Charizard is Broken Again
It’s been a couple of months since I’ve written about Charizard ex, so I guess it’s that time again. For real though, in my preliminary testing for Worlds, no deck has impressed me more than Charizard. Once Shrouded Fable drops, I predict that this deck will once again claim its throne as the best deck in the format. Based on some general hype and results from Japan, it seems that Charizard is once again going to be top tier after its brief falloff in the Twilight Masquerade format. My group very nearly played Charizard for NAIC, but we ended up going with a less risky meta call, playing a boring Gardevoir ex list instead. However, Tord Reklev accurately predicted the lack of Dragapult ex and played Charizard to an 18th place finish.
In the early stages of the Twilight Masquerade format, Dragapult’s insane success in Japan scared many players off Charizard. That matchup was pretty rough, especially if Dragapult had Technical Machine: Devolution, which most ended up not playing. However, Dragapult did not really show up at NAIC, aside from cameos in Tord’s Charizard deck and the Top 16 Regidrago VSTAR list. Charizard was scarcely played at NAIC, but managed to pick up several Day 2 spots anyway because the meta was favorable for it. As Dragapult falls off, things only get better for Charizard. Furthermore, Shrouded Fable gives some massive buffs to the deck, pushing it into overpowered territory.
One of the top picks from Shrouded Fable, Dusknoir, works perfectly with Charizard. Aside from excellent synergy, it drastically spikes the power level of the deck and opens so many plays that were previously impossible. My first thought about Dusknoir was that it wasn’t worth the hype, but after playing with it, it has blown my expectations out of the water. A second and more underrated addition to Charizard is Fezandipiti ex. Fezandipiti somewhat alleviates the need for Bibarel. While Bibarel undeniably has the better Ability, Fezandipiti’s ease of access is quite nice, and it generates the extra deck spot to accommodate the Dusknoir. There are also some matchups where Fezandipiti is less of a liability on the board due to its higher HP. Fezandipiti can reasonably use its snipe attack after being charged by Charizard’s Infernal Reign, but I haven’t had that come up very often.
Aside from these changes, Charizard remains the exact same. It’s good for the same reasons it always was, but the deck is just stronger now. Charizard’s insane HP and attack damage give any deck a hard time, while Pidgeot ex chains Charizard and enables combo plays. If they go after your support Pokemon, Charizard remains a low-maintenance threat. Previously, one of Charizard’s biggest weaknesses was its lack of early-game damage, allowing clever opponents to play around it. Dusknoir, and by extension, Dusclops, negate that issue entirely, allowing Charizard to burst out of the gates with massive damage. Dusknoir and Dusclops enable clever plays around Defiance Band, Counter Catcher, and Radiant Charizard. Even without the damage from their Abilities, they function as a 30-damage buff to Charizard’s Burning Darkness by way of the Prize card the opponent is forced to take. My list isn’t anything special, playing to the theme of the deck being inherently and fundamentally broken:
This concludes the public portion of this article.
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