Charizard (Analysis) [QC 0/3]

/*Suggestions for more sets are greatly appreciated. Don't suggest Bellyzard until Salac Berry is released. This was originally Galladiator's skeleton, but he dropped the reservation. Galladiator did give me permission to use his Skeleton by sending me a PM, by the way. Note that I reserved this because both my other analyses are in Copyediting and one of then already has 1 GP check. */
QC Checks: None so far.
GP Checks: None so far.
Charizard (UU Analysis)

[Overview]

<p> After spending the Fourth Generation in the depths of the NU tier, Charizard returns as a viable pokemon in UU thanks to its new ability, Solar Power. As long as Sunny Day is active, Solar Power gives a Choice Specs boost without locking Charizard into one move. While the 12.5% HP loss every turn from Solar Power may seem undesiriable, Charizard isn't going to last long regardless of its ability. Though there has been no automatic sun users in UU since Drought was banned, Charizard can still manually summon its own sun. A Solar Power boosted Fire Blast deals massive damage to anything that doesn't resist it, especially when you factor in the sun boost as well. </p>

<p> However, Charizard's new ability does not instantly make it a major threat. Charizard still has the 4x Stealth Rock weakness, taking off 50% of its HP should it switch in when Stealth Rock is on Charizard's side of the field. Also, Charizard's speed is decidely average for a UU sweeper; it risks being outsped by many top UU threats, such as Azelf. Despite these disadvantages, Charizard can be an invaluable asset to your team if you play it correctly.</p>

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

[SET COMMENTS]

-Best set Charizard can run
-Solar Power boosts Char's Special Attack to 522
-Main attack based on personal preference; Fire Blast's power versus Flamethrower's accuracy
-Air Slash comes with decent flinch chance
-Focus Blast saves face against Regirock, but Focus Blast's accuracy is poor
-Solarbeam can also severely damage Regirock, and Blastoise as well
-Solarbeam is generally safe because hail and sandstorm are quite rare in UU, and both auto-weather inducers are easily destroyed by Charizard even without sun.
-Leftovers is used to partially remove Solar Power recoil


[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

-Standard special sweeper EV spread
-Timid is prefered over Modest because Charizard is in a dangerous speed tier
-Fire Blast OHKOs specially defensive Shaymin and Celebi in sun
-Turn used to set up Sunny Day is effectively wasted, allowing opponent to switch in a counter such as Blastoise, who can usually survive two Fire Blasts even in sun
- Life Orb can be used over Leftovers, but this makes Charizard die even faster
- Heat Rock can also be used to prolong the duration of Sunny Day, but Charizard isn't going to last long anyway.
-Blastoise won't like Solarbeam, though
-Tends to be really predictable
-As with all sets, Charizard begs Rapid Spin support. The common UU Rapid Spinners are Donphan, Hitmontop, and Blastoise.


[SET]
name: Choice
move 1: Overheat / Fire Blast
move 2: Solarbeam
move 3: Air Slash
move 4: Focus Blast
item: Choice Specs / Choice Scarf
ability: Solar Power
nature: Modest
evs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

- Choice Specs Overheat OHKOs 0 / 0 Regirock and Blastoise in sun with Solar Power; however, if you don't like the two-stage Special Attack drop, Fire Blast requires Charizard to switch out less often, which could prove invaluable if Stealth Rocks are up on your end.
- Choice Scarf can be used instead to outspeed almost all pokmeon except other base 100 speed pokemon carrying a Choice Scarf, but lacks hitting power of Choice Specs so manual sun support is extremely important.
-Solarbeam surprises Milotic and Slowbro, OHKOing 252 / 0, + Sp. Def-natured variants of both Pokemon.
-Solarbeam requires manual sun support to be useful, though.
-Air Slash and Focus Blast are used for coverage, as well as Air Slash's handy flinch chance


[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
- EV spread is the same as the Sunny Day set, for the same reason.
- Though the set locks Charizard into one move, this set hits harder and doesn't need to set up Sunny Day itself.
- Charizard really, really likes manual sun support from a teammate, especially when running Choice Scarf.
- Probably needs Rapid Spin support more than the other sets due to the fact that this set will be switching a lot.


