0 Introduction
1 Team
2 Leads
3 Matchups
4 Hazard game
5 Results
6 Conclusions
Introduction
Pokepaste
https://pokepast.es/3c2987d2232f6c0c
First thing first, the team is not entirely mine. It was originally made as a sample team by MAVERICK SHOOTERS when Walking Wake first came out. I changed and improved the team over the course of 2 years, but the team structure mostly remained the same. The RMT will be divided into the 6 following parts :
1 team
In this part I will talk about each member of the team more in general to give you an idea of what they bring to the table, including possible changes to the sets.
Torkoal @ Heat Rock
Ability: Drought
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Clear Smog
Hatterene @ Eject Button
Ability: Magic Bounce
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 248 HP / 204 Def / 56 Spe
Bold Nature
- Trick Room
- Dazzling Gleam
- Nuzzle
- Healing Wish
Great Tusk @ Eject Pack
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Headlong Rush
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Rapid Spin
Roaring Moon @ Choice Band
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 32 HP / 220 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Iron Head
- U-turn
- Outrage
Walking Wake @ Choice Specs
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 8 HP / 4 Def / 244 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Steam
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- Dragon Pulse
StallMelter9000 (Charizard) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Solar Power
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flamethrower
- Solar Beam
- Focus Blast
- Overheat
2- Leads
There are mainly 3 possible leads with this team. We will start from the most unlikely one, to the most obvious.
Walking Wake:
Walking Wake is to be leaded against Glimmora HO and Rain. For the first one, you want to click Either Hydro Steam if there's no Waterpon or Draco Meteor if they have one. Against rain you lead and immediatly drop a Draco, as the main priority against that matchup is to kill the Peli
Roaring Moon:
Roaring Moon is a good lead against Samurott-Hisui, most Sun teams, Psyspam and in general against all those teams who have a U-Turn weak lead
Torkoal:
Standard lead. Set up sun and switch into Zard against Great tusk; switch into Hatt against Lando-T; Hard switch into Roaring Moon against Deoxis-speed; Rapid spin then go into Hatt against Ribombee; Set up rocks, but only if the opp doesn't have Hatt, Cinde or Tusk; go into Tusk against Tyra; Against stall switch into Hatt and use healing wish, then go into Zard. Those instruction should help you figure out most early games, in general try to get the first
kill as soon as possible, most of the time you should aim to let Charizard safely in by turn 3/4/5
3- (Rough) Matchups
In some matchups playing this team will feel like an uphill battle, this section should help you navigate through the most difficult ones
Keep Hatt's eject button to use it on a Moonblast and switch into RM. Always Click Iron head, tera if you think they will also tera (they usually won't). Never predict against Valiant: An unboosted Valiant is as good as dead against this team
either keep your torkoal healthy and Tera Water on the EQ or Tera steel your own RM
Knock his leftovers off and set up rocks, Being able to kill this thing with Charizard is a must
Hard switch as they substitute or sac a mon (usually hatt or Charizard) to go into RM. Use tera if you need to, it's worth it
Most of the times your opponent will Tera Fairy against your Tusk to survive a headlong and kill back with either pulse of Meteor, so try to keep your eject pack to use it on this fella or, at very least, keep your Roaring Moon healthy enough to survive a +1 thunderclap under sun
Keep your Tusk ( and possibly also torkoal) at full health, Try to force your opponent to Tera another mon and, in general, keep in mind that no matter how big of an advantage you have, as long as the Gambit can tera, the game is not over
Sun :Ninetails:
The match comes down to who gets the most Walking Wake calls right. Roaring Moon and WW are your main asset here, Hatt should be preserved to as long as possible, Great Tusk is also quite good if you manage to kill the opposing Tusk, Charizard can maybe pick a kill or at least do good damage, but it's mostly dead weight here, while torkoal can at best aim to set up rocks, then get sacced at the first useful occasion
