#Memo Vault Jail

[magiamemoriareview]

Irreplaceable New Year's Gift

Obtainability: Limited to the “New Years First Dream of the Year Scramble” event.

MLB Effect: Anti-Poison [100%] & Anti-Burn [100%] & Anti-Dazzle [100%]

Effect Definitions:

Anti-Poison prevents the equipped unit from being afflicted with Poison. Poison is a Status Ailment that will damage the afflicted target for 5% HP per turn.

Anti-Burn prevents the equipped unit from being afflicted with Burn. Burn is a Status Ailment that will damage the afflicted target for 10% HP per turn, and it will also make the target take 80% more damage from its weak element.

Anti-Dazzle prevents the equipped unit from being afflicted with Dazzle. Dazzle is a Status Ailment that will cause the afflicted target to have a 50% chance to miss their attacks, make the target take 80% more damage from its weak element, and prevent the target from recovering HP.

TLDR: This memoria can be treated as Enhancement Fodder or be chucked into the Memoria Vault Jail.

Review: There honestly isn’t too much to say for this memoria. If you’re facing all of these status ailments in a single fight (Poison, Burn, and Dazzle) then this might be a good memoria to equip. At the same time, you’re probably better off using a character like Madoka & Iroha who can prevent Status Ailments from occurring at all:

This way you free up a memoria slot on your unit. Alternatively, you can use units that have Remove Status Ailments as part of their Magia/Doppel, such as

Not listed above are Maria Yuki and Leila Ibuki, who have this effect on their regular Magia as capped girls.

However, if you’re unable to use Madoka & Iroha or if you’re constantly getting hit by Status Ailments in the fight, you still might want to consider other memoria in the game. This is because “Irreplaceable New Year's Gift” is really a waste of a good passive slot, sacrificing potential damage (or even defense) for some Status Ailment Resistance. The most troublesome Status Ailment this memoria protects against is probably Dazzle-- unfortunately, you don’t have a lot of really great options to choose from here:

(Limited 4*) “Irreplaceable New Year's Gift” Anti-Dazzle [100%] & Anti-Burn [100%] & Anti-Poison [100%]

(Limited 4*) “Searching at the Beach” Anti-Dazzle [100%] & Anti-Fog [100%] & Anti-Darkness [100%]

(Limited 4*) “Until the Day We Reach the Stars” Anti-Dazzle [100%] & Anti-Darkness [100%] & Anti-Charm [100%]

(Limited 4*) “Good Child Good Child” Anti-Darkness [100%] & Anti-Dazzle [100%] & Anti-Fog [100%]

(Limited 4*) “Sweet Apportionment” Anti-Dazzle [100%] & Critical Hit [25%]

(Limited 4*) “Suddenly Given Stones x200″ Anti-Dazzle [100%] & CC Gain Up [5%]

(Limited 3*) “Confrontation at the First Act” Anti-Dazzle [100%] & Attack Up [10%]

(Limited 3*) “The Pseudo-Family Is From Peace” Anti-Dazzle [100%] & Blast Damage Up [30%]

(Limited 3*) “Please Let It End Here” Anti-Dazzle [100%] & Attack Up [10%]

(2*) “Remnants of Light” Anti-Dazzle [100%]

Your best bet are going to be the three limited three-star ones-- “Confrontation at the First Act,” “The Pseudo-Family is From Peace,” and “Please Let it End Here.” While being three-stars, they at least offer a small offensive potential.

Otherwise, I recommend this memoria:

(4*) “A Longing for the Beyond” Attack Up [20%] & Status Ailment Resistance Up [30%]

You can still keep some Attack Up while getting some Status Ailment Resistance.

Overall, this memoria isn’t bad. It’s just slightly below acceptable, even for a free welfare memoria. You can chuck this into the memoria vault or use it as Enhancement Fodder- your choice.

[cecilspeaks]

155 - The Heist, part 3

Leave no stone unturned. Leave no rock unpivoted. Leave no pebble untwirled. Welcome to Night Vale.

My brother-in-law, Steve Carlsberg, is still in jail, wrongly accused of the recent bank heist. But I am happy to have my husband Carlos back home. The Sheriff’s Secret Police had only taken him in for some questions regarding the robbery of the Last Bank of Night Vale. Sheriff Sam had deemed Carlos a person of interest, which I’ve been saying for years, but Sheriff Sam meant it differently.

Carlos said while he was being questioned at the police station, he saw the other bank employees who were there the day of the robbery. Genevieve Daly, the new bank teller, was being asked if she saw anyone other than Steve Carlsberg near the vault that day. Carlos said she was stone faced, unhappy with the interrogation. Susan Willman was there, crying, as the police asked her who else, other than Steve Carlsberg, could have a key. And security guard Jesse McNeil was there looking quite ill, almost seasick, according to Carlos, as the police tried to badger him into implicating Steve Carlsberg.

Carlos has been home for a couple of weeks and in a terrible funk. He said Steve has a nearly impossible case. The police are convinced of Steve’s guilt and all their evidence points directly to him. Carlos hardly has any energy or emotion to work, or even leave the house. I feel awful for Steve too, and we are doing our best to support him and our family.

I tried cheering Carlos up by telling him my favorite science jokes, like two chemists walk into a bar and one tells the bartender, “I’ll have an H2O” and the other says “I’ll have an H20 too,” and the bartender says and sighs.. [fed up] “It’s been a long day guys,” and then the two chemists nod and say, [embarrassed] “Yeah oh god yeah sorry, just a couple of waters thanks.” And then later they make sure to tip very well. But Carlos didn’t even crack as mile, let alone laugh, and I asked him how his doorless fridge experiment was going and he’s welcome to work on it here, in his home laboratory. I don’t even mind if he keeps staining everything green with that weird gel he’s been using. “I ran out of gel, Cecil,” he said, prone on the couch not opening his eyes. “I couldn’t work on that, even if I wanted to. which I don’t.” Hm. I wanna curl up on the couch too, stay home from work. But I know that would be terrible for Carlos. There are many times I’ve felt flat or depressed, and Carlos has been there for me, keeping me company, taking in my sadness and reflecting back not a false smile but attentive eyes, a listening posture that makes me feel heard and understood, and that’s what I want to be for him. Besides, I think Steve can beat these charges. Steve may have been the only one with a key to the vault, but they cannot prove he opened the vault, as he was locked inside his own office during the robbery. And besides, Steve keeps very detailed accounting so they wouldn’t be able to find the stolen money, not even if he had taken it. Steve Carlsberg is… [moved] the nicest man in Night Vale. He’s a good boss, breaking his foot to get free to try to protect his employees. He’s a fine father. A loving husband. And a perfect brother-in-law. It’s just not... it’s not possible. You know, if someone on the inside did this, it was probably Susan. Susan Willman is the least trustworthy person in that bank, if not in this whole town. So if you’re going to…

[loud scary noises] Station Management just slit a memo under my door gently, reminding me about libel laws. The memo is written in fire on a sleep tablet, and there’s a snake curled around it so, uhh.. I’m going to leave my Susan WIllman theory alone. But. Let’s just say that there was an untrustworthy person in that bank, and that her name was Su..anne Wilt..son. Yes, Sue-Anne Wilson, yes and this hypothetical jerk was always complaining at PTA meetings about her own personal problems, rather than focusing on the agenda, let’s just say. And this Sue-Anne Wilson once accused Steve Carlsberg of censoring her, when Steve was just trying to finish the meeting in a timely manner so that the basketball team could se the gym for evening practice. This person might well hold a grudge against Steve Carlsberg and want to not only steal from him, but frame him for the crime. 

Or, what if the Sheriff’s Secret Police… [loud scary noises] was doing a really great job, so great that they didn’t have a lot of arrests to make because the town was so safe. And of course, [chuckling nervously] they would never need to frame someone for robbery! So they would look like they were solving one of the major crimes in recent memory. Or maybe it was space slugs. Some distant aliens from across the galaxy somehow found our solar system and spotted our Earth, and then randomly chose Night Vale, and for whatever reason, they really wanted our money, so they went down inside the bank vault while the building was on fire, and without the safe key they entered the locked room because these space slugs can crawl through walls, and then they stole all the money. I don’t know! I feel helpless.[loud scary noises fade out]

Reading the news and getting angrier and angrier, but you know there’s little I can do about terrible things that keep happening. I’m sure you can’t relate. Maybe a community calendar will cheer me up.

This Saturday, the Desert Flower Bowling Alley and Arcade Fun Complex opens its annual Haunted Halloween Hayride. There was complications this year, because Ghost Union Local 31 went on strike for an increase in pensions and maternity leave. Teddy Williams, owner of the Desert Flower, argued that ghosts cannot retire nor get pregnant, but the union countered with vaguely human faces muttering in the shadows while Teddy screamed, and eventually, a deal was truck.

Sunday morning is the pie eating contest at the Night Vale fair. Contestants will be competing for a top prize of a 1991 Buick Le Sabre, autographed by former US presidential hopeful and Illinois governor, Adelai Stevenson.

Tuesday afternoon is a tedious song. Wednesday night is the high school dance team’s statewide semifinals at the rec center. Our own Night Vale High School is competing that night. Their top rival is Red Mesa High School, who will be performing a jazz routine called Tommy Tunes Broadway: an upbeat medley of classic show tunes. Night Vale’s dance team will present (--) [0:09:21] postmodern masterpiece (-): contemplative blend of sculpture opera and dance defined by its explosive physical bursts, chanting, and (contra-) movements born of a 22-member ensemble, who express the human body as a multidimensional art installation. Good luck to all dancers!

And finally, Thursday is sick, so Friday will be covering Thursday’s shift. Eh, except for the part about the haunted hay ride. That did not cheer me up.

