The strategy here is to come in on something Charizard scares, and use Substitute as it switches out. Then Belly Drum on whatever they bring in as they break your Substitute. Your Salac will activate, as Belly Drum + Substitute brings you to 25% health. You now have +6 Attack, Blaze activated, and +1 Speed, which should allow you to sweep. If you have Endure, then you do the moves in reverse order: first you Belly Drum as they switch, then you use Endure on whatever they bring out. The IVs given are for Substitute, as they put your HP to 296, allowing you to use Substitute and Belly Drum and activate a Salac right then. This is because Belly Drum removes half your HP, rounded down, and Substitute removes 1/4 of your HP, rounded down. If your HP is divisible by 4, you get exactly 1/4 HP remaining, which is where the Salac Berry activates. If your HP is not divisible by 4, that rounding will cause you to have slightly more than 1/4 HP at the end, so you won't activate a Salac. If you have Endure, then keep your HP at 31 IVs, as this will make your HP odd, so you can still use Belly Drum if you switch into Stealth Rock and have otherwise not taken any damage.
Here, what you do is dependent on your moves. If you go with Double-Edge on Charizard, you'll want to make sure it doesn't get damaged, and then use Belly Drum when it comes out. Hopefully, they'll switch to something like Swampert, not Garchomp. You'll want something you can OHKO with Double-Edge after a Belly Drum that is also slower than Charizard. The recoil from Double-Edge will do enough to Charizard so that it's put into Salac and Blaze range, and as long as the enemy has less than 444 HP, the recoil won't kill you after a Belly Drum. For Fly and Return, you'll instead want to switch Charizard into an attack that does more than 25% damage (but less than 50%), so you'll activate your Salac after using Belly Drum, or switch it into Stealth Rock. Fly seems really bad at first, but if they switch in something like Suicune as you Belly Drum, Fly is your best chance to OHKO. Return helps against stuff like Gyarados and Salamence for a 100% accurate move that will easily OHKO after a Belly Drum, even after several Intimidates (Fire Punch fails to OHKO Gyarados with at least 208 HP EVs after two Intimidates, and the standard Salamence with no HP EVs or Defense EVs can survive after two Intimidates, and always survives after three). Flare Blitz isn't here because Fire Punch already OHKOs most Pokémon that you'll be using a Fire move on, anyway, and Double-Edge hits the most common switches (the bulky Water-type like Swampert) harder than Flare Blitz does before Blaze kicks in.
Here, Charizard attempts to pull an Infernape and mixed sweep with Fire and Fighting. Charizard has two advantages. The first is that it is immune to Ground attacks (and resists Fighting). The second is that Charizard learns Dragon Pulse. This allows it to hit Dragons and Waters on the same set (although you still have to pick whether you want the OHKO on Swampert or Gyarados). The disadvantage compared to Infernape are numerous. Infernape has much higher Attack and Speed. Infernape gets STAB on Fighting and has access to Close Combat, whereas Charizard needs to use the much less reliable Focus Punch. Finally, Charizard is 4x weak to Stealth Rock. For these reasons, if you are using this set, think long and hard about whether the advantages above are enough to negate these many weaknesses. The main reason you would want to use a set like this would be if you are trying to double up your offense in one area in hopes of weakening their defenses against it. For example, if you already have Infernape, Heatran, or another Fire attacker on your team, you may want to soften their defenses with Charizard in hopes of opening up a sweep later once you've weakened their counter a bit. Alternately, you could have a lot of Ground-weak Pokemon, but Charizard fills a useful mixed attacking slot you need on your team.
Flare Blitz is really going to hurt anything that doesn't resist it, and Earthquake will hurt most of the Pokémon that do. The other moves are mostly to shore up weaknesses. Fire Punch gives a nice option for when you don't want massive recoil from Flare Blitz. Rock Slide hits Aerodactyl, Salamence, Gyarados, Moltres, and Charizard, mostly. Focus Punch is good for Waters that aren't Gyarados, just because of its high base power. Focus Punch and Rock Slide combo nicely; Focus Punch hits Garchomp on the switch, while Rock Slide covers the Fliers that resist Fire. The only advantage of using this over Infernape or Blaziken is the Ground immunity. Otherwise, their Fighting STAB make them the better choice.
