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Deviantart by DarthOwen
"Still four times weak to Stealth Rocks..."
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(VGC) Mega Charizard Y - Attack (Special Attacker) 3 Options
(VGC) Mega Charizard Y - Attack (Special Attacker) 3 Options
Type: Fire/Flying
Base Stats: 78 HP / 84 Attack / 78 Defense / 109 Special Attack / 85 Special Defense / 100 Speed
Mega Stats: 78 HP / 104 Attack / 78 Defense / 159 Special Attack / 115 Special Defense / 100 Speed
Weaknesses: Rock (x4), Water (x2), Electric (x2)
Resistances: Grass (X0.25), Bug (X0.25), Steel (X0.5), Fire (x0.5), Fighting (x0.5), Fairy (0.5x)
Immunities: Ground, Burns
Blaze: Increases the power of Fire moves by 50% when the user's HP is at or below 33%.
Solar Power (Hidden Ability): - During harsh sunlight, increases the Special Attack by 50% however the user loses 1/8th of their maximum HP per turn.
Drought (Mega Ability): Creates harsh sunlight whenever the user enters into battle for about 5 turns, essentially the same effects as Sunny Day. If the user with Drought is sent out at the same time when another Pokemon with a weather ability (Drizzle, Sand Stream, Snow Warning), the slower Pokemon will always override the faster Pokemon's weather.
Overview
Charizard Y one of the most commonly seen Mega Evolutions in VGC and Battle Spot Doubles given its main ability Drought paired and its new its base 159 Special Attack to abuse. With access to powerful now sun-boosted Fire attacks like Heat Wave, Fire Pledge, Over Heat, Fire Blast, etc Charizard Y is an difficult Pokemon to switch in as few Pokemon are able to take these attacks relatively well. Coverage-wise, all Mega Charizard Y really needs is the powerful Grass-type move Solar Beam to conveniently hit any Water-, Rock-, and Ground-type Pokemon for super effective damage without ever taking the turn to charge up while in the sun. Even Pokemon who are normally resistant to Fire-type attacks (Water-types, Fire-types, Dragon-types, Rock-types) still get a chunk of their HP taken away from any of Mega Charizard Y Drought-boost fire attacks. Additional bonuses of using Mega Charizard Y include the following as well: cutting the power of Water-type attacks to half for neutral effectiveness during harsh sunlight, a considerable buff to its base Special Defense to take most special hits including Pixilate Hyper Voice from Sylveon/Mega Gardevoir better than others, and a relatively high speed base speed of 100 to hit its sun-boosted Fire attacks against its opponent.
Despite the frightening sheer power from a Drought Mega Charizard Y, it still reliant on those 5 turns of hash sunlight to either initiate offense with its boosted Fire-type attacks/Solar Beam. After those 5 turns of sun are over, Charizard Y once again becomes weak against most strong Water-type attacks (sun cuts the power of Water-type attacks in half). As weather abuser itself, Charizard Y will spar in opposing "weather wars" against rain teams with the Drizzle-summoning Politoed and the Sand Stream spuming teams with Tyranitar (small tangent here but lets be honest Abomasnow really needs help when facing off against this Fire Pokemon) to maintain dominance. Mega Charizard Y is still weak against most Electric-type attacks and quadruple weak against Rock-types meaning a single Rock Slide can drop the Fire starter completely if it doesn't have investment. Surely Charizard Y has it flaws but its sheer nuking capabilities thanks to the sun-boosted attacks and the massive damage output far outweigh the risk of using the classic Fire-type starter in either VGC/Battle Spot Doubles.
Ability Discussion: How to Use Drought Turns Wisely
Fast Charizard Y
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Charizard-Mega-Y @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
Level: 50
EVs: 60 HP / 4 Def / 188 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heat Wave / Flamethrower / Fire Pledge
- Solar Beam
- Overheat / Flamethrower
- Protect
Milestones:
-Outspeeds both Jolly Landorus-T and Mega Kangaskhan (1st turn during Mega Evolution or base form) by 1 point.
