Charizard Fever is Real—A Quick Look at Pokemon's Obsession with Its Fire-Breathing Lizard

Raigetsu

Lightning Trainer
Member
I understand the appeal of Charizard. I used to think he was cool for a while too. But then Pokemon just abused Charizard to the point where he's in my face so much I can help but loathe him. This is something that almost happened with Mewtwo and with Pikachu I have no choice because not only is he the mascot, he's the pre-evolved form of my favorite Pokemon, Raichu.

One of the bigger appeals to Charizard was his rarity, on top of being a "power house". When Charizard (Or really any starters) was around it was typically a big deal. But like my criticism with the video games, they throw starters at you nowadays like they're catfish caviar. When Charizard goes from being in every 3-4 sets to every other set (And now seemingly 3 sets in a row), he becomes common filth.

Mantyke, Happiny, Abra and Kadabra hold more water than Charizard because you never see them. This goes back to a discussion that we had a long time ago when the discussion was "Pokemon you want to see as EXs/Gxs, but nothing unpopular like Seaking (which was used an example)". Well then you're not trying to do a Pokemon trading card game, it's just the Charizard/Pikachu trading card game.

Need a set? Just make it Charizard, Legends, Pikachu, Eevee, Pseudo Legends, throw in a couple fairy types and boom, you're done. Need to make a new set? Well let's do all that stuff again, but replace the fairy types with dragons.

I have gone through burnouts here and there, I burnt out between Neo Destiny and EX FireRed/Leafgreen, I burnt out between Next Destinies and Furious Fists, and I'm probably going to burn out again soon, the difference is, collecting is all I have left. I don't play in leagues/tournaments anymore (even before covid), I havent touched the TCGO since last November and I'm just tired of the same nonsense over and over and over. I love Zekrom, I love Raikou, I like Gardevoir, Mewtwo, Blastoise but for god's sake, give me something different.

Give me a secret rare Seaking, give me secret rare Porygon Z, give me an shiny Troh, give me a shiny Sawk. Hell, TYyrunt is one of my top 10 Pokemon, and he only has three cards, THREE! You mean to tell me that they can't find a way to include Tyrunt in sets other than Furious Fists and Forbidden Light?

You know who else I like? Feraligatr, and since a lot of people don't count the Primes as "Ultra rares", he hasn't had one since 2005, 15 years without one. Typloshion and Meganium too. And this goes beyond Charizard, I don't see Charizard as the problem (Even though I fully believe he's 100% the problem with Champion's path), I see him as the victim of Pokemon's unwillingness to compromise and do new things with the TCG, do weird things.

Sorry for being a grumpy old man, but I just find myself losing interest in Pokemon more and more as time goes on. I want to buy and play Sword/Shield for Switch but I can't find the drive to do it, I'm just so bored with the same highlights. Fireworks can only last so long before I get bored and play Duel Links on my phone.

Did you know that when you include secret rares, there are more than twice as many Charizards as there are Charmeleons? There's only 20 Charmeleon
 
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Johnny2316

Aspiring Trainer
Member
You know, every single starter besides Charizard needs more love, TCG-wise. I've noticed that the more unpopular starters and other unpopular Pokemon got the least amount of cards, while the more popular Pokemon got the most cards. In my opinion, it's discrimination. They need more starter ultra rares, some of which never actually got any ultra rares at all. I don't know what to think now. It's too crazy to think about. Oh, and I highly bet that in this new set, Charizard's shiny VMAX will be the ONLY card that people would tear packs apart for.
 

don()shinobi

PokeBeach's Yu-Gi-Oh enthusiast. I guess.
Member
Yeah its called selling nostalgia. Its exactly what all the super hero movies do. Pokemon has probably ran out of ideas years ago. Same for the entire video game industry. All they got left is praying on people's childhood memories.
Well they obviously haven't run out of ideas because the games have new things. Plenty of things they put out are new and unique. It's just that they cling onto gen 1 because that's what the boomers played and they want the boomers to stay with the series.
 

Wyvu

Aspiring Trainer
Member
The 'Charizard Craze' has dangerous implications about the game. Because collectors are willing to buy into it, it enters the curse of the mainline lines: "They will sell anyways, so why should the games ever improve at all?"

In terms of the TCG, it means there's little motivation at all to improve the product. No more storyline based art like in Legendary Treasures/Breakthrough, little mechanical innovation, even more mindlessly designed filler cards, and a metagame that is forever overcenteralized.

