CHARIZARD Amiibo Guide

CHARIZARD

VERY STRONG TIER

From my experience working with Charizard, I feel that this amiibo takes a little more time to become good. I had a problem with him trying to spam his up b for kills and almost always use his down throw over any other throw when he first got to level 50. His up throw can kill but even after showing it to him multiple times he still didn't  want to use it for a long time. Now after having him compete for a bit at 50, he has realized up throw is a viable kill option and uses it. He has aerials that he struggles to land sometimes which can lead to punishes. Against short opponents he doesn't connect with his F Air while they are grounded, his neutral air is very slow and his back air has a wonky hit box. So that also lessens his effectiveness a bit if he ends up jumping around a lot. I thought that the AI was flawed but he seems to be another amiibo like Lucario and Marth that just take more time to develope. When I first got him to 50 he was losing to everyone, but after a while he started to win on a pretty consistent basis. His reads definitely improved and so did his ledge guard. His advantages are much like other heavy amiibos, he hits hard and if he can land a good read he's going to send them flying. He has strong tilts/smash attacks and his jab attack is very good. Getting him to use B moves is pretty difficult, other than up b. I tried to use down b a lot to get him in a habit of using it but he still rarely does. Side B is not worth teaching him, his AI automatically use it to recover if he gets knocked back really far, but offensively he will almost never use Flare Blitz. I'd suggest just avoiding it. Heavies also have an advantage in Free For Alls/Teams because it's so much easier for them to land their hard hitting moves. He does seem to struggle in quite a few match ups just like any other heavy but he will turn out very strong if you want to put work into him. I do think his punishes hurt a lot more than Bowser's and Ganondorf's though and I think in some cases this can give him an edge.

PROS:

• Very Heavy
• Good in Free For Alls/Team Matches
• Hits Very Hard
• Kill Throw
• Lingering Hit Boxes
• Strong vs Squishies
• Punishes are devastating

CONS:

• AI seems to have a mind of its own sometimes
• Poor recovery, easily gimped
• Struggles in a lot 1v1s
• Doesn't prioritize b moves at all hardly (In some cases, this is a good thing though)

TRAINING MUSTS:

• Utilize his tilts, all of them are strong, up tilt can juggle or lead to an up smash at low percents
• Make sure you show him to hit with the end of his tail
• Grab/Pummel often, Show him he can kill with up throw and back throw, down throw is good but he prioritizes it way too much so maybe try to avoid using it
• Use flame breath for spacing
• Use down b often, it's a strong move with super armor and can lead to winning trades, I used it a lot and he doesn't really use it, but hopefully you will have more luck
• Utilize all aerials even though they aren't as strong, I'd suggest focusing on F Air and B Air, both can kill
• Up b can kill but I'm not sure if you should teach it to him or not because my Charizard prioritizes it way too much. I'd say avoid this move other than recovery if you plan to fight him against amiibos
• Flare Blitz will almost never be used in a 1v1 with an amiibo opponent. I've honestly never seen mine use it even though I used it on him in training and killed him with it a few times. This is actually a good thing, it's laggy, damages him and he would rarely ever land it. I'd say just avoid this move all together.