calisupra2nr
New Member
Charizard: A Firestorm Production September 2009
Intro: Well the time has arrived to start publishing the newest deck in development and testing: Charizard. The deck should appear to be pretty standard. One important key piece to all of the decks I build (and you will hear me refer to) is the notion of being well rounded. Being well rounded to me and my decks implies the ability to face any opponent and come out of 51% of the matches being victorious. Winning the majority is what it’s all about and in the Strategy and card details you will see how to accomplish this. Burning onto the competitive scene for the first time in recent memory, Charizard lights up the battlefield with no mercy.
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Strategy: Now for the meat of this deck- Charizard. Your ultimate goal and strategy of this deck is to utilize Charizard’s Pbody in tandem with his low energy attack cost to produce quick and powerful attacks that will maneuver you through not only early game, but mid and late game as well. The process to achieve this will be detailed when looking at the cards of the deck. As with previous decks I have made, this deck is showing promise in testing because of its ability to setup reasonably quick, and then maintain a nice balance of attack power, and metagame countering (see Mewtwo). Obviously as time goes on and I continue testing against upcoming decks from AoA I will edit, but this provides a great template for other users to start using a well rounded Charizard successfully.
_________________________________________
Deck list:
Pokémon: 22
4 Charmander AoA:
Charmander LV.13 - Fire - HP60
Basic Pokémon
[C] Cry For Help: Show 1 Basic Fire Pokémon card from your deck to your opponent, then put it in your hand.
[R][C] Firebreathing: 20 damage.
Weakness:Water(+10)
Resistance
none)
Retreat: 1
This little guy has the highest HP of any Charmander in the format. Also, his first attack allows for setup in the absence of a call energy or rare candy/charizard.
2 Charmeleon SW: This is the best Charmeleon in the format. Hopefully you never have to use him.
4 Charizard AoA:
Charizard LV.60 - Fire - HP140
Stage 2 - Evolves from Charmeleon
Poke-Body:FlameForm
Any damage done to the opponent’s Active Pokémon by this Pokémon’s attacks is increased by 10 for each Fire-Type Pokémon on your Bench.
[R]FireWing:30damage.
[R][R][C] Burning Tail: 80 damage. Discard 1 Fire Energy attached to Charizard.
Weakness:Water(+30)
Resistance:Fighting(-20)
Retreat: 3
Well here he is folks- the man of the hour. 1 Energy for 30 and 3 Energy for 80 (with discard.) These attacks are nothing special alone, but combined with the pokebody, the damage output really starts to pile on and quickly. The average game you play with this deck should see 2-3 fire bench Pokémon at any given time. This means his attacks range from 50-60 (for 1 fire) and 100-110 (with 3 energy). Expert Belt when needed and you have yourself a 160hp Charizard doing anywhere from 70-130 with 1-3 energy. This is on average, because unless you are seeing Dusknoir or PGX, you should have 4 fire bench, 1 claydol. Meaning, you have a 1 energy attack doing 70, and a 3 energy attack doing 120.
2 Baltoy: Claydol setup.
2 Claydol: Standard drawing engine. Use BTS to set him up fast. This will drop for Ninetales HGSS once the set arrives.
1 Unown G: Protect Claydol! Will add 1 more to come HGSS to add protection.
1 Uxie: Use ONLY when you are hurting for cards and have to drop to avoid a loss. Will be dropped upon arrival of HGSS.
1-1 Mewtwo MD-LA Same old stall as other Mewtwo's. This will drop out come HGSS to be available for a 3-3 Ninetales line.
2-1-2 Blaziken PL Auto Burn from the bench to add on to cheap damage. Also a good attacker if need be. This slot is swappable with other fire techs such as Typhlosion MT (to accel bench building) or Ninetales. Once HGSS releases this will count for Great Typhlosion to work in tandem with Ninetales HGSS.
Energy: 12
4 Call: This is the average call energy slot, but could be rotated out in favor of more fire energy. It helps setup nicely, but can take away from the fire energy count in late game.
