Everyone on cartridge is generally bad because all the good players are either testing their teams still, or still IV breeding their teams. I for one can only stomach perfecting one a week, so seeing as I just beat the game half a week ago, I only have one perfect poke so far.
-
Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
-
Congrats to the winners of the 2023 Smog Awards!
Pokémon Blaziken
- Thread starter Spenstar
- Start date
- Status
I've already bread a perfect Blaziken, I really hope he doesn't get banned to ubers. I've yet to see a Blaziken, mega or not, that can take down a Gyarados or Talonflame, and there are a lot more potential counters like tentacruel, slowbro, , Dragalge, Dragonite, Chandelure, Starmie, Jellicent, and more. At least a couple of these will be effective enough to pull Blaziken down to earth (I hope)
Mega's in uber, no questions asked, but my mega slot's going to Mewtwo, so I'm never gonna use him.
Mega's in uber, no questions asked, but my mega slot's going to Mewtwo, so I'm never gonna use him.
Well seeing as you're worried about being banished to Ubers based on what you created in-game (Blaziken will be my project this upcoming weekend myself since I already made my Scarf Gengar), always remember that Smogon tiers are simply fan-implemented. You are free to use that new toy of yours in-game to your hearts content.~
Yeah, but whats the fun in having a perfect poke if you can't use it to dominate in official competitions?
And about 2 seconds after my last post, my mega Blaziken got owned by a Politoed that baited high jump kick, then switched to Aegislash for the shadow sneak, a little noobish on my part but shows he can be taken down. OU for sure (hopefully)
Yeah, Ghosts are VERY prominent this meta, making High Jump Kick a very dangerous move (I personally always use Flare Blitz when they have a living Aegislash). Trevenant is a really SeedSubber, Gengar got a Mega, Aegislash is Aegislash, and with the preexisting good Ghosts, they are easy to find spots on various teams. ...Now to find a viable way to have Golurk survive in OU...
After having fought Blaziken in the last gen, I thought it would be straight away banned, especially its mega evo, but now I'm finding it to be pretty counterable. The dragons, fairies (especially Azumarill, who I am finding to be a top OU mon so far), waters, ghosts, etc are all causing him a lot of trouble, and then it has FB recoil, LO recoil, entry hazards...
Somebody tried to counter my Blaziken with Golurk, but I just switched before he used block and waterfalled his face. Makes me wonder if a block/toxic/phantom force set with leftovers could work, but I doubt it make it to OU
Had a few battles using a Jolly Talonflame against a Blaziken, one match it was a mega blaziken. Talonflame still outspeeds and OHKO's with brave bird even after 1 speed boost.
Pssh......don't see what all the fuss is about Blaziken being "uber".
Pssh......don't see what all the fuss is about Blaziken being "uber".
Talonflame has priority; it outspeeds after six Speed Boosts. But it's not something any other Pokemon can pull off with an otherwise neutral priority attacking move. Although Azumarill and Pinsir can do fine regardless, if Pinsir gets in.
Talonflame will always be able to revenge Blaziken because of Gale Wings... I'm assuming your's doesn't have Gale Wings since you're using Jolly and talking about "outspeeding" Blaziken.
Mine has flame body with 128 speed EVs/jolly. Cant speak for the guys blaziken though. maybe his evs werent on speed? But regardless Talonflame is a natural anti blaziken indeed
Talonflame switches have gotten really predictable on the ladder lately, so half the time I just attack outright as soon as I bring Blaziken in.
252 Atk Life Orb Blaziken Hi Jump Kick vs. 192 HP / 4 Def Charizard: 172-203 (49.85 - 58.84%) -- 99.61% chance to 2HKO
That's Jolly LO Blaziken, pretty much the weakest sweeping set you'll see, against the Talonflame set with the greatest amount of bulk possible with sacrificing too much speed or power. Better hope Stealth Rock isn't on the field!
252 Atk Life Orb Blaziken Hi Jump Kick vs. 192 HP / 4 Def Charizard: 172-203 (49.85 - 58.84%) -- 99.61% chance to 2HKO
That's Jolly LO Blaziken, pretty much the weakest sweeping set you'll see, against the Talonflame set with the greatest amount of bulk possible with sacrificing too much speed or power. Better hope Stealth Rock isn't on the field!
Was this on Showdown or cartridge?
