Chainsaw Man – The Fam (Y/R/G/B)[08/22/2024]

Do you remember that old show SpyxFamily that aired a few years ago? The synopsis of that story follows a make-believe family consisting of various members with their own unique traits and personalities. Slowly, the family gets closer and closer, resembling more and more of a real family. Well, this is like that, but instead of having wholesome family members, you have dad (Aki), the crazy son (Denji), and Power. And instead of harmonizing as one, they’re all creating a chaotic mess and making Aki’s life miserable (basically your typical family).

There’s no single way to build this deck; however, we do have some “strict” requirements. Firstly, these two events above are quintessential to the deck’s core. Thematically and mechanically speaking, Aki screaming at the wild things living in his apartment is a great event that gathers the family together. By paying his event’s costs, you may search your deck for exactly one card of each member of the family: Denji [デンジ] / Chainsaw Man [チェンソーマン], Hayasawa Aki [早川アキ], and Power [パワー], and then shuffling your deck.

The toast event is a symbolism of the family at its core. You have the core base of the family with the bread and all the jangled mess and nonsense on top partially spilling out, just like how most familial relationships are. Toast carries a high cost; otherwise, you wouldn’t spend so much on a fancy toaster. You must pay its stock costs in addition to discarding a card. If you can perform the feat, you get three different effects as follows:

• Rearrange the top three cards of your deck and optionally bounce one of your opponent’s characters to hand.
• Deal a single point of damage and then choose a card in your opponent’s waiting room and place it on top of their deck while also granting one of your characters an additional 1000 power for the turn.
• Grant up to two of your characters an additional soul for the turn.

Now this may seem like an odd choice beyond flavour, but the reason for this is shown below.

Meet our finisher, Power. If you’ve seen the other post, Power and Meowy, you’d know exactly how this finisher works. For those not in the know, Power pays a very hefty cost, places three cards from your opponent’s waiting room back on top of their deck and then deals four damage. What this means is that with her combo, your opponent must have a climax on the fourth card of deck or they’ll meet death.

Now Toast, alongside one other card to be mentioned shortly, are great accompaniments for Power. If you look at the second bullet point for the toast event, you’ll see that it places a card from your opponent’s waiting room on top of their deck, and given that Power places three additional cards herself, you can guarantee four damage will stick.

Keep in mind, Power does require you to sacrifice your climax, and since her climax provides a continuous effect, the power and more importantly, the soul provided by the climax will be removed.

The other card that was mentioned alongside the toast event is Power above. Power is a support card that grants a large burst of power to a single character at the start of your climax phase. Her second ability compliments the finisher as it copies the second ability of the toast event. However, Power’s ability can be reused multiple times during the match. As part of her effect’s text, you must marker a character from your waiting room to be able to use her effect. Furthermore, you must have two or less markers to activate her ability. This means that you have three charges on Power at all times, but do feel free to make use of her marker ability as you need. Just make sure to leave one charge for the final turn.

For the early game, Power holding Meowy shines as a way to grab us extra hand and mill through the deck. Power can also gain an immense amount of well… power when she’s attacking a level two opponent, perfect for the absolute fiend of the family.

By and far, the greatest difficulty of the deck is trying to grab the toast event. Just like in real life, it is a difficult task at times to bring all the family members together for a simple family dinner. These cards above are ways to try and filter the event to your hand. Aki on the left is a Chiyuri profile when sent to waiting room that checks for level one or higher cards. Aki in the center is a Kazuma profile to hopefully nab the event from the top three cards of your deck. Denji is a redraw profile both on play and on swing if you pay his costs to try and force draw the event.

The world is your oyster. With the theme of this deck, ideally, you’ll just be running the three ne’er-do-wells, but even among the three, there are plenty of options. Some small suggestions include Power on the left which is a super power filter that also refunds a stock. She works very well with the toast event since she deals a free point of damage if she triggers any climax and you can arrange your top three cards to position her for it. Her filter minimizes your deck size and also helps with increasing your chances of triggering climaxes as a result, great for getting the stock needed for finishing power and whatnot. Power holding Meowy can sacrifice fallen characters or other parts of her family to stock. Lastly, Aki is a clean cut profile that can save his family from harm by clean cutting them into the back row.

Daddy Aki is smoking his cigarettes; to be fair, I would too if I had to deal with the literal demons that he lives with on a daily basis. Aki is a freefresh counter, paying his parental costs to shuffle your waiting room back into the deck and give you another chance at life.

We’ve provided some samples of options to be used alongside the deck, but feel free to look around and play your own. Denij struggling to read a menu in his young teens speaks more to the failure of society to educate, but more importantly, he acts as an on-reverse Riki profile that reveals the top two cards of your deck and forces your opponent to give you either a character or an event. Denji rubbing his shoulder is a Fumio profile that can also sack itself to bounce one of your opponent’s characters back to hand. Aki looking worried at his two dilapidated children gains power in the center and triggers twice for free, sacking the second triggered card at the end of his attack. Aki drinking coffee and regretting his life decision of having kids is a climax swapper profile that requires you to also sack another character. Denji having a heart attack at realizing that he has functional limbs is reminiscent of the disappointment I feel with my own students. Denji is a cantrip profile that also allows you to surveil the top card of your deck on-play. Lastly, Power with her threatening paw is a drop salvage profile that also allows you to rearrange the top two cards of your deck.

Family is tough. Perhaps Aki’s family or new family found with his “special” associates, Denji and Power, is more reminiscent of what a true family is like. Perhaps family is less about who is related by blood but more about the more interesting and eccentric individuals that somehow form a bond together. That being said, Aki wishes that maybe there will be one week where one of his “children” will finally be able to be toilet trained and stop defecating on the dining room table.