6 Fire
2 Psychic
Trainer Engine: 26
4 Roseanne’s: Retrieves your basic Pokémon and energy needed for early setup.
4 Bebe’s: The obvious supporter for grabbing Pokémon from the deck.
4 Rare Candy: Meat and bones to getting out a T1/2 Charizard and begin attacking.
4 Quickball: This slot is really a mess right now. With the need to
quickly capture Pokémon from the deck, you can bet I am still testing.
2 Warp Point: This is to mix up the battlefield both offensively and defensively. If you have an expert belt on a Zard with 30 HP left, warp him out for a fresh one. Alternatively, warp out your opponents active for a better bench KO.
2 Expert Belt AoA:
ExpertBelt
Trainer - Pokémon Tool
The Pokémon this card is attached to has its maximum HP increased by 20. When the Pokémon this card is attached to attacks, it does an additional 20 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokémon. When the Pokémon this card is attached to is Knocked Out and your opponent takes a Prize card, your opponent takes 1 additional Prize card.
To use a Pokémon Tool, attach it to one of your Pokémon. It can’t be attached to a Pokémon that already has a Pokémon Tool attached to it.
This big boy tool is for when you have the ability to setup quickly and begin to OHKO your opponent WITHOUT immediate threat of being KO’d. Usually this card (with Zards Body) allows for a 70-80 damage attack using 1 energy. Zards bigger attack has a greater range averaging 120-130. This sounds great, but do not be surprised when your opponent takes 2 prizes knocking out Charizard. Normally I try and use stark to transfer energy and then retreat Zard to the bench to avoid a direct KO on him.
2 Broken Time Space: This is the key stadium for quick setup of not only Charizard and Ninetales, but Claydol as well.
1 Night Maint.: Recycle Pokemon/Energy depending on your needs.
1 Stark: ALMOST a necessity in every fire deck. Play this card when the time calls for you to start getting tricky late game, and you need to transfer energy to healthy fire Pokémon.
1 Luxury Ball: This is a great way to grab a charizard when you have a charmander and candy in hand. You can also continue setup by playing a Rosey in the same turn.
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Matchups: While there are some obvious conclusions to be made beforehand, such as preconditions like Grass decks auto-win and Water decks auto-loss, I would like to do a detail concerning the current metagame and then update when AoA arrives stateside. Much will remain the same, with the exception of updated trainers, techs, etc. As always, if you are currently testing an upcoming deck and have at least a 2:1 win/loss ratio, please shoot me a pm to discuss lists. And now for the main event:
-Speedrill 40% - Charizard 60%: Well this guy is a pest with Charizard being the best form of pest
control. If Speedrill sets up perfectly, it’s hard to play against for any deck. Luckily it does take its fair share of setup, just like Charizard, only Beedrill has the weakness which makes him OHKO very easily.
-Gengar+ Variants 40% - Charizard 60%: Gengar does not have much to use his Shadow Room against. The Lv X is rendered useless by the 0 use of LV X’s on my side. Poltergeist is the only option in which you must account for and then play around. Even if fainting spell hits, you can recover nicely with a low energy attack boosted by a fire bench. Make sure Unown G is on Claydol, and for once, enjoy playing Gengar.
-Machamp+ Variants 50% - Charizard 50%: This is all about setup and whether or not Machamp prevents Charizard’s. If Machamp does not stop the game by T2, it is hugely in your favor.
-LuxApe 55% - Charizard 45%: While Mewtwo is still a great tech against SP decks, Luxray can play around him with his power and bring up vulnerable Pokémon such as Claydol. If you can setup, this makes it much easier as Charizard can begin to run through the lower HP SP Pokémon.
-Legos/ Palkia G 60% - Charizard 40%: While again, you do have Mewtwo at your disposal, weakness hurts any deck. The option here is to play Mewtwo as your active and to play your bench according to PGX power. The only thing that makes this even a recognizable matchup is to stall until you can start OHKO SP Pokémon via Zards 80 damage attack (90 with 1 bench, 100 with 2 bench, 120 with expert belt.)
