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Blaziken DP4-1 Great Encounters holo card art

Image courtesy of TCGdex.net

Overview

Blaziken is a Fire-type Pokémon Card from the Great Encounters expansion (set code DP4) of the Pokémon Trading Card Game. Classified as a Rare Holo card, it occupies the Stage 2 slot in its evolution line, evolving from Combusken. With a robust 130 HP, Blaziken embodies the fiery power characteristic of its species, and its holo foil treatment underscores its status as a collectible centerpiece within its release window. This card captures Blaziken’s dynamic combat philosophy: leveraging energy acceleration to enable rapid offense, while delivering solid straight-line damage on its most demanding attack. The artwork, credits, and mechanics reflect an era when energy management and stage-based evolution were central to deck design, particularly in Fire-type archetypes. While Blaziken from Great Encounters remains a nostalgic classic for many players and collectors, it is not currently legal in standard or expanded competitive formats under contemporary rules.

Card Information

Name: Blaziken
Set: Great Encounters (DP4)
Card Number: dp4-1
Rarity: Rare Holo
Dex Number: 257
Type: Fire
Stage: Stage 2
Evolves From: Combusken
HP: 130
Attacks:
- Fire Dance — Cost: Colorless
  Effect: Search your discard pile for a Fire Energy card and attach it to 1 of your Pokémon.
  Damage: 30
- Flame Kick — Cost: Fire, Fire, Colorless
  Effect: Discard 2 Fire Energy attached to Blaziken. This attack does 80 damage to 1 of your opponent's Pokémon. (Don't apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)
Weakness: Water ×2 (represented as +30 damage in most modern notations, with a +30 modifier in this dataset context)
Retreat Cost: 1
Illustrator: Kagemaru Himeno
Legal formats: Standard: not legal; Expanded: not legal
Variants: Normal, Holo, Reverse — all standard printings from the set; WPromo: False
Illustrative notes: The card’s holographic treatment emphasizes Blaziken’s fiery presence, aligning with other Fire-type holos from the era.

Gameplay and Strategy

Blaziken’s card design centers on energy management and offensive tempo. The Fire Dance attack provides a utility function rather than raw damage—allowing a player to fetch a Fire Energy from the discard pile and attach it to any one of their Pokémon. This capability can enable rapid setup for subsequent turns, assisting in provisioning resources for a primary attacker or pivotting energy to a supporting Pokémon that benefits from immediate energy acceleration. In the context of its era, this made Blaziken a potential partner for deck strategies that emphasized energy recovery and resource recycling, especially when paired with other Fire-type lines that benefited from fast energy acceleration.

The Flame Kick attack, while powerful at 80 damage, imposes a substantial energy requirement: two Fire Energy along with an additional Colorless energy. Because this attack requires discarding 2 Fire Energy from Blaziken, it necessitates careful energy budgeting and deck support to ensure Blaziken remains a valid cornerstone of an offensive plan. The move’s additional clause—“Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon”—is consistent with its in-battle emphasis on direct, mid-to-late-game targeting of opponent’s actively fighting Pokémon, rather than supporting damage on the entire field. In practice, Blaziken’s value hinges on balancing field presence, energy recycling, and the timing of Flame Kick against the opponent’s active threats.

In competitive terms, Blaziken’s legality status in Standard and Expanded formats is negative under the given data, reflecting its role as part of historical rotation that excludes early 2000s sets from current play. Collectors and players evaluating legacy decks may consider Blaziken in the context of format-appropriate reissues or for sealed product experiences rather than active tournament construction.

Collector and Market Information

The Blaziken card from Great Encounters is cataloged as Rare Holo, making it a sought-after example among holo rares from the Diamond & Pearl era. The set’s total print run reached 106 cards, and dp4 is the identifier for the Great Encounters subset. The holo variant’s desirability is augmented by its position in the Blaziken evolutionary line, its relatively high HP for its time, and the visual appeal of holo foil treatment on a powerful Fire-type diverge from earlier stages in the Blaziken family line.