I hope some sort of recession happens in the TCG, and that the whales snap out of the charizard craze - so that the franchise sells more because the games are actually well made.

One of the worst things about these secret rare Charizard cards is that they all use the same art, only recolored to be rainbow/shiny.

They could at least make a colorless (flying) type Charizard again.

Or they could make a Dragon type one, either by stretching things like with HGSS era Water Lugia or justifying it by using Mega Charizard X again (which still doesn't have a full art card even though Y does). Provided that they're still using the Dragon type in the first place...
 

Wyvu

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Give me a secret rare Seaking, give me secret rare Porygon Z, give me an shiny Troh, give me a shiny Sawk. Hell, TYyrunt is one of my top 10 Pokemon, and he only has three cards, THREE! You mean to tell me that they can't find a way to include Tyrunt in sets other than Furious Fists and Forbidden Light?

That is such a mood. Tyrunt and Tyrantrum are back in the Crown Tundra so Tyrantrum V/VMAX or riot. Very disappointed it didn't get a GX as well. It's a very popular Pokémon relative to the abysmal exposure that it gets and GF just ignores it for some reason, likely because of the rush to transition from Gen 6 to Gen 7.

Also, they should at least tweak base form Charizard via its stats and/or Fire/Dragon typing because underneath all the hype it's still the merely average Fire/Flying starter with middling stats... jeez
 

SaltyGrey2020

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Well they obviously haven't run out of ideas because the games have new things. Plenty of things they put out are new and unique. It's just that they cling onto gen 1 because that's what the boomers played and they want the boomers to stay with the series.

They have totally ran out of new ideas that make them a bunch of money. If Charizard VMAX wasnt in Champions Path, nobody would have bought that set. It would have been a worse set than Crimson Invasion. And Darkness Ablaze wouldnt have been as big as a hit without Charizard VMAX either since without tournaments nobody would have cared for the set just for Crobats. Rebel Clash was a bust and Sword & Shield Baase only did ok since it was pre-corona and it had tournament staples in it.

At the end of the day, the Pokemon Company has figured out that inserting an expensive charizard into anything makes them money. And if I was them, I would probably do the same thing. If people want to throw their money at that, then I guess you should give them what they want. All these ideas to put things like Seaking into the packs would just bankrupt them. Thank god they dont take advice like this.

Also, Im pretty sure people who played Gen 1 are Millennials, not boomers.
 
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don()shinobi

PokeBeach's Yu-Gi-Oh enthusiast. I guess.
Member
They have totally ran out of new ideas that make them a bunch of money. If Charizard VMAX wasnt in Champions Path, nobody would have bought that set. It would have been a worse set than Crimson Invasion. And Darkness Ablaze wouldnt have been as big as a hit without Charizard VMAX either since without tournaments nobody would have cared for the set just for Crobats. Rebel Clash was a bust and Sword & Shield Baase only did ok since it was pre-corona and it had tournament staples in it.

At the end of the day, the Pokemon Company has figured out that inserting an expensive charizard into anything makes them money. And if I was them, I would probably do the same thing. If people want to throw their money at that, then I guess you should give them what they want. All these ideas to put things like Seaking into the packs would just bankrupt them. Thank god they dont take advice like this.

Also, Im pretty sure people who played Gen 1 are Millennials, not boomers.
Pretty sure you took the joke too literally. :V
 

carrotfoot

Aspiring Trainer
Member
There are many facets for my personal diminishing interest in Pokemon as a whole, but I think the blatant Charizard overuse has been a part of the contribution to some degree. The coolest thing about Pokemon is the extreme variety of creature designs and how they all can have an appeal to different people. Obviously some are more popular than others, but the fact that one specific Pokemon is used as a selling point in absolutely everything gets tiresome. It’s also fine to have mascots, but because Charizard is one of three Pokemon choices that many people could consider when getting into Pokemon it feels very lopsided.
But it’s not just the TCG either. The main series games have been doing this for a while (2 megas, Charizard being the only Pokeride Pokemon without an Alolan Pokedex number, Leon). Pokemon GO is having a second community day (which was based on a poll, but the choices were uneven and the poll’s platform was not through the game itself). Charizard/Red is absolutely busted in Masters.
I can understand liking Charizard and being happy to see it everywhere, but I’m wondering what the limit for most people is. For example, I personally really like Gengar. But I’m a little tired at how much it’s used in promotion. I guess my limits are different considering I value the variety.