I’m getting word that the Secret Police have made a breakthrough in their bank heist investigation. Or maybe they found the real thief and can let Steve Carlsberg go? [clears throat] Sheriff Sam said the lab reports came back, the fingerprints were inconclusive as their top suspect Steve Carlsberg worked at the bank, so his fingerprints were everywhere. But the lab reports did detail a strange goo police found on the vault walls. This goo, a light green gel, was also found on the walls of the cells that the other robbers had escaped from two weeks ago. So maybe my theory about space slugs is correct. No wait. The lab reports showed that this unusual chemical can render certain metals intangible, allowing people to reach through walls without breaking them. [stutters] Police believe whoever used this greenish goo used it to rob the bank’s vault and to free the prisoners inside the abandoned mineshaft outside of town. The Sheriff then said they discovered this exact same chemical on Steve Carlsberg’s property. They discovered it inside the shed behind the house, and that this is the final piece of evidence that links Steve Carlsberg to the robbery of the Last Bank of Night Vale. They believe that, oh no… Um, that Steve did not act alone, that he had an accomplice, a scientific mastermind who created this chemical for him. Who generated a complex concoction that enabled them to walk through walls stealing whatever they wanted. They have a warrant out now for Carlos’ arrest. I’ve gotta call Carlos. I- Oh, it looks like he left a voicemail.  

[beep] Carlos: Hey sweetie, it’s um me. So listen, I have um, I so-so I’ve just been arrested. No biggie, no biggie, I’m fine. This is actually good news, because I wanted to talk to the Sheriff anyway about all this, so that-that’s great. And um, I do have some new thoughts about what happened at the bank, and they’re really interesting, so they’re driving me downtown to meet with uh ooh, ouch, those cuffs are a bit tight there, officer… officer (Q. Fortier). Ah, that is a beautiful name. I-i-is that Franchian? If you don’t mind, Officer Fortier, I’m going to just finish my voicemail to my husband. So Cecil. When I get downtown, I’ll explain everything to them, Steve and I clearly did not do this and that’s what I’ll tell them, they’re police! [chuckles] You know, they just wanna know the truth, and uh ooh uh, oh Officer Fortier, I am not done with my call yet. Uh sir, what-what are you doing with my pho- [beep]

Cecil: I… I… Let’s go to the weather.

[Good Luck with That” by Fathom All the Animals https://fathomalltheanimals.com]

Cecil: Listeners, we now go live to Steve Carlsberg’s press conference at City Hall.

Steve: This has been a difficult month for me, and for my family. I thank you all for hearing me out today. I’m glad to know that these criminal charges are behind me, and I think Sheriff Sam and their secret police, as well as their Overt Police, for listening to reason and overturning the charges against me. [sadly] But of course, I’m sad to learn about their most recent arrest. Breaks my heart to know that such a dear friend of so many years, someone who’s been in home many, many times, someone I consider family, could betray me, my bank, my town in this way. I don’t even know how to talk about such a breach of trust by someone so close. [crying] Carlos! Oh Carlos. Thank you Carlos, for your brilliant and thorough evidence that put Jesse McNeil in jail today. Our security guard of nearly 50 years committed a heinous crime, and he nearly sent the two of us to prison for it.

When Carlos arrived in my cell this morning, he was all smile saying he had figured it out. He called the Sheriff over and said, “Check Jesse’s skin for the same chemical they found on the doors.” Carlos had been experimenting on the gel that allowed him to reach his hands into refrigerators without opening the door, and thus lowering the temperature of the food inside. He’d developed this chemical. He’d developed this chemical in his temporary lab in a shed behind our house. The problem with the chemical wasn’t its effectiveness and intangibility. He had been able to make that work. No, the problem with the chemical is that it stained everything it touched a dull green, including skin. Carlos showed me his own hands, which were green from the fingertips to about halfway up his forearms. He said the last few times he had seen Jesse, Jesse looked ill. Not like a flu or cold, more like seasick: queasy, green in the face. Carlos didn’t put it together right away, because we all felt sick about not only the robbery, but the false charges against me.

The police report also showed that none of the cash tills on the teller wall were affected by the fire that broke out during the robbery last month. Which means the fire had to have started on the opposite wall, which is by the front door, Jesse’s usual station. The smoke from the fire and the three robbers waving guns provided a distraction for Jesse to cover himself with Carlos’ intangibility gel, sneak downstairs past my office, where he had locked me in earlier than day, and then unload the cash from the safe and carry it into the alleyway behind the bank where his car was parked. When the fire trucks arrived, Jesse ran deliberately in front of their hoses so that the gel would all be removed from his body before the police began questioning those of us who had been inside during the robbery. But, as Carlos pointed out, the gel stains the skin for a long time, water alone won’t remove it.

Sheriff Sam brought Jesse back in for questioning based on Carlos’ statements, and found Jesse’s skin was the same dull green as Carlos’ hands. But unlike Carlos, the green stain covered Jesse’s whole body, not only his hands, indicating he had used it to walk through walls, rather than merely reach to a door.

Carlos explained that he had Jesse in his lab many times, Jesse and all my employees come to my house regularly for dinners. Like I said, they’re family to me. Jesse had taken an interest in Carlos’ science projects, so Carlos showed Jesse his doorless fridge experiment. Not long after that, Carlos noticed that the rest of his intangibility gel was gone. He thought he had just run out, even though he had made plenty of it. Never occurred to Carlos, until he saw Jesse’s green face a few days ago, that Jesse had stolen it to remove the money from the vault and his criminal colleagues from their jail cell. While I was the only person with the key to the vault, Jesse as a security guard was the only person with master keys for the rest of the building. My office door is never locked, so I don’t carry a key for it. Jesse knew this and locked me into my own office. Then his three collaborators Richard, William, and Emma created a fake robbery of the cash tills to distract from his heist of the vault. Sheriff Sam was impressed with Carlos’ explanation and arrested Jesse McNeil on the spot. Jesse turned to Carlos and Sam and said: [very deep voice] “I guess I’m going to jail now.” Sam said: [Sheriff Sam voice] “Don’t flatter yourself!”

Anyway, I finally get to return home, thanks to my brother-in-law Carlos. Thank you Susan Willman for managing the bank in my absence. Abby, Janice, I’ll be home in a few. Can’t wait to see you both again. Oh, oh, maybe I’ll bake some scones tonight! Carlos showed me a way to do it without letting the butter too warm. Oh-oh yeah!

Cecil: I’m so relieved and so glad they put the right person behind bars. And I have never been so excited to try one of Steve’s scones. That really is neat.

Stay tuned next for someone playing on a saw. No, ahem, (-) that, with a saw. It’s just someone playing around with a saw. Enjoy.

Good night, Night Vale, Good night.

Today’s proverb: Wisdom ages like fine wine. Knowledge ages like Boston lettuce.

[rapeculturerealities]

The site where former Stanford student Brock Turner sexually assaulted a young woman known as Emily Doe in 2015 is a mulch-covered slope next to a basketball court, dotted by a few trees. It is still there, largely unchanged, though the area it abuts, where there used to be dumpsters enclosed by a wooden fence, has since been turned into a small commemorative park.

I was there on a beautiful spring day in March; a water feature now trickles next to two benches surrounded by landscaped vegetation and a low stone wall. A plaque bearing Doe’s words was to be installed there, too, an attempt at a sort of commemoration that did not materialize after the university and the victim could not agree on what it would say. If you didn’t know about Turner’s crimes, you might sit here and listen to the quiet fountain in the sunshine, looking out across the basketball court at Lake Lagunita, the mostly dry drainage basin around which members of the campus bike and jog, without knowing why this little park exists.

“I think when people hear ‘campus rape,’ some people, they have a mental picture that’s probably wrong, but it’s really wrong in this case,” Michele Dauber, a Stanford law professor and sociologist, said to me, as we walked over from the spot on the slope to a path on the other side of the basketball court, along the lake. From there, we looked back toward the crime scene from the approximate vantage point of the two Swedish graduate students who were biking in the area when, according to one of them, Carl-Fredrik Arndt, they saw the then-19-year-old Turner “thrusting,” over what appeared to be a motionless body. It was a disturbing enough sight that they ran over to Turner, who they say bolted, leaving his victim, still unconscious, lying in dirt and pine needles, naked from the waist down, save for her boots. “Whatever comes into your mind when you hear campus rape, this is not it,” Dauber continued. “This is the stranger-danger-in-the-bushes scenario that your mother warned you about.”

The assault occurred at around 1:00 a.m. on a January night in 2015, near a Kappa Alpha fraternity party that Turner and the victim had both attended; there were few lights in the area. (More have been added since.) According to the incident report, it was there on the ground that the then-22-year-old Doe’s dress was lifted up, her underwear removed, and her bra exposed. Police suspected that Turner had photographed her breast (evidenced, the prosecution said in its sentencing document, by a message he received in an app called GroupMe saying, “Whos [sic] tit is that”), and she was digitally penetrated, according to a police interview with Turner. Doe woke up in the hospital around 4:00 a.m. She had no memory of the assault, nor of the several hours preceding it, as recorded in the police report. Though Turner, at one point, while questioned by police, said that he couldn’t remember how he and Doe ended up on the ground, a year later he testified that Doe had uttered yes or sure three times, affirmatively consenting to various aspects of their encounter.

After two days of jury deliberations, in March of 2016, Turner was convicted of three felonies, including assault with intent to commit rape. He faced a maximum of 14 years in state prison; the prosecution asked for six.

If those convictions indicated a cut-and-dry version of the night’s events, the sentencing two months later blurred it: On June 2, 2016, Judge Aaron Persky sent Turner to county jail for only six months—of which he served just three—and gave him three years probation, citing the “severe impact” prison would have on the once heavily recruited athlete (who, the probation report also said, had already “surrendered a hard-earned swimming scholarship”). Turner was also required to register as a sex offender. Persky, himself a Stanford alum (and a former captain of the club lacrosse team), said that Turner had expressed remorse, and that “up to this point, he complied with social and legal norms sort of above and beyond what normal law-abiding people do.” That leniency inspired Doe to publicly release the victim’s impact statement she had read in court, a document detailing more than a year of her struggles with physical, psychological, and emotional trauma incurred by the assault and trial. It, and the outrage that it provoked, subsequently went viral.