Just pray that you guessed the right set LMAO
Try to not take kills with Tusk or RM, Don't WoW until you know for sure that they don't have substitute
Keep Torkoal healthy, hard switch on Torkoal as he uses Sword Dance, Click tera Water and burn him, spam clear smog until he kills you and then revenge kill with Tusk
Tera Water :Blissey stall:
Try to cheap the blissey down until Zard can 2hko it with Tera fire Flamethrower under sun, if your opponent is good and doesn't let you do so, forfeit
Set hazards up, Keep Tusk healthy and Try to not pick kills with RM and WW
If it's calm mind or AV Great Tusk's Headlong rush should be enough under sun, just use hatt to get a free switch to do so. Charizard can also manage Prim if it's not AV
Apply constant pressure: Never let it enter for free, try to knock those boots and predict tera water by clicking solar beam with Charizard if needed
Forfeit LMAO
Substitute set up sweeper:
Pick a god and pray (Aka just forfeit)
4- Hazard game:
This team's hazard game is quite different from most others. Your highest priority should be to not let your opponent set rocks and spikes up and, generally, wasting a turn to set up your own rocks is not worth it. However, there are match ups where you really want to set rocks up:
, 
, 
and other possible focus sash/scarf users, mainly to scout for heavy duty boots
, Waterpon and AV glowking
Rocks are good against them to hit specific ranges. Waterpon dies to U-Turn;after 1 rock chip; Garganacl drops to Tera fire Zard after 1 rock chip (leftovers have to be knocked off though)
But there are also mons that greatly reduce the value you can get from hazards. We already talked about them: Cinderace, Hatterene and Great Tusk
As long as this thing is alive, you should NOT set up hazards. As we already said, you should prioritize keeping your side clean from hazards over setting them up on your opponent's side
If the opponent has no spin blocker then trying to set rocks up can be worth it, as if Hatt actually comes in you can just spin in front of it, otherwise it's a big NO-NO
Unlike against Hatt and Cinde, you are not actively hurting yourself by setting rocks on a Tusk team, but I'd still argue against doing so, as the Tusk will have way too many occasions to spin. Setting rocks can still be a good middle-ground, but generally, a well-timed prediction is not only more rewarding, but also less risky
5- Results
The team has reached some astonishing results. I have laddered with it from the 1500s circa up until 2000, AKA 6th place (most of the run was streamed on the Pinkacord), which is also my personal best.
Here's proof of peak + some other replays of High-elo games where you can see in practice the things I have talked about in this RMT
The team also made me arrive first at the third edition of the Pinkatour, a tournament organized by Pinkacross. It was a relatively small tour (only 40 players circa) and it was a no Tera tournament [AKA gen 9 OU if it was actually competitive :)], so not exactly standard OU, but I guess that it's still worth mentioning
6 Conclusions
So... Is Charizard good? Does it have a spot in the sun meta?
To put it simply:
Fuck yeah
Charizard is definitely not a mon that you can slap on every team. Specs Iron Moth, It's closest competitor, can perform a somewhat similiar role and is much easier to fit on teams. That said, Charizard's niche as an unwallable wallbreaker is undeniably valuable and, although it remains no top tier sun abuser, can definitely be worth building around
Credits
Shoutous to Maverick Shooters for kindly giving me permission to write an RMT about a team that's mostly his creation, to Sanesa8724 for helping me write all of this and to the whole Pinkacord, a fantastic community that you should definitely join if you want to improve at the game
1 Team
2 Leads
3 Matchups
4 Hazard game
5 Results
6 Conclusions
Introduction
Pokepaste
https://pokepast.es/3c2987d2232f6c0c
First thing first, the team is not entirely mine. It was originally made as a sample team by MAVERICK SHOOTERS when Walking Wake first came out. I changed and improved the team over the course of 2 years, but the team structure mostly remained the same. The RMT will be divided into the 6 following parts :
1 team
In this part I will talk about each member of the team more in general to give you an idea of what they bring to the table, including possible changes to the sets.
