Competitive Pokemon History - Charizard Quiz

Answer: Zapdos and Starmie

Starmie can just switch in whenever it pleases, easily take whatever hit Charizard flails at it with, and either drown it with a Surf or easily Recover off the pitiful damage the move did. In fact, if Charizard hit Starmie with Fire Blast as it switched in, and it burned Starmie, the game was pretty much over unless the Charizard user had a healthy hard counter to it somewhere in their team. A burned Starmie couldn't be paralyzed or put to sleep, so it would pretty much live forever at that point. This meant that, not only 'could' Starmie switch into Charizard easily, but it actually 'wanted' to switch in for this reason.

Zapdos took little damage from Fire Blast or the rare Slash, and was immune to Earthquake. It would delete Charizard with a Thunderbolt without trying.

If these two threats did not exist, Charizard would have been a top tier threat for sure. Its standard set consisted of Fire Blast/Earthquake/Swords Dance/Hyper Beam. The idea was simple- bring Charizard in on a Grass type or something that it could take a hit from, boost with Swords Dance, and clean house. It did a great job forcing switches against, say, Exeggutor, and at +2 from full health, it would generally fare decently against whatever switched in- with the exception of Starmie and Zapdos. The fact that these two were on pretty much every serious, decent team, and were ready to destroy Charizard at a moment's notice really made its life in the tier miserable. Because of them, Charizard was largely fringe viable in OverUsed, as facilitating their removal was often quite hard, and other Pokémon could offer more consistent performances even with them around, such as Swords Dance Venusaur, Agility Dragonite, Agility Moltres or Tauros.

Answer: Belly Drum

"BellyZard", the set became affectionately known as, had difficulties setting up comfortably, couldn't really overcome bulky Water types, Raikou, Starmie or Zapdos, but if these threats could be weakened or removed, Charizard could sweep. The major selling point to Charizard as a physical sweeper was how easily it shoved Skarmory and Steelix aside. These two were the best stops to physical sweepers around, but they were merely a bump in the road for Charizard's strong Fire Blasts- OHKOing the former, and doing over 80% damage to the latter.

The set consisted of Belly Drum/Fire Blast/Earthquake/Rock Slide. It had perfect neutral coverage, amplified by Belly Drum maxing out Charizard's Attack stat to +6 in a single turn. If it could set up without being critically injured on the set up turn, it could win the game by itself if its checks were weakened or out of the way. Unlike the first generation, Charizard's checks now had reasonable counterplay, and because it had massive 'boom' potential, it was sometimes worth building an entire team around Charizard.

Answer: Salac Berry

Salac Berry raises the user's Speed stat by one stage if they have less than 25% HP. Naturally, as Belly Drum automatically cuts half of Charizard's HP, you can see where that type of item would have some interesting synergy with it. Charizard's new set with this item would often consist of Fire Blast/Hidden Power Flying/Substitute/Belly Drum. It was an extremely risky strategy that essentially required immaculate play from the user to turn a sweep with, but if the proper conditions were met, the user would sweep with authority. Those conditions were: 1. Get Charizard onto the field without it falling beneath 50% HP on the switch-in. 2. Set up a Substitute. 3. Use Belly Drum without fainting. 4. Proceed to win the game, as your opponent allowing all of this to transpire means they deserve to lose the game.

As the last sentence would imply, this was a very tall task that almost mandated your opponent make a series of mistakes along with said perfect play. But, if you could somehow pull it off, you'd have a +6 Charizard whose Fire Blasts were also being boosted by Blaze, which had activated courtesy of its low HP. That low HP also meant Salac Berry had activated, boosting your speed by one stage. This meant Charizard was faster than everything, could OHKO everything, and might be doing it behind the protection of a Substitute. Even if the latter was not the case, the game was firmly over, as Charizard would proceed to demolish everything in its sight.

Unfortunately, there were a plethora of setup sweepers, such as Salamence, Tyranitar and Dragonite, who could sweep without needing to get as lucky as Charizard. If everything didn't go accordingly for Charizard, there was no Plan B, and it would not get a second chance to try to set up again, while the aforementioned three were simply much more consistent than that. This meant Charizard was frequently passed on in favor of them.

Answer: Introduction of Stealth Rock

Stealth Rock cut Charizard's HP in half every time it switched in, which meant it could only actually enter play once with its on the field before it would faint coming back in later. Belly Drum sets were clearly a no go with this in mind, combined with the fact that newcomers in Infernape and Heatran were just better than Charizard in practically every way, notably being significantly more consistent than it was.

