Expanded Deck Tech: Charizard VMax VStar + Reshiram & Charizard Tag Team

Hello everybody. I'm Rodrigo, bringing news, curiosities and information about the Pokémon TCG.

Carrying on with the Expanded format, I had posted about the Kanto starters using just their forms' VMax cards. In this article, I will bring the union of the current mechanic with Tag Team GX's last mechanic and the recent mechanic, the VMax in general.

Today, we'll talk a bit about Charizard-VMax with Reshiram & Charizard Tag Team-GX.

Decklist

Here we have two extremely strong cards, obviously with massive damage, but the difference is in the matter of knockout by prizes. In case your opponent defeats your Charizard VMax, they get three prizes; and in case they defeat your Charizard VStar, they get two prize cards.

About Charizard VMAX DAA 20:

Claw Slash, for three colorless energies, deals 100 base damage.

G-Max Wildfire, for three fire energies and two colorless ones, deals 300 damage and discards two energies from the tribute cost.

About Charizard VSTAR BRS 18:

Claw Slash, for two fire energies and a colorless one, deals 130 damage and 100 more can be added in case Charizard VStar has any damage counters on it.

Its VStar attack, Star Blaze, for just three fire energies and one colorless one, deals 320 damage and discards two energy from its tribute cost.

It's worth remembering that all damages cited above can be increased thanks to Incineroar UNB 29, which deals an extra 30 damage.

That means, massive damages such as G Max Wildfire can reach up to 330 damage, and even Charizard's V Star, Star Blaze, can reach up to 350 if the setup is made correctly.

Now, we get into the Tag Team-GX part, which are the attackers that help out with raw damages.

Reshiram & Charizard-GX UNB 20 is one of the best attackers, as it has 3 attacks:

- Outrage: deals 30+10 damage for each damage marker to its HP. If it has 270 health, you can use up to 260 damage with 30 plus damage, maximizing to 290 damage (and we can even have Incineroar UNB 29 for an extra 30 damage).

- Flare Strike: deals 230 damage and you can't use it two turns in a row.

This effect can be reset, that is, you can use it again if you retreat this Pokémon and promote it again as an active Pokémon.

- Its GX attack, Double Blaze: you deal 200 damage. But this attack has an additional cost in which by three more energies, instead of it being 200 damage, it becomes 300 damage and you ignore any effects of your opponent's Active Pokémon.

It's worth noting that this damage can be increased with Incineroar UNB 29 and with the doubling of basic energies by Charizard PGO 10, which, if you have, say, 3 basic energies, it makes you able to convert them to 6 energies.

As for Charizard & Braixen-GX CEC 22, it is an attacker that gets resources from the deck, but it is the slowest of them all. It is only good round 1 or 2 with the use of Kiawe BUS 116a to speed up its energies so you can pay its tribute, as it is a heavy Pokémon.

- Brilliant Flare: deals 180 damage and it searches in your deck for any 3 cards of your choice and places them in your hand.

- Its GX attack, Crimson Flame Pillar: you charge up to 5 basic energy cards from the discard pile to one of your Pokémon in any way you'd like. But if there is one more fire energy left to pay for the tribute cost of this GX attack, besides charging, you make your opponent's Active Pokémon confused and burnt.

Recursive Pokemon

Here we have options for extra damage and the doubling of basic energies. We have Charmander for Charizard; and Litten for Incineroar. The evolutionary line has the same 1-1 line number and with the line of 4 Evolution Incense SSH 163 and 4 Rare Candy CES 142 to make it easier to look for resources.

- Charizard PGO 10 has Burn Brightly, which makes all basic fire energies worth two energies at the same time, which makes it easier to pay for the Pokémons' attacks.

- Incineroar UNB 29 has Strong Cheer, which makes your Pokémon deal 30 more damage (before weakness and resistance). It can't be used more than once per turn.

- Dedenne-GX UNB 57 comes in here because of Dedecharge, which discards your hand and draws 6 cards next, as if a Professor's Research (Professor Oak) CEL 23 built in an ability, and then you can search for a supporter that can really compensate for your round. And if you get a hand with two fire energies and a Welder, this is always welcome.

Trainer Cards

- Kiawe BUS 116a is your fire energy speeder. You look in the deck for 4 fire energies and connect them to any Pokémon you'd like, and if you do, your round ends.

This card is only good round 1 going second or round 2, as it is a card that makes you lose a round.

