Charizard ex – Obsidian Flames
Date Reviewed: August 12, 2023
Ratings Summary:
Standard: 3.0
Expanded: 3.5
Limited: 1.5
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Vince
Seems like time keeps moving while I was burned out, and now new cards from the Scarlet & Violet Obsidian Flames expansion just recently came out with lots of potential competitive cards! For today, one can’t get enough Charizards!
Looking at Charizard ex, though, I think it is somewhat capable of being an archetype of its own. Sure, it is a Stage 2 that takes a while to evolve, but it can be easily done with Rare Candy. Charizard ex is branded with a Dark typing due to Terasial phenomenon that also provides damage protection to itself while on the Bench. 330 HP is pretty beefy, with Grass Weakness not happening as often. That seems well and good as far as attributes, but also its the ability and an attack that gets some appeal.
The Infernal Reign ability states that when you play this Pokemon to evolve 1 of your Pokemon, you can search your deck for up to 3 Basic Fire energies and attach them to your Pokemon in any way you like. This is some serious energy acceleration, as using this ability means you’ve have easily fueled up Charizard ex’s only attack, Burning Darkness, or any other Pokemon with R or C attack costs.
Speaking of Burning Darkness, it seems adequate for the cost. 180 damage for RR, plus 30 more damage for each prize card your opponent has taken. 180 is at 2HKO territory early to mid-game, but if your opponent took five prizes, then Burning Darkness does 330 damage, which almost OHKOs anything, with Vitality Band securing the OHKO once and for all!
I used to run Leon’s Charizard as it can achieve high amounts of damage but having 4 Leon in the discard pile seems a bit hard to quickly do. Today’s Charizard ex doesn’t ask for much, so I could drop Leon’s Charizard for today’s card. Expanded has a bunch of Fire based support that getting Charizard ex in turn 3/4 might be far easier than Standard.
Ratings:
Standard: 3/5
Expanded: 3.5/5
Limited: 1.5/5
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