A long time ago in a galaxy not so far away, a 10 year old kid named Kash picked up his first GameBoy Colour, booted up Pokemon Red, chose Charmander as his started and they set off on a journey. And they....oh wait wrong story but there are some similarities!
Everyone knows the story, Charmander is and will always be my favourite Pokemon, from the beginning of Pokemon during the Gen 1 days back in 1999 until now! It's still Charmander for me. And now that I play the card game, of course anytime there is a chance to play Charmander in a deck, I will jump at it. The Charizard has to be playable though.
For a while it never happened until Team Up Charizard showed up. It had the amazing Roaring Resolve ability (charge 2 energies but put 2 damage counters on yourself for it) and Continuous Blaze Ball could hit for all sorts of damage, starting with just the 2 for 130! I played that deck the moment it came out, won $162 with it at our local invitational with it, actually scored CP with it at a league challenge and used it at my first TPCi regional. Great memories playing that deck.
So imagine my excitement when I saw Tera Charizard ex. My first thought was "hey I can play Charmander in a deck again!". And then I read the card. And my next thought was "this is giving me TEU Charizard vibes". Self energy attachment, hit for big amounts of damage and is a Stage 2? Check, check and check! I've always said TEU Charizard was my favourite card to play so you know I have to give this one a good go. I was ready to give up ride with ArcTina and drop every other deck just to play Charizard ex.
Two months and flown by and I sure have played loads of Charizard ex and now with the new set released, I initially thought it might not stand a chance but I have thankfully been proven wrong so the Char-family is here to stay! And big brother Charmeleon will have a part to play soon. Before that I wanted to re-cap my journey of the BST-OBS (and 151) format whenever I chose to play Charizard ex because of course I did play other stuff. The fun thing here is, I played at least 4 different versions of Charizard ex so I'll run through all of them.
The first basic version: ChariZard Arceus Pidgeot (ZAP)
- “Jacq feels unnecessary, there must be better Supporters than this”
- “Why doesn’t Zard decks play Arven, that has to be the perfect Supporter for it”
- “Why not 2 Arven? No, 3 Arven! Yeah 3 Arven sounds really good. I can get Rare Candy and say Choice Belt for KO? Sign me up!”
- “Do I really need Arceus just for Starbirth? It feels like a waste. It’s just sitting there waiting to be the final 2 prizes.”
- “How I wish I was playing Arven right now in the game”
- “Ok I got it! We play Charizard but with Bibarel! I mean come on it has to work. I get to draw cards under Path unlike Pidgeot”
- “Where’s the fucking Manaphy in this deck???”
- “Bibarel and Arven sounds kinda cool actually”
- “Wait I can use Arven to get Forest Seal Stone and Rare Candy. Imagine putting that Stone on a Pidgeot V to get a Pidgeot ex! Haha the birds flies in pairs! And then we yeet the other one back.”
- “I think we can fit more Tools here. Vitality Band sounds good for Chien Pao and Miraidon. Heck even Vengeful Punch could work! Maybe not”
- Tournament: Obsidian Flames Standard (Aug 26) - 6/0/0 - 1st/30
- List as above
- Changes in List:
- -1 Charmander, -1 Charmeleon, -1 Jacq, -1 Fire Energy
- + 1 Manaphy, +1 Raihan, +1 Nest Ball, +1 Vitality Band
- Tournament:
- Xaria's Testing Tourney #7 (Aug 31) - 4/0/1 - 2nd/28
- Changes in List:
- -1 Charmeleon, -1 Radiant Charizard, -1 Jacq, -2 Magma Basin, -2 Double Turbo Energy
- +1 Charizard ex, +1 Radiant Greninja, +1 Manaphy, +1 Colress, +1 Nest Ball, +1 Artazon, +1 V Guard Energy
- Tournament:
- Tournament of Doom (Sep 2) - 4/3/0 - 31st/139
- Changes in List:
- -1 Jacq, -1 Magma Basin, -2 Double Turbo Energy
