Announcement National Dex Suspect Test 12: GAS GAS GAS

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:ss/blaziken:

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.
  • GXEminimum games
    8050
    80.249
    80.448
    80.647
    80.846
    8145
    81.244
    81.443
    81.642
    81.841
    8240
    82.239
    82.438
    82.637
    82.836
    8335
    83.234
    83.433
    83.632
    83.831
    8430
  • 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.
Tagging Kris to implement this on ladder.
 
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Avery

Banned deucer.
This thread is now open for discussion!

edit: this was not included in the OP, but one liners and uninformed posts will be removed and may result in infractions. This thread will be moderated tightly. Happy posting!
 
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Hey guys, I would like to show you my thoughts on Blaziken.

I wanna start with the Swords Dance sets of Blaziken here. https://pokepast.es/83f714276023518e
On paper, this looks super broken. If it has free momentum, it can get a free Swords Dance and Speed Boost, and kill 1 of it's "checks" with the right Z move. But in practice it isn't that good, because it can't make enough damage with Blaze Kick, Flare Blitz destroys itself and it is very frail too, which means that it needs a ton of support and momentum to be able to set up.
These Calcs can show why it can't make enough damage:

252 Atk Blaziken Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Clefable: 163-193 (41.3 - 48.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

+1 252 Atk Blaziken Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 112+ Def Landorus-Therian: 246-289 (64.3 - 75.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

+2 252 Atk Blaziken Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Latias-Mega: 157-186 (43.1 - 51%) -- 59% chance to 2HKO

And the next and last set I want to mention is the Choise Band set. https://pokepast.es/eb88f6a3ea34d6a1
This set can make a ton of damage with it's stab moves, but it is very easy to counter too. It can't break Slowbro, Alomomola, Mega Latias, Mega Latios, bulky Landorus, Hippowdon or max def Toxapex. These Calcs will show that:

252 Atk Choice Band Blaziken Thunder Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 158-186 (40.1 - 47.2%) -- 2.3% chance to 2HKO

252 Atk Choice Band Blaziken Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hippowdon: 178-211 (42.3 - 50.2%) -- 2% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

I am going to vote unban for Blaziken, but I can understand anyone who completely disagrees with me. Thanks for reading and good luck with getting the reqs. :)
 

tf

Natdex Unplayer
My thoughts on :blaziken:
Firstly, Blaziken has a lot of strengths. The first is its ability, Speed Boost: its speed is raised 1 stage at the end of each turns. It's really good because it allows Blaziken to pressure easily, and to be impossible to revenge kill. Its movepool is another of its strengths: Blaziken can pressure every team, and has no real counter: Normalium Z for :latias-mega:, Groundium Z for :toxapex:, HP Ice for :landorus-therian:...
I think Blaziken is similar to :volcarona: : it can destroy everything with the good set.
For example, this team: https://pokepast.es/abe57cf66cc313bb, a sample team, hard to 6-0...
+2 252 Atk Blaziken Breakneck Blitz (200 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Latias-Mega: 351-413 (96.4 - 113.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
No more Latias, and the team will lose against Blaziken
But the difference between Volcarona and Blaziken is that Volcarona needs the Heavy Duty Boots while Blaziken can run a Z Move or the Life Orb

The problems of Blaziken are its lack of staying power. I know, a Sweeper isn't here to stay alive a lot of time, but just the time to sweep. Blaziken, due to it's Fire STAB (Flare Blitz) will die really quickly, so it will be hard to sweep with it.
One of it's other huge problem are the priority moves, which will revenge kill it
Finally, even if in theory, Blaziken can beat every team, it will rarely have the good set



I think :blaziken: should be banned because it's too restrictive on the build
 
My thoughts on :blaziken:
Firstly, Blaziken has a lot of strengths. The first is its ability, Speed Boost: its speed is raised 1 stage at the end of each turns. It's really good because it allows Blaziken to pressure easily, and to be impossible to revenge kill. Its movepool is another of its strengths: Blaziken can pressure every team, and has no real counter: Normalium Z for :latias-mega:, Groundium Z for :toxapex:, HP Ice for :landorus-therian:...
I think Blaziken is similar to :volcarona: : it can destroy everything with the good set.
For example, this team: https://pokepast.es/abe57cf66cc313bb, a sample team, hard to 6-0...
+2 252 Atk Blaziken Breakneck Blitz (200 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Latias-Mega: 351-413 (96.4 - 113.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
No more Latias, and the team will lose against Blaziken
But the difference between Volcarona and Blaziken is that Volcarona needs the Heavy Duty Boots while Blaziken can run a Z Move or the Life Orb

The problems of Blaziken are its lack of staying power. I know, a Sweeper isn't here to stay alive a lot of time, but just the time to sweep. Blaziken, due to it's Fire STAB (Flare Blitz) will die really quickly, so it will be hard to sweep with it.
One of it's other huge problem are the priority moves, which will revenge kill it
Finally, even if in theory, Blaziken can beat every team, it will rarely have the good set



I think :blaziken: should be banned because it's too restrictive on the build
While it is a really powerful mon if it gets the roll going, pulling that off is easier said than done, the lack of Protect means your REALLY vulnerable to revenge killing (Specially Ash Greninja which is what most Blaziken teams struggle with), even then you cant do much agaisnt Offense because of that mid speed tier and weaknesses to really common attacks and low defenses, Swords Dance has to choose whether it wants to kill M-Latias or kill Toxapex. Mixed variants suffer from longevity issues or lack of power, they are good lures for Gliscor, Landorus-T and Garchomp but they struggle to do any relevant progress agaisnt the usual walls. Choice Band as a Fire type version of Urshifu-RS (shares almost the same stuff and even arguments on movesets lmao) that has lower speed and defenses but Knock Off is the balanced part between SD and Mixed Variants and that still has some issues. Landorus-Therian, Tapu Fini, Toxapex, Slowbro, Garchomp (see TankChomp and cry :c), Mega Latias, and more are usually able to check it, and Offense can give you some notable issues with trying to switch in and setup (Adamant SD cant outspeed Koko at +1...why) and even if you run Protect, that still leaves you losing important coverage that Blaziken needs in order to get past his problematic Matchups.

