Ultra rare isn't the most uncommon type of special rarity you can find of Charizard
Keith Adams have stated that many of the playtest decks he has found contained zero rares (and there weren't that many pre-alpha playtest decks to begin with after all)
While some Basics are necessary to climb into stronger Evolutions, others can hold their own by themselves
As for Commander, he's been playing since 2010, when he started off by making a two-player oriented G/R Land Destruction deck
On the other hand, Pokmon tend to get repetitive despite its adventurous lore, so its really your choice
The Risk of London Mulligans If you watched the live stream announcing the London mulligan test, you'll know that Wizards was pretty upfront about the fact that it heavily tested (and generally liked) the rule in Standard and limited but hasn't seriously tested it in Modern, Legacy, or Vintage