Blaziken
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[Overview]
<p>Forging new ground as the first "starter" Pokemon to ever become Uber, Blaziken may seem like it has a lot to live up to in the Uber metagame. However, the fighting chicken is perfectly capable of functioning well in Ubers, mostly due to its ability , Speed Boost. Thanks to Speed Boost, Blaziken will become nearly impossible to revenge kill as the boosts accumulate. Once enough boosts have been gathered, Blaziken can sweep rather easily with its sizable Attack stat and mighty STAB Hi Jump Kick and Flare Blitz, the former hitting a staggering 130 Base Power, and the latter amped up by sunlight, making Blaziken nearly impossible to wall and enabling it to rip through most of the metagame with its powerful hits. Although it is frail and its STAB moves have unappealing side effects (Hi Jump Kick severely hurts Blaziken if it misses, and Flare Blitz causes huge amounts of recoil damage), Blaziken is still a massive threat that needs to be considered when making a team.</p>
[SET]
name: Swords Dance
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Hi Jump Kick
move 3: Protect
move 4: Flare Blitz
item: Life Orb / Leftovers
ability: Speed Boost
nature: Jolly / Adamant
evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
[Set Comments]
<p>Swords Dance pumps up Blaziken's solid Attack stat to a frightening 678 or 734, depending on the nature used. When Speed Boost is thrown into the mix, Blaziken suddenly turns into a potent sweeper that only becomes harder and harder to revenge kill as time passes and more Speed boosts are obtained.</p>
<p>Hi Jump Kick is the main sweeping attack Blaziken will employ, and after a Swords Dance , it will OHKO every common Pokemon in Ubers that does not resist it save the bulkiest of Groudon, quite an impressive feat. Protect ensures that Blaziken will obtain at least one Speed boost before sweeping, and makes up for its low initial Speed. Flare Blitz rounds out the coverage and has the potential to be Blaziken's most powerful option by far. It gets STAB, has high Base Power, and with sunsupport, it becomes so powerful it can OHKO 4 HP / 0 Def Giratina-O after Stealth Rock damage and one Swords Dance. Considering Giratina-O resists Flare Blitz and is extremely bulky, the sheer damage output of that attack just shows how powerful Blaziken is. Shaymin-S and Mewtwo are also both OHKO by an unboosted Flare Blitz. Flare Blitz is also just a good attack just to throw out if it's too risky to use Hi Jump Kick.</p>
[Additional Comments]
<p>Blaziken cannot take any hits even with investment, so Blaziken's Attack and Speed stats are given full EV investment to optimize its sweeping abilities. Jolly is by far the preferred nature on this set. It allows Blaziken to outspeed Mewtwo and Shaymin-S after one Speed boost, and Choice Scarf Terrakion after two. Life Orb is the preferred item to grant Blaziken as much power as possible. However, Leftovers helps Blaziken mitigate recoil damage. It is a better choice for Blaziken if it is being used on a stall team so it doesn't die as quickly, where it is mainly used to check common stallbreakers, such as Darkrai and Heatran. An Adamant nature can be used if running Leftovers to make up for the power lost by dropping Life Orb.</p>
<p>Groudon should always be used alongside Blaziken. It provides the sunlight necessary to power up Flare Blitz and can also set up Stealth Rock, which is needed for Blaziken to obtain crucial KOs on Pokemon such as Lugia and Giratina-O. Groudon is also a wonderful check to Rayquaza and physical Arceus, who would otherwise destroy Blaziken with ExtremeSpeed before it could move, and Poison Arceus, who walls Blaziken if it's not backed by sun support.</p>
<p>Giratina is the only Pokemon that is capable of outright walling Blaziken. The flaming chicken cannot come close to OHKOing the spectral lizard with any sort of attack, and Giratina can either force Blaziken out of the battlefield with Dragon Tail , or just kill it outright with Outrage. A defensive Giratina-O, although uncommon, can perform a similar function. If the sun isn't shining, Lugia, Cresselia, Psychic Arceus, and Ghost Arceus can all take a hit from Blaziken and KO it with a super effective attack. It's no wonder then why Darkrai is a perfect partner for for Blaziken. All of the aforementioned Pokemon will turn tail and run at the very sight of Darkrai, who can help pave the way for a Blaziken sweep by setting up with Nasty Plot and then severely damaging the foe's team with its own boosted hits. Dialga can also come in on Giratina and Giratina-O relatively easily and pound them into dust with Draco Meteor, while Dark Arceus is a great counter to Lugia, Cresselia, Psychic Arceus, and Ghost Arceus thanks to its natural type advantage.</p>
<p>Although Kyogre cannot counter Blaziken directly as Hi Jump Kick will waste the bloated whale, it will severely hinder Blaziken's ability to sweep by swapping out the precious sunlight with a furious maelstrom of rain, which will render Flare Blitz mostly useless. For this reason, it is recommended to pack reliable Kyogre counters when using Blaziken. Palkia and Grass Arceus can both come in on the beast's mighty Water-type assaults with relative ease and put it down with powerful super effective Thunder and Judgment, respectively.</p>
<p>Sometimes, Blaziken may have some trouble setting up due to its poor defenses. For this reason, Wobbuffet makes an excellent teammate. Using Shadow Tag, it is able to trap many Pokemon and create openings to set up by using Encore, and it can also use Safeguard to protect Blaziken against status. Wobbuffet also draws Dark- and Bug-type attacks that Blaziken can easily set up on.</p>
[Other Options]
<p>Shadow Claw still nails Giratina-O for an OHKO after Stealth Rock damage and a boost from Swords Dance while hitting Lugia, Cresselia, Ghost Arceus, and Psychic Arceus for solid damage. It also makes Blaziken less weather dependent and doesn't cause it to take huge amounts of recoil damage. However, Shadow Claw still fails to OHKO Lugia, Cresselia, Psychic Arceus, and Ghost Arceus, which makes it far inferior to Flare Blitz. It also fails to OHKO Mewtwo without a Swords Dance boost. Stone Edge hurts Lugia a lot more than Shadow Claw does while also murdering Ho-Oh and Rayquaza, but a +2 Flare Blitz in the sun will usually KO them after Stealth Rock, anyway, so it's not of much use. Work Up increases Blaziken's Special Attack stat as well as its Attack stat, but even with the increased Special Attack , it cannot defeat Giratina, which would be the main point in using it. Choice Band can grant Blaziken more immediate power, but locking Blaziken into one attack is too restrictive for it and is counter-productive with Speed Boost.</p>
[Checks and Counters]
<p>Giratina is Blaziken's only real counter. Try as it might, Blaziken cannot OHKO it with any attack (unless in the unlikely event it gets 3 Swords Dance boosts and has sun support) while Giratina can just phaze it out with Dragon Tail or tear it apart with Outrage. Defensive variants of Giratina-O also perform a similar function, although it won't take Blaziken's hits quite as effectively. If it is raining, Psychic Arceus, Ghost Arceus, Cresselia, Lugia, and Gliscor can all take a Flare Blitz , and either phaze out Blaziken or KO it with a super effective attack. Rayquaza and Normal Arceus can also bypass Blaziken's Speed boosts with ExtremeSpeed, which will cut through its low Defense like a hot knife through butter. Toxic Spikes also greatly annoy Blaziken, as the passive damage combined with Life Orb and Flare Blitz recoil will kill it off very quickly. Both of Blaziken's STAB attacks also have a change of inflicting recoil damage, so smart switching between Ghost-types and bulky Water- or Dragon-types will cause the recoil to add up and eventually bring about Blaziken's demise.</p>