[Other Options]
/*not adding Bellyzard as a full set until Salac Berry is released, and even then I'm not sure*/
-Charizard can run a Belly Drum set, but it tends to go flat if Stealth Rocks are on the field and there is no way to remove them. Unfortuately, Salac Berry won't be legal in 5th Gen UU for a very long time, if ever.
- Charizard could run a Swords Dance set, but Charizard's Attack is abysmal anyway.
-Overheat can be used, but only as a last resort before switching out.
-Bulldoze and Flame Charge, although a bit gimmicky, can both help with Charizard's mediocre Speed. Bulldoze, unfortunately, only drops the opposing Pokemon's speed, and so given that Charizard already has access to Earthquake, Flame Charge would be the better option.
- Charizard could run a Dragon Dance set, but it would be completely outclassed by Crawdaunt and other Dragon Dancers.
- As for other offensive options, Charizard has access to Focus Blast, Wing Attack, Shadow Claw, Dragon Claw, Crunch, Brick Break, Dragon Pulse, Fling, Rock Slide, Dragon Tail, and AncientPower, among other things. However, these moves are outclassed by other moves that Charizard can learn.

[Checks and Counters]

-Charizard's worst enemy is Stealth Rock. Due to Charizard's typing, Charizard loses 50% of its health when switching in while Stealth Rock is active, limiting Charizard to two switch-ins at most.
- Bulky waters in general counter Charizard to hell and back, being able to take a Solarbeam from Charizard and KO back with Scald.
-Azelf, Raikou, Jolteon, and others can easily outspeed Charizard and KO, though they will be outsped by Choice Scarf Charizard.
-Rotom-H easily eats Charizard's STAB moves, and replies with a STAB, 2HKO Thunderbolt. However, most Rotom-H are slow and it would not like an Outrage from the Dragon Dance set.
- Any Charizard not carrying Solarbeam is walled by Slowbro and Milotic.

dont slash outrage on the dragon dance set. unless they are a dragon type, a pokemon should NEVER use a dragon attack unless it really has that useless of a move pool. charizard does not so unslash it

Some Person said:

[SET]
name: Dragon Dancer
move 1: Dragon Dance
move 2: Outrage / ThunderPunch
move 3: Flare Blitz
move 4: Earthquake
item: Life Orb
ability: Blaze
nature: Adamant
evs: 176 HP / 252 Atk / 88 Spe

Click to expand...

Too many EVs. You need to remove 8.

@kiddu: Sorry, I must have made a stupid mistake.
@prem: Unfortunately, most of Charizard's physical movepool has a power less than 80, and Charizard needs some way to get past bulky waters. Charizard needs Outrage to get past Rotom-H, and Rock Slide doesn't hit anything of note other than Rotom-H. I'll slash Thunderpunch first and see what QC thinks about it.

IMO Choice Scarf needs to be the main set. With Solar Power in the sun, Charizard's power is already through the roof. All that it lacks is speed, and there is little need for switching between attacks - as long as they have no immunities fire blast will do the job.

edit- I would also question how viable the second set is.

edit 2- You shouldn't use 4 hp evs because that makes charizards hp even, letting it die after 2 sr switch-ins

@ SJ - when I posted this it was not even mentioned at all lol

The problem is, JC, with Drought banned, Charizard isn't getting the automatic Special Attack boost from Solar Power. You need to run a Sun team and set up everything manually with Heat Rock, which doesn't make the Scarf set inherently better than the rest of his sets. It's fine where it is.

• The main set needs a few changes. Life Orb shouldn't even get a slash. Yes Charizard is disgustingly powerful with a Life Orb, but it dies in 5 turns max (I didn't even take SR into account)
  
• Why is Solarblast slashed alongside Focus Blast?!? It should be the ONLY option because it overshadows Focus Blast coverage wise. Weather is nowhere near as common in UU Weather starters have no business switching into Charizard so its acceptable to use Solarbeam.
  
• I'm rejecting the Dragon Dancer set. Its just awful.
  
• Mention Sun support on the choiced sets. Its just a mediocre choiced pokemon otherwise (with a 4X weakness to SR)
  
• Update your counters section. (that means removing all mentions of DD, removing mentions of rapid spinning in counters, etc). Blastoise shouldn't get special mention over Milotic and Slowking, who are much better at checking Charizard.

I'll approve once the changes have been made.

frankly, I'm rather tempted to agree with jc104. the only place you should be using zard ever is a sun team and it is definitely not an optimal setter.

if you're using zard on a sun team, you have to use scarf to make sure taht it's not 100% useless when something faster switches in.

as others have said, make sure the spreads are evs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe to avoid killing yourself just with 2 SR switchins; also, modest should not even be a slash at all.

Okay, Solar Beam is not safe because hail/sand is "rare". In fact, I expect Hail use to explode shortly, while sand is still a real threat (Hippopatas may not be top tier, but it is a legitimate threat with its support).

Solar Beam is relatively safe because Abomasnow REALLY doesn't want to switch directly into Charizard (for obvious reasons), and because even if Hippopatas did switch into Solar Beam, it would have to switch right back out since Solar Beam would destroy it even in sand.