Some things id like to take note of are the fact that your using Normalium Z Giga Impact


+2 252 Atk Blaziken Breakneck Blitz (190 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Latias-Mega: 333-392 (91.4 - 107.6%) -- 50% chance to OHKO


+2 252 Atk Blaziken Breakneck Blitz (200 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Latias-Mega: 351-413 (96.4 - 113.4%) -- 75% chance to OHKO


Its a minor calc but its better to have Edge in general than having a move thats only useful once (Also this gets Hazed by Pex and swallowed by Slowbro with health to spare later on). The sample team you used to prove Blaziken´s strength is one thats outdated, since most of the samples arent up to this REALLY recent Blaziken meta and are still on preparation. Lastly for Swords Dance variants they are on the need to run a Z-Crystal because Life Orb not only cuts into your survivability but also wont be helpful agaisnt stuff like Mega Latias.
 

Ryuji

LIFE'S FLASHING BEFORE YOUR EYES?
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Alr, first time I'll express myself about a suspect.

I think Blaziken should remain banned, even if I do agree with some arguments that people shared. Like, he's frail, he needs to SD before being threatening, Banded sets struggles a lot in the current metagame...
The main reason is that it's able to punch holes in balanced team. Z Normalium is trully scary and being forced to outplay someone just because it can basically erased a mon from your team isn't smth that seems healthy in my opinion. The fact that it's able to get at least one kill if he's able to setup is just not okay, and, with a screen HO, setup occasions aren't that difficult to find.

Plus, Choice Banded sets are also very good imo, since with F-Sight support it's able to put an insane level of pressure. And also, it can act as a late game cleaner thanks to speed boost. There are also others core that are scary, like Blazi Band + Ash-Gren Specs, since if Blazi is unbanned, Pex has to choose between check Blazi or Gren, and, with spike support, it's quite easy to overwhelm it. Plus you can use Quake on Koff.

So, I know that Blazi is frail, and quite easy to revenge kill. But, for me, when a mon is suspected, it's not about if we can "handle it" by KOing it back, but more about if it's able to make the game progress very easily if the team isn't fully prepared to it, with different checks + a way to RK it; and also how it will adapt in the current metagame. For me, whether it's choice banded or Z move, he's able to at least get a kill. Plus, it does have Speed Boost, which allowed it to outrun a lot of non choice locked mon after a boost. So, the fact that he can snowball a game isn't something healthy imo. For Banded set, the main issue is how easy you can make cores that are very difficult to check defensively (for example with twinbros, Ash-Gren, Protean Gren, Urshifu Rapid Strike with Pads, Z Elec Clef CM, or even Lele). Which mean Banded sets will be p strong in the current metagame. So, when there's also SD Z move sets, I don't think that most of the teams can handle it without an unecessary amount of preparation, with a lot of speed control and also a lot of restriction on teambuild.

That's why he has to remain banned imo
 
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So, the issue I'm seeing with Blaziken in NatDex seems to be a similar case with two previous suspected mons; Dragapult and Cinderace. The similarity is that Z-moves just give them the potential to break through specific checks, which usually warrants a very necessary ban.

Blaziken, however, does struggle for a myriad of reasons. One very massive weakness is that it is stupidly frail, with its 80/70/70 in bulk. Granted, Cinderace and Dragapult both suffered in a similar fashion (even with a slightly higher 75/75 in both defenses). However, Cinderace's ability allowed it to juggle around different types and was thus harder to take out, while Dragapult can easily fire off one attack thanks to its blistering speed stat of 142. Speaking of which, the fire bunny and the ghostly dragon are formerly much faster than Blaziken, which really needs the Speed Boost proc before it can become potent on its own.

And the chicken's problems don't stop there. It's true that all Blaziken needs is one thing to switch in to a poor match-up to prep itself to become a sweeper, but in a metagame where decent tanks thrive, Blaziken's potential seems to diminish. The presence of three different Water-type Regenerators (Slowbro, Slowking, and Toxapex) is already an unsavory prospect for the chicken to break through, and it doesn't help that their secondary typings give them resistances to both of the chicken's STABs. And it doesn't even need to be those three specifically; Landorus-Therian, being one of the most popular mons in the OU tier, is sure to give Blaziken a migraine as it Intimidates on the switch in and therefore allows it to reliably tank even a +1 Flare Blitz before it murders the Blaze Pokémon in cold blood. I've seen arguments in regards to how Cinderace and Dragapult both have checks and very few counters; Blaziken here clearly has at least four counters, most of which are already seeing a lot of usage in the metagame.

Furthermore, a +1 in speed and a successful Swords Dance doesn't immediately make Blaziken invincible. Even with those boosts, it's fair game to a numerous amount of priority users. Ash-Greninja is probably the best example of this, firing off a strong Water Shuriken that's guaranteed to hit three times in a row. Aqua Jet users such as Azumarill or Rapid-Strike Urshifu are also great checks, with the former being a reliable switch-in to any of Blaziken's STABs. The Blaze Pokémon's mediocre speed stat of 80 also means that a lot of popular scarfers aren't going to be fazed at all. Scarfed Excadrill, Garchomp, Kartana, Landorus-Therian, or Tapu Lele all scoff at the +1 boost in speed before they make quick work of the chicken. Should Blaziken wish to get the jump on these guys with priority, well, don't even bother. The only options it has are Quick Attack or Vacuum Wave, with the former not being STAB and the latter only ever finding practical use on a specially-offensive set that is far more inferior to its physical counterpart.

All in all, I simply believe that regular Blaziken will still perform well in OU and still can be reliably kept in check considering what the current OU metagame has to offer. I strongly feel that an unban is a safe move.

P.S. Had this been Mega Blaziken, however, we'd clearly have a different story.
 
