We’re back. For those of you who may be a bit confused about the… subtle change in scenery, I moved to a new house! And you know how moves are, despite the perpetual exhausting furniture carrying as an adult I had to make sure I found time to fulfill my professional responsibility. Ranking up in a children’s card game. In my latest stream we played several different Bibarel decks, and tanked our rank all the way down to Ultra Ball 1. It was a dark day. It was then I realized that testing out new deck ideas constantly on Ranked was not the most efficient way for me to achieve Master Ball rank. Shocking, I know. After the Bibarel incident, I decided to make a serious push towards the highest rank in Pokemon Pocket, here’s what I did.

From Ultra Ball 1 to Ultra Ball 4 I climbed with my favourite deck this expansion so far, Pikachu/Luxray, this deck is definitely my strongest creation this season, and it matched up quite well into the meta. Yet as I reached Ultra Ball 4, I noticed a significant shift within the most popular deck. Darkrai Giratina players were no longer running Druddigon, opting to go all in on the EX Basic duo instead. This was bad news for my Pikachu deck, as all of a sudden my Luxray lost its prime target, I found myself struggling to nail 2 EX KOs due to Volt Bolt lacking damage. So I decided it was time to switch up decks, and bring in a list that would be able to capitalize on Giratina Darkrai no longer hiding behind Druddigon.

Genetic Apex Charizard, I choose you. There’s been a lot of talk about Charizard, players claim the reason this deck is better than it’s ever been is due to Iono being released. While Iono is a great addition to the archetype, Charizards’s rise to power is due to 2 main reasons: First off, the new Charmander and Charmeleon are a significant upgrade, back to back combustions while going second allow us to dispose of most non EX Basic leads, and then we get to follow that up with Slash for 60 damage, onto Crimson Storm which will annihilate every single pokemon in the game. Second of all, and arguably the most important reason is quite simple really:

Without Druddigon in the Giratina/Darkrai matchup, Charizard only needs to attack twice.

If you manage to do this, you win. No amount of Giant Cape’s will prevent this, which is why Charizard is THE BEST counter deck to Giratina/Darkrai. Here’s the version I used to reach Master Ball:

Today’s deck is the latest version of Crimson Storm ramp, making use of the new early evolution pieces, with a trainer lineup designed to enhance our consistency, enable fast pivots and even heal our incredible sweeper. The game plan is the usual, we lead off with Moltres, dance, get Charizard all hyped up, attack, win. In order for things to run smoothly, we prioritize 2 copies of X Speed over Leaf, as we want to be retreating Charmander leads onto Moltres, not the other way around, this way we also have a healthier Item to Supporter ratio, allowing us to swap our leads more consistently even after we’ve already played Professor’s Research or Iono. Giant Cape as a one of is crucial, allowing Charizard to survive a Red Boosted Gyarados attack, while also countering Rocky Helmet’s trying to leave us at range for other high end attacks. While Iono is great for the archetype, Pokemon communication is still more important overall, as we run a total of 8 pokemon, this means in most scenarios our communication play will have very strong odds of finding us that lazy ass Charmeleon taking a siesta.

There’s no doubt about it, Charizard Ramp is the BEST anti meta deck as of now. If you find yourself running into Giratina Darkrai again and again, this deck will net you easy wins and have you climbing towards Master Ball in no time.