YMMV / Weiss Schwarz

• Americans Hate Tingle: Weiss is notable for seemingly defying this trope in spite of the notoriously harsh environment of the Western CCG market, gaining a small but notable niche for being the card game equivalent of a Licensed Game and maintaining product lineup consistent with popular anime trends at the time of their release^note The hololive set did wonders for the game's popularity. These days it's not especially uncommon to see Western card shops stocking Weiss Schwarz product despite being mostly dominated by Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Pokémon, and some stores even stock Japanese sets that have no Western import (such as the Disney franchise sets) or are based on anime popular in the West but have a large gap between their Japanese and English releases (such as Chainsaw Man, which had no set English release date even as of its release in Japan and was only finally released in English 10 months later).
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • A huge one with "First Taste, Makima" from the Chainsaw Man set, as the 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. 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 quadruple digits on the secondary market, beating out chase cards from other games such as Pokémon^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. and making the only ultra-rare version of Makima completely inaccessible for poorer or less lucky players.
  • 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 turning the opponent's survival into a Luck-Based Mission.
• Broken Base: Adding Star Wars and other Disney-based sets. Some fans are okay with it, as a Western franchise would attract more Western fans to the game, increasing its popularity. Others are upset due to the choice being entirely out of left field and being extremely out-of-place in a card game primarily dominated by anime franchises and video game series based on Japanese culture and anime. With the release of other sets based on Disney-owned franchises (namely the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Pixar, and a catch-all Disney 100 set), some fans feel that a set based on Kingdom Hearts or Twisted Wonderland would be appropriate to bridge the gap, licensing issues aside.^note Twisted-Wonderland does have a set under the Weiss Schwarz Blau label, but as such it's often forgotten by fans.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome: Being a card game that has its fair share of game breakers, this is to be expected. Here are some examples that appear in the Japanese version:
  • 2014 World Grand Prix (WGP) was the year Nisekoi dominated the tournament. Most Nisekoi players are running the game breaking "Maiden's Heart" Marika build, which was not restricted to 1 copy at that time. In fact, the only other major representation series at the time was the Jack of All Stats series KanColle. Nisekoi eventually got a nerf in that Maiden's Heart Marika is limited to 1 copy per deck and 3 other cards (Two of a Kind Raku, Angel in White Kosaki, and Promised Pendant) got hit by a choice banlist. The choice banlist has been lifted, but Maiden's Heart Marika is still limited to 1 copy until January 2020, loosening the limit to 2 copies. The Marika restriction is fully lifted on January 2023, presumably the whole metagame is filled with cards that can deal extra damage left, right, and center.
  • 2016 WGP sees a shocking representation rate of THE iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls decks. One of the most popular build then was the Triad Primus deck. A dominantly blue deck that runs the Triad Primus trio, along with many other cards to pull off the combo. The kicker of the deck, however, is Power of Smile Rin. As a finisher, her ability is a climax combo that cost 3 stock and 1 hand card, giving her a restand ability when another character attacks. Fielding 3 Power of Smile Rins is equivalent to 2 turns worth of attacks in 1! The banlist eventually adds Power of Smile Rin, together with Horror Lover Koume (a character that can let you look at up to 4 cards of your deck and choose a climax to add it to your hand while discarding the rest, making the combo terribly easy to pull off) and Miria Akagi (a character that searches a character level 1 or below, mainly to search for the aforementioned Koume) into a choice banlist, which was later joined by Shibuya Rin (a character that lets you discard 1 hand to look at up to 4 cards and choose 1 blue character to add into your hand while discarding the rest, also to get the Koume easily).
  • The torch passes from Cinderella Girls to Dueling Work Love Live! Sunshine!! in 2017 WGP. Notorious for the "MIRAI TICKET" 2nd Years, "MIRAI TICKET" Chika Takami can be fielded on level 2 if a "MIRAI TICKET" Riko Sakurauchi is in the clock. Her other ability calls a "MIRAI TICKET" You Watanabe from the waiting room, essentially calling 2 Level 3 characters with 3 cost only! Making the combo more evil is that each character has an ability that complements each other. "MIRAI TICKET" You provides all "MIRAI TICKET" Chika +2000 power, turning her into a sweeper permanently, and her other ability activates when attacking, revealing the top card of the deck and dealing damage to the opponent based on that card's level if it was Music character. If anyone thinks this is a Luck-Based Mission, this is where "MIRAI TICKET" Riko's ability comes in: an ACT ability that Rests herself and discard 1 card from the hand to reveal the top card of the deck, then salvage 1 character based on the revealed card's level. With the informatiom of the top card laid bare, you can choose either You to attack first if it is a high level card or get rid of it if it is a low level card. Most Love Live Sunshine decks will attempt to shoehorn the combo in just because it is that strong.
