MMM - Gregarious Grace-Gifted Goddess Glamours Gargantuan Gaff (Mandala Gacha 2)

The Modern Magus Magazine

It’s been a whiiiiiile…

Except not in the slightest. Shock and horror, the enemy-only extremely attractive Servant wasn’t enemy-only for long. And as a result, I only got a 1-week vacation between MMM’s.

Darn it. And I had to spend a 3-figure sum of money to satisfy my crippling Aoi Yuuki addiction.

Introduction

You’ve got to love how you roll for the gigantic extra-thicc oni goddess character who drew your eye during Mandala, and instead you pull a lamia loli. Now, I’ll be the first to say that both are good, but it sounds like quite a measure just for Aoi Yuuki to flex her vocal range.

That, and the virgin-killer sweater. You have to respect Raita for throwing his fetishes straight onto FGO Servants no hesitation...maybe I should become a FGO artist.

Servant Data

Saber

QABBB (Berserker)

Quick Card

Arts Card

Buster Card

4

3

5

4

Attribute	Heaven
Alignment	Chaotic Good

Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4

April Fool's
Serpent God

Max HP 13,498

HP Rank

Max ATK 12,709

ATK Rank

Base Atk	1,964	Base HP	1,979
Max Atk	12,709	Max HP	13,498
Grail Atk	13,912	Grail HP	14,788

Magic Resistance A

Increase your Debuff Resist by 20%.

Riding B+

Increase your Quick Card effectiveness by 9%.

Dragonkin EX

Increase own Buster Card effectiveness by 12%.
Apply Damage Cut by 200 to self.

Core of the Serpent God A

Apply Damage Plus 250 to self.
Increase own Buff Removal Resist by 20%.

Overview

I can practically hear a victory fanfare. After an eternity (well, it feels like one), the peak of the Saber class attack stat has been breached. And let me tell you, it’s not even because Ibuki’s own contribution to her stats is way better than her runner ups, Arthur and Sigurd. It’s just because she’s the first SSR Saber to have a full focus on Attack on her stat block (and solid parameters to back it up).

Now Ibuki’s immense attack doesn’t come without a drawback, which is poor HP, for a Saber. That turns out to just be average HP overall. So her stat block is still very strong.

But Ibuki just doesn’t quit, with her passive lineup bolstering her performance immensely. Her Magic Resistance and Riding are both quite standard for her class, providing her with reliable resistance to debuffs and a solid boost to her sole Quick card, but she possesses two unique and strong passives alongside it:

First of the two is Dragon Kin, granting Ibuki both a huge boost to her primary card type, Buster, and a significant passive 200 damage cut. While the offensive boost is likely the main draw, a passive 200 damage cut is nothing to sniff at. To word it differently, for every hit Ibuki takes and survives, she essentially has 200 more effective HP. Meaning her displayed bulk is actually far better than it seems, and it’ll be more effective with additional defensive buffs.

Then second is Serpent Goddess Core, your traditional variant on the super-Divinity passive, giving Ibuki a large passive damage up buff and also 20% passive buff removal resistance.

Buff removal resist may be one of those perks that is niche until you actually really need it, but it’s very neat to have passively - merely having a decent chance of ignoring many of the gauge-break buff cleanses or boss-only buff removal skills can be a lifesaver. Obviously not reliable or dependable, but it might come in clutch.

So Ibuki solidly falls into that blessed category of great base stats, insane passives.

NP Generation

Card Hits	4	3	3	5	4
Per Hit	0.78%	0.78%	0.78%	0.78%	0.78%

	NP per Hit (%)						0.78%
	NP when Attacked (%)						3%

	Star Absorption	98
	Star Generation per Hit	9.9%

It’s been a hot minute since we last had a Buster Gorilla. Unfortunately, Superman Orion sets a pretty high bar to pass in that regard. But hey, we’re talking about generation stats here. With 0.78% base NP gain and a 3-hit Arts card in her BBBAQ deck, Ibuki has a pretty strong 2.34 Arts gain. Also supplementing the NP gain front is her Quick, with its 4 hits and boost from Ibuki’s Riding making it actually very good at NP gain, providing as much NP gauge as some bad Arts cards.

While her card set obviously means Ibuki’s NP gain won’t be spectacular no matter what, the 3 hits on her Busters isn’t terrible for NP gain, producing 2% gauge in Arts chains, and closer to 5% in Arts chain crits. Lastly, her Extra of 5 hits is solidly above average for her kind of base NP gain, providing a very respectable sum of gauge in Arts chains. Her Arts card in the 3rd position with a crit will provide a hefty 32% gauge at base, while her ABQ Brave chain pulls roughly similar numbers without any crit. So long as her support teammates have more Arts-heavy decks, it’s likely you won’t feel the drawbacks of her lack of Arts/Quick cards so much.

