If you have been playing Pokémon for a bit, you must be familiar with Charizard ex. Even if when it was first released it didn’t seem as powerful as other decks that were available in the Standard format, Charizard has clearly evolved since then. Right now, it is not the most solid deck in the metagame but, sometimes, it looks like it is almost impossible to beat. So that is why in today’s article we are going to be talking about what types of strategies you can consider if you had enough of facing so many Charizard mirror matches!

The most powerful 60 cards in the game

For those of you that are new to Pokémon TCG, let us start by talking a little bit about how Charizard works and why it is so powerful. Released in Paldean Fates, Charizard ex is a Darkness-type Pokémon that becomes stronger every time your opponent takes a prize. The idea of the deck is to set up a decent number of Charmanders in the first turns of the game to then turn them into powerful Charizards with the help of Rare Candy. Once that happens, you don’t need to worry about anything else. Charizard has an insane HP, a great typing and the capability to do a lot of damage, being able to finish everything in one hit as the game progresses. In order to keep consistency and find the cards you need, Charizard is often played with either Bibarel or Pidgeot. Sometimes, even both.

There is no doubt that the 60 cards to beat are the ones that Tord Reklev, one of the biggest players in the history of the game, used to win EUIC (the European International Championships) 2024. This is what Tord’s list looked like:

Overall, I think this is the most consistent a Charizard deck can get. It has a lot of great set up options with Cleffa, drawing power with the combination of Pidgeot and Bibarel and is prepared to deal with a lot of different types of decks. For example, Stall, which is normally a bad match, you can really get over of with several copies of Professor Turo.

In case you are wondering if this deck is really that powerful, don’t think twice. You might want to change a card or two depending on your local meta, but it has proved to be a really solid list that many players are now playing in the Regionals.

To nobody’s surprise, the metagame right now is filled with mirror matches and people are a bit frustrated because they just want to play something different. Being such a budget-friendly deck, it is normal that players are really choosing it. Well, the problem here is that, unlike what happened with Mew VMAX, we don’t have a direct counter so we need to play strategies that can, more or less, perform well against Charizard.

Lugia VSTAR

This is the deck I ran at EUIC as I was expecting a lot of Charizard (found none in the end) and from my testing, it was a pretty decent matchup. Not an auto-win per se just because Lugia literally can’t set up like 1/3 of the time due to unplayable hands but once the Archeops hit the field, Lugia literally flies. It puts Charizard under a lot of pressure and can very easily target down Lumineon and Rotom, which are the Pokémon that allow Charizard to properly work.

But in reality what really makes the difference here is Cinccino, a very powerful Pokémon that can deal with Charizard in just one hit! Yes, you heard that right. This little friend “only” needs five energies to reach 350 damage, which can be easily fulfilled in just one turn with a manual attachment and double Archeops ability. Having to waste so many resources in dealing with one-prizer Pokémon is something Charizard can’t really afford. In the end, with so many Boss Orders in the deck, Lugia can just take the win by targeting a two-prizer on the bench. Also, one thing worth mentioning is that Lugia is practically immune to Charizard’s disruption via Ionos because of Gift Energy.

Giratina VSTAR

If I really wanted to secure my win against Charizard, I think Giratina is definitely a deck I will pick. Contrary to what you might believe, you don’t want to take a quick lead and make the opponent’s Charizard bigger than they already are. Your focus should always be on setting up and getting to the moment where you have 2 Giratina VSTAR in play. If you are able to do so, then you should be theoretically very well equipped to deal with Charizards ex, one with Giratina’s VSTAR power (that will send Charizard to the Shadow Real, just like in Yugioh!) and then with Iron Leaves Ex. And in case you haven’t won the game yet, you can always use Super Rod and power Iron Leaves once again.

GARDEVOIR

I know you might be thinking that this makes absolutely no sense and I understand why you would consider that a deck based on psychic-type attackers is literally an autowin for Charizard. I am not saying that Gardevour can always destroy Charizard but if things go in their favor, it is certainly possible. The card under the sleeve that Gardevoir plays is, simply, trading better and getting ahead of the prize race.

It really depends on who goes first and gets to set down better. In this match up, both decks are going to want to go second. If Gardevoir is able to get access to the TM Machine Evolution, it can start bringing Kirlia to the field, which then can turn out into Gardevoir ex as soon as in the second turn. When that happens, Charizard is forced to invest resources and attackers to get rid of the likes of Scream Tail, which is not a very appealing trade. In the end, if Gardevoir is able to disrupt Charizard well enough thanks to their Ionos, a well-timed Drifloon with a Hero’s cape can seal the game by dealing more than 350 damage.

ESPATRHA

I think this deck is the closest to a “counter” Charizard has just because Espathra is a grass-type Pokémon and can hit for weakness. The problem I personally have with this deck is that I feel it has very polarized matchups across the board but, technically, when it sets up, it can really do wonders against Charizard.

To start with, it forces Charizard to attach more energies than usual and then, in case Charizard has 3 energies, Espathra can deal 300 damage for just one energy. Of course, you are always to have quite a number of energies attached to Espartha because of Xatu so the 1HKO is a possibility.. 

CONTROL

I decided to include this deck here because a lot of people think that Control literally eats Charizard for breakfast and data seems to back that up. However, there is something I want to clarify: control is not an easy deck to pilot and has a tendency of bricking from time to time, given the chance that an experienced Charizard player needs. Also, if the Charizard player is properly teched against control, it might not go so much in Control’s favor.

Having said that, Control is a very straightforward strategy that aims to trap something in the active spot until the moment your opponent runs out of resources. In theory, it has a favorable matchup against Charizard because their ex Pokemon are never going to do tons of damage and Mimikyu is really a pain if they make the mistake of evolving all their Charmanders. The only issue with control is what I said - sometimes its draw power and consistency can be a bit underwhelming, not to mention that it is very mentally exhausting to play for 9 rounds non-stop!  

To conclude, I want to point out that not every deck listed here is going to guarantee you an easy win against Charizard. Remember that if Charizard is the undisputed Tier 1, it is because of a number of reasons. If at some point Pokémon decided to release a good and generic Grass Pokémon, everything would be very different but until that moment, I hope the article has given you some ideas on what to play. And well, you know the saying, if even with all that you can not beat Charizard… join them?