Pinch

Description
Upon casting, player character takes 1 damage. This damage is affected by the player's (minimum 1 damage) and does trigger on-hit effects. This is one of the starting spells of Reva's Beat loadout.

Strategy and Synergy
Pinch is an awkward spell at first sight as it poses nothing but negative effects to the player, but can be very useful if the player knows how to build around it in an effective manner. By nature of having 0 Pinch synergizes very well with certain Upgrades as well as Artifacts that present benefits to the player upon being hit and can become an extremely valuable pick over other spells that damage yourself.

Synergies with Upgrades
Pinch benefits from upgrades in order to make it a worthwhile value pick. This is important to know because players might be more inclined to take Pinch in Hazard encounters, or later on in the game where they would naturally have higher. The former gives the player a guaranteed pre-upgraded card (spell) selection, while the latter increases the chance that cards may randomly become already upgraded (once or twice - or thrice when gotten after Hazard encounters!) after any encounter proportional to the amount of Luck the player has, up to around 75, where all spells have a 100% chance to become pre-upgraded twice. These also majorly apply to other 0-cost spells, but note that since Pinch is self-targeted, a lot of upgrade options are inherently locked, and thus fishing for these upgrades will naturally become easier.


 * Pinch becomes a mini- where instead of taking 40 damage to gain 100, the player would take 1 damage to gain 10. Although technically, it is already more of a value pick compared to that spell, the shield gain itself is very minimal and may not be worth the amount of player attention required to cast it (which is why taking 0-costs aren't always the best idea since they are never really "free"). however, it's best to think it as a less consequential version of Corset. Corset may be extremely punishing if not used correctly and definitely lead to the player character's death and therefore ending up requiring more player attention than Pinch with Shield Upgrade would. Not to mention, this enables Pinch to get ShieldPlus Upgrade (U - Gain 20 additional Shield). With these two together, there is an argument to be made that this would become a better and more Mana-efficient version of.
 * Pinch effectively becomes an very easy method to gain max HP. It more often than not deals less damage than it would heal the player, and it costs nothing to boot. Even with a deck not focusing around self-damage, this is still a good pick nonetheless as it Consumes itself out of the player's deck (and thus wouldn't have any negative clutter effects at all). There is little reason to not pick this spell pre-upgraded with this when the player is presented with it other than when there are better alternatives to choose from.
 * Pinch becomes an efficient enabler of Flow in Flow decks. Since it has no Mana cost, having Pinch triggering Flow can be very relevant when the deck has little Flow enablers but has spells that desperately needed Flow, such as and, both of which becoming much less valuable if the effects of Flow Cast is not triggered. The downside being that this also deals 1 damage to you, which makes Pinch less valuable as a Flow enabler compared to other 0-costs such as , but that's mostly negligible. Additionally, Pinch can still trump over said other 0-costs as it would be able to support Flow decks with this upgrade while also still being able to support a sub-archetype of its own (self-damage) that is not even intrusive to the main deck archetype the player has (as Pinch relies on synergies with Upgrades and Artifacts, not other spells. Tri Force gives  - which requires Trinity spells to actually become relevant as well as  which is only really impactful in decks with multi-hitters and  decks that scales well with it). You can also give multiple Flow upgrades to this spell.
 * This is perhaps the most detrimental Upgrade this spell can have, since the Fragile being applied to yourself will likely hurt you for much more than the fine print in the original spell (it's even worse with ). However, even this can be made good with in some circumstances. This is of course speaking about Fragile synergies. Despite Pinch triggering on-hit effects, it doesn't actually remove Fragile stacks (which is up to debate on whether that's a boon or a bane; Pinch removing Fragile is also a common misconception) and therefore allowing the player to stack a lot of Fragile on themselves. This is of course, good, should the player have artifacts that relies on the player having Fragile such as and, or should they be playing as Violette with her Doubletime loadout who starts out with , and is not confident that their Fragile stacks would persist for the entirety of the fight since this is effectively Fragile generation at no cost. For that reason, it is also good with spells that have additional effects if the player has Fragile, such as  and . Of course, having said all of this, it is just a strictly worse , a spell that is of the same Brand and Rarity as Pinch, not to mention that Showdown itself is yet to be upgraded. However, same with the comparison made before with Tri Force, it can support itself as a sub-archetype in a non-intrusive manner as well which is one advantage it could have over Showdown.
