What if blaziken's special attack and speed switched?

Question

before generation 5, blaziken didn't have speed boost and due to being slow, wasn't used over infernape. If blaziken had his speed and special attack switched, How much better would he be prior to getting speed boost?

Comments

I think Infernape was better mostly because of U-turn and maybe mach punch. A faster Blaziken without U-turn would still be worse than Infernape. Also, if Blaziken had lower special attack, then Infernape would be better than Blaziken at using overheat and grass knot.

Answer 1

Blaziken would indeed be way faster, potentially fast enough to be viable in Generation 3 and 4. Unfortunately, losing most of its Special Attack would mean a complete loss of its viability as a mixed attacker. On top of this, Infernate would still largely outclass it for being stronger and having a much better movepool, even if Infernape outclasses it. It could be a potential counterpart to Infernape in Gen 4 OU due to its higher speed, and perhaps it might have been viable in Gen 5 OU, though that wouldn't last for long thanks to Speed Boost.

Comments

thank you. I feel like it would be a check to infernape because it could kill it with brave bird.