History YMMV / WeissSchwarz

** ''Marvel'' and ''Pixar'' will eventually be announced for release in English ''Weiss'', but will only be retailed in Southeast Asia. This further enraged the Western community, who felt that they are a bigger market for English ''Weiss'' (especially since among the 4 Southeast Asia countries that ''Marvel'' and ''Pixar'' will be retailed, Singapore and Malaysia has a bigger Japanese ''Weiss'' community than their English counterparts.), and the fact that Bushiroad EN had made an premier video on Youtube specifically to announce this, wasting 2 minutes of the entire Western community who were expecting more.

*** "Public Safety Devil Extermination Special Division 4, Makima". Following in the footsteps of [[TabletopGame/YuGiOh Borrelsword Dragon]] and [[TabletopGame/{{Pokemon}} Giratina VSTAR]], she's a character-destroying machine that's absurdly easy to bring out for her power level, and is arguably the most consistent with her Climax combo. Makima has the usual high Level 3/Cost 2 statline of 10000 Power and 2 Soul but can be brought out at Level 2 if one of her 0/0 utility variants, "First Taste Makima", is in your Clock. While this Makima is powerful enough on her own, if used with her "Hidden Strength" climax, she gains an additional effect where you reveal the top card of your Library when she attacks and if it's a Devil Hunter, Devil or Event card, you can send 1 additional character from your opponent's Stage to their Waiting Room and Makima gains +2000 Power on top of the +1000 from the Climax, for a whopping 13000 Power.[[note]]If the aforementioned "First Taste Makima" is the top card of your Clock, which can be easily achieved by searching her out the previous turn and using her for a Clock draw, it helps with this effect because she lets you reorder the top 2 cards of your deck when a chosen character attacks; she's also a red card just like Division 4 Makima, which guarantees that you can put her into play regardless of what cards are in your Level.[[/note]] This can be used to remove problematic cards on the opponent's Stage or just to ensure that they can't respond to your attacks with Backup handtraps; with multiple copies of Makima in play (as mentioned later), you can potentially do ''both'' and don't have to choose, and the risk of losing one Makima to a handtrap becomes less daunting. ''And'' just in case you thought she'd brick easily in case you don't have access to her Climax, she lets you pick up a "Hidden Strength" from your Waiting Room when she comes into play and either put it into your hand or your Stock. If you have ''another'' copy of Makima in your hand, you can simply return the "Hidden Strength" to your stock, pay it to play the second copy, return it to your hand (or to your Stock if you have ''yet another'' copy), rinse and repeat. While best used as a two- or three-of in the well-performing "6 Choice, 2 Door" ''CSM'' deck, this Makima and her Climax are self-contained and consistent enough to be splashed into any ''Chainsaw Man'' deck build that uses "First Taste, Makima" -- '''including the dreaded Aki/Himeno [=StockSoul/Bar=] build.'''[[note]]Said deck normally lacks a method of reliable character removal and a strong Lv. 2 game, both of which Makima can provide, and swapping out one each of its usual climaxes for a Hidden Strength isn't as detrimental as one may think.[[/note]]

*** "Public Safety Devil Extermination Special Division 4, Makima". Following in the footsteps of [[TabletopGame/YuGiOh Borrelsword Dragon]] and [[TabletopGame/{{Pokemon}} Giratina VSTAR]], she's a character-destroying machine that's absurdly easy to bring out for her power level, and is arguably the most consistent with her Climax combo. Makima has the usual high Level 3/Cost 2 statline of 10000 Power and 2 Soul but can be brought out at Level 2 if one of her 0/0 utility variants, "First Taste Makima", is in your Clock. While this Makima is powerful enough on her own, if used with her "Hidden Strength" climax, she gains an additional effect where you reveal the top card of your Library when she attacks and if it's a Devil Hunter, Devil or Event card, you can send 1 additional character from your opponent's Stage to their Waiting Room and Makima gains +2000 Power on top of the +1000 from the Climax, for a whopping 13000 Power.[[note]]If the aforementioned "First Taste Makima" is the top card of your Clock, which can be easily achieved by searching her out the previous turn and using her for a Clock draw, it helps with this effect because she lets you reorder the top 2 cards of your deck when a chosen character attacks; she's also a red card just like Division 4 Makima, which guarantees that you can put her into play regardless of what cards are in your Level.[[/note]] This can be used to remove problematic cards on the opponent's Stage or just to ensure that they can't respond to your attacks with Backup handtraps; with multiple copies of Makima in play (as mentioned later), you can potentially do ''both'' and don't have to choose, and the risk of losing one Makima to a handtrap becomes less daunting. ''And'' just in case you thought she'd brick easily in case you don't have access to her Climax, she lets you pick up a "Hidden Strength" from your Waiting Room when she comes into play and either put it into your hand or your Stock. If you have ''another'' copy of Makima in your hand, you can simply return the "Hidden Strength" to your stock, pay it to play the second copy, return it to your hand (or to your Stock if you have ''yet another'' copy), rinse and repeat. While best used as a two- or three-of in the well-performing "6 Choice, 2 Door" ''CSM'' deck, this Makima and her Climax are self-contained and consistent enough to be splashed into any ''Chainsaw Man'' deck build that uses "First Taste, Makima" -- '''including the dreaded Aki/Himeno [=StockSoul/Bar=] build.'''[[note]]Said deck normally lacks a method of reliable character removal and a strong Lv. 2 game, both of which Makima can provide, and swapping out two of its usual climaxes for Hidden Strength isn't as detrimental as one may think.[[/note]]

