Charizard Pidgeot (December 2024)

The strategy of Charizard ex revolves around setting up your board of Pidgeot ex, then chaining attacks with either Charizard ex or Radiant Charizard to win the Prize trade. Pidgeot ex's Quick Search ability is one of the strongest abilities we have ever seen, letting you find any card you need once her turn. You can use Fezandipiti ex's Flip the Script and finally use Quick Search to find any card you want.

You really need to prioritize your setup when playing Charizard ex. I will

The strategy of Charizard ex revolves around setting up your board of Pidgeot ex, then chaining attacks with either Charizard ex or Radiant Charizard to win the Prize trade. Pidgeot ex's Quick Search ability is one of the strongest abilities we have ever seen, letting you find any card you need once her turn. You can use Fezandipiti ex's Flip the Script and finally use Quick Search to find any card you want.

You really need to prioritize your setup when playing Charizard ex. I will often give up getting a Charizard ex into play on turn two if it allows me to get a Pidgeot ex into play. Pidgeot ex lets you set up many combinations of cards for future turns, and gives you a ton of insurance for the future. If you are ahead in the Prize trade, there is almost no way for your opponent to come back as they have no good knockouts to take. If they KO your Charizard, it is trivial to set up another one, and if they KO the Pidgeot ex, they still have to go through the Charizard ex.

Thorton is a great addition to the Charizard deck, as it lets you establish a Charizard ex out of nowhere, without needing to bench a Charmander before needing access to all your basic Pokémon.

Dusknoir is also strong against Lugia VSTAR, as you can use Cursed Blast to KO a Cinccino then use Counter Catcher to KO an Archeops in the same turn! I also chose to play Canceling Cologne, giving you a real matchup against decks playing Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex, an otherwise nigh unbeatable card for this deck due to it's Cornerstone Stance ability. Canceling Cologne also gives you a game plan in the Iron Thorns matchup as you can also struggle there.

The ACE SPEC I chose to include in this deck is Unfair Stamp, and while there are arguments to play Prime Catcher, Hero's Cape or Giant Tree come Stellar Crown, I currently prefer Unfair Stamp as it acts as a consistency card in the early game, letting you shuffle your hand into your deck and draw five cards on an item card!