Charizard (Writeup in Progress) [QC 3/3]

[Woodchuck]

Charizard

[Overview]

<p>For several generations, Charizard has been regarded as the most powerful of Pokemon... by your six-year-old neighbor. Charizard has never really been an excellent Pokemon, even plunging into the depths of NU after the introduction of Stealth Rock, which cut its health by 50% on each switch in. However, Game Freak finally took pity on its forgotten child with the advent of Dream World abilities in the 5th gen, granting Charizard the powerful ability Solar Power. With Solar Power, Charizard finally has something more than 10 extra base Speed to set it apart from Moltres. Solar Power allows Charizard to hit ridiculous hard in strong sunlight, being able to at least 2HKO practically everything in the RU tier. While Charizard still has to watch out for Stealth Rock, it finally can catch up to its fearsome brethren.</p>

[SET]
name: Solar Power
move 1: Sunny Day
move 2: Fire Blast
move 3: Air Slash
move 4: SolarBeam
item: Leftovers
ability: Solar Power
nature: Timid
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

<p>Instead of relying on its teammates to set up the sun for it, this set allows Charizard to set up Sunny Day for itself and proceed to plow through the enemy team with Sun-boosted Fire Blast and the 1.5x boost from Solar Power. Opponents will be extremely hard-pressed to find something in the RU tier that Charizard can not KO; Fire Blast already hits anything that doesn't resist it (and a lot of things that do) for massive damage. Air Slash serves as Charizard's reliable secondary STAB, hitting the Dragon- and Fire-type Pokemon that its other moves cannot cover. SolarBeam allows Charizard to hit Rock- and Water-type Pokemon that would be able to take a hit and retaliate with super effective damage.</p>

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

<p>Any team in RU would be hard pressed to find a Pokemon that can actually wall Charizard. Therefore, the main concerns when supporting Charizard are residual damage and revenge killers. Charizard loathes residual damage; a spinner is absolutely required for Charizard to function, or else it will be losing health tremendously fast thanks to its 4x SR weakness and the recoil from Solar Power. Consequently, while Life Orb would grant Charizard even more powerful, Charizard simply won't be able to survive setting up Sunny Day and then attempting a sweep through all the residual damage. Heat Rock, on the other hand, is more viable, but odds are Charizard will either be KOed or forced out by the time the eight turns are up. Hidden Power Grass is an option over SolarBeam, but Snover, the only automatic weather inducer in RU, is extremely unlikely to switch into Charizard, so sunlight will be up the majority of the time. Charizard also needs teammates that can dispatch priority users and other fast Pokemon. Victreebel makes for a good partner, benefitting from the sun, defeating revenge killers thanks to its Chlorophyll speed boost, and cleaning up after Charizard has weakened most of the walls on the opposing team. It also resists Electric- and Water-type attacks and doesn't mind switching into Rock-type attacks. Shiftry and Sawsbuck are also good partners to Charizard for the same reasons. However, this set can function outside of dedicated sun teams as well. In general, teammates should benefit from having walls weakened as this set excels at dealing massive damage.</p>

[SET]
name: Choice
move 1: Fire Blast
move 2: Air Slash
move 3: SolarBeam / Hidden Power Grass
move 4: Focus Blast
item: Choice Scarf / Choice Specs
ability: Solar Power
nature: Timid
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

<p>Unlike the previous set, this set trades the ability to set up its own sunlight for either greater speed or greater power. With sun support, Charizard can do massive damage in the sun. The Specs variant is able to 2HKO Slowking and 3HKO Munchlax with Fire Blast. Fire Blast is the primary attack of this set, having STAB and dealing ridiculous damage in the sun. As there are practically zero good Flash Fire users in the RU tier, Charizard is able to spam Fire Blast to its heart's content. Air Slash is backup STAB, allowing Charizard to hit Fire resists that can withstand Fire Blast. Solar Power hits Water-types immensely hard with sun support while HP Grass is more reliable; Focus Blast hits Rock-types and Munchlax for super effective damage.</p>

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

<p>Without sun support, this Charizard becomes an inferior Moltres; Mesprit can set up Sunny Day with

• Needs sun support or it becomes an inferior Moltres
• Also needs Rapid Spin support as it'll be switching even more than the Sunny Day set, without the benefit of Leftovers recovery
• Stealth Rock and other hazard support is greatly appreciated to get more KOes
• Flamethrower is an option over Fire Blast for perfect accuracy, but you'll miss the 2HKO on Munchlax after Stealth Rock while the sun is up as well as the OHKO on Entei and Poliwrath.
• You can also run Flamethrower or Overheat over Air Slash or Focus Blast for either a consistent move to pick off threats or a more powerful, accurate move at the cost of being forced to switch out.

