One of the most fun parts of the Pokémon TCG is building a deck featuring a Pokémon you really enjoy and making it shine, so this time we have a deck featuring one of the most popular Pokémon of all. Charizard from Sun & Moon—Team Up may not be a Pokémon-GX, but with a strong attack and Ability to make sure it can keep the offense burning, this version of the Flame Pokémon can be the core of a powerful deck all its own.

Charizard’s Continuous Blaze Ball attack requires you to discard all of its attached Fire Energy, but it does a bonus 50 damage for each card you discard in this way. You can help power up Charizard with its Roaring Resolve Ability, which lets you search your deck for 2 Fire Energy cards and attach them to Charizard—at the cost of putting 2 damage counters on your star.

The powerful Fire-type Pokémon can both power itself up and attack for a lot of damage quickly, so it doesn’t need too much support from other Pokémon to trade blows effectively. Instead, it’s important to fill your deck with lots of cards to help Charizard enter the battle.

• Charizard

Charizard

Pokémon

• 4

  Charizard

  14/181

  sm9 14
• 1

  Charmeleon

  13/181

  sm9 13
• 4

  Charmander

  12/181

  sm9 12
• 2

  Jirachi

  99/181

  sm9 99
• 1

  Alolan Ninetales-GX

  132/214

  sm8 132
• 2

  Alolan Vulpix

  21/145

  sm2 21
• 1

  Flareon-GX

  SM171

  smp SM171
• 1

  Eevee

  101/149

  sm1 101
• 1

  Ditto ◇

  154/214

  sm8 154

Energy Cards

• 11

  Fire Energy

  nrg1 27

Trainer Cards

• 4

  Cynthia

  sm5 119
• 2

  Erika’s Hospitality

  sm9 140
• 2

  Guzma

  sm3 115
• 2

  Lillie

  sm1 122
• 4

  Rare Candy

  sm1 129
• 4

  Ultra Ball

  sm1 135
• 3

  Nest Ball

  sm1 123
• 2

  Choice Band

  sm2 121
• 2

  Energy Recycler

  sm2 123
• 2

  Escape Board

  sm5 122
• 2

  Switch

  sm1 132
• 1

  Rescue Stretcher

  sm2 130
• 1

  Heat Factory ◇

  sm8 178
• 1

  Shrine of Punishment

  sm7 143

More Info Copy Deck List ****** Pokémon Trading Card Game Deck List ****** Pokémon - 17 4 Charizard TEU 14 1 Charmeleon TEU 13 4 Charmander TEU 12 2 Jirachi TEU 99 1 Alolan Ninetales-GX LOT 132 2 Alolan Vulpix GRI 21 1 Flareon-GX PR-SM SM171 1 Eevee SUM 101 1 Ditto ◇ LOT 154 Trainer Cards - 32 4 Cynthia UPR 119 2 Erika’s Hospitality TEU 140 2 Guzma BUS 115 2 Lillie SUM 122 4 Rare Candy SUM 129 4 Ultra Ball SUM 135 3 Nest Ball SUM 123 2 Choice Band GRI 121 2 Energy Recycler GRI 123 2 Escape Board UPR 122 2 Switch SUM 132 1 Rescue Stretcher GRI 130 1 Heat Factory ◇ LOT 178 1 Shrine of Punishment CES 143 Energy - 11 11 Fire Energy Energy 2 Total Cards - 60 ****** Deck list generated on Pokemon.com ******

Deck Strategy: Outside of staple cards like Cynthia and Guzma, most of the cards in this deck center around helping get Charizard into play. You’ll ideally get a few Charmander on the board in your first turn with help from your Trainer cards, then evolve at least one into Charizard on your second turn with a Rare Candy and start firing away with Continuous Blaze Ball. Alolan Vulpix can be particularly helpful if you go second—it can use its free Beacon attack to find Charizard and Alolan Ninetales-GX, which sets you up to use Mysterious Guidance and find a Rare Candy on the next turn.

Key Cards: Decks that include Fire Energy can make use of the incredible Heat Factory Prism Star Stadium card, a great means of digging through your deck for the cards you need. Between it and Charizard’s attack, you’re likely to end up with a lot of Fire Energy in the discard pile. You can retrieve some of it with Energy Recycler, or use it to your advantage with Flareon-GX’s Power Burner-GX attack, which does 20 damage for each Fire Energy card in your discard pile. Choice Band and Shrine of Punishment can add some key damage if Power Burner-GX or Continuous Blaze Ball don’t deliver quite enough to score a Knock Out. And don’t forget you can attach extra Fire Energy to Charizard to increase the damage done by Continuous Blaze Ball.

Parting Shots: Charizard shows that you don’t have to be a Pokémon-GX to put damage on the board quickly, and since it only gives up one Prize card when it’s Knocked Out, it can be a tough matchup for many decks. Have fun playing around with this combustible Pokémon, and check back to Pokemon.co.uk/Strategy soon for more Pokémon TCG and video game tips.