Of course, what happens if you get priority Brave Birded on the second turn? Yeah, it's pretty much a mutual KO, but you're ending up out your sweeper at the same time. (Worse, he U-turns out on you and you end up feeding a HJK into something like Ferrothorn or an auto-miss on something immune.). They don't do good things to each other, absolutely true- but a Talonflame can burn through it's Roost PP and quite possibly survive enough hits to get Blaze to whiff a HJK and then come back with Brave Bird to finish before Blaziken gets another chance, especially considering every attack Talonflame can heal off is one more dose of LO recoil for Blaze.
cartridge
That's assuming Talonflame survives. With SR on the field, TFlame will survive that HJK like 11% of the time, accounting for miss chance. Therefore, you can continue your sweep or switch out/BP and come back later. Without SR, you switch into something that can take a BB. If you predict the Roost, HJK again and that's an instant KO. This is all assuming that you bring in Blaziken on not-Talonflame, predict the switch, and HJK.
It's never been broken before. If it's broken on Blaziken, Blaziken will just be banned again.
Re-banning a dangerous sweeper is not a big deal. Banning a random and normally reasonable combination of moves is very much a big deal.
I must concur with this assessment. My 6 are only EV trained properly and were all caught throughout the campaign with either beneficial or non-hindering natures. IVs....who knows. Breeding? Psssh. Don't have the time and will just import my perfect mons from B2 on Dec 27.
I'm sweeping cartridge online battles. Though I must say, reading thread after thread on this site truly has helped my strategies. You all should take advantage in ranked matches before all the other pros finish their breeding :P
Ah, that's why. Kinda' off subject here, but seriously, if you get the chance and want to use Talonflame, Gale Wing. Not sure on EVs and Nature, but seriously: Gale Wing.
Back on subject, yeah, he'd be banned before a combo got banned. Although I don't see a ban happening any time soon. He's NOWHERE on Showdown, and the only reason you'd ban things is because of overcentralization. I don't see him anywhere, so no matter how strong he is, he's not going anywhere. If anything, Greninja and Aegislash would be going there long before him and even then I don't see it happening. Blaziken has a lot of checks anyway. A good player can take down a Blaziken a lot easier than other Pokemon seeing as this seems to be the Priority meta and he's not running one.
smogon hasn't banned pokemon for being over centralizing at all..... They ban based on how "broken" said mon is. If we banned for overcentralization then toad would've been gone in early BW.
IMO, Blaziken deserves an OU spot because his sweeper set can decently get walled this gen and his BP set is frail enough that many SE moves will kill him (same with Ninjask). He's a great poke, but there are several ways to beat him so I see no reason to ban him this gen.
If you're bringing Talonflame in with SR up against a sweeper, you've already got problems considering the 4x weakness. Without SR, it's a 2HKO - if Talonflame doesn't hit you first. With it, you're predicting a HJK that will likely punt the bird before it gets a single move off. But the quoted doesn't talk about hazards- obviously, Talonflame suffers a nasty hit in that regard, but what Pokemon doesn't have that problem if it takes a 4x hit on the switch-in?
If Stealth Rock is on the field, Talonflame is probably dead. If not...well, why would I keep Blaziken in on Brave Bird? I can just switch out to something that can actually handle Talonflame. If they Roost, I force Talonflame out and get a free hit on whatever I want with little risk. If they don't, I can take the hit, and now their Talonflame is stuck with half or less of its health. Either way, the opponent is going to be a lot more wary of switching Talonflame directly into Blaziken again. That alone can be enough to get a free Swords Dance and possibly a kill the next time I bring Blaziken in. That's one great thing about Blaziken: as soon as you break out of the mold of "use Swords Dance and then try to sweep," you start playing insane mind games with your opponent.
Of course, this isn't even considering the possibility of Talonflame switching in on Stone Edge, but I digress.
If by "the quoted" you mean me, I actually did mention Stealth Rock. With it, bird dies.
Bottom line is that Talonflame doesn't actually counter Blaziken. It's a great check and a fantastic Pokemon in its own right, but switching it directly into Blaziken is just too risky.
Call me crazy, but since Blaziken is going to want to rely on HJK for coverage (since it won't want the constant recoil from Flare Blitz), wouldn't predicting the HJK and switching in Aegislash be an option? Blaziken won't like a 50% recoil from missing HJK, and Aegislash only needs to do 50% (assuming the chicken hasn't taken damage before) to KO it with Shadow Sneak. Can someone run the calcs for that?
- Status