Charizard ex Pidgeot ex is crushing the Surging Sparks meta and has quickly reclaimed its throne as one of the best decks in Pokemon TCG. This deck heavily relies on playing Charizard ex as early as possible and from there, you can start attacking with Burning Darkness.
The list has Dusknoir and Radiant Charizard as alternate damage to back you up and close out games.
Charizard ex Pidgeot Decklist
Pokémon: 19
3 Charmander MEW 4
1 Charmeleon PAF 8
2 Charizard ex OBF 125
2 Duskull BRS 60
1 Dusclops SFA 19
1 Dusknoir SFA 20
2 Pidgey OBF 162
2 Pidgeot ex OBF 164
1 Cleffa OBF 80
1 Radiant Charizard CRZ 20
1 Lumineon V BRS 40
1 Rotom V LOR 58
1 Fezandipiti ex SFA 38
Trainer: 36
4 Arven OBF 186
2 Iono PAL 185
2 Boss's Orders PAL 172
1 Professor Turo's Scenario PAR 171
1 Briar SCR 132
1 Thorton LOR 167
4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
4 Rare Candy SVI 191
4 Ultra Ball SVI 196
4 Nest Ball SVI 181
2 Counter Catcher PAR 160
2 Super Rod PAL 188
1 Night Stretcher SFA 61
1 Unfair Stamp TWM 165
1 Defiance Band SVI 169
1 Forest Seal Stone SIT 156
1 Collapsed Stadium BRS 137
Energy: 5
5 Fire Energy SVE 10How to Play
This deck heavily relies on Charizard ex as its main win condition. However, since it is a Stage 2 Pokemon, you need to find all the right pieces to get your game plan kicking. The deck is heavy on card draws, like Pidgeot ex and Rotom V to find the cards you need as soon as possible.
Charizard ex isn’t your only source of damage, the list has Dusknoir and Radiant Charizard as other damage dealers to ensure you get the knockouts you need.
Main Damage Dealer
Charizard ex is the carry in this deck, and our main strategy is to have him in play as early as possible. We don’t have to worry about finding or attaching Basic Fire Energy on Charizard ex, since once in play Charizard ex can activate Infernal Reign ability to get the Fire Energy on him. Infernal Reign searches your deck for 3 Basic Fire Energy cards and lets you attach them to your Pokemon in any way you like.
We only need to attach 2 Basic Fire Energy on Charizard ex to start attacking with him, so don’t attach all 3 Energy cards on one Charizard ex. Charizard ex‘s Burning Darkness deals 180 damage, early in the game, that damage increases by 30 for every Prize card your opponent has taken.
So later in the game, Charizard ex‘s Burning Darkness will deal extra damage, capable of knocking out higher HP Pokemon. When the opponent grabs 4 Prize Cards, Burning Darkness deals 300 damage, enough to knock out most targets. This attack’s highest is 330 when your opponent has grabbed 5 Prize cards.
Charizard ex has high health. His 330 HP isn’t easy for opponents to knock out, and in most cases, they’ll need at least 2 attacks to deal with him.
Since Charizard ex is a Stage 2 Pokemon, we need to find the right pieces to have him in play. There are two methods to get Charizard ex on the board, Charmander being the key piece of both methods, so we want to have it in play as early as possible.
The first method is the old-fashioned way of evolving Charmander into Charmeleon and then evolving it into Charizard ex. This is the slower method and since we’re running only 1 copy of Charmeleon, we’re not heavily reliant on it. Instead, the main way we get our Charizard ex in play is through Rare Candy.
Rare Candy lets you evolve Charmander into Charizard ex immediately, bypassing the Charmeleon evolution. This speeds up your strategy by one turn, allowing you to attack earlier with Charizard ex and knock out your opponent’s Pokemon before they have the time to react.
Rare Candy isn’t on the list for just evolving Charmander into Charizard ex, but it’s also the only method to get Pidgeot ex in play and can be used for Dusknoir if need be.
Using Rare Candy, we can evolve Pidgey into Pidgeot ex and start activating the Quick Search ability to search our deck for any card we want and add it to our hand. Pidgeot ex has no retreat cost, so we can retreat it to the Bench whenever we want to get one of our attackers in place.
Alternate Damage
Dusknoir is in the list for his Cursed Blast ability, allowing you to put 13 damage counters on one of the opponent’s Pokemon. This lets you knock out a low-health Pokemon on the Bench or help you knock out an Active Pokemon with Charizard ex. However, activating Cursed Blast means you have to knock out Dusknoir in the process, giving your opponent a Prize card.
To get Dusknoir into play, you have to evolve Duskull to Dusclops and then evolve it to Dusknoir, or you can use Rare Candy to skip the Dusclops step and go directly from Duskull to Dusknoir.
Speaking of Dusclops, it has a weaker version of Cursed Blast ability, allowing you to put 5 damage counters on one of your opponent’s Pokemon before getting knocked out itself. This could come in useful if 50 damage is enough to knock out a target.
