Competitive Pokemon History - Blaziken Quiz

Answer: High Speed

Blaziken's excellent 120 Attack and 110 Special Attack, with the movepool to properly utilize either (or both on the same moveset) meant walling it was very difficult to achieve, thus making it uncounterable since it could be running just the right move to stop something from achieving this.

While all of this sounds great, its Base 80 Speed for a Pokemon with meager 80/70/70 bulk was rather insufficient. This meant Blaziken would encounter problems with common offensive teams. They didn't have anything which could outright switch in to it comfortably, but once in, Pokemon like Dugtrio, Salamence, Gyarados, Zapdos and more could outspeed and rip off huge chunks of its health, if not outright OHKO it, thanks to its poor Speed and bulk.

Answer: Blaze

Blaze was actually a pretty good ability on Blaziken. Many of its sets were either Substitute based sets, intent on lowering its HP to trigger Blaze and give its Fire type moves frightening power, or they would be sets tailored to allow Blaziken to ever so barely survive moves, such as Suicune's Surf or Zapdos' Thunderbolt. Under either scenario, a STAB Reversal would be immensely physically threatening, while Blaze would give a Fire move, like Fire Blast, amazing power.

A complementary Salac Berry boost with those two massive power advantages gave Blaziken both the Speed and power it needed to sweep. Still, it wasn't the most reliable strategy, as the ubiquitous nature of Tyranitar meant actually getting to low HP and sustaining a sweep whilst losing 6% of Blaziken's HP every turn due to T-Tar's sand was not really possible most of the time. Simply KOing Tyranitar would not solve the fact that its sandstorm would remain, either.

This is why Blaziken, while incredibly powerful on paper, was not anyone's first choice for a sweeper by any means.

Answer: UnderUsed's banned list

Blaziken's unique blend of being a Fire type with a usable physical movepool and great mixed offensive stats made it too strong for third generation UU. In standard play, it wasn't bad, but it suffered from not being terribly great against offensive teams, which made it somewhat unattractive and diminished its usage to the point where it was not natively a member of standard play.

Answer: Vacuum Wave

Vacuum Wave is a very lowly distributed priority Fighting type move, that's notable and unique for being a specially offensive move. The move itself is quite weak, but with STAB and getting decent coverage, it can help Blaziken to pick off a speedier Pokemon before it would've been revenge killed otherwise, while also making it a functional revenge killer itself.

Answer: Infernape

Infernape shared Blaziken's typing, was far faster than it, and while it wasn't quite as strong, it boasted access to a number of moves Blaziken did not have to make up for this; strong physical moves like Close Combat, utility moves like Taunt and Stealth Rock, a boosting move in Nasty Plot, and even a healing move in Slack Off come to mind.

Despite not being quite as strong, these advantages offset that by far, and Infernape was far better. Notably, Infernape's access to Nasty Plot and Swords Dance, with Blaziken only getting the latter, gave Infernape even more flexibility than Blaziken had.

Its higher Speed, 108 for Infernape and 80 for Blaziken, was the selling point to using Infernape, and this led to it being a superstar in standard play, forcing Blaziken out of the tier completely.

Answer: Speed Boost

Blaziken's only serious problem since its inception had been its rather poor Speed. Speed Boost therefore patches that problem up, and suddenly turns Blaziken into a brilliant offensive force, one which destroys defensive teams and can now easily deal with offensive ones as well. There were not many Pokemon who benefited from the Dream World quite like Blaziken did, to put it simply.

Answer: First starter Pokemon to get banned to Ubers

With Speed Boost, Blaziken was no longer at the mercy of offensive teams, and it didn't even need to run a constraining Choiced item to achieve this like many others did. Its naturally high power and ability to go mixed has always led to it succeeding against defensive teams, and the fifth generation was no different, even introducing a prominent new face in Ferrothorn whom Blaziken totally dominated thanks to its massive typing advantage. Therefore, the counterplay to Blaziken was just about totally non-existent in standard play, and it was subsequently banned to Ubers. There, it was still an excellent force, but it did have Pokemon who could stand up to it. Lugia could beat it defensively quite easily, as could Ho-Oh if Blaziken did not have Stone Edge. The weather trio of Kyogre, Groudon and Rayquaza could also beat it, the the latter's ability to do so could be compromised should Blaziken have Hidden Power Ice. Finally, Blaziken's offensive stat build wasn't as amazing in Ubers, though it was still decent. This means that most bulky Pokemon not weak to its moves could take a hit and KO it in return, due to its poor defenses by Uber standards.

it became the first starter to ever get banned to Ubers. Frankly, no starter before it had ever come close, giving Blaziken great momentum in the "best starter of all time" debate.

Answer: Both formes of Giratina

Giratina's unique Ghost/Dragon typing let it resist Blaziken's Fire and be immune to its Fighting. Its bulk was also enormous, meaning even super effective coverage moves being used specifically with Giratina in mind, like Shadow Claw or Hidden Power Ice, did not seriously threaten either variant. The more offensively inclined Origin forme could take numerous hits from Blaziken, and then destroy it in return with Draco Meteor, Earthquake, Shadow Force, Outrage, do great damage with Shadow Ball, Dragon Claw, cripple it immensely with Thunder Wave, or even just remove whatever boosts it had obtained with Dragon Tail. Calm Mind Giratina-O could also use Blaziken as setup fodder, to boost against and potentially threaten a sweep. Giratina-A was less offensively inclined and couldn't KO Blaziken as easily, but it could also just sit there and absorb hits from it all day, removing any boosts accrued or crippling it with Thunder Wave like Giratina-O could.

Thus, teams built around Blaziken needed reliable ways to defeat the Renegade Pokemon.

Answer: Base Blaziken with Life Orb was stronger than Mega Blaziken

Base Blaziken with Life Orb actually hits harder than Mega Blaziken, as Mega Blaziken itself cannot wield an item. Because Speed Boost renders the difference in speed irrelevant, and because neither Base or Mega Blaziken have good bulk, using a Mega slot on Blaziken was often silly and pointless, when it could be devoted towards far stronger candidates, like Salamence or Gengar. Thus, Mega Blaziken was not viable in Ubers for its massive opportunity cost and the fact it was outclassed by its Base forme, while it was still too strong for standard play.

Answer: It was simply outclassed in anything it could do

The newcomer Marshadow was a far better physical Fighting type that notably did not take up a Mega slot. Blaziken's 120/110 offenses, even with a boosting supplement, were just not good enough in Ubers, and it lacked the bulk to make boosting with Swords Dance a feasible option.

There were far better alternatives for Fire attackers, Fighting attackers, mixed wallbreakers and sweepers, so Blaziken was simply out of a job in the seventh generation.