[OVERVIEW]
Charizard is an underrated threat in ADV OU with its powerful Fire Blast threatening a large part of the metagame and its great speed tier allowing it to outspeed or tie with most of OU. Its Fire type coverage alone is excellent at threatening the OHKO on many metagame staples like Metagross, Skarmory, Forretress, Magneton, Jirachi, Celebi, Heracross, Breloom and Venusaur, but it is also equipped with great coverage moves like Focus Punch to hit Tyranitar and Hidden Power Grass to hit Swampert.
Despite Charizard's poor defenses and many weaknesses to common attacking types like Water, Electric, and Rock, it can still perform its role as a defensive pivot thanks to its key immunities to Earthquake and Will-O-Wisp as well as its resistances to Bug, Fighting, Steel, Fire and Grass-type, which allow it to aggressively switch into battle generating momentum for its team. Critically it can act as a one-time switchin to dangerous threats like Heracross, Metagross and Breloom, and it can also scare out Gengar if it switched on a Will-O-Wisp.
However there are many issues preventing Charizard from seeing more usage in the OU landscape: first it competes with Moltres as the premier Fire/Flying-type in OU and it's outclassed by it when it comes down to defensive utility and sheer fire power, second it often relies on getting the right prediction with Focus Punch in order to be effective against Blissey and Tyranitar, and third it's hard walled by defensive Water types such as Milotic, Suicune and Vaporeon.
[SET]
name: Mixed Attacker
move 1: Fire Blast
move 2: Hidden Power Grass
move 3: Focus Punch
move 4: Dragon Claw / Substitute
item: Leftovers / Petaya Berry
ability: Blaze
nature: Hasty / Mild
evs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========
This mixed Charizard set allows for maximum coverage and great wallbreaking power. Fire Blast is Charizard's main STAB attack of choice despite its imperfect accuracy and low PP for its ability to OHKO specially defensive Skarmory, Metagross and offensive variants of Celebi and Jirachi; also worth noting that a Blaze boosted Fire Blast can OHKO Gengar turning Charizard into a decent offensive check to Gengar if it switched on a Will-O-Wisp.
Hidden Power Grass is the best complementary coverage option for a Fire type in ADV OU for its ability to abuse Swampert's 4X weakness as well as hitting other Water types and Tyranitar for decent damage. Focus Punch is a necessity for mixed Charizard in order to OHKO Tyranitar and threaten the 2HKO on Blissey, two of the most popular Charizard switchins. Dragon Claw is there to hit super-effectively the Dragon types Salamance and Flygon which otherwise take little damage from every other attack. Alternatively Charizard can make good use of Substitute which synergizes well with Focus Punch as well as helping it to get into Petaya Berry and Blaze range.
The item Leftovers grants Charizard a bit more longevity by negating the chip Sandstorm damage and allows it to survive indefinetely even at low health when Blaze is active; however Petaya Berry is an alternative option worth considering to boost Charizard Special Attack to even higher levels and allowing it to OHKO Zapdos with a +1 Blaze Fire blast and OHKO Swampert with a +1 Hidden Power Grass. When using Petaya Berry one should use 30 HP IVs in order to be in Petaya range after three substitutes.
A Defence hindering nature is to make sure to always survive Thunderbolt from Gengar and to OHKO back with a Blaze boosted Fire Blast. When choosing between a +Speed or +SpA nature one should wager whether Charizard is needed to check fast threats such as Super Celebi, Super Jirachi and tie with offensive Zapdos, or whether is more important to maximaze Charizard's power in order to help breaking through walls like Suicune and defensive Starmie as well as having a chance to KO defensive Swampert with the combination of Fire Blast and Hidden Power Grass.
Team Options
========
Mixed Charizard is mainly featured on mixed offense teams where it shines as a wallbreaker and a sweeper, there it appreciates partners that can make up for its weaknesses and at the same time keep up offensive momemtum. For example a great partner that can make up for Charizard's Rock weakness and gain momemtum on Tyranitar and Aerodactyl is offensive mixed or Endeavor Swampert, similarly mixed Metagross and more rarely mixed Jirachi are seen in conjunction with Swampert to provide an additional defensive backbone.
