fire birb
After a boost from Speed Boost, Blaziken boasts extremely impressive matchups against common Pokemon, being able to outspeed and OHKO around 2/3 of the top 20 Pokemon in the DOU metagame and deal massive damage to most others. However, Blaziken is awkward to use because its best STAB options, Overheat and Superpower, force it to switch, which meshes poorly with Speed Boost. It ends up being played as a hit-and-run attacker that has to stay on the field for a turn before it can hit, sacrificing momentum. In addition, it's nearly useless in the face of speed control. Blaziken also faces direct competition from Talonflame and Infernape, strong Fire-types that are able to attack immediately thanks to their high base Speeds. Additionally, Talonflame boasts extremely strong priority and Infernape has access to Fake Out and Close Combat. However, nothing else in DOU can match Blaziken's spectacular 1v1 matchups.
[SET]
name: Mixed Attacker
move 1: Overheat
move 2: Superpower / Low Kick
move 3: Stone Edge / Hidden Power Ice
move 4: Protect
item: Life Orb
ability: Speed Boost
nature: Hasty
evs: 84 Atk / 172 SpA / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========
Overheat is Blaziken's best option for a Fire-type STAB move; it picks up many crucial OHKOs that Fire Blast does not and is not dampened by Intimidate or King's Shield like Flare Blitz. It's recommended that you use Superpower over Low Kick due to Low Kick's inconsistency as opposed to Superpower's reliable 120 Base Power. However, Low Kick is indeed a viable option because Superpower drops Blaziken's Attack as well as its Defense, sometimes forcing a switch on your part and removing Blaziken's Speed boosts.
Stone Edge allows Blaziken to eliminate Flying-types that would otherwise threaten it greatly such as Mega Charizard Y and Talonflame, provided that Blaziken has Quick Guard support. Alternatively, Blaziken can run Hidden Power Ice in order to OHKO Landorus-T without suffering the Special Attack drop from Overheat. The choice between these two coverage moves is mostly dependent on what kind of support the rest of your team needs more. If your team is rather weak to Landorus-T, then you should consider running Hidden Power Ice. If you're weak to Mega Charizard Y, then consider using Stone Edge instead. Protect is an absolute must for any Blaziken set. Being a Speed Boost Pokemon, using Protect on Blaziken allows it to get a free boost on its Speed stat while also being invulnerable for that turn.
Set Details
========
Life Orb lets Blaziken do as much damage as possible. A Hasty nature is recommended so that Blaziken can take on special attacking Fire-types better, which are basically the only Pokemon it can switch in on. However, Naive Blaziken can tank an Azumarill Aqua Jet after two rounds of Life Orb recoil, while Hasty can only tank it after one. This matters because Blaziken OHKOs Azumarill's two most common partners, Jirachi and Amoonguss, with Overheat. 172 Special Attack EVs let Blaziken OHKO Aegislash in Shield Forme with Overheat as well. 84 Attack EVs let Blaziken OHKO Mega Kangaskhan with either Superpower or Low Kick. 244 Speed EVs are needed to outrun Choice Scarf Landorus-T at +1, and at that point it makes more sense to maximize.
Usage Tips
========
Blaziken starts off with a meager base 80 Speed, which doesn't outspeed most of the threats that it's supposed to be able to take care of, such as Mega Kangaskhan, Shaymin-S, Landorus-T, and Mega Metagross. The first turn out, you should use Protect if you need to outspeed a threat that's faster than Blaziken. Alternatively, try bringing in Blaziken when you're able to get a free KO in the first turn; by doing this, you aren't forced to Protect on your first turn out while you get the Speed boost up. That being said, it's not usually a good idea to switch in Blaziken in the place of an ally; instead, you might want to bring it in once an ally has fainted. Blaziken works best on offensive teams because of its good STAB coverage and its generally offensive attributes, so consider that when building around it. Although Blaziken has lots of good offensive attributes, you shouldn't try to use it as a sweeper because it doesn't have a lot of staying power. Instead, it works best when assisting its team by targeting and eliminating specific threats.
Team Options
========
Quick Guard users such as Keldeo or Terrakion help Blaziken by blocking the priority moves that would otherwise be very harmful to it. Blaziken can't do much against Water-types, so offensive Grass- or Electric-types such as Shaymin-Sky or Thundurus / Thundurus-T help it out a lot. Mega Diancie forms a great core with Blaziken and helps get rid of Pokemon that Blaziken normally has trouble with, such as Talonflame, Latios, Keldeo, and Rotom-H. In turn, Blaziken also eliminates some of Mega Diancie's checks, such as Amoonguss, Aegislash, and Landorus-T. However, this duo will need a lot of team support to get around Water-types. Bisharp, Mega Gengar, and Aegislash all help Blaziken by getting rid of Fairy-types and Cresselia. Taunt users such as Thundurus help Blaziken out by stopping the activation of Trick Room.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Running Blazikenite to Mega Evolve is another option, but Life Orb with the same spread does more damage than the Mega variant. Only run Blazikenite if your team really doesn't need a Mega or if you have another spread in mind that would work better with Mega Blaziken than non-Mega. A physical set with Flare Blitz instead of Overheat may be somewhat viable, but it doesn't really fare well against Landorus-T or Aegislash when it uses King's Shield. Heat Wave is a useful spread attack, but it comes at the cost of doing a lot less damage. As Blaziken wants to keep all of its Speed boosts, you can also use Fire Blast over Overheat so you don't have to switch out after every Overheat or two.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Typing Advantage**: Bulky Water-types like to have their way with Blaziken. In particular, Politoed and rain teams in general are not so friendly to Blaziken. Blaziken also can't touch other bulky threats such as Cresselia or Sylveon, both of which hit back with their STAB moves. Even though Blaziken can outspeed Keldeo and Latios after a turn of Speed Boost, it still can't hit them hard enough to prevent them from OHKOing back with their super effective STAB moves.
**Speed Control**: While Blaziken most certainly does not mind Icy Wind, it becomes nothing short of dead weight when hit by Thunder Wave or under Trick Room. Opposing Tailwind also restricts it because Blaziken typically uses a single Speed boost to threaten foes that are naturally faster than it, which it can't do when the opposition is under Tailwind. However, Tailwind's duration is short enough that it can be played around.
**Speed**: While few things will be outspeeding Blaziken in normal circumstances, it falls victim to a lot of common priority moves. Brave Bird from Talonflame instantly destroys Blaziken, while Azumarill's Aqua Jet does a hefty 71.5 - 84.1% to Blaziken. Furthermore, Mega Kangaskhan's Fake Out takes out almost half of Blaziken's health while also causing it to flinch, leaving it vulnerable for the rest of the turn. Fake Out threatens Blaziken in general as well. Leaving it vulnerable for the rest of the turn is very detrimental to Blaziken because of how frail it is.
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