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This comes from the fact that I know that Blaziken was not pushed to ubers in gen 5 due to Speed Boost alone. (If that were true, many other things would end up there too) There had to be something further that pushed the ban.

I'm aware of many of the notable traits Blaziken has outside of Speed Boost, including the offensive typing, Swords Dance, and even Z-move access in gen 7. What I'm not sure about is which of these was the most notable reasons for this ban to get pushed. Was it just that it had attack boosting with Speed Boost? was the type combo too strong with Speed Boost?

I should say that I'm looking for what were the strongest traits that pushed Blaziken over the edge outside of Speed Boost. Please don't question my curiosity.

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Not exactly a duplicate question, but https://pokemondb.net/pokebase/369216/why-was-blaziken-ubers-in-generation-seven
Also you might want to read https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/ou-suspect-testing-round-3-voter-identification-and-suspect-nominations.102217/
I think the short summary is that Blaziken is unfairly difficult to revenge-kill because speed boost and unfairly difficult to counter because of coverage moves like stone edge, thunder punch, earthquake, and knock off. Gen 7 introduced Toxapex and Tapu Fini, which should have countered Blaziken, but it also introduced Electrium Z.

1 Answer

1 vote

It's not entirely a single trait that's responsible but rather, a collection of traits. Fire fighting is an incredible offensive combination and give fire chicken a few speed boosts then revenge killing because incredibly difficult and defensive counter play becomes the most optimal solution

That comes to the second problem. Because it will eventually outspeed everything, that means offensive counter play becomes incredibly limited. It would mean that you would need to resort to priority to kill it. This would also lead to overcentralizing the entire game. Every team would have either a Slowbro, Azumarill or Greninja in gen six, one of which was even banned along with Blaziken. Talonflame may be an option but that has its own issues especially if Blaziken is partnered with Tyranitar who can pursuit the flame bird. In gen seven, Greninja would be the premier offensive threat as Azumarill now sucks and bulky waters are an extremely shaky option because z thunderpunch after sd straight up kills the bulkiest non ground type bulky waters, who are killed by hjk. Since this makes defensive counterplay unreliable, this would lead to every team having ash Greninja but fire chicken would still be able to claim at least one kill. Also, it would lead to a lot of tank Chomp just for the sole purpose of hoping Blaziken kills itself with rough skin rocky helmet chip and own flare blitz recoil

The story would be the same for gen five. Blaziken could simply slot in shadow claw and suddenly, the Latis, Jellicent and Slowbro are in danger. And again, Tyranitar is still a thing and its pursuit trapping is now far more crucial with Latios everywhere

It's not particularly because Blaziken is too strong but rather, it's chokehold on the metagame would be so tight, variety would be pretty sparse. It becomes similar to gen eight ou when Urshifu was in the tier. Every team has a Buzzwole, Tapu Fini or Clefable just so they don't autolose to it and even that is not reliable because Urshifu usually comes with future sight which deletes Buzzwole while the two fairies die to a few poison jabs or get weakened to the point where they won't survive two banded wicked blows

In short, it would lead to overcentralization of the entire tier around itself and its answers

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