*** "Public Safety Devil Extermination Special Division 4, Makima". Following in the footsteps of [[TabletopGame/YuGiOh Borrelsword Dragon]] and [[TabletopGame/{{Pokemon}} Giratina VSTAR]], she's a character-destroying machine that's absurdly easy to bring out for her power level, and is arguably the most consistent with her Climax combo. Makima has the usual high Level 3/Cost 2 statline of 10000 Power and 2 Soul but can be brought out at Level 2 if one of her 0/0 utility variants, "First Taste Makima", is in your Clock. While this Makima is powerful enough on her own, if used with her "Hidden Strength" climax, she gains an additional effect where you reveal the top card of your Library when she attacks and if it's a Devil Hunter, Devil or Event card, you can send 1 additional character from your opponent's Stage to their Waiting Room and Makima gains +2000 Power on top of the +1000 from the Climax, for a whopping 13000 Power.[[note]]If the aforementioned "First Taste Makima" is the top card of your Clock, which can be easily achieved by searching her out the previous turn and using her for a Clock draw, it helps with this effect because she lets you reorder the top 2 cards of your deck when a chosen character attacks; she's also a red card just like Division 4 Makima, which guarantees that you can put her into play regardless of what cards are in your Level.[[/note]] This can be used to remove problematic cards on the opponent's Stage or just to ensure that they can't respond to your attacks with Backup handtraps; with multiple copies of Makima in play (as mentioned later), you can potentially do ''both'' and don't have to choose, and the risk of losing one Makima to a handtrap becomes less daunting. ''And'' just in case you thought she'd brick easily in case you don't have access to her Climax, she lets you pick up a "Hidden Strength" from your Waiting Room when she comes into play and either put it into your hand or your Stock. If you have ''another'' copy of Makima in your hand, you can simply return the "Hidden Strength" to your stock, pay it to play the second copy, return it to your hand (or to your Stock if you have ''yet another'' copy), rinse and repeat. As a two- or three-of in the well-performing "6 Choice, 2 Door" ''CSM'' deck, this Devil Hunter leader is a force to be reckoned with.

** In the aftermath of the 5 Tier 1 sets from WGP 2023, ''Project SEKAI'' has suddenly emerged from the shadows to claim the top spot by itself. The build that is currently touted as the meta deck of the 2024 BCF block uses "Star Melody, Tenma Tsukasa" and "Outdoor Cooking! Aoyagi Touya" from the 2nd volume. The Level 1 Tsukasa's CX Combo allows the player to retrieve either "Where's That Crying Coming From?" or "In the Best Way Possible!" event card from the waiting room. Tsukasa's other ability gives him 2000 power when an event is used during the turn, which includes during the opponent's turn, and "Crying" is a counter event that can be used during the opponent's turn. The kicker lies in the Brainstorm character provided in the same set "Appreciating That Spirit, Kamishiro Rui", which when an event is used, he gives another character 1000 power. Essentially, the Tsukasas becomes a quasi-permanent 6500 power character, and the Ruis become a 2000 power Assist card, except the power addition can be split to 2 characters, a la "Vice Captain, Asuna" from the very first SAO set. Touya, meanwhile, is a modified version of "Tobiichi Origami" [[labelnote:*]]With 4 or more other "Date" or "Spirit" characters in the Stage, mill the bottom 4 cards of your opponent's deck, and deal 1 damage X times, where X equals to the number of Climaxes in the cards milled. Origami also cannot be countered in any way, and this is the point that makes Touya more comparable to Origami than Aki.[[/labelnote]], being 500 power less than Origami and exchanging the additional 1000 power, for milling 2 additonal cards from the deck. The developers have obviously underestimated the potential of Touya, especially in the wake of the ''Chainsaw Man'' shenanigans. "Crying", "Best Way", and "Wonder ☆ Christmas!" from the first set makes for a very strong mid game to cosistently pull off Touya's finisher, and for the additional salt in the wound, "Troupe Positions Open!" and "Where Could The Big Shell Be?" have very powerful synergy with Touya.