-STAB Overheat in the sun OHKOs 4 HP Mega Kangaskhan and Mega Gardevoir 100% of the time (factoring it hits).
-From the special defensive side, survives both a Modest Life Orb Draco Meteor from Hydreigon 93.7% of the time and a Timid Thunderbolt Thundurus-Incarnate form both with 252 SpA investment.
-Solar Beam 2HKOs standard 252 HP / 148 SpD Calm Rotom-W and 252 HP / 52 SpD Suicune with Sitrus Berry
-Max speed to speed tie with base 100s and outspeed anything else below.
-Solar Beam OHKOS 4 HP Terrakion 100% of the time.
This Mega Charizard Y set is designated to be a fast hit-and-run attacker with the full 252 speed investment in order to outspeed most Pokemon without relying on its team speed control while having strong offensive presence. That said, Charizard Y won't be able to take a Rock Slide from either Landorus-T/Terrakion or Double Edge from Mega Kangaskhan/Salamence without having proper support like Intimidate, Reflect, Wide Guard, Will-O-Wisp etc. Timid Charizard Y has seen a significant rise in usage given that most of the other base 90-100 Pokemon (Mega Kangaskhan, Mega Gardevoir, Hydreigon, Landorus-T, Arcanine, Zapdos, Landorus-T, Volcarona, Entei etc) are running near max speed, or speed tie at worse. Since Charizard is naturally at base 100 speed already, it can be able to outspeed neutral Mega Kangaskhan or Mega Gardevoir before they are able to get a opposing attack off. As far as the standard set goes, most Timid Charizard Y sets typically carry 2 Fire attacks + Solar Beam to round out its coverage options. The main reason for this is Charizard Y's main fire attacks (Heat Wave, Fire Blast, Flamethrower, Overheat) already receive two 1.5x boosts from STAB and from Drought making it an incredibly powerful Pokemon. Even most Pokemon who are resisted to Charizard Y's sun-boosted attacks will take about a 20% to 33% of their heath which is good enough so its partners can potentially OHKO them. Almost anything else that's unresisted to these sun-boosted Fire-type STAB will likely get 2HKOed just by the sheer power. Solar Beam rounds out most of Charizard Y's attacks since it doesn't suffer from the standard recharge due to the drought and can be used automatically to hit Rock-, Ground-, and Water-type Pokemon for super effective damage.
So with that out of the way, lets go in-depth of Charizard Y's main Fire-type STABs used with most of these sets. Heat Wave is the most standard Fire-type STAB for the Fire Starter given it deals a sizable amount of damage to both unresisted targets since its boosted by STAB and from the sunlight. The main use of sun-boosted Heat Wave is to inflict as much damage as possible against both targets or can be used as a finishing attack to clean up against weaken targets. The only issue with this is Wide Guard is rather common so Charizard Y might opt for the following Fire-type STABs: Flamethrower, Fire Pledge, or Overheat. Flamethrower while doesn't deal more total damage output from attack both targets, its able to bypass Wide Guard and deals a heavy damage against one Pokemon considering its single target. Fire Pledge is ten base power weaker than Flamethrower, however if combo'd successfully with a fast Grass-type starter (mainly chlorophyll Venusaur), its base power doubles to a powerful base 160 and can essentially roast any target that's not resisted, or named Heatran. Overheat is the main standard "overkill" option since it can OHKO 4 HP Mega Kangaskhan and Mega Gardevoir 100% of the time as well as deal incredibly damage even against resisted targets like Mega Salamence, Rotom-W, or Suicune if it needs OHKO them (assuming some chip damage was already inflicted).
Damage Calculations
Offensive- Just going to focus on the highlighted attacks (Heat Wave, Flamethrower, Fire Pledge (full power), Overheat, and Solar Beam) for the Timid Charizard Y build. Note this is going to be the main of offensive damage calculations for this thread given all three sets have very similar damage output off by a couple of percentage points like 1-4%. Charizard Y will still get the notable 2HKOs against neutral targets due to just how powerful sun-boosted atttacks come from a base 159 Special Attack.