Radiant Charizard is usually the go-to Pokemon to win the game with Combustion Blast if we don’t have a Charizard ex in play. Combustion Blast deals 250 damage, enough to threaten a knockout on most Pokemon you’ll face. The 5 Energy cost on Combustion Blast is not an attack we can use in the early or mid-game. We’re reliant on Excited Heart ability, lowering the attack cost by 1 Colorless Energy for every Prize Card your opponent has taken. So once the opponent has taken 4 Prize cards, Radiant Charizard only needs 1 Basic Fire Energy to activate Combustion Blast.
Damage Boost
Defiance Band is a tool to boost the Pokemon’s damage. It’ll only activate when you have more Prize cards remaining than your opponent, boosting your attack by 30 damage. This helps you get a knockout on higher health Pokemon, especially in the late game when you’re reliant on Radiant Charizard to finish the game.
Draw Pokemon
Cleffa‘s Grasping Draw lets you draw cards until you have 7 cards in your hand. To activate Grasping Draw, Cleffa needs to be in the Active spot and make sure you’ve played as many cards as you can to get more value out of Grasping Draw. Cleffa has no retreat cost, so you can retreat her back to the Bench if possible before opponent knocks her out.
Fezandipti ex can sit on the bench and watch over your Active Pokémon, ready to use its Flip the Script ability when one of your Pokémon is knocked out, allowing you to draw three cards. Fezandipti ex doesn’t need to be on the bench when the knockout happens—you can play it from your hand afterward and still activate Flip the Script to draw cards.
Lumineon V played on the Bench allows you to activate Luminous Sign to search your deck for a Supporter card and draw it. So you can draw cards like Arven.
Rotom V is your strongest draw engine with its Instant Charge ability, letting you draw three cards when activated. However, you will have to pass the turn when activated, so it’s best used in the early game before you have Charizard ex online.
Draw Value
Arven is one of your strongest Supporter cards, letting you search your deck for an Item card and a Pokemon Tool card. So we’re guaranteed to find what we need unless they’re in the Prize cards. It’s also a method to draw your Pokemon Tool cards like Forest Seal Stone.
As for Iono, both players will shuffle their hand and draw cards equal to the number of Prize cards they have left. So you could ruin opponent’s plans if you shuffle important cards back into their deck. You’re also replenishing your hand, ideally, you want to play as many cards as possible before you use Iono.
Forest Seal Stone is a tool to attach to your Pokemon V (Rotom V and Lumineon V) to activate the VSTAR Power. Activating Star Alchemy ability lets you search your deck for a card and put it in your hand, helping you find the right pieces for your strategy. VSTAR Power can be activated once per game, so you get to draw 1 card from it.
Unfair Stamp can only be activated if any of your Pokemon were Knocked Out during your opponent’s last turn. Each player shuffles their hand into their deck. Then, you draw 5 cards, and your opponent draws 2 cards. This is a huge resource value card that can cut down on the opponent’s resources and potentially ruin their upcoming turn.
Discard Value
Super Rod can get back 3 cards in any combination of Pokemon and Basic Energy from your discard pile and place them in the deck. This lets you get access to cards you need for your strategy that have ended up in the discard pile.
Night Stetcher plays the same role, but you get to bring back only 1 card, which you get to add directly into your hand instead of your deck.
Thorton is one way to get Charizard ex in play if you’re missing a Charmander. Through Thorton, you can get Charmander from the Discard pile, have it in play, and immediately evolve it into Charizard ex with a Rare Candy without having to wait a full turn
Preventing Prize Cards
Collapsed Stadium and Professor’s Research let you remove Pokemon from play and prevent opponents from getting the knockout. This is exceptionally useful when your opponent is about to knock out a Pokemon that gives 2 Prize cards.
Collapsed Stadium is also great against Tera-type Pokemon like Terapagos ex that rely on the number of Benched Pokemon to increase the damage of their attacks.
Battle Cards
Briar can be a game finisher, played when your opponent has exactly 2 Prize cards remaining. If you Knock Out an opponent’s Pokemon using Charizard or Radiant Charizard, you get 1 more Prize card. This is useful when the opponent has an Active Pokemon that gives only 1 Prize card, allowing you to win the game on the spot.
You can also use cards like Boss’s Order or Counter Catcher to move a low-health Pokemon to the Active spot. This makes it easier for you to get a Knock Out over a high-health Pokemon, and although you’re only getting 1 Prize card, Briar ensures you get that extra Prize card to win the game.
Other Cards to Include
- Canceling Cologne is a meta choice to remove the abilities of the opponent’s Active Pokemon for one turn. This is usually useful to counter Stall Pokemon that prevent your Pokemon from attacking.
- Pokestop is a great value engine with a discard mechanic. It discards the top 3 cards in your deck and adds the Items cards you’ve just discarded to your hand.
- Pal Pad is an option if you want to shuffle Supper cards from your discard pile into your deck to draw and add to your hand.