Ibuki performs decently for stargen. Her Quick, as previously stated, is very good, and will produce more than most Quicks when you plant it in a chain. With 3 hits on her Busters, they’re also not too much of a deadweight for stargen, likely to produce a tidy sum with stargen buffs active. And as always, a good Extra for NP gain often means a good one for stargen, so she has that for her. Still not going to be a major star producer, since she’s reaping the benefits of the monke way.

Servant Skills

Dmg Up

Strength of Mountains and Rivers A+

Increase own ATK (3 times, 3 turns).
Increase own NP Gauge.

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
ATK +	20%	22%	24%	26%	28%	30%	32%	34%	36%	40%
NP +	30%	32%	34%	36%	38%	40%	42%	44%	46%	50%
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

We kick off Ibuki’s skill set with Mountain’s Strength. While it opens up with the impression of a Monstrous Strength variant, there’s a nifty 50% gauge charger built into this thing. And looking it up...yep. Discounting Saber Liz’s random chance to roll team gauge charge on her 3rd skill and Suzuka’s 10% gauge charge for 5 turns, Ibuki is the first Saber to have a 50% or higher gauge charger. What the heck DW.

Putting that milestone aside, this skill is a very solid offensive steroid paired with a gauge charger. While that combined aspect can sometimes prove troublesome for her, it doesn’t make it a bad skill, giving a heavy 40% attack boost for 3 attacks (or 3 NP’s, if you catch my drift), expiring after 3 turns. Combined with Ibuki’s already-hefty attack stat and card set, she can really start giving the enemy a pounding with this active.
Of course, this skill’s nature as a gauge charger means it’s been slapped with an 8 turn base cooldown, a little longer than you’d normally have for this kind of attack buff, but it’s just fair game.

Buster Up

Octo-Pulsing Billow B

Increase own Buster Card effectiveness (3 turns).
Increase own DEF (3 turns).
Gain Critical Stars.

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Buster +	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
DEF +	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
Stars +	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	20
CD	7	7	7	7	7	6	6	6	6	5

Following up from that is Eightfold Wave Surge. Naturally a reference to the eight-headed serpent Yamata-no-Orochi whom Ibuki was said to be born from, this skill is essentially an esoteric Mana Burst variant.

Providing a moderate Buster boost and Defense buff for 3 turns, on top of a decent star bomb, this skill is mostly well-balanced. The Buster boost is naturally appreciated, considering Ibuki has 4 of them to throw around including her NP, while the defense buff vastly improves her durability, especially since it combines with her damage cut. If she would take a hit for 1.5k HP, it first gets reduced by 30% to 1050 damage, then has 200 cut from it, dealing 850 damage, nearly half its original value. Naturally this combo is less noticeable the more powerful the hit is, being incapable of stopping death via most NPs, but it contributes more to Ibuki’s strong passive durability.

Lastly, the star bomb plays into the rest of Ibuki’s kit. Any Buster Servant, especially one with offensive groundwork like hers, wants to be able to focus on crit, and having a star bomb to pop to aid that is certainly in her interest. All of this coming on a solid 7 turn base cooldown is something I like.

Supression

Fingertips of Defilement A

Apply NP Seal to a single enemy (1 turn).
Increase own Critical Strength (3 turns).
Apply Special ATK [Undead] to self (3 turns).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Crit Dmg +	30%	32%	34%	36%	38%	40%	42%	44%	46%	50%
Special ATK +	30%	32%	34%	36%	38%	40%	42%	44%	46%	50%
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

Finishing up the active skill lineup is Impure Fingertip. While this skill has the icon of NP Seal leading its appearance, the main value of it comes from its secondary effects.

NP Seal is still good, a debuff essentially delaying an enemy Servant from charging their gauge in any way for a turn, including the passive increase, on top of preventing them from NPing at all. However, Ibuki instead should have her eye on the 50% Critical Damage buff and 50% Anti-Undead Effective damage buff for 3 turns.

While the critical damage boost is probably self-explanatory for how strong it is, Undead is a trait that hasn’t really been covered much by other Servants, at least on the effective damage region. Scathach technically has effectiveness versus them, but her anti-Divine effectiveness largely overshadows it. The trait is one of the few in the game that is pretty self-explanatory. If it looks like a zombie, skeleton, ghost, or has a pumpkin on its head, it’s probably undead. That isn’t a particularly wide strike zone, I’ll admit, but going off of DW’s track record, having Salem villager mobs or ghosts on farming nodes in events is pretty common, and in Hunting Quests the Skeleton King node is often Lancer class, hitting Ibuki’s specialty.

