Charizard Fever is Real—A Quick Look at Pokemon's Obsession with Its Fire-Breathing Lizard

I love this, and wish we had more little trivia posts like this. Thanks for fun breakdown, @JustInBasil!

PS: I demand justice for the neglected Gen 2-5 Grass Type Starters!!
 
Nice article.

The balance seems pretty unfair.. Untill you realise that Venusaur, Charizard, Blastoise and Greninja (yes, in that order) are also the best starters. Obviously too much Charizard cards, but hey, they sell.

I was a bit surprised by just one appearance of Blaziken however, also a very solid design and populair Pokemon I thought.
 
Missing the shiny cards for Greninja and Decidueye (Hidden Fates and Shiny Star V) but otherwise pretty solid article!
 
DragonShard said:
Missing the shiny cards for Greninja and Decidueye (Hidden Fates and Shiny Star V) but otherwise pretty solid article!
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Updated to fix it! This is what I get for using Standard format to filter instead of filtering by set.
 
As a fan of the Pokémon it’s honestly exhausting and discouraging how many times they’re doing this. I’ve been collecting since BW and XY, and while really the most we got back then was Flashfire, it was still manageable. BW had three different Charizard prints, while XY had a good amount. Most of them were cheap though, as they were decently commonplace EX cards that you could either pull rather easy or just purchase in products. But now, since we’re not only having millions of Rainbows and all that that are harder to pull due to massive set sizes and oversaturation of ultras, the main set ones are hard enough to get, let alone the special set ones they keep on using as a crutch to sell sets.

Thats the problem I have. Not with Charizard like many people instantly go to the blame for, but the way Pokémon keeps using it to sell things, and the way that they become nearly impossible to get unless you’ve got deep pockets. I get cards having value, that’s part of the TCG, but because of the way these are being released, artificial inflation is rampant. There’s no reason the regular VMAX should be close to $100 when it’s really not that rare in the first place.

But the most egregious thing is that they’re so obviously using the Pokémon to sell things that otherwise wouldn’t, I.e. Champions Path. it’s a mix of that and just how over saturated our sets are nowadays-Did we ever need rainbows? Did we need a set every month in Japan? Did we need gargantuan sets that are larger than some main sets with reverses included? No! We didn’t. But they did it and it makes everything harder to collect than it ever was before. Sun and Moon is what made me quit being a completionist because it was just too much.

And, in case there’s a misconception out there that every Charizard fan is just jumping for joy every time there’s a new Charizard out, at least I’m personally just more disappointed. I’ll never be able to find it, I wasn’t able to find the last million of them, and in the case of special sets, it makes them that much harder to find. I want this Pokémon to be manageable to collect, not an entire ordeal, and I want my special sets to be easy enough to find to enjoy them enough. It’s exhausting as a collector and it just kind of makes me miss the older days where set sizes were normal. There’s too much too quickly these days.
 
Preach, for Charizard doth be the Fire/Flying Lord and Savior of the Galar region, and He is undefeated and unbeatable! And to speak of His holy prophet Leon, who is the Champion of the Galar region and is pants with directions, and is also undefeated and unbeatable! All must face His burning judgment and show their devotion to Him by sacrificing their life savings and first born child in the name of His elusive gleaming cardboard artifacts, for only then will they be granted His divine fiery blessing. Also, Leon is the Champion and is pants with directions. Amen.
 
Everyday I feel more and more lucky that I feel neutral towards the big ol Zard and therefore have no interest in chasing any of the cards.

JustInBasil said:
I agree! I want Meganium V! And while we're at it, gimme a Bellossom V, too!
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Meganium V would be such a baller
 
AshCo said:
As a fan of the Pokémon it’s honestly exhausting and discouraging how many times they’re doing this. I’ve been collecting since BW and XY, and while really the most we got back then was Flashfire, it was still manageable. BW had three different Charizard prints, while XY had a good amount. Most of them were cheap though, as they were decently commonplace EX cards that you could either pull rather easy or just purchase in products. But now, since we’re not only having millions of Rainbows and all that that are harder to pull due to massive set sizes and oversaturation of ultras, the main set ones are hard enough to get, let alone the special set ones they keep on using as a crutch to sell sets.

