The Loyal Three — My Top Three Decks for the World Championships

Hey everyone! It’s Charlie, and I’m happy to be back with another article.

The World Championships are now less than a month away, and I’ve been hard at work preparing for what might be the largest World Championships of all time! As I detailed in my last article, I try to dedicate significantly more time to preparing for Worlds than I do for other events. If I spend the entire year trying to get here, it certainly deserves special attention when it comes to my preparation. This means trying as many decks as I can when I’m far away from the tournament, narrowing down to the top few options (where I am now), and eventually deciding on my favourite one a few weeks before the tournament.

Today, I’m going to share with you my three favourite decks right now, their strengths and weaknesses, and explain why I think they’re all excellent choices for Worlds! Let’s get right into it with the first deck: Charizard ex:

Charizard ex Deck

This list is a bit different from most you may have seen recently, and that’s because I’ve surprisingly not been a huge fan of Dusknoir! I know I rated Dusclops and Dusknoir as my #1 new cards from Shrouded Fable in my last article, and I fully bought into the hype train at the time. I still think the line is very strong, but I became underwhelmed the more games I played with it. If we lived in the world of theory, Dusknoir would turn Charizard into the single best deck ever made. In practice, however, both Dusclops and Dusknoir are very hard to use to full effect and sometimes get in the way. Dusclops is much better than Dusknoir, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a successful list this year that only played Dusclops, but I also think it’s very valid to play this deck without the line at all.

Instead, my goal with this list was to be hyper-aggressive. In a format with Lugia VSTAR approaching the power level of Sword & Shield to Silver Tempest Standard format Lugia and Regidrago VSTAR gaining a ton of hype, you can’t afford to get behind early against these decks. To deal with this, I’ve decided to include Pecharunt ex and Binding Mochi as a way to easily deal 220 damage on turn 2, KOing a Lugia V or Regidrago V. This list will always choose to go first and aim to take as many Prize cards as possible in the early game, relying on Charizard ex’s inherent strength to carry it through the late game. Another nice bonus of Binding Mochi is the ability to KO Pokemon VSTAR when your opponent only has four Prize cards left, something that can’t be easily accomplished with Defiance Band or Choice Belt. Yes, Dusclops would allow you to do this, but you give up another Prize card, waste most of the damage that Dusclops is placing, and overall just put yourself further behind in the game. Let’s get into some of the other card choices:

Four Charmander, One Charmeleon, and Three Charizard ex

I went with four copies of the Blazing Destruction Charmander as 60 HP is a very relevant number when facing any deck with Dragapult ex. Getting KO’d by Phantom Dive is quite awful and can end the game on the spot if you only get down two Charmander on turn 1, so playing the 70 HP Charmander is the best insurance you can have. Charmeleon still makes an appearance, but only as a one-off since Lost Zone decks will certainly be on the decline. Three Charizard ex is standard and will be supplying most of your damage throughout the game.

One Pidgey OBF, One Pidgey MEW, and Two Pidgeot ex

Including one copy of the 60 HP Pidgey is similar insurance, but instead of being for Dragapult, it’s for opposing Dusclops. Getting your Pidgey KO’d by Cursed Bomb and simultaneously losing your Charmander to a Burning Darkness in the mirror is a straight-up loss condition, so we’ll do whatever we can to prevent this. This Pidgey is also immune to a double KO from Sableye, which could KO both a Charmander and the 50 HP Pidgey with one Lost Mine. Call for Family is still good enough that we need to include one of them, but against both Lost Zone and decks that put a Duskull into play, getting the 60 HP guy is an easy decision.

One Rotom V and One Lumineon V

As always, both Rotom V and Lumineon V make an appearance in Charizard. Rotom is genuinely insane to get down going first, and Luminous Sign is still one of the best Abilities in Standard, so having access to both is very powerful. They’re also the two users in your deck of Forest Seal Stone, which gives you access to a VSTAR Power that acts almost like another ACE SPEC. One of these Pokemon will usually be in play, and playing one of each is much better than two of either one.

One Pecharunt ex

Pecharunt ex is the enabler of your hyper-aggressive strategy. With its Subjugating Chains Ability, you can move a Charizard ex to the Active Spot and poison it, activating Binding Mochi to deal 40 more damage. Boosting your damage from 180 to 220 is huge in a format where Pokemon V like Lugia and Regidrago have made a comeback. If you can use this combo on turn 2 and KO a Pokemon V, both the Lugia and Regidrago matchups become much, much better.

One Fezandipiti ex

Another card I featured in my last article was Fezandipiti ex, and every time I put it into a deck, I’m extremely happy with the results. Drawing an extra three cards after your opponent takes a KO is a really strong replacement for Bibarel, as it often does the same thing in bailing you out of an Iono because your opponent will almost always take a KO at the same time. Fezandipiti is much lower maintenance, has more HP than your Pokemon V, so it will rarely be targeted, and even gives you a massive boost when your hand is already large. I really like this card and feel like it fits incredibly well into Charizard.

One Radiant Charizard

Even without Defiance Band, Radiant Charizard still pulls its weight here. I’d like to find a space for Defiance Band in this list, but hitting for 250 damage is still very strong in the late game and can often be combined with a Boss's Orders or Prime Catcher to get two Prize cards. Radiant Charizard’s early game power is not needed as much with Pecharunt + Binding Mochi, so we can reserve it for the late game and try to combine it with Iono before using another Charizard ex to finish the game. Overall, Radiant Charizard is still by far the best Radiant Pokemon to play here, and giving Charizard a powerful single-Prize attacker is part of what pushes it over the edge.

This concludes the public portion of this article.

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