It also inspired Dauber—a tenured law professor at Stanford, a family friend of Doe’s, and an outspoken critic of Stanford’s sexual assault disciplinary process—and a group of like-minded supporters to come together over one shared goal: to recall Judge Persky.

On June 5, Santa Clara County voters will have the chance to do just that, and to choose between two other candidates who are running to replace him: Cindy Hendrickson, currently an assistant district attorney, and Angela Storey, a civil attorney. This is an enormously rare occurrence: A recall is allowed under the California Constitution for elected officials (superior court judges serve six-year terms), but the movement against Persky marks the first judicial recall, in any state, to make it on a ballot in 36 years. (The last successful judicial recall in California was in 1932.)

For Dauber and the other volunteers who have spearheaded the effort, a vote for or against recall is a vote for or against the way that American society has normalized sexual violence against women, which is to say it’s a vote against rape culture itself. Critics of Persky’s sentencing say that he clearly identified with Turner as a white man (in a state where, as of 2014, the ratio of black to white prison inmates was 8.8 to 1), and as a former Stanford athlete, in determining whether or not to send Turner to prison and for how long. Persky gave Turner less than a tenth of the time desired by the prosecution, but it’s worth noting that Persky also sentenced Turner within the bounds of the probation report, which suggested “a moderate county jail sentence”; recall supporters believe that report was also biased toward Turner, and that the judge should have made a better final call. Both Persky and the probation officer cited Turner’s remorse as a reason to sentence him less harshly, despite a sentencing memo submitted by the prosecution that claimed Turner had misrepresented his own innocence and lied about being exposed to drugs and alcohol for the first time at Stanford. This was central to the remorse he expressed: In a letter to Persky, Turner said that he regretted the “party culture and risk taking behavior that I briefly experienced in my four months at school.”

“[Persky] saw a young man with a bright future,” said Dauber. “He didn’t see what was before him. He saw, instead, an image that was untrue and refracted through the lens of bias and privilege.” This sentiment, that Persky’s empathy lay more with Turner than with Doe, was also expressed by critics after a statement Turner’s father made in court w​as made public: he characterized the assault as “20 minutes of action,” and any time in prison as “a steep price to pay” for it.

The recall campaign has unearthed additional cases in which Persky, they say, also adjudicated leniently for defendants of similar social status—cases where the accused are all male, largely white, and/or connected to a university or to Silicon Valley, though a report by the California Commission on Judicial Performance, which the recall campaign dismisses as “one-sided,” concluded that there was insufficient proof of Persky’s judicial misconduct, including accusations of bias. And it has sparked a contentious battle not only between recall proponents and defenders of Persky, but also with members of the legal community, who worry that a recall threatens judicial independence, no matter whether the sentencing was fair or not; and with public defenders, who say that black and brown defendants will suffer the most from a rash of harsher sentencing, if judges start to fear they will be recalled for the opposite.

Yet the recall has vaulted over every hurdle it has faced so far, including gathering more than 90,000 signatures (far more than what was required to get the measure on the ballot) and seeing Persky’s attempt to block the election by citing a procedural error rejected by an appellate court. Its organizers are a cadre of mostly women volunteers, some of whom are sexual assault survivors themselves, who were outraged on behalf of Emily Doe in 2016, watched Donald Trump win the presidential election a few months later, and have since seen the #MeToo movement blaze through the halls of power elsewhere in America. They are now seeking a reckoning on their home turf, taking on two behemoth institutions: Stanford University and the law.

read more

[jerseydeanne]

WEST PALM BEACH —

Ten years after convicted Palm Beach sex offender Jeffrey Epstein escaped federal charges in connection with allegations that he paid dozens of teenage girls for sex, the FBI last week released what appears to be an explosive explanation for what many have long described as a sweetheart deal.

“Epstein has also provided information to the FBI as agreed upon,” agents wrote in one of dozens of heavily redacted, decade-old memos that were unexpectedly and inexplicably posted on an FBI website known as “The Vault.”

The simple declaration stunned those who have been following the tortuous and celebrity-studded case for years. It rekindled talk that the billionaire’s 2008 decision to plead guilty to state charges to make the federal investigation disappear was part of a cover up to protect Epstein’s high-powered friends, including President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton and Britain’s Prince Andrew.

“That sentence obviously means something but I, too, am at a loss as to what it really means,” said attorney Brad Edwards, who for a decade has been trying to unravel the mystery of Epstein’s plea deal. “If there was some cooperation I would have expected that we would have been told. However, nothing surprises me at this point.”

>>JUST IN: Former Palm Beach detective who led Epstein investigation dies at 50

In recent years, federal prosecutors have offered various explanations for why they agreed to drop the case they were building against the 65-year-old enigmatic money manager if he pleaded guilty to state prostitution charges. In court papers, they have said they wanted to get justice for Epstein’s young victims but worried a jury wouldn’t believe them.

So, they have said, they negotiated a deal, allowing Epstein to plead guilty in Palm Beach County Circuit Court to one count of soliciting a minor for prostitution and another charge of soliciting prostitution. In exchange, federal prosecutors agreed to close their investigation. They have said they had no idea Epstein would only serve 13 months of an 18-month sentence in a vacant wing of the county stockade — a cell he was allowed to leave 16 hours a day, six days a week.

While voicing dismay at his lax punishment, prosecutors have pointed out that the plea deal required Epstein to pay the roughly 30 young women who filed civil lawsuits against him. Further, they said his guilty pleas force him to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, potentially protecting other girls from abuse in the future.

However, over the years, they have never suggested that Epstein provided them any information in return.

Like Edwards, two people close to the long-closed federal investigation said they were flummoxed by the sentence in the FBI’s memo that was written in September 2008, roughly two months after Epstein pleaded guilty in state court.

“I have never, ever heard of Jeffrey Epstein cooperating in any sense of the word,” said one official, who requested anonymity because of the top role the person played in the investigation. “I am stumped. It’s totally out of left field.”

Another individual with ties to the case voiced similar views. Epstein may have been required to talk to FBI agents but it’s unlikely he offered anything that would incriminate others, said the person, who declined to be identified because of ongoing efforts to help Epstein’s victims challenge the plea deal. “I don’t think he ever told the truth,” the person said.

A lawsuit Edwards filed against the federal government, claiming prosecutors violated the Victims Rights Act by not notifying Epstein’s victims of the pending plea deal, is still pending in U.S. District Court. Also, awaiting trial in Palm Beach County Circuit Court is a malicious prosecution lawsuit Edwards filed against Epstein. Edwards claims the billionaire filed a frivolous lawsuit to punish Edwards for representing a handful of Epstein’s young victims.

West Palm Beach attorney Jack Goldberger, who was on Epstein’s potent defense team, said he was “unable to respond” to questions about the FBI’s memo. Other prominent lawyers who represented Epstein, including New York lawyer Jay Lefkowitz and retired Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The one line was part of a brief missive dated Sept. 18, 2008, closing the case: “On 9/11/08, case agent advised writer that Epstein is currently being prosecuted by the State of Florida and is complying with all conditions of his plea with the State of Florida. Epstein has also provided information to the FBI as agreed upon. Case agent advised that no federal prosecution will occur in this matter as long as Epstein continues to uphold his agreement with the State of Florida. … Case agent is requested to contact writer in the event this matter moves forward on a federal level.”

The memo was one of hundreds of documents, including dozens of copies of newspaper articles about Epstein, that were posted on the FBI’s website. The website, www.vault.fbi.gov, serves as the FBI’s electronic FOIA library. The heavily redacted documents showed agents traveled to New York City, Sante Fe, N.M., and St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein has homes. But there is little information about who they interviewed or what they learned.

The only witness named in the documents is Alfredo Rodriguez, who was a houseman at Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion in 2004. That’s when Epstein regularly paid young women to give him sexually-charged massages, police said.

Rodriguez was convicted of obstruction of justice in 2010 and sentenced to 18 months in jail for trying to sell a journal he purloined from Epstein. Prosecutors said the journal detailed Epstein’s sexual dalliances. Rodriguez, who lived in Kendall, died in 2014.

Those familiar with FBI procedures said the records are administrative files, not investigative ones. Some questioned why the files were posted on the FBI’s web site. The FBI didn’t return a phone call for comment. According to the web site, the records were released “in compliance with the National Archives and Records Administration requirements.”

And while it’s been 10 years since Epstein pleaded guilty to prostitution charges and settled dozens of lawsuits with young women, litigation continues.

Money can buy anything, this is not going anywhere, the poor houseman had to go to jail for 18 months on a lesser charge, same as Epstein a slap on the wrist. 

[newstfionline]

He robbed banks and went to prison. His time there put him on track for a new job: Georgetown law professor.

By Susan Svrluga, Washington Post, April 21, 2017

During a break in a basketball game to raise money for charity, Shon Hopwood told some of his Georgetown law students it felt different than the last time he was on a court: When he played basketball in federal prison, he had to carry a shank in case his team started to lose.

Hopwood’s new job as a tenure-track faculty member at the Georgetown University Law Center is only the latest improbable twist in a remarkable life: In the last 20 years, he has robbed banks in small towns in Nebraska, spent 11 years in federal prison, written a legal petition for a fellow inmate so incisive that the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, done that again, earned undergraduate and law degrees and extremely competitive clerkships, written a book, married his hometown crush and started a family.

But this could be his most compelling role yet. His time in prison gave him an unusual perspective on the law that allows him to see things other lawyers overlook, and a searing understanding of the impact of sentencing and the dramatic growth in incarceration in the United States.

“It’s one of the big social-justice issues of our time,” he said. The United States has 5 percent of the world’s population but 25 percent of its prisoners. “Between prison, jail, home confinement, probation, parole, combined it’s about 10 million people. It’s a big number.” And almost three-quarters of released prisoners are back in custody five years later. He hopes to change some of that.

“The story’s still writing itself,” he said in his office recently, marveling while students hurried to class outside. “I feel like I’m living someone else’s life quite often these days.”

