Talonflame vs Charizard In-Game

[SilentEevee]

So, I decided to play through the game once more, and I was planning to use Gale Wings Talonflame as my fire/flying type, most notably due to its lack of a ground weakness and great speed. However, its attack is average and thanks to the nerf it received in gen 7, its ability is not as useful. Additionally, it only starts to get good moves around the time it evolves, and while that's only about 10 levels away from its encounter level, its coverage is still pretty shit. It doesn't even have breeding potential through good egg moves.

 

I've also recently found a charmander off of WT.  It's pretty good with regards to coverage, and it does have a mega evolution that I could exploit later on. That said, base 100 speed still isn't anything to write home about, and most of the good egg moves I could breed onto it, like Dragon Dance, aren't available until I get my hands on a decent dragon type, which I won't be getting for a while, either. It's got the same frailty to rocks that Talonflame, and doesn't even learn a good steel move naturally to combat it, unlike Talonflame's Steel Wing (which, admittedly, it still only gets at level 60).

 

So, in your opinion, what pokemon would you recommend; charizard or talonflame? Or, if you wouldn't recommend either, what other non-starter fire type would you recommend?

[Swampellow]

Charizard is a monster, especially if you give it something that sets sun for it. 10/10 would recommend. It also nukes early game with Dragon Rage.

[Walpurgis]

Talonflame is fast boye Charizard is nuke boye. Choose wisely.
Talonflame looks infinitelly cooler too

[Scyl]

For early game? The Talonflame line is pretty godawful until Level 44 where it finally gets Acrobatics, giving it an actually good move, after that, It's pretty solid, but the journey to getting there is pretty painful(due to not getting any good moves by level up and your highest damage dealing stab moves being Flame Charge and Peck). You're also going to have to wait on the move tutor to get an actually good Fire Stab on it. So yeah, I'd say Charizard since it's just much more useful much earlier and outdamages Talon. On top of that, it also gets way more useful coverage moves and TMs.

[Q-Jei]

In my opinion, Talonflame is relatively underrated in Reborn. There’s a possibility to get Acrobatics at level 39 with Fletchling. Then give it some Common Candies and you have the best Sweeper to defeat both Shelly and Kiki quickly and efficiently. Despite its double weakness to Rock attacks, Talonflame is a pretty good asset early in game, and even further. Thanks to Tailwind, you’ll be able to outspeed most of the important bosses (Arceus, Mewtwo, Zekrom/Reshiram...) and elaborate strategies, let alone the Acrobatics/Flying Gem combo which turns it into a dangerous flying wrecking ball.

 

These being said, I agree with the others concerning the usefulness of Charizard’s evolution line, especially with Dragon Rage which makes Gym Battles against Julia and Florinia far easier. It’s up to you to decide which Mega Evolution you prefer to use. Charizard Y is more a glass canon than anything else and is not available yet, whereas Charizard X is more versatile and resistant due to its Dragon Type. If you choose this one, I would recommend you to teach it Dragon Dance by breeding or Roost by TM. Horsea is the first breedable Pokemon with Charizard to be available in the wild, and it learns Dragon Dance at level 46. However, as it’s only available once you go to Agate Circus, it means you won’t have the opportunity to get Dragon Dance before the Neo Reborn Arc.

 

Choice is yours in the end, just choose wisely... even if my heart goes to Talonflame 

 

EDIT: Breed with Altaria on route 1 is another good option to get Dragon Dance. So, it’s possible to get this move even before to go to Agate. Thank you @Teto for pointing that out!

[Des Teto]

Acrobatics + Seed = Talonflame.

You can easily abuse terrain mechanics with this gimmick. It is true that you lack good fire coverage until the move relearner. But, luckily, you'll have Flare Blitz just in time for Serra so does it really matter early-game?

 

Charizard is still good as it offers good special coverage. It's a nuke as well explained in previous answers.

[Des Teto]

9 hours ago, Q-Jei said:

Horsea is the first breedable Pokemon with Charizard to be available in the wild, and it learns Dragon Dance at level 46. However, as it’s only available once you go to Agate Circus, it means you won’t have the opportunity to get Dragon Dance before the Neo Reborn Arc.

There is Altaria in Route 1 too but it's still late.

[Q-Jei]

Yeah that’s true! I totally forgot to mention this one!