Torkoal @ Heat Rock
Ability: Drought
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Clear Smog
I'm 100% positive that this is straight up the best Torkoal set possible, This mon is here for mainly 2 reasons (aside from setting up the sun): Hazard game and safety line against sweepers. The first reason is pretty obvious, set up rocks against passive mons and occasionally spin if you need to (P.S. 90% of the opponent won't have the time to set up rocks if you are playing the team correctly, so ideally Torkoal's rapid spin should never be necessary). However, the second reason is what, in my opinion, makes Tor koal the best sun setter. As you might have noticed, the team has no type of speed control outside of booster speed roaring moon, which is not only easily revenge killed by priority once chipped, but also serves as a setup fodder for many, many sweepers due to being choice-locked. That's where Torkoal comes in clutch: Being able to not only whisp, but also clear smog away all the nasty boost from the likes of Dragonite, Roaring Moon, ID Zama and many more makes the team much more consistent. I'll talk more about when Torkoal's health is worth preserving in the 3th part of the guide. Tera water is arguably the best one, but you can also try tera grass, ghost, fairy and steel
Hatterene @ Eject Button
Ability: Magic Bounce
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 248 HP / 204 Def / 56 Spe
Bold Nature
- Trick Room
- Dazzling Gleam
- Nuzzle
- Healing Wish
Remember when I said that if you play this team correctly, your opponent won't have the time to set up rocks? Well, this bad girl right there is what enables this statement to remain true. To put it simply, hatt is here to give the team much-needed momentum at the start of the game. 90% of the time what you want to do is to lead Torkoal, then switch immediately into Hatt to bounce off rocks or trigger the eject button, from there you either go into Zard if the the opp has a sub 100 base speed mon on the field or roaring moon/Ww if the contrary is true. Now, most of the time hatt will be too weakened from the hit took to activate the button, as such the next time it will come in the field it's probably going to be just to be sacced to regain momentum or bounce pesky status move, but there are exceptions to this rule. We will talk more about those exceptions in the 5th part of this guide, so, for now, let's focus on its movepool instead. In fact, Hatt is by far the mon with the widest range of viable moves in this team, but there's a good reason to why I have chosen exactly these 4 moves: Nuzzle and healing wish are pretty much must have, they both give insane value, especially healing wish and can easily win you games if you actually manage to use them. Now, as you might have understood by now, hatt often ends up using no moves at all, as such, outside of the 2 I have already mentioned, you can really use whatever you want: Psychic noise to block recovery, psyshock to hit blissey, draining kiss for the healing, mystical fire and even giga drain for surprise coverage, anything goes, really, BUT, 2 move to me stands above all: Dazzling gleam, for its overall good damage output, and Trick room. You might be wondering why such a team, filled with mostly fast mon, might want a trick room, but the truth is, the trick room is not here for you, it's to disrupt your opponent. As I have already said, speed control can be a huge issue, if your roaring moon can't outspeed a certain threat under sun, you are probably going to lose the game on the spot. That's where trick room comes in: If you actually manage to use the move (often you will have to get your eject button knocked for this to happen) you might actually have a solid chance to not inevitably lose. Now, I won't try to hide it, this is an incredibly niche scenario and I don't even have proper replays of this actually ever coming up, but as I have already said most of the times Hatt's 4th move won't matter anyway, so might as well pack the emergency trick room, just in case.
Tera Dark is here mainly to try to rob a win against Psyspam and resist Knock Offs, but you can really put anything as 99% of the times you won't even think about
teraing this fella. Tera types with immunities are probably the best ones
Tera Dark is here mainly to try to rob a win against Psyspam and resist Knock Offs, but you can really put anything as 99% of the times you won't even think about
teraing this fella. Tera types with immunities are probably the best ones
Great Tusk @ Eject Pack
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Headlong Rush
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Rapid Spin
Why use a mere pivot when you can pack a 120-bp fighting-type U-turn? Jokes aside, this mon is an insane role compressor. Spins Knocks, Keeps momentum in your favour and, above all, prevents sweeps from Raging Bolt and kingambit. That said, a couple disclaimers are needed:
Keep this thing as healthy as possible when playing against a Kingambit and remember that you have never truly won until the gambit can't tera anymore. Also remember that Eject button activates on ALL types of stat drops, not only the self-inflicted ones. This is mostly a positive thing, mainly against Lando-T, Intimidate will make you switch before you can even move (and that's why you have no good move to hit him), as I said this is extremely good as your opponent will go into Lando, expecting it to be a completely safe move, when in reality it will just give you a free switch into Walking Wake, or, even worst, Charizard. That said, as with all auto-switch items it can be a double-edged sword. There may be situations where you just want to keep clicking moves with great tusk or when you could sweep your opponent after a rapid spin, but you can't cause you will switch on the spot after your first big stab attack, but, above all, the worst case of this happens against sticky webs: What could be a golden occasion to spin, or at least kill the Ghold, get's ruined by the forced switch in due to the webs speed drop. In the end, remember that this is still a tusk, except that it's now even further enhanced by sun: It will hit hard and can easily run away with games by virtue of its cracked stats. Other options for the set consist of Stealth Rock (mandatory if you are using Ninetails instead of Torkoal), Head Smash and Ice Spinner, but I'd advise changing nothing as you really, really want those 4 moves. Tera fighting is preferred over tera ground to keep the sucker punch resistance, but you could also try tera ground for more damage output without exposing yourself to Thunderclap or tera fire for burn immunity.