Oh boy, here we go. Blaziken, as I'm sure you the reader have surmised by my profile pic is one of my favorite pokemon. That said in the last couple of days I've been playing Nat Dex OU and being able to use it I will say very briefly that this thing is thoroughly excellent without being absolutely bonkers broken. Of course I'll go over its downsides first.

One thing that really holds blaziken back is its lack luster defensive typing and bulk, which can really make things hard for our chicken friend. Another major road block for blaziken is 4MSS and bulky waters like slowbro, pex, and fini, which I'll get to in a minute, these aforementioned walls can be frustrating since they boast such high defenses, even when blaziken has a +2. The last two things I can think of as of now are priority attacks and its need for speed (gas gas gas :/ sorry...), both of these things can really ruin blazikens day due to how ubiquitous they are in the current meta. On one side blazikens middling speed means it will have to get at least +1 and be jolly in order to outspeed faster pokemon like mega-lopunny and ash-greninja (assuming it can grab a KO prior). Finally, priority moves. Theses are a death sentence for not only a fully healthy blaziken, but especially a weakened blaziken. The aforementioned ash-greninja and the less common, but still dangerous azumarill both threaten a clean OHKO.

With all that said, what does blaziken have going for it? A lot actually. To start its attack stat is excellent and thanks to its fire typing is immune to burn via will-o-wisp, meaning that bulky waters are basically required to run scald for reliable damage and the chance to burn. Not only that, but even though 4MSS is a problem for blaziken it will primarily run flare blitz, close combat and thunder punch for coverage threatening most of the meta game with massive damage as the only things that can stand up to this combination are victini (unless blaziken runs shadow claw, which is absolutely viable) unaware clefable (not horribly unreasonable, but doable with team support) defensive gliscor (easy to dispose of with hp-ice or an ice beam spammer) rillaboom (only if banded, grassy glide and blaziken has taken substantial recoil from flare blitz) and the aforementioned bulky waters, but if gigavolt havoc gets involved, well... +2 252 Atk Blaziken Gigavolt Havoc (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ DEF Slowbro: 388-458 (98.4 - 116.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock (87.5% without). This basically means every other bulky water is in mortal peril unless they run focus sash, which is pretty unreasonable if you ask me, but not totally unviable. Blaziken also has the luxury of being able to run a multitude of different items. For example, it can run the aforementioned electrium-z to destroy the bulky waters of the tier. Expert belt for the obvious reasons, though this is much less common than the previously mentioned item. One lesser known, but equally effective item is air balloon, a la gen v excadrill. This allows blaziken to come in on common earthquake spammers like landorus-t or garchomp so it can set up a free swords dance or even grab a second one if the showdown player isn't paying attention (lol), this makes dancing around blaziken even harder as one of its most preyed upon weaknesses is its vulnerability to ground type attacks and even though it misses out on KOing bulky waters the opportunity to threaten more of the meta game immediately is absolutely worth the price of power, since its teammates can deal with the bulky waters if necessary. Another obvious item of choice is focus sash, which despite the gimmicky nature of living one hit is actually still relatively viable as long as our chicken friend doesn't come across any priority attackers. There are numerous other options that blaziken can run due to its versatility and offensive movepool, but I don't want this post to be a frickin' essay, so I'll stop with that, but rest assured, there are plenty of other sets you can run. Finally team support. One thing I've mentioned is how blaziken struggles mightily with bulky waters if it isn't running electrium-z, but if it teams up with either rillaboom or serperior it can just pivot to them and easily dispose of them without much trouble thanks to contrary and grassy glide. Another amazing partner for blaziken is dual screens support from either regieleki or prankster grimsnarl (less viable, but still great), as with supporting screens to keep it safe from non-super effective attacks (even the occasional less powerful ones too) it is free to grab one, maybe even two SD's (and speed boosts), then proceed to sweep entire teams at a moments notice. Again there are plenty of other perfectly viable team support strategies to go along with blazikens offensive presence, but I'll stop here, so I can wrap this post up.

To sum all of this up, while yes, I do believe that blaziken is incredibly powerful in the current Nat Dex OU meta, it is not so overpowered that it would restrict team building to the point that people would have to run something like multiple bulky waters or focus sash users, just to check it. With all of the above mentioned information I would vote to unban blaziken.
 
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Alright first post on here ever, let's go.
Back in the day, Blaziken was the myth, how a starter became banished to the land of the Ubers. However, nowadays, a certain hippy fire bunny would steal it's title. Useless talk aside, Blaziken at first glance seems to be completely broken. It has blistering speed, incredible offenses, and no counters in the traditional sense. However, in that case, it would be similar to BW Haxorus (not B2W2). On paper, neither have no answers.

However, you then realise that Blaziken has a multitude of issues which hold it back. While yes, it has Z-Moves to abuse it's walls, but it can only carry so many. Electrium Z hits bulky waters but then M-Latias sits on you for days. If you were to run Double-Edge for Normalium Z, Slowbro sits on you a multitude of times. And even if you do get past those walls, powerful priority from the likes of Ash-Greninja, Urshifu-Rapid Strike, Azumarill and hell, you can even throw Banded Rillaboom on there with some chip (252+ Atk Choice Band Rillaboom Grassy Glide vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Blaziken in Grassy Terrain: 158-186 (52.4 - 61.7%) -- 98.8% chance to 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery). There are also others like Mega Medicham and Mega Lopunny.

And again, that's considering that you CAN get the Swords Dance up. Who are you setting up on? Blissey? Blissey's going to go straight to Lando-T or land a Toxic on your Blaziken. And then the Blaziken is guaranteed to use Close Combat (since, who is idiotic enough to use Flare Blitz on Blissey). Blaze Kick on the other hand is not nearly strong enough and makes Blaziken easy pray to Landorus-T, another very common pokemon. Ferrothorn can also mess with Blaziken, with Leech Seed and Protect and what not, as well as Gyro Ball doing a serious bit of damage too. ( 0 Atk Ferrothorn Gyro Ball (140 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Blaziken: 95-112 (31.5 - 37.2%) -- 85.7% chance to 3HKO; considering the prior chip damage and spikes, this could be potentially lethal).

