I, personally have used charizzard in some decks, have shunned him in others,
have beaten them , and gotten beaten by them.  Come on people, Charizzard is
a good card, but only of you know what you are doing.

CON (The most popular view comes first.)
One word, MR.MIME (The most annoying brand of posts in the world) as well as
multiple water pokemon.  All are threats to him.
PRO
He can beat a Raichu.  He can beat a Zapdos. He can beat a Nidoking.  He can
beat a Bulbusaur.  He can beat a Blastoise.  (The list goes on, in case you
can't see where I'm going with this.)

Seriously, the "insert name here can kill him in one shot" can kill him is
stupid.  What, is Aerodactyl a bad card because he can be killed in one hit
by a Scyther?  Is Mr. Mime a bad card because he can be killed in one hit by
a Nidoking?  Is Scyther a bad card because he can be killed by a wussy old
Ponyta before he kills it?  Give me a break.

CON
He can be stopped by Mew and Aerodactyl.
PRO
So can any other evolution, people!

CON
Energy Removal and Super Energy Removal can kill him.
PRO
I've found that if you are willing to throw enough ER and SER at a pokemon,
you can stop just about anything in it's tracks.

CON
You have to discard energy to do his big attack.
PRO
You have to take damage to do Chancey's big attack, discard energy to do
Zapdos's big attack, take damage to do Arcanine's big attack, discard energy
to do Ninetails' attack...

CON
He can be killed by a pokemon before he can damage them!  (Surely I can't
have a counter-argument to this, right?)
PRO
If you're stupid enough to bring out a Charizzard with no energy on him to
face a Electabuzz, a Magmar, a Gyarados, or whatever, then I'd like to sell
you real estate.  He's meant to sit there on the bench and be built up, for
crying out loud!

CON
Gust of Wind
PRO
Switch  (If you play charizzard without switches in your deck, I'd like to
sell you real estate too.)

Overall cons
He's level 2 (No getting around that fact.)
He's weak to water, a very popular type with rain dance out there.
He does indeed make you discard energy to use his attack.
A few pokemon can stop him

Overall Pros
He can hit for 100 in one attack.
He has 120 hp.
He is resistant to fighting, which is even more popular than water.
He can steamroll probably 90% of the pokemon out there, maybe more.

Gimme a break, he has good and bad sides, and if you don't view each, you're
only fooling yourself.

And to those of you who think fire is the weakest color, no one at the
tourneys I go to has discovered a cure for my fast fire decks.  I've played
it once, and I went 6-1, losing only to a horrid draw.  But I won the tourney
anyway.  Fire is an extremely powerful color, but only if you are good enough
to get around its energy discarding.

My two cents on the whole debate,
Daihakusei