet beyond spamming her NP, and allowing her to reach full NP gauge faster via the NP gain boost of crits. When the Pretender pool, and as a result the offensive Servants who can nab full offensive class advantage versus Alter Egos, remains fairly small, Tlaloc’s strong offensive profile and capability to utilize the full supportive power of the Skadis means she stands out in a class otherwise filled with 1 other true competitor (ProtoMerlin and Oberon being mainly supports, Kumonryu Liz not being too bad, but lacking the same offensive profile Tlaloc does due to her struggles to loop) in the form of Hephaestion.
As a result, this rain deity has a niche in high demand, and executes it, as well as her farming, pretty well. Rath™ Seal of Approval.
Outro
I’ve gotta say, the wait was agonizing but, both in terms of Servants and the story chapter itself, LB7 has been worth the wait.
Knowing what I know, there’s still more Servants to review in a later gacha, and well…
All I’ll say is that Melusine and Ibuki better hold on tight to their thrones, because they may get a challenger sometime soon. It’s going to be absurd how a house like Tez is going to get overshadowed so quickly, honestly.
Until then!