Sima Yi (Reines)

"Why do I call you my pupil, you ask? Well now, I wonder -- perhaps in the past, or in the future, or in some variant world, you were my apprentice.” 

The great Romance of the Three Kingdoms tactician Sima Yi combines with Reines El-Melloi Archisorte to form a Pseudo-Servant who is as strange conceptually as she is mechanically. Unlike with most Pseudo-Servants, both Reines and Sima Yi are fully conscious and are able to separately comment on battles as they progress, and Reines brings her mercury maid Mystic Code Trimmau along for the ride as well. Reines is a generalist support Arts Rider capable of enabling any type of team, and while her buffs are less powerful overall than the dedicated card-type supports, she has the unique ability to nullify defensive class disadvantage.

Reines’s Attack- and Defense-boosting skills are general buffs useful in almost all situations, and both skills come with NP Charge effects. She also has a targetable 2-hit Invincibility skill, which gains an NP Charge effect upon her upgrade, and her NP reduces the enemies’ Critical Attack Chance, meaning Reines is also effective at protecting her team from enemy basic attacks. The centerpiece of Reines’s NP, though, is its ability to negate defensive class disadvantage for your team, which is particularly useful for eliminating the core disadvantage of Berserker-class Servants.

Unfortunately, Reines’s offensive support is limited to Attack buffs and Defense debuffs, which hinders her ability to boost party damage. Her lack of synergy with Critical-attack-focused Servants is particularly damaging, as her Rider-class Star Weight means it will be difficult for Servants to ensure Critical hits without Star Gathering skills of their own. Additionally, Reines has no way to delay or reliably avoid enemy NPs, which means she will not be able to keep her team alive through prolonged fights.

Altogether, Reines has a lot of nice support tools, but she lacks depth in her damage-boosting options and cannot protect against enemy NPs beyond her single target invincibility skill. This, combined with her class, will leave her as a less attractive pick for general use than the top-level support Servants until her eventual skill upgrade. After her upgrade, however, she competes with top-level supports. Even prior to her strengthening, however, she can still be quite powerful as a specialist in certain teams, particularly when using her NP to protect Berserkers from enemy attacks, or when boosting attack damage for fast-moving teams.

When Reines is protecting others against defensive class disadvantage, it is important for her to keep her NP active as much as possible. However, as Reines prefers to use her NP charge skills to support her allies, she  is dependent on her (quite powerful) Arts cards for NP gain, which means she should be using her Arts cards any time they appear. This should not be particularly difficult, but it does limit flexibility in terms of team card selection and may require prioritizing Reines’s cards over a higher-damage Brave Chain from another Servant. Masters will need to assess whether the enhanced stability from maintaining Reines’s NP is more valuable than the potential burst damage available from prioritizing damage-oriented Servant’s cards.

Excellent NP Gain

Reines’s Arts cards have significantly higher NP gain than the Arts cards of many Servants with single-Arts card decks. She also has Territory Creation to boost this further, meaning Reines can quickly refill her NP gauge, especially with Criticals involved. It is fairly easy for Reines to ensure her NP is always in effect if her Arts cards are prioritized.

Strong General-Purpose Support Tools

Defense boosts, Attack boosts, and NP charge skills are useful for any type of team. Unlike with more specialized support Servants, Reines’s support is broad enough to allow her to fit into teams of any card type (much like Zhuge Liang), which ensures that she can be helpful in any situation where her unique class advantage utility is valuable. Additionally, one she receives her skill upgrade, she becomes able to charge an ally’s NP gauge by 50%, which is among the most useful supportive effects in the game.

Negates Defensive Class Disadvantage

Reines’s ability to negate defensive class disadvantage is ultimately what sets her apart. A Berserker protected by Reines deals bonus damage to nearly everything while circumventing the class’s usual defensive penalties, essentially turning the Berserker into a better Alter Ego. This can also be useful when fighting against Berserkers, as enemy Berserkers are usually balanced around their higher basic attack damage.Thus, Reines can take the edge off what would otherwise be a difficult fight. 

As one final note, this also makes Reines valuable for fighting Foreigners, as Foreigners have offensive class advantage against one another. Reines can protect an allied Foreigner in order to maintain the offensive bonus without worrying about the defensive penalty.

