Blaziken (QC: 0/1)

[nimzowitsch]

[SET]
name: Swords Dance
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Close Combat
move 3: Flare Blitz
move 4: Knock Off / Thunder Punch / Protect
item: Life Orb / Air Balloon
ability: Speed Boost
nature: Adamant / Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Speed Boost, Swords Dance, and Blaziken's high Attack stat make it a deadly sweeper. After a Swords Dance, Life Orb Blaziken can OHKO Iron Moth and physically defensive Gastrodon with Close Combat. Flare Blitz is good for hitting Fighting-resists such as Buzzwole, Skarmory, and Amoonguss. Knock Off deals heavy damage to Victini, Galarian Slowking, Latias, and Skeledirge. On the other hand, Thunder Punch is an alternative in the last slot that can KO Slowbro and Tapu Fini at +2 after some chip damage. Protect can buy a turn for Speed Boost to activate against very fast foes such as Choice Scarf Enamorus, but the loss in coverage is noticeable. A Life Orb is preferred to maximize Blazkien's damage output, but Air Balloon's Ground immunity can buy Blaziken an important turn to set up. An Adamant nature is generally the best option in order to maximize Blaziken's damage output, but a Jolly nature lets Blaziken outspeed and OHKO a few key threats, such as opposing Blaziken or Jolly Mega Tyranitar. Blaziken is a good choice for hyper offense teams looking for a powerful sweeper that can potentially end the game with just one turn of setup. Entry hazard support from Meowscarada, Excadrill, or Iron Treads is recommended to wear down Blaziken's checks such as Slowbro, Mega Latias, and Tapu Fini into range for its attacks. Since Blaziken is relatively frail, dual screens support from Grimmsnarl is a good option to facilitate setup. Serperior is a good offensive partner for Blaziken, since it can threaten to boost against Tapu Fini and Slowbro, and can even use Glare to paralyze some of their shared checks, such as Mega Latias. Other good offensive partners to Blaziken include Scizor, Gyarados, and Salamence. Scizor is an excellent late-game cleaner with Bullet Punch, appreciates Blaziken's ability to deal with physical walls such as Buzzwole, and can give Blaziken free entry with U-turn. Gyarados and Salamence can take advantage of Ground-types such as Ting-Lu and Gastrodon and proceed to set up. In return, the duo appreciates Blaziken weakening their shared checks in Slowbro and Tapu Fini.

[CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/nimzowitsch.272785/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/arishem.546157/
Grammar checked by:
user link here

 

[nimzowitsch]

QC ready

 

[Arishem]

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[SET]
name: Swords Dance
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Close Combat
move 3: Flare Blitz
move 4: Knock Off / Thunder Punch / Protect
item: Life Orb / Electrium Z / Focus Sash Life Orb / Air Balloon (See below for why these should be the main two worth listing)
ability: Speed Boost
nature: Adamant / Jolly
tera type: Fighting / Fire / Electric / Flying
evs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Speed Boost, Swords Dance, and Blaziken's high Attack stat make it a deadly sweeper on hyper offense teams. No need to state here as this is teammate specific info. After a Swords Dance, Life Orb Blaziken can OHKO Iron Moth and physically defensive Gastrodon with Close Combat. Flare Blitz is good for hitting Fighting-resists such as Enamorus and Aegislash, OHKOing both without a boost. Rewrite this part to mention Pdef walls such as Buzzwole, Amoong, and Skarm instead, Fire-STAB against those is a huge plus over other physical mons Knock Off deals heavy damage to Victini, Galarian Slowking, Latias, and Skeledirge. On the other hand, Thunder Punch is an alternative in the last slot that can KO Slowbro and Tapu Fini at +2 after some chip damage. Protect can buy a turn for Speed Boost to activate, State examples such as Scarfers/Faster mons which this is helpful for, most notably Scarf Enam and others but the loss in coverage is noticeable. A Life Orb is preferred to maximize Blazkien's damage output, but Electrium Z with Thunder Punch is also a good option to bust through defensive Tapu Fini and Slowbro after a Swords Dance. Is this required/worth it outside of OO mentions? Between Knock and +2 TPunch already OHKOing PDef Fini after Rocks, wouldn't put it over Balloon personally, which I'd slash instead with how useful the Ground immunity is for setting up freely. Finally, a Focus Sash can also be used to guarantee at least one turn of setup. Similar to the above, but would relegate this to OO territory at best when it happens as its unreliable for the most part and Screens is currently the No 1 HO archetype. An Adamant nature is generally the best option in order to maximize Blaziken's damage output, but a Jolly nature lets Blaziken outspeed and OHKO a few key threats, such as opposing Blaziken or Jolly Mega Tyranitar. fwiw Adamant is only rlly worth using on Tect sets, losing to stuff that use mons like Jolly MAero and Zera as speed control is quite a blow. Swap these around. Tera Fighting or Fire boosts either Close Combat or Flare Blitz even further, giving either STAB move a good chance to OHKO Gyarados or Salamence following a Swords Dance, even after Intimidate. On the other hand, Tera Electric can also be used to power up Thunder Punch against Tapu Fini and Slowbro. Finally, Tera Flying is an niche option to buy Blaziken a free turn to set up against a predicted Ground-type move. Blaziken is a good choice for hyper offense teams looking for a powerful sweeper that can potentially end the game with just one turn of setup. Entry hazard support from Meowscarada Azelf, Excadrill, or Iron Treads is recommended to wear down Blaziken's checks such as Slowbro, Mega Latias, and Tapu Fini into range for its attacks. Since Blaziken is relatively frail, dual screens support from Grimmsnarl is a good option to facilitate setup. Serperior is a good offensive partner for Blaziken, since it can threaten to boost against Tapu Fini and Slowbro, and can even use Glare to paralyze some of their shared checks, such as Mega Latias. Other good offensive partners to Blaziken include Scizor, Gyarados, and Salamence. Scizor is an excellent late-game cleaner with Bullet Punch, appreciates Blaziken's ability to deal with physical walls such as Buzzwole, again, highly important and can give Blaziken free entry with U-turn. Gyarados and Salamence can switch into within a more offensive context, I'd rather use 'take advantage of' as a phrase seeing as you're rarely going to directly pivot into mons like Gastro/Ruin Ting-Lu etc Ground-type attacks aimed at Blaziken and proceed to set up. In return, the duo appreciates Blaziken weakening their shared checks in Slowbro and Tapu Fini.

[CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/.272785/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/arishem.546157/
user link 2 here
Grammar checked by:
user link here

Implement carefully and this can pass as QC: 1/1, noticed several variations regarding moveset options that were tossed in so I did my best to sort these out. Feel free to join the discord or send PMs if you have any questions about these in the future.

 

[nimzowitsch]

RIP chicken

 

[Arishem]

Locking, Blazi got the hammer