 * Despite raising its cost to 1 Mana, Pinch manages to benefit greatly from this upgrade. Since it has been established that Pinch heavily relies on its synergies towards upgrades and artifacts, all of those synergies will virtually be doubled when Pinch is cast twice (or triple with two Doublecast upgrades). Out of the artifact synergies, in particular will effectively negate the downside of having increased Mana cost in the first place.
 * Pinch becomes an efficient enabler of Flow in Flow decks. Since it has no Mana cost, having Pinch triggering Flow can be very relevant when the deck has little Flow enablers but has spells that desperately needed Flow, such as and, both of which becoming much less valuable if the effects of Flow Cast is not triggered. The downside being that this also deals 1 damage to you, which makes Pinch less valuable as a Flow enabler compared to other 0-costs such as , but that's mostly negligible. Additionally, Pinch can still trump over said other 0-costs as it would be able to support Flow decks with this upgrade while also still being able to support a sub-archetype of its own (self-damage) that is not even intrusive to the main deck archetype the player has (as Pinch relies on synergies with Upgrades and Artifacts, not other spells. Tri Force gives  - which requires Trinity spells to actually become relevant as well as  which is only really impactful in decks with multi-hitters and  decks that scales well with it). You can also give multiple Flow upgrades to this spell.
 * This is perhaps the most detrimental Upgrade this spell can have, since the Fragile being applied to yourself will likely hurt you for much more than the fine print in the original spell (it's even worse with ). However, even this can be made good with in some circumstances. This is of course speaking about Fragile synergies. Despite Pinch triggering on-hit effects, it doesn't actually remove Fragile stacks (which is up to debate on whether that's a boon or a bane; Pinch removing Fragile is also a common misconception) and therefore allowing the player to stack a lot of Fragile on themselves. This is of course, good, should the player have artifacts that relies on the player having Fragile such as and, or should they be playing as Violette with her Doubletime loadout who starts out with , and is not confident that their Fragile stacks would persist for the entirety of the fight since this is effectively Fragile generation at no cost. For that reason, it is also good with spells that have additional effects if the player has Fragile, such as  and . Of course, having said all of this, it is just a strictly worse , a spell that is of the same Brand and Rarity as Pinch, not to mention that Showdown itself is yet to be upgraded. However, same with the comparison made before with Tri Force, it can support itself as a sub-archetype in a non-intrusive manner as well which is one advantage it could have over Showdown.
 * Despite raising its cost to 1 Mana, Pinch manages to benefit greatly from this upgrade. Since it has been established that Pinch heavily relies on its synergies towards upgrades and artifacts, all of those synergies will virtually be doubled when Pinch is cast twice (or triple with two Doublecast upgrades). Out of the artifact synergies, in particular will effectively negate the downside of having increased Mana cost in the first place.
 * Despite raising its cost to 1 Mana, Pinch manages to benefit greatly from this upgrade. Since it has been established that Pinch heavily relies on its synergies towards upgrades and artifacts, all of those synergies will virtually be doubled when Pinch is cast twice (or triple with two Doublecast upgrades). Out of the artifact synergies, in particular will effectively negate the downside of having increased Mana cost in the first place.
 * Despite raising its cost to 1 Mana, Pinch manages to benefit greatly from this upgrade. Since it has been established that Pinch heavily relies on its synergies towards upgrades and artifacts, all of those synergies will virtually be doubled when Pinch is cast twice (or triple with two Doublecast upgrades). Out of the artifact synergies, in particular will effectively negate the downside of having increased Mana cost in the first place.

