Charizard

Mega Charizard X

Mega Charizard X has an excellent offensive presence in 1v1, possessing a great Attack stat combined with Tough Claws and amazing STAB moves in Flare Blitz and Outrage. It also has various utility options at its disposal, such as Dragon Dance, Will-O-Wisp, Substitute, and Flame Charge, which give it the tools needed to beat several threats it couldn't otherwise, such as Mega Lopunny and Dragonite. Thanks to its natural power, it can afford to invest EVs into its above-average bulk, which gives it the potential to tank some of the most powerful attacks in the metagame, such as Mega Lopunny's Fake Out + Giga Impact and Choice Specs Greninja's Hydro Cannon. It can also wait on Mega Evolving to avoid super effective damage from Dragon-type attacks from the likes of Dragonite and Ground-type attacks such as the first hit of Thousand Arrows. Furthermore, as it appears as a regular Charizard in Team Preview, an opponent won't know if you are running Mega Charizard X or Mega Charizard Y, so you can have a free turn of setup on turn one if they predict wrong. Unfortunately, Charizard has a weakness to Rock-type moves both before and after Mega Evolving, so powerful Rock-type moves are able to quickly knock out even the bulkiest Mega Charizard X, such as Continental Crush from Golem, Crustle, and Donphan, as well as Diamond Storm from Mega Diancie. Mega Charizard X can also be walled by Pokemon that can tank both Outrage and Flare Blitz, such as Primarina, Charm Mega Venusaur, and Tapu Fini.

Mega Charizard Y

Mega Charizard Y is an excellent offensive presence in the 1v1 metagame, able to obliterate all but the most specially defensive Pokemon with its sun-boosted Blast Burn, including foes such as Tapu Lele and Mega Gardevoir. It also has access to excellent coverage and utility options in the form of Solar Beam and Air Slash, allowing it to beat many Pokemon that Fire-types traditionally struggle with, such as Guardian of Alola Tapu Fini, Mega Venusaur, and Mega Swampert, as well as Flame Charge to beat faster Substitute users, such as Jumpluff and Flail Mega Lopunny. Mega Charizard Y's Drought ability also serves to weaken the Water-type moves dealt out by several prominent Water-types in the metagame, notably enabling it to tank Choice Specs Greninja's Hydro Cannon after moderate investment. Unfortunately, Mega Charizard Y suffers from a 4x weakness to Rock-type moves, with Pokemon such as Mega Tyranitar, Mega Diancie, and Crustle easily crushing it. Furthermore, Mega Charizard Y, unlike its X counterpart, has no viable way of boosting its main offensive stat, meaning that Mega Charizard Y has no effective way to break sufficiently bulky Special Defense boosters like Meloetta and stall Deoxys-S, as well as being susceptible to generally specially defensive walls like Chansey.