With the ever changing meta and deck lists in the Pokemon TCG, it is hard to find what decks are good or what cards to play especially with the many price rises in pokemon card singles. Luckily for many fans, the Pokemon Company has found a great solution for fans that are interested in tournament play but want a much more affordable way to acquire expensive competitive cards that have become staples.
League Battle Decks have been introduced over the years to provide an easy way for fans to enter into the competitive scene, usually consisting of a deck list featuring popular or strong pokemon that have been released over the past couple of years of releases. The Charizard EX League Battle Deck is inspired by the Tera Charizard EX that released in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet Obsidian Flame set, the Charizard in this set is still relevant in tournaments to this day thanks to its ability Infernal Reign that can search out three fire energy cards from the deck and attach them to any of your pokemon currently in play as soon as you evolve into Charizard EX. This ability works perfectly alongside Charizard’s attack Burning Darkness; for the cost of two fire energy, Charizard EX is able to strike for 180 damage and gains a bonus 30 damage for each prize card your opponent has taken. This is a perfect combo for being able to power up as soon as you want to play the card and the attack works as a great comeback for players that are initially losing.
Additional cards in this set include Pidgeot EX, from the same set as Charizard EX, with a great ability letting the player search out any single card from your deck once per turn. Another great card in the set is Prime Catcher, an item card that lets you switch out your active Pokemon and your opponent’s, allowing for you to manipulate who you want to attack and what to attack. Many of the other cards in this set are either previous evolutions for Pidgeot and Charizard, with the addition of some simpler pokemon that are useful for learning how to play the deck archetype. Some Trainer cards worth mentioning that come with the deck are Arven, an essential supporter for searching out one Item card and Pokemon Tool card, TM Evolution, a Pokemon Tool card designed to help evolve multiple pokemon in a turn and some staples across all decks such as Boss’s Orders, another Supporter card used to switch out your opponent’s active Pokemon with a benched one.
With the ever changing meta and deck lists in the Pokemon TCG, it is hard to find what decks are good or what cards to play especially with the many price rises in pokemon card singles. Luckily for many fans, the Pokemon Company has found a great solution for fans that are interested in tournament play but want a much more affordable way to acquire expensive competitive cards that have become staples.
League Battle Decks have been introduced over the years to provide an easy way for fans to enter into the competitive scene, usually consisting of a deck list featuring popular or strong pokemon that have been released over the past couple of years of releases. The Charizard EX League Battle Deck is inspired by the Tera Charizard EX that released in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet Obsidian Flame set, the Charizard in this set is still relevant in tournaments to this day thanks to its ability Infernal Reign that can search out three fire energy cards from the deck and attach them to any of your pokemon currently in play as soon as you evolve into Charizard EX. This ability works perfectly alongside Charizard’s attack Burning Darkness; for the cost of two fire energy, Charizard EX is able to strike for 180 damage and gains a bonus 30 damage for each prize card your opponent has taken. This is a perfect combo for being able to power up as soon as you want to play the card and the attack works as a great comeback for players that are initially losing.
Additional cards in this set include Pidgeot EX, from the same set as Charizard EX, with a great ability letting the player search out any single card from your deck once per turn. Another great card in the set is Prime Catcher, an item card that lets you switch out your active Pokemon and your opponent’s, allowing for you to manipulate who you want to attack and what to attack. Many of the other cards in this set are either previous evolutions for Pidgeot and Charizard, with the addition of some simpler pokemon that are useful for learning how to play the deck archetype. Some Trainer cards worth mentioning that come with the deck are Arven, an essential supporter for searching out one Item card and Pokemon Tool card, TM Evolution, a Pokemon Tool card designed to help evolve multiple pokemon in a turn and some staples across all decks such as Boss’s Orders, another Supporter card used to switch out your opponent’s active Pokemon with a benched one.
The actual contents of the cards that can be played with range from being alright to great, providing the flexibility for players to change out cards with what they may think works better or are their favourites. Outside of the cards however, the rest of the product is not as superb; this mostly comes down to a lack of exclusives and protection for the cards purchased. In recent news, Pokemon announced the release of decks themed around trainers, such as Marnie and Steven, as their own Battle Decks. Within these sets are an exclusive art card of the trainer’s Pokemon with the trainer, Marnie with Morpeko and Steven with a Beldum. These products are coming out much later than the Charizard League Battle Deck, with the upcoming Dragonpult League Battle Deck similarly packaged to this one, but it would be a fun incentive to continue this inclusion of art cards to make the product much more special to a casual fan. The Product is designed with competitive players in mind, however the addition of an art card featuring Charmander, Pidgey or one of the later evolutions would boost its attraction to more casual and collector Pokemon fans.
Continuing on, the product does feature a small collection of gear to help in play, this includes damage counter dice, official burned and poisoned counters as well as a deck box to hold the cards in. The previous two items are perfectly fine and are in great quality, but the deck box provided is made of cardboard and is flimsy, with it easily breaking or bending after some minor use or being left to roll about in a backpack. This then could cause damage to the cards stored in there as it provides minimal protection, especially since the set doesn’t come with any sleeves to help protect the cards as found in other Pokemon products like the Elite Trainer Boxes.
Overall, the Charizard EX League Battle Deck Deck is a great place to start when jumping into the competitive side of Pokemon, with an easy to learn deck and a fun playstyle from Charizard EX. The deck is especially built for those wanting to play in local tournaments and leagues, providing the essentials of the archetype as well as space to customise and continue to follow the ever changing game of Pokemon with every release. Some minor changes could be made to make the product more recommendable to Pokemon fans outside of those interested in tournament play, but it is a very solid deck and a great way to start playing with a fan favourite Pokemon duo in Charizard and Pidgeot.
Zatu Review Summary
Zatu Score
78%
