#4 - #6: Charmander, Charmeleon & Charizard

Charmander and Charmeleon.

Oh yeah, cute little Charmander. From the moment Red and Blue came out, this fiery lizard has been many people's favorite Kanto starter. Some took a liking to Squirtle as well, while Bulbasaur was crying in a corner most of the time; at least that's what I think. This is not without a reason, though: we all unanimously and unhesitantly agree that Charmander's final evolution, Charizard, is awesome (except Ash's Charizard, who was a total jerk, like, ALL THE FUCKING TIME!). Charmander is already cute and interesting by itself (the flame at the tip of its tail is an indicator for its health and emotions; it burns intensely when Charmander is at good health, but when it goes out, Charmander dies), but Charizard is totally badass. And while Charizard's badassery has slightly decreased over the past ten or fifteen years or so, due to an increasing amount of new amazing Pokémon that were introduced every three or four years, Pokémon X and Y gave a boost to Charizard by giving it not one but two Mega evolutions. In fact, it is one of two Pokémon who actually got two Megas, the other one being Mewtwo. And with that, Game Freak have given in to many people who had been nagging about why Charizard should actually have been a dragon-type Pokémon by changing its typing from fire/flying to fire/dragon upon Mega-evolving (of course, this only applies to Mega Charizard X). This indicates that Game Freak know that Charizard has been a fan favorite from the very beginning.

And the Charizard hype was REAL, dude.

While playing Red and Blue, I always chose Charmander as my starter, even though I kept having trouble beating the first Gym Leader with it. But back in the day I was still a little kid and building a team around a starter proved to be a dificult task to me (today I can't even imagine not having a team of six equally leveled Pokémon), so that's why I always played through the game with one Pokémon only: my starter, which happened to be Charmander every single time.

The holographic TCG card of Charizard
everyone was so hyped about back in the days.

And that wasn't all of it. When there were only a few expansions to the official Trading Card Game, the holographic Charizard card from the base set was by far the card everyone desired to have in their possession. I got extremely lucky and pulled this Charizard from a booster pack, and when I showed it to the other kids in my class, they all wanted me to trade that card with them. Needless to say that I refused to do that. In the end, my 'popularity' was short-lived: eventually, other kids managed to get their hands on said card, too. I happened to be the first one with that holographic Charizard, that's all. And do you remember the Topps Pokémon cards? My brother and I collected them as well (even though I liked the TCG cards a lot more than these Topps cards) and once, while we were on a holiday, my brother traded all of his Topps cards for a Topps Charizard card. I personally thought my brother was crazy for doing so, but he loved Charizard so much that he did it anyway. All of this is proof how popular Charizard was back then. That has all changed, though. Kids nowadays aren't that engaged with Pokémon anymore, and the kids who actually grew up with it and still play it as adults probably have other favorites by now. I am no different: Charizard used to be my favorite Pokémon (which is no wonder, as there were only 151 Pokémon twenty years ago; now there are 720), but today it doesn't even show up in my top 50. So how well does it do compared to other, newer Pokémon?

My brother traded ALL of his Topps Pokémon cards for just this one Charizard card.

Pretty well, actually. Daenerys' dragons would be jealous as hell: Charizard can do more than just spit fire. Due to its newly obtained Mega evolutions, Charizard is often used in the competitive scene. And while I prefer Mega Charizard X over Mega Charizard Y design-wise, the latter is actually the better one to use competitively. Why? Well, the Tough Claws ability Mega Charizard X gains upon Mega-evolving is pretty neat, boosting direct attacks (most of those attacks are physical moves) on top of its heavily increased attack stat, but Mega Charizard Y gets the better ability: Drought. This conjures up the sun for five turns and increases Charizard's fire-type moves by 50%, not to mention the fact that Solar Beam doesn't need a turn to charge first. Mega Charizard Y can use this move right off the bat and that makes for some very decent type coverage.

Mega Charizard Y also has a higher attacking stat (159 special attack) than Mega Charizard X (130 attack). And yes, Tough Claws increases most physical moves, but the only physical fire-type moves worth mentioning are Flare Blitz, which does recoil damage, and Fire Punch, which has a base power of 'only' 75. Drought increases all fire-type moves, however, including the much stronger special-based moves Flamethrower, Fire Blast, Heat Wave, Overheat, and even Fire Pledge if you want to go combo (with Water Pledge and/or Grass Pledge, obviously). The only downside to Mega Charizard Y is that it retains its flying typing, which means it still has a quadruple weakness to rock-type moves.

Art of Mega Charizard X (left) and Mega Charizard Y (right)

In the end, either Mega makes for a very good battler. It really doesn't matter which one you choose, because they both have their uses, although Mega Charizard X is a little more versatile; Charizard learns a great deal of good physical moves and fewer special moves than you would think. Is it better than Venusaur and Blastoise? Well... let's say it's definitely better than Venusaur, but I guess that's just my own opinion. And Blastoise? He's the next one on my list to review, so you'll just have to be patient! Meanwhile, I'll give Charizard a full rating of 5 stars. It's a shame I started off so badly with Venusaur, but this excellent rating of Charizard should make up for that, right?

Rating: 5/5