Pricing data provides a snapshot of the card’s market standing in recent years. CardMarket shows an average price of approximately 3.85 EUR for typical copies, with the holo variant exhibiting broader dispersion (average holo about 4.80 EUR, with a high of 4.8 EUR in the holo context; notable outliers such as the holo market average around 4.80 EUR and a low around 0.99 EUR as of late 2025). The dynamic nature of pricing for vintage holos reflects condition, edition, and market demand across European collectors. On TCGPlayer, holofoil copies list with low prices around 13.61 USD, mid around 16.03 USD, and high values reaching roughly 29.99 USD, with market price near 15.73 USD for the holofoil variant, illustrating the premium often associated with holo versions of early 2000s Pokémon cards. For reverse-holo copies, prices show a different distribution, with low around 11.13 USD, mid around 15.00 USD, high around 16.06 USD, and market prices near 11.00 USD, signaling a distinct but related value path for non-holo versions. These figures are subject to change with shifts in market liquidity, grading, and the broader collector ecosystem.

Collectors should note the card’s evolution line, its rarity designation, and the set’s historical significance when assessing value. Grading conditions, centering, surface wear, and foil fidelity typically influence the final sale prices for holo and reverse-holo versions, particularly for a card that experiments with energy manipulation mechanics that resonated with certain deck archetypes of its era.

Art and Lore

The Blaziken artwork on this card is attributed to Kagemaru Himeno, an artist known for dynamic, action-forward Pokémon illustrations across multiple sets. The Great Encounters era aimed to showcase powerful stage evolutions with vivid battle-ready stances, and Blaziken’s pose and aura align with that stylistic objective. The card’s hero focus—Blaziken as a Fire-type stalwart—reflects the broader narrative of Blaziken’s official dex position as a Fire/Fighting-type with a reputation for explosive energy and hand-to-hand combat prowess. While not tied to a single in-game lore moment on the card itself, the image resonates with the Pokémon world’s long-standing tradition of Fire-type Pokémon embodying intense momentum, high-impact attacks, and the strategic role of energy acceleration in battle planning.

Within the context of the set, Blaziken’s depiction complements the mechanics by visually reinforcing its dual role: a steady energy enabler via Fire Dance and a powerful finisher via Flame Kick. This duality mirrors the in-world persona of Blaziken as a capable battler who blends resilience with offensive improvisation, a theme that continues to influence how Fire-type champions are perceived in the broader franchise lore.

Trivia

The card is cataloged as dp4-1 within the Great Encounters set, highlighting its position as one of the early dp4-era holos in the release sequence.
Only non-first edition printings are documented for this card in the provided data; the set includes holo and reverse-holo variants, as well as normal printing.
Blaziken’s two attacks provide a balance between energy acceleration (Fire Dance) and high-damage output (Flame Kick), a design that reflects early-2000s strategies emphasizing resource management and direct damage.
The card’s not-legal status in Standard and Expanded formats underscores its status as a historical artifact from the Diamond & Pearl era, rather than a current-form競技 staple.
Illustrator Kagemaru Himeno’s contribution to this card places it within a broader corpus of notable Fire-type art in the generation’s card roster, linking it to other Blaziken and Fire-type depictions across the era.

Notes on Card Data and Sources

The card’s data reflects its official card text, set metadata, and pricing indicators as recorded in public card databases. Attacks and effects are listed as described on the card: Fire Dance enables energy retrieval from the discard pile to a Pokémon, while Flame Kick requires two Fire Energy and a Colorless Energy to deal significant damage to an opponent’s Pokémon. The weaknesses, retreat cost, and evolution details align with standard Pokémon TCG conventions for Stage 2 Fire-type lines in this period. The dataset also includes market information from CardMarket and TCGPlayer, providing historical price ranges and trends for holo and non-holo printings, with specific figures updated in late 2025. As with most collectible cards from older sets, market values depend on condition, edition, and the presence of any foil treatment or misprints.

📘 Blaziken — Pokémon TCG