Defensive -
Since this Mega Charizard Y won't be taking Rock Slides/Double Edge anytime soon, I've also included damage calculations if say another target is at -1 by an Intimidate. Keep in mind that this Charizard Y set isn't meant to fulfill defensive role rather dish out as much damage as possible with sun-boosted fire attacks.
Bulky Charizard Y
Charizard-Mega-Y @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Drought
Level: 50
EVs: 188 HP / 196 Def / 8 SpA / 116 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD
- Heat Wave / Flamethrower
- Solar Beam
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Protect
Milestones:
-This is Calisweeper's Mega Charizard Y so here are some achievements below:
-Survives a Rock Slide from an Adamant 252 Atk Landorus-T 100% of the time.
-Survives a Double Edge from Jolly Mega Kangaskhan/Salamence 100% of the time.
-Can take a +2 Shadow Ball from Weakness Policy Aegislash
-Outspeed positive base 70 Pokemon like Jolly Breloom.
-The Special Attack stat for this set is about 5 points less (203>198).
With Charizard Y being frail from the defensive end, chances of it taking a Double Edge from Mega Kangaskhan/Salamence or a Rock Slide from Landorus-T are rather low. This Charizard Y EV spread from Calisweeper is an example of how players will opt significant investment to HP and Defense to survive such attack so Charizard can get off a strong sun-boosted fire attack. STAB Heat Wave with the sun-boost is still strong enough to 2HKO most targets that aren't resisted or naturally bulky on the special defensive end. Again Flamethrower can be opted in case the player doesn't want to either a) give an opposing Heatran a Flash Fire boost on a switch in, b) inflict higher damage output against single target Pokemon, and c) bypass Wide Guard from Aegislash. Solar Beam is still a great coverage option in case Charizard Y is up against Rock-, Ground-, and mostly Water-types like Suicune, Milotic, Politoed, or Rotom-W. The only notable change from the moveset is this Charizard Y acts as a lure against opposing Heatrans and can deal heavy damage with Hidden Power Ground. Heatran is considered the go-to counter to Charizard Y since none of the sun-boosted fire attacks will damage Heatran and Solar Beam does almost nothing to the Fire/Steel type. Though it won't faint even the least bulkier variants or with Shuca Berry, Hidden Power Ground will still deal around 80% so another partner can take out Heatran with a neutral hit. Hidden Power Ground is another way to take out opposing Fire types considering the fact the opponent will likely use this same tactic to pivot against Charizard Y.
Damage Calculations
Offensive - Not going to focus on offensive power as much other than Hidden Power Ground since this Charizard Y's has about 5 Special Attack points less. Despite this Heat Wave and Flamethrower with the sun up can 2HKO most neutral targets unless they are either resistant or naturally bulky like Cresselia/Sylveon. Solar Beam however won't guarantee the OHKO / 2HKO on either standard Terrakion or Suicune respectively though Charizard Y has a favorable damage roll against these two.
Defensive - Here I'm going to feature the defensive achievements that Calisweeper's Charizard Y set was able to accomplish with some damage calculation using Intimidate drops.
Tailwind
Charizard-Mega-Y @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 12 Def / 44 SpA / 4 SpD / 196 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flamethrower / Heat Wave
- Solar Beam
- Tailwind
- Protect
Milestones:
-This set is mostly based off of Blake Hooper's and Level 51's Charizard Y set.
-OHKOes 252 HP /156 SpD Aegislash with Flamethrower
-Outspeeds neutral Landorus-T with 252 Spe
-Survives a -1 Rock Slide from Landorus-T, Jolly Tyranitar, and Jolly Terrakion with an Intimidate drop 100% of the time.
-Survives Specs Draco Meteor from Modest Hydreigon 15/16th of the time.
-Has near same damage output compared with the first set (Timid 188 SpA) shown.
-Outspeed Adamant Excadrill and Smeargle.