- +1 Manaphy, +1 Raihan, +1 Switch, +1 V Guard Energy
- Tournaments:
- Locals (Sep 5) - 3/0/0 - 3rd/34
- Changes in List
- -1 Charmeleon, -1 Radiant Charizard, -1 Jacq, -1 Lost Vacuum, -2 Magma Basin, -1 Fire Energy, -1 Double Turbo Energy,
- +1 Radiant Greninja, +1 Manaphy, +1 Arven, +1 Nest Ball, +1 Super Rod, +1 VitalityBand, +2 Pokemon League HQ,
- Tournaments:
- Xaria's Testing Tournys #10 (Sep 6) - 3/1/1 - 5th/28
- Changes in List
- -1 Jacq, -1 Magma Basin, -1 Fire Energy
- +1 Colress, +1 Super Rod, +1 Vitality Band,
- Tournaments:
- Xaria's Weekly #3 (Sep 9) - 5/1/2 - 4th/38
- Changes in List
- -1 Radiant Charizard, -1 Jacq, -1 Lost Vacuum, -2 Magma Basin, -1 Fire Energy, -1 Double Turbo Energy
- +1 Manaphy, +1 Colress, +2 Nest Ball, +1 Vitality Band, +2 Pokemon League HQ
- Tournaments:
- Obsidian Flames Standard (Sep 9) - 1/1/1 - 24th/38
- Changes in List
- -1 Charmander, -1 Radiant Charizard, -1 Jacq, -2 Magma Basin, -1 Fire Energy, -1 Double Turbo Energy
- +1 Manaphy, +1 Radiant Tsareena, +1 Arven, +1 Super Rod, +1 Switch, +1 Vitality Band, +1 Collapsed Stadium,
- Tournaments:
- Local (Sep 12) - 1/2/0 - 18th/26
- Changes in List
- -4 Charmander (OBF), -1 Pidgeot ex, -1 Colress, -1 Jacq, -1 Lost Vacuum, -2 Artazon, -1 Magma Basin, -2 Double Turbo Energy
- +4 Charmander (MEW), +1 Charizard ex (MEW), +1 Manaphy, +1 Entei (OBF), +1 Iono, +1 Worker, +1 Super Rod, +2 Lost City, +1 Fire Energy
- Tournaments:
- Deck Out Mondays (Oct 10) - 5/3/0 - 15th/148
- Changes in List
- -4 Charmander (OBF), -1 Charmeleon, -1 Mew, -1 Radiant Charizard, -1 Iono, -1 Escape Rope, -2 Magma Basin, -1 Fire Energy, -3 Corless
- +4 Charmander (MEW), +1 Manaphy, +1 Bidoof, +1 Bibarel, +1 Jacq, +1 Professor's Research, +1 Echoing Horn, +1 Defiance Band, +2 Artazon, +2 Jet Energy
- Tournaments:
- The Lost League 2024 Series - Challenge #2 (Oct 14) - 1/2/0 - 60th/76
- Matchups:
- Ting Lu ex W
- Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone) WWWWTLW
- Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur WWLWLL
- Arceus VSTAR/Flying Pikachu VMAX W
- Charizard ex/Arceus VSTAR/Pidgeot ex W
- Inteleon VMAX/Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX WLLL
- Mew VMAX (Fusion) WWWW
- Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR WT
- Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX W
- Charizard ex (Lost Zone) LWL
- Miraidon ex LW
- Trurbo Lost Zone Box WTW
- Meowscarada ex W
- Lugia VSTAR/Archeops (Single Strike) W
- Lugia VSTAR/Archeops (Snorlax) WL
- Snorlax Control T
- Mew VMAX (DTE) WWWW
- Hisuian Goodra VSTAR (Lost Zone) T
- Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR W
- Tinkaton ex W
- Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex L
- Gardevoir ex WW
- Arceus VSTAR/Duraludon VMAX L
- Results with deck:
- Tournaments Played: 10
- Wins: 1
- Top 4s: 4
- Top 8s: 5
- Total Record: 33-13-5 (64.71% Win Rate)
Rapid Strike Charizard ex
- Larger Scale Test Tournament (Sep 3) - 5/2/0 - 6th/63
- List as above
- Matchups:
- Mew VMAX (Fusion) W
- Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone) LWWL
- Arceus VSTAR/Hisuian Goodra VSTAR W
- Turbo Lost Zone Box W
- Results with deck:
- Tournaments Played: 1
- Wins: 0
- Top 4s: 0
- Top 8s: 1
- Total Record: 5-2-0 (71.43% win rate)
First version of Arven Zard aka Arc-less Zard
One of my friends from my discord testing group showed me this list and I was hooked right away:
So of course, me being me, I wanted to give it a try. Played a few ladder games, gave the guys my feedback and the first list we came up was this:
I played this in the Pokemon Battle Park event (4th Sep) and somehow got it into a top 4 finish, 3rd out of 149 players. This deck was for real and hopefully it proves to people that Charizard doesn't need Arceus as I initially thought. We’ll come back to this variant soon.
