Charizard Tier 3 Stage 2

Charizard ex is a Pokémon with a long and storied career in Standard thanks to its strong stats: 330 HP, an Energy accelerating Ability, and an attack that starts at 180 damage and improves throughout the game, capping at 330. These stats may not be enough to dominate Expanded, but they are a good baseline, making Charizard a decent archetype. Its weakness is that, apart from dealing damage, Charizard ex doesn't do much, which is a problem when compared to the many versatile and effective toolboxes that make up the majority of the best decks in the format. Well, you could add Charizard GX to win whenever the opponent's deck gets too low, but that's pretty niche.

The other issue plaguing Charizard is that, as an evolving deck, it is threatened by Kyurem's Trifrost in decks like Regidrago and Lugia, which can stop Charizard's setup altogether. This is a big obstacle in the current metagame.

All is not bad, though: Charizard ex can easily KO many common staples of the format like Tapu Lele GX, Crobat V and Latias ex. Its Dark typing is very strong against powerful decks like Shadow Rider and Gardevoir, while its own Grass weakness is rarely seen in Expanded.