Charizard ex is a Pokémon Trading Card Gamedeck archetype that was mainly played in the 2023-24, 2024-25, and 2025-26 seasons of the Standard format. The deck's strategy revolves around Charizard ex and its ability to quickly distribute Energy onto the player's board thanks to its "Infernal Reign" Ability, allowing it to deal large amounts of damage early in the game.
Charizard ex was a strong archetype upon release, finishing first in the 2023 San Antonio Regionals and 2024 European International Championships, and being the most used deck archetype in Day 2 of the 2023 Peoria and San Antonio regionals. As of May 1, 2024, Charizard ex is the most used deck archetype in the 2024-25 Standard format.
Charizard ex decks focus on punishing decks that take multiple turns to set up, hoping to overwhelm teams with powerful attacks as early as turn two. This deck's goal is to set up a Charizard ex as quickly as possible, using its "Infernal Reign" Ability upon Evolution to be able to attach the Energy needed so it can deal 180 damage as early as the second turn. In order to get Charizard ex evolved as early as turn 2, Item cards like Battle VIP Pass and Level Ball are used to get Charmander on the bench, and Arven can be used to grab either a Rare Candy or Ultra Ball in order to evolve. Supporting Charizard ex is Pidgeot ex, whose "Quick Search" Ability allows for the player to search their deck for any one card and put them into their hand, further improving consistency.
To further prevent the opponent from being able to set up their deck, cards such as Boss's Orders and Counter Catcher can bring the opponent's key Pokémon in the Active Spot to disrupt their set-up, and disruption cards like Iono can disrupt the opponent's hand. These disruption cards, combined with the threat of Charizard ex's powerful attack, places significant pressure on the opponent in the early game.
In the mid and late game, Pidgeot ex is a powerful engine due to its "Quick Search" Ability, helping prevent the deck from bricking while helping set up other Charizard ex on the Bench. As Charizard ex's "Burning Darkness" attack does increased damage the less Prize cards the opponent has remaining, Charizard ex remains a very threatening force in the mid to late game, dealing enough to OHKO many Pokémon V.
Upon the release of Dusclops and Dusknoir from the Shrouded Fable expansion, they quickly see play in many Charizard ex lists because of their "Cursed Blast" Ability, which lets them drop damage counters on 1 of the opponent's Pokémon at the cost of them being Knocked Out. This serves multiple purposes for the Charizard ex strategy: it weakens specific targets on the opponent's board for easier Knock Outs, and it forces the opponent to take a Prize card, activating cards like Counter Catcher that can only be used if the opponent is ahead on Prize cards and boosting the damage output for Charizard ex's "Burning Darkness" attack.
Charizard ex - The deck's primary attacker, Charizard ex's "Burning Darkness" attack deals 180 damage for only Energy, and deals 30 more damage for each Prize card the opponent has taken, making Charizard ex's attack even more powerful later on in the game. Additionally, its "Infernal Reign" Ability allows for three Energies to be attached to any Pokémon, helping accelerate Energy development. Charizard ex's type also grants it favorable matchups against Mew VMAX and Gardevoir ex, both of which are weak to it.
Pidgeot ex - "Quick Search" allows the player to search their deck for one card every turn and place it in their hand, greatly improving consistency by guaranteeing that the player can get a card of their choice every turn. Pidgey from Obsidian Flames is the most popular choice for the Basic Pokémon; Pidgey from 151 was also popular before the advent of the Dragapult ex archetype, which can easily Knock Out low-HP Benched Pokémon.
Charmeleon - Charmeleon from the Paldean Fates expansion has the "Flare Veil" Ability, which protects it from all effects of attacks, including ones that place damage counters such as Sableye in Lost Box archetypes.
Buddy-Buddy Poffin - Places two Basic Pokémon with 70 HP or less onto the Bench, useful on the first turn for guaranteeing a Charmander and Pidgey on the Bench to Rare Candy later. This card replaces Battle VIP Pass, which had rotated out of the Standard format as of the 2024-25 season.