** In the aftermath of the 5 Tier 1 sets from WGP 2023, ''Project SEKAI'' has suddenly emerged from the shadows to claim the top spot by itself. The build that is currently touted as the meta deck of the 2024 BCF block uses ''Star Melody, Tenma Tsukasa'' and ''Outdoor Cooking! Aoyagi Touya'' from the 2nd volume. The Level 1 Tsukasa's CX Combo allows the player to retrieve either "Where's That Crying Coming From?" or "In the Best Way Possible!" event card from the waiting room. Tsukasa's other ability gives him 2000 power when an event is used during the turn, which includes during the opponent's turn, and "Crying" is a counter event that can be used during the opponent's turn. The kicker lies in the Brainstorm character provided in the same set "Appreciating That Spirit, Kamishiro Rui", which when an event is used, he gives another character 1000 power. Essentially, the Tsukasas becomes a quasi-permanent 6500 power character, and the Ruis become a 2000 power Assist card, except the power addition can be split to 2 characters, a la "Vice Captain, Asuna" from the very first SAO set. Touya, meanwhile, is a modified version of "Tobiichi Origami" [[labelnote:*]]With 4 or more other "Date" or "Spirit" characters in the Stage, mill the bottom 4 cards of your opponent's deck, and deal 1 damage X times, where X equals to the number of Climaxes in the cards milled. Origami also cannot be countered in any way, and this is the point that makes Touya more comparable to Origami than Aki.[[/labelnote]], being 500 power less than Origami and exchanging the additional 1000 power, for milling 2 additonal cards from the deck. The developers have obviously underestimated the potential of Touya, especially in the wake of the ''Chainsaw Man'' shenanigans. "Crying", "Best Way", and "Wonder ☆ Christmas!" from the first set makes for a very strong mid game to cosistently pull off Touya's finisher, and for the additional salt in the wound, "Troupe Positions Open!" and "Where Could The Big Shell Be?" have very powerful synergy with Touya.

*** Arguably the most popular and dangerous is "Public Safety Devil Extermination Special Division 4, Aki Hayakawa". Like with Makima, this version of Aki has synergy with a commonly-used staple card (in this case, "Devil Hunter, Himeno",) where if she is in the player's memory then Aki gains +4000 power (becoming 10500) and the ability to auto-encore by discarding a Devil Hunter or Devil character from the player's hand. Furthermore, when Aki is played, the player can return one such character from their waiting room to their hand (regardless of Himeno's presence). Like Makima, Aki has a dedicated Climax card ("Resolute Unsheathing") that would give him an additional +1000 power (which, together with the climax itself, brings him up to a maximum of 12500 Power), and also triggers an additional effect: the opponent must mill 4 cards from the bottom of their deck and takes 1 damage X times, where X is the number of climaxes among those cards. Furthermore, for each copy of Easy Revenge event in the memory, when Aki attacks, the player looks at the bottom card of the opponent's deck and decide whether to put it into the Waiting Room or return it to the bottom of the deck, further securing at least 1 damage to the opponent by Aki's effect. The Aki/Easy Revenge combo is particularly nasty and unfair, as it can causes a MortonsFork where the opponent is punished ''hard'' for not compressing their deck[[labelnote:Definition]]thinning out non-climax cards to increase the likelihood of hitting a climax when attacked and canceling damage[[/labelnote]] (as usual), but is punished '''even harder''' if they ''do'' properly compress their deck.[[note]]Aki more often than not ends up hitting a climax with his ability, causing extra damage ''and'' removing the climax so that the opponent takes regular damage from the attack regardless.[[/note]] This version of Aki is the dedicated boss monster for the most meta-relevant ''Chainsaw Man'' build and is easily one of the most HighTierScrappy cards in the set, to the point that he was limited to 2 copies in Japan along with a couple other staples of his deck; while the comparable Chainsaw Man, Makima and Power cards are scarily powerful but ultimately fair boss monsters, many will claim that Aki is downright ''overpowered'' and needs action taken against him in the English metagame.

