Mega Charizard X ex Deck List and Guide
Ready to build and play the powerful new Charizard X ex Pokemon TCG deck?
Whether you are planning to bring this deck to your next official Pokemon tournament, or just looking to grind the ladder on Pokemon TCG Live, this proven strategy will help you succeed. Of course, it’s all about one big and powerful new attacker: Mega Charizard X ex
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Pokémon: 19
4 Charmander PAF 7
2 Charmeleon PFL 12
2 Charizard ex OBF 125
1 Mega Charizard X ex PFL 13
2 Pidgey MEW 16
2 Pidgeotto MEW 17
2 Pidgeot ex OBF 164
1 Chi-Yu PAR 29
1 Moltres PFL 14
1 Tatsugiri TWM 131
1 Fezandipiti ex SFA 38
Trainer: 34
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
2 Arven OBF 186
2 Dawn PFL 87
2 Boss's Orders MEG 114
2 Iono PAL 185
1 Professor Turo's Scenario PAR 171
4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
3 Ultra Ball MEG 131
3 Rare Candy MEG 125
2 Super Rod PAL 188
2 Counter Catcher PAR 160
1 Tool Scrapper WHT 85
1 Pal Pad SVI 182
2 Technical Machine: Evolution PAR 178
1 Air Balloon BLK 79
1 Maximum Belt TEF 154
1 Town Store OBF 196
Energy: 7
7 Fire Energy SVE 18
1st Place City League Chiba 11/03 - みやけん
Mega Charizard X ex card breakdown
I love how straightforward Mega Charizard X ex is as an attacker. Essentially, he’s a big guy (360 HP) that can hit very, very hard for just two fire energy via the insane Inferno X attack. We’ve had plenty of attackers like Mega Charizard ex in the Pokemon TCG in the past. Back when I was first getting into the game, Rayquaza VMAX had a similar sort of “discard energy to massively scale damage” effect. More recently, Raging Bolt ex is the archetype to make this kind of power play top tier.
However, given the fact that Inferno X is more of a once-or-twice-per-game sort of attack, you’ll be looking to pair Mega Charizard X ex with another attacker to help you out a little.
That’s where regular ol’ Charizard X from way back in Obsidian Flames comes in handy.
Two worlds collide – Mega Charizard X and Tera Charizard ex
Early deck lists in Japan show that inherent synergy between Mega Charizard X and Tera Charizard ex. Deck lists feature the two together in a complimentary role much in the same way Mega Gardevoir ex is currently being paired with Gardevoir ex.
Also similar to Gardevoir ex, the Charizard ex deck archetype has a long history in the Pokemon TCG meta – a meta that it once dominated not so long ago. In those days, virtually every major tournament was won by Charizard ex, and nothing could put a stop to it except for a bad matchup into the new (at the time) BDIF, Regidrago VSTAR. However, Regidrago innevitably rotated out as do all great decks, and with it gone Charizard ex was free to once again soar to the top of the Pokemon card heap – if to a much more modest degree.
Following the release of Mega Charizard X ex, however, Charizard’s time at the top of the Pokemon TCG meta is nigh. Mega Charizard X acts as a huge upgrade to the overall Charizard ex strategy, filling gaps that it has always had up until now.
Oricorio ex unlocks powerful energy acceleration
Another significant addition to this deck strategy overall is the inclusion of a powerful new Oricorio ex. This Oricorio ex lets you attach as many fire energies from your hand to your fire type Pokemon as you’d like each turn, provided you have a fire type Mega Pokemon in play. It’s a fairly broken ability that really grants considerable power to Mega Pokemon decks. Of course, with it being fire energies specifically, Oricario ex fits Mega Charizard X ex like a glove.
In a bind you can also use Oricario ex to attack. Its Fire Wing may only do 110 damage, but that’s enough to close out the game against most single prize Pokemon.
The new Moltres in Phantasmal Flames is a handy backup
The other new Pokemon from Phantasmal Flames worth including in your Mega Charizard ex deck is the powerful single prize Moltres. While it might not look like much at first, this early game attacker is swinging for 110 damage into opposing Pokemon ex, making it the idea way to soften up Mega Pokemon ex before taking them down, or just to finish them off after they’ve already taken some damage.
Tera Charizard ex deck strategy refresher
By now, the Charizard ex deck is such an established meta deck that you may already know how it works. Or maybe it’s been a while since you’ve given this big guy a go and need a bit of a refresher on how the deck works?