Nest Ball - Useful for placing Basic Pokémon directly onto the bench, mainly ones that can't be searched using Buddy-Buddy Poffin such as Chi-Yu or Fezandipiti ex.
Rare Candy - This card is able to evolve Charmander, Pidgey, or Duskull directly into Charizard ex, Pidgeot ex, or Dusknoir respectively, as early as turn 2, which greatly speeds up deck development.
Ultra Ball - Helps guarantee that Charizard ex or Pidgeot ex will be in the hand in order to play Rare Candy, as well as grabbing other support Pokémon into the hand.
Super Rod - Allows the player to recycle Pokémon and Energy cards from their discard pile back into their deck.
Arven - Searches the deck for an Item card and a Pokémon Tool card, which is very useful in grabbing a Rare Candy along with a Pokémon Tool.
Briar - This card, which can only be used if the opponent has exactly 2 Prize cards remaining, lets the player take an additional Prize card on the turn the card is used if they Knock Out the opponent's Pokémon using an attack from their Tera Pokémon — namely, Charizard ex. Using Briar allows the player to take 3 Prize cards in a single turn by having their Charizard ex Knock Out their opponent's Pokémon ex. Briar can be easily searched using Pidgeot ex, and the opponent can be forced to have 2 Prize cards remaining by Dusclops or Dusknoir's "Cursed Blast" Ability.
Radiant Charizard - A powerful late-game card that can OHKO many Pokémon V as a single-Prize card attacker with its "Combustion Blast" attack.
Rotom V - It has the "Instant Charge" Ability, which lets the player draw 3 cards, adding more resources that the player can work with on later turns. While the Instant Charge Ability immediately ends the player's turn, this is not an issue in the first turn, as the player wouldn't be able to attack anyway. Both Rotom V and Lumineon V can also use Forest Seal Stone, which can be searched by Arven and lets the player use its VSTAR Power to search for any card they want.
Lumineon V - When placed from the player's hand onto the Bench, Lumineon V's "Luminous Sign" allows the user to search their deck for a Supporter card, helping to further add consistency.
Manaphy - Manaphy's "Wave Veil" Ability protects the Bench from the opponent's attacks, protecting frail Pokémon like Charmander and Pidgey.
Jirachi - Similar to Manaphy, Jirachi's "Stellar Veil" Ability protects the Bench from damage counters being placed as the result of a Basic Pokémon's attack, notably improving the deck against Sableye from the powerful Lost Box archetype.
Thorton - Allows the player to switch 1 of their Basic Pokémon in play with a Basic Pokémon in their discard pile. A common use of this card is to switch a non-attacking support Pokémon such as Rotom V into a more useful evolving Basic Pokémon such as Charmander or Duskull.
Collapsed Stadium - This card forces both players to discard Pokémon from their Bench until they both have 4 remaining. It can be used to remove the player's own Benched Rotom V or Lumineon V from play in the late game, to prevent the opponent from taking an easy Knock Out on either of them.
2023-24 Standard format
Mew - Mew's "Mysterious Tail" Ability allows the player to search for an Item card in the top 6 cards of the deck, which is useful for getting cards such as Rare Candy and Ultra Ball into the hand faster.
Battle VIP Pass - Places two Basic Pokémon onto the Bench on the first turn, useful for guaranteeing a Charmander and Pidgey on the Bench to Rare Candy later, as well as getting useful support Pokémon like Rotom V, Manaphy, and Jirachi.
Chi-Yu - Its "Megafire of Envy" attack does 140 damage if any of the player's Pokémon were Knocked Out during their opponent's last turn. This card is an efficient single prize attacker, being able to OHKO Pokémon ex like Gholdengo ex and Teal Mask Ogerpon ex for Weakness, and hit through walling cards like Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex.
Cleffa - On the first turn of the game going second, this card serves a similar purpose to Rotom V, drawing more cards with its Grasping Draw attack so that the player has more resources to work with on the next turn. Notably, unlike Rotom V, this card has a Retreat Cost of 0, and only gives up 1 Prize card when Knocked Out.