  • Bushiroad Card Fight (BCF) 2019 sees a dispropotionate win rate from Hina Logic players. The culprit? A seemingly harmless Level 1 card with an Alarm effect (Alarm effects are triggered when it is the top card of the clock). Said alarm effect lets you search your deck for a Logicalist or Foreigner whenever you use a Fusion ability at Level 2 or above. This means that after 2 Fusions, you can search your deck for a Fusion Logicalist and the respective material Foreigner for another fusion, which means at Level 2, you can have 3 souped-up Level 3 characters for the low, low cost of 3 stock. Said Level 1 character was already flagged as a problem card before WGP 2018 and thus put in a choice restricted list with a Level 3 character that was dominant in the build. Players just opt to change the Level 3 while keeping everything else as it is. It was then changed from a choice restriction to a full ban on that card, ending the menace once and for all.
  • Following the fall of Hina Logic, the next series that inherited the throne of 'Most Dispropotionate Win Rate' was Fate/Stay Night. Most of the issue with 2019 Fate builds is that the refresh penalty becomes a non-issue from Level 2 onwards, and any damage from level 3 on can be healed with ease while being difficult to have attacks to pass at all due to Level 3 Rider's anti-Front Attack effect.
  • WGP Japan 2020 sees almost half of all decks being repesented by Saekano, Sword Art Online, and Date A Live, with each taking about 15% of the decks represented each. To elaborate:
    • The star of Saekano during this period is New Story, Megumi. While most of her abilities are pretty normal for a Level 3 finisher in 2019, what makes her stand out the most is her Recollection ability, granting her +2000 Pwer with at least 2 cards in the Memory, disables opponent Counter characters with at least 3, and hexproof with at least 4. Although the intended way to accumulate cards in the Memory is to sacrifice two other cards at Level 1 (which can only be done at Level 2) and Level 2 (ditto but at Level 3) to progress to this Megumi, some enterprising players realised that the Memory accumulation can be done using cards that send themselves to the Memory at Level 0. The 2021 First Period eventually restricts New Story, Megumi with Surprise Gift, Izumi (pay 1 cost and send self to Memory for a Scry 4) and Betrayal and Farewell, Utaha (pay 1 cost and send self to Memory when another character is under Front Attack to retrieve that character from Stage). Compared to the other two series, this was the one that was affected the most as sticking to Megumi hampers the tempo of the setup by a lot. Although there are other Level 0 cards that can send themselves to Memory, Izumi and Utaha are the most used as they can do that with no net loss to hand gain.
    • Meanwhile, Date A Live sees Most Disastrous Spirit, Kurumi under scrutiny. While there is nothing inherently overpowered with this Kurumi, the deck runs on 8 Standby triggers, which is built with many high base Power characters. This has a very good synergy with Tohka in Uniform, which gives +1500 power to a character during your opponent's turn, and during their turn, if any of their character is Reversed, you can peek at the top card and choose to return it to the top or bottom of the deck. On top of being able to wall your opponent, Tohka has a powerful deck manipulation to complement with the wall. While both Kurumi and Tohka placed in restriction together with My Little Shido, there are replacements available for Tohka while My Little Shido can be glossed over even without the restriction.
    • Unlike the aforementioned 2 series, Sword Art Online returns to the restriction list with Moment of Reunion, Asuna, Guild Leader of Knights of the Blood Oath, Heathcliff and Spriggan Swordsman, Kirito. Between an early game beater, a one use Scry 4 with the added bonus of disabling Encore for all characters, and a support which basically turns Gate triggers into Door triggers, there is no doubt Kitiro will be there to stay for the next season.
  • While Sword Art Online and Saekano has fallen out of favour in the competitive scene, Date A Live still remains strong throughout 2021. Filling in the vacuum block is the newcomer Kaguya-sama: Love is War.
    • Date A Live retains the same build from 2020, except Tohka in Uniform is replaced by A Spring Moment, Yoshino, which now perfectly counters Standby based decks that used to be able to go toe to toe with 2020 Date A Live decks. A Spring Moment, Yoshino can exchange positions with another character on the stage, which can effectively take out the opponent's big beater characters that they called in Stage via Standby trigger.