Shon Hopwood’s life didn’t start out as remarkable. It began with a happy childhood in a town of 2,500 people in Nebraska. His dad managed a cattle feed yard, and his parents helped found a church. He was friendly and well-liked, uninterested in school, and best known for his skill on the basketball court.

An athletic scholarship to college ended when he got kicked out for not going to class. After two years in the U.S. Navy, he drifted back to Nebraska, depressed, drinking, doing some drugs, living in his parents’ basement and working 12-hour shifts on a cattle farm, shoveling manure.

One night his best friend turned to him in a bar and suggested that they rob a bank.

In August 1997, Hopwood walked into a bank, sweating, heart racing, dropped a metal toolbox to the floor with a bang and pulled a rifle from his coveralls. With the terrified customers and tellers locked into a vault, he sped away with $50,000 of other people’s money and his friend, who knew every bit as well as he did that what they had done was horribly wrong.

His friend suggested sending the money back, with a note. Instead, Hopwood went on to rob four more banks.

At his sentencing, 30 family members stood behind him, most of them crying. He was 23 years old. Judge Richard Kopf thought he was a punk. He had not forgotten Nebraska’s history of violent bank robberies. When Hopwood told him he was going to turn his life around, Kopf said something disdainful like: I guess we’ll see in about 13 years.

His first morning in federal prison, Hopwood got up early to work out and watched as two inmates yanked another one from a pullup bar, knocked him to the ground and stomped on the man with steel-toe boots leaving bits of teeth in pools of blood.

Working in the prison law library sounded like a good idea.

At first, he just checked books out. But in the summer of 2000, a Supreme Court decision caught inmates’ attention: Essentially, Hopwood explained, “things that can increase your sentence need to be proven to a jury, or you need to plead guilty to them.” He had been sentenced based on guidelines for armed robbery, even though he had pleaded guilty to unarmed robbery. A technicality, maybe, but he began dreaming of getting out early. Among all the other reasons to leave, he had begun a friendship, by mail, with a girl from back home.

After two months of research, he mailed off a brief and quickly got a response: He had filed it to the wrong court.

And when he redirected his appeal, Kopf denied it; the new decision did not apply retroactively in his case.

Still, something had clicked. Trying to figure out a solution to the legal puzzle was the first academic thing Hopwood had ever enjoyed. And it came easy. Soon he was sending memos to other inmates’ lawyers, suggesting strategies. Then he was writing briefs.

He was finding errors, often from overworked public defenders, like a young man sentenced to 16-and-a-half years for possessing less than a handful of crack cocaine because he had mistakenly been labeled a career offender. With Hopwood’s help, his sentence was reduced by more than 10 years.

The third brief he ever wrote was for a friend whose appeal had been denied. Hopwood spent months learning about the Supreme Court and habeas petitions, and one night he realized how he could frame an argument using the Sixth Amendment rather than the Fifth. After many drafts, honed by conversations with fellow inmates that forced him to distill the legal issues into simple, compelling logic, he typed out a petition for certiorari and mailed it off.

Months later, he was working out early one morning when a prisoner came running toward him, screaming that Hopwood was going to die. He tensed for a fight; he had recently survived a situation in which he fully expected to be stabbed to death by gang members.

But the man was holding a newspaper, with the story of the Supreme Court accepting a petition from a federal prisoner.

The odds of that happening are maybe 1 in 10,000, said Seth Waxman, the former solicitor general of the United States who agreed to argue the case for free. He read the petition with amazement. “It was incredibly good. It really identified, in sort of a crystalline form, the questions presented. It explained the conflict, it explained the importance.”

He immediately wanted to talk to the bank robber who could write such a thing, and thus began a friendship that would help change the trajectory of Hopwood’s life.

Now Hopwood was spending his time doing things such as reading a 1,650-page textbook on criminal procedure. Twice. He was taking college classes, and paralegal studies. And with new sentencing guidelines, he was busy churning out work for other inmates, taking on 10 or more cases at a time. “I was running a law firm in prison,” he said lightly. Because he was now convinced that sentences beyond about five years didn’t make sense for any but the most dangerous criminals, because he was upset by the disparities in sentences, because he saw prison more often hardening people or cutting off their chances for reform than turning their lives around, he enjoyed seeing people packing for home. He had another petition granted by the Supreme Court.

When he walked out of prison in October 2008, he was 33 and overwhelmed with anxiety about rebuilding his life. He knew no one was clamoring to hire felons. He wanted to get married and go to college, and he had no money. He was working at a carwash when he had another moment of grace: A family-run legal printing business in Omaha agreed, after getting some reassurance from Waxman, to hire him to help with their Supreme Court briefs. “If that doesn’t happen, none of this does,” he said.

A story in the New York Times unleashed a flood of invitations to speak, and a book deal. Still it was difficult, given his résumé, to get into law school. But the University of Washington granted him a full scholarship that made it possible--even with a little boy at home, and a girl born on the first day of law school--to attend.

He startled his former probation officer in the elevator of the courthouse one morning two months after his supervised release ended. He was not there for his mandatory check-in this time. He was arriving for work, clerking for a federal judge.

As he was studying 12 hours a day, he was wondering: Would he be granted a law license at the end of all this, or would they reject him because of his criminal record? The hearing was long, but in the end, the vote was unanimous. And in April 2015, after he passed the bar exam, he was sworn in as a lawyer by the D.C. Circuit judge who had chosen him for a prestigious clerkship.

He joined Georgetown on a teaching fellowship about a year and a half ago, working with students on cases in the appellate clinic. He sees issues others don’t, strategies that others don’t, said Steven Goldblatt, director of appellate litigation.

“He understands the problems of incarceration in a way that somebody who just studies them as an academic is not able to get,” said William Treanor, the law school’s dean.

Many colleagues were struck by his academic writing, Goldblatt said. Hopwood wrote about the rule of lenity, which he described as designed to protect citizens from getting caught in vague laws, and argued it must be revitalized to push Congress to write with more precision when drafting laws that take away liberty.

It’s not a theoretical issue, Goldblatt said. It’s fundamental. “It symbolizes what Shon is all about,” he said. “Why wasn’t there more written about it? Damned if I know.”

The surreal moments continue. Recently Hopwood helped his former criminal defense attorney practice a case to be argued in front of the Supreme Court. He also spoke on an academic panel with Kopf, the judge who sentenced him. It was an emotional meeting for both. Kopf gave Hopwood a gift that had great meaning for him, a leather briefcase Kopf had received from a former prisoner whom he had defended. It was a recognition, Kopf said, that he and Hopwood were both trying to emulate justice.

“I don’t know if it was atonement as much as it was, ‘Carry on--keep doing what you’re doing,’” Kopf said, thinking out loud. “I would do anything for Shon.”

Hopwood is still, at 41, haunted by guilt and regret for his crimes. But he is an optimist by nature, and he has accepted that he can only change the future. Now his primary goal is to help people, whether by serving as a reminder that you can turn your life around, by giving students an understanding of the real impact of the law, or, he hopes, by influencing the criminal justice system.

So while he kept the letter from a law firm offering him $400,000 a year, it was just as a curiosity. The money would be nice, but influence is what he wants. The Capitol dome is literally in view from campus, and most days he walks right past the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ headquarters.

Even now, preparing to start a new position at Georgetown on July 1 as an associate professor of law, with a young family, and all the gratitude he has for the friends along the way, he doesn’t feel like he’s made it.

“I’ll feel that way when the federal government passes a bill that gets rid of federal mandatory sentences,” he said. “That will be the moment for me.”

[nancy-astorga]

WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange may face criminal charges in the US

The Department of Justice is reportedly considering criminal charges against WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange for their roles in several leaks dating back to 2010, multiple news outlets reported on Thursday.

WikiLeaks was one of several publications that published sensitive military files obtained from a former US Army intelligence analyst several years ago — and more recently dumped thousands of documents that it said detailed the hacking tools and techniques used by the CIA for foreign espionage in what appeared to be the largest leak of CIA documents in history.

Potential charges against WikiLeaks include conspiracy, theft of government property, or violating the Espionage Act, according to The Washington Post and CNN.

Assange is currently living out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London — avoiding arrest on a separate warrant for a rape charge in Sweden. Much to the US’s chagrin, president-elect Lenín Moreno, who was recently confirmed the winner of Ecuador’s presidential election after a recount, supports Assange and had no plans for his extradition.

It was unclear whether an official memo on the matter, still in the early stages, was drafted to pursue charges for the organization’s role in leaks that damaged the Democratic Party during the 2016 presidential election.

In 2010, WikiLeaks made available to the public thousands of classified cables and documents from the military and the State Department. However, during President Barack Obama’s tenure, the Justice Department decided against charging WikiLeaks, reasoning that it would be too difficult and similar to prosecuting a news organization that published classified information, The Post reported.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, said prosecutors were taking another look at the previous administration’s findings.

“We are going to step up our effort and already are stepping up our efforts on all leaks,” Sessions said in a news conference on Thursday. “This is a matter that’s gone beyond anything I’m aware of.”

“We have professionals that have been in the security business of the United States for many years that are shocked by the number of leaks and some of them are quite serious,” Sessions continued. “So yes, it is a priority. We’ve already begun to step up our efforts and whenever a case can be made, we will seek to put some people in jail.”

In the more recent leak in March, top-secret files were published — allegedly by way of a CIA employee or contractor who operated a tool normally used by the spy agency to infiltrate various electronic devices, from smartphones to smart televisions and computers.

Thousands of top-secret files were leaked after the infiltrator used an “attack code” — which could be used to break into products from companies like Apple, Google, Samsung, and Microsoft — to “gain unauthorized access to computers and smartphones,” especially if software updates meant to patch certain vulnerabilities weren’t available. The breach has since been referred to as “Vault 7” by WikiLeaks.

CIA spokeswoman Heather Fritz Horniak delivered a stern rebuke against WikiLeaks for its part in Vault 7.

“The American public should be deeply troubled by any WikiLeaks disclosure designed to damage the intelligence community’s ability to protect America against terrorists and other adversaries,” Horniak said. “Such disclosures not only jeopardize US personnel and operations, but also equip our adversaries with tools and information to do us harm.