Thats the problem I have. Not with Charizard like many people instantly go to the blame for, but the way Pokémon keeps using it to sell things, and the way that they become nearly impossible to get unless you’ve got deep pockets. I get cards having value, that’s part of the TCG, but because of the way these are being released, artificial inflation is rampant. There’s no reason the regular VMAX should be close to 00 when it’s really not that rare in the first place.

But the most egregious thing is that they’re so obviously using the Pokémon to sell things that otherwise wouldn’t, I.e. Champions Path. it’s a mix of that and just how over saturated our sets are nowadays-Did we ever need rainbows? Did we need a set every month in Japan? Did we need gargantuan sets that are larger than some main sets with reverses included? No! We didn’t. But they did it and it makes everything harder to collect than it ever was before. Sun and Moon is what made me quit being a completionist because it was just too much.

And, in case there’s a misconception out there that every Charizard fan is just jumping for joy every time there’s a new Charizard out, at least I’m personally just more disappointed. I’ll never be able to find it, I wasn’t able to find the last million of them, and in the case of special sets, it makes them that much harder to find. I want this Pokémon to be manageable to collect, not an entire ordeal, and I want my special sets to be easy enough to find to enjoy them enough. It’s exhausting as a collector and it just kind of makes me miss the older days where set sizes were normal. There’s too much too quickly these days.
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Totally agreed. I'm not a completionist, but as exhilarating as it is to pull an ultra rare chase Zard (pulling Charizard VMAX in my second and final DAA box was a highlight in this pretty dark year), it's just frustrating to see how much people overvalue it and how much TPC is willing to play into that for profit. And we still don't have a full-art Mega Charizard X! I think releasing the shiny Zard VMAX as a $5000 scalper rare would really start causing the fatigue to set in, and people would have a major sense of deja vu, so here's hoping we get a "Shiny Gigantamax Charizard Premium Collection" and people can breathe a sigh of relief.

Hell, it'll still be extremely profitable, but you'll have more people buying product instead of just the "lootbox whales" who hunt down elusive cards by buying hundreds of sealed products. Look at how much the relatively easy to get full art Charizard V is going for.
 
The 'Charizard Craze' has dangerous implications about the game. Because collectors are willing to buy into it, it enters the curse of the mainline lines: "They will sell anyways, so why should the games ever improve at all?"

In terms of the TCG, it means there's little motivation at all to improve the product. No more storyline based art like in Legendary Treasures/Breakthrough, little mechanical innovation, even more mindlessly designed filler cards, and a metagame that is forever overcenteralized.

I hope some sort of recession happens in the TCG, and that the whales snap out of the charizard craze - so that the franchise sells more because the games are actually well made.
 
Do you get mad if I say I'm happy about all these Charizard cards?(I'm FIRELIZARD after all)
Yes,I'm not that happy about the lack of the starters,I hope they'll resolve this.
All starters needs love.
 
Lanstar said:
The 'Charizard Craze' has dangerous implications about the game. Because collectors are willing to buy into it, it enters the curse of the mainline lines: "They will sell anyways, so why should the games ever improve at all?"

In terms of the TCG, it means there's little motivation at all to improve the product. No more storyline based art like in Legendary Treasures/Breakthrough, little mechanical innovation, even more mindlessly designed filler cards, and a metagame that is forever overcenteralized.

I hope some sort of recession happens in the TCG, and that the whales snap out of the charizard craze - so that the franchise sells more because the games are actually well made.
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I dunno what the expectation is for a TCG that was designed for kids in the first place. The main audience for Pokemon has always been children. I cant see what they are supposed to be doing in the first place. Barely anyone plays the actual game as it is, hence why they dont care about it and probably never will care about it.
 
Pandemic making it harder to keep up the sales quota? Just put Charizard in everything.
 
I said it before, I'll say it again.
Imagine the only thing keeping your franchise afloat is catering to people who thought your series peaked 20 years ago.
 
don()shinobi said:
I said it before, I'll say it again.
Imagine the only thing keeping your franchise afloat is catering to people who thought your series peaked 20 years ago.
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Yeah its called selling nostalgia. Its exactly what all the super hero movies do. Pokemon has probably ran out of ideas years ago. Same for the entire video game industry. All they got left is praying on people's childhood memories.
 
Now we just need gold versions of Charizard V/VMAX and the sacrifice will be complete.
 
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