Low Synergy with Critical-Oriented Servants

Due to her high innate Star Weight, Reines will tend to take Critical Stars from her allies. This will not be a significant issue for Servants with high Star Gathering boosts or for Berserkers who are unlikely to be able to land Critical attacks anyway. However, for certain Servants -- particularly offensive Archers or Riders who rely on their naturally high Star Absorption values -- Reines’s star weight will cause issues in critical reliability.

Lack of NP Protection

While Reines has a number of ways to protect her team from standard enemy attacks, she will not be able to protect the party from enemy AoE NPs without significant planning. Supreme Mystic Code: Volumen Hydragyrum can protect one Servant, but it will not be enough to sustain a team for long fights.

Limited Sustained Damage Support

Reines’s damage support options are limited in depth relative to most fully supportive servants. Her primary Attack boost and NP charge only benefits one Servant and it is limited by its cooldown, while her Defense debuff requires her to use her NP, which makes it sub-optimal for farming purposes. Before her strengthening, defense is Reines’s focus, but when offensive enabling is necessary Reines may fall short. Additionally, even in fast-moving teams, Reines’s value drops considerably after the first few turns.

As Reines is a defense-focused support servant, Tactician’s Advice should be leveled first. Emperor Xuan’s Command is also a valuable skill, but only the attack buff scales with levels and it only affects one Servant, so it can wait until after the former skill is leveled. Supreme Mystic Code: Volumen Hydrargyrum gains little from levels aside from the cooldown reduction (until its strengthening), so it should be saved for last. Masters should aim to fully level all three of Reines’s skills, as she is a support servant and her value is dependent on her ability to assist other servants with her skills and NP. Furthermore she will need her skill levels maxed in order to reach her full potential as a top-level supportive Servant after her strengthening.

• Tactician’s Advice A provides a nice defensive boost even on its own, but with other sources of Defense Up or Attack Down in play as well this can drastically reduce incoming damage. The party NP charge effect is not especially strong, but party-wide NP charges are rare in general and are always nice to have access to.
• Emperor Xuan’s Command A is Reines’s main offensive boost. It is a little bit weaker than single-target offensive buffs on full-support Servants tend to be, but in exchange, it applies to all card types evenly, making Reines an unusually flexible support. Its NP charge effect is enough to let a Servant NP immediately with the help of Kaleidoscope, which is valuable for farming. As Reines’s own damage is not the focus of her playstyle, the Attack demerit on this skill is not a significant issue, and her NP can remove the debuff regardless.
• Supreme Mystic Code, Volumen Hydrargyrum B lasts for 3 turns, so its hit-based Invincibility effect is unlikely to be wasted. If the targeted Servant is not attacked on the turn the skill is used, the Invincibility remains in effect to possibly protect the Servant on the turns that follow. Hit-based Invincibility skills are powerful in general, so this being targeted makes it quite nice as defensive skills go. After Reines’s eventual strengthening, this skill gains an NP charge effect, increasing its value.

When Reines is supporting Servants who do not need Critical Stars, she may benefit from CEs that provide NP Gain Up to facilitate her own support functionality, or from CEs that provide Starting NP Gauge so that Reines can activate her defensive class disadvantage protection as soon as possible. If Reines is supporting a Servant who does want to be dealing Critical damage, it is important for her to carry a CE that provides Passive Star Generation in order to offset the difficulties presented by her high innate Star Absorption.

• Painting Summer / Magical Girl of Sapphire / Divine Banquet: Painting Summer, Magical Girl of Sapphire, and Divine Banquet all significantly increase Reines’s NP gain. Given Reines’s high base Arts NP gain, the effect of the boosts provided by these CEs will be even more pronounced than they are on most Servants.
• Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element: Kaleidoscope and The Imaginary Element allow Reines to use her NP immediately with the help of her own NP Charge skills. This can be valuable for ensuring Reines’s team is protected from class advantage immediately.
• A Fragment of 2030 / Meeting of the Heiresses / His Rightful Place: All three of these CEs make it easier for Reines and her allies to land Critical attacks. Meeting of the Heiresses also boosts Reines’s effective NP gain, helping her to keep her NP’s effects active.