Keep this thing as healthy as possible when playing against a Kingambit and remember that you have never truly won until the gambit can't tera anymore. Also remember that Eject button activates on ALL types of stat drops, not only the self-inflicted ones. This is mostly a positive thing, mainly against Lando-T, Intimidate will make you switch before you can even move (and that's why you have no good move to hit him), as I said this is extremely good as your opponent will go into Lando, expecting it to be a completely safe move, when in reality it will just give you a free switch into Walking Wake, or, even worst, Charizard. That said, as with all auto-switch items it can be a double-edged sword. There may be situations where you just want to keep clicking moves with great tusk or when you could sweep your opponent after a rapid spin, but you can't cause you will switch on the spot after your first big stab attack, but, above all, the worst case of this happens against sticky webs: What could be a golden occasion to spin, or at least kill the Ghold, get's ruined by the forced switch in due to the webs speed drop. In the end, remember that this is still a tusk, except that it's now even further enhanced by sun: It will hit hard and can easily run away with games by virtue of its cracked stats. Other options for the set consist of Stealth Rock (mandatory if you are using Ninetails instead of Torkoal), Head Smash and Ice Spinner, but I'd advise changing nothing as you really, really want those 4 moves. Tera fighting is preferred over tera ground to keep the sucker punch resistance, but you could also try tera ground for more damage output without exposing yourself to Thunderclap or tera fire for burn immunity.
Roaring Moon @ Choice Band
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 32 HP / 220 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Iron Head
- U-turn
- Outrage
The speed control, the pivot, the strong knock: I love everything about this mon. U-turns straight up kill most grass dark and psychic mon after rocks chip and almost all of them have at least a 25% chance or more to die even without rock chip, we are talking about huge threats such as Darkrai, Waterpon, Deoxis speed, H-Rott and many more. But the wonderfulness of this mon has only begun! Iron Head can score a juicy OHKO on valiant (never predict against valiant, if they switch out they will lose their speed boost, making them slower than Walking Wake next time they come in), It can also do considerable damage to Primarina (a rough mon for this team, especially the calm mind and assault vest variants), Clefable, Ninetails alola and Enamourous (damage can be further enhanced by tera, but we will talk about it later). Knock Off is obviously amazing, 99% of the time there will be an item worth knocking, and even most knock absorbers can't take lightly a stab band knock from this absolute beast. Outrage is here for the damage burst, but I won't lie to you: Locking into outrage often means straight losing RM immediately afterwards, so use it only when you REALLY need to take a certain kill or to clean off games. To wrap things up: This absolute demon is your main form of speed control, can safely U-turn on the switch-ins that his own potential damage output can force on the opponent and can act as a delete button with Outrage. Other possible moves can be EQ and Tera Blast (only if you are running tera fire or similiar). Run tera ground if you are using eq instead of Iron head and tera fire/fairy if you are using tera blast. Tera ghost can also be somewhat viable to get close combat and Espeed immunity, but I personally prefer a tera that can be both offensive and defensive on this Mon.
