As a reminder September 3, 2014 will
mark the official annual rotation, when
the Standard format shifts from the
2013-2014 Modified (BW:Next Destinies
to XY: Flashfire, BW Promo
BW33+, McDonald’s Collection 2012,
and all XY Promos) to the
2014-2015 Modified (BW: Boundaries
Crossed and later, BW Promos
BW55+, McDonald’s Collection, and
all XY Promos); nothing from
XY: Furious Fists will be legal for
sanctioned Standard play until that
time. If I believe I can make a
sufficiently educated guess, I’ll score
for both Modified Formats and the new
Expanded Format (Black & White
and later sets, all BW Promo and
XY Promo series cards, all
McDonald’s Collection cards) that
also begins then.
This week we’re covering XY Promo
series cards, and we begin with
Charizard-EX (XY Promo XY17).
In Japan this apparently came with an
issue of “CoroCoro Comics”, and if you
haven’t ever heard of them… yeah its a
separate thing from Pokémon however its
success and the success of Pokémon are
closely related as they tend to cross
promote each other. Outside of Japan it
was released in the Charizard-EX Box
released on May 7, 2014 in both regular
and (not legal for play) jumbo size.
Charizard-EX
is a Fire-Type like all the others; as
it is part Flying it could have been a
Colorless-Type but given that nothing
currently legal resists Fire-Types while
several key cards (like Virizion-EX
and Genesect-EX) are Fire Weak,
and we just got a heaping helping of
direct and indirect Fire-Type support
(the former wouldn’t work for a
Flying-Type), this is definitely the
better deal. It is of course a Basic
Pokémon-EX: being a Basic is (sadly)
still the best as most Evolving Pokémon
are pretty bad; since they end up being
little more than deck filler, it makes
Evolution decks inherently slow unless
they include yet another Basic Pokémon
to do something before they Evolve… and
the first turn rules can make that
awkward. Being a Pokémon-EX in game
terms is purely a disadvantage; making a
Pokémon give up two Prizes when KOed,
unable to access certain pieces of
support, and vulnerable to certain
intentional counters. Of course while
it isn’t a text based rule, it also is
what justifies the higher than normal HP
scores and often better than usual
Abilities and/or attacks that the better
Pokémon-EX possess.
Speaking of HP, so far it doesn’t get
any better for Basic Pokémon-EX than
180. For the rest of Standard-legal
card pool, you’ve got to be using an
Ability or card combo (which is rarely
successful in competitive play), be a M
Pokémon-EX, or be Wailord (BW:
Dragons Exalted 26/124. I just
realized an unintended benefit of the
pending rotation is I won’t feel the
need to keep mentioning that card when
discussing HP scores. Water-Type
Pokémon can fairly easily cut through
said HP; fortunately for Charizard-EX
finding a good Water-Type to splash into
a deck can be tricky, so there are
usually only a few key match-ups to
fear. The lack of Resistance is nothing
to fear as it would have only been a
small bonus; I still miss it and no
Resistance is the worst Resistance. A
Retreat Cost of three is just one under
the highest seen on contemporary cards,
but its far from the worst, at least
until the next set rotation; Heavy
Ball provides such Pokémon easy
search and the metagame is such that
most competitive decks pack an
alternative to manually retreating,
usually zeroing out the cost or
bypassing the mechanic completely.
Charizard-EX
has two attacks; for [RC] you can search
your deck for a copy of M
Charizard-EX and add it to your
hand. This is not entirely useless, but
is definitely overpriced. As an Ability
it would have merely been “okay”, but as
an attack a cost of more than [C] seems
unnecessary. Unless a method of
bypassing the turn’s attack lost to Mega
Evolving is released or you dedicate a
Blacksmith or similar combo to
powering it up in a single turn while
going second, it is really too slow.
The second attack, Bravefire is
overpriced but not terribly. For [RCCC]
you score 120 points of damage with 30
points of self-damage, which is about 30
points (to the Defending Pokémon) below
or above (to itself) where it needed to
be in order to prove competitive.
Still, if you’re running M
Charizard-EX (XY: Flashfire
13/106, 107/106) there is an odd synergy
as it too has an attack that does
self-damage, so the resources to combo
with it should be there.
Where this card really suffers is… there
are just better choices. Charizard-EX
(XY: Flashfire 11/106, 100/106)
and Charizard-EX (XY:
Flashfire 12/106) have the same
stats except for a Retreat Cost of two
(which will be better than a cost of
three once Heavy Ball is gone)
but their attacks are better. The
former can use Stoke, an attack just
requires [C], to provide badly needed
Energy acceleration; the drawback is
that it is “tails fails”. Its Fire Blast
has the same Energy requirements as
Brave Fire, but instead of self damage
you merely have to discard one Energy
for the 120, which would allow you to
spend more resources pumping up damage
instead of dealing with self-damage.
Japan is slated to get an XY Promo
version of this one, so we might as
well, but it isn’t a huge deal because
the 12/106 is the real deal with its
Wing Attack that does 60 for [RCC]
(overpriced but better than nothing) and
Combustion Blast that requires [RRCC]
and states you can’t use Combustion
Blast the next turn; some fairly
standard combos can get Charizard-EX
using Combustion Blast over and over
again, and begin the assault as early as
the second (overall) turn of the game.