The Justice Department’s charges also coincide with the sharp rhetoric from CIA director Mike Pompeo earlier this month, who called WikiLeaks “a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia.”

Representatives for WikiLeaks — who claim that the US Justice Department had not discussed the matters with them despite requests — remain steadfast in their belief that there is “no legitimate basis” for the Justice Department to treat their organization differently than other news outlets, The Post reported.

“The fact of the matter is — however frustrating it might be to whoever looks bad when information is published — WikiLeaks is a publisher, and they are publishing truthful information that is in the public’s interest,” said Barry J. Pollack, Assange’s attorney. “Democracy thrives because there are independent journalists reporting on what it is that the government is doing.”

Pollack also added that he wished the new administration would be “more respectful, not less respectful of the First Amendment than the prior administration was.”

SEE ALSO: The CIA is hunting for an insider who gave top-secret files to WikiLeaks

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Meet the MQ-25A Stingray — the US’s response to threats like China’s ‘carrier killers’

[magiamemoriareview]

Eternal Darkness Party

Obtainability: Limited for the “Dark Halloween is the Color of Love” event shop. This is a event bonus memoria and it should be kept in case of a rerun.  

MLB Effect: Attack Down [35%] (All / 1 Turn)

Effect Definitions:

Attack Down is a Debuff that will decrease the target’s base attack.

TLDR: “Eternal Darkness Party” is good for Magia Stall Teams and for Free-to-Play players who don’t have many memoria to use. However if you do have better memoria to field, this becomes Enhancement Fodder (or alternatively it belongs in the Memoria Vault Jail if you want to save it for the possibility of an event rerun).

Review: “Eternal Darkness Party” is okay. There are many better memoria to use in the game, and its usage is diminished by how good your account is. 

Attack Down is a good effect for Magia Stall teams (and to a lesser extent, so is Damage Down). At a percentage of 35% and with a relatively low cooldown at six turns, “Eternal Darkness Party” should be helpful in debuffing the enemy, ensuring that troublesome bosses deal as little damage to you as possible. On a Magia Stall team, you can equip multiple Attack Down active memoria, allowing you to blanket the enemy in debuffs for as many turns in a row as you can. So if you plan on using Magia Stall strategies in situations such as the Hundred Evils, multiple memoria with Attack Down are a good thing to have.

Other Attack Down memoria include:

(Limited Gacha 4*) “Even Games Are Serious” Attack Down [65%] (One / 1 Turn) & Defense Up [52.5%] (Self / 1 Turn)  

(Limited Gacha 4*) “The True Gift Was the Smile” Attack Down [65%] & Dazzle [100%] (One / 1 Turn)

(Limited Gacha 4*) “For This Fine Day” Attack Down [50%] & Damage Down [45%] (One / 1 Turn)

(4*) “The Way Home after the Rain (Mito)” Attack Down [50%] & Defense Down [45%] (All / 1 Turn)

(4*) “Hiding the Real Me” Attack Down [50%] (One / 1 Turn) & Skill Quicken [100%] (Self / 1 Turn)

(Limited Welfare 3*) “Eternal Darkness Party” Attack Down [35%] (All / 1 Turn)  

(Limited Gacha 3*) “Wash Away The Past” Attack Down [35%] & Fog [100%] (One / 1 Turn)  

(Limited Gacha 3*) “Light Attributed Characters” Attack Down [35%] & Dazzle [45%] (One / 1 turn)

(3*) “The Way Home after the Rain (Leila)” Attack Down [35%] (One / 1 Turn) & Darkness [100%]

(4*) “An Inhabitant from Another World” Attack Down [30%] & Charm [42.5%] (All / 1 turn)

(Limited Gacha 3*) “Keep Promises in the Heart” Attack Down [30%] & Defense Down [30%] (One / 1 Turn)

(Limited Welfare 3*) “A Place of Ease” Attack Down [30%] (All / 1 Turn)

(2*) “Busy After School” Attack Down [30%] (One / 1 Turn)

This is a long list, even when editing it for what most players are likely to have. Still, it’s unlikely a player will have all of these, as several are limited and even the four-stars might be hard to grab considering how large the unlimited pool is these days. Additionally, free-to-play players, for whom the Magia Stall strategy is most useful for, are probably going to be lacking in memoria selection. Therefor while “Eternal Darkness Party” isn’t as good as several of these, it’s also still helpful when you don’t have many on hand.

So... the usefulness of this memoria depends on what memoria you have and what teams you’re using. If you need to use a Magia Stall team, then this will be helpful. If you don’t have a lot of Attack Down memoria, then this will be helpful. 

Outside of that, you can chuck it into the Memoria Vault Jail in case the event is eventually rerun. Alternatively you can use it as Enhancement Fodder.

[magiamemoriareview]

The Ria-chan Murder (?) Incident

Obtainability: Limited for the “Rainbow Colored Summer” event shop. This is event bonus memoria and it should be kept in case of a rerun.

MLB Effect: Regenerate HP [5%] & Magia Damage Up [10%]

Effect Definitions:

Regenerate HP will cause the equipped character to regenerate a percentage of their HP for the number of listed turns. The Regen will occur at the end of the turn (note: the end of the enemy’s turn). Regenerate HP can stack.

Magia Damage Up increases the damage done by a Magia or a Doppel.

TLDR: This memoria belongs in the Memoria Vault.

Review: “The Ria-chan Murder Incident” is pretty poor. If it wasn’t for the fact that it was Event Bonus Memoria, it would easily be Enhancement Fodder.

Without wasting too many words, the only thing this will really offer to any player is some passive stats. More established players will have something always better to equip while newer players are better off purchasing better memoria from the Support Point shop, such as “Kyubey Knight Breaking Through.”

There are better memoria in the game to use that can give Magia Damage Up, such as:

(4*) “A Moment of Peace” Magia Damage Up [30%] & Accele MP Gain Up [17.5%] & Status Ailment Resistance Down (Self) [10%]  

(4*) “Here With You” Magia Damage Up [25%]

(4*) “The Invincible Snacks General” Magia Damage Up [20%] & Anti-Magia Seal [100%]

(Limited Welfare 4*) “An Odd Coincidence” Magia Damage Up [15%] & Accele MP Gain Up [17.5%]

(Limited Welfare 4*) “Goodbye Fable” Magia Damage Up [15%] & Accele MP Gain Up [17.5%]

(Limited Welfare 4*) “The Heroine I Longed to Be” Magia Damage Up [12.5%] & Blast Damage Cut [15%]

(Limited Welfare 4*) “The 2nd Christmas Carol” Magia Damage Up [12.5%] Blast Damage Cut [15%]

(Limited Gacha 4*) “Miracle Heroines” Magia Damage Up [12.5%] & Attack Up [25%]

(Limited Welfare 4*) “A Christmas Miracle” Magia Damage Up [12.5%] & Magia Damage Cut [20%]

(4*) “I Can Make a Serious Face Too, You Know” Magia Damage Up [12.5%] & Regenerate HP [6%]

(4*) “Super Soft Familiar” Magia Damage Up [12.5%] & Blast Damage Up [35%]

(Limited Gacha 3*) “What I Once Hoped For” Magia Damage Up [12.5%] & Evade [20%]

(3*) “The Magical Girls Who Entwine Fates With Madoka” Magia Damage Up [12.5%]

Overall, you can do better than this. Stick this in the Memoria Vault Jail until its respective event is rerun, then you can treat it as the Enhancement Fodder that it is.

[magiamemoriareview]

Witch's Traffic Safety

Obtainability: Limited to the “Snow Thawing Befana” event shop. This is an event bonus memoria and should be kept in case of a rerun.

MLB Effect: Burn [40%] (All Enemies / 1 Turn)

Effect Definitions:

Burn is a Status Ailment that will damage the afflicted target for 10% HP per turn, and it will also make the target take 80% more damage from its weak element. Burn chance can stack. Note that damaging Status Ailments have a stacked maximum of inflicting 10,000 HP done per turn.  

TLDR: This memoria belongs in the Memoria Vault in case its respective Event is ever rerun. If you don’t care about that, then it can be considered Enhancement Fodder.

Review: This memoria has the same exact effect as the memoria “Sending Thoughts Back to You”. Because of this, the review will be copy+pasted.

A 40% chance to Burn all targets is kind of poor. It’s has a less than half chance of working, admittedly against all enemies, making it unreliable.

If you want to use a Status Ailment, it’s likely to either prevent an enemy’s Evade from working, to increase your offense through the enemy taking 80% increased damage from its weak element, or by increasing your offense by using the effect “Damage Up Versus Enemies Affected With Status Ailments.” For all of these cases, “Witch's Traffic Safety” just isn’t reliable enough.

Unfortunately, you can’t find any active Burn memoria that have a better chance of working against all the enemies, but several memoria exist that have a 100% chance of working against one enemy, including one free welfare memoria:

(Limited Gacha 4*) “Never Ending Fairy Tale” Burn [100%] (Target / 1 Turn) & Magia Damage Up [20%] (Self / 1 Turn)

(Limited Gacha 4*) “Fire Drake Roars” Burn [100%] & Defense Down [45%] (One / 1 Turn)

(Limited Welfare 4*) “Naked Heart” Burn [100%] (One / 1 Turn) & Defense Down [30%] (One / 3 Turns)

(Limited Welfare 3*) “Sending Thoughts Back to You” Burn [40%] (All Enemies / 1 Turn)  

(Limited Welfare 3*) “Witch's Traffic Safety” Burn [40%] (All / 1 Turn)

If you’re looking for a damage-dealing Status Ailment, then you can also consider the following:

(Limited Gacha 4*) “Candy for the Defiant” Curse [100%] & Poison [100%] (One / 1 Turn) & Damage Up Versus Enemies Affected With Status Ailments [45%] (Self / 1 Turn)  

(Limited Welfare 4*) “Magical Halloween Theater” Curse [100%] & Defense Down [45%] (One / 1 Turn)

(Limited Welfare 4*) “Their Connected Destination” Curse [100%] (One / 1 Turn)

The memoria “Magical Halloween Theater” and “Their Connected Destination” are especially notable as they are very free-to-play friendly in terms of acquiring them. You only need 2000 support points to purchase them in the Support Point Shop: an outright steal.