- Tournament: Pokemon Battle Park (Sep 4) - 7/2/1 - 3rd/149
- List as above
- Changes in List:
- -1 Charmander, -1 Radiant Charizard, -1 Vitality Band
- +1 Charmeleon, +1 Radiant Greninja, +1 Vengeful Punch
- Tournaments:
- Full Heal Obsidian #4 (Sep 6) - 6/2/1 - 5th/152
- Changes in List:
- -1 Professor's Research, -1 Escape Rope, -1 Super Rod, -1 Vitality Band, -1 Town Store, -1 Fire Energy
- +1 Charmeleon, +1 Cheryl, +1 Vengeful Punch, +1 Magma Basin, +2 Jet Energy
- Tournaments:
- Pokemon Battle Park (Sep 9) - 2/2/0 - 40th/84
- Matchups:
- Miraidon WWW
- Mew VMAX (Fusion) WW
- Gardevoir LWLWTW
- Toedscruel ex W
- Turbo Lost Zone Box WLL
- Charizard ex/Arceus VSTAR/Bidoof T
- Lost Zone Box (Kyogre) W
- Mew VMAX (DTE) WL
- Lugia VSTAR/Archeops (Single Strike) WW
- Charizard ex/Arceus VSTAR/Pidgeot ex LW
- Results with deck:
- Tournaments Played: 3
- Wins: 0
- Top 4s: 1
- Top 8s: 2
- Total Record: 15-6-1 (68.18% win rate)
A small part of me did think while building my first few Charizard ex lists, “what if I paired it with Refinement Kirlia?” I didn’t think much of it, then had this idea to test it with Shining Arcana Gardevoir. “Hey this gives me another out to attach energies!”
I was still playing around the idea of it, mainly Gardevoir but with 1 Gallade to fetch out supporters. The biggest idea I wanted to do was to use Cheryl (found by Gallade) on a damaged Zard, heal it, manual attach and then hopefully attach another through Gardevoir’s Shining Arcana ability. And then Yokohama Champions League happened and the deck that caught my eye was the Zard with Gallade that made top 8.
The additions they had that I liked in the list was 4 Jet Energies. Which means I can use Mew even more times over a game! The 1 Reversal energy was a cool idea I didn’t think about, giving you a way to hit for 160 and move it to another Gallade. That combo helped me win a game I shouldn’t have won against Miraidon. The support line was a bit thin for my liking but I did get why 4 Iono was played since you had access to it with Gallade.
- Tournament: Pokemon Battle Park (Sep 4) - 7/2/1 - 3rd/149
- List as above
- Changes in List:
- -1 Charmeleon, -1 Jet Energy
- +1 Hisuian Heavy Ball, +1 Reversal Energy
- Tournaments:
- Deck Out Thursdays (Sep 14) - 6/0/1 - 1st/76
- Changes in List:
- -1 Charmeleon, -1 Kirlia, -1 Professor’s Research, -1 Jet Energy
- +1 Worker, +1 Arven, +1 Vitality Band, +1 Reversal Energy
- Tournaments:
- Pokémon Battle Park (Sep 17) - 7/2/1 - 2nd/103
- Locals (Sep 19) - 2/1/0 - 15th/30
- Matchups:
- Charizard ex (Lost Zone) W
- Charizard ex/Gallade LWW
- Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone) WWWLW
- Snorlax Control W
- Lost Box (Radiant Charizard) W
- Wishcash/Claydol W
- Miraidon ex WWT
- Blaziken VMAX/Zeraora V W
- Gardevoir ex WT
- Mew VMAX (DTE) WW
- Entei V/Moltres W
- Mew VMAX (Meloetta) W
- Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur LW
- Turbo Lost Zone Box L
- Results with deck:
- Tournaments Played: 4
- Wins: 1
- Top 4s: 3
- Top 8s: 3
- Total Record: 22-5-1 (78.57% win rate)
Lost Zone Charizard ex
The other way people were hyping up on how Zard could be played was with the Lost Zone package. My good friend Gazerbem2k was one of the first to jump on it, we played each other in an online tournament and he utterly destroyed me to the point where I sent a simple message back to our discord testing group. “Guys I think Lost Zard might just be better.”