    • Kaguya meanwhile runs a Standby-Door build. Even so, it runs very consistently. The biggest threat in the deck is Persisting Conviction, Miyuki, which can be played at level 2 when there is 2 or less climax in the waiting room. On the turn he is put into the Stage, he gains 4500 until the end of opponent's turn and while in battle, Backups cannot be used. Together with a Level X x 500 support, he can go to 15000 power and holds down one lane very effectively. On top of that, he can send Reversed characters to clock on both turns, so suiciding characters into Miyuki is not as straightforward. Serious Showdown Between Geniuses, Kaguya is no slouch either, as she can deal 1 damage as both a Climax Combo and a Resonance ability, effectively making 3 attacks on one character.
  • Sword Art Online climbed back to the competitive scene with Shout Echoing Across the Battlefield, Alice. The card itself is pretty average: Salvage 1 card and charge 1 Stock from the Waiting Room when Guardian of the Human Realm is placed in the Climax Zone and if there are 5 Characters on Stage, and +1000 Power for each 'Anniversary' or 'Fluctlight' Character on Stage. The kicker is Straight Path, Alice, which is the 3rd Division Vice-Captain, Peh-yan to the aforementioned Alice's 3rd Division Captain, Pah-chin. Unlike Pah-chin, a vanilla with a lot more power from Peh-yan's ability, Battlefield, Alice's hand gain and stock gain becomes much more pronounced, and has a hefty power to boot! Furthermore, due to how stable and consistent the Alice set-up is, it is compatible with all the Level 3s in the same set as Alice. Japanese Weiss eventually put a stop to Alice in June 2023 by fully restricting Straight Path, Alice while adding Bonds Between Siblings, Leafa and In a Party Dress, Sortiliena into the Choice Restriction.
  • As official tournaments in Japan are shifting their focus more towards Trios, the shift in the metagame has turned from identifying one or two Game-Breaker sets to three to five, and many teams will revolve around playing that same sets, if not at least one of them members. Bushiroad has changed the parameters of seeding the 1 loss teams to the finals ^explanationPreviously, seeding the 1 loss teams is based on the set representation of the full win teams. Teams playing sets that are not represented at all in the full wins will be given the highest priority, followed by 1 member, 2 members, then the whole team. The current system in place for 1 loss seeding is that every set represented in the tourney will be assigned a point based on how many players entered with that set (e.g. if 128 people out of 384 players are playing Chainsaw Man, then every Chainsaw Man deck will be given 128 points). The team with the lowest points will then be given the highest priority to enter the elimination finals. with limited success. Case in point, the WGP 2023 series has seen a massive representation of Chainsaw Man, Puzzle and Dragons, Slime, Overlord, and hololive. Teams will play for full wins during the Swiss rounds instead of taking advantage of the revised 1 loss seeding system.
  • As mentioned elsewhere on this page, Chainsaw Man 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 easily drawn new players to the game who end up building a highly competent deck early on, much like with hololive a few years prior.
• Fan Discontinuity: There are some fans who completely disown the English Edition due to poor balancing decisions compared to the original Japanese version.
• Fan Nickname: Pseudo keyword abilities have their nicknames as a result of that ability being available across several sets, as well as simplifying explanation. Some examples include:
  • Money Counter: Named after the "Farewell Yukichi!!" event card from the Little Busters! anime. Negates all damage done to the player by the character in battle for the turn.
  • Time Machine: Named after "Time Machine" Miku. A climax combo that sends the character to the memory, which then comes back into the Stage the next turn with more power.
  • Runners (comes in free and mill variants), Suiciders, Healers
  • Musashi: The ability that activates on the turn the Character is played and its damage is cancelled, mill the top card of the owner's deck and deal X+1 damage to the opponent, where X is the level of the card milled. This nickname is one of the most prevalent in Weiss that it gained a minor Memetic Mutation status after a tweet from Matsui Godan discouraging players to use these nicknames when playing with beginners.
  • Fumio: Shuffling your opponent's Waiting Room back to his deck with an exception of a chosen climax in the Waiting Room. Interestingly enough, only "Forgetful Girl" Murakami Fumio and "Happy Maker" Hoshizora Rin are the 2 cards that uses the original text ability where the player chooses 2 climaxes in his opponent's Waiting Room. Subsequent iterations of this ability has the opponent chooses 1 climax in his Waiting Room instead (Except "Main Stage of Dreams", where your opponent chooses 2 instead).
• Fridge Logic: How can cute girls have power levels that surpass that of veteran fighters and mages?