This Charizard Y set is based on among the most standard and effective sets available which allows it to outspeed Adamant Landorus-T, Excadrill, or even positive speed Smeargle. The full HP investment along with a few EVs in its defenses allows Charizard Y to take most Rock Slides up to Jolly Terrakion after an Intimidate drop while can take a Modest Draco Meteor from Hydreigon most of the time. That said for this Charizard Y set, the main objective is to setup Tailwind support for its teammates so both can outspeed the opponent for the next three turns. Try to use Tailwind when there are targets who are generally weak against Charizard Y like a Grass or Steel Pokemon that can't threaten Charizard Y to well without either switching out or protecting that turn. Once the Tailwind is setup, Charizard Y and its partners will have the next 3 turns to continuously target down key targets with its sun-boosted Fire-type attacks or coverage options to hopefully win the battle during this time. Since Tailwind will take up a moveslot, either Flamethrower or Heat Wave should be used for optimal Fire STAB. Again the choice if up to the player to decide which Fire-type attack is better since Flamethrower deals far greater damage against single target Pokemon and bypasses Wide Guard while Heat Wave can target down both Pokemon, however it can get walled easily with Wide Guard user. Solar Beam is self-explanatory at this point so us this Grass-type coverage against any Water-, Rock-, or Ground type Pokemon while Drought is in effect. Lastly protect is there to scout out for any attacks or protect Charizard from any opposing attacks.
Damage Calculations
Offensive - Again this Charizard Y has the similar damage output to the other two shown which is off by a couple percentage points so not much of a difference unless it has full max special attack with a Modest Nature.
Defensive - Here some of the damage calculations will feature key benchmarks while using Intimidate drops when comparing it to something like Rock Slide or Double Edge.
Potential Teammates include, but aren't limited to
- Intimidate Support: Pokemon like Landorus-T, Scrafty, Hitmontop, Gyarados, Acaranine, etc are able to mitigate the physical damage done to Charizard Y with Intimidate are vital partners to ensure its longevity.
- Offensive Synergy Partners: Garchomp, Mamoswine, Landorus-T, Rhyperior and Excadrill are among the best partners considering Charizard Y can easily threaten most Water-/Ice-type Pokemon with its Fire + Solar Beam coverage while any of these Ground-types can come in on an Electric-type attack and are free to Earthquake without hurting its partner at all. Sand-based teams with Tyranitar + Excadrill appreciate Mega Charizard Y by improving its matchup against rain teams by cutting the power of Water-type attacks in half and maintaining weather dominance of sand + sun. Sylveon is the one of (if not) the best special attacker to pair with Charizard Y as only Fire-types along with Water/Poison-types could resist the combination of Pixilate Hyper Voice or sun-boosted Heat Wave/Flamethrower, and anything else will get severely damaged. Terrakion is another Pokemon seen with Charizard Y since it capable of OHKOing Mega Kangaskhan, Tyranitar, etc with STAB Close Combat and threatening Mega Salamence, Thundurus, Zapdos, Talonflame, etc with a STAB Rock Slide.
- Wide Guard: Since Charizard Y is extremely deceptive to Rock Slide, Pokemon like Aegislash, Conkeldurr, Hitmontop, Machamp, Hariyama, Mienshao, Swampert, and others can provide Wide Guard support while most of them have an additional bonus of being checks/counters to most Rock Slide users like Excadrill, Tyranitar, Terrakion, etc.
- Speed Control: Though Charizard Y has an above average base speed of 100, this isn't enough to allow Charizard Y to outspeed targets/threats like Mega Salamence, Terrakion, Scarf Tyranitar/Landorus-T, or Sand Rush Exadrill. Speed Control is almost a necessity to allow Charizard Y to outspeed key targets while firing Drought-boosted STAB attacks before it goes down. Example of speed control options include Thunder Wave, Icy Wind, Electro-Web, Tailwind, and Trick Room.