There is an equally high chance of Blaziken sweeping as well as it just falling flat on it's face/relegated for fodder. Blaziken is basically our "matchup mon" if you will. If you're opponent does not pack the right checks/if they are weakened enough, Blaziken will plow through teams. However, if your team does pack those checks and you can't break through them, it will get 1 KO at most, after going through the arduous task of getting it on the field safely.

Blaziken is a great mon, 100%. It's going to be a terrifying late game cleaner once it's checks are down. However, I don't think it's banworthy. So I will be voting unban.

P.S. since this is my first time making a post, please let me know if any of my points are stupid/make no sense.
 
About time.

The biggest problem with Blaziken is that it typically gets only one opportunity to sweep or clean, and it can easily be shut down by a little chip and a strong priority attacker like Rillaboom or Blaziken. Its Flare Blitzes give you the chip you need to RK it, as do its Double-Edges if you're running that. Its CCs make it even weaker to priority.

I think that regarding the SD Z-move set, it's extremely tough on the Blaziken player to position it in a way that puts it at +2/+1 without flat-out dying, but after it's positioned as such, it's extremely tough on their opponent to scout and bait the Z without losing an important Pokemon.

I think Blaziken will be a force to be reckoned with if it's unbanned, but I don't think it's necessarily overpowered for NDOU. Regardless, I am still undecided on whether or not it should be unbanned.

Gonna try for reqs and come back after I inevitably fail to give my secondary thoughts :psycry:

Edit to add: Screens Blaziken HO, or hell, even just BO/balance, goes super hard as well. Very threatening and forces you onto your heels.
 
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I believe that Blaziken should be banned, due to it causing stress on teambuilding.

In many regards, Blaziken is quite like Cinderace in that it is a physical Fire type with high Speed, good Attack, a boosting move, and the ability to use a Z move. As seen previously, Cinderace has been overwhelming previously, and I believe Blaziken will also soon be overwhelming for the tier.

Blaziken is a physical Fire type, which means it cannot be checked by Corviknight, and has to be checked by Water types like Toxapex or Slowbro. On the other hand, Toxapex and Slowbro cannot stand up to an assault from Rillaboom or Kartana, so Corviknight will have to be run regardless. This would cause teams to be much more passive, especially when simultaneously accounting for other threats like Tapu Lele (which Corviknight falls to a Z Fight or HP Fire), Ash Greninja (requiring either Blissey or a check in and of itself) and Tapu Koko (which requires a different set of checks).

As for offensive checks: due to Blaziken's ability in Speed Boost, only priority moves can have a chance of outspeeding Blaziken after it has forced something out. Though priority moves can be a good answer to Blaziken, the Blaziken user can make smart switches to be able to handle these Pokemon too, such as Rillaboom or Ferrothorn switching in to Aqua Jet, or a Rocky Helmet Pokemon punishing Fake Out.

Therefore, I believe that Blaziken should be banned.
 

adem

her
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I think I have gathered my thoughts about this mon enough to make a post here.

Initially, I had mixed feelings on the chicken, feeling it really did nothing if you didnt set up an SD and really struggled versus bulkiers teams and teams that had strong priority from the likes of Ash Greninja and Rillaboom. After trying out reqs with stall and Mega Latias Balance, I realised although by itself it wasn’t too bad, but paired with the likes of Ash Greninja and Mega Garchomp to further capitalise on Blaziken forcing damage on Bulky Waters, and Bulky Grounds really made it painful to deal with. Furthermore, although I do see how frail it is and how easy it is prone to being revenged, a lot of these issues can be dealt with via screens.

252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja Water Shuriken (15 BP) (3 hits) vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Blaziken through Light Screen: 126-153 (41.8 - 50.8%) -- approx. 0.4% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Rillaboom Grassy Glide vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Blaziken in Grassy Terrain through Reflect: 79-93 (26.2 - 30.8%) -- 9.8% chance to 4HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
0 SpA Slowbro Scald vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Blaziken through Light Screen: 117-138 (38.8 - 45.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Blaziken through Reflect: 237-279 (78.7 - 92.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Screens can easily solve its bulk issues and allow it to set up an additional swords dance, or attack again if needed, letting sets such as the normalium Z claim more kills. Forcing teams to sack a mon to Z or play the guessing game around which Z will it use is not fun to play against as well as requiring strong priority to revenge it make it a mon that can snowball easily, and while its middling speed tier at even +1 allows it to be revenged by some of the viable scarfers in the tier, all of them are easily worn down with repeated attacks and hazards, making it easy for it to bypass these mons. Lastly, I think similar to how the bunny did it with terrifying AceVish and AceGren cores, it would enable and be impossible to check when paired together with the likes of Lele, the aforementioned Ash Greninja and Mega Garchomp and Rillaboom, who will abuse the decline of Slowking, Specially Biased Toxapex (and other similar mons in Kommo O, Fini), Ice Beam on Slowbro (In favour of scald) and Physically Defensive Grasses, respectively, whilst all of them appreciating the meta trends the Chicken will force. Whilst I dont think it is broken by itself, I do think it enables a lot of mons and forces a lot of meta trends to keep it in check, making these other breakers much more powerful, and really threatens a lot of offenses and BOs thus I will be voting Ban.

Gonna quicky address some points I disagree with in the previous posts:
(swallowed by Slowbro with health to spare later on).
Blaziken can just as easily just SD again, or just Double Edge to finish it off, doesnt really swallow it up, and if you Slack on the Z as they SD, you now lose your entire team, if you dont, your bro dies, thus forcing a not very fun 50/50, this is made even worse with screens or Mega Garchomp in the back who appreciates the lack of ice beam.

