It was an important weekend for Pokemon TCG player Piper Lepine and fans of Fire-Type Kanto initiator, as the player from Minnesota took the win. Baltimore Pokemon TCG Masters Division Championship Region with a deck featuring the fan-favorite Charizard. And this is not just Charizard. It’s the new Radiant Charizard from the Pokemon GO set sporting a flaming lizard in its shiny form.
Image credit: pkmncards.com
The tournament was the largest regional tournament in modern era history for Pokemon with 1091 players. It lasted two days and saw Lepine dominate the Swiss rounds with her Inteleon/Charizard deck to the point where her record was so powerful she had the luxury give in to the opponent knew she would still make the Top 8 playoffs. Her final 12-3-0 record made her the second seed to make the top cut and from there she led straight to the crown, not dropping a single match in any of the best matches. any of her three matches. Along with the first-place medal, Lepine’s prize includes three booster boxes and $5,000.
OH. I am speechless. This weekend has been crazy, thank you everyone for the special support @noahlesak @JakobF27766905 Mikey, Iain, Andrew, Bodhi, and Alex and related Game. 1st place in the biggest regions ever? The deck has lost its mind, won’t change anything. pic.twitter.com/a0sjfKORK8
– Piper Lepine (@piperlepine) September 19, 2022
However The Charizard Card is an expensive item for collectors, they are generally not good in the game because despite their high damage they still have extremely expensive attacks. That trend has changed in recent years, with Reshiram & Charizard GX Proved To Be One Of The Best Pokemon Team Tag and find a place in the many winning decks of tournaments. But now the Radiant Charizard may have become the best solo Charizard card ever printed.
Radiant Pokemon are so powerful that players can only put one in their deck. Radiant Charizard’s power level is obvious when you look at its massive number of attacks and its Game-Changing Ability. Its Ignite attack deals 250 damage for the cost of one Fire Energy and four Colorless Energy, which is usually very expensive (sound familiar?), but thanks to its Stimulating Heart Ability, the cost will lose one Colorless Energy for each Prize card your opponent has taken. That means that after taking down a few Prizes, Charizard can start earning a large amount with the help of Dual Energy or Energy Boost cards like Raihan and Magma Basin, and towards the end of the game , it can attack only once. Fire Energy.
Most decks play dual-player Pokemon V with up to 220 HP and Pokemon VStar up to 280 HP, so with the help of a Choice Band (which adds 30 damage) Radiant Charizard can take them all down. in one hit. Pokemon 3 VMAX Prize has up to 330 HP, which is a bit beyond Charziard’s OHKO range, which is why the deck uses Inteleons to soften the target before bringing in Charizard to clear things up.
The Radiant Charizard’s 160 HP is low compared to its opponents and usually the opponent will knock it down in one hit, but with Klara and the Ordinary Rod in the deck, it can easily be recycled multiple times, allowing the player Play repeatedly swinging swords to deal massive damage turn after turn. . Inteleon and Drizzile’s Shady Dealings Ability are the cornerstones of the deck’s strategy, allowing players to manually pick important cards out of the deck to continuously make combinations. This strategy can falter if the opponent loses Radiant Charizard’s hand, but no matter how many times her opponent has played Marnie, Lepine can always find a way to regroup and get the dub.
For more details on Lepine’s deck, see Recents Lage of Rage Pokemon TCG . podcast episode where she appeared as a guest and explained her strategic thinking in the tournament.
If you want to learn to play Pokemon TCG or are coming back after a long time, check out our video with special guest Keith Habersberger where we show you how to play.
