Anyone figured out Koishi yet?

[Gensoukyou1337]

In my last run as Green Koishi (Emotional Volatility) I ended up facing the Nitori miniboss in which I have absolutely no solution because they keep attacking and I don't have anything drawn that I can use to defend myself with, and no matter how many times I restart, the draw order is exactly the same.
So I just blamed the game and threw the run.

Anyway, yeah. My question's in the title. Or is Koishi severely underpowered right now and I shouldn't bother?

[Penghis Khan]

I haven't messed around with the follow up cards too much yet, but building your deck around the Mental States seems fundamentally busted.

Entering Passion, going nuts with attack cards, and then using something like Curiosity or Serene Memories to get out of Passion just feels really strong. The key is knowing when to enter Passion.

When you restart a fight, the RNG is exactly the same. Sounds like you just had some bad luck.

[Gensoukyou1337]

Originally posted by Penghis Khan:

When you restart a fight, the RNG is exactly the same. Sounds like you just had some bad luck.

My luck was HORRID that time. My situation was that if I enter Passion I'm DEAD.

[mbran031]

I'm having a lot of fun with both winning and losing with Koishi. She has easy access to A lot of fun random card shenanigans that make runs interesting.

Though....one card in Koishi kit stands out as being particular bad is her rare Hartman's Youkai Girl that plays the top card in the deck. With Koishi's extremely delicate tight-rope act between winning and losing, that kind of card doesn't fit in any sort of deck I've come across. Even scry heavy decks feel kinda bad when you have to constantly babysit one card.

My suggestion would be to make it scry 3, draw one and reduce the mana cost of the rightmost and leftmost cards in the hand to zero, kinda like a reverse of the card eirin has.

[Ravicale]

Hartman's Youkai Girl requires an upgrade to be really worth the cost, but it's pretty strong assuming you're running any deck doesn't have strict sequencing requirements. It works 'best' if you draft into topdeck manipulation and bomby high mana cost cards. The Tarot cards, Embers of Love, and Butterfly Dream support this in her pool. But even without that, it's 2 mana to draw an extra card and play it for free every turn including the turn you play it. Most value-generating abilities at least force you to take a tempo hit for using them.

If I had to pick out a rare Koishi card that's questionable, I'd hate on Psyche-Lock. The card just clogs your hand without a host of other stance related cards to go off, and when it does go off it's ok except doesn't actually solve encounters directly (which I'd expect it to after jumping through the hoops for it).

[Mahoroa]

The watcher is my favorite character is Slay the Spire, but I enjoy black Koishi more than green Koishi . After playing several Lunatic 7 requests runs, I can consistently reach Seija with black Koishi, whereas with green Koishi, I can't even make it out of act 1. The early game feels VERY bad with green Koishi.

[Gensoukyou1337]

Originally posted by Mahoroa:

The watcher is my favorite character is Slay the Spire, but I enjoy black Koishi more than green Koishi . After playing several Lunatic 7 requests runs, I can consistently reach Seija with black Koishi, whereas with green Koishi, I can't even make it out of act 1. The early game feels VERY bad with green Koishi.

I managed to kill Seija on Normal with green Koishi. The caveat is that I also had a Misfortune Mini-Synergy card set with Grudge Returning + that card that deals damage (1 + number of Misfortune Cards on deck) times. That's pretty good with Passion.

I guess the key of Green Koishi is Emotional Volatility and that if you exit Serenity you get 3 Rainbow Mana.

[Samseng Yik]

I like Koiji on how much damage she can burst out at the right time, some boss will often spent their turn on not doing any damage, you capitalize on passion and using follow up can burst few hundred of damage

[Mecte]

Have around 5 cards in the deck.
One for passion and one for serenity.
the other 3 card can be dmg, block, anything good

Every turn you enter passion and then end the turn with serenity.
By doing that you always have the plus 2x modifier with zero risk and also get the plus mana from exiting serenity every turn.