This uses the guise of the Bellyzard at first, as they are expecting that most of the time, giving you a nice way to hit something potentially dangerous that thinks it can come in on your set up. Expect stuff like Roar Suicune and Swampert first turn, and use this to your advantage by generally opening with Hidden Power Grass. Of course, if they have a Skarmory out, they may just leave it in to use Whirlwind, so you may get a free KO right there. Hippowdon and Tyranitar would be other common switches if they haven't used their Sand Stream ability yet, and Hidden Power Grass hits them, too. Overheat is better at the start to just do massive damage to most anything, but Flamethrower cleans up better at the end. You could use both, but it would be hard to find a move you could lose. Use a -Defense or -Special Defense nature if you have Focus Punch, and use a -Attack nature with Focus Blast. These moves are Charizard's main advantage over Choice Specs Moltres (the ability to hit Waters with Hidden Power and Dragons with Dragon Pulse is the other one). Charizard likes its Defense to switch into Heracross (4x resist Megahorn, 2x resist Close Combat in conjunction with Charizard's superior Speed lets it come in occasionally) and makes Salamence's Choice Banded or Dragon Danced Dragon Claw more likely to be a 2HKO than a OHKO, while Special Defense can make Milotic's Surf, Gengar's Thunderbolt, and Salamence's Choice Specs Dragon Pulse a 2HKO instead of a OHKO. With Focus Punch, if you use a +Speed nature, you may consider lowering Charizard's Speed to 320 (220 EVs) and putting the leftovers into Attack. The choice between Focus Punch and Focus Blast is a tough one. Focus Punch can only hit the special walls on the switch, meaning that, for the most part, you have to try and get them down to 55% or so before you can kill them. Focus Blast has the problem of 70% accuracy, so you may just end up doing nothing to them. In the end, Focus Blast is probably your better option, because if you hit Blissey once on the switch, for instance, it can do up to 53% to Blissey if it has no HP or Special Defense EVs. Then Blissey stands a chance to be KOed next turn (especially if Stealth Rock is down or if there is a Sandstorm raging), so even if your next attack misses, it might just miss vs. a new Pokémon, since the mere threat of a KO may cause them to switch their Blissey out. Focus Blast also easily 2HKOs most Snorlax, so you can actually use it to finish off a Snorlax with a few Curses if your main counter is dead.
The Substitute set is a guaranteed way to make this Charizard do something Moltres can't, as Moltres can do Fire Blast, Sunny Day, Solarbeam, Hidden Power Ice better than Charizard (Timid Moltres has 1 more Special Attack and 7 more Speed than Modest Charizard, and that increase in Speed puts Moltres above Modest / Adamant Salamence and Adamant Garchomp). With Substitute, Charizard is guaranteed to be able to activate Blaze, a significantly better trait than Pressure for sweeping. Blaze Petaya Fire Blast from Modest Charizard will OHKO most Salamence in the sun, just to give you an idea of its power. Sunny Day also helps out Charizard defensively. With a Sunny Day up, Charizard is 3HKOed by most STAB Surfs, so it can use Sunny Day to weaken the Surf, then Solarbeam, and then, if it's not in Petaya range, Charizard can either Substitute then to activate it, or just finish off whatever Water they have out with Solarbeam. Salac Berry is also an option here, but be sure to use Modest if you do, and you'll definitely want to hit the Waters before you try and Solarbeam them. Hidden Power Ice is mostly to hit Dragonite, Salamence, and Garchomp, while Hidden Power Ground covers most Fire-types, especially Heatran. You'll want to try and predict Hippowdon and Tyranitar switch-ins and use Sunny Day. This will be especially important for Tyranitar, as Sunny Day will not only turn Solarbeam back into a one-turn move, it will also remove Tyranitar's Special Defense boost. Other OptionsDragon Claw should not be used on a two-attack Belly Drummer, even though only Heatran resists your move combination; you'll always find that