- Beneficiaries of Drought: One of the most common partners with Charizard Y is Chlorophyll Venusaur since its speed is doubled during the sun though it has to wait an extra turn if the sun isn't settled. An interesting point regarding these two since both can learn two of the pledge moves Grass Pledge and Fire Pledge and both these attacks combine to create a powerful single target base 160 power Fire-type attack boosted in the sun. If Venusaur or Charizard Y are able to connect with their attacks, the combined Fire Pledge should be able to bypass speed orders an attack any intended target. The last thing about to mention is a "Sea of Fire" is created which deals 1/8th damage against all non-Fire-type Pokemon on the field. It shouldn't take a genius to realize that other Fire-type Pokemon paired with Charizard Y can benefit from the extra five turns of sun as well.
- Grass types: Grass type Pokemon like Breloom, Virizion, Ferrothorn, Shifty, Venusaur, Whimsicott, and others can come in against Water-, Rock-, or Ground-type Pokemon well should Charizard Y's Drought wears off.
Threats
- Rock-Types and Rock-type attack: In all seriousness, Charizard Y cannot withstand the any quad super effective Rock-type hit especially if its STAB coming from a Tyranitar, Terrakion, Rhyperior, Aerodactyl, etc while most Rock-types can take a Drought-boosted Fire-type attack relatively well. Rock Slide is a common non-STAB coverage option found on Pokemon like Landorus-T, Excadrill, Mamoswine, Mega Salamence, Blaziken, Mega Swampert, Greninja, and other fast threats who can easily drop Chaizard Y if it doesn't have any defensive investment. Lastly Stone Edge is an option to bypass any Wide Guard user paired with Charizard Y and deal far more damage than Rock Slide.
- Opposing Weather (Rain / Sand): In term of weather, Charizard Y cannot recklessly stay in too often against opposing weather teams since Politoed, Tyranitar, or any others can easily remove the Drought. Despite being counterbalanced to sun, rain teams can still attempt to catch Charizard Y off with a rain-boosted attack especially once Charizard Y can no longer switch out. Keep in mind that Charizard Y will likely be switching in and out so use the water-boosted attack wisely while keep Politoed around to trap it in the late game. Sand teams honestly fair better than rain against Charizard Y since Tyranitar can easily come in on any Fire-type attack with a boosted Special Defense and knock it out with a quad effective Rock Slide. Once it has Sand Rush activated, Excadrill can outspeed Charizard Y and fire a super effective Rock Slide to drop the Mega. Lastly since this has been picking up lately, manual weather like Prankster/fast Rain Dance from Thundurus, Liepard, Meowstic, etc can shut down Charizard Y quick and have its partner KO with a rain boosted Water-type attack.
- Physical Attackers: Since Charizard Y has a low base HP and Defense stats, Pokemon like Mega Kangaskhan, Mega Salamence, Talonflame, Arcanine, Garchomp, Entei as well as the other Rock-type coverage users mentioned earlier threaten it reasonably well to to force a switch out so take advantage of this. Some of these Pokemon mentioned here have priority moves so these attacks in case they cannot outspeed Charizard Y before they get hit or possibly KOed.
- Electric-types: Most Electric-type Pokemon like Thundurus, Raichu, Mega Manetric, Raikou, Rotom-A, Zapdos, Heliolisk, etc are all able to take fire super effective hits against Charizard Y especially if its boosted as as well. If any of these Electric-types can't OHKO Charizard Y, the least they can do is paralyze it with Thunder Wave so Charizard Y can't move first or even move at all on certain turns.
- Opposing Speed Control: Virtually any form of speed control that allows Charizard Y to move last is beneficially in beating the Mega Evolution. Pokemon who can setup Tailwind like Suicune, Zapdos, Hydreigon, Lati@s, Talonflame, etc are mostly bulky enough to take on the Mega Evolution's sun-boosted fire attacks or have a super effective typing advantage. Thunder Wave as mentioned before can be use by a variety of non-Electric-type Pokemon such as Cresselia, Togekiss, Gothitelle, Porygon2, Tyranitar, etc to slow down Charizard Y so it won't outspeed the opposing side. Icy Wind/Electro Web is a somewhat difficult speed control to pull off since this requires knowing the speed tier stats however this can slow down Charizard Y enough so threats like Mega Kangashan, Landorus-T, Tyranitar, etc can easily KO it. Lastly Trick Room is a viable strategy to ensure that most Charizard Y won't be moving first for 5 turns.