-SP Toolbox+ Variants 40% - Charizard 60%: Mewtwo really shines here against the many different SP variances. Stall with Mewtwo until you’re ready to come out and start taking your prizes with Charizard.
-Flygon+ Variants 45% - Charizard 55%: Flygon has always been a good card, and playing against him is no fun. Luckily, Charizard is quicker than Flygon and has more HP. There are no LVX’s here Mr. Flygon so find another way to get your prizes.
-Gyarados 70% - Charizard 30%: Weakness will ruin the flaming fun, so try and setup fast and ruin their Sableye start. If they setup before you, it is game over and you should play it out like a true champ.
-Kingdra 70% - Charizard 30%: Weakness, weakness, weakness. Kingdra just abuses Zard’s weakness and then spanks him with some real speed. Just laugh when you see Kingdra and take the auto loss.
-Regigigas 50% - Charizard 50%: This match is about setup. Luckily, Gigas sees little play these days so this is just a regular matchup of knowledge, luck and reasoning.
-Gardy+Weavile 45% - Charizard 55%: Gardy is nasty when abusing power lock. Thankfully he requires setup in tandem with Weavile, so just use the same turns to setup your side of the field. Then if he power locks you, no big deal; just continue powering through the gardy line. Gallade, well he may take out a Zard, but come back and keep hitting for consistent damage.
-Luxray AoA 40% - Charizard 60%: Discarding tools will only get you so far. Take advantage of faster setup and demolish Luxray before he gets his necessary energy and tools.
-Nidoqueen+Expert Belt 50% - Charizard 50%: If this sets up on you, it’s nearly impossible to overcome. Hopefully you can setup as fast or close to it, and do bigger damage (<60) and take the nice 2 prize cards per Queen.
-Salamence AoA: Not Enough Data Yet. I am currently coproducing a build for Salamence AoA but I would not expect to really start digging into testing until October after Charizard has been finalized. As the build for Salamence is complete, I will certainly update the matchup.
_________________________________________
Variants: Instead of running Mewtwo and a 2-1-2 Tech line, you have 7 spaces free. Here are some great combos that work well with Charizard and of course you can pick and choose your lines.
2-2 Magmortar SV: Lay down on bench to add confusion and burn to the equation (and essentially force a switch). Great additive for Charizard's body also.
1-1 Rapidash AoA: Block those pesky SP Pokemon. Only reason this is not in the current build is that this Pokemon is a terrible attacker. Mewtwo can block ALL basics and attack well when called upon. The downside of this is that it does not add to Zard.
2-1-2 Typhlosion MT: Recycle those discarded energy by attaching to benched Zards or other Pokemon in need.
3-1 Infernape 4 (w/ SP support engine): Use Ape 4 for what he does best, quick spread, big finish and disruption power. Free retreat is always nice and when you add 3 Cyrus', 3 Egains, and 3 Poketurns, this guy is nasty. Downside is that you sacrifice setup engine for Charizard by throwing in these specific SP trainers. This is a great variant that I have ran multiple times in testing.
2-2 Houndoom LA: Very simple idea, lay down on bench to add to Zard's body, then when Charizard is down and out, send in the dogs to clean up for big, cheap damage. Not the best, but certainly not bad!
2-2 Arcanine RR: Similar to Houndoom variants, simply set on the bench and then if need be attack using Burn Out for quick damage.
_________________________________________
Conclusion: Well I appreciate each of you that took the time to read through this, and I know how many feel about developing decks that contain cards unreleased stateside. I feel that as long as you test properly and accommodate for upcoming decks and edits to the current decks such as trainers/supporters/new techs/etc, there is zero downside to starting early. With the amount of time I spend testing and editing, I need to start as early as possible, and this specific build has been made for almost 1 month now with AoA Zard builds dating back 2 months. This build is looking to be very well rounded. I welcome any comments/suggestions, just remember to make it constructive and to follow-up with support to your suggestion. Thanks!
Adam
BIG EDIT COMING UPON RELEASE OF HGSS!
