Hello, and welcome to the second day of the new SV
preview week, and we continue the week with the newly
revealed Lv.X, and it was only a matter of time before
it got one, yes, it's Charizard G Lv.X! First of all, I
have to say, it looks cool. Doesn't contribute to the
cards playability, I just thought I'd mention it.
Anyway, the card, and the basics first, and it has 120
HP. For and SP Lv.X, it's quite good, actually, tied
best at the moment, with the likes of Diagla G Lv.X (PL)
and Palkia G Lv.X (PL), so it's impressive. x2 Water
Weakness is annoying against the likes for Palkia G and
Lv.X (PL), and what ever other Water Pokémon may be
playable after the release of SV. -20 Fighting
Resistance is nice for when against Machamp (SF) when
Unown G (GE) is attached to this Pokémon, but otherwise,
unless there is some brilliant Fighting Pokémon in SV,
it probably won't be the best thing ever. 3 Retreat Cost
is a big on the high side, so make sure you pack plenty
of Switching cards. Lastly, it's an SP Pokémon, so has
all the usual brilliant support that SP's get.
Abilities next, and I'll start with it's Poké-Power,
Call for Power, which allows you to move an energy
attached to one of your Pokémon to Charizard G Lv.X, and
you can do this as often as you like during your turn.
It's quite nice, especially if you use Typhlosion (MT)
or Rayquaza (MT), both of whom attach Fire Energies from
your discard pile to your bench in one way or another.
It is very nice, especially with attacks from this card
or the normal form that discard energies.
Like this attack, I suppose. It's rather nicely called
Malevolent Fire, which for FFCCC (or FFCC and an Energy
Gain) does a mighty 150 damage, but also, you have to
flip a coin and if tails, you discard all energies
attached to Charizard G Lv.X. It's a hefty price, but
you deal a hefty amount of damage. It's almost worth it.
It would be if it just cost maybe one energy less. at
the moment, it looks like a slower Supreme Blast from
Mesprit Lv.X (LA). While Mesprit Lv.X may seems to
require more set-up, at least you can get all those
Lv.X's out in one turn rather than waiting 4 turns
minimum to get Malevolent Fire powered up. OK,
Typhlosion or Rayquaza with Felicity's Drawing or
Volkner's Philosophy might provide ample energy
acceleration to power Malevolent Fire up quickly, but
really, I don't see it happening quickly and
consistently. If you want high damage from a basic, use
Mesprit Lv.X or another Lv.x in SV...
Combo, and I've said the main one already. Typhlosion,
Rayquaza and Felicity's Drawing and/or Volkner's
Philosophy. The 2 Supporters dump energies into the
discard pile, the 2 Pokémon get them back onto the
bench, Charizard G Lv.X moves them to itself and deals
big damage. Obvious. If you wanted more discarding power
(and I doubt it really), you could use Lunatone (GE) or
Regice (LA) and thier Poké-Powers. There are probably
others as well, but those are the main two.
Counters, and mainly, Water Pokémon who can set up
quicker than Charizard G Lv.X and deal at least 60
damage. There are plenty of them about, so I won't list
them all here, but they are big for being able to OHKO
Charizard G Lv.X and make you waste alot of time and
resources on something that gets KOed straight away.
Machamp (SF) is another counter since it will OHKO a
non-Unown G'ed Charizard G Lv.X with Take Out, like it
does against more other SP's. Really, anything that can
set-up quicker than Charizard G Lv.X and disrupt it's
set-up will be good against this card, stopping it
quickly from being able to do much at all.
Ratings:
Modified: Call for Power is a brilliant Poké-Power, but
to make good use of it, it needs a good discarding
attack, and sadly, we are going to have to wait for the
release of the normal version to find out if it'll get
one. Malevolent Fire is just too slow to actually be
that great. Sure, it does loads of damage, but it's just
not enough to make it playable, even with it's combos.
It might be worth a try, but I doubt it'll actually be
part of a good deck. 2/5
Limited: Do you want to imagine playing this in a
pre-release? FFCCC for 150 damage would be cool, but how
on Earth are you actually going to be able to power it
up before Charizard G Lv.X gets KOed. OK, Call for Power
is an option, but you won't always have the energies in
play to use it to power up Malevolent Fire. I don't see
it working here if I'm honest. 1.5/5
Meganium45
Hey, you feel lucky? Can you flip heads? Quick check to
make SURE Shiftry is NOT their active!
Being able to do 150 for 5 (4 with an energy gain is a
high price to pay). Not over the top if you get to keep
the energy, so could be worth the shot.
120 HP for a stage 1 level X is nice. Weakness to water,
expected, resistance to fighting, could be very nice.
This card SCREAMS combo me! Infernape (SF), Heatran
Level X, Typhlosion, anything to accelerate the fire,
help a ‘Zard out!!!
Spread the energy, keep them around the board (hey,
maybe a Blissey Combo), and then suck them up to the Big
Zard when he is ready to go!!!
