Pokemon CotW No.5 Charmander/Charmeleon/Charizard Name: Charmander Type: Basic Pokemon Card #: card 46 of 102 Rarity: Common Color: Fire HP: 50 HP Weakness: W Resistance: none Retreat: 1 Species: Lizard Level: 10 Pokemon #: 4 Attack: [1] Scratch (10) Attack: [1R] Ember (30) Discard R to use. Name: Charmeleon Type: Stage 1 -- from Charmander Card #: card 24 of 102 Rarity: Uncommon Color: Fire HP: 80 HP Weakness: W Resistance: none Retreat: 1 Species: Flame Level: 32 Pokemon #: 5 Attack: [3] Slash (30) Attack: [1RR] Flamethrower (50) Discard R to use this attack. Name: Charizard Type: Stage 2 -- from Charmeleon Card #: card 4 of 102 Rarity: Rare - Holo Color: Fire HP: 120 HP Weakness: W Resistance: F -30 Retreat: 3 Species: Flame Level: 76 Pokemon #: 6 Power: Energy Burn: As often as you like during your turn (before your attack), you may turn all Energy attached to Charizard into R for the rest of the turn. This power can't be used if Charizard is Asleep, Confused, or Paralyzed.. Attack: [RRRR] Fire Spin (100) Discard 2 Energy cards to use. History (New Section): In the Red and Blue versions of the Pokemon Gameboy Game, Charmander is one of the first Pokemon you can get from Professor Oak, if you choose it as your first Pokemon. It's hard to train in the first stages, but gets progressively better. In the Pokemon cartoon series, Ash obtained this Pokemon from another trainer who abandoned it. Charmander was friendly toward Ash, but Ash couldn't tame Charmeleon/Charizard, and winds up having to hesitate using it because he can't get it to do what he wants. Charmander will die if its flame is lit out. Strategy: Strangely the Charmander series is one of the only Coloured Pokemon (and the only series in 1st Ed) that doesn't required coloured energy to use effectively. Scratch and Slash don't need energy; Fire Spin can be Energy Burned. It is better when coupled with Fire Energy, but it can also be 'splashed' into a deck; Alan's P/r deck is one such example. Mainstay is Psych but Splashed Fire can do damage. "Splashing" a deck with a colour is just putting a few assorted Pokemon into a deck that's mainly another colour, to combat weaknesses and resistances; since most Pokemon are specific-energy intensive, however, this is not so good. And even though slash only uses colourless energy, it's a fire attack. Which is good for grass-burning. When you play this in a fire deck, expect to discard quite a few energy and be prepared with more energy/retrievals in your deck. Strengths: -No need for coloured energy -Strong attacks when there _is_ coloured energy -High HP in all its forms Weaknesses: -Water Pokemon (Obviously) -Requires lots of discard -Possibility of overkill with Charizard; plus, 3 retreat + the fact the attack takes 2 turns to charge. Combos: (You see, Alan's comments last day about the Potion/Machoke combo made me think; is a combo something that's more than the sum of its parts? Alan seems to think so, but I'm a bit reluctant to admit it) Venusaur + Charizard - Let's get some of that Grass Energy over here to burn into some smoking Pokemon! Use Energy Burn _only_ as your last move in your Pre-Attack Phase. Rating: Charmander: Jonathan Ng: 8.0 Zachary Price: 8.0 Joseph McReynolds: 8.75 Average: 8.25 Charmeleon: Jonathan Ng: 8.0 Zachary Price: 8.0 Joseph McReynolds: 8.5 Average: 8.17 Charizard: Jonathan Ng: 7.0 (too energy-intensive) Zachary Price: 8.0 Joseph McReynolds: 9.0 Average: 8.0 Please Post or Mail with comments and ratings.