Charizard would end up being demoted all the way to the NeverUsed tier, the lowest tier in the game at the time. There, it was absolutely amazing- the best Pokémon in the tier by far. Its mixed offenses, workable bulk, access to Roost, and good Speed meant Charizard could run all kinds of sets- Specially offensive sweepers, physically offensive sweepers, wallbreaking sets, and even a Substitute/Toxic stalling set. It was by far and large the best Pokémon in the tier, and any decent team needed to come prepared to deal with it.

Answer: It was completely ineffective and outclassed in the tier

Moltres completely outclassed all of Charizard's specially offensive sets. It did have a few physically offensive tricks it could pull, but they were pathetically easily for the average team to thwart. Bulky waters, Regirock, Thick Fat Hariyama, and Charizard's mortal enemy in Stealth Rock stopped it from enjoying any success in UnderUsed.

Answer: Solar Power

Unlike its fellow Kanto starters, Charizard found a legitimate use out of its new ability. In the new RarelyUsed tier, Charizard would have once again been completely outclassed by Moltres were it not for Solar Power. Charizard's best, and only viable, set for the tier was Sunny Day/Fire Blast/Solar Beam/Roost.

It would come in on something it could pick up a set up turn against, set up Sunny Day, and then annihilate everything with Solar Power, Sun-boosted Fire Blasts. Bulky waters and rock types were pushed aside by Solar Beam. Fire Blast was so strong under these reasonably met conditions that it would deal with opposing Fire types as well, so Charizard didn't need to account for them. Roost let it heal off Solar Power's recoil-inducing side effect, and let Charizard function as both a wallbreaker and a sweeper.

This meant that Charizard now arguably outdid Moltres' special attacking sets, instead of the other way around.

Answer: Mega Evolution

Charizard was the only Pokémon in the entire game not named Mewtwo which had not one, but two different Mega Evolutions. Both of them were completely different from another; one was largely the best special attacker in the tier and a great supporter thanks to its new Drought ability, while the other was a ferocious physical wallbreaker and/or sweeper that could even take on a decent defensive role.

This meant that Charizard suddenly had unparalleled versatility in the tier, and it forced teams of all archetypes to be able to handle it. To offer an idea of what that meant, Pokémon like Mega Altaria were majorly viable only because it could reliably deal with both Charizard forms and ease prediction for its trainer.

Answer: Toxapex

Incineroar and Primarina were nowhere close to viable for the tier, though the former could've actually done a respectable job against the two Charizards if anyone actually felt inclined enough to bring this plastic knife to the gun fights of seventh generation OverUsed.

As Ultra Necrozma was banned away to Ubers, Toxapex was the correct choice. Toxapex simply walled Mega Charizard-Y all day, taking little from its Fire Blasts thanks to its Water type, using its secondary Poison typing to sponge Solar Beam, and taking virtually nothing from any other move Mega Charizard-Y would use.

It commonly ran Haze, which would stop Mega Charizard-X from attempting to overcome it with Swords or Dragon Dance, and could take its hits similarly to how it could from Charizard-Y.

It could then proceed to Toxic stall either threat with ease. Toxapex incidentally became a staple for stall teams, which now had reliably counterplay to these Charizard forms.

Answer: Venusaur has been Uber-viable before, while Charizard has not

Try as it may, Charizard has never been able to cut it in Ubers throughout seven generations. Its closest to ever reaching such a distinction was Generation two, where its BellyZard set would've touched Uber viability... Were it not for the existence of Lugia, Mewtwo and Mew who easily stopped this set. Aside from this, Charizard has never been particularly close to Uber viability. Even its Mega forms were largely outdone and not worth running in Ubers.

There were several better candidates for one's Mega slot, while they were also both completely outdone by Primal Groudon, the best Pokémon in the tier.

Answer: Gigantomaxing

Gigantomaxing (not to be mistaken for Dynamaxing) was a somewhat unique mechanic to Charizard, as it was one of a small handful of Pokémon to receive a Gigantomaxed form. Upon Gigantomaxing, Charizard doubles it own HP and gains a series of attacks, depending on its moveset, with base powers between 120 and 140, meaning it can take the time to sweep or open up a massive hole in the opponent's team to be exploited later.

It notably gains exclusive access to G-Max Windflare, a very strong move which also gives the opponent's team a Fire Spin-esque side effect; trading the trapping aspect of Fire Spin in exchange for retaining the per-turn residual damage, even if they switch out.