So ultimately this skill is a combo of stall / utility and more offensive power. The critical buff may be very standard, but when mixed with Ibuki’s other skills she’ll still hit like a truck using it. The Undead trait bonus is largely just icing on the cake, it’ll show when it’s handy, but don’t hold your breath.

Just a shame that, much like gauge charger skills, NP Seal often puts a skill on an 8-turn cooldown for mysterious DW balance reasons.

Noble Phantasm

Sword of Gods - Kusanagi-no-Tachi A+

Apply Ignore Invincible to self (1 turn). [Activates first]
Deal DEF-ignoring damage to all enemies.

<Overcharge>

Decrease Buster Resist for all enemies (3 turns).

Show Info/Video

Sword of Gods - Kusanagi-no-Tachi

Shinken - The Blade of Kusanagi

	Rank	Classification	Hit-Count
	A+	Anti-Army~Anti-Fortress	4

Effect	Apply Ignore Invincible to self (1 turn). [Activates first] Deal DEF-ignoring damage to all enemies.

Level	1	2	3	4	5
Ignore Invincible
Damage +	300%	400%	450%	475%	500%

Overcharge Effect	Decrease Buster Resist for all enemies (3 turns).

Charge	100%	200%	300%	400%	500%
Buster Res -	20%	25%	30%	35%	40%

Shinken Kusanaginotachi, otherwise just going to be called Kusanagi, since this NP marks the debut of Japan’s arguably most famous sword, largely meets the expectations of such a title.

As a Buster AOE NP, we’re not going to have a fun (and exhausting time) examining refund numbers, though I’ll note that 4 hits on an AOE is enough to produce some stars while affected by a stargen buff, such as the one from Merlin’s Illusion. Yes, some people forget, but that skill isn’t JUST a team Invincibility, as big as that is. Instead, this thing is a vaunted member of the “Absolute penetration” club of NP’s, joining vanilla Kiara, Mori, and Dioscuri. Both ignoring Invincible / Evasion (assuming the pre-damage buff goes through) and most forms of defensive buffs, this NP is the golden ticket to ignore the dumb unremovable Evasion/Invincible buff that DW seems to enjoy throwing around of late (including on this really big voluptuous Saber boss in Mandala, surely of no relation to Ibuki), while also ensuring it’ll hit unmitigated by enemy buffs.

That trait not being enough (and the NP being in need of an Overcharge bonus), it also slaps every target hit with a 3-turn 20% Buster Resist down debuff, scaling with Overcharge. Boy, does Ibuki want to demolish her targets with prejudice using this thing.

The first question to grill Kusanagi for is obviously damage. With her kit providing 40% Attack Up and 42% Buster up for her NP, she nets an impressive 98.8% technically-3-turn steroid for her NP, resulting in 26k neutral damage. For a scale of reference, that’s more than Gilgamesh when not hitting Ea-weak targets, and also greater than Space Ishtar with all her buffs active. While this assumes you kind of don’t touch her other cards to expire the Attack buff from Mountain’s Strength early, it’s still very high for a non-Interlude AOE, and relatively good even when compared to AOE’s with an interlude.

Probably more important, however, is the fact Ibuki can loop. Not in the flashy, dopamine-inducing NP refund sense, but just because she has a 50% gauge charger. 100% from LB Kaleido, plus 50% from her gauge charger, then 3 50% gauge charger supports using Battlesuit Swap, and heyo, that’s the 300% gauge for a 3-turn NP loop.

While that obviously does predicate having both LB Kaleido and 2 50% gauge charger supports of your own, gauge charger-reliant AOE farmers do have their value. Mordred and Arturia both have long been valuable for simply the fact they can depend on raw damage to push past waves and not fret over enemy numbers per wave, class type for NP gain modifiers, and so on, Ibuki follows in a similar sense, but with a slightly higher admission price (as both Arturia and Mordred can loop with non-LB Kaleido) and slightly more convenient skill use order to get the ball rolling (Ibuki needs to be charged to 100% on wave 2 and 3, while Mordred and Arturia have to fiddle with gauge chargers turn 1, which generally requires 1 of the opening supports to not be Skadi).

So while this NP naturally has very good value for Challenge Quests and story content, it can be applied pretty effectively for farming, and Ibuki even performs better than Mordred on all waves, and Arturia for waves 1 and 2.

