Chainsaw Man – Crackhead Denji (Y/R) [06/04/2024]

Wanna be off the rails? Do you ever feel like hopping out on the street at 4:00 A.M., ripping off your clothes, and screaming at the top of your lungs? Meet our boy, the relatable Denji. Born into poverty, and suffering partially due to the circumstances around him and the poor decisions he makes, Denji is the perfect representation of the modern cosmopolitan citizen.

Look at him in his mighty glory. Without a single care in the world, Denji revs up his chainsaw parts and jumps into the fray, giving little care for the end result outside of having fun and letting loose. Denji offers a challenge to your opponent, handing them the drugs, and taunting them to attack him. When Denji attacks with his climax, he deals a single point of damage to your opponent, and then he gains the ability cross-turn to pay a cost to deal two damage to his opponent upon reversing them while also top-decking them if you’d like.

Revving up his chainsaw, Denji is ready to slice through some opponents. Denji performs a Cigarettes ability with his combo when he attacks, nabbing you a friend from the waiting room.

Whether it be acetaminophen, methamphetamine, ketamine, morphine, the fun “white” stuff, etc, Denji’s got it all. Denji’s options at the early game are all about getting high on life and thrashing out at your opponent. Starting from the left, Denji with his beautiful smile is a large beater during your turn that cannot side attack. During your opponent’s turn, when damage taken during his battle is cancelled, you may send him to your waiting room and stock the top card of your deck. He will be mentioned again later in the deck profile as well. His center profile allows you to pay a cost and perform a Cigarettes ability when you have a climax in play at the start of your climax phase while also being a J.C. profile. Smug Denji in the corner triggers twice when he attacks for free; however, you must pay out his second swing at the end of his attack.

Did you really think that was all that Denji possessed in his arsenal of infinite stupidity? Shredding through the confines of basic logic and semblance of sanity, Denji combines with his best friend and becomes the invincible Chainsaw Man. Pochita is a global support that can pay a heavy cost to search out a character from your deck. Denji is a redraw on-play that sends himself to waiting room to combine with Pochita and become the infamous Chainsaw Man on the right. Chainsaw Man himself is a secondary finisher that allows you to cantrip on-play while having an Icy Tail finishing ability if you pay his costs upon reversing his opponent.

There’s nothing quite like returning home and hugging your pet chainsaw demon. Your endorphins begin to spew out of control as the little critter runs at you while looking to pierce you in the stomach. Pochita is the deck’s brainstorm which also performs double duty as a cheap change that spawns in your finisher Chainsaw Man (or any character with Chainsaw Man [チェンソーマン] in its name). Denji returns again as mentioned before. This is because Denji is part of the costs to transform Pochita into his chainsaw form.

If there’s one thing Denji does better than anyone else, it’s pissing people off. Denji on the left pays little regard to your opponent’s considerations or grand plans. When he reverses his targets, he automatically sends them to memory, killing off any waiting room abilities entirely and sending targets permanently away. Denji in the center is a Fumio profile that can sacrifice itself to bounce one of your opponent’s cards from field back to hand. Lastly, Denji standing mindlessly outside the izakaya carries an on-play scry and a more notably important and rare ability to discard a card and sacrifice itself to drag one of your opponent’s cards into an open slot, helping generate a reverse target for your finishers.

As for counters, the only chainsaw response that we have is this memory counter above. Screaming from the pits of rage, Denji’s counter is a memory kick counter. Here is the trick. You may be thinking this is running in contrast to Chainsaw Man’s cross-turn reverse ability; however, when effects are primed, you choose the order of effects. That means that you can simply resolve Denji’s ability first and deal damage to your opponent while top decking them, fizzling the memory kick effect while still retaining the power. Furthermore, this card also has a soul trigger, perfect for sneaking to hand or stock with a choice trigger.

Smiling with his shirt off, Chainsaw Man smiles as he happily dives straight into battle. Chainsaw Man is absurdly large for his level during your turn, but as a caveat and both boon and a bane, if he is reversed, he forces you to clock the top card of your deck and rest him, a sort of forced clock encore. Denji being shocked at his hand has an on-play surveil ability and on-play reveal and cantrip with the top card of your deck if it is a character. Denji sniffing his apple slice flickers an opponent’s card on-play and gives burst power to one of your characters of your choice. Denji opening his mouth is a forced mill on-play that gains power for each character milled, and additionally, he allows you to discard a character to draw both on-play and when he attacks. Denji looking confusingly at a menu is a Riki profile when reversed that allows you to reveal the top two cards of your deck and forces your opponent to choose to give you either a character or event among the two cards. Lastly, Chainsaw Man all cut up is a 4000 powered beatstick that grants your opponent cheapened encore.

Personally, I feel Denji is often a misunderstood character. On the surface, he appears to be a happy-go-lucky moron that merrily enjoys the chaos of the world around him. That’s not to say that it’s far from the truth. In reality, Denji is a character that has suffered at the very bottom of the economic ladder. Things have always been rough for him, and things are only expected to be worse. Despite it all, Denji can continue to smile and push on regardless of what comes his way. Denji is a young boy, who is unknowing of the world around him. He’s excited; he’s saddened; he’s overjoyed; he’s simply experiencing the world around him. He may not be the smartest, but he’s got a good heart. I think learning from Denji, it’s fine to make mistakes, to love, to lose, to smile, to frown, and if anything, I think Denji fairly encapsulates at least part of what it means to have the human experience. Life is miserable, and many things often spiral out of control, but despite everything, Denji still continues to get back up and trudge on, chainsaw at the ready.