If it wasn’t for the fact that “Witch's Traffic Safety” is Event Bonus Memoria, this would be considered Enhancement Fodder. Alas, you should throw this into your Memoria Vault instead just in case the event is ever rerun.

[magiamemoriareview]

Homecoming is a Dream

Obtainability: Limited to the “New Years First Dream of the Year Scramble” event shop. This is Event Bonus Memoria and should be kept in case of a rerun.

MLB Effect: Anti-Curse [100%] & Anti-Darkness [100%] & Blast Damage Up [20%]

Effect Definitions:

Anti-Curse prevents the equipped unit from being afflicted with Curse. Curse is a Status Ailment that will damage the afflicted target for 15% HP per turn, make the target take 80% more damage from its weak element, and prevent the target from recovering HP.

Anti-Darkness prevents the equipped unit from being afflicted with Darkness. Darkness is a Status Ailment that will cause the afflicted target to have a 35% chance to miss their attacks, and it will also make the target take 80% more damage from its weak element.

Blast Damage Up is a straightforward buff that means Blast Discs will deal more damage. Blast Damage Up has a capped percentage at 100%.

TLDR: “Homecoming is a Dream” belongs in the Memoria Vault. It’s not great, but Anti-Darkness memoria can be hard to find as they’re always limited.

Review: “Homecoming is a Dream” isn’t great, but it’s not the worst memoria out there. It’s probably more helpful for new players than it is established ones, as many long-time players will have access to several Anti-Curse options that are far better to use and a growing number of Anti-Darkness ones-- however, do note that Anti-Darkness can only be found on either four-star welfare memoria or limited three-star gacha ones. If you somehow don’t have any Anti-Darkness memoria, you’ll want to keep “Homecoming is a Dream” for the future.

Hilariously, this memoria is an exact replica of “Like This Until When” except with worse passive ATK stats. Otherwise its effects are the same with the same percentages.

Other Anti-Curse memoria in the game:

(Limited Gacha 4*) “The Pumpkin King Is Very Pleased” Anti-Curse [100%] & Attack Up [15%] & Damage Increase [15%]

(Limited Welfare 4*) “Visit of the Masked Student Council” Anti-Curse [100%] & Damage Increase [15%]

(Limited Welfare 4*) “Like This Until When” Anti-Curse [100%] & Anti-Darkness [100%] & Blast Damage Up [20%]

(4*) “My Bible” Anti-Curse [100%] & Damage Increase [25%]

(3*) “My Things” Accele MP Gain Up [15%] & Anti-Curse [100%]

(2*) “The Way Home after the Rain (Seika)” Anti-Curse [100%] & Attack Up [10%]

(Limited 3*) “May the Wishes Be Heard” Anti-Curse [65%] & Anti-Burn [65%] & Anti-Poison [100%]

Other Anti-Darkness memoria in the game:

(Limited Welfare 4*) “Searching at the Beach” Anti-Darkness [100%] & Anti-Dazzle [100%] & Anti-Fog [100%]

(Limited Welfare 4*) “Until the Day We Reach the Stars” Anti-Darkness [100%] & Anti-Charm [100%] & Anti-Dazzle [100%]

(Limited Welfare 4*) “Good Child Good Child” Anti-Darkness [100%] & Anti-Dazzle [100%] & Anti-Fog [100%]

(Limited Welfare 4*) “Like This Until When” Anti-Darkness [100%] & Anti-Curse [100%] & Blast Damage Up [20%]

(Limited Gacha 3*) “Relaxing in the Park” Accele MP Gain Up [15%] & Anti-Darkness [100%]

(Limited Gacha 3*) “A Sea and Sky for Just the Two of Us” Anti-Darkness [100%] & Status Ailment Resistance Up [30%]

Memoria like “My Bible”, “Visit of the Masked Student Council”, or “The Pumpkin King Is Very Pleased” are better to use if you just need Anti-Curse as an effect, as you won’t be sacrificing potential damage when equipping them. However, you have less options when it comes to Anti-Darkness. 

Most Anti-Darkness memoria don’t have a good offensive effect attached to them, making “Homecoming is a Dream” and “Like This Until When” the only ones with any potential benefit in the form of 20% Blast Damage Up. However, that only matters if you’re using a character who will be using Blast discs. If you aren’t, go for the memoria with the best passive ATK (or alternatively, whatever secondary effect you need most).

Before wrapping this review up, you should also consider if you need to use Anti-Curse or Anti-Darkness memoria at all. The benefit of Negate/Anti memoria is that they are fully preventative. Status Ailment Resistance Up can go up to 100% but you can still get hit by an Ailment, while you never will with an Anti/Negate effect.

However, modern Magia Record play has more alternatives. Instead of equipping straight-out Anti-Curse or Status Ailment Resistance Up, you could field a unit like Madoka & Iroha who will negate the first two Status Ailments for every unit on the board. Alternatively, characters like Kako Natsume will the effect “Remove Status Ailments” on their Magia/Doppel, letting you wipe clean all pesky ailments from your afflicted units. 

Of course, sometimes prevention is the best approach. But there are multiple ways to deal with Status Ailments these days, including having units so powerful you don’t need to worry about them getting attacked, because you kill all your enemies first.

This memoria can go in your Memoria Vault until it’s needed.

[magiamemoriareview]

Grassroots Valentine

Obtainability: Limited to the “Valentines Message” event shop. This is event bonus memoria and it should be kept in case of a rerun.  

MLB Effect: Blast Damage Up [25%] & Accele MP Gain Up [15%] (Self / 1 Turn)

Effect Definitions:

Blast Damage Up is a straightforward buff that means Blast Discs will deal more damage. Blast Damage Up has a capped percentage at 100%.

Accele MP Gain Up will increase the amount of MP gained by using Accele discs.

TLDR: This memoria belongs in the Memoria Vault Jail.

Review: “Grassroots Valentine” is decidedly meh. It’s two effects don’t synergize very well and their percentages offered are rather low, especially since they only last for one turn. Additionally, there are better memoria in the game (including unlimiteds) that can do what “Grassroots Valentine” does but much better.

Now, one thing about active memoria with Accele MP Gain Up and Blast Damage Up is that it can be useful on Supports who can do either Magia or Blast playstyles... But this memoria isn’t great for that either, since the amount of each effect it offers is poor.

The upside of “Grassroots Valentine” is that it’s essentially free as an event shop memoria, so for some very new players this will be a nice addition to their collection. But for nearly everyone else, this is below average, even for event shop memoria standards.

Because this is Event Bonus Memoria, I do not advise using this as Enhancement Fodder. Instead, stick it in the Memoria Vault.

(This memoria is the same as “You Want to Meet Ai” and as such, some elements were copy+pasted).

[magiamemoriareview]

If You Want to Go to Sleep...

Obtainability: This is a limited memoria that can be purchased during the “2000 Days Since Release” Campaign.

MLB Effect: Defense Up [30%] & Status Ailment Resistance Up [30%]

Effect Definitions:

Defense Up increases the target’s base defense stats. Defense Up is generally worse than Damage Cut.

Status Ailment Resistance Up will decrease the chance of the equipped target to be afflicted by a Status Ailment. Even at 100%, it is still possible for a character to be hit by a Status Ailment. This effect will stack.

TLDR: “If You Want to Go to Sleep” is a defensive memoria in a game that doesn’t really reward defensive gameplay-- however it might be helpful in Magia Stall teams and perhaps in Ranked Mirrors if you’re really struggling for defensive memoria. For most players though, this belongs either in the Memoria Vault Jail or as straight up Enhancement Fodder.

Review: “If You Want to Go to Sleep” is a decent free memoria. Most players won’t find this one to be that helpful, but it has some uses for new players and some free-to-play players. It’s a defensive memoria that combines the protective Defense Up effect with the preventative Status Ailment Resistance Up.

Now, Magia Record is not a game that prioritizes defense-- you’re almost always better going on the offensive and using buffs like Attack Up or Damage Increase because you can either waste ten turns protecting your team or finish a battle in one turn with a decisive and powerful blow. 

However there are circumstances where this isn’t possible. For example, if you’re a new player and/or free-to-play player, you may be considering Magia Stall teams for battles such as the Hundred Evils, where defensive memoria help “stall” your fights as you build up Magia/Doppels to kill the enemy with. (You can read more about the Magia Stall team strategy here). Effects like MP Gain Up and Accele MP Gain Up are important for this strategy to help build up MP, but so can Defense Up/Damage Cut. If you go this route, just make sure you’re not only equipping your characters with defensives-- they need offensives/mp too so that they can eventually kill their targets.

One last thing to note-- Status Ailment Resistance Up can be better on a tank sometimes than a regular damage dealer. This is because tanks can easily be destroyed by Ailments such as Curse or Burn. These status ailments are percentage-based, not HP-based, so they can chew through high HP like nothing else. Additionally tanks will struggle to actually defend their teams if they’re tied up in Binds, Charms, or Stuns. If you go the Magia Stall route, carefully consider who gets what memoria.

There are several memoria in the game that can do what “If You Want to Go to Sleep” does but better-- these range from easily acquired event rewards to limited memoria. A middle ground would be:

(4*) “Hand-Waving Happiness” Status Ailment Resistance Up [35%] & Defense Up [45%]

(4*) “The Power to Protect Who You Love” Defense Up [30%] & Damage Cut [15%] & Defense Up When At Critical Health [40%]

(4*) “Everyday Overflowing with Pride” Defense Up [37.5%] & Attack Up [25%]

“Hand-Waving Happiness” is an unlimited gacha memoria, so it will require multiple copies to max awaken and then investment to level it up. However, it’s the superior version of  “If You Want to Go to Sleep”, outclassing it in both effect percentages and also in its passive stats. “The Power to Protect Who You Love” is still a good defensive choice if you have it max-awakened. It adds extra protectiveness through the addition of Damage Cut and extra Defense Up if the tank should enter Critical Health. “Everyday Overflowing with Pride” is an excellent choice for a solid offensive and defensive memoria all in one. 