Earthquake is better to hit Pokémon like Tyranitar super effective. Blaze STAB Belly Drum Fire Punch still OHKOs foes like Gyarados, Salamence, and Aerodactyl. In fact, Fire Punch hits Aerodactyl and Gyarados harder than Dragon Claw, and Return will easily OHKO Salamence, Garchomp, Dragonite, and Flygon, even after a few Intimidates, as well as hitting stuff like Suicune harder. It also should not be put on the Choice Bander, as its only use would be for Garchomp, which you will nearly never be able to hit with Dragon Claw, anyway. You hit it nearly as hard with Focus Punch, and you can't bring in Charizard on Garchomp, anyway, as the only move you can safely come in on is Earthquake. If Garchomp is using Earthquake instead of Swords Dance, it most likely has a Choice Band or a Choice Scarf, meaning it will switch out. If it switches out, Focus Punch or Flare Blitz are almost certain to do more damage to whatever comes out. Will-O-Wisp is a cool move to block physical attackers from ruining your fun, but since most of the counters to Charizard are Water-types, you'll risk doing something like activating Milotic's Marvel Scale. Fortunately, Dragons like Garchomp are more common switch-ins, and it's really nice to hit Salamence, Garchomp, or Gyarados on the switch with a Will-O-Wisp. Swords Dance can give Charizard an alternate way to set up, as can Dragon Dance, but if you're using either of these, Garchomp, Salamence, or Tyranitar will almost always be better due to superior stats and typing, and if you ever find time to Swords Dance, you usually could have used Belly Drum in that same situation for even more of a boost. Belly Drum's HP loss can actually be a good thing, as it helps activate a Salac and put you into Blaze range, further weakening the argument for Swords Dance. EVsDue to Stealth Rock's taking off 50% on each switch-in, you should consider making Charizard's final HP stat odd, achieved by putting the EVs in any stat other than HP on a standard 252 Attack /252 Speed spread, thus allowing 2 switch-ins with HP remaining. A good minimum Speed for Charizard is 280. This makes it faster than Adamant / Modest Lucario as well as Adamant Heracross. Charizard will usually want more, though, because it's too frail to really take a good hit from anything, so it's best off just being faster and OHKOing the opponent. If you are OK with using a +Speed nature, consider 320 Speed. This is faster than Modest Gengar, all Speed neutral Pokemon with base 100 Speed (think Salamence), and Adamant Garchomp. These are primarily breakpoints for a mixed attacker. If you are using only one type of attack, you are generally better off just maxing out Speed and your offensive stat. Charizard makes poor use of its defenses and needs as much Speed as it can get. On the Belly Drum sets, Jolly's only purpose is to outspeed Modest Choice Scarf Gengar and Adamant Choice Scarf Garchomp after your Salac Berry activates (and you outspeed the non-Choice Scarfed versions before your Salac Berry activates). If you are going to try and save EVs in Speed, put the extras in Defense or Special Defense. This is because Charizard's typing gives it a 4x resistance to Bug and 2x resistance to Fighting, which is a fairly common physical combination. Charizard also resists Fire, which is primarily a special attack. Pumping HP in hopes of surviving both better will usually mean that you can't rely on taking either. It's not necessarily a bad idea, but you'll find it more generally useful to be able to take a powerful Close Combat or Fire Blast once rather than taking several weak attacks from both sides of the spectrum coming from Pokemon that aren't that threatening, anyway. In the end, it's somewhat of a personal preference. OpinionCharizard is arguably the best Belly Drummer in the game (Smeargle is the other, and it's only good because it can Baton Pass it). It has a decent Special Attack stat to work off of, as well, combined with it great offensive STAB in Fire moves. Its ability, Blaze, turns the main STAB move, Fire Punch, into a true offensive powerhouse by making it 50% stronger than it would be without Blaze activated. Defensively, however, Fire / Flying is a poor typing. Its only practical advantage is that Charizard can switch in on Choice Band or Choice Scarf Earthquakes for free, but in exchange, Charizard takes 50% damage from Stealth Rock and is weak to Thunderbolt, Surf, Rock Slide, and Stone Edge. It takes neutral damage from Return, Tri Attack, Crunch, and Draco Meteor, as well, so it won't be getting many free switches. Despite all of this, the Belly Drummer can still sweep teams if you play your cards right. Charizard can use the threat of the Belly Drum set when it first comes out to surprise them with the Choice Specs set, as many of the counters to one set are 1-2HKOed by the other. CountersWater-types in general are a good switch into Charizard. Swampert and Suicune are nice to use thanks to their ability to Roar out Charizard if it sets up a Substitute (so they don't have to risk taking a Belly Drummed hit), but Swampert especially needs to watch out for both the Choice Specs Hidden Power Grass and a Belly Drummed Double-Edge. Milotic is another nice choice because it just barely takes 3 hits to bring it down, meaning Milotic can just stall Charizard out of PP with Recover, assuming it's not afraid of a critical hit, or come in on Hidden Power, and still have a little over half its HP left to use Recover on later, but it, too, fears a Belly Drummed Double-Edge. Starmie can abuse its Speed to stop any Charizard that use Belly Drum without Substitute or Endure, but it needs to have some bulky EVs to not be OHKOed by Choice Specs Hidden Power Grass. Vaporeon can have enough HP to make Charizard OHKO itself in recoil damage if it tries Double-Edge, and can use Roar or Haze for Belly Drum behind a Substitute. They all resist Charizard's Fire moves, as well. Thick Fat Hariyama is quite possibly the best counter for any Charizard that doesn't have Air Slash (which should be quite rare, except on a Choice Specs Charizard without Hidden Power), so long as it knows Whirlwind. If Charizard sets up a Substitute, Hariyama can Whirlwind away Charizard, so if it used Belly Drum, it just lost 75% of its HP for nothing, while if it tries to attack, Hariyama can take it easily, costing Charizard 25% of its HP and making it lose the ability to hide behind a Substitute next time. If Charizard is of the Double-Edge variety, Charizard will OHKO Hariyama, but the recoil will OHKO Charizard right back. Even Belly Drummed Earthquake won't OHKO defensive Hariyama. It can come in on Choice Specs Overheat fairly easily, as it's a 3HKO with a moderate investment in Special Defense, and Choice Band Flare Blitz will hurt Charizard in recoil about as much as it will hurt Hariyama. Thick Fat Snorlax is much of the same, except it can't take on the Belly Drummer nearly as well, although with 200 Defense and 500 HP, it will always survive a Belly Drummed Earthquake, so it's a fairly safe switch in. Aerodactyl can come in on most of Charizard's moves at least once and use Rock Slide or Stone Edge for the easy OHKO, and stalling Aerodactyl can Whirlwind out a Charizard that's behind a Substitute and about to Belly Drum. Blissey easily stops the Choice Specs set, as there is a less than 50% chance for Focus Blast to hit twice in a row, and an even lower chance for it to roll max damage each time. Heatran walls special sets similarly. Flash Fire means it's better than immune to the Fire moves, it's 4x resistant to Grass and Ice, and resists Dragon Pulse. Earthquake and Hidden Power Ground will put an end to that, however. Pokémon with moves that strike first (other than Mach Punch and Bullet Punch if Charizard is at 25% HP) will also ruin the Bellyzard's chance of a sweep, but they have to get these Pokémon in, which usually means sacrificing something. Tyranitar and Hippowdon's Sand Stream and Abomasnow's Snow Warning really hurt Charizard's chances for survival, especially the Bellyzard. Tyranitar also has the advantage of resisting Fire and having a boosted Special Defense in Sandstorm. Stealth Rock takes away 50% of Charizard's HP every time it comes in, so it won't live very long if that's down. |
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