And the chicken's problems don't stop there. It's true that all Blaziken needs is one thing to switch in to a poor match-up to prep itself to become a sweeper, but in a metagame where decent tanks thrive, Blaziken's potential seems to diminish. The presence of three different Water-type Regenerators (Slowbro, Slowking, and Toxapex) is already an unsavory prospect for the chicken to break through, and it doesn't help that their secondary typings give them resistances to both of the chicken's STABs. And it doesn't even need to be those three specifically; Landorus-Therian, being one of the most popular mons in the OU tier, is sure to give Blaziken a migraine as it Intimidates on the switch in and therefore allows it to reliably tank even a +1 Flare Blitz before it murders the Blaze Pokémon in cold blood. I've seen arguments in regards to how Cinderace and Dragapult both have checks and very few counters; Blaziken here clearly has at least four counters, most of which are already seeing a lot of usage in the metagame.
The first 3 you mentioned die to both Normalium and Electrium sets, with Slowking losing to Firium too! Landorus Therian also isnt a counter, due to it having no recovery, getting repeatedly chipped from unboosted Flare Blitz (Takes rocks and 1 unboosted Flare Blitz to put SupDef Lando into death range of normalium!
-1 252 Atk Blaziken Flare Blitz vs. 248 HP / 244+ Def Landorus-Therian: 96-114 (25.1 - 29.9%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
+1 252 Atk Blaziken Breakneck Blitz (190 BP) vs. 248 HP / 244+ Def Landorus-Therian: 227-268 (59.5 - 70.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
and just outright loses to Firium!
+1 252 Atk Blaziken Inferno Overdrive (190 BP) vs. 248 HP / 244+ Def Landorus-Therian: 340-402 (89.2 - 105.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
Scarf too can only swap in once
-1 252 Atk Blaziken Flare Blitz vs. 0 HP / 12 Def Landorus-Therian: 135-159 (42.3 - 49.8%) -- 89.1% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock
Non of these are a counter, Pex and Bro are checks, which means opening yourself up to the likes of Lele and Ash Greninja more, and Lando T is a soft check at best.

Furthermore, a +1 in speed and a successful Swords Dance doesn't immediately make Blaziken invincible. Even with those boosts, it's fair game to a numerous amount of priority users. Ash-Greninja is probably the best example of this, firing off a strong Water Shuriken that's guaranteed to hit three times in a row.
Transforming Ash Greninja is the hard part, and this is mitigated with screens support, and forcing Gren into locking into Shuriken lets in things such as Rillaboom, Mega Garchomp, Serperior, Tapu-Lele and Kartana to take advantage of it.

Aqua Jet users such as Azumarill or Rapid-Strike Urshifu are also great checks, with the former being a reliable switch-in to any of Blaziken's STABs.
The former is pretty much unviable, and dies to +2 [Coverage Move], not even needing the Z! and does 83% Max without screens support, and is very easy to take advantage of by the previously mentioned mons, and the latter although much more viable is still pretty niche and also struggles with the same issue of locking into a move, being even easier to take advantage off by the aforementioned mons.

The Blaze Pokémon's mediocre speed stat of 80 also means that a lot of popular scarfers aren't going to be fazed at all. Scarfed Excadrill, Garchomp, Kartana, Landorus-Therian, or Tapu Lele all scoff at the +1 boost in speed before they make quick work of the chicken.
Scarf Kartana and Excadrill are at the best extremely niche, and at worst completely unviable (Which they generally are, 99% of the time), Scarf Garchomp is bad and really only works in certain one-off surprise situations against offensive teams, but is otherwise really bad, Scarf Lele sees some minor usage but not enough to warrant its viability, as it is not suited to deal with the current bulky state of the metagame, and Lando T is the only actual one I can count as viable here tbh.

Tldr, ban the chicken so we can have our perfectly fine meta back, and unban mag!
 

R8

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[...]a lot of these issues can be dealt with via screens.

252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja Water Shuriken (15 BP) (3 hits) vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Blaziken through Light Screen: 126-153 (41.8 - 50.8%) -- approx. 0.4% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Rillaboom Grassy Glide vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Blaziken in Grassy Terrain through Reflect: 79-93 (26.2 - 30.8%) -- 9.8% chance to 4HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
0 SpA Slowbro Scald vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Blaziken through Light Screen: 117-138 (38.8 - 45.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Blaziken through Reflect: 237-279 (78.7 - 92.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
I think you largely underestimate how easily Blaziken can be worn down, and can quickly get in range of priorities or revenge killers. Even with screens, Blaziken isn't quite bulky, and it's reliance on Flare Blitz and Close Combat can easily put it in range. Furthermore, even with screens up (assuming you had the opportunity to set them + send blaziken against something it can setup on, which isn't the easiest thing to do), most of the metagame is able to deal pretty good damages to it while it tries to setup, and push it into range of whatever.
For example, in practice scarf Lando T is always going to effectively take Blaziken out, since the chicken has to click Flare Blitz to do any meaningful damages to it, especially since even through screens it takes billion damages, as your last calc shows. And since Blaziken has some shit longevity, it can't bank for the long term against Lando-T either.
The first 3 you mentioned die to both Normalium and Electrium sets, with Slowking losing to Firium too! Landorus Therian also isnt a counter, due to it having no recovery, getting repeatedly chipped from unboosted Flare Blitz (Takes rocks and 1 unboosted Flare Blitz to put SupDef Lando into death range of normalium!
-1 252 Atk Blaziken Flare Blitz vs. 248 HP / 244+ Def Landorus-Therian: 96-114 (25.1 - 29.9%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
+1 252 Atk Blaziken Breakneck Blitz (190 BP) vs. 248 HP / 244+ Def Landorus-Therian: 227-268 (59.5 - 70.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
and just outright loses to Firium!
+1 252 Atk Blaziken Inferno Overdrive (190 BP) vs. 248 HP / 244+ Def Landorus-Therian: 340-402 (89.2 - 105.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
Scarf too can only swap in once
-1 252 Atk Blaziken Flare Blitz vs. 0 HP / 12 Def Landorus-Therian: 135-159 (42.3 - 49.8%) -- 89.1% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock
Non of these are a counter, Pex and Bro are checks, which means opening yourself up to the likes of Lele and Ash Greninja more, and Lando T is a soft check at best.
There are two points i disagree with here:
> First, saying that Lando T isn't a counter because of no recovery don't make sense to me, since Blaziken also has really shitty longevity. It already kills itself with Flare Blitz doing so and is neutral to rocks, while its overreliance on forced switches to have opportunities to setup (opportunities that aren't that easy to get because of its mediocre initial speed tier) don't play at all on its favor. It needs really optimal scenarios to effectively overcomes its checks, which can happen only if the Blaziken player outplays its opponent.
> You mention Normalium, Electrium, and Firium sets, but there you can also see an other problem with Blaziken: it has some fat 4mss, in some way similar to Volcarona. Usually, i wouldn't use that argument because a mon having a 4mss don't make it much easier to check, because it still can have THE coverage move that kills your check. However, in Blaziken case, it really goes against him because teams tend to naturally have multiple way to deal with blaziken. Let's take a look at the samples (which are built in a meta where blaziken doesn't exist!):
(I put the used calcs after each team)
:latias-mega: :gastrodon: :magnezone: :clefable::corviknight: :weavile:
I wish this wasn't the first sample lol, because Normalium Blaziken actually has a decent MU against this one, going against my point in this specific case. Worth to note that Clefable can tank a +2 Flare Blitz, while Moonblast 2HKOes after rocks, so Clef isn't a total setup fodder. It can't easily click SD against the steels either, since TBolt pushes it into Ice Shard range (taking CC drops/Flare blitz recoil into account) and Corv just OHKO it with Brave Bird. It is worth to note that, if Blaziken kills Corv with a +2 Flare Blitz, the recoil + the rocky helmet damages pushes it into Moonblast range from Clefable (which as we saw, survive a +2 Flare Blitz). Weavile locked into a move not called Triple Axel is probably the safest opportunity for Blaziken to setup, but even then it should possible to play around it by sacking a steel and attempting to revenge with Clef or Ice Shard (depending on the chip it took beforehand).
EDIT: Mudkip told me he made the Clef Twave, so the Blaziken mu is even better