** In the aftermath of the 5 Tier 1 sets from WGP 2023, ''Project SEKAI'' has suddenly emerged from the shadows to claim the top spot by itself. The build that is currently touted as the meta deck of the 2024 BCF block uses ''Star Melody, Tenma Tsukasa'' and ''Outdoor Cooking! Aoyagi Touya'' from the 2nd volume. The Level 1 Tsukasa's CX Combo allows the player to retrieve either "Where's That Crying Coming From?" or "In the Best Way Possible!" event card from the waiting room. Tsukasa's other ability gives him 2000 power when an event is used during the turn, which includes during the opponent's turn, and "Crying" is a counter event that can be used during the opponent's turn. The kicker lies in the Brainstorm character provided in the same set "Appreciating That Spirit, Kamishiro Rui", which when an event is used, he gives another character 1000 power. Essentially, the Tsukasas becomes a quasi-permanent 6500 power character, and the Ruis become a 2000 power Assist card, except the power addition can be split to 2 characters, a la "Vice Captain, Asuna" from the very first SAO set. Touya, meanwhile, is a modified version of "Tobiichi Origami''[[labelnote:*]]With 4 or more other "Date" or "Spirit" characters in the Stage, mill the bottom 4 cards of your opponent's deck, and deal 1 damage X times, where X equals to the number of Climaxes in the cards milled. Origami also cannot be countered in any way, and this is the point that makes Touya more comparable to Origami than Aki.[[/labelnote]], being 500 power less than Origami and exchanging the additional 1000 power, for milling 2 additonal cards from the deck. The developers have obviously underestimated the potential of Touya, especially in the wake of the ''Chainsaw Man'' shenanigans. ''Crying", "Best Way", and "Wonder ☆ Christmas!" from the first set makes for a very strong mid game to cosistently pull off Touya's finisher, and for the additional salt in the wound, "Troupe Positions Open!" and "Where Could The Big Shell Be?" have very powerful synergy with Touya.

*** hololive as a set is a GameBreaker on its own, but nothing emphasizes that more than "A Step Towards the Future, Gawr Gura". Gura has already been identified as a problematic card in June 2023, resulting in her being added to the restriction list, together with "A Step Towards the Future, Watson Amelia" and "On the Stage, Amane Kanata". The problem with Gura lies not just that she has an absurd synergy with the previously mentioned cards in the restriction list, but also as long as a deck has sufficient Soul triggers, Gura herself is pretty deadly in the endgame: a 2 damage burn, then mill off 2 cards of your deck, doing 1 damage X times, where X equals to the number of cards milled that has a Soul Trigger. If perfectly pulled off, one Gura can do 4 instances of damage (2 damage, up to 2 times 1 damage, normal Soul damage), in a game where you have up to 8 chances of cancelling damage. By January 2024, Gura will eventually be restricted to 2 copies, but on the upside that she is released from the restriction list. "Haachama Beam, Akai Haato" is placed in the list instead to prevent Gura decks from using her ability to rest one opponent's character during the Counter step consistently if paired with Amelia.

** Also from the same set is "Public Safety Devil Extermination Special Division 4, Aki Hayakawa" -- this time for gameplay reasons, as his burn/mill effect and combo with "Easy Revenge" punishes the ''CSM'' player's opponent for ''properly playing the game''. Opinions vary on whether this helps diversify the metagame and could work fine if Aki and related cards are properly restricted (as the Japanese banlist has done), or if this Aki is a toxic, overpowered abomination that makes the game unfun, nullifying proper strategy and achieving cheap victories by blowing up the entire LuckBasedMission aspect.

** Also from the same set is "Public Safety Devil Extermination Special Division 4, Aki Hayakawa" -- this time for gameplay reasons, as his burn/mill effect and combo with "Easy Revenge" punishes the ''CSM'' player's opponent for ''properly playing the game''. Opinions vary on whether this helps diversify the metagame and could work fine if Aki and related cards are properly restricted (as the Japanese banlist has done), or if this Aki is an overpowered abomination that makes the game unfun, nullifying proper strategy and achieving cheap victories by blowing up the entire LuckBasedMission aspect.

** As mentioned elsewhere on this page, ''Manga/ChainsawMan'' has seen massive representation in both the Japanese and English scenes in late 2023 to early 2024. Most of this is from the dreaded "[=StockSoul=]" (blue/green) variant, which focuses on Aki and Himeno and uses an event/climax combo to mill the opponent's deck and deal enormous damage that's difficult to avoid even with proper strategy. The other popular build, "6 Choice/2 Door" (yellow/red) focuses on Denji, Makima and Power and is a more straightforward deck that isn't as overtly broken but still sees great representation and results. The popularity of the franchise has also [[JustHereForGodzilla easily drawn new players to the game]], much like with ''hololive'' a few years prior.

** As mentioned elsewhere on this page, ''Manga/ChainsawMan'' has seen massive representation in both the Japanese and English scenes in late 2023 to early 2024. Most of this is from the dreaded "[=StockSoul=]" (blue/green) variant, which focuses on Aki and Himeno and uses an event/climax combo to mill the opponent's deck and deal enormous damage that's difficult to avoid even with proper strategy. The other popular build, "6 Choice/2 Door" (yellow/red) focuses on Denji, Makima and Power and is a more straightforward deck that isn't as overtly broken but still sees great representation and results.