Walking Wake @ Choice Specs
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 8 HP / 4 Def / 244 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Steam
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- Dragon Pulse
The absolute king of sun teams. No words can describe how insanely broken this mon is. It's your only special breaker (barring Charizard) so keep it healthy at
least as long as your opponent's RM switch-ins are still around. This guy also has a quite surprising set variety: Flamethrower, Draco Meteor and Hydro Steam are a must, as such only the 4th slot is customizable, the major contestants for it are Dragon Pulse (spammable and more accurate Draco Meteor), Flip turn (finish off all the mons that lived RM's U-turn at low hp, usually either by a low enough roll or with sash + it's a somewhat viable middle ground sometimes) and knock off (Good against AV users and against Glowking and blissey to make them take rock cheap). Now, there's also to say that Choice Specs is not mandatory, the other viable item, of course, being life orb (splash plate is not a real set on sun, sorry). I prefer Specs cause that 10% recoil is, at least to me, more of a liability than being choice-locked is, the reduced damage boost is also pretty big, but as I already said it's still a more then viable option and you should definitely try it out. Walking Wake also has quite a few viable Teras. Starting with the defensive ones : Anything that resists or makes you immune to priority is good, those include Ground, Ghost, and, above all, Fairy which not only makes you resistant to Sucker Punch, but also gives you a nice immunity to opposing dragon type's Draco Meteors. As for offensive ones, Tera water is definitely the best one, but Tera dragon is also viable and has it's merits, there's also tera Fire if you really hate rillaboom and Kyurem
least as long as your opponent's RM switch-ins are still around. This guy also has a quite surprising set variety: Flamethrower, Draco Meteor and Hydro Steam are a must, as such only the 4th slot is customizable, the major contestants for it are Dragon Pulse (spammable and more accurate Draco Meteor), Flip turn (finish off all the mons that lived RM's U-turn at low hp, usually either by a low enough roll or with sash + it's a somewhat viable middle ground sometimes) and knock off (Good against AV users and against Glowking and blissey to make them take rock cheap). Now, there's also to say that Choice Specs is not mandatory, the other viable item, of course, being life orb (splash plate is not a real set on sun, sorry). I prefer Specs cause that 10% recoil is, at least to me, more of a liability than being choice-locked is, the reduced damage boost is also pretty big, but as I already said it's still a more then viable option and you should definitely try it out. Walking Wake also has quite a few viable Teras. Starting with the defensive ones : Anything that resists or makes you immune to priority is good, those include Ground, Ghost, and, above all, Fairy which not only makes you resistant to Sucker Punch, but also gives you a nice immunity to opposing dragon type's Draco Meteors. As for offensive ones, Tera water is definitely the best one, but Tera dragon is also viable and has it's merits, there's also tera Fire if you really hate rillaboom and Kyurem
StallMelter9000 (Charizard) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Solar Power
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flamethrower
- Solar Beam
- Focus Blast
- Overheat
The Star of this team. Charizard finds a place in the sun meta due to it's sheer immediate damage output. No word can describe how powerful this pokémon is, so I'll simply let math do the presentation for me:
---
calc
252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Tera Fire Charizard Overheat over 2 turns vs. 4 HP / 252+ SpD Blissey in Sun: 740-872 (113.4 - 133.7%) -- guaranteed KO in 2 turns
252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Tera Fire Charizard Flamethrower vs. 4 HP / 252+ SpD Blissey in Sun: 342-404 (52.4 - 61.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
calc
252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Tera Fire Charizard Solar Beam vs. 12 HP / 0 SpD Walking Wake in Sun: 303-357 (88.5 - 104.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
calc
252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Tera Fire Charizard Overheat vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Vessel of Ruin Ting-Lu in Sun: 526-620 (102.3 - 120.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Charizard Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Vessel of Ruin Ting-Lu in Sun: 274-324 (53.3 - 63%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
calc
252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Charizard Overheat vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Rotom-Wash in Sun: 298-351 (98 - 115.4%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO
Garganacl calc
252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Tera Fire Charizard Overheat vs. 252 HP / 204+ SpD Garganacl in Sun: 340-400 (84.1 - 99%) -- 75% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
calc
252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Charizard Flamethrower vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Moltres in Sun: 175-207 (45.6 - 54%) -- 46.9% chance to 2HKO
calc
252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Charizard Overheat vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Clodsire in Sun: 456-537 (98.4 - 115.9%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO
AV calc
252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Charizard Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 96 SpD Assault Vest Slowking-Galar in Sun: 247-292 (62.6 - 74.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