Of course, all of this is assuming that the Blaziken is Normalium. Otherwise, MLatias checks it.
+2 252 Atk Blaziken Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 244+ Def Clefable: 327-385 (82.9 - 97.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

0 SpA Clefable Moonblast vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Blaziken: 132-156 (43.8 - 51.8%) -- 9% chance to 2HKO

+2 252 Atk Blaziken Breakneck Blitz (190 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Latias-Mega: 333-392 (91.4 - 107.6%) -- 50% chance to OHKO

252 Atk Choice Band Weavile Ice Shard vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Blaziken: 62-73 (20.5 - 24.2%) -- guaranteed 5HKO
0 Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Blaziken: 306-362 (101.6 - 120.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

+2 252 Atk Blaziken Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 184+ Def Corviknight: 542-642 (135.5 - 160.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO (43.8 - 43.8% recoil damage)
:greninja-ash: :kartana: :gliscor: :toxapex: :heatran: :lopunny-mega:
Obviously, Normalium can't take out both Glisc and Pex at the same time (and they both have a chance to survive Normalium, and can even opt for more physdef EVs to always survive.). Kart is the only mon on which Blaziken can safely setup, and rely on forced switches against Heatran, which could click Earth Power if there is any scenario where you don't want to let them getting +2 for free. It is worth to note that both can force Blaziken to use Close Combat or Flare Blitz, making it easier to revenge for Lopunny and Ash Greninja. In this MU, Blaziken realistically is going to get one kill at most.
+2 252 Atk Blaziken Breakneck Blitz (190 BP) vs. 252 HP / 80 Def Toxapex: 256-302 (84.2 - 99.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

+2 252 Atk Blaziken Breakneck Blitz (190 BP) vs. 244 HP / 52 Def Gliscor: 308-363 (87.5 - 103.1%) -- 25% chance to OHKO (If SD on the switch, Poison Heal cancels Rocks)
:serperior: :tyranitar-mega: :reuniclus: :excadrill: :corviknight: :toxapex:
The whole team has some way to not be setup fodder. Reuniclus take anything not called +2 Z Fire (which isn't a good set imho) and KO back with Psyshock. There is a pex, and Drill can revenge kill a +2 Blaziken with sand up.
252+ Atk Tyranitar-Mega Stone Edge vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Blaziken: 285-336 (94.6 - 111.6%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO

+2 252 Atk Blaziken Breakneck Blitz (190 BP) vs. 252 HP / 212+ Def Reuniclus: 352-415 (83 - 97.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

+2 252 Atk Blaziken Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 212+ Def Reuniclus: 333-393 (78.5 - 92.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

0 SpA Reuniclus Psyshock vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Blaziken: 278-330 (92.3 - 109.6%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO (Dies with Sand/ Rocks up)
:clefable::Corviknight: :Garchomp: :toxapex: :tangrowth: :greninja-ash:
You know the drill by now: the whole team has some way to not be complete fodder. Tang can even easily stays to click sleep powder because it takes 67.3% maximum from unboosted flare blitz, and regen off.
The Pex here is spdef, but blaziken still has to either use its norm Z or run tpunch to break past this (which it probably carries, i admit). There is an ashgren.
252 Atk Blaziken Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Tangrowth: 230-272 (56.9 - 67.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
:shuckle: :thundurus-therian: :serperior::bisharp: :scizor-mega: :kommo-o:
webs + when are you clicking SD?



TL;DR: Even without the existence of Blaziken in the tier, most teams already naturally packs ways to beat Blaziken (it's probably going to be even harder for blaziken if it get unbanned, with people starting being used to it). IMO it isn't even that good in the metagame, and also suffer from the competition with other breakers and sweepers in the tier. This is why i am going to vote unban. I feel like people really overestimate its ability to get opportunities and break past its checks, and underestimate how crappy its longevity can be.
 