Munkidori - Its "Adrena-Brain" Ability lets the player move up to 30 damage from 1 of their own Pokémon onto 1 of the opponent's Pokémon. This allows the player to counter strategies that throw damage counters on the board like Dragapult ex or Gardevoir ex. Players using Munkidori will want to include Basic Darkness Energy and/or Luminous Energy to activate its Ability.
Pecharunt ex and Binding Mochi - Pecharunt ex's "Subjugating Chains" Ability allows the player to switch in their Charizard ex into the Active Spot for free, which helps against stalling strategies. The Ability does make the Active Charizard ex Poisoned; however, this can still be in the player's favor if they attach Binding Mochi to the Poisoned Charizard ex, which adds +40 to the attacks used by the Poisoned Pokémon it is attached to.
Switch/Escape Rope - Common switching cards that can help counter the effects of disruption cards such as Boss's Orders and Counter Catcher, as well as cards that prevent retreating such as Pokémon cards with the Corner attack. Note that Escape Rope is not legal in the Standard format as of the 2024-25 season.
Defiance Band - Useful for increasing Charizard ex's damage by 30 when behind in Prize cards.
Technical Machine: Evolution - Can be used to accelerate the Evolutions of Charmander, Pidgey, Duskull, Bidoof, etc. in the early game.
Professor Turo's Scenario - Can be used to return a damaged Pokémon ex to the hand without losing Prize cards, and if used on Charizard ex can allow for another use of Infernal Reign.
Jacq and/or Brock's Scouting - Additional Supporter cards that can search specific Pokémon from the deck. Jacq allows the player to search for up to 2 Evolution Pokémon, while Brock's Scouting lets the player search for either up to 2 Basic Pokémon or 1 Evolution Pokémon.
Artazon - Allows the player to Bench a Basic Pokémon without a Rule Box directly from their deck, providing further setup options in the early and mid-game.
Mist Energy - Blocks all effects of attacks, except for damage, done on the Pokémon it is attached to. This can protect Pokémon from instant Knock Out attacks like that of Roaring Moon ex, or attacks that place damage counters such as that of Dragapult ex.
Prime Catcher allows the player to switch an opponent's Benched Pokémon to the Active Spot, as well as switching their own Active Pokémon with 1 of their Benched Pokémon. This lets the player target specific Pokémon on the opponent's Bench, allowing Charizard ex to take easy 2-Prize Knock Outs and kickstart the Prize race.
Maximum Belt adds an additional 50 damage to Charizard ex's Burning Darkness attack, allowing it to do 230 damage in the early game. This Knocks Out most Basic Pokémon ex, such as Chien-Pao ex, Iron Hands ex, and Roaring Moon ex.
Hero's Cape adds 100 HP to Charizard ex when attached, giving it a massive maximum HP of 430. This can be used with cards like Professor Turo's Scenario to further deny the opponent any Knock Outs.
Unfair Stamp can only be used if any of the player's Pokémon were Knocked Out during the opponent's last turn, and it forces both players to shuffle their hands into their deck and draw new ones, the player drawing 5 cards and the opponent drawing 2 cards. This is helpful to slow down the opponent's next turn by limiting the options in their hand.
Secret Box requires the player to discard 3 cards from their hand to use it, but it can search for an Item card, a Pokémon Tool card, a Supporter card, and a Stadium card from the deck, allowing the player to search specific combinations to set up their board.
Precious Trolley allows the player to set up as many Basic Pokémon as they like from their deck onto their Bench, quickly filling their board with Basic Pokémon such as Charmander, Pidgey, and Duskull that can be evolved next turn.
Previous formats
Bibarel - Its "Industrious Incisors" Ability is useful way to gain consistency against hand disruption cards such as Iono and Roxanne.
Entei V - Can draw one extra card with its "Fleet-Footed" Ability and can deal up to 220 damage with its "Burning Rondo" attack.
Delphox V - Can deal 120 damage to a benched Pokémon with its "Mystical Fire" attack.
type also grants it favorable matchups against Mew VMAX and Gardevoir ex, both of which are weak to it.
