I agree with you. This Charizard debate is entertaining. However, I would like to put a stop to this by posting an article that I wrote. If the readers get the message , they would understand why this card isn't very great, unless they are blind, mentally retarded, or both. WARNING: If your IQ is higher than 30, and you think Charizard is a good card, this article will change your mind. If your IQ is lower than 30, read on and send back your idiotic arguements to bokchoyboy@hotmail.com The Real Deal With Charizard What is all this crap I hear about Charizard being one of the best cards in the game. It doesn t even come close to being one of the best. I hear people say stuff like "it does 100 damage for only four energy" or "it has a whole 120 HP". These people obviously don t know much about strategy. There is a long list of reasons why this card is among the cream of the crap. Doing 100 damage could kill any pokemon, with the exception of Mr. Mime, Chansey, and another Charizard. Both Mr. Mime and Chansey are both heavily played in tournaments. People often forget how drastic the cost of discarding 2 energy cards is. It is a very big deal, considering that this means it only does 100 damage once every 3 or so turns. A Stage 2 Pokemon such as Blastoise can do 150 damage in 3 turns with 4 energy (3 Hydro Pumps) and it doesn t even have to discard one energy. In addition to that, Blastoise s Pokemon Power is extremely powerful, even if on the bench. Charizard is useless on the bench. Venusaur can do 180 damage in 3 turns, an he has a very powerful pokemon power also. Even a Beedrill can do more damage than 100 damage in 3 turns, plus poison. Chances are, it won t get more than one Fire Spin off against a good deck. People also say that Charizard doesn t take long to get out. It just needs 3 turns to get evolved into a Charizard. However, this is only if you have Charmander, Charmeleon, and Charizard in the same hand, which is very unlikely. A deck that revolves around Charizard also needs cards that support it such as Computer Search, Switch, Energy Retrieval, Pokemon Trader, Pokemon Breeder, not to mention a staller such as Chansey, or Kangaskhan. This will take the deck space which could have had powerful cards, such as Energy Removal, Gust of Wind, Scoop Up, Pluspower and Super Energy Removal. If a deck were to revolve around one Level 2 Evolution card, why not a more powerful one such as Blastoise, Venusaur, or Alakazam. If Charizard gets knocked out, its disadvantage is three-fold. The opponent draws a prize and is one sixth of the way closer to winning the game. You waste a lot of effort into getting the Charizard out by using Computer Searches, Pokemon Traders, and by evolving the charmander twice. You probably put most of your energy on the Charizard and wasted lots of energy cards, which means your other pokemon have no energy and will have no chance of defending themselves. If the Charizard fails, the game is lost. If the opponent brings out a Mr. Mime, he already won the game. The fact that it is an uneffective Level 2 Pokemon is a very significant weakness. If you do the math, it would take a Charizard 14 energy to take 6 prizes. This is not counting, energy removals, super energy removals, and this is assuming no energy cards were attached to any other pokemon besides Charizard. This means you would have to go through more than two-thirds of the deck before you win the game. By this time, the Charizard is dead. Charizard will never single-handedly win a game against a good deck. Charizard has a retreat cost of three. A Gust of Wind on an energyless Charizard, and it s as good as dead. With Energy Removals in about every deck, the Charizard will take a long time to build adequate energy, especially against a Haymaker Deck. Cards that hose down Charizard are found in almost every deck around. The energy removals, and super energy removals hurt Charizard more than it does to other pokemon. One Super Energy Removal means it will take two more hits before it uses Fire Spin, and by this time it will die. Super Energy Removal is very common in all decks. Gust of Wind also severely hurts the Charizard. With a retreat cost of three, Charizard will find himself dead before he can retreat or attack. One Gust of Wind and he s gone. You can also find Gust of Wind in almost every deck. Possibly, the biggest reason why you ll rarely see the Charizard Deck succeed in tournaments is its competition. Any expert will tell you that the three most common decks are The Invisible Wall, The Rain Dance, and The Haymaker. Charizard falls victim to all of these decks. In a battle against an Invisible Wall deck, once Mr. Mime is brought out, the game is already won. Fire decks have trouble dealing 10 and 20 damage, and the Charizard is useless against Mr. Mime. Against the Rain Dance Deck, Blastoise s advantage is obvious. Fire is weak against water. Its like Rock vs. Paper. Against the Haymaker, the Charizard will never stand a chance against the amazing speed of this deck. Most Haymakers use 4 Energy Removals, at least 3 Super Energy Removals, and 3 Gust of Winds. The Charizard won t come close to attacking, and even if he does he ll kill, at most, one guy. Charizard decks will only defeat the inexperienced player, or a player with a poorly made deck, and you won t see many of those in a tournament. I ve even heard a few people say that Charizard is a good staller. The purpose of a staller is for defense as you build up your most powerful Level 2 evolved pokemon. Why have a Level 2 evolved staller, when you could have a basic staller for much less deck space and much more speed. Having a Level 2 Evolution Card as a staller is a very stupid thing to do and there is no such thing as a good Level 2 evolved staller. If your fire deck needs more firepower, use Ninetails. First of all, it is a Level 1 evolution card, which means it doesn t need Pokemon Breeders, it takes less deck space than Charmander, Charmeleon, AND Charizard, and is much easier to get it ready for battle. It s retreat cost is one. It only needs to discard 1 energy card to do 80 damage. This is, by far, a better attack than Fire Spin. If it doesn t have enough energy for it s big attack, it can use lure to bring out a pokemon that doesn t pose a threat to Ninetails. Best of all, you can get them for a third the price of a Charizard. So, there s the list of many reasons why Charizard sucks. In a nutshell, is it has few strengths, many, many weaknesses, and there are many cards that are more worth using than the highly overrated Dragon. If you get Charizard in a pack or already have one, trade it, sell it. Never ever trade for it, buy it, or use it in a deck. It might make a nice collectors item though. If your deck has 3 Charizards, dismantle it and trade for something with a higher chance of winning, such as a Haymaker, the most powerful deck in the game. It s an extremely crappy card, for the price of a massively powerful card. Agree? Disagree? Questions? Comments? E-mail me at bokchoyboy@hotmail.com