Retreat cost of 3…we aren’t retreating. We are either
switching, warp pointing, turning or feinting.
So, here we go…we know he will be popular, and sellable,
but playable??
Not quite. Close but no banana.
Modified…3/5 Could be comboed with other big brutes. The
Blissey idea is beginning to make me smile.
Limited…3/5 You will draft him, so why not try and play
him? Flip one heads, get 2 prizes in 2 turns, and the
game is about over.
PRERELEASES ARE COMING!!!
Baby Mario Top 4 UK Nats
Charizard G LV X
OMG IT’S A CHARIZARD AND IT DOES 150
DAMAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That guarantees Charizard G’s popularity, it wouldn’t
matter how much it sucked as a playable card (see pretty
much every Charizard ever printed for details).
So, does it suck? Well, not completely . . .
It has 120 HP for a start, which is excellent for an SP
Basic, even a LV X. It also has Fighting Resistance
which is pretty handy. X2 Water Weakness and a Retreat
Cost of three are downsides to consider, though.
Where Charizard COULD shine is as a tech late game
‘finisher’ in an SP deck which runs a decent amount of
Fire Energy. Its PokePower, Call for Power, and its
Malevolent Fire (great name!) attack work very well
together to get you that key OHKO against practically
any playable Pokémon (except Regigigas LV X which is
rarely seen). First the Power allows you to move any
Energy attached to your Pokémon to Charizard G, and it
is going to need that as Malevolent Fire has a hefty
cost of [R][R][C][C][C]. Even with
Energy Gain, it is going to take a while to get
Charizard powered up (although Flint’s Willpower can
help a bit).
So, why do I say this is a late game, rather than a
mid-game card? Simply because malevolent Fire requires
you to flip a coin and, if tails, you then discard ALL
the Energy from Charizard G. That is a very risky play
and should you flip tails, you may find it hard to
recover from losing all those Energy attachments. It
makes Charizard G a card that you play when you REALLY
need a KO, and not one that you can rely on as the main
attacker or focus of your deck. Even running Heatran LV
X would only return two of the discarded Energy, and
Heatran isn’t an easy LV X to play, especially in an SP
deck where it slows the deck down considerably.
What you have here is a big bad Charizard . . . slow
(too slow, probably), Energy intensive, with a very
powerful attack, and everyone will want one.
Don’t pretend you are surprised.
Ratings
Modified: 2.75 (Has potential, but maybe too slow and
situational for this format)
Limited: 3 (speed isn’t such an issue in limited)
Steel
Winger
Welcome back to the Pokemon COTD!
Today's card is another sneak peak at what Supreme
Victors has in store for us: Charizard G LV.X!
This card has gotten quite a bit of hype. Let's find out
why, shall we? 120 HP on a SP LV. X is great on an SP,
with the average being 110 as of now. It's fire,
obviously, so Shaymin and Turtwig GL can get seriously
burnt by this guy. A x2 Weakness to Water means that
Kingdra can OHKO it, so be careful. A -20 Resistance to
Fighting... is good, but as of now, all you'll usually
see is Machamp (SF) and Rampadros (PT). A Retreat Cost
of 3 is terrible, but expected since it is one of the
big guys; use Switch/Warp Point/Poke Turn. It's an SP
Pokemon as well, so you can utilize all of that support.
Charizard G LV.X has a Power called Call for Power. It
lets you move an energy from one of your Pokemon to this
guy. And you can do it as much as you want until you get
it powered up! What can be used to power this guy up
besides your regular energy attachment? There's Flint's
Willpower, Leafeon LV. X (MD), and Typhlosion (MT). This
power is a necessity if you want to use Charizard G LV.
X's attack.
That attack is called Malevolent Fire. For an astounding
5 energies (4 with Energy Gain, but still a lot), 2
which must be Fire, you get to do 150 damage to the
opponent's active. All of a sudden, it reminds me of
Flygon LV. X, but you're only limited to the Defending
Pokemon instead of other LV. Xs. Now, after the damage
has been done, you flip a coin. If heads, nothing
happens add it's likely you'll beat face with it again
next turn as well. If you see tails, you must weep
because Charizard G LV. X loses all of its energy! For
this reason alone, it would be wise to play Heatran LV.
X. Every one of them that you have out reattaches 2 Fire
energies back on Charizard. 2 of them will keep it fully
charged alongside an Energy Gain. Other than that, it's
a powerful oneshot that is quite risky to play. However,
the ability to OHKO almost any Pokemon with the right
support makes it something fierce.
Ratings:
Modified: 3.5/5 The attack is very costly, and
Water-types give it trouble. Still, don't underestimate
this card if you go up against it. Unlike some other
attackers of the same nature, Charizard G LV. X may not
have to discard any energy after it attacks.
Limited: 3/5 If you're going to attack with Malevolent
Fire here, make sure you can win the match regardless of
whether of not you wind up losing your energy. I doubt
there's a way to get it powered up again that easily if
you do lose energy, but the attack is beast, just like
the Pokemon it's attached to.