Its quite consistent, specially if you have a away to discard status card and misfortunes

[pikminjp]

Originally posted by Gensoukyou1337:

In my last run as Green Koishi (Emotional Volatility) I ended up facing the Nitori miniboss in which I have absolutely no solution because they keep attacking and I don't have anything drawn that I can use to defend myself with, and no matter how many times I restart, the draw order is exactly the same.
So I just blamed the game and threw the run.

Anyway, yeah. My question's in the title. Or is Koishi severely underpowered right now and I shouldn't bother?

I generally like Koishi, especially the follow up attack version of her. I've beaten the game in Lunatic with her and here a few tips to consider.

Green Koishi

Try to aim for draw cards, namely the one that put one back into the draw pile. It's free and it allows you a strong follow up turn as you set up. Absolutely hunt the retain mood procs as it'll make your ability to shift moods and utilize them effectively more consistently. I wouldn't recommend blending your deck with follow ups, unless you find yourself with the Aoe and multi-hitting follow ups. It can quickly clog your hand and cause consistency issues. Tarot of the Fool is a very strong card when upgraded as it allows you to play ability cards cheaper and increase speed of setting up. Fugue can be a hit or a miss. The Eureka cards can be useful, but I find the instant Fugue cards to be the only often worthwhile additions in the mood deck as Mana is already not as big of an issue for stance Koishi. HIGHLY recommend fighting Cirno in both routes as Starlight is very strong on Koishi. Also if your lucky to get ice wings. Ditch any nonsense of blending ice cards and aim for the instant Fugue card which requires blue. Using Ice wings, you can pretty much start with Fugue EVERY fight as long as you don't get more then 2 blue cards in the run. If you get duplicators, GET IT. It's an instant win button with Ice wings. If you get the green one. You can lean more into the midnight fairies (or what the 15 damage fairies are called) which she synergies well with. Since she has an amazing attack card which also gives you block and one of those. Also buy the retain shield card item from the store if you can. Can save you a nasty sting if luck is bad. Flawless is also great, but you should only save it for Seija as she can do silly amounts of damage if your in passion.

Also you can get the card Tortoise Hell, using passion's weakness against them by reflecting you 2x damage back at the foe. Just don't rely on it too much.

Dark Koishi

Some strats like the ice wings and Tarot of the Fool apply here as well. But you mostly want to refrain from getting serenity stuff and just get the retain passion and instant fugue cards. I would try to get the block follow up trigger card as a priority. Though the graze one is effective as well. Upgrade Air Kiss fast as the 2 dark is annoying to play around. Then try your best to remove the follow up basics you have. They suck and clog your inventory from using the actually good follow up cards you want. The gain dark/rainbow mana, and the two AOE's are noteworthy additions. The multi-hit one is very effective once you gotten the passion retain card as it does 60 base damage upgraded in passion. Marisa's Grimore can be also a good exhibit to go for as bombs blend kinda well with her kit, and the starting 2 dark mana card is really nice in case of an expensive turn. Or especially when playing Lunatic 7 if your daring. Keep your deck size kinda low as well. Your main damage source is the follow-ups so the need of other attack cards is pointless. It allows your to get your abilities procs faster and you can more reliably gain block. The event where your able to sacrifice your max hp for removing your basic cards can be really nice, as you get rid of your annoying attack cards and you already have a soft safety net with the sunglasses giving you barrier every boss fight.

Speaking of Elites, DON'T shy away from the early elites. Especially if you go for red pill like me as Koishi's spell cards are very strong early on. In passion you do 60 damage and get a free + 10 damage retain card assuming you use it the turn you get it. Or 48 AOE if you get passion with dark Koishi.

Koishi overall has fairly good match ups against the elites as well. Follow ups are great for Aya, and the AOEs are great for the other two. Night Call if your lucky to get it early, literally just destroys any fight early game.

I hope this helps out and sorry for possible typo's.. wrote this kinda fast.