Touhou Koumakyou New Classic Spell cards and Spell Practice

Embodiment of Scarlet Devil is the first Windows Touhou to declare spell cards. New Classic keeps that language and adds Spell Practice, which the 2002 release never shipped. You can open a card you have already seen and drill it without replaying five stages. Classic still has no trainer. If you are learning, stay in New Classic until the declaration, the timer, and the capture bonus feel obvious. Then confirm the same card in a credit.

Capture, timeout, and survival

A capture means you empty the card’s health without dying or bombing. A timeout means the timer hits zero while you are alive. Both clear the card. Capture pays more score and often drops more items. Timeout is the correct plan when the pattern is a wall — Scarlet Gensokyo, Q.E.D. Ripples of 495 Years, some Lunatic knives. Survival 1CC players timeout on purpose. Scoring players capture when they can. New Classic still awards the spell bonus on a clean capture; it does not invent a new cherry system. Point values and the collection line are on scoring.

New Classic also blocks premature melt. You cannot dump enough damage into Remilia’s last spell or Flandre’s Q.E.D. before the name appears to skip the pattern. Wait for the declaration, then shoot. That change is listed with the other deltas on gameplay changes.

Normal 1CC routing that still maps onto New Classic cards

How Spell Practice unlocks

You practice cards you have encountered. A first Challenge Mode run through Stages 1–6 is the fastest way to populate the list. Extra cards appear after you unlock Extra. Classic 1.02h imports do not fill New Classic’s practice list. If a card is missing, you have not seen it on that shot and difficulty yet. The practice planner is the daily order: deaths from Challenge Mode become the Spell Practice queue.

Story bosses, short list

Use this as an index, not a reprint of the full fight pages.

• Rumia — Night Sign “Night Bird” and the Darkness cards. Capture these. They are the tutorial.
• Cirno (Lake Sprite ~ Water Magus) — Icicle Fall, Perfect Freeze. Freeze is RNG-heavy; bomb or timeout rather than fishing captures on a first 1CC.
• Hong Meiling (Scarlet Border ~ Scarlet Land) — Colorful Rain, Yin-Yang swirl walls. Stage 3 now continues with extra fairy waves after the usual close; the boss cards themselves are still the mid-game skill check.
• Patchouli — element cards in the library, plus Extra midboss Silent Selene, Royal Flare, Philosopher’s Stone. Royal Flare is a route; Philosopher’s Stone is a resource tax.
• Sakuya — knife storms and time-stop flavor. Stage 5 is where bomb budget starts to matter.
• Remilia — Vampire Clock / Scarlet Meister family, then Scarlet Gensokyo. Full routing is How to Beat Remilia.
• Flandre — taboos from Cranberry Trap through Q.E.D. Eternal Meek and Starbow Break still have known safespots. Full routing is How to Beat Flandre.

Player bombs are also named spell cards: Reimu’s Fantasy Seal or Evil-Sealing Circle, Marisa’s Stardust Reverie or Master Spark. Those are your panic buttons, not practice targets. Shot kits are on shot types.

Practice order that actually saves time

Do not alphabetize the list. Practice the cards that ended your last credit, in stage order, on the shot you will 1CC. Five minutes on Night Bird teaches nothing if Sakuya is the leak. After a capture streak, take a Challenge Mode stage and confirm the card still works with stage RNG around it. Then take a limited-life credit. That loop is the 1CC guide.

Classic players

If you insist on Classic, you have no Spell Practice. Use New Classic as the gym, then boot Classic for the 2002 object sizes. Hitboxes in New Classic are circular (inscribed in the old squares), so a capture that feels free in New Classic can clip in Classic. Re-confirm dangerous cards. Language on Classic is Japanese only; keep a note of which Extra taboos you still fail.

Spell Practice does not unlock Extra. It does not grant achievements by itself. It exists so the Scarlet Mist Incident stops being a five-stage commute to one pattern. Use it.