Otaku |
Taste the hype as
we cover Charizard (XY: Evolutions
11/108)! So what does it mean being a Fire Type?
As per usual, we aren’t worried about Unlimited, so
nothing is naturally Fire Resistant while most Grass and
Metal Types are Fire Weak. Anti-Fire Type effects
exist but aren’t too great; as per usual the main
anti-Fire effect is the other effect on
Parallel City. Explicitly Fire Type support
has some great tricks but between what only
exists in Expanded (Blacksmith) and what only
works for Basic Pokémon (Volcanion-EX),
Charizard is left with some decent options like
Scorched Earth for extra draw (if there is no better
Stadium suited to it) or Burning Energy (also
uncertain in its usefulness). Other Fire Types
that might help include Volcanion (XY: Steam
Siege 25/114; XY: Black Star Promos XY145),
Entei (XY: Ancient Origins 14/98) and
Entei (XY: Ancient Origins 15/98). Good
basic opening, back-up, or co-main attackers but
they are so good they might outshine Charizard,
making it unneeded in its own deck; after all they
can make use of the damage increasing Ability on
Volcanion-EX. The [R] Energy (but not [R]
Pokémon) specific tricks aren’t likely to be a lot of
help either. I mean if we’ve got Charizard
in a deck, we probably don’t have room for Emboar
(Black & White 20/114; BW: Black Star Promos
BW21; BW: Next Destinies 100/99; BW: Legendary
Treasures 27/113) as that would be two Stage 2
Pokémon in a deck.
Stage 2 Pokémon
take a lot of space and time relative to the other
Stages. Stage 1 Pokémon that Evolve from Restored
Pokémon and BREAK Evolutions of Stage 1 and 2 Pokémon
have it worse. Unless we want to try and finally
make Cradily (BW: Plasma Blast 4/101)
work, you’re going to have to use Charmander.
You then have to choose between Evolving into
Charmeleon and then Charizard or using
Rare Candy to Evolve straight into Charizard.
If you go with the former, you can shave a turn off of
Evolving by using Wally, but either you take
three turns and three cards, three cards and two turns,
or four cards and two turns. Don’t forget, you
need to get the correct pieces at the correct time; when
you’re ripping through your deck with Professor
Sycamore or have your draws off of Shaymin-EX
(XY: Roaring Skies 77/108, 106/108) hampered
because you need Rare Candy but have a
Charizard stuck in hand. Charizard has 150
HP, 10 shy of the maximum seen on Stage 2 Pokémon, and
it gives Charizard a reasonable chance of
surviving a hit. Except of course against Water
Types as Charizard is Water Weak; the HP is
enough that it will still take a fairly serious attack
for a OHKO, but the more prominent Water Type attackers
either can manage it or are used for their
effects (and still score a KO a turn sooner). Charizard
has Fighting Resistance, which is very much appreciated,
an effective 170 HP against OHKO’s by Fighting Types is
nice… when it matters. The chunky Retreat Cost of
[CCC] means you’ll need to run some support to help it
out of the Active slot or allow it to tank.
Charizard
has the Ability “Energy Burn” which causes all Energy
attached to Charizard to count as [R] instead of
their usual Type. It’s attack is “Fire Spin” which
requires [RRRR]; Fire Spin does 200 damage and discards
three Energy attached to Charizard itself.
I often go back and forth over whether this combo is a
failed attempt at beefing up Charizard or a
subtle bit of nerfing. How so? The entire
point of the Ability is so that instead of the steep
[RRRR] Energy cost for Fire Spin, it effectively has a
cost of [CCCC]. Unless of course Abilities aren’t
working. As Charizard does not need any
other Energy Types, the attack cost is what it is, the
Ability is likely vital, allowing you to fuel
Charizard with cards like Double Colorless Energy.
Fire Spin hits hard, but not hard enough to guarantee
OHKOs against Wailord-EX, most Mega Evolutions,
and typical Pokémon-EX beatsticks boosted with a
Fighting Fury Belt. With that triple Energy
discard to use Fire Spin, yeah I want it to be a
guaranteed OHKO. Still ignoring protective effects
and HP buffs, everything other than Mega Evolutions and
Wailord-EX are in OHKO range, so it isn’t all
bad. With a clever enough combo, you might get
what you pay for out of Charizard.
