Squirtle could be better :/

[ZephyrZ]

I find myself struggling more with charizard. Sure survival has it's bonuses, but finding that killing blow is almost imposible without risking yourself.
Along with all the changes from smash4, I find charizard really weak. No jab2 to grab or fly, utilt is no longer a kill option, fair being worse, dthrow is really hard to combo into anything. The only positive charizard got is nair being faster, so it may be better for edgeguarding. But he lost a lot.

Actually Charizard recieved a significant air speed buff, which is kind of a huge deal imo. It aids him in approaching, landing and recovering.

As for killing...
- U-Smash was always a better anti-air kill then U-tilt anyway, and now it links together more consistently .
- Bair is safe when spaced correctly and can now be angled, Fair no longer autocancles out of a shorthop but still kills as well.
- Still has one of the best U-throws in the game.
- Edgegaurding is way more practical in this game then in previous one and Zard has great aerials for edgeguarding with. Bair has great range, Nair has a large hitbox, Dair is a fairly fast meteor and Fair is just solid all around.

Getting kills with Zard is still a breeze, imo. I died find myself missing that inconsistemt Jab 2 into Fly settup at all. His size is still a sever weakness and I'm hesitent to say solo Zard is anything higher then low-mid tier but I strongly feel he's been buffed more then nerfed overall.

 

[Homelessvagrant]

Squirtle does his job which is what matters. He has good frame data and while I find that he can have trouble getting in against sword fighters and long hitboxes, when he does get in, he has the potential to juggle the opponent and rack in a lot of damage. The thing is, you need to know your opponents options to take advantage of squirtle's strengths (which doesn't happen in the early meta of a game with a 74+ character roster).

 

[Blackwolf666]

I've been getting a few squirtle kills by gimping characters with bad recovery using water gun. Not sure how it'll work on people that play on a high level.

 

[Hippieslayer]

All tempered by an atrocious air speed. Though Flare Blitz does admittedly help. I based my statement off my experience with Pokémon Trainer in Brawl.

I find myself struggling more with charizard. Sure survival has it's bonuses, but finding that killing blow is almost imposible without risking yourself.
Along with all the changes from smash4, I find charizard really weak. No jab2 to grab or fly, utilt is no longer a kill option, fair being worse, dthrow is really hard to combo into anything. The only positive charizard got is nair being faster, so it may be better for edgeguarding. But he lost a lot.

I think the Squirtle has it's purpose of racking damage up, but it's no limited in the killing side. fthrow, bthrow, waterfall, bair, dtilt, withdraw, nair can kill; so you are not forced to rely on smash attacks or switching to get the stock, along with watergun and a good edguard game, Squirtle is Good. It struggles against swords, but you can start the bait and punish game, or use withdraw to get the hit.
Also Squirtle can change directly to Ivysaur, which I believe us the best of the 3.
And switching between the 3 mons to recover makes squirtle recovery the best.

Utilt is better in this game because it actually has some horizontal range making it far less prone to whiff; furthermore, it can now be used OOS in some situations which is ace since it combos into a bunch of stuff. I can't see why the loss of its killing power would matter that much when Zard still has usmash.

Other than that.. yeah agree. One thing that's also a pain, at least to me is no longer being able to fullhop airdodge into fair. That was so useful vs spacing characters. Quite a bit harder to fight characters like Lucina without that option.

Jab hitbox being wonky is such a stupid issue. But I think jab cancels can still be used in this game, not just with zard but in general, you just have to be more aware of how the opponent is handling their controller and if their char has quick gtfo buttons or not, if they like to mash a during pressure to get a nair in if a hole appears or counter with their own jab.. or if they just focus on sdi. Easier to keep track of irl. Jab cancel into dash back into flare blitz/ftilt/bair for instance seems to work on a lot of people.