Last edited:

Zneon

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So I'm getting reqs right now but I've played multiple games with Blaziken to get a good enough image and how it impacts the metagame, so that's exactly what I'm going to talk about



I think Blaziken has a ton of strengths and stuff like HP and Z-Moves help give it some versatility with what it can use and fact that it has a lot of options for its 4th slot is very helpful for it, that's not really something you can say about regular OU Blaziken, with that said I'm still really dissapointed in its performance from using it and that really comes down to its issues.

File:Bag Life Orb Sprite.png
1. Really Frail
File:Bag Life Orb Sprite.png


I think this is probably its biggest problem. Blaziken is very frail, and that hurts it a lot when it comes to what it wants to do. Everytime I used Swords Dance Blaziken I had to use screens alongside it to help with its frailty. For those of you who don't know why its frailty hurts its consistency so much, well, it doesn't really have setup opportunities. Its typing defensively is extremely shit and its overall bulk doesn't really help either since that makes its poor defensive typing more of a hinderance to it, and since its not exactly the best offensively either despite being pretty good, it hurts its ability to sweep consistently. I also want to add in Flare Blitz because that has a huge impact for this as well, its a great nuke but the recoil is AWFUL for this Pokemon, because this along with the fact that it takes hits as well as a wet tissue, Blaziken will probably get 1 or 2 kills before its revenge killed by something like Mega Lopunny or even Rillaboom if its low enough, which isn't hard to really do since Flare Blitz is so taxing to it.

2. Moveset issues


My second gripe with Blaziken is that the Z-crystal and last move can really only do so much in my opinion. Normalium Z is probably the best variant of Blaziken, it takes advantage of the fact that Toxapex runs SpDef rather than PDef nowadays and especially completely nukes Mega Latias after rocks, but it loses vs Slowbro most of the time, and with Electrium Z its the opposite effect, beats Slowbro but completely loses to Mega Latias. My least favourite thing about this is how these are sometimes the only reliable nukes you have. Flare Blitz is one but its extremely situational and most of the time more detrimental than actually helpful, Close Combat is great but it just makes it more prone to priority and it turns 3HKOs into 2HKOs behind screens, and you need to hope that the opponent doesn't expect the Z-move and double switch to something else, because otherwise those Pokemon can easily check you. It's pretty frustrating to deal with when using Blaziken and it doesn't really have any actually way to bypass these issues unlike other banned Pokemon can, which makes me question just how overwhelming it actually is.

3. Consistency vs a wide array of teams


In terms of consistency, its not really there in my opinion, and I think that really comes down to all the issues I listed above. Blaziken genuinely feels like it only works depending on the matchup, but most good teams are going to have at least 2 Blaziken checks on their team that will just naturally fit there, Blaziken isn't really forcing anything or pushing the metagame into an unhealthy direction like the other banned Pokemon do, it does make hyper offense teams a lot better I do agree on that, but what it can do for those teams varies if anything. Against a team where there are no checks being carried for it, Blaziken will slap them, but that goes for every offensive Pokemon and when there is a moment where those answers do come on a team, you are kinda just scratching your head with how much it can really do, its so easy to wear down and so easy to revenge kill because of all of those bad traits that it hurts its overall consistency as a result.

======

I can understand why people may find Blaziken hard to deal with, or that it pushes the metagame in an unhealthy direction etc, but I think a well played team can easily play around it and there are enough options and tools in the metagame for us to handle it despite HP and Z-moves helping the versatility, there's only so much it can do. When I get reqs I'm planning to vote unban and even if this post doesn't convince you, I hope you can understand my perspective, have a nice day yall! :blobthumbsup:
 
Tldr, ban the chicken so we can have our perfectly fine meta back, and unban mag!
I have a lot of problems about what you mentioned in your post.

First of all, it seems like most of your reasons for banning the fire chicken are due to screens. That's fine and all, but lets just say you aren't running screens, or more likely, your opponent got rid of the screens (which is VERY easy to do with Defog). Then how good is Blaziken? Is it still in a good position without screens and is going to survive later moves?

Ash-Greninja is very easy to get off. Sure, there are things checking it, but there are also a lot of mons that Ash can threaten itself and can therefore easily reach a point where it is possibly able to finish off a check to get the boost. Yes, screens mitigate this, but again, there are ways to remove those.

As for Azumarill, there are two different sets that are currently viable. One is the very well-known Belly Drum set, and the other, although less-recognizable, is the Choice Band set. Let's say you have either one of these sets out on Blaziken. Wanna get the SD on the Belly Drum set? Then get decimated by a +6 Aqua Jet in the future. How about a SD on the Band set? Not even a chance. Sure, an un-boosted Aqua Jet may not get the kill, but Azumarill puts such enormous pressure on Blaziken that it is probably a wiser decision to retreat to something that can force the fairy out.

I don't know how you thought Scarf Kartana was niche as the douche is everywhere. And a majority of them are running Scarf, and that should speak to its viability in the tier. I admit Excadrill was a bit of a push seeing that it's better off on sand teams for Sand Rush, but taking that into consideration, yeah, +2 in speed is still not doing favors for Blaziken.

As R8 stated, you are strongly underestimating how incredibly frail Blaziken is. Even with screens, which you assume everyone is forced to run for Blaziken, it can easily be KO'd with the numerous amount of viable mons currently existing in the OU tier. It's totally fine. If anything, screen support being an absolute necessity for the chicken seems to be more restrictive on those using Blaziken, which is the opposite reason for banning this mon.

And as much as you are wanting it back, Magearna is STAYING in Ubers. There's a reason we dealt with that BEFORE checking out the chicken.
 
I have a lot of problems about what you mentioned in your post.

First of all, it seems like most of your reasons for banning the fire chicken are due to screens. That's fine and all, but lets just say you aren't running screens, or more likely, your opponent got rid of the screens (which is VERY easy to do with Defog). Then how good is Blaziken? Is it still in a good position without screens and is going to survive later moves?