I took his list, changed a few stuff around, played one tourney with it and stopped. 9 days later, Barcelona SPE happened and we had our first top 4 finish at a big TPCi event for Charizard ex.
- Tournament: Pokemon Battle Park (Sep 8) - 4/2/0 - 18th/97
- List as above
- Matchups:
- Miraidon ex W
- Mew VMAX (DTE) W
- Gardevoir ex L
- Mew VMAX (Fusion) W
- Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur W
- Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone) L
- Results with deck:
- Tournaments Played: 1
- Wins: 0
- Top 4s: 0
- Top 8s: 0
- Total Record: 4-2-0 (66.67% win rate)
Me being the Charmander guy that I am, I jumped onto that list to try it out right away to see how it was compared to the other versions.
They added in Water energies to have Greninja be an additional attacker, mainly for Gardevoir and other set up decks. I liked the two Jet energies in the list which meant getting a Turn 1 attack with Cormorant even higher. That combined with Zard should take our anything.
The best part about the deck is having multiple different ways to win games. You don’t always have to solely rely on Zard when you have 2 Cramorant and 2 Sableye that can get you there. In fact Sableye’s Lost mine can easily set up the perfect number for Charizard ex to take some big KOs your opponents might not be expecting to. I wasn’t a fan of ink having 3 Charmanders but this is more of a toolbox so it’s fine most of the time.
- Tournament: Xaria's Testing Tournys #14 (Sep 14) - 3/2/0 - 4th/12
- List as above
- Changes in List:
- +1 Boss's Orders, +1 Raihan, +1 Ultra Ball, +1 Nest Ball
- -1 Roxanne, -1 Mirage Gate, -1 Hisuian Heavy Ball, -1 Water Energy
- Tournament:
- Xaria's Testing Tournys #15 (Sep 18) - 3/1/1 - 2nd/18
- PokéDeck Torneio Semanal #23 (Sep 21) - 3/2/0 - 12th/53
- Pokemon Battle Park (151 Legal) (Sep 22) - 8/0/2 - 1st/89
- Changes in List:
- +1 Pidgeot V, +1 Boss's Orders +2 Nest Ball, +2 Lost Vacuum, +1 Forest Seal Stone, +1 Vitality Band, +1 Town Store, +2 PokeStop, +1 Jet Energy, +1 Psychic Energy
- -1 Escape Rope, -2 Miragate Gate, -1 Hisuian Heavy Ball, -2 Artazon, -1 Beach Court, -2 Fire Energy, -3 Water Energy, -1 Cramorant
- Tournament:
- Moujii's Dojo Season 2 #9 (Sep 23) - 0/2/0 - 68th/75
- Changes in List:
- +1 Boss's Orders, +1 Klara, +1 Raihan, +1 Nest Ball
- -1 Roxanne, -1 Mirage Gate, -1 Fire Energy, -1 Jet Energy
- Tournaments:
- Pokemon Battle Park (Sep 24) - 6/2/1 - 3rd/96
- Locals (Sep 24) - 1/2/0 - 12th/20
- Deck Out Mondays (Sep 25) - 0/2/0 - 143rd/164
- Locals (Sep 26) - 3/0/0 - 3rd/33
- Changes in List:
- +1 Boss's Orders, +3 Raihan, +1 Ultra Ball, +1 Nest Ball, +1 Lost Vacuum, +1 PokeGear, +1 Path to the Peak,
- -1 Roxanne, -3 Mirage Gate, -1 Hisuian Heavy Ball, -1 Beach Court, -3 Water Energy
- Tournaments:
- Locals (Nov 7) - 2/1/0 - 8th/30
- Matchups:
- Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur WLWW
- Gardevoir ex LWWWWWWWL
- Mew VMAX (Meloetta) W
- Miraidon ex WWW
- Inteleon VMAX/Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX W
- Alakazam ex W
- Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR W
- Lugia VSTAR/Archeops (Snorlax) WT
- Arceus VSTAR/Togekiss L
- Lost Zone Box (Kyogre) WW
- Charizard ex (Lost Zone) WLW
- Turbo Lost Zone Box LWLL
- Arceus VSTAR/Duraludon VMAX WChien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur WLWW
- Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone) WLWLWLW
- Charizard ex/Arceus VSTAR/Pidgeot ex L
- Results with deck:
- Tournaments Played: 10
- Wins: 1
- Top 4s: 5
- Top 8s: 6
- Total Record: 29-14-4 (61.7% win rate)
Did I or did I not say Arven was perfect for Charizard. Imagine my happiness seeing William Azevedo win the Curitiba Regional in Brazil with the now termed Arven Zard (I still liked our name of Arcless Zard). And we weren’t that far off from the list they ended up with compared to our last list we had worked on.