[Other Options]

• Any other special attacking set is outclassed by Moltres
• Has Belly Drum, Swords Dance, and Dragon Dance
• However, only Dragon Dance is remotely viable, and even then Charizard can't do much off of its poor Attack stat
• Has Flame Charge to boost Speed but is generally better off attacking
• Has support moves like Roost, Substitute, and Dragon Tail but is too frail

[Checks and Counters]

• 2HKOes everything, but Slowking can possibly take one hit and hit back
• Stopped by faster Pokemon or Pokemon with priority such as Galvantula and Feraligatr respectively
• Snover can negate sunlight but is obviously not going to be able to stay in against Charizard

 

[PrimeMinister]

Uh this needs some work.
You never even specifically mention its 4x stealth rock weakness. A DD set is probably not viable, as Charizard certainly doesn't need the attack boost in the sun, and it's speed is already acceptable. Also, why would you slash solarbeam and HP grass, solarbeam has 50 more BP I believe and you're in the sun anyway. Get rid of HP grass and maybe HP ice as a slash? In the overview mention its predictability and the enormous amount of support it needs.

Uh I am not sure about this but you should probably have a choice item On the set.

Definitely get rid of sunny day, charizard is waaaaaaay to frail to set it up. Maybe focus blast?

Need a dream world section I think.

Probably expand overview a tad.

Status kills it

There is more work to be done wait for a QC member, but this is definitely a good place to start.

 

[Molk]

Uh this needs some work.
You never even specifically mention its 4x stealth rock weakness. A DD set is probably not viable, as Charizard certainly doesn't need the attack boost in the sun, and it's speed is already acceptable. Also, why would you slash solarbeam and HP grass, solarbeam has 50 more BP I believe and you're in the sun anyway. Get rid of HP grass and maybe HP ice as a slash? In the overview mention its predictability and the enormous amount of support it needs.

Uh I am not sure about this but you should probably have a choice item On the set.

Definitely get rid of sunny day, charizard is waaaaaaay to frail to set it up. Maybe focus blast?

Need a dream world section I think.

Probably expand overview a tad.

Status kills it

There is more work to be done wait for a QC member, but this is definitely a good place to start.

sunny day is the only sun in the RU tier, charizard needs to set up sun which wouldalso make charizard useless if it is holding a choice item.................
this is perfectly fine, just expand the overview a bit.

 

[PrimeMinister]

sunny day is the only sun in the RU tier, charizard needs to set up sun which wouldalso make charizard useless if it is holding a choice item.................
this is perfectly fine, just expand the overview a bit.

Yes exactly give a bulky teammate sunny day and add a choice.

 

[Molk]

Yes exactly give a bulky teammate sunny day and add a choice.

and then you only have 3 turns to sweeo unless you givve it a rock, which is useless outside of that, just force a switch and set up sunny day like a real man.

 

[Woodchuck]

Uh this needs some work.
You never even specifically mention its 4x stealth rock weakness. A DD set is probably not viable, as Charizard certainly doesn't need the attack boost in the sun, and it's speed is already acceptable. Also, why would you slash solarbeam and HP grass, solarbeam has 50 more BP I believe and you're in the sun anyway. Get rid of HP grass and maybe HP ice as a slash? In the overview mention its predictability and the enormous amount of support it needs.

Uh I am not sure about this but you should probably have a choice item On the set.

Definitely get rid of sunny day, charizard is waaaaaaay to frail to set it up. Maybe focus blast?

Need a dream world section I think.

Probably expand overview a tad.

Status kills it

There is more work to be done wait for a QC member, but this is definitely a good place to start.

If Charizard is too frail to set Sunny Day up, then why is Sunny Day Charizard the primary set in UU? >.>
There doesn't need to be a Dream World section as Charizard has already has had its DW ability released.
As for writing about its 4x SR weakness, well this is a skeleton and when I write it up I think it'll be fucking obvious
The only reason I even bothered to write a skeleton was to get QC approval on the set itself as Charizard is kind of outclassed by Moltres

I repeat, a Specs set wouldn't be great as almost all of Charizard's sets are outclassed by Moltres
The only reason Charizard even had a Specs set in UU was because Vulpix used to be UU legal, lol

EDIT: Sorry about sounding hostile, I just kind of felt you came on a bit strong for someone who seemed a bit unclear on what the purpose of this set is. I still appreciate input from people.