Now it is time to
look at our options for this Evolution line. For
Charmander we have BW: Boundaries Crossed
18/149 (re-released with new art as BW: Legendary
Treasures 17/113), Generations RC3/RC32, and
XY: Evolutions 9/108; for Charmeleon we
have BW: Boundaries Crossed 19/149 (re-released
with new art as BW: Legendary Treasures 18/113),
Generations RC4/RC32, and XY: Evolutions
10/108; finally the other Charizard are BW:
Boundaries Crossed 20/149 (re-released with new art
as BW: Plasma Storm 136/135 and BW: Legendary
Treasures 19/113), and Generations RC5/RC32.
All are Fire Type Pokémon with Water Weakness, no
Resistance, no Ability, and no Ancient Trait, while all
but Charmander (Generations RC3/RC32) have
two attacks (it only has one). All Charmander
are Basic Pokémon, and all but XY: Evolutions
9/108 have 70 HP with Retreat Cost [CC] (it has 60 HP
with Retreat Cost [C]). BW: Boundaries Crossed
18/149 can use “Draw In” for [R], allowing you to attach
two [R] Energy from your discard pile to itself.
For [RC] it can also use “Flare” to do 20 damage.
It is the only Charmander to ever receive a CotD
review (here),
and it (and its reprints) are only Expanded legal.
Attaching Energy to a small Active is not as impressive
as it appears at a glance. Generations RC3/RC32
can use “Playful” for [RC] to flip a coin; “tails” does
nothing while “heads” means the attack does 20 damage
for each damage counter on itself. Doing damage
based on how injured a 70 HP Pokémon is and
requiring a flip is as bad as it sounds. XY:
Evolutions 9/108 can use “Scratch” for [C] to do 10
damage or for [RC] use “Ember” to do 30 damage but it
also has to discard an [R] Energy from itself.
These are vanilla, filler attacks.
All Charmeleon
are Stage 1 Pokémon, and all but XY: Evolutions
10/108 have 90 HP with Retreat Cost [CC] (it has 80 HP
and Retreat Cost [C]). BW: Boundaries Crossed
19/149 can use Flare to do 20 damage but this time only
costs [R], while for [RCC] it can use 50 damage plus 10
damage for each damage counter on itself. The
attacks are decent, but as Charmeleon is probably
getting OHKO’d if left Active, you can’t make good use
of them. Also it is only legal for Expanded play.
Generations RC4/RC32 can use “Call for
Supporter” at a cost of [C] to add a Supporter to your
hand from your deck. For [RRC] it can use “Slash”
to do 80 damage. Again, we have some decent
attacks; while this Charmeleon (like the the
previous) is likely to be OHKO’d if it is left Active,
if you’re desperate for a Supporter or just need 80
damage to finish something off, it can do the job. XY:
Evolutions 10/108 also has Slash, but for [CCC] it
does 50, while for [RRC] it can use “Flamethrower” to do
90 damage, but you have to discard an [R] Energy from
itself if. Slash is vanilla filler unless
you need to attack and are running all or mostly
non-Fire Energy, while Flamethrower is a little
underpowered but three-for-90 is still handy in a pinch.
None of these have been reviewed before, in fact
no Charmeleon has ever received a CotD; somewhat
understandable given that the-powers-that-be usually
don’t give us much reason to look at Evolving Pokémon,
but it is a shame as frankly I like the design of
Charmeleon better than either Charmander or Charizard,
though I’m not completely sure why.