Intro: Well the time has arrived to start publishing the newest deck in development and testing: Charizard. The deck should appear to be pretty standard. One important key piece to all of the decks I build (and you will hear me refer to) is the notion of being well rounded. Being well rounded to me and my decks implies the ability to face any opponent and come out of 51% of the matches being victorious. Winning the majority is what it’s all about and in the Strategy and card details you will see how to accomplish this. Burning onto the competitive scene for the first time in recent memory, Charizard lights up the battlefield with no mercy.
_________________________________________
Strategy: Now for the meat of this deck- Charizard. Your ultimate goal and strategy of this deck is to utilize Charizard’s Pbody in tandem with his low energy attack cost to produce quick and powerful attacks that will maneuver you through not only early game, but mid and late game as well. The process to achieve this will be detailed when looking at the cards of the deck. As with previous decks I have made, this deck is showing promise in testing because of its ability to setup reasonably quick, and then maintain a nice balance of attack power, and metagame countering (see Mewtwo). Obviously as time goes on and I continue testing against upcoming decks from AoA I will edit, but this provides a great template for other users to start using a well rounded Charizard successfully.
_________________________________________
Deck list:
Pokémon: 22
4 Charmander AoA:
Charmander LV.13 - Fire - HP60
Basic Pokémon
[C] Cry For Help: Show 1 Basic Fire Pokémon card from your deck to your opponent, then put it in your hand.
[R][C] Firebreathing: 20 damage.
Weakness:Water(+10)
Resistance
none)Retreat: 1
This little guy has the highest HP of any Charmander in the format. Also, his first attack allows for setup in the absence of a call energy or rare candy/charizard.
2 Charmeleon SW: This is the best Charmeleon in the format. Hopefully you never have to use him.
4 Charizard AoA:
Charizard LV.60 - Fire - HP140
Stage 2 - Evolves from Charmeleon
Poke-Body:FlameForm
Any damage done to the opponent’s Active Pokémon by this Pokémon’s attacks is increased by 10 for each Fire-Type Pokémon on your Bench.
[R]FireWing:30damage.
[R][R][C] Burning Tail: 80 damage. Discard 1 Fire Energy attached to Charizard.
Weakness:Water(+30)
Resistance:Fighting(-20)
Retreat: 3
Well here he is folks- the man of the hour. 1 Energy for 30 and 3 Energy for 80 (with discard.) These attacks are nothing special alone, but combined with the pokebody, the damage output really starts to pile on and quickly. The average game you play with this deck should see 2-3 fire bench Pokémon at any given time. This means his attacks range from 50-60 (for 1 fire) and 100-110 (with 3 energy). Expert Belt when needed and you have yourself a 160hp Charizard doing anywhere from 70-130 with 1-3 energy. This is on average, because unless you are seeing Dusknoir or PGX, you should have 4 fire bench, 1 claydol. Meaning, you have a 1 energy attack doing 70, and a 3 energy attack doing 120.
2 Baltoy: Claydol setup.
2 Claydol: Standard drawing engine. Use BTS to set him up fast. This will drop for Ninetales HGSS once the set arrives.
1 Unown G: Protect Claydol! Will add 1 more to come HGSS to add protection.
1 Uxie: Use ONLY when you are hurting for cards and have to drop to avoid a loss. Will be dropped upon arrival of HGSS.
1-1 Mewtwo MD-LA Same old stall as other Mewtwo's. This will drop out come HGSS to be available for a 3-3 Ninetales line.
2-1-2 Blaziken PL Auto Burn from the bench to add on to cheap damage. Also a good attacker if need be. This slot is swappable with other fire techs such as Typhlosion MT (to accel bench building) or Ninetales. Once HGSS releases this will count for Great Typhlosion to work in tandem with Ninetales HGSS.
Energy: 12
4 Call: This is the average call energy slot, but could be rotated out in favor of more fire energy. It helps setup nicely, but can take away from the fire energy count in late game.