** Also from the same set is "Public Safety Devil Extermination Special Division 4, Aki Hayakawa" -- this time for gameplay reasons, as his burn/mill effect and combo with "Easy Revenge" punishes the ''CSM'' player's opponent for ''properly playing the game''. Opinions vary on whether this helps diversify the metagame and could work fine if Aki and related cards are properly restricted (as the Japanese banlist has done), or if Aki is an overpowered abomination that makes the game unfun and can be used to nullify proper strategy and achieve cheap victories.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: A huge one with "First Taste, Makima" from the ''Manga/ChainsawMan'' set, as the [[BribingYourWayToVictory excessively rare]] CSMR print of the card is the only version of the popular character with a rarity higher than OFR.[[note]]The only other CSMR is "The Devil Hunter Feared by Devils, Chainsaw Man", which is a version of Denji, who has a much easier-to-find SP print in his human form and also doesn't have his price inflated by "waifu tax" or being a staple in every ''CSM'' deck build.[[/note]] Some fans welcome the excitement of the hunt and don't mind as the card is available in a lower rarity anyway, while others bemoan the fact that Makima did not receive any SP or SSP cards and that the sheer rarity of the CSMR print has caused it to skyrocket into the '''[[CrackIsCheaper quadruple digits]]''' on the secondary market, beating out chase cards from other games such as ''TabletopGame/{{Pokemon}}''[[note]]The card is worth more than the alternate-art prints of Umbreon VMAX, Rayquaza VMAX and Giratina V '''combined''', and those are far more infamous than Makima as they come from a much more mainstream game.[[/note]] and making the only ultra-rare version of Makima completely inaccessible for poorer or less lucky players.

*** Arguably the most popular and dangerous is "Public Safety Devil Extermination Special Division 4, Aki Hayakawa". Like with Makima, this version of Aki has synergy with a commonly-used staple card (in this case, "Devil Hunter, Himeno",) where if she is in the player's memory then Aki gains +4000 power (becoming 10500) and the ability to auto-encore by discarding a Devil Hunter or Devil character from the player's hand. Furthermore, when Aki is played, the player can return one such character from their waiting room to their hand (regardless of Himeno's presence). Like Makima, Aki has a dedicated Climax card ("Resolute Unsheathing") that would give him an additional +1000 power (which, together with the climax itself, brings him up to a maximum of 12500 Power), and also triggers an additional effect: the opponent must mill 4 cards from the bottom of their deck and takes 1 damage X times, where X is the number of climaxes among those cards. Furthermore, for each copy of Easy Revenge event in the memory, when Aki attacks, the player looks at the bottom card of the opponent's deck and decide whether to put it into the Waiting Room or return it to the bottom of the deck, further securing at least 1 damage to the opponent by Aki's effect. The Aki/Easy Revenge combo is particularly nasty and unfair, as it can causes a MortonsFork where the opponent is punished ''hard'' for not compressing their deck[[labelnote:Definition]]thinning out non-climax cards to increase the likelihood of hitting a climax when attacked and canceling damage[[/labelnote]] (as usual), but is punished '''even harder''' if they ''do'' properly compress their deck.[[note]]Aki more often than not ends up hitting a climax with his ability, causing extra damage ''and'' removing the climax so that the opponent takes regular damage from the attack regardless.[[/note]] This version of Aki is the dedicated boss monster for the most meta-relevant ''Chainsaw Man'' build and is easily one of the most HighTierScrappy cards in the set, to the point that he was limited to 2 copies in Japan along with a couple other staples of his deck; while the comparable Chainsaw Man, Makima and Power cards are excellent and solid but mostly fair boss monsters, many will claim that Aki is downright ''overpowered'' and needs action taken against him in the English metagame.