The stuff they added in that we didn’t have were a few but still impactful enough. The biggest being Penny. You could attack with Entei V first, let it take a hit and then scoop it up, denying easy prizes for your opponent while advancing your game. Lost City was the other big thing they added which seemed alright to me. It does help Vs Gardevoir when you can easily take out the Shining Arcana Gardevoirs and they are sent to the Lost Zone, denying them an attacker. The other target being Sableye or lost zone stuff in general like Dragonite V, Radiant Charizard or even Cramorant at times.
This was pretty much my go-to deck for most of the format, and it was the one I chose to play for the one local event with points on the line (aka Town League) that I knew I was going to get to play in. If I was playing in the Singapore Regional this weekend, I would have played a version of this too. Unfortunately I'm not in Singapore so I guess I won't get to show what I can do with a Charizard ex deck when the stakes are high. It sucks but since I'm stuck here in Asia Pacific region, there's not really much I can do about it when it comes to events.
- Tournament: Locals (Oct 1) - 2/1/0 - 10th/27
- List as above
- Changes in List:
- +1 Mew ex
- -1 Mawile
- Tournaments:
- Locals (Oct 2) - 1/2/0 - 15th/26
- Deck Out Mondays (Oct 3) - 1/2/0 - 96th/167
- Changes in List:
- +1 Vengeful Punch
- -1 Mawile
- Tournaments:
- Kitchen Showdown #5 (Oct 5) - 4/3/0 - 27th/106
- Singapore Town League #2 (Oct 8) - 4/2/0 - 13th/64 (+100 CSP)
- Locals (Oct 31) - 1/2/0 - 13th/14
- Late Night 147 (Nov 1) - 2/2/0 - 62nd/125
- Changes in List:
- -1 Mawile, -1 Professor's Research, -1 Forest Seal Stone, -1 Fire Energy
- +1 Super Rod, +1 Pal Pad, +1 Vitality Band, +1 Vengeful Punch
- Tournaments:
- Tournament of Doom (Oct 7) - 4/2/0 - 20th/110
- Changes in List:
- +1 Echoing Horn, +1 Vitality Band, +1 Vengeful Punch, +1 Super Rod
- -1 Mawile, 1 Professor's Research, -1 Forest Seal Stone, -1 Fire Energy
- Tournaments:
- Locals (Oct 7) - 1/2/0 - 10th/11
- Changes in List:
- +1 Pidgeot V, +1 Iono, +1 Vengeful Punch, +1 Path to the Peak, +1 Collapsed Stadium
- -1 Mawile, -1 Entei V, -1 Professor's Research, -1 Penny, -1 Lost Vacuum
- Tournaments:
- Locals (Oct 12) - 2/1/0 - 7th/17
- Pokemon Battle Park (Oct 13) - 2/2/0 - 42nd/72
- Changes in List:
- +1 Vitality Band, +1 Vengeful Punch,
- -1 Mawile, -1 Forest Seal Stone
- Tournaments:
- Pokemon Battle Park (Oct 14) - 0/2/0 - 43rd/56
- Changes in List:
- +1 Pidgeot V, +1 Iono, +1 Nest Ball, +1 Collapsed Stadium, +1 Artazon
- -1 Mawile, -1 Entei V, -1 Professor's Research, -1 Penny, -1 Ultra Ball
- Tournaments:
- Hobbyists United Weekly Tourney #7 (Oct 18) - 1/2/0 - 9th/12
- Changes in List:
- +1 Bidoof, +1 Bibarel, +1 Pidgeot V, +1 Iono, +1 Nest Ball, +1 Vengeful Punch, +1 Collapsed Stadium
- -1 Pidgeot ex, -1 Entei V, -1 Mawile, -1 Professor's Research, -1 Penny, -1 Ultra Ball, -1 Forest Seal Stone
- Tournament:
- Morning TCG Weekly #26 (Oct 19) - 6/0/0 - 1st/45
- Changes in List:
- +1 Iono, +1 Lost City
- -1 Mawile, -1 Professor's Research
- Tournament:
- Pokemon Battle Park (Oct 29) - 3/2/0 - 19th/71
- Changes in List:
- +1 Iono
- -1 Mawile
- Tournament:
- Grandslam Invitational #5 (Local Event) (Nov 4) - 4/1/0 - 2nd/19 (+$225)
- Matchups:
- Gardevoir ex WLLLWWWLLWW
- Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone) LLWLLWW
- Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur WLWL
- Turbo Lost Zone Box WLWWLLWW
- Lugia VSTAR/Archeops (Snorlax) LWWL