  • Because the characters aren't necessarily fighting. If you putting on a successful Rom Com show, the sudden appearance of a killer robot is probably not going to impress the audience.
• Game-Breaker: Weiss Schwarz has its fair share of gamebreakers, even for a game that relies mostly on luck.
  • 「小川で遊ぼう!」, or the infamous 「Kogawa de Asobou」 has been banned from all Standard and Side deck tournaments. Deceitly simple, the ability of this card not only allow you to change away a hand that could not benefit you, it can also alter the game’s destiny by dropping climaxes on top and use powerful brainstorms in the Zero no Tsukaima set to do very broken things.
  • 「神木　秋成」 (Akinari Kamiki) from Persona 3 can destroy your opponent’s hand in one turn, and obliverate any form of resistance, which resulted in it being banned in all formats (It used to be only standard).
  • 「色褪せた世界」 from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is a level 2 event that retires a Level 1 or higher character from your field, replace it with a lv 0 character and salvages TWO cards from your waiting room to hand for a mere ONE cost, which resulted it being banned in Standard and Side Limited decks, and restricted to a choose one card out of four list in Neo-Standard due to its ability to guarantee a +1 and its usage as a loop engine. Simply retire any Level 1 or higher, replace it with a still usable level 0 and salvage the lv 1 or higher character you just retired PLUS another card.
  • 「休憩!」 from Little Busters! Ecstasy is banned in all formats due to its extremely cheap cost for taking two cards off your clock for a mere cost of one! No other card can do this.
  • The infamous 「コーデリアのお花畑」(Cordelia's Garden) is a sub-example of the above card. It also got banned in all formats due to its cheap cost of taking two cards off your clock PLUS giving one of your characters +3000 power for only a cost of TWO.
  • 乙女心 万里花; or Maiden's Heart, Marika from the Nisekoi Set is a fairly powerful card. It, on declaration of its attack, deals 1 damage and if it successfully reverses a character, it restands. So, technically even just one Maiden's Heart, Marika could potentially have one or three extra "attacks" per turn. Take note that Weiss Schwarz is a game that also relies on the eight or less climaxes in your deck at the time to cancel damage. With Maiden's Heart, Marika, it would be highly unlikely for all those attacks to be able to be cancelled. Now, imagine having 3 of those cards on the field. Not to mention, the activation needed for this card to even take effect (have two 「約束のペンダント」 or Promised Pendants in Memory) is basically a common occurence in the decks of Nisekoi.
    • Maiden's Heart, Marika though is only the powerful finisher. What sets it apart from the other good finishers of the game is the support for it. ニタモノ 楽 (Two of a Kind, Raku) is not only a global assist of +500 to all other characters, it is a costless, apart from discard, salvage of a Promised Pendant that prepares you from endgame. 乙女心 小咲 (Maiden's Heart, Kosaki) is a Level 3 card that can be played at Level 2 if you fulfill its condition of having 2 Promised Pendants in Memory AND on play, it allows you to search for 1 Key Character to put on hand. Due to the effectiveness of the Nisekoi deck, it has seen a large dominance in the meta with top decks mainly only Nisekoi and Kantai Collection for a good latter half of 2014 before the restrictions of Two of a Kind, Raku, Maiden's Heart, Marika, and Promised Pendant, making it merely a still consistent deck. The aforementioned "Maiden's Heart" cards were nerfed to high heaven during the English Release of the set due to this.
  • Galaxy, Sumire has become infamous for the card with the shortest lifespan in competitive play (about 4 months), until Boss, Nakiri Ayame below took over the spot. Even without going into it being used in the 3/6 loop one turn kill deck, the profile itself was pretty busted to begin with. This Sumire was the only card in the game thus far to not have any cost associated with the Fumio or the Michiru Burn ability, the latter with the added bonus for being the only card that has Michiru Burn as an entry effect, where all other cards needs either a Climax Combo or pay a hefty cost for it. Furthermore, the Fumio ability itself is very situational, making cards specialised for that purpose a dead draw at times, which Sumire will be less of one in certain situations as she can rely on the Michiru Burn instead.