Speaking of
Charizard, both of our other options are Stage 2
Pokémon with 160 HP and Retreat Cost [CCC]. For
[RCC] BW: Boundaries Crossed 20/149 can use
“Split Bomb” to hit two of your opponent’s Pokémon each
for 40 damage (no Weakness/Resistance if a target is on
the Bench); that means you’ll usually net 80-for-three
which is decent. For [RRCCC] it can use “Scorching
Fire” to do 150 damage, but it also has to discard an
[R] Energy from itself. This is definitely an
overpriced attack, it requires help to hit key HP
amounts like 170 or 180 HP. It was reviewed
here
and
here;
I didn’t weigh in on those occasions and I would have
scored it more like Baby Mario… and I would have been
wrong about it like Baby Mario was as well. I
really wanted a useful Charizard, and while its damage
output was better back then, even with modern Energy
acceleration the big attack is too expensive for what it
does, and Split Bomb is not enough to carry a
Stage 2 line. It is legal only in the Expanded
format. Generations RC5/RC32 has the attack
“Recall” for [C], which allows it to select an attack
from one of its lower Stages and use it as the
effect/damage of Recall. That is a useful trick;
Charmander (BW: Boundaries Crossed 18/149)
and Charmander (Generations RC3/RC32)
become a bit more useful if their attacks are slapped
onto a Stage 2 large enough to maybe take a hit, while I
already liked at least one attack on each Charmeleon,
with some going from “okay” to “good” once a Stage 2
with 160 HP is using them for [C]. Generations
RC5/RC32 also has “Combustion Blast” for [RRCC] to do
130 damage, and it cannot use Combustion Blast on the
next turn. Another overpriced or underpowered
attack, but Recall actually might be enough to
carry the entire line, or at least enough that using it
every other turn in conjunction with Combustion Blast
might work. It was reviewed
here.
So, what do all of
those mean to Charizard (XY: Evolutions
11/108)? The only real competition is Charizard
(Generations RC5/RC32), but it is possible to run
the two together as well. Interestingly both
could eschew [R] Energy due to Energy Burn or Recall.
You can either use Generations RC5/RC32 to back
up XY: Evolutions 11/108 or XY: Evolutions
11/108 to back up Generations RC5/RC32; in both
cases I am thinking Double Colorless Energy is
included to help with Fire Spin and Combustion Blast. Blacksmith
might be handy for Expanded play but remember
that it will take Blacksmith and a Double
Colorless Energy from hand will only fuel it all in
a single turn, and Charizard will be down to just
[R] attached. While Stage 2 Energy acceleration
options are no good, you might consider certain Stage 1
cards like Eelektrik (BW: Noble Victories
40/101) or Bronzong (XY: Phantom Forces
61/119; XY: Black Star Promos XY21) as
Charizard’s “Energy Burn” would allow you to use other
Energy Types. Burning Energy might be tempting
to help with the discard costs as well or instead, but
without a means of attaching multiple in a turn, you
still need another form of Energy acceleration to get
attacking, and if you are too slow building Charizard
won’t get to attack more than once (if at all),
defeating the purpose of a Special Energy which
reattaches when it is discarded for an attack. Charizard
is probably only worth a “fun” deck in Standard or
Expanded play. Just maybe in Expanded you
could get something almost competitive up and running.
In Limited play it can be a nice finisher, with its
lower Stages solid enough because they too are somewhat
splashable.
So you know
this card has a history. The entire Charizard
line in XY: Evolutions are updates of the entire
Charizard evolution line from the original
Base Set. Charizard, unlike some of the
other cards this set, has been updated multiple times
already. So it began with the original,
Charizard (Base Set 4/102). Differences
between it and Charizard (XY: Evolutions
11/108) are that the original has 120 HP and the effects
work a bit different. 120 HP was the maximum for
anything at the time this Charizard
originally released, but that might be an unfair
comparison given we didn’t have things like Pokémon-EX,
Mega Evolutions, etc. Still restricting the
comparison to just “regular” Basic, Stage 1, and Stage 2
Pokémon, Base Set 4/102 was at their maximum
possible HP while XY: Evolutions 11/108 is 10
above the largest Basic, 50 below the largest Stage 1,
and 10 below the largest Stage 2. Of course, if we
leave out Wailord (BW: Dragons Exalted
26/124) the Charizard is tied with the largest of
the other Stage 1. So looks like 150 isn’t bad,
but I really expected it to be 160 like the other
contemporary Charizard.