AV calc
252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Charizard Flamethrower vs. 80 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Primarina in Sun: 129-153 (40.1 - 47.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
calc
252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Charizard Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Manaphy in Sun: 219-258 (54.2 - 63.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Charizard Solar Beam vs. +1 252 HP / 0 SpD Manaphy in Sun: 348-410 (86.1 - 101.4%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
calc
252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Charizard Flamethrower vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Multiscale Dragonite in Sun: 109-129 (33.7 - 39.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
calc
252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Charizard Flamethrower vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Skeledirge in Sun: 189-223 (45.9 - 54.2%) -- 54.7% chance to 2HKO
calc
252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Charizard Flamethrower vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Toxapex in Sun: 123-146 (40.5 - 48.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
calc
252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Charizard Flamethrower vs. 0 HP / 0- SpD Dragapult in Sun: 309-364 (97.4 - 114.8%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO
calc
252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Charizard Overheat vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Roaring Moon in Sun: 314-369 (89.4 - 105.1%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
---
But damage isn't the only good thing about this beast of a sun abuser. Turns out that whitout having a huge red mark on his back, base 100 speed is actually pretty good, being able to outspeed basically all the bulky mon in the tier, including great tusk, Lando-T, pecharant and even other base 100 speed such as zapdos, who never runs max speed. This makes entering the field much easier for Charizard, expecially with the help of Eject button Hatt who can block opponent's pivot moves (including parting shot) and eject Pack great tusk, who automatically switches out when Lando-T comes in. As you might have understood by now, everytime this pokémon enters the field on a mon slower then him, you are basically guaranteed to get a kill. As such, Charizard in this team functions as a sort of unwallable wallbreaker, fundamental for the other threaths to work. Flamethrower is the Vanilla option, accurate and with a good enough bp to get the job done; Overheat, although more inaccurate, can 1HKO basically anything and is to be preferred when you believe your opponent might switch in a mon that doesn't get 1HKOed by Flamethrower, such as Cinderace or Roaring Moon; Focus blast is here mainly for Tyranitar and Heatran, nothing else to say about it, really; Solar beam can hit those bulky Water walls who would otherwise actually manage to tank Charizard's hits, mainly Primarina and Tera Water Glowking. The only other option would be Dragon pulse, mainly to hit Walking Wake or other really bulky Dragon types, but as we have already seen from the calcs, even those mons struggles to enter the field against Charizard. Tera Fire is basically the only viable option, boosting Zards damage to unholy levels, there's also a small interaction with Raging bolt, where you can actually 1v1 them if you are at full health and you Tera as they thunderclap.
P.S. don't Tera against sticky web, the flying type is most likely going to help
---
calc252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Tera Fire Charizard Overheat over 2 turns vs. 4 HP / 252+ SpD Blissey in Sun: 740-872 (113.4 - 133.7%) -- guaranteed KO in 2 turns
252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Tera Fire Charizard Flamethrower vs. 4 HP / 252+ SpD Blissey in Sun: 342-404 (52.4 - 61.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
calc252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Tera Fire Charizard Solar Beam vs. 12 HP / 0 SpD Walking Wake in Sun: 303-357 (88.5 - 104.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
calc252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Tera Fire Charizard Overheat vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Vessel of Ruin Ting-Lu in Sun: 526-620 (102.3 - 120.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Charizard Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Vessel of Ruin Ting-Lu in Sun: 274-324 (53.3 - 63%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
calc252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Charizard Overheat vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Rotom-Wash in Sun: 298-351 (98 - 115.4%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO
Garganacl calc
252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Tera Fire Charizard Overheat vs. 252 HP / 204+ SpD Garganacl in Sun: 340-400 (84.1 - 99%) -- 75% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
calc252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Charizard Flamethrower vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Moltres in Sun: 175-207 (45.6 - 54%) -- 46.9% chance to 2HKO
calc252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Charizard Overheat vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Clodsire in Sun: 456-537 (98.4 - 115.9%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO
AV
calc252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Charizard Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 96 SpD Assault Vest Slowking-Galar in Sun: 247-292 (62.6 - 74.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