  • The unholy trinity of Crafting Weapons, Houshou Marine, In An Interview, Tokino Sora, and Boss, Nakiri Ayame, which was thankfully quashed when Ayame is banned in June 2023 for Japanese Weiss, and the following month for English Weiss^note The English edition of Hololive vol. 2, which the Ayame comes from, was only available in August 2023., earning that card the dubious honor of shortest lived Weiss card ever (and probably for English, the first stillborn card ever). With proper interaction, you can attack up to 6 times in 1 turn at Level 1, for the cost of 3 hand cards, and 1 Stock, which will be put into the Clock. When Sora is put into the Waiting Room from the Stage, the player chooses 1 Cost 0 or below character that is at the same level or lower as the player from his deck and put it into the stage in Rest. This can be done by Marine's ability, which cost requires to send 1 Character into the Waiting Room. By doing so at Level 1, Ayame can be put into the Stage from the deck in Rest, but Ayame can also call another of herself from the deck if she is placed in the Stage from the deck, this time in Stand position. Using Marine for the 3rd attack (The first 2 characters can be any other character), Sora is put into the Waiting Room to put Ayame into the Stage in Rest, which puts another 3 Ayame into the Stage in Stand. On top of the ludicrous amount of damage that can be done in one Attack Phase, there is a net gain of 2 Stock as a cherry to top this sundae.
  • Abilities-wise, the most overpowered Level 0 utility engine is the one used by Beyond the Brilliant Future! Azusa, an on-play ability that takes a character card with a certain trait from up to 4 cards from the top of the deck and sends the other cards looked into the waiting room, with the cost of discarding 1 card from the hand. This is by far the most cost-efficient utility, as this cards combines both a hand fix engine and a mill engine for no stock at all. Furthermore, the character with this ability also has that trait stated in its ability. Tellingly, more recent sets with this ability only allows the card to be taken be Level 1 or higher, and activated when sent to the Waiting Room instead of when entering the Stage.
  • The Chainsaw Man engine has Level 3/Cost 2/Soul 2 "Public Safety Devil Extermination Special Division 4" versions of the series' main characters that tend to be terrifying boss monsters and are all great choices for a deck:
    • "Public Safety Devil Extermination Special Division 4, Makima". Following in the footsteps of Borrelsword Dragon and 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. 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 to the deck's consistency as one may think.
    • 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 Morton's Fork where the opponent is punished hard for not compressing their deck^Definitionthinning out non-climax cards to increase the likelihood of hitting a climax when attacked and canceling damage (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; sure, the damage can be canceled as normal, but that's little consolation when you have 1 climax removed from your deck each time an Aki attacks. This version of Aki is the dedicated boss monster for the most meta-relevant Chainsaw Man build and is easily one of the most High-Tier Scrappy 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.
    • 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 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, but mostly the "6 Choice, 2 Door" build due to its greater presence of yellow cards.
    • While not following the naming scheme of the aforementioned three, "The Devil Hunter Feared by Devils, Chainsaw Man" is essentially Denji's equivalent and is the game-ender of choice for the "6 Choice/2 Door" decklist. This Chainsaw Man is basically the Captain Planet of the archetype, boasting Makima's raw power, Power's clock-healing ability and team synergy, and Aki's explosive damage output, only lacking the inherent ability to be cheated out early. His Climax combo (this time with "Blood-Soaked Declaration of War") adds 2 more chances to deal extra damage when he attacks and you have 3 or more other characters: automatically dealing 1 damage, and for the cost of 2 stock and 2 discards, dealing 2 more damage if he defeats a character in battle (and that character is returned to the top of the opponent's deck).
  • Alice Gear Aegis is a good example of why Standby climaxes should not exist in decks with Fusion. When The Things I Can Do, Yotsuyu attacks, you can pay 1 Stock to do 1 damage to your opponent or heal 1 damage from your own clock. While Yotsuyu is in the Front Row, her Climax Combo allows you to call another copy of herself from the hand into the Stage, with the only cost being to put the Climax into the Waiting Room. Said character gets +3000 Power during the turn, and also lets you peek at the opponent's top card in the deck and either return it to the top deck or mill it. Said combo would be average to underwhelming, if not for the fact that Chain of Assistance, Yotsuyu also exist in this set, which when Fused with Volunteer Hoodlums, Yotsuyu, can summon the aforementioned Yotsuyu from the deck. Chain of Assistance, Yotsuyu is a Level 2 character, which means that you can summon her with Standby at Level 1, and from there summon The Things I Can Do, Yotsuyu from there, all also from Level 1 onwards. Just one day after Alice Gear Aegis's official release, it had already seen 2 decks in the top 4 positions of the Tokyo blocks of WGP 2023.