On the other hand in order to make up for Charizard's Electric and Water-type weakeness on mixed offense teams a very common partner is 4 attacks Snorlax with Focus Punch, less commonly seen but also effective are Wish + 3 attacks Jirachi and Super Celebi. Celebi is a good partner also because it exploits Milotic and Suicune which tend to wall Charizard, while Charizard can be a decent pivot into Bug and Fire type attacks that threaten Celebi.
Offensive Suicune is another great mixed Charizard partner as it can pivot into Water type attacks to gain momentum as well as enjoying having a partner that can blast through Celebi and Venusaur. Fighting types like offensive Hariyama, Machamp and Breelom like to pair with Charizard as they otherwise would have a hard time breaking through defensive Celebi, Charizard can also pivot into Will-O-Wisp from Gengar that often comes in on the fighters. The Electric types Zapdos and less commonly Jolteon can help in mitigating Charizard's weakness to Milotic and Suicune and they can also keep up momentum with Baton Pass to Charizard on a Celebi switch. Tyranitar is a common sight on mixed offense paired with Charizard as a mixed breaker in the early game, a Dragon Dance sweeper in the late game or with Pursuit to support Fighters like Breloom; it also provides sand support which is key to wear down mixed walls like Curse Snorlax and Milotic.
Mixed Charizard is sometime seen on special offense teams paired with Dugtrio as it can follow up when Charizard wallbreaks Blissey or Snorlax respectively with Focus Punch or Blaze boosted Fire Blast. Dugtrio also traps Tyranitar, allowing Charizard to spam Fire Blast with impunity, or alternatively, one can sacrifice Charizard while it stays in on Tyranitar to Focus Punch and follow up with a Dugtrio trap in order to prevent a Dragon Dance setup.
Mixed Charizard is also sometimes seen on Spikes teams as it enjoys Spikes support from the likes of Skarmory and Cloyster, which can help in wearing down the grounded walls like Milotic, Suicune, Blissey and Snorlax.
[SET]
name: Sunny Day
move 1: Sunny Day
move 2: Fire Blast
move 3: Substitute
move 4: Blast Burn / Overheat / Hidden Power Grass / Focus Punch
item: Petaya Berry
ability: Blaze
nature: Modest
evs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
IVs: 30 HP
[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========
Charizard can change the weather to intense sunlight with the move Sunny Day; in the sun the power of Fire type moves is boosted by 50%, and this combined with STAB, the ability Blaze and a high Special Attack stat boosted by Petaya Berry turns Charizard into an unstoppable wallbreaker. For exemple +1Blaze Fire Blast in the Sun OHKOs Snorlax while Blast Burn has a chance to OHKO even Blissey(+1 252+ SpA Blaze Charizard Blast Burn vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Blissey in Sun: 617-727 (94.7 - 111.6%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO), making Sunny Day Charizard one of the best special wall lures in the game.
Sunny Day and Fire Blast are mandatory moves on this set, as well as Substitute, which allows Charizard to reliably access Blaze and Petaya Berry ranges that are the key to its success. For the last slot Blast Burn is the most obvious choice as it has a chance to OHKO Blissey from full, however Overheat is worth considering as it deals slighty less damage but has a much smaller drawback.
Hidden Power Grass is not as necessary here as it is in the mixed set because Blaze boosted Fire Blast in the sun already deals with Swampert, however it's nice to have an option for the times when is not possible to setup Sunny Day, and it's also nice to have access to a 100% accurate move to finish off weakened Water types and Tyranitar.
Focus Punch is also a decent option because it nails Tyranitar: even if Charizard is paired with Dugtrio to get rid of it, it's still nice to have a backup plan. Additionally Focus Punch helps to dissuade Blissey from healing up, encouraging it to use Seismic Toss and putting Charizard into Blaze range.
Team Options
========
Sunny Day Charizard is mainly found on specially offensive teams that are trying to lure and eliminate special walls and subsequently take advantage of their absence with powerful special sweepers.
