I've heard many people say that Charizard is the best card, and people ALSO 
say he is one of the worst. Let's have a look!

Now, his pokemon power, energy burn, allows him to turn ANY type of energy 
into fire- making him much like a colorless pokemon. If you don't whine about 
the 4 energy cost of Chansey's 80hp attack, or Dragonair's energy removal 
attack, why complain about Charizard? Oh sure, he discards two for every 100 
damage attack, but that can be easily replaced by any other energy cards you 
have. And it guaruntees you a kill against ANY pokemon, the only two 
exceptions being Chansey and another Charizard. By having two double 
colorless, you can have him at full power in 2 turns and switch him out to 
kill, say, a Blastoise- and destroy the essence of any Raindance deck.
He is a stage two, and like Venusaur, Blastoise, Dragonite and a few others, 
this is a con. But with 120hp and Fire Spin, it's well worth it- especially 
if you have a few Pokemon Breeders.
A third thing to point out is the whole Charmander line. You can have them in 
any deck without a single fire energy, and it will work quite efficiently. 
Charmander can do 10 damage with 1 colorless, and Charmeleon 30 for 3 
colorless- not bad, eh? And there's Charizard's energy burn. 'Nuff said.

Now, the biggest con of Charizard's has gotta be the energy discarding. But, 
if it guaruntees you a kill on every pokemon but two, who cares? Using 
Arcanine, and doing two Flamethrowers, will leave you discarding 2 energy 
cards over two turns. Charizard will be discarding 2 energy cards over 1 
turn, giving the opponent no oppurtunity to heal or switch. 

I currently have a Water/Fire Disruptor deck, with a few Dragonairs, and over 
all my experience of fighting, I discovered that once the Charizard is out, 
it's over for the other team (well, the exception of Raindance decks...but 
that's why I back my fire up with water and colorless). 
So stop saying Charizard is a slow, worthless card, because if you have 
skill, he can be VERY lethal.

~Vespa Zonessa  ( KattZoness@aol.com )