Rabbit's Reviews #280: Watanabe no Tsuna (4* Saber)

Alongside Limbo, LB5.5 introduces a new non-limited SR Saber. Tsuna’s kit immediately drew comparisons to Rama, and those comparisons are largely accurate. He’s basically just a more modern Rama, right down to having the same niche. He’s definitely better than Rama, too, but ultimately he’s a fairly standard ST Buster Servant, and Buster is heavily disfavored in the current environment. I don’t want to unilaterally dismiss a Buster Servant just on the basis of not being Arts or Quick, but Tsuna is ultimately so standard it’s really hard to advise pulling for him. He’ll work just fine in your typical Buster comps, but he’s going to be way, way behind free options like Caesar and Hokusai, and he doesn’t really offer enough of interest to make him particularly exciting to play with in their stead. Ultimately he’s just… fine.

Sabers tend to have good stats, and Tsuna is no exception, with fairly high attack and decent HP as well. As a Buster Servant with only one Quick, Tsuna’s not specialized for star gen, and he has bog-standard Arts cards for his Deck along with a passable-but-not-great Quick. For passives he has the standard Magic Resistance, as well as Riding to slightly boost damage and effective NP gain on his Quick.

Ascension Materials

Stage	Cost	Materials
2	50,000	x4 Saber Piece Open Saber Piece configuration options
3	150,000	x10 Saber Piece Open Saber Piece configuration options x18 Proof of Hero Open Proof of Hero configuration options
4	500,000	x4 Saber Monument Open Saber Monument configuration options x8 Refined Magatama Open Refined Magatama configuration options x4 Phoenix Feather Open Phoenix Feather configuration options
Max	1,500,000	x10 Saber Monument Open Saber Monument configuration options x7 Phoenix Feather Open Phoenix Feather configuration options x4 Tsukumo Mirror Open Tsukumo Mirror configuration options

Skill Enhancement Materials

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	100,000	x4 Gem of Saber Open Gem of Saber configuration options
2 → 3	200,000	x10 Gem of Saber Open Gem of Saber configuration options
3 → 4	600,000	x4 Magic Gem of Saber Open Magic Gem of Saber configuration options
4 → 5	800,000	x10 Magic Gem of Saber Open Magic Gem of Saber configuration options
5 → 6	2,000,000	x4 Secret Gem of Saber Open Secret Gem of Saber configuration options x4 Refined Magatama Open Refined Magatama configuration options
6 → 7	2,500,000	x10 Secret Gem of Saber Open Secret Gem of Saber configuration options x8 Refined Magatama Open Refined Magatama configuration options
7 → 8	5,000,000	x24 Proof of Hero Open Proof of Hero configuration options x5 Soundless Bell Open Soundless Bell configuration options
8 → 9	6,000,000	x15 Soundless Bell Open Soundless Bell configuration options x20 Rainbow Thread Ball Open Rainbow Thread Ball configuration options
9 → 10	10,000,000	x1 Crystallized Lore Open Crystallized Lore configuration options

Tsuna’s mats are, as with everything else about him, pretty forgettable. He needs proofs, which can be annoying, as well as Magatama and Bells, both of which are common asks and can be blockers. He also needs some of the new LB5.5 mats to max out his skills. Overall, though, his asks are pretty reasonable, and if you care about maxing him out it shouldn’t be too difficult.

Tsuna’s skillset is reasonably strong and pretty plain. Recommended skill order is 3>1>2.

Tsuna is a very standard Buster Servant and thus will work best in very standard Buster teams. Double merlin setups will be fine, of course, though Tsuna may actually be more reliable in Himiko/Castoria teams, especially when fighting his favored enemies. Tsuna is almost certainly going to need multiple buff cycles to finish out his fights, and a Himiko/Castoria shell provides survival in spades. Himiko also provides more than enough stars for Tsuna to work with while giving him much-appreciated sustained crit buffs, and she has the added benefit of being able to contribute damage herself when Tsuna doesn’t have the cards he needs.

The Black Grail is always a good CE for a DPS, although Tsuna is more dependent on cards than on his NP, especially when not fighting Oni. As such, he may be better off with a CE that benefits his card damage—Golden Sumo or Victor of the Moon, for example—than from Black Grail, especially if you’re running Himiko/Castoria where the lack of healing and the slowplay focus make Black Grail’s demerit a little more of a factor than it usually is.

For Command Codes, Tsuna is generally going to like anything that boosts his card damage. CCs that boost his crit damage are natural picks given his easy crit access, so I’d lean towards giving him those.

Tsuna’s an ST DPS and he benefits from grails in the same way most ST Servants do—they make him hit a little harder and survive a little longer. I wouldn’t recommend grailing the guy unless you love him, as he doesn’t really do anything to recommend himself over his competition and there are many better alternatives.

Tsuna is super underwhelming. He’s not bad—he’s a fine Buster Servant if you want to use him—but he really doesn’t bring anything particularly interesting to the table, and Buster Servants are at a severe disadvantage in the current meta. A Buster Servant without a particularly unique or exciting kit is, unfortunately, just not an appealing pull right now. He’s a decent spook, but not a Servant to target.

Overall: 6/10
Single-Target DPS: 7/10
AoE DPS: N/A
Survivability: 4/10
Offensive Utility: N/A
Defensive Utility: 2/10
Farming Usefulness: 1/10
Eyes: Closed/10