*** Arguably the most popular and dangerous is "Public Safety Devil Extermination Special Division 4, Aki Hayakawa". Like with Makima, this version of Aki has synergy with a commonly-used staple card (in this case, "Devil Hunter, Himeno",) where if she is in the player's memory then Aki gains +4000 power (becoming 10500) and the ability to auto-encore by discarding a Devil Hunter or Devil character from the player's hand. Furthermore, when Aki is played, the player can return one such character from their waiting room to their hand (regardless of Himeno's presence). Like Makima, Aki has a dedicated Climax card ("Resolute Unsheathing") that would give him an additional +1000 power (which, together with the climax itself, brings him up to a maximum of 12500 Power), and also triggers an additional effect: the opponent must mill 4 cards from the bottom of their deck and takes 1 damage X times, where X is the number of climaxes among those cards. Furthermore, for each copy of Easy Revenge event in the memory, when Aki attacks, the player looks at the bottom card of the opponent's deck and decide whether to put it into the Waiting Room or return it to the bottom of the deck, further securing at least 1 damage to the opponent by Aki's effect. The Aki/Easy Revenge combo is particularly nasty and unfair, as it can causes a MortonsFork where the opponent is punished ''hard'' for not compressing their deck[[labelnote:Definition]]thinning out non-climax cards to increase the likelihood of hitting a climax when attacked and canceling damage[[/labelnote]] (as usual), but is punished '''even harder''' if they ''do'' properly compress their deck.[[note]]Aki more often than not ends up hitting a climax with his ability, causing extra damage ''and'' removing the climax so that the opponent takes regular damage from the attack regardless.[[/note]] This version of Aki is the dedicated boss monster for the most meta-relevant ''Chainsaw Man'' build and is easily one of the most HighTierScrappy cards in the set, to the point that he was limited to 2 copies in Japan along with a couple other staples of his deck; while the comparable Chainsaw Man, Makima and Power cards are excellent and solid boss monsters, many will claim that Aki goes ''way'' too far and needs action taken against him in the English metagame.

*** Arguably the most popular and dangerous is "Public Safety Devil Extermination Special Division 4, Aki Hayakawa". Like with Makima, this version of Aki has synergy with a commonly-used staple card (in this case, "Devil Hunter, Himeno",) where if she is in the player's memory then Aki gains +4000 power (becoming 10500) and the ability to auto-encore by discarding a Devil Hunter or Devil character from the player's hand. Furthermore, when Aki is played, the player can return one such character from their waiting room to their hand (regardless of Himeno's presence). Like Makima, Aki has a dedicated Climax card ("Resolute Unsheathing") that would give him an additional +1000 power (which, together with the climax itself, brings him up to a maximum of 12500 Power), and also triggers an additional effect: the opponent must mill 4 cards from the bottom of their deck and takes 1 damage X times, where X is the number of climaxes among those cards. This effect is especially nasty, as it can cause the common strategy of thinning out the deck to increase the likelihood of hitting a climax[[note]]which, in turn, makes a damage cancel more likely[[/note]] to backfire. Furthermore, for each copy of Easy Revenge event in the memory, when Aki attacks, the player looks at the bottom card of the opponent's deck and decide whether to put it into the Waiting Room or return it to the bottom of the deck, further securing at least 1 damage to the opponent by Aki's effect. This version of Aki is the dedicated boss monster for the most meta-relevant ''Chainsaw Man'' build and is easily one of the most HighTierScrappy cards in the set, to the point that he was limited to 2 copies in Japan along with a couple other staples of his deck.

*** Arguably the most popular and dangerous is "Public Safety Devil Extermination Special Division 4, Aki Hayakawa". Like with Makima, this version of Aki has synergy with a commonly-used staple card (in this case, "Devil Hunter, Himeno",) where if she is in the player's memory then Aki gains +4000 power (becoming 10500) and the ability to auto-encore by discarding a Devil Hunter or Devil character from the player's hand. Furthermore, when Aki is played, the player can return one such character from their waiting room to their hand (regardless of Himeno's presence). Like Makima, Aki has a dedicated Climax card ("Resolute Unsheathing") that would give him an additional +1000 power (which, together with the climax itself, brings him up to a maximum of 12500 Power), and also triggers an additional effect: the opponent must mill 4 cards from the bottom of their deck and takes 1 damage X times, where X is the number of climaxes among those cards. Furthermore, for each copy of Easy Revenge event in the memory, when Aki attacks, the player looks at the bottom card of the opponent's deck and decide whether to put it into the Waiting Room or return it to the bottom of the deck, further securing at least 1 damage to the opponent by Aki's effect. This version of Aki is the dedicated boss monster for the most meta-relevant ''Chainsaw Man'' build and is easily one of the most HighTierScrappy cards in the set, to the point that he was limited to 2 copies in Japan along with a couple other staples of his deck.

