Standard Flame Strike (Reshiram & Charizard GX / Braixen & Charizard GX / Volcarona GX / Volcanion)

[Dark Espeon]

FLAME STRIKE

Pokémon (12):

• 2 Reshiram & Charizard GX (beatdown)
• 2 Braixen & Charizard GX (beatdown)
• 3 Volcanion SM10 (beatdown)
• 3 Larvesta SM12 (evolve)
• 2 Volcarona GX (enable)

Trainer (34):

• 1 Lysandre Prism Star (disable)
• 3 Cynthia & Caitlin (draw)
• 4 Welder (accelerate)
• 3 Cynthia (draw)
• 4 Flame Crystal (retrieval)
• 3 Giant Bomb (beatdown)
• 2 Great Catcher (control)
  
• 1 Reset Stamp (disable)
• 3 Cherish Ball (search)
• 3 Tag Whistle (search)
• 3 Switch (retreat)
• 1 Heat Factory Prism (draw)
• 3 Giant Oven (search)

Energy (14):

• 14 Fire Energy

STRATEGY:

Start with Volcanion or one of the Tag Team Pokémon. Use Welder and Volcanion to accelerate to the Tag Team Pokémon and bench one or two Larvesta. Next turn evolve Larvesta into Volcarona and use Scorch Bomb to enable Reshiram and Charizard to knock out the defender in one hit.

CARD SHARK:

Volcarona GX
Stage 1 Fire Pokémon - evolves from larvesta
Ability: Scorching Bomb
Once during your turn , you may discard a [R] energy from your hand. If you do, put 2 damage counters on 1 of your opponent’s Pokémon.
[R][R][C] Backfire: 160
Return 2 [R] energy from this Pokémon to your hand.
[R] Great Heatwave GX
Discard an energy from each of your opponent’s Pokémon.
Retreat Cost: CCC
Weakness: W

Larvesta
Basic Fire Pokémon
HP: 80
[C] Ram: 10
[R][R][C] Combustion: 50
Retreat Cost: CCC
Weakness: W

Comment: Before rotation Reshiram and Charizard Gx were able to achieve one-hit knock outs thanks to Choice Band. Now that Choice Band has been rotated out Volcarona can fill the void and once again enable Reshiram and Charizard GX to knock out the opponent in one hit.

Braixen & Charizard GX
Basic Fire Pokémon
HP: 270
[R][R][R][C] Shiny Flare: 180
You may search your deck for up to 3 cards and put them into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck.
[R]+ Crimson Flame Pillar GX
Attach 5 basic energy cards from your discard pile to your Pokémon in any way you like. If this Pokémon has at least 1 extra Energy attached to it in addition to this attack’s cost, your opponent’s active Pokémon is now poisoned and confused.
Retreat Cost: CCC
Weakness: W

Giant Bomb
Trainer - Item (Pokémon Tool)
If the Pokémon this card is attached to is your active Pokémon and takes 180 or more damage from an opponent's attack - even if this Pokémon is knocked out - put 10 damage counters on the attacking Pokémon.

Comment: Braixen and Charizard GX are a nice addition to this deck since they provide additional acceleration from the discard and a decent attack that allows you to search your deck for three cards of your choice. The card also combos well with Giant Bomb since it enables Braixen and charizard GX to achieve vengance knock outs.

Cynthia & Caitlin
Trainer - Supporter (Tag Team)
Put a supporter card from your discard pile into your hand excluding any Cynthia & Caitlin or cards discarded by this card. When you play this card, you may discard 1 card from your hand. If you do, draw 3 cards.

Tag Whistle
Trainer - Item
Search your deck for up to 2 Tag Team cards and put them into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck.

Comment: Fire decks tend to be reliant on Welder. Cynthia and Caitlin provide additional draw power that can be searched out with Tag Whistle in addition to a Tag team Pokémon and also enables the deck to retrieve used Welder from the discard.

Lysandre Prism Star
Trainer - Supporter (Prism Star)
For each of your Fire Pokémon in play, put a card from your opponent's discard pile in the Lost Zone.

Comment: Most Tag Team decks can have issue with stable non-GX decks since they tend to trade unfavorable with them. A lot of these non-GX decks benefit from using resources in the discard pile. An example would be Giratina Malamar decks that reuse energies and Giratina from the discard. Lysandre's Lab helps this deck by sending these resources to the discard pile. The card is also a nice addition in the mirror match since you can use it to place Welder or Pokémon that can be abused with Mewtwo and Mew GX into the Lost Zone.

Great Catcher
Trainer - Item
Switch 1 of your opponent's benched Pokémon GX or Pokémon EX with their active Pokémon.

Comment: While less versatile than Custom Catcher Great Catcher fulfills a similar role and takes up less bench space.

 

[TuxedoBlack]

Nice list.

I like running 4 Volcanion to maximize my opportunity to start with it. Also, without Pokémon Communications, are you able to consistently setup your bench by T2?

Are you finding from your testing that only 2 Giant Catcher are sufficient? I've now committed to running a 2-2 Ninetales line in my Fire decks. Ninetales, for me, just provides me more consistency.

I also like Lusamine which can be quite helpful to retrieve discarded Stadium(s) and/or Supporter(s).

 

[Dark Espeon]

Hi TuxedoBlack,

Thanks for the review. Lusamine is not needed in this deck since the stadium count is sufficient on usual and Cynthia and Caitlin can be used to retrieve Welder while drawing cards at the same time. Volcanion is decent acceleration but this deck focuses on him as an attacker for certain matches. The ideal starter in this deck is either Volcanion or Braixen and Charizard GX. The latter can be used to search out needed cards such as the Volcarona line and others. I am not that sure on Pokémon Communication in this deck due to the lower Pokémon count. I do like it as a search engine in decks with either Tag Whistle or Electromagnetic Radar that run a stable count of fourteen Basic Pokémon or in decks that run in between sixteen to eighteen Pokémon in total. With a lower count I often ended with either Pokémon Communication and no Pokémon to trade away or the other way round. Two Great Catcher worked rather well for me thus far.

 

[Lord Charizard]

I run GreenZard, but am already eorking on readjusting my list for a Braixen & Charizard and the Tag Whistle engine (a good alternative if I don't habe Green's or Fire energy in my hand). Quite a few nifty toys coming in this next set.

Great Catcher is less versatile to be sure, but it uses any 2 other cards rather than requiring 2 copies of itself. Though I do have random ass encounters, like R1 in yesterday's League Challenge, where I needed one prize, and it came down to using High-Heat Blast and Koga to snipe and injured Zapdos with Custom Catcher, so I can see the argument for both sides.