Pokémon X and Y/Species Strategies (Generation I Families)

This page contains information on every Pokémon family first introduced in Generation I, including stats, recommended movesets and evolutionary lines. All evolutionary lines are put together, even if an evolution or pre-evolution was not introduced in the same Generation as other members of its evolutionary family.

Charmander, Charmeleon and Charizard
As the final evolution of Charmander, Charizard is definitely one of the most popular and recognizable Pokémon of the first generation. However, it was always considered mediocre in battle, with a crippling Rock-type weakness and being outclassed by other fire special attackers. In the sixth generation, it doesn't get one, but two Mega Evolutions, not only greatly increasing its viability, but also giving it an element of unpredictability, since foes will never know which Mega Evolution this draconian fire-breather will run until it actually Mega Evolves. Without evolutions, Charizard is still hampered by its usual weaknesses, though it can be a fairly powerful sweeper in Sunny weather with Solar Power.

With Mega Charizard X for the X version, Charizard becomes a Fire and Dragon-type Pokémon and can become a powerful physical sweeper thanks to it Tough Claws ability, which boosts the power of contact moves. This lets it take advantage of its great physical movepool, including the amazing Dragon Dance. After a Dragon Dance boost, Mega Charizard X becomes extremely dangerous and it only takes a OHKO or a few hits to KO many Pokémon who aren't good at being physically defensive. It's Flare Blitz, coming off from a STAB 120 base power, hits immensely hard on anything that doesn't resist but at the cost of some recoil damage. Defensively, Mega Charizard X's Fire/Dragon typing is also a blessing, nullifying its infamous weakness to Stealth Rock as well as removing the Dragon-type's weakness to Ice and Fairy.

With Mega Charizard Y for the Y version, Charizard keeps it's typing but it's Special Attack is now gigantic (even a bit higher than a regular Mewtwo's Special Attack per se). With Drought ability on its side (which makes the weather Sunny), Mega Charizard Y is also a terrifying special sweeper. STAB Fire Blast, backed by a Sunny weather, disintegrates many that don't resist Fire-type attacks, while a Solar Beam, which skips the charging turn and attacks on the turn selected due to Drought, will tear apart Water and Rock-type Pokémon traditionally used to counter Charizard. However, Mega Charizard Y is still extremely vulnerable to Rock-type attacks, including Stealth Rock, so it can be hard getting it in battle without using it as a lead. Fortunately, it can learn the newly-buffed Defog, which lets it clear away entry hazards on both sides, giving it more opportunities to switch in and wreak havoc.

Abra, Kadabra and Alakazam
The Abra family has always been one of the stronger Psychic-types ever since their creation, being a perfect example of a frail but powerful special attacker. It has all of the tools it needs to play its role effectively, with excellent Special Attack and high Speed to get the first hit and take the opponent down quickly, a narrow but effective movepool that covers types that resist Psychic, and a wonderful ability in Magic Guard, which prevents opponents from chipping at its health with entry hazards, weather or status ailments. Magic Guard not only protects Alakazam from common sources of residual damage, which it does not appreciate due to its poor survivability, but also enables Alakazam to boost its moves with a Life Orb without suffering from Life Orb's recoil like other Pokémon.

However, Alakazam does have noticeable flaws. As stated before, it can't survive a lot of attacks, and a moderately strong physical attack can easily bring it down in one hit due to its poor Defense. Users of priority attacks are also quite common, which ignores Alakazam's speed advantage and mostly aim at its weaker Defense stat. Sucker Punch and Shadow Sneak in particular are also super effective on Alakazam, so it must definitely avoid potential users of these moves. Alakazam has no problems making an impact offensively, as it has Psychic or Psyshock as its main STAB attack, Shadow Ball to bring down Ghost-types and fellow Psychic-types, and finally Focus Blast as a slightly inaccurate but usable attack against Dark and Steel types. It also learns moves of other types as well as few useful status moves like Recover and Calm Mind, but they aren't too needed due to the coverage it already gains with Psychic, Shadow Ball and Psyshock, while it is too frail too afford to use up turns for utilizing status moves.

Alakazam gets a nice Mega Evolution that further increases its Special Attack and Speed, while slightly patching up its subpar Defense. It becomes almost impossible to outspeed without any Speed-boosting items or moves, and even its neutral attacks will be extremely painful. However, it is still vulnerable to priority attacks and frail as ever despite the minor Defense boost. Even worse, it loses Magic Guard for the pretty good but more situational Trace, meaning it must be more careful switching into entry hazards and status-inducers. Alakazam is even more of a glass cannon in this Mega form, so while you could freely bring a normal Alakazam in to destroy its opponents with Life Orb-boosted attacks, you need to be more conservative with letting Mega Alakazam out into battle. However, if you can still work around its flaws, it is certainly of the deadliest special attackers around.

Farfetch'd
Farfetch'd is one of the Pokémon in the series infamous for being terrible. None of its stats are good, it has a common typing without any particular benefits and is hopelessly outclassed by tons of better Pokémon. Farfetch'd is based on a Japanese proverb meaning a rare and fortunate occurance, and encountering one in player battles is certainly one such occurance...for Farfetch'd's opponents. While it has never been good ever since its inception, it does gain an interesting gimmick with the revamped mechanics of this generation.

Farfetch'd has a signature item associated with it, the Stick, which can very rarely be found on wild Farfetch'd. When held, it increases Farfetch'd's critical hit ratio by two. The new critical mechanics of Gen VI makes all of a Pokémon's attacks be critical hits if its critical hit ratio is raised by 3 or more, and Farfetch'd gets a bunch of increased critical hit ratio moves, learning Slash, Air Cutter and Night Slash by level-up as well as Leaf Blade through breeding. Using any of these moves with a Stick equipped is absolutely guaranteed to become a critical hit, effectively making all of these attacks do 150% damage while ignoring the foe's Defense boosts. This feature certainly sounds exciting, as Farfetch'd attacks would actually do marginally threatening damage, but its terrible defenses and poor Speed means that Farfetch'd is still likely to get outsped by just about any fully evolved Pokémon, then get fainted in one hit.