*** "Public Safety Devil Extermination Special Division 4, Makima". Following in the footsteps of [[TabletopGame/YuGiOh Borrelsword Dragon]] and [[TabletopGame/{{Pokemon}} Giratina VSTAR]], she's a character-destroying machine that's absurdly easy to bring out for her power level, and is arguably the most consistent with her Climax combo. Makima has the usual high Level 3/Cost 2 statline of 10000 Power and 2 Soul but can be brought out at Level 2 if one of her 0/0 utility variants, "First Taste Makima", is in your Clock. While this Makima is powerful enough on her own, if used with her "Hidden Strength" climax, she gains an additional effect where you reveal the top card of your Library when she attacks and if it's a Devil Hunter, Devil or Event card, you can send 1 additional character from your opponent's Stage to their Waiting Room and Makima gains +2000 Power on top of the +1000 from the Climax, for a whopping 13000 Power.[[note]]If the aforementioned "First Taste Makima" is the top card of your Clock, which can be easily achieved by searching her out the previous turn and using her for a Clock draw, it helps with this effect because she lets you reorder the top 2 cards of your deck when a chosen character attacks; she's also a red card just like Division 4 Makima, which guarantees that you can put her into play regardless of what cards are in your Level.[[/note]] This can be used to remove problematic cards on the opponent's Stage or just to ensure that they can't respond to your attacks with Backup handtraps; with multiple copies of Makima in play (as mentioned later), you can potentially do ''both'' and don't have to choose. ''And'' just in case you thought she'd brick easily in case you don't have access to her Climax, she lets you pick up a "Hidden Strength" from your Waiting Room when she comes into play and either put it into your hand or your Stock. If you have ''another'' copy of Makima in your hand, you can simply return the "Hidden Strength" to your stock, pay it to play the second copy, return it to your hand (or to your Stock if you have ''yet another'' copy), rinse and repeat. As a two- or three-of in the well-performing "6 Choice, 2 Door" ''CSM'' deck, this Devil Hunter leader is a force to be reckoned with.

*** "Public Safety Devil Extermination Special Division 4, Makima". Following in the footsteps of [[TabletopGame/YuGiOh Borrelsword Dragon]] and [[TabletopGame/{{Pokemon}} Giratina VSTAR]], she's a character-destroying machine that's absurdly easy to bring out for her power level, and is arguably the most consistent with her Climax combo. Makima has the usual high Level 3/Cost 2 statline of 10000 Power and 2 Soul but can be brought out at Level 2 if one of her 0/0 utility variants, "First Taste Makima", is in your Clock. While this Makima is powerful enough on her own, if used with her "Hidden Strength" climax, she gains an additional effect where you reveal the top card of your Library when she attacks and if it's a Devil Hunter, Devil or Event card, you can send 1 additional character from your opponent's Stage to their Waiting Room and Makima gains +2000 Power on top of the +1000 from the Climax, for a whopping 13000 Power.[[note]]If the aforementioned "First Taste Makima" is the top card of your Clock, which can be easily achieved by searching her out the previous turn and using her for a Clock draw, it helps with this effect because she lets you reorder the top 2 cards of your deck when a chosen character attacks.[[/note]] This can be used to remove problematic cards on the opponent's Stage or just to ensure that they can't respond to your attacks with Backup handtraps; with multiple copies of Makima in play (as mentioned later), you can potentially do ''both'' and don't have to choose. ''And'' just in case you thought she'd brick easily in case you don't have access to her Climax, she lets you pick up a "Hidden Strength" from your Waiting Room when she comes into play and either put it into your hand or your Stock. If you have ''another'' copy of Makima in your hand, you can simply return the "Hidden Strength" to your stock, pay it to play the second copy, return it to your hand (or to your Stock if you have ''yet another'' copy), rinse and repeat. As a two- or three-of in the well-performing "6 Choice, 2 Door" ''CSM'' deck, this Devil Hunter leader is a force to be reckoned with.

*** While the least widely-used of the three (mostly because she doesn't have a dedicated Climax combo), "Public Safety Devil Extermination Special Division 4, Power" is not to be underestimated. Like Makima, Power gains -1 level and can be brought out early in certain conditions, in this case having 4 more "Devil Hunter", "Devil" or "Animal" characters in play. Following from this, the mere act of ''having'' one such character in play gives Power an additional 2500 [[AccidentalPun power]] (for a total of 11000) and an additional ability: if she defeats a level 2 or higher battle opponent, the player can pay cost to return any character from their waiting room to their hand. Power also has the very helpful ability to put the top card of your clock into your waiting room - an ability also seen on "The Devil Hunter Feared by Devils, Chainsaw Man", which can't be cheated out early unlike her. The fact that she doesn't have a dedicated Climax combo does mean that Power can be splashed into various different ''CSM'' deck builds as a backup attacker and method of clock control.