AV
calc252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Charizard Flamethrower vs. 80 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Primarina in Sun: 129-153 (40.1 - 47.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
calc252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Charizard Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Manaphy in Sun: 219-258 (54.2 - 63.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Charizard Solar Beam vs. +1 252 HP / 0 SpD Manaphy in Sun: 348-410 (86.1 - 101.4%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
calc252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Charizard Flamethrower vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Multiscale Dragonite in Sun: 109-129 (33.7 - 39.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
calc252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Charizard Flamethrower vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Skeledirge in Sun: 189-223 (45.9 - 54.2%) -- 54.7% chance to 2HKO
calc252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Charizard Flamethrower vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Toxapex in Sun: 123-146 (40.5 - 48.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
calc252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Charizard Flamethrower vs. 0 HP / 0- SpD Dragapult in Sun: 309-364 (97.4 - 114.8%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO
calc252 SpA Choice Specs Solar Power Charizard Overheat vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Roaring Moon in Sun: 314-369 (89.4 - 105.1%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
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But damage isn't the only good thing about this beast of a sun abuser. Turns out that whitout having a huge red mark on his back, base 100 speed is actually pretty good, being able to outspeed basically all the bulky mon in the tier, including great tusk, Lando-T, pecharant and even other base 100 speed such as zapdos, who never runs max speed. This makes entering the field much easier for Charizard, expecially with the help of Eject button Hatt who can block opponent's pivot moves (including parting shot) and eject Pack great tusk, who automatically switches out when Lando-T comes in. As you might have understood by now, everytime this pokémon enters the field on a mon slower then him, you are basically guaranteed to get a kill. As such, Charizard in this team functions as a sort of unwallable wallbreaker, fundamental for the other threaths to work. Flamethrower is the Vanilla option, accurate and with a good enough bp to get the job done; Overheat, although more inaccurate, can 1HKO basically anything and is to be preferred when you believe your opponent might switch in a mon that doesn't get 1HKOed by Flamethrower, such as Cinderace or Roaring Moon; Focus blast is here mainly for Tyranitar and Heatran, nothing else to say about it, really; Solar beam can hit those bulky Water walls who would otherwise actually manage to tank Charizard's hits, mainly Primarina and Tera Water Glowking. The only other option would be Dragon pulse, mainly to hit Walking Wake or other really bulky Dragon types, but as we have already seen from the calcs, even those mons struggles to enter the field against Charizard. Tera Fire is basically the only viable option, boosting Zards damage to unholy levels, there's also a small interaction with Raging bolt, where you can actually 1v1 them if you are at full health and you Tera as they thunderclap.
P.S. don't Tera against sticky web, the flying type is most likely going to help
2- Leads
There are mainly 3 possible leads with this team. We will start from the most unlikely one, to the most obvious.
Walking Wake:
Walking Wake is to be leaded against Glimmora HO and Rain. For the first one, you want to click Either Hydro Steam if there's no Waterpon or Draco Meteor if they have one. Against rain you lead and immediatly drop a Draco, as the main priority against that matchup is to kill the Peli
Roaring Moon:
Roaring Moon is a good lead against Samurott-Hisui, most Sun teams, Psyspam and in general against all those teams who have a U-Turn weak lead
Torkoal:
Standard lead. Set up sun and switch into Zard against Great tusk; switch into Hatt against Lando-T; Hard switch into Roaring Moon against Deoxis-speed; Rapid spin then go into Hatt against Ribombee; Set up rocks, but only if the opp doesn't have Hatt, Cinde or Tusk; go into Tusk against Tyra; Against stall switch into Hatt and use healing wish, then go into Zard. Those instruction should help you figure out most early games, in general try to get the first
kill as soon as possible, most of the time you should aim to let Charizard safely in by turn 3/4/5
3- (Rough) Matchups
In some matchups playing this team will feel like an uphill battle, this section should help you navigate through the most difficult ones
Keep Hatt's eject button to use it on a Moonblast and switch into RM. Always Click Iron head, tera if you think they will also tera (they usually won't). Never predict against Valiant: An unboosted Valiant is as good as dead against this team
either keep your torkoal healthy and Tera Water on the EQ or Tera steel your own RM
Knock his leftovers off and set up rocks, Being able to kill this thing with Charizard is a must
Hard switch as they substitute or sac a mon (usually hatt or Charizard) to go into RM. Use tera if you need to, it's worth it
Most of the times your opponent will Tera Fairy against your Tusk to survive a headlong and kill back with either pulse of Meteor, so try to keep your eject pack to use it on this fella or, at very least, keep your Roaring Moon healthy enough to survive a +1 thunderclap under sun