Energy Burn was
originally a Pokémon Power, a mechanic similar to
Abilities but which is functionally different when card
effects interact. Pokémon Powers can be shut down
by Special Conditions, though that term would come about
later; when Base Set 4/102 first released it was
only Confusion, Paralysis, and Sleep that would turn off
Energy Burn. The original Energy Burn was also an
activated effect, with attached Energy becoming [R] Type
until the end of your turn. Fire Spin still cost
[RRRR] to use, but there were three major difference:
100 damage instead of 200, you discarding two Energy
cards (instead of three Energy), and the Energy
discard was required to use the attack (as
opposed to be an effect). 100 damage actually scales
reasonably well to modern cards, including
Pokémon-EX. Back then 100 damage was 20 less than
the maximum printed HP score, or 5/6th (approximately
83%) of it. While 200 is 50 less than the current
max printed HP, it is still 5/6th of the current max
printed HP. Discarding two Energy cards sounds
like less than three Energy, but it depends on the card
pool; both requirements would mean a Charizard
with just two Double Colorless Energy attached
would have to discard both. Boost Energy is a
Special Energy card that would come out a few years
later (and periodically pop back into the card pool); it
had multiple drawbacks but could provide a “triple
Colorless Energy” for Charizard. Today’s
Charizard could just discard Boost Energy to
meet its costs, but the original would still require
another Energy card. Requiring the discard
cost to use the attack mean you paid before doing
things like checking for Confusion, and made certain
attack copying effects confusing. That is because
some could ignore not only Energy costs to use, but any
other requirements “In order to…” use the attack.
With this wording, said copying attacks could ignore the
discard cost of Fire Spin.
We aren’t done yet
though as Charizard was also released as Base
Set 2 4/130, Legendary Collection 3/110, and
DP: Stormfront 103/100. The Base Set 2
printing changed nothing game relevant. Legendary
Collection 3/110 specifies “Special Conditions”
(which includes Burn and Poison) instead of just
Confusion, Poison, and Sleep, though I believe by this
time it was ruled to play cards with the old wording as
if they read “Special Conditions” so that wasn’t too big
of a deal. Fire Spin was reworded so that the
Energy discard wasn’t a cost; if you could discard the
Energy the wording still requires it, but if you somehow
copied the attack but could not meet the full Energy
discard requirement, the attack would simply do nothing.
DP: Stormfront 103/100 changed “Energy Burn”
into a Poké-Body. Poké-Bodies are a subdivision of
Pokémon Powers; an effect that applies to Pokémon Powers
works on Poké-Bodies, but an effect that exclusively
affects Poké-Bodies would not affect Pokémon Powers.
The other half of this division were Poké-Powers; again
anything that worked on Pokémon Powers would work on
Poké-Powers, but something that specified Poké-Powers
wouldn’t work on Pokémon Powers. Because Poké-Bodies
plus Poké-Powers equals Pokémon Powers, affects that
stated they worked on both Poké-Bodies and Poké-Powers
would also work on Pokémon Powers. As a
Poké-Body, Energy Burn no longer worried about
Special Conditions and worked all the time; so it
works just like the Ability version, save not actually
counting as an Ability. The text on Fire Spin was
also simplified to the attack just discarding two
Energy. This meant a single Double Colorless
Energy could now pay for the discard cost, and also
that if something copied the attack without having two
Energy attached to discard, it would still do the 100
damage.
Ratings
Standard:
2/5
Expanded:
2.25/5
Limited:
3.5/5
Summary:
The latest iteration of the iconic Energy Burn/Fire Spin
Charizard brings a nice, big hit but fueling its
Fires is the real issue. There are many options,
but those that could cover the cost alone take up so
much deck space that it precludes running them alongside
Charizard. Possibly in Expanded you could
get something up and running, though it is a bit irksome
that for the effort you then also need an additional
boost (like Giovanni’s Scheme plus Muscle Band)
to threaten nearly everything with a OHKO… instead of
just threatening everything with a OHKO.
I find it somewhat
interesting that M Charizard-EX (XY: Flashfire
13/106, 107/106; XY: Evolutions 13/108, 101/108)
and M Charizard-EX (XY: Flashfire 69/106,
108/106) have the opposite problem of doing more damage
than they likely need, while today’s Charizard
falls just a little short of “all but guaranteed OHKO”
territory. Don’t forget about Charizard (XY:
Evolutions 11/108), but unless we see something like
a reprint of Boost Energy, I am not expecting
much out of it.
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