6 Fire
2 Psychic
Trainer Engine: 26
4 Roseanne’s: Retrieves your basic Pokémon and energy needed for early setup.
4 Bebe’s: The obvious supporter for grabbing Pokémon from the deck.
4 Rare Candy: Meat and bones to getting out a T1/2 Charizard and begin attacking.
4 Quickball: This slot is really a mess right now. With the need to
quickly capture Pokémon from the deck, you can bet I am still testing.
2 Warp Point: This is to mix up the battlefield both offensively and defensively. If you have an expert belt on a Zard with 30 HP left, warp him out for a fresh one. Alternatively, warp out your opponents active for a better bench KO.
2 Expert Belt AoA:
ExpertBelt
Trainer - Pokémon Tool
The Pokémon this card is attached to has its maximum HP increased by 20. When the Pokémon this card is attached to attacks, it does an additional 20 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokémon. When the Pokémon this card is attached to is Knocked Out and your opponent takes a Prize card, your opponent takes 1 additional Prize card.
To use a Pokémon Tool, attach it to one of your Pokémon. It can’t be attached to a Pokémon that already has a Pokémon Tool attached to it.
This big boy tool is for when you have the ability to setup quickly and begin to OHKO your opponent WITHOUT immediate threat of being KO’d. Usually this card (with Zards Body) allows for a 70-80 damage attack using 1 energy. Zards bigger attack has a greater range averaging 120-130. This sounds great, but do not be surprised when your opponent takes 2 prizes knocking out Charizard. Normally I try and use stark to transfer energy and then retreat Zard to the bench to avoid a direct KO on him.
2 Broken Time Space: This is the key stadium for quick setup of not only Charizard and Ninetales, but Claydol as well.
1 Night Maint.: Recycle Pokemon/Energy depending on your needs.
1 Stark: ALMOST a necessity in every fire deck. Play this card when the time calls for you to start getting tricky late game, and you need to transfer energy to healthy fire Pokémon.
1 Luxury Ball: This is a great way to grab a charizard when you have a charmander and candy in hand. You can also continue setup by playing a Rosey in the same turn.
_________________________________________
Matchups: While there are some obvious conclusions to be made beforehand, such as preconditions like Grass decks auto-win and Water decks auto-loss, I would like to do a detail concerning the current metagame and then update when AoA arrives stateside. Much will remain the same, with the exception of updated trainers, techs, etc. As always, if you are currently testing an upcoming deck and have at least a 2:1 win/loss ratio, please shoot me a pm to discuss lists. And now for the main event:
-Speedrill 40% - Charizard 60%: Well this guy is a pest with Charizard being the best form of pest
control. If Speedrill sets up perfectly, it’s hard to play against for any deck. Luckily it does take its fair share of setup, just like Charizard, only Beedrill has the weakness which makes him OHKO very easily.
-Gengar+ Variants 40% - Charizard 60%: Gengar does not have much to use his Shadow Room against. The Lv X is rendered useless by the 0 use of LV X’s on my side. Poltergeist is the only option in which you must account for and then play around. Even if fainting spell hits, you can recover nicely with a low energy attack boosted by a fire bench. Make sure Unown G is on Claydol, and for once, enjoy playing Gengar.
-Machamp+ Variants 50% - Charizard 50%: This is all about setup and whether or not Machamp prevents Charizard’s. If Machamp does not stop the game by T2, it is hugely in your favor.
-LuxApe 55% - Charizard 45%: While Mewtwo is still a great tech against SP decks, Luxray can play around him with his power and bring up vulnerable Pokémon such as Claydol. If you can setup, this makes it much easier as Charizard can begin to run through the lower HP SP Pokémon.
-Legos/ Palkia G 60% - Charizard 40%: While again, you do have Mewtwo at your disposal, weakness hurts any deck. The option here is to play Mewtwo as your active and to play your bench according to PGX power. The only thing that makes this even a recognizable matchup is to stall until you can start OHKO SP Pokémon via Zards 80 damage attack (90 with 1 bench, 100 with 2 bench, 120 with expert belt.)
