Hello. In this Pokemon TCG I cover the announcement of a very good upcoming product. It is the Charizard ex League Battle Deck.
It seems that the Pokemon Company really likes selling Charizard related products. They keep pushing Charizard ex in different ways. The first version was in Obsidian Flames, another version was from Paldean Fates and then there were Charizard ex promos in various boxes, tins and other retail products. They print more Charizard ex cards in this retail product.
Let's take a look at this thing.
Product
An exciting Charizard ex League Battle Deck is to be released on November 15, 2024. The retail price is 29.99 USD. For Canada, the price could be 29.99 CAD or maybe 32.99 CAD.
The featured cards that you can get are 3 copies of Charizard ex, two copies of Pidgeot ex and one copy of Prime Catcher (ACE SPEC). These cards are very good and the price of the deck is worth more than the price of these cards alone as of late September 2024.
The price of one Charizard ex is around 5 CAD in Toronto area. One copy of Pidgeot ex is around 20 CAD plus or minus a few dollars plus they may be hard to find. The ACE SPEC item card Prime Catcher is one of the best ACE SPEC cards in the Stellar Crown format. Prime Catcher's price is something like 35 CAD. It used to be 50 CAD after the release of Temporal Forces back in March/April 2024. Even though the release of this retail product will increase the supply and bring the prices of these cards, it is still worth buying this retail deck to get many good cards. If you don't plan to play Charizard you can still get tons of good cards here.
Decklist
The back image of this deck retail product shows the decklist.
Pokemon (20)
- x3 Charizard ex
- x3 Charmeleon
- x4 Charmander (70 HP with Blazing Destruction Attack)
- x2 Pidgeot ex
- x2 Pidgeotto
- x3 Pidgey (50 HP with Call For Family attack)
- x3 Moltres (Which version?)
Trainer Cards (30)
- x4 Iono
- x2 Arven
- x2 Boss's Orders (Ghetsis)
- x2 Professor's Research (Professor Sada)
- x2 Artazon
- x4 Buddy Buddy Poffin
- x4 Rare Candy
- x4 Ultra Ball
- x1 Prime Catcher (ACE SPEC)
- x1 Super Rod
- x1 Switch
- x2 Technical Machine: Evolution
- x1 Defiance Band
Energy Cards (10)
- x10 Basic Fire Energy
The Good Cards
This Level 3 Battle deck might be the best since the Mew VMAX Level 3 Battle Deck. There are a lot of good cards in this product and some super premium cards that are either hard to find or costly.
Charizard ex Featured Card
Charizard ex is a Stage 2 Tera Pokemon of the Dark type. It has 330 HP, two retreat cost and Grass Weakness. The ability provides major Fire Energy acceleration in the form of 3 Fire Energy from the deck to any of your Pokemon in play.
Charizard's attack has a base damage of 180. It does 30 more damage for each Prize card your opponent has taken. This attack grows larger in the later game as you can hit for 300 if the opponent has taken 5 Prize Cards and is 1 Prize card away from winning.
Pidgeot ex As Strong Support
Pidgeot ex is very powerful supporting Pokemon that is a staple in Stage 2 Evolution decks and in some non Stage 2 decks. The Quick Search ability from Pidgeot ex is pretty broken. Once during your turn you can use Quick Search once to search for any card in your deck and put it into your hand. No drawback other than you cannot more than one Quick Search ability per turn. One popular use case for Quick Search is searching for Boss's Orders for one hit knockouts with Charizard ex in the late game.
The attack on Pidgeot ex is seldom used but it can come in handy if you need to remove a stadium in play. Its ability is the key selling point here.
ACE SPEC Prime Catcher
The Pokemon Company made a bold choice in providing the ACE SPEC card Prime Catcher in a retail product. Some may say that Prime Catcher is the best ACE SPEC card as it combines the Item card Switch and the Supporter card Boss's Orders all in one Item card.
You could argue that this retail product is worth the price of this card alone.
Arven
As of late Arven has been very popular in all decks I think. With Arven you can search for one item card and one Tool card from your deck. The price of Arven used to be 50 cents to 1 CAD. In the Toronto area Arven is around 2.50 CAD or 3 CAD and they can be hard to find. Getting two copies of Arven in the product is good.
Buddy Buddy Poffin
Buddy Buddy Poffin is pretty much a staple card in evolution decks that rely on 70 HP or less Basic Pokemon. In September 2024, one copy of this card is around 3 CAD. Getting four copies of this card is very good for new players and experienced players alike.
Cards To Remove
The 3 Charmeleons provided in the box are good but the third is not really needed. You may go as far as going with 1 Charmeleon.
Three Pidgeys is a bit much. Remove the third Pidgey and try to find the 60 HP Pidgeys. Duskull and Dusclops are popular in the Shrouded Fable/Stellar Crown format.
I don't which Moltres is in the deck but remove all 3.
The second Technical Machine: Evolution can be removed.
I am not sure about the Artazon stadium. Maybe have one instead of two.
One of two Pidgeottos can be removed. You could remove both if you want.
Ten Fire Energy seems to be a bit much. Seven could be okay.
What To Add
A second copy of Super Rod is good to recycle Fire Energy into the deck.
One or two copies of Rotom V is good for drawing 3 cards when you don't plan to attack.
One Forest Seal Stone is good with the Rotom V for its VSTAR ability. It allows to search for any card in your deck once per game.
A copy of Briar from Stellar Crown could be okay. If the opponent is on two prize cards then you can get one more Prize card if you knock out an opponent's Pokemon with a Tera Pokemon (Charizard ex in this case).
One Manaphy could be good to prevent Bench snipe attacks.
What is popular from Shrouded Fable is Duskull, Dusclops and Dusknoir. You can run a 1-1-1 line here.
One Counter Catcher could be good here.
Radiant Charizard is a strong single prize attacker in the late game as the opponent gets more Prize cards.
Something like Three Nest Balls are good for searching for Rotom V, Radiant Charizard or more Charmanders and Pidgeys.
Lumineon V is an option for searching for a Supporter from deck.
Fezandipiti ex from Shrouded Fable looks like a new staple card for many decks. Draw 3 cards once during your turn if one of your Pokemon were knocked out on the opponent's last turn.
Those are some of my ideas. For more Charizard ex deck ideas you can go to the Limitless TCG site or this Pokecabook link. Note that the Japanese site Pokecabook are ahead on the Paradise Dragona format while the International English people have the latest Stellar Crown format.