As for welfare comparisons, you have the Jun/Mitsune memoria:

(Limited Welfare 4*) “The Great Escape” Defense Up [37.5%] & Anti-Charm [100%] & Anti-Poison [100%]

This is an event welfare memoria that players received upon defeating the Girls in the Hood event. It has advantages and disadvantages over “If You Want to Go to Sleep”. Notably it has higher Defense Up and it swaps out Status Ailment Resistance Up for the more direct Anti-Charm and Anti-Poison. Note that you can still get hit with a Status Ailment, even if you have 100% Status Ailment Resistance Up, so “The Great Escape” is superior to use if you know for certain that you will only be facing Poison or Charm in the upcoming fight.

As for limited memoria, your option is:

(Limited Gacha 4*) “Watching Over a Small First Dream of the Year” Defense Up [37.5%] & Damage Increase [15%] & Attack Up [20%]

“Watching Over a Small First Dream of the Year” is quite frankly insane in how good it is as a memoria. It offers a high amount of Defense Up and a high amount of offensive capability between both its Damage Increase and Attack Up. It absolutely outclasses “If You Want to Go to Sleep” but that should be expected when comparing a limited memoria to a free welfare one.

These following limited memoria combine Defense Up with MP Gain Up of some kind:

(Limited Gacha 4*) “You Can Wear Any Outfit You Want” Defense Up [30%] & MP Gain Up [10%] & Accele MP Gain Up [17.5%]

(Limited Gacha 4*) “Beyond the Waves” Defense Up [30%] & MP Gain Up [10%] & Damage Cut [25%]

(Limited Gacha 4*) “Inside the Heart Even When Cold” Defense Up [45%] & MP Gain Up [12.5%]

This is arguably much better than Status Ailment Resistance Up, as even tanks will want MP gain to help better support their team through Doppels or Magia. Additionally, this can make it better for Ranked Mirrors, where Magia/Doppels are king. 

Hopefully these comparisons help explain the capabilities of “If You Want to Go to Sleep.” It’s a decent for a free memoria but it can be outclassed by other unlimited memoria (and definitely by limited ones). However, for players who don’t have many memoria on hand or for players who are using Magia Stall strategies, this can be a helpful freebie that can assist in any Hundred Evils Challenges.

Lastly, there is one other possible use for this memoria-- Mirrors. One can use this memoria to help manipulate the AI into attacking who you want through the use of high Defense Up. There are many better memoria to use, as listed above, that will allow you to keep a character safe without sacrificing offensive buffs, but this can do in a pinch if your account is lacking.

[magiamemoriareview]

Blood and Feelings Melt Together

Obtainability: Limited to the “Battle Shamanesses of Kamihama” event shop. This is event bonus memoria and it should be kept in case of a rerun.

MLB Effect: Guardian [100%] (1 Turn)

Effect Definitions:

Guardian will cause the equipped character to take an attack in place of an Ally, meaning that the character will physically move to block said attack. The equipped character and the protected Ally will both gain MP from being attacked. Has no effect if both the user and the ally are hit by the same Blast disc.

TLDR: This memoria belongs in the Memoria Vault Jail.

Review: “Blood and Feelings Melt Together” is okay for newer players and unlucky free-to-play players. There are two four-star memoria that outclass it thanks to having better passive stats and the presence of a secondary effect:

(Limited Welfare 4*) “Up to 300 Yen Per Person” Guardian [100%] & Regenerate HP [10%] (Self / 1 Turn)

(4*) “Recovery and Resolve” Defense Up [67.5%] & Guardian [100%] (Self / 1 Turn)

Meanwhile there is an unlimited three-star memoria that also similarly only gives Guardian:

(3*) “Nice Feeling Only Between Us” Guardian [100%] (Self / 1 turn)

Notably “Blood and Feelings Melt Together” has a lower cooldown at 7 instead of 9. However this comes with the tradeoff of having significantly worse passive DEF stats. “Nice Feeling Only Between Us” will have a heft 1735 when fully leveled, while “Blood and Feelings Melt Together” has a more pitiful 1385. The presence of some Defense Up or Damage Cut can help mitigate this if you want that lower cooldown.

It goes without saying that this will be decent on a tank, however also keep in mind that several tanks might have innate Provoke or Guardian features built into their kit either through Spirit Enhancement Actives or Magia/Doppels. Instead of wasting a memoria slot on an unneeded Guardian, you could use it on a defensive cooldown or the ever-popular Mito Rain to help squeeze in more damage.

Otherwise there’s nothing too much to say about this memoria. Unless you are very unlucky, you are likely to have much better options to use. I wouldn’t recommend getting rid of it just yet, in case the event gets a rerun in the future, so it’s best to throw this into the Memoria Vault Jail.

[magiamemoriareview]

Lump of Love

Obtainability: This is a personal memoria for Kirika Kure. It is obtainable through completing the third episode of her Magical Girl Story and through the Support Gacha.  

Single Effect: Counter [100%] (Self / 1 Turn)

MLB Effect: Counter [100%] (Self / 1 Turn)

Effect Definitions:

Counter gives an equipped character the chance to attack back if damaged by an enemy by the percentage shown. This does not give MP to either the attacker or receiver, it does not apply any on-hit effects, and it will ignore Evade. Guardian will not activate Counter.

TLDR: “Lump of Love” is Enhancement Fodder, though you can keep it in the Memoria Vault Jail on the very low off-chance it could be useful one day. 

Review: “Lump of Love” is the only memoria in the game to currently give active Counter. While this makes it a unique memoria, it unfortunately does not make it a good one.

Counter has its uses in the game, but probably not in content where this memoria would actually see usage. It’s best seen in Mirrors, where an enemy counter can wipe out effects like “Attack Up While at Max Health” or “Defense Up While at Max Health” (of course, this assumes the enemy survives the attack to retaliate). However, this doesn’t apply to “Lump of Love” because Kirika won’t be seen in Mirrors and because “Lump of Love’s” obscenely long cooldown makes it practically useless to bring along.

Counter is less likely to be seen in PVE content. It’s possible that one might try and use it against enemies with evade, but evade is better dealt with more directly with other methods such as Anti-Evade, inflicting Status Ailments, or even using a Magia/Doppel. 

Unfortunately, even if you find yourself in a situation where you might want to use Counter, “Lump of Love” still suffers. This is because it’s only Counter. While it does provide 100% Counter, what it doesn’t provide is a Provoke or some way to guarantee that Kirika Kure will take any of the enemies’ attacks that would make Counter useful. This is especially a problem when Kirika does not have an active provoke she can use natively in her kit.

Her Spirit Enhancement active for example isn’t something like Provoke, but Blast Damage Up.

While she does have a passive Chance to Provoke in her Spirit Enhancement, it’s low at 15% and not a guarantee. 

Kirika Kure does however get 100% Provoke on her Magia and Doppel, so maybe you’re thinking that you could pair “Lump of Love” alongside using one of those. However, there’s an issue:

Her Magia and Doppel will already come with 100% Counter. Using “Lump of Love” here is wasteful.

Of course, this ignores the fact that other memoria do exist. You can combine “Lump of Love” with a Provoke active memoria at the very least:

(Limited Gacha 4*) “Equal Destruction to All” Provoke [100%] & Defense Up [52.5%] &Attack Up [35%] (Self / 1 Turn)  

(4*) “Never-Ending Practice” Provoke [100%] & Defense Up [67.5%] (Self / 1 Turn)

(Limited Welfare 4*) “Prayer Connecting the Dead and the Live” Provoke [100%] & Damage Cut [35%] (Self / 1 Turn)

(3*) “Tranquil Morning Practice” Provoke [45%] (Self / 1 Turn)

However this means that you’re using up two active memoria slots just to make one personal memoria work for a strategy that isn’t going to see much usage, if any at all.

This personal memoria is poorly designed for her kit. It’s unique as the only active Counter in the game, but that’s not enough to save it. 

You can treat this memoria as Enhancement Fodder or you can throw it in the Memo Vault Jail on the very low chance that it might be useful one day.

Lastly, please note that if you should decide to keep this memoria, “Lump of Love” will already come with 100% Counter, even if not Max Awakened. Max Awakening this memoria only means that its cooldown will go from 15 to 13, and that it has better passive stats (but even then, only if you should choose to level it to max).

[magiamemoriareview]

Bitter & Citrus

Obtainability: Limited to completing the “Valentines Message” event.

MLB Effect: Damage Cut [15%] & Defense Up [15%]

Effect Definitions:

Damage Cut reduces the damage from incoming attacks onto the equipped character, and its effects are calculated after buffs/debuffs are considered. Damage Cut is generally better than Defense Up.

Defense Up increases the target’s base defense stats. Defense Up is generally worse than Damage Cut.

TLDR: "Bitter & Citrus” is going to be more useful for new players and/or Free-to-Play players as there are other memoria in the game that are better. For everyone else, it belongs in the Memo Vault Jail.

Review: “Bitter & Citrus” is a defensive memoria. It has the same effects and percentages as the following memoria: 

(Limited Welfare 4*) “AI Want to Meet You” Defense Up [15%] & Damage Cut [15%]

When comparing the two, “AI Want to Meet You” has slightly better ATK stats and "Bitter & Citrus” has slightly better HP stats. However this difference is largely minimal. The review is going to be copy +pasted because this reviewer is as energetic as the devs are creative when it comes to making new effects for event welfare memoria apparently.

“Bitter & Citrus” is a worse version of the unlimited memoria “The Power to Protect Who You Love,” but it’s by no means bad. After all, “Bitter & Citrus” comes fully awakened and leveled, making it good for Free-to-Play players who may not have a lot of defensive memoria.