-SP Toolbox+ Variants 40% - Charizard 60%: Mewtwo really shines here against the many different SP variances. Stall with Mewtwo until you’re ready to come out and start taking your prizes with Charizard.
-Flygon+ Variants 45% - Charizard 55%: Flygon has always been a good card, and playing against him is no fun. Luckily, Charizard is quicker than Flygon and has more HP. There are no LVX’s here Mr. Flygon so find another way to get your prizes.
-Gyarados 70% - Charizard 30%: Weakness will ruin the flaming fun, so try and setup fast and ruin their Sableye start. If they setup before you, it is game over and you should play it out like a true champ.
-Kingdra 70% - Charizard 30%: Weakness, weakness, weakness. Kingdra just abuses Zard’s weakness and then spanks him with some real speed. Just laugh when you see Kingdra and take the auto loss.
-Regigigas 50% - Charizard 50%: This match is about setup. Luckily, Gigas sees little play these days so this is just a regular matchup of knowledge, luck and reasoning.
-Gardy+Weavile 45% - Charizard 55%: Gardy is nasty when abusing power lock. Thankfully he requires setup in tandem with Weavile, so just use the same turns to setup your side of the field. Then if he power locks you, no big deal; just continue powering through the gardy line. Gallade, well he may take out a Zard, but come back and keep hitting for consistent damage.
-Luxray AoA 40% - Charizard 60%: Discarding tools will only get you so far. Take advantage of faster setup and demolish Luxray before he gets his necessary energy and tools.
-Nidoqueen+Expert Belt 50% - Charizard 50%: If this sets up on you, it’s nearly impossible to overcome. Hopefully you can setup as fast or close to it, and do bigger damage (<60) and take the nice 2 prize cards per Queen.
-Salamence AoA: Not Enough Data Yet. I am currently coproducing a build for Salamence AoA but I would not expect to really start digging into testing until October after Charizard has been finalized. As the build for Salamence is complete, I will certainly update the matchup.
_________________________________________
Variants: Instead of running Mewtwo and a 2-1-2 Tech line, you have 7 spaces free. Here are some great combos that work well with Charizard and of course you can pick and choose your lines.
2-2 Magmortar SV: Lay down on bench to add confusion and burn to the equation (and essentially force a switch). Great additive for Charizard's body also.
1-1 Rapidash AoA: Block those pesky SP Pokemon. Only reason this is not in the current build is that this Pokemon is a terrible attacker. Mewtwo can block ALL basics and attack well when called upon. The downside of this is that it does not add to Zard.
2-1-2 Typhlosion MT: Recycle those discarded energy by attaching to benched Zards or other Pokemon in need.
3-1 Infernape 4 (w/ SP support engine): Use Ape 4 for what he does best, quick spread, big finish and disruption power. Free retreat is always nice and when you add 3 Cyrus', 3 Egains, and 3 Poketurns, this guy is nasty. Downside is that you sacrifice setup engine for Charizard by throwing in these specific SP trainers. This is a great variant that I have ran multiple times in testing.
2-2 Houndoom LA: Very simple idea, lay down on bench to add to Zard's body, then when Charizard is down and out, send in the dogs to clean up for big, cheap damage. Not the best, but certainly not bad!
2-2 Arcanine RR: Similar to Houndoom variants, simply set on the bench and then if need be attack using Burn Out for quick damage.
_________________________________________
Conclusion: Well I appreciate each of you that took the time to read through this, and I know how many feel about developing decks that contain cards unreleased stateside. I feel that as long as you test properly and accommodate for upcoming decks and edits to the current decks such as trainers/supporters/new techs/etc, there is zero downside to starting early. With the amount of time I spend testing and editing, I need to start as early as possible, and this specific build has been made for almost 1 month now with AoA Zard builds dating back 2 months. This build is looking to be very well rounded. I welcome any comments/suggestions, just remember to make it constructive and to follow-up with support to your suggestion. Thanks!
Adam
BIG EDIT COMING UPON RELEASE OF HGSS!
Last edited:
