Blaziken is a powerful Physical Sweeper Pokemon. If you want to play this incredibly strong Pokemon, our guide will help you understand what the best EVs, Nature, and Movesets!
Build in Action!
Why Play Blaziken?
When we look for offensive sweepers, there are a plethora of Pokemon that possess great typing, move coverage, and stats that any competitive trainer would be satisfied with. A few select Pokemon may lack in one of these areas described prior; However, with the right support, any Pokémon will still find themselves victorious. Blaziken, the “Blaze” Pokemon, is a perfect example to use here.
When first released, Blaziken was at the bottom of the barrel for competitive play due to awful speed stat; However, once hidden abilities were released, the issue was fixed for Speed Boost (speed is increased by 50% after a turn). This was too much of a fix for the majority of the players at Smogon and they threw Blaziken into the UBER tier with the likes of Mewtwo, Groudon, and Kyogre making it unusable in standard OU competitive play. Then, low and behold, Blaziken was given a Mega Evolution, which also had the Speed Boost ability but, once again, put it into the UBER lock. In Sword and Shield, the curse was lifted on Blaziken and it smashed through the competitive doors with a vengeance. With a great ability and decent offensive stats, trainers not prepared for Blaziken could easily be demolished after a few turns. The weakness of our beloved fighting chicken is that its defenses are paper thin and cannot take much of a hit. This, like all issues with Pokemon, can be remedied.
Best Competitive Build
Effort Values
- 252 Attack
- 252 Speed
- 4 Defense
(Adamant Nature)
Swords Dance
Raises the user's Attack by 2 stages.
Blaze Kick
Has a 10% chance to burn the target and a higher chance for a critical hit.
High Jump Kick
If this attack is not successful, the user loses half of its maximum HP, rounded down, as crash damage. Pokemon with the Magic Guard Ability are unaffected by crash damage.
Earthquake
Damage doubles if the target is using Dig.
A Jolly nature can be used over Adamant to ensure Blaziken is not outpaced by some choice scarf users, but Adamant does allow it to hit harder. Swords Dance increases the attack stat for Blaziken by two stages and helps it become a considerable wall breaker. Blaze Kick is used over Flare Blitz to ensure Blaziken isn’t damaging itself and hurting its own uptime. It should be noted that Blaze Kick’s accuracy is 90 compared to Flare Blitz’s 100.
Move Considerations
Close Combat might be more appealing than High Jump Kick if you do not want to risk the miss and crashing, but the power on High Jump Kick being 130 is very much appealing. Earthquake is here to specifically cover Toxapex, but Thunder Punch is also a considerable option, as it allows the set to not be totally walled by certain flying and dragon types like Dragonite or Gyarados. It hits Toxapex for super effective damage as well. Other possible moves to go with are;
Held Items
For the held item, a solid choice would be Heavy-Duty Boots to avoid entry hazard effects; However, if you are looking to assist with Blaziken’s defenses and allow it to set up a Swords Dance, a Grassy Seed or Electric Seed will benefit greatly with a terrain partner like Tapu Koko or Rillaboom. Leftovers is another solid possibility to allow Blaziken to generate more health over time and keep it healthy. Life Orb could be used as well for extra power but the damage over time might come back to bite you. Be cautious if you go this route.
Heavy-Duty Boots
Holder's attacks do 1.3x damage, and it loses 1/10 its max HP after the attack.
Leftovers
At the end of every turn, holder restores 1/16 of its max HP.
Tips and Tricks
Blaziken’s defenses are extremely low with an offensive build and it cannot take many hits, if any at all. Team support for this, such as shields (Light Screen, Reflect, Aurora Veil) are essential to help it soak attacks and set up. Holding an elemental seed will pair well with this. Entry hazard support helps put a lot of Pokemon in OHKO range for Blaziken after they take damage, as well as pivot support to make it easier for Blaziken to get into a set up position.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Blaziken is a powerhouse of a physical sweeper but has paper thin defense but can work if built around with a support comp is strong . If you have any other recommendations for items and moves then please engage in the comment section below! We love to see unique builds and strategies!