- Lugia VSTAR/Archeops (Single Strike) LW
- Lugia VSTAR/Archeops (Charizard ex) L
- Inteleon VMAX/Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX WLWLL
- Miraidon ex LWLLWL
- Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR W
- Gengar VMAX W
- Arceus VSTAR/Alolan Vulpix L
- Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex LWWW
- Mew VMAX (DTE) WW
- Hisuian Goodra VSTAR (Lost Zone) LW
- Lost Zone Box (Radiant Charizard) W
- Regigigas W
- Arceus VSTAR/Leafeon VSTAR W
- Darkrai VSTAR W
- Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR L
- Results with deck:
- Tournaments Played: 15
- Wins: 1
- Top 4s: 2
- Top 8s: 3
- Total Record: 38-28-0 (57.57%)
Charizard ex with Arceus VSTAR and Bibarel
I did try to make one work early on, it was working alright. I just don’t know why I didn’t keep trying it out. I did have stuff like Arven, Skwovet and even Victini ex in there.
I did go 3-1 with it but maybe deep down inside I felt it wasn’t right. A month later and we’re back to playing a version of ZardArcBibarel, but this one has a result to show for with Juan Cardenas getting the highest placement for a Zard player in Sacramento.
The biggest thing that popped up was the two Panic Masks in the list and the more I thought about it, it made some sense. You could hit Chien Pao or Miraidon or whoever and leave them at 40 HP or less and with Panic Mask attached, they can’t attack. The only way around is well, getting around Charizard or using Lost Vaccum which most of them don’t usually have. Didn’t help much in mirror match though. The 4 Lost City was interesting. Them not having a Super Rod was my biggest gripe with the list.
- Xaria's Testing Tourny #8 (Sep 4) - 1/2/0 - 23rd/35
- List as above (1st picture)
- Changes in List: (2nd picture)
- Tournament:
- Battleground TCG Grand Opening (Oct 18) - 2/2/0 - 24th/49
- Changes in List: (compared to 2nd picture)
- +1 Radiant Charizard, +1 Super Rod,
- -1 Panic Mask, -1 Fire Energy
- Tournament:
- Discard Pile Weekly #33 (Oct 19) - 2/1/0 - 17th/30
- Matchups:
- Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone) LL
- Charizard ex/Arceus VSTAR/Pidgeot ex WW
- Arceus VSTAR/Slaking V W
- Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur WL
- Turbo Lost Zone Box L
- Gardevoir ex W
- Spidos ex L
- Results with deck:
- Tournaments Played: 3
- Wins: 0
- Top 4s: 0
- Top 8s: 0
- Total Record: 5-5-0 (50%)
Charizard ex with just Bibarel
I wanted this to be a thing for the longest time, even at the start of the format. I tried a few times and failed. And then Oscar Madsen showed up at Lille Regional and got a good finish with his list. It took me 5 seconds and I was won over with his list.
It’s just Zard and Bibarel, but with a few interesting techs. I liked the Cramorant in there as you can easily get your Lost Zone counter go up to 4 with Lost Vacuum and Colress. It’s a good way to set up some numbers for Zard. Hawlucha is a cool inclusion that can help fix some awkward numbers for Zard, namely stuff with 210 or 270 HP.
The biggest thing I liked in the deck was the 3 Path to the Peak and 3 Lost Vacuums. Just like how Mew DTE works, you use your ability then use Path so your opponent can’t use theirs. And then you can get rid of it on your turn to use another one then hit the Path back again. I always had this feeling Zard could utilise Path and this proves it is possible. This isn’t the only time I will talk about Charizard with Bibarel, I’ll save one at the end for a list in the new format.
