Charizard (SSB4)/Up throw

Overview

Charizard soars into the air, passing the upper blast line with the opponent in tow. It then zooms back down and slams them against the floor. It is similar to Kirby and Meta Knight's up throws, and has the same ability to land on any soft platform above Charizard as he uses the move. In terms of knockback, it is the strongest up throw in the game, KOing from center at around 125% before DI and rage, as well as the second strongest overall throw in the game, only behind Ness's back throw. However, due to its 70 degree angle, DIing the throw down and away drastically reduces its KO power; the aforementioned KO percent becomes around 165% if DI'd this way, and the knockback isn't horizontal enough during this DI to make it a KO threat horizontally. As such, in practise it's much less reliable than Mewtwo's up throw, which is the second strongest up throw in the game and will KO around 135% when optimally DI'd before rage. Several more up throws in fact are more reliable KO throws in competitive play, such as Lucas', Kirby's, and R.O.B.'s.

The aforementioned platform landing ability can aid its KO power; when not DI'd properly, using the throw underneath a platform can result in especially early KOs, especially if below a high platform such as the left tree on Duck Hunt. Landing on the tree of Duck Hunt or on the top platform of Dreamland can KO below 80% without proper DI for example. However due to down and away DI turning the knockback more horizontal, the KO-boosting power of platforms is limited with proper DI, and even landing on a high platform will usually fail to KO below 130% without sufficient rage.

Due to Charizard flying high into the air above the upper blastline, If Charizard or the opponent has an explosive attached to them like a Gooey Bomb or Mega Man's Crash Bomber, it can be used for a Sacrificial KO if properly timed to set the explosion off as Charizard is at the apex of its jump.

This throw is inspired by the Pokémon anime's depiction of Seismic Toss, based off of how Charizard uses the move in the anime.

Update history

1.0.6

Damage: 6% (hit 1), 2% (throw) → 8%, 3%.

1.0.8

Angle: 60° → 70°.
Knockback scaling: 160 → 220.

In the initial release of the game, Charizard's up throw was a significantly different move in functionality. The throw was very weak, dealing low knockback that was never a threat to KO at realistic damages, and dealt a mediocre 8% damage. The throw was seemingly designed to be a setup throw, but its 60 degree trajectory, too high base knockback, and awkward ending that leaves Charizard airborne, made followups unfeasible without Dragon Rush, even after the 1.0.4 patch drastically nerfed vectoring. And with Dragon Rush, the followup only worked up to low-mid damages, and was never a true combo, requiring a good read of the opponent's reaction to land it. As such, up throw had no real practical use in early versions of the game; it would never KO, Charizard's forward and back throws dealt more damage, and couldn't setup into anything semi-reliably without customs, in which case back throw was a completely superior setup throw for Dragon Rush.

The 1.0.6 patch buffed the throw, increasing its damage output by 3%, making its new damage output 11%, higher-end damage output for a throw, which in turned also buffed its knockback slightly. However its knockback was still way too low to be a KO threat, and this only hindered its already very-limited setup capabilities. The damage buff did make it Charizard's most damaging throw, meaning in situations where the opponent's damage was too low to get KO'd by Charizard's other throws, while being in a position where Charizard wouldn't get meaningful positional advantage, it could be used to get the most damage out of the situation. However even then it only provided 1% more damage than Charizard's forward and back throws, overall still leaving the throw with little practical use.

The 1.0.8 patch restructured the move, making its launch angle 10 degrees more vertical, and drastically improving its knockback scaling, turning the move into a pure KO throw, with extremely strong knockback for a throw (albeit heavily vulnerable to DI as previously covered). This patch also restructured Charizard's down throw, which was previously Charizard's main KO throw, into a pure setup throw. While Charizard's up throw is still inferior to some of Charizard's other KO options, this patch made the throw considerably more useful, giving it practical purpose now as a throw that can snuff stocks that go too long over 150% without needing to rely on Charizard being at the edge of a stage.

The move has been unchanged since 1.0.8.