Keep your Tusk ( and possibly also torkoal) at full health, Try to force your opponent to Tera another mon and, in general, keep in mind that no matter how big of an advantage you have, as long as the Gambit can tera, the game is not over
Sun
:Ninetails:The match comes down to who gets the most Walking Wake calls right. Roaring Moon and WW are your main asset here, Hatt should be preserved to as long as possible, Great Tusk is also quite good if you manage to kill the opposing Tusk, Charizard can maybe pick a kill or at least do good damage, but it's mostly dead weight here, while torkoal can at best aim to set up rocks, then get sacced at the first useful occasion
Just pray that you guessed the right set LMAO
Try to not take kills with Tusk or RM, Don't WoW until you know for sure that they don't have substitute
Keep Torkoal healthy, hard switch on Torkoal as he uses Sword Dance, Click tera Water and burn him, spam clear smog until he kills you and then revenge kill with Tusk
Tera Water :Blissey stall:
Try to cheap the blissey down until Zard can 2hko it with Tera fire Flamethrower under sun, if your opponent is good and doesn't let you do so, forfeit
Set hazards up, Keep Tusk healthy and Try to not pick kills with RM and WW
If it's calm mind or AV Great Tusk's Headlong rush should be enough under sun, just use hatt to get a free switch to do so. Charizard can also manage Prim if it's not AV
Apply constant pressure: Never let it enter for free, try to knock those boots and predict tera water by clicking solar beam with Charizard if needed
Forfeit LMAO
Substitute set up sweeper:
Pick a god and pray (Aka just forfeit)
4- Hazard game:
This team's hazard game is quite different from most others. Your highest priority should be to not let your opponent set rocks and spikes up and, generally, wasting a turn to set up your own rocks is not worth it. However, there are match ups where you really want to set rocks up:
, , and other possible focus sash/scarf users, mainly to scout for heavy duty boots, Waterpon and AV glowkingRocks are good against them to hit specific ranges. Waterpon dies to U-Turn;after 1 rock chip; Garganacl drops to Tera fire Zard after 1 rock chip (leftovers have to be knocked off though)
But there are also mons that greatly reduce the value you can get from hazards. We already talked about them: Cinderace, Hatterene and Great Tusk
As long as this thing is alive, you should NOT set up hazards. As we already said, you should prioritize keeping your side clean from hazards over setting them up on your opponent's side
If the opponent has no spin blocker then trying to set rocks up can be worth it, as if Hatt actually comes in you can just spin in front of it, otherwise it's a big NO-NO
Unlike against Hatt and Cinde, you are not actively hurting yourself by setting rocks on a Tusk team, but I'd still argue against doing so, as the Tusk will have way too many occasions to spin. Setting rocks can still be a good middle-ground, but generally, a well-timed prediction is not only more rewarding, but also less risky
5- Results
The team has reached some astonishing results. I have laddered with it from the 1500s circa up until 2000, AKA 6th place (most of the run was streamed on the Pinkacord), which is also my personal best.
Here's proof of peak + some other replays of High-elo games where you can see in practice the things I have talked about in this RMT
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2297816976-mut1x95u97vj13rs63dhrlmwuqb57ttpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2297807392-1sww4a7y0ut2bxbmnkeodhutk842er7pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2297831638-ghik2tu16pftkpb0waloeiahxtmuxfepw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2297262067-eem4kbkn1g0fqtb2j0ubnyv1pq6h5mhpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2297013500-ds266lobq53e6mmba1qepbqdcy6baeypw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2191189486-igzd845smwk0komqlxtuh0bbpa81b8spw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2191182571-ay1n66j7w4ztccy641lghn3tg8fldc1pw
It's not much, but sadly I haven't saved many replays, Maybe I'll add more in future if RM doesn't get banned again LOL
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2297807392-1sww4a7y0ut2bxbmnkeodhutk842er7pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2297831638-ghik2tu16pftkpb0waloeiahxtmuxfepw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2297262067-eem4kbkn1g0fqtb2j0ubnyv1pq6h5mhpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2297013500-ds266lobq53e6mmba1qepbqdcy6baeypw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2191189486-igzd845smwk0komqlxtuh0bbpa81b8spw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2191182571-ay1n66j7w4ztccy641lghn3tg8fldc1pw
It's not much, but sadly I haven't saved many replays, Maybe I'll add more in future if RM doesn't get banned again LOL
6 Conclusions
So... Is Charizard good? Does it have a spot in the sun meta?
To put it simply:
Fuck yeah
Charizard is definitely not a mon that you can slap on every team. Specs Iron Moth, It's closest competitor, can perform a somewhat similiar role and is much easier to fit on teams. That said, Charizard's niche as an unwallable wallbreaker is undeniably valuable and, although it remains no top tier sun abuser, can definitely be worth building around
Credits
Shoutous to Maverick Shooters for kindly giving me permission to write an RMT about a team that's mostly his creation, to Sanesa8724 for helping me write all of this and to the whole Pinkacord, a fantastic community that you should definitely join if you want to improve at the game
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