*** Arguably the most popular and dangerous is "Public Safety Devil Extermination Special Division 4, Aki Hayakawa". Like with Makima, this version of Aki has synergy with a commonly-used staple card (in this case, "Devil Hunter, Himeno",) where if she is in the player's memory then Aki gains +4000 power (becoming 10500) and the ability to auto-encore by discarding a Devil Hunter or Devil character from the player's hand. Furthermore, when Aki is played, the player can return one such character from their waiting room to their hand (regardless of Himeno's presence). Like Makima, Aki has a dedicated Climax card ("Resolute Unsheathing") that would give him an additional +1000 power (which, together with the climax itself, brings him up to a maximum of 12500 Power), and also triggers an additional effect: the opponent must mill 4 cards from the bottom of their deck and takes 1 damage X times, where X is the number of climaxes among those cards. Furthermore, for each copy of Easy Revenge event in the memory, when Aki attacks, the player looks at the bottom card of the opponent's deck and decide whether to put it into the Waiting Room or return it to the bottom of the deck, further securing at least 1 damage to the opponent by Aki's effect. This version of Aki is the dedicated boss monster for the most meta-relevant ''Chainsaw Man'' build, to the point that he was limited to 2 copies in Japan along with a couple other staples of his deck.

*** "Public Safety Devil Extermination Special Division 4, Makima". Following in the footsteps of [[TabletopGame/YuGiOh Borrelsword Dragon]] and [[TabletopGame/{{Pokemon}} Giratina VSTAR]], she's a character-destroying machine that's absurdly easy to bring out for her power level, and is arguably the most consistent with her Climax combo. Makima has the usual high Level 3/Cost 2 statline of 10000 Power and 2 Soul but can be brought out at Level 2 if one of her 0/0 utility variants, "First Taste Makima", is in your Clock. While this Makima is powerful enough on her own, if used with her "Hidden Strength" climax, she gains an additional effect where you reveal the top card of your Library when she attacks and if it's a Devil Hunter, Devil or Event card, you can send 1 additional character from your opponent's Stage to their Waiting Room and Makima gains +2000 Power on top of the +1000 from the Climax, for a whopping 13000 Power.[[note]]If the aforementioned "First Taste Makima" is the top card of your Clock, which can be easily achieved by searching her out the previous turn and using her for a Clock draw, it helps with this effect because she lets you reorder the top 2 cards of your deck when a chosen character attacks.[[/note]] This can be used to remove problematic cards on the opponent's Stage or just to ensure that they can't respond to your attacks with Backup handtraps. ''And'' just in case you thought she'd brick easily in case you don't have access to her Climax, she lets you pick up a "Hidden Strength" from your Waiting Room when she comes into play and either put it into your hand or your Stock. If you have ''another'' copy of Makima in your hand, you can simply return the "Hidden Strength" to your stock, pay it to play the second copy, return it to your hand (or to your Stock if you have ''yet another'' copy), rinse and repeat. As a two- or three-of in the well-performing "6 Choice, 2 Door" ''CSM'' deck, this Devil Hunter leader is a force to be reckoned with.

*** Arguably the most popular and dangerous is "Public Safety Devil Extermination Special Division 4, Aki Hayakawa". Like with Makima, this version of Aki has synergy with a commonly-used staple card (in this case, "Devil Hunter, Himeno",) where if she is in the player's memory then Aki gains +4000 power (becoming 10500) and the ability to auto-encore by discarding a Devil Hunter or Devil character from the player's hand. Furthermore, when Aki is played, the player can return one such character from their waiting room to their hand (regardless of Himeno's presence). Like Makima, Aki has a dedicated Climax card ("Resolute Unsheathing") that would give him an additional +1000 power (which, together with the climax itself, brings him up to a maximum of 12500 Power), and also triggers an additional effect: the opponent must mill 4 cards from the bottom of their deck and takes 1 damage X times, where X is the number of climaxes among those cards. Furthermore, for each copy of Easy Revenge event in the memory, when Aki attacks, the player looks at the bottom card of the opponent's deck and decide whether to put it into the Waiting Room or return it to the bottom of the deck, further securing at least 1 damage to the opponent by Aki's effect. This version of Aki is the dedicated boss monster for the most meta-relevant ''Chainsaw Man'' build.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: A huge one with "First Taste, Makima" from the ''Manga/ChainsawMan'' set, as the [[BribingYourWayToVictory excessively rare]] CSMR print of the card is the only version of the popular character with a rarity higher than OFR.[[note]]The only other CSMR is "The Devil Hunter Feared by Devils, Chainsaw Man", which is a version of Denji, who has a much easier-to-find SP print in his human form.[[/note]] Some fans welcome the excitement of the hunt and don't mind as the card is available in a lower rarity anyway, while others bemoan the fact that Makima did not receive any SP or SSP cards and that the sheer rarity of the CSMR print has caused it to skyrocket into the '''[[CrackIsCheaper quadruple digits]]''' on the secondary market, beating out chase cards from other games such as ''TabletopGame/{{Pokemon}}''[[note]]The card is worth more than the alternate-art prints of Umbreon VMAX, Rayquaza VMAX and Giratina V '''combined''', and those are far more infamous than Makima as they come from a much more mainstream game.[[/note]] and making the only ultra-rare version of Makima completely inaccessible for poorer or less lucky players.