Hey Pattheduke! Concerning the Rapidash tech, I honestly don't like it. I've played SP for almost a year, and a friend of mine has a Charizard deck that I have tested against. He used to run a Rapidash tech, but I would just Bright Look around it to KO something on the bench or use Dragon Rush to do the same thing. Basically, I just think the SP player will play around Rapidash.
I think you might do well to add another Uxie, a 4th Charmander, and cut the 1-1 Rapidash line. This will still leave you at 20 pokemon.
I would suggest adding in 2 Burnt Tower. This card will let you pick up fire energy from your discard pile so you can keep drawing cards with Ninetails/attaching energy.
A 4th pokemon collector should be added for consistency purposes. I think you could cut 2 SSU and 1 of the 3 Seeker for those changes. The Seeker/Warp Point idea isn't bad at all in this deck, I like it, I just think you'll be fine with 2 Seeker.
As for what to watch out for, in the SP match your Ninetails should be the first thing they attack, so they can stop your draw power. I would say attach your rescue energy to Ninetails, but Dragon Rush then Flash Bite the following turn will get around the rescue energy...SO, if they dragon rush your ninetails but don't kill it, then Seeker it back to your hand if you can. After saying all that , haha, I would say ALWAYS keep the rescue energy on Ninetails (perhaps one on Ninetails and one on Typhlosion Prime) that way it forces them to either dragon rush one turn, then use flash bite the next turn to get around the Rescue Energy (in theory). BUT, you will hope fully be able to Seeker the ninetails back to your hand to avoid the KO! Same thing goes for Typhlosion. Then you should be able to KO their Garchomp. They may just KO Ninetails anyway with flashbite and Dragon rush in the same turn, so they can take a prize, but if they do this your ninetails will be rescued and you should still KO Garchomp. Charizard is going to be hard for them to KO, so if you can keep your Ninetails and Typhlosion healthy, you should be ok. However, the SPs setup will be faster than yours most likely, so this point in the game may or may not happen simply due to the speed of SP.
Against Gyarados you may or may not want to attach expert belt. Since you are only +30 week to water you have somewhat of an advantage. You can 1-shot a non expert belted G-dos if you have 5 fire pokes on the field, and you can 1-shot an e-belted Gdos if you have 5 fire types and an ebelted charizard. I think it will all come down to who makes the first hit. If you attack GDos first and need to attach an e belt to take a prize, go for it, but if it is going to attack you first, don't use the ebelt. Just try to pull off the warp point seeker thing to heal off your damage. Remember, G-Dos HAS to have an e-belt to 1-shot you (unless they have a crazy amount of crobat drops) so timing will be key in this match.
Since G-Dos and SP will be such technical and somewhat difficult matchups I would ALMOST recommend running 2-3 Spiritomb in this deck. It sounds strange but it really can work. It will slow down both the Gdos and SP decks and perhaps give you enough time to get the set up you need. Just food for thought.
Finally, here is my Charizard list. I've never used it in a tourney, so take it for what it's worth, haha, but I think just using it for comparative purposes could be helpful:
4 Charmander
2 Charmeleon
3 Charizard
2 Cyndaquil
1 Quilava
2 Typhslosion Prime
2 Spiritomb
1 Blaziken
1 Blaziken FB X
2 Vulpix
2 Ninetails
2 Uxie
24
4 Collector
3 Bebe
3 Communication
1 Lux Ball
3 Judge
1 Oak
1 Fisherman
4 Candy
2 Burnt Tower
2 Seeker
1 Palmer’s
27
11 Fire
Hope all this helps! Good luck in your first tourney. Keep an open mind, have fun no matter what the match result, and let me know how you do!
Guy
