Charizard ex / Moltres ex

Depending on your vantage point, there are those who would argue it’s Charizard that may have a slight edge on every other deck out there at the moment. While it takes some time to get online, and once again relies on coin-flip energy accrual, the ex variant of Charizard guarantees a one-hit kill on everything, and can start attacking as early as three energy. It’s also just a lot of fun for any old Pokéheads out there for whom a holographic Charizard was the de facto all-star of the trading card game’s early years.

Advantages

Strongest attack in the game

Simple strategy

Edges out every other ex card in an equal race

Disadvantages

Takes a while to come online

At the mercy of Moltres Inferno Dance coin flips

Cards

There are two options for the Charizard ex deck. One is to focus just on Charizard and Moltres and fill up on items to insulate you in the early game. The other is to swap in Ponyta and Rapidash for Red Cards and Sabrina to give you more flexibility and early game options.

Charizard ex x2

Charmeleon x2

Charmander x2

Moltres ex x2

Potion x2

X Speed x2

Poké Ball x2

Professor’s Research x2

Sabrina x2

Red Card x2

How to play the deck

The number one goal is to get Moltres ex out as soon as possible, with a Charmander on the bench, and start loading the latter up with fire energy. From there, all you need is to evolve it to Charizard in a timely manner and start unloading Crimson Storm attacks for 200 damage each.

If you don’t luck out with the coin tosses, or it’s taking longer than desired to get Charizard up and running, your best bet is buying time with item cards and making sure Charizard has at least five energy before bringing him out to fight. That way, he can use back-to-back Crimson Storms. And at 180 HP, it’s very likely he’ll be able to at least get both off before getting killed.

Red Cards and Sabrinas, meanwhile, should help you disrupt your opponent’s flow to buy you time to bring Charizard online and prevent them getting a Starmie ex, Mewtoo ex, or Pikachu ex into position and loaded up with energy first. An extra 10 damage from Giovanni will be useless in most cases, which is why that card isn’t in the deck.