Pokemon of the Month - June 2014: Blaziken

About Blaziken
When facing a tough foe, it looses flames from its wrists. Its powerful legs let it jump clear over buildings. It can clear a 30-story building in a leap. Its fiery punches scorch its foes.

Interesting Facts
- Speed Boost Blaziken is the first and only starter Pokemon to be banned to Ubers
- Blaziken is the only core series starter Pokémon to appear in the anime before its debut generation.-
- A pre-alpha sketch depicts an unused Pokémon with the traits of both a Blaziken and a Latias. Likewise, Mega Blaziken's ears appear similar to those in a pre-alpha sketch of Torchic.
- Mega Blaziken has the highest base stat total of all non-legendary Fighting-type Pokémon.

Blaziken Stats
HP - 80
Attack - 120
Defense - 70
Sp.atk - 110
Sp.def - 70
Speed - 80

Mega Blaziken Stats
HP - 80
Attack - 160
Defense - 80
Sp.atk - 130
Sp.def - 80
Speed - 100

Abilities
Blaze: Boosts Fire attacks when low on hp
Speed Boost: Gets +1 speed every turn

Blaziken in Competitive Battling
Even in BW, Blaziken was considered too powerful for OU. With Slowbro being the only common wall to that resists both of his STAB attacks, combined with Speed Boost making Blaziken ridiculously hard to revenge kill, Blaziken was quickly banned to Ubers. In XY, GameFreak decided to make him EVEN BETTER. Mega Blaziken has 630 BST and absurd 160/130/100 offenses. They also gave him access to Baton Pass, and then decided to give out free Speed Boost Torchic's to everyone who bought the game soon after release. Mega Blaziken's increased power means he achieves many of the same KO's at +1 that regular Blaziken needed +2 to get, allowing him to run Hone Claws and taking the potential game-wrecking missed High-Jump Kick out of the equation. Blaziken runs rampant on Battle Spot, and is a common sight on random PasserBy teams.

It's not all glory for Blaziken, though. The introduction of Talonflame and Priority Brave Bird means that Blaziken can now be stopped by more than just Slowbro and Giratina. Dragalge also resists Blaziken's dual STABs, but is pretty useless outside of this. Blaziken also faces competition from Scolipede in baton-passing speed boosts, as Scolipede can absorb toxic spikes, lay hazards of his own, and generally does better with defensive EV spreads.

Example Movesets

Classic Dual STAB
Blaziken @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant or Jolly Nature
- Protect
- Swords Dance
- High Jump Kick
- Flare Blitz

Blaziken's best set from Gen 5. Blaziken is actually quite slow unboosted, and so benefits from running protect in order to essentially get a free choice-scarf. After a Swords Dance, there are really only two Pokemon that outright wall Blaziken: Giratina and Slowbro. Even Slowbro has trouble switching into Blaziken at +2. Blaziken remains vulnerable to priority, but Blaziken needs to take a couple of turns of life-orb or flare-blitz recoil to get into KO range of most common priority users, and Blaziken's raw power means he'll generally pull more than his weight. The one exception to this is Talonflame, who forces Blaziken out 100% of the time.

Mega Hone Claws
Blaziken @ Blazikenite
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant or Jolly Nature
- Protect
- Hone Claws/ Swords Dance
- High Jump Kick
- Flare Blitz

Very similar to the classic set, and plays almost the same, but Blaziken's Mega form is much more powerful and can afford to run hone-claws over Swords Dance. After a single Hone Claws, Blaziken will never miss a High-Jump Kick, making him much more reliable.

Baton-Pass
Blaziken @ Leftovers / Blazikenite
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 def
Adamant or Jolly Nature
- Protect / Substitute
- Baton Pass
- Swords Dance
- High Jump Kick / Blaze Kick

Defensive Blaziken wut? With Speed Boost, Blaziken doesn't really need Speed investment. Access to baton pass lets him pass speed boosts and swords dances, and potentially substitute. Blaziken behind a Sub lets him baton-pass out when faced with Talonflame, and is really the only way he gets around this hard counter. Fighting has better neutral coverage than Fire in Ubers because of the large number of Dragons, but Blaze Kick is also an option if you're worried about Giratina or mega Gengar switching into you. Flare Blitz isn't recommended because the recoil puts you in priority KO range too quickly.