Synergies with Artifacts
Artifacts typically provide a passive benefit for the player character in battle. Some of them are very situational, which definitely includes, but not limited to, Artifacts that are triggered on hit. As you might've expected, Pinch is extremely good when paired these types of artifacts, as the player would have an incentive and an inconsequential method to actually trigger them when a lot of the time, their benefits doesn't seem worth it considering the health loss that the player would have to incur when trying to utilize them to their utmost potential under normal circumstances. Next on the list will be how Pinch can be made effective with certain (or a combination of) Artifacts.


 * These are fairly straightforward. They allow Pinch to deal a small, yet still significant amount of damage considering Pinch doesn't require Mana to be cast. These artifacts are also very easily encountered in a normal run. Flak Jacket is already in Reva's Beat loadout, while Thornmail is a Common (Rarity 0) artifact. With both of them, Pinch would deal damage in a 20 damage projectile as well as a 10 unavoidable damage to all enemies for no Mana cost. For reference, does 10 more damage but also requires player accuracy to hit precisely 4 tiles away. If you're lucky enough, Frostmail might appear, making Pinch do even more damage, again, at no Mana cost whatsoever as well as applying  which also translate to more damage as well as triggering Frost-related artifacts, such as . Long Sleeves can also generate Kunais from Pinch, making Pinch a Kunai generator and enabler of artifacts that synergizes with Kunais themselves.  and  effectively gives 20 extra (unavoidable) damage as well as giving the player 20 Shield for casting that Pinch which in turn leading to that Kunai being thrown. If the player has, they can repeatedly expend Kunais even without a proper Kunai generator or a deck built for it.
 * Pinch now also restores 1 Mana every time it hits the player, effectively making this spell a minor (Though Transfuse may seem like a strictly better spell, be mindful that the damage of Transfuse does add up when there's insufficient Shield. This problem becomes even more relevant in thin decks, where Transfuse would've been most valuable in for the sake of bootstrapping Mana to play out high-cost, high-impact spells). This allows the player to upgrade this spell with Doublecast with little repercussions and basically double the impact of this spell in a single upgrade, or to make it a Mana-generating spell with negligible downside in other decks, such as Convergence builds.
 * Pinch is great with Phase Plates, since it's simply taking 1 damage upon casting, which is again, negligible, to become completely invulnerable for a second without having to take damage from other sources that can still pose a problem to the player. To give a reference, Reva's reflect which allows her to be invulnerable to damage while doing so, can be used very effectively in amidst of combat to avoid being damaged despite having its duration being just about 0.3 seconds. This also causes the player to be inflicted with Fragile, which is normally harmful, but can be turned beneficial. When it becomes beneficial, this combo can be thought of basically as if the Pinch was given another self-Fragile upgrade on it. Adaptive Armor also works too, but less powerful overall and has no effect of Shield (except with ) whatsoever. It however, does not apply Fragile onto the player.
 * There are circumstances that Pinch's health damage may be significant. This is due to how Pinch's self-damage does scale with negative Defense (despite it not scaling with the player's Magic Power). This is relevant on Hell Pass 3 and upwards, where players lose 5 Defense at the start of the game, and when having which reduces the player's Defense. This is extremely harmful in the case of the player taking a Sell Skin pact (-100 Defense) and not be mindful of it. Without Hardened Shields, Defense, whether positive or negative does not affect Shield. These artifacts allow small amounts of Shield to be generated with ease, ensuring that the player will only end up taking what damage is expected of Pinch, which is 1.
 * Pinch is great with Phase Plates, since it's simply taking 1 damage upon casting, which is again, negligible, to become completely invulnerable for a second without having to take damage from other sources that can still pose a problem to the player. To give a reference, Reva's reflect which allows her to be invulnerable to damage while doing so, can be used very effectively in amidst of combat to avoid being damaged despite having its duration being just about 0.3 seconds. This also causes the player to be inflicted with Fragile, which is normally harmful, but can be turned beneficial. When it becomes beneficial, this combo can be thought of basically as if the Pinch was given another self-Fragile upgrade on it. Adaptive Armor also works too, but less powerful overall and has no effect of Shield (except with ) whatsoever. It however, does not apply Fragile onto the player.
 * There are circumstances that Pinch's health damage may be significant. This is due to how Pinch's self-damage does scale with negative Defense (despite it not scaling with the player's Magic Power). This is relevant on Hell Pass 3 and upwards, where players lose 5 Defense at the start of the game, and when having which reduces the player's Defense. This is extremely harmful in the case of the player taking a Sell Skin pact (-100 Defense) and not be mindful of it. Without Hardened Shields, Defense, whether positive or negative does not affect Shield. These artifacts allow small amounts of Shield to be generated with ease, ensuring that the player will only end up taking what damage is expected of Pinch, which is 1.
 * There are circumstances that Pinch's health damage may be significant. This is due to how Pinch's self-damage does scale with negative Defense (despite it not scaling with the player's Magic Power). This is relevant on Hell Pass 3 and upwards, where players lose 5 Defense at the start of the game, and when having which reduces the player's Defense. This is extremely harmful in the case of the player taking a Sell Skin pact (-100 Defense) and not be mindful of it. Without Hardened Shields, Defense, whether positive or negative does not affect Shield. These artifacts allow small amounts of Shield to be generated with ease, ensuring that the player will only end up taking what damage is expected of Pinch, which is 1.
 * There are circumstances that Pinch's health damage may be significant. This is due to how Pinch's self-damage does scale with negative Defense (despite it not scaling with the player's Magic Power). This is relevant on Hell Pass 3 and upwards, where players lose 5 Defense at the start of the game, and when having which reduces the player's Defense. This is extremely harmful in the case of the player taking a Sell Skin pact (-100 Defense) and not be mindful of it. Without Hardened Shields, Defense, whether positive or negative does not affect Shield. These artifacts allow small amounts of Shield to be generated with ease, ensuring that the player will only end up taking what damage is expected of Pinch, which is 1.

Pinch's damage may be reflected via or Reva's Reflector Gem. This of course, deals a whopping 1 damage towards the enemy. However, even this, may turn out to be significant. Even when reflected, Pinch's upgrades are still in effect (due to the spell itself have been cast) as well as its synergies with artifacts that triggers on player being hit. This means that even at 1 HP (such as in Hell Pass 14), Pinch can still be used with all of its glory without the player character killing themselves for casting it.

All in all, Pinch, despite how awkward it is to play around at first, is an extremely versatile spell that is capable of a lot of things depending on what Artifacts the player have gotten or by how it is upgraded. It is an inconsequential spell used to trigger on-hit effects without having to dive into enemy attacks or use something impractical like to damage yourself. Pinch's synergies, obviously shown when it is paired with Fragile upgrade or with Panther Habit, still makes it a worse version of its counterparts (in these examples, Showdown and Transfuse), but it can definitely do many things at once as well as again, being inherently extremely versatile.

Trivia
"Wake me up inside (I can't wake up)" are lyrics from the Evanescence song Bring Me to Life.