Conclusion

So how much of a treasure is Ibuki in practice? On one hand, she’s cutting down her foes like grass:

Ibuki’s general card damage is very strong. While she doesn’t hit the absurd multipliers of Superman Orion or similar, she finds it easy to start touching the 6-digit crit numbers with Merlin support, even without class advantage. Her BBBAQ card set really aids in having a solid selection of Buster cards at any time, while both the star bomb and critical damage buff built into her kit provides her most of the tools necessary to have a burst turn and demolish fools.

Her offensive strength doesn’t stop at the basic cards. Kusanagi is a NP which fills a very high-demand niche, and unlike the only other AOE Servant filling that niche, Ibuki doesn’t have class disadvantage versus half of the common classes in the game. This is in addition to the high damage output of her NP, at least for a Servant with no Interlude / Strengthening multiplier. She’s likely going to be very useful to pull out for Challenge Quests.

Ibuki may not have any flashy defensive options, but she’s passively quite durable. With her passive 200 damage cut and Defense buff in Eightfold Wave Surge, she can shrug off regular attacks quite effectively, meanwhile her solid Debuff Resistance and Buff Removal Resist gives her some chance at ignoring annoying mechanics often thrown into more difficult fights.

She can do consistent farming. While her damage numbers may occasionally not be high enough (even with class advantage) to do a ‘true’ 3-turn clear, Ibuki can assuredly NP over a 3-turn period with the right setup, and there are some circumstances (such as farming nodes with 1-2 enemies on a Wave, or just a lot of Assassins/Berserkers) where her independence from refund is very convenient. Her gauge charger and strong base NP damage also makes her a good option for 1 AOE, 1 ST, 1 Support farming setups, as she can quite easily put out 2 NP’s with 2 gauge charger supports available.

However, she can also be seen as an overblown gardening tool:

While her defensive options versus more pedestrian damage are great, Ibuki doesn’t possess a personal defensive option to deal with NP damage, or just some monster with huge offensive buffs hitting the Buster Crit button. For a Buster Servant, this doesn’t typically prove an issue due to the omnipresence of Merlin in Buster-oriented compositions, but it does mean Merlin or someone similar has to be around for her regardless.

Despite her fairly large focus on crit damage offense, Ibuki doesn’t have a full consistent tool to provide herself with stars. Her stargen isn’t good enough to fill that role, her star bomb is largely one-off, and she lacks any Star Focus buff to improve her consistency. This isn’t too large of a weakness when she’s being supported by Casters, as Saber star weight will mostly pull her through, but it does mean her supports will be forced to run at least one 2030, and it’s risky to depend on her critical damage when alongside Reines, as the support in question is assuredly going to steal her stars.

Ibuki is something of a long-awaited addition to the Saber class, and frankly one that should have arrived a long time ago. We’ve been lacking a consistent, lazy “just pop this dude in with a 50% gauge CE and pop it” kind of Servant for Sabers, and Ibuki largely fills that role and beyond. Offensively, she’s pretty powerful. You’ll not be disappointed when pulling her out for Challenge Quests, simply due to how many annoying mechanics she at least has a chance to overcome or downright ignore. Then again her ability to fill in for farming in the Saber class, one that has historically had issues with convenient farmers, especially on the Arts and Quick side of things.

Ibuki does come with her fair share of issues, both in her Challenge Quest and Farming performance, but the Challenge Quest side of things is quite easy to fix with proper support. Nothing can really compensate for the lack of an LB Kaleido, I must admit. That doesn’t stop Ibuki from contributing to farm comps with two 50% gauge charger AOEs where you can battlesuit swap in a second 50% gauge charger support, however. Regardless of your collection, Ibuki will make things more convenient.

Oh, also, she’s hot. Boom, Rath™ Seal of Approval. It’s really that easy.

Outro

That’s a miniature MMM for you all, hopefully not provided too late to stop (or allow) your gacha splurges. Somehow I feel like Christmas and New Year is going to put me through the wringer for outputting reviews, but I’ve just got to stick to it.

After all, I have Yuuki Aoi making an onee-san voice as a voluptuous oni goddess in a sweater. You couldn’t possibly ask for more comfort in your life.

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MMM - Gregarious Grace-Gifted Goddess Glamours Gargantuan Gaff (Mandala Gacha 2)

The Modern Magus Magazine

QABBB (Berserker)

Quick Card

Arts Card

Buster Card

Buster Card

Buster Card

Traits

Tags

Dmg Up

Buster Up

Supression

Sword of Gods - Kusanagi-no-Tachi

Outro

Links

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