Charizard

It flies through the skies looking for strong opponents, and when it finds one weaker than itself, it holds back its fire. That Pokédex entry describes a predator with standards, which isn't exactly common in the catalogue. When it does decide to let loose, it spits flames hot enough to melt rock and accidentally starts forest fires.

The flame at the tip of its tail is a visible indicator of the Pokémon's condition: it flares up and turns an intense red just as it breathes out scorching fire. With wings like that, it can reach an altitude of 1400 meters, and from there it spits fire from its mouth. It stands 1.7 meters tall and weighs 90.5 kilograms—big-Pokémon numbers, but not enormous for what its silhouette promises.

Its official category is the Flame Pokémon. It closes out the line that starts with Charmander and passes through Charmeleon: this is the point where a lizard with a burning tail grows wings and stops walking on the ground. What it doesn't gain along the way is the Dragon type. Despite its long neck, membranous wings, and two horns at the back of its head, it remains Fire and Flying, and that detail has sparked more discussion than anything else about the species.

534 points spread out with a clear idea in mind: 109 Special Attack and 100 Speed up front, 84 Attack behind them, and a frame with 78 HP, 78 Defense, and 85 Special Defense that takes less punishment than its size might suggest. That exact 100 Speed has been the line separating the fast from the rest for generations.

Blaze powers up Fire-type moves when its HP is low, the shared ability carried by almost every starter. The one that changes how it plays is Solar Power, its Hidden Ability: in sun, it raises Special Attack while draining HP every turn. It's a deal for short games and for teams where something else handles setting up the sun.

On offense, its two types split the work nicely. Flamethrower arrives at level 30, while Fire Blast and Hurricane come from TMs, with 110 power each; Dragon Dance, also from a TM, is the way to make use of that 84 Attack with Flare Blitz and Dragon Claw instead of relying on the special side.

On defense, the numbers don't add up. Immunity to Ground is useful, and the resistances to Grass, Bug, Steel, and Fairy are too, but the weakness to Rock is doubled by the two types and ends up quadrupled: with Stealth Rock up, it loses half its HP just by entering the field, and any Aerodactyl that happens to be in front of it can finish it off with one move. Add Water and Electric to the list of weaknesses and you get three common ways for it to die. The version with a real competitive history is Mega Charizard X, which Smogon gave its own article in OU.

Its Egg Groups are Monster and Dragon, and the second is the one that opens things up: the line can breed with a good chunk of the Pokédex's dragons. The gender ratio is seven to one in favor of males—only 12.5% are born female—so breeding your own line starts with finding the female or getting Ditto.

The 20 incubation cycles work out to about 5355 steps, putting it among the longer stretches in the game. From the egg, on Charmander, come eight moves: Bite, Counter, Belly Drum, Iron Tail, Metal Claw, Ancient Power, Dragon Rush, and Dragon Tail. Dragon Rush, with 100 power, gets the most out of that 84 Attack; Ancient Power is amusing because it's Rock-type on a species that takes quadruple damage from Rock.

The evolution has no trick to it: Charmeleon levels up at level 36 and that's it—no stones, no time of day, no friendship. Charmander does it twenty levels earlier, at 16. Its growth rate is Medium Slow, it gives 240 base experience when defeated, and it yields 3 Special Attack EVs.

Its habitat is the mountains, and a catch rate of 45 puts it among the difficult ones to catch: a fifty-fifty split of failed attempts is the normal scenario even with its health low.