/jp/ - Otaku Culture

One can sit in a room for a thousand years studying every training manual ever written for every martial art, understanding the principles behind every movement, and yet be easily toppled by someone who has trained intensely for 6 months.
Patchy's anemic and never leaves her library. Unless there's an intruder, she hardly casts any magic. According to ZUN, Marisa works hard every day, eats a magical diet, and is frequently in situations where she must cast her spells or be defeated. With a more hands-on approach and familiarity with the actual use of material, one is more capable of improvising. She can see something and make it work for her because that's what she needs to do and what she works for. Patchy can invent spells 'cause she's got free time coming out her silly hat.

See, this is why I like Marisa.
She has no inherent power. She's the only character who canonically gets her power by training intensely and harvesting magic mushrooms. Despite being a "thief," it seems to me that she finds what works and makes use of it. She doesn't control some basic element of existence, nor does she have a hax ability or connections with deities for literal deus ex machina saves.
But this is Japan we're talking about, so how hard one works is far less significant than what one gets from birth and who one is associated with.