Also, I have no interest in collecting if the game is Charizard Stock Market while rooting through 98% common/uncommon useless filler.
 
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DJHomeless8

Darkrai's Advocate
Member
I mean, I'll never complain about more Charizard cards, but this contrast is really jarring.
They could at least print a colourless/flying type one for once in their life, no the crystal type one doesn't count.

Really sad to see that virtually every starter in between gen 1 and the most recent 2/3 gens is forgotten, they need some love!
I would find it absolutely hilarious though if they just did a set with starter lines, maybe throw in some fossil and/or pseudo lines to round it out too, and just not include Charizard.

The TCG printers know what they're doing of course and they'll always ensnare suckers like me that never pulled a Charizard when they were kids and are now stuck with that fear of missing out.

Charizard being the only non-Alolan Pokeride Pokemon
Ah yes, the famous gen 7 Pokémon Tauros, Lapras, Sharpedo and Stoutland; who doesn't remember them!
 

steffenka

Miss Vaanjie
Member
I mean, I'll never complain about more Charizard cards, but this contrast is really jarring.
They could at least print a colourless/flying type one for once in their life, no the crystal type one doesn't count.

Ah yes, the famous gen 7 Pokémon Tauros, Lapras, Sharpedo and Stoutland; who doesn't remember them!
Very that to the Flying-type part!

And I think the meant only Pokemon not available in Alola, as Tauros, Lapras, Sharpedo, Stoutland, Machamp, Mudsdale, and Mantine all are in the Alolan Regional Dex
 

Wyvu

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I mean, I'll never complain about more Charizard cards, but this contrast is really jarring.
They could at least print a colourless/flying type one for once in their life, no the crystal type one doesn't count.

Or Dragon. The TCG does have precedent for stretching typing a little to fit lore/design (the Water-type HGSS era Lugia cards) or, if they really can't do it anymore, they can bring back Mega Evolutions in some way. We still don't have a full art Mega Charizard X and it's really weird how they left it out of Evolutions...
 

DJHomeless8

Darkrai's Advocate
Member
Or Dragon. The TCG does have precedent for stretching typing a little to fit lore/design (the Water-type HGSS era Lugia cards) or, if they really can't do it anymore, they can bring back Mega Evolutions in some way. We still don't have a full art Mega Charizard X and it's really weird how they left it out of Evolutions...
Stretch the types even further: bring back Delta species! Or so one can dream...
But yeah no full art megazard x is still a big, big L.

Can't see them bringing megas back tbh, the TCG follows the current gen's gimmick just like the VGs for the past 3 gens now. Who knows though, maybe they'll do something actually special next year for the 25th anniversary.
 

Wyvu

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Stretch the types even further: bring back Delta species! Or so one can dream...
But yeah no full art megazard x is still a big, big L.

Can't see them bringing megas back tbh, the TCG follows the current gen's gimmick just like the VGs for the past 3 gens now. Who knows though, maybe they'll do something actually special next year for the 25th anniversary.
Well, they did just introduce Megas to Pokémon GO, which they seem to treat as their biggest cash cow... I can see them making a "Mega Powers Collection 2" with full-art Megazard X along with Mega Gengar, Mega Kangaskhan and Mega Heracross and a whole bunch of Evolutions booster packs, to draw in genwunners.

I have no idea why they didn't include ZardX in Evolutions, it's even on the art for Charizard Spirit Link! My guess is that they wanted to go for the "red/blue/green" theme with the starters but there was no reason to exclude it, it would have easily become the biggest chase card of the set even more than the full art ZardY.

But tbh it helped me appreciate Megazard Y more, especially for its design and playstyle in the main games and GO. I used to de-prioritize it because "it's not a dragon like X is!", then I learned that Charizard and Gyarados are intended to be dragons after all and that helped endear me more to the species as a whole.
 
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Raigetsu

Lightning Trainer
Member
Stretch the types even further: bring back Delta species! Or so one can dream...
But yeah no full art megazard x is still a big, big L.

Can't see them bringing megas back tbh, the TCG follows the current gen's gimmick just like the VGs for the past 3 gens now. Who knows though, maybe they'll do something actually special next year for the 25th anniversary.

I would die for Delta Species to make a return, even Rocket cards. I legit miss gym/rocket cards. It made the game exciting because you had top tier decks with pokemon who where never seen in competitive formats before.
 

Wyvu

Aspiring Trainer
Member
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