The Fire-type starter Pokémon from Kanto may have won the hearts of fans over the years with its pseudo-dragon appearance, but Charizard has never won the Pokémon World Championship in the Master Division in either video games or trading card game tournaments.

That may be surprising considering how many powerful forms Charizard has had since Pokémon first debuted nearly three decades ago. This year, however, could be different, as there’s a new Charizard that may have what it takes to make it to the top.

A new Charizard heats up the competition

A year ago, the Pokémon Trading Card Game Obsidian Flames expansion set released arguably the strongest Charizard card ever: Charizard ex. The card has a whopping 330 HP, so most Pokémon will have to attack it at least twice to knock it out. Its Burning Darkness attack does 180 damage and only gets stronger the more prizes your opponent wins—up to an incredible 330 damage once they’ve won five prizes, helping you recover from the brink of defeat.

It has an amazing ability called Infernal Reign that lets you instantly charge Charizard ex with fire energy from the deck. As if that wasn’t enough, the Tera mechanic changes its traditional fire typing to Dark, which is a much better type in the current metagame as it hits the weakness of the ever-popular Gardevoir ex.

If a Pokémon is weak to a type, it takes double damage.

Charizard ex is an impressive Pokemon card on its own, but even a fiery powerhouse needs some help. Players have paired Charizard ex with Pidgeot ex to give it more consistency and make an already strong card even stronger. Pidgeot ex’s Quick Search Ability allows you to take any card from your deck and put it into your hand once per turn.

The Charizard-Ex deck wants to jump from Charmander to Charizard-Ex immediately and skip the middle Charmeleon evolution entirely, so Pidgeot is key to finding Rare Candy and getting your main attacker ready to go as early as turn 2. Pidgeot is also handy for grabbing any card you need in a pinch, like game-winning Boss’s Orders.

Charizard ex looks like it was designed just to win tournaments – and that’s exactly what it did. In December 2023, US player Azul Garcia Griego piloted a Charizard ex deck to first place at the San Antonio Regional Championship, beating nearly 2,000 other players.

Since that first big win, Charizard ex has become a staple in the metagame, dominating the tournament scene and achieving numerous high placings and wins over the months. Today, Charizard ex is the most successful tournament deck of the entire 2023-24 competitive season, according to TCG statistics website Limitless.

Charizard’s chances of winning the 2024 Pokemon World Championship

So since Charizard ex is such a powerful deck with a proven track record, it shouldn’t have a problem winning the World Championship, right? Not quite. What fun would that be if there wasn’t a last-minute twist that threatened Charizard’s chance at the crown?

When the dust settled in July at the 2024 North American International Championships – the last major tournament before Worlds – things suddenly didn’t look very good for Charizard ex. Although Charizard ex was the deck of choice for Tord Reklev, widely considered the best Pokemon TCG player currently playing, he only finished 18th out of 2692 players.

A change in the metagame caused players to abandon Charizard Ex in favor of other decks like Gardevoir Ex, which ironically has a weakness against Charizard Ex.

To make matters worse for Charizard Ex, competitor Jacob Eye made it to the top 16 at NAIC with Regidrago VSTAR. Players quickly realized that Eye was on to something big. In no time, Regidrago VSTAR became a top performer in tournaments leading up to Worlds and established himself as the new favorite to win overall.

Regidrago VSTAR’s attack is Apex Dragon, which allows it to use the attack of any Dragon-type Pokémon in the discard pile. The deck involves discarding a handful of powerful Dragons and then having Regidrago VSTAR use the attack that best counters the opponent’s strategy.

Thanks to Dragapult ex’s damage-spreading Phantom Dive attack and Kyurem’s multi-hit attack Trifrost, Regidrago VSTAR can wipe out multiple Charmanders in the second turn and take Charizard ex out of the game completely. If a player somehow manages to evolve a Charizard ex, Regidrago VSTAR can take it out in one hit with Raging Bolt’s Bellowing Thunder attack.

Things aren’t looking good for Charizard ex heading into Worlds, but he’s not out of the running yet. The newly released mini-expansion Shrouded Fable has added some interesting tools to the Worlds format card pool that Charizard ex can potentially utilize. The Binding Mochi Tool Card combined with Pecharunt ex’s Subjugating Chains ability boosts Charizard ex’s Attack by 40, allowing him to deal 220 damage on the second turn – just enough to knock out Regidrago V before it gets a chance to evolve into VSTAR.

The new Dusclops and Dusknoir have the dangerous new ability “Cursed Blast,” which allows them to knock themselves out and put 5 and 13 damage counters on an opposing Pokémon, respectively. Giving the opponent a free Prize may not sound like a good idea, but Charizard ex can take advantage of it. Losing a Prize increases its Attack by 30 damage, allowing it to take previously unattainable Knockouts when combined with the additional damage from “Cursed Blast.” Losing a Prize also allows the Charizard ex player to activate powerful catch-up cards like Counter Catcher and Defiance Band.

Although Charizard ex has a poor match against Regidrago VSTAR, it still has a few new tricks up its sleeve that will at least give it a chance at Worlds. Charizard ex does well against other Worlds contenders like Gardevoir ex and Maridon ex, and isn’t bad against Lugia and Lost Box either. Will Charizard finally end its losing streak at Worlds? We’ll have to wait and see how it fares when the 2024 Pokemon World Championships kick off today and the grand finals are on August 18th.