- Morning TCG Weekly #21 (Sep 7) - 3/1/0 - 43rd/95
- List as above
- Changes in List:
- +1 Charizard ex, +1 Cramorant, +1 Hawlucha, +4 Colress, +1 Level Ball, +2 Lost Vacuum, +1 Switch, +3 Path to the Peak
- -1 Skwovet, -1 Radiant Greninja, -1 Victini ex, -3 Arven, -2 Nest Ball, -1 Super Rod, -1 Choice Belt, -1 Vitality Band, -2 Artazon, -1 Magma Basin
- Tournament:
- Pokemon Battle Park (Oct 22) - 5/2/0 - 7th/63
- Changes in List:
- +1 Cramorant, +1 Hawlucha, +4 Colress, +1 Level Ball, +2 Lost Vacuum, +1 Switch, +3 Path to the Peak
- -1 Skwovet, -1 Radiant Greninja, -1 Victini ex, -3 Arven, -2 Nest Ball, -1 Choice Belt, -1 Vitality Band, -2 Artazon, -1 Magma Basin
- Tournaments:
- Locals (Oct 24) - 2/1/0 - 12th/28
- Torneio semanal Pokedeck #28 (Oct 26) - 4/1/0 - 9th/52
- Tournament of Doom! (Oct 28) - 2/2/0 - 44th/104
- Locals (Oct 29) - 1/2/0 - 12th/16
- Matchups:
- Turbo Lost Zone Box LW
- Noivern ex W
- Chien-Pao ex WWWWL
- Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone) L
- Charizard ex/Arceus VSTAR/Pidgeot ex W
- Miraidob ex WWW
- Mew VMAX (DTE) W
- Snorlax Control LL
- Ting-Lu ex W
- Mew VMAX (Fusion) W
- Alakazam ex W
- Lugia VSTAR/Archeops (Snorlax) L
- Gardevoir ex WLL
- Darkrai VSTAR L
- Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex W
- Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR W
- Results with deck:
- Tournaments Played: 6
- Wins: 0
- Top 4s: 0
- Top 8s: 1
- Total Record: 17-8-0 (68% win rate)
Recap of Charizard ex's Timeline so far
- WEEK 1 (release date) Aug 11 – 13 (I'm in Japan)
- WEEK 2 Aug 14 – 20 (I'm still in Japan)
- WEEK 3 Aug 21 – 27 (Back home but yet to test)
- WEEK 4 Aug 28 – Sep 3 (Start testing)
- WEEK 5 Sep 4 – 10 (Yokohama CL – Zard Gallade appearance + Pittsburgh Regional)
- WEEK 6 Sep 11 – 17 (Barcelona SPE – Lost Zard arrives)
- WEEK 7 Sep 18 – 24 (Sep 22 – 151 release date) (Arven Zard wins) list copied
- WEEK 8 Sep 25 – Oct 1 (copied best LZ Zard, practicing Town League with Arven Zard)
- WEEK 9 Oct 2 – Oct 8 (Town League! Lost win & in for Top 4, still got Top 16 for +100CP)
- WEEK 10 Oct 9 – 15 (Sacramento Regional, ArcBibZard is top Zard)
- WEEK 11 Oct 16 – 22 (Lille Regional, ZardBib is here)
- WEEK 12 Oct 23 – 29 (Azul top 4 with Arven Zard)
- WEEK 13 Oct 30 – Nov 5 (GSP #5 Invitational, using Azul's list to win $225)
Win Rates for each variants of Charizard ex
- with Gallade (78.57% - 28 Games)
- with Arceus VSTAR/Pidgeot ex/Octillery (71.43% - 7 Games)
- with Pidgeot ex v1 (2 Arven) (68.18% - 22 Games)
- with Bibarel (68% - 25 Games)
- with Lost Zone v1 (No Jet Energy) (66.67% - 6 Games)
- with Arceus VSTAR/Pidgeot ex (64.71% - 51 Games)
- with Lost Zone v2 (with Jet Energy) (61.7% - 47 Games)
- with Pidgeot ex v2 (4 Arven) (57.57% - 66 Games)
- with Arceus VSTAR/Bibarel (50% - 10 Games)
And with Town Store and Arven, there are plenty of outs to make it happen. And the TM works on anyone, you can easily put a Jet Energy on Mew, use Mysterious Tail to grab a VIP Pass, Ultra Ball or Rare Candy, and then use TM Evolution on Mew to get two of the benched evolved. It is also the reason we're now playing 3 Charmeleons. The deck is already so much fun, I've always enjoyed playing Zard with Bibarel even though I've not had any results to show for it. I'm hoping to change that soon.
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