Scarlet and Violet: Obsidian Flames

August 11, 2023

197 Card Main Set

After two sets of mediocrity, Tera ex Pokémon finally made their real entrance into the card game with changed-type Tera ex. Obsidian Flames was really the Charizard ex set, as most of the other cards are padding from Japanese starter decks. For that reason, Obsidian Flames has some extremely strong cards but otherwise weak offerings.

THE RULES: Any card in the set that was not already in the Standard format at the time is valid for this ranking. For example, Nest Ball and Ultra Ball were both featured in Scarlet and Violet. While Ultra Ball received a "G" regulation mark, it was already in the Standard format since 2022. Meanwhile, Nest Ball hadn't been printed since Sun and Moon, meaning it was reintroduced to the game for Scarlet and Violet. Nest Ball would be valid for ranking, while Ultra Ball would not.

Attack Power represents the amount of damage a card can deal with its attack. Draw Power represents the ability of a card to pull resources from the deck. Support Skills represent miscellaneous effects from Abilities or Trainer cards, as well as a card's defensive capabilities. Most Abilities fall under Support Skills, even those which place Damage Counters, but Abilities like Seasoned Skill or Supreme Overlord do not. The above three rankings help illustrate the abilities of a card, but the three totals have no bearing on a card's placement in the list. A card might be a terrific specialist in one stat and rank #1, while having 0 in other stats. A card might have a fantastic effect but only in a very specific use case, while a slightly weaker effect could be ranked higher if it's more applicable.

Toedscruel's Protective Mycelium was one of the only ways to stop Sableye's lethal Lost Mine attack when the Lost Zone deck was at its strongest. Espeon VMAX was used previously but was too much of a liability. Toedscruel ex was a two-prizer and still had decent HP, as well as a strong enough attack. 

Colony Rush starts out at 80 damage but can reach 280 if all of your Benched Pokémon have Grass Energy attached. For a while, this could be accomplished with Cherrim's Spring Bloom Ability. This wasn't the worst plan since Grass was a common weakness in 2023. Both Charizard ex and Roaring Moon ex were Dark-type and could be easy Knocked Out by Toedscruel.

Toedscruel ex lined up very well against some decks, but it was too clunky otherwise, so was only ever a niche tech card.

Pokémon card image © Pokémon/Nintendo/Creatures/ GAME FREAK.

Klawf ex looks like a bulk ex card, but its Ability was exploited in a very annoying control deck. You would set Klawf up with a Tool card to boost its HP and have it act as a wall when your opponent only had strong attackers. By discarding all of your opponent's Energy, you would be able to neutralize all threats even if your opponent was careful with what they benched.

Although this strategy was extremely effective in the right scenario, Klawf ex was still a big liability with a 3 Retreat cost and a very weak attack. Using it was not intuitive whatsoever - you needed to have a very specific plan.

Klawf ex is a great example of the brutal control decks built around Block Snorlax. These decks constantly used niche ex and V cards that just happened to have a useful effect that was otherwise overlooked.

Pokémon card image © Pokémon/Nintendo/Creatures/ GAME FREAK.

Letter of Encouragement was a decent Item card for Energy-hungry decks like Chien-Pao ex and Gholdengo ex. It was limited in that you couldn't use it to set up, only after your opponent took a Knock Out, but searching for 3 Energy was an explosive enough that it warranted a spot in some decks.

This Item card was never the main strategy, as its main use case was for when resources were tight. In the example of Gholdengo, you would use Energy Search Pro to set up, but if you needed to scrape together more Energy as the game progressed, Letter of Encouragement was your best bet.

Pokémon card image © Pokémon/Nintendo/Creatures/ GAME FREAK.

Vengeful Punch is a great card for helping your attackers reach important damage thresholds. In back and forth slugfests between ex decks, you need to be able to take a Knock Out every turn to be able to keep up. Although Vengeful Punch only activates at Knock Out, this high tempo means that it's still valuable.

While 4 damage counters isn't even a quarter of the health of an ex card, it is enough to make a big difference in games with razor-thin margins. The fact that the damage is dealt on your opponent's turn means that they are not able to use a revenge card like Fezandipiti ex, since the Knock Out did not take place on your turn. The downside of this is that you are leaving your opponent with a whole turn to remove the Tool before they attack.

Another benefit of Vengeful Punch is that if your opponent tries to be clever and maneuver to not take meaningful damage from Vengeful Punch, they might run out of resources for the end of the game.

Pokémon card image © Pokémon/Nintendo/Creatures/ GAME FREAK.

Scizor is a neat tech card that punishes decks that use a lot of Abilities. Most strong cards are so because of their powerful Abilities, and strong decks are often loaded with them. An extreme example is against big Basic decks like Miraidon ex - with Area Zero Underdepths, a Miraidon deck could have up to 9 Abilities. This would mean 450 damage for one energy. 

While the damage is almost never this high, Scizor can still hit good numbers for a single-prizer. While Scizor is never the focus of the deck, it's a neat inclusion in decks with Metal Energy and provides a great alternate attacker. 

140 HP for a Stage 1 is good enough, putting Scizor well out of range of even the strongest snipe attacks like Torrential Pump or Trifrost. Two Retreat is pretty awkward, but if Scizor is in the Active, it's typically to force your opponent to Knock Out a one-prize attacker, so it isn't a huge deal.

Pokémon card image © Pokémon/Nintendo/Creatures/ GAME FREAK.

