Charizard ex is the Best Deck in Format

[Michele] Hi TSS Patreon Readers ! Michele Lesage here with a new article ! Since my last article right after the European International Championships, we have seen all the major events since then being won by Charizard ex, whether it’s a Tord-inspired list, or something slightly different. In this article, we will look at each of the lists that won their respective major events, have an explanation on each deck, and see how it might be a good play for the regional championships held in Indianapolis next week. Let’s get into it !

Winner of EUIC - Tord Reklev

I know I’ve talked about that list before, but let’s have a small recap. Looking at this list, there is a lot of new things we didn’t see before, like Cleffa. Cleffa is (depending on your hand) an arguably better card than Rotom V in certain situations, if you’re able to empty your hand enough. The free retreat and free attack also makes it easy to pivot into when starting with another Pokémon that you can retreat for 1 energy. Now something that was surprising to see as well was combining both mechanics that we also see separately in both Zard variants : Bibarel and Pidgeot ex. Both those lines have great purposes, one better than the other depending on the deck you are playing against. Most of the time, your opponent sees a 2 prizer that can get you anything you want out of your deck, so their target is going to be that first. But at the end of the game, if they try to Iono or Roxanne you, Bibarel is a better mechanic since it does allow you to draw cards. It is also easier to get out since it does not involve finding a rare candy to evolve it. 

Double Turo’s Scenario is interesting, especially in the mirror. Since it does take a lot of time for your opponent to be able to OHKO a Zard or a Pidgeot ex, double Turo does allow you to buy yourself an extra turn, or even to take out the more vulnerable 2 prizers (like Rotom, Lumineon, or Pidgeot in the late game). Team Yell’s Cheer also allows you to bring them back, if you are able to set up quite early and not rely so much on Arven in the middle game. Another interesting inclusion was the Prime Catcher ACE SPEC. Most Zard lists chose to go the other way in terms of their ACE SPEC, like Hero’s Cape (which is also very good in mirror, but also against Lugia VSTAR and Chien-Pao ex) or Maximum Belt (to be able to OHKO ex Pokémons earlier in the game). I don’t dislike the Prime Catcher, since it does allow you to hunt down some 2 prizers easier in the early game. Overall, I think Tord’s list was a nice surprise, with a double mechanic not a lot of people saw coming, with the deck also being extremely powerful already. 

Winner of Orlando - Liam Halliburton 

If you think this list and Tord’s list look very similar, you would be right ! There won’t be a long explanation, since it pilots itself the same way as Tord’s 60. The only difference between those 2 decks would be that Liam played a second Charmeleon instead of Jirachi, since decks like LZ Giratina or LZ Box did see a decline in play, and we see more and more decks playing Technical Machine Devolution + Eri. Other than that, literally the same 59 cards !

Winner of Perth - Kaiwen Cabbabe

This list is a perfect combination of Tord’s idea and the idea of my group for EUIC. The combination of Regileki and Technical Machine Devolution works great against decks like Chien-Pao ex and the mirror match, while playing things like Eri to be able to discard their rare candies. Turo’s Scenario + Pal Pad makes this deck great against BlockLax, since there is not really a way for you to be stuck in the active with something other than Regileki, unless you mess up the loop by accident. I am unsure if I like the no Lumineon V, since it does make one less target for Forest Seal Stone, but overall, i do like this list more than the other one, since it does feel like it can beat control much easier. If you want to play Zard, I would play this list over any other one.

Winner of São Paulo - Pedro Pertusi

After seeing the previous lists, you might say “Michele, aren’t these all the same lists ??”. And while they all do look very similar, there are some intricacies in all of them. While all of them did play the split between Pidgeot ex and Bibarel, not all of them played both Jirachi and Manaphy, or even the Lumineon V. This list was even closer to our EUIC list, just without the combo to beat BlockLax. The debate to put the double TM Devolution wasn’t a big hit in our group, but after seeing how big Zard become over the past couple of Regionals, I definitely feel the need to play 2. The Mist Energy is also interesting here, especially after seeing the rise of a deck like MoonSparce, where they can easily go Frenzied Gouging on a full HP Zard to OHKO it. The Mist energy does prevent that, and also Sableye’s Lost Mine, especially useful on a Bibarel, since they can easily place the 12 damage counters to kill it after going Roxanne or Iono in the late game. Hero’s Cape is great in a metagame where Zard, since they cannot OHKO it without finding their 1-of Lost Vacuum (which might be hard in the late game if Pidgeot ex is out of the board). 

Overall, all these lists, while they serve a different purpose according to the metagame they were played in, obviously have the potential to win events. I think this is a case that we can see how different the metagames are in different regions, and switching some cards might be better than just taking someone’s same 60. 

That’s it for me this week y’all, thank you so much for reading, and have a great week ! 

Michele Lesage