Ash-Greninja is very easy to get off. Sure, there are things checking it, but there are also a lot of mons that Ash can threaten itself and can therefore easily reach a point where it is possibly able to finish off a check to get the boost. Yes, screens mitigate this, but again, there are ways to remove those.

As for Azumarill, there are two different sets that are currently viable. One is the very well-known Belly Drum set, and the other, although less-recognizable, is the Choice Band set. Let's say you have either one of these sets out on Blaziken. Wanna get the SD on the Belly Drum set? Then get decimated by a +6 Aqua Jet in the future. How about a SD on the Band set? Not even a chance. Sure, an un-boosted Aqua Jet may not get the kill, but Azumarill puts such enormous pressure on Blaziken that it is probably a wiser decision to retreat to something that can force the fairy out.

I don't know how you thought Scarf Kartana was niche as the douche is everywhere. And a majority of them are running Scarf, and that should speak to its viability in the tier. I admit Excadrill was a bit of a push seeing that it's better off on sand teams for Sand Rush, but taking that into consideration, yeah, +2 in speed is still not doing favors for Blaziken.

As R8 stated, you are strongly underestimating how incredibly frail Blaziken is. Even with screens, which you assume everyone is forced to run for Blaziken, it can easily be KO'd with the numerous amount of viable mons currently existing in the OU tier. It's totally fine. If anything, screen support being an absolute necessity for the chicken seems to be more restrictive on those using Blaziken, which is the opposite reason for banning this mon.

And as much as you are wanting it back, Magearna is STAYING in Ubers. There's a reason we dealt with that BEFORE checking out the chicken.
A lot of your points here are just blatantly false.

Ash-Greninja is not easy to get to transform, especially as SpD Pex, SpD Kommo-o, Fini, Anoonguss, Hydreigon, etc. have continued to rise in usage and easily take it on throughout a game.

Azumarill is NOT viable. While Belly Drum appears to be threatening, it's rather easy to revenge kill with mons like the many offensive grasses that have surged in viablility(especially Rillaboom since Grassy Glide + higher speed means its priority hits first) as well as faster Aqua Jet resists given the fact that it's forced to be at 50% health. If you really want an offensive water on HO, use Tail Glow + 3A Manaphy. Same goes for Choice Band, which is easily walled by Toxapex among other mons, and unlike the far superior CB Urshifu-R, can't pivot out of unfavorable situations.

A majority of teams on ladder are also not running Stealth Rock, but that doesn't mean they're good. NDOU Ladder in general is just ass and really shouldn't be used to support arguments. Scarf Kartana never accomplishes anything in a metagame where mons like Amoonguss, Mega Latias, and especially Corviknight are on a crapton of teams unless you're supporting it out the wazoo.

Finally, you vastly underestimate how difficult it is to get Defog off against Screens in the first place since Grimmsnarl just shuts that down with Taunt and the threat of being swept means you usually have to react as fast as you can so whatever setup threat they have out doesn't have the chance to run you over like a freight train. This means you often have to forgo trying to fog in order to respond fast enough.

Don't get me wrong, I definitely agree with you and many others here that Blaziken is underwhelming and even inconsistent while being not too difficult to deal with (will make a separate post that fully explains my thoughts on Blaziken later), but your arguments for it seem a tad all over the place and your understanding of the meta as a whoke is rather off.
 
I believe that Blaziken should be banned, due to it causing stress on teambuilding.

In many regards, Blaziken is quite like Cinderace in that it is a physical Fire type with high Speed, good Attack, a boosting move, and the ability to use a Z move. As seen previously, Cinderace has been overwhelming previously, and I believe Blaziken will also soon be overwhelming for the tier.

Blaziken is a physical Fire type, which means it cannot be checked by Corviknight, and has to be checked by Water types like Toxapex or Slowbro. On the other hand, Toxapex and Slowbro cannot stand up to an assault from Rillaboom or Kartana, so Corviknight will have to be run regardless. This would cause teams to be much more passive, especially when simultaneously accounting for other threats like Tapu Lele (which Corviknight falls to a Z Fight or HP Fire), Ash Greninja (requiring either Blissey or a check in and of itself) and Tapu Koko (which requires a different set of checks).

As for offensive checks: due to Blaziken's ability in Speed Boost, only priority moves can have a chance of outspeeding Blaziken after it has forced something out. Though priority moves can be a good answer to Blaziken, the Blaziken user can make smart switches to be able to handle these Pokemon too, such as Rillaboom or Ferrothorn switching in to Aqua Jet, or a Rocky Helmet Pokemon punishing Fake Out.

Therefore, I believe that Blaziken should be banned.
I disagree with many points here. The first is that Blaziken will encourage more passive team styles, which I find to be the opposite. Blaziken struggles most with high-octane offense where it has little chance to set up and get a few speed boosts. In addition, between the options of Landorus, Gliscor, MLatias, Slowbro, and Toxapex, most balance or defensive teams already have a good answer to Blaziken.
I also disagree with your assessment of the metagame right now, as Ash-Greninja is the only Pokémon on this list that I agree with having individual required checks to the point of unhealthiness, and Koko should not be on that list at all. Corv does take HP fire from specs decently with Spdef investment and I don’t think z fight can take it down either.
Once again with your last point, I point out that offensive pressure can stop the setup, and the Blaziken being switched out in fear of priority means that it is unlikely to be healthy enough to come in again and repeat.
 
I’m not going to be voting, but this is what i’ve seen and my thoughts from using blaziken on high ladder. Blaziken is threatening, but not too much without its swords dance, and blaziken doesn’t threaten out too much without +1 speed or an sd, and some of the things it can set up on (for example, corviknight or heatran) can take an unboosted hit and can punish it for setting up with a brave bird/u turn to a revenge killer or earth power/toxic, respectively. It even has relatively large amount of revenge killers, from ash gren, urshifu-s, and even banded rillaboom if blaziken has been chipped, to say nothing of scarf users. It also suffers from moveslot syndrome, so it’s pretty dependent on matchup, but it puts strain on teambuilding with the amount of coverage and z moves it can viably run.
 
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