- Dragon-types: Opposing Dragon-type Pokemon like Hydreigon, Latios, Latias, Mega Salamence, Garchomp, Kingdra, and plenty of others are able to switch in on most of Charizard Y's sun boosted attacks due to their resistance to fire attacks while capable of knocking the Fire Starter with the strong Draco Meteor, Double Edge, Dragon Claw, Rock Slide, or other coverage options respectively.
- Fire-types: Lastly, Fire-type Pokemon can check Mega Charizard Y reasonably well and can abuse the sun to power up their own Fire-type attacks. Probably the best counter to Chrarizard Y is Heatran as it take no damage from any sun-boosted STABs thanks to Flash Fire, resist Solar Beam attacks, and can get a Flash Fire / sun boost to potentially sweep the opposing team with its own Fire-type attacks. Rotom-H resist both of Charizard Y's duel STABs along with Solar Beam so it can easily launch a Thunderbolt or OHKO its partner with a sun-boosted Overheat. Other Fire types like Blaziken, Inferape, Entei, Talonflame. etc can threaten Charizard Y with their coverage option as well abuse the sun for themselves.
Other Notable Moves
Here are some other options for Charizard Y to run if someone is looking for alternatives to its movepool.
- Fire Blast - A base 110 Fire-type move and the only other Fire-type attack that wasn't mentioned as often in this thread while still receiving the Drought boost. While Mega Charizard Y has stronger attackers liker Overheat or a full-power Fire Pledge, both these attacks have some minor issues with Overheat dropping the Special Attack stat by 2 stages (1/2) with the chance to miss or Fire Pledge requiring chlorophyll Venusaur with Grass Pledge to setup. Fire Blast is an alternative if the Overheat drops doesn't appeal to one however Charizard Y will surely miss out on key KOs like against 4 HP Mega Kangaskhan or use as a finishing attack against those who either resist or have a high special defense.
- Hidden Power Ice - A base 60 special coverage attack mainly used against other quadruple weak Pokemon like Mega Salamence or Landorus-T. Given Charizard Y's rather high Special Attack stat, Hidden Power Ice can do either heavy damage or even OHKO these two targets nicely though the issue is Landorus-T could be Scarf variant who can fire Rock Slides and Mega Salamence nautrally outspeeds and beats Y most of the time with its Physical/Mixed sets. Maintaining speed control here is really important in order to secure these surprise knock outs.
- Focus Blast -A base 120 Fighting-type special move which is powerful enough on the hands of Charizard Y to potentially OHKO Hydreigon, Heatran, Tyranitar, or even Mega Kangaskhan however the base 70% accuracy can be rather atrocious at times especially if its in a best of one setting.
- Ancient Power - A base 60 Rock-type move which can be advantage against opposing Flying and Fire types like Mega Salamence, Arcanine, Rotom-H, or even opposing Charizard Y mirror matches.
- Will-O-Wisp- A status ailment attack which burns the target Pokemon about 85% of the time otherwise used to cut the power of physical attackers. Can be a nice surprise move coming from a Charizard Y though I'd think other Pokemon are better in spreading burn status.
- Air Slash- A base 75 Flying type special attack in which has a 30% chance to flinch the opponent though a small 5% chance to miss. This is pretty much Charizard Y's only STAB option that's not a Fire-type move though since its not ridiculous boosted by Drought its kinda obsolute. I guess the only notable thing from Air Slash is using it for Fighting-types with the potential flinch factor.
Thanks for reading this overview. This one took a bit longer than expected given how many issues I had with my laptop so I'm going to work on both Sylveon and Heatran which should be done by the end of the month.
so detailed love the builds 