  • Speaking of WGP 2023, the five most represented series are Game Breakers on their own. Chainsaw Man has "Public Safety Devil Extermination Special Division 4, Aki Hayakawa", which was eventually limited to 2 copies, on top of restricting "Break Time, Himeno" and "Forming An Alliance, Himeno" to reduce the ease of adding "Easy Revenge!" to the hand. The others are as follows:
    • Slime re-treaded the entire folly of Sword Art Online 's "Shout Across the Battlefield, Alice" with "A Throbbing That Signals Freedom, Mjurran". Although Mjurran cannot be early called like Alice, she has 500 more power than Alice with an easier condition to fulfil (5500 power, with an additional 5000 power if you have 2 or more other Demon Continent characters). However, with "Quite Anger, Shuna" and "Captive Wizard, Mjurran" in the back row, each of the Mjurran now becomes a monster with 12500 Power on either player's turn, and with hexproof on top of that, courtesy of Shuna. To increase the chances of cancelling, "Conquerer of Flames, Shizu" is used to kickstart the setup for Mjurran using her Climax Combo, then sent to the memory when Reversed by the opponent's characters. As long as the Mjurrans stay on the Stage, the hand and stock will continue snowballing to absurd levels, resulting in even more cancels due to having a well compressed deck, culminating in using "To The Strong, Benimaru" to swoop in for the kill, which has a good damage dealing ability with the added bonus of not requiring any climaxes to pull off, leaving the climaxes to solely focus on Shizu and Mjurran. English Weiss would eventually restrict the deck by allowing either only Shizu or Mjurran in the deck, while Japanese Weiss would add Shuna to the list.
    • Despite the restriction imposed in June 2023, Overlord was still dominating in the major tournaments. While "Sorcerer King, Ainz" is a powerful card on its own, it requires two turns before the effect can be unleashed fully. However, "A Return Gift to Shub-Niggurath, Ainz" would make this a non-issue, as it uses the same Climax as "Sorcerer King, Ainz" to give a plethora of effects to render "Sorceror King, Ainz" practically invincible: "Return Gift" will give a "Sorcerer King" 4500 power for the turn, and hexproof and cannot Reverse or be Reversed by the Battle Opponent during the opponent's turn, until the end of his turn. As very few sets in the game has removal abilities that affect the entire Stage (therefore bypassing the hexproof), "Sorcerer King" will be protected with all of the "Black Little Goats" under him as markers, which when the Climax Combo is used again, can do a Board Wipe on his own. Japanese Weiss would ban "Return Gift'' totally, giving many other decks at least one chance to take "Sorceror King" out together with the markers.
    • hololive as a set is a Game-Breaker 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.
    • Puzzle and Dragon would then take the concept of having many Soul triggers in the deck and turn it up to eleven. "Sweet Cipher Dragon Caller, Ney"'s Climax Combo would mill the player's top 7 cards of the deck. Then, based on the number of cards milled with Soul triggers, deal 4 damage if there are at least 3, shuffle 3 cards from your opponent's waiting room back to their deck if there are at least 4, and deal 4 damage again if there are at least 6, and all of that for a low, low cost of 1 Stock and 1 card in hand. For 3 instances of damage for a total of 11 damage, 3 copies of Ney can theoretically take the opponent out at any point in time. Unlike most instances where game breaking finisher Level 3 characters are restricted to 2 copies, Ney was restricted to 1 copy in January 2024. "Mirai Ticket, Watanabe You" being limited to 2 copies instead of 1 at the same time just showed the extent of overpoweredness Ney had.
  • 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" ^*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., 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!" ^TextChoose 1 of your Character to gain the following ability for this turn: "AUTO When this Character's Battle Opponent is Reversed, deal 3 damage, then choose 1 of your other Character. That Character gains 1000 Power and 1 Soul. and "Where Could The Big Shell Be?" ^TextDeal 1 damage, then choose 1 of your Character. That Character gains 5000 Power. have very powerful synergy with Touya.
• Underused Game Mechanic: One of School Idol Festival 2's selling point is cards with the LSF tag, which can be used in any of the Love Live! series. Come the unofficial release of the card list, only one card has the LSF tag, and on top of that, it's entirely useless in Sunshine, Nijigasaki, and Superstar, as the one card in question is a Treasure climax, a green card with barely any synergy in the three aforementioned series, which did not carry any green cards in their respective card list, and the card that has Climax Combo synergy with that card is a Honoka card, undermining its effectiveness even further.
• Unexpected Character: Star Wars, a Western movie franchise in a Japanese card game based around anime and anime-type video games.
  • Players usually expect Bushiroad to bring in franchises that are quite popular in the recent times, and were taken by surprise when Captain Tsubasa and Rurouni Kenshin are slated for release during Jump Festa 2024.

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