 

[Honko]

The only reason Charizard even had a Specs set in UU was because Vulpix used to be UU legal, lol

Not remotely true. The UU analysis was written months after Vulpix was banned.

A Choice set on a Sunny Day team is perfectly viable. Uxie uses Sunny Day, Uxie uses U-turn, Charizard has 6 turns to burn all with Fire Blast. Sunny Day teams aren't that popular right now, maybe because of MoxieKrow, but Charizard is definitely the scariest Fire-type on a Sunny Day team. Since there aren't any good Flash Fire users in RU, he can just spam Fire Blast all day long, which means Specs or Scarf is the item to use. Timid Specs Fire Blast in the sun 2HKOes Slowking and 3HKOes Munchlax. Good luck walling that.

The Sunny Day set is good if you aren't using a full sun team, but Choice Charizard definitely deserves a set as well.

 

[Woodchuck]

Okay, my mistake. I'll put a choice set up there as well.
edit: okay I've put a choice set up

 

[Cherub Agent]

this looks fine. In the writeup, mabye mention heat rock as an alternative item on the main set (no slash needed, lefties is generally superior, but heat rock may be more viable on a dedicated sun team)

 

[PK Gaming]

For a Charizard fan, you really know nothing about it kingcharizard...

QC APPROVED (1/3)

 

[PrimeMinister]

For a Charizard fan, you really know nothing about it kingcharizard...

QC APPROVED (1/3)

Thanks. I guess because I was unsure of a few things means I know nothing about it. And I believe honko agrees with me somewhat, that was unnecessary.

Thanks for adding a choice set, woodchuck. And no you didn't sound at all hostile, I'm still kind of a beginner in RU and I needed someone to clear that up. Are you throwing in a DD set? I think maybe it could be viable.

 

[Woodchuck]

this looks fine. In the writeup, mabye mention heat rock as an alternative item on the main set (no slash needed, lefties is generally superior, but heat rock may be more viable on a dedicated sun team)

Will do.

Thanks. I guess because I was unsure of a few things means I know nothing about it. And I believe honko agrees with me somewhat, that was unnecessary.

Thanks for adding a choice set, woodchuck. And no you didn't sound at all hostile, I'm still kind of a beginner in RU and I needed someone to clear that up. Are you throwing in a DD set? I think maybe it could be viable.

Actually, I don't think I will :/ hilariously enough, Fraxure does it better.

 

[Lesser Smaug]

Choice Charizard *needs* Rapid Spin support or Stealth Rock and Solar Power will kill it early if it is forced out.

Calcs: 297 - 148 [SR damage] - 37 [Solar Power damage] = 112

112 [Current HP] - 148 [SR damage] = -36, so the HP rolls to 0 instead and there goes Charizard. :/

 

[Woodchuck]

Lol, I'd accidentally put "stealth rock support" instead of "Rapid spin support". Fixed.

 

[Lesser Smaug]

Well, Charzard still wants Stealth Rock on the opposing side to guarantee some OHKOes or 2HKOes.

 

[Honko]

Get rid of HP Grass on the first set. If Charizard is using Sunny Day and the only auto-weather in the tier comes from Snover, you're pretty safe in assuming the sun will be up.

Mention Flamethrower in AC of the Choice set. Do some calcs and mention a couple of KOs you miss in exchange for the perfect accuracy.

QC APPROVED 2/3

 

[Woodchuck]

implemented, thanks for the approval

 

[Oglemi]

QC APPROVED 3/3

 

[Pocket]

Great analysis, Woodchuck. Wouldn't Flamethrower / Overheat be a viable option over Air Slash / Focus Blast on the Choice Set? Both of them provides you with a more accurate STAB than Fire Blast to pick off threats, while you still have the power and consistency of Fire Blast to sweep when possible. I think packing 2 Fire STAB moves for varying situation would be handy, especially on a Specs Zard.

 

[Woodchuck]

@Pocket I'll throw it in AC, thanks for the approval Oglemi
i'll get to work on the writeup soon

 

[Komodo]

ShakeItUp has taken over this analysis