The Defense Up and Damage Cut synergize very well. Having both Damage Cut and Defense Up is useful against fights against enemies with Defense Pierce or Ignore Damage Cut, as they rarely have both on them at the same time, and this allows you to fully protect a character. “Bitter & Citrus” will be especially useful for tanks (and maybe supports / heals) who really need that extra protection.

You can compare this memoria to other extra defensive memoria such as:

(Limited Gacha 4*) “Jumping for Tempering” Defense Up [30%] & Regenerate HP [4%] & Defense Up While At Max Health [50%]

(4*) “Hand-Waving Happiness” Defense Up [45%] & Status Ailment Resistance Up [35%]

(Limited Welfare 4*) “The Great Escape” Defense Up [37.5%] & Anti-Charm [100%] & Anti-Poison [100%]

(Limited Mirrors 4*) “Transparent Feelings Reflected in the Mirror” Defense Up [30%] & Guardian [30%] & Damage Cut [15%]

(Limited Gacha 4*) “Beyond the Waves” Defense Up [30%] & MP Gain Up [10%] & Damage Cut [25%]

(Limited Gacha Welfare 4*) “If You Want to Go to Sleep...” Defense Up [30%] & Status Ailment Resistance Up [30%]  

(4*) “Slowly, But Steadily” Defense Up [30%] & Damage Cut [25%] & Attack Down [25%]

(4*) “The Power to Protect Who You Love” Defense Up [30%] & Damage Cut [15%] & Defense Up When At Critical Health [40%]

(3*) “A Rough Welcome in the Sewers” Defense Up [30%] & Anti-Stun [100%]

(3*) “The Mao Family Is Lively Today As Well” Defense Up [30%] & Status Ailment Resistance Up [30%]

(Limited Gacha 4*) “The Lively Roar of the Sea” Damage Cut [30%] & MP Gain Up [12.5%]  

(4*) “Rest Deliciously” Damage Cut [20%] & Defense Up While At Max Health [90%]

(Limited Welfare 4*) “AI Want to Meet You” Damage Cut [15%] & Defense Up [15%]

Just keep in mind that the game largely rewards and prioritizes offensive gameplay over defensive gameplay. You may be better off using a memoria that combines offensive and defensive elements such as “Stars to Express Gratitude” or “Everyday Overflowing with Pride” instead.

However for the new player or free-to-play player without a lot of memoria on hand, this can work in a pinch. It’s possible this could see usage on Stall teams.

If you’re more established in the game, this memoria can rot in your Memo Vault Jail instead.

[magiamemoriareview]

To Protect the Future

Obtainability: Unlimited.

Single Effect: Damage Cut [5%] & Defense Up [15%]

MLB Effect: Damage Cut [10%] & Defense Up [22.5%]

Effect Definitions:

Damage Cut reduces the damage from incoming attacks onto the equipped character, and its effects are calculated after buffs/debuffs are considered. Damage Cut is generally better than Defense Up.

Defense Up increases the target’s base defense stats. Defense Up is generally worse than Damage Cut.

TLDR: This is a very defensive three-star memoria as it has two defensive effects-- however this also means that it is less useful in areas like Ranked. If you’re looking for a cheap defensive memoria option, “To Protect the Future” is pretty useful-- otherwise it becomes Enhancement Fodder.

Review: “To Protect the Future” is a defensive memoria and probably one of the better defensive unlimited three-star options-- however, it’s still not going to be as good as other four-star options and its defensive nature might actually hold it back from seeing a lot of play. 

Before going into its flaws, let’s talk about how could it be possibly useful-- it’s very tanky. When max awakened, it contains a reasonable amount of Defense Up and a lower amount of Damage Cut, that together make a protective memoria. You can compare it to many other memoria in the game:

Defense Up:

(4*) “Hand-Waving Happiness” Defense Up [45%] & Status Ailment Resistance Up [35%]

(Limited Welfare 4*) “The Great Escape” Defense Up [37.5%] & Anti-Charm [100%] & Anti-Poison [100%]

(4*) “Everyday Overflowing with Pride” Defense Up [37.5%] & Attack Up [25%]

(Limited Mirrors 4*) “Transparent Feelings Reflected in the Mirror” Defense Up [30%] & Guardian [30%] & Damage Cut [15%]

(Limited Gacha 4*) “You Can Wear Any Outfit You Want” Defense Up [30%] & MP Gain Up [10%] & Accele MP Gain Up [17.5%]

(Limited Gacha 4*) “Beyond the Waves” Defense Up [30%] & MP Gain Up [10%] & Damage Cut [25%]

(4*) “Leave It to the Super Maid” Defense Up [30%] & Attack Up [20%] & Regenerate HP [3%]  

(4*) “Slowly, But Steadily” Defense Up [30%] & Attack Down [25%] & Damage Cut [25%]

(4*) “The Power to Protect Who You Love” Defense Up [30%] & Damage Cut [15%] & Defense Up When At Critical Health [40%]

(3*) “A Rough Welcome in the Sewers” Defense Up [30%] & Anti-Stun [100%]

(3*) “The Mao Family Is Lively Today As Well” Defense Up [30%] & Status Ailment Resistance Up [30%]

(3*) “As a Fashion Model” Defense Up [30%]

(Limited Gacha 3*) “Dive into Summer (Touka/Nemu)” Defense Up [22.5%] & MP Gain Up [10%]

(3*) “To Protect the Future” Defense Up [22.5%] & Damage Cut [10%]

(3*) “The Last Inquisitor” Defense Up [22.5%] & Anti-Poison [100%]

(3*) “What Flavor Is Break Time (Alina)” Defense Up [22.5%] & Attack Up [15%]

(2*) “An Ordinary Day” Defense Up [22.5%]

(2*) “Time Traveler” Defense Up [22.5%]

(Limited Welfare 4*) “AI Want to Meet You” Defense Up [15%] & Damage Cut [15%]

(Limited Welfare 4*) “Always Shopping with Everyone” Defense Up [15%] & Stun on Attack [15%] (1 Turn) & Blast Damage Up [20%]

(4*) “Depart on Morning Glow” Defense Up [15%] & Attack Up [15%] & Status Ailment Resistance Up [30%]

(3*) “Now the Two of Us Watch Over” Defense Up [15%] & Defense Up When At Critical Health [40%]

Damage Cut:

(Limited Gacha 4*) “The Lively Roar of the Sea” Damage Cut [30%] & MP Gain Up [12.5%]  

(Limited Gacha 4*) “The Captured Sun Bird” Damage Cut [25%] & Damage Increase [30%]

(Limited Gacha 4*) “I Just Wanted to Survive” Damage Cut [20%] & Blast Damage Up [45%]

(Limited Gacha 4*) “Stars to Express Gratitude” Damage Cut [20%] & Damage Increase [15%] & Attack Up [15%]

(Limited Gacha 4*) “Greetings from the Outside” Damage Cut [20%] & Attack Up [20%] & Status Ailment Resistance Up [30%]

(4*) “Kindness Can Be Made” Damage Cut [20%] & Damage Increase [25%]

(4*) “Rest Deliciously” Damage Cut [20%] & Defense Up While At Max Health [90%]

(Limited Gacha 4*) “Miko Sisters Dance” Damage Cut [15%] & Attack Up [20%] & Regenerate HP [4%]

(Limited Welfare 4*) “Hunting Magical Girls Is For Justice” Damage Cut [15%] & Damage Up [15%]

(Limited Welfare 4*) “Sweetly Melting Together at Dusk” Damage Cut [15%] & Critical Hit [20%]

(4*) “Me x4″ Damage Cut [15%] & Defense Up While At Max Health [80%]

(Limited Gacha 3*) “Hero of Prayer and Duty” Damage Cut [15%] & Damage Increase [15%]

(Limited Gacha 3*) “Without Conveying Our Feelings...” Damage Cut [15%] & Damage Increase [15%]

(3*) “First Time Make Up” Damage Cut [15%] & MP Gain Up [10%]

(2*) “Blissful World” Damage Cut [15%]

(Limited Welfare 4*) “Flowers, Fallen, Never to Return” Damage Cut [10%] & Attack Up [15%]

(3*) “To Protect the Future” Damage Cut [10%] & Defense Up [22.5%]

More specifically, when compared to its three-star counterparts, “To Protect the Future” is rather tanky. Several of them might have more Defense Up, but the combination of Defense Up and Damage Cut make “To Protect the Future” overall more protective. Of course, “To Protect the Future” doesn’t compare as well to four-star memoria, but as an unlimited three-star, it becomes an easy to max-awaken defensive option for non-whales.

However, not everything works out in this memoria’s favor. In fact, it’s defensiveness is also what leads it to being less useful.

Something important to note is that Damage Cut and Defense Up are both useful defensive tools. In general, Damage Cut is better and more protective than Defense Up is-- however, there are a few scenarios where you might prefer one over the other. The biggest one is Ranked Mirrors, where you can manipulate the enemy AI into attacking an enemy you want them to attack.

The enemy AI will target the unit with the lowest defense, but notably it does not factor in Damage Cut when it makes its calculations-- however, it does factor Defense Up. This means you can stack Damage Cut on units you want to be attacked, and Defense Up on units you do not want to be attacked.

The problem with “To Protect the Future” is that in having both effects present, it loses some possible Ranked uses for any players who are looking for less expensive options to utilize. 

However, this won’t always be the case. For example, being able to manipulate the enemy AI is important if you are using Darkness Mitama and need to make sure she is hit instead of a different character without using Provoke or Guardian-- but what if you’re a casual player who is using Sudachi’s active Provoke instead? Having the Defense Up and Damage Cut might be more useful to you in making her tankier (just make sure you don’t get hit by a dreaded Anti-Provoke).

Overall, “To Protect the Future” is a solidly decent three-star defensive memoria. You probably won’t be using it very often, as defensive memoria tend to be less useful than offensive ones, but it still might be of value for newer players and some free-to-play players. 

If you have better defensive memoria to use, this becomes Enhancement Fodder. For everyone else, this memoria can belong in the Memoria Vault Jail.