by Blaziken returns to the Competitive Pokémon in the eighth generation and sweeps again, because this Pokémon is certainly a mass destruction machine capable of annihilating entire teams with the right strategy, especially in the singles format.
This Pokémon is so good that it has actually been banned in multiple generations of the smogon OU, because it swept everything in its path. But… why is Blaziken so beastly? Well, you will see that better in this strategy, but it combines brutal power with one of the best abilities of all Pokémon.
Let’s go to the mess!
? BLAZIKEN STATS
His stats add up to a total of 530 points , as always happens with all starters, he’s kidding. Let’s see his cast now:
- Health: 80.
- Attack: 120.
- Defense: 70.
- Special Attack: 110.
- Special Defense: 70.
- Speed: 80.
We quickly see that he is very offensive with those 120 points in Attack and 110 in Special Attack, however we will focus more on his physical side, which is where he can give better cakes.
80 Speed is low, especially on an offense, but we’ll make up for that with his tremendous ability. And as for defenses and Health, as expected, it’s a Pokémon that’s easy to weaken… but that doesn’t matter, because of course… They’re not even capable of hitting us because before that they end up on the ground… why do we need defenses then? It’s amazing Blaziken hahaha.
TYPE: ? FIRE ✊ FIGHTING
The Fire and Fighting Type are a very good combination especially since both types can hit several different types of Pokémon very well, thus giving us greater power and very good coverage.
But besides that, it has quite a few resistances, the only problem is that it has fucking weaknesses, but you can’t have everything in this life… and Blaziken already has too many good things hahaha.
RESISTANCES AND WEAKNESSES
Let’s take a look at their strengths and weaknesses:
- It is immune to burns.
- It is very bug resistant.
- It is resistant to Fire, Grass, Ice, Dark and Steel.
- It is weak to Flying, Water, Psychic, and Ground.
Let’s start with their resistances, from the outset to say that being immune to burns could not be better for us since they won’t even be able to burn us to stop us, crazy. We also have quite a few resistances, the only thing is that there aren’t any particularly interesting except for Fire and Dark… but hey, they never hurt.
What is certain is that the resistance to Grass is going to be useful against Rillaboom , that those grass attacks with priority can really annoy us. But he’d better kill us in one hit (as long as we’re not low on health, I highly doubt it) because otherwise he’ll turn into a churruscado gorilla.
As for weaknesses they are certainly annoying:
- Flying : Quite common because in Dinamax it enhances speed, be careful with Talonflame that can blow us up with its priority in flying attacks.
- Water : One of the most present types in competitive and therefore it is not a good idea to be weak to them.
- Psychic : More problematic in doubles due to the high presence of Vast Force .
- Earth : One of the worst weaknesses you can have… Type very present in competitive, also widely used as coverage and Earthquake is something that we should fear a lot. More so now with the return of the almighty Landorus-T and of course Excadrill will be a problem in sandy weather.
BLAZIKEN ABILITIES
Let’s now see his abilities, which clearly only interest one of them, but I explain them all:
SEA FLAMES
Mar Llamas isn’t bad as such, but next to the next one it’s nothing hahaha. We will increase the damage of fire attacks by 50% as long as our Pokémon is at a third of its health or less. Let’s ignore it and go to the next one, what the next one.
IMPULSE
It’s very much thanks to Momentum that Blaziken is either a lovable or lovable bad beast (depending on whether your opponent is running it or you running it lol). Basically we will increase our speed by one level every turn, a face boost and on top of speed every turn, it’s amazing.
Thanks to this ability and a little trick that I will tell you when we talk about the movements that Blakizen becomes a serial killer. Praise be to our goddess Impulse and praise be to Blaziken.
IVS, EVS AND NATURE
Typical of a physical offense, we want to hit harder and be faster:
- IVs : All perfect.
- EVs : All in Attack and Speed, the rest in Defense.
- Nature : Steady (+Attack -Special Attack) or Cheerful (+Speed -Special Attack). A little more attack or a little more speed, both are fine by me, you decide.
BEST MOVES FOR BLAZIKEN
The movements that I recommend the most for Blaziken:
- Sword Dance : Boost with which we will increase our attack by 2 levels to be incredibly damaging.
- Fire Slam : STAB Fire, Physical, 120 power, 100% accuracy. Movement that hits very hard with the only drawback that we will receive 33% of the damage we do as recoil, it also has a 10% chance of burning the enemy. Fire is good against Ice, Grass, Bug, Steel, and Ice.
