Yeah, there actually isn't any counters to the following set:
All of those calcs are best-case scenarios, as they're all calced after Swords Dance. And the Thunder Punch one on Slowbro is just odd. Thunder Punch AND Swords Dance on the same set? C'mon. Also, not all Blaziken run Swords Dance, as Protect is an absolute necessity, and Baton Pass gives SD some mean competition. Also, when Blaziken is first sent out, it's most likely going to use Protect, as otherwise it's shit turn one, giving those Pokemon relatively safe switches. Swords Dance requires good prediction or good luck if you can catch a choice locked Pokemon that cannot OHKO Blaziken. And even if Swords Dance is up, Blaziken is susceptible to common priority. Talonflame OHKOs it, and Azumarill and Dragonite can hit extremely hard with Aqua Jet and Extreme Speed respectively. Choice Banded Azumarill will always OHKO with Aqua Jet. Finally, while Thundurus-I dies to Flare Blitz, its Prankster Thunder Wave completely cripples Blaziken. So while those calcs look good on paper, assuming Swords Dance is up is a rather large assumption.
That's not gonna happen. It would open the floodgates for shit like, "Oh, you can use Mewtwo in OU, but only if you use Physical move and don't Mega Evolve." Or "Oh, you can use Aegislah, but no King's Shield."
Forgoing Protect is extremely risky, as it makes you susceptible to ANY Scarfed Pokemon with over 80 Speed.
actually aegi coming back without king shield was considered but it was deemed still to centralizing for ou.....your other comparison is just stupid
252+ Atk Choice Band Dragonite Extreme Speed vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Blaziken: 197-232 (65.2 - 76.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
haunter was looking for people's opinions on aegi without king shield and was open to a complex ban (dont have the thread link rn but its on the suspect thread)
Sigh.
That's only assuming the Scarf user switches directly into Blaziken, which is risky since there's no guarantee that Blaziken will set up Swords Dance every time it sets in. One wrong switch into a powerful STAB or coverage move and your Scarfer is history. On the flipside, if you delay just one turn, Blaziken gets to +2 Spe and gets nearly impossible to outrun. Protect is a great tool, but it's far from mandatory, and the extra coverage can be far more important against some teams (mainly slower defensive and balanced teams).
+2 252 Atk Life Orb Blaziken High Jump Kick vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Dragonite: 270-320 (83.5 - 99%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
That's not exactly true. The reason we decided not to go after King's Shield instead of Aegislash itself is because going after King's Shield would just be a convenient way to neuter Aegislash to keep it OU, which is a mindset we actively try to avoid. The consensus was that King's Shield wasn't necessarily a broken move but that Aegislash itself was the problem, so Aegislash was the one we put up for a suspect. It was actually pretty widely predicted that Aegislash wouldn't be nearly as centralizing without King's Shield seeing as how its ability to screw over some of its checks with an Atk drop was a huge reason why it was so powerful. Even so, whether or not Aegislash would be centralizing without King's Shield had nothing to do with the decision because we never actually tested non-King's Shield Aegislash, making accurate judgments about its impact literally impossible.
Dude, check your definition of a counter. Normally, SR is assumed to be up (standard battle conditions). Like Agent Gibbs says, any damage of any kind, and Dragonite is at risk, while being outsped and unable to OHKO with outrage, as it'll already be KO'd. Dragonite is a pretty sweet check, as it can KO once Blaze has taken a few LO hits or if rocks aren't up, but it's definitely not a counter.
It's also not guaranteed that Mawile will get an SD up, but you play your mons right (I made a funny) and you don't have to worry too much about switch ins. Much like before, Blaziken is a late game cleaner capable of very easily picking off the rest of the team after a small amount of damage in some cases. Now, no, Blaziken can't beat everything you named at once with one SD up and STAB but there are 5 other mons that have whittled those things down so it can if not outright took it out.
Agreed, though if the tournament was something else that kept a lot of people each round (like, say, swiss), you probably would get much more data out of it.