Just top it all off with Muscle Band
to OHKO anything with more than 150 HP
but less than 180. Hypnotoxic Laser
(either with Muscle Band or
Virbank City Gym) can cover targets
with 180 HP, meaning very few things can
survive attacks from it.
Barring effects that prevent damage from
occurring or prevent Knock Outs from
actually happening, nothing can survive
an attack from either M Charizard-EX.
M Charizard-EX (XY: Flashfire
13/106, 107/106) is the better choice;
220 HP is solid (though less than the
other version) and the single Energy
Retreat Cost is easy to pay (the Type,
Weakness and lack of Resistance are
identical to all Charizard-EX)
and the attack deals a massive 300
points of damage. Of course, 100 points
of that will almost always be overkill,
it requires [RRCCC] to attack and it
does 50 points of damage to itself so
its mostly only used if you want to just
attack with Charizard-EX and want
to get around Intimidating Mane on
Pyroar (XY: Flashfire
20/106).
Charizard-EX
(XY: Flashfire 69/106, 108/106)
enjoys 10 more HP and (again, until we
lose Heavy Ball with rotation at
which point it becomes a drawback) a
Retreat Cost of three, but is a
Dragon-Type which is not as well
supported as Fire-Types, though at least
Weakness and Resistance are irrelevant
as it too hits for 300 points of damage.
I am not sure if Fairy-Type Weakness is
better or worse than Water-Type (for now
probably better) and the lack of
Resistance is still insignificant but
not good. The attack discards five
cards from your deck… which honestly
isn’t that bad unless your opponent can
avoid Benching Pokémon-EX and/or you’ve
got no choice but to use Wild Blaze for
every attack. What kills it is the
Energy cost: [RRDCC] is just ugly and
there still is no real synergy with
today’s CotD.
So for the current Standard format, I
can’t see bothering with it unless you
can’t get one of the other versions and
either are focused on using M
Charizard-EX it works. I was going
to add that it isn’t like it has
significant competition outside of other
Charizard-EX for the role of
“big, Basic Fire-Type Pokémon-EX” but
Reshiram-EX also outclasses it: same
stats (so also a legal Heavy Ball
target) with arguably better attacks:
[RCC] buys a 50+30 on “heads”, a
straight 50 on “tails” and [RRCC] buys
150 with 50 points of self-damage on a
failed coin flip. How about post
rotation? This card actually loses
Heavy Ball then, so its prospects
become a bit worse, not better. For
Expanded, my early prediction is that it
will perform more or less the same as it
does now; if you have a deck where being
Heavy Ball compliant is a major
factor that also needs a Charizard-EX,
it… still might not be worth running
over one of the other versions, but its
less inferior.
You shouldn’t actually be able to use
this in Limited, but if you
hypothetically could (say it was
reprinted in a set or someone was crazy
enough to create a Charizard-EX Box set
event) it would be worth running in most
decks but not in the infamous
“+39” build. Even if you pulled M
Charizard-EX, it wouldn’t be worth
it because all three are too slow to
survive long enough to be powered up,
and their respective drawbacks become
fatal here; you do not want your only
Pokémon inflicting self damage or deck
discard. As that thing you build when
you can while still attacking with other
Pokémon, it becomes a good deal to take
the last two (maybe three) Prizes you
need rapidfire, and its Energy
requirements are easy enough for most
decks since its just one Fire Energy and
three of anything else. All four Prizes
should rarely work, as after the fact
your opponent just needs to hit it for
60 points of damage to KO it… which more
than likely means even in Limited, you’d
find Charizard-EX in a position
where you were attacking for the draw or
even the loss.
Ratings
Modified (NXD-On):
2/5 - Other Charizard-EX do it
better, and what this version does do
isn’t quite worth the cost.
Modified (BCR-On):
2/5 - As above, though newer decks and
combos aided by XY: Furious Fists
become legal; due to the nature of this
Charizard-EX coupled with the few
things we lose due to rotation, I do not
believe it will make a dramatic
difference.
Expanded (BW-On):
2/5 - I am probably being too generous,
but I could maybe see using it here,
perhaps alongside Hydreigon (BW:
Dragons Exalted 97/124; BW:
Legendary Treasures 99/113) and M
Charizard-EX (XY: Flashfire
69/106, 108/106) if you really wanted to
abuse Heavy Ball and Max
Potion, but considering no one is
trying such a thing while the combo is
still Modified legal I have to wonder
why it would be attempted here?
Limited:
N/A - If reprinted in a set, probably a
4/5 but as back-up to the rest of your
deck and not in the conventional +39
deck.
Summary:
Today’s Charizard-EX shows the
risk of printing too many versions of a
card, coupled with how imbalanced the
format really still is; 120 for four
even with 30 points of self-damage,
shouldn’t be “bad” in a format where
that is either a OHKO or a “half-KO” of
pretty much everything… and yet it
certainly isn’t “good”. Considering the
other two Charizard-EX are better
but themselves not equal, its hard to
label this one as anything but “the bad
one” in comparison. At least it proved
to me that I can type it out as “M
Charizard-EX” and not wonder if
there needed to be an extra hyphen in
the name between the “M” and the
“Charizard”: still annoys me that
even though its no where in the names on
top of the cards there is supposed to be
one between the Pokémon’s species name
and the “EX” designator.