Dugtrio is the most common member on this archetype because it can trap and remove Tyranitar, therefore facilitating the weather reset with Sunny Day, and it can also trap special walls like Blissey, Celebi and Jirachi, clearing the way for special attackers. Together with Charizard Gengar works well both as a Blissey lure with Explosion, Destiny Bond or Mean Look + Perish Song, and as a special sweeper with its great special coverage that threatens the entire metagame after the walls have been lured by Charizard and Dugtrio. Similarly Zapdos can lure special walls and Tyranitar by using Baton Pass to trap them with Dugtrio, then it becomes a massive a threat of its own after they are down. Calm Mind users like Suicune, Celebi and Jirachi are staples of this archetype but less common special sweepers like Rain Dance users Kingdra and Ludicolo are also seen.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Flamethrower is an alternative STAB Fire attack that can be used on the mixed set and has the benefit of perfect accuracy and higher PP relevant mainly because of pressure users like Zapdos, Moltres and Suicune; however it's almost never seen as it doesn't guarantee the OHKO of Specially defensive Skarmory and bulky Metagross.
Hidden Power Ice can deal with Salamence and Flygon, but the loss of Hidden Power Grass is too much of a price to pay and reason why Dragon Claw is preferred instead.
Brick Break can be used in combination with Focus Punch to threaten Blissey, Tyranitar and Snorlax; alternatively Beat Up can be used instead to deal with Blissey if your teamates are healthy.
Charizard can also use a Belly Drum sweeper set with Salac Berry, but it is considered to be too inconsistent in the current metagame.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Water types**: Milotic is Charizard's best counter as it has great special bulk and access to Recover which allows it to heal off any attempt from Charizard to wear it down; additionally Milotic can live any sun boosted attack from the Sunny Day set making any setup against it futile.
Suicune doesn't have access to the same recovery as Milotic, but it can use Calm Mind to boost its Special Defense in Charizard's face; however it must be careful to switch into Charizard's repeated attacks because if it is forced to Rest it can become exploitable by Charizard's teamates.
Vaporeon's defensive set works well against Charizard with Wish + Protect effectively negating all the damage that Charizard can dish out while threatening it with Surf.
Offensive Starmie can switch into Charizard, outspeed it and threaten to OHKO it with Hydro Pump but cannot heal off the damage making it only a temporary check, on the other hand defensive Starmie with Recover can attempt to be a long term solution but has to be careful of Charizard staying in to click Hidden Power Grass as it's a 2HKO while Surf cannot OHKO back.
**Rock types** : Tyranitar can sponge Fire type attacks and distrupt Sunny Day setups with its ability Sand Stream aswell as threatening an OHKO on Charizard with a 4x super effective Rock Slide, however it has to be careful of switching directly into Charizard's Focus Punch, and also has to be afraid of Dugtrio that very often comes paired with Charizard.
Aerodactyl generally survives 2 attacks from Charizard so it can switch into it twice to regain momentum in an offense vs offense matchup. Worth noting that Aerodactyl has only one free switch-in against Petaya Berry Charizard: on the second switch, Charizard can substitute down into Petaya Berry range and KO Aerodactyl back.
**Blissey**: Blissey takes little damage from Charizard's special attacks but must be weary of switching into Focus Punch as it does upwards of 50% effectively negating Blissey's recovery and forcing it into awkward prediction games with Seismic Toss vs Soft-Boiled. Additionally, Charizard's Sunny Day set can use Blissey as setup bait with its weak attacks comfortably putting Charizard into Blaze range.
**Dragon types**: Salamence and Flygon all resist Fire type moves and OHKO back if packing Rock Slide, however they must be careful of switching into Dragon Claw as it is a 2HKO.
**Fire types**: Moltres, Charizard, Blaziken and Houndoom all can switch into Charizard's attacks quite safely but can't do much to threaten back. Houndoom absorbs Fire type attacks if it is packing the ability Flash Fire, but must watch out for Focus Punch on the switch.
**Electric types**: Zapdos and Jolteon can switch into Charizard once and force it out with the threat of STAB Thunderbolt OHKOing, however Zapdos must be fearful of the potential speed tie against Hasty Charizard.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[mikmer, 511989]]
- Quality checked by: [[, ], [, ], [, ]]
- Grammar checked by: [[, ], [, ]]
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