Charizard archetype (TCG)

Charizard was a semi-competitive in the Pokémon Trading Card Game. Upon the release of the expansion in late 2009, players recognized as a potentially decent attacker and attempted to make a deck around it. It was moderately successful, placing well at a number of small tournaments over the course of its existence. Probably the most notable reason for the Charizard archetype's playability was its strong draw engine based around from , giving it above-average consistency.
==Strategy==
Charizard's straightforward strategy relied on getting as many , , and Typhlosion Prime in play as quickly as possible. The deck did not have a designated starting Pokémon, and was capable of rectifying any unfavorable start. Since Ninetales provided the deck's drawpower with its Roast Reveal , a Charizard player would often aim to get at least one Ninetales in play before expending resources to get up Charizard or Typhlosion Prime. From there, Charizard was capable of knocking out most Pokémon in one or two hits with Fire Wing or Burning Tail, and Typhlosion Prime's Afterburner made it easy to keep energy in play and swarm attackers.
==Key Cards==
* - Charizard's viability as an attacker stemmed from its Fire Formation Poké-Body, which made Charizard's attacks deal 10 more damage for each Pokémon on the player's bench. With a bench full of Fire-type Pokémon, Fire Wing did 80 damage for only , and Burning Tail did 130 damage for .
* Typhlosion Prime - Burning Tail, Charizard's second attack, required the player using it to discard one Energy attached to Charizard. Typhlosion Prime's Afterburner Poké-Power could reattach that Energy to any Pokémon in play at the cost of placing one damage counter on it. Ninetales' Roast Reveal Poké-Power, and in later variants of the deck, also could discard Energy for later attachment through Afterburner. Typhlosion Prime could also provide a powerful backup attacker in a pinch, with Flare Destroy. Although Flare Destroy did less damage than Burning Tail for the same energy cost, it had the added effect (situationally) of discarding an energy card attached to the Defending Pokémon. Against decks without energy acceleration, this could make it difficult for an opponent to build up enough energies to attack.
* - Main article: Roast Reveal engine
* / - These two served essentially the same purpose, allowing the Charizard player to search Basic Pokémon out of their deck. Since the archetype needed at least three different evolved Pokémon in play to function ideally (, Typhlosion Prime, and ), getting their respective Basic Pokémon in play quickly was vital.
* - The Charizard archetype focused primarily on two into play. Rare Candy provided a means to do this more quickly. Since Charizard existed prior to the rules change at the advent of the 2011-2012 modified format, it was possible to utilize Rare Candy to evolve on a player's first turn. This allowed for occasional with Fire Wing.
* - Broken Time-Space served much the same purpose in the deck as Rare Candy. Rather than skipping an evolution stage, though, it permitted a player to evolve multiple times in a single turn.
==Typical decklist==
==Possible Tech Cards==
* - After its release, Junk Arm was considered a staple in Charizard, along with most other archetypes. However, the above variant does not include Junk Arm, as it is based on an early version of the deck. Junk Arm's extreme usefulness stemmed not only from its ability to retrieve any from the player's discard pile, but also because it allowed the player to discard any two cards from their hand. Typhlosion Prime was the deck's main source of energy acceleration and only functioned if there were in the discard. Thus, by giving the player the option to discard Fire Energy, Junk Arm indirectly contributed to the deck's ability to attach additional Energy quickly.
* - Because both of Charizard's attackers (Charizard and Typhlosion Prime) had a high amount of hit points, they were unlikely to be knocked out in one attack. Thus, Poké Healer + would often have the opportunity to heal a large amount of damage off one of them. This in turn allowed for more attacks before a Pokémon was knocked out.
Category:Deck archetypes