If that’s the case, then let’s go over a few important points about how this deck works.
For starters, if you’re looking to build this deck with the most ease, you may want to start with the Charizard ex League Battle Deck – a prebuilt deck you can purchase from my friends at TCGPlayer that includes much of what you’ll need to build this deck.
All about Tera Charizard ex
Tera Charizard ex is considered one of the strongest attackers in the Pokemon TCG for good reason. For starters, its Burning Darkness gains damage output for every prize card your opponent has taken, maxing out at 330 damage. While that’s not enough to knock out a Mega Pokemon in one shot, it’s good enough to knock out any regular Pokemon ex. You’ll leave the Mega Pokemon ex one-hit-knock-outs to your Mega Charizard X ex.
A few other points about Charizard ex:
Its Tera typing prevents it from taking damage from attacks while on the bench.
Infernal Reign is a powerful energy accelerating ability, letting you attach three fire energy from your deck.
As Charizard ex gets stronger with each prize card your opponent has taken, you typically want your opponent to attack first – preferably into a single prize Pokemon. It’s also the reason that Charizard ex is considered the ultimate comeback deck, letting you sneak out wins while your opponent is actually ahead of you.
Pidgeot ex is the ultimate consistency engine
We also have to talk about Pidgeot ex. Despite the fact that this card has been out for a while, it’s still the ultimate consistency engine for Charizard ex. As a Stage 2 deck, Pidgeot ex fits seamlessly into this deck strategy. Once it is on your field, it makes finding what you need each and every turn much, much easier. While other partners do exist and fair well competitively, Pidgeot ex remains the gold standard in Charizard ex decks.
Mega Charizard X ex early board setup
Mega Charizard X ex is one of those decks that – once you get the ball rolling – is hard to stop. First, though, you’ll have to get the ball rolling without opening up any significant opportunities for your opponent to shut you down.
One of this deck’s biggest weaknesses early on in the game is its low-level HP Pokemon it needs to get in play before evolving to bigger Pokemon. While there’s only so much you can do to offset this glaring weakness, one of the best ways to avoid a total shutdown before you can get your bigger attacks online is to simply get plenty of evolution targets on the board.
Getting two Charmander and two Pidgey on the field turn one, for example, can go a long way in ensuring you have the right Pokemon to evolve the following turn.
The easiest way to fill up your bench, of course is via Buddy-Buddy Poffin. Use this card to effortlessly place your evolution targets onto the bench so that you are ready to evolve the next turn. Or even better – use TM Evolution to get the process started sooner.
Mega Charizard X ex supporter card choices
Like many contemporary Pokemon TCG decks, Mega Charizard X ex opts for a relatively wide option of supporters.
First, the new Dawn supporter is pretty strong in this deck, and she likely will be something of a staple in most Evolution decks moving forward.
Dawn acts as a catch-all card for Mega Charizard X ex, letting you bring each card in. your evolution line to your hand.
Other than the new addition of Dawn, most of the supporters in this list are pretty standard: it runs the four Lillie’s Determination as its primary draw supporter (decks like Charizard X ex don’t want to discard cards much making it preferable to Professor’s Research), and Arven which is great for finding key pieces like Rare Candy and the Evolution TM to make evolution significantly faster and more reliable.
To help you find these powerful supporters, many Charizard ex players run Tatsugiri from Twilight Masquerade to enable more consistency. Running a high number of supporters as this deck does often gives you multiple choices when you use “Attract Customers” to look at the top 6 cards of your deck, making it much more likely to find the exact card you need when you need it most.
Additional card choices to consider
While we’ve covered the bulk of this deck in detail, there are a few more card choices worth considering in this deck that we haven’t talked about.
For starters, the Maximum Belt is a pretty solid choice here as it will extend the power of your Charizard ex early game before it really hits your stride. It also makes swinging for OHKOs against bigger Mega Pokemon ex much more feasible.
Additionally you have Chi-Yu to take revenge knockouts, Town Store to find your items more easily (especially the powerful Evolution TM), Professor Turo’s Scenario to recycle your Mega Charizard ex before your opponent can knock it out, and a Pal Pad to reuse your powerful supporters all over again.
Mega Charizard X ex is about to have an outsized impact on the Pokemon TCG. I wouldn’t be surprised if it quickly becomes one of the best Pokemon TCG decks in the standard format, and it should be immensely popular among players.