- Point Blank : STAB Fighting, Physical, 120 power, 100% accuracy. Another tremendous move but this time the downside will be that when we use it our Defense and Special Defense will drop by one level… but it doesn’t matter because the idea with this Pokémon is to wreak havoc and kill before being killed. Remember that fighting is very effective against Rock, Ice, Dark, Normal and Steel.
- Earthquake : Ground, Physical, 100 Power, and 100% Accuracy. Another incredible move that will offer us coverage. Be careful, in Grass Field it causes half the damage. Earth will give us coverage against Electric, Poison, and Fire-type Pokémon.
- Bold Bird : Flying, Physical, 120 power, 100% accuracy, and 33% knockback damage. It will give us coverage against Fighting and in Dinamax we can boost our speed even more, but having momentum I don’t think it’s worth it.
- Thunder Punch : Electric, Physical, 75 power, 100% accuracy, and a 10% chance to paralyze the target. Less powerful than other moves shown, but gives us cover against two guys we’re actually weak to, Water and Flying.
- Protection : We will avoid the damage we receive that turn, it also has the highest priority. But if we use it twice in a row it is almost certain that it will fail. It will come in handy to boost our speed for free and being safe with Impulse.
BLAZIKEN STRATEGIES
I will give you a couple of strategies for Blaziken, one a little more risky but if it works for you it will be the creme de la creme and another safer to call it that, when you see them you will understand why.
BLAZIKEN DYNAMAX DESTROYER
- IVs: Perfect.
- EVs: All in Attack and Speed, remaining in Defense.
- Nature: Firm.
- Object: Focus Tape.
- Ability: Impulse.
- Movements:
- Sword dance.
- Protection (you’ll see… hahaha).
- Igneous Envy.
- To Bocajarro.
Ok, this set is the key and I’ll explain why. You take out Blaziken (must come in on a clean turn, take no damage when coming in, watch out for traps and so on… you can take it out first) and roll Protection so they don’t hurt you and get a free speed boost with Boost, you’re done at +1 speed.
The next turn you get Sword Dance that together with Impulse will be a +2 in attack and +1 in speed, the key is in the Focus Tape since they will not be able to kill us in one turn, so we will already have our Blaziken at +2 speed and +2 attack …muahahahahahahaha do I have to continue or do you know how it goes? Well I’ll tell you, Blaziken will be extremely fast (and more so as more turns go by) and best of all, he’ll pack some killer punches, so now just clean up.
Oh, by the way, if when you take out Blaziken you run into a Pokémon that is almost certain to change… (a Ferrothorn for example, I don’t know) in that case, you better roll Sword Dance first and that way you get that boost in the face, then Protection for a plus in speed and to burst but on top of that in this case with Focus Tape intact. If the move goes well for you and you put Dinamax on it, let’s go, big party.
Problems with this strategy and that’s why it’s dangerous: Be careful with the traps on the field that annoy us with the Focus Tape, also be careful with Pokémon with priority… (Talonflame will be very annoying) that the grace of this set is kill or die and Blaziken falls Quick. And also that since we already occupy two slots with Protection and Sword Dance, we lose coverage of course, although with the boosts that we will have + the STAB and the good coverage of Fire and Fight attacks… few Pokémon will hold (and if you already roll Dynamax, come on, on top of that with the Fighting attacks we will increase the attack and with the fire attacks we will set the weather to cause more damage with fire attacks, crazy), I already tell you.
If they can’t even burn us to slow us down… so those damn Prankster Pokémon won’t be able to do anything either… it’s crazy Blaziken.
BLAZIKEN WITH MORE COVER
- IVs: Perfect.
- EVs: All in Attack and Speed, remaining in Defense.
- Nature: Cheerful.
- Item: Lifesphere.
- Ability: Impulse.
- Movements:
- Sword dance.
- Igneous Envy.
- To Bocajarro.
- Earthquake or Thunder Punch.
A much more common strategy, the idea will be to get into Sword Dance especially taking advantage of an opponent’s change (you take it out on a clean turn against a Pokémon that you know will be forced to change) and proceed to annihilate. Impulse will help you pick up speed, something you will need a lot.
The only advantage that I see in this Strategy compared to the previous one is that we gain more coverage, but that is something that never hurts, of course. The doubt is whether to throw Earthquake (more coverage and a more powerful attack) or Thunder Punch (less coverage but of types to which we are weak, that is important to avoid being “oneshot” in the event that they are faster than us, and an attack with considerably less power).
I don’t think there is a clear choice in that sense, so it will depend on your teammates or what you think is better, in my opinion both options are worth it.
