Hello everyone, a while back we polled for certain potential unban candidates as the metagame stabilizes after the Magearna ban, and now we feel is a good time to begin our second suspect test down into National Dex; Blaziken!
Reasoning
In previous generations, Blaziken's Swords Dance set has been a ridiculously powerful sweeper, capable of cleaning teams at a moments notice, either with powerful Flare Blitzes, Close Combats, or various coverage. In National Dex it is also a quite potent Z-move abuser, gaining a lot of power and mitigating the recoil of Flare Blitz or boosting its coverage moves to easily break through certain checks. However, even with this Z factor, Blaziken has quite a few checks in the metagame, with the continued popularity of Defensive Lando-T on more offensive teams, bulky Regenerator waters on bulky offense like Slowking and Slowbro, and on balance teams the ever-present Toxapex along with Mega Latias, of which it can struggle to break without giving up Firium Z for other options like Normalium Z Double Edge, which is less useful vs other checks like Lando-T, Gliscor or Slowbro. Along with this, Blaziken must run a Jolly Nature, as Adamant does not outspeed base 130s and above at +1, such as Tapu Koko and Mega Lopunny.
On top of this, even if Blaziken is capable of breaking past a bulky check with its various z moves, the metagame is not short of potential revenge killers that abuse its less than stellar speed even at +1. Choice Scarf Lando-T is a popular pick that is potentially able to switch into a Swords Dance and force it out, and Greninja's Water Shuriken is a common sight on various teams, and the less common Urshifu-Rapid-Strike can run Aqua Jet on Choice Band sets to make sure Blaziken will never sweep your team. Mega Lopunny's and Mega Medicham's Fake Out are also potent tools to pick it off at low health, as Blaziken would have to run Protect and give up crucial coverage to bypass this. It's less than stellar speed and poor bulk also heavily limits its setup oppurtunitiest to where it becomes very difficult to pull of a Swords Dance if the opponent doesn't want you to.
With all this said, Blaziken's Z factor could push it over the edge in the future. The potential of Firium Z or even Normalium Z at +2 is nuclear, breaking a lot of its checks in one swoop and potentially winning the game from there if not packing the appropriate speed control or resists. It's capable of running non-SD sets as well, with Choice Band being a possible option to lure and beat options like Mega-Latias, Slowbro, and wear down Lando-T quickly, making it's variability deadly to certain teams, even with the horrid Flare Blitz recoil adding up.
Suspect Test Information
- Reading this is mandatory to participate in the suspect test. The voting requirements are a minimum GXE of 80 with at least 50 games played. In addition, you may play 1 less game for every 0.2 GXE you have above 80 GXE, down to a minimum of 30 games at a GXE of 84. Also, doing more than 50 games to reach 80 GXE will suffice.
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GXE minimum games 80 50 80.2 49 80.4 48 80.6 47 80.8 46 81 45 81.2 44 81.4 43 81.6 42 81.8 41 82 40 82.2 39 82.4 38 82.6 37 82.8 36 83 35 83.2 34 83.4 33 83.6 32 83.8 31 84 30 - You must use a fresh account that begins with the given prefix for this suspect test. That prefix is NXBKN. For example, I could signup and qualify with the name NXBKN MudBeans.
- You may not impersonate or mock another user with your account name. If there is any slight hesitation, you're probably better off picking a different name. We reserve the right to null your voting requisites if you are found impersonating or mocking another user with your account name. Moderator discretion will be applied.
- If you are found trying to manipulate voting requisites in any way, you will be met with a harsh infraction. Manipulating voting requisites ranges from faking your screenshot to asking another user to forfeit.
- The Pokemon that's being suspect tested, Blaziken, will be allowed on the National Dex ladder for the next two weeks so that we can properly assess its position in the metagame.
- This suspect test will go on for two weeks. It will last until July 9th at 11:59 PM GMT+1.
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