Pokémon League Headquarters is another strong control-type card from Obsidian Flames. This is a very powerful Stadium if you are playing an Evolution deck, significantly improving your matchup against Basic decks. Making your opponent's attackers need one extra Energy is extremely powerful and swings the game tempo in your favor.

Most Basic decks have to accelerate very quickly to keep up with Stage 2s, so they often are designed to get just enough Energy to attack from the first turn. Forcing an extra Energy to be attached each attack is a huge roadblock and can completely shut down your opponent's strategy. If you can play this card at the end of the game when resources are tight, you might lock your opponent out of a win.

Pokémon League Headquarters is also useful in strictly control decks for a similar reason to Klawf ex - even a strong attacker can be trapped Active if there isn't enough Energy to attack.

Pokémon card image © Pokémon/Nintendo/Creatures/ GAME FREAK.

Town Store 196/197

Town Store has a modest effect, allowing you to find a Tool card, but it's extremely valuable on a Stadium. Every single turn, you can simply look through your deck and pick a Tool card out. When playing Town Store, you sometimes don't even need the Tool card, but thinning out the deck is just as useful.

This Stadium is handy on a turn-by-turn basis, but there have to be strong Tool cards to value it over another Stadium. Over its time in the Standard format, Town Store was used to find Forest Seal Stone, Maximum Belt, Choice Belt, Ancient Booster Energy Capsule, and many other strong Tools. 

Having such a simple but effective search option on a Stadium card is often too good to pass up. Although it is a two-sided Stadium, not enough decks play Tools to make it a big deal.

Pokémon card image © Pokémon/Nintendo/Creatures/ GAME FREAK.

Cleffa was the headliner for the return of Baby Pokémon, and was the absolute best until the release of Budew. Drawing up to 7 is a fantastic effect for no Energy. Grasping Draw was often used Turn 1 going second in Stage 2 decks to ensure a strong Turn 2. While Rotom V's Instant Charge Ability was another strong way to end your turn, Grasping Draw often grabbed more cards.

Although Cleffa's HP is low enough to allow it to be found with Buddy-Buddy Poffin, 30 is overkill and leaves it as a huge liability sitting on the bench. A card like Sableye or Dragapult ex can destroy Cleffa and still have spread damage to spare. Despite this, I'm still giving Cleffa the nod on Support Skills since free Retreat is just terrific. Cleffa can be used as a pivot at any time. If it survives after using Grasping Draw, it can run away behind your now-set up attackers.

Cleffa is a solid support card and proof that Baby Pokémon can still work alongside 300+ HP attackers.

Pokémon card image © Pokémon/Nintendo/Creatures/ GAME FREAK.

The legendary Quick Search Pidgeot makes its return for Scarlet and Violet as a Stage 2 ex card. Quick Search is fantastic, allowing you to pull any one card from your deck. This is an extremely scary Ability for your opponent, especially near the end of the game. They have far less winning scenarios as they can no longer play assuming you don't draw into a specific card. 

Once Pidgeot is on the field, you get anything you want. As long as Pidgeot is in your deck, you can create huge combos with Stage 2 cards and specific Trainer cards. The fact that you can find any card you want means that you can include far more one-of cards in your deck, since you don't need high odds to draw into them. Free Retreat is the icing on the cake, allowing Pidgeot ex to be the ultimate search and pivot card. Despite being a 2-prize support card, 280 HP means that Pidgeot is barely a liability. Blustery Wind is great if Pidgeot gets stranded Active and can get rid of problematic Stadiums if necessary.

Thanks to Pidgeot ex, all you need to set up is get one Stage 2 in play. Although Pidgeot didn't fit well in big Basic decks, it was perfect for any deck that already had Rare Candy. Quick Search is so good that it even spawned a unique Pidgeot control deck.

Pokémon card image © Pokémon/Nintendo/Creatures/ GAME FREAK.

Charizard ex is the main headliner of the set and ended up being one of the strongest decks in the Scarlet and Violet era. Infernal Reign is one of the best Energy acceleration Abilities ever made, allowing you to attach 3 Fire Energy from your deck on Evolution. There is no need to search the Energy out, get it in the Discard, or any sort of deck manipulation. You can simply grab the Energy. This means that Energy is a non-issue in Charizard ex decks - some ran just 5 or 6. 

Burning Darkness is a very strong attack too. 180 damage for 2 is pretty great, but not enough to carry a deck. However, as your opponent takes more Prize Cards, the more and more damage you do. This means that you can take your time setting up and make a huge comeback. After 5 Prizes, Charizard can do 330 damage. With 330 HP itself, Charizard ex is nearly impossible to defeat in the endgame, especially if your opponent used an Iono.

2 Retreat isn't great, but Dark was a great Weakness to hit at the time of Charizard ex's release. Charizard could Knock Out Mew VMAX and Gardevoir ex in one hit with 6 Prize cards, removing the need for a comeback. Being the first relevant Tera meant that Charizard was immune to Bench damage. With Pidgeot ex's help, Charizard ex became one of the strongest decks ever.

Pokémon card image © Pokémon/Nintendo/Creatures/ GAME FREAK.

See Also:

Card Artwork from Pokémon TCG Card Database, Pack Artwork from Pokémon TCG: Scarlet & Violet-Obsidian Flames Sleeved Booster Pack (10 Cards) | Pokémon Center Official Site, used for review purposes.

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