- Welder UNB 189a is the deck's best charger: it attaches two fire energies from your hand to one of your Pokémon and if you do, it draws 3 cards from the top of your deck.

It is practically the law of fire type archetype decks to have this card, as it guarantees a dynamic charging and indispensable Draw Power (but be very careful not to deck out with excessive card draw).

- Fiery Flint DRM 60a has the cost of discarding two cards from your hand so you can search for 4 fire energies and place them in your hand. This card is meant to combo with Welder UNB 189a, so you can charge your fire Pokémon.

- Fire Crystal UNB 173 makes you search your discard pile for 3 fire energies and place them in your hand.

Again, you can combo with Welder UNB 189a to charge your fire Pokémon, as another way to recycle.

- Trainers' Mail ROS 92 makes you search the top 4 cards in your deck for any Trainer type card, choose one of them, reveal it to the opponent and place it in your hand, then, shuffle your deck.

- Rare Candy CES 142 is useful to advance the evolution of any basic Pokémon to stage 2.

- Evolution Incense SSH 163 is useful to search in your deck for a Pokémon evolution card, which combos with Rare Candy for recursive Pokémon.

- Heat Factory ◇ LOT 178 Stadium is useful as the match's Draw Power, in which you pay a cost by discarding one fire energy to draw 3 cards from the top of your deck. So, by using Fire Crystal UNB 173 to recycle fire energies, there's a synergy.

- Giant Hearth UNM 197 is useful to search for two fire energies in your deck by paying the cost of discarding one card of your hand.

Of course, doing that, having Welder UNB 189a in the same round, it is a wonderful way to immediately charge up your Charizard VMax, also with the benefits of having Draw Power.

Special Energy

It removes the weakness of the Pokémon it is attached to, so we can protect ourselves from the water type. So, it's more than essential to use it, as with the release of cards that help out water types a lot in the Sword/Shield set, they have been greatly strengthened when it comes to searching and resource filtering in the Expanded format, such as Capacious Bucket RCL 156, which helps a lot "Rain Dance" decks that are quite common in this format.

Advantages

Of all the Kanto's starters, it is the most aggressive of all, with the highest damage without needing that many resources to hoard it. The matter really is charging up as fast as possible to guarantee these damages.

With cards that deal 230 damage, 300 effect ignoring damage, 300 damage per two energy discarded, 320 damage, all capable of being enhanced by 30 more damage thanks to Incineroar UNB 29, it goes neck to neck with everything in front of it, without much issue.

Disadvantages

The water type weakness is agonizing. So if you don't have Weakness Guard Energy UNM 213 to avoid taking double the damage, it is the end.

And speaking of water, of course, decks that are faster when attacking with just a few energies and Single Prize decks, such as Gyarados TEU 30, Dewgong LOR 34, Politoed LOR 32, Cramorant VIV 40, and specially like Greninja BREAK BKP 41 can be very complicated.

Decks that use mechanics such as "Lost March", "Night March" and "Mad Party", that is, usually the ones that hit with stacked damaged by each Pokemon with these kinds of attack names in the discard pile or in the Lost Zone, and which are Single Prize, are complicated, as there aren't any healing cards in our deck.

About the recursive Pokémon setup, here we have the matter of a 1-1 line in the deck, which might be a problem if we can't speed up as fast as possible Incineroar UNB 29 and Charizard PGO 10. Especially Charizard PGO 10 due to its ability of doubling energies.

Another matter are hand control decks, which reduce your drawing power, considering that Welder guarantees a lot of these draws, and control decks that use Judge FST 235, Marnie SSH 169 and cards that can control the late game such as Roxanne ASR 150 and N NVI 92.

The Avery CRE 130 card is another problem against your deck, considering if you fill your bench, it can make you discard your Pokemon, which might make you sacrifice your recursive Pokémon, and it will be a problem if you lose Incineroar UNB 29 and Charizard PGO 10.

It is an excellent, aggressive, explosive and practical deck, which practically doesn't let your opponents take a breath, as they need to immediately answer your setup growth.

Even if it takes a bit longer to hit Incineroar UNB 29 and Charizard PGO 10, it can sustain itself really well without them, being able to answer in aggression and versatility with Reshiram & Charizard-GX UNB 20, in case you didn't build Charizard VMAX DAA 20 or Charizard VSTAR BRS 18.

So, I would like your opinions regarding my deckbuilding. Which are your expectations? Would you change something to make it better? Make yourself comfortable in the comment section and tell me your suggestions.

See you next time!